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Artist Album Format Label & Cat. Number Year Price (incl. 19% VAT)  
CLOCK DVA Neoteric RMX4 12inch Anterior Research Media Comm ARMComm02 2019 €19.50
COPH'ANTAE TRYR Research Chronicles 2007-2009 do-CD HORUS CyclicDaemon HCD 12 2011 €16.50
ELEMENTAURAL RESEARCH PROJECT Elementality CD Basses Frequences BF13 2009 €12.00
FORDELL RESEARCH UNIT Noche Oscura del Alma maxi-CDR IDLE Records disko01 2007 €7.50
FORDELL RESEARCH UNIT / CULVER split 10inch Humble Hues Through Autumnal Sky 2009 €12.50
IN SEARCH OF DEATH III CD Death Continues Records DCRCD007 2015 €12.00
SEARCH ENSEMBLES same CD and/OAR and/46 2015 €13.00
  Prescient / Legend CD and/OAR - EITHER/12 2019 €13.00
SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY Stealth do-CD Cold Spring Records CSR159CD 2012 €15.00
SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY/LLYN Y CWN Sargo / Posidonia CD Cold Spring CSR317CD 2023 €15.00
  Sargo / Posidonia LP Cold Spring CSR317LP 2023 €23.50
SMALL THINGS ON SUNDAYS Searching for LP Skrat Records skr-011 2013 €15.00
SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES same CD Sub Rosa SR177 2001 €13.00
UCHU ENGINE In Search of the Winter CD Pataphysique Records DD-010 2000 €8.00
ULTRA UNITED Research 1 (SOLD OUT) 7 Drone Records DR-40 1999  

"search" entries in albums descriptions

Artist Album Format Description Year Price (incl. 19% VAT)  
ALVA NOTO HYbr:ID I LP suspenseful digital pulses & movements: the music for the choreography OVAL (by RICHARD SIEGAL) performed by the Berlin Staatsballett in 2019 - comes in a very nice ed. with two fold out inlays... => "HYbr:ID Vol. 1 is the first installment of a new series of Alva Noto’s works bringing together heterogeneous composition methods....The process of creating HYbr:ID Vol. 1 was defined by the search for a form to bind astrophysics phenomena, fiction, and performance movements" 2021 €27.00
BAD ALCHEMY No. 82 (Juli 2014) mag neue Artikel & Rezensionen, sophisticated durch und durch: FAMILY FODDER, JOZEF VAN WISSEM, SVEN-AKE JOHANSSON, ALREALON MUSIQUE, ATTENUATION CIRCUIT, BASKARU, EDITIONS MEGO, TOUCH, CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN NEW MUSIC, KARLRECORDS, UNSOUNDS, und vieles mehr aus der experimentellen, drone, post-industrial, impro & Neue Musik & Jazz-Szene... Deutsche Sprach, 88 Seiten, handliches Format, günstig & geistreich ! 2014 €3.50
BAILEY, THOMAS BEY WILLIAM La Production Interdite MC highly interesting work by this researcher and writer who often cares about the 'threshold states' of consciousness, this is about the phenomenon of "Autoscopy" (i.e. the visualization of phantom doubles / Doppelgängers)... "Split into a purely instrumental half-hour side and a vocally-enhanced side in which TBWB narrates accounts of autoscopic events, this new album oscillates between moments of narcotic consolation and moments of sharp poignancy... " C-60, lim. 50 2018 €10.00
BEHRENS, MARC 20 Zonen CD soundart-work for the Hessian Broadcast Company (HR2), using field recordings from the Kranichstein district in Darmstadt, Germany - such as the Brass band of a local hunters' association, a railway museum, the centre of heavy iron research, many parks & ponds, etc.. lim. 300 2011 €12.00
BERTOIA, HARRY Hints Of Things To Come CD four unreleased "sculpture ambience" pieces from the archive, recorded around 1970, with the over 30 min. long, deep harmonic title piece and first experiments with overdubbing... - "This CD is defined by ambient passages, long drones, gongs that sound like whales, shimmering harmonics and the feeling of an artist searching for sounds deep within his own sonic sculpture." 2023 €17.00
BRADLEY, PAUL Sirens CD-R collects the out-of-print releases CEDE and SEARCHING FOR THE WAY, plus download-release HORIZON 2008 €10.00
CASPAR BRÖTZMANN MASSAKER Black Axis do-LP first ever vinyl re-issue of the second album (1989, LP + 7"), remastered => "a hellscape of militaristic bass, brutalist drums, strangled guitar, and distant werewolf calls...But for all the ghoulish yells, suicide-cult references, and malevolent tones, Brötzmann’s music with Massaker is the stuff of transcendence, too, the sound of three musicians fighting through darkness in search of any light." [Pitchfork] 2019 €24.00
DARK MORPH (C.M.VON HAUSSWOLFF + JONSI [SIGUR ROS]) Dark Morph LP collector's item on this London-based label, gallery, record shop and magazine: JONSI (singer from SIGUR ROS) and C.M. VON HAUSSWOLFF worked on field recordings they made during a "TBA21-Academy's expedition programme" on the 'research vessel Dardanelle' at the Vanua Vatu Reef (FIJI) in the Pacific Ocean, mixed in Jamaica (!); very nice textured / embossed cover and sounds, 180gr. pressing, normally only available from the label directly !! 2019 €44.00
DE WAARD, FRANS / MARTIJN COMES Various Weights CD two long form experimental drone compositions for the complete "Mind-Drift", on this Dutch first time collaboration (both working on each other's materials) - "COMES focuses on deep sonorities and harmonics, developing his materials into a mind-expanding drone zone. DE WAARD’s 'There are no two pianos' is more subdued, hovering mysteriously at the cusp of acousmatic research and sonic minimalism." [Tobias Fischer] - lim. 150 copies only 2020 €12.00
DEUTSCH NEPAL Amygdala CD the return of LINA BABY DOLL, in search for the deepest core of ecstasy, sounding stronger than ever! AMYGDALA switches between highly emotional martial Industrial tracks with vocals and amazingly beautiful noir ambience, evoking a quite unique atmosphere (apocalyptic & melancholic but also omnipotent)= best DN album since a long time !! Feat. THOMAS EKELUND (DEAD LETTERS SPELL OUT DEAD WORDS), comes in nice embossed digipack. Back in the DN masterpiece! 2011 €13.00
DISFATUM Death Instinct CD impressive debut CD for this female Russian dark ambient & emotional drone project from Novosibirsk => yearnful chants and guitars, synths, big reverberation clouds and noises, slow percussive elements from far away, lonely melodies drifting through endless spaces... inspired by FREUD's Death Drive theory, this music searches for the deepest (purest) point of the mind, where all structures disappaer... imagine a mixture of / sounds similar to GROUPER, TROUM, TAPHEPHOBIA or MONOCUBE.. 2019 €12.00
DUBACH, PETRA & VAN HORRIK Failing Humans Failing Machines LP highly interesting artist couple from Eindhoven (Netherlands), connected to sound art, dance, and PAUL PANHUYSENs MACIUNAS ENSEMBLE: this LP features two completely different sides of their work: an atmospheric ambient noise improvisation on Side A (on various instruments and objects), whereas Side B presents a recording of an installation, based on their WAVES research project using a set up of two long strings driven by body-shakers.. silk-screen cover 2014 €25.00
EMERGE FEAT. DON VOMP Retention CD-R first collaboration between experimental violinist DON VOMP and the German 'advanced drone' researcher, recorded 2009 at the LAB.30 festival in Augsburg; all EMERGE sounds are processed live and based on the violin sounds of DON VOMB, forming a 45 min. set between clearly recognizable violin drones & samples and alien acoustics... 2014 €6.00
EXIT IN GREY Moments ( Моменты ) CD pure overtone-muzak for overcoming the time - a one tracker of 52+ min length / - "It will open your vision and let you trespass a mysterious world of transcendentalism and inner equilibrium....another magic listening experience, which confuses my emotional state of mind and pleases my search for aural satisfaction. Recommended, highly recommended" [Concrete Web] - numbered ed. 300 copies in lovely full colour package 2018 €13.00
JULIE'S HAIRCUT & SONIC BOOM N-waves CD nice embossed cover / SONIC BOOM = ex SPACEMEN 3 & EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH 2008 €12.00
LAST INDUSTRIAL ESTATE Last Industrial Estate CD another project by Swedish ANDERS PETERSON (OBJEKT4, ELEMENTAURAL RESEARCH PROJECT, etc.) dedicated to the beauty of abandoned industrial areas => dusty dronecapes with shimmering elements, very smooth and electronic... 2012 €13.00
LOPEZ, FRANCISCO WITH VALENTINA LACMANOVIC With/In CD highly interesting collaboration by FRANCISCO LOPEZ with dancer, choreograph & ritual dance researcher VALENTINA LACMANOVIC using sounds from her body, breath, clothes and surrounding space during a sufistic whirling dance, resulting in one subtle one-tracker with amazing effect and sounds: great idea and realization, trailer on: valentinalacmanovic.com/gallery.html 2013 €13.00
MAIDA, CLARA In Corpore Vili CD six very strong pieces based on her research of the Unconscious & Psychoanalysis: "Mutatis Mutandis" (2008) & "Psyche-cite/Transversales" (2005/2006), etc... to disover ! 2010 €15.50
MARTIN, KEVIN RICHARD Sirens LP KEVIN MARTIN managed PATHOLOGICAL REC.(1989-1991) and was active in diverse underground bands/projects such as EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH, 16-17, TECHNO ANIMAL, etc.- now this is his very first solo-album, a dark monolithic, sharp droning ambience overwhelmer (no rhythms), as if he kept the dirty, buzzing and feedbacking sounds but transformed it 10 times slower and deeper into something else..."music that’s ice cold yet intimate, barely-there - but utterly compelling" 2019 €25.00
MENUCK, EFRIM MANUEL & KEVIN DORIA Are Sing Sinck, Sing LP first collaboration album by E.M.MENUCK (GYBE, SILVER MOUNT ZION) with KEVIN DORIA (GROWING), a must for fans of both bands! => "an antifascist poetics of sound that unspools across five crushing, keening tracks driven by thick sweeping drones and ostinatos, battered by inscrutably searching, ricocheting vocals. Anguish, yearning, and desperate conviction combine in these saturated survivalist electro-hymns, for as long as the power stays on to overload the amplifiers..." - incl. DL card 2019 €21.00
NO BUSINESS FOR DOGS Lovely Objects LP amazing album of this quartet with STEVEN HESS (LOCRIAN), searching for new musical pathways between improvisation & composed material, lim. 200 coloured vinyl 2013 €22.00
PERLETTA, FABIO & ASMUS TIETCHENS Deflections CD first collab release by the Italian sound researcher FABIO PERLETTA with A. TIETCHENS, a journey into micro-cosmic sounds and drifting nano-structures, citing Lucretius atom theory... "die beiden reflektieren darüber mit mikrofeinen Kollisionen und zuckenden oder feinmetallisch klackenden Geräuschen auf dröhnendem Fond. Wie 'Wimpern'- und Geißel-Schläge von Pantoffeltierchen in einem mal heller, mal dunkler getönten Urmeer." [Bad Alchemy] 2017 €13.00
PINTO, JOAO CASTRO Suntria - Imaginal Sonotopes CD the "imaginative journey" of site specific recordings arrives with U43 and JOAO CASTRO PINTO at the mythical forest Sintra and its surroundings near Lisboa, Portugal; in 12 sound pictures he captured the sounds of nature, people and machines, ruptured by loud breaks in between, relating to the notion of a "Sonotope" from the Sound Ecology research; a very versatile and challenging release with many surprising breaks and sophisticated concept; lim. 200 2017 €14.00
POTTER, COLIN The Abominable Slowman LP five psychedelia-electronic tracks created 2017 using various source material dating back over 20 years ago.. "the emphasis is on rhythm, although the rhythmic components range from conventional drum sounds to strange electronic and/or mutated outbursts, often accompanied by squalling guitars...There's constant experimentation throughout the album, a search for never-before heard sounds to create obscure atmospheres and a pleasantly disturbing feeling of disquietude." 2017 €17.50
RAPOON Wanderlust CD 10 appealing tracks feat. Russian folk singer TATYANA STEPCHENKO who was already present on "The Library of the Dead" => enchanting loops, drones, beats and vocal echo-rooms.. ".. the endless yearning, the search for questions and for answers, the horizon ever drawing onward with the lure of what lies beyond. The pull of the mountains and the deserts and the infinitive light of the stars, shining from the distant past. We travel.." 70 min. playtime, 400 copies digipack 2016 €13.00
RLW Satanic Inventions CD This album is the result of Ralf Wehowsky’s (aka rlw) critical examination of COVID-19 as a cultural phenomenon and a comparison to the black plague of the Middle Ages: "Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats, etc." = a true festival or irrationalism, telling us more about the human mental state than about the pandemic. Condensed by rlw into 15 tracks, a challenging journey of heavy de-constructions, trans-morphed drones, and treated source sounds = surrealistic musique concrete! 2022 €13.00
S.E.T.I. The Sphere of Density do-CD very calm and 'cosmic' new studio material on CD 1 (5 tracks, full 74. min playtime) by ANDREW LAGOWSKI's "Search for Evidence of Terrestrial Intelligence" project, and a pretty diverse (improvised) concert recording from the Wroclaw Industrial Festival on CD 2 - all inspired by the writing of Russian science fiction writer A.P.KAZANTSEV; 500 copies, thick double digipack 2020 €17.00
SCOTT-BUCCLEUCH, RUSS / SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON / ANDREW SHARPLEY Mask of Cheerful CD highly experimental nine collage works (55 min) = all kinds of field recordings, object sounds, instrumental / voice sounds (+ reaktor synths) were collected and at the end mixed by ANDREW SHARPLEY, the long active British experimentalist once in STOCK HAUSEN & WALKMAN; it's fascinating how very concrete snippets collide with electronic sounds and micro-drones, always in search for the truly anomalous arrangement; very much recommended for discoverers of the non-ordinary!! digipack with weird collage pictures, probably pretty limited 2021 €14.00
SONOLOGYST Interdimensional CD in a very short time this Italian project became one of the most important ones in the area of "surrealistic transcension" ambience, searching for a paraphysical dimension of cosmic music, inspired by scientist MICHIO KAKU.... soundwise based on analog electronics, e instruments, voices from the ether and metallic objects processed heavily, resulting in a endlessly circulating, vibrating form of intergalactic drone muzak... 2022 €13.00
SPOONBENDER 1.1.1. Stereo Telepathy Academy CD numerology, synchronicity, telephaty, third mind techniques, highly interesting CD of "parapsychic research" audio project from San Francisco; lim. ed. 333 copies 2006 €13.00
STELZER, HOWARD & FRANS DE WAARD Pink Pearl CD drones & bones! The new collab. between these two long going sound researchers forms a highly interesting mix of multi-layered drones and concrete (micro) sounds, all within a lovely "mechanized / industrial" atmosphere and garnished with some obscure voice / field rec. / whatever drops, a very flowing album with excellent "movements" inside... great new work ! 2013 €12.00
TO / THOMAS TILLY Codex Amphibia (Phonotaxis) CD+booklet where SCIENCE and SOUND-ART meets: recordings from frogs during their "explosive breeding" phase, captured in French Guyana, in collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research => field recordings from frogs from different places, with additional electronics patterns... seven tracks with "unprocessed Phonography", but also with additional electronics are presented, together with a 24 page; very nice release from this prolific French composer 2021 €16.50
V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) Swarm do-CD label compilation w. ANDREW LILES, MERZBOW/ NORDVARGR, JOHN WATERMANN, ZOS KIA, SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY, TENHORNEDBEAST, BAND OF PAIN, WERKRAUM, etc. etc . all exclusive material !! 2006 €13.00
LA MATERIA VERBAL - Antologia De La Poesia Sonora Peruana LP 22 sound poems from Peru rec. 1972 - 2021 = the first greater overview about the sound poetry scene! - *... the product of a technological revolution associated with the appearance of various means of recording, transmission and amplification of the voice. A long process that took shape in the 20th century, until it became a discipline, articulated as an international movement which, based on phonetic research, expanded into a universe of oral/vocal artistic practices..* - lim. 300 2022 €25.00
  Anthology of Electroacoustic Music from Finland CD the great Italian "Anthology" series continues, 9 pieces / artists of electro-acoustic / contemporary experimental music, this time from Finland, a country with a rich tradition, using here lots of traditional instruments, perfect for explorers and researchers: AARNISEPPÄ, PEKKO KÄPPI, [OWT KRI], KOHELLUS, HULVA, etc. 2023 €13.00
VAINIO & VIGROUX Peau Froide, Leger Soleil CD last copies of this collab. from 2015 by MIKA VAINIO and FRANCK VIGROUX! - "their collaboration is an exercise in sensitive intensity, drifting the whole space between minimalist meditations and maximalist kinetics. Vainio’s signature brutalist electro grooves resonate all throughout the record, constructing a psychic scenario for Vigroux’s researches in spatial abstraction and tonal radicalism." 2015 €15.00
Y-TON-G / ASMUS TIETCHENS / KOUHEI MATSUNAGA YAK CD 8 tracks of mainly rather concrete silent & mysterious microsound-works from these three sound-researchers from Germany & Japan in collaboration, all have delivered basic materials and worked on stuff from the others, so it's quite a variable and out-balanced release... 2007 €13.00
AB INTRA Henosis I-V CD "A bit more than two years after the two-disc split with 1000Schoen (ZOHAR 070-2), Ab Intra is back with a new album. After two previous successful ventures entitled “Aura Imaginalis” (ZOHAR 006-2) and “Supremus” (ZOHAR 026-2) the new release is a record of its research in the field of music. “HENOSIS” (Greek for unity, unification) is a scene of a suggestive sonic travel; a travel uniting opposites at different symbolic levels. The sounds on the album are an attempt to reflect the transforming process expressed through color, intensity and frequency. In this sense, the album is a conceptual whole strongly interacting with the imagination of the audience. The album released in a digipak is strictly limited to 300 copies." [label info] "The second release from Zoharum is by Ab Intra, who is no stranger to this label, after releasing ‘Aura Imaginalis’ (not reviewed) and ‘Supremus’ (Vital Weekly 826), as well as a double split CD with 1000schoen (Vital Weekly 937). I have no idea who is behind Ab Intra, yet I do know that the title of his latest CD stems from the Greek for ‘unity’ or ‘unification’. He (assuming here actually) is someone who also loves his synthesizers, perhaps even of the modular variation like Schlienz, but his output is totally different. If Schlienz is good at playing the ‘minimal’ card, then Ab Intra plays for the maximum output. In the five pieces (all noted by triangle symbols) he feeds his modular synth work to each other and then through what sounds like a long line of sound effects, and the endgame is what could be easily classified as power drone music. It comes across as a bunch of tormented church organs that over the course over several hundred years have been left outside in the acid rain and just recently have been dusted off to play some music again. There is some intense unity in these sounds, going from rock/drone like in the opening piece to arpeggio in the closing piece; variation through unification, if you get my drift." [FdW/Vital Weekly] www.zoharum.com 2016 €12.00
ABBILDUNG At the Gates of Ouln CD "The welcome return of ABBILDUNG to our Winter-Light label with a new studio album 'At The Gates Of Ouln'. We journey once more to the world first visited in 'All Demons Are Horned' and enter the realm of the other dreamers. On 'At The Gates Of Ouln', ABBILDUNG presents us with six new tracks of classic dark ambient, forged in his own unique style. Utilising field recordings, samples, drones and beautifully crafted atmospherics, we are once again drawn in to the creative realm of Casian's music. Uplifting organ sounds wrap themselves around rich, dark overtones, pulling them from out of the shadows and up in to the half light, only to let them fall away again in to the gaping abyss below, as they burn bright for one last time before fading away in to black nothingness .... 'They dream our darkest dreams. They are searching for the untold meaning of their own dreams. They are starting to conjure all manner of strange things; demons, fears and chaos in primeval rituals. The mysteries of their realm unveil themselves, as we descend through their mystical gate....' https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-gates-of-ouln 2019 €13.00
AGLAIA Three Organic Experiences CD Die zweite neue VÖ im Jahr 2003 für HIC SUNT LEONES beschert uns sehr luftigen, leichten, vorbeiwehenden Ambient der hochsphärischen Sorte dieses Newcomers aus Italien, inspiriert von griechischen Mythen... perfect late night music by this new Italian project.. „AGLAIA is a musical projekt by Gino Fioravanti and Gianluigi Toso. Gino Fioravanti is a therapist, writer, painter and musician. his touch with electronic music make it human and cosmic/amniotic at the same time. His writings and inspiration, research in different spheres like Alchemy, mythology, ortho-bionomy . Gianluigi Toso is a musician and back-school teacher. He moves through different musical styles, with Gino Fioravanti has relesed many cd for mind and spirit. "Aglaia is one of the Chariti. The 'Cariti' are goddess of beauty, generally represented as three sisters.They live upon Olympus mountain toghether with Muses, with whom sometimes they sing chorus. They pleasently follow the tracks of Apollo, god of divination and music. Their father is Zeus, their mother is Eurinome, the daughter of the Ocean. It is generally considered that 'Cariti' exert every sort of influence upon works of mind and art. Charis means living artís work. In some tradition they are daughters of Erebo and of the Night and love to dance under the pale moon light. The concept of AGLAIA is to create long musical instants, apparently motionless, but with inside the movement of hundred of nuances, micro-variations, pulsations. A fluid, sonoruous tapestry with a never ending motion. The music was thought like a magma of raw materials to refine throught an infinite number of sonorous passages. The listening of T.O.E. behave towards the micro-particle that compose our subtle individual plot, in a world where nothing is firm and nothing is really moving." [press release] www.aliodie.com 2003 €14.00
AGUIRRE, MARCELO Contes d'Etonnement LP Voices, percussion, drums, and rather spooky electronic processing. A minimal structure onto which uncanny atmospheres become kind of interwoven. A sort of heterophony, in the manner of Japanese Gagaku or Indonesian Gamelan. An intriguing inversion seems to unfold, when the drum set takes the lead in the composition's development. We could even say the drums court the shadow of a melody, whilst the voice delivers a litany, enhancing atmospheres that are, to my ears, less sinister than they are elegiac: the longing for a primitive age, a meaningful world now lost and irrecoverable in its healthful entirety. This invocation works by way of an overlapping of sounds, always finding their source in the percussion set and in the vocal intonations. It becomes apparent that time is the very question here, a time that is intangible and yet ‘absolute’ (if I may incur in this oxymoron), giving up any stringent historical temporality in favor of a sort of sedimentation in geological layers. Just listen to "Malaria C", a post-industrial landscape in the style of Lustmørd that brings to mind images of a universe in stasis, forever frozen in an ancient phase, while the voice underlines this ominous scenery, and the sound of tiny bells towards the end conjures a unique form of consolation as an ephemeral corollary. In "Krakatoa", an extensive and vast sense of time lingers morosely in aural repetition, varying only slightly in intensity before the layered singing voices invoke an unlikely fulfillment. Those unmistakable chants may also resound in "Only A Mother", sort of a psalmody framed by a vehement and rhythmic acceleration which emphasizes how exacting and unavoidable is time's call. Yet elusive, ungraspable time, resists being dissected into discrete and symmetrical units, escaping the prison of human perception; the drums go on and on, scanning their disparate metrics in an integral, unrestrained use of every component in the drum kit. 'I will follow the Time' could be guessed within "In Eternal Life". It is the only song which foregoes the drums. However, gongs recorded by close-miking bring to mind and ears the rumble of a synthesizer, coalescing with a jeremiad sung in a somber dialect that is cryptic, never discernible as intelligible language. The voice is merely another instrument, overlapping in disparate layers and warping polyphonic textures as its frequencies collide and clash, one against each other. While a voice recites an eerie mass, an incantation from another world, then punctuated by chants which resound like undulating drones. It is difficult not to acknowledge the overall effect of some healthy dispossession, of a deliberate shedding of fineries, aimed at reducing everything to minimal expression. It is as if Marcelo Aguirre turns a cold shoulder to the weight of tradition and to the classification of musical experience with definite labels and overwrought categorization, as if he wanted to go beyond any accepted distinction of rhythm and melody, prose and poetry, or noise and harmony. Is his an appeal which knows of no precedent, a longing for an unheard form of music? A music able to transcend time and place while not relinquishing its human and historical fate? I cannot help taking note of a certain kinship that this musical inquiry of Aguirre's crisscrosses the time-honored obsession with Time, held by European philosophers from the late XIXth and early XXth Century. For instance, William James and his brother Henry's 'stream of consciousness', the 'durée' of Henri Bergson, and the transcendental subjectivity understood as an absolute by Edmund Husserl. What Aguirre may share with this company is the search for a language adept to communicate the indefinable, the flow of a temporality that does not allow itself to be captured in any given moment, instead it is music at the service of a primordial intuition. Therefore recovering an original order, harmonizing in a fullness of sense the flow of sounds. An attitude which positions itself at the antipodes of some developments in current electronic music, with its disassembling of the sound reality into beats (or bits and bytes), and an everlasting reiteration of artificial rhythmic structures, always monotonous and symmetrical even in their angularity. It is in this context of predominant musical tendencies nowadays, which blesses in a paradoxical marriage the once hostile fields of pop and experimentation, that these 'Contes d'Étonnement' reinvent a fresh appeal to the liberal imagination; a force as ancient (and eternal?) as the human species is. [from the inlay, text by NORBERTO CAMBIASSO] https://marceloaguirre.bandcamp.com/releases 2018 €17.00
ALE HOP The Life of Insects LP Ale Hop is an artist, researcher, and experimental instrumentalist. She composes electronic and electroacoustic music, by blending strains of noise, pop, avant-garde, ambient and a complex repertoire of extended techniques for electric guitar and real-time sampling devices which she uses as her sound vocabulary to craft a performance of astonishing physical intensity, saturated of layers of distortion and stunning atmospheres. Her body of work includes immersive multichannel installations, live performances, sound sculptures, video, 3D, composition and sound design for theater, dance and film, releases, academic publications, and workshops. The Life of Insects is her fourth studio album. The composer began to craft the album The Life of Insects after spending one month living with different types of insects in her home studio, which she bought from a local insect dealer in Berlin and built little terrariums to record them for the sound design of a film she was working on. Nonetheless, the album is not comprised of compositions based specifically on sound recordings of the insects, but it unfolds as an imagined world recomposed through speculated narrative and abstract elements that seek to portray their lives, assembling sounding stories that could be re-constructed in the mind of the active listener. For this purpose, the artist came up with a musical language that could hold this fictional universe, comprised principally of several layers and textures of guitars that mimic environmental and atmospheric sounds. The Life of Insects will be released October 23 on Buh Records Watch the psychedelic video for the album opener 'La procesión' below. Listen & Watch: Ale Hop - La procesión (Official Music Video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v4Tqm8wk8E&feature=youtu.be Side A 1 La procesión 2 The Life of Insects 3 Pollinators Side B 4 The Way to the Ocean 5 Someday We'll Dance Again 6 The Pearl Diver 7 Jungle Depredation Supported by Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media All music composed, recorded and produced by Ale Hop Mastered by Manmade Mastering, Berlin, Germany. Mastering Engineer: Tim Xavier Artwork by Ale Hop https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-life-of-insects 2020 €21.50
ALIO DIE & AGLAIA Vayu Rouah CD "Cosmic like Three Organic Experiences, esoteric like Password for Entheogenic Experience, Vayu Rouah perform a kind of synthesis of the researches by Alio Die and Aglaia. Vayu Rouah is the primordial wind that join cabala and sonorous alchemies, an inexorable flux with extended electro-acoustic solutions, by a wide range of frequencies. A very long and slow gestation of about eight years have absorbed different musical moods and have stratified itself throw the time.. sound after sound.. towards his extreme possibilities. The listeners that loved the first chapters, that inspired this work, will find themself in perfect armony into Vayu Rouah's spirals. Vayu is described in a line of Vedic tradition, in the specific of "Rg veda": Respiro degli Dei e germe vitale dell’universo, liberamente egli vaga, portiamo il nostro omaggio a colui del quale la voce si può udire ma la cui forma non si vede. RV X,168." [label info] www.aliodie.com 2011 €15.00
ALIO DIE & LUCIANO DAINI End of an Era CD "A project started slowly from reciprocal esteem from musical researches and alchemical and introspective approach to sounds. Quite a dark atmospheric album, where the obscurities give the proper preparation to some clear and intense moments." [Project] www.aliodie.com 2007 €14.00
ALIO DIE & SAFFRON WOOD Corteggiando le Messi CD Second collaboration with SAFFRON WOOD, again many Zither-sounds are used to create a very fluffy and airy fluid.. let if flow endlessly .. "...A new collaboration between ALIO DIE e SAFFRON WOOD is already mastered. From seminal experiments at the research of the harmony, playing with nipped and scrubbed cords by salterio and zither (plus marimba and fields recordings), improvising and recording in the open spaces of the inner Liguria, some very relaxing tracks are spring out ...with coloured harmonics and enchanted depth. One of the Top Ten listenings here… " [announcement from label website] 2006 €13.50
ALVELOS, HEITOR Faith CD "Faith is the first full-length sound release by media researcher and curator Heitor Alvelos under his own name. Heitor Alvelos has been a long-time on/off collaborator of Touch, having on occasion provided photography and stage visuals for Biosphere, Fennesz, BJNilsen, Rafael Toral and Philip Jeck, as well as releasing sound pieces under the aliases Autodigest, Antifluffy and Before Surgery, on Ash International, TouchRadio and The Tapeworm. “The essence of the present piece is autobiographical: therefore the use of my own name”, the author clarifies. “And yet it aims at being resonant to others”: in this context, resonance may be regarded as both semantic and visceral, as the sound frequencies on Faith are often of the kind that “rearrange one’s organs”, to quote the recently departed Bernadette Martou. A necessity in order to carry the gravitas inherent to the subject, a confessional confrontation with the zeitgeist. All sources have been gathered, recorded and produced throughout five decades, all the way back to a recording by Francisco Alvelos in 1972 that closes the release. Elsewhere, sounds have been processed to various degrees, the bookends retaining their original contexts, others mutating into deep abstraction. Overall, they flow as one single composition, evocative and foreboding in equal measures." https://touch33.net/catalogue/to97-heitor-alvelos-faith.html Heitor Alvelos is no stranger to the Touch label, having collaborated as a visual artist with the big names of the label such as Fennesz, BJ Nilsen, and Philip Jeck, as well as issuing sound work under a variety of pseudonyms on the associated labels. Faith is a collection of processed sound recordings and “audio irregularities”, and due to their more personal and autobiographical source, it is the first record released under his own name. Essentially a single composition split into 12 segments, it is a sparse and murky record, steeped heavily in an analog sound. Culled from a variety of unspecified recordings collected by the artist since 1972, most of Faith has Alvelos sticking to an open mix, working in bass heavy sounds at often very low volumes, conjuring a sense of space and ambiguity that often becomes unsettling. “Exodus” and “Edict” both have a ghostly rumble to them, distant and unspecific but always there. During the latter he begins to increase the volume and simultaneously the intensity. On “Allvion” into “Pseudoself” the sound becomes deeper: a wavering expanse of noise that evolves into something with significant depth and variety, but never stops being discomforting. The latter especially sees Alvelos working with monotone electronics and a heavy low-frequency passage that slowly evolves and changes to become all encompassing, climaxing and leading into the silent passage of “Vicarious Solace”. He builds the minimalist, rumbling hum back up on the lengthy “The Way of Malamat.” Superficially, the droning bass may seem static, but perceptible variations become prominent, at times looping into an almost rhythmic passage that again reaches a heavier, denser saturation point but never too oppressive. This continues through “Peirasmos” and “The Other,” the latter resembling the muffled vibration of machinery. In its concluding minutes, “The Hopeful Night” has him stripping the piece back to its barest essentials, largely consisting of a low volume buzz that would not be out of place on Bernhard Günter’s work, albeit his sound being more digital than the analog warmth that is more prominent on Alvelos’ work. The single piece that is Faith never becomes overly boisterous or forceful, but its concluding passages are especially understated. The intentionally ambiguous source of the recordings Heitor Alvelos used to construct Faith does add an extra layer of interest to the album. Rarely does anything ever resemble what we usually consider to be a field recording, so either his processing or his selection of unconventional sources are what makes this album, probably a connection of both. It is sparse and minimalist, but done with an exceptional sense of grace and poise. [Creaig Dunton] 2015 €13.00
AMINI, SIAVASH Serus LP " “Every night is two nights, according to Maurice Blanchot. The night the body spends in sleep is not the same as the night the dreamer spends in dreams. The sleeping body may lie under the stars, and the dreamer may dream of the stars—even of a journey to the stars—but the night of the dream is a night without stars.” From Siavash: The Idea of this album, when I first started drafting it, was to continue what struck me as very interesting yet simple idea; night. I became interested in different definitions of what night is, our perception of it and what night means physically to us as well as symbolically. I came across the idea of ‘other night’ described by Maurice Blanchot, during my research. It started me recognising night as something we experience as ‘the night of sleep’; it is night that we resist in sleep, by way of dreaming. Things became more interesting for me during many nights of not sleeping and intoxication, and an eventual nervous breakdown. This experience, culminating in me spending three days in ICU, gave me pause to think about Blanchot’s words. Slipping in and out of consciousness my mind, which had already experienced a blurring of what one might call the ‘other night’ and the night itself, by being in half sleep most of the time. I felt myself far way from all my surroundings and at the same time being very attentive to some details in the objects around me. It was as if my body and mind where in an in-between state. I can only describe this as being distant or more precisely being in the dark. Objects and people showed themselves out of proportion and mostly dim. A feeling to describe this sensation, the word for which I only came across later, is ‘Serus’. There was a sense of repetition and familiarity in some feelings and emotions that I had towards some objects like sensing I knew them but not exactly from where or when. It was as if my body was resisting sleep and my sleepy mind was resisting being awake, only to dream of another type of the world that I could be awake in." https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/serus "Crushingly dark and ominous avant-classical nocturnal scapes from Tehran-based Siavash Amini, marking his debut with Lawrence English’s Room 40. Amini’s work in ‘Serus’ is often scowlingly serious, but not without its moments of spacious, harmonic relief that bring the album’s underlying themes about sleep and dreams to life in suitably heavy-lidded, edge of nightmare fashion. One to be filed in your New Iranian Electronics folder, and another strong release in what's proving to be a vintage year for Room 40. 2019 €26.00
AMINI, SIAVASH & EUGENE THACKER Songs for Sad Poets do-LP Composer and sound artist Siavash Amini collaborates with author Eugene Thacker on »Songs for Sad Poets.« The collection of eight pieces draws its inspiration from the legacy of the so-called cursed poets (»poètes maudits«) as well as the German-language tradition of song cycles and expands the structure of the classic art song through a process of lyric abstraction. Amini is no stranger to interdisciplinary collaboration, as seen in »A Mimesis of Nothingness,« his 2020 collaboration with photographer Nooshin Shafiee, also released through the Swiss Hallow Ground label. But whereas in Amini’s previous collaborations music and other media are set in dialogue, with »Songs for Sad Poets«, Thacker’s poems and Amini’s soundscapes are deeply enmeshed with each other. In fact, none of the words printed in the record’s booklet are being said out loud on this double LP, but rather made tangible through the use of sound. Poetry and music do not so much correspond with each other as they conspire together—as songs without words, words without song. »Songs for Sad Poets« was born out of a mutual admiration of each other’s work and it is easy to see how the musician and the writer could relate to one another artistically. The Tehran-based Amini has released over 20 albums in the past decade—among them »TAR« and »FORAS« on Hallow Ground—that probe the physical world but also search for something beyond it. His compositions draw on field recordings as well as acoustic and electronic sounds, blurring the lines between what is conventionally perceived as real or authentic and the abstract or otherworldly. The New York-based Thacker on the other hand is known as a writer whose philosophical works like »Infinite Resignation« read like poetry while his poetry and other literary writing is inherently philosophically charged. What unites them on this project is an interest in the idea of the fragility of the human being set against the vast horizon of climate, planet, and the cosmos that produces a »sadness without cause.« The pieces on »Songs for Sad Poets« translate this nearly inexpressible ambient melancholy into dense and sometimes claustrophobic pieces that are marked by internal tensions and slowly unfolding dynamics. The eight poems are neither only the starting points nor just the byproduct of the compositions, or vice versa. Instead, the entire record is one single result of a coherent creative process. Thacker’s writing—dedicated to the poètes maudits Gérard de Nerval, Chūya Nakahara, Sadeq Hedayat, Alejandra Pizarnik, Giacomo Leopardi, Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Zhu Shuzhen and Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo—is marked by a stunning formal rigour, but also a wide-reaching evocativeness. All it needs to conjure up an all encompassing sense of cosmic sorrow is a few lines with even fewer words in them. The rhythmic character of the poems is reflected in Amini’s music which puts an emphasis on tone and mood, but also on movement and density. All of this makes »Songs for Sad Poets« a work of art that directly addresses its listeners’ affects, expressing an underlying melancholy while evoking an air of dread by transcending the borders between music and literature. https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/siavash-amini-eugene-thacker-songs-for-sad-poets 2022 €32.50
ANTUNES, JORGE Savage Songs CD Hochinteressanter brasilianischer Pionier der elektronischen Musik, der in den 70ern auch zum Kreis des GRM vorstiess. Diese Zusammenstellung enthält 14 Arbeiten aus dem Zeitraum von 1961-1970 - bereits mit 19 Jahren verewigte er seine erste Komposition, die nach ältesten vorstellbaren elektronischen Klängen klingt: träge Sinustöne und Modulationen, Frequenzphrasierungen, Klick- und Halleffekte, Tape-Loops; im laufe der Zeit angereichert durch diverse Geräuschexperimente und -objekte, Orchesterinstrumente und seine Farb-Sound-Theorie... Erinnert an frühe Experimente von OLIVEROS, DOCKSTADER, etc... "Jorge Antunes (b. 1942, Rio de Janeiro) studied violin, composition and conducting at the University of Rio de Janeiro, as well as studying physics at the same institution. He further studied composition with Alberto Ginastera and Luis de Pablo. From 1970-71 he attended the University of Utrecht (Gotfried M. Koenig). From 1972-73 he worked with Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris. In 1962 he began his research in electronic music thus becoming a pioneer in the development of this field in Brazil. He is the director of the Electronic Music Laboratory and the conductor of Orquestra da Universidade de Brasilia." [label info] 2002 €13.00
AQUA DORSA Cloudlands CD Debut-Album des neuen Projekts von GIANLUIGI GASPARETTI (aka OÖPHOI) und ENRICO CONIGLIO, einem italienischen Gitarristen und Ambient-Komponisten. CLOUDLANDS tönt sehr friedlich & mit harmonischen Untertönen, mitunter leicht loopig-rhythmisch aber ohne Aufdringlichkeit, erinnert an ruhigere Sachen von RAPOON, etc.. Sieben Stücke von weiträumigen und weltabgewandten Ambient-Scapes... "...This is ambient music but then with a little bit more, and no doubt Coniglio is the man responsible for that extra bite. Not simply satisfied with 'just' ambient synthesizer textures, there is an addition from the world of microsound to this. Underneath the warm tapestries are woven of synthesizers playing sustained textured sounds, but the icing (pun intended) on the cake comes from the crackles, buzz and hiss that are on top of this. That makes that this music moves out of the usual ambient field, and blends together ambient and microsound, while, because its not entirely generated in the digital realm, its not entirely ambient glitch either. A marriage that works wonderfully well, I'd say. Deep atmospheric textures, icy glitches on top." [FdW / Vital Weekly] "Aquadorsa is a new musical Italian ambient project formed by Enrico Coniglio and Oophoi. Their first work “Cloudlands” is a perfect mix of glitch, classical and orchestral glacial ambient soundscape. Enrico Coniglio is a guitar player and composer and his research has increasingly focused on the relationship between 'music' and 'landscape', in an attempt to represent the contemporary crisis of the territory, the loss of nature and identity of places, and the unknown on the evolution of post-urban and post-industrial territory. He has collaborated with various artists, including: Nicola Alesini, Joachim Roedelius and Elisa Marzorati. He has produced some releases such as "AREAVIRUS - topofonie vol.1" (2007 Psychonavigation), "dyanMU" (2008 Psychonavigation) and digital releases Sapientumsuperacquis on Touch Radio (Touch records) and Crònicaster (Crònica Electronica). Gianluigi Gasparetti better know as Oophoi started his own music experiments in 1995, trying to explore the shores of deep space-ambient. His live album "The spirals of time", released in 1997 by Amplexus, has been voted as one of the best ambient albums of all times. Oophoi uses traditional instruments as synths and sampling machines and his music is recorded using analog-only devices in The Kiva. He has released CDs for many International labels such as Amplexus, Hypnos, Nextera, Prikosnovénie and Glacial Movements and he has collaborated with Louisa John Krol, Alio die, Mathias Grassow and Klaus Wiese." [label info] www.glacialmovements.com 2009 €13.00
AQUAVOICE Grey CD "The first AQUAVOICE album on Zoharum label. "Grey", the eighth album in the project's discography, contains 10 compositions covering musical territories than before. It's pure electronics, but a bit more experimental than simply ambient or Berlin school, as previosly associated with AQUAVOICE." [label info] "Life from other space is still a massive source of musical inspiration, perhaps because we have no clue about it. Here we have Polish musician Tadeusz Luczejko, who calls himself Aquavoice, and his microphone is up in the sky, with the opening piece 'S.E.T.I. Project'. The search for extraterrestrial life goes on, and hopefully I will not be accused of laziness when I compare this music with that of Andrew Lagowski, who sometimes works as S.E.T.I., but let's not forget SETI either, who released an album on Instinct Ambient in 1995. There are similarities in the use of the name, but also in musical approach. Lots of analogue synthesizer sounds, which are set to 'long sustain', and 'heavenly atmosphere' - both of them near the push button that says 'cosmic settings' - and we have a lift-off. Aquavoice takes us up for trip to 'Terra Incognita', to the 'Invisible World' and we see the 'Child Of The Moon' and an 'Air Sanctuary'. Holding court on earth are the sadly passed away Pete Namlook and Biosphere to see if the controls are set for the sun, and they are. Auqavoice plays text book ambient music and there is nothing wrong with that. There isn't a single moment where one could think that Aquavoice does something you haven't encountered before - especially on those mid 90s ambient/house waves - but he does it with great care for sonic detail and these ten pieces are a delight to hear. What more could you want? Every era needs it's own chill out music." [FdW/Vital Weekly] www.zoharum.com 2013 €12.00
ARBEIT / BEAUCHAMP / PALUMBO Torino 012010 do-CD "Torino 012010 is the second release of a series documenting the collaboration between Jochen Arbeit (guitar player of Die Haut and Einstuerzende Neubauten) Paul Beauchamp and Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (the duo known as Blind Cave Salamander). This collaboration started as part of Arbeit's “Soundscapes” improvisation live project. The focus being on the moment of the spontaneous meeting of different systems of soundscaping, the task and challenge of exchanging the results of individual sound research in a public space. The Torino 012010 double cd release on Tourette Records follows the vinyl only live album Halle 27022010 (released by the German label Behind s.r.b.) and presents two different sessions recorded by the trio in January 2010 in Torino Italy: a studio session at O.F.F. studios reecorded, mixed and edited by producer and sound engineer Marco Milanesio and a recording of a live performance in the historical chapel of the San Pietro In Vincoli ex-cemetery as recorded by Larsen's Paolo Dellapiana and edited by Jochen Arbeit. Even though this collaboration is an integral part of Blind Cave Salamander's activity and discography the musicians have decided to release these albums under their individual names to emphasize the project's collaborative nature based on improvisation and composing as a real time emotional and musical reaction to each other's inputs/outputs. Credits Jochen Arbeit : guitar, electronics Paul Beauchamp : electronics, musical saw Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo : guitar, electric viola" [label info] www.touretterecords.com 2011 €16.00
ARCANE DEVICE Devices 1987-2007 do-CD Texturen aus Sirenen-Klängen und Sinuston-Feedbacks, repetitive Patterns aus Extrem-Frequenzen, Effektgerät-Übersteuerungen bilden seltsame Klangkegel aus, elektronische Cut-Ups formen Kaskaden aus befremdlicher Rhythmik. Und alles basiert nur auf einer Soundquelle: Feeback! Auf dieser russischen Kollektion des emsigen MONOCHROME VISION-Labels findet sich älteres rares Material von längst vergessenen Compilations, aber auch neue Stücke von 2007, welche nahtlos an die Vergangenheit anknüpfen, insgesamt aber weniger noisig & offensiv klingen. Very special stuff! "Anthology of rare and previously unreleased tracks by Arcane Device, recorded within the 20 years. It is divided into two parts. The first one consists of tracks from compilations issued by Subterranean Records, Tragic Figures, SFCR Tapes, and Generations Unlimited, but also unreleased material remastered and/or remixed in 2007. The second one is subtitled as "Feedback symphony" and based on various recordings, presented in four movements and finished in 2007. One more chance to approve the exceptional skills and compositional/ technical talent of David Myers who can control the electrons by will, creating fantastic soundscapes. Arcane Device is the unique project of american graphic designer and musician David Myers, active between 1987 and 1995. His creative output is going beyond any categorization, because it’s possible to re-arrange and demonstrate such many styles of modern music with only one thing that is feedback. This effect usually happens when you shortcut the input and output of any electric device. It’s hard to believe but this almost uncontrolable beast became the driving force for Arcane Device music, armed by self-made bank of delays and filters. Looking like inward sound research, decorated with finest web of random processes and microvariations, it becames the peculiar feature. Endless circulation of electrons, never repeating routes and always having some chance for individual life inside of any macrostructure." [label notes / credits] "....I might be wrong, but the oldest guy here is David Lee Myers, also known in the mid eighties as Arcane Device and one of my heroes of the time. Myers created his own feedback machines long before someone thought of 'no input mixers'. Myers controlled his feedback with all sorts of sound effects, which made him sound differently than say the average industrial musician. No wonder his first release was on Recommended/ReR records, known for improvisation rather than noise. In the time span of less than eight years Arcane Device released a bunch of CDs, a LP, a double 7" pack and some cassettes (many of them these days available from http://www.pulsewidth.com). For Monochrome Vision, Myers went to his archive to pick some rare (from various compilations on Subterranean Records, Tragic Figures, SFCR and Generations Unlimited) and unreleased for his double CD. I admit straight away that it has been a while since I last played a CD by Arcane Device, but hearing this feast of recognition, prompts me to pull them all out and play them again in the next weeks, when time allows me. The strength of Arcane Device, to work with such unmusical sounds in such a musical form, hasn't lost any of his magic to me. Unlike say the current wave of no input mixers, who like to be microsound, minimal or overtly harsh, but nothing musical, I only know of one equivalent to Myers and that's Marco Ciciliani, who I once saw play a no input mixer in such a musical manner. Great stuff!" [FdW / Vital Weekly] www.monochromevision.ru 2007 €17.00
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE (AMT) Where the Language might be born CD-R "Since April 1999 I have been involved in experimental sound_workshops with autistic children and children with learning disabilities (between 3 - 10 years of physical age) in La Chanterelle School in Brussels in Belgium. My research-practice are focused on perception as the main factor determining our relationship with reality. Our perception of the surrounding world consequently influences our behaviour. Change of perception change of interest [including system of values] impact on behaviour influence on relation with outside world change (re_modulation) of reality... Impressions evoked by sound_workshops interacts with my personal work as a composer, creating direct confrontation. This confrontation became a dialogue, questioning the fundamental nature of communication beyond form, approaching the basic energetic relationship without references, rejecting the experiences of established language as a form of communication and re_building another 'language closer to unspeakable co_existence, closer to the parallel consonance based on mutual careful listening. Through the creation of a personal language, we can attempt to approach each other's worlds gently, without destroying them through ignorance, without imposing our own modes of communication. What is the aim of communication? I am searching for situations which might stimulate the desire to communicate, in a co_existentional sense - being together - where creation is the spontaneous result of such a situation. The aesthetics of language becomes a direct consequence of communication." [label info]   €10.00
ASHTORETH Rites I & II CD We’re glad to welcome Belgian artist Peter Verwimp and his shamanistic guitar driven soundscapes. The first instalment for the Rites series touches on the importance of ceremony and ritual in our daily lives. It deals with our interconnectedness with nature as a whole and the necessity to acknowledge and use this connection as an amplifier of thoughts, ideas and emotions. Minimal, meditative ambient drones with layers of meandering guitars and voices mixing elements of doom, drone and ambient experimentation. Rites I & II take a shamanic and animistic approach to our surroundings, unveiling inner and outer visual landscapes, a journey through flesh, sound and spirit. CD Edition of 500 copies in 6 panels Digisleeve. 2 Tracks. Running Time 37:51 https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/rites-i-ii "Slowly but certainly, Peter Verwimp is becoming the forerunner for the new wave of Antwerp ambient. Throughout the years I have seen him perform his enigmatic guitar drones and soundscapes numerous times. From petite venues and living rooms to forests and stages everywhere, Ashtoreth manages to turn everything into a place for rituals and meditation. I think it was only a matter of time before a quality label like Cyclic Law would become interested in this shamanic approach to ambient. With 'Rites I & II', the first installment of a series, Ashtoreth delivers a long ceremony and a deep meditation. 'Rite I: Earth' opens with heavy guitars and powerful vocals. When I heard these for the first time, I wasn't sure if I was listening to Ashtoreth or to an intro for a Conan album. This is a somewhat different approach from the slowly in-fading soundscapes. But mostly, it immediately grabs the listener's attention for its brutalist approach. Gradually, however, the track evolves. The distortion fades away and other soundscapes appear. They sound like the breathing of the earth. Then, hints of melody appear, in perfect Ashtoreth tradition. In a way, this first track feels like a journey from something bad and scary to a feeling of piece of serenity. 'Rite II: Fire' is somewhat shorter but still long enough to be a narrative drone ambient highlight. It drives on gloomy drones and shamanic voices, a bit like we're used from Peter Verwimp by now, but let that not be a turn-off. This track is downright eerie, a perfect addition to the heaps of dark ambient masterpieces released by Cyclic Law. So yes, this is a stunning piece of work and it comes with equally stunning artwork by GootSlaper. I don't think this needs much more explanation. 'Rites I & II' is one of those albums that deserve a spot in your ever widening and mind-altering collection." [Merchants of Air] "Here’s an interesting story. There was an amazing Belgian progressive, experimental hardcore band from Antwerp and their name was Maya. Until now, I consider their debut album as the epitome of hardcore progression, an utterly unrecognized gem and one of the most important hardcore albums in the history of the genre! In 2013, I uploaded Maya’s debut via Youtube, as I believed that such a gem deserves the utmost recognition. Not much time passed and I received a message from a fine gent, Peter Verwimp (Building Transmissions, Haunted Places, Station Grey, Stifled Cries) thanking me for that upload and telling me that he played in… Maya! Shocked as I was, he added that he has a new (at the time) project, named Ashtoreth! Much time have passed, people and I’m extremely pleased to review Peter’s new creation. Ashtoreth – as I read – is in search of a shamanistic perspective, channeling at times: minimal, meditative drones with layers of meandering guitars and at others, a catharsis of doom, drone, ambient, folk, metal, noise and experimentation, always in a free and improvised form. Intriguing, right? Rites I & II is a two-piece album, clocking at almost 38 minutes. Being heavily based on drones and ambient, it creates a certain space and a holistic appropriation of darkness, a ritual and introverted expedition into a spiritual and organic vastness. Ashtoreth’s sound is penetrating in every aspect: shamanic chanting, energy razor-blades in the form of minimal guitar, a huge embrace of bass driven currents, cathartic and certain. An aesthetic procreation and the well-perceived certainty of exquisite ambient music, that leaves a feeling of void thereafter. Music that delivers plentifully giving one climax after the other! Serene soundscapes with such power and punch! It’s amazing to hear in this recording elements of Peter’s early works, even before Ashtoreth. The listener faces a recognizable and fine-tuned sound, with very sincere and solid continuance as developed over the years. In Ashtoreth’s case, ambient that – I dare to say – includes in it’s core, amazingly concealed, but present hardcore (!) elements. In fact, many different but related elements merged together, quite skillfully. And the album is presented as a beautifully packaged vinyl and equally beautiful, six-panel CD released by the Berlin based label, Cyclic Law. Peter Verwimp has become an artist of his very own kind; a self-proclaimed sonic shaman and very well deserving of this attribute. Let us witness and be merry for his wonderful incantations." [Toneshift] 2019 €13.00
ASUNTA Landscapes CD "Landscapes enthält Klarinettenkompostionen von Slawomir Golaszewski, Begründer und Mastermind von Asunta, der hier von Wojciech Karwacki auf dem Harmonium begleitet wird. Aufgenommen und produziert wurden die faszinierende Mischung von Ethno drones, Ambient-Psychedelia und slawischer New Age in Warschau von Alik Dziki (http://dziki.net), dem ehemaligen Bassisten der polnischen Reggae-Legenden Kultura und Izrael sowie in der Frühphase Mitglied bei den Mystik-Punks von Armia. Die Erstveröffentlichung in Polen war 1996 lediglich eine Kassette-Edition beim Label "Fly Music", der 2001 eine limitierte Cdr-Version beim polnischen "Nefryt"-Label folgte. Diese Wiederveröffentlichung auf Lollipoppe Shoppe stellt insofern die erste internationale Würdigung des außergewöhnlichen Asunta-Sounds von Landscapesdar. Slawomir Golaszewski ist eine legendäre Figur der polnischen Off-Kultur: Er gehörte 1985 zu den Mitbegründern der mit transzendentaler Wucht und mystischer Poesie agierenden Hardcore Punk- Institution "Armia", auf deren Platten er mehrfach unter dem Pseudonym Merlin mitwirkte, und war zu dieser Zeit zugleich aktiv im Umfeld des sich auflösenden "Teatr Laboratorium" (http://www.grotowski.net) des großen Theatererneuerers Jerzy Grotowskis in Wroc³aw/Breslau (zu seinen Lehrern zählten hier Zbigniew Cynkutis, Zygmunt Molik und Ludwik Flaszen). Grotkowskis Forschungen zum psychophysiologischen Einfluß ritueller Gesänge und die Anwendung auf die experimentlle Theaterarbeit haben Go³aszewskis Arbeit geprägt. Seit den frühen 1980er Jahren ist Go³aszewski außerdem als Radiomoderator, Journalist und Autor tätig; er hat unter anderem früh die Verbreitung von Reggae- und Rastafari-Kultur in Polen betrieben und mehrere Generation des polski Reggae geprägt. Darüberhinaus war der "musizierende Philosoph" (Alexander Pehlemann, "Zonic" http://www.zonic-online.de) selber künstlerisch in der Szene aktiv. Die Liste seiner Kollaborationen wie auch seiner publizistischen Beiträge ist unüberschaubar. Über Go³aszewskis künstlerische und esoterische Interessen erklärt sich letztlich auch die Zusammenarbeit mit den ebenso legendären "Atman", einer seit den Mitt-Siebzigern aktive Gruppe von Musikern, die erfolgreich die Integration von Klangkunst und Ökologie betrieben und deren Label "Fly Music" das Album Landscapes 1996 als Kassette veröffenlichte und Asunta im folgenden Jahr auf ihrem "Festival in der Landschaft" (Muzyka w krajobrazie http://pathman.republika.pl) im mittelpolnischen Inow³ódz präsentierten. Mit diesem völlig akustischem Konzert in einer romanischen Kapelle manifestierte sich endgültig die Reputation des Projekts in der alternativen Musikszene Polens. Nach einer lebensbedrohlichen Gehirnoperation 2010 und Rekonvaleszenz meldet sich Go³aszewski nun zurück: 2012 wurde seine Graphic Novel "Moja Terapia" (mit Zeichnung von Szawe³ P³óciennik, Central Europe Comics Art, http://centrala.org.pl) veröffentlicht und eine erweiterte, 400 Seiten starke und um ein Audiobook ergänzte Neuauflage von Go³aszewskis Schriften zu Reggae und seiner spezifischen Rezeption in Polen von dem Label und Verlag "Manufaktura Legenda" besorgt, das federführend ist bei der Aufarbeitung von polnischer Subkultur ("Reggae Rastafarie - Regementarz" http://manufaktura-legenda.pl). This release contains clarinet compositions by S³awomir Go³aszewski, founder and master-mind of the project, and harmonium works by Wojciech "Kaktus" Karwacki. Landscapes was recorded and produced by Alik Dziki, former bass player of the Polish Reggae legends Izrael and Kultura, as well as an early member of the mystic punk group Armia. The album was released on tape in Poland in 1996 under project name Asunta on the "Fly Music" label and in 2001 released in a limited edition on Cdr by the "Nefryt" label. Landscapes features a fascinating blend of ritual ethno drones, ambient psychedelia and Slavonic New Age. The cover painting by Lithuanian artist Linas Domarackas was designed for the original release. S³awomir Go³aszewski is a legendary figure of Polish off- and counter culture. In 1984/85 he co-founded the seminal punk rock group Armia and contributed to their albums under pseudonym Merlin. At the same time he was active in the shadow of Jerzy Grotowskis's dissolving "Teatr Laboratorium" in Wroclaw/Breslau (Zbigniew Cynkutis, Zygmunt Molik, and Ludwik Flaszen being his teachers). Grotowskis's research on rituals, its psychophysiological impact, and his expanded concept of theater has coined Go³aszewski's artistic work. Since the late 1980's, Go³aszewski is active as a radio presenter, journalist and author; among other things he was crucial for the early popularisation of Reggae music and Rastafarian culture in Poland and thus influencing an entire generation of fans and musicians alike. His contributions both artistic and publicistical to the Polish alternative music scene are numerous. His artistic and esoteric quest also lead to the collaboration with the legendary Atman group, a collective of musicians dealing with the integration of sound and ecology. The group's self-managed label "Fly Music" released Landscapes in 1996 on cassette. In the following year, Atman also invited Go³aszewski to present his project at their Music in the Landscape Festival [Muzyka w krajobrazie] in Inow³ódz, a small medieval village in central Poland. This entirely acoustic performance in the Romanesque St. Giles church in Inow³ódz in July 1997 brought Asunta lasting reputation among Poland's alternative music circuit. After a life-threatening brain surgery in 2010 and a period of convalescence Go³aszewski is back and active again: 2012 saw the publication of his graphic novel "Moja Terapia" (with drawings by Szawe³ P³óciennik, Central Europe Comics Art) as well as a 400-page volume of his collected writings on Reggae music and Rastafari culture published by "Manufaktura Legenda", the leading label and publisher for the reappraisal of the legacy of Polish subculture." [label info] www.lollipopshop.de 2013 €12.00
ATOMINE ELEKTRINE The Antikythera Mechanism CD "A container of all the knowledge about the universe. The motion of the gears deeply intertwine a link between micro- and macrocosm. A mechanism that simulates cosmology and senses characteristics of an eclipse, with color, size and associated winds. Define a question, and there will be a calculated answer, even capable of astral divination. Is it an all-seeing eye, or perhaps something beyond even that; a magic entity capable of creating the cosmic events that it is supposed to measure and foretell. If so, is it by nature auspicious or ominous. Or is it merely a representation and extension of ourselves and our senses, trying to reach both the celestial and the intrinsically unobtainable. Winter-Light warmly welcomes Peter Andersson to our label, with his 'Atomine Elektrine' project and a stunning new studio album 'The Antikythera Mechanism'. Here we are invited or compelled even, to delve deep into the intricacies and finely tuned mechanics of this mysterious, all-encompassing machine. Infinitely extending it's influence across multi-dimensions of time and space, constantly calculating, cogs ever turning, gears whirring, mapping, learning, storing and moving ever onwards. Leaving in it's wake, a vast ocean of unimaginable cosmic events, left to ripple through time until they too fade away to become yet another click in the eternal cycle of 'The Antikythera Mechanism'. Difference between the CD/Digital and vinyl version 'The Antikythera Mechanism' has a small degree of randomness built-in to the sounds which means that the output of each rendering becomes slightly different. The tracks on the vinyl are of a different rendering than the tracks for the CD/Digital version. This is a natural glitch in 'The Antikythera Mechanism' and it is more or less noticeable. The sounds are the same but the positions in the sounds are time offset in an arbitrary mode. Any further inequalities are due to the fact that a different mastering technique has been utilised for the vinyl version, than for the CD/Digital version. As well as there being a different final rendering for the vinyl version, the DLP also comes with an additional and exclusive track, which clocks in at 19:52." https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/the-antikythera-mechanism "This mechanism Peter Andersson is referring to in the title of the new Atomine Elektrine offering is considered as the first analogue computer. The device was constructed by the ancient Greeks to predict future astronomical occurrences and phenomenas. Even this day it’s an object of scientific researches and studies as its technological sophistication is still unexplained for XXI century scientists and scholars. One of the greatest enigmas in the history of mankind and… what an inspiring theme for a dark ambient artist to explore through music. It’s not a secret that Peter is a truly versatile musician within the electronic underground, always efficient, no matter if he seeks more noisy approach or more atmospheric one. Atomine Elektrine was born of his fascination of science and instead of wandering through lost cathedrals and desolate wastelands we explore the secrets of space and quantum physics. Clearly, it’s not just the words in the titles and press releases, but the music is unlike his other projects as well. For 25 years the foundation of Atomine Elektrine sound was the use of analogue synthetisers, the old-school instruments cherished by the German masters from the 70s. His music was constantly developing over the years, in all projects, apart from Atomine Elektrine also Raison d’etre, Necrophorus, Bocksholm and several others. Often the inspirations were morphing one through another (for example Necrophorus’ “Imprints” has a one hundred percent Atomine Elektrine vibe), but in general high quality is practically always guaranteed. I have to admit that while my favourite Peter’s “non-raison” release is “Drifting In Motion” by Necrophorus, it is Atomine Elektrine I value the most as a whole. Maybe not exactly the very first albums, like “Elemental Severance” where it was Jean Michel Jarre a godfather rather than Klaus Schulze, but “Nebulous” or “Laniakea” are very frequent guests in my CD player, up to this day. Can’t declare today that “The Antikythera Mechanism” will also regain its place in my personal pantheon of all Peter’s releases as it is quite crowdy over there, but yes, it is good, it is goddamn good! The opening dark space of “Arcturus Alpha Boo” made me think of the cosmic vacuums generated by some of the Loki Foundation maestros as the deep rumblings and the feeling of an infinite expanse made me feel small and irrelevant. It calms down after a few minutes and brings a mystery of a titular mechanism to the forefront. From the universe entirety to this tiny device that can capture its secret. I’m in love with “Metonic Spiral”. You know why? Because it’s like taken straight from “Drifting In Motion”, those delicate synth passages combined with weird bubbling and swirling sounds recall the atmosphere of that masterpiece. Yet while that one had this overwhelming aura of sadness and solitude, in “Metonic Spiral” I hear… a hope that the wonder of what hides behind the ionosphere can be comprehended by the human mind. That feeling is intensified by the second half of the track where these slow melodies and analogue sequences take it one step closer to the old-school German electronica. In the following track, “The Exeligmos Pointer” all these rhythmic pulsations may recall a working mechanism, while the majestic background textures compliment the structure as a subject of that work. They’re huge and beautiful, they can be compared to the sun/moon eclipse, watched by you, predicted by the device. Subtly disturbing “Time Dislocated By The Mechanism” is. It may sound bizarre, but this piece have something in common with what Penjaga Insaf did on their “Sama Sadja”. While conceptually both projects couldn’t be more distant one from another. The organic aura of “Epicylic Gearing” is represented by these cyclic sequences, coming and going, pulsating like a bloodflow, later that bass rumblings appears, like a heartbeat. And that simple repeated melody, combined with the mentioned elements develop a tremendous track, which brings another name to my mind. Predominance. Remember that one? Yes, as you can see, that Loki reference few paragraphs ago wasn’t accidental. Such albums like “The Antikythera Mechanism” deserve an epic ending, yet one must have in mind that Peter Andersson doesn’t really like to finish his albums with a bang. “Fragment F” is not a praise of a human mind, the awe of its endless powers and capabilities. No, it’s a cosmic space, quiet, soulless, without beginning nor end.It’s like the blackest shade of black, it’s probably Peter’s most oppressive finale since “The Eternal Return And The Infinity Horizon”. And probably one of his best works, at least within the last couple of years. This reference may sound funny, but he’s like Stephen King of dark ambient and I know that a lot of folks grumble that “it’s not the same, his older novels were classic and now he’s just reaping the benefits of his older efforts.” Not true, “The Outsider” or “Sleeping Beauties” are as good as the novels from his so-called “golden era”. Same goes with Peter Andersson, I heard more than once that what he does now is not the same as 20-25 years ago. Wrong. Don’t let nostalgia speak for you. He’s still in a very good shape and the astounding sound of “The Antikythera Mechanism” is its brightest, or rather darkest example." [Santa Sangre] 2019 €13.00
AUTOPSIA Karl Rossmann Fragments CD Sehr kryptisch ausgerichtetes Werk mit 20 "Fragmenten", gewidmet dem tschechischen Komponisten und Maler KARL ROSSMANN. Auf der Innenseite des 7"-Covers ein interessanter philosophischer Text über die Beziehung von Fragmenten und Gesamtheit, musikalisch oszillierend zwischen rein experimentell-elektronischen Figuren und wirren Cut-Up Collagen, die auch auf instrumentellen (Klassik)-Klänge basiseren. Anspruchsvoll Klänge, partikelig und von grosser Variabilität. Und anstatt eines klassischen Presse-Textes gibt es von AUTOPSIA zur Veröffentlichung Zitate von KARL ROSSMANN, THOMAS MANN und ADORNO: "About Karl Rossmann: VARIOUS ILLUSIONS ARE FORMED, THAT OBSTRUCT US FROM PERCEIVING THE REALITY OF VOIDNESS, WHICH IS THE BASIS OF THE TRUTH. Karl Rossmann 1922. Art is mind, and mind does not at all need to feel itself obligated to the community, to society, it may not, in my view, for the sake of its freedom, its nobility. An art that goes in unto the folk, which makes her own the needs of the crowd, of the little man, of small minds, arrives at wretchedness, and to make it her duty is the worst small -- mindedness, and the murder of mind and spirit. And it is my conviction that mind, in its most audacious, unrestrained advance and researches, can, however unsuited to the masses, be certain in some indirect way to serve man in the long run. Excerpt from Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus The language of music is quite different from the language of intentionality. It contains a theological dimension. What it has to say is simultaneously revealed and concealed. Its Idea is the divine Name which has been given shape. It is demythologized prayer, rid of efficacious magic. It is the human attempt, doomed as ever, to name the Name, not to communicate meanings. Quasi una Fantasia, Essays on Modern Music, Theodor W. Adorno, 1956 " [label info] "... By another accident a few days I got the latest CD by Autopsia, which seems to be dedicated to the life and work of one Karl Rossmann, who was apparently a painter, composer and writer from the Czech Republic, but in these internet times I am not an easy believer when it comes to people who "destroyed as much evidence of his existence as he could find". On the Autopsia website we see him mentioned as one of the 'few truly original Czech composers of the last century'. Its a bit hard to understand all of this, in relation to the music playing in the background, the 'Karl Rossmann Fragments'. But strangely enough it comes close to the work of serious modern electro-acoustic composers from France - to complete the circle. The twenty fragments are short, almost 'pop' in length of electronically processed sounds, reverb, drone like sounds, and pitches that go up and down, but it cleverly stays away from the long form that we usually find in this part of the music world. Each fragment seems to have a life of its own, completed, finished, and, despite the word 'fragment', a finished composition. This new Autopsia work is hardly alike the work they are best known for, the sampled orchestral bits, even it at times seems to have sampled strings and percussion. Perhaps its all a bit much this release to take in at once, clocking in at over seventy minutes and with a lack of variation here and there, but half today and the other half tomorrow is quite nice to work with. " [FdW / Vital Weekly] www.myspace.com/karlrossmannprague 2009 €13.00
BAD SECTOR / SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS Neurotransmitter Actions CD "Originally released in 2000 this long sold out collaboration work is now available again and brings back some fine piece of well crafted deep sounding electronica from Italy. The BAD SECTOR tracks of Massimo Magrini building up again a sonic cathedral of sub-harmonic drones and rhythms while Paolo Bandera of SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS/SIGILLUM S dissects precisely the frequency oscillation and adds an intense and contemplative manifest of digital noise to the second part of this split-work. This is an outstanding example in sound research by two of the most important masterminds of the Italian electronic music scene. The CD is presented in a beautiful cardboard package with bronze-foil print." [label info] www.loki-found.de "If you have been reading these pages closely over the past few years, you may know I have a soft, as yet unexplained, spot for the music of Bad Sector. One could find this odd, as I may not be known as someone who likes this dark, slightly gothic electronic music. But it seems there is always an element of computer treatments, sci-fi and humour in this, which makes that I enjoy it. In 2000 Bad Sector released this split CD with Sshe Retina Stimulants, also from Italy, and the music project of Paolo Bandera (and I have no opinion on his music, simply because I don't know it very well), and now it's been re-issued. Here we have one-track silence (why?) at the beginning, four pieces by Bad Sector, five by Sshe Retina Stimulants and one, in the middle, of them together. The Bad Sector pieces are trademark for him (the band is a solo project of Massimo Magrini): heavy slabs of electronics, ditto dark rhythms, and lots of treated vocals. This entire here more forceful, it seems, than on the more recent releases. Quite nice, again, music in the realm of industrial music. Sshe Retina Stimulants, whom I didn't know that well, seem to be more about singular synthesizer strokes in quite a noisy manner. There is something about these tracks, which may make them sound alike. Maybe its all more loop like with some sound effect treatments? Either way, it works quite well, even when it's perhaps not something I would play everyday. In the middle ground, their collaborative piece both ends are tied together and operated with a tour de force. Altogether this is fine manifestation of industrial music." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2014 €13.00
BAND OF PAIN Still falls the Rain 7inch "After an absence of a good few years, Band Of Pain return with a 7” single for Easy Action. Steve Pittis: “Since I got the first Black Sabbath LP when I was 12 years old, the poem inside the gatefold has held a huge fascination for me. I’d read it over and over again, looking at the sleeve, and of course listening to the record. It kept occurring to me that they never used it in any lyrics, so 45 years later, it was time to put that right.” The A Side of this record, “Still Falls The Rain” features that poem, read beautifully by Lucy Cotter, along with Pittis’ atmospherics and Nurse With Wound’s Andrew Liles’ blistering guitar. All research seems to say that the writer of the poem remains anonymous, so if you’re out there, we hope you like it. Side B’s “Funhouse (For Karla)” deals with the gruesome misery of an execution chamber and is a powerful journey into the horrors of those barbaric places." [label info] www.easyaction.co.uk https://youtu.be/T_ZyNCgmPSo http://www.andrewliles.com/10-questions/steve-pittis/ "Where most bands opting to record a take on of one of their influential favourites would opt for a more or less straightforward cover version, Band Of Pain main man Steve Pittis chooses instead to invite Andrew Liles and Lucy Cotter to join him in re-imagining the anonymous poem “Still Falls The Rain”, as found inside the upside-down cross adorning the inner gatefold sleeve of Black Sabbath‘s eponymous first album. This they do in suitably doom-laden style, all clangour and tolling of deep-down bells smeared over with some excoriating paint-stripper guitar from Liles that bears a passing, if distended, resemblance to Sabbath. An equally ominous threnody washes over the stifling atmosphere, which Cotter’s plain-spoken words cut through the thunderstorm of sampled rain with a distracted, almost hypnotised air. Not so much metal as post-Hendrix fed-back skronk, the results waver from the suitably discordant into the eerily unheimlich, with the ghost of a mordant smile nevertheless playing faintly around the snooker hall klang. What Tony Iommi would make of it is anyone’s guess. The flipside is yet more unnerving and gloomy, dwelling on the subject of imminent state-sanctioned execution on “Funhouse (For Karla)”, and what words there are buried so deep into the mix as to be almost imperceptible at first. Environmental flickers switch back and forth in the deep, dark mix, riding limpidly beneath relentless monotone pulsations that well up in into a tachycardic rhythm modulated to sets the pulses racing as soundbites on the death penalty pass behind the unfolding sense of dread and doom. For dark, stormy nights, and even glummer moods." [Linus Tossio/FREQ] 2015 €9.50
BARONI, CLAUDIO F. & DARIO CALDERONE Ursae Minoris CD A constellation is a construct of perspective. Unfathomable fireballs ripping apart and reconstituting atoms, separated by millions of light years in all directions, are flattened into two dimensions by the human eye. From the slightest suggestion of line and form, the mind gathers them together into objects, seeing in them figurative outlines or distinct cultural reference points. Depending on one’s geographic location and culture, these groupings and their associated imagery can vary wildly. Despite being completely outside of human time and dimension, the stars are minimized and abstracted by distance and then reconstituted by social construct. This act of mental agility serves to make some small sense of the darkness around us and to serve as a memory aid so as to keep a grip on our place in the world. As musical beings we might also wonder: What does a constellation sound like? Would we also find some meaning or a sense of place in this sound? How does a change in our observation change our reality? With his Ursae Minoris, Claudio F. Baroni does not strive to give us direct answers to these questions. He begins to employ this process of perspective transformation, aurally converting a two dimensional abstraction of stars into points on a grid and then using this ‘data’ to generate the music, which leaves the final step of recontextualizing to the performer and the audience. The title refers to the constellation Ursa Minor, which was ‘created’ by the Greeks around 600 BCE out of a portion of another constellation. In Latin and in the colloquial names in many European languages it means Lesser or Little Bear. It is commonly referred to as the Little Dipper in North America. Pointing the way to the North Star, this is one of the most important and well known constellations in the Northern Hemisphere. Ursae Minoris, meaning ‘of Ursa Minor’, is the title of this work because in this album we encounter this constellation not as a singular instance but as an evolution of multiple perspectives to ruminate upon. As our view of the stars changes with time and place, the three movements of this piece each offer a different aural interpretation. While working on his string quartet Perpetuo Motum, Baroni happened upon the diaries of Ciriaco d’Ancona (1391-1455), an Italian humanist, textile trader, and antiquarian. Within these diaries are maps of constellations that d’Ancona used to navigate at sea. He is sometimes called the ‘father of archaeology’ as he was one of the first Europeans to collect objects from ancient cultures systematically. Driven by his curiosity, he decided to depart from southern Italy across the Mediterranean to Egypt, Greece and throughout the Aegean Sea. D’Ancona relied upon Ursa Minor to locate the North Star in these travels. The score of Ursae Minoris is based upon a celestial map centered around Ursa Minor. Using a similar process to one he used in writing Perpetuo Motum, the musical material was determined by a direct ‘transcription’ of the points on this map into predefined variables such as pitch and volume, transforming the stars into musical ‘events’. With the pitch material settled, Baroni explored other musical aspects. Each movement focuses upon a specific technique of sound production. The first consists of short percussive sounds, especially those produced by tapping the metal end of the bow (called the screw) upon one of the strings. Constantly adjusting the placement of the screw and the length of the string, we are treated to a richly nuanced catalog of these tiny explosions. In the second movement, constant slow glissandi (pitch-sliding along the string) are played up and down on one of the strings as if orbiting around the gravitational pull of its neighboring string, which holds steady to one pitch. The last movement is entirely constructed of one long and shifting bowed tremolo (a shaking of the bow) resembling a trembling comet appearing out of silent space, grazing the ears with a roaring distance and disappearing back into the void. While his single-minded use of instrumental technique can be uncompromising, Baroni leaves room for spontaneity in other aspects. Continuing the journey metaphor, the score consists of variable paths from which the performer can choose whichever routes and sidetracks they fancy in the moment, rendering each performance unique. Also striking is Baroni’s use of electronics as a way to deepen and refract the natural sounds of the instrument. The subtle use of a loop station gives rise to many layers of the already existing acoustic sound world, expanding it without injecting outside influences. This leaves one quite often wondering if there is just one bassist making all that sound or if there is a sky full of them. Baroni has spent the last 10 years sounding out the depths of personal instrumental expression with his SoLo compositions. Ursae Minoris is the seventh piece in this ongoing series, each of which focuses on the unique qualities of a different instrument. Central to his process in this series is an extended collaboration with the performer to discover distinctive sounds from the instrument. He is not interested in fresh instrumental techniques for their own sake, simply to sound new or shocking, but because this is the terrain where there are more layers still to be explored. Baroni worked extensively with bassist Dario Calderone over a long period, taking time to form each movement of Ursae Minoris. Calderone’s complete commitment to this kind of music is evident in the intensity and detail of his playing. For example, in order to endure the brutal, endless tremolo of the 3rd movement, Calderone had to reinvent his bowing technique. Throughout the piece he latches onto the essence of the music and gives it a constant drive. Forget for a moment the title and all of this background information. One doesn’t need to know anything about this composition’s connection to the stars to hear the force of the music or to feel the determined searching of the exposed performer. Baroni studiously avoids making specific aesthetic or cultural references in his music. He creates a closed sound universe with its own scale and physics wherein we can surrender to being propelled through this singular abstraction. In the end we may be left to wonder: Where are the lines between natural phenomena, sound as sound, fragile and situated perception, and conscious interpretation? How much does each of us feel the urge to find some recognizable form and meaning in the sounds of these little points on a graph? Or we may just go along for the journey, leaving our mind’s universe behind. https://contemporaryseries.bandcamp.com/album/ursae- minoris 2021 €12.00
BASINSKI, WILLIAM & RICHARD CHARTIER Divertissement LP "Divertissement is the third collaborative full length from minimalist composer William Basinski and sound artist Richard Chartier. The duo utilize electronics, piano, tape-loops and short wave radio to evoke a dense atmosphere suggesting hundreds of years of history rising up from the depths of a reverberating cathedral. Subtle, buried and intense murmurs of melody morph through this deeply consuming and slowly evolving composition in two parts. Pressed in an edition of 500 with beautiful cover drawings by artist James Elaine. William Basinski is a classically trained musician and composer who has been working in experimental media for over 30 years in NYC and most recently, California. Employing obsolete technology and analogue tape loops, his haunting and melancholy soundscapes explore the temporal nature of life and resound with the reverberations of memory and the mystery of time. His epic 4-disc masterwork, The Disintegration Loops received international critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 albums of 2004 by Pitchfork Media. The Temporary Residence deluxe LP box-set reissue from 2012 was awarded best re-issue of the year and a score of 10 on Pitchfork. Installations and films made in collaboration with artist-filmmaker, James Elaine have been presented in festivals and museums internationally, and his concerts are presented to sold out crowds around the world. Most recently, Basinski was chosen by Music Director, Antony Hegarty to create music for the new Robert Wilson opera, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic which had its world premiere at the Manchester International Festival in July 2011 and toured Europe in 2012 and North America in 2013. Orchestral transcriptions of The Disintegration Loops by Maxim Moston have been performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queen Elizabeth Hall and La Batie Festival in Geneva, Switzerland. Basinski is currently touring the world in support of Cascade and The Deluge, his latest works which will be released in Spring 2015 on 2062/USA. Richard Chartier (b.1971), sound and installation artist, is considered one of the key figures in the current of reductionist electronic sound art which has been termed both microsound and Neo-Modernist. Chartier's minimalist digital work explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception and the act of listening itself. Chartier's sound works/installations have been presented in galleries and museums internationally including the 2002's Whitney Biennial and he has performed his work live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America at digital art electronic music festivals and exhibits. In 2000 he formed the recording label LINE and has since curated its continuing documentation of compositional and installation work by international sound artists/composers exploring the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism. In 2010, Chartier was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellowship to explore the National Museum of American History's collection of 19th-Century acoustic apparatus for scientific demonstration." [label info] www.importantrecords.com 2015 €25.50
  Aurora Liminalis CD "Line is pleased to announce the upcoming release of the second highly anticipated collaboration from renowned composer William Basinski and sound artist Richard Chartier. Aurora Liminalis is a rich and nebulous soundtrack, the aural equivalent of undulating trails of light. Disintegrating spatial shifts incorporating the two artists' distinct sonic palettes mesh to create a slow, deep ebb and flow like some melting spectral transmission. The work has a distinct complex presence, difficult to resist its pull. Befitting cover image by visual artist James Elaine. William Basinski (b.1958)is a classically trained musician and composer who has been working in experimental media for over 30 years in NYC and most recently, California. Employing obsolete technology and analogue tape loops, his haunting and melancholy soundscapes explore the temporal nature of life and resound with the reverberations of memory and the mystery of time. His epic, entropic masterpiece, The Disintegration Loops has received international critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 albums of 2004 by Pitchfork Media, as well as the top re-issue for 2012's Temporary Residence vinyl box set. Art Forum selected The River, his transcendental 2-disc shortwave music experiment on Raster-Noton, Germany as one of the top ten albums of 2003. Installations and films made in collaboration with artist-filmmaker, James Elaine have been presented in festivals and museums internationally, and his concerts are presented to sold out crowds around the world. Recent collaborations include music for Robert Wilson's latest opera, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, Aurora Liminalis with Richard Chartier and a remix of Antony's Cut The World as well as a new solo album for release in early 2013, Nocturnes. Basinski's works are released on 2062 and distributed internationally. Richard Chartier (b.1971), sound and installation artist, is considered one of the key figures in the current of reductionist electronic sound art which has been termed both 'microsound' and Neo-Modernist. Chartier's minimalist digital work explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception and the act of listening itself. Chartier's sound works-installations have been presented in galleries and museums internationally including the 2002 s Whitney Biennial and he has performed his work live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America at digital art/electronic music festivals and exhibits. In 2000 he formed the recording label Line and has since curated its continuing documentation of compositional and installation work by international sound artists/composers exploring the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism. In 2010, Chartier was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellowship to explore the National Museum of American History's collection of 19th-Century acoustic apparatus for scientific demonstration." [label info] 2013 €14.50
BAYLE, FRANCOIS Electrucs ! LP Lost tapes ! François BAYLE - "ELECTRUCS !" - 1974 On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the GRM, the composer François Bayle introduces us to some of his unpublished archives : - "Electrucs !" (1974) composed on a Synthi AKS synthesizer - "Foliphonie" (1974) inspired by "La Grande Polyphonie". - "Marpège" (1995) dedicated to Bernard Parmegiani. - Also includes "Cinq dessins en rosace" (1973). Electrucs (1974) - 20'41 A1 - sophistication - 2'44 A2 - train noir - 2'17 A3 - voltage stomp - 1'48 A4 - crépuscule - 2'32 A5 - quadrille - 1'38 A6 - arpegiatto - 1'17 A7 - mélodie zèbre - 1'25 A8 - saccades - 1'50 A9 - la « chose » - 1'58 A10 - ennemi intime - 3'07 Cinq dessins en rosace (1973) - 13'41 B1- rosace 1 – 1’53 B2 - rosace 2 - 2’33 B3 - rosace 3 - 3’27 B4 - rosace 4 – 2’19 B5 - rosace 5 – 3’27 B6 - Foliphonie - 3’30 (1974) B7 - Marpège - 3’15 (1995) Born in 1932 in Tamatave (Madagascar) where he lived for 14 years, François BAYLE is a major figure of electro acoustic music and member of the historic Pierre Schaeffer's "Groupe de Recherches Musicales" (GRM) joined in Paris in 1958. In 1975, the GRM was integrated with the new Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) with Bayle as its head, which post he held until 1997, he brought a valuable contribution to the opening of musical research in these original innovative institutions. Ever since his first productions ( “L’expérience acoustique” 1971) François Bayle has developed through a great variety of “ formats “and designed the Acousmonium a sound diffusion system used originally by the GRM. He also originated the record series Collection Ina-Grm, organizes concerts and supports the development of technologically advanced musical instruments (Syter, Grm tools...). After leaving GRM in 1997, he founded his own electronic music studio and record label Magison. https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/electrucs 2018 €24.50
BAZE.DJUNKIII In Macrospace MC „In Macrospace“. The monolithic album debut by Hamburg-based DJ x producer x electronic music activist baze.djunkiii, the essence of 25+ years on the scene and continuous research in sonic fields reaching far beyond your regular club music. A dark and threatening journey through the realms of brooding DeathAmbient, cold, hostile sci-fi atmospheres and an innate feel of darkness, doom, desolation and industrial wastelands covered in toxic fumes and the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse. Generated solely and exclusively by a process of extensive vocal synthesis the ten tracks on „In Macrospace“ represent a sonic manifestation of vantablack dystopia and mind threatening, braincell eroding claustrophobia, an ode to both minimalist sound structures as well as a maximized psycho-acoustic impact that might overwhelm even those used to stare into and listen to their innermost void for extended periods of time. Not for the faint-hearted. Listener discretion is advised. Tracklist A1: Andromeda Strain A2: Drop On Demand A3: The Dyson Sphere A4: Technical Threat A5: Subaquatic Movements B1: Reroll For Trips B2: Metaphysics Of Noise B3: Do Not Talk About... B4: Dark Bells Of Karma B5: Ancient Tribes Of Sirius File under: Death Ambient / Dark Ambient / Drone / Industrial https://intrauterinrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/baze-djunkiii-in-macrospace-the-absence-of-light-001 2022 €13.50
BEAUCHAMP, PAUL Needs Must when the Devil drives CD After the critically acclaimed "Pondfire" (Boring Machines, 2015) and "Grey Mornings" (Boring Machines, 2017), Paul Beauchamp has taken a new direction with his third album, "Needs Must When the Devil Drives". With this work, a single track lasting a little over half an hour comprising several movements, Beauchamp has moved away from the use of acoustic instruments as sound sources and has instead followed the mantra of Brian Eno of "the recording studio is an instrument in itself". Included in this new direction of using solely synthesized and sampled sounds sources, Beauchamp has also begun to explore new territory by using elementary beats and percussion while still remaining connected to his minimal roots through his dedication to drones and ambient. "Needs Must When the Devil Drives" marks a turning point in Beauchamp's solo career as a natural evolution in his unique approach to research and sound design as a creative tool. store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa2135.htm "Needs Must When the Devil Drives: Drittes Soloalbum von Paul Beauchamp Paul Beauchamp, der neben seiner Arbeit mit Combos wie Blind Cave Salamander und Almaghest! bereits zwei Alben im Alleingang produziert und über Boring Machines heraus gebracht hatte, veröffentlicht in Kürze seinen dritten Longplayer “Needs Must When the Devil Drives”. Das aus einem rund halbstündigen Track bestehende Album teilt mit seinen Vorgängern die ambiente Soundscape-Struktur. Neu ist Beauchamps momentane Abkehr von teilweise akustischen Klangquellen und seine Konzentration auf Elektronik. Ein weiteres Novum ist der Einbezug rhythmischer Elemente. Beauchamp, dessen Name entgegen der verbreiteten Gewohnheit nicht in der französischen Phonetik ausgesprochen wird, stammt aus dem Südosten der USA und zog vor Jahren nach Turin, wo er schnell Kontakte zur rührigen lokalen Musikszene knüpfte. Mittlerweile zählt er zu den renommiertesten Vertretern elektroakustischer Musik. Das Album erscheint auf zweihundert CDs bei Bare Teeth Records und Standa, dem Zwilling von Silentes Distribution." [African Paper] 2021 €12.00
BECUZZI, GIANLUCA Memory makes Noise CD "With this new release by Small Voices, Gianluca Becuzzi (ex-Limbo), for the first time, presents his work under his birth name, confining the aka Kinetix as an extension of his name. "Memory Makes Noise" is an important passage in the long career of our Tuscan sound-artist, projecting him to the achievement of his own creative dimension. Left the cold digital aesthetic, Gianluca Becuzzi, is focusing his re-search on electro-acoustic sounds, livening "Memory Makes Noise" with throbbing concrete rumors, material manipulations and deep enviromental reverberations. On the back-ground of this soundscapes, exacts and fascinating at the same time, there are the shadows of the cut up evoked by the author: from Luc Ferrari, Ivo Malec and Morton Subotnik, to Rolf Julius, Bernhard Guenter e Kozo Ikeno. "Adductionism" as activation of the memory, which rush in the present confusing with it, to avoid any kind of linear sequence. In the ethernal present time, where every sign contains its own contrary, the echo sounds before its source: "Memory Makes Noise". Released in an elegant Matt varnished digi-sleeve. Limited Edition of 500 copies." [label info] 2006 €10.00
  Faraway from Light CD "Faraway From Light" is a tripartite CD in a short intro, an equally short outro and a long central composition. Much of the sound sources used in these tracks were recorded in the towers of Teufelsberg in Berlin, a NASA center located in the west of the city, abandoned by British and American intelligence after the fall of the Wall. Teufelsberg, literally "mountain of the devil", stands on an artificial hill, obtained from the sedimentation of the remains of bombings of the Second World War. Its huge empty spaces have very peculiar resonant qualities, which make it a place of particular acoustic interest. After assembling and organizing the materials recorded in Berlin, in 2013, Gianluca Becuzzi presented "Faraway From Light" as a soundtrack for Abel Ferrara's film "The Addiction" at the Cagliari festival "Solo Il Mio Nero". In line with its most recent production, Becuzzi's work is positioned between extreme noise and contemporary experimentation. The dialectic between the continuum of long droning drafts and the swarming of material manipulations, together with the plasticity of full and empty spaces, wrapped in a persistent nocturnal tension, define the figure of "Faraway From Light". Luce Sia and SMYW are pleased to present this work by Gianluca Becuzzi on CD, confident that it is a title that adds an important record contribution to his long career as an author and sound researcher. https://gianlucabecuzzi.bandcamp.com/album/faraway-from-light 2016 €13.00
BECUZZI, GIANLUCA & FABIO ORSI Muddy speaking Ghosts through my machines CD Zweite VÖ dieses Jahr für das italienische Duo, experimentelle electronica-ambience die mit Blues & Folk-Versatzstücken sowie field recordings angereichert ist, was zu erstaunlich stimmigen Ergebnissen führt. "Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines' is the brand new album released together by Fabio Orsi and Gianluca Becuzzi. This album will be certainly followed by other cooperations, considering the big friendly artistic sodality between them. Fabio e Gianluca are a strange duo, considering the big differences of their artistic back-ground. Fabio Orsi is a young and unexpected talent. After his first album, "Osci" (LP, SmallVoices 2005), produced by Gianluca Becuzzi, he got a lot of positive feedbacks, worldwide, by the most important international media, confirmed by his second official release "For Alan Lomax" (CD, A Silent Place 2006) splitted with cosmical Italian duo My Cat is an Alien. Gianluca Becuzzi is a very well known character of the Italian experimental scene since from the 80s, under many different alias. Recently known as Kinetix, Gianluca latest release is the very well appreciated "Memory Makes Noise" (CD, SmallVoices 2006) a great electroacoustic pearl. The unexpected uncounter between different forces, experiences and visions of this two artists is prefectly melted in this album: strong and tied, an imaginary place where folkway and research, past and present, distance and closeness, mud and clouds, ghosts and machines meets. Shreds of ballads, guitars and old keyboards floating on the vibrant surface of this faery river and disappear, towed off by drones and rumors, pouring between distant voices and centenary blues songs from the Alan Lomax archive. Raptur and sweet lostness: this is the main sensation. It could be listed as Avant-Folk, or Experimental-Blues, Ambient- Roots or contemporary aesthetics and aching nostalgia..." [label press release] 2007 €13.00
BEEQUEEN Aughton LP “The queen of all honeys nourishes its hive with a sweet sustenance of archival sweetness. Aughton represents a cadre of organic drone/concrete pieces. Softly cavernous and compact compositions that occasionally become musical by suggestion only. It's a bit like being underwater while someone is playing loud church music out a car window as a train screeches by. It's that fugue state induced by the ever more apparent overtones of a nearby engine. It is quiet and disquieting. The several pieces together add up to something of a subtonal symphony, though the parts are quite distinct. A great, steely and dark space-out, whose horse runs happily astride 80's Zoviet France or in some respects, Harry Bertoia." [press release] www.blrrecords.com "This new LP on Beta-Lactam makes an interesting companion piece to Beequeen's recent Important Records album. Where The Bodyshop was a milestone for the work of Freek Kinkelaar and Frans de Waard with its unexpected emphasis on melody, structure and songcraft, Aughton—The Patient Books is much more familiar Beequeen territory—organic drones, submerged loops and moody atmospherics. This seemed like an unexpected return to form until I checked the liner notes and discovered that these pieces were, in fact, recorded from 1993 to 1995. To anyone familiar with the work of the duo from this period, the sounds on this LP will be very familiar. Beequeen have always been extraordinarily good at creating dusty, low-fidelity machine drones that have a grainy, organic resonance in which one can hear all manner of buried and obscured melodies. Their textures have a distinctly antiquated feel to them, like the penetrating buzz of a sodium streetlamp on an Amsterdam street corner in the late-1800s. On many of these pieces, Freek and Frans take advantage of the substance of tape itself, building pieces from the rhythms produced by a slowly queuing cassette tape, or using the fundamental technical limitations of magnetic tape to intensify the lived-in, archival feel of much of this material. Even the name of the album conjured images of a long-neglected psychiatric hospital archive, full of disintegrating reel-to-reel tapes of long-forgotten significance. "I'm Searching For Field Character" is the perfect soundtrack to an Orwellian Room 101: a distorted voice with the weighty tone of a Soviet social engineer reads aloud a block of text meant to reprogram us with revolutionary propaganda. All the while the clock ticks loudly and distant air raid sirens blare. It has the effect of a frightening Cold War radio drama pulled into near-total abstraction. With interest I've tuned into the current wave of heavily hyped New Weird American drone artists like Double Leopards and Dredd Foole, but this brief LP by Beequeen comprised of material more than a decade old seems fresher and more adventurous by far. Beequeen are careful not to stray too far from theme, mood and substance, so their work is always enriched by the myriad symbolic associations that each listener brings to the experience. The same cannot be said of the aforementioned artists, who often prefer to just play the same tone as loud as they can for over an hour, as if endurance alone could prove the merit of their work. Aughton is a refreshing antidote to this kind of amateurish noodling, and I highly recommend it to any who have found themselves disappointed by this sort of thing in the past." [Jonathan Dean / Brainwashed] 2004 €17.00
BEGG, MICHAEL A Moon that Lights Itself CD During the 1870s, Charles François Daubigny, in the last years of his life, took increasingly to painting nocturnal scenes en plain air from his boat studio, Le Bottin. This was a period in time when the idea of the musical nocturne had progressed from being an indication of what point during the evening a particular piece of music should be played, towards becoming an articulation of the unique atmosphere and emotion occasioned by moonlight. Elsewhere in France, Edouard-Lean Scott de Martinville conceived and produced the phonautogragh. This device, appearing years before Edison’s phonograph, enabled sound, for the first time, to be captured. Unlike Edison, however, de Martinville neglected - or saw no need - to provide the means to playback the recording. Rather, a visual representation was captured on a lamp black cylinder. It wasn’t until 2008 when researchers at Berkley University used digital technology to recover the audio. The recording, the first ever made, was of a human voice singing Au Clair De La Lune. Written and produced by Michael Begg Mixed and mastered at Captains Quarters, East Lothian A Moon That Lights Itself was premiered at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh on September 16th 2016, with cello accompaniment from Clea Friend The work was commissioned by National Galleries Scotland, in conjunction with the major exhibition, Inspiring Impressionism: Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh, and was completed with the generous support of the Hope Scott Trust. https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/a-moon-that-lights-itself REVIEW: "A Moon That Lights Itself was commissioned by the Scottish National Galleries as part of the Inspiring Impressionism exhibition, focussing on the works of Charles François Daubigny, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh. On September 16th 2016, Michael Begg (of Human Greed / Fovea Hex) performed the work, amidst the exhibition space, in the auspicious surroundings of the Royal Scottish Academy situated on the Mound in Edinburgh. Drawing on the works of French landscape artist Charles François Daubigny, Begg's commission was described as a "work for electronics, strings and moonlight". I must confess that of the three artists featured in the exhibition I wasn't at all familiar with Daubigny. Consider Begg's work with Human Greed where their first release Consolation featured a moonface in Deryk Thomas's artwork on the cover; Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star, the title of a later album which included 'Dalkeith Night' speaks for itself; and even Dirt On Earth featured a blackened nightscape on the cover it's perhaps particularly apt that Begg focusses on Daubigny's later work and specifically the twilight and nocturnal scenes of his later years, from which he painted while ensconced on a studio boat on the Oise. A Moon That Lights Itself is set in the context of mid to late 19th century France, and the cusp of impressionism, modernism, together with the earliest known sound recordings by Edouard-Lean Scott de Martinville and his phonautograph invention. A Moon That Lights Itself moves from dusk to dawn in the course of its 9 tracks. From tranquil drones overlaid with tumbling piano notes and solemn cello movements the opening track 'Le Crepuscule' moves into drifting drones before 'Moonrise' which like many of the tracks on A Moon That Lights Itself blends location recordings into the compositions. Here water in the form of lapping waves and crashing waves, bird chatter and the quack of ducks - ducks were a recurring motif within Daubigny's impressionist landscapes - are found amidst passages of glistening drone and moments of sombre piano and cello swell. Still and serene, glinting flourishes merge with stirring movements, its lapping waves resembling the tidal pull, and backward spinning electronics. 'Moonlight' bathes in the glow of light glistening sound textures set against deep reverberating rumbles and piercing glassy shrieks. Bells ring out before it moves into quieter echoed atmospherics. Daubigny often painted from his floating studio on a boat on the River Oise, and 'Le Bottin' aptly illustrates this with watery ripples dappled with tender piano notes and broader sound shudders, flowing into an end section comprising elegiac strings and melancholic synths. With its rippling metallic sounds, harsher noise elements and sluggish voice recordings 'The Birth Of Modernism' is much more abstract in composition. Those voices, taken from the 1860 phonautograms of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, like modernism are almost blown in on a wind like drone. Scott de Martinville's recordings, sensitively mixed as another layer of sound here, were never intended for playback but recent research managed to transform these into playable sound files, discovering a male voice, probably of Scott de Martinville, singing a partial segment of the French folk song 'Au clair de la lune', which fits nicely here as in English it translates to 'In the Moonlight'. Elsewhere on 'The Birth Of Modernism' voices and bird calls are rendered as electronic squiggles, reflecting the movement away from realism to abstraction, perhaps. Begg returns to his palette of location sounds on 'Daubigny's Reverie' where lapping water and duck quack augment the shimmering sound spans. The drone filled atmospherics create a sense of melancholy; a captivating dreamspace only broken by the call and sing of birds in flight. Those flying birds could be seen as sound metaphor for the transition from Daubigny's impressionism to a new world of abstract representations, something furthered on 'Between Two Movements' which unfurls to a two pronged approach where undulating drones and glassy shrill frequencies are cast against evocative classical strings. It could even be electronics, Begg has an uncanny ability to sidestep the listener with his use of instrumentation that sound like something else. 'A Last Dance Under The Moon' moves to doleful cello sweeps and forlorn nocturnal electronics, achieving a graceful and mournful presence, largely due to the Clea Friend's cello score. A Moon That Lights Itself closes with the arrival of 'Dawn', a classy ensemble piece of piano score and cello, contrasting sombre cello movements with more optimistic and joyful piano notes, and as the sounds coalesce it seems to herald the new whilst paying homage to the past. Begg referred to this in a blog for his performance at the Royal Scottish Academy as being a "pochade", a sketch, "for Daubigny, for the moon, and for an extraordinary time in the development of European culture, when our sense of capturing the world around us and within us took extraordinarily bold, though markedly sensitive, steps forward." Recorded immediately after the performance, Begg once again proves himself to be a superlative composer, with a suite of evocative atmospherics using electronics, classical strings and location recordings to evoke the nocturnal workings of Daubigny. A Moon That Lights Itself is bathed in a liminal essence; a quality that defines all his work. From the Human Greed releases Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star, Fortress Longing, World Fair to the Fragile Pitches collaboration with Colin Potter, Michael Begg has been behind a number of great releases. A Moon That Lights Itself now sits alongside those titles as one of his finest solo offerings in a release that is sombre, inventive and utterly captivating." [Compulsion Online] 2016 €13.00
BEREZAN, DAVID La face cachee DVD-A "DAVID BEREZAN (*1967, Edmonton, Canada) holte sich, wie viele seiner Labelgenossen, den letzten Elektroakustikerschliff bei Jonty Harrison an der Univ. Birmingham und lehrt inzwischen selbst an der Univ. Manchester. La face cachée (IMED 0896) ist sein Debut und präsentiert 5 Stücke, die jeweils einen konkreten Anstoß, zugleich Klangquelle, nach einer ‚verborgenen Seite‘ hin erweitern. ‚Cyclo‘ (2003) kommt vom eigenen Geradel zu einer Symbolik des Kreislaufs. ‚Baoding‘ (2002) assoziiert ‚Handschmeichler‘-Kugeln mit Peking- und Kun-Oper. ‚Styal‘ (2004) belauscht die von einem Wasserrad angetriebene Quarry Bank Mill, eine Weberei in Styal südlich von Manchester, heute Industriedenkmal, einst berühmt für seine wohltätige Kinderarbeit - tja, Music to read Dickens by. ‚Hoodoos‘ (2007) führt einen auf den Hoodoo Trail im Banff National Park, zu Strukturen aus Wasser, Holz und Stein. ‚Hannibal‘ (2005) schließlich hat nicht Lecter oder Elefanten im Sinn, sondern basiert auf ‚Hannibal II‘, einer Skulptur von Jean Tinguely, speziell dem Klang einer schwingenden Kette. Berezan nimmt Details so unter die akustische Lupe, dass der Lauscher sich ganz winzig vorkommen muss, weil die Dinge brobdingnagsche und hochdramatische Züge annehmen, aber dabei auch sich seltsam gleichen." [Bad Alchemy] “Cyclo (2003)”. “Baoding (2002)”. “Styal (2004)”. “Hoodoos (2007)”. “Hannibal (2005)”. DVD-Audio stereo + MP3 files. “Of all the things I have learned about my own music, the notions of revealing and discovery seem the most essential. There are two sides of myself at work here, in co-operation, and sometimes in conflict, in the creation of the pieces presented on this disc.On the one hand, I search for sound sources that are sonically appealing, and that I connect with on a personal and tangible level, in their real world and everyday setting. On the other hand, through processes of transformation, reconstruction and imagination, I create and reveal hidden spaces, characters, and substance from those sources. Within, underneath, and behind the sound objects and concepts, there are often unexpected sound worlds in terms of detail, colour, and dynamic. For me, this multi-faceted aural-vision that twists, turns, and opens into itself is the magic of the art form. It is also through this process of discovering “the hidden side” (La face cachée) that I discover as much about myself.This disc and its music is dedicated to my parents: Jennie and Victor Berezan.” David Berezan [credits] www.empreintesdigitales.com 2008 €12.00
BERG, CHRISTOPH Tape Anthology Vol. 1 LP "With his new record Tape Anthology Vol. 1 Christoph Berg kicks off an album series mainly focusing on works based on Tape manipulation. At the same time it marks the inaugural release of his own imprint Monochrome Editions. Christoph is a classically trained piano and violin player whose curiosity and cultural interest are by no means bound to that category, or any others for that matter. For the past few years he has also been broadening his approach to composition by researching and experimenting with tape machines and reels of field recordings — and directing sounds into physically immediate shapes and atmospheres. Through an initially improvised approach to sources and his analogue assembly of the emerging recordings afterwards, he is methodically avoiding predictable conditions. The raw, extensive material became subject to meticulous organisation and arrangement: Tapes have been cut, manipulated, destroyed, fixed, and reshaped into a treasury of experiences. The overall process is, in many ways, similar to the way Christoph travels and absorbs situations: curious, spontaneous, attentive, and modest. His work is less about destination than about the journey, and these compositions magically manage to capture a history of sounds, embedded in one’s own (temporary and partial) perception of them. While most pieces on the album are dominated by field recordings and tape manipulation, they are occasionally accompanied by an array of instruments — most prominent in the three movements of the “Concertino for Tape and Violin” — including an amalgamation of violin, upright bass, organ, found objects, and synthesizer contribution by Midori Hirano on two of the album’s compositions, all of which are effectively molding chance encounters into individual and intentional entities. However, the greatest idiosyncrasy of the album might also be the most subtle and, probably, irritating: The collages of things, places, people and events deliberately renounce conclusions, by which Tape Anthology Vol. 1 also evades any obvious stagnation. Even when themes are appearing, everything stays in constant movement, away from, towards or around you. The few palpable aspects welcome you and immediately drag you in, but without releasing you in the expected or a familiar location. It is a captivating voyage through an ever-changing landscape that — through abstention of any predictability — is not only the core of improvisation, but a philosophical approach to both traveling and being in general. By never succumbing to tradition, expectation or comfort, Tape Anthology Vol. 1 is continuously reaching out for the capture of our surrounding — and our agency within it. Herewith the record embodies the ever intriguing cor-relation of spontaneity and subsequent mapping. https://christophberg.bandcamp.com/album/tape-anthology-vol-1-2 2019 €22.50
BERTOIA, HARRY Sonambients : The Sound Sculpture of Harry Bertoia CD + DVD Sonambients: The Sound Sculpture Of Harry Bertoia is a deluxe CD/DVD package containing historic recordings made in Harry Bertoia's Sonambient barn. The DVD, a film titled Sonambients: The Sound Sculpture of Harry Bertoia, by Jeffrey & Miriam Eger, was shot in 1971 and follows Harry Bertoia in performance and interview throughout his Sonambient barn deep in the Pennsylvania woods. This film offers a rare opportunity to follow the artist in practice, listening carefully as he moves contemplativelythrough his sculptures and gongs. Interview footage offers rare insight into Bertoia's inspiration and process. A separate CD contains four exclusive, recently discovered audio recordings. Included are thetwo earliest known collaborative tapes from Harry and brother Oreste, morning and evening sessions dated October 12, 1969, as well as a collaboration between the Bertoia brothers and their sister Ave who sings in careful unison with the overtones being produced by the sculptures. With the passing of Oreste Bertoia in 1972, these recordings mark the last meeting of all three Bertoia siblings. A 16 page booklet includes many never before seen production stills shot by Jeffrey Eger. These iconic images capture the essence of the artist in practice. All of this is packaged in a heavy duty, tip-on style, gatefold sleeve printed with metallic inks at Stoughton Printing in California. A limited edition version of this release, containing a letterpress printed limitation card and a piece of film from the original release can be obtained through the Harry Bertoia Foundation. _________________________ Making the film Sonambients: The Sound Sculpture of Harry Bertoia by Jeffrey Eger Miriam and I heard through a distant friend of an acquaintance that Harry Bertoia, a Pennsylvania artist, designer and sculptor wished to have a film made about his recent sound sculpture work. We called Harry in November of 1970 and within a week met him in his studio where he introduced us to his sculpture and to his sounds. We ate lunch in a diner and talked about the songs of whales and wolves and his Sonambients. We then visited his Soundings Barn where everything we learned about film and its visionary possibilities became crystal clear. We absorbed the sound ambeince and left with such a bubbling excitement that we knew that it was written in the stars that we would make this film. Within a week we spoke to Harry and he was convinced that we were the right people to bring his Sonambient world to the screen. I sent Harry a one page description of how we would shoot the film and hopefully how the film wouldlook. He loved the one page treatment. And he reminded us that he did not want to see himself welding in the movie. By early January 1971 we were ready to descend on the barn in Barto. We arrived with our cameraman and soundman. The interior of the barn was freezing. We set up quartz lights, checked out shots, and rigged nine hanging microphones from the loft. We had determined that in order to allow Harry to fully improvise his movement amidst the rows of sculptures, we would shoot ten minute takes without any interruptions. In this way the cameraman would shoot handheld a continuous flowing performance. The Eclair 16mm camera and Nagra tape recorder were connected by crystal sync which was a relatively new improvement over actual cables connecting camera and recorder. Harry would be free to move unencumbered where ever the creative moment took him. We were all ready to roll. Then the sound man took off his headphones and told us that there were occasional popping sounds on the sound track. We replayed the sound test. Popping sounds with little echoes. We city folk were baffled. Harry Bertoia with acute country sound hearing said, " Hunting season. Deer Hunting season. There is nothing we can do about it. We have to wait until hunting season was over." A month later in the middle of February of 1971, we returned without the sounds of distant shots and echoing recoil. It took us 2 days to shoot the whole film. About two hours of footage edited down to a final sixteen minutes. A month later we returned with a final cut and sound mix. With a rented 16 mm projector, we screenedthe film for Harry on a bed sheet hung from the rafters of his studio. He loved it and did not want one frame to be changed.And to paraphrase Robert Frost, " and that has made all the difference." Jeffrey Eger April 9 2016 ________________________ Credits for Sonambients: The Sound Sculpture of Harry Bertoia Director and producer - Jeffrey Eger Editor - Miriam Eger Camera - Paul Goldsmith Sound - Petur Hliddal A Kenesaw Films ProductionCopyright 1971 Jeffrey Eger was born in 1946 in New Jersey. He studied English and Comparative Literature and graduated from Rutgers University in 1968. He continued his graduate work at the London School of Film Technique in 1968-69. He majored in film writing and directing. Throughout his film career Jeffrey Eger has written, directed and produced many short and long form documentary films for museums, television, schools, international World's Fairs, and governments. He has also worked as a writer and researcher for a number of museums including the Statue of Liberty Museum for its Centennial 1986 Celebration. He is the author of numerous books and is the editor of The Journal of The Thomas Nast Society. For the last 20 years he has been an antiquarian bookseller specializing in books, auction catalogues and periodicals in the arts. Miriam Szamosi Eger was born in 1944 in Budapest, Hungary. She emigrated with her family to Israelin 1949. In Israel, she studied architectural drafting and building engineering. She continued her education at The London School of Film Technique in 1968-69. She majored in film editing. Her first work in the film industry was as an assistant/associate editor on the Woodstock Music Festival film. Her second film was The Sonambients film. Miriam edited many documentary films for museums, Worlds's Fairs, industrial exhibitions, and artists. She and her husband Jeffrey frequently worked together through their two film companies. For the serious collector or anyone interested in a complete limited edition set, for $100, the exclusive edition (of 500) sets are available through the Harry Bertoia Foundation. Included: 16-minute documentary of Harry Bertoia performing in the Sonambient Barn (available for the first time since 1971) 20-minute interview of Harry Bertoia explaining Sonambient (never before released) Full-length CD of all three Bertoia siblings – Harry, Oreste, Ave – performing in the Barn A physical piece of the original 16 mm film 10-page booklet with color photographs of the shoot and description of the filming process See further details at http://harrybertoia.org/shop/ 2017 €24.00
BERTONI, MARCO (CONFUSIONAL QUARTET) Live in Trentville CD sps2251 MARCO BERTONI LIVE IN TRENTVILLE CD, trifold 15x15cm sleeve     Unlike the distant "18/8/81" or the more recent "Wrong Ninna Nanna", this new solo work contains no piano or other instrumental parts. In this release, which occurred like all truly welcome things in an unexpected and unsought way, I have collected some of my own compositions created only from sound material recorded around or taken from other recorded music. Such material has been mutated with various sound processings, and assembled by multiplying layers in both digital and analog environments. The time passing in this music is the result of a search for sensory fulfillment and expressive freedom. - Marco Bertoni Marco Bertoni is a composer, musician and producer born in Bologna (Italy). He began as a teenager by founding the seminal avant-garde rock band Confusional Quartet in 1977 (with which he is still active), then working as an arranger and producer for various pop music publications. He has composed soundtracks for film (Bigas Luna, Michele Placido), for ballet (Enzo Cosimi) and for theater (Magazzini). In parallel to all this he has always created and experimented in the areas of electronic and contemporary music. We recall his first record "18/8/81", "New Machine Voice" made together with Enrico Serotti with the voices of Carmelo Bene, Demetrio Stratos and Kathy Berberian, and the more recent "Wrong Ninna Nanna" with texts by Franco Bifo Berardi for the voices of Lydia Lunch and Bobby Gillespie. 13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2251_marco_bertoni.htm 2022 €13.00
BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) Celtichants CD "Lost and found all of a sudden, this album is the exploration made with the chanting voices of unknown nature. Choral fragments were decomposed and restructured, arranged with the effects and atmospheric shifts, creating the mysterious soundtrack to the otherworldly ceremony. These echoing voices are going directly from the lost memory or the daydreams, nobody can tell you where they are from, where they are calling you. Here are some words of the author, giving you just the hint but not the clear explanation. Postface : The knowledge exemplified affect distress to their natural peduncle environment. Destructive invention progressed towards purposes in some external fumes surroundings and deplete globalization performance bloody resources applied precipitous challenge. Developed simple efficient disrupt generations usually prominces changed damned systems especially from tightness with instrumental reason practical poisonous organized inorganic entities immaterial in the compulsive habitat. Wooden marginalization virtual techniques combine to produce skills processes for neurotic medical combined with additionally oppression formalize endeavor output engineering parasites investigation for principles among exclusively retrieve the challenge development advanced research in the excessive leading towards primitivism to dissolve the molesters emergence earliest alienates shape. Discovery allowed early multimedia digestibility progressivism sophisticated retractile for misanthropic domain transition with prominence contribute specialization adjacent a role processing alloys utensils near the harness evidence inhuman innovations borrowed structures. Advancements countless transit miniaturized resulting alienating after complex treatments support them, microfractures perform the entirety existence proponents morally pessimistic are increasing serious disarticulation chained with passionately communicate infrastructure to describe mortal lethargy perspective unique overall for muscular lucubrations. Limited edition of 500 copies in special packaging - custom made of textured paper with black/silver print, assembled by hand. Different colors available: china white, pearl white, lemon yellow, mallard green, lime green, concrete grey, dark grey, dark violet. Comes with the set of 3 photos of miocenic basalts made by Siegmar Fricke in Maspalomas (Gran Canaria Island)." [label info] www.alone-at-last.com 2013 €15.00
BIOSPHERE Shenzhou 3 x LP Paul Cooper, Pitchfork: ""Shenzhou", aside from being the name of the Chinese manned-spaceflight vehicles, means "magic vessel", and I can't imagine a more apt description for Geir Jenssen's latest excursion into ambient deep listening. After following an Aphexian trajectory with his releases on Apollo, the ambient sublabel of Belgium's R&S; Records, Jenssen veered from the padded sci-fi-inspired techno of Microgravity and Patashnik with 1997's Substrata, a genre-defining exploration of drifting soundscapes. Substrata remains for many the album that perfectly expresses the serenity and intensity of Arctic wildernesses, a landscape Jenssen knows intimately, having spent much of his life in the Norwegian Arctic Circle. In 2000, Jenssen nearly eclipsed the success of Substrata with Cirque, a frequently frosty submerging of excerpted conversations and found environmental sounds that rivals Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project in its rumbling, gauzy beauty. Jenssen again relies on found sound as source material for Shenzhou, but this time, the found sound is old vinyl recordings of the orchestral works of French Impressionist composer and ambient precursor, Claude Debussy. Jenssen lifts fragments of these scratched records in a similar manner as he did for Cirque's "Black Lamb Grey Falcon" and "Iberia Eterea". The ten tracks (out of the dozen on the album) that follow this model all begin as a barely audible hum, like a small electrical transformer, out of which the dust-dappled loops of Debussy's woodwind, brass, and strings emerge, condense, and fade out into pink noise rustles. Unlike Steve Reich's phase pieces or Brian Eno's Discreet Music, though, Jenssen doesn't set his loops against each other to produce juxtapositions and piquant dissonance; he uses them to describe imagined terrain, at first glance monotonously flat and barren, but on concentration, replete with minute detailing. The overall effect of these pieces is a sense of immensity. The orchestral loops sound distant, abandoned in a vast wilderness, and strenuously battling against Arctic winds. Jenssen sets the listener down in this wilderness as an aloof observer, a witness to the music's futile struggles against entropic forces. The two tracks not derived from Debussy share the same hypnotic aesthetic. The brief interlude "Bose-Einstein Condension" is a loop of piano chords lolloping in search of coherence, while "Gravity Assist" is a longer voyage into woofer-quaking low-frequency manipulation, bell-like drones, and contrails of subdued noise. I can't help but feel that these tracks fit awkwardly and break up the conceptual flow of the album. This, however, is a minor quibble given the power of this music. Shenzhou is unquestionably a magic vessel, but one that reveals its enchantment only to those who pay close attention." 2017 €36.00
  N-Plants do-LP "Geir Jenssen writes: Early February 2011: Decided to make an album inspired by the Japanese post-war economic miracle. While searching for more information I found an old photo of the Mihama nuclear plant. The fact that this futuristic-looking plant was situated in such a beautiful spot so close to the sea made me curious. Are they safe when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis? Further reading revealed that many of these plants are situated in earthquake-prone areas, some of them are even located next to shores that had been hit in the past by tsunamis. A photo of Mihama made me narrow down my focus only to Japanese nuclear plants. I wanted to make a soundtrack to some of them, concentrating on the architecture, design and localizations, but also questioning the potential radiation danger (a cooling system being destroyed by a landslide or earthquake, etc). As the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said: the plants were so well designed that 'such a situation is practically impossible'. The album was finished on February 13th. On March 17th I received the following message from a Facebook friend: 'Geir, some time ago you asked people for a photo of a Japanese nuclear powerplant. Is this going to be the sleeve of your new coming album? But more importantly: how did you actually predict the future? Kind regards, David." [label info] "Obviously we have to believe Geir Jenssen when he writes that in February he decided to make an album about Japanese post-war economic miracle, found a picture of a nuclear power plant, and wondered why so many are close to the sea, and what would happen if a tsunami would sweep the land? We know the answer by now. I assume Jenssen didn't make this story up as good line to sell a CD. Its been a while since we last heard Biosphere, a new work that is, as 'Patashnik' is still an ipod favorite here, and a work that breaks away, it seems, with the more recent ambient works. 'N-Plants' sees a return to the world of rhythm and that makes this quite a remarkable work. Biosphere going back to the world of dance music, although its hard to imagine people actually dancing to this. But if my crystal ball gazing is right, ambient house is soon to be on a revival trip, following the recent explosion in cosmic music, and then Biosphere can't do wrong. He plays here with the elements of cosmic music and adds nice minimalist beats to it. Loops of keyboard sounds, spiced with 4/4 minimal beats (more Cologne than Berlin) as well as layered drones of what might be more keyboards, or heavily processed field recordings, make up some great music, returning to his earlier music, but expanding it. Out are the voice samples, the beats are reduced to the bare minimum, the ambience is more to the foreground, making this another essential Biosphere record." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2020 €32.00
BLACK OX ORKESTAR Ver Tanzt ? LP Wer auf „osteuropäische“ Harmonien steht, muss hier zugreifen !! Das BLACK OX ORKESTAR ist ein Bandprojekt mit Musikern der Montrealer Szene von SILVER MOUNT ZION, GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR und SACKVILLE, das seit 1999 besteht und osteuopäische & jüdische Klezmer-Musik mit Indie-Rock und FreeJazz-Einflüssen verbindet. Lyrics werden auf Jiddisch gesungen. Melancholische Leidenschaft pur! “Black Ox Orkestar is a Montreal based quartet formed in 1999 The band features: * Thierry Amar (double-bass) (Silver Mount Zion/ Godspeed You! Black Emperor/ Molasses) * Jessica Moss (Violin, bass clarinet) (Silver Mount Zion/ Frankie Sparo) * Gabe Levine (clarinet, guitar) (Sackville) * Scott Levine Gilmore (vocals, mandolin, cymbalon, drums, ecc) (Silver Mount Zion) The Black Ox Orkestar songs filter the traditional Klezmer tunes through punk rock and free jazz, borrowing turkish/balkan/greek idioms. They are a hypnotic blend of Eastern European songbooks along with some traditional klezmer compositions. Scott Levine Gilmore and Gabe Levine also perform in "Le Petit Theatre de l'Absolu" a political theatre and puppet show. They have toured in occupied territories and have performed in Canada and in USA, France and Spain. Nowadays Klezmer music transcends its Jewish folk roots: Balkans and blues, ancient Jewish culture and prayer and history, spirit, punk rock, and jazz all mixed together and enjoyed by people of all cultures. (Klezmer in english means "instrument of song"). The lyrics are in Yiddish and concern past and current political issues. Yiddish was the language that the Eastern European Jews brought with them when they emigrated to America. At the beginning of the 20th century there were many Yiddish language newspapers and an important Yiddish tradition in theatre. Today it's hardly used as an everyday language but has left its impact on on the speech of the American Jews. The lyrics of the song "Toyte Goyes in Shineln" are by the poet Itzik Feffer who belonged to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) and was murdered by Stalin's decree in 1952. The album is available on CD and 180g vinyl formats, each in lovely chipboard packaging and both featuring an 8-page booklet. The front cover artwork is an ancient kabbalistic icon and the back cover is original art by Scott Levine Gilmore. The booklet contains historical and original images, and translation f the lyrics "Ver Tanzt?" ("Who's dancing?"). On the back of the booklet is a prophetic message from Gershom Schol (one of the most famous researchers of the Jewish mystical tradition and the Kabbala) to Franz Rosenzweig (most influential figure of 20th century European and North American Judaism) dated 26 December 1926.” [press release] 2004 €16.50
  Ver Tanzt ? CD Wer auf „osteuropäische“ Harmonien steht, muss hier zugreifen !! Das BLACK OX ORKESTAR ist ein Bandprojekt mit Musikern der Montrealer Szene von SILVER MOUNT ZION, GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR und SACKVILLE, das seit 1999 besteht und osteuopäische & jüdische Klezmer-Musik mit Indie-Rock und FreeJazz-Einflüssen verbindet. Lyrics werden auf Jiddisch gesungen. Melancholische Leidenschaft pur! “Black Ox Orkestar is a Montreal based quartet formed in 1999 The band features: * Thierry Amar (double-bass) (Silver Mount Zion/ Godspeed You! Black Emperor/ Molasses) * Jessica Moss (Violin, bass clarinet) (Silver Mount Zion/ Frankie Sparo) * Gabe Levine (clarinet, guitar) (Sackville) * Scott Levine Gilmore (vocals, mandolin, cymbalon, drums, ecc) (Silver Mount Zion) The Black Ox Orkestar songs filter the traditional Klezmer tunes through punk rock and free jazz, borrowing turkish/balkan/greek idioms. They are a hypnotic blend of Eastern European songbooks along with some traditional klezmer compositions. Scott Levine Gilmore and Gabe Levine also perform in "Le Petit Theatre de l'Absolu" a political theatre and puppet show. They have toured in occupied territories and have performed in Canada and in USA, France and Spain. Nowadays Klezmer music transcends its Jewish folk roots: Balkans and blues, ancient Jewish culture and prayer and history, spirit, punk rock, and jazz all mixed together and enjoyed by people of all cultures. (Klezmer in english means "instrument of song"). The lyrics are in Yiddish and concern past and current political issues. Yiddish was the language that the Eastern European Jews brought with them when they emigrated to America. At the beginning of the 20th century there were many Yiddish language newspapers and an important Yiddish tradition in theatre. Today it's hardly used as an everyday language but has left its impact on on the speech of the American Jews. The lyrics of the song "Toyte Goyes in Shineln" are by the poet Itzik Feffer who belonged to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) and was murdered by Stalin's decree in 1952. The album is available on CD and 180g vinyl formats, each in lovely chipboard packaging and both featuring an 8-page booklet. The front cover artwork is an ancient kabbalistic icon and the back cover is original art by Scott Levine Gilmore. The booklet contains historical and original images, and translation for the lyrics "Ver Tanzt?" ("Who's dancing?"). On the back of the booklet is a prophetic message from Gershom Schol (one of the most famous researchers of the Jewish mystical tradition and the Kabbala) to Franz Rosenzweig (most influential figure of 20th century European and North American Judaism) dated 26 December 1926.” [press release] 2004 €16.00
BLEGVAD, PETER Go Figure CD "After 19 years, Go Figure marks the Peter Blegvad Trio's return to the studio, in supernal form and now a quintet with Karen Mantler and Bob Drake. Peter, John and Chris first met when Henry Cow was touring with Faust, in 1972. Peter was on secondment from his own group Slapp Happy, and in the following year Henry Cow and Slapp Happy merged, making two LPs before they separated again. When John Greaves left Henry Cow in 1976, he joined Peter in New York where they wrote and recorded Kew.Rhone. Peter and John have continued to work together, on-and-off, ever since. After making two solo LPs for the still vaguely experimental Virgin Records, Peter's next LP, Downtime, was made independently by ReR -- and the core players wound up being the Peter Blegvad Trio. Bob Drake first became involved during the second trio recording, Just Woke Up, which he mixed and mastered. Karen joined the trio in 2002 for a festival in Ferrara. Bob's first stage appearance with the band came ten years later, in 2012, at the RIO festival in Carmaux. ReR has been releasing the Blegvad working group's records for 37 years and this is the fourth so far. They don't come easy." peterblegvad.bandcamp.com/album/go-figure "Artist, poet, illustrator, philosopher, cartoonist – so broad are Peter Blegvad’s other interests, and so protean his muse, that one sometimes has to wait for years for his attention to turn again to music. But the payoff lies in the way that those other pursuits feed back into his music in the form of songs that exult in their uniqueness. Blegvad is one of pop’s very few “true originals” whose work always bears out that status. Probably best known for Leviathan, his long-running Independent On Sunday cartoon strip, Blegvad brings a similar level of abstruse conjecture and whimsical wordplay to his lyrics, whether he’s musing, in “Sven”, upon a leathery ancient corpse preserved “in a Finnish fen”, or offering a grim reflection, in “Mind The Gap”, on how a terrorist bomb destroys the collective isolation of Tube travellers: “Blown apart and blown together, now the two of us were one”. However, it’s not usually that dark: “Too Much” is a jaunty ragtime rumination on excess, slipping from familiar physical indulgence to more abstract realms (“too much sturm, too much drang, too much yin, too much yang”); and in “My Father’s Face”, Blegvad pirouettes on the cusp of whimsy and something more sinister, relating how he once drew his sleeping father, then erased his face. But perhaps his most elegant and amusing aesthetic reflection resides in “Way To Play The Blues”, where he uses John Cage’s epigram “I have nothing to say and I am saying it, and that is poetry as I need it” as inspiration for a (probably apocryphal) tale of the Stones asking Blegvad to help them understand the way to play the blues, a question he denudes of dues, and ultimately of volition. Blegvad’s band, comprising various Henry Cow alumni and sundry avant-gardists, provides flexible support for his musings, from the sinister cod-reggae shuffle of “Penny Black”, about a cursed stamp, to the more indefinable brew of languid, jazzy raunch-rock conjured to convey the enigmatic villain of “Had To Be Bad”. Elsewhere, there’s an aptly Kevin Ayers-y air to the Provençal tableau “Cote D’Azur”, while “God Detector” adopts a suitably Dylanesque tone for the tale of a man with a machine he claims can trace divinity – for which, of course, he searches in vain amongst humanity. If there is a unifying theme to the album, it’s probably to be found in the reflections upon dissipation and the futility of ambition in songs such as “Simon At The Stone” and “Winner Came There None” – songs which don’t so much disparage notions of being and doing, as prompt enquiry about the limitless ranges of experience, and their comparative values." [The Independent] 2017 €13.00
BOKANOWSKI, MICHELE Three rooms of unrest (trois chambres d'inquietude) maxi-CD Ein dreiteiliges Stück von 1976 von der französischen Komponistin (bekannt wohl den meisten von der metamkine mCD), welches auf vielen fieldrecordings basiert (Glocken- undKinderstimmensounds, Schaben, Klackern und Rausch-Drones) ... “Concrete music recorded, edited and mixed in the composer's studio (Paris). Final mix: GMEB Studios (Bourges). First performance: June 5th, 1976, Bourges, Palais Jacques Coeur, 6th International Festival of Experimental Music. Title taken from the Danish engraver Lars Bo (1924-1999). Michèle Bokanowski studied harmony, fugue, counterpoint and analysis with Michel Puig from 1965 to 1969. In September 1970, she began a two-year internship at the Research Department of the French National Office of Broadcasting (ORTF) under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer. At the same time she participated in a sound synthesis research group, studied computer music at the University of Vincennes and electronic music with Eliane Radigue. Between 1972 and 1984 she composed essentially music to be performed in concert - POUR UN PIANISTE (For a Pianist), TROIS CHAMBRES D'INQUIETUDE (Three Rooms of Unrest), TABOU (Taboo) - and for film - score for Patrick Bokanowski's short films as well as his feature-length film L'ANGE (The Angel). Since 1985, she has also composed for television, for theater - with director Catherine Dasté - and for dance - with choreographers Hideyuki Yano, Marceline Lartigue and Bernardo Montet. Michèle has released two previous compact discs on Metamkine and Empreintes Digitales. Compact disc issued in an edition of 1000 copies. Packaged in beautiful full-color (inner and outer) jackets -- featuring photography from the composer's husband, filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski.” [label description] www.elevatorbath.com 2001 €9.00
  La Plague LP (one-sided) "Invisibilia - the new Canti Magnetici serie curated by Andrea Penso - is proud to introduce for the first time on vinyl a composition of Michèle Bokanowski, one of the most poetic composers in the avantgarde european music scene. Remained unpublished until today, this composition is made as soundtrack for the short film "La Plage" (1992) created by the experimental filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski (husband of Michèle Bokanowski). "La Plage" is probably the less "concrete" composition made by Michèle Bokanowski. It is pure liquid abstraction in sounds. It is one of those rare compositions really out of time and space. As expressed by Pip Chodorov, editor of 4 DVDs that contain all the films directed by Patrick Bokanowski, we can feel the works created by Michèle Bokanowski and Patrick Bokanowski are a sort of "spiritual search for the overrunning of perception, and thereby oneself. Searches into abstraction in the real, mysterious blanks that recover the daily". *** Born into a musical environment, Michèle Bokanowski studied Russian before turning to composition after reading Pierre Schaeffer’s "À la recherche d’une musique concrète". Training in classical composition with Michel Puig, she followed a course at the Research Department of the ORTF directed by Pierre Schaeffer and was part of a group researching sound synthesis. She composed mainly for concert and cinema (music of Patrick Bokanowski ’s short films and his two features "L’Ange" and "Un rêve solaire"), and also created music for theatre and dance performances. As a composer of electroacoustic music she skilfully employs techniques of looping, reinjection and montage scripting. Her concrete, evocative and poetic sounds find resonance within an ambiance of mystery in which expressivity is always dominant. Single sided vinyl, limited edition of 300 copies. Unconventional 4 different cover artwork (75 copies each) on elegant embossed cardboard (2 colours version : Lavanda and Tabacco), one credit sheet inside. All on high quality recycled paper. 2019 €16.00
BOLANOS, CESAR Peruvian Electroacoustic and Experimental Music (1964-1970) do-CD "César Bolaños is one of the leading artists of the Latin American avant-garde of the mid 20th century. Born in Lima, Peru in 1931, he was part of an astonishing generation of Peruvian composers: Edgar Valcárcel, Olga Pozzi-Escot, Alejandro Núñez Allauca, Leopoldo La Rosa, Enrique Pinilla and Celso Garrido-Lecca, among others. After studying piano at the National Conservatory in Lima, and following classes with the Belgian composer Andrés Sas (who after leaving Europe settles in Peru), he would join the group 'Renovación' (together with Valcárcel, Pozzi-Escot, Pulgar Vidal and Sas); with them Bolaños began a series of presentations and edited a music magazine. He had already composed brief pieces for piano and music for a chamber orchestra. At that time Bolaños is interested in the work of Stravinsky, Bartók and Schoenberg. But he's still far from the sound radicalism that he would reach in the future. In 1957 he traveled to New York City to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music and electronics at RCA. He met the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, who offered him a scholarship to study at the Latin-American Center of High Musical Studies (CLAEM) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On his arrival in 1963, Bolaños became involved in the design and development of the electronic music laboratory of the CLAEM. There he composed his first electronic piece and the first work generated in the above laboratory: 'Intensity and Height' (1964), inspired by a poem of César Vallejo. Bolaños also composed 'Interpolations' (1966) for electric guitar and magnetic tape, 'Spaces I' (1966), 'II' (1967), 'III' (1968) for magnetic tape, the experimental audio-visual cantata 'Alpha-Omega' (1967), instrumental and mixed pieces like 'Flexum' (1969), 'I-10-AIFG/Rbt-1' (1968), and, with a commission from Radio Bremen (Germany), 'Nacahuasu' (1970), inspired by the Che Guevara diaries. Bolaños also experimented with computers, and composed two pieces with the mathematician Mauricio Milchberg. 'Sialoecibi' (1970): ESEPCO I (computer sound-expressive structure)* for piano and a recitator-mime-actor (a work that satirizes the organization language initials from the 1950's) and 'Song without words', ESEPCO II (1970) 'Homage to the unpronounced words' for piano (2 performers) and tape. For the composition of these pieces Bolaños and Milchberg introduce into the computer parameters to have the machine generate a composition from the information obtained by the composer's production. These recordings bring together for the first time a definitive edition of his work on CD." [label info] www.pogus.com "Electronic music from Peru? Pogus boss Al Margolis goes with his search for some of the exotic, unknown composers from the most obscure parts of the world. Carlos Bolanos was born in Lima, Peru in 1931, who also composed for piano and chamber orchestra. In 1963, while in Buenos Aires he was introduced to electronic music, which he continued to compose until 1970. After 1973 he was back in Peru, but without any further means to continue this line of work and devoted the rest of his time investigating pre-Hispanic instruments. Now for the first time his electronics appear on compact disc. Only the first piece, 'Intensidad Y Altura' is pure electronical piece; all the others combine electronics with other, 'real' instruments. About one hundred minutes here of what is best called 'difficult' music - the germanic ernste music. I must have written this before, but I am not the most right person to do this music any justice. This is a highly serious mixture of avant-garde classical music in combination with electronic sounds. My favorite is 'Cancion Sin Palabras, ESEPCO II' for two piano's and tape, which is intense at times, soft at times and has a great touch to it, including some scarping and bending sounds. The other pieces were not bad either, but not all the time worked for these classically untrained ears. Definitely an interesting release, but perhaps I wished for some more electronics." [FdW, Vital Weekly] 2010 €18.00
BORISOV, ALEXEI A Polished Surface of a Table CD Eine der experimentelleren neuen Veröffentlichungen auf dem Moskauer Label von A. ARTEMIEV kommt von ALEXEI BORISOW. Zu hören gibt es von ihm sehr komplexe Collagen und unendlich scheinende Überlagerungen aus „everyday sounds“ und atonal-dronigen elektronischen Klängen, Geräuschkaskaden, mutiert-technoides und vieles mehr.... “ A full-length album by Alexei Borisov is a nice thing to hear, if you need a redefinition of the experimental music. Alexei is certainly one of the Russian artists that's gaining a bigger worldwide recognition lately, he played live at this year's Club Transmediale in Berlin few weeks ago. Before this album and besides the tracks from various compilations (released by N&B Research Digest), I've heard Alexei's live album Before The Evroremont released by N&B Research Digest / Avanto Festival, and I liked it. I wonder what it means when a track by Alexei Borisov is titled Blue Vinyl? Does it mean he took a blue vinyl and conducted a musical massacre on it? Could be. Alexei likes to use voices in his post-electronic, post-techno, post-experimental, post-post music, one of the best post-musics I've heard. This is done truly amazing in the sixth track Dew, a complete musical slaughter, 4 minutes of the most amusing (and most gentle) sound-killing I've heard recently as a counter-point of the first 15 seconds at the beginning of the track with the appealing vocal of Angela Manukjan. Kill sound before sound kills you? Kid606, take notes. The techno moment is in Zaraza (Volume I), a track that could have been done maybe by Motor, and noone else. Could be because of the national connection. The softly distorted beats make me want to hear Volume II, if there is. The voices are sometimes used to create only noises with them, like in My Voices. Alexei Borisov's music is maybe not the kind of music you'll listen all day every day, but it's sure great to know it exists out there, somewhere, in the outer limit. Great work! Address: http://www.electroshock.ru [BR, Vital Weekly] 2004 €12.00
BROTHER AH Divine Music 3 x CD Divine Music, a collection of three unreleased albums from this jazz visionary: The Sea (1978), Mediation (1981), and Searching (1985). Moving from rich spiritual jazz to more meditative ambience, Divine Music explores Brother Ah's unique sound and musical vision and includes an extensive interview with Brother Ah by Pitchfork and Resident Advisor contributor Andy Beta. Recommended for fans of Laraaji, Alice Coltrane, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, Popul Vuh, and the recent new age renaissance. The renowned French horn player known as Brother Ah (aka Robert Northern) is one of the most prolific and respected musicians in the history of jazz music, with a recorded output spanning more than 40 years. 2017 €35.00
BRYARS, GAVIN / PHILIP JECK / ALTER EGO The Sinking of the Titanic (1969- ) CD "...GAVIN BRYARS taucht mit der Neueinspielung seines Klassikers The Sinking Of The Titanic (Tone 34) auf der Biennale in Venedig 2005 noch einmal ein in das Wasser ohne Balken und die Luft ohne Drähte. Überlebende, 711 von 2201, gab es nur Dank Marconis drahtloser Telegraphie, wobei die 1. Klasse dreifach bessere Überlebenstüchtigkeit bewies als die 3. und die Mannschaft. Bryars selbst am Kontrabass und das italienische Ensemble Alter Ego spielen ebenfalls etwas, das ‚Autumn‘ heißt, jene episkopale Hymne, deren dritte Strophe die passende Zeile Hold me up in mighty waters; Keep my eyes on things above enthält. Philip Jeck dreht mit seinem Vinylgeknister die Zeit bis nach 1912 zurück. Dazu hört man - Legenden gibt es immer in mehreren Versionen - den Bericht einer Zeugin, die Nearer, My God, to Thee gehört haben will. Der Unterwassersound der immer und immer wieder intonierten, aber verlangsamt und wie schon nicht mehr von dieser Welt in einer Luftblase gespielten Hymne mischt sich mit herbstlichen Assoziationen wie Grillengezirp, aber auch der raunenden Menge bei einem Sportereignis. Jeck‘scher Sarkasmus? Die Regenmacher als perkussives Element wirken ähnlich makaber. Wäre das Pathos ohne solche V-Effekte zu stark? Oder soll es diesmal gegen Kitschverdacht hartgekocht werden, nachdem die ‘94er Version (Point Music) noch einen Kinderchor und dunkle Bläser mit versenkt und auf dem Gebein am Meeresgrund Morsezeichen getokt hatte? Wenn die White-Star-Musiker, von denen keiner überlebte, aber tatsächlich als Letztes Walzer gespielt haben? Und wenn Marconi recht hätte, dass Klänge unsterblich sind? Dann wellt sich um den Erdball, selbst wenn auch die Erinnerungen längst verdämmert, zu Bernsteintränen geronnen und zu Hollywoodmelodramen verklärt sind, eine oxymorone Kakophonie aus Entsetzensgebrüll im Walzertakt." [Bad Alchemy] "Performed by Gavin Bryars (double bass), Philip Jeck (turntables) and Alter Ego (strings, brass, wind, percussion, keyboard, tape recorder and sound design). This version of UK composer Gavin Bryars' seminal piece, The Sinking of the Titanic, was recorded at the 49th International Festival of Contemporary Music at The Venice Biennale, October 1, 2005 at the Teatro Maliban. The Sinking of the Titanic is an open semi-aleatoric work written in 1969 and Bryars has developed versions of variable length (from 15 minutes to an hour) that have been performed in different contexts, both as sound installation and as a real concert work. The piece has its origins in an obsession (one in which Bryars meditates on the famous ship's sinking), whose evidence is in a minute handwritten notebook. This brings together information, curiosities, evidence, statistical data on the survivors, technical research on the ship, on the places occupied by the passengers, on projects for the wreck's recovery. This sinking is then a metaphor for the failure of modern technology, of the paradox of modernity, the fact that a super-technological ship could have been rammed and sunk by a block of ice. The version proposed by Alter Ego (a contemporary music group based in Rome, Italy) and Gavin Bryars is an absolutely new approach for the project and for multimedia installation. The other important new figure in this version is Philip Jeck, one of the most important names on the experimental scene. Jeck uses his experience to cover the sound with a blanket of thin dust, which, at the same time, is memory, distance, hallucination, traveling and anxiety. The dust which comes from the obsessive repetition of a short phrase and its melancholy is part of a harmony that Jeck shares with Bryars that succeeds in freezing time in another dimension. This is another important aspect of the Titanic idea: one related to memory and to lifetime, to concreteness and abstraction meant as a metaphor for the journey between life and death, the ocean's surface and depth. Gavin Bryars (double bass); Philip Jeck (turntables); Alter Ego (strings, brass, wind, percussion, keyboard, tape recorder and sound design). Limited edition of 2000 CD in a special wallet + postcard [postcard image by media artist Andrew Hooker]. Artwork by Jon Wozencroft." [press release] www.touchmusic.org.uk 2008 €14.00
BURNING STAR CORE Blood Lightning 2007 CD "Creeping drones, strange mutilated vocal incursions, and compositions full of unidentifiable sounds both acoustic and electronic. Another classic in sound exploration from the mind of Mr. C. Spencer Yeh. This is the sound of humanity looking into the depth of their soul searching for a reason to continue fighting the daily maze of homo sapien life. The three sisters on the front cover of this album all have the "mark of the devil. Like all No Fun Productions cd's comes in the deluxe classic mini-gatefold style no fun CD case." [label notes] www.nofunfest.com/nofunprod.html 2007 €13.00
BURT, WARREN The Animation of Lists and the Archytan Transpositions do-CD Kompositionen für mikrotonale Stimmgabeln: einzelne glockenklare absolut „reine“ Töne, eine meditative & äussert minimale Atmosphäre ausstrahlend, erinnert an Arbeiten von CHRISTINA KUBISCH. To discover. “There are any number of ways to hear Warren Burt's music for tuning forks; as many ways as there are listeners, probably. The most immediate one is simply to revel in its beauty and enjoy the music as sound. Or, to be more accurate, as clouds of sound; sonic colors that momentarily hover here and there, as they move slowly across the musical horizon. Of course, Warren Burt's music may also be heard as the mature work of a major experimental composer, one secure in his craft, and still filled with a sense of sonic adventure. An explorer in sound. A composer willing to experiment with multiple versions of the same piece, not to mention one who allows chance to determine the precise placement of the composite pitches of his three individually composed lines. For the more technically minded, these songs, for ultimately that's what they become on repeated hearing, can also be recognized as microtonal music. This is music that uses pitches smaller than a half-step; music that explores the sounds between the keys of the piano‹in this case, from 19 to 53 pitches to the octave, instead of the usual twelve. And even though most people rarely think of tuning in general, much less of microtonal tunings, it is an idea that has always been around. In the twentieth century this search for alternative tunings can be traced from Harry Partch and Lou Harrison in the first half of the century, through La Monte Young and Ben Johnston in the latter half, to Glenn Branca, Kyle Gann, and Michael Harrison today. The power of music, according to all of these composers, is, first and foremost, inherent in the tuning. So it should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Warren Burt's music to learn that he, too, is a card-carrying member of this group. Warren is, after all, a composer who not only innately hears, but also cares greatly, about such minute differences in pitch. In his music, these differences matter on a fundamental level. But what are these sonic differences? And what is a listener supposed to hear? Ben Johnston once described the shift in experience from listening to music played in equal temperament to hearing a microtonal performance as the sudden fine-tuning of an out-of-focus TV. Ben also once said that equal temperament could sound like varying shades of grey. Others, in less subtle terms, have described hearing microtonal music as the difference between seeing a Technicolor movie, and watching one in black-and-white. For the average listener‹once they realize that the enjoyment of microtonal music is about the tinting and the shading of the sound, and doesn't require superhuman hearing‹what they begin to notice first are the new colors and the spaciousness of the sound. But what do I hear in Warren's music that attracts me so? I listen to the combinations of tones, each aggregate of which‹because the tuning is acoustically pure and non-tempered‹sounds clearer and more colorful, with unique personalities, and, sometimes, more of an edge. In this tuning, the chance-determined pairings of the composed lines always ring true, with even the dissonances vibrating cleanly, free of acoustic distraction, and with no sonic clutter to muddy up the sound. And within this microtonal world, sounds combine without losing their individuality, as the music slowly reveals its pitch and rhythm in slow, unhurried, chance-determined clouds of sound. In Warren Burt's hands, these tuning forks become some strange new instrument, complete with its own exotic tuning system, singing its songs somewhere on the verge of memory.” [label description] 2006 €15.00
BVDUB Ten Times the World lied CD Brock Van Wey, aka bvdub, is undoubtedly among the greatest and most prolific artists in the world, whose music directly affects the heart, soul, and human mind. His soundscapes spread in the air as if they were delicate and slow movements of the northern lights, or the wind that blows on the flowers of the trees in spring. There is something divine in bvdub's music, and Glacial Movements is more than honored to welcome another great work for the world, Ten Times the World Lied, his fifth album on the Roman label, as he nears forty overall. Ten songs impossible to describe in words, but which will breach the heart of all those who lose themselves in this sonic wonder. Completely devoid of vocals for the first time ever, Brock spins but layers upon layers of divine clouds, gradually darkening, gradually closing in - expertly mastered by the artist himself, culminating in arguably the best album he has composed for Glacial Movements to date. This album was recorded live in one take, over ten months, on the tenth of each month. Each in memory of a time the world lied. https://glacialmovements.bandcamp.com/album/ten-times-the-world-lied "With nearly 40 albums to his credit, it’s a surprise to hear that this is bvdub‘s first album without vocals. After all, we’re an instrumental-based site and we’ve reviewed a lot of them. But to be fair, Brock van Wey usually uses vocals in a textural fashion, using time-stretch and loop; although vocal, his albums haven’t seemed vocal; they have seemed like dreams. That part doesn’t change in Ten Times the World Lied, a generous 78:45 excursion into blissful ambient drone. Tones rise and fall, undulate and flatten. Orchestral instruments rise from the depths and float for a while, searching for land before they descend once more. Fans should be overjoyed at the seamless tone, as each track gently fades before another gently rises. Although the lack of vocals pushes it from the foreground, the album is ideal as the backdrop to nearly any task: reading, writing, cooking. It casts a pleasant cloud around the house, a welcome fog of sound, a white noise spirit to overwhelm any tiny real-life disturbance. And yet, real life is present for those who wish to look deeper. van Wey has always resisted any single interpretation of his music, but neither has he squashed attempts to paint over the tabula rasa. And so one might make something of the fact that most tracks are 7:52 in length (a few being 7:53), making the connection to Ukraine Flight 752, shot down over Iran earlier this year; or the leap year 752, marked by conquerings and successions. Since the only description is that each track is “in memory of a time the world lied,” one might jump to all manner of conclusions. “Not Yours to Say” might refer to the cover-up of the Iranian government; “Not Yours to Build” to the Tower of Babel; “Not Yours to Take” to the slavery trade; “Not Yours to Find” to early “discoverers” of settled land; “Not Yours to Rule” to the bloody aftermath. The most intriguing title, “Not Yours to Know,” strikes to the heart of the human condition as it pertains to faith: for now we see through a glass, darkly. It’s fun to play match-up. And we know that the world lies in all manner of ways, from the political to the commercial (for example, promises that a product will bring success, a procedure will make one beautiful, and the next movie to open will be fantastic). From the titles and theme, one might expect an angry or accusatory album, but instead, as with most of van Wey’s oeuvre, the tone is one of higher surrender. There are truths we may never know, but there is also comfort, majesty, awe. As the organ tones surge in “Not Yours to Know,” one may think of grand cathedrals, of encountering the divine not through word, but through beauty and symbol. Ten tracks, each recorded in one take on the tenth of the month: in numerology, ten defined as “constant change and flowing energy,” an apt description of van Wey’s work; but also the 10 plagues, the 10 Commandments, the perfect 10, the 10,000 x 10,000. While listening, one might delve into numerology, symbolism and history; or simply allow the sounds of this album to conquer the anxieties of the day. The piano of “Not Yours to See” is like the voice of a soothing parent, encouraging one to sleep. The overall message (if there is one) seems to be one of comfort: The world has lied and continues to lie; but real truth is eternal." [Richard Allen / A Closer Listen] 2020 €15.50
B°TONG (B*TONG / B-TONG/ BTONG) Ov ELF and HAARP CD-R & object "ACL 1003: Limited edition of 50 in hand-painted unique packaging AC 1003: Unlimited edition in plastic sleeve A concept album by Swiss dark ambient/drone industrial legend B°tong which uses the conspiracy theory on the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research project (HAARP) as its basis while simultaneously infusing it with subtle and highly sophisticated artistic irony. Deep electronic drones invoking the echo of enormous rooms and sound collages oscillating between the crackle of polar snow and echo location devices pinging through secret command bases combine to form a soundtrack of subliminally brooding horror while sometimes allowing for surprising lighter moments. These lighter moments include the almost meditative, tonal marimba sound in “Pagan Field Trip” (track 6), which is however replaced by “Stars Right Be Wrong” (track 7) taking the listener straight back into the dark with reverberating whispers and bat-like delay screeches. This album is “cinema for the ears” without the cliché, because reading the liner notes about HAARP, an attempt by the US Navy to turn the aurora borealis in a giant antenna for broadcasting in the ELF (Extremely Low Frequencies), conjures up images from a conspiracy/horror thriller on the subject, which makes it possible to listen to this album as a sort of radio drama (almost) without words. After the respective oeuvres of film composers Graeme Revell (formerly of SPK) and Brian Williams (Lustmord), this album is further testimony to the common ground between good industrial and atmospheric soundtracks." [label info] www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit "The Attenuation Circuit label started out with the release of music by Emerge, and now expands to other artists, and the first one is B*tong, the Swiss artist who has already produced a fine body of atmospheric and ambient music. This new one is more or less a concept album about the conspiracy theory 'on the High Frequency Active Auroral Research project', which, according to Wiki, is 'its purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance purposes', set up by the US government, so you know for a fact there is a hidden agenda (not me). This sort of conspiracy theory/lunacy about such matters fits the music really of B*Tong, who is known to use radio signals, sound effects and electronics to create chilly, eerie, atmospheric music. Sometimes there are voice bits, whispering, not singing, adding a radioplay like texture to the music, which is otherwise quite inspired by the work of Lustmord: lots of reverb, but used in an effective way and not over the top. Excellent work." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2011 €11.00
  Prostration before Infinity LP "LP + download, splattered vinyl in a reverse printed 300gr cardboard sleeve. Limited edition of 300 copies. BºTong is the experimental drone project of Chris Sigdell. His work takes the listener from ambient isolationism and experimental microsounds to a noisy orgy of sounds. He takes samples from television, radio and film, which are then processed with recordings of his voice and others. In a live-situation Chris Sigdell relies on instruments like microphone, metal-sheet, electric toys and kitchen utensils. The sounds made with them are fed and put through various effect-pedals giving him that trademark sound. 'Prostration Before Infinity' was inspired by the vast and still quite unknown space that surrounds us. It tries to capture the unfathomable concept of infinity and the meaninglessness of our endeavours within this finite yet endless universe. It plays with our quest for answers, our search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Maybe what they can hear is only gibberish, the distorted waves of our radio and televison broadcasts. Using digital sounds, samples and recordings from outer space and field recordings, BºTong aims to stimulate the listeners fantasy and help tenter a state of mind where the listener can see. 'Prostration Before Infinity' is a soundtrack for the inner cinema, a journey to the inner eye." [label info] www.silkentofu.org 2014 €17.50
CAPRICORNI PNEUMATICI same LP "Capricorni Pneumatici began in 1986 as a research project about the esoteric/ritual implications of music and sounds, a full acoustic/concrete music set with voice and other means of producing and manipulating sounds: PVC tubes, air compressors, hammers, buckets, water, steel and aluminum tanks and plates, various metal and plastic objects. CP I was recorded live the 15th of June 1986 at The Cave, a subterranean private location. No electronics of any kind was used during the sessions, no additional mastering or remastering was performed after the recordings. Unpublished parts of the same session have been released on the second CP work, Al-Azif (1987). CP I was first published in 1987 by the tape label 666 prod in a limited edition of 100 unnumbered copies, the first 10 in a special box edition. CP I is inspired by the ancient primordial Chaos Cults and dedicated to Azathoth, the blind, mindless, idiot god which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity. Tracklist: Snortz Cavita Monte meru PVC I Besz PVC III" www.tesco-germany.com 2016 €23.00
CARGHINI, SEBASTIANO Tpeso LP (single-sided) Sebastiano Carghini is a musician whose research is mainly focused on the use of modular synth and the recording of physical objects. After his recent releases for Second Sleep, New York Haunted and Hideous Replica, he's now for the first time on wax with this miscellaneous composition out of several recordings dating from 2014 through 2015. The result is a powerful and complex, unconventional collage, just as if a bunch of tracks were squeezed on it. Found objects, DC motor, transducer, balloon, metal wire, fan, cymbals sounds fade rapidly in and out, adding a sense of velocity and movement. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, tpeso comes in 200 single-sided copies on black vinyl, featuring design and layout by Sean De Coux. Black vinyl s/sided 12", featuring design and layout by Sean De Coux. Edition of 200 copies https://kohlhaas.bandcamp.com/album/tpeso 2017 €13.00
CAUX, JACQUELINE Anna Halprin 2 x DVD These two engaging films—Out of Boundaries and Who Says I Have to Dance in a Theater—provide insights into Anna Halprin’s creative philosophy, teaching methods, and performances, serving as an informative follow-up to Ruedi Gerber’s Breath Made Visible. In lively conversations Anna articulates her ideas, describing the trajectory of her work, distinguishing her method from traditional choreography, clarifying her pioneering concept of task-oriented movement, and much more. In addition, there is footage from important past performances and revealing excerpts from the rehearsals for the 2004 performances at the Festival d’Automne in Paris. Trailer 1: http://www.jacquelinecaux.com/jacqueline/en/documentaire-out-of-boundaries.php Trailer 2: http://www.jacquelinecaux.com/jacqueline/en/documentaire-anna-halprin.php These two films captures, from videotaped conversations and numerous excerpts of rehearsals, performances and rare archival footage, of fundamental changes made by Anna Halprin in the field of dance. As soundtrack its have musics by Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley who both have, at various times, worked with her. It was born in California, in the mid-fifties, long before swarm in New York, this form of artistic expression so peculiar that we later gave the name of 'Post Modern Dance'. All those who participated in the outbreak of this phenomenon know Anna Halprin is an important pioneer. Born in 1920, she has literally exploded all agreements remained in contemporary dance by supporting research on the everyday actions, and taking into account the anatomy of men as well as his unconscious desires and his sexual impulses. She introduces in 1957 the concept of 'task' (to perform actions such as dressing, undressing, walking...). Floor of sneakers or shoes with high heels, she improvises in parking lots, construction sites, in the street On the set dancing outdoors that her architect husband Lawrence Halprin has built below their house near San Francisco, she drives in her crazy adventures - to the extreme by galvanizing their own creativity - young artists from different fields still completely unknown. Dancers such as Simone Forti, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Meredith Monk, as well as Robert Morris (before he choose the sculpture), which then introduce in New York on radical innovations of Anna Halprin, forming the core of 'Judson Dance Theater', composers like La Monte Young and Terry Riley, she called in 1959 co-musical directors, and experimenting with her music minimalist and repetitive they are inventing. Other artists such as Charles Ross, a poet like James Broughton, filmmaker Stan Brakhage... An important step while leading it to take into account more than ever the real in work, will Anna Halprin media spotlight away from the city of New York with all the artistic means at its disposal, it will be his fight against the cancer she suffered in 1972 with a recurrence in 1975. Cured, that's when she began working with cancer patients, and later of AIDS. 'I'm not a therapist', she is to clarify, 'I am an artist who seeks to develop imaginative and personal social issues. For me, art is this: bring in a creative process things imposed on us'. Environment California has strengthened the inspiration of Anna Halprin and has enabled her to celebrate away from demonstrative virtuosity, beauty of the natural movement of the human body. This, combined with its long association with disease and death, leading to her most recent improvisations in nature such as 'Returning Home' and 'Season' or 'Rocking Seniors' with more than fifty old persons'. Jacqueline Caux www.jacquelinecaux.com 2014 €35.00
CHALK, ANDREW Paradise Lost LP "Newly reissued on vinyl (and digitally) with beautiful new artwork, Paradise Lost was originally released as a cassette back in 2019. As is the norm for many Andrew Chalk releases, additional details beyond the fact that it exists are quite thin, but this one takes that to an amusing extreme, as the Discogs entry for the original cassette notes "label and artist name are not listed on the release." That said, I believe I can say with moderate certainty that these two longform pieces were recorded on an 8-track reel-to-reel between 2016 and 2018 and that Chalk primarily played a synthesizer. Also, his Ghosts on Water bandmate Naoko Suzuki contributed some very well-hidden vocals and created the artwork for the original tape. To some degree, it makes sense that this album originally surfaced as a very limited-small run tape, as it does not feel like one of Chalk's more significant opuses, but it is quite an enjoyable and interesting release nonetheless. In fact, the title piece feels like legitimately prime Andrew Chalk material to me, though I suspect many longtime fans will be more fascinated by the surprising and divergent "This Pendent World." Faraway Press One interesting bit of information that I stumbled upon while researching this album was a blurb from Daisuke Suzuki's Siren Records noting that this album "strongly recalls the atmosphere of home recording in the '80s." I got exactly the same impression myself from the opening "This Pendent World," as I had scribbled down that it felt like a duel between two very different artists from the golden age of private press New Age: one kosmische-inspired synth wizard hellbent on taking me to space and another guy who just wants to lull me into a blissful, bucolic reverie with some pretty string swells. There are also some traces of a third guy who closely resembles contemporary Andrew Chalk, as there is a loose melodic theme of wobbly, liquid tones likely originating from an electric piano. While that is certainly an odd collision to encounter on a Milton-themed Andrew Chalk record, it works surprisingly well, amiably and amorphously drifting and curling like a trail of smoke. The following "Paradise Lost" is similarly form-averse, but in a much more compelling way, as its frayed and smeared swells of warm synth tones feel teasingly just out of focus. Additionally lurking within the artfully blurred dream-fog are a slow-motion tumble of acoustic guitar fragments, ghostly traces of Naoko's lovely singing, and probably some pedal steel too. I am tempted to make a wince-inducing pun on the album title here, but "Paradise Lost" is simply too beautiful of a piece to deserve such an indignity, vividly evoking the slowly streaking and shifting colors of an especially gorgeous sunset." [Brainwashed] https://andrewchalk.bandcamp.com/album/paradise-lost 2021 €19.50
CHASSE, LOREN Characters at the Water Margin CD "These recordings were made at the edge of Washington state’s Olympic Rainforest, where the Hoh River meets the Pacific Ocean. The point of entry to this landscape, named Oil City on the map, is no more than a place where the road widens before coming to an end at a trailhead. Just north of the road, through the trees, and on the homestead of the late Captain Hank who one day disappeared at sea, is the ghost of an oil rig and some comings and goings along a plank road. Early 20th century settlers had been ambitious to start an oil industry here but it never took off. Chalá-at–or Hoh–legend describes a race of upside down people who once lived on this shore and went about their domestic lives rather inefficiently until a transformer-god, K’wati, set them upright. Can it be inferred, then, that the Chalá-at also listened at ground level? Massive cedar, Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir logs pile up here on a dense litter of granitic pebbles and driftwood, all worn smooth by the sea. The surf resonates in countless hollows across this implied architecture. Elevated walkways bridge the sea wrack and lead to secluded rooms with makeshift furniture and fire rings on floors of stone and sand. A dense rainforest rises steeply behind this beach. Human passage between Oil City and the mouth of the river, and at the jut of rock on the way to Jefferson Cove, is strictly regulated by a fearsome tide. The animals of this seashore, though rarely seen, have upon each and every surface left a shadow scattered." [Loren Chasse, January 2014] "Now here's a name I haven't heard in quite a while, Loren Chasse. His last work before this one 'The Footpath' on Naturestrip, which didn't make it to these pages, I think. That was in 2008. What Chasse was up to in the meantime I don't know. Maybe other, non-musical activities required his attention. Here he has a work of nine pieces of sounds he recorded at the 'edge of Washington state's Olympic Rainforest where the Hoh River meets the Pacific Ocean'. This point is called oil City, but the oil industry never took off. I must admit I have no idea what I am hearing here. Yes, there might be the sound of water, maybe birds, but what else? That is hard to say. It sounds like Chasse has been rumbling through the woods, shuffling logs, pushing stones and such like. Likewise I have no idea to what extent there is something done after these sounds are recorded. Is there anything done post-recording? Some kind of sound processing? Digital and/or analogue? Hard to say. Very few moments I thought it was, and then perhaps not at all. Nowhere, never. All of these things I was thinking about while playing this release. Lots of questions, but altogether it make up for some truly fascinating music. It's partly like an audio diary, of someone exploring an area full of lumber, small creeks, birds and searching for a hide out, to spend the night. Setting up camp, listening to wildlife somewhere, nocturnal humming and crafting a boat. I might be all wrong actually. It makes up quite a fascinating release altogether. Quite intense, quite unsettling even, but also quite beautiful. Great stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2014 €14.00
CINDYTALK The Crackle of my Soul CD "Written and recorded by gordon sharp at belmont shore (ca), mid-levels (hk) & kobe (japan) 2001-2009. mastered at piethopraxis, july 2009. dedicated to matt kinnison (1965-2008). Cindytalk have been active since 1982, which we won’t go into here (a quick Google search will satisfy that need). During the 80s and 90s their sound was defined by broken down rock structures and abstract piano ambience. A third side to their coin emerged at the dawn of the 21st Century with a turn towards obscure computer usage pushing all resemblance of melody and conventual texture to the outer edges. ‘The Crackle Of My Soul’ is the first full length to come from this new direction, starting in 2001 and now finally ready for release. Its also the first Cindytalk album since the 1995 release of ‘Wappinschaw’. Although very abstract in nature these 10 tracks still echo the vocal brilliance and subtle beauty that they become known for, as well as pushing back the boundaries making this an essential listen regardless if you are aware of the back catalogue or not. This is the first in a series of already finished releases, which will see the light of day throughout 2010." [label info] www.editionsmego.com "Cindytalk on Mego? It was a shock to see that pairing. Cindytalk has been the sporadic project of Gordon Sharp with a shifting ensemble over the past two and half decades. At first, Sharp's abject post-punk took a gritty, almost industrial growling to the ethereally dark tunes of the Cocteau Twins. Sharp's voice in many ways is the masculine equivalent to Liz Fraser's, just as beautiful and haunting; and the two had paired up on a few tracks through This Mortal Coil and the Cocteau Twins. Cindytalk's two releases in the '80s - Camoflage Heart and In This World - have been secret gems to all those who had uncovered that work, with Cindytalk only emerging a few times since. There was the impressionist Ambient piano record The Wind Is Strong and 1994's underwhelming Wappinschaw. Then, a decade of silence followed by a limited edition single from 2003 and a brilliant one-sided 10" of drone-rock beauty in 2008. So, it was hard to know what to expect with a 2009 full album from Cindytalk, especially from the digi-centric label Mego. Here, Cindytalk is just the work of Gordon Sharp; and The Crackle Of My Soul certainly sounds like a Mego record on par with the likes of Pita, Kevin Drumm, and BJ Nilsen, as shards of digital noise are looped and phased into building compositions that glow with a very intense high-end piercing. Not quite Whitehouse territory, it's actually far more glacial and icy in tone. Nevertheless, Sharp's electronics have a way of drilling into your skull. Voice and piano occasionally creep into the mix, but not to the extent that you would hear on any of the earlier records, even the aforementioned album The Wind Is Strong. We have to admit that we didn't love this record as much as Camoflage Heart and In This World; but it's sort of a different beast, and there's a lot of very strong electro-acoustic renderings to be found here..." [Aquarius Rec.] 2009 €13.50
CLOAMA same CD This is dark experimental ambient with a very piercing edge, evokes a very unsettling and eldrich atmosphere....the other, dark & abysmall side of CLOAMA... “.....This recording, marking a debut for artist / group on the New Old Sentinel label and for the label itself, is five tracks of experimental ambient music limited to 500 copies. Experimental ambient. Two words guaranteed to send most people running off in sheer apoplectic fright. The fear of the unknown. Ambient in all its forms they can cope with but…‘experimental’…too weird. Too challenging. Never assume. On this recording the balance between the differing genres has been implemented in such a seamless and gratifying manner that its only when the recording has finished do you suddenly realise what a strange aural experience you have lived through. Track one ‘Radiation Amplifier’ starts with what sounds like Tibetan instruments being struck before the piece swiftly introduces musique concrete electronic effects and a sample before ending in something being strummed. Whoa!! Far fucking out maaan. Track two ‘The New Old Sentinel’ throws a whole caboodle of multi effects into the mix merging part drone / part black ambience / part electro acoustic over ghostly voices. Double whoa!! Double far fucking out maaan. I think you can gleam from this what the other tracks are going to sound like. Manipulated electronic sounds and voices resonate predominately. The music continually fluctuates. To move, evolve and grow. Putting out searching tentacles to probe and envelop. Building up pieces which are then demolished before starting anew all within the same track. This combination, which will happily throw dark and light together and damn the consequences, isn’t afraid to take risks. These are minuscule forays into every genre. Picking the finest flecks and combining them into one ethereal state. The music is abstract enough to be confounding and innovative but it never alienates the listener. Instead you feel a guiding hand leading you gently into the more surreal pieces whilst cooing soothing words of comfort are spoken into your ear as you stand hypnotised at the sonic sculptures unfolding. If this is a foray into uncharted waters, away from the normal Cloama sound, then long may it continue. To produce a piece of work that is structurally complex and yet easily accessible, without falling into the pitfalls of self absorbing wankery, is a feat many aspire to. Cloama have achieved this easily and comes highly recommended to the more adventurous spirits amongst you. “ [Auralpressure] 2005 €10.00
  Halveksin Kuolemaa CD Reissue of tape that was published by LSDO label. Recordings from 1999 and added bonus track. Curious fact about this original tape is that unknown amount of edition of 100 was dubbed with wrong tracks. Artist had submitted master tape with b-side including promotional songs of upcoming materials. Some copies of tape - like the one that circulates online as digital file, has wrong tracks on it. Nobody knows how many tapes were dubbed incorrectly. For many, this CD may be first time to hear release as it should have been! It includes cold, yet highly electric industrial soundscapes and heavy electronics, not far from Söldnergeist, Dagda Mor, and perhaps some works of Anenzephalia. Cold synth tones oscillating over subtle rhythms of crashing loops and sound samples, covered with processed voice samples and speeches. In English, "I despise death", showcases well early progressions of Cloama. This release shows moment where transformation from harsh noise unit of earliest years was moving into recordings like "Neuroscan Organization" and split CD with GRUNT. Not to forget, these recordings are made around time when another Finnish legend, STROM.ec was formed. Due partly same members and gear, some similarities of the sound can be noticed! Certainly album that fans of 90's Finnish power electronics / industrial noise should not overlook! https://www.nhfastore.net/cloama-halveksin-kuolemaa?search=cloama 2018 €12.50
COH IIRON CD "It would be too easy to simply call IIRON the COH metal album, as it goes way beyond that. True, this album of classic Ivan Pavlov stompers contains more than its fair share of guitars both acoustic and electric, yet it still maintains that sense of power and purpose through electronic music which stands out as the COH "raison d'être." Coming 11 years after IRON (Wavetrap, 2000), which also tackled the sound of rock with alarming results, the new album features not only recent guitar tracks recorded at Music Research Centre at York University, but also recordings made during Soviet-era Russia, which refer to Pavlov's underground music activities in the early '80s when making or even consuming of "metal music" was forbidden. IIRON is a powerful, well-executed electronic rock record, with just a dash a humor to keep it from becoming pompous, as so much of that kind of music can be sometimes. Packaged in a 4-panel digipack for CD, and lavish gatefold for the vinyl, with stunning artwork by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))). Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, November 29th, 2010. HAIL TO WORLD PEACE AND DEATH TO FALSE METAL. In memoriam: Satoshi Kon and Peter Christopherson." [label info] www.editionsmego.com 2011 €14.00
COLUMN ONE Cindy, Loraine & Hank do-LP "The latest album from the legendary Berlin-based art collective Column One, entitled "Cindy, Loraine & Hank", was in the works for almost 10 years and it is their first album since anniversary box set "No One" from 2011 and "Antiphona" 10" vinyl EP from 2013. Many fragments, materials & ideas created during the collaboration with the Berlin Zeitkratzer Ensemble (2012) remained unfinished or underdeveloped. After years of further recordings and reviewing the existing material and the destruction of useless bubbles arises with "Cindy, Lorraine & Hank" a bulky muscleman from the splinters of classical instrumentation, electro-acoustic manipulations & assemblages & the clarity of field recordings. A boundless world. This double album presents Column One and their experimental approach to sound at its best. "Cindy, Loraine & Hank" a collection of incestuous figures, a museum of small, lovely bastards. Products of passion & weakness, disorientation and dedication, of dull instincts and narrowness. Twins, triplets, octuplets, dyslexic, presidents, beginners, criminal citizens, sacred Neanderthals, expert idiots. Begotten in haste, hidden in the dirt, covered with garbage. A contourless, monstrous void in the cardigan of the great-grandmother. A voyage through the labyrinthine mind of Column One... a surreal, organic projection. The two LPs are housed in a luxury gatefold sleeve and the first edition is limited to 300 copies only. The cover was designed by Robert Schalinski, based on "Black Depths" print (1974) by John Hiliard. CD edition available from Zoharum Rec.: http://zoharum.com/ „Column One’s greatest achievement is then that by constantly applying all these techniques, they have succeeded in creating a real alternative, a filter onto reality itself. The mask is not pretty, hell it may be even ugly sometimes. But the identity of Column One is created through the power of their findings, and this includes a lot of questioning and doubts and sometimes stepping into a pool of shit only to discover it was gold in the end. May the search continue…“(Till Kniola) " [label info] 2015 €21.00
CONIGLIO, ENRICO Teredo Navalis CD "This work represents a further step into my on-going research on the Venetian Lagoon. I was interested to keep an ecological perspective while focussing on a precise aesthetic. In fact, I considered field-recording practice as a tool for critically investigating the territory. The album is based on sounds recorded via electromagnetic sensors, binaural microphones, hydrophones, contact and condenser microphones. It combines compositions where the sound of water, in itself, is almost left behind. All sounds where gathered during night time in the north side of the lagoon, between the islands of Murano, Burano, Sant’Erasmo and their surrounding sandbanks. Here it is possible to find, on the one hand, aquatic spawning grounds for crabbers, high-tide roosts for gulls and native terns; on the other, boats for the public transportation are moving along the main navigation channels. The result is not a sonic postcard, rather a research process documenting through sounds those marginal areas of the lagoon facing a fragile balance between natural environment and man-made actions." https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18209 2020 €13.00
CONTE, MARIO Overtunes CD-R The subtitle “Electronic Research in Natural Harmonics” sounds far more academic than the actual music. In fact, this short album does work with overtone drone layers, but it combines these harmonic fields with classic TR-808 beats. The result is experimental, yet partly danceable music, cleverly constructed yet very soulful. A masterpiece that will open up the pathway into experimental sound creation for listeners whose tastes are shaped by electronic dance music. Using various synthesizers, all meticulously specified on the sleeve, but also a wide array of sound sources such as “fake guitar” and “live vocal tape scratching over Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment cassette”, Mario Conte and his co-conspirators create multi-faceted dronescapes with a high degree of melodic potential. "Overtones" is co-released with the Berlin and Italy-based label Zoff82, which publishes the tape version of the album. File under: Drone, techno emerge.bandcamp.com/album/overtones Conte works with synthetic or otherwise scarcely identifiable emissions and a Roland TR-808 to generate a brand of unlawful techno-drone (with industrial hues in “Modern Country Side”) with several attention-getting attributes. I might be growing old and creaky-boned, but feel no shame in declaring that this short album was a considerable surprise in its utter respectability, not a given when I tackle genres where a proper instrumental training is not a requirement. Sometimes, though, all it takes is the right frame of mind and a personal predisposition to the enchantment provided by a particular constitution to relish a product; in the case of Overtones, that’s exactly what happened. Sonorities and rhythms that sound, generally speaking, very natural in their relative amorphousness; hints of subterraneous melodies; a vague similitude with chosen episodes by the late, and ever great Muslimgauze (especially in the two “Harmonic Field” slices). The electronics are fleshy yet not invasive to a fault. The profusion of amassed frequencies and misrepresented colors furnishes the record with an essential animation, in spite of the occasional appearance of spectral vocals (including unneeded spoken snippets in “Organic Wave 1 & 2”). Basically, the tissue of the propulsive structures would be thick enough alone, that’s what we mean. The press release boldly states what follows: “A masterpiece that will open up the pathway into experimental sound creation for listeners whose tastes are shaped by electronic dance music”. Hype, I concur. Still, this stuff eats Burial and the likes for breakfast. touchingextremes.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/mario-conte-overtones/ 2014 €8.00
COSEY FANNI TUTTI Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes LP Cosey Fanni Tutti has announced details of a new album, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes, her original soundtrack recordings for Caroline Catz's acclaimed film about Derbyshire. In 2018, Cosey Fanni Tutti was commissioned to write the soundtrack to director and actor Caroline Catz's acclaimed, intimate portrayal of the composer, musician, and sonic experimentalist, Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001). Best known for her groundbreaking work on the 1963 Doctor Who theme tune, Derbyshire was instrumental in giving easy access to and rewiring a nation's attitudes towards electronic music. Working within the often-stifling confines of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, her experimentalism -- which saw her manipulating magnetic tape, found sounds and electronics -- is only now being given full credit for the immeasurable impact it has had on the way we hear the world. The new album includes the audio explorations and experiments that lead Cosey Fanni Tutti to the final soundtrack for Catz's film. From the four-minute long "Cornet Lament" to the humorous "Snuff Chorus" (which references an addiction that Derbyshire had for snuff), the album is a journey through both Delia and Cosey's practise -- Fanni Tutti spent time researching Derbyshire's archives (both musical and the more personal ephemera of her life) to create an audio world for Catz's depiction of the artist to inhabit. Fanni Tutti explains, "The compositions are inspired by my research of the Delia Derbyshire audio archive, Delia's original compositional notes and techniques which in combination with my admiration and love of Delia's work provided a way to integrate her style and approach to music with my own. An alliance of our sensibilities." The new album follows the release of Cosey Fanni Tutti's new book, RE-SISTERS: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti. The music was composed, performed and produced by Cosey Fanni Tutti in Twickenham Studio 3, London and Studio 47 in Norfork, with vocals by Cosey Fanni Tutti and Caroline Catz, alongside the voice of Delia Derbyshire. Musician, artist, and author Cosey Fanni Tutti has continually challenged boundaries and conventions for four decades. As a founding member of the hugely influential avant-garde band Throbbing Gristle, as one half of electronic pioneers Chris and Cosey, and as an artist channeling her experience in pornographic modelling and striptease, her work on the margins has come to reshape the mainstream. Her first solo album, Time To Tell (1983) was followed by 2019's Tutti and her debut book, Art Sex Music, was published in 2017. 2022 €30.00
  Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes CD Cosey Fanni Tutti has announced details of a new album, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes, her original soundtrack recordings for Caroline Catz's acclaimed film about Derbyshire. In 2018, Cosey Fanni Tutti was commissioned to write the soundtrack to director and actor Caroline Catz's acclaimed, intimate portrayal of the composer, musician, and sonic experimentalist, Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001). Best known for her groundbreaking work on the 1963 Doctor Who theme tune, Derbyshire was instrumental in giving easy access to and rewiring a nation's attitudes towards electronic music. Working within the often-stifling confines of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, her experimentalism -- which saw her manipulating magnetic tape, found sounds and electronics -- is only now being given full credit for the immeasurable impact it has had on the way we hear the world. The new album includes the audio explorations and experiments that lead Cosey Fanni Tutti to the final soundtrack for Catz's film. From the four-minute long "Cornet Lament" to the humorous "Snuff Chorus" (which references an addiction that Derbyshire had for snuff), the album is a journey through both Delia and Cosey's practise -- Fanni Tutti spent time researching Derbyshire's archives (both musical and the more personal ephemera of her life) to create an audio world for Catz's depiction of the artist to inhabit. Fanni Tutti explains, "The compositions are inspired by my research of the Delia Derbyshire audio archive, Delia's original compositional notes and techniques which in combination with my admiration and love of Delia's work provided a way to integrate her style and approach to music with my own. An alliance of our sensibilities." The new album follows the release of Cosey Fanni Tutti's new book, RE-SISTERS: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti. The music was composed, performed and produced by Cosey Fanni Tutti in Twickenham Studio 3, London and Studio 47 in Norfork, with vocals by Cosey Fanni Tutti and Caroline Catz, alongside the voice of Delia Derbyshire. Musician, artist, and author Cosey Fanni Tutti has continually challenged boundaries and conventions for four decades. As a founding member of the hugely influential avant-garde band Throbbing Gristle, as one half of electronic pioneers Chris and Cosey, and as an artist channeling her experience in pornographic modelling and striptease, her work on the margins has come to reshape the mainstream. Her first solo album, Time To Tell (1983) was followed by 2019's Tutti and her debut book, Art Sex Music, was published in 2017. 2022 €15.00
COSTA, RUI & FRIENDS Sightseeing for the Blind CD "Ausgehend von der Idee, dass Touristen beim Besuch einer Stadt die Eindrücker derselben unbewusst mit ihren Wünschen, Vorstellungen und Ideen des Ortes abgleichen benutzte Rui Costa Empfehlungsrouten aus einem Lissabon-Reiseführer quasi als Instruktionen für eine Klangarbeit. Sightseeing For The Blind ist eine knapp halbstündige Soundmap der persönlichen Art geworden. Costa hat in der Folge der Fertigstellung seine Rohmaterialien seinen “friends” zur Verfügung gestellt, unter ihnen Gregory Büttner, Marc Behrens, Bill Jarboe u.a. Einige haben eher mental-psychische Kommentare abgeliefert, andere haben ihre eigenen Feldgeräusche mit dem Ursprungsmaterial vermengt und lösen so den direkten Zusammenhang zwischen Aufnehmendem und Geräuschpostkarte auf." [Zipo / Auf Abwegen] "The idea for the piece first came to me in 2005, when I was invited to develop a sound project with the city of Lisbon as its theme. I decided to wander through the city, making a series of sound recordings using a pair of binaural microphones. What I concluded from these recordings was that, more than capturing the sound of the place or its “atmosphere”, they reflected a lot about me: my decisions of where to go, what places to avoid, how fast to walk, how long to linger in one place… preconceived ideas of what I wanted to be captured on tape. Later I followed up on this idea by introducing an element of “sonic sightseeing”. I grabbed a tourist guide of Lisbon, walked along the recommended hiking routes and made recordings with binaural and shotgun microphones. I wrote down my impressions, states of mind, mental associations and decisions and then mapped the recorded sounds against these notes, considering them as “instructions” or “cues” for a sound composition. I suppose that the experience that tourists get from a city is in great measure determined by the randomness of these almost unconscious impressions, of a permanent mapping out of what they see against their desires, preconceived ideas, memories, etc. All in all, my intention was to convert this process into a method for sound composition using field recordings. (Rui Costa, 2009) Sound recordings made by Rui Costa between 2005 and 2008 in Lisbon, Portugal. Composed and mixed by Rui Costa in 2008, About the Artist: Rui Costa is a sound artist from Lisbon, Portugal. He has been publicly presenting his work since 1997. From 1999 to 2003, Rui Costa collaborated with the Spanish musician Iñaki Ríos, under the name ja_dijiste. This duo explored improvisational and compositional techniques based on Max/MSP and Lisa computer software and developed a series of site-specific works in the village of Nodar, Portugal, with subsequent presentations in sound and media arts festivals in Spain. In 2007, Rui started collaborating with the Italian vocal performer Manuela Barile, through a large scale intermedia project entitled ‘La Scatola’, which was conceived as a series of installations and performances. Rui developed processes that captured the reverberations of the voice inside the body (laryngeal microphones, amplified stethoscopes) so that the spoken word is invested with a musicality and spatial dimension that further extend the expressive capabilities of the voice. Rui has performed in many venues and sound art festivals in Portugal, Spain, Italy and the United States. He has played with such musicians as Maile Colbert, Iñaki Ríos, Manuela Barile, Pablo Rega, Nilo Gallego, Toshio Kajiwara, Casey Rice, Lê Quan Ninh, Richard Antez, John Herndon, André Gonçalves, Carlos Santos, Pali Meursault and Cédric Anglaret. Rui Costa is a founding member and artistic director of Binaural, an arts collective dedicated to the promotion of context-based sound and media arts. Binaural runs an artist residency space in Nodar, a small village in the north of Portugal. Rui Costa’s current artistic research is centered on the use of the psycho-acoustic characteristics of sound to create “sonic fictions” where the notions of space, perception and meaning are submitted to a process of recontextualization and of creation of improbable and unstable relations. He investigates the different ways of making the space audible and of studying the place of the listener within the triangle formed by him/herself, the sound and the space. By capturing the sound resonating through the materials that structure a given space, manipulating it in real-time and then projecting it into the same space, it is possible to create “sensorial extensions” that configure a sonic architecture that operates in real-time and is therefore fluid and unstable. An example of this approach is his ongoing project “The Future Memory”, with the American sound and video artist Maile Colbert, where they visually and sonically map abandoned and almost silent spaces to create poetic fictions around them." [label info] www.1000füssler.com 2009 €12.00
D'INCISE Assemblee, Relache, Rejouissance, Parade CD A collaborative release between Moving Furniture Records and INSUB.records. For Swiss customers we recommend to order from their shop insub.org "Assemblée, relâche, réjouissance, parade" or another long, unspeakable, French, title (that would somehow translate as " Assembly, pause, rejoicing, parade"). Words that conjure ideas of music used in public, and social rituals. The two distinct pieces experiment with the "bringing back" (re-injection?) of music into the experimental area. Do not see anything pretentious about it, it is rather a very personal path, in the sense, among others, to not forbid certain aspects of music to make appearances, making bridges between conceptuality, and simplicity. The first part, "L'Anglard de St-Donat", is constructed around a mazurka tune, a traditional dance from Central-France, played by Alfred Mouret, after his father François "L'Anglard". But the four short "songs" are not to be seen as a reinterpretation (they're certainly not danceable), rather as a basis for d'incise's own research. Solid drones and recurrent structures are built with recordings of bowed and struck metal objects and (sounds of various) instruments make counterpoints and quasi-melodic lines. Then in "Le désir" the strategy is mirrored, electronics (detuned organs) make the rigid, and slightly awkward, context for the bowed metal sticks, tuned in relation to the electronics, to be played semi-improvised, and take a sort of soloist position, instabilities of both the objects and the gestures suddenly become open to interpretations and expressions. This piece is one of d'incise's actual solo live performances. Composed, recorded and mixed by d'incise at Insub.studio, Geneva, 2017. L'Anglard de St-Donat, assembled from recordings of bowed metallic objects, electric organ, harmonium, banjo & double bass Le désir, bowed metallic sticks, performed live, over detuned/retuned organ backgrounds. https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/assemble-e-rela-che-re-jouissance-parade 2019 €12.00
DAUBY, YANNICK Tai-pak thia sa pian CD "Produced by Kalerne Editions and published in Taiwan by Atelier Hui-Kan. 'Three sound compositions (2008, 2009, 2011) by sound artist Yannick Dauby, based on field recordings of Taipei city and its surroundings. Inspired by the Ghost Festival and the ambiences of Summertime, by the evolution and modernity of the urban environment, by the now extinct plain aborigines who once lived in the Taipei basin, these works are reflecting three ways of listening the urban soundscape of Taiwan's capital. Produced by Kalerne Editions and published by Atelier Hui-Kan in Taiwan, December 2011. 'Nous, les défunts' Field recordings and composition : Summer 2008. Commission by SilenceRadio.org Belgium, 2008. 'Taipei 2030'. Recorded and composed between June and August 2009. Commission by The Positive Soundscape, UK, 2010. First presentation during the festival Expo Leeds, UK, September 2010, organized by Sound and Music. 'Ketagalan' Commission by Purepresence, first presentation at Parisonic Hear & Now, Paris, june 2011." [label info] www.kalerne.net "Its not easy to write something about a disc like this. Yannick Dauby lives since four years in Taipei, which he both loves and hates. Like any good composer would do is to tame the noise of the city by recording it and that's what he does here. In these years he received three commissions dealing with the environment of Taipei, from Belgium, the UK and France. These three commissions are now collected on this CD. Taipei is not a city I have been too, or in fact any far East city, except for some Japanese cities, which are perhaps more western oriented - I am merely assuming here. So without ever sensing the noisiness of Taipei, I think these three compositions give me a very accurate impression of what that city is like. Lots of traffic noise, public transport system, people talking on the market and the electricity that sometimes comes with it. Towards the end of 'Taipei 2030' there is also quietness and tranquility with just a few sparse sounds. Maybe Dauby envisages himself as the mayor of Taipei banning all noise? Maybe not. The final piece 'Ketagalan' is also not very noisy and loud but seems to be concentrating on the more ethnic sounds of the city, like a search for some original Eastern ethnicity in the country. It deals less with the modern city bursting with noise than with background of the country itself. This makes that these three pieces differ quite a lot from eachother, each bringing out a certain aspect of city sounds and make this a highly varied work. Excellent work of composed field recordings." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2011 €15.00
DAVIS, GARETH & MERZBOW Atsusaku LP Atsusaku is the collaborative output of Gareth Davis (Oiseaux Tempete, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Machinefabriek etc) and Japanese noise mastermind Masami Akita aka Merzbow. A massive wall of sound over two tracks that moves from the shifting low-end structures and the ricochet of howling reeds to the blistering haze of dense white noise and rapid-fire electronic tones. The title Atsusaku, suggests pressure or mechanical compression and it was from this starting point, the idea of Davis' reed sound being compressed and constrained by the saturation of Akita's textures, that the album was born. The acoustic sound almost suffocated beneath the sweep of sonic overload, but through limitation and pushing the mechanics of the instrument itself, finding a space to cut through with layers of self-distorted screams. Haihan, a furiously abusive maelstrom of coloured-noise, digital cross-fire and distorted bass clarinet is unrelenting as it searches for moments of pulse within the haze only to move abruptly back into the mechanical barrage of looping textures. Kyouhan is is far more open in its texture, the low-end layers of reeds moving across the sound space as the squall of chirps and mechanical screeches build slowly into a dense mass of reverberated pointillist details. movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/atsusaku 2016 €18.00
DBMG/RAF (DIE BAADER-MEINHOF GRUPPE / RED ARMY FACTION) same CD Radikaler Elektro / Noise / Rhythmic Industrial aus Kanada mit starker politischer, antikapitalistischer Ausrichtung (das RAF-Logo auf dem Cover), dabei musikalisch abwechslungsreich & überzeugend arrangiert, teils fast rockig-tanzbar, teils extrem krachig! "Die Baader-Meinhof Gruppe / Red Army Faction is Joshua David Richardson with a revolving door of collaborators, which include: Scott E. Farmer (Russian Futurists), Sam Devos (For Greater Good), and Edwin Vanvinckenroye (Tribe) amongst others. According to Richardson, DBMG/RAF is a chance for musicians and multi-media artists to explore the use of violence within their chosen medium for the expressed purpose of destroying the economic, social, and artistic structures imposed on them by Late 20th and 21st Century Capitalism. It is inspired by the actions of West-Germany’s Red Army Faction (also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group), which sought the violent overthrow of West-Germany’s post-war governments from the 1970’s until its official disbandment in 1998. Politics aside, this is one freshing new release that actually lives up to being true INDUSTRIAL music. It is noisy, chaotic, harsh, violent, full of anguish and torment while still carrying a strong beat. This is the kind of industrial that will immediate clear the dancefloor at your local goff-idustrial club, will sort out the real rivetheads from the poseurs, and have noise music enthusiasts begging for more. There’s a good amount of variety on this CD too- a post-punk “Peter Gunn” inspired rhythm track with whacked out old school analogue electronics, middle-eastern Indian ambience with the sound of war in the background (perfect for planning your next Jihad), Deutsch Nepal and Memorandum inspired beats with radio transmissions in the background, slabs of whale-toned cries from the deep, broken and distorted sonics over a militant backbeat with appropriately painful processed vocals, wacky distorted rhythmic melodies, and much more. It is experimental without being unlistenable. Alienating while still being engaging. Even when Richardson is using those overly-familiar sounds and elements, they never seem dated or clichéd. When it comes to this kind of music, this guy obviously seems to know what he’s doing and doesn’t wear his influences on his sleeve like so many others who’ve attempted it. If I had one thing to nit-pick about, it might be the use of overuse of spoken word samples, which is a pet peeve of mine in any music genre. Purists can argue as to its appropriateness, but I feel that a constant barrage of it is a bit clichéd. Thankfully, Richard tempers it with other interesting elements. This release has an awful lot going for it and has so much variety that it has a very high replayability factor, something that I haven’t heard in a good number of harsh music projects that I’ve reviewed positively. It is also not a constant torrent of torturous sounds; there are quite a few quieter moody moments. Nothing is overly-long or intolerable. If this was released on CMI, it might be the album of the year in Europe. Red Army Faction is like having the best moments of bands like Mental Destruction, In Slaughter Natives, Esplendor Geometric and Brighter Death Now rolled into one steaming package. Perhaps it’s due to the duality of the name Die Baader-Meinhof Gruppe / Red Army Faction and its association that makes this music project totally oblique in a Google search. If you want this music, you REALLY have to know where to look. You can find it on iTunes (Die Baader-Meinhof) or CD Baby (http://cdbaby.com/cd/baadermeinhof) but I’d recommend just going directly to the website since there videos, more info and purchase options there. Definitely recommended!" [Steve Mecca / CHAIN D.L.K.] www.dbmg-raf.com 2009 €13.50
DEAD PIANO (ANDREA BELLUCCI + DEISON) Dead Piano CD "The idea of "DEAD PIANO" was born from the intention of using the sound of the piano in a different context, compared to what we are used to listen. Can this instrument become a different 'sound generator'? Beyond what has been done in the past, when many composers used a 'prepared piano', where they placed microphones near the strings, or pieces of metal that generated particular sounds resonating with the strings, the most recent technology offers many tools to manipulate that same sound, so well-known and unmistakable, and transform it into something quite different. Therefore it is possible for the piano to become a generator of percussive sounds, pads and drones, creating a sound palette that is reconciled with other sound sources becoming a cohesive and intriguing whole. The piano sounds manipulated by ANDREA BELLUCCI, are perfectly integrated with the atmospheres generated by CRISTIANO DEISON's machines, creating 'sonic landscapes' which complement each other. Not only melody then, where the piano can be considered 'the instrument' par excellence, but also the search for atmospheres and environments that can involve the listener, perhaps giving unexpected emotions. DEAD PIANO is a project by ANDREA BELLUCCI and DEISON. Available here : store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa1806.htm " https://soundcloud.com/silentes-13/dead-piano-dead-piano 2018 €12.00
DEAS (CAMERON) Time Exercises LP Cam Deas is a guitar virtuoso who has switched to modular synth and computer productions resulting in these staggering studies in polymetric, mercurial and dissonant tunings - hugely recommended if you’re into the work of Autechre, Rashad Becker, Roland Kayn, Fis, Coil, Xenakis. Time Exercises is a complex study in amorphous polymetric rhythms by Cam Deas for The Death of Rave. His first album composed solely for modular synths and computer, Cam’s follow-up to the acclaimed String Studies for Luke Younger's Alter label marks a headlong tilt from acoustic to electronic spheres with a staggering effect resulting from meticulous research and process. It sounds as advanced as Xenakis or Roland Kayn superstructures, with the rhythmic displacement of FIS or Autechre, and with a grasp of slippery, mind-bending timbral dissonance comparable to Coil and Rashad Becker records. Cam’s six Time Exercises form both a bold break with - and an extension of - the avant, folk, blues and outernational traditions that he’s worked to deconstruct and fluidly syncretise over the past decade. In the past four years he’s stepped away from the guitar as a compositional tool, turning to electronic hardware in a focussed effort to consolidate myriad tunings and meters with a precision that had previously eluded him in the acoustic sphere. Severed from the tactility and sentimentality of instrumental inflection, Cam’s disembodied music plays out a thrilling dramaturgy and syntax of alien dissonance and disorienting rhythmic resolution. Harmonic shapes as densely widescreen as those in Roland Kayn’s Cybernetic Music roil in unfathomable fever dream space, where massed batteries of synthetic percussion swarm like an orchestra of Cut Hands in viscous formation, and where polychromatic mentasm figures converge like cenobites laying siege to Rashad Becker’s utopia. On Time Exercises Cam articulates a synthetic musical language that speaks to the listener in myriad, quantum tongues awaiting to be deciphered by keen ears everywhere. It’s an outstanding record for lovers of forward-looking but deeply rooted electronic music. https://boomkat.com/products/time-exercises 2018 €18.00
DEISON / MAURIZIO BIANCHI White Landscape CD Final Muzik presents the second collaboration between two well-known Italian experimental/electronic music composers, Deison and Maurizio Bianchi (M.B.). This is their second album together, after "Black Panorama" CD (still on Final Muzik, 2015). "White Landscape" has been recorded between 2015 and 2016; Deison did the final mix of the album at his 1st Floor Studio in May 2017. Photo by Sandra Tonizzo. Artwork by Deison. “After having spent an imaginary lobotomized hibernation in the darkest bush, the constant search for bright oblivion led us to luminescent scenarios, and the result was this illuminating four-handed work that fulfills our desire for clever experimentation. The attentive listeners will be truly enlightened.” (M.B.) https://deison.bandcamp.com/album/white-landscape 2020 €13.00
DEL POZO, ARTURO RUIZ Composiciones Nativas LP BUH RECORDS IS PLEASED TO PRESENT A MASTERPIECE OF PERUVIAN AVANT GARDE MUSIC "COMPOSICIONES NATIVAS" (1978) BY ARTURO RUIZ DEL POZO - LP REISSUE By the end of the 1970s, a new generation of musicians who brought together ancestral and forefront, became visible in Lima as they searched for native sounds and the new tools of technology. Amongst them, we find Arturo Ruiz Del Pozo, composer who studied with Edgar Valcárcel. After studying at the National Conservatory in Lima he traveled to London in 1976 to register himself at the Royal College of Music where he took a master's degree in electronic composition. Ruiz Del Pozo had left Lima with a bag full of Peruvian native instruments with the idea of utilizing them in his future compositions. In London he was taught by Lawrence Casserly, one the prominent figures of Britain's electro acoustic composition; a musician who was fascinated by the interaction of instruments and electronic media way back from the times of his fundamental audiovisual experimentation group Hydra. Ruiz del Pozo utilized a series of concrete music resources learnt from Casserly. Based on sounds that came from native instruments and diverse manipulations to which these sounds were subject of, he obtained textures and sonorities, which, at the same time they invoked rituals, they opened a new field of experimentation; a collage of sounds of Andean reminiscence, echoes and abstractions, which will entrance you an unprecedented sound universe. These recordings were named Native Compositions (Composiciones Nativas) and they were released in a cassette tape format in 1984 by the author himself. More than 30 years later Buh Records rescued these recordings to inaugurate its Essential Sounds Collection, dedicated to publishing strange and fascinating artifacts of Peruvian experimental music of this period, in a CD edition (2015), which was quickly sold out. Now the label presents its first release on vinyl. https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/br66-arturo-ruiz-del-pozo-composiciones-nativas-1978-sounds-essentials-collection-vol-1 2018 €21.50
DELPLANQUE, MATHIAS Drachen LP "News from Ici D'Ailleurs Mind Travels Series: Mathias Delplanque is an artist from Nantes who was born in Burkina Faso and has close links with the ambient, electronic, electro-acoustic and concrete musical spheres as well as dub and field recordings. His approach is therefore intimately intertwined with the creation of sound. Sound in the physical sense of the term, sound which goes through your body modifying your perception without ever giving into the academism which can sometimes be found in music in the field of pure musical sound research. There is no question of theorization here - rather questioning all the possibilities which enable an artistic vision to be pushed to reach its pinnacle. Mathias has been perfecting this approach to music for 15 years name under his own name or different pseudonyms (Bidlo, Lena). However, the premising underpinning the album we are discussing today is slightly different from that of his other productions. Normally Mathias takes his time to finely and obsessively sculpt his work down to the smallest detail but here Drachen (Dragons in German) reveals itself to be a much more direct and incisive album. Taking the idea that impurities can also give life to music as a starting point, he set himself a constant working rhythm and the aim of adding interference rather than the sublime going so far as to create actual interference with his mobile phone to disturb the rhythm and harmony of his compositions. By his own admission, he works urgently to induce mistakes or accidents to liberate himself from his own automatic reflexes. Drachen is therefore a dangerous album both for its author and for listeners. However the result remains impressive because, even though questioning accepted ideas is an essential facet of the record, there is an intact sensibi lity which provokes emotion. All sorts of instruments (guitar, bass, melodica, kora, synths etc.) are run through live electronic processing and he manages to bring a beautiful melancholy - even a certain tenderness - out of this sonic mass despite the roughness of the overall sound. The record is made up of 7 highly distinct pieces which nevertheless fit together as a coherent whole. Although instrumental, Drachen is a largely narrative album which recounts its own story. It is a necessary reminder that just sound and consequently silence are fantastic vectors for communication. At the end of the record, an eighth track makes an appearance to prolong the story and provide a conclusion for the album. The track is introduced by 2008 field recordings from the village of Gandefabou in northern Burkina Faso and offers a calm environment full of humanity. It is heavy with meaning given the current situation of this region of the world struggling with jihadism. "Vielleicht sind alle Drachen unseres Lebens Prinzessinnen, die nur darauf warten uns einmal schön und mutig zu sehen". "Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage." RAINER MARIA RILKE, Letters to a Young Poet " [label info] www.icidailleurs.com 2015 €16.00
DEMEULENAERE, STIJN Latitudes - September 2016 CD Stijn Demeulenaere is a sound artist and field recordist from Belgium. ‘Latitudes - September 2016’ is the recording of a live set played in his Latitudes series at Q-O2 in Brussels. Latitudes is a project where he brings sounds from North and South together. On the album, the bulk of the sounds come from South-Africa and Iceland. Further recordings were made in Ostend, De Biesbosch, Amsterdam and ‘t Kuipke (Ghent). The album combines a mixture of natural sound recordings and heavily processed sounds. The album is a cd in a custom A5 sleeve and comes out in a limited edition of 149 copies. Latitudes is a project where Stijn collects and records sounds from all over the world. He brings these sounds together and explores the relation between climate, geology and how a place sounds. He looks for ways to have the sounds interact with each other and researches the ways nature sounds generate expectations and how one can play with these expectations. Stijn uses the material to develop installations and live sets where he explores the sonic material, creating new sonic structures juxtaposing the sounds, or melting them together. Latitudes is a project in continuing development: the sounds from Iceland and South Africa are being mixed with sounds from other spaces, nature sounds with industrial ones. If there is enough time and space, Stijn also makes recordings in the cities and places where he performs, and works this material into his live sets. Amongst others, he made recordings in the northern tundra climate of Iceland and the subtropical climate of South Africa. The recordings in Iceland were made during a Wildeye residency guided by Chris Watson and Jez Riley French in 2015. The sounds from South Africa were recorded during the 2013 Sonic Mmabolela residency under curatorship of Francisco López. Apart from traditional equipment, he also uses a myriad of unconventional microphones and transducers in his search for sound. "You may not know this name, unless perhaps you visit Belgium quite a bit, as that’s where Stijn Demeuelenaere’s activities as a sound artist mostly take place. Not really to release his music on CD but as part of sound installations, video work and dance pieces. ‘Latitudes - September 2016’ is his first release, and it is a registration of a concert at Brussels’ Q-O2, and it uses only field recordings, from his trips to South Africa, Iceland and The Netherlands (that man has time and money to burn, I was thinking!), in this piece, just under twenty-four minutes. That is a bit short, I thought. If I understand well there is not really a narrative Demeulenaere is telling his listeners, but more or less puts together sounds from all over the world, choosing and selecting together what he thinks fits best together. There is, so it seems to me, a love for sounds that involve water. In the opening sequence this sounds like the sound of rowing, along with birds, insects and from there on he expands further into wildlife. It is hard, or perhaps for me impossible, to tell what it is that he’s doing with these sounds, if anything at all that is. This might be a work of pure, untreated sound events stuck together for all I know, but just at the same time it might also be that Demeulenaere creates loops out of his sounds, or uses quite a bit of sound processing. Only towards the end there is definitely loops and processing going as Demeulenaere creates some odd rhythms out of his material, and whatever was the sound originally we no longer know. For much of the rest of this piece we don’t know if that is the case as well. Now, of course, after hearing the whole thing a couple of times, I would think it is the case; everything is some way or another a bit processed and enhanced. Overall I enjoyed this piece quite a bit, but found it perhaps a bit too short. Why not add another recording, from another concert but within the same context and double the pleasure for the listener? Now it’s a fine but short debut, hopefully with the promise of more to come." [FdW/Vital Weekly] https://silkentofu.bandcamp.com/album/latitudes-september-2016 2017 €13.00
DI CROCE, NICOLA Istruttiva Serie LP Istruttiva serie is a non-linear path progressing by attempts. A limited number of non consequential exercises about re-elaboration and evocation. The sound material comes from field recordings (recorded in Italy in 2014) and folk guitar. The main purpose is to investigate the constant encounter and collision between field sounds and melody by developing an acoustic stream which aims a perceptual redefinition. As “not completed” doesn’t mean “lacking” every track is here a personal exercise challenging perceptual aesthetic. Istruttiva serie comes in a limited edition 12” LP, mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, featuring cover and poster illustrations by Caterina Gabelli and layout designed by Giulia Dolci. Liner notes are curated by France Jobin. Edition of 150 copies on black. Nicola Di Croce is a Venice based architect, musician, composer and scholar. His main research deals with the relation between territory and sound. The listening and field recording practices lead together to a new perception of the environment, where the sound language becomes a narrative and design vehicle; fragments to be re-mixed as the essential tool for the understanding and the redefinition of the environment. Black vinyl LP 12'', featuring cover and poster artwork by Caterina Gabelli. Layout by Giulia Dolci. Liner notes by France Jobin. 150 copies on black. https://kohlhaas.bandcamp.com/album/istruttiva-serie 2015 €16.00
DI SCIPIO, AGOSTINO Hörbare Ökosysteme CD " “Das komplexe Gefüge von Einflüssen, denen Schall auf seinem Weg von der Quelle zum Ohr unterworfen ist (...) ist das Aktionsfeld der Musik von Agostino Di Scipio.“ (Linernotes) Seine Kompositionen entstehen auf der Basis sich selbst steuernder und regulierender Systeme. In den live-elektronischen Studien „Hörbare Ökosysteme“ „dienen einfachste Schallsignale oder gar nur der Geräuschhintergrund des die Mikrophone beherbergenden Raumes als Input für autopoietische Prozesse, in deren Verlauf die Parameter der digitalen Signalverarbeitung sich stets weiter den resultierenden Klangformen anpassen (...).“ Zwischen knisternden Inseln Ryoji Ikedaischer Digitalsounds entstehen punktuell oder fließend gesetzte Rückkopplungen, die kontrolliert tastenden Erkundungen der Klangmöglichkeiten durchführen. Ebenso arbeiten die Interpreten in den gemischt Instrumental/live-elektronischen Stücken. Sie lauschen ihren, von der Elektronik zurückgeworfenen Klängen und passen ihr weiteres Spiel den veränderten Sounds an. In steter Umarmung mit der signalverarbeitenden Software und in Abhängigkeit vom Raumverhalten setzen Bassflöte, Bassklarinette, Violine, Violoncello, Klavier und Vibraphon forschende Instrumentalbewegungen, welche die Konzentration der Zuhörerin/ des Zuhörers reichlich belohnen. „Sounds making ist way from the source to the ear is subjected to a complex nexus of influences. This is the operation field for the music of Agostino Di Scipio.“ (linernotes) His compositions are built up on the basis of complicated cybernetic procedures. The newer studies „Hörbare Ökosysteme“ are purely live-electronic. „In these works the most simple sound signals, or even the background noise of the space housing the microphones, provide input for autopoetic processes which continously adjust the parameters of their digital sound synthesis and transforming processes to the resulting sound shapes.“ Between crackling islands of Ryoji Ikeda-like digital sounds you hear particular pointed or flowing feedbacks carrying out the possibilities of sound in a controlled tentativ research. Also the players of the combined instrumental/ live-electronic pieces are working in this way. Listening very closely to the transformed sounds resounding from back from the sound system, they adjust their actual sound production to those transformations. Caught up in the system of sound processing software and the spaces aural signature, bass flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano and vibraphone searchable put together instrumental movements which amply reward the listeners concentration.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records] 2005 €16.00
DIMUZIO, THOMAS Sutro Transmissions LP "This is the wizard the land of Oz wished for: boundless, benemalevolent, shrouded in torrents of sound, daring lions to speak and machines to feel. Dimuzio sets your straw brains alight to melt your metal heart while your furry ears crisp and yowl. For the first time, San Francisco legend Thomas Dimuzio presents an all Buchla-synthesizer album. Custom algorithmic crossfades of complex sound synthesis fuel this metabolism of mind and machine. His Buchla 272e module incorporates a polyphonic FM tuner introducing chance-factors snatched from live transmissions, steered via algorithmic mixing through oscillator arrays and envelope generators before spilling into the ears of blood-pumping audiences huddled in the slanting five thousand foot shadow of SF's Sutro Tower. Each track is a site specific improvisation blooming in the dark of underground venues on opposite ends of Haight Street just blocks from where Buchla invented the world's first synthesizer. “Nothing is more beautiful than [Dimuzio's] acoustic heterogeneity, a depth of aural perspective provided by antithetical frequencies, irregular waves and inscrutable halos.” -Massimo Ricci The first thirty pre-orders will include unique and original letterpress art created by Planetary Magnetics Corporation in New Orleans. These one of a kind prints were rendered on a huge letterpress using gorgeous, richly colored and metallic inks on dangerously old blocks arranged sleestak style by master-printer Tyler Harwood. The album cover is a reproduction of a single print from this original series." https://www.resipiscent.com/artist/view/51 "Thomas Dimuzio – justifiably called a “legend” by the label’s introductory summary – belongs nonetheless in the pool of names not immediately springing to mind when it comes to sonic innovation built upon the interpenetration of supposedly unconnected elements. However, his expertise in concocting unorthodox landscapes and spontaneous articulations of otherwise inexpressible insights has been proven time and again. Sutro Transmissions, a gorgeous example of analog synthesizer-based music, represents a quintessential reminder. The apparatus through which Dimuzio emits transcendentally tangible matters is constituted by (drum roll, press release) “a Buchla 272e module [that] incorporates a polyphonic FM tuner introducing chance-factors snatched from live transmissions and steered via algorithmic mixing through oscillator arrays and envelope generators”. For the unacquainted, this might appear as alien language; as soon as they hear the results, all doubts are going to be extirpated. Nothing is more beautiful than absorbing acoustic heterogeneity if the diversification is driven by the vision of an inherent logical structure. Dimuzio has produced two exceptional pieces in that sense. The conglomeration of extreme dynamics and timbral variegation systematically startles the attentive listener, even when the textural totality may suggest a “search for quietness” hypothesis. It is actually by this juxtaposition of contrasts that the necessary energies are released for the attainment of that state. Learning to distinguish and welcome diversity is never a wasted effort, especially when the forced acceptance of what’s unnatural and the effects of cyclical ordinariness become unbearable. By experiencing the depth of aural perspective provided by antithetical frequencies, irregular waves and inscrutable halos you’ll have a clear exemplification of what I’m trying to translate. Replace the nauseating boredom generated by the self-appointed boffin of your choice with the polychromatic fibers of these sounds. Train your perception to rapidly individuate the correct direction rather than ruminating for days on something that will ultimately be revealed as entirely unfounded. Doctor Dimuzio can assist you." [Touching Extremes] 2020 €22.50
DIRAC Emphasis CD "Our way to create a record is based on the simple principle of direct-recording – which means the shape and form of our music is basically created within one moment. It is not only about meeting in a studio to do the recordings, but to stay together at one place with a focus on creating music and concentrated listening each day. The isolation from other musical inputs and the reduced input in general, being far off from bigger cities, far off an everyday-live takes you to the point when you don’t want to sound like something you know, you just want to search, experiment and play. John Cage said, that experimental music is where the outcome can’t be foreseen. These things happen through passion and not ambition. For ‘emphasis’, we again went to Salzburg, where we could set up our gear in the basement of Florian’s parents house for one week – the same place we recorded our first album ‘dirac’. We recorded about 4 hours everyday , experimenting with different materials and instruments. We later listened to the results at the studio garnison7 in Vienna and did more editing work in a small hut up in the snowy austrian mountains in February 2008 – it was cold, electricity was short, but it was silent. The record contains many details that have personal aural connections to us. The bell which reappears on emphasis is an old-cuckoo-clock from the hut. The crows that fly away are a field-recording from vienna´s augarten park – we went in there during the night and triggered the birds with a short lightimpuls from a flash light. The kids playing were recorded in a village in northern India were Daniel and Peter spent some time doing field-recordings. The trumpet appearing in Bantu was recorded by Peter on a frozen mountain lake in Austria – thereby the natural reverb of the valley is transferred onto the record. The cover-picture shows the roof of an old abandoned farming-house, close to the mountain hut where we worked on the record." [Peter Kutin, DIRAC] www.spekk.net 2009 €15.50
DOCKSTADER, TOD / DAVID LEE MYERS Pond CD Überraschende Collaboration zweier Urgesteine der experimentellen Elektronik – der wiederentdeckte TOD DOCKSTADER und der ebenfalls nach langer Pause wieder aktive „ARCANE DEVICE“ DAVID LEE MYERS. Hier frönen sie ihrer Faszination für Frosch- & Kröten-Sounds, die elektronisch bearbeitet werden - so entspringen ihrem „Klang-Teich“ die merkwürdigsten stakkatohaften & pulsierenden organisch-elektronischen Akusmen.....sehr kurios & obskur ! "Tod Dockstader and David Lee Myers are two pioneers of electronic music, but from very different epochs. Dockstader started working with optical sound in the 1950s, later working with vast Telefunken tape recorders that became so hot they had to be left overnight to cool down. His electronic soundscapes ('Lunar Park' and 'Apocalypse' among them) are now being re-discovered and given the respect they deserve. Pond is his first new album-length piece since 1967. David Lee Myers, on the other hand, made his name in the 1980s under the name Arcane Device, and the music was derived from almost uncontrollable feedback systems. His Engines of Myth was originally released by ReR on vinyl in 1988, and was re-released on CD in 2001. A collaboration between these two legendary figures -- the painstaking, highly organised researcher Dockstader with the younger, more go-with-the-flow Myers, is an intriguing proposition. The first problem to overcome was computers; Dockstader had never used them, having perfected methods of working with optical and tape formats. It was only with much coaxing from Myers that it became possible. Dockstader recently remarked that when he began working with computers he 'realised that many of the old principles -- slowing, speeding, pitch-change, reversal -- were the same -- but with much more control and better sound. And no tape hiss. Because it was faster and I could keep my belief in what I was doing, more fun.' Fun is what they had. Most of the sounds derive from frog and toad calls, garnered by hanging around ponds with recorded equipment late into the night. The results are extraordinary -- the cries are transformed into an electronic melee that does not so much resemble a pond, as fragments of a road-movie soundtrack left over by Kraftwerk or Eno."[label description] 2004 €14.00
DORELLA, BRUNO Paradiso CD Italian musician and producer Bruno Dorella guides us to \"Paradiso\", his new solo album, with the music for the homonymous choreographic project of gruppo nanou, to be released on CD and digital on November 25th, 2022 by the independent label 13 / Silentes. \"Paradiso\" was born for the choreography of the new show by gruppo nanou, a contemporary dance and performing arts company, founded by Marco Valerio Amico, Rhuena Bracci and Roberto Rettura. The collaboration between Dorella and the company has started almost a decade ago and over time has also involved Ronin and OvO, the main bands of the Ravenna-based musician - OvO were on stage in 2021 for Canto Primo: Miasma | Arsura, an encounter between sounds and infernal images, with Dante\'s recurring reference. But there is more than this. \"Paradiso\" is also the first electronic music album made by Dorella who, during the lockdown period, focused himself more and more on softwares. The tracks are composed according to the bodies and the choreography of the show. Dorella says: \"The composition took a long time. The choreographic needs, and the effect of music on the bodies, often led me to think with a broader perspective. Me and the members of gruppo nanou started the work from mutual suggestions and gradually we understood each other faster and faster. We defined a common conception of rhythm, deciding to work on apparently \'off-grid\' rhythms, creating the illusion of something wrong together but perfectly timed. In reality, these rhythms are parallel planes that travel in time with each other, even if out of phase.\" \"Saturno\" is the first single taken from \"Paradiso\" and contains the fundamental elements of the entire work. That is, parallel, overlapping, sinuous rhythms, apparently out of phase but which \"turn\" together. In addition to abstract guitars and breath as the only source of voice. According to gruppo nanou: \"Bruno has composed a choreographic work. We have verified together how sound can accommodate the body and be in dialogue with the scenic action. It was a transitive operation between scene and sound, bodies and the material density of sounds, vibrations and motion. The beauty of this musical work is that it is concrete matter and at the same time it is a precise thought. All the rules and limitations that we set for the creation of the show - regarding choreography, sound, lights and scene - have managed to be assimilated to become creative resources and therefore to become exact viscera.\" The journey of \"Paradiso\" is articulated into thirteen tracks and ends with the title track, which is also the brand new single from the album and the only episode that can be assimilated to an \"alien\" song-form, featuring Francesca Amati (Comaneci) on vocals. Dorella speaking: \"We always thought that, at a certain point, we needed a \'song\'. With Francesca there is a long-standing collaboration and gruppo nanou loves her tone of voice, so it has always been clear that she would be the one to sing the song. But she had to do it in a non-existent and unidentifiable language. So, I broke down the syllables of what Francesca had sung, recomposing them with a new result.\" In Dorella\'s long and eclectic career, \"Paradiso\" is only his second solo record, following \"Concerto per chitarra solitaria\", created for a contemporary classical music festival and released in 2019 by Bronson Recordings. \"I always thought of ensemble music, never really in the solo dimension, and I always imagined that if I ever made a record on my own and with my name on it, it would be related to pure composition\", Dorella explains. Active since the late 90s, Bruno Dorella is also known under the pseudonym Jack Cannon and was a member of Wolfango, as well as founder of OvO, Ronin and Bachi da Pietra, and more recently of Tiresia and the GDG Modern Trio, as well as an element of Sigillum S. \"Paradiso\" is the first record that testifies his experience in the field of theater music, developed through collaboration with various theater and dance companies. \"Paradiso\" is a collective effort among the contemporary research dance company gruppo nanou and the artist Alfredo Pirri. Its path begins in 2021 and continues until July 2022 through appointments, called sketches, intended as the progressive deepening and development of research and tests for the construction of a performative process that removes the concept of the beginning and end of a performance, as well as its front use. The space is intended as an active place in which to immerse oneself, creating an impromptu community that accesses the performance as it happens in a museum exhibition. \"Paradiso\" is the beginning of a common journey starting from the Third Canticle of Dante Alighieri’s Commedia; as a paradise, it is an elsewhere space, inhabited by light and evanescent figures; a long cinematic shot in which to immerse yourself thanks to the music of Bruno Dorella. The stage space consists of a mirrored dance floor obtained by combining different layers of silver and gold carpets where reverberating spaces and territories, intertwined and choreographed by gruppo nanou. Indirect lighting allows the carpet to reflect the surrounding space, welcoming it inside visually and creating a floating perception and making the floor like a pond where the bodies in movement flake with evanescent contours. The place determines each time the use and arrangement of the scene created by Pirri; the space, as well as the bodies and the light, is reflected by the mirrored surface of the carpets, redesigning the geometry of the space itself. For this identity of relationship between place and scene, each Paradise is unique and unrepeatable, thus finding the impossibility of describing a Paradise uniquely, as Dante wrote in the beginning of the Third Canticle. The gestures lose all trace of naturalism to turn into an abstract choreography, whose meaning is in the desire to bridge the distance between the gaze (of the viewer) and the bodies in action. The limit of the backgrounds is forced, torn, deteriorated by the body that attacks it with its choreographic action. The choreographic images are produced “accidentally”, and the bodies are immediately pulverized thanks to the process of abstraction that produces pure plasticity that surpasses all other instances. The evidence of every research step or residency is called sketch and, even if is still a studio form, it shows how the performative device works on the space, its architecture or lack of it, recreating and rethinking both the stage and how the audience interact with it. As it will be in his final form, every sketch is different from the others; not a step forward but a step in deep the research. In each different spaces there will be different sets and choreographic compositions. A difficult experience to tell. Album credits: Music composed, played, recorded and mixed by Bruno Dorella Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi Vocals on 6 & 13 by Francesca Amati Vocals 4, 9 & 10 by Elisabetta Da Rold Voices treatment on 1 by Bruno Dorella & Giovanni Lami, 5 includes parts of Old Vogue Dancer by Bruno Dorella, 11 includes a sample by Stefano Ghittoni Layout and artwork by Marco Valerio Amico Photos by Daniele Casadio Project credits: Project: gruppo nanou, Alfredo Pirri, Bruno Dorella Choreography: Marco Valerio Amico, Rhuena Bracci Scenic space: Alfredo Pirri Music: Bruno Dorella Lights: Marco Valerio Amico Colors: Marco Valerio Amico, Alfredo Pirri Costumes: Rhuena Bracci With Carolina Amoretti, Marina Bertoni, Vera Borghini, Rhuena Bracci, Francesca Dibiase, Andrea Dionisi, Agnese Gabrielli, Marco Maretti, Emanuel Santos, Sofia Pazzocco, Michele Scappa And the graduates (2019) of the Post Diploma – Dance Course of the Civica Scuola di Teatro “Paolo Grassi” of Milan: Livia Bartolucci, Alessandra Cozzi, Elisabetta Da Rold, Agnese Gabrielli, Nicolò Giorgini, Simone Mazzanti, Camilla Neri, Francesca Rinaldi, Pablo Ezequiel Rizzo, Bruna Romano Production: Nanou Associazione Culturale, Ravenna Festival Contributon: MIC, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Ravenna, Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna Collaboration: Civica Scuola di Teatro “Paolo Grassi” di Milano Support: Centro di Residenza della Toscana (Armunia-CapoTrave/Kilowatt), E Production, ATCL Circuito Multidisciplinare del Lazio per Spazio Rossellini Polo Culturale Multidisciplinare della Regione Lazio, C.U.R.A. Centro Umbro Residenze Artistiche, Spazio ZUT!, Indisciplinarte, La Mama Umbria International https://brunodorella.bandcamp.com/album/paradiso 13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2258_bruno_dorella.htm 2022 €12.00
DOYLE, ROGER Thalia do-LP The concrète riddle of ’Thalia’ is the Nurse With Wound-listed and cultishly desired Roger Doyle album withdrawn by CBS Classics shortly after its release in 1978. Less than 200 copies reached shops some three years after his distinctive debut ‘Oizzo No’ (1975) - which was reissued by Finders Keepers Cacophonic label to receptive ears in 2018 - and in retrospect the resurfacing of ‘Thalia’ follows that wonderfully odd LP to cement Doyle’s place among the outsider pioneers of ‘70s electronic and avant-garde tape experimentation. Arguably one of the most important experimental records to emerge from 20th century Ireland, ‘Thalia’ is coveted for its inventive, unpredictable, near-psychedelic brilliance, yet has remained scarce due to major label politics, meaning listeners either had to fork out a ton for a 2nd hand copy, or make do with a 2002 CD compilation of ‘Oizzo No’ and ’Thalia.’ Now finally available on its intended format, the keening, breezy logic and abstract dramaturgy of Doyle’s work on ‘Thalia’ has been reshuffled to highlight its apparent surreality and frolicking apparitions. Combining his studious research and prep work at Utrecht Institute of Sonology (then home to Roland Kayn, Leo Küpper, Jaap Vink) and the studios of Finnish Radio (Yleisradio) Helsinki with a finely honed improvisational intuition at his home studio in Malahide, Dublin, the record yields a poetic diffusion of electro-acoustic phantasms meshed with politicised and unsettling field recordings, alongside a playfully experimental solo piano piece. The 3-part title track is the biggest attraction on ‘Thalia.’ Acting as a sort of shamanic extension of Gaelic bardic traditions, Doyle guides the listener through labyrinthine dimensions, vacillating cartoonish tape FX with stark synth pulses, fragments of ‘Danny Boy’ and the unsettling sound of a woman wailing or even keening (a lament for the dead) in only the first minutes, the piece spirals over two sides between obtuse electronics and jump-cuts to melancholy strums, airborne melody and rabid dissonance with the natural quality of Ireland’s ever-shifting interplay of sun, rain and clouds. The relatively brief ‘Baby Grand’ follows as a sort of playful solo piano palate cleanser for the LP’s purest electronic piece ‘Solar Eyes’, which surely recalls to some degrees the iridescent expanses of Roland Kayn or Jaap Vink’s cybernetic music as much as Coil’s ‘pHILM #1’ as ELpH. 2019 €25.00
DRCARLSONALBION La Strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke LP "Known as “the doom metal innovator” for fronting drone ambassadors Earth, Dylan Carlson now brings his solo career to our very own Latitudes series. Featuring artwork by Battle Of The Eyes and released in a limited run of hand numbered and hand packed green 180g vinyl (green or white) and CDs (1000 of each). Subsequent to his first release under the moniker of Drcarlsonalbion, the legendary Dylan Carlson visited Southern Studios to record an exclusive session amidst his spell in the UK researching folklore and faire folk of the British Isles. Drcarlsonalbion sees Carlson experimenting further with field recordings as he re-renders traditional folk as well as contemporary songs with his unique drone sound which has ever so long been allied to the mighty Earth. Joined by Teresa Colamonaco on vocals and Jodie Cox on guitar, the trio unite to bring a restrained majesty to the reworking of shared favorites, including Last Living Rose by PJ Harvey, resulting in an immensely special Latitudes release indeed. Six covers/arrangements and one original composition recorded during his research into faire folk and collation of field recordings in the UK." [label info] http://shop.southern.com/latitudes/ 2012 €18.50
DREAD (LUSTMORD) In Dub CD "dread is a newly formed project of legendary sound artist brian williams who began working under the name lustmord in 1980, and since then his dark sound sculptures have been highly influential not only in music genres such as ambient and industrial, but also in film and games. besides these genres, williams is also addicted to the sonic potential of dub music, which was reflected in various dub mixes he made for other artists, in an entire remix album for the puscifer project, and in a dub remix ep for the lustmord album [other] in 2009. for quite a while it was his desire to form an individual project dedicated to the dub genre, and after years of preparation and recording ant-zen is glad to present dread's debut: in dub. the mightiness and intensity of this album is both tense and trance inducing, drawing attention to the shape and depth of the space between sounds as well as to the sounds themselves. the instrumental tracks drenched in echo and reverberation ebb and flow, dropping in and out of the mix, and are kept together by the prominent use of varied deep bass application. the usage of implemented voices, acoustic drums and an alectric guitar played by wes borland (limp bizkit) create a distinctly organic feel to the music, even though the effects are electronically created. both unique and original, this release meld seamlessly into the tapestry of brian williams' work. breathtaking, dark, unshiftable and solid, this is the kind of dread where you're not sure where the evil force lurks, but you know it's out there searching for you... highly recommended." lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/in-dub 2017 €13.50
DREAM WEAPON RITUAL Ebb and Flow LP "Formed in November 2006, Dream Weapon Ritual is the duo of Simon Balestrazzi and Monica Serra. They play free-form music that draws equally from droning electronica soundscapes and imaginary folk visions. Simon Balestrazzi is an electronic/electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the 80's. He released many albums and performed live around Europe under various names. Monica Serra is a talented actress whose artistic research led to double as vocalist since 1999. Both are members of the long-lived Italian cult band T.A.C. (Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata). Monica primarily sings and plays kaoss pad, while Simon primarily plays laptop and various small stringed instruments, although both also employ old synthesizers and various electronics, amplified sound objects, toys, live sampling tools, small percussion, and whatever they can get their hands on. Togheter as Dream Weapon Ritual they released their music through Radical Matters, Old Europa Cafe and Magick With Tears. Ebb & Flow is their latest album since 2011 and it’s another step forward in their imaginary blend of the archaic and the modern. Togheter with the core duo, Ebb & Flow sees contributions from M.S.Miroslaw (sacred horse skull), Massimo Olla aka Noisedelik (chalumeau), Paolo Sanna (various percussions), Donato Epiro (flutes), Antonio Gallucci of Architeuthis Rex (guitar, percussions)." [label info] www.boringmachines.it 2014 €15.00
The Uncanny little Sparrows CD "Formed in November 2006, Dream Weapon Ritual is the duo of Simon Balestrazzi and Monica Serra. They play free-form music that draws equally from droning electronica soundscapes and imaginary folk visions. Simon Balestrazzi is an electronic/electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the 80's. He released many albums and performed live around Europe under various names. Monica Serra is a talented actress whose artistic research led to double as vocalist since 1999. Both are members of the long-lived Italian cult band T.A.C. (Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata). Togheter as Dream Weapon Ritual they released their music through Radical Matters, Old Europa Cafe and Magick With Tears. All music by Dream Weapon Ritual Mastered by James Plotkin Masks by Gabriela Mulas Photos by Franco Casu Artwork by Daniele Serra" "Gut drei Jahre nach „Ebb and Flow“ lassen die beiden Multiinstrumentalisten Simon Balestrazzi und Monica Serra zum fünften Mal von sich hören und erzählen mit allerhand schrägen Ideen im Gepäck die Geschichte einer Gruppe von unheimlichen kleinen Spatzen – das klingt auf den ersten Blick vielleicht nach Ironie und Spielerei, v.a. wenn man von dem hierzulande üblichen Image dieser nicht gerade gruseligen Vogelart ausgeht. Doch „The Uncanny Little Sparrows“ lädt nicht gerade zu letztgültigen Interpretationen seines Inhalts ein, und das ist auch gut so. Bei dem langsam an- und abschwellenden Drone, das an elektrisch aufgeladene Harmoniumklänge erinnert, den trunkenen Echolalien undeutbarer Stimmen, dem Rasseln und Scheppern und den seltsamen Bläserklängen des eröffnenden „Bird Mother“ zeigt sich schnell, dass die beiden sich in grundlegender Hinsicht treu geblieben sind, denn ihre „Freeform-Musik“, die ebenso von dröhnender Elektronik wie von folkigen Spuren durchdrungen ist, bewegt sich in den bekannten Bahnen, die quer durch moderne und primordiale Gefilde führen. In diesem Rahmen kommt es aber zu einigen Verschiebungen, denn auf den neuen Stücken scheint die Musik noch um einiges unregelmäßiger und unruhiger als auf den Aufnahmen zuvor. Kratzige Spielereien, eventuell erzeugt mit dem von Massimo Olla entworfenen [d]Ronin, allerhand Gereusel und geheimnissvolle Perkussion rufen Balestrazzis Projekte Hidden Reverse und A Sphere of Simple Green in Erinnerung, bei der Mischung aus untergründigem Brummen und falsettigen Hochtönereien denkt man vielleicht an so unterschiedliche Musiker wie Ka Baird oder die viel zu wenig beachteten Mailänder Sothiak – Vergleiche, mit denen nur eine vage Richtung angedeutet sein soll. Deutlich erkennbare Vogelstimmen treten erstmals in dem kurzen, in einem seltsam schleppenden Rhythmus hinkenden „Mating Call“ auf den Plan, wo sie sich sanft und verhuscht in mysteriöse Rückwärtspassagen einweben. In dem folgenden Track, der von „zwei kleinen Spatzen, die auf einem Zweig sitzen und auf die Erleuchtung warten,“ kündet, erinnern sie eher an übermütige Spechte. Weiter geht es durch noisige Gefilde, in denen man nicht mit dem Klang orientalischer Flöten gerechnet hätte, hin zu einer Urwald-Kulisse, in der ekstatische Perkussion und tremolierende Stimmen wie das Echo eines schamanischen Rituals wirken. „The One with the Iron Beak“ ist das letzte Stück betitelt, und wieder beschleicht einen der Verdacht, dass all die tiefschürfenden rituellen Elemente, die ebenso wie rhythmische und melodische Pop-Ansätze um jede zweite Ecke lugen, zwar auch, aber nicht nur mit erhabenem Ernst eingebracht werden. Das Album erschien jüngst bei Boring Machines als LP mit achtseitigem Booklet und ist darüber hinaus natürlich in den üblichen digitalen Formaten zu ergattern." (U.S./African Paper] 2018 €16.50
  Like a Tree growing out of a Sidewalk CD A forest, a virtual forest. An urban forest, maybe, populated by shattering shadows. Birds and insects. Voices, human or not. Trees slowly growing, roots swelling gently. Gradually its dark creeps under your skin in a deafening roar. In this work Dream Weapon Ritual deconstructs and reassembles the thin substance of dream and vision in a performance-ritual that, moulding together organic electronics and treated acoustic instruments, takes place in an invisible and vague terrain; an unexplored territory, where the borders between song, theatre and installation blur. "Like A Tree Growing Out Of A Sidewalk" started as a multimedia performance with collaboration of visual artist Elisabetta Saiu, whose video, projected on tulle screens accompanied each staging. It has been premiered in March 2007 at Lenz Teatro, in Parma, for "As A Little Phoenix" festival. Now it is also an intense and fascinating album made of little string and wind instruments, birdcalls, old synthesizers, sound objects and voice. A collection of visionary soundscapes where boundaries between droning electronica and imaginary folk traditions are constantly forced. All sound material was improvised in five sessions recorded between January and February 2007 and subsequently lovingly culled, edited and overdubbed between May 2007 and October 2008. Formed in November 2006, Dream Weapon Ritual is the duo of Simon Balestrazzi (historiacl leader of the Italian industrial-cult project T.A.C. and member of the first Kirlian Camera incarnations) and Monica Serra. Simon Balestrazzi is an electronic/electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the 80's. He released many albums and performed live around Europe under various names. Monica Serra is a talented actress whose artistic research led her to double as vocalist since 1999. Tracklist : 01 Black Forest Myth 3:31 02 23 Visions Of Light Appear 5:17 03 Dead Things Always Come Back 5:01 04 Zero Growth 7:16 05 Little Angry Birds 7:34 06 Comfortably Nested 7:08 07 Travelling Without Maps 5:00 08 Like A Tree Growing Out Of A Sidewlak 6:32 2009 €12.00
DREYBLATT, ARNOLD Turntable History CD "ARNOLD DREYBLATT (b.1953) is an American composer who has studied with La Monte Young, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier. He is a member of the German Academy Of Art. He has released work on labels such as Table Of The Elements, Canteloupe, Tzadik, Hat Art and Dexter's Cigar. Turntable History is a recording of a 40 minute multi-channel sound composition which was concieved as part of an audio-visual installation installed in the circular vaulted brick space of a historical water container in Berlin in 2009. The original sound content is derived from recordings made by Arnold Dreyblatt of a Magnetic Resonance Imagining Scanner ("Siemens Magnetom Symphony Maestro Class") in a radiological practice in Berlin. Dreyblatt was fortunate to gain rare permission to record this device in operation without patients being involved. A technician from Siemens manned the machine especially for these recordings, searching for software settings related to their resulting sonic output rather for scanning particular body areas. Dreyblatt treated the device as a giant "Tesla coil," in which the alignment and resonances of a powerful magnetic field is gradually altered by rotating radio frequencies. Dreyblatt analysed and deconstructed the original recordings and grouped the audio segments by pitch, rhythm and density. The resulting five-channel composition of harmonically resonating, pulsating signals, sounded within this voluminous reflective space (with long delay times) is wonderfully captured in this recording." [label info] www.importantrecords.com 2011 €14.00
DRYGIANAKIS, COSTIS Chondros and Katsiani on the Mountain (Ο Χονδρός Και Η Κατσιάνη Στο Βουνό) CD + BOOK "Back in 1998, and starting as a play on the big operas of American Minimalism (Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach and John Adams’ Nixon in China), Costis Drygianakis, together with Thanasis Chondros and Alexandra Katsiani (two thirds of the group Dimosioypalliliko Retire), devised a radio opera based on their own exotic studio travels and throughout the musics of the world. Built around an improvised libretto by Thanasis and Alexandra, Costis’ work develops emphatically though with a light-hearted touch, oscillating between lengthy piano-based structures, powerful instrumental crescendos and a creative use of early digital tools. Chondros and Katsiani on the Mountain is an intricate, rich, and quietly profound piece, yet one that avoids the hybris that comes together with the notion of the “grand work”. In this it stands apart from its contemporaries in 1998, as much as it does today. It also provides a high benchmark for the artists’ careers, as well as for listeners invested in all sorts of sonic explorations. Whether it be through Optical Musics, his subsequent compositional work, occasional collaborations, or his rich contemporary ethnomusicological research, Costis Drygianakis’ name is nowadays firmly established within the Greek music scene and beyond. Through an equally rich trajectory, Thanasis Chondros and Alexandra Katsiani appear at times as musicians, artists or performers, maintaining a fresh and subversive approach towards artistic expression and work. One of the many non-conformist ideas that came as a result of the meeting of the two is contained in this CD. The work first appeared in Volos’ Municipal Radio in 1998 and in a limited edition on Alli Poli in 2006. It is reissued here in an extensive bilingual edition containing the libretto and freshly commissioned texts. Audio remastered by Stephan Mathieu. Accompanying texts by Areti Leopoulou, Costis Drygianakis, Thanasis Chondros and Alexandra Katsiani, Kostis Kilymis. costisdrygianakis.wordpress.com/ rekem.org/Costis-Drygianakis-Chondros-and-Katsiani-on-the-Mountain 2019 €16.00
DUBACH, PETRA & MARIO VAN HORRIK Church WAVES LP WAVES is an ongoing research project by Dutch artists Petra Dubach & Mario van Horrik that involves so-called shakers, a kind of loudspeakers that reproduce sound frequencies as vibrations, attached to long strings. Started in 2010, the project has so far produced a number of installations and concerts, some recordings have been published previously on Edition Telemark as a double 12" in 2016 (cat. no. 628.01). For a few weeks in 2016 and 2017, Dubach and van Horrik had the chance to work on WAVES in the former Church of the Holy Heart in their hometown of Eindhoven where they stretched two 50 meters long strings between columns of the building and placed a piëzo transducer on one end and a shaker on the other end. Using this setup, they developed three different systems for generating feedback, spawning numerous experiments and recordings, a selection of which is presented on this LP. Video recordings of the process are enclosed on a DVD, showing the building and the strings as well as performances by Petra Dubach where her body and movement influences the standing waves in the space and thus the sound. Edition of 200 in full-color sleeve with photos from the church and liner notes by Petra Dubach, Mario van Horrik, and Ruud Post. The DVD is enclosed inside the sleeve. "All our experiments didn't have any plan as a basis; the sounds of one setup resulted in changes for the next setup. This could be: changes of drivers, adding or removing preparations, changing position of the recording device or the external driver, changing parameters of the mixing board or amps, or changing nothing at all: through the vibrations of the strings the preparations were more or less slowly transported across the length of the strings; sometimes forward, sometimes backward. We have made recordings of this process of more than one hour where the sounds constantly change under the influence of this transportation. But sometimes the movement would end in a fixed state." (from the liner notes) https://www.edition-telemark.de/903.03.html 2019 €25.00
DUBIT Vitriol CD Spiritual research and constant need for inner transformation. These are the key elements in the compositional style of Dubit, Pier Alfeo's moniker, the Apulian countryside-based electronic musician and producer whose Backwards is proud to issue "Vitriol", his second full length. This ten-track album, which resumes the Backwards' CD-series started in 2013 with Fabio Orsi's “Endless Autumn”, has taken more than one year of work, using both analogue instruments (such as Spring Reverb, pedals, [D]ronin, Moog etc ...) and digital synthesis techniques. For its realization, Dubit also built by himself acoustic instruments composed of metal elements, strips, strings, barrels, amphorae as resonance boxes, and used prepared pianos, traditional Spanish instruments, didgeridoo, harmonica, snare drums and cymbals as well. As in an alchemical process made of sounds, “Vitriol” blends in with powerful dark ambient, post-industrial music, some elements from techno and field recordings, drawing distopic landscapes in the sky. It's as if Raison d'être met Shackleton in the recording room to create a soundtrack for the end of the world. “Vitriol” comes in an edition of 500 CDs. Released in a matt-varnished ecopack. Artwork by Italian illustrator Master Easter. Pier Alfeo, aka Dubit, lives for a few years in Berlin, where he leaves the sign by founding the label Several Reasons Recordings and Soluxion Lab mastering and sound design studio. After a series of singles and Eps, Dubit comes to his first full length “Fragmenti”, a large and articulated album in which he examines the particles of our everyday reality in relation to time, space, our inner experiences and primordial fears that hold us back. Towards the middle of 2015, he returns near Bari where he starts composing his new record “Vitriol” and in 2016 he begins his course in Electroacoustic Composition, Multimedia and Music Computer Programming at the Electronic Music School in the Bari Conservatory. During his studies, he continues his specialization by designing Sound Art installations, studying and interpreting Acusmatic Music at Acusmonium in the “Space Silence” in Bari and creating Electroacoustic pieces through algorithmic compositing techniques. www.backwards.it/releases/vitriol/26/ 2017 €10.00
DUNCAN, JOHN The Nazca Transmissions LP "On Christmas Eve, 2004, John Duncan received a mysterious email from an archaeologist working at the site of the Nazca Lines in Peru. He claimed to have discovered, and over time recorded, a variety of sounds actually generated by the enigmatic lines themselves. Familiar with Duncan's 'Infrasound-Tidal', composed from source recordings taken from tides, seismic activity and barometric data from the Australian coastline, he suggested to Duncan the composition of a piece with these sources. All of the sources were modified in the studio of John Duncan, some radically, to bring out an unsettling, haunting quality. In mid-June 2005, the glorious 5-track piece was finally ready. John Duncan sent several messages to the archaeologist, none of them ever answered or returned. A hard disk crash effectively destroyed all of the email correspondence between them. What remains are the notes he sent that ostensibly describe the details of sites and times for the source recordings. Those notes have been reproduced on the insert included in this edition, also presenting John Duncan liner notes. First pressing limited to 380 copies, with embossed total-black cover, insert and full-color inner sleeve with wonderful space images of the Nazca Lines." [label info / credits] "The sound constructs of John Duncan almost exist as a residue of his own personal research into esoteric realms of knowledge, existential bouts of continuous questioning, and transgressive acts against himself and society at large. Here was a man who claimed to have sex with a corpse as a performance piece entitled Blind Date, whereby he planted his last seed in a dead body before undergoing a vasectomy. That event presumably took place nearly 30 years ago, when Duncan was emerging as an artist in Los Angeles alongside Paul McCarthy, Jim Shaw, and Mike Kelley. Blind Date has become a piece of infamy that blossomed beyond his already highly transgressive context, but he's always been an artist who is very deft at framing particular works through the process and through the context of said piece. The Nazca Transmissions is one such piece. A few years back, Duncan received an email from a German archaeologist working at the site of the Nazca Lines in Peru. These are the massive drawings carved into an arid plateau some 2000 years ago by the ancient Nazca people. Some of these figures are representation, some are not, and some get as large of 200 yards in size, all posing the question: who was supposed to be seeing these figures, and to what end? Now, this archaeologist claimed to have been able to record sounds from those line drawings; and he presented the raw material to Duncan, having been familiar with his transmutational pieces of digital data and shortwave. Duncan was suitably perplexed and intrigued by the sounds that were presented to him, proceeding to work on a series of compositions through that material. Unfortunately, this archaeologist ceased all communications, leading Duncan to wonder if it was all a big hoax. Eerie ringings pocked with scrabbled textures almost like clipped VLF recordings open the album set against a gaping chasm of quietness. While Duncan's penchant for abrasive noise and jarring juxtaposition is well documented, you won't find that here. By the end of the side, the textures take on an unsettled rhythm that almost resembles human speech garbled through the process. Very compelling, very unsettled. The second side begins with an interlocking series of modulated and muffled Shepherd Tones, these are the audio equivalent of a barber's pole with the tones giving the appearance of being in constant ascension or descension. It's a common artifact found throughout the shortwave bands, harkening back to one of his preferred sound sources; and Duncan puts them to excellent use amidst a sea of low end rumblings. Soon after, pierced tones push to the foreground as those low end rumblings mutate into grotesquely deformed growlings only to fade against a hushed coda of grey noise. This is limited to less than 300 copies, and it remains to be seen if we'll be able to get more than the handful we have now. Recommended no matter how you look at it." [Aquarius Records] 2009 €20.00
  This bitter Earth 7inch Further to John Duncan’s remarkable album of cover versions, Bitter Earth, iDEAL present an additional 7” featuring his haunting version of the ‘60s R&B classic which gave that LP its title, alongside covers of Jules Styne and Pere Ubu evergreens. Whilst best known for his extensive research in the fields of EVP, psycho-acoustic phenomenon and experimental music, this 7” also serves to reveal Duncan’s exquisite taste for popular music, albeit toned to fit his unique catalogue of sounds. At Duncan’s hands, This Bitter Earth is transformed into an ambient lament fronted by his own, husky vocals which really emphasise the titular lead phrase but counter it with more optimistic swells of keys by Eiko Ishibashi and “damaged accordion” from his regular collaborator, Carl Michael Hauswolff beautifully ambiguous, almost redemptive effect. It’s followed by a compellingly mournfully take on Jules Styne’s I Fall In Love Too Easily, channelling its forsaken feels into a lowlit chamber jazz vibe with solo vocals accompanied by Domenico Sciajno’s standup bass, before tempering the glam swagger of Pere Ubu obscure B-side Final Solution (1976) with a bed of looming Hammond organ and spare percussion that descends into a heavily abstracted drone. 2016 €9.00
DUNCAN, JOHN & C.M. VON HAUSSWOLFF Our Telluric Conversation CD „John Duncan und Carl Michael von Hausswolff sind bestens bekannt für ihre Erkundungen auf dem Gebiet der minimalen Klangbereitung. Schon für sich allein vermeiden beide den Überfluss und das Geplapper. Zusammen nun sind sie der reduzierten Form noch ein großes Stück näher gekommen. Ihre zweite Kollaboration beweist den brillianten Umgang mit hohen und tiefen Klangfrequenzen und Geräuschelementen, die sie dem Kurzwellenempfang, Oszillatoren und mikrofonbestückten Drähten entlocken. Auf dieser CD sind drei entsprechende, langförmig gestrickte Dronekonstruktionen zu hören. Auf spürbar tiefem Grundraunen werden Geschichten geflüstert. Ströme unterschiedlicher Qualitäten, zwischen weissem Rauschen und scharf peitschenden bis hoch tönenden Wellen oszillierend, spielen zusammen, überlagern sich und sind doch fein abgesetzt voneinander. Während man damit beschäftigt ist, verirrte Digitalsplitter abzuwehren, drückt der Stereoeffekt einen, alle Materie unmerklich deformierenden, schleppenden Brei aus dicker Watte in den Raum. Diese Form der Meditation ähnelt dem ersticktem Schreien. Doch kann man in den Minuten, in denen man subtil auf Herz und Nieren geprüft wird, wunderbar im 40seiten Booklet nachblättern, warum Unterhaltung auch Schmerz bedeuten kann. Eine gummiartige Ummantelung, der ein Titel in Brailleschrift eingeprägt wurde, hält Booklet und CD zusammen. _Duncan and Hausswolff are wellknown for their explorations in the fields of minimal sound settings. Both names are standing for an almost minimal musical gesture.Together they have found their way to reduce it yet again. Their second collaboration shows a brilliant handling of deep and high frequencies and noise elements from shortwave, data streams, oscillators and wire tapping microphones. Three pieces of long-form drone constructions are assembled on that CD. Deep background noises, controlled white noise and streams of sharp high tone waves are growing slowly up from the nowhere. A hypnotical continuum of sound forces the listeners full attention, nudging him into airless space through sudden breaks in it. There is also a quiet interesting 40 page booklet with an interview between Duncan and Hausswolff about their histories, ideas, and methodologies, explaining also their accurate purity. It is a very good completion to a music which is composed from the point of psychology research and visual art. All together in a card board embossed with braille and covered with a rubbery coating.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records] ”23five Incorporated proudly presents Our Telluric Conversation -- the second collaborative album from John Duncan and Carl Michael von Hausswolff. This is an album which Duncan describes as having been galvanized by magnetism. In a semantic sleight of hand, Duncan and Hausswolff reveal magnetism through a duality of meanings. One on hand, they speak of the physical phenomenon of charged objects that exert an attraction or repulsion upon other objects; yet on the other, magnetism can be defined the psychological influence wielded by charismatic individuals. Our Telluric Conversation maps out the complexities that emerged through the collaborative pursuits of these venerated sound artists. The tools that the two employed for Our Telluric Conversation are common to their respective catalogues of recordings, with Duncan bringing his shortwave, data streams, and uncanny use of the human voice while Hausswolff employed oscillators, sonar, and wire tapping microphones. The album opens with the mechanical rotation of modulated sonar, providing a hypnotic pulse which slowly submits to an obstinate surge of rumbling noise, that in turn collapses into focused white-noise turbulence and tone-bent SSB transmissions. All of this abruptly detours with a protracted spoken narrative from Hausswolff who whispers a Pynchonesque text about a maggot-infested individual who seeks to remedy his affliction by communing with cobras and geckoes. Afterwards, Duncan and Hausswolff entertain the seduction of the long-form drone constructions; however, their sublime minimalism is so brilliant in its beauty as to be piercingly acute through the purity of honed sinewaves. The final entry from their Conversation is the perfect marriage of the established Duncan and Hausswolff aesthetics, with a spare low-frequency hum deadening the sonic architecture before a static charge of crackled ether supplements the auditory smoldering. Our Telluric Conversation stands as a bold, expressive piece of sound art, confident in its multiplicity of perspectives caught in a constant flux of attraction and repulsion. The recording comes with a 40 page booklet with an interview between Duncan and Hausswolff about their histories, ideas, and methodologies; furthermore, the packaging is completed by a curiously tactile O-card, which has been embossed with braille and covered with a rubbery coating.....” [press release] 2006 €14.00
DUNCAN, JOHN & D. CABRERA Infrasound-Tidal CD JOHN DUNCAN versucht wieder das UNHÖRBARE hörbar zu machen und bearbeitet Rohaufnahmen von Gezeiten, Luftdruck- und Erdbebenmessungen, wobei er z.B. 300 Jahre australische Tidenfrequenzmessungen von 60 Häfen so verdichtet, daß 1 Jahr genau eine Sekunde Sound ergibt. Morphologischer Ambient-Noise ! “ In 1998, Densil Cabrera made several infrasound recordings he'd made and collected: barometric measurements, seismic data, tidal readings from various points on the coasts of Australia. INFRASOUND - TIDAL focuses on these sources, transforming them from dry research material into a rich and unique listening experience.” [Allquestions] 2003 €15.00
DUNCAN, JOHN & GIULIANA STEFANI Palace of Mind CD "... a really mind-blowing journey into pure sounds - same concert as he played during his small tour in Germany December 2000. Needs to be played loud. Our favourite DUNCAN-album so far. Mysterious, powerful, organic. A real experience." [Drone Rec. 2001] label: www.allquestions.net "Palace Of Mind is the 2000 recording collaboration between John Duncan and Giuliana Stefani. Mr. Duncan has long been one of AQ's favorite experimentalists, having started things out back in the '70s LA performance art community only to quit the US to pursue his own intense psychological research into sound, projection, installation, photography, and the like. Stefani is a mathematician by training and became acquainted with Duncan through a collaborative project they began in Amsterdam in 1996. For this album, the two sifted through digital treatments of shortwave transmissions, wire-tapped data streams, and voice. In turn, they work the album into labyrinthine composition that can hold any number of potent metaphors: the neural synapses of the human brain, the schematics of a computer, or simply an architectural set of overlapping resonant spaces. Rareified tones set with motoric vibrations transition through the fluttering of (or rather the lack there of, as this sounds like the empty spaces between the bands marked by a mechanoid oily hiss) and onto slashing digital drone. Here, one can think to Duncan's exceptional field recordings made at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in the early '90s. Within the movement from an irritable data-stream purity to the gossamer haze of shortwave distortion to gaping drones of treated vocal vibrato, Duncan and Stefani have set a trajectory deep into the heart of their sonic architecture, with each 'room' saturated with an anxiousness for what may be on the other side of the door. You won't find Duncan firing a gun at your head (seriously, he did that as performance piece called Scare back in the late '70s, using blanks mind you), but Palace Of Mind revels in an interlocking network of chambers that resonate and breathe with a profound beauty. Highly recommended!" [Aquarius Records] 2000 €15.50
DURAND, FEDERICO La siesta del cipres CD "At the time I was creating "La siesta del ciprés" I was very interested, and still am, in the sensations produced by listening to music while falling asleep. In Spanish, the word "duermevela" names that instant when we are awake and not asleep; a territory of fog and extreme lucidity. Listening to music in "duermevela” makes us enter the world of melodies, of insights and memories; the world of “La siesta del ciprés”. For “La siesta del ciprés” I worked for a long time with an old PC, which was over ten years old. Accordingly, the recording process was very slow and arduous, but rewarding with time. The album became a search of simplicity as craft. Sounds of cassette tapes reinforce, as an allegory, my imagination of beauty and love to rusticity." [Federico Durand] www.spekk.net 2010 €16.00
EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN Lament do-LP »Lament« heißt das brandneue Meisterwerk der Berliner Kultband Einstürzende Neubauten, geschrieben für die 100-jährigen Gedenkfeierlichkeiten des Beginns des Ersten Weltkrieges. Die flämische Stadt Diksmuide beauftrage die Einstürzenden Neubauten im Rahmen der 100-jährigen Gedenkfeierlichkeiten des Beginns des Ersten Weltkrieges zu den Arbeiten an »Lament«, dem neuen Album der 1980 in Westberlin gegründeten Band. Die Einstürzenden Neubauten verstehen »Lament« nicht als reines Studioalbum, sondern als eine Dokumentation der Geschichte der Stadt Diksmuide, wo das Werk im November 2014 uraufgeführt wird, bevor sie damit auf Tour gehen werden. »Lament« enthält viele bereits bestehende Elemente wie die beiden Prejazz-Songs der Marschkapelle The Harlem Hellfighters, die die US-Regierung als erste afroamerikanische Einheit in die Schlacht schickte. Das Album thematisiert zwei Texte des belgischen Autors Paul van den Broeck sowie ein Stück des weniger bekannten deutschen Schriftstellers Joseph Plauts, der die Geschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs aus Sicht eines Tieres erzählt. Des Weiteren singt Blixa Bargeld die deutsche Version von Pete Seegers Antikriegslied »Where Have All The Flowers Gone«, die Marlene Dietrich mit »Sag mir wo die Blumen sind« weltberühmt machen sollte. Die Band erweckte außerdem eine Nationalhymnne wieder zum Leben, die einst von Kriegsteilnehmerländern wie Deutschland, Großbritannien und Kanada gleichermaßen verwendet wurde. Schließlich folgt der dreigeteilte Titeltrack »Lament«, der eine Reihe historischer Wachszylinderaufnahmen enthält. Diese wurden damals von Sprachforschern deutscher Gefangenenlager aufgenommen, die ihre Insassen dazu zwangen, die Bibelstelle des »verschwenderischen Sohns« in ihrer eigenen Sprache zu rezitieren, von denen viele inzwischen ausgestorben sind. Über all dem schwebt die drastisch verlangsamte Version des Motetts des Komponisten Jacob Clemens non Papa, der im Diksmuide des 16. Jahrhundert lebte. // LAMENT the new album by Einstürzende Neubauten is released Friday 07 November 2014 on BMG Records. LAMENT should be heard as a studio reconstruction of a work primarily designed to be performed live, rather than an official new Einstürzende Neubauten LP proper. In truth, the piece can only be fully realised, as well as best experienced, in its physical embodiment, performed on or by founding member Andrew Unruh’s gigantic instruments and noise generating devices that visually evoke the horrors the work describes or embeds in the sounds they conjure from the filth and terror of the industrialised 20th century world at war with itself. But in fulfilling what at first appears to be a surprise commission for such a formidable longtime outsider group, Einstürzende Neubauten transformed the earthy, idiosyncratic contents they mined from academic, state, music hall and internet archives with the help of their two researchers into a richly complex cycle of original and cover songs and performance pieces. The music often originated in LAMENT’s storytelling needs, be it in terms of sounds used or compositions structured along First World War flow charts or scored from calendars of the involvement of the 20 plus countries embroiled in it. The way LAMENT plays off pre-existing and composed materials, pieces clipped together from historical records next to direct cover interpretations, or indeed their Frankenstein like construction of an ur-anthem/national hymn delivers a differently angled history of the war. Finally, LAMENT opens Bargeld’s case that the First World War never ended - the interwar and postwar periods being essentially pauses for breath as the great military powers carry on their conflict at some remove in faraway wars fought by proxy." [label / website info] 2014 €22.00
ELECTRIC SEWER AGE Bad white Corpuscule CD "Electric sewer age was thought up in 2006 by a man called John Deek (r.i.p). The original idea was for likeminded souls, amongst particularly the coil fraternity, too compose music, which would be released, with no credits to the creators. This would allow the listener to listen, and not have a preconceived bias, as to which song they liked best, based on their favourite composer etc. While in Bangkok 2006, I talked with Peter Christopherson (r.i.p) about the project and he jumped aboard. He supplied many loops which made their way to Texas and onto the UK. These segments might or might not be used in here, you explore. Danny Hyde continues his fantastical journey in sound with this second release under the ESA name and completely moves beyond expectations. Disproving the doubters, this EP is pretty much just him in his studio wrenching new creations out of his equipment; the trainspotters amongst us will no doubt pick out some of the shards he pulls from his past. But he doesn't make them the focus of what is going on here, they are there merely to accent, to add a bit of depth and help illuminate how many years he's been at this. Does he follow a muse? If so, it must not be one that operates in the traditional sense. Perhaps it is more of a compulsion to create and then endlessly refine what you've done down to the most primal of elements. There are ghosts all over this thing, you can feel the weight of their absence and at some points you swear you can actually hear them. Tricks of the sound field, the mirror casting back shadows. If anyone else is on here, they have come out of the ether to make an appearance. Don't be afraid, put on your headphones and immerse yourself into a symphony that Hyde terms "an ode to loss". He'd know. We can all see from the outside what happened over the last decade but for him, it was all right there. Up close and personal. Through the usage of heavily processed vocals and arcane terrestrial instrumentation, Hyde lives up to his reputation for creating amazingly detailed yet extremely dark electronic compositions. The symbiosis of organic and synthetic influences would be his forte and he's not holding anything back this time out, believe me, there's a feel to what is on here that isn't easily conceived. To just sit down and begin knocking out what 'Bad White Corpuscle' contains I don't think could be done unless you had planned and plotted out every last possible contingency down to the millisecond. I've played this a lot but by comparison he's probably got mixes and additional versions of what's on here that could fill terabytes of hard drive space without batting an eye. Electric Sewer Age exist between two worlds: the one of now and an older, more disturbing place which with the passage of time only becomes more savage and terrifying to visit. As it appears he's chosen to put Aural Rage to bed, we have these excursions to look forward to; every few years Mr. Hyde will come out of seclusion to reveal where he's at and where he's going. Clearly, this project is a form of therapy for the guy and having researched precisely what a bad white corpuscle is there's an uneasy feeling that foreshadowing is being employed here. I'm not privy to whom this refers, I can only hope they know what they're doing. This is so intense, so unflinchingly expressive that I come away completely drained. Up by Sunday. Peter. Very elegant electronica, as you are used from best Coil's albums. Dreamy and doped muzak for the real dreamer. Tracklist : 01. Grey corpuscle 3.56 02. Corpuscular corpuscle 5.11 03. Amber corpuscle 5.12 04. Rising corpuscle 8.40 05. Bad white corpuscle 6.27 06. Black corpuscle 5.20 " [label info] www.oldeuropacafe.com 2014 €16.00
ELIK, YURI / NOISES OF RUSSIA VOICES OF THE DEAD DVD-R "Photographer and videoartist Yuri Elik is primarily known as one of the founders and permanent members of multimedia project 2012, creating audio-video installations on various contemporary art festivals (SKIF, Heilige Feuer, Multivision, etc.). Apart from this Yuri performs on his own making video- and slide-shows for a number of experimental musical bands in St. Petersburg. Yuri is also the video show author for the performances of Simon Magus ballet written by D. Kakhovskiy and the designer of several CD artworks and websites. Gosha Solnzev (also known as "Van Gog" - 1g0g) - big industrial showman, leader of the project Noises of Russia well-known in Russia, organizer of several festivals, such as "Noise vs. Glamour", "Military Days", "Noisy Women", etc. Gosha has always claimed that he plays funeral music, so it's no wonder he showed interest in the phenomenon of voices of the dead, discovered by Friedrich Jürgenson in the late 50s of the past century. Electronic Voice Phenomenon (voices of the dead, Raudive voices) are the voices of anomalous origin appearing while making records on tape recorders or other electronic audio devices. EVP researches claim and have proof that this is a possible way of communication between physical and some other non-physical planes of existence. The exploration of this phenomenon led to an effective cooperation between Van Gog and Yuri which resulted in a series of live performances with the "Voices of the Dead" program and this short film, with 24 minutes an obscure psychedelic drama evolving in front of the spectator. A multi-layered collage of concrete visual images and kaleidoscopic colour fields constantly transforms, accompanied by unusual and uneasy sombre ambient with real voices of the dead samples interlaced in it's structure. As a bonus this disk also contains a 12-min. slide-film "City Spirits": alternation of photos by Yuri Elik with his own soundtrack constructed from city noises. Yuri skillfully focuses attention on subtleties of usual things that remain unseen to the eye of a usual human being, generally too busy with thinking over his insubstantial problems and forgetting about the beauty of the world surrounding him. The release is packed in a special cardboard sleeve and goes with a booklet with an encyclopaedic reference about the phenomenon of electronic voices." [label info] http://zhb.radionoise.ru/ 2006 €12.00
ELODIE (TIMO VAN LUIJK & ANDREW CHALK) La Lumiere Parfumee CD "The second album by Timo van Luijk & Andrew Chalk. While the debut album 'Echos Pastoraux' ( La Scie Doree) had the sentiments of a homely sketchbook memory,'La Lumiere Parfumee' is a new collection of eight pieces, bringing a more elaborate repertoire with delicate acoustic and electronic arrangements in an impressionistic pallette of pastel shades and shimmering opalescent rays. Packaged in handmade mini LP style gatefold cd sleeve. Release date : 30 December 2011 Catalogue No. : Faraway Press 020 Edition of 400 copies 1.Aubade 2.La Boite aux Souvenirs 3.Ame Pale 4.Mirage 5.Rayons Irises 6.La Voix du Lac 7.Arcade Oblique 8.Souffle de Cendre Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering." [label info] www.farawaypress.info "Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk's ongoing research in the world of atmospheric music adds another chapter through their latest album 'La Lumiere Parfumee'. Armed with a handful of acoustic sounds, rusty metal, a piano, flutes, violin, wine glasses and such like they play intimate music that sounds improvised. Which I guess is an odd thing since you could expect something more drone like, but that's simply not the trick of their trade. Through sparse notes they create a sense of emptiness, desolateness and melancholy. Electronics, when used, are only there is a very sparse way. 'Arcade Oblique' seems to me the only piece that use more of them, but it fits well with the more acoustic pieces. Very intimate music, reminding me of Idea Fire Company's 'Music From The Impossible Salon'." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2011 €16.00
EMITER / ARSZYN Emiszyn CD “Silence does not exist and emission lasts!” ist das Credo für diesen dritten Release auf dem noch tau-frischen MONOTYPE Records aus Warschau. EMITER aka Marcin Dymiter zusammen mit Klangkünstler und Schlagzeuger Krzysztof Topolski aka ARSZYN, der auch von der NEFRYT-Reihe bekannt ist. Neun improvisierte Stücke, electronics und handgespielt, feingespielte guitars & percussion... sehr schön und spannend....zwischen fast-Songstrukturiertem und free floating Sounds.... “.... The present project emiter . arszyn . emiszyn is the next part of our cooperation. Duet is the best ever dreamt team for a musical dialogue, free from any formal borders of musical groups. Everything here is made in a completely different way, using electronics. Improvisation, intuition and experiments are tracing the direction of our united displays. ....Musicians improvise electro-acoustic, spatial sounds structures; they do not avoid post noise improvisation or post rock stirring atmosphere. Dialogues between a percussion and guitar are seasoned with electronic and electro-acoustic searching. The almost ready CD will contain not only electro-acoustic improvisation but also dynamically improvised groove and next to the melody of a guitar computer’s noise that all created on a junction between acoustic and electronic searching of sounds and annotations.” [label info] www.monotyperecords.com 2005 €8.00
ENGLISH, LAWRENCE & STEPHEN VITIELLO Fable CD "Lawrence English and Stephen Vitiello are creators of mythology. Their mythology renders a series of acoustic spaces, haunted by narrative and hinting at happenings unseen, but certainly heard. With Fable, we are presented with their second duet. It chronicles three years of intermittent audio communications in search of new collaborative approaches. The results focus on the pair’s joint interests in modular synthesis, field recordings and the blurry boundaries between acoustic instrumentation and electronics. The album’s multiplicity of sources creates a weaving and at times overwhelming collage of materials that coalesce with considered intent. Its palette, whilst diverse remains focused and as the album progresses themes of arrhythmic percussion, electronic-like field recording, prepared piano and vintage synthesis begin to take form. Like the photography of the cover, these musical pieces bare witness to time, they exist in the moment, but are formed outside of a sense of singularity. Their textured qualities and intricate variations are evidence of an iterative production methodology that invites a depth of listening. A pondering and the intended goal that one may hear or even see their own internal spaces, haunted by a cast of sonic characters." [label info] www.dragonseyerecordings.com 2014 €13.00
ERIK M (eRikm) Sixperiodes CD Kollektion von sechs sehr unterschiedlichen Stücken für Tanz, Theater und Kino (2001-2004) von dem aussergewöhnlichen französischen Komponisten & Klangkünstler, der mit Computern, Turntables, Objekten & was auch immer arbeitet. Feinste konkrete Mikro-Sounds wirbeln hier herum und bilden doch kohärente Klangmuster, ob Drones, Pianotupfer, elektronische Sounds, konkrete cut-ups, ERIK M erschafft eine musikalische Sprache für die es noch keinen Namen gibt, die dynamisch-aggressiv aber auch sehr poetisch und surreal-zart sein kann. Für Sound-Explorer ! "sixpériodes departs from composed and improvised fragments of different media from dance or theatre performances, silent films or dance-conferences. far from standard soundtrack music, each creation here is accomplished using diverse approaches and techniques that demonstrate the most personal skills of erikm in combining different material - digital and acoustic sounds, field recordings and vinyl manipulations - in a unique way. his primary aim is no longer simply to quote his system of references but to create for himself a bank of singular material to compose without referring to other works, thus approaching a subtle abstraction and a sense of pause within contemporary sonic agitation. erikm has collaborated with the likes of fennesz, otomo yoshihide, musique concrète composer luc ferrari and avant turntablist christian marclay. he has released on such labels as hathut, for4ear, asphodel, metamkine, sonoris and others." (label info) “Described as a "display of ErikM compositions for dance, theatre and cinema between 2001 and 2004", this album is a charming alternative in the congested field of laptop/acousmatics, being imbued with a determined research for a sonic biology whose purpose goes far beyond the "soundtrack" definition. ErikM's target appears to be the action of freezing what moves into aural snapshots: he reduces his perceptions to the bare minimum, using fragments of intuition and sampled snippets to find a connection with the functions of the body, which most of this music seems to represent in an almost graphic manner. It feels like there is a strong correlation with the automatic reactions of our nervous system, most sounds zapping around like a stimulated grasshopper, therefore effectively fulfilling their scope of demarcating choreographic schemes and underlining images. This music is indeed extremely visual, yet absolutely suggestive when taken as pure electroacoustic circumstance, completely original and honestly transcendental but at the same time very substantial.” [Massimo Richi / Touching Extremes] “....It's hard to tell what is on those records and tapes, but throughout everything jumps and skips around like crazy, creating things to be very vibrant and lively. Most of the times rhythmical in a sort of non-linear way (even when it's a dance record!), combined with elements of noise and musique concrete, this also jumps stylistically all over the place, moving from strict improvised parts, such as the opening 'Les Paesines' to the more straight forward, almost industrialized rhythms 'Paris Qui Dort'. But that keeps the adrenaline of this disc going round and round. I enjoyed many of his collaborative works already, but as a first introduction to his solo work, I am even more impressed. Very good material...” [Vital Weekly] 2006 €15.00
ESMERINE Lost Voices LP Montréal chamber rock ensemble Esmerine return with the new full-length album Lost Voices, the most dynamic and incendiary record of the group’s career, following its highly-acclaimed and Juno award-winning 2013 release Dalmak. Led by co-founders Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) on various mallet instruments and Rebecca Foon (Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Saltland) on cello, Esmerine also includes drummer/percussionist Jamie Thompson (The Unicorns, Islands, Little Scream) and multi-instrumentalist Brian Sanderson. Lost Voices is the result of multiple recording sessions led by Vid Cousins (Kid Koala, Amon Tobin, Colin Stetson) and was mixed/produced by Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes) at his Breakglass Studio in Montréal. The album features several tracks that are hands down among the band’s most rocking, making newfound use of electric guitars (courtesy a variety of guest players) alongside the group’s nucleus of marimba, strings and percussion. Expanding from Dalmak’s core quartet, Esmerine also welcomes bassist Jeremi Roy (who began touring with the group in 2013) as an official member; his contrabass work adds potent low-end to the heavier and more muscular jams on the new album. Lost Voices is equally notable for the appearance of GY!BE/Silver Mt. Zion violinist Sophie Trudeau as a featured guest; her intense and incomparable string sounds/styles elevate the potency of the record’s most soaring and high-octane pieces, particularly on opener “The Neighborhoods Rise”, “19/14” and the centerpiece track of Side Two, “Funambule”. Thompson’s drumming comes to the fore on these pieces too, and on the rock-steady minimalism of “A River Runs Through This City”, which satisfyingly harkens back to the likes of Tied & Tickled Trio, June Of 44, Shipping News and Lungfish. Lost Voices can fairly be called Esmerine’s “rock” album, expanding upon the band’s celebrated prowess at deploying structure and dynamic, balancing melodic expression against methodical restraint through a diversity of stylistic touchstones (minimalism, post-rock, math-rock, desert rock) while allowing for explosive crescendos of exuberant density and maximalism that most notably distinguishes this record from previous work. The album nonetheless includes several instances of more spacious, searching and/or tender compositions – not only in some of the opening sections of the rock songs, but in stand-alone marimba-and-string-led pieces like “Pas Trop Pas Tropes” and “My Mamma Pinned A Rose On Me” and in the two piano-and-string minuets that close each side of the record. Lost Voices is a deeply satisfying and evocative journey and another brilliant iteration of Esmerine’s distinctive instrumental chamber rock; cerebral and visceral, controlled and volatile, and wholly cinematic in scope throughout. Thanks for listening. PERSONNEL Rebecca Foon: Cello, harmonium, piano, voice Bruce Cawdron: Marimba, bowed marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone Jamie Thompson: Drums, marimba, glockenspiel Brian Sanderson: Violin, ekonting, cavalry cornet, f horn, sarod, bass guitar Jérémi Roy: Contrabass, bass guitar GUESTS James Hakan Dedeoglu: Guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7) Sophie Trudeau: Violin (tracks 1, 5, 7, 9) Jace Lasek: Guitar (tracks 1, 7), synth (track 6) Pierre-Guy Blanchard: Darbuka, riq, glockenspiel (track 7) Ian Ilavsky: Guitar (track 4) Vid Cousins: Piano (track 5) Colin Stetson: EVI (track 8) Recorded by Vid Cousins at Mixart and Six Saint V in Montreal. Mixed by Jace Lasek and Ian Ilavsky at Breakglass in Montreal. Mastered by Ryan Morey. https://esmerine.bandcamp.com/album/lost-voices 2015 €22.50
ETANT DONNES Bleu do-LP Following the first ever vinyl reissues of Aurore and Royaume/Aimant + Aimant, Penultimate Press make available the final part of this extraordinary trilogy. Bleu is the final gesture and culmination of this period of creation where poésie and la nature form a magical alliance that resonates as an alchemical wedding. Having the conviction that Bleu was the ultimate arc based on the purity of natural sound and poetry, leaning towards a mystical spiritual search towards their own souls the band moved into comradery and collaboration with friends and ideals such as Lydia Lunch and Alan Vega. A1. Aime - Moi A2. Droite A3. Mercure B1. Sirène B2. S'envole C1. Pierre Lune C2. Comète D1. Force De L'amour https://penultimatepress.bandcamp.com/album/bleu-2 "There are artefacts within the history of recorded music that stand entirely on their own; bound to the circumstances of their moment, while owing allegiance to none. Such is the case of Étant Donnés’ Bleu, originally issued by the legendary Staalplaat imprint in 1994, now receiving its first ever vinyl pressing by Penultimate Press. The final instalment of a tetralogy of field recording based works by the duo, preceded by Aurore, Royaume and Aimant + Aimant - also previously reissued by Penultimate Press - the album’s subtle textures, natural ambiences, and disarming vocalizations are imbued with a startling sense of intimacy, weaving a free-standing aural context from the inner and outer worlds of the singular minds that brought it to be. Founded in 1977 by Morocco born brothers, Eric and Marc Hurtado, Étant Donnés - taking their name from Marcel Duchamp's last major work - belongs to the flowers of sonic creativity and experimentation that developed in the wake of punk, hybridising the techniques and approaches of the avant-garde and DIY with countercultural attitudes, across a body of work more than 30 albums deep - including collaborations with Alan Vega, Genesis P. Orridge, Michael Gira, Lydia Lunch, Philippe Grandrieux, Mark Cunningham, and Bachir Attar - that traversed the fields of experimental film, performance, musique concrète, field recording, and experimental music. Bleu, originally released in 1994, is the fourth in a tetralogy of records that includes Aurore, Royaume and Aimant + Aimant, each being works of musique concrète built from body of field recordings and poetic utterances by the duo. Like its predecessors, the album not only defies all standard notions of genre, but deftly avoids orthodox perceptions of what its core practices usually entail. Eight works - spanning four sides of the double LP - rise as meetings of whispers - the whispering voices of the brothers intervening with the whispering textures produced by nature and discreet acts - seemingly resting at the verge of a violent scream that never comes. Field recordings of natural occurrences and intentional actions intertwine, blurring the boundaries purpose and chance, as subtle deployment of sound collage challenges the location of the artist’s hand, laying a striking foundation for the raw and unmediated vocals that punctuate the album’s length; the sounds of splashing water, scraping pebble, crackling fire, percussive rhythms, the rustles of nature, and the human voice building an uncanny body of magical narratives that points the brothers’ roots in the work of Duchamp. Fascinating, immersive, deeply personal, and remarkably tense, Étant Donnés’ Bleu is a revelatory inner world; a creative wonder unlike any other that gives the impression of having appeared fully formed. Issued by Penultimate Press in its first ever vinyl edition - spanning a full twoLPs - and its first ever reissue of any kind since its original 1994 CD release, this one is not to be missed." [Soundohm] 2021 €35.00
ETIENNE, YVAN Twist LP listen: https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/album/twist YVAN ETIENNE TWIST A1 : Cinq réflectances inversées - 21:38 B1 : L’énergie du non - 18:59 _ Composed and recorded by Yvan Etienne. Serge Modular, Field recordings. CD : Mastered by Yvan Etienne / LP : Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cut by Mike Grinser at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork by Gregory Weiss / Design : Yvan Etienne. Produced by Aposiopèse. For Serge Modular and field recordings. French artist/activist Yvan Etienne, is engaged in research in the field of sound art. As a musician, he composes and plays pieces using electronic, phonography, analog synthesizers and the hurdy-gurdy. His sound art research questions the perception and physicality of sound spaces. Collaborations with Phill Niblock, Yann Gourdon, Richard Glover, Brice Jeannin, Patrice Grente, Robert Poss, Paul Panhuysen, Marie Verry, la novia, Perinne Bourel… CD : Mastered by Yvan Etienne / LP : Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cut by Mike Grinser at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork by Gregory Weiss "In an edition of three-hundred copies, here is the sophomore effort by French artist / activist Yvan Etienne. Twist is quite welcome as we haven’t heard from him since 2014’s Feu which was a great debut, also on Aposiopèse, who have been quietly putting out minimal sounds for nearly fifteen years now. There are two long tracks here, so let’s get right to it. From the outset it’s a textural affair, one of granular microsound and distant tone. The open mic is quite fresh, clear as it drags and burrows through a ground of hiss and light crackling. The first pregnant pause is stultifying but leads to an airy adjacent passage. Cinq réflectances inversées presents observations in staring into a mirror way too long (?) or the sense of stasis when one is at zero gravity knowing that might change at any given moment. Etienne manages to fluidly switch between left and right channels to keep your attention between vignettes. There’s a lot to contemplate about this modest composition in tonal slide and play on lightness. The blunt rise and fall of hum dips and writhes as heavy metal (not the genre) is toyed with. Everything induces a sense of slowness, until the clang of metallic objects enters the fray – suddenly there’s a sense of upheaval like a prisoner squirming in shackles. Obviously this is broken into five parts, that accounts for the quiet lulls, and each tells its own story. The last of these catches the listener in a moderate rainfall, with a sonar or scanner of some sort buzzing as it surveills the area. There’s a Orwellian sensibility embedded herein. L’énergie du non starts with a singular high pitch tone, that sounds as if it has been split down the middle. It grows in voluminosity and scope, spreading far and wide with various high and low tendrils of modulation. This shifts and winds, and continues for nearly six minutes – which is alarming. Once it dies out there is a lull, and a lower and more gravelly buzz begins and peters rather quickly only to linger in the background. Is this some sort of force field being tested (?), am I being told to beware/stay out (?), or have I landed in some transitory space where various transmissions are yet un-encoded. This low grade yet seemingly robust under-the-surface energy is supposedly of ‘not‘ though there lies the tension. It’s what you can’t see, but only imagine, that will have you conjuring any number of questionable entities. Fortunately about midway this becomes an homage to old school microsound clicks and hiss. And with each rotation this literally begins to swirl with a windy effect that brings the static energy into the center. The end is a mix of field recordings of stacking and cracking wood, of rain slick streets and a hi-tone that separates the real world from that which is just beyond our immediate scope." [TJ Norris / Toneshift] 2019 €18.00
EXPO 70 (EXPO SEVENTY) Kinetic Tones LP Kinetic Tones front“Laced with drones, heavy and leaden as cinder block bunkers, and shot through with a cosmic strain of psychedelia that unwinds as much as unravels the soul.” – Raven Sings The Blues 500 copies on 140g bronze vinyl, housed in a 100% sustainable card sleeve. An additional 20 test pressing copies on black vinyl, housed in hand-crafted sleeves with alternative artwork, were available exclusively on this website. Both editions come with a free download code. Tracklist: A1 – Static Harmonic Pendulum (10:32) A2 – Eidetic Memory (07:56) B1 – Lucid Landscapes (07:50) B2 – Ascensions from Dusk (12:34) The Artist: One of Drone’s most prolific artists, Justin Wright aka Expo ’70 can look back on an impressive discography counting more than 40 albums since 2003, which have undoubtedly influenced many other musicians in the Experimental/Psychedelic/Drone community and attracted a huge followership in the scene. This has resulted in extensive touring, the last one through 11 countries in Europe, and several live releases. Now Expo ’70 returns with a brand-new studio album, showcasing his trademark organic guitar drones that propel the listener ever deeper (or higher?) into other states of consciousness. Kinetic Tones was recorded all to analog reel-to-reel with no over-dubs, which gives the whole album an even more personal and intimate feel. The album spans over four tracks that range from minimalist Drone over spooky Psychedelia to harmonic and beautiful soundscapes, reaching a total running time of just under 40 minutes. The Animal: Flores Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus floris) Sumatra orangutan Expo ’70 dedicates his release to the critically endangered Flores hawk-eagle. Due to ongoing habitat loss within its small range across the Indonesian forests of Flores, Lombok, and Sumbawa, capture for the cage bird trade, and persecution due to its habit of taking chickens, the Flores hawk-eagle is evaluated as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is estimated that less than 100 pairs remain. All profits will be donated to the EDGE of Existence bird conservation project to finance much-needed research to establish population size and ecological requirements, and education of local people to halt persecution. 2015 €20.00
FAVARON, GIANLUCA Variations (Fragments Of Evanescent Memories) CD Gianluca Favaron (Under the Snow, Zbeen, Ab'she) returns with a new work based on the study of repetition. "Even variation is a form of repetition": quoting Arnold Schönberg, Favaron has elaborated his concept of repetition by frangling the sound to break it down into infinitesimal parts. Therefore adding a new piece in his discography that represents an essential starting point for new research. In the sound. Of sound. 2018 €13.00
FAVARON, GIANLUCA / STEFANO GENTILE / CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLFF / ROD MODELL LANDSLIDE (For Fields Recordings and Sine Waves) do-LP 2x12" LP + 12" 4-page insert, ltd. 300 copies     Side A - Landslide (17’58”) by Gianluca Favaron and Stefano Gentile Side B - Landslide reworked (18’07”) by Rod Modell Side C - Landslide (remix) (17’57”) by Carl Michael von Hausswolf Side D - Landslide (remix) reworked (18’01”) by Rod Modell On October 9, 1963, 260 million cubic meters of rock broke off from the top of Monte Toc. It fell into the reservoir of the Vajont dam, producing an enormous wave of at least 50 million cubic meters of water. The dam, completed in 1959 and one of the biggest in the world at the time, did not suffer any serious damage. However, flooding destroyed several villages in the valley and killed almost 2,000 people. In some ways, it is as if the landslide swept away the past and the future of an entire community. An apocalypse lasting just a few minutes left scars and stigmata for decades to follow. Time is crystallised in an eternal present. Around the Vajont area, you often hear small landslides. Landslide: a natural downwards movement, more or less rapid, of large masses of earth and rock; also the hole created by this movement, and the accumulation of material from this release. Movement and accumulation are two keywords that guided the search for the sounds hidden in the silence of the Vajont landscape. In quiet moments today, the landscape reveals reverberations of it’s past... the movements of downward sliding, crystallized substances, and ghosts of its previous inhabitants. Frozen in time. Exploring the area, one wonders if anything remains under the surface. The original version of Landslide, and the Carl Michael Von Hausswolf version, re-construct nature in a unique and unusual way. Sewn with the smallest amount of sonic fabric. Resulting not in a verbatim recreation of an event, or emotional responses of that event, but rather.... a more intangible interpretation. Impulses that trigger feelings of the fall, the movement of land, and detachment. Expressed with a new code of sound. Mixed together, overlapped, collided, reaccumulated, and merged together again. While the Modell versions offer a more organic approach. Sounds of the valley at night, layered with psychotropic drones and other hovering noises. Echoes of present combined with echoes of the past. CALAMITA/À (2013-ongoing) is a tool for investigating the contemporary Vajont and the topic of catastrophes in general. The project is curated by Gianpaolo Arena and Marina Caneve. “0” is a collaboration between CALAMITA/À and Silentes where visual arts join sound. 13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2142_favaron_gentile_von_hausswolff_modell_landslide.htm 2022 €36.00
FEAR DROP No. 17: Arctic Antiphon - L'imaginaire musical des glaces mag & CD "Fear Drop 17 : Arctic Antiphon – 2014 L’imaginaire musical des glaces - Imaginary Ice Soundscapes Revue + CD Polar Twist (10 morceaux inédits par : Thomas Köner, Final (J.K. Broadrick), COH, Jana Winderen, Netherworld, Marc Namblard, Harpagès, Galati, Halspirit, Aidan Baker. Interviews : Thomas Köner, Jana Winderen, Alessandro Tedeschi Articles : Musiques d’évocation : T. Köner, K.Schulze, Troum / A. Baker, J. Hudak et S. Mathieu, L. English, Øe & E. Coniglio, Materia Aurora, SleepResearchFacility, L. Marchetti, Tünel, M. Mantra, Penumbra, Lull, Biosphere, Galati, Parhelion, Netherworld, Glacial Movements (Bvdub, Oöphoi, Rapoon…). Musiques d’exploration : J. Winderen, M. Namblard, D. Quin, J.F. Laporte, C. Olan Musiques des Inuits : 55 historical recordings" [label info] www.feardrop.net 2014 €12.00
FEARTHAINNE same do-CD FEARTHAINNE ist ein Band-Projekt mit den zwei Leuten von FAUNA, die mir ihrem Debut-Album kürzlich beeindrucken konnten. Auch hier sind ihre tracks episch angelegt und minimal instrumentiert, und nicht minder emotional wirkungsvoll. Nach einem fantastischen Poly-Drone Intro setzt sich ihr erhaben trauriger Akustik-Gitarren Folk (der an ruhigere NEUROSIS bzw. STEVE ON TILL oder MICHAEL GIRA erinnert) in Szene, der von Sehnsucht nur so durchdrungen zu sein scheint, begleitet von sparsamer Perkussion; auch Zither & Violine werden sehr schön integeriert. FEARTHAINNE entwerfen hier auf ihren urlangen Tracks die stets mehrere Teile haben, eine Art ambienten "Ritual Drone Folk" mit starkem Naturbezug, der einen nicht kalt lässt.. und wieder glänzt GLASS THROAT mit so einem wunderschönen grossformatigen Doppel-Klappcover aus speziellem Karton.. "I have the tremendous honor of announcing, what is to be our Winter Solstice 2008 release. From Cascadian soil, FEARTHAINNE will bless us with a pure nostalgia for being. A debut full length 2xCD, embracing four deeply potent healing crafts of acoustic mourning & regeneration. Featuring the two spirits of Cascadia's Ritual Black Metal atavism FAUNA. Fearthainne's first release represents the nadir of a journey into earth. Conceptualized and written in wild environments in the West, this collection of songs is a picture of the labyrinth traveled by a human organism, seeking life outside the long shadows of unremitting gray. The seekers masquerading as musicians who have created this document have used these sounds as a conduit for the reconnection with being, and have chosen to make it available to those who might hear the voice of the Others speaking to them from within. Exclusively utilizing acoustic instrumentation, Fearthainne is the unending rain that calls forth the blossom, the harbinger of the organic future we inevitably face. A sonic expression of green in all its capacities, this project is a document of the search for Home, a declaration that we will never settle for existence in the meaningless maze of history. As beings we have struggled for many years to imbue our lives with depth, bending our ears towards the chorus of elders that the natural world is. Brought to fruition in a culture whose theme is loss, we recognize the wisdom of Earth in the various shifts that will unravel these ten millennia of aberration, and celebrate the dawning of day for what is truly human. As participants in this calamity, we call forth those spirits of the land, sea and sky who have always borne witness to our cyclical lives, the deep mind of which we are only a part, to see us and hear our voices as we proclaim our allegiance to Life. May this blood that flows from us cleanse the land of its wounds. May our animal bodies shield our battered hearts as we break the hands of Time. May this be the end..." [label info] "... But in Fearthainne, all of the buzz and lbuster have been replaced by delicate crystalline guitar, gruff emotive vocals, deep ominous drones, all woven into a slow, drifting, meditative mountain folk. On the same label that in the past has brought us mysterious sounds from At The Head Of The Woods, The Elemental Chrysalis, Ruhr Hunter, Alethese and Beneath The Lake, Fearthainne sound right at home, blending dense whirring minimal soundscapes, with gentle meditative folk rituals. Long long tracks that slowly blossom, smoldering, clouded in warm browns and cool greys, strings weep and moan, effects gently cradle the various elements, adding texture more than changing the sound. Mesmerizing, trancelike ruminations on nature, on death, on the beyond. Simple percussion demarcates sprawling folk strum and fields of lilting shimmer and and delicate flutter. The vocals are a strange contrast, almost atonal, moaned more than sung, reminding us of solo records by either of the Neurosis frontmen, giving the proceedings a much more ominous vibe, ritualistic and hauntingly spiritual. Gorgeous in its simplicity, mysterious in its minimalism, Fearthainne is the soundtrack to a land outside of time, of trees towering over a world unspoilt, clouds drifting across empty skies, night turning into day, the cycle of life continuing on, the world and the universe around it gradually moving into a new, more magical existence. Beautifully sublime. Incredible packaging, full color 6 panel oversized sleeve, amazing images of ancient forests, late night rituals, and the band gathered beneath a mighty tree, cradling a baby, dressed like witches, and looking like a band of bearded forest dwellers (which they may very well be!)." [Aquarius Records review] www.glassthroatrecordings.com 2009 €18.50
FERREYRA, BEATRIZ / NATASHA BARRETT Souvenirs Caches / Innermost LP "Persistence of Sound presents a split LP from two leading voices in electroacoustic music. It would be hard to find a better-suited combination of contemporary acousmatica on one record.  Beatriz Ferreyra and Natasha Barrett are known for their intense exploration of the movement of sounds through space. Ferreyra has been at the cutting edge of developments in acousmatic music and sound morphology since she joined Pierre Schaeffer’s small team of researchers in his tape experiments at the GRM Paris studios in 1963. Barrett has established an international reputation as a composer of 3D audio and ambisonics. Following her 2019 album, Huellas Entreveradas, Beatriz Ferreyra returns with her major new work, Souvenirs Cachés (2020), a free journey through a distinctive mix of Ferreyran sounds, a carousel of disembodied vocal sounds, growls and susurrations, sprinkled across the stereo image, and joined intermittently by sustained drones or ethereal, melodic whines, with a hint of prepared piano. Hernan Gomez’s percussive and manipulated flute is featured throughout. Natasha Barrett’s Innermost (2019) was first composed with natural but abstracted recordings from two outdoor Norwegian events. These were mass community celebrations, particular to Norwegian culture and devoid of political anxiety, although some of the electronically-treated, disembodied vocals seem to express elements of angst or anger. The interplay of manipulated vocal sounds and marching band samples contextualises the music in the open acoustics of a public event. Barrett describes the second section as an example of her notion of ‘spatial counterpoint,’ where many layers of minimal pitched sounds linger, intersect and interact. The record also features Ferreyra’s Murmureln (2003), commissioned as a danceable electroacoustic piece. Ferreyra’s Argentinian roots are explored in a playful rendition of an old Comparsita, made from collaged vocal sounds and sampled fragments of tango musicians Astor Piazzola, Anibal Troilo, Susana Rinaldi and Roberto Goyeneche. Beatriz Ferreyra has been at the forefront of electroacoustic music composition since 1963 when she joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales as one of Pierre Schaeffer’s research assistants. She is one of very few composers still performing who was instrumental at the beginning of Schaeffer’s theories of sound objects and reduced listening techniques. She continues to compose commissioned works and perform around the world in a career that has spanned some sixty years. Natasha Barrett describes her inspiration as coming from the immediate sounding matter of the world around us, as well as the way it behaves. “I’m really concerned with the idea of tangibility. Sound is invisible, but we can do things that make you want to reach out and touch it.” Barrett's works are performed and commissioned throughout the world, and have received a long list of prizes, including the Giga-Hertz Award and the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Awards." 2021 €25.00
FIND HOPE IN DARKNESS Locked so tightly in our Dreams CD Moving Furniture Records is very proud to present the debut CD for Find Hope In Darkness, which is the alias of the 15 year old musician Glenn Dick from Ghent, Belgium. Locked So Tightly In Our Dreams is his first CD release after two download only releases. Where on his download releases he searches for a combination of broken beats and post-rock for Locked So Tightly In Our Dreams he explores his own boundaries in drone music and the darker sides of the ambient atmospheres. Close your eyes and drown in the deep dark sounds of Find Hope In Darkness. Locked So Tightly In Our Dreams is limited to 300 copies and comes in A5 sized artwork created by Helena Sanders. www.movingfurniturerecords.com 2014 €12.00
FIRST LAW Beyond IO CD / 12 "First Law's potency of sound increases with each release in atmosphere and recounting interaction. "Beyond IO" casts a large shade and proves once more the inimitable profile of this artist. Twanging sculptures manifested by an immense power of frequencies are falling like a tempest into a sensational and pulsating world always stored by multilayered levels. The CD/12inch set contains 90 minutes of musical reconnaissances enmeshed in a homogeneous resonance and represents the equilibrium of modulated sound research, electronic songwriting and an not-ending innovative stream of ideas. Close your eyes and open your ears and dig deep into a galaxy generated by tonal and artistical visions. Enter the plateau of ultimate sound design and enjoy the view from the observation tower over all categorical perception! Gatefold LP sleeve, limited 525 copies." [press release] 2004 €17.00
  A Future so bright CD "In its 20 years of existence -meanwhile the mastermind Andreas Wahnmann also has been active in several other musical projects- FIRST LAW released six full length CDs up to now and developed a trademark in sound research that is truly genre defying. The album title and the cover art for this magical 7th album stand in strong contrast to the musical content and the album manifests its ironical and deliberately conflicting nature right from the start. Deep and throbbing rhythmic patterns, endless layers of guitars droning and manipulated vocals are opposed by disturbingly beautiful melodies. The complexity of the recordings just emphasizes its depressing nature and takes the listener on a journey through sound and emotion. A FUTURE SO BRIGHT is nothing less than an outstanding sound-scape that flows like a hallucinatory maelstrom and marks the darkest release of FIRST LAW so far." [label info] www.loki-found.de 2012 €13.00
FOETUSDREAMS Brouillard CD-R "Winter-Light is extremely proud and happy to announce its very first release on the Winter-Light label by the Dutch dark ambient producer, FoetusDreams. "Brouillard" is the first full length dark ambient album produced by FoetusDreams, who has previously contributed music to compilations.

From start to finish "Brouillard" is a real ambient journey; sometimes an introspective one, sometimes a glance from the inside looking out and far beyond the reach of the human eye. The tracks are beautifully sculpted pieces of ambient excellence and from the opening moments of the first you are transported into the world of "FoetusDreams". Rich drones resonate across starkly crafted, ice-cold landscapes where your only companions are the sounds that flow around you. Vibrant musical layers, occasionally punctuated with a clever use of samples, draw the listener ever further away from reality towards a deeper, more meaningful sense of self. You could easily be standing on the edge of the universe looking out, or traversing the caverns of your own mind in a search for that place of inner peace. The title track "Brouillard" is a master class in drone ambient with its ever present trance inducing hum that lowers a mist over the eyes and takes you to a very dark place indeed.

If you are looking to go on a journey then it begins right here. The tracks have been mastered by Frederic Arbour from Cyclic Law.

"There is only one God and that God is man himself." 1. Way Of Be 2. Abandoned Planet 3. Winter Light 4. Cavern 5. Travel Within 6. Slowly Approaching A Dead Star 7. Brouillard 8. Interference 9. Molecular Cloud 10. Endless Horizon

 Professionally manufactured CD-r comes in a beautifully produced 6-panel digipack. 10 tracks, total running time 62:51. Edition is limited to 150 copies." [label info] www.winter-light.nl "The dutch label Winter Light comes out with its first full-length release, composed by the Dutch project Foetusdreams. Beginning with the first song, ‘Way Of Be’, we are given a hint to what this opus stands for: sacral, atheistic dark ambient, as suggested by the recitation ‘There is only one God and that God is man himself”, repeated on the droning fluid of a choral-tinged musical line. ‘Abandoned Planet’ is a cinematic picture of an irremediable future, a play on indefinite and elusive notes, as if covered by the very dust that will whip out everything we now observe in such a careful manner. This same absence of light that the music suggests here will immerse into darkness those who once were saints and murderers alike… ‘Winter Light’ contains even more grave accents and sullen notes, a saturnine sense of despondency, as if this light, diffused somewhere in the distance, could be the only real thing between the worthless earth and a sky that simply does not exist. And those piano chords, so naive and worldly, are written like an irrelevant epitaph on the tombstone that spares you from another daylight. From here, a place of eternal farewell, the piece ‘Cavern’ ressembles an invitation to a voluptuous meeting within the caves of the earth and what, by an anatomical reading, should represent traces of the earth’s disease; holes and gangrenas in its crust come now to be the only place still safe and pure. In parallel, the following track, ‘Travel Within’, moves more fluidly: blood here and there, coagulated and bubbling, in response to a personal prophilaxy directed to the external world. This return to the womb imprints a suggestive movement to the music’s metabolism and therefore the drones are let loose to encircle the mind in a hypnotic and quite perverse attitude. Someone said that the dream is the music of the soul. ‘Slowly Approaching A Dead Star’ corresponds to such a dreaming of the impossible. A song built on a catatonic development of dazzling cosmic drones. Out of this dream, from which one should never wake up if they want the dream to really materialize, we are taken to the next song, ‘Brouillard’. Here the sculpture is different, adopting a more industrial style. The pulsating drones reside on flashes of undertones and the musical line is completed by an Amerindian poem interrupted at intervals by a French nihilistic monologue. It should be the album’s pièce de résistance, because it’s simply sublime in its cynical shrewdness of the text, maintained along with that gloomy Dalinian melody, a pure postmodern folk song. I have avoided giving references, but ‘Interference’ reminded me so much of one of the liturgies from MZ 412’s ‘Infernal Affairs’. The crushing feeling of religiousness and demonic energy, which actually translates in meta-nihilism, pervades this song all along. At the hearing of the escalating drones, the great spaces of hollow matter receive a new personality. On ‘Molecular Cloud’ the Dutch artist seems to paint his drones on the very air around him with gentle brushes, in tones of grey that no soon are dried up, remain imprinted solely on the listener’s mind. The massive 63-minute long album closes with ‘Endless Horizons’. This journey between vivid drone sculptures has been a passage between the world as one sees it and the world as one feels it, a walk through this multifaceted corridor that we can take only in dreams, or music, or mist." [Santa Sangre] 2014 €12.00
FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT [FAMP] The Unlistening Place CD "Fossil Aerosol Mining Project are an enigmatic lot, comprised of sonic archeologists residing the American Midwest. Their work spans several decades and is almost always in flux through the variable states of contextual re-investigation and technological degradation. Aesthetically, FAMP align with the post-industrial research of :zoviet*france:, Cranioclast and Robert Turman. Bacteria damaged tape loops, ghostly time-lag accumulation and the excavation of mediated sound from suburbia’s failures are key components to the Fossil Aerosol’s working process. The core tracks of The Unlistening Place were recorded in 2015, and at the time were intended to be part of what was to be the final Fossil Aerosol album, scheduled for a distant release. But history circled back on itself, and the result was a reworking of future tracks, alongside more new material. Historiography eating its own tail." [label info] "Fossil Aerosol Mining Project are an American experimental music legend. They’ve been making and releasing music and soundart since before I was even conceived, so to have my hands on their brand new release is quite the occasion—especially considering the fact that, at some point, the project was meant to be put to an end after over two decades of existence. According to the liner notes for The Unlistening Place, some of the music on it may have actually been a part of this goodbye material, which was recorded to celebrate the demise of the project. And if you can name a better label than the Helen Scarsdale Agency for a style of music created from various sources of damaged media, decaying film and long-forgotten tape, and coming from a project anticipating its termination, well… I’ll help you: You can’t. The Unlistening Place is an emotional and musical rollercoaster. The sound is warm, textural, and obscure. Fossil Aerosol Mining Project don’t appear to enjoy staying in the same space musically. Each and every song is like a separate realm, a separate artifact, and I guess this is due to the different source material which was (ab)used for the different tracks. The Unlistening Place can sometimes be dreamy (‘Traditional String Invocation’, ‘Silent Time’, ‘Traditional Referent’) or mechanic (‘Tar Prodigy 2’); however, it mostly gravitates toward building sparse soundscapes (‘The Unlistening Place 1’, as well as its second and third chapters) with their rumbling subs, analog decomposition, and waves of transparent drones. The tape sometimes feels like a sonic cage for all of the sounds it was able to capture. It’s like a prison or a collection of dead and long-forgotten living beings whose voices you’re not really sure if you’re actually hearing or if they exist only in your head. Due to its obscurity, The Unlistening Place sometimes reminds me of a lighter and more friendlier version of People-eaters and their mixtapes on Aetheric Records. With The Unlistening Place, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project creates realms which exist to oppress and exhibit everything we’re often blind to or tend to just leave behind. Luckily, we have humans who are still keen on unearthing such artifacts, thus transforming them into other ones so we learn to chew for a bit longer before shoving another piece of what’s new and hot in our consumerist mouths. 2017 €14.50
FRIEDL, HERIBERT BACK_FORWARD CD "This cd is solely based on recordings of the hackbrett (cymbalon). It is a research of playing and digital processing of the instrument itself. The tracks should show the changes of concrete sounds into abstraction, without losing the soul of the sound itself. On BACK_FORWARD musical movement happens in a clearly defined space. Even though the initial point and the endpoint are never the same, the path between is always equal.' Limited edition of 300." [label info] www.nonvisualobjects.com 2006 €14.50
FUCHS, LIMPE & VIZ MICHAEL KREMIETZ Kugel Haus Musik CD Limpe Fuchs & Viz Michael Kremietz - Live CD „KUGELHAUSMUSIK“ A Audionautic Newspaper between Experimntal Zenflute, Pendelbronze, Neue Musik, Dadanoise, Crying Silence & the Film in your Ears ! Limpe Fuchs, (pendulum bronze, violin part, timpani, lithophone). Born in Munich in 1941, is a German composer and sound artist. Viz Michael Kremietz. (Shakuhachi, didgeridoo, gongs, stones, neutrinos). He has been doing sound research in the areas of ambience, experimental world music, theater and performance music for 20 years. Also available: ENDORPHONIC. Joint CD with Hans Joachim Irmler from FAUST: Limpe Fuchs, (Pendelbronze, Violine Stimme, Pauken, Lithophon). 1941 in München geboren, ist eine deutsche Komponistin und Klangkünstlerin. Viz Michael Kremietz . (Shakuhachi, Didgeridoo, Gongs, Steine, Neutrinos). Seit 20 Jahren betreibt er Klangforschung in den Bereichen Ambiente, Experimentelle Weltmusik, Theater- und Performancemusik. Auch erhältlich: ENDORPHONIC. Gemeinsame CD mit Hans Joachim Irmler von FAUST: Title: Kugel Haus Musik Artist: Limpe Fuchs Featuring: Viz Michael Kremietz Recording & mastering: Sascha Stadelmeier Date of release on play loud: September 2019 Limpe Fuchs: viola, vocals, wooden horn (holzhorn), balls (kugeln), percussion, lithophon; Viz Michael Kremietz: shakuhachi, yitaki; sound installation, gong Concert recording from April 2012, Waldorfschule Wangen https://www.playloud.org/limpefuchs.html 2019 €10.00
FUENTES, MATHIEU Ily, Almeria MC « Ily, Almería » is the second album by French composer and performer Matthieu Fuentes, who debuted in 2021 with a promising album on Penultimate Press. Matthieu’s music sprung from the "musique concrète" tradition, using elements and fragments of electroacoustic music, field recording and sound art. « Ily, Almería » features ambiguous sources and unknown presences recorded from 2018 to 2022. Manipulated and re-edited on a computer and a Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder, these materials are brought together to give a polysemic perception of space, sometimes with the help of synthetic trickery. Dreamed scenes, texts, questions on acousmatic and time arts fuel the process of a poetic research. Like a distant and distorted memory, « Ily, Almería » wanders in reality and fiction, media and body, the domestic and the high-speed outside world, tangible and delirium, in and out-of-frame phenomena. The sonic outcome is a fragile assemblage, a dynamic interplay of well sculpted nervous collages, overwhelming tunnels, smoother sequences and delicate soundscapes. « Ily, Almería » has a total length of 40 min. It’s available on a limited edition of 100 copies. On "Le Rideau" Bagpipes – Lise Barkas Cello – Stéphane Clor Guitar – Zoe Heselton https://moremars.bandcamp.com/album/ily-almer-a https://moremars.bandcamp.com/album/ily-almer-a 2023 €9.50
FULLMAN, ELLEN In The Sea do-LP "Ellen Fullman began developing The Long String Instrument in her St. Paul, Minnesota studio in 1980 and moved to Brooklyn the following year. Inspired by composer and instrument builder Harry Partch, Fullman's large-scale work creates droning, organ-like overtones that are as unique in the world of sound as her vision of the instrument itself. Along with her 1985 debut album – appropriately titled The Long String Instrument – Fullman's only output in the 1980s would be two self-released cassettes, In The Sea and Work For Four Players And 90 Strings, recorded in 1987 at an unfinished office tower in Austin, Texas. This double LP collection features music from both cassettes as well as a previously unreleased piece from 1988 at De Fabriek in Den Bosch, Holland. Ethereal and exquisitely paced, these rare recordings capture minimalism's quiet radiance. Within a musical landscape that has seen the rise of contemporary drone practitioners like Ellen Arkbro and Kali Malone, Fullman is sure to find a legion of fans. Superior Viaduct is honored to present this long overdue archival release that marks a particularly vibrant period of Fullman's pioneering and timeless work." [label info] https://www.superiorviaduct.com/products/ellen-fullman-in-the-sea-2xlp "The breathtaking expanse of ’In The Sea’ was the 1987 follow-up to Ellen Fullman’s groundbreaking classic of 1985, ‘The Long String Instrument’. Only ever available on a hard-to-find tape, this is its necessary first ever reissue. Collapsing millennia of musical practice and research into a singular sound, Fullman’s 2nd recording of her self-built instrument engulfs the senses in unfathomably complex overtones generated by 25m-long strings which are tuned to Just Intonation and played with rosined hands. Ellen’s sound effectively bridges the deeply mysterious sound of Indian classical music and the kind of contemporary minimalism explored by Ellen Arkbro and Kali Malone, and should be sought out by any listeners seeking sonic transcendence." [Boomkat] 2020 €27.50
FUNERARY CALL The Mirror reversed CD "It is with great honor that we welcome Canada's unique and by now legendary Black Ambient act Funerary Call to our family. For this new opus Harlow Macfarlane found inspiration from personal interpretations of the Tree of Death and what is considered to represent the reverse or occult side of the Tree of Life, a diagram of the negative forces or Qliphoth (Hebrew, Shells) assigned to each Sephiroth. They represent the counter-forces of the ten divine emanations as described by the ancient Qabalists and the paths or tunnels that connect to these infernal realms and the various demonic forces that inhabit them. The constant shifting of sounds and tones are a metaphoric reflection of these various "shells" and chaotic entities. Built as one continuous piece with various chapters, this new album serves as a vehicule for delving deeply into the shadow side. Artwork by Dehn Sora." [label info] www.cycliclaw.com "The eerie and strangely evanescent theme opening the record draws the listener into a world of shifting shades and intermingled shapes that create a tableau of intense magical realism. The music evolves from the beginning, from minimal electronics designed like an abstract painting: they fade away into vaporous dispersion just when you think the frequencies are about to take a definite shape. They grow like the roots of a tree inside one’s head, asphyxiating common optical nerves and provoking a sort of dizziness of the internal organs; thus, the atmosphere here created becomes absorbent and eventually starts to grow inside you, but from above to the bottom. If we keep in mind the arborescent developed image, this glimpsing tree begins to take roots from the head and then seems to progressively take hold of your entire body by its trunk and branches. It is the image of the tree of life and death which in some mythological and esoteric interpretations appears reversed in correspondence with the ontological aspects of individuation: one’s persona is shaped starting with cognition. As with most of hermeneutics this same aspect is based on ambivalence, so that this same root of self-development is the source of its degradation. Seemingly such ideas are musically suggested by traces of heavy-gripping tonalities or ironic, damping off percussive poundings. One who intends detachment from the illusion of progress searches to cut off from the root the body correspondent tree. The ambiance constructed here traces allegorically the roaming of the intellect through the corners of its own metaphoric world. The music continuously acts as a vehicle for the listener: a meditative support which has the power to provoke the emergence of different mental states, all the more confusing and irritating as the mind has to confront ever-shifting frequencies. Whether the intention of the artist has been to depict the kabalistic aspects of the Sephirothic tree, namely the malefic mirrored Qliphotic tree, is a matter of sheer interpretation. The record’s title would infer such a parallelism, but the evocative power of the music can gather esoteric hints that are generally valid. “The Mirror Reversed” reflects the descent of the soul in its own created abyss. In part 1 of this one-track album, the Canadian artist acting under Funerary Call has offered us a multifaceted musical depiction of such a demanding journey. And even if a reversed descent is naturally an ascension, we will further wait for the soul’s ascending in part 2." [Iaha Crax / Santa Sangre] 2013 €13.00
GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ Montauk Project CD ...ambitionierter Release des “anti-mind-control”-Projekts GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ, gewidmet dem MONTAUK PROJECT, das in den 70er & 80ern ein geheimes Forschungsprogramm der USA zur elektronischen Bewusstseinskontrolle gewesen sein soll (und bis heute existiert, wie man kürzlich auf NTV sehen konnte): Elektromagnetische Felder, Radarwellen, Quantenmechanik, Wetterbeeinflussung, etc... all das scheint sich hier in bedrohlichen elektronischen Klängen wiederzuspiegeln, man hat das Gefühl durchleutet & gescannt zu werden. Zu jedem Stück gibt es weitere Informationen zu Details des MONTAUK PROJECTs. Das ist zeitgemässer, gesellschaftskritischer Industrial wie wir ihn sehen wollen, jenseits der üblichen Klischees! Kommt im Spezialcover mit Vexierbild. “Finally 3 years after the ‘Haarp’ CD, Galerie Schallschutz comes with another superior release and again with strong thematic content...We all know something is out there, but we're not sure exactly what. Galerie Schallschutz at long last, begins to provide some solid clues. “Montauk Project”, also called the Phoenix Project during some of its phases, was a covert government's ultra-top-secret electromagnetic mind control and time experiment project that took place during the 1970's and early '80s at an abandoned Air Force radar base at the southeast tip of Long Island, New York. Much evidence has surfaced indicating that the base and the subterranean facilities were and still are used for a tremendous amount of top secret, ultra-classified research and experimentation into interdimensional technology, quantum and particle physics, black hole simulation, super-powerful electrical and electromagnetic fields, weather control, psychotronics (interfacing mind and machine), particle beam technology (HAARP transmissions…), and electronic and drug- based mind control...! Galerie Schallschutz provide you with the perfect soundtrack to go further into this secret world. ENTER NOW ! ATTENTION: this recordings will change your mind.” [label info] www.tesco-germany.org 2005 €16.00
GAMMELSAETER & MARHAUG Higgs Boson LP Runhild Gammelsæter and Lasse Marhaug are two Norwegian musicians/sound artists. Both started in the early 1990s music underground and have worked in many constellations with a wide range of collaborators. Despite knowing each other for a long time, Gammelsæter and Marhaug's first collaborative work was the Quantum Entanglement LP in 2014. The project lay dormant until Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson invited them to open for Sunn O))) for a special gig in the St. James Church of Culture in Oslo in 2019. The two gathered for a long series of rehearsals, and after the successful performance, it was clear that it was time to start working on new compositions and recordings. That process initiated in late 2019 and continued to early 2021, before and after the lockdown. The result of this long development to be heard accumulated upon their new album Higgs Boson on Ideologic Organ. Marhaug drew inspiration from concepts informed by the structuralist experimental cinema of Japanese directors Takashi Ito and Toshio Matsumoto, futurist worlds of French comic book artists Philippe Druillet and Jean Moebius Giraud, landscape photography of Fay Godwin, Kåre Kivijärvi, and Tamiko Nishimura, amongst others. It became a metaphysical juxtaposition involving Gammelsaeter's research and lyrical ideas based on several seemingly unrelated principles. A process of association inspired by The Glass Bead Game (1943) by Herman Hesse. The discovery of the Higgs Boson as a confirmation of the physical universe. The work of Ernst Schrödinger on the uncertainty principle. The four forces of physics. The Force. Helplessness under armed forces -- as the war sailors in World War II. The influence of magic as expressed in tarot. Gammelsæter experiments with a boundary involving the thresholds amongst various states of focus and legibility by forensic experimentation with techniques such as exclusive expression of consonants, syllabic repetition, retrograde text vocalizations and multi-lingual layering. Her vocal inspirational sources include Sidsel Endresen, Diamanda Galas, Natacha Atlas, the choral works of Rachmaninov, and the bands Carcass and Grave. Two worlds coming together, making the music special. Mixing hard facts with science fiction helps create a kaleidoscopic cross point between the complex realities of the past and a possible future. Across eight parts, the two artists brought a broad palette of instrumentation and sound on Higgs Boson. Electronic and acoustic, objects and field recordings, and pipe organ define the structures of which the center is Gammelsæter's magnificent voice. She In the mix, Lasse approached the instrumental elements like landscapes, then Runhild's vocals as characters that inhabit those worlds. Often, Gammelsæter multiple characters fused with the landscape. As an album, Higgs Boson is direct and focused, drawing on song structures. Within these tracks are vast strata of sound, an immersive multi-dimensional depth of music. A1. The Stark Effect (2:52) A2. The Magus (4:44) A3. Static Case (3:56) A4. Ondes De Fase (4:00) A5. Forces (5:50) B1. Propeller Arc (6:46) B2. Hadron Collider (5:35) B3. These Questions (9:55) "Two totemic Norwegian artists bombard and fizz the senses with a powerful invocation of metal and noise energies on a new album for Stephen O’Malley’s radical Ideologic Organ imprint. The thrilling complex of ’Higgs Boson’ furthers Runhild Gammelsæter & Lasse Marhaug’s fascination with the field of physics following 2014’s ‘Quantum Entanglement’ with Milwaukee’s uncompromising Utech Records. Gammelsæter, a one-time vocalist for O’Malley & Greg Anderson’s legendary pre-Sunn 0))) band, Thorr’s Hammer, and regular contributor to O’Malley’s subsequent projects, is also a professional biologist with a PhD in cell physiology. Marhaug is the prolific, multifarious figurehead of Scandinavian experimental music who surely needs little introduction on these pages. The duo collapse a spectrum of non-musical influences into an immensely compelling sound that, as their LP’s title suggests, strives to confirm the meta- and physical presence of the universe thru opposing forces, and the unquantifiable, uncertain energies produced therein. Gammelsæter’s vocals are evidently a big attraction on ‘Higg’s Boson’, naturally drawing on 30 years of extended works to project a range of unearthly inflections and affective tonal colour unmistakably forged in the belly of radical metal. As her relatively short but perfectly realised catalogue with Thorr’s Hammer, Khlyst, Sunn 0))) (notably ‘Gates of Ballard’!), proves, few can match her might. Summoning structural concepts from the Japanese experimental cinema of Toshio Matsumoto, french comic book futurism of Phillippe Druillet and Jean Moebius Giraud, and landscape photography of Fay Godwin, Kåre Kivijärvi, and Tamiko Nishimura, Marhaug, in turn, galvanises the personalities of Gammelsæter’s voice to extraordinary degrees, conjugating their mutual spirits in vast, electro-acoustic and illusively noumenal space with frankly shit-the-bed results comparable with everyone from Diamanda Galas’ tempered rage to the catharsis of Carcass and Rachmaninov’s choral arrangements. A genuinely unsettling summoning of dark energy." [Boomkat] https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com/album/higgs-boson 2022 €24.00
GARET, RICHARD Areal CD "On AreaI, Garet continues his ongoing research with electromagnetic disturbances through radio. Garet treats the radio process of transmission and reception as a routing system for the audio signal, all the while deliberately agitating and distressing the nodes that direct the course of that signal. For example, an electrical motor might be situated near a radio's antenna disrupting its ability to properly receive a transmission that Garet is broadcasting from nearby. Through the controlled use of electro-acoustic techniques (some rough and volatile, some refined and delicate), he organizes the signal distortion, the crackling static, and the ever-present tendencies for feedback into swarms of chiming resonance, electrically sourced harmonics, tactile bricolage, and impressionist din. As much as Garet's process pushes the interaction of sound and electricity to the brink of self-immolation, Areal balances his crunched textures with extended passages of radiant blooms of blurry noise and drone, finding common ground between the glassine density from Rhys Chatham and the splintered excursions of Kevin Drumm." [label info] www.23five.org 2012 €13.00
GENETIC TRANSMISSION Genetic Transmission CD It is hard to imagine the history of Polish industrial scene without noticing the activities of GENETIC TRANSMISSION – a project that might be considered legendary or having a cult status among quite a few, and the one that certainly has left a lot of its influence on the activity of many other artists in our country, and also inspired others to the activities in the field of urban, post-industrial music. The history of Genetic Transmission began when Tomasz Twardawa closed his earlier incarnations, working alone or in groups Zilch, Ładne Kwiatki, Godzilla. Although each of these groups left behind many interesting sessions, released earlier on tapes and CDRs, we have undertaken the release of the most important albums of the project Genetic Transmission, as the most active one of Tomasz Twardawa, and thus the richest part of his discography. As the first one in GT Archive Series, we release the debut material entitled simply “Genetic Transmission” released earlier on an OBUH tape in 1997. Now enriched and mastered by Tomasz Twardawa. It has been 20 years since its first release, but the recordings of sonic search still sound fresh and intriguing. We will find here compositions kept in the characteristic style of GT: harsh, metallic sounds, a mechanical structure, brut collages created using only analog sources and recorded in exactly the same manner – without the use of computers. In these dense structures, the artist concluded his entire manifesto, a declaration of his own research which has been developed consistently through his next sessions. “Genetic Transmission 1” is the starting point of your adventure with this project. This reissue is strictly limited to 200 copies. www.zoharum.com 2016 €12.00
GODFLESH Purge LP listen: https://godflesh1.bandcamp.com/album/purge First new recordings from GODFLESH since 2017's critically acclaimed full length 'POST SELF'. 'PURGE' musically, amongst the many layers of dirt, revisits and updates the concepts explored on the 'PURE' album from 1992; 90's hip hop grooves mangled and put through the GODFLESH filter to create something that is still unique and futuristic in style. Both minimal and maximal, with layer upon layer of filth and heaviness, Godflesh deliver alien grooves that swing whilst also retaining the psychedelic / bad trip edge that Godflesh has always obsessed over. This is, and always has been, feel bad music; the title alone 'PURGE' references directly how songwriter / creator Justin K Broadrick utilises this music as temporary relief from his diagnosed autism and PTSD, a journey he has been on since he began creating music and feeling alone and as an outsider in any 'scene' or 'group' from childhood and throughout his adulthood. Godflesh gives him the means to express a lifetime of feeling misunderstood and overwhelmed by hyper sensitivity, the band being the vehicle to give him some sense of catharsis and transcendence; a way of communicating overload and constant disenchantment at the human condition, and man's abuse of power and the systems that chain us. The album references the cycle of horror that man has always and will always put us through; those in positions of power revel in the infliction of pain and horror upon individuals, in the name of their religion, their power, their money, their flags.... 8 songs, delivered in a concise fashion for fellow outsiders. A digital only single of the opening song 'NERO' coupled with 3 self remixes will be released April 3rd. The duo of GODFLESH, Justin K Broadrick and Ben Green, augmented by Machines, are seen as a pivotal entity in the world of 'heavy' music, impacting entire cultures of heavy music since the bands inception in 1988. It is regarded as a cultural icon, and its impact can be felt across generations of 'heavy' music, both mainstream and underground. It is credited as being one of the first bands to cross old British industrial music with down tuned primitive minimal metal, accidentally pioneering the 'industrial metal' sound, yet the band has so much more to offer than what that term displays." ################# "After so many years of development, it can be a risky prospect for any band to home in on one specific point in its history, seeking to hopefully refine the ideas originally explored. Such is the case with Purge, in which Godflesh returns to the eroded foundations of 1992’s Pure, when Justin K. Broadrick and G.C. Green first began infusing their monolithic brand of industrial/metal with the rhythmic rubble of hip-hop and psychedelic ambience. What’s perhaps most alarming is how successfully the duo achieves this revisitation without being bogged down by the trappings of nostalgia or losing the primitive and primal minimalism that has been at the core of the band’s modus operandi. The opening tracks set the stage as “Nero,” “Land Lord,” and “Army of Non” all submerge the listener in that signature Godflesh distortion, Green’s thunderous bass resonating with an almost funky vibrance amid the breaking beats while Broadrick’s barks and growls are persistently matched by his simple yet evocative riffs, traces of vocal samples buried in the mix to evoke that early ‘90s hip-hop vibe. Of course, these three songs, along with the monochromatic cover art, immediately conjure memories of Pure, but things soon shift toward even murkier waters. “The Father” bears a closer resemblance to Selfless as the reverberant sustain of Broadrick’s impassioned voice and cries of chilly pads engulf the listener in a dreamlike haze, while the faster tempo and whiplash snares of “Permission” recall the band’s experiments with drum & bass. And then we have the menace and monstrosity of “Mythology of Self” like a beast ravening for bloody delights, it’s penetrative and insistent tone exceeded only by the mechanical and apocalyptic despair of the concluding “You are the Judge the Jury and the Executioner,” Broadrick’s still and despondent voice resounding amid squeals of guitar feedback and Green’s chugging bass. Written in the wake of his diagnosis of PTSD and autism, the album is aptly titled as it presents Broadrick’s most personal lyrical material yet, searching for relief and ultimate transcendence from a lifetime of negativity and isolation. Such has been the purpose of Godflesh since its foundation, and so Purge may offer little-to-no surprises for anyone familiar with the band’s music. However, Broadrick and Green are long removed from the youthful desire for acceptance or recognition… that is, assuming they ever sought that… this writer suspects not. Instead, Purge offers the pure (pun only partially intended) and perfected essence of Godflesh." [Re->Gen mag] 2023 €30.00
  Purge CD listen: https://godflesh1.bandcamp.com/album/purge First new recordings from GODFLESH since 2017's critically acclaimed full length 'POST SELF'. 'PURGE' musically, amongst the many layers of dirt, revisits and updates the concepts explored on the 'PURE' album from 1992; 90's hip hop grooves mangled and put through the GODFLESH filter to create something that is still unique and futuristic in style. Both minimal and maximal, with layer upon layer of filth and heaviness, Godflesh deliver alien grooves that swing whilst also retaining the psychedelic / bad trip edge that Godflesh has always obsessed over. This is, and always has been, feel bad music; the title alone 'PURGE' references directly how songwriter / creator Justin K Broadrick utilises this music as temporary relief from his diagnosed autism and PTSD, a journey he has been on since he began creating music and feeling alone and as an outsider in any 'scene' or 'group' from childhood and throughout his adulthood. Godflesh gives him the means to express a lifetime of feeling misunderstood and overwhelmed by hyper sensitivity, the band being the vehicle to give him some sense of catharsis and transcendence; a way of communicating overload and constant disenchantment at the human condition, and man's abuse of power and the systems that chain us. The album references the cycle of horror that man has always and will always put us through; those in positions of power revel in the infliction of pain and horror upon individuals, in the name of their religion, their power, their money, their flags.... 8 songs, delivered in a concise fashion for fellow outsiders. A digital only single of the opening song 'NERO' coupled with 3 self remixes will be released April 3rd. The duo of GODFLESH, Justin K Broadrick and Ben Green, augmented by Machines, are seen as a pivotal entity in the world of 'heavy' music, impacting entire cultures of heavy music since the bands inception in 1988. It is regarded as a cultural icon, and its impact can be felt across generations of 'heavy' music, both mainstream and underground. It is credited as being one of the first bands to cross old British industrial music with down tuned primitive minimal metal, accidentally pioneering the 'industrial metal' sound, yet the band has so much more to offer than what that term displays." ################# "After so many years of development, it can be a risky prospect for any band to home in on one specific point in its history, seeking to hopefully refine the ideas originally explored. Such is the case with Purge, in which Godflesh returns to the eroded foundations of 1992’s Pure, when Justin K. Broadrick and G.C. Green first began infusing their monolithic brand of industrial/metal with the rhythmic rubble of hip-hop and psychedelic ambience. What’s perhaps most alarming is how successfully the duo achieves this revisitation without being bogged down by the trappings of nostalgia or losing the primitive and primal minimalism that has been at the core of the band’s modus operandi. The opening tracks set the stage as “Nero,” “Land Lord,” and “Army of Non” all submerge the listener in that signature Godflesh distortion, Green’s thunderous bass resonating with an almost funky vibrance amid the breaking beats while Broadrick’s barks and growls are persistently matched by his simple yet evocative riffs, traces of vocal samples buried in the mix to evoke that early ‘90s hip-hop vibe. Of course, these three songs, along with the monochromatic cover art, immediately conjure memories of Pure, but things soon shift toward even murkier waters. “The Father” bears a closer resemblance to Selfless as the reverberant sustain of Broadrick’s impassioned voice and cries of chilly pads engulf the listener in a dreamlike haze, while the faster tempo and whiplash snares of “Permission” recall the band’s experiments with drum & bass. And then we have the menace and monstrosity of “Mythology of Self” like a beast ravening for bloody delights, it’s penetrative and insistent tone exceeded only by the mechanical and apocalyptic despair of the concluding “You are the Judge the Jury and the Executioner,” Broadrick’s still and despondent voice resounding amid squeals of guitar feedback and Green’s chugging bass. Written in the wake of his diagnosis of PTSD and autism, the album is aptly titled as it presents Broadrick’s most personal lyrical material yet, searching for relief and ultimate transcendence from a lifetime of negativity and isolation. Such has been the purpose of Godflesh since its foundation, and so Purge may offer little-to-no surprises for anyone familiar with the band’s music. However, Broadrick and Green are long removed from the youthful desire for acceptance or recognition… that is, assuming they ever sought that… this writer suspects not. Instead, Purge offers the pure (pun only partially intended) and perfected essence of Godflesh." [Re->Gen mag] 2023 €15.00
GOL & CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE Pandamoniahbleeumm!!! LP "Entering their twentieth year of existence, the GOL orchestra, together with the label Planam, celebrates and starts a new program of collaborations: the GOLlaboration series.Volume 2, Pandamoniahbleeummm!!!! marks the encounter with Charlemagne Palestine, pionneer of strumming music and piano maximalism, in the St. Eustache Church in Paris, known for its world famous church organ. The following battle, in form of a long incantatory improvisation, Charlemagne Palestine playing the church organ and GOL doing the electronics, bass, guitar, and the flutes part, combines many attributes of a pagan ritual. GOL was formed in 1988 in Paris by Jean-Marcel Busson, Frédéric Rebotier, Ravi Sharda and Samon Takahashi. The quartet embodies, within a post-dada spirit, a lost rural tradition. GOL plays flute, horns, guitar, violin, toys, selfmanufactured instruments, tapes, turntables, voices, various percussion instruments and electronics, an appropriateness of both traditional string instrument and handmade low fi equipment. GOL's first LP (GOL lp 01), issued in 1993, compiles their first items (88-92) based on vinyl- record's scratching, tape's cut-ups and acoustic instruments. The issuing of this LP was followed by a 9 years long hibernation. Since 2002, the band is back together to pursue its common research and play together of instinct and invention. Their music, electroacoustic oriented, is partially improvised and partly tense. At the time of a collaboration with roumanian composer Iancu Dumitrescu, GOL developped a score system knowned as ' layer's leaf '. Through this system, they could elaborate an hybrid music, between orchestral conduct and free interpretation of movements. Edition limited to 300 copies, also including a large insert with liner notes great graphics by Jean-Marcel Busson who also design the front and back cover." [label info] 2009 €19.50
GOOSE Isabel mCD-R Klangschalen, Becken- & Glockensounds vermischen sich mit dem tiefen (genial effektierten) Rumpeln eines Hurrikans! Ein sehr kraftvolles & hypnotisches Stück, auch wenn (fast)-Stille eine grosse Rolle spielt. "Also known for his Stolen Light noise project and his annual xmas compilations on his Zaftig Research label, Goose is Brett Lunceford's alias for his drone & dark ambient sounds. this track was quite an experience/experiment for him: "i recorded part of that track while hurricane isabel was coming through pennsylvania, hence the title of the track. all we got was a lot of wind and rain and not a lot of damage, but it was nice to record. i had just bought a tibetan singing bowl and i have played drums for about 20 years now, so i love percussion sounds. i was just hoping that the people downstairs from me would not be too annoyed as i was playing the cymbals and bells! this was a bit of a departure from my typical long form drones that i generally do as Goose, but i like it a lot." so here is this hypnotic & acoustic droney track. to make it yet more hypnotic, it's been carefully mastered by our beloved italian master andrea marutti. let yourself carry along by isabel..." [label info] www.taalem.com 2007 €5.00
GRASSOW, MATHIAS & THOMAS WEISS Conscience CD "An authority between the human made ego and his creator. The conscience is a regulator and gives always precisely feedback about our emotional actions. Everyone has the free will to accept this. Many people have forgotten to follow their inner voice. Instead their decisions are depended on status symbols and social standards. This music doesn't want to entertain you, but give you a view inside your "self". As soon as we have spirit, mind and body together we are practising the truth." [label notes] www.nextera.cz "Mathias Grassow, one of the main representatives of the continental ambient movement, with his friend Thomas Weiss have recorded an album dealing with the human conscience. This beautiful, intelligent record will be released on the Prague independent label Nextera. The German musician Mathias Grassow is one of the great stars of the continental ambient scene. In his youth, he studied guitar, key instruments and flute, then started to be involved in new age electronic music. The first album has been released as late as early 1990s - the recordings show a distinct experimental approach which, combined with spheric ambient and owing to the excellen album In Search of Sanity, had made Grassow a new big figure on the ever-growing ambient-electronic scene. Since then, Grassow has made a series of albums including collaborations with several other representatives of the genre such as Klaus Wiese, Amir Baghiri, Rüdiger Gleisberg (as Nostalgia) or in projects such as Anam Cara (with Wolfgang Barkowski), KarmaCosmic (with Carsten Agthe and Rüdiger Gleisberg) and the "supergroup" Nebula (apart from himself and Wiese featuring numerous Italian ambient musicians, e.g. Oöphoi and Tau Ceti). Most of these recordings rank among the best in the genre. Grassow melts the indescribable beauty od nature with deep labyrints of the human spirit, creating soulful imaginary structures, where abstraction intertwines with oriental motifs and unobtrusive ritual rhythmics. On his latest album, he has joined forces with Thomas Weiss to attempt a musical expression of the eternal topic of human conscience. Four long tracks leave space to freely morphing soundwaves, reflecting both positive spiritual power as well as somewhat murky moods. In the initial Unscaled Enigma with the almost palpable character of tide, Grassow and Weiss create the impression of absolute peace and harmony by mingling two main sound motifs (as though these were significantly discernable original sources of sound - the organs and the human voice). The next track, Along the Border, is marked by inner unrest and its sinister athmosphere can be percieved as if both artists were to guide us to the war-torn areas of the Middle East. In Foresight (credits for sound to Klaus Wiese and Ted de Jong), one can distantly hear Grassow's rhythmic production (light rhythmical structures, oriental voices). All of what was mentioned then merges into a vast sound ocean in the final, half-an-hour track Deceitful Expectation, definitely the most impenetrable and abstract track of the album. The album Conscience as a whole unambiguously shows the message of Grass' whole oevre, with no place for autotelic exhibition or egoistic sneer - it is a well of deep humility and belief in the fulfilment of the divine nature of man. If you find my closing words too impassioned, please give it a second thought while listening to the album. I think you will agree then." [Igor Nováček] 2006 €10.00
GUTHRIE, ANNE Gyropedie LP “Gyropedie,” Anne Guthrie’s third record for Students of Decay, takes us further into her hermetic practice, wherein expertly captured field recordings, French horn, and electronics are woven into potent and richly imagined electroacoustic environments. In Guthrie’s own words, “Quite literally a record of pilgrimage from East to West. Remnants of Midwest and East Coast soundmarks, instruments sold to lighten the travel load, sketched out and then buried under the new. Winter birds and crunching snow, frozen playgrounds, broken synths - I spent a year decoupaging over this, but of course it's still there. A second moon appears occasionally in the daytime, and there are frequent, murky transmissions. California has something alien about it I'm still trying to grasp. Primarily vintage, unabashed, corny, I find myself becoming an impressionist.” Anne Guthrie is an acoustician, composer, and French horn player. She studied music composition and english at the University of Iowa and architectural acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she completed her Ph.D in 2014. Her music combines her knowledge of acoustics and contemporary composition/improvisation. Her electronic music has focused on exploiting the natural acoustic phenomena of unique architectural spaces through minimal processing of field recordings. Her composition has focused on the orchestration of non-musical sounds, speech in particular. Her French horn playing has focused on electronic processing and extended techniques used in improvisatory settings, as a soloist and with Fraufraulein and Delicate Sen, among others. Her acoustics research has focused on the use of ambisonics for stage acoustics. https://anneguthrie.bandcamp.com "Anne Guthrie's third album for Students of Decay continues her trend of significantly transforming her vision with each new release, though the arc of her albums does consistently suggest an increasing aversion to conventional structure and musicality. In practical terms, that means that Gyropedie was primarily assembled from field recordings, though Guthrie's French horn does make a few ghostly and well-timed appearances. Notably, the sounds that Guthrie collected are entirely diaristic in nature ("quite literally a record of pilgrimage from East to West"), as she recorded and collaged a host of ephemeral and meaningful moments from her move from New York to California (birds, crunching snow, instruments that she had to sell, etc.). As Guthrie wryly notes in the album description, she found herself "becoming an impressionist." I heartily concur and believe that approach suits her work remarkably well. Given the deliberately abstract and elusive nature of the material, it took me a bit longer to become drawn into Gyropedie than it did for Guthrie's previous releases, but the album's second half contains some of the most tender, distinctive, and quietly beautiful work that she has yet recorded. The opening "Threading A Closed Loop" is a bold and interesting way to introduce the album, as it slowly rolls in like a mysterious fog of ambient outdoor sounds, plinking strings, distant woodpeckers, murmured voices, bees, and an occasional strangled sound from Guthrie's French horn. It is frankly about as understated and impressionistic as an album can get, but it does gradually cohere into something quite intriguing and evocative (I especially like the part where it sounds like the bees bought a distortion pedal). The following "Hill, Mountain" undergoes a similar trajectory, initially sounding like someone fumbling with a microphone while a woman recites poetry over a distorted radio, but eventually it blossoms into an enigmatic scene that seems to capture the time-stretched sounds of a train passing through a gently hallucinatory landscape of singing birds and metallic drones. I believe the "broken synth" mentioned in the album description makes an appearance as well. Both it and its predecessor are subtly beautiful in their own ways, yet my favorite pieces are the ones that follow. In "Variation on Coral," Guthrie paints a lovely seaside scene, as a slow, lovely French horn melody lazily unfolds over a backdrop of gently gurgling and lapping waves, lysergically smeared chimes, cooing vocals, and a host of other curious sounds. The closing "The Goldbeater’s Skin," on the other hand, sounds like a duet between a quietly plinking and fitfully operational music box and a lovelorn French horn player in a particularly bittersweet mood, but it is further enlivened by an evocative array of breath-like textures and wounded-sounding squeaks and warbles. To my ears, it is unquestionably Gyropedie's most lovely and memorable piece, as the unexpectedly poignant horn melody feels like the beating heart of the album finally being revealed, yet it would not make nearly the same impact without the languorous and dreamlike journey beforehand. Granted, Gyropedie is an album that demands some patience and attentive listening to reveal its full beauty, but its fragile and tender fantasia of memory fragments is well served by that steadily deepening immersion." [Brainwashed] "Threshold-dwelling lower case elisions of field recording and barely-there instrumental gestures by the wonderful Anne Guthrie, an occasional and prized presence on these pages. Guthrie’s solo work has previously snagged our ears with the gorgeous ‘Codiaeum Variegatum’ album and ‘Brass Orchids’, both for Students of Decay over the past decade. She returns to the label three years after her previous, and collabs with the GRM’s François Bonnet and Seymour Wright, to offer her most sublime sort of sonic mulch and vapours in ‘Gyropedie’, where she appears to quiesce the enduring air of Satie’s proto-ambient music into a more natural, elusive ecology of cherry-picked small sounds that amount to a lushly absorbing whole primed for pastoral sound bathing in the comfort of your own home." [Boomkat] 2021 €18.50
HAYNES, JIM Flammable Materials from Foreign Lands LP The new LP from Jim Haynes is a haunted and provocative endeavor, rust-covered and mysterious. It is the result of an immersive listening/recording process through which Haynes' singular techniques intersected with an unfamiliar, disquieting landscape.... "The album was mostly composed, recorded, and sketched during an Estonian residency at MoKS for a program that was hosted by Simon Whetham and John Grzinich called Active Crossover. The goal of that program was to bring together various artists whose work pertained directly or indirectly to environmental recordings. When John asked me about what kinds of spaces I was interested in seeking out before I arrived, I mentioned that I would like to investigate sites that had a considerable amount of electro-magnetic disruption which I could capture on radio along with sites of psychic distress. The Estonian landscape is pocked with abandoned buildings of considerable size and decay. Many of the excursions for Active Crossover engaged the large crumbling Soviet-era structures. Given that the electricity was off in many of these sites, I had to rely on shortwave to capture any electro-magnetic disruptions instead of any fluctuations from shitty wiring or weird Soviet power transformers... and the radio reception from that particular time and that particular place (i.e. southeastern Estonia) was eerie and unsettled. The crackle, drone, and noise is unlike that which is heard in the United States, looming with a (possibly perceived) paranoia of the Russian state just a few kilometers away. That said, Estonia had experienced an encroachment from Russia as the Russian military kidnapped/extradited an Estonian intelligence officer who was on Estonian soil at the time not too far from where I was staying. Given the contemporary military actions of Russia reclaiming Crimea from Ukraine, this incident put many an Estonian on edge. The A-side to Flammable Materials reflects this aestheticized paranoia through bursts of static, pulsed noise, and atonal sinews of sustained frequency. The B-side is wholly more introspective, cutting up an Estonian radio broadcast into phonemes, disjointed phrases, and cryptic speech. What few words that can be recognized from the Estonian pertain to the forces of globalization. From the context of someone who understands very little of the language, these snippets of a female voice clip like a surrealist collage or a Dada poem. Compositionally, I was thinking very much of Robert Ashley's Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon and the Nurse With Wound recontextualization of such sounds." - Jim Haynes Based in California, Jim Haynes has exhibited internationally at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, the Lausanne Underground Film Festival, the Berkeley Art Museum, WestSpace (Melbourne, Australia), and Diapason (New York). Recorded media has been published through Editions Mego, Ghostly International, Drone Records, Hooker Vision, Intransitive, Semperflorens, Elevator Bath, and The Helen Scarsdale Agency. He has also been awarded residencies at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program (California), Recombinant Media Labs (California), Jack Straw Productions (Seattle), and MoKS (Estonia). He has participated in a number of fruitful collaborations with Loren Chasse, Keith Evans, Steven Stapleton, and M.S. Waldron. Until 2015, Haynes was the Vice President and Curatorial Director for 23five Incorporated, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and increased awareness of sound arts within the public arena. He is also the lone occupant at The Helen Scarsdale Agency. Flammable Materials from Foreign Lands has been issued as a clear vinyl LP with gorgeous matte-finish jackets featuring artwork by Jim Haynes. Mastered by James Plotkin, it has been released in a limited edition of 300 copies. Every copy purchased directly from Elevator Bath will include a download code for high quality files of the entire audio content of this LP. Total running time: 38 minutes https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/flammable-materials-from-foreign-lands "For his two most recent (near simultaneous) releases, Jim Haynes has scaled back his audial representation of decay to something a bit colder and more intentionally off-putting. Both albums are largely based on field recordings taken from a residency in Estonia, and capturing the detritus of Soviet era electronics (and some still active) via shortwave and then processing the results. The final products may be somewhat sparser than his other works, but no less fascinating, and with an additional menacing edge. On the first side of the Flammable Materials record, Haynes presents three pieces that are perhaps the most inline with his previous works. Treated static and radio interference is unsurprisingly a recurring theme of the record, but are especially prevalent on the opening piece "Of Blast and Bleach". Here Haynes mixes it with some sort of idling motor sound that is fittingly inconsistent. Elements of the static and noise are shaped into some sort of rhythmic structure that contrasts the abstract remainder of the composition very effectively. Haynes takes on a more noise-centric approach on "Nyet". First a lava-like wall of harshness with the occasional tone slipping through, it is quickly broken back down and built back up, with an emphasis on shifting filters obscuring the low register part of the spectrum. For "E. Kohver" he takes on the opposite approach to the structure and arrangement. This piece is mostly a heavy, imposing drone with metallic tinged machinery noises that never goes full on dissonant, but stays sinister. At times the shortwave static is molded into that crackling texture-like sound that Haynes does so well, but the whole piece is very menacing and dynamic. The other side of the album is dedicated to a single piece, "Electric Speech: Nadiya". A bit over 20 minutes, the composition is based solely on the radio broadcast of a woman speaking. Of course Haynes also makes use of the static and noise inherent to this type of recording, but in general he embraces minimalism more. The source material voice appears frequently, cut into fragments and phonemes that are anything but identifiable words, regardless of the language being spoken. As a whole it is a different style he is working in, with that singular focus and an impressive use of silence to contrast the more commanding moments. [....] Both of Jim Haynes' newest works are exceptional additions to his already impressive body of work. The Throttle and Calibration tape is probably the less adventurous of the two, but is still a work deeply embedded in his style without being any sort of retread or replication of material he has already done. Flammable Materials from Foreign Lands benefits from its unique conceptual direction and focus, but really neither one is better than the other, and both are just excellent works from someone who has done an admirable job developing a career of sound art that always stands strong as utterly unique and fascinating." [Creaig Dunton/Brainwashed] "For well over a decade now, the Californian noise/drone (de)composer Jim Haynes has pursued a single-minded research into the sound of decay. Shortwave radio transmissions and convulsive motors are a few of the sources that are modulated and amplified into his psychologically tense, hauntological recordings. His 2016 album Flammable Materials From Foreign Lands rises from the eruptive strategies found in John Duncan's extrapolations of empty radio signals with parallels to be found in the mutated electro-acoustic dynamics found in contemporaries like Kevin Drumm and G*Park. One of the foreign lands in question to this flammable album is Estonia where he rummaged through abandoned Soviet-era ruins and collected disquieting shortwave signals. The other land is California with its own darkened psyche they roils beneath the mythologies of eternal sunshine. It's not so much a dialect as an accretion of static, grit and phased electro-magnetic disturbances – amplifying the neurosis and anxiety from a slow poisoning through psychological and/or environmental means. The first side of the album is pocked with convulsive crescendos which aggressively shove through Haynes' accumulated materials. The tracks rise to a boiling point, snap at the excessive pressure and collapse into a hypnotic fog. The second side is a single-sided collage of deconstructed/disembodied voice. Haynes clips and chops the mellifluous voice of an Estonian radio host (perhaps Tallinn's answer to Terri Gross?) into elemental gasps and utterances that rhythmically tick against an unsettled minimalism built from long, thin-wire recordings. Here, the strange and unsettled composition of voice and drone hauntingly resembles Alan Lamb's telegraph recordings poured into the empty spaces of Robert Ashley's Automatic Writing." [Stranded] 2016 €22.50
  Inauspicious LP In a recent interview, the California artist Jim Haynes was asked to name his top five noise albums. In quick fashion, he listed off Kill The King, Send, Desnos, Persona, and Carcinosi. Since then, he's equivocated on which albums to choose, but the artists behind such works remain as the adjacent signposts and landmarks to his own constructions of industrial noise. How those records connect to the output from Haynes is found in their unique combination of smoldering dynamism and psychological inquest. For over twenty five years, Haynes has been an autodidactic clinician into the processes of corrosion, decay, and rust, turning his attention away from visual practices and more to the metaphoric crucible of noise and sound. By now, it seems like a cliche that the pandemic changed everything; but since that viral encroachment, there is a noticeable shift in Haynes' work post 2020. It's more aggressive and yet more controlled: a rarification and telescoping of the research into decay for more potent noise and more potent metaphor. The tools for Haynes' work remain limited: motors, electronics, shortwave radio, found objects, all applied with considerable pressure. Compositionally, Inauspicious is a very rough moire pattern from overlapping elliptical structures that can negate and obfuscate just as easily as they can compound and aggregate. The album surges and collapses upon the two twenty minute chunks of controlled noise that follow an internal logic that snakes from brooding power drones, spectral radio transmission, and an aktionist demolition cast upon metal, glass, and unfortunate wooden objects. Rupture and release. Purge and pulse. 2023 €22.50
HELM The Hollow Organ 12inch "PAN presents four vital concrète incursions by nether field traveller Luke Younger aka Helm, marking his first transmissions since the studio rituals that birthed his highly acclaimed Impossible Symmetry' and Silencer' releases. The Hollow Organ' toes a deliberate line in the mud between his previous transgressions and a chokingly dank realisation of his most untoward, paralytic sound. Poised as a dark interpreter between the grotesque and the transcendent, he activates research gleaned from his petrifying live performances coupled with an increasingly squalid and visceral palette of anguished machine voices, sub-zero drones and bone-scraped rhythmic noise to divine unearthly space somewhere between semi-legal horror soundtrack and hyperstitious surreality. Its opening gambit, Carrier' is the most succinct and uncannily ambiguous; perilously close to Gas-like ambient pop but rescued from serenity by manic tape spool and excoriating, demonic vocal. The vortex of Analogues' proceeds, ploughed by stereo-twinned engines of churning tape loops to a pitch black, eschatalogical climax, and Spiteful Jester' feels like the unshakable onset of a panic attack, ratcheting the intensity with blank-eyed, stoic method. For ten minutes The Hollow Organ' drains last with an unnerving, quiet blood-letting of carmine iron drones evaporating ferric overtones whilst percussions clank in your blind spot behind the screen." [label info] "More fantastic electronic weirdness from the Pan label, this one, the latest from Luke Younger, aka Helm, who crafts a dizzying expanse of blunted post industrial rhythms, and blurred psychedelic ambience, lazer blast blurts that sound like light sabers are tangled into strange shapes over throbbing low end pulsations, while all around clouds of hiss and static and thrum swirl and shimmer, noisy and psychedelic, but darkly hypnotic. Elsewhere the sounds splinter into weird avant musique concrete, blasts of noise swooping from speaker to speaker, a wildly ecstatic 'pipe fight', sculpted into an abstract psych-noise groove. Younger also delves into power electronics, with keening arcs of feedback, draped over a churning chordal thrum, peppered with bursts of strangely melodic static, sounding almost like Skullflower attempting to make dance music, and failing fantastically, before finally finishing things off with a haunting bit of deep drone loveliness, sinister shimmering clouds of muted rumbles ripple out in soft clouds, an ominous, haunting and harrowing sprawl of hushed mesmeric murk that might be the dreamiest bit of grim black ambience we've heard in ages! Like all Pan releases, the packaging is stunning, a plain white sleeve in a clear PVC plastic jacket, printed in purple ink, liner notes on one side, the band name all tangly and geometric on the other. And yeah, limited too!" [Aquarius Records] www.pan-act.com 2014 €16.00
HENRIKSEN, ARVE Strjon CD Drittes Album von ARVE HENRIKSEN für Rune Grammofon, eher bedächtig und melancholisch, eine Art ethno/world-ambient/drone-Jazz von allererster Güte ! "This is Norwegian Arve Henriksen's third full-length release on Rune Grammofon. On Strjon, Henriksen is joined by his Supersilent colleagues Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten, who also produced the album. Strjon brings together the various sides of Henriksen, from the zen-like solo pieces of his debut album Sakuteiki to the open-ended melancholia of Chiaroscuro to the dark, brooding lyricism of Supersilent. "Strjon" is the medieval name of Arve's hometown Stryn on the west coast of Norway, referring to a streaming river or water. The nature around Stryn is fantastic and the changes between winter and summer are quite drastic, from crashing avalanches in steep mountains to calm beauty and majestic tranquility. Some of the music dates back to sketches made by a young Arve Henriksen in these surroundings, later worked on by both Arve himself and Helge Sten. Arve Henriksen is without doubt one of Norway's leading instrumentalists and a master of the trumpet, as can be heard on his previous solo albums, numerous Supersilent albums and as a side player for musicians such as Trygve Seim, Christian Wallumrød, Dhafer Youssef, David Sylvian and Frode Haltli to name only a few. As Henriken himself explains: "Most of the music comes from my own 'library' of sounds and music created during my days at Stryn. At the age of 16 I started to make sketches and recorded lots of cassettes with improvised electronic sequences, and over the years loads of tapes and discs have been added to the pile of homemade studio sketches. My idea has been to look into this material to search for a history, for moods, perhaps to understand a little bit more and maybe discover some reasons for why I play like I do." Performed by: Arve Henriksen (trumpet, voice, keyboards and electronics), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) and Helge Sten (guitars and bow)." [label info] www.runegrammofon.com 2007 €15.00
HIDEG RONCS A Vihar / The Storm (SOLD OUT) 7inch released November 1994 "HIDEG RONCS is the voice of nature, the voice of the world stormstroke" "The HIDEG RONCS raise from Budapest, Hungary, and possibly they are the very first real experimental 'underground'-band of this country as yet. Having existed since 1987 in various casts and developing different musical styles, they have now reached a point one could name their music as "natural noise" or "concrete, basic, pure sound". 'HIDEG RONCS' translates as 'cold wreck', but also has an ambigious meaning as 'nervous breakdown'. On their first vinyl the HIDEG RONCS play a kind of ritual music which has nothing to do with a 'gothic' feel to it, using basses, voices and nature-recording only: they go back to where the sound originates and search for the 'heart of hearing' ". [label info] 1994  
HIRANO, MIDORI Invisible Island LP Invisible Island is a fitting title for an album that seems to exist in a place quietly removed from the problems of the world. It's playful and imaginative, living in a soundscape filled with exotic fruits that fall from invisible trees. The record feels like a continuance from her album Minor Planet (2016) that shines through as an ethereal fog. Although the pieces on the album mostly centre around the piano - played in a soft, minimal way - it's the way they are presented that creates the personality that defines Invisible Island. The keys are coated in sound experimentations, perfectly accompanied by layers of synthesizers. It's a dreamy album that seems to emanate from a fantasy full of warmth, channeling both classic Japanese ambient music and a more modern electro-acoustic sound. Midori has a special sense of creating touching, melancholic pieces that float on the borders. As someone who grew up in the outskirts of Kyoto for then to later move to Berlin, one can sense the influences of both places - without ever settling down on either. Midori's Invisible Island is a safe place. Though it's one full of life and colours : birds, animals, wind and waves, fond memories of lost or unknown places and people that exist only in the hidden edges of this album. This especially comes to light for the albums centrepiece, the beautiful Belong, featuring Christoph Berg on violin. It's as if the protagonist - after roaming around the island for a long period, lost in its intrigue - finally finds what he/she has been searching for. A few tracks later the album ends on the title track, an uplifting ending that seems somehow unreal once the album stops and we ́re back to reality. Though the piano seems to keep performing in ones head with its repeating chorus and slowly drowning theme. An album of true visible beauty. https://midorihirano.bandcamp.com/album/invisible-island 2020 €29.00
HOROLOGIUM A Handful of Dust and Ashes CD "A Handful of Dust and Ashes” is a collection of tracks recorded during various occasions, but united here by a peculiar sediment of dust and rust; it’s a journey in time to strictly limited “A Handful of Dust”, published by Cynfeirdd, and to “Opium”, amounts of which are long sold out and yearned for by those in search of lost time. The (re)collection is crowned by three tracks performed live in Barcelona and Bologna in 2008 and 2009. The artwork by Fab and Sophie embody fin de siècle that has never been that convincing and tangible. Packaged in 3-panel digipack in new design" [label info] www.zoharum.com 2010 €12.00
HUMAN GREED Fortress Longing CD "Human Greed's fourth album " Fortress Longing: The Internal Campaign for the Safe and Complete Return of the Sleeping Egyptian to the Desert" is night-music at its most acute - unsettling, uncanny, beguiling, bewitching, and often profoundly moving. Founder Michael Begg releases the work on the back of an exhaustive wave of activity. The last 18 months have seen him pack out cathedrals with the sonic swells and squalls of Fragile Pitches, his collaborative project with Nurse With Wound's Colin Potter, contribute to releases by Blind Cave Salamander, 48 Cameras and Laura Sheeran, and also play a core role in the emergence of the debut album by Fovea Hex, Clodagh Simonds's cult ensemble, with whom he has performed and recorded since 2007. Rather than thin the mix, however, the insights and juxtaposition of the various disciplines exerted by all this extra curricular activity have helped forge Fortress Longing as the definitive work of melancholic extremism. (A term coined by the Polish press during the band's 2008 tour of that country) Begg is joined, once more, by erstwhile visual artist Deryk Thomas, and a handful of other performers and friends: Antony and the Johnsons cellist Julia Kent once more lends grace to the proceedings, whilst Fovea Hex colleague Laura Sheeran provides vocal arrangements and harmonies. Nicole Boitos - who painted the blue lamb featured on the cover of the recording also provides a reading voice to Begg's texts, as does the Norwegian singer Tommy Aashildrod. Further vocal chants and singing bowls are provided by Charlemagne Palestine collaborator and 48 Cameras leader Jean Marie Mathoul. The record makes stunningly effective use of the broadest palette of acoustic and electronic tools yet proposed by Human Greed. Pianos (treated, bowed, prepared), cellos, violins, dulcimer, autoharp, guitars, singing bowls, glass armonica, gamelan, all fold, dovetail, and swap identities with synthesised, processed and eroded digital files and field recordings gathered from the trips Begg undertook in researching the record to Ile de Re, Athens, Heraklion, Frankfurt, London and Poznan. A number of formally spoken texts even allow Begg to seemingly make peace with the written word after almost a decade of self imposed silence. The work moves as a single mass, shedding skins and identities as acoustic instruments increasingly take on the role more commonly occupied by ambient electronic beds, whilst the electronics, synths and signals, and manipulated samples and field recordings are teased into releasing their hidden melodic potential. Again and again in Fortress Longing, the discipline of musical form that Human Greed has so thoroughly deconstructed and undermined in their decade long journey, rises out of the boiling, roiling landscape of restless foreboding. The effect - particularly on the elegiac cello arrangement by Julia Kent on The Green Line - is simply heart breaking. Human Greed has delivered a singular and hypnotic work of disagreeable beauty, and Begg the composer, author and producer, is in complete control of his craft." [label info] 2011 €14.50
IF, BWANA Assemble.Age! CD "Modern classical music meets industrial meets musique concrete. The music of If, Bwana (Al Margolis) represents a vigorous, original and informed continuation of the experimental traditions of American music, responding as it does to the sounds and materials of late 20th and early 21st century American life with a keenly sensitive ear and a marvelous feeling for form, balance, and texture in music. The five works on this recording all utilize and reprocess the performances (both studio and live) of the musicians and vocalists. Their work has been processed, edited, selected and assembled into strange and mutated pieces which in many cases are quite some way removed from the realms of the familiar. Active since 1984 under the If, Bwana name, Al Margolis has been making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented compositions. He ran the cassette label Sound of Pig Music in the 1980s and co-founded and continues to run the experimental music label Pogus. Margolis plays bass guitar in the long-lasting, legendary punk/post-punk band The Styrenes. Recordings of his work have been released on the Tellus, Anckarstrom, Ants, Absurd, GD Stereo, Odradek, Monochrome Vision, and Pogus labels. Recent projects have included a sound art commission by WDR Koln, collaborations with video artist Katherine Liberovskaya on "Take-off", "Rant Dance". and "Frogfield", all of which have been shown internationally, and the premiere of "Three Songs in Search of a Voice", a "nohtopera" with MutaMYTHeatre - music by Margolis and text and voice, Lisa Barnard Kelley." [label info] www.mutablemusic.com "Al Margolis career as If, Bwana has been going strong for more than twenty-five years now and it has making strange turns. Originally, to put it crudely, If, Bwana was an industrial group, using raw sound collage/montage techniques, but it has grown over the years in a way that not many others do. While many of his peers took the route to more musique concrete, Margolis went into the serious avant-garde direction. Working with small ensembles and soloists with various instruments, he now composes that are seriously modern and, at other times, sounding improvised. The role of Margolis is that of the conductor. Not in the traditional sense, raising a baton, but the organizer. He tapes the music and then fiddles it about using the computer. Maybe the 'organizer' is a better word, or 'assembler', to stay in tune with the title of the CD. Sometimes he receives sound material, such as by Trio Scordatura, which he then organizes into a piece of music, such as the nicely woven drone like sounds of 'Ringing The Bell', and sometimes they all team up to play live, as in 'Cicada #1: EHG Version'. Its here that the music sounds more improvised, an 'real' instruments (voice, trombone, flute) collide with a nord modular and computer. In 'Six Minus 6' and 'DTTO' it seems we are dealing with a composed piece of music and its hard to say what the role of Margolis is. His working method seems to differ within each piece he does and that's something that is surely great as it makes a very release. Different approaches to a similar working ground. A fine work, yet again, of various interests (composed music, improvisation, musique concrete techniques) merging together. Quite a unique voice in this music." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2010 €13.00
IL SANTO BEVITORE Sorge Il Buio CD-R (EP) Taking inspiration from the great sci-fi book “Nightfall”, first IlSantoBevitore's Ep, explores conceptually the contrasts between dark and bright through a deep research of a certain sound. More deeply this matter has been transposed to music production in which bright percussions and distortions live all together. Harsh and unpleasant high frequencies crash against a wall of sub bass frequencies. All leaded by layers of acoustic world percussions and dynamic polyrhythms. https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/sorge-il-buio "IL SANTO BEVITORE, das ist Nicola Serra aus Sardinien, der allerdings in Nordlondon mit Beats, Synth and Percussions die Dröhngitarre von Francesco Garau in D503 betickt und durchpulst. Joseph Roths "Legende vom Heiligen Trinker" ist ihm wohl durch Ermanno Olmis Verfilmung (1988) zu Kopf gestiegen. Auf Sorge il Buio (ACK 1038, CD-R, EP) kündigt er ein mit knurrigem Synthiebassdrone unterspültes Drumsolo gleich mehrfach als 'Luce perenne' an. Gefolgt von 'Oltrepassare' als Reigen aus Drumming, Dudelsackgetriller, Gerassel, einer stehenden Vokalwelle, Klangschalenklang, pochendem Elektroherzschlag. Schließlich entfaltet noch das Titelstück zu schnarrendem Puls und tackenden Beats einen elektroperkussiven Groove, verziert mit Gong- und Beckenschlägen und feinen Klicks. Er überschreitet damit das Dunkel, ich bin dazu noch zu nüchtern." [Bad Alchemy] 2016 €6.00
ILLUSION OF SAFETY Probe CD "This is the first re-issue OF ILLUSION OF SAFETY's PROBE since its only appearance in 1992. In a limited edition of 500 copies, Perdition Plastics is proud to reintroduce this notable work of contemporary composition. Veteran provocateurs, ILLUSION OF SAFETY, examine an audio landscape found between youth and innocence, manufactured entertainment, and suburban complacency. Using a pastiche of field recordings and suggestively composed elements, Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke strikingly capture ambivalence and their own personal interactions within this environment. PROBE was one of several early, pinnacle works to foreshadow the unique and prolific audio fingerprint of renowned producer/player, Jim O'Rourke, when still a compositional student in Chicago. This release fits neatly into O'Rourke's recent issuing OF forgotten and initial recordings. As the constant center OF ILLUSION OF SAFETY since 1983, Dan Burke has consistently edited and evolved more than 20 CDs from ambience to electronica, from sound collage to post-industrial noise. The complexity and restraint found within PROBE marked a compelling new direction for Burke and a great many others influenced by his music. ILLUSION OF SAFETY has been released by such labels as Die Stadt, Experimedia, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, and Waystyx among others. Collaborations include Cheer-Accident, Thomas Demuzio, Kevin Drumm, Ben Vida, and others. PROBE will be of interest to those who enjoy Hafler Trio, Throbbing Gristle, Luc Ferrari, etc." [label info] www.perditionplastics.com "This is not a review but merely a historical, personal ramble. In 1992 I started working for Staalplaat, buying and selling stuff, and helping out getting those strange packages done. One of the bands that already had a great package, before my time, was Illusion Of Safety, whose 'Historical' was packed in a leather pouch with a real bullet. Both Staalplaat and Korm Plastics, my own small venture, were in contact with Illusion Of Safety's main man Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke, who was then a main collaborator with Burke. This resulted in 'Disengage', still one of the top 10 releases by Staalplaat, along with 'Probe' by Illusion Of Safety. The first 500 were packed in a wooden box with a real Italian coin and toy money from former Eastern Germany (an additional 500 were sold in the same wooden box, but without the monies). Illusion Of Safety were on a peak with that CD, or perhaps a watershed mark (otherwise you may think they never reached another peak again) is a better word. Before that Illusion Of Safety was, perhaps, 'another' fine band of harsh and less harsh industrial music as a bigger outfit with a varying line up. Towards the end of the era of releasing cassettes, which culminated in the fine but highly obscure 'RVE' tape, Jim O'Rourke became a member, bringing a love of composed music to the table, not just musique concrete but also the like of Scelsi. The music of Illusion Of Safety changed and on 'Probe', as said being here just Dan Burke & Jim O'Rourke, this culminated in that first highlight. All of the influences from before and new ones, melted together in this great disc of musique concrete. Many field recordings are used, along with piercing electronics at times, bowed guitars at others. Sometimes stretching out seemingly ad infinitum, but then sometimes abruptly changing color, speed, intensity, mood, texture and/or atmospherics. An absolute great work of sound collage, bridging musique concrete, electro-acoustics, improvisation, industrial music and ambient. Still a highlight of a career, and great to see back in print - even when the cover is not on par with the original. [FdW / Vital Weekly] "Arguably the finest Illusion Of Safety record ever made, Probe was the 1992 recording composed by Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke. The former began Illusion Of Safety a decade earlier with a revolving door personnel policy involving a handful of Chicago malcontents. O'Rourke began working with Burke's project around 1989 or so, when he was still a teenager and studying composition in college. Where many of the Illusion Of Safety albums are full-frontal assaults on the psyche of the listener (especially the groundbreaking album Historical with its raw use of narration from torture documentaries), Probe is a far more subtle and thus effective album marked by the extended use of disturbed silences, predating such sound design techniques that David Lynch mastered in Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. This use of space is definitely coming from the O'Rourke side of the equation (which according to Burke was 50/50 on Probe), as O'Rourke's early solo album Scend was released at about the same time as Probe with profound similarities. Throughout the subsonic frequencies and unsettled spooky drones, there are numerous punctures of analogue sourced micro- bleeping, errata from shortwave, scrabbling of tactile objects, field recordings of traffic jams, children at play, carnival rides, etc. and jittery digitally sculpted loops. As all of these elements slowly unfurl over several lengthy chapters, Probe truly synthesizes the aesthetics of both Burke and O'Rourke into a cohesive body of work, with Burke's research into the dark and transgressive balanced with O'Rourke's studies into the musique concrete of Luc Ferrari and Michel Chion. Staalplaat first released Probe in a wooden slipcase in an edition of 500 copies. Those quickly went out of print; but fortunately, Perdition Plastics has just reissued this brilliant album, albeit in more conventional packaging..."[Aquarius Records] 2009 €13.00
INDO Winter in Zangla CD "Indo returns with a harrowing and cold narrative of Hungarian explorer and Orientalist Csoma de Körös' long journey to Zanskar valley where he studied the mysteries of the Tibetan language and Buddhist wisdom in the 1820s. Journey with us through the narrow mountain passes into the secluded villages at the foot of the Himalayas under the watchful eye of King Virudhaka. Comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet. This album is dedicated to the Transylvanian born Hungarian scholar Alexander Csoma de Kőrös. In 1816 he began his great journey on foot through Central Asia in search of the origin of the Magyar people. In 1823 he arrived in Zanskar valley where he began his research as well as work on the World’s first scientific Tibetan-English dictionary. The scientific community as well as the Buddhist community rightly hold him as the pioneer of Tibetan research. His legendary walk of life ended en route to Lhasa in 1842 in Darjeeling under the shadow of Mount Kanchenjunga." [label info] http://gterma.blogspot.se 2012 €13.00
INNER VISION LABORATORY VS. NEPENTHE Ambit CD "Two years after well-received "Perpetua" album, INNER VISION LABORATORY returns to Zoharum with their new album entitled "Ambit". Not a solo venture, but a collaborative effort with young, but promising NEPENTHE project. The album was 3 years in the making when they were searching for a common language and fiddling with sonic matter using the Internet in this respect, they have created a monolith - a very cohesive, yet symbiotic world. It might be easily labelled as "ambient", yet they break the patterns of that style. "Ambit" is composed of 7 compositions, clocking in at 50 minutes. It is composed of beautiful, yet unsettling melodies, for those who are fascinated with sounds coming from Cyclic Law and Loki Foundation labels, but also for new-comers to the genre. For those open-minded for something new and touching, a kind of music painted with the whole palette of colours and sounds." [label info] www.zoharum.com 2014 €12.00
INTERNAL FUSION Waissad mCD-R "fifteen years after his first 3"cd-r on taâlem ("NedenBahe", still available at taalem.bandcamp.com/album/nedenbahe-alm-3 ), what we said at the time is still relevant. internal fusion is still a rare artist even if he's more productive than ever these days (two digital self-released productions last year) and his music is still full of captivating atmospheres... deep sounds, strange voces, haunting atmospheres. let yourself dive into "waïssad"..." [label info] "Belgium’s taâlem label continues to breathe new life into one of our favorite formats, the CD3″. Each season they release a new trio, representing a wide swath of sounds. The latest batch delves into tribalism, abrasion and haunted ballroom; listening to the releases in order is like walking through exhibits in a terrifying circus. Internal Fusion hearkens back to a time when the lines between dark ambient and industrial were blurred. The 22-minute single-track Waïssad twists and turns like an injured acrobat, sounding at first like a joyous call from deepest Africa, delving into drums reminiscent of Skull Island, then descending into the mist, where monsters dwell. The voices are holy and hooded, like those of medieval monks. Slowly the fugue builds, marked by static rustlings and speaker-wandering percussion. The cover may be green and lush, but don’t be fooled; these lands are dangerous. Waïssad’s narcotic center may represent the time spent drugged, the victim of a blow dart; the slow awakening to tribal drums is lulling until it disappears, replaced by snakelike hisses and fractured drones. There’s no escaping; all fates were sealed long ago. [...] These releases take different paths, but arrive at the same bleak destination. This is autumn, after all, and darkness is drawing near. Play these releases while reading your favorite dark horror tales; the ghosts will enjoy reading over your shoulder and listening with invisible ears." (Richard Allen) acloserlisten.com/2017/09/30/a-taalem-trio-2/ " [...] As I was searching the old weeklies for previous reviews of Internal Fusion, as that is sometimes indeed done (usually after being sure there are actually some!), I found very few (Vital Weekly 348, 426 and 677), but also a few times as a point of reference, which I guess for a band that never released a lot music is quite something. It usually was done in combination with the words ‘pseudo ethnic’ and ‘drumming’, and other names never far away were Internal Fusion and Muslimgauze. In that sense this new one is a bit of a different batch of music. It starts out with something familiar, ethnic voices, lotsa reverb, but the tribalistic drumming doesn’t become part of this. Deep pounding drums are there at one point in the middle, but in the second half of the piece things become much more abstract; Internal Fusion discovering granular synthesis and feeding their own sounds into the machine, perhaps even the first ten minutes of ‘Waïssad’ to it, and let computer gremlins eat the whole piece and slowly we enter the belly of the monster. If this is something that Internal Fusion would explore further and incorporate in their usual brand of ambient drumming and deep moods, then it could blossom into a very rich new sound approach. [FdW, Vital Weekly] www.vitalweekly.net/1098.html www.taalem.com 2017 €5.00
IOLINI, ROBERT Songs from Hurt CD „ROBERT IOLINIs ‚Silent Motion‘, der erste Teil von Songs From Hurt (ReR RI2), ist ein Stück für actor, besser Sprecherin (Virginia Baxter), sampled film projectors, pianos and 1927 fotoplayer und setzt sich auseinander mit einer aus widersprüchlichen Texten über (Stumm)Filmmusik collagierten Theorie derselben. Fast kniggemäßig wird ein Katolog von Empfehlungen, Gebrauchsanweisungen und Warnungen verlesen, das Repertoire von Lautmalerei, Phantasie-handläufen und Stimmungstriggering - Grotesque, Mysteriouso, Sinister, Religiouso etc., das Leitmotiv wird eher verdammt, der heutige Usus, Gefühle durch bekannte Hits mit bereits eingeimpften Assoziationsreflexen zu gängeln, sowieso. Iolinis eigener ‚Silent Motion‘-Soundtrack, der mit seinem ‚Funiculì, funiculà‘-Auftakt gleich ungeniert in eines des Fettnäpfchen tritt, ist wie Stummfilm ohne Bild, ein Cowboy ohne Pferd, das er verkehrtrum sattelt. Abstrakt und ironisch wird die emotionale Magie von Stummfilmmusik demonstriert, mal mit, mal gegen den Text. Mit den Songs zu Phillip Crawfords Doku Hurt und mit ‚Black Sheep‘ geht der 1960 geborene Australier, der mit seinem Beitrag ‚Hong Kong: City in Between‘ zur Soundscapes Be)for(e 2000-Compilation schon einmal in BA auftauchte, dann den Schritt von formalen Fragen zu praktischen Verknüpfungen von Form und Inhalt. Bei ‚Songs from Hurt‘ for voices and rock band kommen jugendliche Misfits zu Wort. Ihr O-Ton vom alltäglichen Horror, von Drogen, schlagenden Vätern, Müttern und Polizisten skizziert lakonisch und im Zeitraffer, wie sie im Jugendknast landeten und fungieren 1:1 als ‚Lyrics‘. Iolinis Versuch, in einer falschen und kaputten Wirklichkeit als Künstler realistisch zu werden, collagiert bei ‚Black Sheep‘ erneut ausschließlich O-Ton von Insassen, aktuellen, ehemaligen und potentiellen (sic!), des Don Dale Detention Centre in - ausgerechnet - Darwin, Australien, gemischt mit Aussagen von Sozialarbeitern und Experten für Jugenddelinquenz. Als musikalischer Fond dient minimale Elektronik aus Fieldrecordings, die Jugendliche im Umfeld des Gefängnisses aufgenommen haben. Iolinis schwer zu kategorisierende Audio-Art, „part music, part documentary and part drama“, zeigt verwandte Züge mit Arbeiten von Gregory Whitehead, Jon Rose oder Bob Ostertag, deren Radiophonien Fact & Fiction, Form & Function, Was & Wie so neu justieren wie Raymond Chandler einst den Kriminalroman. Und das mit einer Credibility, die das Maulheldentum des Rap krampfhaft sucht.“ [Rigobert Dittman, Bad Alchemy # 47] “Robert Iolini is a composer who transcends the divisions between music, documentary and radio art, mixing investigative journalism, sound ecology, storyboarding and conventional notated composition -- using songs, spoken word, field recording, improvisation and electroacoustic manipulation to make complex audio works that might equally be music, documentary or fiction. He works, initially, like a radio journalist: researching, collecting materials, conducting interviews. The bulk of Songs From Hurt have been constructed in this way, around the extraordinary testimonies of aboriginal teenagers, prisoners, shadow communities and witnesses to a world in which the interviewees are continually told that they are surplus to requirements. Then this raw data is organised, transformed and integrated into complex musical compositions, becoming itself musical in the process -- its pitches no longer simply prosaic, its rhythms driving the structure of its setting while remaining intact -- not looped or pressured into becoming servants to the overall organisation of an aesthetic fiction. The witnesses and sounds converse and conspire in Iolini's work, but never give way to one another. It is rare for conventional and electronic compositions to remain so respectful of voices and what they have to say, and this plain matter of fact-ness makes most rap sound like bluster, and most opera sound like history." [press release] 2005 €14.00
IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON Peripeteia CD Over the years, American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri has become ubiquitous within the spheres of ambient, drone and electronic music. Whether it's through Irisarri's celestial long-form albums or his lauded audio engineering credentials for countless artists and labels, Irisarri's consistent dedication to his craft never wavers from the forefront. While Irisarri's compositions typically field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound, his recent debut album for Dais Records, "Peripeteia, portrays these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri's melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that would seemingly be at odds with, yet gracefully complement each other. In Irisarri's own words, "My previous works internalize any exterior forces or circumstances, while trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that approach, focusing on the personal in order to tell a wider human story." The emotional depth found throughout Peripeteia is impeccably on display with the track, Mellified. A collaboration with Spanish composer Yamila, the choral arrangements bring to mind the sacred music of Arvo Pärt, while her voice combines the Andalusian "Cante jondo" style with medieval modes, almost drowning in layers of octave fuzz distortion and dystopian synths patterns. On Arduous Clarity, the bright arpeggiating melody that churns throughout, offers the initial glimmer of optimism in an otherwise decaying tale of personal turmoil. This encouraging glimpse is short lived however, as the song Refuge/Refuse seemingly plummets into the mourning depths of somber despair. A chorus of voices steadily crawls from its desolate terrain - a sea of broken spirits, eternally resigned to strain and bellow their final lament. Fright and Control, a piece which is equally soul churning, seems to possess a satisfying resolve, as if after years of searching, one's very salvation has been laid to rest through the acceptance of mortality and the enlightenment in death. Irisarri's complexity is utilized to a forcible success, slowly pulsing throughout the foreground of his audience, further emphasizing the impending dread of resolve." https://irisarri.bandcamp.com/album/peripeteia 2020 €15.00
  Peripeteia (clear) LP Over the years, American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri has become ubiquitous within the spheres of ambient, drone and electronic music. Whether it's through Irisarri's celestial long-form albums or his lauded audio engineering credentials for countless artists and labels, Irisarri's consistent dedication to his craft never wavers from the forefront. While Irisarri's compositions typically field an array of modern ambient overtones threaded through oceanic symphonies with tape loops, bowed electric guitar and vast washes of overdriven sound, his recent debut album for Dais Records, "Peripeteia, portrays these common themes giving way to metal and classical influences that emphasizes Irisarri's melancholic tendencies. These unique overtures, coupled with his signature layering of distortion and bleached-out textures, fabricate an audible environment that would seemingly be at odds with, yet gracefully complement each other. In Irisarri's own words, "My previous works internalize any exterior forces or circumstances, while trying to make sense of the world. Peripeteia reverses that approach, focusing on the personal in order to tell a wider human story." The emotional depth found throughout Peripeteia is impeccably on display with the track, Mellified. A collaboration with Spanish composer Yamila, the choral arrangements bring to mind the sacred music of Arvo Pärt, while her voice combines the Andalusian "Cante jondo" style with medieval modes, almost drowning in layers of octave fuzz distortion and dystopian synths patterns. On Arduous Clarity, the bright arpeggiating melody that churns throughout, offers the initial glimmer of optimism in an otherwise decaying tale of personal turmoil. This encouraging glimpse is short lived however, as the song Refuge/Refuse seemingly plummets into the mourning depths of somber despair. A chorus of voices steadily crawls from its desolate terrain - a sea of broken spirits, eternally resigned to strain and bellow their final lament. Fright and Control, a piece which is equally soul churning, seems to possess a satisfying resolve, as if after years of searching, one's very salvation has been laid to rest through the acceptance of mortality and the enlightenment in death. Irisarri's complexity is utilized to a forcible success, slowly pulsing throughout the foreground of his audience, further emphasizing the impending dread of resolve." https://irisarri.bandcamp.com/album/peripeteia 2020 €24.00
IRR.APP. (ext.) Kreiselwelle CD "Das ist nun - nach Ozeanische Gefühle und Cosmic Superimposition - der abschließende Teil von M. S. Waldrons Trilogie über den Freudo-Marxisten, Faschismusund Orgontheoretiker und Parawissenschaftler Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). Reich war der Auffassung, dass der von ihm postulierte ‚Orgonenergie-Ozean‘ 'Lebensenergie‘ in Form von ‚Kreiselwellen‘ ausstrahlt, die sich visuell, thermisch, elektroskopisch und mit Hilfe des Geiger-Müller-Zählers nachweisen lassen. Waldron spielt entsprechend mit ‚Spiral-Klängen‘, Spiralfedern, dem Geräusch anbrandender, ‚lappender‘ Wellen, Luftwirbeln, aufziehbarem Spielzeug etc. Rasselnde, pulsierende, blubbrig unkende, wie Whirlies sirrende und automatisch klappernde Geräusche mischen sich mit elementaren zu einem unruhigen Gedröhn. Die an- und abflauenden Erregungszustände sind Teil eines Kontinuums von gut einer Dreiviertelstunde. Schritte zu Beginn und zwischendurch vage Stimmfetzen im Hintergrund deuten an, dass der Mensch in diesem Energiefluss, diesem Kontinuum von Wirbeln mitschwingt." [Bad Alchemy] " irr. app. (ext.) is the sound-engineering project of Californian M.S. Waldron, whose liminal slippages and detourned croons have been spotted recently on stage in Nurse With Wound. Yet for all of the antics that are required for the NWW spectacle, Mr. Waldron still dedicates himself in the parallel pursuits of irr. app. (ext.) with a discography that reads more like a wunderkammer of uncanny investigations into futility declared as its reverse. Kreiselwelle is the third and final installment to a body of works that irr. app. (ext.) has composed under the influence of Wilhelm Reich, the unorthodox 20th Century psychologist who proposed amongst many hypotheses, an interconnectivity between energy, organisms, and the entire cosmos. The title to this album translates as ‘spiral wave,’ a structuralist form which Reich had observed throughout nature within numerous systems, whether that be the grand arcs of galaxies down to the radial symmetries of micro-organisms. For Kreiselwelle, Mr. Waldron returns to the same collection of field recordings which began this trilogy that includes Ozeanische Gefühle and Cosmic Superimposition; however, he restricted himself to those sounds with spiralling origins: resonating springs, the sounds of the ocean cyclically churning over pebbles on the beach, the wafting of air around various objects, or simply a lamp-shade spinning in place. The resulting recording develops as an organic sublimation of one sound transforming from one state into another and then another. Motorized sounds of mechanical toys set askew settle into a tremolo phase pattern of electrical vibrations. These in turn morph into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. Many of the sounds seem to have origins in objects that are broken, obsolete, or just plain wrong; but through Waldron’s deft alchemy, these sounds are allowed to flourish in this richly dark and oddly serene amalgamation." [label info] "...[as] for the ultra-fantastic soundwork of Irr. App. (Ext.), this Californian composer has been baffling and perplexing the ears of international listeners for not a few years now, and his new Kreiselwelle, a single 45-minute work of strange process music, is a slow voyage into the unknown. Within minutes, we're taken far beyond the relatively familiar world of "dark ambient" and enter a murky field of immersive and twisted shapes, where possible danger lurks at every corner. Conceptually rooted in an interpretation of the works of Wilhelm Reich, Kreiselwelle is the third part of a trilogy and connect with the "spiral waves" of the title, derived all of its sounds from things shaped like spirals (such as metal springs, or the circular movement of the ocean). In like manner, M. S. Waldron's composition will probably suck you into a whirlpool of doubt and ambiguity." [Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector] www.helenscarsdale.com "Kreiselwelle is the conclusion to a superb trilogy from irr. app. (ext.) who used the words, philosophies, and eccentricities of Wilhelm Reich as the springboard into a realm of post-Surrealist, post-industrialist, post-drone arena of sound design. While a prominent European psychoanalyst, whose ideas could be seen as an occasional counterpoint to those of Freud, Reich may be best known for his parascientific research into Orgone energy, which he claimed was central and unifying force of life throughout the universe. Much of this latter research has been discredited and unfortunately shed a cloud of incredulity upon his psychoanalytic work. While Reich's claims of cloud-busting and orgone therapy offer particularly strong metaphors, M.S. Waldron - the principle architect to irr. app. (ext.) - has looked more to the psychological aspects of Reich's work. Kreiselwelle translates from the German as spiral wave or gyroscopic wave, and points to the similarities which Reich had noted in the structures of microscopic organisms, turbulent wave patterns, and spiral-arm galaxies. Through this trilogy (which also includes Ozeanische Gefuhle and Cosmic Superimposition), Waldron mirrors Reich's early cosmology through a compositional fluidity that alludes to contemporary drone fascination, constructed through overlapping collages, occluded field recordings, sustained tones from atypical instruments, and crosshatched synthetic noises. All three of these albums were sourced from the same set of field recordings, but each detours into its own particular wandering. Kreiselwelle begins with a very slow hypnotic strum across a detuned guitar with liquid tactility and a warped distance buzz filling in the gaps. Grand sweeps of slashing drones that could originate from an echoing chainsaw deep in the woods forms an unlikely crescendo with sympathetic tones, only to collapse into the softened white noise of cars passing by. Soon after, a rhythmic tapping of agitated electronics forms a motorik rhythm against the tapestry of audio fluidity, with all of the electro-shock bursts of a tesla coil. This in turn morphs into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. For fans of any of work of Nurse With Wound (after all Mr. Waldron is in the NWW touring ensemble!), H.N.A.S., and the more esoteric recordings of Organum; and certainly of note for those of you taken by Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Xela, Svarte Greiner, Expo '70, Emeralds, or any of the darker, weirder, more fucked-up drone ensembles of recent days. Very highly recommended!" [Aquarius Rec.] 2009 €13.00
JARL / ENVENOMIST Tunguska Event CD "Erik has teamed up with David Reed aka Envenomist to create a sonic reenactment of the Tunguska event. It was ”was a large explosion which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 07:14 on June 30, 1908” [Wikipedia]. It flattened 2,000 km2 of the forest and it caused glowing sunsets on the horizon. There are many theories concerning the cause of this particular event. Some scientists claim it was connected with an asteroid or comet that burst in the air above the region, others claim that it might have been a small black hole passing near the Earth. The mystery is still unsolved. The music, presented here in five parts, is full of oily drones and industrial blasts intertwined with unsettling ambient textures. The sound on this recording is of complex and mature nature, which hardly comes as a surprise when thinking about years both musicians spent mastering their skills (David with Envenomist and Luasa Raelon; Erik both in IRM and Skin Area, and solo known simply as Jarl). It is an interesting piece of work for those who search for something on the fringes of electronic music. The CD is housed in an ecopak sleeve and is strictly limited to 300 copies." [label info] www.zoharum.com "Erik Jarl is not a man to release a lot of music. I quite enjoyed his 'Parallel/Collapsing', way back in Vital Weekly 401, and since then he also was reviewed in Vital Weekly 470 and 860, and on a few compilations. Here he works together with David Reed, also known as Envenomist, who has had releases on Brise Cul, Segerhuva, Chrondictic Sound and Bloodlust! Certainly two dark drone meisters who meet up here. Their CD is about events at Tunguska, in 1908: a large explosion that flattened 2,000 square kilometres of forest. Why it happened it was not clear, so that's fertile ground for conspiratists worldwide: alien life form, asteroid or comet explosion or a black hole passing earth. Still a mystery that remains unsolved. I assume both gentlemen are at the controls of a bunch of synthesizers and sound effects and together they created five top-heavy pieces of dark synthesizer music. It's not of the pure drone variation, starting and then stopping at some point, but it comes in waves; like a sea at night: you hear the waves, feel a cold wind in the face, but you can hardly see a thing. Another difference is that there is a bunch of looped, percussive sounds. Usually without much variation they simply tick away time, rather than setting a beat. It's all spooky, mysterious and it could very well the soundtrack to the X-files or any other movie on the invasion of the body snatchers. It's music that fits early dark autumn evening very well." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2014 €12.00
JGRZINICH (JOHN GRZINICH) Two Films DVD "and/OAR, Maaheli Editions and Paleosol Edition are extremely pleased to present two films by sound artist John Grzinich. 'Sound Aspects Of Material Elements', Black & White, 57 minutes HD, 16:9 Aspect Ratio. Concept, sound, camera, editing: John Grzinich. Equipment and support: MoKS - Center for Art and Social Practice, Mooste, Estonia. Collaborative recordings made with: Patrick McGinley, Jim Haynes, Toomas Thetlof, Maksims Shentelevs, Kaspars Kalninsh, Eamon Sprod, Hitoshi Kojo, and Evelyn Müürsepp. 'Mimema' Color, 24:38 minutes, HD 16:9 Aspect Ratio. Concept, sound, camera, editing: John Grzinich. Equipment and support: MoKS - Center for Art and Social Practice, Mooste Estonia. Format: DVD (All Region NTSC). John Grzinich has been conducting his own forms of sound research for over 15 years, including field recording, kinetic sculptures, electro-acoustic composition, performance, videography, group workshops and exercises in listening. Currently he lives in Estonia and works as a program and technical coordinator for MoKS, a non-profit artist-run center. He has published CDs of his sound works on international labels such as: SIRR, Mystery Sea, Staalplaat, Erewhon, Intransitive, Cut, Elevator Bath, Invisible Birds, Semper Florens and others." [label info] www.and-oar.org "The label Alluvial Recordings is apparently no more - I am not sure why - but now there is Paleosol Edition, and this first release is done in collaboration with And/oar (catalogue number on the spine being 49, on the disc itself 50) and is a DVD of two films of composer John Grzinich, which I think is an interesting thing. Just what would it be? Animation stuff, a documentary, a concert or, as it in fact turns out to be, a film that displays the field recordings being recorded. We see someone (perhaps Grzinich himself?) beating a pole, a campfire, electrical wire in a field, someone scraping large empty metal containers, and sometimes no human interference at all, like a stream and what seems to be a wire inside. All of this is short movements in 'Sound Aspects Of Material Elements', which lasts some fifty-six minutes. Sometimes I think I am being fooled and I see something but believe that I hear something else. That's always a great thing I should think, but perhaps I like this sort of illusions very much. The nice thing about this film is that following every segment the screen blacks out and we hear what's coming next, but yet not see it, so your mind starts guessing - I was wrong in almost of all these cases. Shot in austere black and white, this one is great. The other film is much shorter and called 'Mimema'. Here I don't think its about the action to generate material, but a more poetic film with people floating in water set against a great piece of drone music. Maybe this is all about hearing 'below the surface'? I am not sure, but it looks and sounds great. More poetic, less documentary like than the other one. Two quite different approaches to film, but both work quite nice." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2012 €14.00
JOBIN, FRANCE & FABIO PERLETTA Mirror Neurons CD "Mirror neurons represent a distinctive class of cells that fire both when an animal executes an action and when it observes another individual performing the same action. Discovered by Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his team at the University of Parma while doing a research on the neural representation of motor movements in monkeys, the precise function and influence of these neurons has become one of the most important topic in neuroscience. They have been linked to many behaviours and abilities, from empathy to learning by imitation and language acquisition, as well as implicated in conditions such as autism and other brain disorders. These findings suggest that the mirror neuron system plays a key role in our ability to experience empathy. Initiated by sound artists France Jobin and Fabio Perletta, Mirror Neurons is a media-project investigating the notion of empathy and physical distance. The entire album is the result of extended sound files exchange between Montréal (Canada) and Roseto degli Abruzzi (Italy). Each of the pieces is based on rough sounds and their consequent re-working, listening and reaction, processing and imitation. The ongoing process helped the artists to draw inspiration in terms of stimuli for the act of composing itself in two very distant cities, different climate, time zones and languages. Like much of Jobin and Perletta’s recent works, Mirror Neurons explores the artists’ interest in intersection between science and art, as well as the infinitely small and invisible. In order to further develop the concept of distance/connectivity, visual artists XX+XY from Rome have been involved in the process. They created a multi-dimensional, generative and ever-changing sound visualization through the use of quiet textures and subtle movements emphasizing the slowed sense of time of the work itself. Thought to be performed live in a big space, the video aims to create an immersive environment and a unique occasion to reflect about the behaviour of our emotions and the importance of human interaction." [label info] www.dragonseyerecordings.com 2015 €13.00
JOHNSON, RAGNAR ASSISTED BY JESSICA MAYER Sacred Flute Music from New Guinea: Madang / Windim Mabu do-CD Recorded by Ragnar Johnson & assisted by Jessica Mayer, Papua New Guinea, April-August 1976 We would like to thank the performers and people of the villages of Awar, Borai, Bo'da, Kaean, Kuluguma, Nubia Sissimungum and Damaindeh-Bau for making this record possible. Copies of the master tapes are in the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Port Moresby. Ragnar Johnson thanks the Canadian I.D.RC. for supporting his anthropological research. Thanks to Dave Hunt for transferring the original magnetic tape recordings onto digital media and to Stephen O’Malley, David Toop and Evan Parker for assistance. Sacred flutes are blown ("Windim Mambu'') to make the cries of spirits by adult men in the Madang region of Papua New Guinea. Pairs of long bamboo male and female flutes are played for ceremonies in the coastal villages near the Ramu River. The Ravoi Flutes from Bak are accompanied by two garamut carved wooden slit gongs. The Waudang Flutes from Manam Island are accompanied by two large and two small slit gongs and six singers. The Jarvan Flutes from Awar are accompanied by a shell rattle. The Mo-mo resonating tubes were recorded in the Finisterre Range. There are the cries of six different pairs of flutes and one pair of conch shells from the Ramu coast, two pairs of Waudang Flutes from Manam Island with singing and Mo-mo resonating tubes from the Finisterre Range. Occasional percussion is provided by wooden slit gongs and hand drums. These recordings were made in 1976. Tape to digital transfer by Dave Hunt at Dave Hunt Audio, London 07/15 Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin 08/15 Notes and photographs by Ragnar Johnson & Jessica Mayer Originally released on LP 1977 as !Quartz 001 & 1979 as !Quartz 002, Quartz Publications by David Toop with the assistance of Sue Steward, Evan Parker, Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge. Re-released on CD 1999 as Rounder Records 5154 & 5155. www.ideologic.org 2016 €20.00
JULIUS, ROLF Music for the Ears CD "For a long time I've been thinking about how to create spaces into which one can retreat, where one can find quiet, where one can see, hear, where one is able to concentrate, where one is isolated from the world around but still is able to participate in itby means of art or Music or both' Rolf Julius, 1987. 'Futurism and Dadaism both made use of the synthesis of audio and visual arts to create a singular experience greater than the sum of its parts. This idea was further advanced by the Fluxus and Minimalism movements. Born in 1939 in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Rolf Julius was profoundly influenced and inspired by these movements while he studied art in Bremen and Berlin. YEars later, after immersing himself in Musical works by artists like Morton Feldman, John Cage, and La Monte Young, Julius began to shift his focus from visual art to the synthesis of sound and visual art and nature, exploring the relationships between sounds and objects and environments. Julius soon discovered how sounds can influence vision, creating simple tones to be presented in conjunction with his early photographic work. Such experiments culminated in the creation of his pioneering work 'Dike Line' (1979), which combined visual images with texture-inducing tones. This piece was presented at the ground breaking exhibition 'Fur Augen Und Ohren' in 1980. Mythical in scope, this was the first major European exhibition attempted to map international research by artists exploring relations between sound and visual art, bringing together work by John Cage, Luigi Russolo, Nam June Paik, Joe Jones, Bill Fontana, Milan Knizak, Harry Bertoia, David Tudor and Rolf Julius. Over the next 30 yEars Julius went on to create some of the most meaningful and moving works in the grey area between Music and art, between sound and silence. Alongside Takehisa Kosugi, Terry Fox, and Akio Suzuki, he has emerged as one of the most important and influential sound artists of our time. Since the early 1980's Julius has referred to his compositions as Small Music, receiving international acclaim from those in the fields of contemporary art and Music for calling the origins of sound and vision into question. Small Music not only describes Julius' approach to composition (soft and compelling sounds from simple instruments and nature), but also a way in which to view his works and ultimately the world. Art historian Bernd Schulz once wrote 'if one recalls John Cage's central theme of 'silence' then Rolf Julius is the contemporary artist who approaches him most closely'. Julius' Small Music has the distinct ability to heighten our perception such that 'silence' becomes a positive quality of a place and a situation, and not just an absence of sound. Whether using photographs, ink drawings, audio compositions, or subtle and sometimes almost hidden outdoor installations, Rolf Julius' works serve as catalyst, increasing our awareness of the great beauty of the world that surrounds us. Western Vinyl is proud to release 'Music for the Ears' the first in a series of Small Music releases by Rolf Julius. With a goal of creating solitary sound environments, the Small Music series will culminate into a boxed edition of seminal works by this master sound artist. 'Music for the Ears' is comprised of two long tracks of gently weaving tones exploring the possibilities of spatial experience. The cover image depicts Julius' sound installation in a bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan where his Music is placed high in the air, by speakers hanging freely from the branches of the trees. As the Music suspends itself in the air, the tones sway in the wind floating ever so gently, caressing the Ears, the trees, the light, and clouds." [label info] www.westernvinyl.com "Now here's someone who is perhaps world famous in the world of sound art, yet hardly ever appears in Vital Weekly. Its, among other reasons, because he didn't release that music, but also because his music is usually heard in museums and galleries and not always on record. But the good news is that Western Vinyl will re-release eight of his old works, starting with 'Music For The Ears', which comes with the subtitle 'small music no. 1' and small music it is. 'Song From The Past', the first of the two pieces on this album sounds like one long tape loop of bamboo flute being played. Every now and then it stops and then it starts again. Music that is very undemanding - an environmental piece to fill your ambience. Or perhaps music to meditate by - if only I ever did that. The second piece 'Music On Two High Poles' is different. It might be played on a small, children's organ or a harmonium, cut into two loops of a varying length. Its a bit louder, or perhaps it just appears so: I turned up the volume quite a bit for the first piece, so this one comes in louder. I think both pieces are designed to do the same thing: create a sonic environment. What I especially liked about it, and that's something you can only hear when the volume is quite a bit, is all the extra sounds that come along: the static hiss from the used analogue tapes that creates a nice additional sonic layer to the music. And which doesn't seem to make the music static but very much alive and vibrant. Excellent music. This is the earliest Rolf Julius recording, from 1979 and the start of a great career. Can't wait for the other seven releases." [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2010 €14.00
JUPITTER-LARSEN, GX Expanded Slam 10inch " "Expanded Slam" and "Extended Slam", two new compositions by one of America's most consistently explorative and radical artists. Presented in a blazing gatefold package designed by Jupitter-Larsen, including an essay on the permawave, the polywave and the hoopla. Utterly delightful. GX Jupitter-Larsen is an media artist, based in Hollywood, California, who has been active in a number of underground art scenes since the late 1970s. He has been involved in punk rock, mail art, cassette culture, the noise music scene, and zine culture. During the 1990s he was the sound designer for the performances of Mark Pauline's Survival Research Laboratories. His best known work is as the founder of the noise act The Haters, who have performed all over the world, and appear on over 300 CD & record releases. Mastered and cut at D+M, Berlin Edition of 500, vinyl only " [label info] www.hronir.de www.jupitter-larsen.com "Hronir is a small German label, who released two things in the late nineties and five new items only this year. This 10″ is the latest release and is a noise record from G.X. Jupitter-Larsen. I have no idea why its released under his own name, and not by The Haters. Maybe it has to do with profiling as a composer? Maybe a wholly different reason. Two side long pieces here, ‘Expanded Slam’ and ‘Extended Slam’, which may or may not be extensions of eachother. Two sides of loud noise. The scraping of an object onto a surface perhaps, but then within a full distortion package. Loud, vicious noise music. Probably, if you have been paying attention, you would imagine that this is the kind of noise I don’t like, and you are probably right. But over the last twenty-five years I learned to appreciate The Haters quite a lot, and I think the sheer minimal noise of The Haters is great. It is loud and distorted, but also totally captivating. It also fits perfectly into whatever else Jupitter-Larsen does, in his performances and internet work, so unlike youngs boys fiddling with two distortion boxes in their bedroom, this is all encapsulating. Not just a record, but a statement." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2010 €16.00
KALLABRIS Off Mind mCD-R „Things happen. This is obviously wrong.“ Nach langer Sendepause eine weitere Kallabristische Exkursion in abseitige Bereiche! Schon die Verpackung (verschlossene Senftüte mit einer Art Zeitung darin die sowas wie philosophische Aphorismen bzw. logisch aufeinander aufbauende Widersprüche enthält) ist aussergewöhnlich genug, das akustische Sprach- und Musik-Material verwirrt und regt weiter an: verfremdetes endloses erkenntnistheoretisches Geschwurbel garniert mit seltsam halb-rhythmischen Mantra-Strukturen und ebenso seltenen Geräuschen.... wir sind begeistert vor so viel Geist im Nicht-Geistigen. Ein genialer Streich. “Kallabris’ scientific research has always been outstanding: their North Pole expedition, the chemistry of change that can be experienced in mocha, the ondadynamical theory as a clue for the explanation of mental phenomena -­ just to mention a few, well-known highlights. This time, they go for the core of it all: epistemology covered with ontological speculations. The Apologia gives a rough, yet charmingly delivered sketch of the project -- impressions and reflections performed with an impressing beat. The Corpus Maior is a dance of condensed thought, a playful and enchanted rhythm that cheerfully leads to the Epilogus which, with its skeptical melancholy, makes plainly obvious how little is done when the answers are given. A tribute to quest, but in no means to discovery.” [label info] 2006 €13.00
KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF There are Actions which we have neglected and which never cease to call us LP "Every song written or improvised has an inside song which lives in the shadows, in-between the sounds and silences and behind the words, pulsating, waiting to be reborn as a new song." William Parker, I Plan To Stay A Believer (liner notes) After 20 years of Kammerflimmer Kollektief, with 10 albums thus far, the time has come to take a trip. The Karlsruhe combo guide us through seven stations in an unfathomable Terra Incognita, where a listening space emerges at the intersection of improvisation and composition, a space where certitude slips out of reach, jouncing incessantly between precision and freedom, oscillating furiously between cut-up and palimpsest – and, just when we think we may have pinned it down, disappears altogether. This album entitled "There are actions which we have neglected and which never cease to call us." is one for the fearless: wordlessly conjuring up enchanted places in the richest of tones, simultaneously confronting us with magic which captivates us and the excruciating realisation that we may never be released from its spell. Mirror images come into view, images of ourselves: driven away, tormented by feelings of guilt, frozen in powerlessness – even when we believe we are still moving. There is always a mountain of things missed, calling out to us! The wetlands of the Upper Rhine Plain ("In my heart there's a place called swampland!"). Cuernavaca in the Mexican highlands. A Southern Californian stretch of Pacific coast. The Baltic Coast in Mecklenburg. A bunch of haunted places – all scenes of melancholy within us, between longing and memory, repeatedly searching for acts of liberation. This may not be the record to set us free. But it offers us a soundtrack for our melancholic state. One thing is clear when it comes to the Kammerflimmer Kollektief. Regardless of any interpretive traps snapping shut, or the conceptual penetration of apparently pre-conceptual musical factuality: here is something which cannot be voiced: avant-garde, improvisation, psychedelia, whichever labels are stuck on the Karlsruhe collective, they all feel patently unsatisfactory. Like all music, their music can neither be narrowed down to concepts nor fixed semantically. It cannot be organised as language, with a sound or image corresponding to specific points observed by sender and recipient alike, yet it is no more pre-conceptual in the sense of: first come the conditions of music, then one learns to discuss them. The Karlsruhe artists practise other-conceptuality. This is cata-language. Music from who the fuck knows where. These carefully unconsidered atheist jam supplications lead us into the darkest corners of our souls. Out of the night and into the night. The bass of Johannes Frisch creaks and hums, evolving into barely discernible undergrowth with a life of its own, yet still becoming the foundation of everything – a basso continuo, constantly leading into nothingness. Heike Aumüller's harmonium recognizes its original calling as aerophone and is elementally: wind. A wind which has so much to tell us: about the good and true sides of life, but even more about what tortures us, leaves us restless. Comforter and painful wound in one. Thomas Weber's whirring guitars and gadgets drag us into a wondrously reverberating space of special effects – protection is not all this underbrush may grant us. Amidst all the excitement which awaits us on this short, yet infinite journey, it is worth remembering: as the shaman hangs out his magic roots to dry in the morning as preparation for the ritual ecstasy of the evening, so the Kollektief follow an everyday principle in their own ritual. In short: Be not afeard! www.bureau-b.com/kammerflimmer_kollektief.php 2018 €20.00
KASSEL JAEGER Shifted in Dreams LP Franco-Swiss composer François J. Bonnet, aka Kassel Jaeger, returns to Shelter Press with a new solo album, Shifted in Dreams. Bonnet has been working closely with Shelter Press for several years now, whether as a musician (Zauberberg, Swamps / Things), theorist (The Music To Come), or director of INA GRM (SPECTRES, Recollection GRM, Portraits GRM). Each of these directions taken, each of these actions carried out, is an exploration and an attempt to understand the deep causes of music, its own potential and its possible appearances. Shifted in Dreams is a continuation of such a research, but takes a somewhat deviated path. If we use the image of music as a paradoxical mountain, as an unreachable “Mont Analogue”, this album tries to opens up a way that at first seems simpler, marked out, known and recognized thanks to the distinct presence of common harmonic and temporal elements. This path, however, is simple only in appearance, for soon it becomes less clear, its contours get blurred, drowned in the mist. Silhouettes form in the distance, like uncertain shadows. We grope our way forward, in this infra-sensitive thickness of the world outside of signs. The recognized markers disappear, giving way, at best, to reminiscences, but increasingly making way to qualities, occurrences, events. We leave the known world of musical codes to join that of sound apparitions, their memorial imprints and the impressions they produce. Following a compositional approach stemming from the musique concrète tradition, without adopting a structuralist aesthetic, Shifted in Dreams explores a wide range of instruments and techniques, going seamlessly from instrumental improvisation to field recording, via micro-editing and the use of asynchronous loops. Mixing the electronic sounds of an ARP 2500 synthesizer with the acoustic drones of a positive organ, articulating guitar layers with the resonance of the Cristal Baschet, bringing together recordings of slamming windows and sound produced by complex modular synthesis patches, Bonnet offers a rich and generous palette of sounds, inviting a constantly renewed sonic investigation. Shifted in Dreams, despite its title, is not a dreamlike record. The dream here does not designate the symbolical space of interpretation and reinterpretation of reality through cultural patterns. It designates the intermediate, blurred and uncertain state where the reality of signs loses its consistency, while, paradoxically, the reality of senses and impressions becomes imperative, obvious. The reality of demons. https://kasseljaeger.bandcamp.com/album/shifted-in-dreams 2023 €27.50
KAZIMIRA, DARJA Medea Forgives Jason CD https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/medea-forgives-jason "Medea forgives Jason" is a cycle of improvisations, first inspired by Euripides and his tragedy called "Medea". This canvas captures not only numerous musical paths leading to the image of the great queen of Colchis but also a research path where anthropology, literature, dreams, and deconstructive bodily practices are combined together in order to destroy the dying myth and thereby return it to the "beginning ". The anthropological philosopher René Girard, being one of the most fundamental theorists in relationships between ritual and violence, speaking about bloody, cruel myths often urged readers to remember about twin brothers represented by sacred violence and primitive violence, whose relationships symbolize the world balance, where a violent ritual pacifies its criminal brother. In addition, as soon as we allow an equal sign between these twins, chaos enters the ancient world. This statement also applies to the myth of Medea. Today, burdened with modern moral and ethical attitudes, a human looks at Medea as a hysterical, vindictive woman and a murderous mother. The body of this myth is so unified, simplified that is more akin to a biographical action drama than an archaic symbolic, allegorical construction appealing to the world order. And the essence of the problem here lies precisely in the coveted equalization of Medea (ritual violence) and Jason (simple violence), inspired by the naive modern attraction towards a “happy end”. Therefore, the actions of Medea and her patron deities, who with a series of bloody ritual reprisals punish Jason for deviating from sacred oaths and crimes committed, turned into simplified sentimental connotation that makes this mythological plot meaningless. In turn, the musical act "Medea forgives Jason" realizes the massive desire to transform Medea into a positive scenario and clearly demonstrates not only the senselessness of this intention but also its destructive nature from the point of view of the ancient world, where the equilibrium of the archaic universe turns into an escalation of primitive violence - in it is no the place for sacred and only destruction, madness and an ominous hypostasis of chaos remain, reign and rule. Edition of 300 copies in 4 panels Digisleeve, Matt Lamination. 10 Tracks. Running Time 65:33 2022 €13.00
KELLER, ALEX & SEAN O'NEILL Kruos LP Alex Keller and Sean O'Neill have created performances and installation pieces together since 2015. Using field recordings, vintage telephone test equipment, and magnetic oscillators, among other tools, their work addresses the agents and artifacts of change in the urban (and acoustic) realms. The resultant audio is a potent brew, seamlessly merging drone, musique concrète, phonography, and various electronic intrusions. "Kruos" is the duo's debut release. It was developed between December 2016 and February 2017 as a distillation of live performances and as a chronicle of the pair's speculative investigations. "Kruos" is an assured, bracing study of an invisible landscape, and a wholly absorbing colloquy. This collaboration began as an exercise in the manipulation of field recordings exclusively. The album's title, "Kruos," refers to those early processes, for it is an ancient Greek word meaning frozen or frost, and is the root of the word krustallos, or crystal. The ancient Greeks believed that, like frost, crystal was created by the cold. And similarly, field recordings exist in a kind of crystallized stasis - frozen in time. The additions of magnetic oscillators and a vintage telecom test synthesizer to their cache have given Keller and O'Neill more time-based control over what happens in a performative setting, while still leaving a great deal to the time-frozen nature of the original field recordings. This remarkable juxtaposition of sound sources, of action and repose, engenders a startling and satisfying listening experience… "Kruos I" takes the listener on an interior journey, from test equipment to a warehouse, to a medicine cabinet on the Carnival Triumph, to a digital synthesizer: a tense, anxious exploration. "Kruos II" resumes outside, from an urban university's power plant, to magnetic oscillators, to a pastoral scene on a lake, to a dock on another lake, closing this chronicle at a point of poised stasis (or "kruos"). "Kruos" has been released by Elevator Bath as a limited edition clear vinyl LP, copies of which are also available here: www.elevatorbath.com credits released July 7, 2017 Alex Keller is an audio artist, sound designer, curator, and teacher. His engagement with performance and recording is an outgrowth of his interest in architecture, language, abstraction, music, and in the inherent aesthetic value of the act of research. Keller recently spearheaded the creation of the Phonography Austin group; his work in the realm of phonography/field recording (plus that of sound art and engineering) has been documented on several releases over the last 20+ years. Sean O'Neill is a multi-media artist interested in how perception shapes the dynamics of spatiality. He explores both the visible light spectrum and the audible frequency range to determine how they influence our lived environments, and vice versa. O'Neill's installation work involving light and sound has been exhibited and documented internationally. Keller and O'Neill are both currently based in Austin, Texas. They have performed live, to great acclaim, alongside the likes of John Duncan, Lawrence English, Rick Reed, and many others. They will tour the US this summer. elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/kruos "Alex Keller and Sean O'Neill may have been collaborators since 2015, but Kruos is actually their debut release. That relative youth does not translate to lack of experience on the album, however, as the duo’s work is a complex, nuanced work of sound art, conjured up from some rather rudimentary sources, largely just field recordings and a telephone test synthesizer. It is a bit of a difficult, unsettling experience at times, but a strong one nonetheless. The two halves of Kruos complement each other well, with each side representing some drastically different approaches to sound. The first half begins rather simply with a big, looming bassy analog tone that slowly oscillates in pitch. Sputtering at times, it functions well as an underlying foundation for the processed field recordings to be constructed upon. The duo introduces these rather coarsely via recordings of violent, heavy reverberated knocking. There is a rhythmic quality to it, but is anything but conventional. Instead, it functions as a jarring, menacing addition to initially restrained sounds. Keller and O'Neill are not just working with pure field recordings, of course, so after some of those loud outbursts, a bit of delay scatters the sound nicely, giving an additional sense of depth. Beyond that, some weird creaking textures and shifting of pitches balance out the open space well, bringing a nicely foreboding quality to the composition. The tones get even more varied and pushed to the forefront, building up to a dramatic, yet abrupt ending. The second half of the record is the more subtle side to Kruos. The low frequency synthesizer hum reappears, but here blended with an ambience somewhere between white noise generator and air conditioning system. From here slow, sparse pulsations appear, representing another misuse of that telephone test equipment the duo utilizes. Sputtering, rumbling electronics appear, giving a bit more tension to the otherwise peaceful surroundings, but still staying more restrained and less confrontational than the first half. Eventually these indistinct and mostly unidentifiable field recordings and found sounds are presented in a less treated way, consisting of far off birds and insects that again capture the vastness of nature very well. Towards the conclusion, however, the duo decides to get weird again. There is a reappearance of some of the knocking/clattering type sounds that were heard throughout the first part, building to a more disorienting, chaotic arc before coming to another abrupt conclusion. Alex Keller and Sean O'Neill may not have used a significant amount of instrumentation to construct Kruos, but they achieve a great deal with what they have. It is difficult and challenging at times, and there is not much to grab on to as far as conventional rhythm or melody, but it excels in abstraction. In many cases the result is far removed from the source material, but the environment the two create on here is just as fascinating as any natural one that could be captured." [Creaig Dunton / Brainwashed] 2017 €20.00
KENNEY, JESSIKA & EYVIND KANG Aestuarium LP "Jessika Kenney is a vocalist known for her haunting timbral sense, as well as her profound interpretation of vocal traditions. Eyvind Kang is a violist for whom the act of music and learning is a spiritual discipline. Aestuarium is a meditation on a psalm of lamentation and the unary tone in the metaphor of salt and fresh water, inspired by Gaelic psalmery, Tibetan notational gestures, and the microtonality of the tetrachord. Recorded on the shore of Colvos Passage in 2005 by renowned engineer Mell Dettmer. Stephen O'Malley comments: "Amongst many other amazing pieces Jessika & Eyvind collaborated on SUNN O)))'s "Monoliths & Dimensions" album, Jessika leading the choir on the piece "Big Church" and Eyvind composing the acoustic arrangements for "Big Church" & "Alice". I learned an immense amount about music through these collaborations, specifically the idea of Spectral music through research and discussion/reference points of composers such as Grisey and Murail. Aestuarium is a beautiful piece of minimalist spectral music which has brought great pleasure to my ears over the years." Originally released on CD by Endless Records 2005. Ideologic Organ curation and art direction by Stephen O'Malley, manufactured and distributed by Editions Mego." [label info] www.editionsmego.com/ideologic-organ/ 2011 €20.00
KG AUGENSTERN Circles and Cycles BOOK + CD Kg Augenstern (Christiane Prehn and Wolfgang Meyer) have been exploring the world for many years with their “Tentacles,” extendable fiberglass canes that allow them to touch and extract the sounds of the places they are travelling through. These tentacles have become a kind of prostheses to generate subtle experiences that require attentive listening. The various aspects of the project are constantly transformed and presented as audiokinetic installations, live-streams, radio broadcasts or sound installations in contemporary art spaces. In autumn 2019, the artists explored places in Sicily that have been abandoned within the last few decades. With their tentacles, they scratched circles on the surface of these contemporary ruins to reveal the specific sounds of the various surfaces and their surroundings. A camera installed in the center of the circles recorded the images. The research was accompanied by experiments with raw sheep’s wool and clay as materials corresponding to the ephemeral appearance and transitory atmosphere of the places. The outcome of the research was presented as an exhibition in an old prayer hall in Palermo. The CD invites listeners to explore 10 abandoned places, including the location of the final exhibition. 11 Tracks (37′44″) Book & CD (500 copies) KG Augenstern’s “tentacle” performs surgeries on abandoned places. The duo from Berlin seeks out locations that lie between the states of life and death, populated and depopulated, places constantly changing, and thus in an enduring state of malleable equilibrium. They are the apocalyptic souvenirs of humans’ attempts to form landscapes. That which exists tends towards new shapes, which slowly bury mankind’s contingencies and intentions. The forgotten place and its surfaces are scratched in circles. The media to be studied are the subtle sounds caused by the scratching. At times the tentacle glides lightly along the surface, barely touching; on another pass it might bite in, leaving a mark. It stretches itself out, or blends with the material beneath it, all the while releasing its tensions in the form of deep, diffused sound vibrations. Or it springs in powerful leaps across the ground beneath it. An intense sound is called forth, rhythmic and repetitive, embedded in the temporal cycles of the described circles. Time is rendered instable, volatile, surreal, and reveals its magic. The process is repeated in the same or another location. The combinations of time and material transform themselves into a cyclical continuum. KG Augenstern creates an additional cycle out of sheep’s wool, clay, and fire. From materials found in the ruins, burned objects are created which are fragile and subordinate to their own disintegration. The observer slips outside the field of consciousness, and attention is directed towards the revelation of baselessness, not from within the realm of understanding, but in the form of realization in a material sense. Life is transformed into a question, and this uncertainty reveals the instability of existence. Ennio Pellicanò Curator Step by step, staying in this lonely place by the sea, with that empty beach, working in all these ruins without ever seeing any living person, only birds– mostly pigeons–, insects, and lizards, a kind of hypnotic, apocalyptic dimension develops. In almost every place there is an abandoned camp somebody homeless used to use a long time ago for a temporary shelter, with worn out clothes and an old mattress. Shy dogs: one, a German shepherd with two puppies vacillates between being curious and afraid, same as me. Circle by circle, rubbish, wet walls, cracked ceilings, holes to take care of and another uncertain stairway. Contemporary archeology in contemporary ruins. Disgust, fear, tension, expectations. Layers of birdshit on children‘s toys, suddenly left behind, hard material under soft organic patina…. a baby carriage, furniture, pictures on the walls and beds still made …what will wait in the next room, the next building, the next structure? SCRATCHING A LIDO Lido Las Vegas was built in the ’60s and was closed by the authorities in 2017. Before its closure, it had been run illicitly within a nature reserve, and without any authorization, state concession, or certificate of use. It is a wooden structure with small rooms for summer guests, a restaurant and a playground for children. A solid, newer but also abandoned structure with more rooms was built just beside. The scratching circles were recorded on the terraces, between the rooms and next to the playground. The surface is tiles, sand, rubbish, wood and stones. Everything is sandy. The waves of the sea can be heard in the background. SCRATCHING A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE Cunziria is a village the dates of whose founding as an urban nucleus are unknown, but it is known that in the 1920s a slow decline began, until the 1960s, when the artisan practice of tanning stopped. Some houses have been restored but left behind unfinished and are now used as stables. In one house we found raw sheep’s wool covering the ground. At a nearby sheep farm, the farmer offered us plenty of raw wool for free. The scratched circles are partly inside and partly outside of the houses. Sometimes it was hard to move the tentacle through the plants covering the buildings. One of the circles is performed inside of a cellar, with basins formerly used for tanning. The surface varies from dense, thorny bush, stones, mud and clay to tiled floor in the restored rooms. In the background it is possible to hear sheep and sheep bells, birds, and from time to time a car on the close-by small road. SCRATCHING A COMMERCIAL AREA Beside Route S115 south of Catania is an abandoned commercial area with five big buildings. They were built in the 1990s, and given up after a short period of usage. The reason was that the new Catania-Syracusa highway was built only a short distance away, and the formerly busy road along the coast was almost forgotten. Patinaed signs on the wall still show that there once was a supermarket, a car-dealership, a furnisher….. Now a semi-organic layer covers the almost-new concrete floors, and birds fly about the huge halls, while wild plants crack the surfaces. SCRATCHING A CASTLE Castello del Duca di Misterbianco is an old castle-like villa, built in 1930, not far from a river and the beach. It has many rooms, and horse stables. It was abandoned in the Second World War after it was heavily bombed and partly destroyed by english soldiers, attacking the Germans who had occupied the castle. It is covered with plants. The surface is rocky. Two of the scratched circles were done on two different flat roofs on a windy day, the other ones inside of the structure, where it was even difficult to move the tentacle because of all the stone shards and plants scattered around. SCRATCHING A FURNITURE STORE Sicilmobile is a big furniture store built in the late ’70s in Brutalist concrete style. It was abandoned around the year 2000 for economic reasons. The building with its two levels is amazing and spacious. A restaurant was connected to the commercial area. The area has been used by skateboarders for some time. The surface is tiles, concrete, small stones and pieces of glass. In the main halls, broken bricks, fallen from the ceiling, cover the floor. One of the scratched circles was done outside of the building and the rest in different parts inside. There are two roads with a constant flow of traffic close to the building. The airport is also close. SCRATCHING A BRICK FACTORY Noted art critic Vittorio Sgarbi described Fornace Penna as “a secular basilica by the sea.” Indeed, this abandoned industrial structure echoes some of the crumbling medieval cathedrals scattered around Europe. Built entirely from solid stones in the early 1900s, Fornace Penna specialized in manufacturing bricks sold them across the Mediterranean region. However, business lasted only a little over ten years. On the night of January 24th, 1924, arson turned the factory into the fascinating and deserted stone skeleton we see today. The wind blows through the arcs of the ruins, which are heavily covered with all kinds of plants. There is an almost round, accessible vaulted kiln under the center of the building. With so many plants and rocks all over the place, it was difficult to find any locations for the scratchings. The waves of the sea can be heard in the background. At one place, a lizard tried to attack the tentacle during scratching. SCRATCHING A PAPER MILL S.p.a Cartiere Larena is a paper mill that was closed more than 30 years ago. It appears that the first paper made in Europe was produced in Sicily toward the end of the tenth century, and there are still several specialized paper producers, but this mill didn‘t survive the economical crisis of the ’80s. It is a beautiful building, still containing two big huge stone bowls, with motor-driven millstones inside. The surface is variable, from stone to clay and gravel. A road is close to the building and in the background a football match can be heard. SCRATCHING A BORGO Borgo Rizzo is one of the borgos in Sicily that were built between 1939 and 1940 under the then fascist government, with the goal of transforming agricultiral production systems and colonizing fertile, unused areas by attracting farmers to new villages that provided all main services, such as schools, churches, post offices, etc. Some of the houses have been partially renovated with EU funding, but remain unfinished and unused, tending to turn into the new generation of ruins. The area is very quiet with only very few cars driving on the nearby road. A wild dog with two puppies lives on the terrace of one of the houses. All in all it has the atmosphere of a ghost town. SCRATCHING A FORWARDING COMPANY Transporti Avimec was a big Catanian freight-forwarding company which was seized and closed in 1989 on suspicion of having been owned by the mafia and used for illegal transactions. Several attempts by mafia members to buy the company back were not successful. It was possible to enter the closed property by a hole in the wall. In the private house on the property, everything seemed to have been left behind from one minute to the next. Children’s toys, furniture and beds appear recently abandoned. The halls and the courtyard are empty. The area’s surface is partly covered with rubbish or birds‘ faeces. In the distance, traffic and the neighbours‘ trucks can be heard. SCRATCHING A CHAPEL The final exhibition was presented as a site-specific audiovisual installation at the former Oratory of Santa Maria del Sabato in one of the oldest parts of Palermo. The chapel is in a state of abandonment, waiting to converted into a synagogue. In the past it was a mosque, then a synagogue, and an oratory. The first scratch was taken in the empty hall, with just one tentacle scratching a circle. The second one is, as it was during the installation, recorded at the center of the middle circle of three motor-driven circle-scratching tentacles, with raw sheep’s wool covering parts of the floor, being moved from time to time by the tentacles. The third recording is the sound of the three tentacle circles, recorded from beside them. https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18680 2020 €18.00
KINETIX Final Archives CD "The final chapter for this project run by Gianluca Becuzzi well know for his old dark wave project LIMBO but also for his solo works and collaborations with Fabio Orsi. FINAL ARCHIVES is a sort of collection of rare tracks recorded from 1999 to 2006 totally reworked and remastered in 2009. From booklet notes: ABSOLUTE GREY is the title that Kinetix gave at his graphic artwork selection exhibited with an ambient post-scoring specifically composed for the expositive space. The exhibition is made of ten grey scale serigraphies on white forex scheets (1 meter x 1 meter) and a composition of 20 minutes played through two lour speakers and one woofer covered with grey powder on top of a white cube. Absolute Grey is been presented at the sound art festival PX2_Piombino_eXperimenta_2006. RW MATERIALS is a collection of seven short tracks from the early Kinetix production. Noise gestaltmusic. A multidimensional concept created with sound layers and ambient concretism. These tracks help to the listener to understand the start point of the Kinetix sound research. RESOUNDING SULPTURES is based on the concept of “composition for blocks of sound” made in 50’s and 60’s by Iannis Xenakis. For this reason traditional compositional criteria (harmonic-melodic / rhythmic-metric) will replace the various criteria of plastic / spatial forms. Part of the sound sources used for Resounding Sculptures were extracted from the works of Iannis Xenakis to whom this composition is dedicated." [label info] www.silentes.net "We land in more 'current' times with the release of 'Final Archives' by Kinetix. The first time I reviewed Kinetix it was a release called 'First Emissions' (see Vital Weekly 339). Gianluca Becuzzi was behind Kinetix, before starting to work under his own name. These pieces on 'Final Archives' (his final release as Kinetix I assume) is a collection of rare tracks recorded from 1999 to 2006, and were previously available on CDR and MP3. The music by Kinetix has nothing to do with the previous three releases, as this is all computer based microsounding music. Over the years I heard various of his releases with 'White Rooms' as a definitely landmark in his career (see Vital Weekly 503). These pieces presented here, the early days, Becuzzi was on the look out for his own take on that microsound principle, but didn't entirely made up his mind yet. Pan Sonic seems to be an all important influence on the middle work 'Rw Materials', with heavy beats, white static noise and field recordings, but in the two surrounding pieces, 'Absolute Grey' and 'Resounding Sculptures', he is already drawn towards say someone like Richard Chartier or Marc Behrens, although the latter piece is influenced by Xenakis, and its not difficult to draw a parallel to 'Persepolis': large chunks of sound and sheets of metal. 'Absolute Grey' is the most Chartier like, with soft static sounds and processed voice. This is not the final masterwork of Becuzzi, but it marks the nice end of someone who did some nice music under the name of Kinetix." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2010 €12.50
KIRKEGAARD, JACOB Phonurgia Metallis CD Three freely hanging metal plates Iron, Copper, Brass Each 100 x 100 x 01 cm edition of 300 Piezo sensor and contact speaker attached on rear side of each plate Amplifying and mirroring their subtle and naturally occurring vibrations Evoking the characteristic resonant frequencies of each type of metal The sound art of Jacob Kirkegaard explores ways to reflect on immediate complex, unnoticed or unapproachable aspects of the human condition or civilisation. His works have treated themes such as radioactivity in Chernobyl and Fukushima, melting ice in the Arctic, border walls in Palestine, and tones - otoacoustic emissions - generated from the actual human ear. Currently Jacob Kirkegaard works on two projects, one on the sound of global waste and waste management. The other on sound environments related to the immediate human post mortem. With his peculiar alchemist approach and extensive research, complex phenomena and current conditions are portrayed through composition, installation, video and photography. Rather than providing answers, his portrayals create spaces for reflexion. Kirkegaard has presented his works at galleries, museums, biennales and concert spaces throughout the world, including MoMA in New York, LOUISIANA - Museum of Modern Art and ARoS in Denmark, The Menil Collection and at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, The Sydney Biennale in Australia, Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan. Jacob Kirkegaard has gallery representation through Fridman Gallery (New York, USA) and Galleri Tom Christoffersen (Copenhagen, DK). His work is represented in the permanent collection of LOUISIANA - Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. One of contemporary sound art's most subtle, intriguing figures. More artistically minded than field recordings, more naturally hewn than noise tapes, Kirkegaard amplifies hidden worlds into evocative drifts. Rolling Stone, December 2015 Kirkegaard has countered Duchamp’s dictum, “One can look at seeing, one can’t hear hearing.” Douglas Kahn, Earside Out, 2014 For all the scientific rigour to Kirkegaard's research into the sonic possibilities of various materials, his work reveals an underlying fascination for the mysteries and myths embedded in them. His work channels an access to an inner world. A.H. Neset, The Wire, 2009 https://importantrecords.com/products/jacob-kirkegaard-phonurgia-metallis-cd 2019 €15.00
KIVA same do-CD "CD 1: 11 April 1991 (Track 1): Keith Humble, piano, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, John Silber, trombone, violin, Mary Oliver, violin, viola. 11 April 1991 (Track 2): Keith Humble, piano, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, John Silber, trombone, violin. CD 2: June 1985 (Track 1): Keith Humble, DX7, electronics, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, electronics, John Silber, trombone, violin, electronics. Two Poems of the Absurd & Two Poems on the Absurd (tape collage by John Silber of KIVA performances) (Track 2): Keith Humble, DX7, voice, electronics, Jean-Charles Francois, percussion, voice, electronics, John Silber, trombone, violin, voice, electronics, Mary Oliver, violin Eric Lyon, computer vocoder manipulations of John Silber's sounds. The research-performance group KIVA was created in 1975 by the American trombonist John Silber and the French percussionist Jean-Charles François as part of a research project at the Center for Music Experiment at the University of California San Diego. During the period of its existence (1975-91) various members (often graduate students from UCSD) joined the two permanent musicians, John Silber and Jean-Charles François, to contribute to the groups artistic production. Two personalities had an important impact on the development of the KIVA aesthetical posture: the Korean dancer Hi-ah Park between 1978 and 1985, and the Australian pianist and composer Keith Humble between 1984 and 1991. The important contribution of the KIVA project to the artistic field can be defined as an emancipation of the classical performer from the role of interpreter of written music to one that involved being fully an actor of artistic creation through the direct production of sounds on instruments and related objects. This has been often characterized in the musical world as ?improvisation?. But the group would not adhere to the overtones associated with this word, implying spontaneous behavior or social interactions without specified aesthetical content. For KIVA the refusal to use any notation on paper was the occasion to access the complex and chaotic nature of sound objects. Through an everyday work in progress, the group was able to elaborate an original language constituted directly from working on sound matter. KIVA described itself as an experimental group dedicated to notationless music, mixed media, extended instrumental techniques. The group KIVA has always refused to publish its work through recordings. Every working session of KIVA was recorded on audio format, but this only constituted a tool for the reflection of its members. The real artistic object was always considered to be the contextual circumstances of a given performance, the reenactment, always different, of the working out of already elaborated sound materials. In this sense no particular instant can be regarded as constituting a work object of the KIVA experience. But the context today has changed, since two of the main important members have died (Keith Humble and John Silber), the other protagonists are getting old, and so are the few who have been fortunate to listen to KIVAs performances. The publication of a CD of selected performances of KIVA today makes sense, in that it documents an important historical moment and provides the artistic community with sonic references of this ephemeral type of work." [label info] www.pogus.com "Pogus keeps finding material in archives all over the world interesting music from many moons ago. Here they present a double CD by Kiva, a 'research/performance' group Kiva, which was started in 1975 by trombonist John Silber and percussionist Jean-Charles Francois, who both worked at the Center for Music Experiment at the University of California San Diego. Graduate students played along with them. Two persons became important, the Korean dancer Hi-ah Park and pianist Keith Humble. Kiva was about the 'emancipation of the classical performer from the role of interpreter of written music to one that involved being fully an actor of artistic creation through the direct production of sounds on instruments and related objects'. Yet they didn't want to call this improvised music. But I would. This is hardcore improvised music. Kiva apparently recorded everything and we get here three out of four pieces of such improvised concerts. One is supposed to have some sort of electronics, which I somehow don't hear back in this recording, but perhaps its there. Otherwise these three pieces are explorations of trombone, percussion and piano. Not unlike AMM at times, but maybe also a bit more straightforward in their approach. Its actually quite nice altogether, but also quite a long sit through. The fourth pieces is a sound collage of Kiva playing music, set along tape manipulations of Antonin Artaud's poem 'Pour En Finir Avec le Jugement De Dieu' and vocal improvisations of Silber and Francois. An entirely different piece, even when it comes from the world of improvisation too, but it distinctly different. This is not music to just put on and do the dishes, this is something that requires ones full attention, and perhaps best had in one piece at a time." [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2010 €18.00
KLANK same CD "Two years in the making, aufabwegen presents the first ever studio album of Bremen-based MusikAktionsEnsemble KLANK. Co-produced by Radio Bremen’s contemporary music department and featuring singer Friederike Menz on various tracks, KLANK left its accustomed territory of energetic yet intimate performative stage action to enter the fine historic recording arena of Sendesaal Bremen. For this release the four members of KLANK focused on acoustic spaces and auditive situations recording hours and hours of material. While the opener RÅE N presents an almost architectural approach to the dense microtonal logics of noise and drone the three piece set of CONTAMINECHNO is a neat and surprising exploration of radioplayeske atmospheres and contemporary electronic music alike. The mono-ridden Der PRODUKTIVE KONSUMENT links the bobostertaglike assembling of ensembles at the computer with thoughts about various fields of consumerist homerecording while DIE MECHANISCHE CD for a moment neglects the data sound carriers and storage systems usually are used for, perceiving CDs, MDs and the like as sonic objects with their own musical quality. Closed by a brief passage through possible constellations within an improvising quartet, ÄÇEX, the release is, after all, linked to KLANK’s musical – live – practice. Additional information: www.klank.cc/cd/ On KLANK (the Artist): KLANK is a music/performance ensemble based in Bremen, Germany. Founded by improvisers Reinhart Hammerschmidt and Hainer Wörmann, sound-performer Tim Schomacker and composer / instrumentalist Christoph Ogiermann in 2008, KLANK’s sonic universe combines various musical experiences, influences and approaches.
 KLANK soon found common ground in both, the complex and dense logic of the interaction in playing improvised music and in researching the musical potential of various materials from everyday life. Be it kitchen utensils, office equipment, children’s toys or tools from whatever workplace – KLANK is able and willing to declare almost everything a musical instrument to expand the range of its sonic creations.
KLANK immediately realized that its music doesn’t just sound – but that it “looks like”, also. So the quartet started to focus on performative and site-specific concepts, establishing a unique brand of Klang-Aktionen (music- or sound-based performances) involving the use of body, voice, video and various theatrical elements. Improvisations and conceptual pieces for quartet remaining the core of KLANK-Arbeit, the ensemble conceived and produced a series of music/theater-pieces and performances for larger ensembles. Collaborating with visual artists like painter/video artist Dina Koper or filmmaker Jan van Hasselt KLANK presented performance pieces like ANUNDFUERSICH (2011) and films like UND BEFREIEN SIE VON WAS (2012). December 2013 will see a tour d’allemagne with french saxophonist Bertrand Denzler as the third installment of the bilateral THE FRENCH KONNEKTION program, an ongoing collaboration with Institut français de Brême." [label info] www.aufabwegen.de 2013 €13.00
KLEISTWAHR Winter LP Kleistwahr is the solo project of Gary Mundy, the legendary power electronic and noise-rock musician who is a founding member of Ramleh and runs the highly influential Broken Flag label. Solemn drones and elegiac long-form passages gird Kleistwahr’s Winter, which often chimes, glistens, and glows through a unhurried constructs for organ, synth, guitar, and electronics. Yet Mundy pivots throughout with triumphant explosions of shrill noise, redlined overload, and harrowingly anguished vocals from the great unknown. Quintessential Kleistwahr. Winter was originally published as part of the instantly out of print On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection also stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, an imprint founded in 2003 and dedicated to post-industrial research, recombinant noise, surrealist demolition, existential vacancy and then some. With the necessary reissue of Winter, The Helen Scarsdale Agency will embark upon the reissue of much of that material from On Corrosion. https://helenscarsdale.bandcamp.com/album/winter 2021 €18.50
KMRU Stupor LP https://otherpower.bandcamp.com/album/stupor Nairobi-born Berlin-based sound artist Joseph Kamaru, aka KMRU, shares his new work Stupor on the new Helsinki-based label Other Power. Commissioned by the Helsinki curatorial and commissioning agency PUBLICS, Stupor is comprised of three original long form tracks. The tracks on the album are speculative notes to social architectures and environments the artist has traversed. As Bhavisha Panchia, a curator and researcher, writes in her liner notes: “A musical alchemist, KMRU places his listeners’ ear into a sonic-spatial matrix in which he transmutes his trans-local experience of place into elevated sonic dimensions that demand a kind of listening that you need to surrender to. If listening positions you inside an event – into a relational, social and cultural act that also positions us in the world – then listening to this album projects you inside an indeterminate unfolding, thick with tensions of movement and transitions. The artist’s pursuit of sounding out and responding to the world is undertaken through a creative mode of listening, recording and production, in which his ‘voice’ reverberates in his compositional arrangements – that mediate, translate, imagine and re-encode. As he engages with the environments he encounters, KMRU ‘renders sound negotiable, thinkable’. His signature emerges through electro-acoustic forms as he configures spatial and temporal imaginaries still tethered to the experiences of the places his ear encountered. The tracks on this album, Stupor, are speculative notes to social architectures and environments the artist has traversed. His orchestrated compositions and arrangements levitate us and turn our ears towards places and times beyond our reach, propelling us into a future anticipated but ungraspable. It is exactly the physical and psychological space that KMRU forges from his recordings and digital processes that stretch and transform them into prolific sound ‘events’. We could think of Nairobi and Berlin as instruments in KMRU’s compositions, where the east African city is the place from which KMRU’s listening has been nurtured, while the west European is the city to which his ear has been attuned. The artist’s relationship with Nairobi’s diverse neighbourhoods – from Kariokor flats in the Eastlands where he grew up, to the suburbs in Rongai – has shaped his approach. His ongoing recordings of the city are crucial to his process of working and become historical records that capture it in time. They could be thought of as aural archives of a postcolonial place, undergoing numerous planned and unplanned infrastructural as well as economic changes. He treats these sonic documents of a rapidly expanding postcolonial environment – alongside globalisation, hyper-capitalism and increasing economic disparity across the globe – as the foundations from which he creates. Stupor reminds us that we are intrinsically spatial and temporal beings who contribute to the social construction of our worlds. Importantly, this album is a reminder of the capability of sound to carve out space and its potential to open spatial and temporal dimensions. Sound is movement. Sound is space. As Brandon LaBelle points out, “sound is both a thing of the past and a signal of the future”, pulling us forwards and pointing us back. The signals KMRU points us towards are indefinite, indeterminate and uncertain. They lean towards a future, yet never fully arrive there. For Joseph Kamaru, sound is a sensorial medium through which social, material and conceptual interpretations are manifested in his works. KMRU carries with him a repository of listening experiences from Nairobi and beyond expanding his sonic practices, bringing an awareness of surroundings through creative compositions, installations and performances. KMRU has carved out a serious and definitive space on the list of essential authors in ambient experimental music - one of the most prolific and innovative artists in his field. Composed by Joseph Kamaru Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwenbung Mastering Original photos & artwork by Joseph Kamaru OBI Design (Publics identity presence) by Valerio Di Lucente Design by Matti Nives Black vinyl LP edition of "Stupor". Inside out sleeve complete with OBI and printed inner sleeve with liner notes by Bavisha Panchia. Original photography and artwork by KMRU. 2023 €26.00
KRYNGE Singe Binge CD-R "KRYNGE, the multi-collaborative international supergroup, was the brainchild of Zan Hoffman in 1987-88 and features recordings of his home taping friends reimagined. Acknowledging the debt the contemporary experimental music scene owes to the pioneering work of the tape-trading and mail art scenes, Attenuation Circuit celebrates the 25th anniversary of Krynge by re-releasing the original cassettes on CD in bi-monthly instalments. The Krynge series comes in a dedicated new design while also containing reproductions of the original cassette cover art. Singe Binge is broken up into a few pieces alternating multiple voices (John Hudak [New Jersey], his girlfriend, Minóy [California], his mother, her friend and more). The other parts of the tape are RoLMo [Tennessee], loops and guitars and mush. Being the first tape in the series this is the kindest KRYNGE release, but it still is a hilarious example of the pleasures that can be found in the type of music/found footage collage perhaps most commonly associated with Negativland’s early work. Blending reverberating guitar sounds with wonderfully vintage 80s-style drum machine beats, TV sounds, over-the-top vocal renditions and the rest of the family talking, this recording is not only “home-taped” in the sense that it was not produced in a studio, but also in the sense that it paints a tongue-in-cheek, somewhat surreal picture of the way suburban boredom can provoke creative research." [label info] www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit 2012 €8.00
KUBISCH, CHRISTINA & ANNEA LOCKWOOD The Secret Life of the Inaudible do-CD About our collaboration. Annea and I first met in New York in 1975. I was writing an article about the experimental music scene in New York for an Italian magazine. We soon found out that we had a lot of common interests and ideas. In 1979 she came to Italy and together we performed her piece „World Rhythms“ at a festival in Como. I was deeply impressed by how Annea combined technical skills with intuitive performance. Sound for her always has been more than just material to bring into a compositional form. It was more than raw material, it had a complex structure of its own and was transporting energy. Annea translated and communicated this energy to the listener and she does this with unusual intensity until today. Over the years we followed each other’s works but unfortunately did not meet as often as we would have liked. During her stay in Berlin earlier this year we had another chance to discuss our works, materials, researches, concepts, doubts and future projects. The idea of a collaboration was a natural consequence of this exchange. We both investigate soundworlds which normally are not audible. Annea questions how the forces of nature influence us, I question how manmade electromagnetic fields have an impact on our lives. And we both love field recording, especially exploring underwater sounds with hydrophones. We decided to exchange sound materials and left it open to the other what to choose and how to mix it into a new composition. The two new pieces which were created by this exchange are different but at the same time seem to belong together somehow. Annea sent me extracts from recordings of VLF chorus waves, solar oscillations, earthquakes, gas vents etc. while I transmitted to her a collection of recordings of electromagnetic waves which I had made audible and recorded with special custom designed induction headphones. Annea’s sound material was coming from sonic ultra and infra ranges and was speeded up or shifted down in order to become audible, my recordings are analog and were made directly on site in different cities. The sounds we use are all strange and powerful and they go together as if they were especially made for this collaboration. Until now what kind of influence the sources of these normally hidden waves have on us is not much explored. It is up to the listener to find out more about it. Thanks to Gruenrekorder who supported our project from the beginning. — Christina Kubisch, November 2017 CD 1 – Annea Lockwood WILD ENERGY | 2016 (with Bob Bielecki) Wild Energy gives access to the inaudible, vibrations in the ultra sound and infra sound ranges emanating from sources which affect us fundamentally, but which are beyond our normal audio perception, many of which are creating our planet’s environment: the sun, the troposphere and ionosphere, the earth’s crust and core, the oxygen-generating trees – everything deeply integrated, forming an inaudible web in which we move, through which we live and on which we depend. It is our sense that through these sounds one can feel the energies generated, not as concepts but as energy-fields moving through one’s body. Here they have been shifted up (infrasound) or down (ultrasound) to bring them into the human audio range. Wild Energy begins with solar oscillations (acoustical pressure waves) recorded by the SOHO spacecraft – 40 days of solar oscillations sped up 42,000 times, and ends with ultrasound recorded from the interior of a Scots pine tree. Recordings made available to Annea Lockwood by scientists at the universities of Hawaii, Stanford, Iowa, Columbia (USA) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research. Sound sources: The sun, acoustical pressure waves – recording courtesy of Alexander Kosovichev, Solar Oscillations Investigation team, Stanford University Gas vents and tremors, Mt Kilauea – recordings courtesy of Milton Garces, the Infrasound Laboratory, University of Hawaii VLF Chorus waves and Whistlers; Auroral Kilometric Radiation radio waves –recordings courtesy of Craig Kletzing, Radio and Plasma Wave Group, University of Iowa Sei whale – recording courtesy of Arthur Newhall, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Earthquakes – recordings courtesy of the U.S.G.S; Ben Holtzman, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University and Jason Moran Trees, cavitation events and ultrasound emissions – recordings courtesy of Melvin Tyree; Roman Zweifel , Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and Marcus Maeder, Zurich University of the Arts, Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology Hydrothermal vents – recording courtesy of Timothy Crone, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University Bats: pipistrelle, California myotis, silver-haired bats, Shockwave-Sound.com; big brown bat and Grote’s tiger moth recording courtesy of Aaron Corcoran, Wake Forest University CD 1 – Annea Lockwood STREAMING, SWIRLING, CONVERGING | 2017 Composing with combined sound files and sources, six from each of us, has been a unique experience for me, and a deep pleasure. I have long found Christina’s explorations of the electromagnetic fields within which we live now revelatory and essential – beautiful in their sonic detail and powerful in their effects on my body. And there is satisfying sense of complementarity here: Human-created sounds from Christina’s electromagnetic world, a world which she has been hugely instrumental in revealing to us, and non-human sounds and vibrations from the geophysical, atmospheric and mammalian spheres which are my sources. Her sounds were a delight to work with, often with a clear pitch element and, while fluctuating in their details and flow, essentially stable. This contrasts well with the event-driven, more turbulent rhythms and noise content of my materials. It was fascinating to play with these differences and discover how easily our sounds blend as if drawn together magnetically into layered textures. I am most grateful to Christina for suggesting this collaboration. Sound sources: Annea Lockwood: Tremors and a bench collapse on Mt Kilauea, Hawaii, VLF whistlers, earthquakes in Sumatra and Honshu, Japan, ultrasonic sounds from a Scots pine tree, the Mid-Ocean Ridge Black Smoker hydrothermal vent, solar oscillations. Christina Kubisch: electromagnetic waves recorded in a subway station, a server room, an underground tunnel, a power station, shopping centers and in the countryside during a thunderstorm after electricity had broken down. CD 2 – Christina Kubisch NINE MAGNETIC PLACES | 2017 Nine magnetic places is a journey without knowing where to go, what to find, how long to stay or what will come next. It is a discovery of a hidden world, a dreamlike trip by which the traveller encounters unexpected juxtapositions and sequences of electromagnetic waves. The piece was inspired by the first book using the technique of automatic writing, „Les champs magnétiques“ by André Breton and Philippe Soupault, published in Paris (1920). The electromagnetic recordings were made in or traveling to: Las Vegas, Gdansk, Ystad, Kosice, Montreal, Bordeaux, Manchester, Dortmund, San Francisco, Paris, Ekaterinburg, Lagos, Venice, Bratislava, Bangkok and other places. CD 2 – Christina Kubisch BELOW BEHIND ABOVE | 2017 When I was about to finish this piece two powerful storms, called Xavier and Herwart, swept through northern Germany and Central Europe following each other within three weeks. The storms produced hurricane winds and left a path of destruction knocking down trees, power lines and buildings and caused widespread travel chaos. I was working in my studio during both storms, looking at the shaking trees in front of my house while I was listening to sounds from vulcanos, solar oscillations, earthquakes and the intense vibrations of electromagnetic fields. The experience of the two storms had a strong impact on my work. The piece became a kind of encounter of different energies and vibrations which meet in unforeseen ways. Sound sources: Annea Lockwood: Volcanic gas vents, VLF chorus waves and whistlers, earthquakes, solar oscillations and ultrasonic tree sounds. Christina Kubisch: electromagnetic recordings from light systems, seismic research centers,transmitter systems and others. Hydrophone recordings from the river Rhein. www.gruenrekorder.de "A cause of extreme disgruntlement for this writer is the passive awareness that the bulk of a lifetime was splurged on issues and people not belonging to a sphere of intuitions and considerations even marginally correlatable with his own. If one inaugurates the process of growth by being predominantly attracted by non-vocal emissions, it is foreseeable that – quite soon – attention will not be given anymore to individuals imparting sagacity via mere words, typically instilling some kind of dismay in the potential victim. In that sense, imagine the (adult) quotidian disheartenment for not having a chance to remain within essential acoustic domains when the calls comes; silence is mandatory to do that, and silence is by now a rare commodity. Finally, try to explain all of the above to someone blathering non-stop because convinced – possibly via previous trauma – or out-and-out pretending of living outside his/her body, then get back to me for a good laugh together. But we do get privileged whenever communicating – remotely but, by the grace of heavens, through sounds – with truly developed beings such as Christina Kubisch and Annea Lockwood, themselves linked by a long-time friendship and artistic consanguinity that never had resulted in a tangible collaboration. Until today. Narrating yet again what these women have been doing throughout their histories of sonic researchers would be pathetic (but if you still think there is a need to, a peep to the presentation notes of this release will help explicating the kernel of the matter). This double CD encloses four handsome compositions derived from the manipulation of swapped materials; the common denominator is the attempt of turning invisible energies and inaudible frequencies into physically perceivable substances destined to increase one’s congenital acumen. Kubisch and Lockwood operate at levels of intuitive interiority unconceivable by the average gatherer of location recordings and electronics. We can literally “feel inside” the gradual effect of sources reconfigured in various types of aural concretization. They emerge as penetrating hums of radiophonic descent, or may resemble marine currents inhabited by a somewhat alien fauna attempting new forms of signal transmission. The ordinary becomes unconventional; the voice of nature and its private tumults get disfigured by deforming lenses that, rather amazingly, emphasize the gravity of each single event. That these pieces ultimately can stand proudly amidst the finest electroacoustic musics of the last few decades is obviously a plus. However, what really counts is the implicit message: communication does happen at every stage of physical existence, including the supposedly inanimate. In times when most humans are bamboozled by things that do not exist particularized by brains that do not work, what we have to do is raising the aerials way up. Consequences – if there is sufficient emotional fuel in your personal tank – will inevitably materialize." [Touching Extremes] 2018 €16.00
KUBISCH, CHRISTINA / FABRIZIO PLESSI Two and Two LP TWO AND TWO is the outcome of the ambitious research developed by Christina Kubisch and Fabrizio Plessi in 1976, a collaborative effort towards the merging of visual and sound elements into a new form of intermedia. Influenced by the aesthetics of Fluxus, the duo produced a highly complex and articulated performance, involving two camera operators and several video screens, as well as a variety of objects and unconventional instruments. The results is structured into four parts inspired by the natural elements, in which single instruments loose their different sonic characteristics to become inseparable parts of a unique visual/acoustic process. SIDE A EARTH 9:44 Alto flute, Voice: Christina Kubisch Violoncello, Electric vibrator: Fabrizio Plessi FIRE 10:31 Swanee whistle, Voice: Christina Kubisch Contact microphone on ventilator: Fabrizio Plessi SIDE B AIR 11:16 Alto flute without headpiece: Christina Kubisch Acordeon: Fabrizio Plessi WATER 11:36 Electronic metronome: Christina Kubisch Waterjet on steeldrum: Fabrizio Plessi www.songcyclerecords.com "Two and Two is an entrancing, historic slab of mutant sound pressure realised in 1976 by pioneering sound artists and Fluxus affiliates Christina Kubisch and Fabrizio Plessi. In striving towards “the merging of visual and sound elements into a new form of intermedia”, the duo forged an exceptional early iteration of rhythmic, electro-acoustic noise which still sounds like it was beamed in from another planet, making this first ever vinyl issue very welcome around these parts. The original performance - of which this is a recording, made on June 17th & 18th, 1976 at Fono Play Studios, Milan - involved two camera operators and a wall of video screens displaying close-ups of the performers actions in a symbiotic representation of what the audience was seeing and listening to, attempting to induce synaesthetic sensations and both loosen up, and lose, the primary sonic characteristics of their chosen instruments in the process. Working to repetitive, techno or raga-like modal phrasings, they use a range of unconventional tools to animate and excite their instruments in ribboning streams of sound. On Air, Christina manipulates her own voice and alto flute whilst Plessi plays a Violoncello with an electric vibrator, resulting what sounds like a pack of wolves circling a wounded buffalo on a bleak high plain at midnight, whereas with Fire they conjure flickering electronic partials and playfully swooping cadence from a Swanee Whistle and contact microphone applied to a ventilator to sound like Clangers on their way to the cheese mines. Likewise in Air Christina’s breaths on an Alto Flute without headpiece are combined with vicious accordion to sound like an astronaut lost in space who receives a deathly distress signal, and the rapid ostinatos of Water elicits comparison with an amplified chorus of hooligan cicadas on their way to a big cup game, when it was actually made using an electronic metronome and water jet on a steel drum. Most crucially, this isn’t an academic piece, but neither is it trivial; there’s the real sense that Christina and Plessi are in pursuit of the most elusive sounds, and safe to say they’ve located at least some of them within." [Boomkat] 2017 €28.00
KYMATIK Dar-as-sulh vol. 1 CD Nach einem mini-Album jetzt die erste CD eines vielversprechenden Experimental-Projekts aus England, welche 3 Jahre Soundforschung zusammenfasst. Hinter KYMATICs Musik stehen hochinteressante physikalische Konzepte und Experimente (das erinnert an früher HAFLER TRIO-Arbeiten),so bezieht sich der Projektname auf grch. KYMA - ein Begriff, den der Schweizer Physiker Hans Jenny für seine Akustikexperimente einführte. „the musical styles range from the use of dense rhythmic patterns to subtle shimmerings and a pure tone piece that sounds like nothing I’ve heard before. The short environmental recordings are spaced between the compositions and offer some light relief from the intensity of these works..”[Clive Graham, Paradigm]. A great sound-research-album, definitely one of the highlights of this year!! Nice digipack with lots of infos.. PARADIGM 2001 €13.50
LA CASA, ERIC Everyday Unknown 4 & 5 CD Wallet (12,5 x 12,5 cm) with Leporello (8 pages of original photos) with audio CD [2 tracks | 35:07] Limited edition of 200 copies "How does the present time, physically so unspecified, become so unique for us?" [Etienne Klein] These compositions were conceived mainly from researches on the Inaudible, and the Unspeakable. Everyday Unknown is a series devoted to the represententation of infraliminary sound phenomenon of reality, of everyday life. Recordings and Mixings : 2017-2021 Special Thanks to Irene Omelianenko, Tarek Atoui, Christian de Vito, Jon Abbey, Francisco Lopez, Eamon Sprod, Etienne Klein, Yves Klein. https://swarming.bandcamp.com/album/everyday-unknown-4-5 Here we have a composer mainly known for his work with field recordings, and this new release is no different; perhaps, in some way, it is. La Casa writes that the two compositions on this CD deal with the inaudible and the unspeakable, and that "Everyday Unknown is a series devoted to the representation of infraliminary sound phenomenons of the reality, of everyday life". I had no idea what infraliminary is, and it seems a straightforward translation of the French word "infraliminaire". But let's assume this is the sort of sound we usually don't hear, and now La Casa made them audible. The recordings are from his immediate environment. I believe I heard an old fashioned fax machine at the beginning of 'Everyday Unknown 4'. While the sources may be inaudible, they are no longer now. La Casa 'translated' them back into the audible domain, and via the use of sound collage, he combines various sound events into two compositions. He uses slow crossfades to get from one section to the next and just very occasionally by a short montage of sound. Except for the previously mentioned fax machine, none of these sounds can be easily traced back to something you might recognize. The 'invisibility' gives the music a much more abstract character, electronic obviously. The field recordings are obscured, and I must say, I enjoyed this abstract character quite a bit. There is a certain vagueness about the music that makes it obscure and mysterious. You are aware of impending danger (that breach in the electricity network you just can't hear?; you pay close attention, but you can't put your finger on it. Then it disappears and is replaced by something else that is equally mysterious. Nice!" [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2021 €13.00
LA CASA, ERIC & CEDRIC PEYRONNET La Creuse CD LA CREUSE ist eine höchst gelungene Field Recording-Reise mit hohem Abstraktionsfaktor. Die Psychogeographie des französischen Departments LA CREUSE soll dadurch (sub)sonisch "verkörpert" und sinnlich erfahrbar werden, das Material wurde mit einem speziellen Remix- / Bearbeitungskonzept für jedes Stück konzeptualisiert. "Intelligente" Geräuschmusik aus einmaligen Klängen der Umgebung & Natur, fantastisch arrangiert ! "Our project is defined by its aim: to represent in sonic terms, and in duo, a particular environment – a triangular area in the north of the Creuse département in central France. In the first place, based on cartographic representations, we set about breaking down the chosen territory, an area between the Petite Creuse and Grande Creuse rivers, into specific sites. Secondly, we placed the map ‘under surveillance’, as it were, conducting sonic surveys in the selected sites. These surveys led us to a geophonic approach, each based on a development of specific auscultatory techniques, in which the wealth of sounds collected nourished our research into (sonic) territoriality. The aim of the project was not to replace image with sound but to give that which surrounds us a (sonic) body; to give landscape a sonic corporeality. It might be that, being unrelated to notions of admiration that go hand in hand with seeing, a sonic evaluation can go some way towards confounding our a priori notions of landscape. Thirdly, the resulting data gave rise to an ensemble of exchanges/interactions, enabling formal variations. For one of these formalisations, musical composition, we chose the following protocol: each site was given a musical interpretation by a composer, his work being based on the site’s specific sound-bank. The composer then sent his piece to a second who, with recourse to his own bank of sounds, responded to the first interpretation. The second composer redefined the composition, adding his own sounds also. The final interpretation, therefore, is based as much on the layered listenings and recordings formed at the site itself as the musical conceptions of each individual." [label notes] "As far as I remember I've never been to the area where Cedric Peyronnet (also better known as Toy Bizarre) and Eric La Casa recorded their work, the Creuse department in central France - maybe I saw it today when watching the Tour de France. However there is a booklet with this CD with pictures of the area, and in each picture there is a pair of microphones to be spotted. This is as close as you can make field recordings visual I guess. A pity that the booklet, a diary it seems, is all in French, with some general English translation on the cover. The area was divided into several specific sites which were recorded by one, and then sent to the other to work on it, to interpret the place. And vice versa of course. Each piece is started by one, finished by the other. Its not easy to hear who did what, but I think that the pieces finished by Peyronnet have a minimal subtle electronic manipulations, and that La Casa's pieces are entirely made with field recordings. I might be wrong however and no electronic processing took place. We hear rain, wind, footsteps and sounds from water, objects and other sonic events which are hard to be placed somewhere in terms of what one could recognize. Even when this is divided into nine pieces, it's best enjoyed as a complete picture: listen from start until the end, sit back and transport yourself through time and space - time is the length of the CD and the place is La Creuse. This rural and forest area is pictured quite well before your very eyes. A very refined work." [FdW / Vital Weekly ] www.herbalinternational.tk 2008 €13.50
LA CASA, ERIC / BATTUS / GAUGET Chantier 4 CD Pascal Battus , found objects Bertrand Gauguet , sax Eric La Casa , microphones Recorded at Philharmonie Paris - building site 2013 CD audio [3 tracks | 64:45] [digisleeve – Texts français/english] "Since 2010, the building site has been a space where we question our practice, like workers. Improvising with the background noise of the site, the myriad sounds of machines, the gestures and words of the workers, our research unfolds over multiple sound territories, ranging from acoustics to anthropology. " https://swarming.bandcamp.com/album/chantier-4 2018 €12.00
LADIK, KATALIN Water Angels LP Head-spinning, previously unreleased sound art by Hungarian force of nature Katalin Ladik, exploring the relationship of sound and women’s bodies thru forms of collage, performance art, and poetry - RIYL Diamanda Galas, Teresa Winter, Annea Lockwood, László Hortobágyi Alga Marghen’s 2nd survey of Ladik’s legacy, ‘Water Angels’ follows from the 2019 compendium ‘Phonopoetics’ with an unmissable immersion in previously unexplored regions of her music, which was just one part of a practice spanning poetry, performance art, creating and acting in her own plays and “happenings”. These set of ears slept on her ‘Phonopoetics’ LP and are now playing catch-up here to a remarkable body of work that strikes us as witty, ludicrous, and ravishingly expressive of a rich artistic life and personal philosophy. Elements of Hungarian folk, sampled classical records, and self-taught extended vocal techniques meet textual inspiration from James Joyce and Lewis Carroll, and the sounds of her first husband, composer and ethnomusicologist Ernö Király’s custom 58-string “zitherphone” in an enchanted sort of dramaturgy that reminds us to Annea Lockwood’s sensorial aesthetics as much as Teresa Winter’s avant-songcraft and the imaginary, worldly spaces evoked by Katalin’s one-time engineer László Hortobágyi, adding up to a real feast for searching and hungry listeners. With all material salvaged from tapes and significantly improved by sound engineer Boris Kovač, we’re assured these works have never sounded better, suitably so for their first release. The A-side hosts her standout ‘Water Angel’ (1989), a wondrous 25 min work mixing her own lyrics with Lewis Carroll and Joyce’s, in a range of naif to possessed voices, over backdrop of field recordings and Király’s unique zitherphone sounds, culminating an eruption of Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’. The B-side follows her timeline to 1990’s ‘Three Orphans’, where she occupies a starker sound stage with a flux of voices, giggling, gurgling, and bewitching, and vaulting into Hungarian folksong. Finally, three 2019 compositions ‘White Bird’, ‘Ice Bird’, and ‘Electric Bird’ spanning free concrète to a carousel of gurning vocal tekkerz, and yielding her strange vitality in the modern day. 2021 €22.00
LANDING Third Sight LP Connecticut's Landing have specialized in a mild and rural kind of psychedelia over the course of nearly two decades. Recent releases have seen them closer to post-punk and shoegaze territory than ever, but Third Sight – recorded specifically for El Paraiso Records’ Impetus series – builds on the hallucinatory soundscapes of the band's earliest days. There's a unique sense of motoric drift to these four long pieces, and an organic blend of rock instrumentation and analog electronics that brings to mind Eno's best collaborations in the 1970s. But the group's flair for fuzzy drones and new weirdsy commune-folk also betrays their affiliation with the experimental American east coast scene –these guys have played shows with their friends in Bardo Pond, releasing a split EP with Windy & Carl and playing numerous Terrastocks throughout their existence. And despite releasing one brilliant album after another the band remains appalingly under-appreciated. Perhaps because the tryyps Landing take are rooted in self-exploration. As trends in krautrock, drone, folk, and psychedelia ebb and flow, Landing remain unfazed. The door to Landing’s world is open, but there isn’t a flashing neon sign above it. These guys are far removed from the hustle and bustle of geographic cultural bubbles, both physically and spiritually. Listening through this LP is likely to stimulate mental images of rural winds blowing across vast American fields of grass, bonfires, blue rivers and power lines sailing through rolling hills. Landing's psychedelia possesses a rare timelessness. We are proud to present this offering from the band in the El Paraiso catalog! ”the whipper snappers these days, trafficking in similar sounds, have NOTHING on their sonic elders. Dreamy, droney, poppy, psychedelic, electronic perfection!” -Aqaurius Records ”Connecticut's Landing inhabits that amorphous space where time itself expands and contracts according to a delay pedal setting, and dream pop blurs into dream proper. Groups like Stars of the Lid and E.A.R. have wandered this same misty plane in search of the perfect drone, but Landing incorporates Bardo Pond's jam aesthetic into the journey, imparting a welcome communal feel to their lengthy, meandering compositions.” -Mark Richardson, Pitchfork "They’ve got integrity to spare and their career, though already spanning more than a decade already, seems to be just getting started." -Grant Purdum, Tinymixtapes "Some of the best avant-prog and lo-fi space rock around" -Mojo "If you're not yet familiar with Landing, I encourage you to fill up the peace pipe and figure it the fuck out." -Kenny Bloggins, Adhoc landing.bandcamp.com/album/third-sight 2016 €23.00
LARSEN & Z'EV In V.Tro CD "The album combines both the live recording of the first ever Larsen & Z'ev In V.Tro live performances with extreme aural-mixes by Z'ev of Larsen's In V.Tro studio sessions. Larsen and Z''ev In V.tro is a soundtrack for micro-cinematic images that document the studies on cells of the Istituto di Anatomia Umana Normale (Basic Human Anatomy Institute), between 1935 and1985. Visuals are from a studio by professors Dario Cantino and Antonio Barasa, teachers of these Scientific Institutes. By browsing great quantities of original footage on films kept in the local University with a scientific and reasoned view, Cantino and Barasa wanted to go back over the stages of history and techniques of in vitro cultures and their documented shootings, to pay tribute to the Maestro of anatomical discipline, professor Giuseppe Levi. Not only professor Levi had the intuition of the great potential of the in vitro studies of cells, using the technique developed by american zoologist Ross G. Harrison, he also enforced his studies on cells with cinema techniques, using single frames taken by optical microscope edited and sped up, obtaining a cinematic footage. These exceptionals scientific documents still represent today a useful tool for studies and researches in a lot of medical branches like Cellular Biology, Histology and Microscopic Anatomy. Larsen and Z'ev were waiting for the right concept to work together on combining Larsen's soundscaping to Z'ev's esoteric approach to rhythm and percussions and the chance of having access to these rare footages gave them the perfect context to apply their naturally cinematic and cellural music to, reproducing this way lab sperimentation and biological procedures to create life outside a living organism with the use of introspective and minimal, but richly arranged, semi improvised sounds and textures." [label info] www.importantrecords.com 2011 €14.00
LAU, PAK YAN Bakunawa LP More hands. More possibilities. More ethereal drones. More poly shifting rhythms. More fun. That was the starting point and the idea of ‘Bakunawa’: the album Pak Yan Lau recorded with her freshly started ensemble, consisting of the marvellous musicians Vera Cavallin, Giovanni Di Domenico, João Lobo and Mathieu Calleja. On ‘Bakunawa’ Pak Yan and her ensemble are delving and digging deep into the sound spectrum of detuned toy piano’s, second hand gong rods, prepared harp, metal tubes and ring modulators. Instruments were searched, collected and bought worldwide: on Japanese street markets, in second hand stores in Brussels, from dedicated American Ebay-sellers and the cellar of the Musica centre in Neerpelt. The result is a record split up in two compositions of 20 minutes: on Part I the Bakunawa ensemble let the overtones of the gong rods, prepared harp and metal tubes slowly resonate into a deep listening ambient state of mind. Rich harmonic textures of rather unconventional instruments shaping an immersive piece of spellbinding sonic details. On Part II the quintet craft their own ritual ceremony music with distorted toy piano’s and hypnotic percussion. Echoing the frequencies of a gamelan orchestra. Rhythms shifting in haunted patterns recalling the Philippine mythology where the moon swallowing sea dragon Bakunawa was scared away by drumming loudly on pots and pans. Pak Yan Lau: composition, gong rods, toy piano, metal tubes, ring modulators Vera Cavallin: gong rods, prepared harp Giovanni Di Domenico: gong rods, toy piano João Lobo: gong rods, toy piano, tom Mathieu Calleja: gong rods, toy piano, bass drum, metal tubes Recorded at STUK in Leuven and Kunstencentrum nona in Mechelen in 2020 Recorded and mixed by Christophe Albertijn Mastered by Gert Van Hoof & Jimmy Van Rietvelde at Cochlea Mastering Cut by Dubplates & Mastering Berlin Cover pictures by Juhyun Choi Pictures insert by Laurent Orseau Layout design by Jef Cuypers Executive production by Philippe Cortens https://cortizona.bandcamp.com/album/bakunawa 2021 €23.00
LEE, OKKYUNG / JEROME NOETINGER / NADIA RATSIMANDRESY Two Duos LP “Two Duos” is pressed from cellist Okkyung Lee’s most recent OTO Residency; the first side a duo with Jérôme Noetinger on Revox B77 and the second with Nadia Ratsimandresy on ondes Martenot. Cut together, the two meetings seem to raise three cellos in the search for expressive voice: the cello, it’s magnetic reproduction, and the dual controls of the machine invented to expand on its musical qualities. On the A side Noetinger’s opening tape hiss establishes a current; an electrical partner who gives Lee room to slide across and stretch out. Progressively the cello is returned, duplicated and manipulated with increased velocity and distortion. Noetinger draws out the full extent of Lee’s extended technique; rewinding strands of Lee's horse hair and transmuting her percussive attacks into shuddering echos, before letting his own concrete interjections spin the duo's sonic tussle into an almost romantic daydream. On side B the ondes (invented by French cellist and wartime radio operator Maurice Eugene Louis Martenot and so loved by Bernard Parmegiani, Varese and Messiaen) seems shaken from classical tradition and those long, drawn out horrorscapes it has come to be associated with. In a duel with Lee, Ratsimandresy grasps the ondes’ extraordinary capacity for dexterity, nuance and speed, hounding Lee’s cello in a bid to drive her instrument out of the past and into the future. Two fantastic pairings and a testament to the freshness with which Lee and her collaborators continue to work with their instruments. --- Okkyung Lee / cello Jérôme Noetinger / revox b77 Nadia Ratsimandresy / ondes martenot --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Thursday 28th March & Friday 29th March by Paul Skinner and Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by Lasse Marhaug. Designed by Maja Larrson. ROKU027. https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/okkyung-lee-jerome-noetinger-nadia-ratsimandresy-t/ 2022 €27.00
LEGENDARY PINK DOTS & KETVECTOR The Shock Exchange LP "The Shock Exchange presents an encounter between two of the most interesting and unique projects of the current neo-psychedelic and electronic music panorama. The Legendary Pink Dots need no introduction, and on Side A they once again solidify their status as musical pioneers with all new songs and swirling psychedelic arrangements led by the charismatic voice of Edward Ka-spel. Side B is dedicated to the progressive and psychedelic electronic project kETvECTOR, born from the mind of Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy / Bahntier) together with Stefano Rossello (Bahntier), showcasing many facets of the project; from electronic free jazz to ambient experimental and esoteric avant-garde. The album also features paintings by Franke Nardiello (aka Groovie Mann) of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. A transparent vinyl release exclusively for record store day 2015, not to be missed!" [label info] www.rustblade.it "When the first Compact Disc was released more than 30 years ago not many people were expecting that the LP would still be around in 2015. And even more, that it would make a come-back in the digital age. The LP today is not a mass product as it was back then, but more of a luxury product. Real music lovers want to experience music. Not just listen to it, but use all 5 senses. The tangibility, the artwork, the smell of it, it is all part of the experience. The Italian Rustblade record label is specialized in limited releases like picture discs and special packed albums. The Shock Exchange is a transparent vinyl split LP limited to 299 copies. The beautiful cover paintings were made by Franke Nardiello (a.k.a. Groovie Mann) of My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult. But most important is of course the music. The A side contains 3 tracks by The Legendary Pink Dots. The English/Dutch band celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. They are not the only band to last that long, and there are bands that are even older. But from their very first cassette release in 1980 there hasn't been a year where they did not release anything. In several years even more releases, and adding to that also solo releases and side projects such as The Tear Garden and Mimir. Also to this day they are still playing live regularly. The current lineup of the band consists of founder members Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards) and Phil Knight (a.k.a The Silverman, keyboards & electronics) as well as Erik Drost (guitars, bass) and sound engineer and wizard Raymond Steeg. The last two years the band was in a very productive phase with lots of releases, including a few releases on Rustblade: Chemical Playschool Volume 15 (2013, CD box set), The Curse Of Marie Antoinette (2013, picture disc) and 10 To The Power Of 9 (2014, 2 LP / CD). During their 35 years of existence the band's sound changed, but there are a few elements that have been there from the beginning. First there is the typical sound of Edward's voice. Second his lyrics: strange little stories with (black) humor, inventive word playing, bizarre twists and a very English reserve. Never judging but always observing. Third is a sense of melancholy, a longing for the unreachable. Fourth is a psychedelic element. Fifth is the creative use of synthesizers and samples: they use their gear to create unique sounds. Sometimes alienating, sometimes very powerful. The first track is very much in line with their previous releases, a more electronic driven song. The other two tracks are more minimalistic and melancholic. kETvECTOR is the name of the collaboration between Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy, Bahntier) and Stefano Rossello (Bahntier). This collaboration is meant to explore new frontiers. The first two tracks are based on an electronic rhythm. The third track has human played rhythm guitar and bass guitar, and the fourth track has no rhythm, it is more ambient. All tracks are instrumental. They are like musical sketches: with abstract lines and shadows, but not fully colored. It reminds me of Tuxedomoon, probably because of the wind instruments that were used as well as the Peter Principle like bass guitar in the third track. The kETvECTOR side sounds like the soundtrack to a movie. In particular some kind of road movie, travelling on long straight roads through wide open spaces to strange places. The kind of road movie without a happy end. Where the main character never finds what he is looking for in the end, because it is the search itself that keeps him going. As a whole The Shock Exchange is not an easy album, and it takes an open mind and several listens before it reveals itself. But with every time you play it, you discover something new. In the end “difficult” albums are also the most pleasing ones. [Erik Gibbels (edited by Astrid de Ronde)/ BACKGROUND MAG] 2015 €23.00
LEPENIK Treatments CD-R Sinustone-symphonies and intelligently composed collages, in fact these are 17 miniatures / remixes from other TONTO-artists material. Wild combinations of experimental tunes, searching for the NEW, mixed down to the point, very well done ! "...besonders beeindruckt hat mich die enorme kuerze, in der sich Deine stuecke entfalten, ohne je ueberladen zu sein. Du weisst offensichtlich ziemlich genau, was Du da tust, arbeitest sehr präzise und verfaellst nicht in blinden aktionismus. die rhythmen, die sich oft in schiefen verzerrungen bahn brechen, sorgen - wie auch manches andere - fuer eine verspielte leichtigkeit, die mir das ein oder andere mal ein feistes schmunzeln aufs gesicht brachte. wirklich, sehr schoen." (Zitat "Kallabris" über "Treatments") www.tonto.at 2002 €11.00
LEVI, MICA UNDER THE SKIN (OST) LP "Based on the novel by Michael Faber, Jonathan Glazer's film follows the journey of a voluptuous woman (Scarlett Johansson) of unknown origin combing the highway in search of isolated or forsaken men. They are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again. The music, a critical element in the film, is by British-born Mica Levi. Classically trained, she is best known for her band Micachu & The Shapes and for their experimental music in a variety of genres." www.milanrecords.com "The character Scarlett Johansson plays in Under The Skin is a blank-eyed cipher, a predator without apparent motivation. There is no horror more visceral than the horror of the impersonal, so it makes sense that Mica Levi, who composed the film's score, would turn to György Ligeti's masterful sense of elemental horror. The score has the feel of a thought process, albeit one conducted by a being you have no genetic relation to. The character Scarlett Johansson plays in Under the Skin is a blank-eyed cipher, a predator without apparent motivation. There is no horror more visceral than the horror of the impersonal, so it makes sense that Mica Levi, composing the film's score, would turn to the master of elemental horror: György Ligeti, whose ability to gather masses of semitones into translucent wisps without a center made The Shining, which relied heavily on his work Lontano, the scariest movie ever made. (Watch that film with the music off, I still maintain, and it becomes a particularly caustic domestic comedy.) The score opens with a locust plague of dry tremolos, the strings pressing down until the sound has reached a roar. It's a sound with tremendous menace and weight. From there, the roar shrinks into a whine, and enters a hazy nexus between digitally processed and live sound. It's an indeterminacy Levi worked hard to cultivate: "We were looking at the natural sound of an instrument to try and find something identifiably human in it, then slowing things down or changing the pitch of it to make it feel uncomfortable," she told The Guardian. Insectile, near-vocal sounds erupt across the tense, arid space of "Lipstick to Void," evoking either the Knife's berserker Shaking the Habitual or the processed strings from Britney Spears' "Toxic". It's an appropriate cross-section for the film, which veers between menace and sexuality and brilliantly cross-wires high-brain and low-groin impulses. That hovering dust-cloud of strings, which Levi referred to as "like a beehive" in her and Under the Skin director Jonathan Glazer's recent Pitchfork interview, pops up repeatedly throughout the score with minor additions and tweaks representing the journey of Johansson's character: in "Meat to Maths", there are clanging bell-like sounds behind it, while in "Mirror to Vortex" it's half-submerged in the amplified sound of its own echo. In the context of the film, these additions feel like the messiness of lived experience muddying Johansson's template, the imprint of the lives she begins to grapple with as her time on Earth extends. The hollow knock of a single drum, like a single dragging foot, is another repeating theme, giving the score a reiterative, hesitant quality. Inasmuch as you can be invited into Johansson's character's head in Under the Skin, the music does the heavy lifting. The score has the feel of a thought process, albeit one conducted by a being you have no genetic relation to. The music unfolds as deliberately and as unconsciously as the dreamlike film itself. Levi drops in an arching, three-pitch motif at various points, one that lingers on its highest pitch the longest, like a hanging doubt. In "Lonely Void", this figure is colored in briefly by a furtive patch of tonal harmony, a startling appearance of warmth that scrubs itself out as quickly but leaves a powerful impression. There are other brief hints of tenderness, particularly in the unearthly pairing of "Bedroom" and "Love", which lifts the score entirely free from anxiety and into something exalted and sorrowful. Here, Levi's work comes closer to Vangelis than to Ligeti, and completes the film's mysterious arc. Levi's commitment to the film's themes is all-consuming, and the score is so tightly woven into the film's DNA that it is difficult to detach and experience as an album. However, the gorgeousness of the quavering synths on "Love" ask nothing of you than to be enjoyed." [Pitchfork] 2014 €26.00
LIGHTBORNE, MICHAEL Sounds of the Projection Box LP These recordings, made in 2016 and 2017, document the shifting sonic texture of the cinema projection box, as it changes from 35mm to digital projection. By 2014, the majority of UK cinemas had already converted to digital, making many projectionists redundant, and quietly altering the way that cinema works, as both an industry and an experience. Very few cinemas maintain the ability to project 35mm film alongside digital, and it was in some of the remaining, tenacious boxes that I sought the persistent sounds of analogue projection. The unique space that this album investigates is simultaneously a workshop, an engine room, and an artist’s studio. The projection box is a small room at the back of the cinema auditorium that conceals both the apparatus of the moving image, and the labour of the projectionist, ensuring that both remain invisible, and inaudible, to the cinema-goer. This album was developed as part of The Projection Project, a research project based in the Film and Television Studies Department at the University of Warwick, which seeks to record and investigate the history of cinema projection in Britain. A special issue of the Journal of British Cinema And Television Studies (Vol 15, No 1, 2018), edited by members of The Projection Project, features a number of articles about the history of British cinema projection and the work of the projectionist in Britain, through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It includes an article entitled ‚Sounds of the Projection Box: Liner Notes for a Phonographic Method‘, which augments this album, and elaborates upon the theoretical and methodological rationale for the use of sonic field recording as a mode of enquiry. All of the images that accompany this record were made by Richard Nicholson. Some of them form part of a series of portraits entitled The Projectionists. Side A 1. The thing 2. Making up the thing 3. Breaking down the thing 4. Lacing and Rolling Rear Window (error correction) Side B 1. Hyde Park electromagnetic 2. The noise 3. Manual rewind 4. The Electric 5. The tower (death rattle) 6. Digital light 10 Tracks (43′30″) Vinyl (500 copies) www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=16703 2018 €18.00
LILLIOS, ELAINIE Entre Espaces CD " 'Elainie Lillios's music reflects her fascination with listening, sound, space, time, immersion and anecdote. Her music explores many sound worlds; sometimes referential ones such as the human voice, cars, wind chimes, or water. Other times her materials are less obvious, like crunching branches, walking through snow, or pebbles shuffling in water. Her compositional output includes electroacoustic works, music for instruments with live interactive electroacoustics, and collaborative immersive multimedia audiovisual installation environments. Her research interests include sound diffusion as the performance practice of electroacoustic music, audio spatialization employing Ambisonics, critical listening as a creative aid and Deep Listening.' 'Dreams in the Desert' (2001), 'Arturo' (1998), 'Hastening Toward the Half Moon' (2004), 'Backroads' (2002), 'Threads' (1998), 'Stumbling Dance' (1998-99), 'Listening Beyond' (2007)." [label info] www.empreintesdigitales.com 2011 €13.00
LLYN Y CWN Du Y Moroedd CD "Du Y Moroedd" (Welsh - the black of the sea) is an album of abyssal dark ambient - environmental soundscapes and atmospheres from above, below and beside the ocean; field recordings made onboard vessels at sea; sounds from submerged recording devices deep underwater; recordings from the coasts of North Wales to Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. "The tracks were created onboard the RV Prince Madog whilst conducting research using multibeam sonar to locate, survey and identify shipwrecks from WW1. The multibeam sonar creates images of the seabed using acoustic reflections. It is quite an experience to watch the sonar reveal an unsurveyed wreck and be the first person to "see" the ship for over 100 years; the vessel sitting at the bottom of the ocean waiting in the dark to be discovered. Research into the history of each wreck uncovers stories of boats torn in half by torpedoes and mines, U- boats hunted by destroyers and pummelled with depth charges. Many of these sites aren't just wrecks; they are mass war graves. The vital shipping channel to Liverpool passes the North Wales coast, the U boats would sit and wait; listening. When heard from under the water, each ship has its own unique acoustic signature based on the size of the engine, shape of the propeller, curve of the hull, these acoustic tell-tales were used by the U-boats to identify targets. The shipping lane became a shooting gallery of easy pickings and the submarines were able to slip away undetected into the black of the sea. The album features recordings from the hull of RRS James Clark Ross whilst ploughing through ice fields off Greenland, from a "sound trap" attached to an anchor as it descended through 80m of water to the seabed, and sounds from onboard the RV Prince Madog with its pitched engine drone. There is also a recording of the bell at Trwyn Du lighthouse, Anglesey, that was made in August 2020, days before the bell was removed to be replaced with a modern fog horn - prior to this, the bell had rung every 30 seconds since 1922" (Benjamin Ian Powell). File next to fellow Welshman Lustmord and Sleep Research Facility. Presented in a 6-panel digipak with breathtaking photography by the artist. https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/du-y-moroedd-csr302cd 2022 €13.00
LOCRIAN & MAMIFFER Bless them that curse you do-LP "Bless Them That Curse You captures an unprecedented balance of claustrophobia and solace. It's a strange alchemy to render something both inviting and alienating; it requires a special kind of skill to create music that sounds like it's rattling apart at its seams, unraveling in a torturous but compelling fashion. It demands an acknowledgement of the fine line between noise and racket, between tension and tedium. Finding an interpersonal chemistry to pull it off can take years of searching and refinement. Initiated by a history of record swapping and mutual admiration, Chicago's Locrian and Seattle's Mamiffer managed to accomplish such a feat. Since their inception, Locrian's sound has thrived on harnessing emotional resonance through texture and space. Highlighting a specific melody or beat in their music is unnecessary; their ability to trigger unease, fear, despair, and paranoia by playing with dynamics in timbre and timing is the central fixture in their work. While the Chicago trio's approach is certainly unorthodox, they are not without sonic peers. Seattle duo Mamiffer similarly explores new territories in sound by marrying fragmented elements of neoclassical, drone, and proto-industrial dirge into compositions that are beguiling, haunting, and occasionally violent. Originating as a solo project for pianist Faith Coloccia, the project grew to encompass husband Aaron Turner and a rotating cast of guest musicians. Coloccia's work, by nature, is malleable and suited towards the collaborative process. The collaboration between the two groups yielded some of the most beautiful material Locrian has ever recorded, and inversely pushed Mamiffer into the most caustic of new territories. Composed and recorded in Chicago at the renowned Electrical Audio studio, the album is the result of two disparate approaches arriving at one cohesive voice. It's at turns contemplative and reserved, unnerving and unsettling, thunderous and feral. Aided by the engineering prowess of Greg Norman, the mixing skill of Randall Dunn, and the auxiliary instrumentation of Alex Barnett (Oakeater) and Brian Cook (Russian Circles), Bless Them That Curse You is a richly textured study in an unconventional creative process, blending fine-tuned synchronicity with spontaneous brute force. Limited edition of 550, packaged in deluxe LP fold out designed by Faith Coloccia. Double LP on three sides. Clear and grey brown vinyl." [label info] www.utechrecords.com 2012 €29.50
LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled single piece 1 (SOLD OUT) 7inch first edition: white vinyl, ultra-violet stamped label, stamped white covers, 250 copies released December 1996 second edition: white vinyl, stamped covers, 300 copies "This is more than just two musical pieces on a record! This is something experiment for your mind & body! This is like being underwater, experiencing a new acoustic dimension! Francisco Lopez from Madrid is a scientist and sound-researcher who has been culturally active since 1983. He has released lots of cassettes in the 80's and now begins to release more and more work, also on cd's. His works are more conceptual and cognitive experiences than conventionally approached music. This unique piece of work consists of ultra-deep frequencies that can -nearly- not be heard anymore but felt! It's the first part of a 4 e.p.- series (others will appear on banned prod., cohort records and povertech industries, all usa) to be released this and next year. This music manifests for a unique sensual experience! "this donisis will change your view on what music could be!" [label info] 1996  
Untitled # 300 LP "Pressing of 300 copies on crystal-clear 200-gram virgin vinyl packaged in a custom letterpress jacket printed, die-cut, and hand-assembled at Studio On Fire in Minneapolis, with particular care taken to retain the fine detail of the cover's microscopic type. Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than 30 years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion' --Pedro Higueras, Sonom Studios. 'Untitled#300 is an LP based on multi-track field recordings I did in 2011 of a large colony of seagulls in a group of small islands right in front of the Moroccan-Algerian border, together with hydrophone and contact mic recordings of sea creatures underwater from the same location (side A and B of the LP, respectively). Being interested in going beyond a traditional 'soundscape' perspective, I've played freely with mixing and editing, in an unorthodox way, different multi-channel recordings I did. Side A ('abovewater') is the large seagull colony. In side B ('underwater') what you hear is predominantly millions of very small shrimp-like crustaceans, dolphin sonar (the beating pattern of the first section), and occasional fish (the 'frog-like' calls) --Francisco López. Original environmental sound matter recorded in the Chafarinas Islands off the coast of Morocco, summer 2011. Edited, mixed, and mastered at mobile messor, The Hague, the Netherlands, summer 2012. Field work carried out with the collaboration and support of the SIGEIN-Chafarinas research group (Integral Ecological Management System of the Chafarinas Islands), directed by Francisco J. Acosta (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) and coordinated by Javier Zapata (Spanish National Park Service)." [label info] www.taigarecords.com 2015 €26.00
Untitled # 274 CD "Untitled #274 was composed by Francisco Lopez and performed by Kasper T. Toeplitz at GRM Studios in Paris, France. Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music. For more than thirty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion. Kasper T. Toeplitz has worked with academic research organizations, such as GMEM, GRM, IRCAM, and Radio-France, as well as with experimental musicians, such as Éliane Radigue, Zbigniew Karkowski, Dror Feiler, Tetsuo Furudate, Phill Niblock and Art Zoyd. Citing Giacinto Scelsi and Iannis Xenakis as influences, his early work was mostly written for traditional instruments." [label info] www.importantrecords.com 2015 €15.00
  Anima Ardens CD "New organic soundtrack creation by Francisco López. In constant nudity, which highlights the diversity of their bodies and origins, eleven men, eleven dancers throw themselves, body and soul, into this Anima Ardens or 'Burning Breath', surrounded by the organic sound environments of Francisco López Trance rituals or in shamanic trance, taking us out of ourselves, to the source of our emotions." www.subrosa.net "ABOUT THE CHOREOGRAPHER Based in Brussels, Compagnie Thor was founded in 1990 by the choreographer Thierry Smits. He quickly gained international acclaim in the world of contemporary dance. Over the years, the company has produced more than twenty dance productions. Gathering excellent performing artists from around the world, the company has established its reputation touring throughout Belgium and abroad. Thierry Smits’ work explores, often in an eclectic manner, the bonds between mystic and erotic, the ambiguity between the sacred and corporealness, and questions the metaphysical problems of the individual's state of mind and emotion. In his performances, oscillating between pure dance and dramatization, technical rigor and his gestural inventiveness are always present. In addition to his work focused on complex subjects and linked to an element ‘outside’ dance, Thierry Smits concentrates on dance itself – referring to nothing other than itself, giving priority to a study of form, choreographic composition, and the search for movement. Thierry Smits’ work received several prices: in 1995 when he received the SACD-Belgium prize. In 1998, his creation Corps(e) received the Belgium Océ prize for the performing arts of the French speaking community. In 2008 he is awarded the 'Prix de la critique 2007' (the critics' Prize) for V.-Nightmares,for the best dance performance of season 2007-08." [Dance-Tech Net] 2016 €13.00
LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / MICHAEL GENDREAU Untitled # 185 / Drowning LP Split-LP des ex-CRAWLING WITH TARTS Mitglieds MICHAEL GENDREAU mit dem spanischen Puristen FRANCISCO LOPEZ - Vinyl-Kratzer & Rauschen von Auslaufrillen uralter Platten, aber auch die Geräusche der Mechanik & Motoren von antiken Plattenspielern dienten als Klangquelle für diese Bearbeitungen, ein Meer von low-fi Knirschen, Rascheln & Geknister, von multiplen 'white Noise'-Flächen und rhythmisch-repetitiven Mustern, so ungewöhnlich & wie überraschend im Verlauf... "Francisco Lopez is perhaps best known for his dynamic studio and live performances that sway between crushing silence and dynamic, shifting volume swells. Over the course of 25 years, Lopez has developed and honed a refined audio lexicon. Michael Gendreau entered the experimental sound community in the early 1980s with his project Crawling With Tarts. As a solo artist, Gendreau caught everyone¹s attention with the 2002 release of his CD 55 pas de la ligne, composed of recordings based on old turntables and one-of-a-kind LPs. For this LP, Gendreau, a trained acoustician, used extremely refined microphones--designed for acoustic and vibrational research--to record sounds such as turntable motor hum, belts, and run out grooves on records more than 70 years old. His side is an incredible journey through a forest of alternately prickly and soothing sounds. Lopez used similar source material for his side, creating a refined oceanic wall of sound constructed from crackle, hum, and scratches. This LP is in a numbered edition of 500 copies and signed by both artists." [label website info] "Francisco Lopez has previously collaged vinyl crackle and hiss with aplomb on his untitled 92, and Michael Gendreau has worked with similar material on his 55 pas de la ligne au no. 3. both return to the materiality of vinyl run out grooves and the internal mechanics of the turntable as sources for this exceptional split release, with each artist applying their own conceptual and aesthetic sensibilities to the sounds. Lopez amplifies and overlays tactile sounds of hissing vinyl into an industrial din whose crescendo abruptly cuts to a wheeze of spiralling surface noise. Where lopez concentrates on the output of his turntable, gendreau focuses on the mechanical object itself, deftly recording the belts, motors and cranks of antique turntables, and using sensitive microphones to explore the ghostly musical pssages that creep between the rumble of wooden resonance and crackle." [Jim Haynes, the Wire (November 2006)] "....His piece, 'Untitled #184' is audible throughout, and is a densely layered carpet of sound all sorts of sounds coming from vinyl. It hisses, pops and cracks in all sorts of ways, but never in an overtly rhythmic manner. It seems to me that Lopez created all of this by making many layers of sounds and removing any possibility of repetition. The piece by Gendreau uses similar sounds, but here musical elements leak through, or perhaps are created by the various possibilities of playing the records with motors, swift speed change and such like. Whereas Lopez creates a mass of sound, Gendreau presents an audio collage. Two possibilities of working with material like this. Two great examples of those possibilities. Richly textured and no doubt will go down for the very adventurous DJs." [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2006 €8.00
LT. CARAMEL Early tape works do-CD "Pierre Blanchard aka Felipe Caramelos, der 1961 geborene Bäckersohn aus Annecy, und sein Projekt LIEUTENANT CARAMEL ist ein schönes Beispiel für einen Elektroakustiker, der trotz der Anerkennung, die er auch im Establishment der Geräuschkunst fand, seinen Reiz und seine Glaubwürdigkeit als Artiste maudit im Patchwork der Minderheiten nicht verlor. Early Tape Works (mv08, 2 x CD) greift zurück in seine Kassettentäterjahre und versammelt als ‚Après les horreurs...‘ und ‚Suit naturellement la beauté‘ Stoff, der ursprünglich bei den Tapelabels Audiofile (L‘Odyssee Du Lieutenant Caramel, 1985), SPH (Et Ca Vole!, 1993), Acteon (Du Plomp plein les siles, 1985, Je ne veux plus voir le ciel, 1988) und Old Europe Cafe (Les Bonnes archives du Dimanche, 1986) erschienen war. Die beiden Halbzeilen des Titels scheinen eine direkte Umkehrung von Rilkes Zeilen aus der Ersten Duineser Elegie zu sein: Denn das Schöne ist nichts / als des Schrecklichen Anfang, [den wir noch grade ertragen, / und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, / uns zu zerstören. Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich.] Überhaupt scheut Blanchard nicht vor literarischen und philosophischen Bezügen zurück, stellte sich schon als Kurator des Festivals Bruit de la Neige in die Tradition Russolos und der Dadaisten, zitiert Debord, wenn er Russisches Roulette den Spektakeln des Kapitalismus vorzieht, und wenn er auf die unheilbare Freiheit ohne Gott pocht, schwingt darin das Ni Dieu ni maître sowohl des Anarchisten Auguste Blanqui wie auch des Chansoniers Leo Ferrer mit. Bereits in den 80ern inszenierte er als Ministrant der unheiligen Dreifaltigkeit Lautreamont - Jary - Breton sein Cinema pour l‘oreille als Theater der Seltsamkeit, aus Lärm- und Stimmfetzen surreal collagiert und geloopt. Hier bietet es sich dem Zahn der Zeit als harte Nuss." [Bad Alchemy] "Lieutenant Caramel is the musician and film director at the same time, he shoot movies for ears with microphone. The continuous search for poetic images, frantic interchange of subjects, twisted and broken mosaic of fuzzy elements, the breathtaking incoherence of perception, the mark of primitive life, the total absence of organization and rational thoughts. All this breathes, moves, obtains the voice and gradually becomes meaningful. Theatrical view of musique concrète, humorous and surrealistic collection of masterpieces recorded in the ten years. Release date is 30th December 2006. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase" [label info] www.monochromevision.ru 2006 €16.50
LULL Moments do-LP Isolationist, minimal, alienating Drone / Dark Ambient from Mick Harris (SCORN, FRET, ex-NAPALM DEATH). Staggeringly beautiful, glacial sub-bass sounds, deep ambient and thunderous tones, with subtle shifts. Originally released as a 99-track continuous CD in 1998 (Relapse), now presented on vinyl for the first time, "Moments" is expanded to 100 cuts, with bonus material from the original recording sessions. "Tectonic rumblings and icy sound slivers move and swirl around each other, slipping into spaces between the molecules which make up your physical body and then break it apart in preparation for rearrangement. Moments of expansive emptiness and claustrophobic terror overlap one another and then overcome your mind as you journey through this bleak void of sound. At one moment warm and organic, the next, slowly slipping into a machine-like coldness to freeze and paralyze... Sound as a vehicle to bring you through that doorway towards dimensions previously unknown. Hypnotic and soothing with a lingering sense of dread throughout" (Carrion Kind). File next to Lustmord, Sleep Research Facility, Thomas Köner. Double LP in a textured gatefold sleeve. Ltd x 500 copies on 180gm brown vinyl. Ltd x 250 copies on 180gm black vinyl. Created and mixed by Mick Harris in the Box, January 1998 Edited and mastered by Bill Yurkiewicz and Dave Shirk at Sonorous Mastering, Inc., February 1998 Vinyl mastering for Cold Spring by Martin Bowes Artwork by Abby Helasdottir https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/moments-csr295lp "The other new release is a re-issue. 'Moments' was already on CD in 1998, and while it was one long piece of music, the CD had 99 index points for your random pleasure. There are 100 (99 is the maximum for CDs), but how do you randomly play these from vinyl? I have yet to work out. I reviewed the CD back in Vital Weekly 140. Lull is Mick Harris, once of Napalm Death, later of Scorn. Lull was (is?) his deep ambient project. At the end of the century, we called this Isolationist music, which may have had various shapes, but Lull certainly was at the deep end of it all. His music was all about filtering out as many mid to high frequencies he could get away with and then giving the low bass end a few twirls, so there would be sufficient variation at work. With this approach, Harris had things very well under control. You could play this music at a shock and awe volume, inducing earthquakes; I didn't do that, as I enjoy this on a moderate volume. Now, your room/space fills up with these low-end rumblings, and it becomes a more natural part of your environment. The variation within these small pieces is more than I remember from the CD version, usually lasting thirty seconds to a minute, with exceptions well below or above that. I am not convinced that vinyl is the best sound carrier for such low-end music. Perhaps, the CD format is more suited for such an experience, I thought. But this one surely is one of them when it comes to classic moments (pun intended) of historic isolationist music." (FdW) 2021 €29.50
LUNDVALL, TOR There must be Someone 5 x CD BOX Expanded and remastered versions of 3 vinyl-only albums by Tor Lundvall, and 2 out-of-print CD releases. For fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Novo, Angelo Badalamenti, Boards of Canada, Grouper, Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill); Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode (circa-Violator), David Sylvian, early-O.M.D., Cocteau Twins. To commemorate the quarter century anniversary of Tor Lundvall's selfreleased debut, Passing Through Alone, Lundvall and Dais have joined forces for a fresh 5-CD box set of long out-of-print titles, vinyl-only releases, and unheard bonus tracks: There Must Be Someone. Spanning 33 years, the collection showcases the subtle but striking evolution of Lundvall's sound, from brisk autumnal synth-pop to desolate dark place devotionals to fragile winter moon meditations and beyond. What remains constant is his exquisite sense of mood and movement, qualities reflected in his iconic oil paintings of willowy figures amidst luminous, liminal landscapes. The box set begins with Passing Through Alone, Lundvall's first fulllength, issued in 1997 on his Eternal Autumn Editions imprint. Engineered, mixed, and co-produced by his brother Kurt, and sold primarily at Lundvall's gallery exhibitions, the album is an intriguing entryway to a world still dawning. Brooding and melancholic but distinctly more linear and melodic than later work, the songs flirt with the fringes of new romanticism, sketched in his signature palette of synth, sequencers, guitar, drum machines, and hushed, spectral voice. Next included is an expanded edition of the eclectic 2010 collection Ghost Years, an array of stray singles, alternate mixes, and compilation tracks dating between 1995 to 2020. It's bracingly varied but effectively immersive, showcasing Lundvall's sharpening gift for spatial dynamics and icy minimalism. The other three discs are inaugural CD editions of a trio of Dais vinyl titles from 2018 to 2021: A Strangeness In Motion (Early Pop Recordings 1989-1999); A Dark Place; and Beautiful Illusions. The first is an archival anthology of material predating his debut, bedroom synth-pop born of solitude and the supernatural, alternately anthemic, wounded, and windswept. The latter two are shadowy recent full-lengths capturing Lundvall at the height of his powers: refined, remote, revelatory. Reflecting back on this vast body of work is "strange and bittersweet," but Lundvall finds a common thread and hidden mission within its long and winding road: "The music is a journey through my desire and longing for inner peace, the elusive search for love and struggling to make sense of it all. It's a diary of passing through a life filled with illusions and disillusionment, often unchanging, but haunted by moments of beauty and magic that hint at the promise of a better world beyond this one." https://torlundvall.bandcamp.com/album/there-must-be-someone 2023 €32.50
LUTZ SCHRIDDE Troum Dreams consiliis animum fatigas? Troum dreams quid aeternis minorem consiliis animum fatigas? Cur non sub alta vel platano, vel hac pinu iacentes .... (Horatius, carm. 2,11,13) Why lying on dying, never we'll be with eternity, Hear no evil, no bad under this tree, Lay, see and be, here, no worry with me. About Horatius we read in Nietzsche's "Götzen-Dämmerung" that in his poetry we find 'sound', 'position', 'term', what is with the words (Klang, Ort, Begriff) . This German romantic appreciated the artistry and effectivity, and he considered his own wording equal. Today, I feel free to take 'sound, position, term' to put compositions of Troum into the context of romanisation of German language what informed the romantic metaphor of music as a language. The challenge of translating Horatius into other languages, as Nietzsche had accentuated, is not to fail such artistry and effectivity. What I want to say is that compositions of Troum are more than romantic translations, beyond music as a language. Troum is sound, yes, and then listening is navigating, and listening then is without translation. The German romantics claimed art to be not of purpose, no, art were autonomous and a value in itself, so were a genius. Does that mean the compositions of Troum – when not dubbing it romantic – have a purpose? Troum's navigations are taking the listener beyond such question. It is not about purpose or autonomy, Troum is two composers together, Stefan Knappe and Martin Gitschel. Their collaborative compositions is band-work, there is no solo. Like technical stereo-navigation of pilots in early airplanes, their navigations are even not communicating questions or answers. Following and listening here is about sharing their state of navigation, their state of mind. Stefan contacted me in 1997 and told me about the end of Maeror Tri and a new project he had no name for at the time. I had collected most of Maeror Tri and contributed liner notes once. Moreover, Stefan was irritated how I could identify his hidden solo compositions on my own. Actually, after my time as a connoisseur of music I entered the sphere of musique concrete and drones for sort of cultivating my mind. I had already learned about the righthandedness of European music, had even read Wolfgang Scherer's dissertation "Babellogik" on the matter. Maeror Tri always seemed a soundtrack to my search for a new vantage point. Stefan liked my approach to revaluate the implicit morale of music, himself a lefthanded. When he told me Maeror Tri was disbanding and the new project needed a name, that occured right in time to jump to the new vantage point. Musique concrete and post-punk creativity had affected me, and Maeror Tri all that time reminded me of the restrictions of surreal or psychogeograhic composition some people like to dub the French and British accomplishments. Maeror Tri - cassette by cassette since 1988 - shed some sound on that fashion, sometimes ambient, sometimes industrial, sometimes drone. To me, the fascination came through a sense of game and improvisation, often leaving any boundaries of the genres behind. Some of their early cassettes seemed informed even by the very wish to stay beyond boundaries, an approach to go for a change of any game before. Reading the reviews in Vital Weekly, I find a similar appreciation with the editor. Such exploration of composition may have resulted in new awareness and reflection then in 1997, disbanding Maeror Tri and a new project may explain itself. And as I see it today, the new project went on to explore and navigate beyond any boundaries of genres. Changing games is a skill of the lefthanded. And again, Stefan was surprised watching me identifying his hidden solo compositions. I am righthanded, touched by surreal music and post-punk creativity, I am not a composer. And I will not out his solo compositions here, no. Nietzsche was a lefthanded, his skills surfaced in writing, and he was seemingly not selfaware of this natural skill and tending to curious vanity. His opinion about Horatius shows that in particular. Nietzsche never learned about the giveness of his skill when running his revaluation of all values. He was with the German romantic tradition all the time. And he had a certain selectivity who he liked to value, all were lefthanded (Goethe, Ceasar, Bismarck, Napoleon), all game changers, very skilled. In romantic music, Beethoven and Mozart were skilled brilliantly as such. In visual art, we may call Paul Klee an example. When Stefan needed a name for the new project, I was ready to try. I said "Traum". In English, dream. By 1997, my search for a new way of composition beyond the genres of 'improvised', 'free jazz', 'world music', 'industrial', 'ambient', 'noise', 'drone', 'musique concrete' and else had already ended in sort of disappointment. I was sure, that the romantic tradition and its relative surrealism encompassed my search well, but at the time I had little in hand. My short essay "Noise Culture" in Vital Weekly Supplement in 1996 was a result of my search. Then talking with Stefan, and by intuition I avoided consideration of material or procedure what is behind the genre division. During that talk I threw myself out of that and looked for the location in musical anthropology. I looked for the essence of the genres and opened gain. So it became "Traum". Stefan liked that immediately. He made it "Troum", just as if he knew the game change behind. To be clear, Troum is no music for Nietzscheans. And I am not a Nietzschean, although I have mastered in philosophy and know about him. His approach is restricted to values and valuation, in his case furthermore to the 'game' the values are framed by. That spoke to his nature and his romantic vanity. It happened, that I decided to leave Germany and I am teaching in China for eight years now. Here, musical anthropology is still a vantage point, and I am listening to Troum in Xian at the eastern end of the Silk Road. Troum had done great things, I like the long-trackers "Sen" and "Mare Idiophonica". The Tjukurrpa-trilogy is also with me here, and allow me to highlight the collaboration with Martyn Bates and raison d'être. My current favorite of Troum is "Acouasme". And if you know Horatius, yes, then you may be the right one to try Troum. It is sound, navigation and prior to translation. Here is abroad. Lutz Schridde, Xian, China, April 1st 2018 Horatius in German: Wozu, da er doch nicht gewachsen ist Ewigkeitsgedanken, willst du deinen Geist damit plagen? Warum wollen wir nicht unter der hohen Platane oder unter dieser Pinie liegen sorgenlos, .... This German translation is taken from Bernhard Kytzler, Horaz. Eine Einführung, Stuttgart 1996, page 176, on Nietzsche and Horatius see same page. The English version above is mine. 2018
M.B.(MAURIZIO BIANCHI) / LAND USE Psychoneurose CD Collaboration der wiedererstarkten Industrial-Legende mit LAND USE, einem neuen Projekt aus NL.... zu hören gibt es hier rauhe, ratternde Klang-Emanationen, die sich in immer neuen Verformungen in den Äther wälzen.... Licht-verschluckend und zähflüssig wie schwarzer Teer....unser definitiver Favorit unter den neuen MB-Veröffentlichungen der letzten Zeit ! “Italian Avant-Noise legend M.B. and Land Use collaborate on dramatic, subterranean wall-of-noise constructions and swirling textural storms, dense and complex arrangements, shifting and shimmering tones barely under control, streaming toward some distant and indefineable precipice. Not noisy, but way too tense and corrosive to be called ambient. These vibrant monoliths of sound shift the listeners pysche into a restless sort of zen, a blissful chaos - truly mind and mood-altering. Bianchi released early records on Whitehouse's Come Org. label and has been active since the 1970's. And a recent and conspicuous absence from the experimental music world has been broken by several recent releases of surprising freshness and relevance. It is unclear where MB leaves off and Land Use begins but Psychoneurose is definitely a clear and brilliant return to early MB techniques with several refinements in delivery and focus. Psychoneurose will be the clear weapon of choice for those who prefer their ambience with teeth and their Power-Electronics with more of the deep, vaster textures than violence.” [label description] “....Thank God, we gave Psychoneurose a listen, as this record is so spectacular that perhaps we will be searching out some of those other records to see if they are as good as they were claimed to be! .....in returning to the all-encompassing, utterly blackened, subterraneanly frigid, nightmarishly grim, soul-crushingly bleak, death-shroud ambience that Bianchi had produced back in the day. Expansive, Frankensteinian drones constanly broadcast a black energy, marred with tactile corrosive noises and synthetic twitches which could only be made by the same anaglog technology of Bianchi's classic recordings. So until those aforementioned albums come back in print yet again, Psychoneurose holds its own as a worthy substitute.” [Aquarius] 2005 €13.00
MAGIC CARPATHIANS PROJECT Ethnocore 2: nytu CD "Their third album, the first available on a domestic label Magic Carpathians are centered around the duo of Anna Nacher and Marek Styczynski, he a founding member of the now defuct Polish ethno-folk group Atman. Following the disbanding of Atman, Anna and Marek continue to create forest music, although the Magic Carpathians benefit from an infusion of traditional rock instruments and electronics, and a host of guests. Recorded and mixed at the Krakow Radio Station Recording Studio by Aleksander Wilk between May and November 2000, Ethnocore 2: Nytú was composed and arranged by Anna and Marek, with Tomasz Radziuk (ex-Atman), Jan Kubek, Ramunas Jaras, and Wadada and Marek Miczyk (both of the European festival group Suns of Arqa). Also figuring into the composition are field recordings made by Anna and Marek during their travels to India and Nepal in autumn 1999. Traces of nytú - a mythical, archaic technique of vocalization given in the language of Slavonic rituals, nowadays almost completely lost and forgotten - can be found in the remnants of ancient Carpathian culture and some archaic pagan rituals which have been stored within the folk religious tradition among the Carpathian villagers. The important common tradition of singing across Eurasia makes similar the vocal technique from Mongolia, the Altai region, Central Asia, Ukraine and the Balkan region. Anna has been working on reviving the tradition of nytú through individual research and "Reclaim the Voice" workshops, run for women exclusively (which have garnered enough attention in Poland that Cosmopolitan published a brief article on Anna and the voice workshops). Phrases muttered in disbelief during their first US tour ; "Patti Smith fronting Art Ensemble of Chicago", "Yoko Ono meets Miles Davis" & "Don Cherry with Amon Duul"." [label info] 2000 €15.00
MALONE, KALI Living Torch CD "Following her critically acclaimed album The Sacrificial Code, Swedish-American composer Kali Malone returns with Living Torch on Portraits GRM. Living Torch, through its unique structural form and harmonic material, is a bold continuation of Kali Malone’s demanding and exciting body of work, while opening new perspectives and increasing the emotional potential of the music tenfold. As such, Living Torch is a major new piece by the composer and adds a significant milestone to an already fascinating repertoire. Departing from the pipe organ that Malone’s music is most notable for, Living Torch features a complex electroacoustic ensemble. Leafing through recordings from conventional instruments like the trombone and bass clarinet to more experimental machines like the boîte à bourdon, passing through sinewave generators and Éliane Radigue’s ARP 2500 synthesizer. Living Torch weaves its own history, its own genealogy, and that of its author. It extends her robust structural approach to a liberated palette of timbre. Living Torch was initially commissioned by GRM for its legendary loudspeaker orchestra, the Acousmonium, and premiered in its complete multichannel form at the Grand Auditorium of Radio France in a concert entirely dedicated to the artist. Composed at GRM studios in Paris between 2020-2021, Living Torch is a work of great intensity, an œuvre-monde that is singularly placed at the crossroads of instrumental writing and electroacoustic composition. Living Torch proceeds from multiple lineages, including early modern music, American minimalism, and musique concrète. It’s a work as much turned towards exploring justly tuned harmony and canonic structures as towards the polyphony of unique timbres, the scaling of dynamic range, and the revelation of sound qualities. GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales), the pioneering institution of electroacoustic, acousmatic, and musique concrète, has been a unique laboratory for sonorous research since 1958. Witnessing the extreme vitality of the music championed by GRM, the Portraits GRM record series extends and expands this momentum with Kali Malone’s Living Torch. Biography: The compositions of Kali Malone implement specific tuning systems in minimalist form for pipe organ, choir, chamber music ensembles, and electroacoustic formats. Malone’s music is rich with harmonic texture through synthetic and acoustic instrumentation in repetitive motions and extended durations. The music emits distinct emotive, dynamic, and affective hues which bring forth a stunning depth of focus. Kali Malone has performed extensively in Europe and North America at Musica Festival, Berlin Atonal, Moogfest, Kanal Pompidou, Elbphilharmonie, Paris Philharmonie, and Radio France. Her commission projects and residencies include the INA GRM, The Richard Thomas Foundation, MACBA, Macadam Ensemble, Orgelpark, Elektronmusikstudion and Tempo Reale. She collaborates and performs with various artists, including Stephen O’Malley, Lucy Railton, Frederikke Hoffmeier, Leila Bordreuil, Drew McDowall, Caterina Barbieri, and Ellen Arkbro. In 2016 she co-founded the record label and concert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm." https://kalimalone.bandcamp.com/album/living-torch 2022 €15.00
MANINKARI Un Souffle de Voix CD "Maninkari is an instrumentalist duo combining different ways of improvisation and composition related to ambient, dark & minimalist music, jazz and surreal. The music of Maninkari lives in medieval alchemy, this album works primarily on a research for atmosphere. Dark and repetitive music, mixtures of drum, viola and santoor and looking for a mystic paroxysm. These songs were originally intended to be released as a sideproject under the Ephemerole banner but as time grew it became the next Maninkari album." [label info] www.neuropa.be 2009 €14.00
MARCHETTI, LIONEL La grande vallee / Micro-climat LP "I wonder if my fascination for clouds (without being an obsession) may have risen at the end of the '80s as, whilst composing 'Micro-climat', I would regularly wander between the Vercors mountains and the high plateaus of the Monts du Forez discovering, through my eyes, body, breath, active observation and walk, that natural forms when constantly changing and yet swollen with a unity of matter (in this instance, water) open one up to a deep, fundamental breath and a clear field for the mind. The sky and its forces: our ally. A model for a natural music which, although fixed, as in musique concrète (a rule of the genre), moreover on a recording tape, will remain charged with such a poetic quality that (isn't it its role or rather its reality?) it will ensure a perpetual renewal for our senses, so as to reach another idea of the world, far more open and richer than what we could have imagined." --Lionel Marchetti, 2011. "Lionel Marchetti is a major figure of the 'third generation' of concrète musicians, a term he values. Listening to these works, imbued with poetry and traversed by micro-narratives, one can indeed retrieve the original concrète spirit, the one that draws from the sonic world, with ears wide open, so as to extract a fertile, rich and multiple substance then shaped and conveyed towards a formal and musical abstraction. Lionel Marchetti has mastered this process, but his real distinctive feature is a truly unique talent for setting climates (as one sets traps) and keeping us on constant alert. The two pieces in this record perfectly illustrate the entrancing dimension of Lionel Marchetti's music, whose charm leads us, through each successive listening, to become voluntary captives so as to better liberate ourselves." --François Bonnet, Paris, 2020. "La grande vallée": Musical composition, design and sound production carried out at the INA grm Studios (Paris) in 1993/95; Original audio recordings in the Drôme and the Mont Ventoux areas "Micro-climat" is the first movement of the Sirrus cycle (Micro-climat, Passerelle, Sirrus) composed in 1989/90; Musical composition, sound design and production, audio recordings in 1989/90 at the CFMI studios in Lyon (Lumière University, Lyon 2). Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi; Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, November 2020; Translations: Valérie Vivancos; Layout: Stephen O'Malley. https://lionelmarchetti.bandcamp.com/album/la-grande-vall-e-micro-climat "A long-standing member of Groupe De Recherches Musicales, the French composer, Lionel Marchetti, is one of the great contemporary exponents of musique concrète and acousmatic playback, having worked in the idioms since the late 1980s - producing dozens of solo and collaborative releases - and written extensively on the subjects. He is regarded as among the most important figures within the idiom’s third wave. Recollection GRM’s LP, La grande vallee / Micro-climat, dives back toward the earliest days of the composer’s catalog of works. The album’s first side comprises the work La grande vallee, which was created at GRM between 1993 and 1995, before its original release in 1998 as part of Metamkine’s legendary Cinéma Pour L'Oreille series. Drawing on a vast range of recordings from diverse sources - many taken from the natural world - over the works’ 20+ minutes, Marchetti weaves a startlingly imagistic and hauntingly musical tapestry of sonority. Shadows of ambience rise and fall amongst long tones and bristling textures, sculpting a space to be occupied fully, and where the boundaries between obscurity, clarity, and abstraction fade within expanses of brilliantly balanced organisations of sound. The entire second side is given over to an earlier work, Micro-climat, created by Marchetti in 1989 and 1990 at the CFMI studios in Lyon, but remaining unreleased until 2001, when it appeared on his CD only release, Sirrus, issued by Auscultare Research. While radically different and arguably more explicitly experimental in its material presence than La grande vallee, the work similarly speaks from Marchetti’s intimate relationship with the natural world, drawing much of its inspiration and source material from his wanderings during this period in the Vercors mountains and Monts du Forez in the south of France. Building on heavily processed tones and textures that dance with interspersed environment sounds - locatable and unplaceable - the work’s engrossing structures pulse with energy in a careful balance between pure abstraction and the ephemeral trace. Largely unknown outside of France and a small number of devoted fans of experimental electronic practice, Recollection GRM’s LP, La grande vallee / Micro-climat, presents Lionel Marchetti as a crucial and welcome voice in late 20th and 21st century musique concrète. A deeply poetic channeling of the natural world through rigorously experiential techniques, with its two works appearing for the first time ever on vinyl, it’s a vibrant and engrossing listen from start to finish that shouldn’t be missed. Like all things from the label, it’s bound to go fast so grab it while you can." [Soundohm] 2021 €20.00
MARCLAY, CHRISTIAN & OKKYUNG LEE / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 6 CD "This is the re-release of the split ART-LP (Opax Records - special SPACE ART ltd ed of 100/ original 31x31 cm painting on wooden support by Roberto Opalio as cover). Last release in the "From the earth to the Spheres" split series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio aka My Cat Is An Alien on their own Opax Records imprint, sees the Italian cosmic duo splitting the media with well-known audio visual artist, performer and turntable-art innovator Christian Marclay together with cello improviser Okkyung Lee, ubiquitous figure of downtown NY avant-garde scene. Their track "Rubbings" is the result of a live performance recorded at Tonic NYC in December 2003. Christian Marclay's trademarked technique of mixing several ranges of Lps on his multiple turntables, manipulating, fragmenting and altering the phonograph records' sonic nature in accordance with his "theater of found sound" esthetics meets the uncompromising and passionate playing of Korean-born performer Lee, whose powerful cello's stabs interact with Marclay's waves of screaming sounds creating a unique, stunning scenario. My Cat Is An Alien's piece "Beyond the limits of the stars/ Beyond the limits of the grooves" was recorded in 2003 at their Space Room studio in Torino, and has been kept safely in their archive 'till September 2005, when it's been completely remixed and edited appositely for this release. One of their heaviest conceptions to date, the piece is built on electric guitars' strings moaning onto walls of space drones and electronics like ectoplasmic presences emerging from the brillliance of the Void. The initial minimal and claustrophobic guitar chords become more and more an ocean of howling moduled feedbacks combined with fragmented and distorted real-time inserts of post-romantic classical music from old 78rpm shellac records, sounding like radio frequencies transmitted via ether from the furthest reaches of the Cosmos. As the title suggests, MCIAA's need of a non-finite "space music & art" aesthetics research has led them to etch a ghost track (instead of the final lock-groove you can find on the original vinyl) to un-seal the sounds from their actual support; a purpose expressed throughout the whole "From the earth to the Spheres" series' conception." [label info] 2006 €6.66
MARGOLIS, AL & DAN BURKE Live April 5, 2008 - Le Bonheur, Brussels, Belgium CD-R "Guess I owe it to Mecha-orga who upon landing in athens after a mini european tour phoned and asked for a usual meeting at Varsos in Kifissia to combine our recent news with our beloved sweets and coffee... It was a pleasant shock to find a raw live cdr recording of the Margolis-Burke set waiting for me as a surprise from Al & Dan. And no matter that I might long some 15 more or less years to see (mostly out of my stupidity of not asking earlier) an If,bwana (Al Margolis)-Illusion of safety (Dan Burke) release on absurd but the result is a documentation of an enchanting evening in a space that was full of those soundscapes that landmark & explore the sounds of Al & Dan's universe as we know it so far why don't you go in search of it?" [label info] www.noise-below.org 2009 €8.00
MARTINIS, SOCRATES On Motion, Stasis and the Geometry of Desire MC "This odd cassette without first researching its origins sounds like ‘field recordings’ only not of actual fields but of industrial environments, possibly the continuous sound of a train or tram ride. Some are short, a few seconds others longer, all consist of such ambient sounds of mechanical travel… or perhaps an air conditioner or continuous extractor fan. No other sounds – human – animal or atmospheric except perhaps the slight sound of a garment on the microphone or a police siren of the European kind. The cassette arrived without card insert but from the on body print and via the Anitfrost website Socrates Martinis can be tracked down – a sound artist working in Greece. From here the tape appears to have 2 tracks on side A, and a further 2 on the B side. The B side containing again recordings in situ, only some of much more quieter ‘locations’ if these are actual locations, and I guess now the short silences indicate where one track starts and another ends, though this is not obvious. Occasionally one is aware of the sound recordist ’s breath… but that is as expressive as this tape gets in a ‘representational’ sense. Why the printed inserts were not used is not stated, however this lack of information helps the enigmatics of this work. As such it has a strange beauty about it, clearly not in the telos or anti telos of noise, but much more the idea of listening as listening to sounds that are remarkable in their unremarkability and ubiquitous of industrial urban life and its environments. As such it poignancy captures the actual fragility of such environments which are seldom documented, noticed or of interest. ‘Art’ then in the great tradition of art, as who once would have thought a railway station a suitable subject for a painting…." [jliat/Vital Weekly] www.antifrost.gr 2012 €8.00
MARUTTI, ANDREA Sleepless Nights / Lysergic Mornings mCD-R we welcome back the italian artist ANDREA MARUTTI (also known under the Amon or Never Known aliases, head of the sadly defunct Afe Records label too). andrea was the very first artist to have a 3" on taâlem, and that was exactly 18 years ago! andrea proposes here a rather psychedelic yet dark and ambient journey in 2 parts... notes by andrea marutti: “Sleepless Nights | Lysergic Mornings” is particularly important both for taâlem and me, because it comes exactly 18 years after my “Traces 94-95“, which on December 3, 2001, inaugurated the now incredibly long series of the label’s publications, and also because it represents my first proper release since I re-built my studio and started working on new music during the recent years. “A Cypher For Glitchbusters” and “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast”, the two tracks featured on the EP in a seamless sequence, were created on purpose of a release on taâlem and were especially designed to fit the 3″ MiniCDr format. In January 2019, as a sort of ‘personal experiment’ on myself, I worked on this music exclusively by night. For about one week I decided to sleep no more than a few hours each day during the late afternoon, and stayed awake all night to work with my synthesizers, sampler, effects and so on. The resulting lack of rest put me in a particular state of mind, where I was less focused on the search of an ‘audiophile’ quality to the music, suggesting me to experiment with, and concentrate on, what would be usually considered ‘errors’. I intentionally included some glitches, tape hiss and various defects, and also used field recordings and other sounds which I originally recorded on cheap cassettes during the early ’90s, when I had an habit to slow down sounds with two tape decks and I usually re-recorded the same cassettes hundreds of times. Both titles are inspired by this ‘experience’, and the tracks have a sort of ‘psychedelic quality’, or at least that is the impression they still give me months after their creation. “A Cypher For Glitchbusters” is an attempt to describe with just a few words the practice I mentioned a few lines above, while “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is both an hommage to a quite more famous sonic breakfast – which I guess needs no further explanation – and a personal dedication to my closest friend who has been supporting and helping me ever since my memory can remember. https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/sleepless-nights-lysergic-mornings-alm-131 "The first disc is by the Italian artist Andrea Marutti, who used to run a label called Afe Records and also records as Amon, Spiral, Never Known and Lips Vago. His latest 3” for Taâlem is, as the title implies, a hallucinogenic drone that throws in some weird wrenches as it gets closer to the end. Marutti works in the post-Lustmord “dark ambient” mode here, starting out with ominous blankets with low throb and slow-motion watery threat. After several minutes, the curtains lift and with cleansing light comes children talking and roughly-recorded scrape that seems like it jumped in from a different record. It’s a neat tonal shift, one that continues into Marutti’s second track, “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast”. That title is, of course, a nod towards Pink Floyd, though its unclear who Peter is or what the Floyd connection is. This track is another drone, though lighter in mood than the opener. The strangest part os the very end, in which the sound fades and dissipates, leaving a coda of digital glitches as if someone accidentally bumped the microphone or a cord went bad… and then abruptly hits an “off” switch. Weird." [HS/VITAL WEEKLY] "Abnormal mind expanding landscapes Andrea Marutti is one pioneering sound art and ambient drone music producer with a large catalogue of recordings published on his own indie label (AFE — Another Friendly Edition) and well noted niche publishers such as Eibon and Nextera. Part of his new efforts are welcomed by the Belgium based label Taâlem (whose production is mostly devoted to experimental and underground electronic music with a fancy for droney artefacts). Among those last offerings sleepless nights | lysergic mornings plays with convincing technical abilities and inspirational inclinations on the wave of radical minimalism and eerily moving vaporous soundscapes—with Vance Orchestra and Quest. As stated in the press release the psych-out and extra-sensorial dimension is put to the front in those dense, ominous clouds of sounds and sustained electronic chords. The ensemble has a beautiful and striking vintage organic feel which give a heart ahead of the electronic curves. Repetition of phrases, looped textures are subtly punctuated by abstract micro-noises and musique concrète sounds. Somewhere between Deathprod, early Cluster I & II, Folk Rabe, and early Vidna Obmana." [Igloo Mag] 2019 €5.50
MASIN, GIGI Plays Venezia LP LP black vinyl // LP gold vinyl ltd. 106 hand-numbered copies // CD // Tape ltd. 100 copies Five years ago, back in September 2016, Stefano Gentile published a photographic book entitled IL SILENZIO DEI TUOI PASSI (The Silence of Your Steps), which collected a series of 56 pictures, both in b/w and colour, dedicated to the nights in Venice. The book was a journey through the most remote "calli" and "campi" (streets, alleys and squares, as they're called in Venice) in search of the true 'breath' of the city, far away from the hordes of tourists who 'attack' it every day during daylight hours. On such occasion, renowned musician Gigi Masin composed a 30 minutes epic ambient track entitled VENEZIA 2016 which was the perfect soundtrack to the images included in the book. The track was published on CD and released bounded with the book itself in a limited edition of 480 copies only, and has been unavailable for years now. In 2021 Gigi Masin returned to that great piece of music and to its timeless sounds. Finally, Silentes can now offer PLAYS VENEZIA, Masin's latest work contanining a re-edited version of that 'pearl', accompanied by two unreleased tracks composed and recorded in the same period. Once again inspired by the city, Masin created an enduring and wonderful ambient masterpiece, a sort of return to the origins, to his home. Adding to the intrinsic quality of the originals, the tracks were beautifully mastered by Brandenburg Mastering in Amsterdam. PLAYS VENEZIA is simply an unmissable release and one of Masin's greatest accomplishment in a long carrier that never ceases to amaze us. 13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2143_gigi_masin_plays_venezia.htm 2021 €20.00
MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE Far West CD "On Far West, the MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE mark a turn from their Totem Trilogy. If the Totems were an expression of yang energy, then the Far West cycle is the yin that took seed within the trilogy. What happens when you travel so far east looking for enlightenment that you pass your destination and are headed west again? The mania of being lost in the mountains of the Cascade Corridor, searching aimlessly for the Northern Pacific coast. A spiritual Donner party of sorts, feeding off fantasy and mirages and imaginary shamans. Far West is the soundtrack to this expedition to the caves of light we all travel into with hopes of acquiring redemption, only to realize our bodies have dissolved—gone like rain from the sky, snow from the ground, thoughts from the mind. The sound of Far West is a progressive folk record inspired by Paul Giovanni's Wicker Man soundtrack, early Canterbury prog folk, the suspenseful soundtracks of Goblin and Ennio Morricone, Gerry Goldsmith's interwoven dark orchestrations, and Pacific Northwest folk rock. The Master Musicians of Bukkake take an earthly and shamanistic approach to these influences and infuse it with Krautrock pulses interweaved with acoustic guitars, intricately layered rhythms, hazed-out modular analog synths, brassy stabs, and cultish choirs. A true psychedelic, audiophile experience to dissolve your body in. Far West also features backing vocals by Sub Pop! recording artists ROSE WINDOWS, a deluxe cover illustration by Simon Fowler, and the amazing photography of ALISON SCARPULIA." [label info] www.importantrecords.com 2013 €13.50
MATHIEU, STEPHAN & EKKEHARD EHLERS Heroin LP + 12inch "Between Christmas 2000 and New Year 2001 producers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu recorded an album of warm, soft, delicately crackling electronic music in the space of that week. It was christened with the ambivalent title "Heroin" and was released on CD via the label Brombron in 2001 and later in 2003 re-issued on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork on double-LP with remixes the pair had commissioned as expansions. 17 years later Heroin sees its first vinyl release to include all 13 tracks from the original CD track-list on this LP + 12“ set. The centerpiece "Herz" finally receives its long deserved vinyl treatment (side C, at 45rpm) and on the flip side Thomas Brinkmann contributes a mirror in a magnificent remix of that very piece on side D. Ehlers and Mathieu were both highly prolific solo artists during the period 2000-2004, and in just two years after the initial release of "Heroin" each had produced over half a dozen new solo recordings: among them the serial masterpiece Ehlers' "Plays" (Cornelius Cardew, Hurbert Fichte, John Cassavetes, Albert Ayler, Robert Johnson) released as 5 stunning LPs in a series on Staubgold, while Mathieu's 'Full Swing Edits' spread over five 10" records plus his album 'FrequencyLib' on Mille Plateaux, 'Die Entdeckung des Wetters' on Lucky Kitchen and ‘The Sad Mac’ on Atsushi Sasaki’s Headz label were greeted to critical acclaim. Both artists were expanding their conceptual sonic approaches in the glow of developing laptop technologies which would to these times in 2020 seem quite primitive, but these two in that period used the state-of-the-art to aid and abet their conceptual visions, while at times the duo used unorthodox experimentation - yet always had a distinctively melodic and musical form at its heart and soul. Ehlers can be seen as a conceptualist, as a meta-musician who interrogates the mediums and methods of sound production - reflecting on the conditions and possibilities of improvisation (e.g. "Plays Albert Ayler") and exploits ideas of mutation and distortion of popular aesthetics played out within a ghostly form of divine pop beauty in his project März. Mathieu, originally a drummer and co-founder of what has come to be known as the Berlin 'Echtzeitmusik' scene. His approach could be similarly described as working a critical analyst and researcher: Subtly and precisely working in the realm of processing as a method of intervening in melodious/harmonic analog sound sources. Ehlers and Mathieu may not think too much about their singular productions and publications outcomes, but instead concentrate on the process and musical personality that characterizes their gesture- style itself stays in the background - and they usher a music from small minimal sound sources coaching a patient music of slow intervention - much like a refraction of light than a concrete painting or a blurred photograph - beatus accident. And indeed, "Heroin" is an album that embraces the happy accident being made up of reduced, often very catchy and very direct micro hooks which seem laser-guided into a space accepting obvious melodic beauty in what feels like an observation of musics unfolding and revealing it's DNA, embed with for a kind of yearning for innocence and naiveté - as if Satie were on the jukebox in "The Crying of Lot 49". Not to say the music is "reduced", but rather: 'restricted' and born from acceptance of limitations, and the artists allowing the sounds to just "be.." with some incremental degrees of coercion. The album not only sounds like that of 2 producers who are both dreamers and scientists, but that Ehlers and Mathieu chose to work with these means in a dialogue together to reduce pop music to its musical/tonal core, it is not Pop music anymore, rather a ghostly pointilistic itteration of song. "Heroin" is located at this transition, around that point at which tracks, that were or could have become pop compositions, irrevocably slip into a static harmonic nirvana. We are invited to follow the arch of Heroin in a slow-motion morphine musical haze. Heroin sounded timeless when originally released and proof is that it remains so, one wishes that Ehlers and Mathieu would convene again for a week, a month or an entire year to continue this process of slow rumination, picking affectionately over the sounds they both love - and then maybe when everything is condensed, evaporated they would write more songs with those sonic refractive elements that remain. Remastered by Stephan Mathieu, March 2020. Vinyl cut by Lupo @ Loop_O. Design by Caro Mikalef for Cabina." https://schwebung.bandcamp.com/album/heroin 2020 €26.00
MAXIMIN, BERANGERE Land of Waves do-LP On her 6th album, the French electroacoustic composer BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN explores the idea of a kaleidoscopic world - a sonic aggregation of living creatures, plants, minerals, nature and buildings, using various sound objects, small percussions, synths, electric gui-tar, voice and electronics. Working out of her private studio since 2008, BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN has developed her own ap-proach to sound art and electronic music, composing dense, immersive pieces with immediate im-pact. On five albums – released to critical acclaim on TZADIK, SUB ROSA, CRAMMED DISCS and CRAIG LEON’s ATLAS REALISATIONS label - she has revealed a taste for mixing disparate sounds together with a sense of detail, effusive, lyrical playings with the digital material and tight nuanced writing. BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN’s music engages the listener in consideration of space and textures, the sound ambivalence and its independence from its original source being at the center of her work. During her career, the French composer has obtained commissions and residencies in National Music Research Centres such as Paris' Ina-GRM, Stockholm's EMS and received a grant from the ‘Villa Medicis Hors Les Murs’ program in New York City (Cultures France). She has performed in notable festivals, venues and concert halls from Paris’ Présences Electronique festival, London’s Hayward gallery, NYC’s Roulette, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie’s e-Phil series to major international festivals in Eastern Europe. Beside her solo performances, she also regularly shares the stage in duo with FRED FRITH. “Land of Waves”: three words evoking territories of plains and curves connected with each other by canals, footpaths, tunnels. The four parts of the album lead the listener into a hybrid land where the jungle meets the city … a succession of reliefs, surfaces, textures, layers create a large mosaic as if on a concrete wall which seems solid and definitive but is in fact penetrable, alterable. For “Land of Waves”, BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN took inspiration from recordings she did in various city parks, abandoned properties and limits with the suburbs during her travels in Europe, the di-versity of sources, the variations of events and the contrasts between day and night they offered, and reinterpreted them in the studio. Recorded, composed, arranged, mixed and produced by Bérangère Maximin at the Home Sweet Home Studio/BM and Studio Polyphone, France, 2019/2020. Sound objects, small percussions, analog and digital synths, guitar, digital chimeras, voice. * Recomposed and mixed by B.M. featuring Fred Frith (electric guitar) and B.M, Colin Johnco, Kirikoo Des and Roméo Poirier as Swibekico Quartet (electronics). Mastered by Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin, 2020. https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-waves 2020 €25.00
MCDOUGALL, JAMES & HIROKI SASAJIMA Injya CD " “Sometimes, the impossible is a basket of new unlikely seeds – realizing the geographical difficulty of working in unison on the same site, we opted for using at least common geologic context, not knowing where this could lead us… What could come indeed out of distance, sensory communion, a mutual love for depicting the relief of things, its tactility ?…perhaps as with the best abstraction, a fertilizing stream, something perhaps larger than what the initial elements could have implied…something surprising even to us… “Injya” is the encounter of our combined wanderings, and most probably the emergence of an imaginary entity powerful enough to engage us in a strange way…”(James McDougall/layout by Daniel Crokaert)" [label info] www.unfathomless.net "Both of these artists can be regarded as 'new kids' on the block of field recordings, coming to the foreground in recent years with a plethora of releases on labels as Sentient Recognition Archive, U-Cover, Dataobscura, Test Tube, Resting Bell and Mystery Sea - the latter doing a solo release by both of them. On their subdivision Unfathomless they have a collaborative disc of music, based on field recordings made in their own locale (the Akigawa Valley/Otake Limestone Caves, Japan in Sasajima's case and The D'Aguilar Mountain Range, North West of Brisbane, Australia in McDougall's case) and then 'equally developed'. 'The sensitive issue of not occupying the same token sites was acknowledged and it was opted instead for a common geologic context' - whatever that means. Its a release that has some questions: for instance: is there any processing and if so to which extent? How does this collaboration work anyway? Are recordings from both locations simply played together, or has there been any kind of mixing going on? Its all not easy to say. I think there has been some form of processing, mainly just EQ-ing, bringing out more high or low end frequencies, especially in the third and fourth pieces. Also I think that in all four pieces they have searched for specific characteristics of the provided sounds and set them together, with some extent of mixing. I also kept thinking: why should I bother thinking of what they did or didn't do: these four pieces are very good, a culmination of field recordings that, once together, make great sense. Not minimal, hardly changing music, but vibrant, always on the move, full of tension, evocative and beautiful. Excellent, if not always the most original, but that is perhaps quite hard." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2011 €14.00
MEDERY, LUDOVIC Les Pierres Seches CD It’s within the framework of a disused factory located in Liège, a post-industrial city of Belgium that I gathered the sound recordings over a six months period (March till August 2016). This factory is in St Leonard quarter (in the North part of the city, dubbed sometimes as “North Quarter”). At a time of whom some still remember, workshops, some small factories & stores flourished there between 1950 and 1980. Historically, this quarter saw these factories and stores emerge and die. Scars from this process still strew across the place, namely empty shop fronts hastily refurbished with scraps and abandoned buildings not waiting anymore for its workers. As the years went by, this quarter met different populations from the four corners of Europe and Africa, first for the coal, and then for the steel industry. The Meuse is the river which splits the city into two banks, the left one is bordered by St Leonard Quarter. Intimately bound to the history of this Quarter, the building I explored is adjacent to the esplanade erected and completed in 2006. This esplanade which grew up as some breathing space and meeting place for its inhabitants had formerly a totally different function. It was the place where the prison of the city sat. Moved by a vivid exploration desire and curiosity, I wandered through the site many times until it became inaccessible. During my visits, I divided my sound recordings in 3 phases : – sound ambience without intervention – sound ambiences with interventions within the space – searches for objects of all sizes allowing me to create other sounds and play sequences. ~ C’est dans le cadre d’une usine désaffectée de Liège, ville post-industrielle de Belgique, que j’ai réalisé ces captations sonores sur une période de 6 mois (mars à août 2016). Cette usine se situe dans le quartier St Léonard (situé dans nord de la ville on le surnomme parfois Quartier Nord). A une époque dont certains se souviennent encore, des ateliers, de petites usines et commerces y florissaient entre 1950 et 1980. Historiquement, ce quartier a vu naître et mourir ces usines et commerces. Ces cicatrices encore visibles parsèment le quartier. Vitrines vides réhabilitées à la va-vite avec des bouts de rien et bâtiments à l’abandon n’attendant plus les ouvriers qui les fréquentaient. Au fil des années, ce quartier a vu arriver différentes populations venant des quatre coins de l’Europe et d’Afrique. D’abord pour le charbonnage, ensuite pour la sidérurgie. « La Meuse » est le fleuve qui sépare la ville en deux rives, la gauche est bordée par le quartier Saint Léonard. Intimement lié a l’histoire de ce quartier, le bâtiment que j’ai visité lors de cette exploration est attenant à l’esplanade qui à été construite et achevée en 2006. Cette esplanade devenu espace de respiration et rencontre entre habitants avait auparavant une toute autre fonction, c’était là où se situait la prison de la ville. Animé par le désir d’exploration et la curiosité, j’ai exploré à plusieurs occasions ce site jusqu’à ce qu’il soit complètement inaccessible. Durant mes visites, j’ai décidé de diviser mes captations en trois phases; – ambiance sonore sans intervention – ambiance sonores avec interventions dans l’espace – recherche d’objets de toute taille me permettant de créer d’autres sons et séquences jeux. (Ludovic Medery, January 2020) LOCATION : a disused factory in Liège. 50.6500253 N / 5.5840799 E Sound recordings made with omnidirectional, cardioid and contact mics. Additional electronic sounds made with analog synthesizer, a ring modulator, a delay, and a feedback generator. Mixed, assembled, and mastered by Ludovic Medery 2017-2020. Additional art card, cover design & treatments by Daniel Crokaert. Based exclusively on photos by Cathy Alvarez Valle & Ludovic Medery. https://unfathomless.bandcamp.com/album/les-pierres-s-ches 2020 €14.00
MEELKOP, ROEL 5[zwischenfälle] CD "5(zwischenfaelle) is the latest release by dutch electronic musician ROEL MELLKOP. It is a special release in Meelkop’s catalogue because it is consist of five piece that were originally used in the context of sound installations running over a certain period of time in specific special surroundings. For 5(zwischenfaelle) Meelkop has set himself the task to compress these soundscapes into five dense and still minimal audio pieces that could work outside the context of the original installations. 5(zwischenfaelle) is focussed on single sound events and stark beautiful dynamic movements in a certain area of sound and does not have the bruitistic research-like feel of other solo works by Meelkop. 5(zwischenfaelle) makes for concentrated unpolished ultra minimal listening with maximum effect. For all friends of Bernhard Günter, Francisco Lopez, Joe Colley/Crawl Unit or Marc Behrens this is a definite work! Roel Meelkop (Tegelen, NL, 1963) studied sculpture and painting at Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam, NL. He graduated in 1990 and in the years after that he concentrated mainly on painting. Five years later, he decided to expand his views on art and philosophy and applied for a postgraduate course at the same academy. He graduated from this course in 1997. By then, Meelkop had abandoned painting altogether in favour of working with sound. Before this he had already been working with THU20 on experimental sound collages and electronic music. This practice was extended and now includes sound installations and performances as well. Nowadays, Meelkop regularly plays live performances around the world, either solo, or with one of the three musical projects he is involved with: THU20 (musique concrete), Kapotte Muziek (electro-acoustic music) or GOEM (electronic music). His solo music is a unique combination of the aforementioned styles. Besides his live activities, Meelkop has a long list of releases to show for his creativity and productivity in the studio. Another area of interest for Meelkop is sound in space. The relation between space and sound and the unique artistic possibilities this offers have urged him to create several installations, not only in exhibition spaces, but also in public spaces. Most of these installations are created specifically for the spaces that will hold them and are based on Meelkop’s impressions from these spaces. In most cases the work is not visual but auditory, thus expanding the existing space in a way that visual art will never achieve. Central issue in these installations is the experience of space and time at a specific place and time. Aside from his artistic activities, Meelkop is also active as organiser, curator and programmer of contemporary sound art and electronic music in Rotterdam, NL and as a reviewer for the email magazine Vital Weerkly." [label info] "ROEL MEELKOP ist als Soundtüftler und inzwischen auch Kurator für zeitgenössische elektronische Musik in Rotterdam nicht ohne Vergangenheit in der niederländischen Szene. Seit 1986 arbeitet er in dem Audio-Art-Kollektiv THU 20, seit 1995 tritt er regelmäßgig mit Kapotte Muziek auf und veröffentlicht desweiteren seit 1997 mit Frans de Waard und Peter Duimelinks als GOEM sowie Arbeiten unter seinem Namen und seinem dubbigen minimalacid- elektro Alter Ego slo-fi. Zu 5 (Zwischenfälle) (AATP18, digipak ltd. 500) selbst ist zu sagen, dass er hier Stücke aus spezifischen Soundinstallationen aus dem Zeitraum 2005- 2006 überarbeitet und damit aus dem eigentlichen Kontext gerissen hat. Allesamt unbetitelt, werden 4 längere Tracks jeweils von einer kleinen Präambel ein- und ausgeläutet. Das räumliche Element fließt hier dennoch erfolgreich ein, durch Pausen wie auch durch überraschende Klangkontraste. Die Abstraktion des eigentlichen Ausgangspunktes nimmt fluchtartig zu, aber so, dass die Statik des Raumes nicht gefährdet wird. Verhallende Geräusche vielschichtig arrangiert, unerwartete Klänge, undurchsichtige Hintergrund-lautmalereien. "Zwischenfälle" ist hier ein sehr gut gewählter Untertitel, da eine beruhigende Wirkung nicht von diesen Aufnahmen ausgeht." [cs / Bad Alchemy] 2007 €13.00
MEIRINO, FRANCISCO A New Instability LP "in 2019, the swiss power-acoustic musician francisco meirino presented 'a new instability' a commission for the venerable ina-grm in paris. of course, this institution is the pre-eminent center for the research and study of electro-acoustic music dating back to founding of groupe de recherches musicales in 1958 by pierre schaeffer. to this day, ina-grm continues to be at the vangarde of the electro-acoustic composition, and it is quite an accomplishment and very appropriate for meirino to receive such a commission. this recording for 'a new instability' condenses the 32-channel original piece down to a still very active stereo version. here, meirino continues to amplify and refine his compositions that walk a fine tightrope between raw expressivity of brutalist noise and conceptual rigor of more academic pursuits. such a work ranks him in with the likes of zbigniew karkowski, dave phillips, puce mary, and illusion of safety. field recordings from a martial arts dojo in his hometown of lausanne cast a pugilistic, combative arch to these recordings which snap, burst, explode, and erupt with utterances of men and women engaged in hand-to-hand combat. seering frequencies build, swarm, and amass out of these episodes rise to psychologically tense crescendo that rupture at their heights, quickly turning attention towards a violence that originates from within. it is as if the objective observations of those martial arts recordings are sublimated within a subjective experience of psychic unease, disquiet, and imbalance. 'a new instability' is another magnificent chapter in the ongoing body of work for this accomplished composer of electro-acoustic noise." https://helenscarsdale.bandcamp.com/album/a-new-instability 2021 €18.50
MEISSNER / SLAVIN / SACHS Into the Void CD Eine Art "Hör-Film" dreier Audio & Video-Künstler aus Israel & Österreich basierend auf einer Spurensuche im jüdischen Viertel in Krakau... besonders das 11teilige "Into the Void" von SEBASTIAN MEISSNER ist sehr hörenswert: field recordings & Erzählungen werden verwebt mit dunklen Drones, Piano-tunes, Klezmer-Fragmenten, teils in langen sphärischen Stücken, teils cut-up mässig... RAN SLAVINS "Segments from the Snow" klingt Electronica-lastiger, aber auch bedrückend atmosphärisch & voller interessanter Sound-Arrangements & stakkatohaft-mechanischer Samples & Volksmusikverfremdungen... ERAN SACHS (u.a. Mitglied bei LIETTERSCHPICH) schafft mit "Memory Gaps" einen geräuschaft-melancholischen Raum, basierend auf zwei traditionellen jüdischen Klarinetten-Stücken, field recordings & Interviewfetzen... kommt mit Booklet und ausführlichen Liner-Notes.... "presence/absence:::into the void is a reflection upon the history and the recent changes in the krakovian neighbourhood of Kazimierz. The center of this meditation is the seemingly contradictory development of the last few years, which is showing that the attempts to re-animate jewish culture. The piece is working on the basis of an attempt of reversing the seasons: from summer to winter the 700-year-old Jewish district of Krakow. What struck Meissner at first sight, was the glaring contrast between the rich though often neglected presence of the material culture and the dreadful absence of the community exterminated during the Nazi days. Four months later, on 26 June 2003, at Krowoderska52 club in Krakow, Sebastian Meissner, Ran Slavin and Eran Sachs offered the final effects of their research in the form of series of pieces. They carefully crafted crunchy steps, freezing wind, cracking ice and conversations into a mesmerising film for ears’. The imaginative power of the music was reinforced by Slavin's video impressions — equally apt in conjuring up desolate though meaningful a digital environment referring to Nowa Huta —the empty large defunct metal industry zone.... Sebastian Meissner: works as music composer, sound designer and photographer in Vienna. Over the years his audio-visual works has been presented by curators of prestigious festivals and exhibited in international galleries such as Transmediale, Sonic Square, Podewil, Portikus Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Goethe Institute Buenos Aires, Kulturhuset Stockholm and Forsythe Ballet. His music and sound compositions - as Random Inc. - are released on music labels Mille Plateaux, Ritornell, Kompakt, Crónica and Beta Bodega. Ran Slavin: Works as film-maker and as audio-visual artist from Tel Aviv. His last opus in video is one of the most brilliant films that came from Israel during the last years : INSOMNIAC CITY. Premiering with the first part at the Venice Biennial of Architecture in 2004 and continuing with part 3 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and international venues. Working with experimental cinema, digital and acoustic music, video art and live video/sound performances. Operating between contemporary art and new music, his visual work has been described as intense urban surrealism. His audio visual work is a culmination of balanced relations between sound and video, their interconnections. His work has been shown at the Pompidou, Jeu De Paum, Transmediale, Istanbul Biennial, Cinematheques in Israel and Paris, festivals in Berlin, Slovenia, Amsterdam, Austria, New York, China, Israel, London, Ukraine. His music and videos released on the music-media labels Mille Plateaux, Cronica, Sub Rosa. www.ranslavin.com Eran Sachs: works as composer, improviser, sound-artist and curator in Jerusalem. He plays this machine regularily in the Doom-Dub-Noise outfit Lietterschpich and John Zorn's "Cobra" improvising ensemble in Israel. His works have been released on Mille Plateaux and various labels in Israel. As a sound-artist his works tend fuse the sonic with the political, as in the case of "Yannun Yannun", which portrays the harrasment of Palestinian villagers by fanatic settlers. He founded and managed the Yad-Vashem bookstore - the only holocaust dedicated bookstore in Israel." [press release] 2006 €13.50
MELANCHOHOLICS Solar Cafe LP By combining found noises and field-recorded nature with minimal fragile surfer-tone post-rock-guitars, drones and fuzzy low-end bass-lines, Melanchoholics create mad extensive soundscapes and almost cinematic soundtracks to psychotic euphoria and intoxicated wastelands. After releasing on Drone Records, MNDR and deafborn, Solar Café is their final low-end manifesto for low-end connoisseurs. Vinyl 12" contains download code including CD only Track "Nuclear Welfare" + bonus material "Postnovoletna Depresija" and "Disgusting however fascinating" Solar Café is the third and final chapter within the discography of MELANCHOHOLICS. It was recorded and mixed by MELANCHOHOLICS between 2006 and 2010. The Cover Artwork as of Solar Café was done by Derek Roczen. It's based on a series of stunning photos Benedikt shot during research for a documentary on the long waiting period for the summer solstice in the village of Flateyri situated in Iceland's Westfjords. Hence the album title “Solar Café”. Almost one year later Benedikt died of cancer at the age of 32. Melanchoholics managed to complete the album shortly before Benedikts departure. The album is released on 29.12.2014 via Eibon Records (CD) and Deafborn Records (12” 180g Vinyl). The vinyl-version of Solar Café is limited to 400 hand numbered copies. The album was mastered separately for CD and Vinyl by Michael Schwabe @ Monoposto. Sound of Solar Café On Solar Café Melanchoholics once again have set their attention directly to the lurid sides of human personalities: desperate internal fears. Simplistic structures and melodies fleshed out well with subtle textures and voices. The feeling is one of lamentation and dreariness as the sounds trudge along. Yet there is a warmth and smokiness to it as well. There is a colourful darkness before that day comes... the moment to celebrate the return of sunlight. www.melanchoholics.de "It's been a long, long time since I reviewed 'A Single Act Of Carelessness' by the German band Melanchoholics (see Vital Weekly 530). This trio was Benedikt on guitars, Philip on bass and Lutz on electronics; was, because the band no longer exists, so it seems, following the passing of Benedikt Bjarnason a few years ago. The music on 'Solar Cafe' was recorded from 2006 to 2010 and then it took some more time to finish the release. But the result is certainly great. With their previous release I compared it with the old ambient industrial music that was en vogue in the late 80s, when bands started to play guitars with cello bows, adding bits of conversations, made it all more atmospheric, but at the same time also with that dark, noisy undercurrent never far away. Music like passing dark clouds over an abandoned industrial lot, but Melanchoholics add more spacious guitars to the recipe, owing a bit to the world of post-rock. In 'Presence of Absence' they depict with the guitars vast open territories while the steady slow beat is like an oilrig. Get my drift? It's music that I quite like actually. It's both abstract and musical; it's both atmospheric and noisy - from time to time. It has that great cinematic quality to it. It's experimental music just the way I like it; like very much, actually. Perhaps one could argue there is not a lot of difference between this and the previous release, but with such as small output: who cares? One could care however about the fact that this band is no more and the musical development has come to an end. That's perhaps the saddest conclusion one could draw from this release. Sad but beautiful that's how it ends here with the final piece, 'Minus 1 One'." [FdW/Vital Weekly] "Drittes und letztes Album der Melanchoholics. In der Besetzung Gitarre, Bass und Elektronic / Fieldre-cording hatte das Trio seit 2003 zwei CDs, eine 7″ und verschiedene Soundtracks veröffentlicht, verbunden mit europaweiten Touren, abrupt beendet durch den plötzlichen, krankheitsbedingten Tod von Gitarrist Benedikt Kristofer Bjarnason in 2010, mitten in der Arbeit an der nun vorliegenden Veröffentli-chung, damals erst gut zur Hälfte fertiggestellt. Die Arbeit an der Veröffentlichung blieb liegen, der Veröffentlichungsdeal mit einem US-Label platzte und erst mit der Erkenntnis, trotz des Verlustes weitermachen zu wollen (bezeichnenderweise als Minus1one), beschlossen Bassist Phillip und Elektroniker Lutz, “Solar Cafe” als Vermächtnis der bisheri-gen Bandgeschichte zu vollenden und zu veröffentlichen. Wohl wissend, dass es Veröffentlichungen von Bands, die es gar nicht mehr gibt unterhalb eines bestimmten Bekanntheitsgrades und zwangs-weise ohne Live-Support definitiv schwer haben. Aber, trotz dieser Widrigkeiten, es hat sich definitiv gelohnt, diesen Schritt zu tun: “Solar Cafe” zeigt die Fähigkeiten der damaligen Melanchoholics gegenüber den bisherigen Platten auf einem neuen Stand; die bandeigene Art der Komposition, gleichzeitig wie auf dem Sprung befindlicher wie in der Zeit erstarrter Tracks zu komponieren, die zudem viel von tatsächlichen Songs zu haben scheinen oh-ne wirklich welche zu sein, ist auf “Solar Cafe” zu neuer Perfektion gereift. Und über allem eine Atmo-sphäre, die nicht trefflicher als durch den Bandnamen zu beschreiben ist: keine gefühlte oder gar auf-gesetzte Düsternis, vielmehr eine Art von wehmütiger Melancholie, die möglicherweise am stärksten durch die irgendwo zwischen Arpeggio und Anschlag changierenden Gitarren und die immer wieder präsenten, funkspruchartigen Fieldrecordings verursacht wird, unterlegt durch Flächen und Bassschü-be im Untergrund. “Solar Cafe” ist damit auch in seinen ruhigsten Abschnitten keine flächenartig ange-legte Musik wie die so vieler Anderer, die im Feld der experimentellen Musik ohne Schlagzeug bzw. Drumprogrammierung arbeiten: der paradoxerweise wie erstarrte Fluss dauernder Bewegung bleibt stets bestimmendes Moment. Rein musikalisch betrachtet, den ohnehin nicht zu beziffernden menschlichen Verlust bewusst ausge-klammert, definitiv ein herber Verlust, dass nach diesem Höhepunkt, passenderweise auf zwei Formaten veröffentlicht (Vinyl + CD), in dieser Form nichts mehr zu erwarten ist. Was bleibt ist diese wirklich gelungene Platte und die Chance, dass das Nachfolgeprojekt Minus1one vielleicht andere, aber ebenso interessante Wege verfolgen wird. Und jetzt: ihr." [Hellmut Neidhardt / Black mag] 2015 €16.00
MENCHE, DANIEL Sleeper 3 x CD "Daniel Menche is best known for his assemblages of visceral, industrial-strength noise. In such head-rinsing recordings as Vilké (2013), Deluge (2003), and Fields of Skin (1997), Menche's compositional directives instigate and exacerbate the physiological properties of anxiety -- increased blood pressure, blurred vision, claustrophobia, panic, disorientation, etc. In the hands of a talented composer such as Menche, noise can be demonstrative, cathartic and even communal. But after three decades of intense relentlessness, Menche posed the internal question: "Why the hell do I gravitate to compositions that stresses people out?" In re-evaluating his own compositional strategies and philosophical stances, Menche worked out the ideas through sound. Out of that research came the makings an ambient record that he could fall asleep to. These recordings seek to amplify the re-imagined traces of light and dark across the inner eyelid of the dreamer caught in that crepuscular moment between wake and sleep. To peg this album as merely an ambient record is to do Sleeper a gross disservice. This a MENCHE ambient record. Feckless new age drivel, this is not. While seeking a graceful tranquility and placid states of mind, Menche's compositional tools remain the sonic equivalent of a chainsaw. Rough edges and bold gestures are steadfast reminders that Menche is at the helm. In Sleeper, Menche plunges into the harmonic dissonance and glassine minimalism found in the historical works of La Monte Young and Charlemagne Palestine. Never one to be static, Menche drapes his ephemerally half-melodic loops and unfurled sonic tapestries onto a distant, iron-clad thump as a rhythmic spine. The ghostly frequencies that flare out of from his drones almost always evolve into sharp and blinding coronas of sound, embruing the album with an unnerving tension. Menche's Sleeper is a monumental album of colossal driftwork clocking in well over three hours." sigerecords.blogspot.de 2017 €22.00
MERZBOW & Z'EV Spiral Right / Spiral Left CD "In the planning (and many faxes, emails and discussions in person) for 20 years, finally this stunning collaborative release for Cold Spring from Japanese Noise king Merzbow and legendary elemental sound artist Z'EV is here. The tracks were created in London and Tokyo, with each artist remixing the other's original sounds. Two tracks weighing in at 22 minutes and 28 minutes respectively! Dark Ambient Noise in a special textured card digisleeve." [label info] www.coldspring.co.uk "Two of present world's most border searching sound experimentalists join forces on this one. The result is nothing short of mindblowing! Japanese king of harsh noise, Masami Akita alias Merzbow manipulates and (mis)treats modern machinery into a sick but hypnotic world of aural machismo. The ear shattering noise-expressions from Merzbow is combined by one of the true legends of early pioneering industrial Z'EV. The album sounds like a blend between contemporary sound art of the extreme kind and electronic psychedelia circa early Pink Floyd. The combination of concrete steel percussions and ultra-aggressive drones of noise extremity works very well and pulls the listener into an opposite kind of listening trance in comparison to the folk world of "We bring you a king with a head of gold : Dark Brittanica II". Two excellent albums from Cold Spring." [NM/Vital Weekly] 2010 €13.00
MERZBOW / ASKEW Level LP "The first in a series of concept split albums, LEVEL brings together two artistic audio projects on one unique vinyl-only release. Side one features MERZBOW, one of the most prolific and respected artists in the world of experimental noise. Side two features ASKEW, a collective of artists, musicians and producers from the Rustblade label headed by Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy, Bahntier) and Jeff “Squigg” Smith (Ohgr, Hate Dept). Both projects embrace a sonic philosophy based on free experimentation and improvisation utilizing analog instruments such as modular synthesizers, as well as environmental audio samples and unique noise producing objects. The results are a wall of sound and noise that move the listener through emotional and cathartic sonic waves. A real treat for lovers of free and structured noise, and those in search of sonic extremes. 40 minutes of Pure Noise." www.rustblade.com/product/level-limited-vinyl/ 2015 €15.00
MERZBOW KAPOTTE MUZIEK Works 1987-1993 Korm Plastics KP 3050 "Both of these projects hardly need an introduction. Merzbow is since the late ‘70s the project of Masami Akita working in the field of noise music, having released a few hundred CDs/LPs/cassettes by now. In 1987 Kapotte Muziek was then the solo project of Frans de Waard, after Christian Nijs left the group early ’87. De Waard concentrated on working with other musicians, and started trading tapes with a few musicians he was already in contact with, and one of them was Merzbow. The first release was a cassette, which was released in two versions, one of Merzbow’s ZSF Produkt and one on Belgium’s Therapie label (although none ever showed up, so perhaps it didn’t happen). In October 1989 Merzbow was invited to play at V2 in ’s-Hertogenbosch and a subsequent small tour was done in The Netherlands, playing in Utrecht and Nijmegen. On october 3rd 1989 Merzbow played in the evening in a small student club, Diogenes, and in the late afternoon as a duo with Kapotte Muziek. The first 20 minutes were released on one side of the LP ‘Documentation/Collaboration’, whereas the second side has ‘recycled’ versions of those recordings. For their next project Merzbow Kapotte Muziek took all the recordings from that day and reworked them in an extensive process into the LP ‘Continuum’. This 3CD set compiles all of these recordings and more. It includes (CD1) the first cassette, ZSF Produkt version, (CD2) has for the first time the complete live recording from the collaborative concert at Radio Rataplan plus two compilation pieces that were made around the same, and (CD3) the complete ‘Continuum’ LP, as well as three highly obscure compilation tracks, including the long reworked ‘Radio Rataplan’ from the very obscure ‘Dutch Tour’ double cassette by V2_Archief. All expertly remastered by Jos Smolders at Earlabs, all lovingely designed by Meeuw, in a carton box with three CDs, poster, shrinkwrapped and sticker." [label info] www.kormplastics.nl Edition of 300 copies only "In history, a certain type of very conservative – reactionary even - history, key moments and people are outlined, but no longer do we learn the kings and queens, we concentrate on oral histories of last week. So whilst seemingly radical in fact everything in music is still well and truly reactionary ideology. Artists still are identified with and seek to make seminal work, as our Tracey sickly maintains. So when in the late 1970s one Masami Akita stated “I threw all my past music career in the garbage. There was no longer any need for concepts like 'career' and 'skill'. I stopped playing music and went in search of an alternative.” The rest one could say really was history! Only a history that has been both ignored and wonderfully misappropriated into what is now the current noise “scene” of incompetent misfits who imagine their work to be art in the great western tradition. What this 3CD set demonstrates is the origin of this ‘scene’ or site of dissemination of the meaningless and banal of contemporality. The ipad generation were not yet born when Akita and de Waard began a series of interchanges released originally on cassette and vinyl. The ‘history’ of this process is detailed here http://kormplastics.nl/kp3050.html. The consequences of this (and other events) of the time are in a real sense more profound. As if the ideas of a previous generation failed to generate, and how the fin de siècle became an eternal return of the (same) trivial misunderstanding, and failing to understand. The process of this collaboration is obviously a deconstructive one as any current art student would argue – though by virtue of wikipedia and a downloaded paper with Harvard references. So in fact this contemporality changes, in Damian (Peter 1007-1072 not Hirst 1965 -?) fashion, the past to render the noise of Akita and de Waard as meaningful in its reaction to – from the past – of this future we now inhabit. The brilliance of such mutilation of past events not via some modified DeLorean but by the simple expediency of a logical inversion - the logic of the ipad’s NOT gates. (The garbage becomes art and so art becomes garbage….) One might therefore admire Akita and de Waard’s work as contributing to the current ‘scholasticism’ – or perhaps conversely to Damian’s condemnation of philosophy as the work of the Devil and the self flagellation of ‘noisers’ in small bars all over the mid-west. Either way – by not excluded middles they are genius’s. A logically non exclusive OR. And to end - by the by - I’ve been criticized for not describing the sound in a review – so what does this sound like – it sounds like the work that is yet to be produced by a sound ‘artist’ somewhere!" (jliat) 2012 €25.00
MERZOUGA 52°46’ North 13°29’ East – Music for Wax-Cylinders CD "The World’s Most Moveable Armchair Erich Moritz von Hornbostel was an „armchair ethnologist“. Due to his bad health the musicologist was unable to travel to faraway countries. Instead he sat at his desk in the Dorotheenstraße in Berlin and received the world through his phonograph. On from 1900 the world’s music arrived at his office in the form of more than 16.000 wax-cylinder recordings from all over the planet. Due to an edict by the Prussian Emperor all German trading as well as scientific expeditors were bound to travel with a phonograph and send their recordings to Berlin. Today we might put it that way: Hornbostel was in charge of the biggest field-recording project of all times. In his case being a stay-at-home was definitely an achievement. His immobility gave Hornbostel the chance to develop a completely new perspective, an unprecedented acoustical bird’s eye view, and made him the founder of a new discipline: comparative musicology’s aim was to “unveil the dark and distant past (…) and to extract the timeless and the general from the abundance of our present; in other words: We want to get to know the historic and the basic esthetic principles of musical art.” (1) Approximately 100 years later Hornbostel’s acoustic present has itself become a dark and distant past. To our ears the 16.000 wax-cylinder recordings of the Berlin Phonogram-Archive sound like treasures from a long lost world. These treasures are not only raised by researchers but increasingly also by artists. The current archive’s management is generously granting them access to the recordings that have been digitalized over the past fifteen years. Thus Eva Pöpplein and Janko Hanushevsky (aka Merzouga) have become fellow armchair-travelers. They bring along a lot of experience, which they collected as heavy-duty field-recordists on intensive sound-expeditions through India and South-East-Asia. („Good Morning, Rickshaw“ – Deutschlandradio Kultur 2008; „Mekong Morning Glory“ – Deutschlandradio Kultur 2009 / Gruenrekorder 2011). Now they encompass the sonic landscape of the Phonogram-Archive with the same musical sensitiveness that can be found in their previous works. Just like Hornbostel the two are genuinely interested in something timeless, something general: the uniquely beautiful human ability to play with sounds and structures. Janko Hanushevsky integrates his electric-bass improvisations into the historic wax-cylinders’ cracks and scratches. And Eva Pöpplein sparingly applies electronic effects in order to distill precious essences from the sonic material. The result is a musical position-reckoning between the past and the future of sound-recording: Located at 52°46’ North and 13°29’ East, in the Ethnologisches Museum Dahlem, is the world’s most moveable armchair." [Marcus Gammel, Deutschlandradio Kultur] www.gruenrekorder.de 2013 €13.00
MEURSAULT, PALI Stridulations LP For stridulations, Meursault confronts recorded and performed sounds, composition and improvisation: field- recordings of animal communication (insects, birds and bats recorded in France, Japan and South America over almost ten years) mix and dialog with the ‘sonification’ of fluorescents tubes. Both the environmental sound matter composition and the electromagnetic instrument have evolved with performances between 2014 and 2017. Little by little, new recordings were collected and new electrical and electronic supplies were added to the setup. The record is altogether the outcome of that process and a different take on the project, leaving the synesthetics of the flickering lights but embracing the deepness of ‘blind’ listening. Pali Meursault is a sound artist, composer and sound designer. His electroacoustic and sound art research takes different shapes: compositions for records, radio works, installations or performances. Environmental sound recording is central in his work, which takes from Musique Concrète and the sonic exploration of soundscapes. https://discrepant.bandcamp.com/album/stridulations 2018 €18.00
MIZUTANI, KIYOSHI & KIYOHARU KUWAYAMA Interlude CD "Kiyoshi Mizutani: feedback. Kiyoharu Kuwayama: handmade electronics, contact mic & mix. and/OAR (via either/OAR) is very pleased to present what is without a doubt among the very best of both artist's electronic-based work. Throughout much of this highly charged release, brooding clouds of swarming tones and drones envelope the listener, either inducing a hypnotic trance or a deep contemplative listening state. This work is the result of a mail exchange. At first, Kiyoshi created the feedback sound in the studio using a suspended microphone, mixer and some effects. Sometimes drum sticks, steel and wooden chair were used to influence the sound. Kiyoshi's recorded sound was sent to Kiyoharu who then processed the materials and edited and mixed the sound with his own materials. Kiyoshi Mizutani started his sound career with the noise project Merzbow until the late 1980s, After leaving Merzbow, Kiyoshi started releasing solo work under his own name - gradually shifting away from noise to mostly recording and releasing straight environmental sound documents. Apart from Kiyoharu Kuwayama and Masami Akita (Merzbow), Kiyoshi has also collaborated with Daniel Menche and Hideaki Shimada. Apart from and/OAR, Kiyoshi has had his work released by such labels as Ground Fault, CMR, Monochrome Vision, Auscultare Research, E(r)ostrate, Artware Production, Engraved Glass, Flenix, among others. Kiyoharu Kuwayama (aka Lethe) is known for creating and recording work in highly resonant spaces or charged atmospheres (abandoned warehouses, Shinto temples, etc). Kiyoharu is also known for his involvement with the duo Kuwayama - Kijima (Kiyoharu Kuwayama : cello, and Rina Kijima : violin) who are formidable players, so well attuned to each other that their improvisations cannot be distinguished from highly complex compositions. With a particular interest in ambient sound and locations that inspire improvisation, they take advantage of the natural reverb of each location (under a bridge at night, an abandoned warehouse), and even change their position while playing to create beautiful and charged performances." [label info] www.and-oar.org "There is, like with most releases by Kiyoharu Kuwayama not a lot of information on the cover (or websites) with details about the recording, but more than some other times. Kiyoharu Kuwayama plays "handmade electronics, contact mic & mix" and Kiyoshi Mizutani just gets credit for feedback. Mizutani was in the 80s a member of Merzbow, and after leaving Merzbow he did a couple of releases, ranging from the heavy noise field to field recordings, including collaborations with Daniel Menche and Hideaki Shimada. Kuwayama is perhaps best known as Lethe and has created a bunch of releases that deal with large spaces in which he plays cello, metal objects and electronics. This release with Mizutani is one that was generated through mail, which I think is a rarity in his catalogue. Mizutani recorded feedback using a suspended microphone, mixer and effects, influencing the sound with drum sticks, steel and wooden chair. Kuwayama then processed this material and did further editing. The result is excellent. The feedback produced by Mizutani is never 'loud and dirty' as one could easily think these things would be (think harsh noise walls), but refined and varied. The sustained sounds move through your home space in an excellent way, and Kuwayama treats them with great care. The ten pieces flow into each other and form a great unified wholeness, which reminded me of the best of Arcane Device. A highly varied disc of music, excellent treatments and fine composition." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2011 €12.00
MOGARD, ABUL / MAURIZIO BIANCHI Nervous Hydra / All this has passed forever LP "MAURIZIO BIANCHI / ABUL MOGARD NERVOUS HYDRA / ALL THIS HAS PASSED FOREVER • Abrasive/enchanting split LP between Italian noise god MB and mystic Serbian synthesist AM • Both artists at the peak of their respective powers • Cut @ D&M • Limited edition of 500 copies Ecstatic’s stunning split release between Maurizio Bianchi, godfather of the Italian industrial noise scene, and Abul Mogard, the much loved and hyperstitious synthesist, conjures a spellbinding testament to the transcendent and transportive energies of electronic music. Although appearing to starkly contrast on the surface, both artist’s work patently shares a lust for the suggestive abstraction of raw current and its pareidolia-like capacity to generate rich and uncanny emotional responses from the end user. On the A-side, Maurizio Bianchi serves the obfuscated, coruscating atmosphere of Nervous Hydra; a 17 minute piece of sunken, desiccated harmonic structures and warped greyscale tones rinsed with ET radio signals and distant percussion that recall the sound of embers landing on tinfoil or snow. It evokes the experience of being caught in a quietly raging whiteout with only a dying fire for company, or equally a sense of subaquatic, amniotic serenity prior to being evacuated into a much colder world. Listeners can trust that the Italian artist’s first new work in several years is faithful to his ever- uncompromising oeuvre, but there’s also a tantalisingly elusive sense of redemption buried deep in there which marks it out from the rest of his canon and close to the work of his antecedents such as Kevin Drumm and Jim Haynes. In that piece’s tempestuous wake, Abul Mogard brings a sense of soothing, glacial calm with All This Has Passed Forever on the B-side. For 16 blissed minutes, Mogard spells out a nostalgic fantasy in creamy strokes of Farfisa organ and Serge modular recorded at EMS studios, Stockholm, and later combined with field recordings to elicit a wistfully widescreen paean to his days on the workshop floor accompanied by the harmonious drones and cacophony of heavy machinery. No matter the piece’s provenance, though; it’s simply a sublime example of Abul Mogard’s gift for illusive, suspenseful ambient music which has seen his previous releases sky-rocket in 2nd hand value since their earliest, sold-out editions. Over 30 minutes of ostensibly contrasting yet subtly, similarly spirited pieces that speak to the mystery and enigma of electronic music’s tortured, searching and romantic soul in equal measure." www.ecstaticrecordings.com 2017 €22.00
MOHAMMAD (MMMD) Pèkisyon Funebri 3 x 10inch BOX "Leaving behind their folk based trilogy, Mohammad return to their own original material. Heavy and concentrated, majestic and dark, ethereal and subtle, Pèkisyon Funebri marks a new era in Mohammad's existence, unfolding earthly murmurs and ghostly chants over their distinctive seismic diapasons. An exhilarating procession through highly charged sonic plateaus, from the burning core to the silent skies." [label info] www.antifrost.gr "The PAN label's premier purveyors of “chamber doom” return with a new cycle for longtime alibis, Antifrost, following their acclaimed folk trilogy of LPs between 2014-15, and the still-resonating tones of Som Sakrifis (2013) for PAN. If you’ve encountered any of the aforementioned, you will have a very good idea of what to hope for in the 3-part Pèkisyon Funebri; namely a majestic sense of struggle against the flattening feeling of despair and fatigue that haunts our times. This is music which appears to carry the weight of the world on its shoulders whilst wielding a cello and bow in its heavy limbs, dredging the psyche for signs of life which are found and coaxed from their holes to emerge as churning low-end gestures who reinforce their dual resonant frequencies in slow, wide vortices aimed at centring and quaking your thorax. Subterranean in their prostration but sidereal in hope against the frustrations that we can only imagine must be felt in Greece right now, Pèkisyon Funebri is a masterful reminder that even at the lowest ebbs there is solace and resilience to be found if one remains faithful to the search. Huge recommendation." [Boomkat] "Is “all-encompassing” a cop-out term? Greek trio MMMD, a.k.a. Mohammad, have been eating us alive since 2013’s Som Sakrifis, and as someone following underground music back then, reading various interpretations of its sonic power was enthralling because its uncompromising, sensory-depraving tones assured that our reflections came out of our own visceral reactions rather than out of our interactions with any sort of external text. Our own Birkut began his immersive review of Som Sakrifis with an image of being alone on an island off of Cambodia with nothing but a winking, far-off light for assurance. Som Sakrifis in this allegory was both enveloping darkness and faint, hopeful light. What, then, is Pèkisyon Funebri? And what kind of status quo does its long-form drones conjure? What kind of hope, if any, does it offer a listener? MMMD’s music has always reminded me of Howard Shore’s scores for The Lord of the Rings films, and as such, my listening has always been guided by that association. For me, Som Sakrifis was heroic music, war music, music by which pastoral hobbits fought against evil wizards and abominable orcs and glowing eyeballs, when outcomes of such battles meant everything to every thing, big or small, dwarf or elf, human or tree. Its overwhelming oppressiveness brought me into a breaking world, vied over by many, but plagued by absolutes. With Pèkisyon Funebri, MMMD has signified a formic return after a brief cartographical break from its regularly scheduled programming. It’s a quiet return at first, as opener “Az álmok itt érnek véget (rész 1)” culls an open landscape, a place where blood has been shed by neighbors who have found themselves equal under a force more terrible than God. “Qoxra” follows, a tremor-inducing dirge for everything that has been lost since “Liberig Min.” What follows is as nerve-wracking as it is steadying, and while my complete ignorance of Greek language obscures my semiotic reading of Pèkisyon Funebri as a multi-movement piece, my feeling is that its slow, plodding drones are of great human import somehow. Unlike its stylistic predecessor, Pèkisyon Funebri is broken down into many long form movements. There are hiccups here, moments of letting up that are later infiltrated by solid, unyielding sound. “Sorsa” is punctuated by muted pulses, for instance, offering real moments of reprieve from this conjured world’s constant gravity while amplifying more sinuous, time-defying stretches of obligatory crying out like on “Malproksime” and closer “Erdia Da.” Whereas Som Sakrifis felt like that riddle about what has four legs by morning, two by afternoon, and three by evening, Pèkisyon Funebri asks “What’s in my pockets?” Its massiveness, sustained by a bold confidence in potentially liberating non sequiturs, signals a subtle change in trajectory toward a shadowy asymptote; this may not be MMMD’s magnum opus, but its power is great and its cohesion as a work is palpable. And like Som Sakrifis, its reach is absolute. Uniquely, its staying power suggests that MMMD’s reach can transcend time, bridging a Middle Earth and a dying one. A function of drone as a form is that it grabs and sustains our attention in its steadfastness. It slows us down. It directs our attention. It soundtracks our movements, placing new and unusual stresses on our actions in time. As an electroacoustic genre, its affectiveness relies on subjectivity, while its deliberateness is a sign that begs some kind of reflection. Is Pèkisyon Funebri all-encompassing then? I’m not sure. Its reaches in reality are relatively short as its audience is limited by dedication and access, but its potential, I think, is a unifying one, even if it unifies primarily by pressing down on everything equally. Much like Barry Lyndon’s Epilogue, Pèkisyon Funebri reminds us of our fundamental equality amidst violent inequity: “It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled. Good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor. They are all equal now.” So what do we do from here while we are alive? Well, as TMTer Mukqs once said, “Just sit and listen.” Let it all sink in. Let it make your bones shake. Let it change how you walk. Let it bring you down when you feel too proud. Let it pull you up when you feel too small. Let it be and let yourself be changed by its unrelenting resonance. If even for a moment, let it make you feel something so that you have proof of your own dignity when forces of evil threaten it. Let it play. And let it outlive its own dark cloud." [Jackson Scott, Tinymixtapes] 2016 €58.00
MOLJEBKA PVLSE In Love and Death You are Alone 10inch "The Stockholm-based 'electroacoustic drone' & experimental ambient project is active since the beginning of the century (exactly: 1999) and has build an impressive discography of hypnotic sound expansions, while the main member MATHIAS JOSEFSON refined his technical and compositorical skills by finishing a study of sound art at the Royal Institute of Art and the legendary EMS Elektronmusikstudion. After a longer period of silence MOLJEBKA PVLSE is back with two new compositions on this 10" vinyl with a quite existential title, using amplified objects, analogue synthesizers, guitars and field recordings made in Europe, Africa and the USA => an invitation to explore these unknown audio landscapes. Two dense & emotional drone tracks that form an existential unity! This is a one time pressing of only 300 copies on transparent vinyl with incredible artwork by THOMAS DOHMEN using a "frozen bronce" metallic colour cover print. "Moljebka Pvlse search for the place where everything you can imagine is real." [press release] "Thick, turbulent, and tearjerking dronemusik from the Swedish project Moljebka Pvlse, making for a pitch perfect contribution to Drone Records' 10" inch series. So many FX and organically accreted layers swirl together in these heavily processed tracks of unrecognizable field recordings, electronics, guitar, and voice. Within these long and drawn out shimmers of truly sad intonations Moljebka Pvlse sets forth waves of subtle melodies caught in deepwater, oceanic tides to arrive at a majestic pairing of sublime ambient tracks. One of the best things we've heard from Moljebka Pvlse, and one of the best from the always superb Drone Records, certainly on par with Troum, Tim Hecker, and Jonathan Coleclough." [Aquarius Records] 2015 €15.00
MOORE, ANTHONY / TOBIAS GREWENIG / DIRK SPECHT The April Sessions LP This journey, this slowly drifting sonic meditation, is an 'inner soundscape', a dialogue between the senses, the conscience and the world, inside / outside, interconnected. Like waking up from a long dream, and being stuck into its echo. The April Sessions immerges the listener into a drone-ish universe, full of random acousmatic events, inner monologues and a vast and unwritten subjective map to be drawn. The April Sessions has been living in a seedy hotel in Brussels for a few months. She listens to the sparse traffic outside her window, locked in and locked down. 'Everything is constructed', she says to herself, 'even the sound of a solitary aircraft at 25,000 feet traverses the sky no further out than the inside of my skull'. Other weird sonic phenomena criss-cross the inner cosmos of her brain and streak across her private sky like comets. And then there is the unshakeable presence of that inner monologue, known to her variously as the Tacit Dictator, the Subvocaliser and, nightmarishly enough, the voice of the Merlucid Hake. (Anthony Moore, St Leonards, 10th of March 2021). Anthony Moore, Dirk Specht and Tobias Grewenig have known each other and worked together since the early 2000s. They have collectively participated in a number of projects including live performances and recordings. In 2016, as part of The Missing Present Band, they released the live LP 'The Present Is Missing' on A-Musik. The following year they released 'Ore Talks', a double LP, realised in collaboration with Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln. Anthony Moore born in 1948, founded the band Slapp Happy (circa 1972) with Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause, then worked alongside a.o. Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson in the unclassifiable band Henry Cow. He released several solo albums, composed soundtracks for experimental movies. His path also crossed Kevin Ayers's, Pink Floyd's, Richard Wright's… He was appointed professor for research into sound and music in the context of new media at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. He still continues to write and perform. Dirk Specht sound artist, musician and curator. He studied architecture and media art and is active in the fields of sound works for choreography, radio drama, sound art, film and video art soundtracks… He published releases with several bands and projects. He has been an assistant for research into sound from 2011 to 2016 at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, and is a founding member of Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln. Tobias Grewenig studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. He primarily deals with non-linearity in his audiovisual installative works and performances, including projects with the artist group 'Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln', the ensemble 'The Knob, The Finger & The It' and the improvisation collective "Frequenzwechsel". The conception and development of electronic instruments and code is a key component of his artistic work. He lives and works in Cologne. https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/the-april-sessions 2021 €16.00
MOSS, JESSICA Pools of Light LP 180gram vinyl includes 12x24 art print poster + 320kbps MP3 download The debut solo full-length by violinist and sound artist Jessica Moss (Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Black Ox Orkestar, Vic Chesnutt, Carla Bozulich). Recorded by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart, Suuns, Matana Roberts, Eric Chenaux) RIYL: Sibelius, Laurie Anderson, Sarah Davachi, Benoît Pioulard, Loscil. Jessica Moss is known best as the violinist, co-composer, and backing vocalist with the acclaimed chamber-punk band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (SMZ) and the avant-klezmer group Black Ox Orkestar. As fans of these projects will know, Moss has developed a distinctive and impressive approach to violin that combines a natural technical fluidity, a recombinant command of folk, classical and modern idioms, and an adventurous exploration of signal-bending and analog effects that uniquely expand the spectrum of the violin as sound source. Her solo work is deeply rooted in live performance, where she builds up and breaks down stunning longform compositions in real time with an array of pedals - including octave/harmonizers and samplers/loopers. To hear all of this rallied on her debut full-length solo release is intensely rewarding: comprised of two side-length multi-movement compositions, Pools Of Light unfolds at a stately, inexorable pace, combining sound-art and signal-processed timbres, extended melodic and contrapuntal lines, and the periodic deployment of stark, minimalist vocals. Pools Of Light is elegiac durational music at the intersection of neo-classicism, soundtrack, electronic, art-punk and avant-folk - a decidedly organic, non-academic, profoundly searching and emotive work, guided by Moss's liner note mantra: "FEELING LOVE IN A MELTING WORLD". 2017 €23.00
MOUCHOIR ETANCHE (=BLACK TO COMM) Kommunique Zero pic-12inch "An end and a new beginning. Kommuniqué Zéro is the debut outing of new Black To Comm related entity Mouchoir Ètanche. And it is the final release in Dekorder's 10-Year Anniversary hybrid-vinyl series (a mere seven years too late). Combining real and fake acoustic instrumentation, sampling, field recordings, and excessive yet inaudible post production this is a powerful statement of intent. Influences are ranging from (French) classical and opera to the anecdotical compositions of Luc Ferrari, Chinese opera, sacred music, collage, and free improvisation. Marc Richter records as Black To Comm for Thrill Jockey, Type, and Dekorder and as Jemh Circs for his own Cellule 75 imprint. He also produced soundtracks and acousmatic multichannel installations for institutions such as INA GRM Paris, ZKM Karlsruhe, and Kunstverein Hamburg. The Dekorder 10-Year Anniversary hybrid-vinyl series so far included LPs by Pye Corner Audio, Excepter, Experimental Audio Research, Vindicatrix, Kemiallysät Ystävät, Ensemble Economique, Alien Radio, Black To Comm, and Le Révélateur. Music and artwork by Marc Richter. Richard Youngs: counting. Mastering by Rashad Becker Hybrid-vinyl: picture-disc on one side (no music), black vinyl on the other (music); edition of 165." https://blacktocomm.bandcamp.com/album/kommuniqu-z-ro 2020 €16.50
MSBR Structured Suicide LP MSBR (Molten Salt Breeder Reactor), aka Koji Tano, was one of the most respected noise artists to arise from Japan's exciting noise/experimental music scene of the 1990s. Much of his material was self-released on his own label, the astounding MSBR Records, which was dedicated to the production of limited-edition releases with incredible artwork. MSBR present a music elaborated with previously chosen source of sounds, whose origins are either naturel or artificial, with use of Korg guitar synthesizer and some effects, working in analog sounds. Oscillating between grappling electro noise (as he describes his musical style) and pure noise, the really surprising quality of the sound research leads to a tremendous kind of noise-texture. After his debut LP and a lathe cut seven-inch, Structured Suicide is third MSBR release and first on tape in amazing package as everything other release by artist. The long track that occupies the entire A side of the cassette and the first track of the B side of over a quarter of an hour, are filled with excellent harsh noise with strong influences of concrete and electroacoustic music, deep and calmer rumble and ambient effluence. Structured Suicide is a terrific undertaking into the wickedness of mechanized clatter as a foreboding, consuming pollution, the unrelenting and ever-building storm of machines slowly lulling the living into bleak states of masochistic artificiality. This is the classic sound of MSBR, which envelops you with its texture of noise scales, suffocating and enthralling, without an immediate impact, but which then, at its harshest, hits you with devastating force! The other two quite short tracks that close the album are less conventional and show how much the artist wants to experiment, without closing himself in a pre-packaged genre. Vinyl comes in only 199 copies with cover that faithfully reproduces the style of original art work, with vinyl labels that replicates inlay tape card. An awesome artefact of early 1990s Japan noise music, resting at the borders of electroacoustic, Urashima’s long awaited, first ever vinyl reissue of Koji Tano’s epoch-making album, 'Structured Suicide', emerges 28 years later as a stunning testament to the importance of the creative expansion to which it belongs. Absolutely essential on every count! https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/structured-suicide 2021 €21.50
MUELLER, JON The Whole CD "Der Avantgarde-Perkussionist übersetzt tradiertes Handwerk in Musik: "The Whole" mag sein Debüt für das Label Type sein, doch ist es bei weitem nicht Jon Muellers Einstand in der Szene. Über seine Mitarbeit in Bands wie Collections Of Colonies Of Bees und Volcano Choir mit Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver sowie mehreren Soloalben und Kollaborationen hat sich der Mann aus Milwaukee einen Namen als hervorragender Schlagzeuger und Perkussionist gemacht. Als Nachfolger seines Werks "Metals", einer Sammlung klassischer Heavy-Metal-Rhythmen, und den ausschweifend schönen "Physical Changes" war es für Mueller Zeit für ein grundlegendes Statement. Fasziniert von einfachen und akustischen Klängen, ließ sich Mueller sogar vom alten Kunsthandwerk der Shaker, einer amerikanischen Religionsgemeinschaft, und vom Quilt-Handwerk beeinflussen. Beides einfache tradierte Handwerksformen, die aber immer wieder misinterpretiert wurden. Diese fehlgedeutete Simplizität ist ein Leitmotiv von "The Whole". Mueller erschafft mit Schlagzeug, Dulcimer und seiner Stimme einen Sound, der gleichzeitig originell und verführerisch ist, der Spuren der Vergangenheit und Echos der Zukunft trägt.// The Whole might be avant-percussionist Jon Mueller's first album for the Type imprint, but it's far from his scene debut. Working in a plethora of bands for many years (including Collections Of Colonies Of Bees and Volcano Choir with Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver), Mueller has honed his sound to a distinct peak, and over the course of umpteen solo albums and collaborations has cemented his status as one of experimental music's most revered drummers. Following his epic works Metals (a collection of classic heavy metal rhythms) and the expansive and surprisingly beautiful Physical Changes, both for the esteemed Table Of The Elements label, Mueller embarked on the heady process of creating a "defining" work. Intrigued by ideas of simplicity and acoustic sound, Mueller's research drew him to Shaker crafts and quilt-making, both deceptively simple practices rooted in the transmission of ideas. Over time, these experiences were interpreted in many different ways, almost certainly inaccurately, and this miscommunicated simplicity is at the very center of The Whole. Through a rolling, unamplified snare drum (a piece of kit perfected over a year of intense practice), booming low toms, hammered dulcimer and his own voice, Mueller creates a sound that is wholly original and totally beguiling. There are traces of folk traditions and lines drawn to the avant garde idiom, but Mueller's sound is so singularly perfected, it is hard to connect him to specific peers. The Whole is an album that sounds like both a relic of the past and an echo of the future. The ideas are anchored in memory and tradition, yet the sound is alien and sometimes impenetrable. Over time, as the messages are stripped back, an unabashedly gorgeous piece of work is revealed. Like a good book, it requires patience and contemplation to show its beating heart." [label info] www.typerecords.com 2010 €15.50
MUENNICH / ESPOSITO / JUPITTER-LARSEN The Wraiths of Flying A CD "A three-way collaboration by Chicago based sound artist and renowned researcher in the field of Electronic Voice Phenomena Michael Esposito, Hamburg based operator of the Fragment Factory label Michael Muennich and long-time conceptual/performance artist, filmmaker, writer and core member of The Haters GX Jupitter-Larsen from Los Angeles. The origin of this project was a field investigation conducted by Esposito at American Film Studios, Santa Barbara, CA, additional sounds recorded by Michael Muennich at Fragment Factory, Hamburg during 2011 2012, edited and processed by Michael Esposito, Michael Muennich and GX Jupitter-Larsen in the course of 2012. Edition of 300 copies." [label info] web.comhem.se/elggren/fer/fer.html "Over the last few years I am more and more 'exposed' to the music of Michael Esposito, or should that be 'the work of'? It's work/music that has to do with the voices of the dead, the EVP, and he works with a variety of musicians. Here with GX Jupitter-Larsen (best known as The Haters) and Michael Muennich, the label boss Fragment Factory. Not always all three of them together, but in various combinations. You could try and figure out which these combinations are, but the print is rather fine here. The release is dedicated to Audrey Munson, an actrice of the silent era, who after the arrival of the talkies spent the rest of her life in Ogdenburg Psychiatric Institution. Maybe that's where Esposito caught her voice - from beyond of course? For reasons unknown to myself, I expected something that was more noise based, but that's not the case here. It's, in fact, all rather subdued, quiet, with loops of found sound, hissing, ticking, with voice material dropping in and out of the mix in some of these pieces, such as the very nice title piece. It all seems devoid of real noise and that's great, I think. It's more like a radio play of highly obscured sounds, always looping around (perhaps one could hold that against the total release? Without being necessary), with all of these ghostly voices spooking around. Its however not really an unsettling release - these seem like friendly ghosts to me. An excellent release, like I think most of Esposito's releases of late a very good." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2012 €13.00
MULTER Basisrealität/Armutsgewöhnungszuschlag/Wolkenkuckucksheim 3 x LP "The three part LP set is the first new studio material by [MULTER] in 10 years and it can be easily seen as the culmination of their artistic approach and search to date. Over six sides of black vinyl, attentively mastered by Fear Falls Burning, the group employ their strategies. a great sense of place is embedded into the sound thorugh carefully placed field recordings. a common-sense lyrical aspect becomes part of the scenery. heavy guitar drone-layers form a dense and almost overwhelming wall of sound. Distorted rhythms drive onwards and electronics counteract the seqeunce of events in the next instance. a beautiful, mature and very personal work." [label info] https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/basisrealit-t-armutsgew-hnungszuschlag-wolkenkuckucksheim 2021 €46.50
MURMER We share a Shadow CD MURMER gehört zu jener neuen Generation von Field Recording-Spezialisten, die mit Hilfe von Computerprogrammen eine ungeahnte Detailfülle & Klangdichte in ihren Kompositionen erreichen. Auf "We share a Shadow" (2 Stücke, 46 Minuten) erklingen z.B. wunderbar vielschichtige Metall-Drones, Vibrationen von langgezogene Sirenen-artigen Tönen, rückwärtige akustisch glitzernde Resonanzen, krispelndes Rauschen (Regen?)... etc. - ein einziger Genuss, diese neuartige Drone-Musik in Perfektion, das Selbst scheint sich aufzulösen in diesen Sounds! Die Auflage beträgt leider nur 300 Exemplare, kommt im handgetönen Wasserfarben-Cover. "Murmer is the pseudonym for Patrick McGinley, a man with several passports which have taken him to many a foreign land in search of found sounds of the unsettled, the forgotten, the mysterious, and the beautiful. His field recordings of activated environments (e.g. resonant industrial spaces, windswept telephone lines, bowed branches, gasping ventilator systems, etc.) originate from all of the locations where he has traveled; yet, the documentation of these sounds is the not the terminus of McGinley's work. He is far more interested in extracting a particular emotional, transcendent, or metaphysical kernel from those sounds, and then recontextualizing that germinated sound into sympathetic compositions of magnificent dronemusik. We Share A Shadow continues where Murmer left off with the exceptional Husk album (in collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough), in spiraling his manipulated field recordings as a slow revelation of the environmental sonorities that undeservedly go unnoticed each and every day. Singing frequencies of a bowed piece of metal undulate against a grey tapestry of rain and rasping insects. Golden overtones from shimmering drones quell what agitated textures reside in McGinley's active field recordings, rendering the aggregate sound a nocturnal opiate with considerable potency. As Murmer, Patrick McGinley has produced a handful of releases on ICR, Ground Fault, Drone Records, and Absurd; and he has performed in venues both large and small across North America and Europe. He is also the host the Framework radio show on Resonance FM, dedicated to the consecration of field recordings and their use in composition. We Share A Shadow is strictly limited to 300 copies, featuring hand water-coloured artwork and letterpress printing." [label description] www.helenscarsdale.com "BACK IN PRINT! We thought this gem from the Helen Scarsdale Agency was going to stay out of print forever, but due to a fortuitous pressing plant glitch (when are those ever fortuitous?), a small second pressing has now been made available! Here's what we've said about this album when it first came out in 2007: Proprietor of the Framework radio show on Resonance FM for many years now, Patrick McGinley has implored his listeners to "open your ears and listen" to the world at large, presenting an impeccable series dedicated to field recordings and its use in composition. So, it goes with out saying that the field recording and the found object are commonplace within McGinley's own sound art constructions which he records under the moniker Murmer (and not Murmur, mind you!). Given his predilection for wandering throughout the European countryside for all that it has to offer (not just limited to environmental sound), his recorded output has been somewhat limited. We Share A Shadow is his first proper solo album in almost three years, although his collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough did stand out as one of the dronemusik highlights of 2006. Consisting of two very long pieces, We Share A Shadow is a notably restrained album whose dark beauty reveals itself with a slow and deliberate pace. The first untitled piece opens with sheets of cold rain scuffing the smooth arcs of bowed metals, whose Feldman-like swell and collapse recalls the late period work of Bernhard Gunter. As the rain gently fades, a composite drone emerges out of those rasps and vibrations from the bowed metals and intensifies through dissonant timbres subtly agitating the shimmer and filigree of the gilted drone. Throughout, windswept debris ricochets across the stereo field casting an ominous cloud onto the sustained tones. The second piece is an even darker affair with a motor grinding against a piece of metal in the distance while a somber, almost doomscape piano plods in the foreground. With plenty of low frequency rumbles and spectral activity lingering in the background, this piece is almost like KTL remixing Xenakis at 16 RPM. Needless to say, this is an incredible album. Gorgeously packaged in hand water-colored / letterpressed sleeves, SECOND PRESSING ONLY 175 COPIES!!" [Aquarius Rec.] 2008 €14.00
  What are the Roots that clutch CD "It was a cavernous tone that broadcast from a ventilator duct that inspired Patrick McGinley to begin collecting field recordings and working them into his slow-arc compositions. At the time when he heard that particular tone in that particular city at that particular time, he had no gear to recording device on hand. Over the next fifteen years (and counting) McGinley has eased into a peripatetic lifestyle, wandering the European countryside and forests (but never straying too far from the thrum and spark of civilization) in search of the same epiphany with his head rattled to the sound of a cavernous air duct. Around 1996, McGinley adopted the moniker Murmer for his compositional work; and though his work often steps into the quieter realm of sound construction, much of his field recordings and resultant compositions privilege interference and disturbances that occur within any given sound ecology. Those sounds could be the elusive tone from that ventilator, the polyrhythmic chorus of chirping frogs, the abstracted roar from an Arctic wind tearing across the Black Sea, or the metallic skree from a bowed antenna perched atop a Soviet-era observatory. What Are The Roots That Clutch marks McGinley's first full album in nearly 5 years, but it marks an elegant continuation of his previous album We Share A Shadow. The five chapters of this album can't easily be associated with any specific location; instead McGinley overlaps and crosshatches his field recordings and abstractions into acousmatic passages with ghostly, half-melodic qualities. Even the two unprocessed recordings of the album are impossibly complex in their accretions of sound. McGinley's composed pieces embrace lithe, mysterious drones whose mossy, damp atmosphere perfectly situate with tactile crunches, tactile events, and signal noise generation. Eels and leaches would not be out of place in such an environment; but the subaquatic murk snaps into a hallowed manifestation of ritualized minimalism at the album's finale -- one that LaMonte Young and Angus Maclise might have conjured in 1968 with clattering percussive elements and a hypnotic blur of harmonic drone. What Are The Roots That Clutch is limited to 400 copies and comes housed with letterpress artwork." [label info] www.helenscarsdale.com "Patrick McGinley just carries on. Working as Murmer since 1996 he has a strong love for the world of field recordings and electronics. Since quite some time now he lives in Estonia and walks the woods to tape his sounds, takes them home and then transforms them in whatever mysterious way. Five long pieces, from mere six minutes to eighteen minutes. The two pieces that stay under ten minutes are 'unmanipulated found sounds', the other three are 'composed from found sounds, found objects and live room feedback'. Its easy to tell the difference between one and the other. The 'pure' pieces are indeed pure pieces in which we hear the obscure sounds of motors, ventilators, or otherwise objects moved by say wind, while in the other three, McGinely chooses for a slow built up of events. A simple, single sound starts up and then slowly more and more sounds are added, sine wave like sounds leap slowly in and then at one point you'll notice that the entire piece seem to have changed and you have a full on, minimal yet maximum output sound, such as for instance in the fifth (untitled) piece when the pots and pans in the kitchen start to vibrate and we have an interesting minimalist clutter piece, that is halfway between a drone piece and a Velvet Underground jam. Maybe that's where the real surprise of this release is, in that development of field recordings towards very interesting (and very good) minimalist, electronic music." [FdW/Vital Weekly] "In looking at his discography alone, Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer) might not seem to be such a prolific artist; although he's certainly dedicated his entire existence to the pursuit of the field recording, its use in composition, and avant-garde sound practices in general. Each week, McGinley produces the ever enlightening Framework radio series dedicated to those very topics, starting out of Resonance FM in London with syndication now reaching several dozen adventurous radio stations across the globe. He's also active in curating a quarterly series of small cd-r editions of sound ecology, phonography, and field recording based sound art; and he also is an active participant in the Estonian avant-garde, as he's currently planted himself in the university city of Tartu. What Are The Roots That Clutch is his first full album in nearly seven years. Has it really been that long? That said, McGinley did work on a brilliant collaborative project with John Grzinich and Yannick Dauby, and he released a 3"cd-r for Taalem, both of which came out earlier this year in 2012. McGinley quips that he put the recordings aside to this record for well over a year, which may account in part for the delay; but ultimately, all of the recordings from Murmer are timeless. What Are The Roots That Clutch is no exception. The field recordings that McGinley collects hedge towards disturbances in any given sound ecology, as found in the abrasive textures from a busted exhaust vent comingling with the Aeolian harmonics from the sustained gusts streaming down from the North Sea. McGinley does include two relatively unaltered field recordings (probably some minor filtering, but that's all) within the thoroughly abstracted and droned out compositions. One of these features a very eerie fundamental harmonic drone, obviously being activated by the wind and coupled with a glistening rattle and an unfurled flapping. The three elements here make for a surprisingly musical, if totally alien sounding piece that's akin to the Alan Lamb wire recordings. The album's 17 minute centerpiece is a slow building blur of industrial resonance and densely layered aquatic filigree that melts into chunks of clattering ice (it could be wood or glass... but ice is just so much more poetic to consider given the context); but the album's finale is where McGinley really gives us something to sink our teeth into. A comparatively harsh stutter of electrical abrasion builds up to a crescendo through water-tank rumblings and fire and / or water textures. At the peak, McGinley snaps to a downright psychedelic raga of back-masked belltones, harmonium drones, and percussive clatter that all comes together in a minimalist chorale on par with anything that Angus Maclise mustered in his dervishes and mantras. As great as McGinley's last record was, What Are The Roots That Clutch might be even better. Handsomely packaged in letterpress artwork whose ochre-yellow hue matches the color of an Estonian farm house he's quite fond of. Limited to 400 copies." [Aquarius Rec.] 2012 €13.00
N / MOLOCH / E H E Live at N51 21064 ° E6 783782 ° (28 11 2015) LP "With this collaboration, my ongoing search for musical challenge has led my into the territories of harsh noise; something I never did before... It happened after Moloch + E.H.E. and me shared the stage during some festivals, respectively I listened to them during Moloch + E.H.E. shows. I immediately liked how they manage to use noise in a very dynamic way, not always full blast, but really being able to tell a story with more than just one facette... And: they are not using laptop only as a source; the main part of their sound is created using a really difficult to see through bunch of effect-boxes with a labyrinth of wiring. So the cacophony (NOT meant negative in this case) in sound and the visual cacophony of wiring and pedals really comes together when you have a look on the tables on stage, spread all over with their tools... Besides the pure sound, the visual aspect is significant anyway: At least one part of Moloch + E.H.E. is concentrating on visuals during a show; using millions of frames for a visual improvisation in direct relation to the sound. At some point we decided to just prove if it would work joining Moloch + E.H.E. with N drones and instead of trying that at the studio we directly did our first live-show. Luckily Andreas Brinke of [ B O L T ] was there that evening and did a fine recording directly from the mixing-board. And now you can hear this very first and fully succesful melting of our different aestethics in sound: With the first part of the show I added micro-sounds to the noise, mainly emphasizing the moves of Moloch + E.H.E., for the second part I choosed drones, somehow earthening the sound. As with the music, we made it with this record: it is completely D.I.Y.; the records have been pressed on natural-clear vinyl, the sleeves are printes by ourselves, using different film-stills from the original visuals. Any cover now is made of two sheets of printed transparent paper put into a transparent plastic bag. With the record being transparent also, you have a very nice see-through / three dimensional effect... Look at it while you crank up the volume! The records are available from us directly. And please come to our release show at AZ Muehlheim / Ruhr on January 4th; with a lot of other artists on stage also..." [Hellmut Neidhardt] 2019 €16.00
NEHIL, SETH Flock & Tumble CD Mit diesem Album erweitert der amerikanische Composer das bisher von ihm Gewohnte auf kurioseste Weise! Diverse Objektgeräusche und subtiler Einsatz von Stimmen und Gesängen, so obskur wie nur selten zuvor vernommen, field recordings & kaum Erkennbares, wohl auch elektronisch bearbeitet, vieles bleibt im dunkeln und macht FLOCK & TUMBLE umso geheimnisvoller und wunderbarer, von der Wirkung ungefähr so wie BIOTA, vom "Feeling" hat es was von THUJA, TIP für Leute die was wirklich Neutönendes suchen ! "Seth Nehil is an American artist involved in various projects ranging from compositions for dance, installations, multimedia performances, publications and visual art. Over the years, he has collaborated with other significant sound researchers (John Grzinich, Olivia Block, Michael Northam, Matt Marble and Brendan Murray) and has released many CDs on international labels such as Kaon, Alluvial and ...Edition. It's not so easy to describe the music of Seth Nehil: like a compound of several substances, obtained by capturing natural and urban sounds, manipulated instruments, as well as by electronic treatments and textured objects. Flock & Tumble is another fine example of his new direction : shorter tracks with an almost song-like structure and a large sound palette that includes the human voice as material. Flock & Tumble explores haphazard clusters, abrupt shifts, percussive rattles and gentle clouds." [label info] "Throughout the years we have reviewed much of the work of Seth Nehil, who belongs with people like JGrzinich and MNortham to the main players of the US drone scene, which finds itself largely based in field recordings, but also acoustic instruments and just a little bit of electronics. All of this is collected and played and then put together into pieces of music. Music that is not easy to describe as it simply defies categorization, which is always good (and difficult for such reviewers like me, who like to use them). Partly we could say the music is improvised on the side of the instruments, percussive mainly. Then afterwards, or perhaps before hand, field recordings are put to it, something set in a loop, although not always 'on', and sometimes dropping out of the mix, in order to return later. If a word applies to this music, then 'organic' would, I think, be appropriate. Organic in the way the material is put together: from various sources, but it seems to fit together like it always was. Organic also in the sense of playing the instruments and the use of field recordings. This leads to some pretty strong pieces of music, in which we also recognize someone like Af Ursin or Yannick Dauby. Dense and delicate." [FdW / Vital Weekly] "An important demonstration of Nehil’s abilities, this is a classic sleeper which deserves immediate exposure, well beyond the small circle of experts to which music like this is usually addressed." [Touching Extremes] www.sonoris.org 2009 €12.00
  Bounds LP On “Bounds”: „Bounds“ consists of 11 electro-acoustic compositions, whose first versions were constructed by Seth Nehil for the “Concerts in the Dark” series at Moers Festival 2012 curated by aufabwegen. In 2013 Seth did the final versions and added some new pieces. “Bounds” is an exciting trip through sound manipulation, treated drums and very detailed textures. The overall atmosphere is dark but the way the sounds are arranged and connected speaks of an almost scientific clarity. Bounds is a new, more synthetic direction for Seth Nehil. Originally composed for a festival of music in complete darkness, these pieces treat recorded sound as infinitely malleable and transformable. Starting with acoustic percussive sources (drums, gongs, cymbals, vibraphones, etc.), recordings were warped beyond recognition, exploring the juncture between rhythm and pitch. Sonic impulses were subjected to micro-editing techniques to produce new, alien forms which were then fragmented into grains, pulses and tones or built up into rhythms, loops and cycles. Convolution reverb was used extensively to color timbres and place sounds into unusual spaces. These eleven short tracks are full of expanses, interruptions and repetitions. These are dynamic compositions that sound like nothing else. Seth Nehil – Biography 2014 Seth Nehil (b. 1973) is a sound and video artist making concerts, performances and installations. Nehil meshes manipulated acoustic recordings, voices, instruments, granular synthesis and field recordings into richly detailed spaces. His compositions draw equally from classic musique concréte, film sound design, hip hop production and noise to form a uniquely hybrid sonic world, full of off-kilter rhythms, sudden junctures and explosive bursts. “…A shapliness that’s unusual in abstract music… hugely satisfying.” – Brian Marley, The Wire In addition to recorded and live-mixed sound, Seth Nehil has collaborated with dance and video artists, choreographers, and theater companies to produce original sound scores, multimedia performances and video installations. He has created his own original performance pieces, bringing together multi-screen video, multi-channel recorded sound and live performers to explore quasi-narrative spaces between cinema and dance. He is currently conducting research for an experimental documentary on the use of “attack therapy” and the historical roots of child behavior modification. Seth Nehil has released over 15 albums of experimental sound on international labels, including Sonoris (France) and Senufo Editions (Italy). He has given concerts across Europe, Japan and the US. Nehil received an MFA in Music/Sound from Bard College. He teaches sound design, sound art and video at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Washington State University and Portland State University. www.sethnehil.artdocuments.org www.aufabwegen.com 2014 €18.00
NERVE NET NOISE Meteor Circuit CD Japanisches Duo mit einem dynamischen Mix aus Stille und analog-synthetischen Sounds, die sich in seltsamen Klick- und Pfeif-mustern anordnen. Weder harsch noch ambient, klingt teils nach mutierten Vögeln, .. oder so... extrem in seiner Konsequenz und oft hart an der Grenze zum Erträglichen. IN SEARCH OF EXTREMISTS-POP? here you are.. "Following two albums on Kazunao Nagata's cult Zero Gravity label and last year's stunning "Various Amusements" CD on Hronir (and, of course, the infamous "160/240" on Meme), "Meteor Circuit" is the first Nerve Net Noise CD published in the US. Nakamura records more accessible techno-pop under the alias Tagomago. He also records using the alias Toki-Meki Science for Nobukazu Takemura's Childisc label. The band describes their sound as "electric noise music, but not academic, not mere noisy sound. We think that our music is not so much noise music as new kind of pop music"." 2003 €10.00
NEW HUMANS AKA NEW HUMANS / VITO ACCONCI / C.SPENCER YEH Semishigure semi011 "Noise surrounds and permeates us, and no one is more responsible than the New Humans from that loudest and noisiest of metropolises: New York. From installation art to ear splitting live concerts, this infernal power trio lead by artist Mika Tajima eschews no collaboration, no matter how insane. Guitarist and artistic leader Tajimi is supported by electronics specialist and voice acrobat Howie Chen, drummer Eric Tsai, as well as a large number of guest musicians. The New Humans like nothing more than to drag friend and foe with them into their noise avalanches. Semishigure proudly presents the fourth release, a unique live collaboration with artist Vito Acconci, a pioneer of body/conceptual art, and vintage experimentalist C. Spencer Yeh. This album consists of two concerts that took place during an exposition of the collective at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York. Two electrifying, memorable performances that just had to be registered on CD. The last time American performance legend Vito Acconci collaborated with a band was more than ten years ago, when he worked with punk rock brigade the Mekons. A similarly untainted, classically grim punk attitude shines through in his spoken word performance with the New Humans. “You in the Background” is the name of their jointly raised middle finger to the world. Floating on the ominously swelling waves of noise created by the New Humans, Acconci throws all frustrations overboard. Captive to a feverish, shamanic trip, Acconci speaks of each and everyone’s search for their own identity. Acconci has made a special selection from his audio works for the occasion. Texts such as “Now do you believe the dirty dogs are dead” (1978) and “Cry, baby!” (1977) still sound like screams for enlightenment and liberation. C. Spencer Yeh’s plaintive violin careens into the impenetrable wailing wall of feedback. The New Humans not just voice, but scream their anger of life under the Bush regime, and in Acconci they have found a worthy ally. C. Spencer Yeh and the New Humans go the whole hog on the second live concert, an immensely loud drone séance lasting half an hour. Like no other, radical violinist Yeh manages to infiltrate any collective, be it Dream/Aktion Unit, Comets of Fire or Smegma. Through his trademark exorcising Velvets violin sound Yeh manages to create unbearable tension with the New Humans’ sound avalanches in hot pursuit. During the performance, a glass sculpture is destroyed and the noise of its breaking amplified. At any moment the waves of noise terror threaten to submerge Yeh, but he stands firm. Thank God this all-engulfing live experience has been registered for posterity!" [label info] www.bottrop-boy.com 2009 €13.00
NEW RISEN THRONE The Outside do-CD Fourth chapter of a series that began with 2007’s „Whispers of the Approaching Wastefullness“ (out on Cyclic Law). A Conceptual soundtrack envisioning the evolution of a fictional story and of which will soon come a VR experience. After centuries of isolation the human race begins a journey in search of the causes that led to the end of its world, and for the first time it approaches the Structures, new life forms that have developed and evolved in the emptiness of “The Outside”. Through this cinematic landscape we find again the now well known and unique sonic approach to Dark Ambient by Stielh, one of Italy’s true master of the genre. And as a very generous bonus, a second disc was completed containing older pieces featuring revised and remixed tracks by close friends and collaborators Sysselmann, Visions, Taphephobia, Phantom Ship, Vestigial, Apocryphos and TeHÔM. Released in collaboration with Cyclic Law. Edition of 500 copies and 8 panel digipack with Matt Lamination. Two hours of cinematic sounds. 2020 €17.00
NIETO, MIKEL R Dark Sound BOOK & CD "The book contains Ecopolitik, an introduction as an epilogue by José Luis Espejo, a letter to the Huaorani people, two research texts and one bertso, descriptive texts and photos of recordings, a possible chronology, a glossary, a compilation of several texts with testimonies, reports and declarations from different people, groups, institutions, and publications in reference to the impact—direct or indirect—of the noise from the oil industry during its various phases of development on the people, the environment and the fauna. More info at dark.mikelrnieto.net 34 recordings in one track. In a black polycarbonate CD. Final editing, mastering and carbon print from Ireland by Slavek Kwi. Tracklist 01. Nyctridomus albicollis 02. Lipaugus vociferans 03. General Electric CF34-10E 04. Hypsiboas lanciformis, Hypsiboas boans and Unidentified Oil Extraction Machines in the Distance 05. Pogonomyrmex barbatus 06. Paraponera clavata 07. Atta cephalotes 08. Ectatomma tuberculatum 09. Termitidae procornitermes 10. Eciton burchellii 11. Gryllidae and Unidentified Frogs 12. Lophostoma yasuni 13. Leptonycteris yerbabuenae 14. Yamaha Enduro E40X 15. Unidentified Underwater Animals 16. Honda GX160 17. Unidentified Underwater Survivors in Produced Water 18. Changlin YZ26 19. Electric Generator at Tiputini Biodiversity Station 20. Electrical Substation at the Yasuni Research Station (Ten Meters Distance) 21. Electrical Substation at the Yasuni Research Station (One Meter Distance) 22. Air Conditioner for the Electrical Substation at Yasuní Research Station 23. Chevrolet S10 24. CAT MD6420B Drill 25. Cummins KTA19­G4 26. HongSheng CYJ-8­3-37HB 27. CAT 3512 DITA 28. MTU 396 29. Shale Pump SP­1614 30. Tiger Rig ZJ30LDB 31. Oilon Wisedrive WD32-34 32. Maxon Oxytherm LE 33. Preamp Battery Blackout 34. Radio Jungla 94.3 FM Through Several JBL Control 1 Pro in Repsol-YPF Access Control" 176 pages, dark paper, black ink, hardback. languages: huao, basque, spanish and english" www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=15050 "In the product page on the label’s website the description of this release ends with this warning: “Partially legible. Sunlight reading recommended”. It’s hard to fail recognising that this warning is absolutely appropriate, until you realise that it’s a black book, with black opaque pages, printed with black lucid ink, housing a black CD. And it doesn’t stop there, as it doesn’t have a fixed sale price, but its price is determined by the crude oil Brent price at the time of purchase, so the author and label warn that if you buy the book you’ll “contribute to the destruction of the planet.” With these creepy premises, a curiosity about the content of the work immediately arises. And after a few attempts, the reader can find the right angle and light to (struggle to) start reading realising that it’s a remarkable collection of essays, pictures and documents on the oil industry’s impact on the Ecuadorian natural environment. This is coupled with a CD with 34 recordings in one track from the Ecuadorian rainforest (the whole work is part of the Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder). It progresses from delightful natural sounds to industrial machines slowly disrupting them. Then reading, meanwhile, some testimonies or a detailed chronology perfectly let this whole suppressed world to (painfully in every sense) re-emerge from its current status. The pervasive “black”, eventually, doesn’t hide anymore, but becomes the mandatory colour to engage with, in order to learn and understand what has been hidden, but must now be revealed." [Neural Mag.] "I have listened several times to the CD Dark Sound by Mikel R. Nieto over the past month and have been intrigued by the purpose of the recordings presented by the album. — Dark Sound is a CD length single track album of field recordings taken by Mikel R. Nieto mostly in and around the Ecuadorian rainforest within areas associated with the colonisation and domination of contested areas that were found to have oil reserves. The album traces the relationships between a number of different indigenous groups who have resisted becoming associated with Western European and global models of capital, in favour of continuing the heritage and lives they had prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the late 15th Century. The single track CD contains a wide number of field recordings from across various situations that the recordist encountered whilst investigating the noise and culture of Ecuadorian oil mining operations and the impact it has had on the biophonic soundscape and ecology of non-native human, native human, and nonhuman populations. The album comes with an accompanying black paged book with black glossy lettering throughout which makes it impossible to read other than in bright sunlight; a statement upon the darkest of dark geological substrates; crude oil, as well as a comment on the practices of obfuscation that have continued in pursuit of capital gain through oil drilling by corporations. This has led to a number of significant historical, political events including the death of Alejandro Lebaka, a Basque man who in the 1980s took it upon himself as a missionary to position himself as “the voice of the voiceless” (Lebaka in Nieto, 2016: 53) but in his attempted defence and support for a number of native groups, specifically the Huaorani (literally meaning those who speak our language”) which is to say, the native people of the Ecuadorian rainforests, was killed by spears from a group of Huaorani referred to as Tagaeri who no longer wished to partake in the violent systems of control forced upon the Huaorani. The book provides a significant overview to the political history and issues encountered as a result of the colonisation, and pacification of the indigenous people of Ecuador in pursuit for oil whilst also raising a broad ranging investigation into acoustic research and/or phenomena that are a consequence of the oil operations and their effect directly and indirectly on the Ecuadorian ecology. The album itself, contains a number of ethnographical and environmental field recordings that include weather events, insects, birds, fish and small mammals and security guards, diesel turbines and high security perimeter fencing. The recordings range from acoustic captures to hydrophones to ultrasound and contact microphones in an attempt to reflect the wide range of acoustic, para-acoustic infra and ultrasonic phenomena that are comprised, altered and ruptured in the pursuit of capital. The book is highly politicised and the recordings only further emphasise the massive transitions from small tribe to mass industrial practice and the absolute refusal for some to be forced to be adapted and co-opted into a military industrial complex and capital based system of goods exchange and parasitic raping of newly discovered lands." [Mark Parker] 2016 €44.00
NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA Passing Out CD Dritter Teil der nordischen "Drone & Alkohol-Intoxikation"-Trilogie, die den Zustand des Wegtretens zwischen Wachheit und Dämmerzustand klanglich adäquat wiederspiegelt; im tiefen Drone-Morast erscheinen Traumbilder, -gedanken & akustische Sequenzen der Realität auf. In paradoxer Weise ist man dann in der Lage, sowohl unbewusste wie bewusste Geistes-Inhalte zur gleichen Zeit wahrzunehmen...(sagen die Erzeuger dieses Albums). PASSING OUT ist ein One-Tracker von fast 70 Minuten, tiefgrummelnd-bassig und sonor und von mysteriösen, atmend-ächzenden Sounds durchzogen.... "The first chapter found the drink. The second came after a night of intoxicated shouting. The third chapter is inevitable: Passing Out. The Nordic sound artists BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa have authored the last component to a trilogy of isolationist compositions for barren field recordings and lumbering electric drones, thematically linked in the psychotropic effects of alcohol. In doing so, they have issued a brief statement in defense of their research: "It's been four years and three studies, Passing Out being the final. Even in its most general, colloquial usage, Passing Out indicates the occurrence of a state that is incompatible with active behavior. It is possible that the individual could experience both consciousness and unconsciousness at the same time while encountering Passing Out." Yes, Passing Out is a crepuscular recording, with the flickering of twilight further dimmed by the distant Arctic sun in wintertime and the blackened numbness of too much drink. With one singular track that spans 60 minutes, a nearly constant thrum and rumble of monochromatic low frequencies casts a grim pall upon the precisely dialed-in modulations and vibrations. Spectral guitars, maudlin tunes from haunted radios, angrily growling voices, and field recordings of wind-whipped snow and ice bury themselves deep amidst these subharmonic drones. All of these tease at the edge of perception, sculpting the narrative of the drone into a vehicle for unhinged expressionism of varying degrees of horror, melancholy, beauty, and oblivion. The Swedish born BJ Nilsen defines his work as "focused upon the sound of nature and its effects on humans, and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound." He has numerous recordings on Touch and has collaborated with the likes of Chris Watson, Christian Fennesz, and Z'ev. The Icelandic citizens Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson are Stilluppsteypa, whose electronic abstractions engage absurd theatrics that mar the pristine surface of minimalism..." [label info] "....The complete and total isolation of the music, the long passages of seemingly no action (there is just one piece, clocking it at 68 minutes), with then a sudden break, a melody filters in, the radio starts humming and field recordings - that backbone of so much in Vital Weekly and certainly here - make this an album of not just pure drones or just processed field recordings, but the strange elements thrown in, give this album a stranger, almost alien feel to it. If it's the equivalent of passing out is a bit hard to say: the act of passing out on alcohol prevents you from remembering anything. This is however their best album to date and makes a strong trilogy." [FdW / Vital Weekly] "...Deep resonant vibrations abound, with some creepy breathing in your ear whisperings that may be those Leif Elggren vocals that Benny was talking about. Gradually, all of these deep drones and shadowy overtures glide into a slumbering descent. But the Icelandic weirdoes in Stilluppsteypa couldn't just let the album drift away without their absurdism forcing through the door, as they blurt with a clinical repetition of blooping electronics smashed and grabbed from Raymond Scott circa Manhattan Research. It's an unsettling climax to the album, but one that works brilliantly through Stilluppsteypa's expert use of electro-acoustic black humor. But it's drone that dominates the album, as angelic wash and devilish rumble collude to end this magnificent album. Oblivion never sounded so good. Passing Out is beautifully packaged with letterpressed and silkscreened artwork. Very nice." [Aquarius Records review] www.helenscarsdale.com 2008 €13.00
NIMH The Unkept Secrets CD "After few months of distance from the escape of "The Missing Tapes" and the relative "Rework" by Aube, Nimh (Giuseppe Verticchio) sets aside the ethnic-lysergic visions that have characterized the previous album and continues along the distance of sonorous search and fascinating experimentation electronic, already undertaken with works which "The Impossible Days" and "Subterranean Thoughts", ulteriorly expanding just the range of sounds and instruments set, revealing the own "secrets" through new, dark but stylistically a unclassifiable CD, in which it arranges with extraordinary originality and in an absolutely personal and unknown elements of drone music, dark ambient, electronics, ritual, ethnic, field recordings, and enriching in particular every track with the recurrent presence of evocative sounds of electric guitar in varied filtered and elaborated way. The search goes on..." [label info] "This is an other perfect Nimh record, a world of magnetic, somnanbulic, fuzzing, moving electronic textures and drones covered by glacially melancholic guitar parts. These recent years there have been many descent projects published under the dark ambient - prog electronic label, but The Unkept Secrets is exceptional, reaching a degree of composition and complexity rarely obtained in this specific genre. Meridians opens the album with an intimate, colourful, extatic droning minimalist guitar composition with lot of reverbs and reasonances. A majestic, almost hallucinatory electronic piece. Narrative voices & mysterious abstract noises also come into the mix. As suggested by the title, Visions in Black is a haunted, gorgeously dark piece with abundant guitar's fuzzed out static notes, ghostly dark noises. The composition ends up with an almost funeral electronic choir. Strangely beautiful, the sound of the apocalypse or forgotten memories. The call reaches the listener into a parapsychological world made of echoing guitar tricks, floating electronic waves. A more dreamy-like composition, perfectly executed and really vibrant emotionally and physically speaking. Linga is just fantastic, a real buzzing drone trip with tribal-ethnic elements. An immersive medley of acoustic / electronic elements, it makes me think about shamanic sermons & ceremonials. The title track opens the way to a really sinister, dark musical ritual that turns into a shimmering, suspensful incantation dominated by harsh guitars and doom-like epic drones. The ending nightmare is a claustrophobic, intoxicated electronic piece for loud guitars, creepy noises and acoustic exoticism. The last tune is a more relaxed, tranquil affair after an intense musica ride throw lost deep memories. A totally absorbing electronic mantra, a real pleasure for the ears. Clearly among my all time favourite experimental electronic records with a things from Maurizio Bianchi, Maeror Tri and Aeolian String Ensemble. So recommended." [Prog Archives] 2007 €12.00
  Iron and Ice CD st.an.da.2244 CD ltd. 200 copies in 6-panel digisleeve Nimh Iron and Ice After a good six years from Nimh's last solo CD of previously unreleased material (Circles of the Vain Prayers), and two years after his previous collaborative CD (Post-Folk Lore Vol.1), Giuseppe Verticchio is back, walking again on those same electronic paths strongly imbued with ethnic ritual suggestions and sonorities. The sound of string and wind instruments, metals and percussion instruments coming mainly from South-East Asian countries, combined with refined electronic textures, voices, field recordings and obscure environmental substrates, describes an adventurous and multicoloured intercontinental journey, crossing geographical and stylistic borders, taking the long rigorous experimental research undertaken by the well-known Italian artist since more than twenty years ago even further. store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa2244.htm 2022 €13.00
NIMH / MAUTHAUSEN ORCHESTRA From unhealthy Places CD "The energy, the genius and the intransigence of the music of the hystoric “cult” power electronics project Mauthausen Orchestra/Pierpaolo Zoppo, united to the originalty, the eclecticism, the rigorous experimental research carried on since fifteen years by Giuseppe Verticchio, mostly with his “Nimh” solo project… Disturbing images of unhealthy places, nocturne landscapes covered with fog, psychotic nightmares, tormenting and delirious, described with sonorities of great impact and incredible dramatic force… A dark and long itinerary, to be covered wrapped in the spirals of a time that progressively seems to slow down and stop, folded on itself, just like suspended in the void, without offering any way out… A sonic adventure for brave souls… Elegantly packaged in a digipack." [label info] www.silentes.net 2009 €13.00
NO FESTIVAL OF LIGHT Tautologia CD "tautology it is not just a word that was chosen to fit the new cd by no festival of light. it is a well chosen term, meaning an 'always valid, universal unconditioned truth' when used within logic. within linguistics tautology refers to 'a series of self-reinforcing statements that cannot be disproved because they depend on the assumption that they are already correct'. in conclusion: the album 'tautologia' by no festival of light is about the truth, not about the possibility whether you can handle it or not. fredrik bergström is a name which - if you didn't know it already - you will never forget from this moment on. his solo projects include n.f.o.l. as well as p/d(b) and as a member he has been recording / performing with deutsch nepal, mortiis, ordo rosarius equilibrio, sator absentia, second skin and tarmvred. this broad variation of music activities are part of the origin of fredrik's search for truth and the sound and complexity of 'tautologia' is a logical as well as truthful reflection of this quest. two longer soundscapes entitled 'tauto' and 'logia' define the framework for what can only be defined as the truth. preconditions include, but are not limited to field-recordings, analog sequences, voices, minimal rhythms, recorded atmospheres and imaginable emotions. raubbau is very proud to present the first full release by no festival of light since 2001. and we can say in all sincerity that waiting twelve years was worth it: every second! packaging: cd gatefold sleeve - heavy white cardboard with grey print." [label info] www.raubbau.org 2013 €6.00
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS Stoneface LP Accumulation and assembly in the Derbyshire Dales in the Caroline K studios. Digital mastery achieved in Silver Octopus studios Buxton, Derbyshire, England, 29th July 1989. Mastering : Paul Lavigne March 2023 Layout : Pole Ka Dedicated to the new active listener. https://fernsrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/stoneface Nigel Ayers’ most accessible emission? The glut of his ‘band’s prolific history has generally been a full-scale assault upon the senses, via either dingy slabs of noise or near-pretty industrial musique concrete. Stoneface operates on many levels, a set of gruelling, scraping, yet strangely attractive organic sounds that reveal numerously coloured layers with successive listens. Recorded in 1988, these sonic morsels play with near-baroque tendencies, devolved factory rhythms, spiritual solemnity and lucid minimalism, sometimes gripping, sometimes forgettable, but never uninvolving. And, as has been the case with the recent wealth of Emissions releases, it’s best to observe Stoneface’s sacred experiments in one complete sitting, where Ayers can effectively work his art on you with your complete, undivided and willing immersion. Darren Bergstein I/E "The 1980s were particularly fruitful for The Nocturnal Emissions, later dropping 'the'. Starting in the early second wave of industrial music, they quickly began experimenting with different styles. Electronic pop, for lack of a better or the industrial electro breakbeats of 'Viral Shedding' (a personal favourite of mine) and then, for a somewhat more extended period, coming ambient soundscapes with the residue of industrial cling clang. Around this time, 1986, the group, now effectively a solo project of Nigel Ayers (and in 2023 still going strong), the interest in magick, stone circles, techno–shamanism, neo-paganism, animism and Fortean research (I am quoting Wiki here) was added to the situationist interests. 'Stoneface' is from 1989, when the style was developed at its best, and the Emissions did some of their best work in this direction (along with 'Spiritflesh' and 'Invocation Of The Beast Gods'). However, it's all a bit in the no-longer-distant past. I wish I could say I play all of these records once a year; I don't, although 'Viral Shedding' is on my phone, so those tracks I hear on every random play the thing is on. As I played these nine pieces, I realized that what attracted me at the time and still does is the relatively straightforward approach to technology. I remember seeing Nocturnal Emissions a couple of times in those years. If I'm not mistaken, there were a couple of those early sampling devices, the Casio SK1 or SK5, with a 1,2 (or so) second memory, but when played through a bunch of stomp boxes, you could do a lot with relatively easy sounds. I always suspected Ayers to have altered his machines, but I am unsure. His sound palette includes animal sounds, kitchen utensils, voices, and whatever makes noise. I guess Ayers had access to some decent multi-track machine, and using many tracks gives these lo-fi samples some great depth. There are some great drones, some rusty percussion, some good use of reverb and excellent quality around here. Some phase shifting (play similar loops with minor intervals, so they never overlap in the same way) is used to significant effect here so that most of the time, you have no idea you hear only short loops. Yet, there is always movement, thanks to those very same loops being brief and to the point. An excellent record that has aged quite well and is a fine reminder to play some of the old ones again. Time is what I want, more time! [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2023 €21.00
NONO, LUIGI Intolleranza 1960 CD "Intolleranza 1960 is the awakening of human awareness in a man who has rebelled against the demands of neccesity - an emigrant miner - and searches for a reason and a 'human' basis for life. After several experiences of intollerance and domination, he is beginning to rediscover human relations, between himself and others, when he is swept away in a flood with other people. There remains his certainty in 'a time when man will be a help to man'. Symbol? Reportage? Fantasy? All three, in a story of our time." [Luigi Nono] 2010 €13.00
NOVA, JACQUELINE Creacion de la Tierra - Ecos palpitantes de Jacqueline Nova: Musica electroacustica e instrumental (1964-1974) do-LP "Jacqueline Nova (Ghent, Belgium, 1935 - Bogotá, Colombia, 1975), a representative figure of Colombian avant-garde music, developed important and radical work within the field of electronic and instrumental music, as well as in interdisciplinary forms. This album, Creación de la Tierra - Ecos palpitantes de Jacqueline Nova: Música electroacústica e instrumental (1964-1974) ("Creation of the Earth - Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974)")¸ under the curatorship and research of the Colombian composer Ana María Romano G., recovers Nova's most important electroacoustic works: "Creación de la tierra (Creation of the Earth)" (1972), "Oposición-Fusión (Opposition-Fusion)" (1968) and "Resonancias 1 (Resonances 1)" (1968-69), as well as the music for the film Camilo el cura guerrillero (Camilo the Guerrilla Priest) (1974), composed during her stay at the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) , of the Torcuato Di Tella Institute, in Buenos Aires, as well as in the Study of Phonology of the University of Buenos Aires. The compilation also includes the instrumental works "Omaggio a Catullus" (1972-1974), "Transiciones (Transitions)" (1964-1965), and "Asuimetrías (Asymmetries)" (1967), in which she explores randomness, timbre possibilities or the encounter between acoustic and electronic media. The interest in experimenting with the human voice, and interdisciplinary work involving visual arts, were some of the aspects that have defined Jacqueline Nova's work. Ana María Romano has written: "Nova lived in an environment hostile to change, to debate and discussion, hostile to her being an autonomous and lesbian woman. She undertook feats that make her a pioneer, even though she did not set out to be taken as one, but only as a result of the commitment, dedication and passion of a creator with her society. Jacqueline Nova died in Bogotá of bone cancer. Her tragic and early death not only cut short a career in full creative force, but also directly affected the development of electroacoustic music in the country. After her death there was a great silence -- close to 15 years -- in musical creation with electronic means. Nova challenged a conservative milieu and survived alone, working in a field thought to be exclusively masculine. But it was a woman who strengthened the use of technology in Colombian music. A risky bet that sadly represented a high cost: Nova was relegated during her lifetime, but her noises managed to shake and question the comfort zones of the Colombian musical establishment." Includes a booklet with extensive information written by Ana María Romano G.; edition of 300." https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/creaci-n-de-la-tierra-ecos-palpitantes-de-jacqueline-nova-1964-1974 "Continuing their incredible dedication to the historic sounds of the 20th Century Latin American musical avant-garde, Buh Records returns with one of their most important releases to date, "Creation of the Earth - Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974)", the first ever collection dedicated to the pioneering work of the Columbian composer Jacqueline Nova. Spanning the final decade of Nova's life, not only does this stunning double LP overflow with astounding acoustic, electroacoustic, and electronic works that entirely upend the Eurocentric historic experimental music, but the album doubles as a crucial illumination of the feminist and queer struggle for liberation through sound in Latin America during this period. Absolutely astounding on every level and impossible to recommend enough, it's the sort of revelation that only comes around once in the rarest of times. Running continuously since the mid 2000s, in recent years the Lima based imprint, Buh Records - run by Luis Alvarado - has issued an astounding array of little heard Latin American experimental music onto the world stage, offering particular focus to work - contemporary and historic - from Peru. In recent years, they’ve been increasingly casting their gaze further afield, offering glimpses of the broader Latin American context experimentalism with stellar releases by Mesias Maiguashca, Walter Smetak, Oksana Linde, and a number of others. Their latest, “Creation of the Earth: Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974)” belongs to this shift. The first-ever release entirely dedicated to the pioneering Columbian electronic composer, Jacqueline Nova, it lifts the shadows of time to reveal an astounding artist whose work has remained almost entirely unobtainable since her untimely death in 1975. Visionary and truly remarkable, the historical importance of this stunning double LP - issued in a very limited edition of 300 copies, complete with extensive liner notes by Ana María Romano - can't be understated. Once again, Buh has upended the perceptions of avant-garde happening during the 20th Century and replaced it with something far more diverse, vibrant, and alive. "The history of avant-garde, experimental, and electronic music from Latin America has always been incredibly difficult to access, largely due to the effects of conservative, authoritarian governments that game to power in many countries in the region during the mid 20th Century, attacking progressive art-forms and limiting the mobility of the rich contexts of sounds that emerged within their borders. Despite the opposition that these artists faced, a remarkable scene of experimental music thrived - often cross pollinating - throughout Latin American during the second half of the 20th Century, a happening that Buh Records has been making greats strides toward illuminating for more than a decade. It would be hard to find a better example of this than their latest release, dedicated to the work of the Columbian composer Jacqueline Nova. Born in 1935, Jacqueline Nova began playing the piano at a young age, eventually taking her studies to the National Music Conservatory in 1958. In 1963 she shifted her focus toward composing, and in 1967 became the first woman to obtain a diploma in composition at the Conservatory, following which she won a scholarship to study at one of the most noted electronic and electroacoustic studios in Latin American, Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM), in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From this point forward, she almost entirely dedicated her efforts to electroacoustic composition, until her death in 1975. Nova’s time at CLAEM set her apart from most of her Columbian peers, allowing her the space and time to reach a high level of technical refinement that, combined with her compositional talents, placed her as one of the leading figures in Colombian and Latin American electroacoustic music during that moment. This became even more the case following her return to Argentina in Guggenheim scholarship. Nova returned to Buenos Aires, with the support of a Guggenheim fellowship to research and develop a body of work that integrated ways of transforming the human voice through electronic processes. “Creation of the Earth”, spanning two full LPs that comprise seven important works by Nova, is effectively a career spanning window into the composer’s remarkable inner world, covering the years between 1964 and 1974. Over its length, we hear the evolution of one of Columbia and Latin American’s most important avant-garde composers, from early efforts like “Transiciones” - a stunning work of complex harmonics and distances for solo piano - and “Asimetrías” - an equally striking, spacious work for flute and percussion - that give a glimpse of her purely acoustic beginnings in the avant-garde, and the sublime talent that laid the foundation for her subsequent works. Beginning with “Resonancias 1”, composed across 1968 and 1969 between Buenos Aires and Bogotá, we encounter Nova beginning to incorporate electronic processes; her piano and other acoustic instrumentation becoming interwoven with electronic sounds, in a work that is built on seven structures with timbre indications, leaving a great deal of openness for each player to make decision and determine its outcome. The remaining three works gathered on “Creation of the Earth” are unquestionably the most radical and forward thinking, witnessing Nova reaching the full extent of her powers as a composer. The first of these, “Creación de la tierra”, composed in 1972, draws upon her research into the transformative potential of electronic process on the human voice. Composed solely from vocal material drawn from songs on the creation of the earth of the U'wa ethnic group in Boyacá, Colombia, the work culminates as an immersive ritual of astounding scope, rendering the source material almost unrecognizable through heavy processing that transforms it into writhing ambiences of texture and tone. This is followed by “Omaggio a Catullus”, composed over the two years between 1972 and 1974, which takes an entirely different approach to these queries. Incorporating a vast range of acoustic instruments, vocalizations, and electronic processes, it appears as a sonic gesture of deep urgency, entirely of its moment and yet somehow out of time. The final work of the collection, “Montaje electroacústico a partir de materiales de la música original de la película Camilo el cura guerrillero”, was created in 1974 toward the end of her life. As the title suggests, it is an electroacoustic montage from music materials created for the film “Camilo the Guerrilla Priest”. A likely indication of Nova’s politics - Camilo Torres Restrepo, the subject of the film, having been a Marxist-Leninist, priest who fought for progressive reform in Columbia - the work is a stunning gesture of avant-garde sonority, swirling into abstract forms. As the liner notes to “Creation of the Earth” state, “Nova lived in an environment hostile to change, to debate and discussion, hostile to her being an autonomous and lesbian woman. She undertook feats that make her a pioneer, even though she did not set out to be taken as one, but only as a result of the commitment, dedication and passion of a creator with her society.” One can only imagine what effect she might have had if her life hadn’t been cut tragically short at the age of 40 in 1975 by bone cancer. Perhaps even more tragically, her death ushered in a period of silence in Columbian electronic music that would last well over a decade, perhaps proving how alone, ahead of her time, and important she was. For this reason and the astounding quality of the work, it is impossible to overstate the importance of Buh’s release of “Creation of the Earth: Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974)”, the first ever collection solely dedicated to her remarkable body of work. It’s a truly stunning and revelatory listen, bringing a crucial, lost piece in the history of Latin Avant-garde music into the light for the first time. Issued as a beautiful double LP, which includes fantastic exploratory liner notes, we can’t recommend this one enough. Ten out ten and beyond. Grab it before it’s gone." [SOUNDOHM] 2022 €34.00
NURSE WITH WOUND TRIPPIN' MUSIK (black vinyl) 3 x LP BOX " ’Trippin’ Musik’ is Nurse With Wound’s most significant new dose in a while, collecting 3 epic discs of steeply psychedelic sonics that may well alter your breathing and heart rates and mental state. No tracklisting provided, play however tf you like. Following from the reissue of NWW’s ’Soliloquy For Lilith’ boxset, ‘Trippin’ Musik’ relays the most recent findings from Steven Stapleton and co’s ongoing psychedelic research / surrealist reconnaissance / occult practice in electro-acoustic and avant-garde spheres. As the title suggests, it’s one for the journey, taking up whole sides of vinyl with intensely and intently focussed recordings that often take over 20 minutes to say their psychedelic piece in a cryptic language of abstraction. Whether you take drugs to listen to this music or not, the effect is likely to live up to the title, but we’re pretty certain it will be stronger with than without. One disc features a whole side of what sounds like a folk song fractalised and slowed down by Carl Stone, while another also sees them strung out in desert guitar scenes sort of like a digitized interpolation of Earth jamming with Soisong, and the side of rapidly panned gasps is practically guaranteed to send your head into a tailspin given the right conditions, before it all shores up in a deeply lysergic scene of strolling, head-squashing, liminal/laminal electronic timbres that feel like classic kosmische slowed down and exhaled by an AI. Trust the efficacy of ’Trippin’ Musik’ for psychoactive potential is right up there with the most potent sonic substance. Approach with spare time and a well stocked freezer for best results." [Boomkat] 2020 €51.50
N[27] / TZESNE theBelt LP "N is the moniker of Dortmund-based German experimental guitarist Hellmut Neidhardt. June marks the release of two new records, including a second collaboration with Tzesne (ES). After a first very fruitful collaboration with Basque sound artist Txesus Garate alias TZESNE for the album CARRISSALS, released in 2011 by Denovali Records, the artistic vital necessity to exchange and work together carried on. In contradistinction to their collaborational debut Carrissals, where warm and dark qualities of drone interweaved – blended with Tzesne’s distinctive field recordings – they left the bright nature of that imaginary sundried place in Spain behind to take a leap into the harsh environment of the post-industrial landscape, being the inspiration of their upcoming release named THE BELT. Both artists share the interest of reflecting the conditions of a chosen location. Usually a an existing place gives inspiration for N’s sound research as distinguished from Tzesne, who collects field recordings from a wider area and manipulates them in the phase of post-production to a rather diffuse imprint. Way more heavy and dark is the impression, which THE BELT causes, right after giving a listen to its first minutes. The smell of bygone plants is synaesthetically floating within the soundscape, though trails to the dawn of a new era are roughly outlined. The four-track album features the tracks “Weaving A Wall”, “Beton”, “Bold Backwards” and “IkKky”. Limited to 100 LPs." [label info] www.denovali.com 2014 €28.00
OLEK Suicide Prevention CD "Somewhere between psychedelia, techno, electroacoustics, and post-rock, Suicide Prevention is the product of a 14 year old pact of music or death. Like a dual with the past, the record was motivated by an ineffable will to live. It is made up of a series of propositions for reasons to act. Though musically eclectic, the album meticulously weaves a coherent symbolic gesture. Filled with rich textures, warm and noisy acoustic recordings, complex synthetic algorithms, and haunting nostalgic melodies, this album addresses the organic sensibility of the listener. Alexander Wilson (01ek) is an interdiciplinary artist, musician, theatre director, and theorist based in Montreal, Canada. He composes electro-acoustic music, produces experimental videos, interactive media and architectural installations, and directs physical theatrical events in immersive environments. His artistic propositions invariably materialize philosophical interrogations into the structure of meaning, the potential for human agency, and the metaphysics of the body, space and time. Co-founder of Parabolik Guerilla Theatre, he is currently directing $ymbolocaust, an experimental play which will open in May 2007, in Montreal. His interactive architecture installation, Hinge_Dimension, a collaboration with interaction designer and architect Karmen Franinovic, was commissioned by the Enter_Unknown Territories media-arts festival, in Cambridge UK (April, 2007). His multichannel audio-video collaboration with filmmaker Seth Poulin, Decay Line, is premiering at Elektra 8 festival, Montreal, May 2007. Alexander is half of the experimental music duo, Élan d'Amérique, with Alexandre St-Onge. In 2006, he directed the ambitious, Social Reproduction Machine (version 3), a technological micro-theatre installed in the back of a rented moving-truck, parked in downtown Montreal. In 2005, Alexander composed the operatic soundtrack of the Parabolik Guerilla Theatre production, A Ship to Namuh, directed by Melanie Verville. In recent years, Alexander has realized many videos and installations for which he also composed the original music, such as the Social Reproduction Machine (version 2) (interactive video-installation, Gallerie Bourget, 2006), Genesis: Three Magi (Centre SKOL, 2005), Execution (Centre SKOL 2005) and Anti-Sacrifice (presented at the Amsterdam Film Experience festival in October 2006), and Holey Space, Sync!, and Dance With Me, Society for Arts and Technology, 2000- 2002. Alexander is currently completing FQRSC and SSHRC-funded research into the dynamic relations between the body, meaning and space-time, as part of his Masters in Fine Art, at Concordia University, Montreal." [label info] www.oral.qc.ca 2007 €15.00
OLIVEROS, PAULINE Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961-1970 11 x CD BOX https://imprec.bandcamp.com/album/pauline-oliveros-reverberations-tape-electronic-music-1960-1970-12cd This dense 11 disc retrospective of Pauline Oliveros’ early and unreleased electronic work includes her very first piece made for tape in 1959. Organized chronologically, this set not only documents Pauline's earliest electronic music but it also functions as an early history of electronic music itself. Follow as she participates in the establishment of the legendary San Francisco Tape Music Center and then moves to University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio, Mills Tape Music Center and University of California San Diego Electronic Music Center. This 10th anniversary edition is packaged in a clamshell-style box containing all the tracks from the 2012 edition spread out over 11 CDs each housed in single pocket sleeves. A 36 page booklet includes extensive liner notes and essays from Pauline Oliveros, Alex Chechile, Ramon Sender, David Bernstein, Corey Arcangel. Pauline Oliveros was a composer, performer, humanitarian and an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, she forged new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, sonic philosophy, teaching and meditation she created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly affects those who experience it and eludes many who try to write about it. "On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." John Rockwell Pauline Oliveros built a loyal following through her concerts, recordings, publications and musical compositions written for soloists and ensembles in music, dance, theater and inter-arts companies. She provided leadership within the music community from her early years as the first Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (formerly the Tape Music Center at Mills), director of the Center for Music Experiment during her 14 year tenure as professor of music at the University of California at San Diego to acting in an advisory capacity for organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, and many private foundations. She served as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College. Oliveros was vocal about representing the needs of individual artists, about the need for diversity and experimentation in the arts, and promoting cooperation and good will among people. She was honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment went unchanged. Oliveros passed away peacefully on November 24, 2016 but her sonic legacy and philosophy continues to grow and inspire. 2022 edition track listing (11 CD set adapted from 12 CD edition. All tracks included): Disc 1: 1961 Pauline Oliveros Home Studio Time Perspectives 1964-1966 San Francisco Tape Music Center Mnemonics I Mnemonics II Mnemonics III Disc 2: 1964-1966 San Francisco Tape Music Center Mnemonics IV Mnemonics V Disc 3: 1966 University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio II Of IV III Of IV IV Of IV V OF IV III Disc 4: 1966 University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio Team And Desecrations Improvisation The Day I Disconnected The Erase Head And Forgot To Reconnect It Jar Piece Disc 5: 1966 University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio Another Big Mother Fed Back 1 Fed Back 2 Disc 6: 1966 University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio 5000 Miles Angel Fix Disc 7: 1966 University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio Bottoms Up 1 Nite Ringing The Mods 1 Heads Ringing The Mods 2 Tails Three Pieces I Three Pieces II Three Pieces III Disc 8: 1966-1967 Mills Tape Music Center Big Slow Bog Boone Bog Disc 9: 1966-1967 Mills Tape Music Center Bog Bog Mind Bog Disc 10: 1966-1967 Mills Tape Music Center Mewsack 1967-1970 University Of California San Diego Electronic Music Studio 50/50 Heads(Buchla Piece head out) 50/50 Tails (Buchla Piece tails out) Disc 11: 1967-1970 University Of California San Diego Electronic Music Studio A Little Noise In The System Red Horse Headache 2022 €80.00
OLIVEROS, PAULINE / FRANCISCO LOPEZ / DOUG VAN NORT / JONAS BRAASCH Quartet for the End of Space CD "This recording consists of 8 electro-acoustic compositions. 2 pieces by each of the 4 composers. The works span a vast sonic terrain, challenging listener and performer alike through a seamless blend of Deep Listening and Absolute Noise, moving between ever-fluid improvisation and carefully controlled sound manipulation. The quartet convened for two improvisational sessions between February and May of 2010, with López sitting in on a Triple Point (Oliveros-Van Nort-Braasch) recording session and bringing his finely crafted sonic objects-as-instruments, further spanning the electro-acoustic divide that has become Triple Point’s calling. The four later re-formed for their debut concert at the Deep Listening Institute in Kingston, NY in September of 2010. These sessions have since become raw material for the individual artists to construct new visions of this shared sonic body through extensive and thorough evolution of the recordings - personal reflections culled from a collective tapestry. Pauline Oliveros has influenced American music extensively in her career spanning more than 60 years as a composer, performer, author and philosopher. She pioneered the concept of Deep Listening, her practice based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation, designed to inspire both trained and untrained musicians to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations. Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. Over the past 30 years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion. Doug Van Nort is an experimental musician and digital music researcher whose work is dedicated to personal and collective creative expression through noise, free improvisation and generally electro-acoustic means of production, from the lo-fi of broken electronics to the hi-tech of custom signal processing algorithms. Recent projects have spanned telematic music, laptop ensemble compositions,, immersive electro-acoustic works, interactive sonic installations and machine listening systems. Jonas Braasch is an experimental soprano saxophonist and acoustician with interests in Telematic Music and Intelligent Music Systems. He has performed with Curtis Bahn, Chris Chafe, Michael Century, Mark Dresser, Pauline Oliveros, Doug van Nort and Stuart Dempster among others. His saxophone style expands the traditional repertoire by incorporating various non-western elements and extended techniques." [label info] www.pogus.com 2011 €12.50
OORCHACH Chtonikka CD Zweites Album für diese uns bisher gänzlich unbekannte Band aus Litauen - ihr elektronischer Post-Industrial wird gefüttert von pulsierenden dunklen Synth-Flächen, hypnotisch-repetitiven Beats (mal subtil mal bombastischer), Noises / Samples und beschwörenden Vocals & Geflüster das eher im Hintergrund bleiben und dem ganzen eine rituelle Komponente geben... Anklänge an DEUTSCH NEPAL, MEGAPTERA, etc.. recht "klassische" Sounds also, aber überzeugend arrangiert, entfaltet CTHONIKA eine sofortige, düstere Sogwirkung. "Chtonikka is the second album of OORCHACH, Lithuanian post industrial project. Six new tracks are dedicated to the arcane world Chtonikka whose vision the author conveys through the gloomy industrial loops, coarse and dirty lo-fi sound. Powerful tribal rhythms provide the tracks with vehement dynamics, while the album as a whole smacks of strong archaic mood." [label info] ".... This album is full of visions, but it does not give you neither questions nor answers. If you need them - search for yourself. It is meditative wade in the wet grass. Still, once you see the vision of Chtonikka, you won't be able to return to your "normal" life. This darkness infects you and stays deeply in the head. But you know that one day it will strike and then you'll leave everything and go, following the footsteps of the ritual. There, where nobody would find you." [Terror.Lt] www.autarkeia.org 2008 €13.00
ORPHAX De Tragedie van een Liedjesschrijver zonder Woorden CD " “De tragedie van een liedjesschrijver zonder woorden” (The tragedy of a song writer without words) is the first normal CD by Orphax. This album contains music that has been written between April 2005 and July 2007 and retouched again in 2008 and 2010. The period these songs were written was one with many transitions in the live of van Erve. It was the end of his student years, the begin of his working years, a period where he struggled with an at that time unknown disease, a period where he was searching for answers to questions he didn't know. Inspired by this he wrote these wordless pieces. The music on this release, at first planned for release in 2011, shows yet another look into the ever expanding work by Orphax. Even more than his other work this one is dealing with small details in the composition creating an environment that feels comfortable but at the same time grabs you by the throat. The music goes from minimal droning sounds to isolationist soundscapes and experimental ambient moods. Orphax is the project by Sietse van Erve, born in Tilburg, living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Orphax works in the field of experimental electronic music once started out with ambient music slowly incorporating drone elements he now has a focus on minimalist music and lo-fi droning sounds. With every release he tries out new ways to get to his goal to create a psychedelic mind influencing atmosphere. So far he has released several CD-R releases both private as on small labels such as Cut Hands and Verato Project, Broken20 and Moving Furniture Records. In the past he was performed and worked with artists such as The Village Orchestra, Jos Smolders, and Erstlaub. He also shared the stage with musicians such as Charalambides, Sindre Bjerga, Zebra (Frans de Waard & Roel Meelkop), Staplerfahrer, Dirk Serries and many others. Limited Special Edition with bonus CD only available directly through Orphax." [label info] www.movingfurniturerecords.com "A while in the making, this 'tragedy of a song writer without words', which was already recorded between 2005 and 2005, later reworked, in 2008 and 2010 and then left in the hands of a less reliable label, but now being released as a CD on Orphax' own label, Moving Furniture Records. Orphax, you should know, is the work of Sietse van Erve and perhaps the easiest thing to say is that he is a computer musician, and one of the few I know who works extensively with AudioMulch, a sort of build your own musical software, along the lines of Max/msp or pure data. He has released a whole bunch of things, mostly CDRs and downloads, but now his first CD, and perhaps I am listening to this differently, but it sounds great. Do I listen better, more closely because this is a CD? I would hope it doesn't make any difference, but the five pieces, all with titles in Dutch, showcase what Orphax does best. Creating glitch like music, with microscopic changes, deep end drones and it works heavily on the mind. You could wonder wether something 'new' happens here, but that's not the point I think. Orphax plays some glitch based music which is firmly rooted in minimalism and has a tendency towards noise, but unlike some of his previous releases, the element of noise is very much under control here: it's there for sure, it serves the purpose of the music but it doesn't get in the way of whatever is going on, the drones, the ambience. Carefully building sound constructions, these six pieces is each a beauty to hear. This is, and I am not exaggerating here, by far the best Orphax release I have heard. It's a great decision to have this on a real CD, a show of confidence." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2013 €11.50
ORSI, FABIO / TEZ Otto CD 13/Silentes presents the fruitful first collaboration between FABIO ORSI and the Italian interdisciplinary artist and independent researcher MAURIZIO MARTINUCCI (aka TeZ), mostly knownfor his collaboration with ADI NEWTON in CLOCK DVA. Together they have created a work as dense as it is intense, with cosmic traits that are aptly depicted in the images featured on the artwork. A work in which the experience of its two authors reaches a unique climax where you can only let yourself loose without placing any limits on your senses. “Two liquid minds that meet in a truly surprising creative partnership, devoted to the alchemy of electronic weavings that pulse, dig, transform, dare, reinvent. The artists in question are Fabio Orsi and TeZ, talented musicians who need no introduction other than to point out that we find ourselves in the presence of two veterans of avant-garde experimentation and ambient noise that drives out hidden horizons by intercepting them in the space-time folds of the sound dimension. The plastic breath of OT / TO's 'optophonic' compositions denotes elements of visionary writing out of the ordinary, like prismatic figures in the odour of quantum mechanics, or like chiselled tonal profiles that refer to the synaesthetic idea of a music susceptible to becoming a vehicle for sublimating multi-sensory experiences. If Fabio Orsi shows off his knowledge as an imaginative creator of mental-oneiric atmospheres through the hallucinogenic, deeply immersive registers of his instrumental apparatuses based on electronic patterns, field recordings and variable frequency drones, TeZ is the synthesist of post-science and of the kinematic algorithm that triggers highly pervasive vibrational dynamics, the strategist of the mathematical pulsation that forges cycles of gravitational currents and vortexes of telematic sounds with innovative pronunciation. It is no wonder that Adi Newton wanted him permanently at the court of Clock DVA and that he has also distinguished himself in comparative research into the interrelational potential of sound, light and space. It is from this molecular fusion that the genesis-synergy of a work full of magnetic properties and captivating waveforms is triggered. Eight tracks, each of which is marked by a specific numbering (from one to eight), according to a numerical sequence aimed at the 'philological' purposes of the authors. What comes to life is a phenomenon of tensional factors and sinusoidal events in continuous movement, like atoms of fluid crystals that change shape and volume, perspective angle and tactile sensation, regenerating between one loop-scan and another, while the harmonics float, dart, throb and dance on the mesmeric granular stratifications of the drones. A fine elaboration of phono-particle complexions for a four-handed challenge that we can consider decisively won.” - Aldo Chimenti CD in 6-panel digisleeve, ltd. 200 copies 13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2247_orsi_tez.htm 2022 €13.00
OTTAVI, JULIEN The Black Symphony CD "The new solo work by inventive French soundartist is the true symphony, divided into several parts titled like 'Adagio', 'Allegro', 'Menuet', etc. but without any hints to traditional instruments or classical orchestration - just the pure white noise structures. A mediactivist, artist-researcher, composer / musician, poet and tongues destroyer, experimental film maker and anarchitect, founder and member of Apo33, Julien Ottavi is involved in research and creative work, combining sound art, real-time video, new technologies and body performances. Since 1997, he develops a composition work using voice and its transformation through computer. Active developer of audio/visual programs with Puredata, he has also developed since many years DIY electronics (radio transmitters, oscillators, mixers, amplifiers, video transmitters, etc) in the perspective of knowledge sharing on technological development. His practices is not limited to the art spheres but crosses different fields from technological development to philosophy / theoretical research, biomimetic analysis & experimentation. Release date is 20th July 2013. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info] www.monochromevision.ru 2013 €12.00
OTTE, HANS Minimum:Maximum / Orient:Occident CD Aufnahmen von 1973 und 1977 vom poetischen Klang-Puristen und Minimalisten HANS OTTE. Stimme, Glockenspiel, Radiowaves, instrumentelle Geräusche, werden zu reduzierten aber wirkungsvollen Klangbildern verwoben, eine direkte Umsetzung von verwobener Klang- und Lebensphilosophie spiegelt sich hier wieder. “minimum:maximum (1973): texts / sounds / pictures. An environment (simultaneous concert in Stockholm and Bremen) for two organists: Karl-Erik Welin and Gerd Zacher, keyboard instruments. orient:occident (1977): for two woodwind-players and tape: Ingo Goritzki, oboe; Hans-Wilhelm Goetzke, clarinet. "Perhaps best known for his piano work 'Book of Sounds' these two works by German composer Hans Otte were composed in the 1970s. In that decade his aesthetic creed became increasingly clear: 'the search for the character and individuality of sound as such, which must be rediscovered and re-experienced independent of superimposed structures. The composer understands the dialogue with sounds as the discovery of their nature.' (Ute Schalz-Laurenze). While Hans Otte was an enthusiastic, one might say visionary promoter of fellow composers, such as John Cage and David Tudor, whose impacts had registered to the general public long after their force reached the surface, he nevertheless remained deeply committed to his own music. Otte's writings, simple lines that say: 'words are just something added on'; 'all great things laugh'; 'when something is reminiscent of nothing'; and, 'it's really something -- that voice that was once in the mouth,' all direct us to his music, because: 'everything always happens: Now.' It is Otte's music that betrays his particularity of thought to what (is everything), how (it happens), and when (is now). Words are just something added on. Collectively, these aphorisms reflect an aesthetic that dispenses with words which may address themselves to an understanding of the world. Here, however, the world to be understood is indescribable. What is everything? When is now? How does it happen? The message is that words tell, music is. Listen. The titles of these works: orient:occident and mnimum:maximum, suggest a relationship between seemingly disparate things to remind us of Otte's adage: 'It is the gardener who owns the garden.'" [label info] wwww.pogus.com 2005 €14.00
OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD Beautiful Monolith two 7" "No Progression. No Movement. No Entertainment. No Narrative. No Musical Journey. No Drone. No Collector Scum. No Reviews. No Fans. Just electrified bloodbaths and blitzkrieg ragas from Nowhere, New Zealand, in search of fleeting moments of infinite density; where everything is louder than everything else, time slows to a crawl, and brains under stress slip into warm, prickly comas. Primitive electronic bumps and cannabanoid-campfire pulses clump into clusters and march like stars on their gigantic skyward axis. Think Coltrane, Think Public Image, Think Amon Duul, Think Conrad, Cale, or MacLise. Think Prandit Pran Nath being chewed up by Hanatarashs tropical piranha collection. Fluorescent, super-dense, trance-music to scare away the fools who buy records from the “drone” section." [label info] www.quasipop.org 2009 €6.50
OVAL LANGUAGE / RLW / DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE Sprechzimmern (Hommage an Carlfriedrich Claus) CD "Distance, busyness, sporadic communication occupied with other topics are often the reason why common interests are discovered only late and by accident. Carlfriedrich Claus, sound poet and graphic artist with a largely concealed output, working in the no-man's-land of Annaberg-Buchholz, near Chemnitz, Germany, was with some exceptions only discovered after the fall of the wall. Creating a work of vocal utterances not only composed with great sophistication, but underlined with intense philosophical research. How could we not be enthusiastic and even euphoric when digging through the layers of his multi-faceted body of work that has progressively been published as deserved, which wasn't the case during the GDR regime that had him withdrawn his title of a professional artist. Concentrating on a few basic elements, intuition and chance as creative tools backed by intense theory and contextualization, working methods we all strive for ourselves. It was just a matter of time and time it took, but it was worth it, to do our own take inspired and in homage to this great man to whom we feel so linked. This is not a collaboration of working on each other's sound files, it rather is to let each other know, to compare where each participant's exploration is positioned and how the distinct works could be arranged together in order to allow for a varied but continues listening session. A process of filtering and combining, adding and eliminating, varying density and permeability. a homage to Carlfriedrich Claus of fermenting language / aggregated resonances / swoosh-combined speech transparency: historical-philosophical vibration / distorted densification = experimental retail salesman / articulating principal latency / private suspect statesmanship / destructive-combinatorial / an evening live in annaberg - buchholz: tol & rlw & dsm / chronicled, condensed and constellated in 2014. full coloured artwork based on an original drawing by Guido Huebner (dsm) edition of 300" [label info] scrotum-records.de 2015 €12.00
PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE CharleBelllzzz at Saint Thomas CD "HelllszzzBelllszzz! alga marghen proudly presents 'CharleBelllzzz at Saint Thomas', a CD in tri-folded digipak sleeve including the original Bells Studies by Charlemagne Palestine. Sixth chapter of the 'Golden Research' series, these previously unreleased tracks are both some of the earliest recordings by Charlemagne and some of his darkest and most accomplished works ever. 'Bells Carillon' and 'St Thomas Bells', both recorded at unidentified dates between 1966 and 1968, are maximal bells pure resonating frontal attacks, building up in a structure that is already anticipating the later Strumming campaigns. Unique and clashing dissonances created like a spontaneous outburst, 'instinctively' and 'right away'. Charlemagne played the bells right next to his body. The sounds became physical, visceral, each crack of the clapper was like a small earthquake. In 1963 while attending the high-school of music and art in NYC, 15 years old Charlemagne Palestine was asked if he'd be interested in playing a carillon with 26 bells at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church down the street from the Museum Of Modern Art. Charlemagne decided that he loved these voluptuous Taylor bells, high up in a tower and accessible only by a spiral staircase, that clanged all over 53rd Street and 5th Avenue every day of the week from 1963 to 1970 when he left NYC to study and teach at CAL Arts. Charlemagne soon became known as the 'Quasimodo' of Midtown NYC, and his dissonant and 'klanggdedangggebannggg' style of playing attracted a diverse group of fans from Moondog to John Cage to Tony Conrad among others. Charlemagne Palestine was able to continue to play his clanging bell soap operas for seven years dinggdonggingggg every late afternoon and sunday mornings! World premier edition of these legendary seminal works!" [label info] 2015 €15.00
  Godbear LP Black Truffle Records present the first official vinyl reissue of Charlemagne Palestine's Godbear - Godbear is a 1987 solo piano recording originally scheduled to sit alongside Sonic Youth and Swans in the catalogue of Glenn Branca's Neutral Records - Revisiting his signature piano style in 1987 after several years focusing on visual art, Godbear presents three distinct variations that demonstrate the development of Palestine's piano music performed on the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, the 'Rolls Royce' of pianos - A classic release, and one that, because of the variety of approaches surveyed within, serves as an ideal introduction to Palestine's ecstatic and mysterious sound world. - Godbear is presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve designed by Stephen O'Malley and has been remastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin. Black Truffle is pleased to present the first vinyl release of Charlemagne Palestine's Godbear, a 1987 solo piano recording originally scheduled to sit alongside Sonic Youth and Swans in the catalogue of Glenn Branca's Neutral Records but eventually released on CD by the Dutch Barooni label in 1998. Although Palestine has worked in an enormous variety of media, his long form performances for solo piano are perhaps his most acclaimed works. Palestine immersed himself in the study of overtones throughout the 1960s, working first with carillons and then with electronic synthesis, searching for the 'golden sound'. Beginning in the early 1970s he continued his exploration of the complexities hidden within seemingly simple tones and intervals on the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, the 'Rolls Royce' of pianos. With the piano's sustain pedal constantly depressed, Palestine hammers out rapidly repeated notes, allowing a complex cloud of overtones to rise above the percussive texture of the struck keys. Initially working with simple intervals such as octaves and fifths, Palestine gradually expanded the harmonic range of his piano performances over the years, while still retaining their ecstatically single-minded nature. Revisiting his signature piano style in 1987 after several years focusing on visual art, Godbear presents three distinct variations that demonstrate the development of his piano music after the classic recordings of the early 1970s. Occupying the entire first side, The Lower Depths stages a slow descent from the piano's mid-range to the Bösendorfer's cavernous additional low octave, building into a thundering swarm of booming overtones. Breaking entirely with the stereotype of clinical minimalism, Palestine's journey to the depths embraces passages of darkly romantic melody before slowly ascending to its starting point. The version of Strumming Music performed here condenses the developmental arc of the piece into eleven minutes, fanning out from a single octave to a complex harmonic wash that calls to mind Palestine's enthusiasm for Debussy and Ravel. Timbral Assault is like an evil twin of Strumming Music, transforming its insistency and harmonic complexity into aggressive intensity and creeping dissonance, foreshadowing Palestine's later collaborations with Christoph Heemann. A classic release, and one that, because of the variety of approaches surveyed within, serves as an ideal introduction to Palestine's ecstatic and mysterious sound world. - Francis Plagne 2016 €16.00
PANIS, RAPHAEL Meta CD "Raphaël PANIS is a composer and a searcher, fascinated by sound : his works take the listeners at the heart of the vibration, into the intimacy of the microscopic disturbances. His studies at Annecy CRR ans Paris CNSMDP (new technologies section with Louis NAON) allowes him to create his own instruments for live performances. He associates his sound installations with plastic works for various centers of art. He also composes for dance. "Meta" consists of a multiplication of the sound layers (stratas), reminders and variations around sound elements, similarity and disparities to create a rich and coherent hearing universe." [label info] rpanis.blogspot.fr 2012 €10.00
PAOLO CAMPANA VINYLMANIA (FILM) 2 x DVD "A trip into the grooves, Vinylmania is a 75 minute feature length documentary about an object that has never lost its soul: the vinyl record. An epic love story, the film is filled with fascinating characters and internationally recognized artists including PHILIPPE COHEN SOLAL (Gotan Project), WINSTON SMITH (Dead Kennedys, Green Day record sleeve artist), PETER SAVILLE (Joy Division, New Order record sleeve artist) and DJ KENTARO (2002 DMC World DJ Champion). Devotion, ecstasy, infatuation, agony – all feelings that the director of the film, Paolo Campana, has experienced from childhood and shares with like-minded record collectors, Djs, musicians and artists (the said vinylmaniacs) in the documentary. Set in 11 different cities worldwide, the director sets out on a global road trip to find out what role vinyl records play in the 21st century." [publishers info] "Wenn das Leben mit 33 Umdrehungen pro Minute läuft: Doku von Paolo Campana. "Als Kind wurde ich von meiner Mutter immer mit einer Schallplatte von Mozart geweckt", sagt Paolo Campana, Filmemacher und DJ aus Turin. "Seitdem läuft Vinyl durch meine Adern." Der italienische Regisseur möchte verstehen, woher seine große Leidenschaft für Musik und Schallplatten kommt. Also tauchte er für seinen Dokumentarfilm in diese Welt ein und bewegte sich sprichwörtlich undercover. In "Vinylmania" führt uns der Regisseur durch die Facetten eines Objekts, das nie seine Seele verloren hat. Er spürt dem nach, was Vinyl in einer digitalen Welt so legendär macht. An vielen Orten der Welt begegnen wir einer Gemeinde von Sammlern, DJs, Musikern und Künstlern. Die Zuschauer erkunden die Läden, in denen die Leidenschaft zum Fieber mutiert, und die Fabriken, die wieder damit begonnen haben, Millionen von Platten herzustellen. Denn: Die Vinylplatte ist zurück! ",Vinylmania‘ ist sich seines grundsätzlich nostalgischen Ansatzes bewusst, aber lässt sich dadurch nicht beirren. Das macht die Dokumentation zu einem großen Fernsehvergnügen." (Spiegel Online). Extras: Limitierte Edition inkl. Bonus-DVD: 8 Musikclips (Berlin, Prag, Paris, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Tokio); 15 Bonus-Tracks – Interviews mit Sean Bidder (Vinyl Factory), Richie Hawtin (DJ, Produzent), Peter Saville (Designer), Guy Schraenen (Kurator), John Stanley (Schriftsteller), Dubplate & Mastering, Laser Turntable, Matt Mikas (Sammler), V. Vale (Re/Search), Klaus Florida (Bassist Dead Kennedys), Luxuria Music (Webradio), Eilon Paz (Dust & Grooves), Cesar Montesano (Sammler); Google-Map ausgewählter Plattenläden weltweit "›Vinylmania‹ ist ein wahres Vergnügen. Er spürt erfolgreich der kulturellen Explosion rund um das Wiedererwachen von Vinyl nach und behandelt darüber hinaus auch die Leidenschaft und Liebe zur Musik. Jeder Musiker und wahrer Musikfan wird den Film sehen wollen.“" Record Store Day "„Wenn man einen DJ auflegen sieht, dann ist das, wie einem Küchenchef beim Kochen zuzusehen.“" DJ Kentaro "„Vinyl ist wie Jazz. Seine Sound-Nuancen sind einzigartig.“" DJ Kobayashi "„Das ist meine Kindheit, meine ganze Geschichte…“" Philippe Cohen Solal, Gotan Project 2012 €12.00
PARIKRAMA The Silent Bon CD "Long before Buddhism spread into the Himalayas the region was at the mercy of frightening spirits and powerful divinities. Seetyca and Artin Mucht join the bonpo shamans in search for traces of the old faith, now consumed by the benevolent teachings of Lord Buddha. These are stark aural landscapes with a mystic touch, yet clear as crystalline ice. Allow yourself to be lost in the world of Parikrama. The album comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet." [label info] http://gterma.blogspot.se 2011 €13.00
PARMEGIANI, BERNARD Memoire Magnetique Vol. 1 LP "Transversales Disques is very glad to announce the release of « Mémoire Magnétique, vol.1 » spanning 1966-1990, revelatory collection of commercial and secret music by electronic music pioneer Bernard Parmegiani. This series of rare application music compositions are representative of the vast scope explored by Parmegiani. Far from the strict format of concert music, its codes and usages, this music designed to fit with the screen is a work of amazing freshness and spontaneity. It is pervaded with a singular balance, between minimalist music and a more articulated language. There is a space for melody, for word repetitions. Actually, repetition is a constant feature, blurring the line between his concert work and the rest. More than a border line, it seems to define two worlds, which communicate through it. With an impressive number of application works, and some time spent at the head of the Sound / Image sector in the research service led by Pierre Schaeffer, the composer has managed to build up a framework designed for research and mutual exchange. Bernard Parmegiani presents us with lights, gestures, lines, various registers. Besides, how could one perceive these pieces of music without the pictures they are supposed to enhance? Each title is suggestive, and the best answer is in the field of imagination. In the middle of the B-side, there is a true gem dated 1977. In this second extract of “Versailles… peut-être“ Bernard Parmegiani gives us a glimpse of the future. One can feel the pulse of the 80’s and of the first accents of Techno Music. It feels like driving a drop head car at 134 BPM, faster than on Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”. One can also sense that soon the LFO will be replaced by the drum-machine. Listening to these pieces of music arouses the same sensation as reading the prose of an author already known for his poetry. If one has never read his poems, here is the record that will open the door on a new world to be discovered / Maxime Barthélemy. Remastered high-resolution audio transferred directly from the original tapes. Exclusive Liner Notes + OBI STRIP https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-1-1966-1990 2018 €24.00
Violostries LP SIDE A Violostries (1963/64), 16’39 - Introduction, 0’55 - Pulsion / Miroirs, 3'54 - Jeu de cellules, 2'52 - Végétal, 8'46 SIDE B Capture éphémère (1967, version 1988), 11’48 La Roue Ferris (1971), 10’45 Violostries (1963/64), 16'39 Premiered and recorded in April 1965 at the Royan Festival - France, by Devy Erlih (violin) & Bernard Parmegiani (sound projection). Violostries represents the intersection of several musical research directions, presented as two simultaneous dialogues - composer/performer and instrument/orchestra. After a short introduction tutti very spatialized: 1. Pulsion/Miroirs: multiplied by itself, the violin is projected into the four corners of the sound space. 2. Jeu de cellules: concertante piece for violin and audio medium, the latter being made up of very tightly woven microsounds. 3. Végétal: slow and invisible development following a continuous time, resulting from an internal and permanent processing of the matter. Capture éphémère (1967, 1988 version), 11'48 This work was composed in four tracks in 1967 for quadraphonic diffusion. Remixed in stereo in 1988. Premiered at the Studio 105 of the Maison de la Radio, Paris, May 1967. Sounds - noises that circulate as time unfolds - continue to exist despite our recording them. Breaths, fluttering wings: ephemeral microsonic sounds streaking space, sound scratches, landslides, bounces, vertigo of solid objects falling into an abyssal void, multiple snapshots forever frozen in their fall. As many symbols leave inside us the permanent trace of their ephemeral brushing against our ear. Some day, a desert, a sound, then never again.... Somewhere, in my head and body something still resonates... resonance, what could be more ephemeral. La Roue Ferris (1971), 10'45 Premiered at the Festival des chantiers navals, Menton, on August 26, 1971. Sound projection: Bernard Parmegiani. La Roue Ferris (Ferris wheel) spins, merging with its own resonance, stubbornly perpetuating its variations. It only sketches a regularly evolving movement around a constant axis. Each of its towers generates thick sonic layers that penetrate each other, producing a very fluid interweaving. The crackling of the origin eventually metamorphoses into sonic threads whose lightness recalls high-altitude clouds, cirrus clouds, haunted by the cries of swifts twirling in the warm air. The wondrous arises and dies off, leaving us with an illusion of duration. https://recollectiongrm.bandcamp.com/album/violostries 2020 €20.00
  Memoire Magnetique Vol. 2 LP Transversales is very glad to announce the release of « Mémoire Magnétique, vol.2 » spanning 1966-1993, revelatory collection of short and secret music by electronic music pioneer Bernard Parmegiani. The second volume of this compilation allows us to discover some of unreleased rarities from Bernard Parmegiani’s personal archives and unpublished recordings which were composed for the screen or the performing arts. Remastered high-resolution audio transferred directly from the original tapes. Exclusive liner notes and pictures. Musique originale composée, interprétée et enregistrée par Bernard Parmegiani. Production exécutive : Jonathan Fitoussi & Sébastien Rosat. Mastering à partir des bandes originales : Jonathan Fitoussi. Direction artistique & graphisme : Jean-Philippe Talaga. Traduction : Michèle Parent. (P) 2021 Transversales Disques ® sous licence exclusive de Claude-Anne Parmegiani A1 / "Témoignages" - 1972. Générique pour la série télévisée de Pierre Houdain. A2 / "Pop secret" - 1970. Version remixée pour concert de la musique créée avec le groupe "Third Ear Band" au Royal Festival Hall, Londres. A3 / "Voyage Conseil" - 1970. Musique pour la publicité de : "Voyage Conseil". Version non utilisée. A4 / "Lion d'or" - 1988. Générique pour l'émission radio de Georges Léon diffusée sur France Culture le 22/02/1988. A5 / "Flash sports" - 1975. Indicatif de l'émission télévisée éponyme diffusée sur Antenne 2. A6 / "Spot pub" - 1971. Spot publicitaire non identifié, non utilisé. A7 / "Journal TV 2" - 1981. Indicatif du journal télévisé d'Antenne 2. A8 / "Stade 2" - 1976-1986. Indicatif de l'émission : "Stade 2". Antenne 2, émission sport. Animation : Peter Foldès. A9 / "L'art au monde des ténèbres" - 1982. Série documentaire télévisée de Mario Ruspoli. A10 / "Sonal Roissy" - 1971-2005. Signal sonore de l'aéroport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle. B1 / "Bongo fuego" - 1967. Film d'animation de Peter Foldès. B2 / "Electrorythmes" - 1966. Version remixée pour concert ; film de Peter Foldès avec la chorégraphe Marpessa Dawn. B3 / "E Pericoloso sporgersi" - (élément) - 1991. Musique radiophonique ; commande de France Culture. B4 / "Une mission éphémère" - 1993. Film d'animation de Piotr Kamler. B5 / "Une honorable partie de Gô" - 1978. Série documentaire télévisée de Jean-Emile Jeannesson, "Lettres du bout du monde". B6 / "Sonal Roissy" - (inédit) - 1971. Maquette de signal sonore pour l'aéroport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle. Version non utilisée. https://bernardparmegiani.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-2-1966-1993 "Belonging to a growing body of previously unreleased work culled from the archives of Bernard Parmegiani, the always incredible Transversales Disques returns with “Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2”, the second instalment in their series of albums focusing on the composer’s work for film, television, and the performing arts. An inevitable revelation for even the most devoted of Parmegiani’s fans, we’re also making it available as part of a specially priced bundle with brand new represses of “Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1” and “Rock (Bande originale du film, 1982)” for those who missed them the first time around. So good. Over the last few years, the Paris based imprint, Transversales Disques, has set a remarkable standard for archival releases, bringing us a treasure trove of previously unreleased recordings by Pierre Henry, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Luc Ferrari, Igor Wakhevitch, Philip Glass, Ariel Kalma, François Bayle, Ennio Morricone, and numerous others. While by no means the limit of their focus, the imprint has offered special attention to works by French pioneers of electronic music, particularly those associated with Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète (GRMC) and Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Central to this modus operandi is the work of Bernard Parmegiani. Back in 2017, they brought us the composer’s incredible 1982 soundtrack, Rock, created for Michel Treguero’s film of the same name, followed by the LP, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol​. 1 in 2018. After three years of waiting, the label is back with the second instalment of rare sounds by Parmegiani, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol.​ 2, accompanied by brand new represses of Mémoire Magnétique, Vol.​ 1 and Rock (Bande originale du film, 1982), which have been out of print since their initial release. As a special celebration, we’re offering them individually or together as a specially priced bundle. They’re 20th Century electroacoustic music at its absolute height, hugely historically important, and not to be missed. Bernard Parmegiani’s contributions to electronic and electroacoustic practice are now regarded as among the most important in the history of 20th Century Music, but this wasn’t always the case. For much of his career, the composer lingered in the shadow of his more famous peers at Groupe de Recherches - Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari, François Bayle, etc. Some of this was a consequence of circumstance and idealism. Gifted with a deep belief in access and humor, Parmegiani believed in the profound potential of electronic and electroacoustic sound, seeking to integrate it into everyday life, particularly through forms of mass distribution activated by radio, film, and television. A great deal of his output was created for these contexts - remaining unreleased on physical formats - while he supported himself as a sound engineer and as the head of the Music/Image division of French television. It is into this rarely heard body of recordings which Transversales Disques takes us once again. Like the first instalment, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2 culls its material form the composer’s personal archives and unpublished recordings of material created between 1966 and 1993, focusing specifically on his output for the screen and the performing arts. Standing as a largely unacknowledged counterpoint to more famous works like De Natura Sonorum, La Roue Ferris, Dedans Dehors, Chants Magnétiques, and Chronos - created during same period covered by the collection - these works unveil a lesser-known vision of Parmegiani, one that embedded himself in the subconscious landscape of the French public, with sounds that were often heard without acknowledging their genius or source. Comprising 16 revelatory tracks, of relatively short lengths - from 13 seconds to just over 8 minutes - Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 2 covers a brilliant range of material, from sci-fi tinged arpeggiating synths, brooding minimalist expanses, semi psychedelic meanderings away with free-flowing texture, pastoral meditations, playful, percussive musique concrète, pieces that flirt on the edges of kosmische and Berlin school electronics, and so much more. Encountering the composer in the throes of his deepest passion - working alongside the visual realm - just when you’d thought you’d heard it all, Transversales Disques digs up more gold from the archives of Bernard Parmegiani, expanding our vision of the astounding talent and range of one of the most important sonic artists of the 20th Century. These previously unreleased rarities have been remastered from the original tapes in high-resolution audio, and come complete with exclusive liner notes and pictures. As engrossing as records come, and an absolute blast to listen to. Not to be missed! Across 17 despite works, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 spans 24 years of Parmegiani’s output of music designed to integrate with the screen, drawing on a framework the composer developed for research and mutual exchange between sound and image. It should come as no surprise, given the overwhelming creative talent which Parmegiani possessed, that these efforts more than stand on their own when separated from the images with which they were designed to speak. The LP is an overwhelmingly powerful body of revelatory sound. Not unlike his soundtrack for Rock, Mémoire Magnétique, Vol. 1 pushes the boundaries of what the work emerging from Groupe de Recherches is often perceived to have been, if not the very notions of what qualifies as avant-garde. Imbued with Parmegiani’s overwhelming humor and playfulness, it offers nods to a countless range of musical idioms and fields of practice - often painting a dark, dystopian technological, rhythmic landscape with aural touchstones ranging from techno, Kraftwerk, and John Carpenter soundtracks, with a peppering of the clown show, reminding us that Parmegiani began his career as a mime. There’s no question that Transversales Disques is taking the high road, bringing us into wild, wonderful, and often overlooked bodies of organized sound which rewrite almost every standard narrative of history. These works are some of a Bernard Parmegiani which all too few heard, belonging to a way of working which captures the idealism closest to his heart. Absolutely brilliant creatively - a challenging field of imagination and an endlessly thrilling listen. Transferred directly from the original tapes with exclusive liner notes, if you missed the first pressing, don’t sleep. This is an absolute must for any fan of Parmegiani, GRM, soundtracks, and electronic music at large." [Soundohm] https://bernardparmegiani.bandcamp.com/album/m-moire-magn-tique-vol-2-1966-1993 2021 €26.50
PBK & MODELBAU The Dead Time CD https://oxidation.bandcamp.com/album/the-dead-time "In music, separating the wheat from the chaff these days is not easy, one has to apply some kind of compulsion and instinct towards interesting releases. “The Dead Time” was made out of processing sonic information in the passing of time, yet what makes this music stand out from the passing and make it “dead”? "I am interested in the alchemical breakdown of things and the results of pure accidents.” -Phillip B. Klingler Frans de Waard and Phillip B. Klingler are rooted in the experimental music scene. Both are still at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of underground and formal electroacoustic music. This album was made of collages of recordings De Waard made in 2014, fermenting on Klingler’s shelve until summer 2021. One day that summer, Klingler awoke with a premonition about the work, which started an intensely creative period. He created three collaborations: 'The Dead Time' with De Waard, a PBK & Nocturnal Emissions LP, and the CHAIN LETTER EXHORTATION Series. "It's the same way I like to paint: only when inspired to do so, and without preconception.” as Klingler states. Both composers are daily concerned with archival matters, so they have a deep intellectual and experiential understanding of the importance of work and detail, no matter how small or few the edition. To my knowledge, this quality translates into the depth of sound, fragility and sensibility, the compositional approach of the unknown by the use of transformed field recordings, digital processed, mixer feedback, synthesizers and sample players, which allows them to enter this abyss of a personal and yet collaborative esoteric space. As Klingler puts it: “I think it was very nice to leave the tracks as "miniatures" with their characteristics, not attempting to be epic in scope, but more like the experiments of the 1950's/60's - Dutch composers of the Phillips Research Laboratory, where all ideas of creativity were embraced, even somewhat incongruous combinations. (..) The compositions are made, but they are abstract, no narrative”. The “miniatures” sound like deep, personal, little moments of awakening, fermented by time, but then again appearing to be free from it: “We have imposed our own very personal process(es) on the audio to create sounds that belong to something but also subvert that thing.”, as Klinger states. This is a robust and thoughtful work of two composers always deeply involved in their game and firmly immersed in its execution. Favourite piece: “Knife”." [MC / Vital Weekly] 2021 €13.50
PBK & TELEPHERIQUE Noise-Ambient Connection CD "Noise music exists for many years, but there are still some individuals who are assiduously following their own approach, avoiding any external influence, creating something new and inspiring to get rid of any standards, giving us the idea of unique sounding. Phillip B. Klingler (PBK) is the one such musician. In his 20 years of activity, he walked against the number of noisescapes, painting them over with some secret traces of beauty and beyond. He released some solo works but also collaborations with Dirk Serries (vidnaObmana), Slavek Kwi (Artificial Memory Trace), Asmus Tietchens, Jeph Jerman (Hands To) and even Artemy Artemiev (the son of famous Russian ANS-synth explorer). PBK proposes premium quality music with manifold edges: some hypnotic ambient pieces, some crazy noise collages, but mostly just unclassifiable abstract sound-sculptures. His early works were released on tapes by his own PBK Recordings label and sold out for many years, in the early 90s N D Records published his first couple of CDs: endless labyrinths of dissonances, amorphous soundscapes unfolding from the complex schemes of machine improvisation and stochastic processes. Telepherique is the seminal German project existing since the late 80s and exploring the grey area of the electronic underground. The main person behind it is Klaus Jochim who also was responsible for now defunct tape label Drahtfunk Productions. Besides his own production under various monikers like Technostria and Das Konzentrat, he released some great collaboration tape albums with artists like Brume, Kapotte Muziek, S.Core, Tesendalo, De Fabriek etc. Telepherique uses a lot of synthetic sound sources and sequences, creating unsettling atmosphere from the structured electronic patterns ranging from intense rhythmic work to creepy ambient out-of-body soundscapes. They got initial support from labels like Ant-Zen and Noise Museum, later released some albums through Old Europa Cafe, S.S.S.M., Afe Records and Waystyx. The name Telepherique means "funicular railway" in French, but indirectly also the intention gaining a view from a higher level. This particular album is the first ever collaboration between PBK and Telepherique, it represents yet another breakthrough in the search for a music that is comprehensively exploring 21st century ambient music." [label notes] www.monochromevision.ru/ 2008 €13.00
PERILA How much time is it between You and Me LP “Perila is making some of the most head-spinning ambient music out there right now.” — Pitchfork Perila, the moniker of Berlin-based electronic musician Aleksandra Zakharenko, announces her debut album, How Much Time it is Between You and Me?, out June 25th on Smalltown Supersound, and today presents its lead single, “Fallin Into Space,” a track full of levitating synth and pulses of organic noise. With a sound world so specific and transportive, Zakharenko’s ambient music is filled with detail and movement akin to hauntological musique concrète touched by song. Raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, Zakharenko moved to Berlin six years ago, finding her place almost immediately at Berlin Community Radio. Regular work with expressionistic field recordings and electronic sound research eventually led Zakharenko to develop her own podcast series, WET (Weird Erotic Tension), combining her evocative, atmospheric music with erotic spoken word poetry. After a handful of early cassette releases as Perila — a project name originally used for her BCR show — Zakharenko has arrived at Smalltown Supersound for her debut full-length, a self-described “immersive experience into self” viewed through a “silence prism” where everyday sounds usually ignored felt amplified. ‘Fallin Into Space’ is a track about grounding yourself in new places, accepting the surroundings, and opening up to what comes,” explains Zakharenko. “It’s about slowing down and being conscious about what and how your body is in that space. Many new things come to attention when you slow down and observe.” https://perilazone.bandcamp.com/album/how-much-time-it-is-between-you-and-me 2021 €22.50
PERRET, NICOLAS & SILVIA PLONER Nýey CD In 1963, off the coast of Iceland, an island emerged after an underwater volcanic eruption, a rare event that occurs on average twice a century. It was given the name Surtsey, after Surtr, the fire giant of Norse mythology. The surface of this new land grew after further eruptions until June 1967 when it had reached 2.65 square kilometers in size and poked 175 meters out of the sea. Surtsey has been an object of research as no other territory has been before, since it bares the unique possibility to study in-scale the creation of an ecosystem. Closed to the public since its birth, only a few scientists have access to the island once per year for four days. To this day more than half of the initial territory of Surtsey has disappeared. The violent waves of the winter degrade its coasts and the wind erodes its surface. Scientists estimate that in 2120, two-thirds of the surface will be gone and erosion will have laid bare its heart of palagonite, a rock that might withstand for a few thousand years. Being the youngest member of the Westman archipelago, Surtsey serves science as a window to the past of the older islands. Reciprocally, those older islands are studied as windows to what Surtsey might become like in the future. Following this approach of the island as sort of “time capsule,” we investigated in Surtsey′s assumed past, present and possible future in exploring the sonic environment of Surtsey as well as the one of its neighboring islands. The resulting sound piece Nýey evolves around the motifs of creation, colonization and metamorphose of a territory. Nýey is composed of: Field recordings from Bjarnarey and Elliðaey, two older islands of the Westman archipelago. Field recordings from the volcano Eldfell and the new territory its eruption created in 1973 on the island Heimaey. Field recordings from Surtsey, recorded through a sound trap by Borgþór Magnússon (expedition leader on Surtsey). The piece also contains words by three generations of scientists engaged with the island and samples from the original music of the movie “Surtur fer sunnan” (Ósvaldur Knudsen, Iceland 1964), composed by Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson. (Nicolas Perret & Silvia Ploner, March 2015) ++++ Additional Info The radio version of Nýey was produced by the programme Klangkunst of Deutschlandradio Kultur (broadcast date: April 18th, 2014), with the support of “Du côté des ondes”, GMVL, Phonurgia Nova and the Surtsey Research Society. In 2014 the radio piece was awarded the first prize in the category “Radioarte” at the 10th Bienal Internacional de Radio. About us Nicolas Perret and Silvia Ploner – http://www.islandssongs.blogspot.com – work with recording technologies to sound out mysterious environments, remote territories and unknown phenomena. Envisaging the milieus they investigate as laboratories, their interest is drawn to the faint, the imperceptible, the unsuspected, the sonic detail, the inaccessible. Alongside scientists whom they share fields of study and methods of work with, they embark in long term projects. The resulting field recording based compositions and installations shape listening as a method of exploration. Nýey is their first common project. Their second project, ALL DEPENDS ON THE SUN, explores the acoustic phenomena related to northern lights. www.unfathomless.net 2015 €14.00
PHILLIPS, DAVE Sixth Mass Extinction LP "black vinyl lp in embossed sleeve, edition of 300. comes with a free 8 page newspaper featuring articles that offer a broad view of what homo sapiens has achieved in terms of coexistence and in taking care of its home. 1. Things Falling Apart 21:12 2. Radical Hope 20:12 about things falling apart - composition for three PA’s (stereo version): the original 6 channel piece was commissioned by bad bonn kilbi festival düdingen switzerland 2018. radical hope - live action (studio version): this incarnation of live action was initiated in january 2016 and has developed since. triggered by a broken heart, it’s a critical analysis of subjective behaviourisms, self-reflections, self-criticisms and conclusions thereof. the subsequent translation of derived intentions into ritualised actions include purging, activating learning and healing processes, self-betterment, empowerment and hair-burning. has since morphed into a piece about the relationship of the human as a species with planet earth as a cherished entity, such as a loved one, a friend, a partner, a companion, a parent or a family member, a home or an origin. all audio by dp. decomposed may to november 2018 for schimpfluch. mastered by riccardo mazza. artwork by brett wagg using photos by dp. https://totalblack.bandcamp.com/album/sixth-mass-extinction Dave Phillips INTERVIEW by CHAIN DLK ( By Vito Camarretta - August 11, 2021) dave dp phillips long story short fields of re/search: existences and behaviourisms humanimalistically. works that oppose the omnipresent restriction and reduction of life and living, that activate primordial shared emotions otherwise hidden under the debris of civilization, inviting rumination, encouraging intervention, endorsing catharsis, liberating, cleansing. therapeutical stimulation is acknowledged. sonic activism, ritual protest music, humanimalism methods: audio de/construction, composition, sonic rituals, psycho-acoustics and performance tools: voice, body, fieldrecordings, electronics, objects, video reason for this interview: his recent release “to death” (7th July 2021, Misanthropic Agenda) enjoy the reading! Chain D.L.K.: Hi Dave! How are you doing? Dave Phillips: Quite alright. I moved house earlier a month ago, I’m settling in… Chain D.L.K.: I heard you recent ‘to death’ and I honestly think it’s a listening that I would likewise honestly recommend in this historical stage… but before focusing on it, even if those well-informed readers of our zine, whose memory has not been reset yet, don’t really need any introduction, how would you introduce yourself, your sound art and its direction(s)? Dave Phillips: Puh. Well. My music is rather free, abstract, “cinematic”, and personal. It sounds more organic than it does electronic. What I seek in sound/music is altered states of consciousness, states of trance and liberation, cathartic and purging kind of highs, some sort of elevation. Sound for me is communication, so I like it to have some sort of narrative, intentionality, something shared. I’m interested in the effect of sound as much as its aesthetic form. Sonically I’m inspired by contemporary (classical) composition, the sounds of insects, traditional music, improvisation/free music, bass music, as much as the energy of radical punk and metal. Literature is a big inspiration too. My sound work is often accompanied by topical contexts that touch on environmental and existential issues but are more driven by the interconnectedness of things, the thing that some call chaos, this enormous ecosystem that we are a part of, the kind of free life that is uncontrollable and beyond our systems of control or scientific measurement or language. I call my music “ritual protest music” – I protest against the reduction and restriction of life – I describe my way of approaching sound as “sonic activism”. Uhm, long “introduction” but there you go…. just open ears… Chain D.L.K.: The last outputs I vividly remember of yours, who reached somehow my desk (I often don’t know how or why some sonic entities reach my desk, besides the fact someone delivers them to my mailbox), has been a super limited split with Emerge on Nazlo, that was a tribute to Dmitry Vasilyev. Have you ever met him? Which tracks did he leave in your memory? Dave Phillips: I met Dmitry Vasilyev a bunch of times. The last time was in September 2018 when Dmitry had organized a tour for me and emerge in Russia. We met in Sevastopol before embarking on a tour together. The day before our tour began, we went swimming in the Black Sea and Dmitry drowned. The tape you speak of is a reaction to that tragic loss. Dmitry’s enthusiasm for and energy invested in experimental music was amazing… Chain D.L.K.: I have to amend… There’s also a CD from Attenuation titled ‘Post Homo Sapiens’, but I honestly haven’t unfolded it yet… What a shame! Can I get excused for that? What should I expect? Dave Phillips: Of course! Post Homo Sapiens imagines a world where insects and plants rule. Dave Phillips imagephoto courtesy of Jesse Newman Chain D.L.K.: I enjoyed the reading of some of your texts (ref: https://www.davephillips.ch/texts), the last of which includes many interesting and praiseworthy ecologist thoughts and reflections, but it dates back to 2015. Are you writing some new text for the recent evolution of human history? Dave Phillips: “For the recent evolution of human history”, haha. Besides writing, I collect and present texts too, and my texts sometimes take from articles and books that touch me. For the “sixth mass extinction” LP (2019) I collected a bunch of articles that together offer a picture of how humans are doing in terms of coexistence with other beings on this planet. It’s probably no surprise that we’re not faring very well – what we seem to be good at though is causing mass extinction and destruction. Said articles were accompanied by a profound text by professor Jem Bendell on “navigating climate tragedy”. For an upcoming split with sist en 343 called “thinking future coexistence,” I used a text by Charles Eisenstein on what happened since corona blessed us – this should be out in the autumn. I am supposed to write something for an upcoming compilation, but I haven’t got there yet… Chain D.L.K.: So let’s go back (or forward) to ‘to death’. I remember the words of a Tibetan monk on this subject, who said that we have to notice that when a baby comes to life cries, and we smile, when a person comes to death (let’s say so) sometimes has a smiling expression on his/her face, while we cry. Is this somehow ironic viewpoint close to the meaning of death you were referring to on your last release? Dave Phillips: Yes, very much so! Accompanying my father on his last journey was a profound experience that demystified death to an extent where it mostly wasn’t this “horrible thing” that people often seem to associate with it, but something quite different…. somehow magical, often peaceful and serene – my father was smiling a lot as he lay dying – and also somewhat unbiased, more to do with “life (in all its stages) never fails to amaze me”, where often opposing angles together make the whole. Chain D.L.K.: I think that most of the weirdest consequences of this likewise weird pandemic crisis can be interpreted by using the filter of human fear of death. How did this situation influence your ‘to death’? Dave Phillips: I was living in such intense reality bubbles at the time of the pandemic that the pandemic itself seemed to be happening on a side-stage, it didn’t seem to have that much impact on me. In hindsight, though, I realize it played into my perception more than I acknowledged. It affected my perception of the world. The slow dying of my father seemed to go hand in hand with the dying of something that somehow defines us as humans, as we grow more and more separate and distanced from one another and from purpose and freedom – as we have from the “natural world” at large, a separation that we are imposing on us more and more. That’s a slow dying. I mean, the empire is failing and falling, it will crash, no doubt, it’s just a question of when and how. And it sure won’t be pretty. People, please remove your filters! Chain D.L.K.: I also enjoyed the fact that in the title, there seems a first part missing. You can expect an ‘Hymn to death’, an ‘Ode to death’ or even a ‘Yell to death’! But it’s as it is… just ‘to death’! How did you draw inspiration for it? I read it was somehow related to your father’s last moments (of course you have my deepest sympathy). Dave Phillips: Thank you. Yes, it’s mainly inspired by my father’s illness, which was devastating and my being his carer for the last 15 months of his life. I witnessed his person being eaten away by disease – in a way, he was gone before death gave him peace. At the same time, I found myself in a role that made sense on so many levels, and somehow I managed to pull it through – I’m so glad I did. Taking care of the old is like taking care of the young, is like education, is like a purpose in life – outsourcing that to a paid service or a job or some system is missing out on profound experiences, on things essential, maybe on things that define us as animals or mammals or tribal beings. Something that teaches more than schools or universities can, but also demands more. So really it’s more about the journey, the path, the story of accompanying someone all the way “to death” and all that it sets free. My father’s wish was to die at home, and I’m glad that my siblings and I made that wish come true. But this journey also leads to other related topics. There are many readings of the title. The ode/hymn “to death” is certainly in there, probably poking at the wish to demystify death as the huge taboo that it still is. the title also addresses what we’re doing to planetary life – to plants and other animals. Thus, also what we’re doing to ourselves: when I view my father’s disease in a global context, it’s a common cause – nowadays. The main causes of death in our times show us how sick our allegedly “civilized” way of life makes many of us. So much human waste. We are “civilized to death”. And then there’s what this is all doing to us emotionally and existentially – areas where many of us seem more dead than alive, where we merely function and follow rules. The slow death of human potential through our educational systems and through our imposed “normality” is part of that. The death of freedom through total control of life, as per recent events. I mean, life IS uncertain – that’s the exciting part, isn’t it? All our puny attempts to create “safety and security” are laughable if they weren’t so devastating in what they actually do to us – but we’re like animals born in captivity. Our established political and economic systems seem rather dead too – I mean, an economy that functions linearly is just grossly inadequate for a world and lives that happen in cycles. So there are many paths and pointers “to death”. I can also turn it around: if death is the only certainty in life, then a tribute to death is a celebration of life! Chain D.L.K.: What are the reversed words in the opening ‘A Cycle Completed’ to say? Dave Phillips: The tone matters more than the words. What do you hear? Chain D.L.K.: Death is maybe the aspect of existence that keeps the strongest taboos still on. Do you agree with such a statement of not? Dave Phillips: Yes, that’s also why I wanted to make an album that demystifies that, that steers us away from this taboo, from this conditioned denial or shame, this refusal to face all aspects of existence. I wanted to describe death as what it is, part of a cycle as natural as birth, something to encounter and to know, not something to primarily fear. On the contrary, I feel the awareness of death is one of the driving forces of life, it brings out deep emotions which frankly make me feel very alive. Death the experience has many beautiful aspects to it, at least in my experience. To reduce death – or this album – to just something “dark and scary” is merely scratching the surface – it’s looking away. If we could include death in the bigger picture as something normal, we may enjoy more freedom in our lives… Chain D.L.K.: That piercing scary and somehow beastly scream on “To Death We All Go, The Sooner The Better”… how did you grab it, if it can be said? Dave Phillips: I often start a recording based on notes I made or impulses, ideas about sonics, and sentiments. The tape starts running and… I try to put these sentiments into sound, and then… often things happen, I get carried away…. I go places, I enter different states of being, it’s like I travel like I’m somewhere else. Then sometime later, thump, I land again, it’s like I’ve returned from far… and sometimes it even translates onto tape ;o) Like this album. I didn’t plan to do something about this particular topic, or about my father. I had a bunch of ideas noted, things I wanted to work into, but nothing like “to death”. Then I started recording. It was like a trance. It just poured out of me. The basic recordings happened within about ten days, basic structures of pieces were completed the following week. When I started listening back to what I had done, I was surprised. Then I realized what it’s about… Chain D.L.K.: Paraphrasing and quoting the title of one of my favorite tracks of the album, what’s the real catastrophe you wanted to represent or maybe exorcize? Dave Phillips: “The real catastrophe is that humanity continues”. It refers to the coronavirus and a reason why it might’ve appeared. I mean, we humans have vastly overpopulated this planet, and we are a very sick civilization, we’ve taken a couple of wrong turns too many, and we’re destroying not only our home but also that of all other inhabitants and them with it. It’s time we became extinct, or at least drastically reduced in numbers. We, humans, are the catastrophe… haha… it’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek, my sense of humor, though I reckon part of me means it ;o) Chain D.L.K.: Is there any moment of ‘to death’ that you want to keep deliberately indecipherable? Dave Phillips: Honestly, I try to be transparent with all that I do. My intentions, sentiments, feelings, it’s all there really. I don’t try to be cryptic or mysterious. On the other hand, it’s very subjective – I’ve put things out into the world that I thought were obvious and then find myself surprised by very different interpretations. So in this work, there are wordings, for example, that are only my own words for this particular moment, this context, they are subjective and not telling in terms of a narrative, so they needn’t be clear, they are only relevant in terms of opening spaces, it’s your own words or sentiments that take you through those spaces, and that’s fine. Chain D.L.K.: Any plan to lend or adapt ‘to death’ for other forms of art (theatre or video art maybe)? Dave Phillips: Not for now. The way this album poured out of me, the way it happened, this format is quite right for now. Emotionally, I’m quite elsewhere now anyway, also thanks to having this album happen. Chain D.L.K.: Any work in progress? Dave Phillips: Always :o) I’m currently finalizing two pieces for a 7″ for a young Portland label, and a comp track, but there are other pots cooking too… Visit Dave Phillips on the web: https://www.davephillips.ch/about https://dave-phillips.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/dave-phillips vimeo.com/davephillips 2019 €20.00
PHURPA Mantras of Bön CD "Zoharum would like to present the latest album by the band entitled "Mantras of Bon." It is an extraordinary release, even for such an extraordinary and unusual project as PHURPA. More than 70 minutes of music here is divided into two parts. The first one, featuring Alissa Nicolai on vocals, shows the band from a completely different angle; the other one presents the most important and interesting sessions recorded over the past few years, with a recording from CTM festival where they impressed the audience with "kuntunzangpo." "Mantras of Bon" is an excellent introduction into the adventures with PHURPA, the world of Tibetan music filtered by contemporary reinterpretation free from rigid rules. It may enchant both those looking for interesting sacral music and the ones searching for a new form of sonic statement. This 3-panel ecopak release is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info] www.zoharum.com "It's been a while since I last heard Phurpa, the musical project of Alexey Tegin, but Phurpa is a real band, who play ritual music inspired by that from Egypt, Iran, Tibet and use instruments from the latter culture. On this new release, they have five pieces, three of which are live recordings, as Phurpa plays around frequently. In the first two pieces Alissa Nicolai is the guest singer. She wails and screams about and makes that Phurpa sounds different than before. More Diamanda Galas I thought. Phurpa seems to be adding a set of curious sounds that come across like a stale wind over a vast empty plain. In the other three pieces the more traditional Phurpa sound is present. Much overtone singing as well as throat singing in 'Mu-Ye', the final live piece, as well as in 'Kuntunzangpo'. In both no other instruments seem to be present, but in 'Mi Dub' there is also some percussion. The music is very intense, but for me lacks the immediate presence of the musicians. I can imagine a situation in which this would fit perfectly - dimly lit, incense, dark, and musicians surrounding the audience, cavernous space - and such circumstances one simply doesn't have at home. That is something I regret when listening to this. It makes this music more difficult to get in to, I think. I especially liked the three Phurpa pieces at the end, for all their sparse intensity and perhaps less the two with Nicolai, which seemed a bit forced." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2014 €12.00
  Trowo Phurnag Ceremony CD This voyage began in the middle of the 1990's in Moscow, when a group of artists and musicians led by Alexei Tegin and based at the legendary Fabrique of Cardinal Art commenced their studies of traditional ritual music, drifting away from the field of contemporary electroacoustic and industrial music with the intent to delve deeper into the ancient musical cultures of the ancient Egypt, Iran and Tibet. The original 2003 lineup of the project that emerged as a result was ubbed Phurpa (one of the five tutelary deities of the Father Tantra in Bon tradition), and all the members have carried on with their research in the field of Bon and Buddhist liturgies up to the present day. Before Buddhism reached Tibet, local people had practiced involved shamanic rites derived from various ancestral cults. Later on, circa the VI-IX century AD, a conflict between the local tradition, namely, the pre-Buddhist religion of Bon (which originates from Central Asia) and Tantric Buddhism (hailing from the North of India) gave birth to a unique cultural phenomenon known as Tibetan Buddhism, which combines an extensive metaphysical corpus and an advanced philosophical system with pristine ceremonial practices that reach down through many centuries. In the X-XI century AD the monastic ensemble came into being. It has got a lot in common with the Chinese court ensembles of the Tang dynasty; nevertheless, the Tibetan ceremonial ensemble has preserved its authenticity and kept a large number of primordial elements stemming from the ancient Tibeto-Burmanese music intact to this day. A typical ensemble usually includes a pair of nga drums, several rolmo cymbals and a pair of gyaling oboes, as well as telescopic dunchen horns, dunkar shells and short wandun horns. One of the unique features of the Tibetan monastic choir is a specific kind of overtone chanting, called "rgyud-skad", or the Tantric voice, which is based on the principle of the singer's transmogrification during the so-called "chanting meditation". Recorded in 2005 at Melodiya studio, mixed and mastered in 2007-2008 at Magihead studio photography by Cheslav Merk, Ulrika Merk and Anna Lukyanova sketis-music.com/catalog/skmr-060-phurpa-trowo-phurnag-ceremony 2010 €13.00
PILIA, STEFANO Spiralis Aurea do-LP Venturing into untapped realms of creative exploration, the Genoa born, Bologna based, guitarist and electroacoustic composer, Stefano Pilia, returns to Die Schachtel with a double LP of material that intertwines traces of sacred geometry, collective experience and elusive connections between nature and human kind. “Spiralis Aurea” encounters the composer venturing into unchartered waters, exploring notions of spirituality via a body of twelve compositions, recorded in various combinations with a cast of all-star instrumentalist; Alessandra Novaga, iosonouncane, Silvia Tarozzi, Mattia Cipolli, Ensemble Concordanze, Elisa Bognetti, Enrico Gabrielli, Valeria Sturba, Giuseppe Franchellucci, Adrian Utley, and Cecilia Stacchiotti. The roots of “Spiralis Aurea” rest within Pilia’s longstanding, personal engagement with the spiritual and an epiphany had during a visit to the Futa Pass cemetery, the resting place for German soldiers killed in Italy during the Second World War. Deeply moved, he reflected on the profound meanings laying below geometry of its design; “a place"crossed" by thoughts about the landscape, history, symbols, rituals. A work offering a reflection on life and death. A prayer for the living and the dead.” Drawing its title from the Golden Spiral - also known as the golden ratio, golden section, golden mean, or divine proportion - a mathematical formula and geometric form that has maintained both mystical and creative significance for millennia, each of the 12 works that comprise “Spiralis Aurea” began with a figure or process that is both geometric and symbolic, drawn by Pilia, that slowly translated into tangible organizations of sound. Displaying a deep resonance with works by La Monte Young, Arvo Pärt, Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Terry Riley, that have witnessed trajectories of experimental music delving toward the spiritual, divine, and metaphysical, Pilia’s “Spiralis Aurea” culminates as a series of sonic meditations, leaving room within their spacious forms to encourage active listening. Calling up echoes of ancient musics within their optimistic, forward thinking tones, across various arrangements of instrumentation - double cello quartet and bass, horns quartet and bass organ, string quartet, string quartet and organ, cello quartet, solo organ, cello solo and synthesizer, electric guitar quartet, guitar quartet and synthesizer, piano and violin - Pilia sculpts a striking intersection between acoustic and electroacoustic process, drone, and chamber music, harnessing the literal and abstract in search of order and higher meaning within a chaotic and uncertain world. Overwhelmingly beautiful, conceptually rich, and marked by a profound sense of emotive tension, Stefano Pilia’s “Spiralis Aurea” is issued as a pure gold double vinyl LP in a limited deluxe edition of 250 copies, housed in a beautiful sleeve designed by Bruno Stucchi-Dinamomilano, painstakingly letterpress printed with a 1915 German press machine with a hand-painted and applied gold foil shining on a rust-coloured materic paper of Franciscan inspiration. https://dieschachtelrecords.bandcamp.com/album/spiralis-aurea 2022 €45.00
PIMMON / JAMES PLOTKIN split 12 "Endlich haben wir diesen Split-Release aufgetrieben – JAMES PLOTKIN erzeugt auf 3 Stücken auf seiner Gitarre ungewöhnliche Klänge, helle repetitive Klickmuster und Flächen, sowie fast schon Maschinenloops, die kaum noch an das Ursprungsinstrument erinnern... Mr. PIMMON dagegen kommt mit rein digitalen Mitteln zu ähnlichen Atmosphären, wobei er jedoch noch wesentlich abstrakter tönt... tolle Platte, nummeriertes, mit Löchern durchsiebtes Cover, Spielzeit einer LP !" this is something you definitely NEED if you are searching for something unusuable ! JAMES PLOTKIN creates with his guitar on 3 pieces very unusual guitar-sounds, bright click-patterns and soundfloor and something like machine-loops, that nearly don’t remind anymore to the original source. Mr. PIMMON uses pure digital means and reaches similar atmospheres, but sounds much more abstract.. great records, comes in a numbered cover with holes.. plays as long as an LP !" [Drone Records info 2000] 2000 €10.00
PINHAS, RICHARD Rhizosphere LP Richard Pinhas is one of the most important French electronic space rock musicians. Following five albums with HELDON, his band, he released his first solo record in 1977. Backed by Heldon’s congenial drummer François Auger but no longer bound by the group dynamic, he explores his freshly purchased Moog Modular system in search of new sounds. It marked a departure into new realms! Out Feb 2nd, 2018 soundcloud.com/bureau-1/sets/richard-pinhas-rhizosphere-album-preview 2018 €20.00
POTTER, COLIN & THE HAFLER TRIO A pressed on Sandwich CD Erste Zusammenarbeit der beiden Urgesteine britischer Experimental-Drones / Elektronik, ein one-tracker von ca. 53 Minuten Länge. POTTER bearbeitet die H30-Sounds, das sind organisch-elektronische Oberton-Klangstrahlen, die sich glitzernd & oszillierend ins Ätherische winden, ruhig & klar & zur Versenkung einladend.... "CD is packed in special paper wallet & released as the limited edition of 1010 copies. This nutritious fare was prepared by Colin Potter at IC Studio, Preston, UK in 2005, using the finest Icelandic ingredients supplied by The Hafler Trio." Colin Potter explains: "I attended The Hafler Trio performance of 'How To Slice a Loaf of Bread' in Preston and was very impressed on many different levels. During a discussion with Andrew McKenzie after the event, he suggested that we might try a joint project. Shortly afterwards he sent me some of the original source material from the performance. It was my intention to preserve the overall shape & sense of the material, but at the same time move it to another (sonic)..” [label info] “Do any of these two artists need really an introduction? I don't think so. Both are big shots in the world of experimental music. Early 2003, shortly after the re-discovery of The Hafler Trio, the trio did a performance in Preston called 'How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread'. The performance was attended by Colin Potter, who lives and works in the same city. Afterwards it was suggested that the two should work together, but McKenzie being Iceland and Potter in Preston made a tete-a-tete not easy. Andrew McKenzie mailed Colin Potter the original source materials for the concert, which Potter happily reworked into 'A Pressed On Sandwich'. The original performance was also released (see Vital Weekly 404), so there is something to compare. Both The Hafler Trio and Colin Potter are masters of drone music, but there are some subtle differences. The Hafler Trio seem overall more monochrome in approach, with so it seems for the listener who doesn't know any better, whereas Potter seems to be using more sound effects to create the soundscapes that he does, maybe less organic and more electronic. As said, the differences are quite subtle here, and there is certainly no hierarchy, both are masters of the genre. Potter's mix is perhaps a bit more dense and obviously more concise (The Hafler Trio release spans three CDs), but it moves as gentle and dark as the original. Great collaboration.” [FdW / Vital Weekly] "Fucking brilliant. Yeah, you should expect that these two high caliber sound sculptors would manage something great; and they do not disappoint. As for the obligatory introductions, Colin Potter may be best known from his ongoing contributions to Nurse With Wound over the past two decades, but has been privy to some of the finest in British dronescaping thanks to his work in Ora and Monos. The Hafler Trio is the creation of Andrew McKenzie, a sound research project which has been investigating the impact of sound upon the body, mind, and spirit through the lens of a Byzantine gnosticism. A couple years back, Potter had the good fortune of witnessing the Hafler Trio's How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread performance in Preston, England in 2003; after the show, Potter and McKenzie struck up a conversation, whence McKenzie suggested that the two collaborate. Shortly thereafter, McKenzie sent Potter a collection of the source material from that very performance as the foundation for their collaboration. Potter stated his intentions clearly, that he wanted to preserve the shape of the material while pushing it into another space. It's an understatement to say that Potter merely achieved his intention; as A Pressed On Sandwich ranks as one of the best things that he's worked on, on par with his work with Steven Stapleton on the existential void of Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste. Yeah, it's that good! Of course, McKenzie ultimately stretched out his own material of monumental dronings over a whopping six discs on the twin set of triple cds also entitled How To Slice A Loaf Of Bread (all of which are long out of print); so Potter's redux is a bit easier to digest, but certainly no less an album! You'll encounter the drone supreme here on A Pressed On Sandwich with electrified tonal vibrations, undulating phase patterns, and oceanic gasps of sublime expanses. The album starts off with a very cold, shivering feel but eventually transitions into a dynamic interplay of tones that simultaneously capturing the solemnness of church organ droning (with all of the overtones of holy symbolism) and the unnerving purity of feedback (with all of the allusions of technology on the brink of collapse). We mentioned it before, and we'll mentioned it again: fucking brilliant." [Aquarius Records] 2006 €15.00
POUSSEUR, HENRI Hommage au Sauvage. Un portrait d'Henri Pousseur. Un film des Guy Marc Hinant et Dominique Lohle DVD Film über HENRI POUSSEUR von GUY MARC HINANT und DOMINIQUE LOHLE, realisiert 2005, 52 Minuten lang. “Fifteen years ago, Paul Sacher Foundation (Bâle, Swiss) who preserves the files of the music of the 20th century, sends at Henri Pousseur his best expert, the musicologist Dr. Albi Rosenthal. By discovering the richness of the documents preserved by Pousseur, the dear Dr. opens large eyes LIKE THAT! Passed, present and future, all the Pousseur files will be versed with the Foundation: magnetic tapes, theoretical partitions, correspondence, writings; but also the most complex research, the obscure sound materials , many various notes. Today and for the 4th time, Henri takes the head of the convoy towards Basle... This film is the account of this last voyage. ________________________________________ HENRI POUSSEUR : influential in contemporary music, the Belgian composer Henri Pousseur studied composition at the academies of Liège and Brussels. in his early period he wrote in Webern's serial technique style and then turned to electronic and aleatoric music. He have translated Alban Berg 's written. and continue to work and have a great influence on the music today.” [press release] 2006 €16.00
  Musique Mixte 1966:1970 CD Zwei Stücke aus den 60ern, eine hochdynamisch-expressive Piano-Sprechgesang-musique concrete Mischung mit theatralischem Überbau...sehr extrem, fast unhörbar, noch immer radikal wie irgendwas! “Mixed Music : voice, pianos, various electro-acoustic devices We come back to our exploration of Henri Pousseur's works with a four-CD series which, along with what has already been released, will cover all his electronic music and his most radical works between 1953 and 1988 - 35 years of research and experiments.... The two pieces featured on Mixed Music (Voice, Pianos, Various Electro-Acoustic Devices) are magnum opuses in Pousseur's body of work, though they are seldom heard - Jeu de Miroirs de Votre Faust has been unavailable for a long time, while Crosses of Crossed Colors is released here for the first time ever.” [from the press release] ‘Already for Couleurs croisées (Crossed Colors, 1967), my initial idea was to add an amplified voice to the orchestra, a voice that could stand up to it and would clarify and explain the meaning of the piece, in the form of a black Baptist minister-style preach. So, besides the voice ("black," if possible), we have: 5 pianos, whose assembled parts reuse almost all the harmonic-rhythmic contents of the orchestral piece.’ [Henri Pousseur] 2006 €14.00
RADIGUE, ELIANE Triptych CD "Back to music after three years of silence. On the suggestion of Robert Ashley, Douglas Dunn commissioned this piece from ELIANE RADIGUE for choreography. Only the first part of Triptych was staged at the premiere at the Dancehall/Theatre of Nancy on February 27 1978. Recorded in the composer's studio in Paris. “After the premiere of Adnos I in San Francisco in 1974, a group of French students introduced Eliane Radigue to Tibetan Buddhism. When she returned to Paris, she began to explore this spirituality in depth, which slowed her musical production up until 1978. Triptych marks her return to composition, and draws its inspiration from ‘the spirit of the fundamental elements,’ water, air, fire, earth. Eliane Radigue likes to add that this has often been useful to her in her moments of research and transitions. This three-part composition, with its great humility and contemplative simplicity, heralded a new period of work and was the first in a series of masterpieces inspired by Tibetan Buddhism.”—Manu Holterbach (translation: Maxime Guitton) " [label info] www.importantrecords.com 2009 €15.00
  Feedback Works 1969-1970 LP Feedback Works 1969-1970 However mesmerizing they may be, the works of Éliane Radigue which could be found on record were quite rare when I met her in 1998: “Trilogie de la Mort”, “Biogenesis”, impressive pieces composed on the ARP 2500 synthesizer between 1970 and 1990. There was also the very rare double 7" “Σ=a=b=a+b”, edited by the author and then brought out by the Yvon Lambert Gallery in 1969, which seemed to unveil a turbulent side of the composer’s youth. This work was intended to be presented as a sonic environment and had been composed with nothing but feedback effects on magnetic tape… a relatively crude piece compared with those for synthesizer, difficult for me to relate to. I hastily concluded that Éliane had dabbled with feedback for its hot-tempered quality, a bit like her colleagues Robert Ashley or Alvin Lucier, before passing on to something calmer (in her case, the rounded and peaceable harmonics of the synthesizer)… my mistake. “Σ=a=b=a+b” was but a small part of the group of works based on feedback, just one of the more rough nuances from that so-rich period. When I visited her in her Paris apartment for the first time, what made an impression on me were the immense shelves taking up the entire entryway, filled from floor to ceiling with tapes. All those sounds… the whole life story of an electronic composer. Immediately I became overcome with curiosity as to the beauties hidden within those boxes, no way not to find treasures within. I did not know anything as yet. Éliane lives in an eternal present, one could almost say. I had never met someone who at her age was not busy digging around in their past. She, on the other hand, simply considered that she always had “her whole life in front of her”. Éliane, always inhabited by music, usually lives with a new project in mind. Even if not at all stingy in responding to questions about her rich past, one would not say that she tried to evoque times gone by. I quickly proposed to convert her magnetic tapes to digital. Not only to create an archive but also and especially to search out all the details, the secrets of this unique body of work. For years all I got were polite but firm refusals. She wanted to convince me that there was nothing but never-ending dust, and babbling, risky if not primitive… Things only changed suddenly after a return from Chicago in 2002 for the release of “L'Île re-sonante”. Delighted with the experience, she described the evening of the concert. She had been overwhelmed by the presence of very young people who came up for a signature on the boxset of “Adnos” trilogy (realised between 1974 and 1982 and published in 2002 by Table of the Elements. This time when I said that these works of the past were in effect full of passion and so it might be the time to put in order the archive, she said laconically, but with enthusiasm: “Oh, alright! But you do it, you know where everything is”. The big job could begin; I was enchanted and am still. I expected to find other works on the rough side, like “Σ=a=b=a+b”, but with surprise quite another thing came forth. The digital versions were all done in Lyon, at Lionel Marchetti’s. His interest in and knowledge of Éliane’s music, along with his detailed work, made for a most enjoyable activity. I recall the silence in the studio when we uncovered works surely never listened to after their first public performance, not to say ever presented... Sounds older than I was, for sure. Certain of these works had something of the traumatic about them: my goodness, she made these magnificent sounds with only three pieces of string! Thus were the works of the feedback period of Éliane Radigue revealed, as we gradually got them digitized, extending over five years approximately: “Omnht” with its broad tectonic vibrations, the celestial voices of “Usral”, the dense silences of “Jouet électronique”, “Stress Osaka” massive chant, the horizon moving in “Vice-versa, etc.”, the magnetic bewitchments of “Opus 17”… each one brought its load of surprises and burst a well filled time bubble. So did we rewind the thread of her biography, discovering obvious connections even in the texture of the sounds themselves, which joined that period to the synthesizer one. There is nothing anecdotal in the feedback period of Éliane Radigue. A good dozen pieces were composed between 1967 and 1970 in which most of the characteristic originality of her works had their beginnings. It is moreover continually amazing that she could build such formidably organic sonic edifices with the primitive machines which were hers: three tape recorders, a mixing board, an amplifier, two loudspeakers and a microphone. A home studio certainly primitive, but there were not any home studios to speak of in the sixties, the cost of materials being too high. To compose electronic music, or “concrete” or “experimental” (what distinctions!) you had to have access to an institutional studio (At the time usually located in the large radio studios, or certain universities). Indeed, a large part of Éliane’s possessions came from Pierre Henry. She met him at the “Studio d'Essai” of the R.T.F. in the middle of the 50s, after having met Pierre Schaeffer almost by chance (if such a chance does exist) who invited her to learn the techniques of musique concrète. In fact, from 1955 to 1957 she learned all about these techniques there, “in the shadow of the masters” she says. Éliane emphasizes that she could be there as a “quiet little mouse”, because she cast no shadow on the masters of the place. She learned, as she says, that she was only there as a student. During the 50s no avant-garde musician could imagine a woman seriously competing with them… Jokes erupted: “At least when Éliane comes to the studio it smells good!” etc. Nevertheless Pierre Henry liked one of Éliane’s montages and wanted to use it in a piece he was working on, “L'Occident est Bleu” (1957). From 1957 to 1967 she no longer had access to a studio. During these ten years she will be travelling, taking care of her family, and composing a few graphic scores which will never be published, or even played: “Asymptote Versatile” in 1960, or yet “Chess Game” (based on a chess match between Marcel Duchamp and her then husband, Arman). She was biding her time. She was to once again assist Pierre Henry from 1967 to 1969, and there she made her first tape compositions. During the last stage of mixing “L'Apocalypse de Jean”, in 1968, Pierre Henry brought to her some of the materials which would become her studio, so that she could continue working on some parts of the “Apocalypse” he asked her to work on, while he continued working at Studio Apsome. These things remained in Éliane’s house and she bought what was lacking to work autonomously: one more tape recorder, a microphone, and then, in 1971, the ARP 2500 synthesizer. Even if these first compositions date from the end of the 60s it seems evident the entire creative process in Éliane Radigue’s work had begun in the Studio d’Essai in 1955. What I always find striking when I listen to the first piece “Jouet électronique” (realized in 1967 at the Apsome Studio and published in 2010 by Alga Marghen) is the maturity and expressive force in this short composition. There is already a tension and poetry proper to her own. Similarly, “Jouet électronique” seems to contain the germ of all which is to come. Or at least it opens all the paths which she will follow indefatigably. It is as if her musical work in some way contained a martial arts discipline on which she meditated for 10 years before striking the first blow, with an impressive precision… Right away her music separates from the explorations of musique concrète, from any academism, or whatever style then in vogue. Her adventure is intuitively going towards flux, towards contemplative stasis. A music of continuous sounds, of apparently simple structures, which permits the revelations and expansion of rich acoustic phenomena. One could say that in one sense it is the very texture of the sounds which leads the form in her compositions. At the same time this approach favors an intense sensuality in the listening. The fluidity of form in Éliane Radigue’s music has more to do with certain world music traditions, composed of drones, resonances, pulsations (although I cannot be sure that this was really the inspiration). A music in which time is suspended, but not stopped, rather unfolding with an intoxicating slowness, engendering fascination rather than boredom. Between 1969 and 1970 Éliane Radigue gave up measured durations and composed works which flirted with eternity: “Usral” (1969), “Labyrinthe Sonore” (1970). and “Omnht” (1970). They are generally made of several tape loops of clearly different duration read simultaneously. In this arrangement, simple and ingenious (close to the usage of Steve Reich in his youthful pieces), the fixed sounds go slowly out of synch, in a play of perpetual mutation. From this appears a sonic landscape whose temporality, as well as its materiality, could be described by these verses by Paul Verlaine: “…who, each time, is never quite the same, nor completely another…” The terms “Sound Art” and “Sound Installation” are in vogue at this moment. There was nothing like it at the time. A way of describing this new approach had to be developed. So she presented her works under the description “Propos Sonores” (Sonic propositions) or sometimes “Music without End”. These works were unveiled to the public both in the places consecrated to music as well as museums and galleries (Yvon Lambert, Lara Vincy, etc.). Nothing surprising in the fact that these “Music without End” at times, like a halo of the infinite, accompanied works of such visual artists as Marc Halpern or Tania Mouraud. For all that, without minimizing the interest of these collaborations, it seems important to add that the sounds she used have in themselves a completely “plastic” quality. This is the context in which Éliane composed “Omnht” in 1970 for one of the architectonic spaces of the visual artist Tania Mouraud, “One More Night”, presented at the Gallery of the Rive Gauche in Paris. With Jean Heuzé, one of Pierre Henry’s co-workers who helped out on this project, Éliane had the idea of screwing the speakers into the partitions so that they would be invisible with respect to the immaculate exhibition space. Due to this the sounds could vibrate within walls which become resonant surfaces. This description caused me to “leap up to the ceiling” because it is a technique that I used myself in my sound installation work… only twenty years later. I quickly felt it necessary to present this piece anew. In 2006, thanks to an active competition by the Consortium Art Center and the association “Cumulus” in Dijon (organizers of the contemporary music festival “Why Note”), it was possible to do a version among the old industrial buildings of “L'Usine”. Large plaster partitions were already in place and formed an ideal group of surfaces for the installation of loudspeakers. Resounding in these grand rooms, “Omnht” seemed to shake the entire building, thus creating a sonic architecture of time and space… A vast edifice of vibrations, built like a mirror of frequencies in which were reflected our inner worlds. It was admirable to see how much this work had resisted time; the fascinated reception by the public left no doubt as to its poetic force. After this public presentation I set up a stereophonic synthesis of that installation in my studio, by combining the original sounds with those taken at “L'Usine”. I felt a lively need to hear those magnificent sounds again. I realized moreover that the sonorities of “Omnht” survived the reduction quite well, and I found once more with happiness the unique intensity of this spatial composition. Some time later, Éliane offered me one of the 10 copies of “Vice-versa, etc.”: a small handmade box, signed and numbered, realized as a multiple on the occasion of a show at Lara Vincy’s gallery in 1970, which contained a reel of magnetic tape and the instructions for use. It indicates that all playback speeds are possible, forwards or backwards, as well as any combination of two channels, on several recorders, “ad libitum”… A present which touched me profoundly. I took up the game and rapidly made mixings following the indications to the letter, respecting the composition methods of Éliane Radigue. Need I say that to work with such lovely sounds was a real pleasure? Then I decided to do the same with all her sound installation works: slices of time from those sonic environments dedicated to space and infinity. There are so few spaces devoted to Sound Art, so the occasions for presenting such work to the public are rare. It seems evident to me that if we waited for that to happen very few people would have access to that part of Éliane’s work. Fundamentally, these stereophonic syntheses should have been made and published a long time ago because this compilation offers a simple way into the home of this passionate time. Therefore, I proposed that we listen to them together, because of course the idea should seem legitimate to her. Knowing her to be extremely critical towards her past work, and ready to renounce certain aspects of it, I confess to being a bit anxious as to her reaction. Neither did I know how she would react to my taking the initiative in making such syntheses. Contrary to my apprehensions we passed a marvelous day. Éliane had forgotten practically everything of the sonic textures she made then, and discovered evident links with the sounds she realized later on with the synthesizer. In her compositional work Éliane Radigue developed her own characteristic “footprint”: an art of imperceptible transition from one kind of movement to another. It is very difficult to know at what moment things change, because they are continually changing without one’s really being aware of it… a little like a natural phenomenon in perpetual mutation. This is doubtless one of the magical constituents of her music and it engenders the loss of any temporal reference point. If you look over the whole from her first compositions to the most recent ones for acoustic instruments, passing through the imposing electronic period, it seems evident that this way of gentle transition is a characteristic of her entire work. Not only within the compositions but also from one composition to another. We do not confront a collection of isolated experiences but rather embark on a patient and minute exploration of a vast poetic territory. At the end of the day it was clear to her, just as it had been for me, that these syntheses had to be complied and published. This certainly does not replace the necessity of in-situ presentations; all of the music of Éliane Radigue is destined to vibrate spatiously and this is all-the-more so for the installations. And in any case, this collection gives a good overview of the intense beauty of these “Propos Sonores” composed so long ago with such reduced means. By her original approach, Éliane Radigue held herself, as she still does, outside the dogmas of her epoch and therefore had to sometimes face some lack of understanding. Intuition is however her force, and she has known how to continue until today composing in full independence of spirit; her aesthetic gives forth a body of work unique in its genre, honorably recognized and appreciated today. We are among the many who see her as a pioneer capable of revealing a precious territory of sounds, one that she seems alone to occupy. To us to enjoy this publication of the first remarkable steps of a figure who holds the music of our time in her spell. Emmanuel Holterbach https://elianeradigue.bandcamp.com/album/feedback-works-1969-1970 2022 €24.50
RAPOON Song from the End of the World CD "Robin Storey otherwise known as Rapoon, and ex member and co-founder of legendary northern group Zoviet France, comes back in the frozen lands of Glacial Movements after his vision of an Europe covered by ice in "Time Frost" (2007). The English artist this time faces a theme recently discovered, and that could dramatically change the destiny of our planet. Evoking visions of mad scientists, French researchers are set to revive a mega-virus dormant for 30,000 years that they discovered in the permafrost of the Russian Arctic. The researchers, from the French National Center for Scientific Research, say they will take precautions to revive the specimen under safe laboratory conditions. They published a paper detailing their research in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The group of researchers is headed by Jean-Michel Claverie, who runs a laboratory at the French center. The French scientists, who awakened another Siberian virus, known as Pithovirus sibericum, in a petri dish in the lab in 2013, warn that climate change may awaken dangerous viruses in areas of the far north where soil or permafrost is melting and believe it is better to ‘know the enemy’. They found it near the same area as the latest discovery, which they named Mollivirus sibericum. This is the fourth prehistoric virus found since 2003. Source: ancient-origins.net Buried deep beneath the ice lies Armageddon Locked in a frozen world it waits There are songs and myths of the coming end The voices are raised in supplication to gods and nature A cold wind howls the ice slowly melts Without understanding of time It waits This is my song from the end of the world Robin Storey, 2016 " [label info] www.glacialmovements.com 2016 €15.00
Downgliding CD "This is the third release on our Carpe Sonum Novum sublabel. released September 28, 2015 These recordings began with playing Xpand 2, the software instrument included in Pro Tools. I was listening to the electric piano instruments and tried out a few different settings until I got the sound that became the inspirational building block for these compositions. A kind of sonar ping. Lost, lonesome. A sound resonant with searching and finding. A hopeful enquiry sent into the depths awaiting reply. I was reminded of listening to Pink Floyd's Meddle when I was a youngster and the emotional impact sounds and music had when i was just a listener. Just listening is an important part of composition. Karlheinz Stockhausen said as much. So did the guys in Can. Just listening is sometimes the hardest thing you can do. Just listening is sometimes the most important and rewarding thing you can do. In these recordings I tried to just listen. The sea ebbed and flowed." [label info] www.carpesonum.com 2015 €14.00
Seeds in the Tide Vol. 5 do-CD Here's the fifth instalment in the series entitled 'Seeds in the Tide' featuring rare and unreleased Rapoon recordings. The next part focuses on 2008-2011 compositions from Robin Storey's project history. These seventeen diverse pieces are a great introduction to Rapoon's body of work, and at the same time they will please all the hardcore fans searching for every recording of the project. On this fifth volume you will find collaborative works, remixes for other projects, the full version of 'Human Energy Field' (from the sold-out compilation 'From Earth to Sirius', which was the beginning of Zoharum collaboration with Rapoon), unreleased track from 'Stray' album and other curios. Three twenty-minute compositions seem to be the highlights at first, although there are a lot of interesting bits among shorter tracks as well. rapoon.bandcamp.com/album/seeds-in-the-tide-vol-5-2xcd 2017 €16.00
  Call Fires to Cloud CD Edition comes in a full-colour 4-panel A5 sized digipak with different cover artwork. Glass mastered CD with 6 full colour A6 postcards on 300g glossy laminated card, limited to 100 copies. These six images are from the Replicants Creation Myths. 'The great crow that tore up the earth with his beak, flapped his wings and made the stars from the dust when all was silent.' The replicant society has broken down and all that remains are a few wandering tribes who traverse the dying planet searching for somewhere to call home. They pray to empty gods. One group places it’s final messages and cultural artefacts into a holographic file but before it can be sent into space a great sandstorm sweeps across their encampment and buries everything. Millenia later another great storm finally blows the sand away from the power panels and the transmitter bursts into brief life. Just long enough to send the following files of music and art...... What began life as session tracks and studio sounds from the Mercury Rising Trilogy, ended up becoming an album of almost entirely new material. Robin Storey takes us on a journey to the outer reaches of a very distant and cold solar system. These intercepted transmissions of audio and visual material, that have bounced around the known universe for millennia, finally allow us a glimpse in to their creators past. https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/call-fires-to-cloud 2020 €20.00
RATS WITH WINGS Aide-Memoire do-LP A collection of material taken from diverse CDR-releases from this die-hard experimentalism project from Australia. Always disturbing, always challenging, always low-fi & mysterious, always unsettling, strange & alien in an almost absurd way. You could compare it to MLEHST or LICHT-UNG maybe, speaking of the approach....electronic micro & macrosounds, crackles, hums, squakings, sounds from objects, field recordings, drones... do not try to understand or analyse this, just let it in. This is one of the not-understandable records that will be searched for in maybe 20 years. Or maybe not. We think its great stuff ! Import from Australia in a tiny edition, handmade cover with broken CD on it. "double LP of material taken from CD-R releases: The Fish Rots From The Head (unreleased), Southern Oscillation Index (HoLR) CDR-RWW (MIR), Ratified Loopholes (AEN), Ashtray Cabbage (Fiend), Get And Put (Deadline), Out Vile Jelly! (Gold Soundz), Night Science and Underground Australia compilations (Cipher Productions). [package has a damaged CD glued to the cover]" [label info] 2006 €20.00
REDOLFI, MICHEL Desert Tracks LP "In 1987, Michel Redolfi hit the California Desert road during the Fall, to catch those hypothetical poly-sensorial desert tones. He visited the Mojave Desert, Death Valley, Palm Canyon and came back with an extraordinary album of early electronic music, sparse and bright to express the crude light and the divine silences. Released in our Early Electronic series Michel Redolfi (Marseille 1951): In 1969, with the co-foundation of the GMEM, Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille, Michel Redolfi pursued his passion for electro-acoustic music at an early age. During the 80s and 90s he composed collaborative works with Luc Ferrari, Bernard Parmegiani, Pierre Henry and Jean-Claude Risset. Resident of the United States from 1973 to 1984, he carried out his research with several new music centers, including the CME at the University of California in San Diego and California Institute of the Arts. Also during this period he developed several collaborations with American composers. The natural elements highlighted by technology are a constant in Redolfi's catalogue: many electroacoustic pieces stylize and orchestrate sound matter, recorded in remote locations (Pacific Tubular Waves, Desert Tracks, Jungle). He currently heads a major studio in sound design, Audionaute, based in Nice, France. tracklisting CD 1 opening 5'49 2 mojave desert 7'11 3 death valley 11'26 4 palm canyon 10'20 5 too much sky / 10'00 extra track CD only tracklisting LP side 1 1 opening 5'49 2 mojave desert 7'11 side 2 1 death valley 11'26 2 palm canyon 10'20 ............................................................................................................................................ MICHEL REDOLFI Desert Tracks ref SRV418 LP ref SR418 CD file under Michel Redolfi GRM Early Electronic Music stock date OCTOBER 12 2016 www.subrosa.net 2016 €16.00
REICH, STEVE Four Organs / Phase Patterns LP "This classic minimal music album is now available again on vinyl for the first time since the 70s. In recent decades Steve Reich's music has been presented internationally at major venues, performed by high-profile musicians including the Kronos Quartet, guitarist Pat Metheny, and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. But in 1970, when the music on this LP was recorded, Reich's audiences gathered in museums and art galleries to hear his work interpreted by the composer himself and a group of friends. "I am interested in perceptible processes" Reich had written in 1968. "I want to be able to hear the processes happening throughout the sounding music.' Four Organs is a radical realisation of this goal. Against the steady rattle of maracas, individual tones within a single chord are gradually lengthened. No changes of pitch or timbre occur, and the drawn out nature of the process provoked outrage at some early performances, when audiences found themselves caught up in a decelerating loop, being dragged towards stasis. Phase Patterns, composed a month later, relies on a phasing technique developed during Reich's earlier experiments with magnetic tape recordings, which he allowed to drift out of sync. Identical figures initially in unison shift out of phase, generating unexpected patterns. When these pieces first appeared, on the adventurous French record label Shandar, they were regarded as defining works within a musical movement that had developed during the late 1960s. Reich was seen as a pioneer of minimalism, along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Philip Glass, whose music also featured in the Shandar catalogue. With hindsight the term is inadequate and inappropriate when applied to much of Reich's subsequent oeuvre, which includes rich and varied works such as The Desert Music for voices and orchestra, Tehillim - a setting of Psalms, and his multimedia opera The Cave. But these two works from 1970 are purely minimalist, in a way that the visual artists and sculptors who formed Reich's early audiences would have recognised. These pieces may have clear affinity with conceptual art as well as the minimalist aesthetic, but Reich's allegiance is to making music rather than sound art or acoustic research. Characteristically, after creating Four Organs Reich looked for antecedents in musical history, and found them in the medieval organa of Léonin and Pérotin. His subsequent work has found acceptance and a substantial following within the established institutions of composed music. He has become a major composer. In the same year that these Four Organs and Phase Patterns were written Reich travelled to Ghana to study with a master drummer. On his return to New York he started work on Drumming, an hour-long distillation of his interest in African and Balinese music and their polyrhythmic processes. It forms an impressive culmination to his use of phasing technique and is widely acknowledged as a minimalist masterpiece. But if it is the radical edge of uncompromising hardcore minimalism that you are after, this reissue of Four Organs and Phase Patterns delivers two key examples. "Obviously music should put all within listening range into a state of ecstasy" Steve Reich in 1969." [label info] www.aguirrecords.com "Two of our favorite pieces of all time from minimalist composer Reich, available again! Both pieces were recorded in 1970, one at the Guggenheim in NY and the other at the University Museum in Berkeley. This is electric organ overdrive! Four Organs not surprisingly is a piece played on four electric organs (with Reich playing one as well as his good friend Philip Glass...), while beneath the organs is the repetitious shaking of maracas. The short pulsations of the organ gradually stretch out, lasting longer and longer, creating a totally dynamic tension that evokes standing in a massive and grand church that's empty except for the mesmerizing sounds of the organs lulling you into some sort of a trance. Phase Patterns manages to increase the tension with the four players using identical organs and playing to a precise strategy that Reich has calculated. These pieces predate and predict so much of the minimalist electronic and experimental music to come over the next three decades." [Aquarius Rec.] 2016 €22.50
REVENANT Zeltini CD "Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, John Grzinich, Kaspars Kalninsh, Felicity Mangan ‘revenant’ is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions. All sounds originate from materials found in-situ, and from interactions with the space itself. There were some “dark” elements surrounding this session. It was mid-November in the Baltics which meant that it was cold, gray and the sun goes down early. By the time we entered the bunker and set up to record there was no natural light left to see. Trying to find a shared experience through improvisation among a group that is not familiar is hard enough, trying to do this in the dark in an unfamiliar place is even harder. Knowing we would be without visual and sometimes auditory communication because of the multiple spaces available I suggested to do a recording experiment, to each use our own equipment yet synchronize the timing at the start. If we were to get “lost” or immersed in our own experiences, it would be interesting to reassemble them later as a shared “fictional” space. This is indeed what we ended up with. Using only my ears and a headlamp to guide my way, I foraged through that unknown space collecting objects and playing them on the varied surfaces I discovered. I remember the old rags, the dust, broken pieces of concrete, pipes coming out of the ground and how I searched for ways to animate the space and instigate interactions with the others. Whether it was the quest for new objects or the need to stay warm I constantly moved around and even ended up outside toward the end. (John Grzinich)" [press release] www.unfathomless.net "An ongoing project with open membership, that is what Revenant is about. On their second (?) CD, we find John Grzinich again, but with four new members, Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, Kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan. The five of them went to Zeltini, a former Soviet army base in Latvia and they looked for some stuff to create music with, as this is another angle of Revenant. Find material on the site, and play that as it were instruments, using the space as its concert space or studio. Again we are not told how this was recorded or edited, but for about fifty plus minutes we hear these five persons moving through the bunker space, toying around with the various objects they found in this space, like glass, stones and metal. This is done in a musical manner, through means of improvisation. Not a random scattering of debris, but listening and interacting with each other and creating music with non-musical objects. There are overtones to be found here, which are hard to place (wind? somebody blowing a pipe?), which add a nice textural tone to the proceedings. Maybe like the previous one, this is the natural element that is being used here. I am not entirely sure. The only reference I could think of is the recent work of Jeph Jerman - closely miked acoustic objects being played, but then in the large resonating bunker in Latvia. Not the most easy listening one around, but surely some great music has been captured here." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2011 €14.00
REYNOLS Fire Music Reloaded CD Fire Music Reloaded, by REYNOLS Fire Music was composed by Reynols in 2002 with fire recordings made at Tigre (Río Capitán) and different locations in Buenos Aires city and around. With some of this material, a CD EP appeared in Japan in 2002 through the Digital Narcis label, however the complete version of this piece remained unreleased for decades. In a recent research the masters of the whole work were found and rescued from the group's archives. So twenty years later, finally the full version of this piece is now ready to see the light on a brand new CD album carefully released by German label Aufabwegen. Fire Music Reloaded stands on the most conceptual side of Reynols' catalogue, along with works such as: 10.000 Chickens Symphony, Whistling Kettle Quartet, Computer Music, Gordura Vegetal Hidrogenada or Blank Tapes. In its four parts journey, the group explores a wide range of frequencies coming from fire as the only sound source. A release which pays tribute to the igneous aurality. Let your ears get on fire! REYNOLS Reynols is one of the most notable experimental music groups to ever emerge from Argentina. The band started in 1993 in Buenos Aires and was formed by Miguel Tomasín, Roberto Conlazo, Pacu Conlazo and Alan Courtis. The project counts over 150 releases by labels from Japan, Europe, USA, Oceania and Latin America. Reynols has been tagged as a “cult group” by British magazine The Wire, while the French festival Sonic Protest proclaimed it as groupe phare (lighthouse group) of inclusive music. Throughout 2003, Reynols occupied the 1st place on the “Top 10 Downloads” section of former website Space-Rock (UK). A year later, their song “Manisero Mufuso” was #1 on Larry “Fuzz-O” Dolman’s Blastitude Top10 (USA). Japanese magazine Studio Voice included Reynols’ album Barbatrulos in their “Best 100 Western Alternative Music Records” ranking, and Reynols/No Reynols among the “300 Legendary Discs” of all times, while The Wire ranked their boxset Minecxcio Emanations 1993-2018 in their 2019 Top50.Reynols has appeared in countless exhibitions, radio shows, TV shows, magazines, newspapers, books and documentary films from around the world. Reynols has collaborated live and in studio with acclaimed artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Lee Ranaldo, The Nihilist Spasm Band, Damo Suzuki, Paul Dutton, John Oswald, Michael Snow, Alan Licht, Birchville Cat Motel and Acid Mothers Temple, amongst others https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/fire-music-reloaded "Die aus Argentinien stammende und seit der ersten Hälfte der 90er aktive Band Reynols hat ein umfangreiches Werk veröffentlicht, das zwischen Stilen und Genres hin- und herspringt: Von skurillem Noise-/Anti-Rock bis zu Drone. Das jetzt auf Auf Abwegen erschienene Album „Fire Music Reloaded“ ist eine vollständige Version der 2002 auf dem japanischen Label Digital Narcis Corporation,. Ltd. erschienenen 20-minütigen EP „Fire Music“. Vielleicht spielt die sehr niedrige Auf Abwegen-Katalognummer auf das Alter der Aufnahmen an. Reynols bearbeitete -wie der Titel vermuten lässt – den Klang von Feuer; insofern knüpft diese Veröffentlichung mit der Konzentration auf ein Ausgangsmatrial an die „10.000 Chickens’ Symphony“-7” auf Drone oder etwa „Whistling Kettle Quartet“ an. Der erste kurze Teil mit seinem helllen und transparenten Klang lässt einen denken, ein knisterndes Feuer brenne im Raum und hier wirkt das Ausgangsmaterial (scheinbar) wenig bis gar nicht bearbeitet. Teil 2 dagegen ist eine dichte wie verdichtete Klangwand, in der man zwischendurch immer wieder das Knistern von Flammen hört. „Fire Music Part III“ ist wieder fragiler, hier lässt das Knistern der Flammen an einen Gang durchs Unterholz denken oder an das Zirpen von Zikaden. Darauf folgt Teil 4 als dunkles Dröhnen und Brummen: das ist ein zähflüssiger Klangsud, so als lausche man dem Ächzen eines Gletschers und man fühlt sich durchaus an den frühen Thomas Köner erinnert. Die neun Minuten von „Fire Music V“ sind hektisch, während Teil 6 das Album fast schon mit einer Art Noisestück beendet: Der Track ist eine Kakophonie, bei der man sich vorkommt, als stünde man in einer Turbine. Diese nun vollständige “Fire Music” ist sowohl in ihrer konzeptionellen Konsistenz als auch in ihrer (zumindest partiellen) Heterogenität beeindruckend." [MG / African Paper] 2022 €13.00
RICCI, MASSIMO Tracey Feels Worse CD Elevator Bath is honored to present the first ever release of sound work from famed music writer Massimo Ricci. Known as an individualistic reviewer - or, as he puts it, a "composer using words as main instrument" - in the meantime Ricci keeps researching, dissecting and altering sounds, something he has been doing since the late 60s. "Tracey Feels Worse" consists of a single 35-minute piece based on recordings made by the composer in 1984, which, over time, were radically rearranged and reformed. Now in its final state, the piece is a wholly abstract undertaking; ominous and deliciously inscrutable. The work does not contain hidden meanings or esoteric implications, nor does it want to symbolize unprovable "truths." Ricci - an atheist lone wolf who despises the opportunistic traits of false spirituality - processed extremely simple sources to the point of near-unrecognizability, generating enigmatic spirals and indeterminate environments from what was originally born as mere parody. The specific sounds and techniques employed remain mysterious, as neither samples nor loops were utilized. But this mystery is fitting for such a haunting, ephemeral piece of music - even if the sound is robust. Indeed, there is an almost physical presence to the ever-shifting elements at play here. The soundscape is in constant motion, yet the overall impression is of a kind of uneasy calm. Perhaps the piece's structure lends itself to a feeling of anxious serenity. The sounds unnerve while the methodology soothes. The piece's palindromic construction recalls the ghosts of Victorian literature, doomed to repeat their movements in an endless cycle for all eternity. But ultimately, in Ricci’s words, "'Tracey Feels Worse' may be interpreted as a threnody for the risible irrationality of the human theories about creation and afterlife. Typically fabricated by minds anxious to satisfy the needs of the self, they’re pitifully inadequate for the egoless infinity of sound and silence.” https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/album/tracey-feels-worse 2020 €13.00
RICHTER, MAX Disconnect (OST) CD "Jason Bateman and Alexander Skarsgard star is this drama centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today's wired world. Extremely well received on the festival circuit, LD Entertainment is releasing the picture in April. This album includes the entire score composed by Max Richter (Waltz With Bashir, Sarah's Key) for the film. It is an emotional and beautiful score which plays a central role in the film." [label info] www.milanrecords.com "One of the most beautiful and definitive tracks in Max Richter's ever-growing body of work is "On the Nature of Daylight" from The Blue Notebooks, the album that brought him to the attention of many critics and fans. Since that breakthrough, he's developed a niche as a composer ready and willing to revamp the classics, as he did with Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, as well as a sensitive and versatile composer of scores for films ranging from looks at the not-so-tame secret lives of domesticated animals (Die Fremde) to dystopian sci-fi (Perfect Sense). Richter's music for Disconnect is an intersection of those career paths: the score uses "Daylight" as its emotional and musical focus, surrounding it with pieces that echo and complement it. While Martin Scorsese's brain-twisting thriller Shutter Island also featured the piece prominently, here it's fundamental to the film and its exploration of how technology brings people together and (more often) pulls them apart. Cues like "The Swimmer" reprise "On the Nature of Daylight"'s beautifully somber violin melodies, while "Confrontation" pits them against pummeling electronic beats in a way that could be heavy-handed but maintains a dignified poignancy in Richter's hands. Elsewhere, the score borrows from other Blue Notebooks pieces like the lovely "Written on the Sky," or evokes them as on the mournful organ pieces "Hospital" and "The Gun." Given the film's tech fixation, most of the rest of Disconnect's music is more electronic and makes the most of Richter's minimalism, whether on brief, wash-like tracks such as "The Report" or more elaborate ones like "Zero Balance," which moves from delicate tones to more ominous ones as it progresses. Many of these tracks aren't as attention-getting as the ones that draw from Richter's classical roots, but his cues for Disconnect's action scenes are as tense as they are restrained; "Pursuit" and "Running" are just as taut, but far subtler, than a typical climactic score piece. Disconnect is of a piece with scores like Cliff Martinez's Traffic, where the music seems to just faintly tint the air with the proper mood. It may not be among Richter's richest works, but he provides what the film needs from its music with more depth and restraint than many other composers could have managed. ~ Heather Phares Audio Mixers: Michael Schubert; Max Richter." [Henry-Alex Rubin] 2013 €17.50
RIVET, JEAN-MICHEL A fleur de quai CD "This record gathers a selection of recent compositions from this french electroacoustic composer. His work follows the path of french pioneers of 'musique concrète' with an emphasis on the intrinsic beauty of captured sounds and poetic compositions that let your imagination go - very far from standardazed today production from well-established studios in France or in Canada. Each track focuses on one sound source from daily life (trains, a demonstration, a voice, ...) and tells a story that each one can built for himself - therefore, we can speak of a true cinema for the ear. JM Rivet is a Bordeaux-based composer of electro-acoustic music who studied composition at GMEB in the late 70's and has completed a training course at Xenakis' Cenamu in 82. He works today as research professor in digital studio practice and sound recording. He has been composing music since 30 years, mainly for theatre but also for radio and exhibition." [label info] www.sonoris.org 2009 €12.00
RLW eaRLy W three: Neue Deutsche Peinlichkeit LP “In the ever ongoing search for old but not lost recordings by RLW, aka Ralf Wehowsky, we finally get the third volume in 'eaRLy W', a series started in 1997 by Swill Radio. On this LP we find the recordings from 1981 which RLW recorded as Rogalli. 'Neue Deutsche Peinlichkeit' was originally a c30 cassette, and is here in it's complete form, plus three bonus tracks from the same time. This is however not a solo recording by RLW, but he gets some help from future and past PD/P16.D4 members. What can be noted here is that the loose form improvisation of some RLW's older stuff is gone, and that he plays 'real' tracks, structured and played with care. A rhythm-box and guitars play an important role, feeding the sound through a bunch of distortion pedals and other relative simple means of transformation. But each of the pieces is a concise affair, a strict exploration of an idea per track. It's still far away from the latter cut-up concrete sound of P16.D4, but it's at the same time also a much more structured record than some of the preceding material. A transitional record so to say, not entirely cutting it previous ties, and not yet the form and structure of P16.D4. As with all of RLW's re-issues this is a highly essential re-issue, slowly unfolding pieces of forgotten history.” [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2005 €14.00
RLW + SRMEIXNER Just like a Flower when Winter begins CD "Recorded by RLW (Ralf Wehowsky of P16.D4) and srmeixner (Stephen Meixner of Contrastate) between 2010 and 2013. The first emanation of the project came up with two versions of one mutual piece (Sunglasses by rlw, Wishing by srm). The core structural elements of the release can be seen in srm's meditation on sentiment (old hearts) and rlw's textased pieces (Prach-tjunge, Alle, Definition). More instrumentally based are Gummidorf (srm) and Spaßbremse rlw). Beyond this a signment both artists have touched all pieces in various ways, as indicated indirectly by the following pandects & interpolations: RLW (Dec 2010) 'Some weeks ago I did a horrible dj-set for a 75th birthday celebration, including Heino and other German schlager cruelties. it was so terrible ! maybe I'll go back to the pieces i used for this event some day. This stuff is awful enough to make another use of it. SRM (Jan 2011): I have been thinking about your description of German schlager cruelties and how horrible it was and awful enough to do something with. Maybe there is a possible project there?" [label info] www.monotyperecords.com " "Wie eine Blume am Winterbeginn / Und so wie ein Feuer im eisigen Wind / Wie eine Puppe, die keiner mehr mag /Fühl ich mich an manchem Tag" (meaning "Just like a flower when winter begins / And just like a fire in an icy wind / Just like a doll that nobody wants anymore / That's how I feel on some days"), said the first strophe of the song "Ein bisschen Frieden" ("A little bit of Peace") by which Nicole Seibert, better known as Nicole, won Eurovision Song Contest 1982, rised UK single chart up and became quite famous due to a number of translated versions. This buttery and somewhat controversial (just check lyrics) song became the emblem and the title of this lampoon of pop hit songs - mainly German schlager, but there are also quotes and samples from other traditions together with some German musical atrocities which could have been exported by immigrants, such as the sample of Italian song "Mamma" by Claudio Villa in the disturbingly funny "Old Hearts Rejuvenated" - by Ralf Wehowsky aka RLW, member of the forerunning collective P16.D4, and Stephen "srmeixner" Meixner of Contrastate. Their humorous collage which turned a set of samples from a number of gutted pop hits, plunderphonics, industrial-like sonorities, electroacoustics and vocals which sound like radiophonic captions into a sort of creepy show, whose core elements are srm's meditiation on sentiment ("Old Hearts Rejuvenated"), which are somehow closer to his "permutative distorsions", and rlw's textual pieces ("Definition (Konsumation)", the disquieting swarm of "Alle (Everyone)" - it's really funny the list of names of German pop stars, where the female speaker turns into a devilish one -, the initial "Blumen fur den Prachtjungen") as well as some instrumental forays ("Gummidorf", "Spassbremse") or post-industrial unnerving activated sludges ("Wishing To Be Entartained", "The Man with the Sunglasses"). I could imagine that what you're going to listen on "Just Like A Flower When Winter Begins" if you woefully end up in a German schlager with drunken cockscomb, nazi loggers, twinkly blond milks and a lot of cholesterol while you were searching for a loo in order to sober up after a pitiless barman put an acid pill into your glass of milk." [CHAIN D.L.K.) 2013 €13.00
S.E.T.I. The Geometry of Night do-CD "First released in 1996, `The Geometry of Night´ is the second album of Andrew Lagowski´s deep space sound project which marked a reference point to his works under the name LAGOWSKI. A classic album with laid back percussion, finely-tuned electronics, dark atmospheric synth waves and soundscapes. All constructed around a central premise; ‘The Geometry of Night’ perfectly describes the themes of night sky surveys, surveillance operations and radio telescope disinformation with the advice to keep a wary eye on the dark side of human nature. This is a remedy for the lonely nights staring at your social interface, the melancholy for lost opportunities and a hope for what lies beyond the nearest nebula. This newly re-mastered edition includes the sister album `Companion´ with more than 60 minutes of new material. The concept involves companions, bound together by molecular chains, enveloped in dark matter and history. Swirling endlessly within infinite illuminating spirals. Their BrEAUTalitY – answerable only to the laws of universal physics and spiritual cosmology. A stunning soundtrack of deep hypnotic drones, textured layers of noise and space transmissions. Moving extra terrestrial sound research to its deepest core! This double CD set comes in a nice 6-panel digifile. Mastered at Secretlab." [label info] 2015 €16.00
SAKELLARIOU, YIORGIS In Aulis CD In June 2015 I was invited by Implode, an artistic platform dedicated to new forms of sound and visual arts, to participate in “Sonic Topographies”, an artist residency that focused on locations of major importance in Ancient Greek history. I worked at the ruins of the temple of Artemis in Aulis, an archaeological site closely related to religious history and sacrificial rituals, and responded artistically to the location by composing In Aulis. The composition explores the connection between myth, sacrifice and music and is inspired by the historical and religious background of Aulis and the temple of Artemis. According to the myth, the Greek fleet gathered in Aulis to set off for Troy and force the return of Helen. While there, king Agamemnon killed a stag that was sacred to goddess Artemis. The enraged deity ceased all winds, thus preventing the ships from sailing. This eventually led the Greeks to agree in sacrificing Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigeneia, in order to propitiate Artemis and ensure a favourable wind for their fleet. At the very last moment the goddess felt compassion for Iphigeneia and replaced her with a stag which was killed instead of the girl. Iphigeneia’s dramatic story is described by Euripides in his famous tragedy Iphigeneia in Aulis which he wrote in 406 BC. The play was written during a period of conflict, political turmoil and instability and it arguably functions as an allegory in which Euripides – exiled from Athens at that time – warns his fellow Athenians about the consequences of war and the thirst for power and dominance as well as the hypocrisy of military and political leaders. Is there a connection between the sacrificial act and musical performance? How is sound utilized in ritualistic murders? In his book “Noise: The political economy of music”, Jacques Attali writes that “listening to music is to attend a ritual murder”. He explains that in the physical world a ritualistic murder purifies violence and in the sonic world music does a similar thing. As the story of the Greeks in Aulis shows, sacrifice is performed when a problem requires a radical solution; the wind must blow and Agamemnon’s guilt must be transformed into redemption. With sacrifice a tension leads to resolution. In music, as Attali argues, it is noise and dissonance that become harmony when the chaos of sounds is organized and put into order through the act of music-making, when a sonic condition of anxiety and alert is transformed into joy and exaltation. Silence There is not a sound from the birds or the sea. The winds are hushed and silence holds the strait of Euripus. Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, line 9-11 In these lines Agamemnon describes the sonic atmosphere of Aulis, an eerie silence caused by the absence of wind. For the Greeks, this stillness created discomfort as they were unable to mobilize and sail to Troy. Around 2,500 years after these lines were written, I was at the same location, attempting to listen to the echoes of myth and history resonating in the present-day soundscape of Aulis. Nowadays there is little left of the ancient buildings. Only their ruins continue to remind the importance and history of Aulis. Any visitor can simply push aside a half-broken wire fence and enter the archaic holy grounds, lying between a highway and a local road leading to a disused cement factory. Walking through the flora that is gradually covering the ruins, one can witness the blending of nature with human-made constructions and the folding of the distant past with the modern era. In praise of Artemis In the core of the sacrificial act is the setting of relationships which expand from the world of gods, or the unseen and ethereal, to the world of humans, the rest of the society. Simultaneously, music making is a socially constructed activity that brings communities together. Euripides provides an insightful example of this. When Iphigeneia finally accepts her fate, she addresses the chorus and says: And you, young women, sing a propitious song for my fate, a song in praise of Zeus’ daughter Artemis. Let the Greeks keep propitious silence. Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, lines 1467-1470 These lines reveal that sound is utilized in sacrifice to bridge the divine with the human world. Through singing and listening, music is creating social bonds, manifests a divine presence and establishes a relationship with it. Ultimately, the Sonic Topographies residency was not a mere study and collection of information about Aulis and the temple of Artemis but an empirical interaction that transmuted it from a field with abandoned ancient ruins to a space for action and contemplation. Field recording and composing was triggering an ongoing dialogue between myself and the explored environment and deepened my relationship with it on a physical and sentimental level. The research about the temple and the fieldwork at the ruins expanded from investigating its history and recording sounds for an electroacoustic composition to a contemplation on passing time and an exploration of the depths of human soul. (Yiorgis Sakellariou, 23 August 2017) 2018 €14.00
  Silentium CD Silentium is an electroacoustic piece based on sounds of bells and church organs that where recorded during a residency at gallery Školská 28 in Prague, in December 2015. The title was inspired by the “Silentium” signs that were regularly displayed in the churches where these recordings were made. Entering the temple requires the visitor to be quiet, to keep the noise down. This thoughtful silence is an intense and active condition essential for profound listening. It creates a liminal state between the natural and the supernatural world. In this work, the properties of the churches’ sonic atmospheres subtly emerge; echoes of quiet interiors created by the whispers reverberating, the crackling of wooden chairs, a door closing, the water dripping down the pipelines. It should be noted that the title is not a hint at the piece being quiet. Some passages are indeed really silent, reaching the realms of the barely audible; other parts are rather loud. Yiorgis Sakellariou is a composer of experimental and electroacoustic music. Since 2003, he has been active internationally being responsible for solo and collaboration albums, having composed music for short films and theatrical performances, leading workshops and ceaselessly performing his music around the globe. He is a member of the Athenian Contemporary Music Research Centre and the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association. Since 2004 he has curated the label Echomusic. https://www.pogus.com/21088.html This release packaging comes folded into quarters, ending up as a 5 ½” x 5 ½” brochure style booklet (liner notes inside), with the CD in a paper sleeve, all inserted into re-sealable plastic sleeves. 2016 €13.00
SALTLAND I thought it was us but it was all of us LP "Saltland is the new project led by Montreal-based cellist Rebecca Foon, best known as a founding member of contemporary chamber group Esmerine and a former member of Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire To Flames. Foon began composing solo work in 2010, featuring multi-layered cello and hushed vocals at the intersection of drone, no-wave, improv, dream-pop and minimalism. Joined by Jamie Thompson (Unicorns, Esmerine) on miniature percussion, programming and signal processing, Foon's live performances in Montreal and abroad over the past two years have seen her sound progress towards gently rhythmic and electronic territory as well. She has transfixed audiences with this new music while sharing the stage with Mary Margaret O'Hara, Julia Kent, Nat Baldwin and Sam Amidon, among others. As her largely home-recorded debut album began taking shape throughout 2011, with numerous guests contributing to various pieces, Foon adopted the Saltland moniker for this work. I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us is a beautifully restrained debut album that telescopes the directness and economy of Foon's compositional and vocal styles into lush, twilight atmospheres aglow with luminescent tendrils and flickering particles. Foon sings of childhood innocence lost, of tender utopic reveries and downcast dystopic horizons, and the search for soft, stoic strength in a darkening, devolving world. Foon’s voice is discreet but defined, drifting on buoyant currents of sound sourced from her plucked and bowed cello lines, in most cases propelled by Thompson's bespoke percussion and understated programming/processing, with touches of guitar, bass, horns, woodwinds, strings and backing vocals added by a cast of supporting players. The record unfurls like a gauzy flag in a restless breeze at dusk: a delicate, resolute sentinel set against the fading light. The album's ambience also owes much to the work of Mark Lawson, the award-winning engineer (Arcade Fire) who collaborated closely with Foon to record and mix these songs at Six Saint V, her apartment studio in Montreal. Lawson, along with friend and percussionist Thompson, helped to forge a balance between lo-fi intimacy and shimmering breadth with these recordings, remaining faithful to the all-anologue instrumentation of the source material while judiciously deploying signal processing strategies to subtly refract, saturate and expand the sonic landscape. With contributions from Laurel Sprengelmeyer and Jess Robertson (Little Scream), Mishka Stein (Patrick Watson), Colin Stetson (Bon Iver), Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) among others, Saltland offers up an unassumingly immersive debut album of searching songs that blend several core influences into a distinctively naturalistic sound. Saltland stakes out an unaffected, meditative, clear-eyed and earnest space where minimalism, dream-pop, drone, shoegaze, confessional folk, chamber music, and ambient/electronic coexist and coalesce. Release date: 14 May 2013 Running time: 38:32 Packaging notes CD comes in a custom gatefold jacket printed on 100% recycled paperboard in 4-colour process. LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a heavyweight gatefold jacket printed in full-colour process." [label info] www.cstrecords.com 2013 €23.00
SAUVAGE, TOMOKO Fischgeist LP Fischgeist was recorded in a former water tank in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg in August 2019. The nineteenth-century brick building consists of five layered circles, with a spiral staircase in the middle leading up to an exit to a hilltop. Inside, it's humid and cold, the temperature always around 8–10 ℃. The building’s acoustics produce a long reverberation that lasts up to 20 seconds. ‘One day between recording sessions, a man, a passerby, wanted to look inside the building. He told me that it used to be full of fish. For a second I imagined a huge round aquarium with loads of fish swimming around in circles. Then I realized that he meant dead fish were kept there, to be sold on markets during the GDR era. But the image of fish swimming in the space stayed with me.’ In conversation with the space of the water tank, Tomoko Sauvage searches beyond the limits of her self-invented ‘natural synthesizers’: porcelain and glass bowls, filled with water and amplified with hydrophones. While she continues to develop some of the classic techniques heard on her previous album Musique Hydromantique (Shelter Press, 2017) – hydrophonic feedback (Kinetosis Study) and ‘fortune biscuits’ (porous pieces of terracotta that emit tiny singing bubbles) (Deluge) – here new elements are combined with delicate gestures to make curious noises: stroking bowls’ surfaces to imitate the voices of sea mammals (Metamorphosis), drawing dots and circles by rubbing stones against stones underwater (Exit) … The underwater amplification of quasi-inaudible sound is even more magnified in the air by the echo of the water tank. Not only tiny bubbles, but also micro-movements of the bones and veins of the hand holding the sonorous objects in the water, are intensely amplified – sounding like a tempest on the opening Deluge. Sauvage's longtime research into hydrophonic feedback develops with her new obsession with natural harmonics and sympathetic resonance. In Flying Vessels, the percussive notes of struck bowls resonate and turn into feedback loops before decaying, fueled by electric signal gain. Kinetosis Study is a sonic etude on fluid dynamics – the flow velocity, pressure and density of manually shaped water waves directly controlling the aquatic synthesizer's parameters. August, when the mid-summer Ghost Festival is held, is traditionally known as the Ghost Month throughout East Asia. The spirits of the dead visit their living families, who welcome them with feasts, dancing and music. Miniature lantern-laden boats are released in rivers, to help lost ghosts find their way home. Animated by formless matter – water, electricity, sound – Fischgeist celebrates a phantasmagoric journey, as the souls of aquatic lifeforms find their way out of the labyrinth of the water tank. credits released October 16, 2020 Composed, performed and mixed by Tomoko Sauvage Recorded and produced by bohemian drips prior to Speicher festival, Berlin, August 2019 | Binaural recording with a KU 100 dummy head microphone Mastered by Andreas Kauffelt in Berlin Cover drawings by Baien Mōri (1798–1851) https://tomokosauvage.bandcamp.com 2020 €23.00
SCHAEFER, JANEK Le petit theatre de Mercelis CD JANEK SCHAEFER CD which comes on a new sublabel from SUB ROSA and packed in large DVD-Box! “ Manipulated field recordings are combined with live modified vinyl and found sound in a 'Concréte ruffian style' [The Wire 1998]. His most recent research has been examining the role of the record/vinyl as a compositional tool. And as in his recent " Pulled Under" he forms an enveloping and dense stream of macrosonic [close focus] soundscapes. Navigating fluidly through a series of absorbing and granular abstract environments. The raw material mostly combines modified travel recordings, live out-takes and custom made vinyl manipulations using the 'Twin' turntable. Not hearing here, his 'Tri-Phonic Turntable' was recently entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the worlds 'Most Versatile Record Player'! This important unpublished work comes from a recent sub rosa event (20-21 april 2002 in brussels). highly abstract with an obsessive slow changes including strange forms of scratchings.” [label press release] 2002 €13.50
Unfolding Luxury beyond the City of Dreams LP "Dekorder presents two new vinyl editions composed and designed by UK sound artist Janek Schaefer, who is known around the world for his wide variety of engaging and unpredictable works for installation, concert and composition. Following his highly acclaimed ‘Lay-by Lullaby’ album on 12k [which Pitchfork listed in the ‘Top 10 under-the-radar releases for 2014’], Janek has created and collated a collection of tracks that showcase both his more ambient works [077], and his highly charged sonorities [078]. A beautiful pair of LP’s that ideally should be experienced together for your home listening pleasure. The tracks were mastered by Stephan Mathieu and cut by Lupo at Calyx Mastering. A1 White Lights of Divine Darkness By chance I composed this for my brother-in-law the day he passed away. In recent years he had seen the white lights of heavens gate, but returned, and became fascinated by what he called God’s divine darkness in this lifetime. A2 Unfolding Honey 6:06 A track from my exhibition soundtrack 'Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese fashion' held at The Barbican Gallery, London. The exhibition featured some amazing folded garments by Issey Miyake, that inspired the unfurling fabric feeling of the composition. A3 Luxury 3:00 An orchestral drone piece featuring an old French lady singing to her cats with an extra celestial chorus. A4 Skyline Ascending 3:28 A Carpenters LP piano loop is layered again and again over a high sky recording, which was recorded using a helium balloon floating in the clouds over the city, with raindrops. B1 Coda (for Sir John Dankworth) 5:00 In my early teens, I used to attend week long music camps, in tents, within the grounds of Sir John Dankworth's home with Cleo Laine. I used to know them, and composed this piece with one of their vinyl's on the day I heard he died. The installation premiered at the Sydney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury, broadcasting a 3 channel version to six 50's radios. B2 The City of Dreams 8:28 Theme tune for the opening of “The Mill: City of Dreams” a site specific theatre production in a deserted mill in Bradford. Piano motif recorded live with my twin-arm turntable, additional overlays recorded with Mark Robinson on his old family piano. B3 Beyond 6:30 The Carpenter’s return, sliding piano loops through recordings made in Grand Central Station at closing time when the vast hall was deserted, and the full majesty of the acoustic space could be appreciated. Stilettos pass by forming polyrhythm's, as the last train announces it’s departure... credits released 19 November 2014 Biography Janek Schaefer has exhibited, lectured, and performed widely throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA, Strasbourg Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art], USA/Canada, [Walker Art Center, Mutek, Princeton, XI], Japan, and Australia [Sydney Opera House 2003]. His foundsound concerts and installations explore the spatial, social and celestial qualities that sound can communicate, through the twisting of old and new technology. The context of each idea is central to its development and resolution, often exploring themes of appropriation, accident, & alteration. Janek studied Architecture at the Royal College of Art where he worked with Brian Eno, creating “Recorded Delivery” in 1995, and discovered how important sound is in perceiving space, and place. In 2008 he won the British Composer of the Year Award in Sonic Art, and a Paul Hamlyn Award. The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool exhibited a Retrospective of his career to date in 2009. He is represented by the Agency gallery, London, and is a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes Sonic Art Research Unit. He lives and works in Walton-on-Thames." [label info] www.dekorder.com "The other LP has seven pieces, shorter pieces of course and it's a pity that there are no clarifications printed on the cover. They are in the press text, so we know why there were created, so we know, for instance that 'Luxury' is 'an orchestral drone piece featuring an old French lady singing to her cats with an extra celestial chorus', or that 'Skyline Ascending' is 'a Carpenters LP piano loop is layered again and again over a high sky recording, which was recorded using a helium balloon floating in the clouds over the city, with raindrops'. Shorter these pieces may seem, they essentially are not unlike his longer pieces: multi-layered sound events that create a beautiful dense, atmospheric field of sound. Careful crackles, computer processed sustaining loops (from instruments, vinyl, field recordings, nothing is sacred in the hands of Schaefer), and carefully placed field recordings in their raw state. There is obviously no reason to pick one over the other, but I think I prefer the second LP to the first, great as that one is. The second LP had more variation and the compositions were better worked out, unlike the more endless stream of sounds approach of the first. The differences are small I know, and it's probably best if you get both at the same time. This is Janek Schaefer at what he does, and what he does best. No surprises here, pleasant or otherwise." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2014 €14.00
  Inner Space Memorial in Wonderland LP "Dekorder presents two new vinyl editions composed and designed by UK sound artist Janek Schaefer, who is known around the world for his wide variety of engaging and unpredictable works for installation, concert and composition. Following his highly acclaimed ‘Lay-by Lullaby’ album on 12k [which Pitchfork listed in the ‘Top 10 under-the-radar releases for 2014’], Janek has created and collated a collection of tracks that showcase both his more ambient works [077], and his highly charged sonorities [078]. A beautiful pair of LP’s that ideally should be experienced together for your home listening pleasure. The tracks were mastered by Stephan Mathieu and cut by Lupo at Calyx Mastering. 'Over the years, I have produced a number of works in praise of the ideas of J.G Ballard. He lived just over the river from my home. While reading his autobiography in 2009, I was wandering how to go and say hello, but found out I was too late. I produced a monument in honour of him called the ‘Inner Space Memorial’, part of my Retrospective at the Bluecoat in Liverpool. A pair of speaker cones were turned around to play back into the void of their cabinets. An epitaph for a great mind.' 'Wonderland is the finale of my exhibition soundtrack to "Asleep at the wheel...". A work that questions where our culture is heading further down the highway ahead. A single majestic daydream that drives you forwards as reality undertakes you. Location recordings were made in the middle of the night on a footbridge over the M3, at the end of Ballard's street. I was fascinated to work out that while he was writing Crash and Concrete Island, the six lane motorway was being built right past the front of his home. Ideal music for when you need to stay awake on the road!' Biography: Janek Schaefer has exhibited, lectured, and performed widely throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA, Strasbourg Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art], USA/Canada, [Walker Art Center, Mutek, Princeton, XI], Japan, and Australia [Sydney Opera House 2003]. His foundsound concerts and installations explore the spatial, social and celestial qualities that sound can communicate, through the twisting of old and new technology. The context of each idea is central to its development and resolution, often exploring themes of appropriation, accident, & alteration. Janek studied Architecture at the Royal College of Art where he worked with Brian Eno, creating “Recorded Delivery” in 1995, and discovered how important sound is in perceiving space, and place. In 2008 he won the British Composer of the Year Award in Sonic Art, and a Paul Hamlyn Award. The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool exhibited a Retrospective of his career to date in 2009. He is represented by the Agency gallery, London, and is a Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes Sonic Art Research Unit. He lives and works in Walton-on-Thames." [label info] www.dekorder.com 2014 €14.00
SCOTT, SIMON (SIMON SCOTT) Floodlines CD Recorded live at Cafe Oto as part of “Touch presents…” on 31st January 2016 Simon Scott is a sound ecologist and multi-instrumentalist from Cambridge, England. His albums ‘Insomni’ (Ash International) and ‘Below Sea Level’ (12k / TouchLine) are out now (see above). His work explores the creative process of actively listening, the implications of recording the natural world using technology and the manipulation of natural sounds used for musical composition. He plays the drums in Slowdive and has recently collaborated with artists James Blackshaw, Spire, Taylor Deupree (Between), Isan + many more. This is his first physical release for Touch. Source material recorded in The Fens, East Anglia. Simon Scott's blistering live set from London follows his 2015 album ‘insomni’ but features his field recordings of areas of The Fens in East Anglia that cartographically are below mean sea level. They’re complimented by underwater hydrophone recordings taken on field research trips, making the unheard audible and brings the unseen to the surface. It’s a flat landscape that was devastated by the draining of The Fens in the 17th century. The ecosystem was damaged but these areas have been left to reflood and re-establish it’s vernacular wildlife, replete with its own instrumentation and orchestras. Tapping into these, Scott's vision encourages us to explore the fertility of the flatlands of England. www.touchmusic.org.uk 2016 €11.00
SEKTOR 304 Soul Cleansing CD "In three decades, Industrial music, due to its tangible form, has given birth to numerous interpretations and splintered factions. What’s indisputable, is that most of what is actually defined as “industrial” has ultimately become more about entertainment than confrontation and far removed from the original intent. This is the context in which Sektor 304 has appeared. Equipped with a frightening and impressive array of primitive instrumentation pulled from junkyards and scrap metal heaps, this Portuguese outfit has delivered an astounding formal debut ¬ a heady mixture of truly old school industrial in the vein of Einsturzende Neubauten, Test Dept , and S.P.K, and the grinding, bass heavy dirge of vintage Swans and Godflesh. These are anthems to the past, but geared towards an apocalyptic and bleak future… a form of counter-culture using what is most evident in modern western society: the debris, the abandoned objects, the waste, the noise, and the interference. With a solid foundation of rusty, oil drenched percussion, Sektor 304 adds layer upon layer of squalling industrial clangor, hammering metallic noise, grimy atmospheres, heaving masses of haunted factory drones, and threatening tribal batter, with a strong and commanding vocal presence. The sound here is almost physical in nature - provocative, persistent, and demanding. An organic impulse filled with shamanic drifts in which the noise barrage allies itself with metallic rhythmics and the use of concrete elements in the compositions. Junk, plastics, amplified objects. A change of scale. A manipulation of non-musical sounds in search of visual inductions trying to bring forward the sequences of Tsukamoto or situations invoked by J.G. Ballard. The conflict between man and machine as a metaphor of the struggle of man against himself. A mix and weight of three decades of sonic subversion. It can be said that to find the future of music, one must look to the past, drawing influence from prior achievements, yet forging a new identity, and sculpting something completely unique and distinct. With Sektor 304, the future is now, and it’s not entertaining. In 6 panel digipak, mastered by Steel Hook Audio." [Malignant Records] "Epic crushing metallic industrial heaviness, the kind of thing we thought they just didn't make anymore, but this is total Swans / Godflesh / Cop Shoot Cop worship, pounding metallic percussion, soundscapes of whirring drills, blown out low slung bass, howled distorted vox, the whole thing so repetitive and mantric, thick slabs of distorted rumble wrapped around tons of damaged electronics, bleating horns buried beneath reverb drenched beats, some songs are full on walls of twisted electronic crunch, others are brooding, droning skeletal sprawls, laid over deep blurred basslines, and tribal rhythms, some are dense whorls of deeeeeep sinister black ambience, all darkly drifting layers, and distant bits of clang and shimmer. For a few moments here and there, the sound gets downright poppy, like some sort of washed out post industrial deathrock, but even then, it's shot through with a seriously menacing sonic undercurrent that seeps into every beat, and every note. Filthy, crusty, heavy, haunting, crushing and brutal, the perfect mix of old school industrial pound, and more modern bleak blackness. Fucking fierce and frightening, grim and punishing, and we're digging it like crazy." [Aquarius Records] 2009 €13.00
SHIFTS Vertonen 16 CD-R “In a edition of 100 copies EE Tapes offers a new CDR by Shifts, a side-soloproject of Frans de Waard. He started this project in 1995 and defines it as an "ongoing exploration in the world of guitars". 'Vertonen 16' being his 16th step in this research I suppose, results in one lengthy ambient piece lasting some 33 minutes. In order to describe the experience of listening to this music I would like to make the following comparison. Imagine yourself looking at a very abstract painiting. A painting even more abstract then the painting (by Frans de Waard) that is on the cover of this release. Imagine a square painted smoothly in just one colour. After concentrating at it for some time, it is as if 'things' start to move and to flow in the painting. Of course you know you are imagining it, but on the other hand, it looks as if things really start to move. Listening to the new Shifts CDR is a similar experience. We hear just 'one' sound moving slowly ahead with no shifts at all for about half an hour. Because there are no shifts, it's not correct to say that the piece 'moves'. In a way development, progress and even duration are no fitting concepts here. It's a very static and 'timeless' music. But by listening closely to the piece it starts to reveal many little changes at a microscopic level and within a very limited range. You start to ask yourself whether these changes are real or effected in the mind like the moving of the colours. So you end up in an ambigious soundworld and that's an interesting experience. Also an enjoyable one, because de Waard created some nice rich sounds that didn't bore me at all. So whether imagined or real, in the end this is not relevant. Because one way or the other: it really Shifts!” [Vital Weekly] 2004 €9.00
SHOEMAKER, MATT Isolated Agent Stranding Behaviour pic-LP "Elevator Bath's ongoing series of picture disc LPs (each record being adorned with full-color artwork by the recording artist) continues with Matt Shoemaker's debut appearance on vinyl: An enigmatic pairing of new recordings with appropriately cryptic artwork. Much of Shoemaker's recorded output prominently features the use of field recordings (see his Tropical Amnesia One CD), but in this case he has eschewed such grounded measures and has instead sculpted a two-part puzzle which seemingly exists on some other plane(t). Layer upon evolving layer of sonic phenomena is still the methodological trademark, but the content is almost entirely electronic, lending a great deal of vivid color to a description of blackest space. The two works presented here are powerfully mysterious, unsettling examples of Matt Shoemaker's prowess as a composer of details, of moods and tenses. The improbably relevant artwork for this picture disc consists of two collages utilizing Shoemaker's own hand-dyed paper. The images, as well as their meanings, are essentially abstract and yet remarkably familiar. On the A side, the Isolated Agent scuttles in a circular motion, forever locked in an endless search for the unknown element. The B side depicts the constant retreat, the Stranding Behavior inevitably resulting in/from confusion. "You realize what you are implying? That we owe our human condition here to the intervention of insects." Matt Shoemaker's music has been released by such labels as Trente Oiseaux, The Helen Scarsdale Agency, and Ferns Recordings. He resides in Seattle. This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 233 copies. Total running time: 30 minutes" [label info] www.elevatorbath.com "The other record is by Matt Shoemaker, who seems to be always present, with his regular releases on labels as Ferns and The Helen Scarsdale Agency. His work recently shifted a bit more towards that of working with field recordings, but on this LP it all seems to be electronic again. I have no idea wether these are the result computers working overtime or meters and meters of cable connecting one synthesizer to another, and once connected start playing themselves, almost, as it were. Shoemaker layers the results of whatever process he applies on a multitude of tracks and does some highly creative mixing with those sounds. Highy atmospheric (obviously! I'd say) of course, but Shoemaker's work is also a bit more experimental than the usual drone minds (UK, USA, otherwise). Shoemaker knows how to put in a strange angle in his work, that makes it just a bit different than the ordinary drone record. Partly based in the seventies cosmic tradition, partly drone and partly serious avant-garde, but with a long, stretched time signature. Great record." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2010 €17.50
SIGILLUM S Terror Auto-Obstetrics maxi-CD Re-Issue einer alten 7" von 1990 und zwei Compilation-Tracks anno 1991, re-mastered. "Released to coincide with the very first USA Sigillum S show in the Italian post-industrial audio project's 20+ year history, this EP pulls together four songs originally released on AWB Recordings: "Terror Auto-Obstetrics" and "Transkathartick Endoscopy" (7-inch, 1990), "Suck Inside Thee Ov Bulb" (Effete compilation cassette, 1988), and "Purulence Peaks, Hairy Knobs, And Death Disturbances" (Private Thoughts compilation cassette, 1991). The tracks were re-mastered by band member Eraldo Bernocchi. Sigillum S's ongoing explorations of forbidden areas of the subconscious yields alien electronic mutations that merge concrete noise research with acoustic transmigration, while visuals and other media achieve maximum interaction intensity." [label info] http://bloodlust.blogspot.com 2008 €10.00
SIGUR ROS Ny Batteri mCD “Following the near unprecedented reception for their debut EP, ‘Svefn-G-Englar’, Iceland’s Sigur Rós deliver an equally extraordinary second record in the shape of ‘Ný Batterí’. As with its sold-out predecessor, ‘Ný Batterí’ comes as a four track EP with three otherwise unavailable new compositions. First track ‘Rafmagnið Búið’ (trans. ‘Electricity Over’) is a remix based around the brass section from ‘Ný Batterí’ (‘New Battery’), which follows (and is taken from the group’s forthcoming debut album, ‘Ágaetis Byrjun’. Third track ‘Bíum Bíum Bambaló’ is a breathtaking rendition of an old Icelandic lullaby, which research reveals has never been recorded before, being handed down instead by oral tradition. The last track is ‘Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir’, which translates as something like ‘Death Announcement and Funerals’. This is based on the Iceland radio service which each day announces to the nation who has died and what their funeral arrangements are. This is “theme” music, as interpreted by Sigur Rós. The last two tracks have been chosen for the soundtrack of ‘Angels Of The Universe’, a forthcoming movie from Oscar-nominated Icelandic film director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, which is based on a book by winner of the Karen Blixen prize for literature, Einar Mar Gudmundsson. Following their inclusion on this limited edition EP, both ‘Bíum Bíum Bambaló’ and ‘Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir’ will be available only on the ‘Angels Of The Universe’ soundtrack.” [label info] www.fat-cat.co.uk 2006 €9.00
SKODVIN, ERIK K Flame CD "Erik K Skodvin (Deaf Center, Svarte Greiner) finalizes his nocturnal Americana-inspired pair of albums with Flame, the follow up to 2010 ´s Flare. The embers of Flare smolder patiently, searching to ignite the live branch that will grow into Flame. Within minutes, everything in your surroundings changes, everything you thought it would be, it is not. Building on Skodvins past palette of sound with a quiet intensity, the album moves you further along film-noir backyards and oceanside pathways. On occasion, reverberating synths and rolling percussive moments open up the melancholic drift of the otherwise fairly dusty sounding record. Whereas Flare transformed Skodvins earlier projects, its 2014 companion sustains the newfound life into quietly psychedelic forms. Erik K Skodvin is a master of enveloping the listener into a world that is both monumental and suspenseful. Flame does so by subtly patching together musical influences from all over the map, centered around a heap of instrumentation. He is also aided by Anne Müller and Mika Posen on strings and Gareth Davis on clarinet. While his Svarte Greiner albums might dwell on minimal atmospheric darkness, Flame is awash in its own destructive concept of light." [label info] www.sonicpieces.com 2014 €21.00
SLOWDIVE Everything is Alive (Crystal Clear vinyl) LP Sechs Jahre nach dem monumentalen Comeback mit dem selbstbetitelten Album, finden slowdive - bestehend aus Rachel Goswell und Neil Halstead (beide Vocs und Git.), Christian Savill (Git.), Nick Chaplin (Bass) und Drummer Simon Scott - auf "everything is alive" immer mehr Konturen ihres eindringlichen, elementaren Sounds. Das fünfte Album der Shoegaze-Giganten enthält die Dualität einer vertrauten inneren Sprache, gemischt mit der Exaltiertheit von Neuanfängen. "everything is alive" ist transportierend, suchend und leuchtend, das Werk einer klassischen Band, die ihre unverwechselbare Stimme weiter in die Zukunft richtet. Das neue Album begann mit Halstead in der Rolle des Autors und Produzenten, der zu Hause an Demos arbeitete. Halstead experimentierte mit modularen Synthesizern und stellte sich "everything is alive" ursprünglich als ein "minimaleres elektronisches Album" vor. Die kollektive Entscheidungsfindung von slowdive führte die Band schließlich zurück zu ihren charakteristischen, mit Hall durchtränkten Gitarren, aber dieses erste Konzept sickerte in die Kompositionen ein. "Wenn wir als Band alle damit zufrieden sind, ist das tendenziell das stärkere Material. Wir sind immer aus leicht unterschiedlichen Richtungen gekommen, und die besten Stücke sind dort, wo wir uns alle in der Mitte treffen", sagt Halstead. "slowdive ist vor allem die Summe seiner Teile", fügt Goswell hinzu. "Wenn wir fünf in einem Raum zusammenkommen, passiert etwas Undefinierbares." Der mehrjährige Aufnahmeprozess begann im Herbst 2020 im Courtyard Studio, wo die Band schon immer aufgenommen hat, setzte sich dann in Oxfordshire und in der umliegenden Heide von Lincolnshire fort, um dann wieder zurück in Neils eigenes Studio in Cornwall zu gelangen. Anfang 2022 holte die Band Shawn Everett (The War On Drugs, Alvvays, SZA) ins Studio, um sechs der acht Tracks des Albums abzumischen. "everything is alive" ist genau das, was der Titel andeutet: eine Erkundung der schillernden Natur des Lebens und der universellen Berührungspunkte darin. Mit seinen psychedelischen Klanglandschaften, pulsierenden 80er-Jahre-Elektronik-Elementen und John Cale-inspirierten Reisen wirkt das Album sofort wie etwas, das für die Zukunft gemacht ist; das passt, denn die Fangemeinde der Band ist im Laufe der Zeit immer jünger geworden, und ihr Einfluss auf vorwärts denkende Musik-Künstler*innen ist ungebrochen. Für ein Genre, das oft als spalterisch angesehen wird und oft Introspektion rechtfertigt, zeigen slowdive hier, dass sie ihr Handwerk beherrschen, indem sie es über das Singuläre hinaus vorantreiben; das Endergebnis ist eine Platte, die sich ebenso emotional und kathartisch wie optimistisch anfühlt. The fifth album from shoegaze giants Slowdive contains the duality of a familiar internal language mixed with the exaltation of new beginnings. everything is alive is transportive, searching and aglow, the work of a classic band continuing to pitch its unmistakable voice to the future. Six years after the group’s monumental self-titled album, everything is alive finds Slowdive—vocalists and guitarists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, guitarist Christian Savill, bassist Nick Chaplin, and drummer Simon Scott—locating evermore contours of its immersive, elemental sound. The new record began with Halstead in the role of writer and producer, working on demos at home. Experimenting with modular synths, Halstead originally conceived of everything is alive as a “more minimal electronic record.” Slowdive’s collective decision-making ultimately drew the group back towards their signature reverb-drenched guitars, but that first concept seeped into the compositions. “As a band, when we’re all happy with it, that tends to be the stronger material,” Halstead says. “We’ve always come from slightly different directions, and the best bits are where we all meet in the middle.” The convergence of five unique characters has made the sound. “Slowdive is very much the sum of its parts,” Goswell adds. “Something unquantifiable happens when the five of us come together in a room.” The group’s projected studio sessions for everything is alive, in April 2020, were naturally scrapped, and when the group finally did meet up, six months later, at Courtyard Studio, where they’ve historically recorded, the mood was jubilant. (Finally, they had a proper reason to leave the house.) That was the beginning of a multi-year recording process, which moved from Oxfordshire and into the Wolds of Lincolnshire and back to Neil’s own Cornish studio before extending into February 2022, when the band brought in mixer Shawn Everett (The War On Drugs, SZA, Alvvays) to mix six of the record’s eight tracks. Owing to their deep history, there’s a palpable familial energy to Slowdive in 2023. everything is alive is dedicated to Goswell’s mother and Scott’s father, who both died in 2020. “There were some profound shifts for some of us personally,” Goswell says. Those crossroads are reflected in the many-layered emotional tenor of Slowdive’s music; everything is alive is heavy with experience, but each note is poised, wise, and necessarily pitched to hope. Its unique alchemy subtly embodies both sadness and gratitude, groundedness and uplift. Reflecting on “kisses,” which may be Slowdive’s surest pop moment yet, Halstead said, “It wouldn’t feel right to make a really dark record right now. The album is quite eclectic emotionally, but it does feel hopeful.” everything is alive, is exactly what the title suggests: an exploration into the shimmering nature of life and the universal touch points within it. Spanning psychedelic soundscapes, pulsating 80’s electronic elements and John Cale inspired journeys, the album lands immediately as something made for the future; which figures, as their fanbase has grown younger and younger as time has gone on, and their influence on forward thinking musical artists continues to prevail. For a genre that is often thought of as divisive, and often warrants introspection, here Slowdive show their craft as the masters of it by pushing it outwards, beyond the singular; the end result being a record which feels as emotional and cathartic as it is optimistic. https://slowdive.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-alive 2023 €26.50
  Everything is Alive MC Sechs Jahre nach dem monumentalen Comeback mit dem selbstbetitelten Album, finden slowdive - bestehend aus Rachel Goswell und Neil Halstead (beide Vocs und Git.), Christian Savill (Git.), Nick Chaplin (Bass) und Drummer Simon Scott - auf "everything is alive" immer mehr Konturen ihres eindringlichen, elementaren Sounds. Das fünfte Album der Shoegaze-Giganten enthält die Dualität einer vertrauten inneren Sprache, gemischt mit der Exaltiertheit von Neuanfängen. "everything is alive" ist transportierend, suchend und leuchtend, das Werk einer klassischen Band, die ihre unverwechselbare Stimme weiter in die Zukunft richtet. Das neue Album begann mit Halstead in der Rolle des Autors und Produzenten, der zu Hause an Demos arbeitete. Halstead experimentierte mit modularen Synthesizern und stellte sich "everything is alive" ursprünglich als ein "minimaleres elektronisches Album" vor. Die kollektive Entscheidungsfindung von slowdive führte die Band schließlich zurück zu ihren charakteristischen, mit Hall durchtränkten Gitarren, aber dieses erste Konzept sickerte in die Kompositionen ein. "Wenn wir als Band alle damit zufrieden sind, ist das tendenziell das stärkere Material. Wir sind immer aus leicht unterschiedlichen Richtungen gekommen, und die besten Stücke sind dort, wo wir uns alle in der Mitte treffen", sagt Halstead. "slowdive ist vor allem die Summe seiner Teile", fügt Goswell hinzu. "Wenn wir fünf in einem Raum zusammenkommen, passiert etwas Undefinierbares." Der mehrjährige Aufnahmeprozess begann im Herbst 2020 im Courtyard Studio, wo die Band schon immer aufgenommen hat, setzte sich dann in Oxfordshire und in der umliegenden Heide von Lincolnshire fort, um dann wieder zurück in Neils eigenes Studio in Cornwall zu gelangen. Anfang 2022 holte die Band Shawn Everett (The War On Drugs, Alvvays, SZA) ins Studio, um sechs der acht Tracks des Albums abzumischen. "everything is alive" ist genau das, was der Titel andeutet: eine Erkundung der schillernden Natur des Lebens und der universellen Berührungspunkte darin. Mit seinen psychedelischen Klanglandschaften, pulsierenden 80er-Jahre-Elektronik-Elementen und John Cale-inspirierten Reisen wirkt das Album sofort wie etwas, das für die Zukunft gemacht ist; das passt, denn die Fangemeinde der Band ist im Laufe der Zeit immer jünger geworden, und ihr Einfluss auf vorwärts denkende Musik-Künstler*innen ist ungebrochen. Für ein Genre, das oft als spalterisch angesehen wird und oft Introspektion rechtfertigt, zeigen slowdive hier, dass sie ihr Handwerk beherrschen, indem sie es über das Singuläre hinaus vorantreiben; das Endergebnis ist eine Platte, die sich ebenso emotional und kathartisch wie optimistisch anfühlt. The fifth album from shoegaze giants Slowdive contains the duality of a familiar internal language mixed with the exaltation of new beginnings. everything is alive is transportive, searching and aglow, the work of a classic band continuing to pitch its unmistakable voice to the future. Six years after the group’s monumental self-titled album, everything is alive finds Slowdive—vocalists and guitarists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, guitarist Christian Savill, bassist Nick Chaplin, and drummer Simon Scott—locating evermore contours of its immersive, elemental sound. The new record began with Halstead in the role of writer and producer, working on demos at home. Experimenting with modular synths, Halstead originally conceived of everything is alive as a “more minimal electronic record.” Slowdive’s collective decision-making ultimately drew the group back towards their signature reverb-drenched guitars, but that first concept seeped into the compositions. “As a band, when we’re all happy with it, that tends to be the stronger material,” Halstead says. “We’ve always come from slightly different directions, and the best bits are where we all meet in the middle.” The convergence of five unique characters has made the sound. “Slowdive is very much the sum of its parts,” Goswell adds. “Something unquantifiable happens when the five of us come together in a room.” The group’s projected studio sessions for everything is alive, in April 2020, were naturally scrapped, and when the group finally did meet up, six months later, at Courtyard Studio, where they’ve historically recorded, the mood was jubilant. (Finally, they had a proper reason to leave the house.) That was the beginning of a multi-year recording process, which moved from Oxfordshire and into the Wolds of Lincolnshire and back to Neil’s own Cornish studio before extending into February 2022, when the band brought in mixer Shawn Everett (The War On Drugs, SZA, Alvvays) to mix six of the record’s eight tracks. Owing to their deep history, there’s a palpable familial energy to Slowdive in 2023. everything is alive is dedicated to Goswell’s mother and Scott’s father, who both died in 2020. “There were some profound shifts for some of us personally,” Goswell says. Those crossroads are reflected in the many-layered emotional tenor of Slowdive’s music; everything is alive is heavy with experience, but each note is poised, wise, and necessarily pitched to hope. Its unique alchemy subtly embodies both sadness and gratitude, groundedness and uplift. Reflecting on “kisses,” which may be Slowdive’s surest pop moment yet, Halstead said, “It wouldn’t feel right to make a really dark record right now. The album is quite eclectic emotionally, but it does feel hopeful.” everything is alive, is exactly what the title suggests: an exploration into the shimmering nature of life and the universal touch points within it. Spanning psychedelic soundscapes, pulsating 80’s electronic elements and John Cale inspired journeys, the album lands immediately as something made for the future; which figures, as their fanbase has grown younger and younger as time has gone on, and their influence on forward thinking musical artists continues to prevail. For a genre that is often thought of as divisive, and often warrants introspection, here Slowdive show their craft as the masters of it by pushing it outwards, beyond the singular; the end result being a record which feels as emotional and cathartic as it is optimistic. https://slowdive.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-alive 2023 €11.50
SOLTAU, THORSTEN Gewächse im Zwielicht CD full press release: This Friesian multi media artist with two works on one CD: his compositions combine drone-ambient and electroacoustic elements and passages in a wonderful way (sometimes spheric, sometime bizarre, sometimes melancholic) = various instrumental, vocal and electronic sources are building a hypnotic and poetic web, very complex and with many unexpected twists and surprises in the mix... this album is like a little wonder! The CD combines two complete works by the artist: "Gewächse im Zwielicht", consisting of 4 pieces (2019-2021), dedicated to the hidden phenomena becoming recognizable only after closer examination, and "An End. An One Another" (2021-2022), an installation work for the art gallery 'De Groen' in Arnhem, Netherlands, for this he worked with a choir. Five long pieces with a total time of over 62 minutes, revealing many details with repeated listening... as the author notes: "My goal is the creation of rich sounds with layers only reachable by multiple listening. Each work exposes itself over time with each consciously made playback / perception: Repetition becomes a reward for the listener." listen to a track: https://soundcloud.com/drone-records/thorsten-soltau-das-begehren ########################### THORSTEN SOLTAU: Self-taught artist since 2006. Working under his given name as well as Femurl [ˈfiːmjuːl]. Strong interest in sonic disintegration, conceptualism and dualism (philosophy / gender). Thorsten Soltau is a citizen of KonungaRikena Elgaland-Vargaland. He resides in Friesland, Lower Saxony. MUSIC.ART.MORPHOSIS. A reflection. I call myself a listening person – I am constantly listening to and into environments. This has lead to a refined sense able to picking up things that may slip the attention of others. My ears are trained to scan the places I visit – crowded metropoles, remote spots in nature or even familiar surroundings of office or home. My way of listening can be divided in two modes: the perception of sound on an unconscious level or the deliberate focus on sonics. Becoming a sort of scanning antenna had a profound effect how I compose. The experience of my listening is reflected in my sound works. As an example several compositions feature barely noticeable overdubs. They can only be heard with specific settings of loudness and spatial room (and are therefore easy to recognize with headphones) or equalizer settings. Another example is the creation of dense clusters of sound resembling information streams or (over-)crowded places. My goal is the creation of rich sounds with layers only reachable by multiple listening. Each work exposes itself over time with each consciously made playback / perception: Repetition becomes a reward for the listener. On sounds. My compositions are either electronic or electroacoustic. A commonly used sound is the human voice or excerpts of complex synthesis. As a composer I choose my source material wisely. The starting elements have to inhabit the desired mood and intensity later formulated into full compositions. Nevertheless I am open for developments by surprise or error during sound design. One important factor is randomness. Sounds or sound manipulating factors are mapped to random forces which allows for unexpected results. Some of my composing techniques are deliberately executed against their primary intention as well. This allows for an ever-morphing character of my works until the final touch is added. On sonic morphosis. My compositional ethic has strong ties to morphosis. To reflect different degrees of sonic shifting / transformation / transitions I apply several techniques and methods. As explained above the use of complex treatments and randomness allows for a sound that constantly shapes into an liquid and organic sculpture. The sonics I create are further exposed to imperfections and errors – like body and mind aging or perishing over time. Errors are integral and welcome. Most of them occur as a glitch in the analogue or digital domain during sessions or setup changes. They give a further layer to the music resembling small failures made by the composer – adding a human touch despite their virtual origin. On concepts. My solo work has always been underlined by concepts. My canon includes albums with apparent or less apparent concepts. Often works can be seen as cornerstones of things I research at that time of their genesis. Several compositions reflect situations from personal life. Thus all works can be seen as intimate and highly personal sonic artifacts. Conception can be seen as the base of each work without outweighing the listeners experience. Each of my pieces can be explicitly heard as a sole composition as well. https://thorstensoltau.de 2022 €13.00
SONS OF GOD The Object CD "The Sons of God, who serve the aims of civil defence and whose motto is to instil strength and courage and who have previously conducted investigations into materials and media, within the realm of the psyche as well as the social, have now taken it upon themselves to investigate "the object" using the means at their disposal. With the aid of a diaphragm in the shape of a 130-by-200-millimetre piece of sheet iron and microphones taken from the mouthpieces of Swedish Army telephones dating from the period in question, we will search the boat and, applying the methods of analogue telephony with regard to electromagnetism and its effects on matter, attempt to extract "locked", "frozen" or "dormant" information from the complex interior of "the object". A condensed version of the results of our investigation is presented on this CD release. Anyone who listens to and partakes of it will be placed in the same position as we were in our work on "the object", perhaps only with a change of perspective. We are therefore pleased to pass on the material, in the hope that new layers will be discovered and other information extracted." [label info] www.fireworkedition.com 1999 €13.00
SOUNDSCAPE ROST (ELIN OYEN VISTER) Spaces and Species Vol. I LP Soundscape Røst-Spaces and Species Vol I is a unique collection of field recordings and soundscapes, from the Røst archipelago – 100 km into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Nordland (NO/Sápmi). The album is a careful edited selection of hours and hours of sound material listened to and recorded between 2010 and 2011. The listener will experience a multitude of nature and sea-bird voices/spaces and acoustic moments, spanning from booming roars to the faintest of hums. You can listen to the song of the multitude of pelagic seabirds breeding in the Røst archipelago and the Nykan nature-reserve and the acoustic moments in time of their ocean-and land spaces they spend their time in every spring and summer, mating, breeding their chicks, socializing and coming and goings searching for food.The lowfrequenzy grunts of the Razor Bill, the song of the last Kittiwakes of Vedøya, the swarming of hundreds of Puffin wings and their ancient cowlike song and grunts in their nests in Hernyken nature reserve, The Eiders of Kårøysundet an early winter-spring morning and the sounds of the ebb and flow on the Northside of Røstlandet are amongst the soundscapes on Vol 1. Vol I is eavesdropping to the rapidly changing soundscapes of one of Northern Europe most numerous seabird breeding colonies which has for half a century experienced an escalating dramatic decline of the pelagic seabird populations, resulting in the silencing of the bird mountains . Soundscape Røst also listen to and documents the acoustic realities of a marine land -and seascape over time and listens to nature-culture in an everlasting continuum of interdependency. The vinyl album is an integral part of the sound installation Soundscape Røst – The Listening Lounge, (2012) and is the first album in the Soundscape Røst triology. Note to the reissue on Gruenrekorder. Since the album was released in 2012, the decline in the seabird populations have escalated. During the summer of 2020 the bird mountain of Vedøya became silent. Statistically speaking there are no more Kittiwakes and Guillemot breeding on Vedøya. In 1980 there was approximately 1.5 million pairs of Puffins breeding in all of the Røst archipelago and on Vedøya alone, 12000 pairs of Guillemots and 25.000 pairs of Kittiwakes. Now the overall Puffin population is down to around less than 200.000 pairs and the few Guillemots left are hiding in small caves and crevices. The last Kittwakes of Røst are now clinging on in Kårøya and Gjellfruvær. If the decline continues, there will be no Puffins left in Røst by 2040. https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18960 2021 €18.00
SPEAR Not two (SOLD OUT) 7 "Since the appearance of their first tape, self-titled tape in 1994, SPEAR (from Lodz in Poland) have been exploring the area of "alchemistic sound-creation". The group searches for hidden treasures in the stream of the unconsciousness much like alchemists centuries ago searched for hidden gold in common metals. Through their music SPEAR seek to find the other side of reality, the spiritual side of the world which is linked with the material world. Having released two CDs, this is their first vinyl offering. The music consists of faraway bells, windy drones, flutes, strange harmonies and singings eminating from outer-space; a new kind of ethno-experimental-industrial release. Mesmerizing & magnetizing magique ... This is today's alchemistic music! CLEAR VINYL, SILVER PRINTED COVERS DONE BY SPEAR." [press release] 1999  
SPECIMENS In the Dust of Idols LP ‘In The Dust Of Idols’ is an album exploring mortality, Existentialism & the dread one can feel in the face of an apparently meaningless world. The journey you embark on when trying to create meaning where there is perhaps none. These initial senses of dread can be brought about by the insignificance you feel in the face of greatness (or perceived greatness), where others have seemingly found meaning and purpose in the face of your own wavering path. Often these can be expressed in grandness and can become historically significant human feats, the fact that they have stood the test of time can become in itself overwhelming when reflecting on your own journey. Whilst these moments in time may hold no specific meaning to you - despite their impressive nature - you are driven into senseless awe. ‘In The Dust Of Idols’ ties in this sense of wonderment coupled with the overarching dread you feel as you contemplate your own existence, where you fit into the significance of society and as Ruth Tallman quotes “the search for answers in an answerless world”. “I wanted to create something dense & heavy. When you listen through, it makes you feel like it has the weight of time stitched into it” explains Ives. As well as expanding the range of instrumentation used on this, his second album, Ives also enlisted the talents of Cellist Charlotte de Burgh-Holder and experimentalist Joe Summers on the tracks “The Unread Library” and “Twisted Necks” which further adds to the dynamic depth and range on this record. “Clarity was not my main objective, like an old piece of furniture covered in dust, you can tell what it is but the details are obscured, my ambition was to create a dense sonic backdrop, a representation of the confusion and insecurities we all can feel when questioning our existence - you know there should be answers but you can’t quite make out what they are”. It’s not all dark though and moments of optimism and cracks of light pepper the record giving enough hope to the listener to pursue questioning the unanswerable. Accompanying the release of the record is a short film set to music from the album, produced and shot by photographer & director Lucie Rox. The film is a visual expression and representation of identity and the many ways this is challenged, perceived and adopted. Whilst taking forward the concepts explored throughout the album, the film looks to reduce the great vastness of confusion and self doubt put forward on the record & focus instead on a more intimate and personal perspective laid bare and shared by both director Lucie Rox & Specimens. With a heavy focus on race & heritage of which both Specimens & Lucie are mixed - Caribbean & British / African & French respectively - the objective of the film is to show one of the many angles where an individual's search for meaning & identity can be expressed. ‘In The Dust Of Idols’ is released on November 30th 2018 as an international collaboration between SVS and First Terrace Records. Pressed on beautiful white & blue splattered vinyl with artwork from Australian painter Kieran Ingram and mastered by the legendary Lawrence English. https://specimensmusic.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-dust-of-idols 2018 €20.00
SPHERULEUS Voyage CD "Voyage' is the latest album from Lincolnshire based sound designer Harry Towell. Released under his Spheruleus guise, this album utimately provides a soundtrack to a doomed sea-voyage. Through eight different movements, 'Voyage' chronicles everything from the immense pride felt as the ship sets sail to depicting the horror and heartache of its sinking. The album then closes with detailed passages that portray the decomposition of the ship as it begins to rot deep under sea. This album is well researched with Harry having explored his chosen subject thoroughly. For the two years in which the album has been in the making, the young sound designer studied the history of great sea disasters and also took inspiration from soundtracks such as Gavin Bryars’ ‘The Sinking Of The Titanic’ and Gareth Hardwick's 'Of The Sea And Shore'. Although the Titantic's infamous fate was naturally a strong influence on the project, 'Voyage', does not refer to any particular sinking ship. Instead, its purpose is to sonically depict the various emotional aspects that lie within a failed sea voyage, as felt by all those who are affected by it. Once the concept for 'Voyage' had been born, Harry revisited one of his old demos from early 2010 and decided to make this the spine of the album. He then used his instrument collection including; guitar, violin, trumpet, bugle, zither and keyboard to add several layers to the demo. In doing so Harry has been able to develop his chosen theme and create the character required to turn this forgotten treasure into the album it is today. As a poignant exaggeration of the events that unfold through the track 'She Sinks', there is a contribution from Russian pianist Alex Tiuniaev that opens and closes this dramatic track. He also performs on the track 'Clouds Swarm', as it heads into a crescendo. Aside from his solo production work, Harry also records with brother Stuart under the name Paper Relics and runs the Audio Gourmet netlabel, which specialises in 15 minute EPs designed for shorter 'tea-break' listening. His work as Spheruleus has seen him release through netlabels such as Test Tube, Resting Bell, Earth Mantra, Audio Gourmet and in March 2010, his first physical album 'Frozen Quarters' was released on CD format by the Under The Spire imprint." [label info] www.hibernate-recs.co.uk 2011 €12.00
SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS Colloidal Urban Semantika CD-R "...The aggravating and ferocious noise elements are still on here but they take more of a back seat instead of being the driving force behind the steering wheel. He has pummelled all the samples he could find and turned them into a voyage of discovery. Voices are turned into black holes that appear almost at random. A drum rolls rambles on as static hisses vibrantly. Tunes are speeded up then slowed down. It’s totally crazy freaky stuff. And it takes some getting used to. Go with it though. Give it the time to sink in. You’ll need to play it a few times to see where it’s going. Suddenly it all makes a kind of quirky sense…although you’ll, like myself, probably be mystified as to why it does in the end..." [Alan Milne / Heathen Harvest] "after a long time SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS is back on OLD EUROPA CAFE. For this release SRS deploys a deranged catalogue of samples from forgotten spectres and once wild avenues, looking for the hidden codes of unborn languages across the debris of polluted sideways… layers after layers of frequency manipulations coexist with millions of tiny acoustic bubbles, drilling even further into the subtle essence of unseen city souls. This turns into a new phase of SRS cultural extremism, where past assaults are refined across the scenery of selected views from alien observation platforms…. “ …once more, this is a concept for research and management of urban wildlife, based on acoustic reference to the analysis of colloidal phases in the marginal segments of social environments…” Profesionally printed CDR numbered on CD label and limited to 160 copies." [label info] 2006 €12.00
STEINBRÜCHEL Mit Ohne maxi-CD "Eighteen-minute CD-EP, with EP pricing. Mit Ohne is a sound documentation of an audio/visual installation by Yves Netzhammer and Steinbrüchel. The installation entitled 'The Feeling Of Precise Instability When Holding Things' was part of the group exhibition 'Wohnträume/Wohnräume,' exhibited from 26.07. to 28.09.2003 at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, Switzerland. The audio sections by Steinbrüchel were composed in sync with the visuals by Yves Netzhammer and succeed in translating and supporting the poetic vibrancy and slow morphing movements of the 3D rendered animation. For the exhibition, an atmospheric, fragile and detailed work was created involving a three-part projection and multichannel sound which conveys an abstract audio and visual approach to the environment surrounding us and the concept of a room itself. Each audio track takes the listener into a new form of 'room' and simple patterns of single tones are layered into dense movements surrounding the listeners space. The crystalline polished sounds form a highly precise environment which interacts with particles of melodies searching for space to breathe. Between the tracks there are no pauses, which gives the dedicated listener the feeling of being moved suddenly from one room to the other. Space and silence are sensitively woven into each other while forming an atmospheric and organic surrounding. Through the sound the feeling in every room changes from dark to bright, from large to small, from lonely to crowded, from silent to loud." [label info] lim. 500 copies www.12k.com 2008 €10.00
SUZUKI, AKIO A I Sha / あいしゃ LP "Needless to say, Akio Suzuki is one of the representative sound artists in Japan. Many of his previous releases are sometimes interpreted as the work of a hermit or wizard creating beautiful sounds with his self-made musical instrument called 'Analapos,' glass harmonica (De Koolmees), and stone flute, but the title of Suzuki's first sound piece, aidan ni Mono wo Nageru (Throwing Things at the Stairs) at Nagoya Station in 1963, reflects his perspective on the noises in his work. This LP consists of two 2009 performances created with the use of radio. 'Howling Objects,' with reverberation of a large museum space, and 'a i sha,' in which the radio moves throughout the museum, can be noise itself, but they exist in accordance with the method of 'Oto-date' and 'Tadori' for which Suzuki has been continuously searching. Here, an approach to Suzuki's hardcore sound in his nature is surely concentrated. 'It was at a solo exhibition in the Minamigaro gallery in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 1976 when I held the premiere showing of 'Howling Objects'. When I inserted the microphone into the cylinder of the stand type Analapos, and played echo sound, I was surprised to cause a howling. From that incident, I arranged iron 'wappa' boxes (cylindrical containers formed by bending a thin plate), inserted two wireless microphones with echoes in the boxes and moved the position of the boxes to search for a sound. ... In the performance I did at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, I used roll papers, microphones and radios to revisit 'Howling Objects'. These radios and microphones used from the 1970s have been increasingly degraded in recent years, so this performance has become the last one. 'a i sha' is a performance in which the two radios used in 'Howling Objects' are loaded onto a small dolly and moved around the museum. After setting the radios to AM, selecting the noise wavelengths and tuning the two radios to be able to hear an interesting rhythm, I adjust the volume to an appropriate level and start. As the sound landscape changes by the directionality of radio by moving over to a corridor, wide space and a window, I share the sound field with the people who happen to be there by chance and the people chasing the dolly'. Akio Suzuki Full-color cover photo on sleeve. New liner notes in Japanese and English by Suzuki. Limited edition of 250." [label info] omega-point.shop-pro.jp 2015 €32.00
SWANS Leaving Meaning do-CD SWANS Leaving Meaning is the band’s fifteenth studio album, the follow up to 2016’s The Glowing Man and due for release by Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 25 October 2019. Leaving Meaning will be released on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve, double CD in a brown chipboard digipack and digitally. Listen to the first track from the album, ‘It’s Coming It’s Real’: https://youtu.be/3ZVZo30M8Lc Written and produced by Michael Gira, the album features contributions from recent and former Swans, members of Angels of Light as well as Guest Artists Anna and Maria von Hausswolff, Ben Frost, The Necks, Baby Dee, and a Hawk and a Hacksaw – full personnel list below. Michael Gira explains, “Leaving Meaning is the first Swans album to be released since I dissolved the lineup of musicians that constituted Swans from 2010 – 2017. Swans is now comprised of a revolving cast of musicians, selected for both their musical and personal character, chosen according to what I intuit best suits the atmosphere in which I’d like to see the songs I’ve written presented. In collaboration with me, the musicians, through their personality, skill and taste, contribute greatly to the arrangement of the material. They’re all people whose work I admire and whose company I personally enjoy.” “Here below are the primary contributors to Leaving Meaning: Michael Gira – Vocals, words, acoustic/electric guitar, production. I started Swans in NYC in 1982 and have been the primary songwriter, singer and producer throughout the years. In the early years I played bass, but later switched to guitar. During the years of Swans hiatus (1999 – 2010), I released several albums by and toured with a group called Angels of Light. Kristof Hahn – Lap steel, various guitars throughout, backing vocals, generous and insightful advice on mixes and arrangements. Kristof first became involved with Swans in 1989, was a principal contributor to Angels of Light, and a core Swans member 2010 – 2017. Kristof’s other musical ventures have included the Rock ‘n’ Roll Noir band Les Hommes Sauvages and Kool Kings (with Alex Chilton). He’s currently working on an instrumental record for Lawrence English’s label, Room 40. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science, and when Swans doesn’t pay the bills, he translates books for a living. Kristof’s presence, on and off tape, is pivotal to this record. Kristof lives in Berlin, Germany. Larry Mullins – Drums, vibes, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, various keyboards, backing vocals. Larry (AKA Toby Dammit) is a trained symphonic percussionist and all-around consummate musician. He played through the 90s with Iggy Pop and later with The Stooges. He played with Swans in the late 90s and was a main contributor to Angels of Light. He is rumored to have been involved with The Residents. His varied and numerous credits also include a stint with Silver Apples as well as recently, Shakespears Sister. His current main job is playing keyboards with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I decided immediately to ask Larry to contribute to Leaving Meaning after watching the German TV series Babylon Berlin, and suddenly, unbeknownst to me, there was Larry as the main focus of various cabaret scenes, drumming behind a huge kick drum in his inimitable style. After laughing in shock for perhaps half an hour, I decided to contact him. We hadn’t been in close touch for a long time and I’m elated I reached out. Larry lives in Berlin, Germany. Yoyo Röhm – Electric bass, double bass, various keyboards, piano, backing vocals. Yoyo came to my attention through his work with Kristof and Larry in Berlin. In addition to his excellent bass playing, Yoyo’s ears were invaluable in helping to sort out many of the arrangements. Yoyo plays with numerous left field musicians around Berlin and also works with Mick Harvey on his Serge Gainsbourg recordings and tours. Yoyo, Larry, Kristof and I rehearsed in Berlin for 3 weeks prior to recording. Yoyo is a true Berliner – gruff and determined on the outside, a marshmallow inside. He was a great musical resource for this record. The Necks – (Chris Abrahams – piano, organ; Tony Buck – drums, percussion; Lloyd Swanton – double bass). I have been an avid Necks fan since I first saw them perform at a Big Ears Festival in 2010. They subsequently played with Swans at a few shows in Australia. Their live performances and recordings are just about any superlative you can think of – mesmerizing, transcendent, sublime. Their music is entirely improvisational – it’s my understanding that they have no idea what they’re going to play before they start. And yet, mostly using rudimentary jazz trio instrumentation, they manage to fashion burgeoning and ever-evolving, immersive clouds of sound that utterly envelop the listener as the music unfolds. I’m beyond honored and humbled that they agreed to perform the basic tracks for 2 of my songs (The Nub and Leaving Meaning). Their performances were then delicately, and (I hope!) tastefully further orchestrated upon in Berlin. Tony lives in Berlin, and also played drums on the song Some New Things. Anna and Maria von Hausswolff – Choral backing vocals. Anna is blessed with a soaring voice, lyrical acuity and increasing facility with the church organ. I was impressed recently to learn that she often travels around Europe and visits churches unannounced, where she talks her way into being allowed to use the resident organ – some of them rather massive, I imagine – and plays and explores for hours. Her searing records and live shows reflect the courage of her imagination and have garnered her increasing, much deserved recognition. Maria is an accomplished Swedish cinematographer and director of photography. In 2017 I heard Anna and Maria singing together at a sound check for a special song they were doing in Anna’s set, was instantly enthralled, and resolved at that moment to ask them to participate together on a Swans recording. I’m delighted they agreed to come to Berlin and record for me. They were a joy to work with! They live in Scandinavia. Ben Frost – Guitar, synthesizers, sound manipulations. Ben’s adventurous sound-craftings, sometimes harrowing and sometimes delicate and quite musical, and his powerful live shows, have afforded him much recognition of late. I’ve also been highly impressed with his soundtrack work for the HBO series, Dark. He’s an extremely talented arranger and composer. His mission for this record was intentionally ill defined. I basically wanted his ears and sensibility, with no particular part or instrument in mind. I arrived at his studio in Reykjavik, Iceland, put up the songs, and he played what he thought a song needed. I was pleasantly surprised to discover his unique approach to the electric guitar as well as his synth work. Ben also was quite helpful with arrangement and mixing ideas. Ben lives in Iceland. Baby Dee – Lead vocal on The Nub, supported by her friends Fay Christen and Ida Albertje Michels, and Jennifer Gira. Dee has released numerous records (one produced by Bonnie Prince Billie, I think), and if you don’t know them, you should! The first time I saw her she was riding a unicycle in circles outside the now-defunct Avant club, Tonic, in NYC, playing a ukulele (or accordion?) and singing with great mirth. I saw her set that night and was won over. She’s since toured with Swans several times. Her music could loosely be called neo cabaret, but more accurately she’s totally unique and a great performer and songwriter, graced with a powerful voice and high-end ability on the piano, accordion and more. I wrote The Nub specifically for her to sing. I was stymied for words to the main guitar figure to the song, and suddenly she popped into my mind, floating through the universe in diapers, sucking milk from the stars. The song wrote itself. Dee lives in The Netherlands. Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost – Jeremy: Santur, hi-hat, fiddlesticks, accordion, engineering; Heather: Stroh violin, violin, viola, fiddlesticks, engineering. Together, Jeremy and Heather comprise the band A Hawk and a Hacksaw. (Jeremy played at one time with the bands Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut). Again, if you don’t know their music, you should! They’ve released several records. It’s Balkan/Gypsy influenced, somewhat psychedelicized, with great singing, playing and melodies. They’re each multi-instrumentalists and they intrepidly travel the world, both touring and simply exploring the Balkans, in search of adventure and master musicians of the region, some of whom they simply befriend, others whom they record. They toured with Swans a while ago, and I’ve had it in the back of my mind to ask them to record on a record since. I travelled to their home studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, presented the songs, and did the same thing I did with Ben – I said, “Now what?” You can hear them on several songs on the record, sometimes subtly, at other times more pronounced. In any event, it’s great to have such a pair of wonderful humans on the record. ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS: Dana Schechter – Dana played bass on the song ‘Some New Things’. Dana was a core member of Angels of Light. Her current band is Insect Ark. It’s rather heavy and great. Will be working with Dana more soon in the future and very pleased we reconnected recently. Jennifer Gira – Backing vocals throughout and cameo vocal on Sunfucker. Jennifer has sung backing vocals on the past few Swans albums as well as lead vocal on the song When Will I Return? on the last Swans album, The Glowing Man. She’s also of invaluable help on mixing and arrangement decisions. Cassis Staudt – Accordion and harmonium. Cassis was a core member of Angels of Light. She moved to Berlin some time ago and we lost touch. Cassis is a composer of music for films in Berlin. I’m very happy to be working with her again. Norman Westberg – Electric guitar. Norman played on a few key moments on this record. Norman has been in and out of Swans since the beginning (mostly in) and was a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. We’ll continue to work together into the future, absolutely. Norman releases solo instrumental records through Lawrence English’s Room 40 label. We’re touring (each solo) together in Eastern Europe soon. Christopher Pravdica – Bass guitar, sounds. Chris played at pivotal moments on this record. He was a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. We’ll continue to work together in the future, absolutely. Chris has recently been enlisted by Jamie Stewart for his band Xiu Xiu. Phil Puleo – Phil played hammer dulcimer on the song Amnesia. This might be considered a severe underutilization of his considerable talents as a drummer, but there’s more to come quite soon. Phil was a core member in Swans 2010 – 2017 and played as a member of Swans in the late 90s and contributed to Angels of Light. Thor Harris – percussion, trumpet, clarinet, sounds, bells, gizmos, additional vibes. Thor drove up from Austin to record for me at Heather and Jeremy’s place in Albuquerque. Always a highpoint to be in the presence of this committed musician and friend. Thor was a core member of Swans in 2010 – 2016 as well as Angels of Light. Certainly, more to come! Thor has his own happening combo, Thor and friends, and they make seductive and beautiful records and tour often. He also has recently been recruited by Jamie for Xiu Xiu. Paul Wallfisch – Paul played piano to great effect here and there on the record. Paul was a touring member of Swans in 2017. He works with the glorious human chanteuse Little Annie. He’s also a musical director for theater productions in Germany, and recently landed a very fancy-pants job as musical director/composer for a theater production at a historical theater in Vienna. Thanks to All!!!! MG” 2019 €18.50
SYNCHRE Requiem CD All instruments and compositions _ Luca Canciello & Lorenzo Brusci Vocals _ Movement 2, The Zimbabwebird; Movement 1 and 3, Sosta Palmizi Text, Movement 2 (by Zimbabwebird, in Zulu and Shona, 2015): "Thuma mina, mweya mutsvene. Unditumeo" [Send me, pure spirit. And then send me.] Lorenzo Brusci, 1966, co-founder of MUSSTDESIGN.com, managing partner at the music robot start up MUSICFIT (musicfit.ch). He launched over the last 20 years prestigious adventures in the audio and sound space design field as the sound and interactive design studio GIARDINO SONORO (giardinosonoro.com) and the architectural speakers manufacturer ARCHITETTURA SONORA. He has been composing music for various ensembles, theatre, television and radio since the early ’90s (He founded TIMET.org in 1993). Lives between Berlin, Tuscany and Krakow. www.lorenzobrusci.com www.soundcloud.com/lorenzo-brusci Luca Canciello, Italian born, Berlin based. Multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound designer, he performs experimenting with live electronics, instruments and sounds. www.soundcloud.com/climnoizer His musical journey and inspiration have brought him into various fields and art disciplines, working solo or collaborating with other artists and bands. His interest for other art forms, in particular dancing, leads him composing musical pieces for theatre, dance companies, experimenting the various natures of rhythm in music . On sound design, he’s been involved on projects linked to international cultural heritage and architectural media mapping. The mechanism of individual and collective memory and its rituals, are the central inspiration of our Requiem. It’s not a formal Mass; our intention was to harvest and express the community’s need of sharing and binding its ties while facing the experience of death. A deep sense of community - religo in latin, binding in english - inspired our structural research. Requiem becomes then the concerting moment that asks for “holding back”, a desperate request of time suspension, the ultimate demand for re-living, re-experiencing, re-loading, re-gaining, now, in this very ritual and public moment what will be lost forever. Through a free attitude in music composition and expression - our syncretism - we designed a process of electroacoustic layering, consolidating in 3 compositional areas the process and destiny of organic life. - Living Elegy - the enchantment for life and its many endangering gates: the movement is subdivided in (living) Articulation, (ritual)Transition and (pathological) Abandon; - Nostalgia - the seeking for the integral time suspension and life preservation; - Transfiguration - where we depict the organic reaction to danger and biological faith, subdivided in (furious and ultrabiological) detachment, (regenerating) intimate power, (coding the) extended mind, (persuing a new form of) immanency. https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/requiem "Lorenzo Brusci (Timet, Climnoizer, Giardino Sonoro) & Luca Canciello gestalten als SYNCHRE mit ihrem Requiem (ACU 1009, CD) aus Drones, Breakbeats und dunkel grollenden Blechbläsern (oder Orgelpfeifen) einen Dreisatz aus 'Living Energy', 'Nostalgia' und 'Transfiguration'. Als einen Übergangsritus, mit einer zart flehenden Gesangseinlage von Tozim Madzima aka Zimbabwe Bird, zu plonkenden Lauten aus dem Innenklavier. Danach wieder rauschend sich wälzende, zittrig verzerrte und knarrende Synthie- und Gitarrensounds, mit Vogelgezwitscher durchsetzt und erst zeitlupig gedehnten, dann wieder zuckenden Beats. Und zuletzt auch wieder der dunklen Bläserpracht, zu der sich diese grandiose Musik der brausenden Verwandlung entgegen stürzt. Wer braucht noch eine Leitkultur, nach so einem Durchgang ins weiße Licht?" [Bad Alchemy] 2016 €10.00
TAMING THE OUTBACK 1986-1989 CD "TAMING THE OUTBACK... OK ... you probably haven’t heard of this 1980’s UK band before – but they really are worth it ... Taming The Outback were a three-piece from Southend-on-Sea (Essex, UK) who were active from 1986 to 1989 (hence the title of this retrospective compilation). While they spent most of their time playing outside of the town itself and bemoaning the R&B traditions of the area, they were very much a Southend band. The three members of the original line-up formed after crisscrossing each other’s musical paths in South East Essex in the early 1980s. Melbourne-born drummer Daryl Amos and bass player Jason Sherwin first played together in local band A Wreath For Brezhnev, later meeting-up with guitarist/singer Tony Sampson (who played with Playground) to form Taming The Outback – band characterized by an aggressive, driven rhythm section, strong self-penned songs with a rich, echo-saturated guitar. Playing live became a primary focus for the band but the endless gigging, drinking and the failure to release the aforementioned second single and the LP (already recorded) probably marked the beginning of the end of the band. Taming The Outback itself played their last gigs in 1989 with the aggression being turned inwards between personnel and instruments. This limited edition retrospective CD collects the unreleased LP, their 7” single and the cassette EP, along with demos and some rare live recordings – all carefully and professionally remastered by Sting Davies at Big Noise, one of the UK’s top audio restoration engineers. Their music has never sounded better. The deluxe packaging pays homage to those lovely old vinyl gatefold sleeves and has an information-packed 24-page full colour booklet and inner sleeve (initial copies also come with a 2-sided mini-poster with more press cuttings and a sticker). Check out our web page for videos, more images and (aging and fading) press cuttings." [label info] www.chronoglide.com/equation.html "Every now and again I find a band or artist that I just am absolutely in love with, only to find upon further research, that they have fallen to obscurity and little to no more material exists to be had. That is very much the case with Taming the Outback. Being a big fan of the post-punk movement as a whole, I was certainly excited to give this disc a spin, but I had no idea what was in store. A 'definitive' collection, culled from the entirety of their 3 year lifespan, '1986-1989' may just be one of the most quintessential post-punk records I've experienced. From the opening notes of 'Fire & Smoke' to the moving, dramatic leads of 'Mistrust' to the final notes of 'American Dream' this cd is a near flawless listen. So many classic influences are channeled throughout this disc, while not a single one of them can quite be used for comparison. The Outback were able to draw from these influences and really put their own stamp on it all. From bass sounds very reminiscent of the Cure's 'Disintegration' album, coupled with certain melodies containing the ghosts of Joy Division's early work to the angst of Killing Joke and hint of the western vibe of Fields of the Nephilim (with whom The Outback shared the stage for a tour) to the tension building vocals of Echo and the Bunnymen and Mission UK'¦ The list just goes on and on, yet I can't stress enough, that at no point does it sound like any of these bands have been recycled in any way. Taming the Outback had something so magical that this world just couldn't accept it, and after just three short years, tensions grew to a head, and the magic was no more. Lucky for us the trio, after 2 decades, decided to release this retrospective of singles originally slated for an abandoned LP, demos, and live tracks. While the quality of some of the live tracks isn't 100% pristine, some of the almost inaudible tape noise, really at its worst just adds a warm, nostalgic feel the latter half of the album. Even the packaging is impressive. A thick, heavy, double gatefold style cardboard sleeve is adorned with the band's infamous crucifixion publicity shot, and comes with a poster, and full 24 page booklet containing lyrics, interviews and reprints of more than a few press clippings about the band; and a second edition limited to just 75 copies (which at last inspection were still available) comes with the same, as well as 4 badges, a mini reprint of 'Alive and Kicking' fanzine from 1987 featuring the band, and an original copy of their only 7' in a picture sleeve. Once again, just a phenomenal record in every way; go out of your way if you must, just make sure you get this one under your belt before you die." [Barton Graham / Chain DLK] 2011 €13.00
TARAB + ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE Obex MC "To start AMT and Tarab exchanged materials and objects. AMT exchanged a single sound sculpture for Tarab’s collection of small objects. This material exchange led to activity. AMT manually manipulated, Tarab also, but more often than not he placed the sculpture in situations and let them work on it. Once again exchanges took place, this time of audio material. Elements where then selected and arranged and further rearranged; some left untouched and some where transformed. Tarab explores re-contextualised collected sounds and tactile gestures formed into dynamic, psycho-geographical compositions inspired by discarded things, found things, crawling around in the dirt, junk, the ground, rocks, dust, wind, walking aimlessly, scratchy things, decay and most if not all the things he hears and sees. More than simply documenting a given site, Tarab is interested in a direct engagement with our surrounds, teasing out half narratives, visceral sensation, false leads and heightened awareness. Artificial Memory Trace is a project by Slavek Kwi, a sound-artist, composer and researcher interested in the phenomena of perception as the fundamental determinant of relations with reality. He has a longstanding fascination with sound-environments, developing what he terms “electroacoustic sound-paintings”, that oscillate between sound-only works and interdisciplinary works exploring social, spatial and temporal processes." [label info] "The other new Cronica Electronica release is a collaboration between Tarab from Australia and Artificial Memory Trace from Ireland. From both of them we reviewed quite some work, even when Tarab is not as active as Artificial Memory Trace. Both of them use a lot of field recordings. The latter reworks these extensively on his computer, while retaining some of the original and Tarab “explores re-contextualised collected sounds and tactile gestures formed into dynamic, psycho-geographical compositions inspired by discarded things, found things, crawling around in the dirt, junk, the ground, rocks, dust, wind, walking aimlessly, scratchy things, decay and most if not all the things he hears and sees” (I couldn’t have said it better). Together they exchanged “materials and objects’, rather than a bunch of sounds. Artificial Memory Trace sends a sound sculpture down while Tarab send up a collection of small objects. Things were manually manipulated, recorded and transformed, all noted on the cover, but maybe also adding to the mystery of it. And mysterious it surely is. I quickly lost my way here, already on the first side of this cassette. I had no clue which piece I was hearing, or who did what. The Bandcamp version only shows a limited amount of pieces, so hardly any help. There is lots of obscure rumble of objects, and equally a lot of processing without any telling what these objects are. It could as easily be one piece per side anyway and for some obscure fun it is listed as a bunch of pieces. It is a fascinating listening experience, and unlike Delplanque’s work, it is clearer defined as a composition. I would think there are strings attached to these objects, that they are used in a percussive way and sometimes it sounds like they are destroyed. It is very acoustic yet also electrical. Sometimes small drone sounds are formed and then sometimes it builds, but as easily seems to be falling apart making this quite odd but thoroughly captivating stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2018 €10.50
TATE, DARREN Ghost Guitars CD-R DARREN TATE is still (re)-searching on the weird side! Over 45 minutes of at times quite rough experiments with a "squeeze box", piano, keyboards, guitars, accordian & field recordings, strange electronic sounds all over the field(s)... and near silence.... ...created with help from D. SUZUKI and K. VANCE 2006 €12.00
TERVAHÄÄT Taival CD "Taival continues on the paths and narrow roads through Finnish forests to further explore the rustic and mystical sounds and visions of Tervahäät. Seven tracks of ritualistic folk & neofolk are inspired by rural surroundings, spiritual unity, and a sincere interest in the native land and its entities — trees, animals, and the spirit of the ancestors. The fourth album of Tervahäät brings also some surprisingly warm winds from the icy north-west, but the warmth also carries a slight smell of decaying bones and suspicioulsy friendly whispers from old ghosts." [label info] www.animaarctica.fi "I have spoken to many people about their taste in music. Several of them can pinpoint a defining moment that triggered their now eclectic taste, which has led them along the path of musical freedom. I, personally, keep very limited and musically specific company, but for me it’s a very simple and nostalgic memory. Have you ever had one of those evenings where you find yourself looking at film after film on YouTube? You go from band-to-band and genre-to-genre, and you stumble across some amazing, bizarre, and down-right amateur videos. That particular nostalgic night, I stumbled across a man playing a Finnish instrument called the ‘kantele’. I was amazed at how simple the instrument looked and yet how sweet the tone is. The first one I heard was a five-string, and the YouTube trail quickly brought me to a ten-string. Before I knew it, I had placed an order for a five-string kantele to be made in the United States. This epiphany of sorts found me entrenched in the culture of Finland, whilst playing its national instrument. This immersion in Finnish culture—now six years on—has not deteriorated; if anything, it has intensified. From the stories of the Kalevala, Vainamoinen, and the mythical Kantele he constructed from a pike’s jaw-bone, to the vast landscapes full of lakes, forests, and elks, and the pre-Lutheran religious customs and practices that were once the Pagan folklore of the land… It’s quite possibly the polar-opposite, natural elements of my homeland that fuels my fascination. Tervahäät When my editor told me to ‘light a fire’ underneath the Tervahäät review, I detected a Finnish scent on the name. Further examination of the cover and notes brought about the jubilation and motivation required to get that ‘fire’ going. Many no doubt know that Finland is renowned for great music. Being a folk metal junkie, there isn’t much that comes out of Finland that I don’t like or haven’t seen live, even here in Australia. Having predominantly covered folk and neofolk to date with the Heathen Harvest Periodical, it was a much-anticipated listen. The polar opposite landscapes of which I previously spoke are significant. We have huge deserts, dried-up lakes, and a bevy of poisonous reptiles to keep your trekking interesting. I played Taival in my car on a four-hour drive across the plains of South Australia. My research on the band’s name, Tervahäät, loosely translates to ‘Tar Wedding’. Quite auspicious given that my initial listen is being done on the open road! The album’s name, Taival, loosely translates to ‘Journey on foot’. As we say in Australia, ‘bugger that’—there are too many snakes out at this time of year. The opening song, ‘Kärrinpyörä’, begins with guitar strumming reminiscent to the intro of a Western film scene. The harsh and drawn-out vocals accompany a simple melody being looped in the background. Harsh vocals are usually associated with heavier music but there is elocution with these, which really hold your interest. The surroundings in the early stage of my journey are arid and harsh. Dry farms and wrecked cars are a common sight. The previous suggestion of Western theme has much more credence (to my present situation). The chorus keeps returning and after a while I find myself singing and humming it in a familiar way. ‘Kevätkirot’ begins with a more melodic approach that fins the vocals taking a 180-degree turn wherein Riimu showcases his vocal ability. His voice wouldn’t sound out-of-place belting out Russia’s national anthem or one of Ivan Rebroff’s classics. These haunting tones are hypnotizing. They captivate me to the extent that I needed to know more about the lyrics. Not verbatim, but in Riimu’s words, the song reflects a particular mood: A time in early depression, or that bleakest time in spring and utter loneliness. The outro of the track has a dreamy presence and plays a haunting sound whose origins would point to a wind instrument. The album isn’t short of effects, and as ‘Tuomiolaulu’ begins, the presence of reverb gives the song an enchanting sound. Again the song is driven by powerful vocals; the music passages are superfluous to them but accompany the style. Have I mentioned that the album has an occasional Western theme? The use of Banjo on ‘Koulutie’ reaffirms this theory. The previous description of Finland’s landscape casts a rural description which gives credence to my suggested theme. It then dawns on me that this album draws inspiration from the transition of seasons—the personal reflections and mood changes that occur within all beings and in the case of this album, the artists. The song ‘Taival’—also the album’s namesake—ends the seven-track recording. A synthesizer and eclectic but simple percussive beat accompanies the consistently haunting vocals. I listened to this one a few times over. With each listen I hear a new overtone in the background. Like the recording was being infiltrated by ghosts or spirits from the ancient land or another world. One in particular sounds like a Tuvan throat singer. It adds a mystique that’s hard to quantify in words. It still sends a quiver of eeriness over my body with each listen. Musically simple, vocally diverse, and lyrically reflective are appropriate word associations for Taival. It’s been a while since I have heard anything like this, and I want to explore this style a lot more. I have myself in recent times been meditating to this record; the music works with me like a spiritual guide to the Suomi landscape that I’m yet to visit. Its place as driving music wasn’t limited to that one encounter. The CD hasn’t left my stacker. The artists are clearly emotionally entrenched in their music. It comes across as from the heart; it comes across with honesty, and it works." [Malachy O'Brien / Heathen Harvest] 2014 €13.00
THE GHOST ORCHID An Introduction to EVP CD Hochinteressante CD zum Thema "Electronic Voice Phenomenon" (EVP), das sind auf magnetischen Tonträgern aufngenommene "Geisterstimmen" für die es keine gesicherte Erklärung gibt. Auf der CD werden eine Fülle von EVPs vorgestellt und erklärt (moderiert von LEIF ELGGREN und die Arbeit des EVP-Erforschers RAYMOND CASS wird vorgestellt. Die Aufnahmen sind z.T. bis zu 35 Jahre alt. Handelt es sich um Stimmen von Verstorbenen? Oder Botschaften von Aliens? Oder um ganz normale Radiostimmen, die über noch unbekannte Mechanismen übertragen werden? Im Booklet werden dazu die verschiedensten Theorien diskutiert und weitere erstaunliche Details erläutert. Für jeden an übersinnlichen / paranormalen Phänomenen Interessierten eine faszinierende Anschaffung! "This is the third edition of this much sought-after CD... and has been unavailable since 2002... [originally issued in 1999]. The ParaPsychic Acoustic Research Cooperative [PARC], in association with Ash International, is proud to present the first ever fully comprehensive investigation into the paranormal phenomenon of EVP, otherwise known as Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Without doubt EVP falls into the catagory of the paranormal alongside other unexplained mysteries such as ufology, life after death & poltergeist activity. The listener is guided through a collection of strange and mysterious voices that have appeared without explanation onto the tapes of EVP researchers. Included with the CD is a 24 page booklet containing commissioned articles which cover the conflicting views surrounding the EVP. Actual voice samples are reproduced here for the first time on compact disc: Polyglot Voices, Public Service Broadcasting, Interruptions across the airwaves, Singing Voices, Instant Response Voices, and the extraordinary Alien Voices. The CD also includes a commentary by the artist Leif Elggren (in English), and recordings of the work of Raymond Cass, England's leading EVP researcher, and original member of the Fortean Group, and the Latvian EVP researcher, Dr. Konstantin Raudive. This CD release seeks to present the evidence; are the voices extraterrestrial, paranormal evidence of our telepathic powers or an elaborate hoax perpetrated by sinister and powerful groups to mislead us from their true aims...?" [label info] www.ashinternational.com 1999 €15.00
THE IMAGINARY SOUNDSCAPES Field Factory mCDR "the imaginary soundscapes is the electronic meeting of stéphane rives who uses re-worked samples from hiw own discography mixed with recordings from his daily life and sound environment, a process that builds on "islet of memories", a project he began in 2010, and frédéric nogray (his solo disc "wuritagu" is still available from us) who returns to his early research on feedback, here caused and moderated in real time with three effects pedals, oscillating between minimalism and psychedelia. "field factory" is a wonderful ever evolving post-industrial drone that will keep you awake during its 20 minutes..." [label info] www.taalem.com "In the ever-expanding universe of Taalem, now over 100 releases, three new additions, reviewed in order of appearance in the Taalem catalogue. The first one is by French duo Stephane Rives and Frederic Nogray. They already had a release on Ruptured (see Vital Weekly 802). Rives normally plays saxophone but on this release he is responsible for 'mixing and editing of recordings from his daily life and sound environment, sometimes using samples of his own discography' while Nogray creates 'feedbacks caused and moderated by three effects pedals, general mixing and editing in real time', recorded in Beirut, where Rives lives. Now this is something different than the usual release on Taalem. It's dark, it's drone like - that is not strange - but The Imaginary Soundscapes add an element of noise to it, although perhaps noise is not the right word. It's perhaps more abstract than much of the ambient releases on Taalem. The processed feedback makes up a fine, sustaining field of sound and the field recordings in here do not come in some long form but rather in a more collage like form." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2014 €5.00
THE TRIPLE TREE Ghosts CD "Tony Wakeford kann's nicht lassen! Als ob der umtriebige Mr. "Sol Invictus" nicht schon mit zahlreichen Nebenprojekten (u.a. Grey Force Wakeford, Trio Noir, L'Orchestre Noir, Hawthorn) ausgelastet wäre, hebt er nun gemeinsam mit Andrew King sowie ausgewählten "Familienmitgliedern", u.a. Renee Rosen, Guy Harries, John Murphy (u.a. Knifeladder, SPK, Death in June, Shining Vril) oder Kris Force (Amber Asylum), ein weiteres namens The Triple Tree aus der Taufe, dessen Debut "Ghosts" niemand geringerem als dem britischen Ghoststory-Autor M.R. James (1862-1936) gewidmet ist. Bereits das James-Zitat "Depend upon it! Some of these things are so, but we do not know the rules!" auf der Rückseite des Booklets deutet die Marschrichtung an: Festgelegte Regeln kennt man hier nicht, und schon gar nicht die des Neofolk. Folglich sollte man sich der Scheibe exakt unter diesem Gesichtspunkt nähern, denn "Ghosts" ist abgedreht, "Ghosts" ist schaurig und "Ghosts" verlangt dem Rezipienten zeitweise einiges an Toleranz ab. Sägende Geigenläufe, diffuse Feldaufnahmen, schräge Flöten-/Pfeiftöne, dumpfe Percussions sowie viele weitere Soundelemente, oft subtil disharmonisch zusammengefügt, erzeugen eine Atmosphäre, welche den Hörer direkt in James' gespenstische Szenarien zu führen vermag, in staubige Bibliotheken, schmutzige Hinterhöfe oder düstere Gemäuer des viktorianischen England. Die Stimmen von "Dr. Wakeford" und "The Rev. King" tun dazu ihr übriges. Während "The Mezzotint" oder "Lost Hearts" in schlichtem Erzählstil dargeboten werden, kommt "The Stalls" als altertümlicher Kanon daher und "Black Crusade" scheint von beiden direkt in einer Kaschemme der Londoner Docks eingesungen worden zu sein. Doch "Ghosts" ist auch berückend schön. Neben dem durch gezupfte Gitarre und markante Männerstimmen fast erhaben wirkenden "Three Crowns" sind es hauptsächlich jene Titel, in denen die beteiligten Damen Autumn Grieve, Kris Force oder Mercy Liao gesanglich zum Zuge kommen. Dabei kristallisiert sich vor allem das perlende Duett "The Malice of Inanimate Objects" als Höhepunkt heraus. Aber selbst dieses ist von einer unheilsschwangeren Aura umgeben, da die Lieder ständig durch schrille Versatzstücke gebrochen werden, die sich entweder als Intros/Outros oder komplette Tracks einschleichen. Genau das richtige, um die Gruselstimmung immer wieder zu entfachen. Trotz alledem kommt jedoch eine typische Eigenschaft der Inselbewohner nicht zu kurz, der Humor. Im Booklet präsentieren sich die beiden Protagonisten nämlich launig, wie direkt aus einem der schauerlichen Romane entsprungen. Schrullige Fotos für ein ebenso schrulliges und gerade deshalb fesselndes Album. M.R. James wäre sicher stolz gewesen!" [Medienkonverter] "The Triple Tree consists of Tony Wakeford (Sol Invictus) and Andrew King aided and abetted by M, Autumn Grieve, Kris Force (Amber Asylum), Guy Harries, Renee Rosen and John Murphy (Death In June, SPK, KnifeLadder), and is an extended homage to the supernatural fiction of M. R. James (with a certain nod to his notable studies in the New Testament Apocrypha) the greatest ghost story writer in the English language, and the finest medievalist of his generation. Join Dr Wakeford and the Rev. King as they search for the Three Crowns, attempt to Cast the Runes, purchase The Mezzotint, follow Mr Abney’s "remarkable enlightenment" in Lost Hearts, and join Count Magnus on the "Black Crusade"! Winter evenings will never be the same again... Digipak with booklet." [label info] ".. Anthony Wakeford and Andrew King is best known as part of the project Sol Invictus, that for more than two decades has combined neo-folk and neoclassical influences with electronic experimentation. The comprehensive experiences in that particular field beautifully flourish on this tribute to haunted tales of medieval times under the project flag "Triple Tree". The atmosphere is perfectly accomplished with some beautiful male and female vocal integrated in medieval folk-expressions that stylishly turns associations towards Dead Can Dance. As a contrast to the organic sounds, the electronic part of the album first of all operates in ambient-oriented soundscapes to create haunting atmospheres of ghouls. "Ghosts" is a strong sonic depiction of early ghost stories from M.R. James, inspiring the listener to dive into the dark forces of the medieval author!" [NM, Vital Weekly] www.coldspring.co.uk 2008 €8.00
THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA Kollaps Tradixionales do-10" & CD "THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA (SMZ) returns with its sixth full-length recording and first since the band's line-up change of summer 2008. Having shed three members and recruited one (drummer DAVID PAYANT) the group officially dropped the "Tra-La-La Band' from its name, played a debut performance as a newly minted quintet at All Tomorrow's Parties in upstate NY, and embarked on an extensive European tour through the fall of 2008. As Kollaps Tradixionales ably demonstrates, the band has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms. Anchored by the fried electric guitar and plangent voice of band leader EFRIM MENUCK (who previously co-founded GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR) SMZ continues to slide comfortably and unforcedly towards an expansive, loose and blues-inflected balladry—not so much the inexorably riffing blues shuffle of the title track from its previous effort, 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, but a more languid waltz-time marking an almost smoldering dynamic arc, as heard on the new album's opening track "There Is A Light" and gorgeous closer "'Piphany Rambler." [label info] www.cstrecords.com 2010 €25.50
  Kollaps Tradixionales (special edition) CD & book Deluxe CD with a special 16-page, 7”x9” perfect bound art book with found image collages by EFRIM MENUCK and filmmaker/photographer JEM COHEN with a foil-embossed cover. THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA (SMZ) returns with its sixth full-length recording and first since the band's line-up change of summer 2008. Having shed three members and recruited one (drummer DAVID PAYANT) the group officially dropped the "Tra-La-La Band' from its name, played a debut performance as a newly minted quintet at All Tomorrow's Parties in upstate NY, and embarked on an extensive European tour through the fall of 2008. As Kollaps Tradixionales ably demonstrates, the band has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms. Anchored by the fried electric guitar and plangent voice of band leader EFRIM MENUCK (who previously co-founded GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR) SMZ continues to slide comfortably and unforcedly towards an expansive, loose and blues-inflected balladry—not so much the inexorably riffing blues shuffle of the title track from its previous effort, 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, but a more languid waltz-time marking an almost smoldering dynamic arc, as heard on the new album's opening track "There Is A Light" and gorgeous closer "'Piphany Rambler." [label info] www.cstrecords.com 2010 €18.50
THEME Valentine (Lost) Forever CD "The third album from Theme, a band comprised of Stuart Carter, Jeanne Boyer and Richard Johnson (from'90s influential industrial-experimental band Splintered and head of the Lumberton Trading Company label), is a hallucinogenic intersection, where the exploration of twilight spaces, dreams, bitter reflections and hopes collide with a sense of escape (to better places?) or an abandoned 'self', either lost or searching for much needed identity. More 'song'-based than their previous album, on Valentine (Lost) Forever Theme often witnesses barbed yet oblique words cut-up and formed into mantras over a mesh of cascading drones, textures, blissed-out guitar strums, submerged tamboura, metallic sheets of electronic frah, occasional drum pounds and chilling swells 'n' flecks of musique concrete. Overall, it catches the group exploring their environment, in more senses than one, with renewed vigour and nothing but questions left either open-ended or vying for interpretation. It's a world of rubble, dust and sprawling collapse, psychological or otherwise, screaming for meaning and purpose in a world gone mad where inner conflicts, vulnerability and regret are drowned in vast existential pools... With an additional remix by ex-Siouxsie & the Banshees bass player Steven Severin, this genuine album offers an apocalyptic sound mirage that recalls the experimental and post industrial works of :Zoviet*France, Throbbing Gristle and Coil, as well as the occult-like numbness of Current 93, the bleak avant-electronica of Andrew Liles and the psychedelic drones furrowed by the group's own previous work in both Splintered and Theme. In that sense, Valentine (Lost) Forever is a definite masterpiece in the ever-evolving legacy of the U.K. industrial scene, and if this is the end, then it's time to burn the truth." [label info] www.HCBrecords.com 2009 €13.00
TIETCHENS, ASMUS Spät-Europa CD Nummer Drei der Re-Release-Orgie auf dem feinen Bremer Label. SPÄT-EUROPA ist eines der vier frühen SKY Records Alben und beinhaltet 20 Miniaturen mit unnachahmlichen frühachtziger analog-Elektronik-Sounds... “Part Three in the ongoing rerelease series of all early vinyl albums from 1980 - 1991, this is Tietchens second album for SKY Records recorded in 1981 documenting his search for his own style of'pop music'. Edition of 1000 copies in jewel case with poster booklet feat. the original cover artwork. Liner notes: Asmus Tietchens 'Spät-Europa' (Sky Records 070) 1981 Even more consistently than on 'Biotop' I kept all of the tracks on this album deliberately short. Originally, all of them were supposed to be exactly two minutes in length but, back then, without a computer, this was not really possible and the idea could not be carried ot precisely. Nonetheless, this strict concept gave the listener a total of twenty miniatures, four more than on 'Biotop'. The technical standard of the studio had improved rapidly. It was possible for me to indulge in as many tracks as I wanted ! However, these two aspects presented me with a creative problem: I either had to respond in a very appropriate way, or would end up producing somewhat useless 'filler' material. The first I was not yet capable of and the second would have been embarrassing. 'The shoemaker should stick to his last'! I decided to stay with a maximum of eight tracks as this would give me no problems at all. New synthesizers (Polymoog, ect.) and an enlarged array of additional equipment (EMS Vocoder, Ring Modulator, Sampler, ect.) forced me to learn a lot of new things, but I worked my way through it all quickly and thoroughly. The results found their way into the music on this album. The jubilant sound of 'Schöne Dritte Welt' was created by the late Andreas Hoffmann, a.k.a. C.V. Liquidsky. Parallel with this album I worked on a series with the working title of 'Experimentelle Geselligkeit', a string of musical sketches which I was wanting to use with my regular electronic equipment. I then realised that the relative inflexibility of the rythmn machine made it impossible to transform these sketches into complete works. The rythmic patterns proved to be incompatible. As a result, that work came to a halt, leaving the sketches unreleased. Two of them are included as bonus tracks on this CD. 'Soirèe' and 'Zum Tee bei Frau Hilde' were intended, in a re-arranged form, to be the basis of an album with the previously mentioned title of 'Experimentelle Geselligkeit'. The series was never completed, and the fragments were put aside. Only thirteen years later, when the 'Aroma Club' opened its doors, did I return to the idea. I would particularly like to thank Günter Körber of Sky Records for his permission to re-release 'Spät-Europa' and the other three Sky albums, and to use the LP labels in facsimile.” [press release] 2004 €15.00
  Aus Freude am Elend CD Wohl eine der ungewöhnlichsten & schönsten Tietchens-Alben, die augenzwinkernde Verwendung von vokalem Material war hier der Fokus, found sounds & field-recordings werden eigentümlichst verfremdelt, aus Schlager- oder Volksliedern die abartigsten Töne rausgekitzelt, absolut unkategorisierbare Klänge entstehen... ein wunderbares-wundersames Re-Kontextualisierungs-Projekt! JA WIR LIEBEN ES! 2 Bonus Tracks! "11th part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums between 1980-1991. AUS FREUDE AM ELEND is based on the human voice as a primary sound source and was originally released in edition of 500 copies on Dom America in 1988. The CD includes two previously unreleased tracks and comes in a jewel case with full color artwork and poster booklet also feat. the original front and back cover. First edition of 600 copies. Asmus Tietchens AUS FREUDE AM ELEND (Dom America Dom US LP 02) 1988 "Following my research of piano and water sounds (DS102, DS88) it didn't come as a surprise that my next project was about the human voice as a sound source. The great masters of Plunderphonics already showed the way in the early 80's, when they plundered the gigantic junk-shops packed full of already recorded material, which was stolen by them to use it for their own aesthetic targets. This album only consists of such stolen goods. Each track (with the exception of 'In memoriam P.F.') was based on voices of people who I naturally didn't ask their permission to use these recordings in the first place. So you can hear the voices of ecstatic religious people as well as other people making love. You'll also hear someone singing to Annette and Peggy out of the trash bin of a publishing company. Even the screams of furious teachers came in handy while I made loops from them. Especially loops: Rarely before this album and only once after it (on Stupor Mundi) did I made use of the structural means of loops to such an extent. I was fascinated by the rhythmical and harmonic permanence, in the same way as many of my musical colleagues at the time. The aspect of the 'Ritual' was a self-evident common formulation in difficult music during the 80s, so loops and tape voices, monotonous rhythms and LoFi became obvious means to shape the music. AUS FREUDE AM ELEND too was strongly spiced with these ingredients and therefore can be seen as a prototype album of this specific view of music during the time. This tendency was supported - even partly inspired - by a new generation of sound machines, which also made it possible for new aesthetic goals to appear at the horizon. The 90s were near at hand and sound art music would develop drastically in many ways in the years to follow. Samplers, digital editing, hard-disc recording and the first PC's opened new doorways. Half of the material on AUS FREUDE AM ELEND was already created with these digital tools. I never quite understood how the labels Dom America (run by Jon Carlson) and Dom here in Germany were connected. Did Carlson used to be a fan of Dom which was founded by Christoph Heemann and Achim Flaam. Did he simply liked the release politics of this label. And what became of Dom America ? Actually I don't know. I guess it was one of the small enthusiastic independent labels which released a handful of titles and which disappeared after being active for a couple of years during the 80s. However AUS FREUDE AM ELEND had vanished shortly after its release. I only used 'stolen' voices twice again ('Stupor Mundi', 1990 and 'Das Fest ist zu Ende. Aus', 1993) after this album by the way." [label info / credits] "... Much like some his previous records, most notably 'Formen Letzer Hausmusik' and 'Seuchengebiete', its foremost a work of electro acoustic or musique concrete. There is an element of repetition that one wouldn't easily spot with the original 'masters' of the genre, but Tietchens uses them in his own, highly personal, way, adding his own fine blend of electronics and in order to make a creepy sound, a sinister play of vocals. The people whose voices are used sound like they are singing in a far away cage, in isolation, a cry to get out. After all these years this record hasn't aged at all, and is a highlight in Tietchens career." [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2008 €13.00
TIETCHENS, ASMUS / FRIEDER BUTZMANN NNOI#02 LP "Second in this series of recordings and documents of artists of the NNOI Festival. The design of the entire series is based on drawings by Frank Diersch, made for this project. This record unites two German greats of the electronic avant-garde of the last 40 years and brings together two worlds that exist like the sides of a coin facing away from each other and yet are firmly connected at the core. 'NNOI#2' can be described as a kind of miraculous "Göffel" - a mixture of fork and spoon. Asmus Tietchens, the glass fork, reduces his 9 compositions 'Stenograms' to abstract structures that force a space that transforms its floating hardness and beauty into the clear outlines of a sculpture. The Tietchens-Monolith is being straightened out further. Frieder Butzmann developed a 'SinusToneSuite' for the 'NNOI'. As a collector of strange objects and apparitions, Frieder went in search of sinustones that could be found between generators, vocal cords and wooden tubes. The 'SinusToneSuite' is an opulent electronic composition, a dance with the golden spoon of unreason and love!" 2020 €19.50
TILLY, THOMAS (TO) & JEAN-LUC GUIONNET Stones, Air, Axioms / Delme do-LP 2xLP edition of 300 on white vinyl. A Fragment Factory release in association with centre d'art contemporain – la synagogue de Delme. “Stones, Air, Axioms” is an ongoing art and research project by French sound artists Jean-Luc Guionnet and Thomas Tilly, dealing with the complex relationships between sound and architecture. Delme is the third phase within this venture. By virtue of its history and exceptional acoustics, Delme’s former synagogue is the ideal setting for a customised, on-site sound installation. Guionnet and Tilly are deliberately leaving the place empty, giving visitors an experience of both visual and sound architecture. By supplementing the built space with frequencies, as well as voices, instrumental notes, rhythms and silence, the artists offer everyone a special listening situation: whether this listening is drifting or attentive, static or mobile, it is guaranteed to give visitors a different perception of the place, which is remoulded by the volume of air it contains and by the sound travelling through it. fragmentfactory.bandcamp.com/album/stones-air-axioms-delme 2018 €29.00
TO / THOMAS TILLY Script Geometry do-LP & CD \"Approaching the forest as if were a city, a construct, an ensemble of strata and vertical heights where signals answer, contrast and ignore each other. Variations occur, fullness and emptiness are created according to the weather and the peak and off-preak hours. This density that language can\'t define presents a challenge for the ear, and from this density surfaces, frm time to time, certain analogies to a modern sound environment. Cultural leads fraw our experience of these natural acoustic phenomenin towards the domain of technology : \'it sounds like... it\'s like\'. The timbres ? The sound structures ? There exists something in a tropical forest that sounds like and plays within the realms of electronics, music and electronics noise ; something characteristic of an era long before the birth of biotopes that form this forest and create this sound. Script geometry comes from this idea and the desire to work with density, in an attempt to extract forms that characterize these analogies. Taking these sounds out of their context and rearranging them as we would patch cables on a synthesizer ; weaving these strata and vertica heights into a different pattern by using the signals from the forest as if they were synthetic sounds : dissecting this spectrum and looking for something that can only be revealed through listening, this is the essence of the project\'. Thomas Tilly - Winter 2012\'In March 2013, I traveled to the Nourages scientific research station in French Guiana. Situated in the heart of a tropical rainforest, this station welcomes international scientific research progams dealing with tropical forests and their biodiversity. For the 30 days and nights of my stay, i listened to and captured the sound environment with an emphasis on animal communications : those wich are perceptible to the huan ear, but also the inaudible spectrum. The result is a collection of compositions and phonography characteristic of the zone. No electronic treatement has been added to these recordings other than a low cut filter and a light EQ mix. Script Geometry was conducted as an artist-in-residency programme at the Confort Moderne, Jazz à Potiers, the Lieu Multiple and the Nouragues Station in French Guiana between February and June 2013. A series of concerts, conférences, broadcasts and a creative workshop took place in accompaniment to the project\'. Double LP mastered by James Plotkin. CD mastered by Thomas Tilly. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin.\" [label info] www.aposiopese.com \"A double LP and a CDR of the source material. For this work he went to the Nourages scientific research station in French Guiana, in the middle of the rain forest. For thirty days he recorded sounds with an emphasis on animal communications, some of these using ultra sonic translators. \'No electronic treatment has been added to these recordings other than a low cut filter and a light EQ mix\' it says on the cover and we have to believe that, sometimes hard as it is. However some of the recordings are overlaying each other so a more dense pattern arises, and the chirping of insects that is already a bit electronically sounding are emphasized, such as in the opening piece, \'At Night, Mass\'. The pieces on this record shift back and forth between untreated - as \'no mixing, no editing\' - and \'composition, classic and ultrasonic recordings. Mixing and editing\', and especially those pieces, say \'Crossroad, nodes\' have a highly electronic feel to them. A very minimal piece of electronic music, almost like a modular synthesizer piece, but maybe a bit less organised, following the more chaotic patterns of the nature sounds. I thought this was a great record. Very much originating in the world of field recordings, but then, the result, from an entirely different kind of planet. \'Unidentified Insects Colony\' is almost like The Haters ripping paper and doesn\'t sound like an unidentifiedd insects colony at all. A truly fascinating work of which the hour long CDR is a nice bonus. Maybe something for the die-hards I guess, but it makes the package all the more complete.\" [FdW/Vital Weekly 05.2014] 2014 €24.00
TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO The Sound-Placing Land Bridge CD During a research in his archive Giancarlo Toniutti found two unfinished compositions recorded with Tiziano Dominighini in 1981-1982. Those compositions were mostly made of improvisation sessions using synthesizers and a guitar. Giancarlo Toniutti decided in 2013 to complete the compostions and recorded new material througout 2013 and 2014. The new compositions were made of several field recordings made in the countryside nearby a highway road. All the compostions were then mixed together in 2014-2015. "The focus of this work is on the real relationship of the sonic phenomena when they meet our personal environment, how they mold our perception and are molded by it, in its cognitive affirmation. Music, in other words." Giancarlo Toniutti Limited edition of 300 copies in digipack with a 20 pages booklet with extensive liner notes written by Giancarlo Toniutti. www.menstrualrecordings.org 2016 €14.50
TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO / JAMES WYNESS Batlahatli CD Batlahatli starts where Drookitarlùp left off. Giancarlo Toniutti and James Wyness developed two electroacoustic compositions out of sound materials collected during their European travels in search for drookitarlùp. Exploring different relational morphologies, opening their systems to timbrally charged forms, from two points of the universe, it is true that, albeit the "archaic" descriptor was not entirely apt, they extended their theoretical investigations in music. "Clustering on the geometry of conclusion" - Irto Afanas'evich Trumlin 2021 €15.00
TOOP, DAVID Lost Shadows: In Defence of the Soul (Yanomami Shamanism, Songs, Ritual, 1978) LP "Recordings from 1978 by David Toop of Yanomami ritual songs, shamanistic ceremonies and rainforest sounds. The voices of spirits and animal familiars, ventriloquial illusions of sound in dark spaces, secret spirit languages, the clap of thunder that links shamanic trance with the sleep language of Finnegans Wake...Out of these passages of the everyday, intensity flares like flames caught by a gust of wind. Skin burns or oozes blood, the wind blows up havoc as the spirits move about. Inclusive 40 PAGE BOOKLET TEXT & PICTURES: the full story of David Toop's fascinating journey in 1978 through the Amazon jungle to meet and record the last Yanomami shamen. LP version mixed by Lawrence English." [label info] www.subrosa.net "If you’ve ever taken an anthropology course in college, you should be familiar with the indigenous Yamomami people of the Amazon. A primitive stone-age tribe dwelling deep in the rainforest that has persisted into the modern day. They’re fascinating to academic researchers and curious lay people alike, the subject of various books and documentaries, noted for such traits as their supposed propensity for violence, their communal living arrangements, consumption of the ashes of the bones of their dead, and hallucinogenic drug abetted shamanism. Back in 1978, British musician/writer/theorist/recordist David Toop (you’ve likely read his pieces in The Wire or listened to one of his many carefully curated compilations) had the opportunity to travel to Venezuela to visit the Yanomami, which resulted in a privately-pressed lp of some of the ethnographic sound recordings he made on the expedition, released in a small edition in 1980 and never repressed. This double cd release expands upon that original lp, presenting a fuller selection, two discs' worth, of Toop’s Yamomami recordings, wherein mostly unaccompanied human voices (that can sound far from human) chant and sing, imitating animals and speaking with spirits, alongside the jungle sounds of insects, birds, and moths. These healing rituals are certainly interesting from an anthropological point of view... but that’s not really why we’re listing this. The real reason we recommend it is just ‘cause, anthropology aside, the tracks on here are some of the CRAZIEST SOUNDING SHIT we’ve ever heard. Utter insane gobbledy gook, to put it in perhaps less-than-PC terms. Seriously, just listen to the sound samples below, have you ever been that messed up? Grunts, growls, weird warble, bizarre babble, sudden screaming outbursts, mysterious mutter, squeals and whoops. So if you like fucked up sounds, you need some Yamomamis in your collection. Eye from the Boredoms has NOTHING on these guys. Played loud, these tracks would be perfect for anyone who wants to drive their unsuspecting spouse or housemates mad. And boy would they make good outgoing answering machine fodder. Ok, we know people don’t have answering machines anymore, but this might be a good reason to sign up for a landline and go find one!! Reason enough to buy this. That said, there’s also much more to it than that, and of course you could get in deep, listening to this, reading along in the thick booklet of liner notes that Toop provides, putting you in the moment, there in the jungle, via his 1978 expedition diary, also referencing various surrealists, philosophers, Butoh dancers and avant-garde composers as he shares his thoughts and observations, pondering the meaning and wonder of it all... OR, like we said, just be astounded and amused and amazed by the freaky sounds of these shamans!!!" [Aquarius Rec] 2015 €15.50
TOOP, DAVID & PAUL BURWELL Suttle Sculpture LP Never before released recordings from Logos Foundation live sessions with David Toop and Paul Burwell in Brussels, on May 7, 1977. David Toop on the recordings: "When Paul Burwell and I started playing together just after Christmas, 1969, we found ourselves wrestling with a new language of sound, listening, actions, objects and space. At first it was music. We studied in the improvisation classes given by John Stevens at Ealing College in 1971-2, and also took classes in African music at London's Africa Centre. Most of the musicians lasted only one or two sessions so we resigned ourselves to being a duo and worked out an approach to free improvisation that expanded from simple structures and instrument combinations. Decomposition, we called it. We had worked intensively together, searching for techniques through which to decondition ourselves from orthodoxies, devising exercises in listening and instrument building, studying esoteric organology, bioacoustics, environmental sound, raw musics and anthropology. We were both fascinated by phenomena like diffraction, propulsion, resonance, projection, masking and heterodyning, and by shamanism, the symbolically grounded agency of shamanic drums, animal-becoming and noisy costume, the shaman's capacity to enliven quotidian space with the commotion of discarnate audible entities from the spirit world. This recording is one of the very few that conveys anything of what we were about." Personnel: Paul Burwell - percussion, whistles; David Toop - flutes, home-made reeds, whistle. Logos Foundation in Belgium is Flanders's unique professional organization for the promotion of new music and audio-related arts by means of new music production, concerts, performances, composition, technological research, and other activities related to contemporary music. This organization was founded in 1968 by Godfried-Willem Raes. www.subrosa.net 2018 €16.00
TORAL, RAFAEL Space Elements Vol. 1 CD "Bis Ende der 90er hatte sich der portugiesische Musiker mit Gitarren-Drones auseinandergesetzt. Mittlerweile hat Toral um den für ihn paradigmatischen Begriff »Space« ein ganzes post-Free-Jazz-in-Elektronik-Universum kreiert und dies auf zahlreichen VÖs dokumentiert. Als einer der wesentlichen Gitarristen der 90er angesehen, arbeitete er u.a. mit J. Zorn, J. O'Rouke, Sonic Youth, MIMEO oder Alvin Lucier. Auf dieser CD entschlackt Toral Musik soweit, bis nur noch arrangierte Sounds übrig bleiben. Sein Vorteil ist es, dass dabei keine eklektische Futzelelectronica herauskommt, sondern ein durchaus abgefeimtes Setting, in dem Reste von Jazz und - mit etwas gutem Willen - auch Swing auszumachen sind. Klarerweise auf heutige Verhältnisse gemünzt. Mit dabei: Rute Praça (Cello), Margarida Garcia (b.), César Burago (dr.) und Torals Langzeitkumpel, der Taschentrompeter Sei Miguel. »Ernste« Musik mit hohem Spaßfaktor." [Heinrich Deisl / SKUG] "The Space Program is Rafael Toral's long-term research launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with "phrasing and swing", shaping strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral "Space" (Staubgold 2006) and the following "Space Solo 1" (Quecksilber 2007), this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instruments, on small settings and including collaborations. "Space Elements Vol. I" features Rute Praca (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel's amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel (pocket trumpet) himself." [label info] www.staubgold.com 2008 €14.50
  Space Elements Vol. 1 LP "Bis Ende der 90er hatte sich der portugiesische Musiker mit Gitarren-Drones auseinandergesetzt. Mittlerweile hat Toral um den für ihn paradigmatischen Begriff »Space« ein ganzes post-Free-Jazz-in-Elektronik-Universum kreiert und dies auf zahlreichen VÖs dokumentiert. Als einer der wesentlichen Gitarristen der 90er angesehen, arbeitete er u.a. mit J. Zorn, J. O'Rouke, Sonic Youth, MIMEO oder Alvin Lucier. Auf dieser CD entschlackt Toral Musik soweit, bis nur noch arrangierte Sounds übrig bleiben. Sein Vorteil ist es, dass dabei keine eklektische Futzelelectronica herauskommt, sondern ein durchaus abgefeimtes Setting, in dem Reste von Jazz und - mit etwas gutem Willen - auch Swing auszumachen sind. Klarerweise auf heutige Verhältnisse gemünzt. Mit dabei: Rute Praça (Cello), Margarida Garcia (b.), César Burago (dr.) und Torals Langzeitkumpel, der Taschentrompeter Sei Miguel. »Ernste« Musik mit hohem Spaßfaktor." [Heinrich Deisl / SKUG] "The Space Program is Rafael Toral’s long-term research project launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with “phrasing and swing” and performing strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is something you’re unlikely to have heard before, a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral Space and the following Space Solo 1, this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instrument, on small settings and including collaborations. Space Elements Vol. I features Rute Praça (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel’s amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel himself. From Toral’s liner notes: “Having found that jazz is the field of musical knowledge where disciplined decision-making is most developed, this music is more informed by jazz than by any other. The Space Program emphasizes articulating silence and sound, by structuring musical discourse on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. To my surprise I found no historical precedents to this practice, being that it draws practically no information from electronic music history (which is grounded on different thinking patterns), and it draws very little from jazz history as well, since the instruments I use are inadequate to play any music based on the Western system. I regard this approach to jazz (meaning a system of individual decision-making from the standpoint of free-spectrum live electronics) as a new and exciting field of creative possibilities. I called it “post-free jazz electronic music.” Space Elements Vol. I was mastered direct to metal and pressed on clear 200gram virgin-vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies. The jacket was designed by Helder Luis at NOTYPE and features a collage by contemporary artist Joao Paulo Feliciano. CD Version available on Staubgold." [label notes] 2008 €14.00
TREHA SEKTORI Endessiah CD We proudly welcome the French Dehn Sora to the Cyclic Law family with his solo project Treha Sektori. Dehn Sora is also a member of Sembler Deah (Featuring members of Amenra) and a long time collaborator of the Church Of Ra. Treha Sektori means "the place where they fall", formed in 2005 from a feeling of absence, to express through instinctive language and silent odes a falling towards the Sun. SOLVAH. SEVERAH. SOLEMNH (Where can we learn how to die, when soil became sky ?). "Endessiah" is for the end of movement, literally meaning "to let go everything". When the mind ceases to respond to the physical world around him. Endessiah was built in doubt, fear, self-beating, screams, smiles and euphoria. Maybe more in reclaim for light, but always face down. The album was composed while searching for a certain state before recording anything, to realise what will be recorded, not as an inspiration, but a recording of the moment. No keyboards were used and a predominance of voices and strings instruments (guitars, esraj, polynesian mandoline, banjo...) were utilized with a will of fading every sources into a distinctive sound mass. Endessiah comes from a surge of feelings, capturing what came to be seen, and trying to determine if it was real or not. A constant will of searching for something "alter", something, some where else. "To let go of everything". 2018 CD Re-Issue. Edition of 300 copies in A5 digisleeve. 6 Tracks. Running Time 44:20 https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/endessiah 2018 €13.00
TSUNODA, TOSHIYA Landscape and Voice LP Black Truffle is pleased to present Landscape and Voice, a radical new work (and rare vinyl release) from major Japanese sound artist Toshiya Tsunoda. Undoubtedly one of the most influential artists working with location recordings since the 1990s, Tsunoda’s work possesses a rigorously searching quality that sets him apart from his contemporaries. Tsunoda is known to many listeners for the subtle atmospheric poetry of his early Extract from Field Recording Archive series, which focussed on vibrations recorded in various indoor and outdoor environments in his native Miura Peninsula, often inside pipes, bottles and other vessels. In more recent years, his work has explored the implications of his claim that field recording should be seen as ‘depiction’ rather than ‘documentation’. He has explored disorienting editing and processing in his works with Taku Unami, and, perhaps most radically, represented Maguchi Bay as a kind of kinetic sculpture for shaking speakers by removing all but the inaudible low frequencies from a field recording (Low Frequency Observed at Maguchi Bay). One of the recurrent concerns of Tsunoda’s recent work, as he explains in the crystalline liner notes accompanying this release, is ‘exploring how I can establish a subjective relationship with an environment, rather than seeing it merely as an object to be recorded’. This has taken various forms, from documenting simultaneously an outdoor environment and the blood flowing through the listener/recorder’s body (captured with a stethoscope) on The Temple Recordings, to representing his own experience of the landscape as made up of ‘grains of space and time’ by inserting looped fragments into field recordings in Grains of Spring. On Landscape and Voice, this meeting between subject and object becomes an almost mystical union between the natural and the human. As with all of Tsunoda’s work, a relatively simple concept leads to compelling, thought-provoking results. Landscape and Voice combines vowel sounds spoken by six voices with short, looped fragments of field recordings, their noise character suggesting consonants: voice and landscape thus join together in something like words. The record consists of three pieces, each using a different, richly evocative field recording, which periodically freezes, catching on a looped fragment to which is synchronised an abruptly looped spoken vowel sound. The lengths between these interruptions vary, as do the tempi of the loops. The interruption of these lushly immersive recordings of the world – bristling with bird song, rushing water, distant traffic, and clinking metal – only serves to intensify them, as if the depicted environment itself had been returned to the listener each time it abruptly reappears. At the same time, the constant interruption creates an uncannily frozen effect, as if the recorded environment were an object rather than a stretch of recorded time. When combined with the bare human presence of the vowel sounds, the result is both austere and magical. Pressed on 45RPM for maximum fidelity, in a gorgeous sleeve designed by Lasse Marhaug with liner notes from the composer, Landscape and Voice is a radical proposition from one of the deepest thinkers in contemporary sound. https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/landscape-and-voice 2022 €23.50
UMPIO Acquired Tastes / Lost Tapes 2008-2011 do-CD UMPIO 2xCD collects "lost tapes". Couple tracks from rare and nearly impossible to get tapes, several tracks remained unreleased. Quite typical situation that after Freak Animal published Umpio "Muelas" CD, several flakey labels offered him deals for tape releases... that never came out. As enthusiastic noise maker, Umpio took the offers. Now, decade later Freak Animal fills the gaps with the missing parts in lineage of Umpio discography. Since then Umpio moved on to new ways of noise making, yet this "Acquired tastes" will be testament of junk noise era he is most known for. https://www.nhfastore.net/umpio-acquired-tastes?search=umpio 2019 €15.00
UN/SOUNDING THE SELF A PORTRAIT DVD + book un|sounding the self — a portrait a film by Christoph Collenberg and Jakob Gengenbach with Christopher Shultis and Craig Shepard Gruen 196 | DVD (60 Min.) + Booklet (120 pages) Silent quest for sound, constant listening in the streets of Brooklyn, the Swiss Alps, the forests of Pennsylvania and the landscape of New Mexico. What if, after hours of walking, the mind finally clears, the ears open? Keep on walking, listening, giving space to resonances. Christopher Shultis, drummer and Professor Emeritus of the University of New Mexico and Craig Shepard, trombonist and member of the Wandelweiser collective, take Henry David Thoreau at his word and literally follow the idea of walking for at least four hours a day, sauntering silently. Out of this kind of contemplation, both have developed their own unique compositional practices: What composers usually do at their desk or at the piano, Shepard and Shultis do on the move, and their music is strongly influenced by the landscape from which it originated. Although very different in their artistic expression, their work is deeply rooted in the practice of walking in the spirit of H.D. Thoreau, in his writings and in the art of John Cage. Silent walking as a means of heightening the senses, inflowing sounds become the basis for compositions. Invited by their mutual friend Bernd Herzogenrath, Shultis and Shepard met for a week in the beautiful city of Olomouc in the Czech Republic. un|sounding the self—a portrait is about the becoming of these two artists—how music emerges when composers become silent first of all, whether by decision or by force, and then search for sound. https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18165 2020 €18.00
UNSONG The frailty of angels, the treason of people CD Excellent debut release from this British project, silent but dense & eerie ambience with tension, a very own style... “Unsong (Mason Ball) is a project interested in producing stark, atypical and emotive audio regardless of logical progression, musicality or continuity. Unsong create rich, layered, instinctive sound works from the minimal to the extravagant, utilising a miscellaneous array of sources: electronically generated tones, processed field recordings, disassembled voices, domestic appliances, stolen sounds, chance; the list stretches on exponentially.The methodology employed by unsong is a simple one: proceed with what sounds right, abandon what doesn't, often producing broken and unintelligible sounds to engage, soothe, surprise and disorientate the listener. Unsong endeavours to fashion disordered audio for gleefully unsound minds. [label info] “ Dark, atmospheric music, that however doesn't tend towards something like dark ambient (with tons of digital synths), but more into the sound research areas of The Hafler Trio (circa How To Reform Mankind), Coil or Andrew Liles. One of the better pieces on this is the lenghty title piece, which is a slow beast moving onwards until a loop drops in and changes the slightly the atmosphere of the music. Sometimes the music falls below the point of hearing, but it always creeps back from under the carpet, right into your face. Scary music, this is. Music that could be easily used for some thriller film production. Very spooky but very well made. I am told that through the website of Unsong it is possible to order from each song a lenghty remix (one track per CDR), in case this wasn't enough... [FdW, Vital Weekly] Address: http://www.macrophonies.co.uk 2002 €13.00
URE THRALL Premonition 9/11 7inch "URE THRALL is an American artist from Houston, TX (living since years in the Bay Area) who is long active in the more atmospheric- transcendental experimental US-scene – in former days he was a member of the pre-VOICE OF EYE project CRUOR and later with ASIA NOVA, and he also participated in the two first V.O.E. – CDs as a guest musician. Now, apart from being a member of SMOOTH QUALITY EXCREMENT, he works solo and creates most impressive soundscapish depth-drones with an incredible emotional quality, harmony & sadness melting together into beautiful aural visions. This 7”, his first vinyl-release as URE THRALL, contains two long tracks (> 8 min.) with an organic, filmic & sublime quality, using echo-flutes, bass, e-bowed guitar & restrained percussion underneath. THE TRAVELER with all its majestic harmony seems to be like an endless travel through emotional fields of melancholia - expressing the endless search for something once known which is lost forever and you can’t even remember what is was, but you feel that you need it back existentially ! Perfect music for endless drives on highways (both physically and spiritually) ... The title track PREMONITION 9/11 is less relaxed and more of a threatening quality, using faster percussion and strange bass-patterns with oriental sounding flutes & swirling sound-effects. This track also uses field-recordings from the tragical events happened on 11. Sept. 2001 in NYC and must be also seen as a treatment of traumatic experiences. The whole 7” is a personal statement about the politics of the USA after this tragic day, which is expressed also in the cover-artwork and the liner-notes: “THE COVER ART is an effigy of the American Flag in decay and is composed of an extreme close-up shot of the World Trade Center moments before its collapse, its occupants leaning out the windows fully aware of their impending transition to the next plane of existence.” [original press release January 2003] 2007 €6.00
URENGA Pacific Depths CD "The last time we encountered Urenga we retraced a confused traveller's journey among the distant islands of the West Pacific, searching for the fabled continent of Mu. On Pacific Depths, we allow ourselves to catch our breaths and sink our tired souls into the deep blue abyss that is the lost history of Urenga itself. The album is made up of a deep ambient current collected from several digital releases that occurred between 2011 and 2013. Album in jewel case with 16-page booklet." gterma041to060.blogspot.com/p/gterma046-urenga-pacific-depths.html 2015 €13.00
V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) Construction Sonor do-CD Swiss artist BERND SCHURER (known for the DAS ERDWERK 7” on Drone, and now active with his label DOMIZIL and solo-works) created a great field recording journey (94 short spots) made in the tunnels, tubes, shafts and railways below the alps. On the second CD we find 13 remixes of the basic material, by artists that live along the featured recording places! SEELENLUFT, BALDUIN, TABLE, DOLMEN, DRUMPET, BLANK, MÜLLER/KORBER, INTRICATE, MONOLAKE, ARCHETTI, and also ERIK M, FENNESZ, REFAT. Comes with big poster-inlay and booklet, a real stunning release for sound-researchers ! BACK IN STOCK ! STILL TO DISCOVER! 2003 €17.50
Death's last Life's Breath CD 1 Green Milk From The Planet Orange– Sweet 5 A.M. (Edit) 5:50 2 Earthmonkey– Hanumantra (Edit) 7:29 3 Earthmonkey– Reflections On Native Yard 52 (Edit) 5:00 4 Whitelodge– Masters Within Spaces (Edit) 4:29 5 Edward Ka-Spel– Comedown (Edit) 4:42 6 Nurse With Wound– She And Me Fall Together Like Free Death (Phosphorous Mix) (Edit) 7:20 7 Nurse With Wound– A Wasted Life Of Phagocyte Foot Fetishism 14:57 8 La STPO– Cet À-mort Vibre L'air (Edit) 8:00 9 La STPO– Bebalanbébant (Edit) 5:18 10 Friday Group– 2 (Edit) 6:11 11 irr. app. (ext.)– Perekluchenie: The Stairway To The Blue Light Subsides (Edit) 5:31 12 Beequeen– I'm Searching For Field Character (Edit) 4:45 2004 €13.00
Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled do-CD Das AMLUX-Album von MERZBOW remixed, von v.a. laptop/glitch, IDM und Electronica-artists - sehr kuriose Ergebnisse, oft rhythmisch & break-beatig, gar hip-hoppig, wo stets die MERZBOWschen Harshklänge eingearbeitet werden... “Artists were asked to use Merzbow's album Amlux as an instrument in an original composition, rather than to perform the conventional remix. We hoped that this would allow the artist to flourish with greater creative freedom and a less restrictive context. We didn't want to fit this project into any sub-genre of music. We wanted it to simply exist. Perhaps the beat oriented tracks, record scratching and vocals will annoy some Noise purists, and perhaps the noisy sound collages will irritate others, but hopefully this collection of tracks from some of the best electronic artists working today will enlighten the listener. Music is sound and sound is everywhere, regardless of classification." Remixers include: Jack Dangers, DJ Spooky, Luke Vibert, Alec Empire, Kawabata Makoto, Cornelius, Kid 606, Negativland, Nobukazu Takemura, Atom, Chicks On Speed, Experimental Audio Research, Bola, Kim Hiorthoy, Staalplaat Sound System, Lasse Marhaug, Kim Cascone, Freiband, Nau-zee-aun, Kurt Weisman, Raub Roy, Instavoid, Custom Drummer, John Wiese, Zipperspy, DJ Rupture.” [press release] 2003 €16.00
IDIOSCAPES CD Nice compilation on new belgique label, special priced ! "the idea was to ask some of our favourite sound artists to take part in a compilation . . . and, to our surprise, they accepted. The only concept was that they had to provide a specific / particular / idiosyncratic piece. qualified as a “drone paradise” by lasse marhaug (of jazkamer), the result is a fine and coherent whole, full of extended textures, contrasted acoustic surfaces, subtle and strong. Idioscapes contains 70 minutes of authentic acoustic researches, with glitches, loops, noises, deep and glittering textures, subliminal frequences and narrative inserts, punctured with sensible musical moments. idioscapes is a very nice object with a beautiful digipacked artwork. 01 janek schaefer : scarlett arrives - for scarlett schaefer 02 keith fullerton whitman : quest appartments, Newcastle NSW 03 critikal : critically fluffy 04 rapoon : the moment screams 05 kk null : idioscape / decomposition 06 charlemagne palestine : la beauté et la bête 07 steffen bashô-junghans : the blue hour 08 sébastien roux : D 821 09 troum : fantauma 10 eve and the sickness : infected nature 11 jazkamer (lasse marhaug) : ruido rosa 5 minutos 12 daniel menche : cadence 13 idiosyncrasia : filt_h " [label info] 2007 €10.00
Musics in the Margin Vol.1 CD "Never released before: an anthology that links Daniel Johnston and the great Wesley Willis with a dozen outsider artists from around the world - digipack + booklet including short bios and drawings, and unreleased and rare tracks - 6 pages digipack + 12 pages booklet A project made in co-production with Art en Marge. Outsider Art Music has unfortunately not had a Harry Smith or an Alan Lomax to discover unpretentious talent, those two 'folksong hunters' who had realized the importance of making recordings to serve collective memory. One of them gave us the essential Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), an absolute reference for the folk movement, while the other made recordings all over the world and became an absolute reference for world music. And that is why the sound of Adolf Wölfi blowing into a cardboard tube to play his enigmatic scores, or the threnodies of Arthur K. Ferris played on his giant violins with their insides covered with writings and holy texts, will never be heard again. However, thanks to recent developments in technology and a growing interest in outsider music, a few of these unusual performers are beginning to be recorded. We have taken this opportunity to include several such sound pieces in our compilation. The composers live in highly individualistic worlds. Faithful to our precepts, we search out self-taught musicians. That means people who make contemporary music outside the customary production and distribution channels and with the determination and creative gifts that stem from unmistakable artistic talent. Some of these musicians operate in mental or social isolation and make their music in special workshops while others can be classified with the spiritualist or visionary artists. Others again, like Daniel Johnston and Wesley Willis, have become cult figures, a reference for underground and alternative musicians. Like the surrealist and expressionist artists, who were amazed by the strangeness and authenticity of work made in asylums, many members of today's music scene get inspiration from such 'outsider' music and feel it comes from another world. The recordings are of several kinds. In some cases less than 100 copies were pressed, or even just one copy, and they have never been distributed outside the circle of family and friends. In any case they were never intended to be listened to by a wider, impersonal audience. The process is more important than the result. In fact some authors, like Konstantin Raudive, have never claimed that their experimental sound pieces are to be regarded as music. This particular relationship with the creative process is a fundamental characteristic of outsider art. Sound is an energy, a power. The ability to handle that power is perhaps what so many musicians, artists and writers lack - they are too referential, have no universe of their own, are pushing to get their particular insights recognized (through art-historical criteria). Whereas here, everything is marked by the spirit of a chaotic intelligence. Artists spurning all method, going too far, being excessive: isn't that just what we are looking for?" [label info] www.subrosa.net 2007 €13.00
ARYAN MEMORY. Musical Traditions in Pamir do-CD / DVD / BOOK - set A unique deluxe collector's editon of traditional Pamir music "Aryan Memory". The set comprises a 6-page double DVD digipak holding two audio-CDs, a DVD and a 20-page full-colored booklet with information on musicians and conventional musical instruments of the Pamirs as well as a 100-page full-colored book in 14x25 cm format which describes the history of the Pamirs, beliefs and traditional ways of life of local residents (about 200 illustrations, texts are in both Russian and English). All components are packed in a bright-colored cardboard box. The Pamirs territory, being an almost inaccessible region, has preserved to this day tokens of the most ancient human culture, symbols, music, worldview, which are at least several millennia old - the spiritual foundation that gave birth to the greatest European and Asian cultures. But it should be mentioned that Pamir music is relatively unresearched, there have been issued only about five CD recordings, of which only one or two were favored with positive responses from the indigenous population of the Pamirs, because the spirit of this ancient civilization completely dissolves in recording studios and stays alive only when the music is performed in traditional environment. This recording of traditional Pamir music, presented in the "Aryan Memory" edition, is one of a few in this list, that had captured musicians in a fully unconstrained state and where the impact of sound-recording equipment was kept to a minimum. Particular attention should be given to the DVD, which is an integral part of the set. The film was shot both in the Pamirs in the River Bartang's Valley and at the Museum of musical instruments in Gurmindzh. It is an hour and a half long and it demonstrates the Pamir nature, it's ancient culture, dances and music and also exposes the psychology of the natives. There is no voice over or subtitles, the film relies mostly on meditative and trance-like perception. The book contains a lot of photos of forbidden regions of the Pamirs which in the recent times have been absolutely inaccessible to foreigners and are hardly accessible even now... Limited edition 1000 hand-numbered copies. Each copy weighs 750 gramms. www.kailas.ru 2007 €50.00
Musics in the Margin Vol. 2: Musik Oblik CD "Decompartmentalization: Like the 'Musics in the margin volume 1' CD co-produced by Art en Marge and Sub Rosa in 2006, this new production comes from a project mixing visual arts with music. Since the first CD, 'Art en Marge' has obtained its museum status and changed its name. These changes point out the fact the new 'art & marges museum' focuses on the affinities existing between three visual art fields considered on equal terms: modern art, contemporary art, and outsider art. Proceeding from how obviously compartmentalization is not only arbitrary but simplistic, this new production entitled "Musik Oblik" explores the world of sounds and silence through the multidisciplinary works of artists unfolding stunning soundworlds and visual universes. Decompartmentalization is the key word, and this record offers unique approaches transcending the simple question of the insider/outsider classification. The purpose of this project is to outgrow the social-cultural dimension of the works while respecting their creators' integrity, whoever they might be. Carine Fol (art & marges museum) Featuring: Based in Berlin, Klaus Beyer is mostly known for his unusual performances of Beatles songs, but this musician's talent is larger than that, as he also writes his own songs, makes short films and animated films, and works as an actor. Normand Cournoyer launched his music career around the age of 70. He says he was inspired by the Lord, and therefore adopted the slightly religious alias Normand L'Amour. Self-taught, he has since written an incredible number of songs (more than 1,500, in over 75 languages) using a piece of random composition software. Installation artist, performer, illustrator, sculptor, sound collector, and globe-trotter Baudouin Oosterlynck is thriving to expand our listening capabilities by creating prostheses and musical objects to multiply and increase our ears. Silence also plays a key part in his work, and he has traveled a lot to pinpoint geographical locations where one can enjoy complete silence. The Wild Classical Music Ensemble, a music project started in 2007, on the day musician/audio artist/experimentalist Damien Magnette met Lynh, Johan, Rudy, and Kim, four artists with learning disabilities. From then on, their musical research has been based on free improvisation and experimentation. Lately, The Wild Classical Music Ensemble has been integrating punk/rock riffs composed by the group's guitarist Kim Verbeke. In March 2005, drummer Teun Verbruggen (Jef Neve Trio, Flat Earth Society, ...) invited maverick guitarist Mauro Pawlowski (dEUS, Club Moral, Somnambula) and Rhodes piano magician Jozef Dumoulin (Mäâk Spirit, Magic Malik, Octurn...) to a one-shot improvisation gig. The meeting intitled Othin Spake was so conclusive that they are still playing together five years later. A major representative of the Italian madrigal style of the Renaissance, alongside Luca Marenzio and Monteverdi. Gesualdo's position in music history has been largely reassessed in the 20th Century. Once seen as a marginal, unbalanced composer whose music was gradually falling into oblivion, Gesualdo is hailed by some as a visionary, the first composer, 300 years before Wagner and the Post-Romantics, to make significant use of chromatism and dissonance, and a precursor of the Moderns in his use of extreme contrasts and unusual rhythmical breaks. A composer, violinist, and teacher, Baudouin de Jaer trained in Belgium and Canada with Henri Pousseur, Frederic Rzewski, and Philip Boesmans, among others. His concerts and compositions took him to Mexico, Peru, Korea, Palestine, and Morocco. Many of his works are multidisciplinary or adapted to a complete space. A major artist of the 20th century, Adolf Wölfli was commited to the Waldau Mental Asylum, near Bern, in 1899. He remained there until he died. Wölfli started drawing, writing, and composing music at the age of 35, working all day long on what amounts to a colossal body of work. It comprises 25,000 pages of graphic compositions, collages, literary works, and music scores. Jacques Brodier, artist and researcher, is the inventor of the Filtre de Réalité (Reality Filter), whose antennae, using the ionosphere's reflection, receive the electromagnetic noise broadcasted by Earth civilization and deep space. This airwave noise consists of radio signals from everywhere, music and voices in multiple languages drifting away, lost in a sea of cosmic noise, occasionally mistreated, butchered, distorted by untraceable causes or the mishaps of dissemination." [label info] www.subrosa.net 2010 €13.00
Ekhnaton CD "This compilation, originally released in 1984 as a vinyl LP by MULTIPLE CONFIGURATION in collaboration with the legendary ADN label, is finally available again in a completely remastered CD version. "Ekhnaton" collects tracks recorded by the most daring and remarkable bands that were active in the experimental Italian scene during those years. "Simple Italian Research Vol. 1" was (and still is) the subtitle of an album that includes two tracks from each of the following bands: Maze 1066, Tasaday (whose "Implosione tra le pieghe dell'anima" has recently been reissued by Silentes), Evitaxal - an alias for Roberto Marinelli, also active as Laxative Souls - and the more well-known and active TAC (TOMOGRAFIA ASSIALE COMPUTERIZZATA). Through a valuable and accurate restoration, we're glad to make available again an unmissable view on the first intuitions and the experimental methodologies that shaped their times, leaving a permanent mark - in Italy and abroad - on the following generations." [label info] www.silentes.net 2010 €12.50
Audible Geography CD "Geography is an ongoing force shaping our understandings of the environments around us and, in turn, experiences ongoing transformation and development. Considering not only the natural world, but also culture, economy and politics in diverse settings and across many scales, contemporary geography acts as a glue - integrating disparate research streams and continuing to provide insights into our relations with space and place. On Audible Geography, 11 sound artists were asked to consider the scope of geography today. The results are as varied as they are intriguing. The final edition is offered as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Australian Geographers. Feat. Eric La Casa, Stephen Vitiello, Lee Patterson, Asher, Jeph Jerman, Toshiya Tsunoda, Philip Samartzis, Marc Behrens, James Webb, Andrea Polli and Francisco López." [liner notes] www.room40.org 2008 €14.00
The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (OST) CD "Der Soundtrack zum intimen, rührenden Porträt über Leben und Kunst des bahnbrechenden Performance Künstlers und Musikpionieres Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (THROBBING GRISTLE, PSYCHIC TV) und seiner besseren Hälfte und Kollaborateurin Lady Jaye, das sich um die gewagten sexuellen Transformationen, denen sich das Paar im Rahmen ihres "Pandrogyne"-Projektes unterwarf, dreht. Mit dabei ist natürlich Musik von PSYCHIC TV, THEE MAJESTY und anderen Kollaborationen von P-Orridge. Im Jahr 2000 begann Genesis eine Reihe von Operationen mit dem Ziel, seiner Liebe Lady Jaye (alias Jacqueline Breyer) ähnlicher zu werden, die seit fast 15 Jahren bessere Hälfte und künstlerische Partnerin ist. Es war der ultimative Akt der Hingabe und die subversivste Performance, die Genesis jemals zeigte: er wurde in einem triumphalen Akt der künstlerischen Selbstverwirklichung zu einer Sie. Genesis nannte das Projekt "Creating The Pandrogyne". www.balladofgenesisandladyjaye.com TRACKLISTING: 01. COUCOU 02. I LOVE YOU, I KNOW - GENESIS P-ORRIDGE, LADY J, BRYIN DALL & ALICE GENESE 03. PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 - BB 04. I AM MAKING A MIRROR - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 05. MILK BABA (EDIT) - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 06. MAYBE IT SMELLS GOOD . . . OR BAD - GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE & BRYIN DALL BOYS 07. ARE GIRLS AND GIRLS ARE BOYS - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 08. THE TRUTH - THEE MAJESTY 09. WISDOM - THEE MAJESTY 10. THE FINAL WAR (BLEAK BOX MIX) - LADY JAYE & GENESIS P., B. DALL & D. RUSH 11. SOUL SEARCHING - GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE & DEREK RUSH 12. WHITE NIGHTS - PSYCHIC TV 13. MOTHER JACK (A CHILDREN'S STORY) - PSYCHIC TV 14. NEW YORK STORY - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 15. ALIEN BRAIN (EDIT) - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 16. KISS ME (MAGGOT BRAIN) (EDIT) - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 17. THE THIN GARDEN - PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 18. DEMILITARIZED OZONE (EDIT) - TONY CONRAD, GENESIS P-ORRIDGE & EDLEY ODOWD 19. THE ORCHIDS - PSYCHIC TV" [label info] "The soundtrack to the intimate, affecting portrait of the life and work of ground-breaking performance artist and music pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and his other half and collaborator, Lady Jaye, centered around the daring sexual transformations the pair underwent for their “Pandrogyne” project. Featuring music by Psychic TV, Thee Majesty and various collaborators (Bryin Dall, Derek Rush, Tony Conrad). This is a love story, and a portrait of two lives that illustrate the transformative powers of both love and art. In warm and intimate images captured handheld, Marie Losier crafts a labyrinthine mise-en-scene of interviews, home movies, and performance footage. The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye documents a truly new brand of Romantic consciousness, one in defiance of the daily dehumanization of the body by the pervasive presence of advertising and pornography, conveying beauty, dignity and devotion from a perspective never before seen on film." 2012 €13.00
Compilation Festival Electronica en Abril * 2003-2012 do-LP BOX "To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Festival Electronica en Abril, born in 2003 at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, La Casa Encendida has invited some of the artists that have left their personal mark on the event, right now the oldest music festival in Madrid. All of them have contributed exclusive tracks to this 2LP that provide an insight into the quality and diversity of the festival. These are ten exclusive tracks that research a very specific sound quality (Eleh, Radian, nsi.), take introspective journeys (Thomas Körner, Maja Ratkje) and summon deep rhythmic collisions (Farben aka Jan Jelinek, Dopplereffekt, Elektro Guzzi, Matmos, SND). All of them seem to share a desire for experimentation that encompasses the emotional as a response to a general state of things that hits us with an overdose of data and experimentation. Matmos' track was composed playing around with a friend's new synthesizer. Eleh added field recordings to his usual microscopic sound aesthetic for the first time. Thomas Körner composed this intimate and melancholic piece for his grandmother, and Maja Ratkje goes deep into an alien ambient lullaby of ravishing simplicity and beauty. Farben deconstructs rhythm to build it up again as a pure ecstatic house beat. Nsi., the project of Tobias Freund and Max Loderbauer embark on an abyssal expedition to the far reaches of sound. Dopplereffekt melt their retro-futurist electro into crystalline emotions. Elektro Guzzi, always recording live, without overdubs, was helped in the studio by Patrick Pulsinger, taking the bullet train directly to the heart of their amazing analog techno, where guitar, bass and drums truly count. And SND (Mark Fell and Matt Steel) ride on an oblique and funked-up carousel of their own making, where rhythm and math surf together. And finally, Farben goes deep into glorious house-not-house." [label info] 2012 €29.50
70 Years of Sunshine do-CD "In 1943 a Swiss chemist accidentally absorbed through his finger-tips a tiny amount of a compound he was researching. Later, he recorded the effects in a journal - a document of the world's very first LSD trip: 'Last Friday, April 16,1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.' - Dr. Albert Hofmann - Sandoz Lab Report. 50 years later, in 1993 (the height of the Rave scene in San Francisco) Silent Records released a very special double CD set, curated and produced by Kim Cascone. This was no ordinary release - it was a stellar collection of music from artists paying homage to Albert Hofmann's very first LSD trip. '50 Years of Sunshine received many positive reviews and was praised for being a welcome tribute to the man who changed 20th century human consciousness with a single molecule. The musical homage to Hofmann struck a chord with the public, serving as a reminder to keep the doors of perception open and the creative imagination nourished. Given the bleak times we find ourselves in today, Cascone felt that another tribute to Herr Hofmann was in order. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first LSD trip, a batch of etheric lysergic soundscapes were contributed to this project by Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mother's Temple, Robert Wheeler of Pere Ubu, Legendary Pink Dots, Andrew Liles (Nurse With Wound), Andy Rantzen (Pelican Daughter's), various artists from the Silent label and some newer sound artists as well. Consider '70 Years of Sunshine' to be a muchanticipated software update. One that will hopefully make your auditory operating system run smoother and more colorfully. With Kawabata Makoto, Lord Tang, Chihei Hatakeyama, Makyo, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Legendary Pink Dots, Ethernet, Invisible Path, Phil Legard, Andrew Liles, Rapoon, Komora A, (Darius Ciuta), Mike Rooke, Lonely Crowd, Mystical Sun, Mirt, Ceremonial Dagger, Cotton Ferox, Andy Rantzen." [label info] www.monotyperecords.com 2013 €16.00
Hassaniya Music LP "In 2006, Hisham Mayet returned to West Africa to continue his search for an unknown musician he had heard six months earlier on the radio in a Morocco hotel room. Knowing only that it was Sahrawi music — music of the south — he headed down through the vast and remote desert landscape of the Western Sahara and Mauritania in hopes of finding someone who could identify these revelatory recordings. That artist was Group Doueh. But he also found much, much more as he wandered from Laâyoune, Western Sahara, to Mauritania’s capital city of Nouakchott: From intimate, sinuous home recordings by Group Marwani, to a sublimely devastating track by the enigmatic Abdul Rahman Al-Gheid, to the inimitable tidinit artistry of Sadoum Ouled Aida, the performers on this album exemplify the haunting and intoxicating qualities of Sahrawi music. Featuring Mayet’s first recordings of the electrifying Group Doueh, as well as dizzying field recordings from Nouakchott’s Marché Capitale — where relentless traffic noise swirls together with fragments of melody from countless cassette vendors’ PA speakers— Hassānīya Music from the Western Sahara and Mauritania is the evocative soundtrack to a chimerical journey that is also documented visually in Sublime Frequencies’ breathtaking film Palace of the Winds. It not only traces Mayet’s own passage through these barren and beautiful lands, but also charts the evolution of Sahrawi music from sung poetry accompanied by traditional acoustic instruments to electrifying modern grooves drenched in reverb and phase effects. Limited edition pressing with Stoughton tip-on full color gatefold jacket." [label info] www.sublimefrequencies.com 2013 €27.50
AUSGEWÄHLTE GERÄUSCHE do-CD & BOOK "The 50th release by the aufabwegen label is also part of the edition elektronik of the Deutscher Musikrat. The extensive double CD compilation comes with a detailed booklet. The release links up the history of the aufabwegen label with a personal take on the evelotion of noise music in Germany. It traces the developments from the early cathartic powers of pure noise via bruitistic sound researches up to the formation of an aesthetic of noises themselves; a self conscious sound culture. This movement is illustrated for the listener in 29 subjectively selected tracks. The sounds range from subtle ambient via dense collages and concrete sound landscapes on to rhythmic pieces. It comprises almost exclusively of unreleased or very rare to find material by all participating artists. The collection features pieces by some of the founding projects of noise music as well as newer projects and younger musicians thereby shocasing a wide range of contemporary artistic positions in noise music. It is hoped that this broad scope will draw new audiences to the magic of noise music. DVD Digibook with 82 pp booklet featuring extensive artist info and essays on sound by Johannes Ullmaier and Till Kniola (all in german and english), designed by Robert Schalinski. CDs mastered by Marcus Schmickler, edition of 1000 copies. 29 unreleased or rare tracks by AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF, ARS MORIENDI, MARC BEHRENS, FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER, GREGORY BÜTTNER, COLUMN ONE, CORE, CRANIOCLAST, EVAPORI, FETISCH PARK, LIMPE FUCHS, CHRISTOPH HEEMANN, HITHLAHABUTH, KALLABRIS, THOMAS KÖNER, KONTAKTA, KONRAD KRAFT, licht-ung, MAEROR TRI, MØHR, N(33), RLW, SCHACHTANLAGE GEGENORT, DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE, ASMUS TIETCHENS, DIE TÖDLICHE DORIS, WERKBUND, ACHIM WOLLSCHEID, XYRAMAT." www.aufabwegen.com 2016 €22.00
Musique Concrete LP This record represents an important milestone in the development and progression of musique concrète – marking a crossroad for not only the genre itself but also in the paths of its originator Pierre Schaeffer and another of the genre’s most important and respected protagonists Pierre Henry. Undoubtedly one of the most influential experimental and electroacoustic musicians, Pierre Schaeffer is also credited as being the father of the theory of musique concrete as well as later name coining the term itself. Having found a job in 1936 at Radiodiffusion Française (later Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française or RTF) as an engineer, Scaeffer developed a newly found interest in music and with the blessing of his superiors made the most of his access to the Radiodiffusion Française studios, utilising his abilities as an engineer to experiment with sound whilst collaborating with musicians and composers that passed through the station’s hallowed doors. In 1942 Schaeffer and influential theatre director, producer and actor Jacques Copeau founded the Studio d’Essai (renamed Club d’Essai in 1946) as part of RTF in order to experiment with radiophonic techniques. Drawing on the works of French filmmaker, critic and novelist Jean Epstein, Schaeffer would occupy his time and his mind with the manner in which sound recordings “revealed what was hidden in the act of basic acoustic listening” and in 1948 formally set about his research in ernest – the results of which were presented as a series of studies known as Cinq études de bruits (Five Studies of Noises) during a concert in Paris. With word of his theories and experiments spreading, Schaeffer was able to press the RTF management to further finance and in doing so expand his research. However, for an undertaking of this size he would need help. Having previously collaborated as part of his early research with a young classically trained composer by the name of Pierre Henry, Schaeffer had no problem convincing the RTF executives he was the right man of the job. By adding a third prong to this sonic fork in the shape of sound engineer Jacques Poullin, Schaeffer was able to complete a powerhouse, which he renamed the Groupe de Musique Concrete, that would push his experiments further than he could have imagined. In1951, RTF handed the trio the keys to one of the earliest purpose-build electroacoustic studios (the other being the WDR Studio in Germany), furnishing it with state of the art bespoke equipment such as a Morphophone (designed by Poullin himself and capable of tape loop-delay) and a Phonogène (a multi-headed tape instrument also designed by Poullin). The studio went from strength to strength, attracting composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Edgard Varèse to collaborate, and in that same year Schaeffer and Henry produced and premiered what is considered to be the first opera concrète, Orphèe 51. As Schaeffer’s notoriety grew as did demand for his time and he found himself increasingly called away from the studio during which time he would hand the keys to over to his colleagues. Pierre Henry wasted no time in pursuing projects closer to his own heart, working with experimental filmmakers and choreographers like Maurice Béjart (the two would later collaborate with Michel Colombier on the cult classic Les Jerks Électroniques De La Messe Pour Le Temps Présent Et Musiques Concrètes Pour Maurice Béjart). In 1957, following a particularly prolonged absence on RTF duties, Schaeffer returned unhappy with the direction the group had taken and tabled an idea to revitalise both their approach as well as personnel. As a result, Henry and several other key members left the group the following year leaving Schaeffer to lay the foundations in 1958 for a new collective called Groupe de Recherches Musicales – one of a number of theoretical and experimental groups overseen by Saeffer’s Service de la Reserche at RTF – and set about recruiting new members including Iannis Xenakis, Henri Sauguet, Luc Ferrari and Michel Philippot as well as usher in a new steady stream of eager musicians eager to study within what had rapidly become (and still is) a national institution – including a young Jean Michel Jarre! Featuring the full versions of these seminal early works (abridged versions of which had previously appeared across two 7” singles on Disques BAM) the recordings presented here are the first fruits of this new alliance and served to lay the bedrock for the future of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales research which would later count the likes of Ivo Malec, Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton and François Bayle (who went on to coin the term Acousmatic Music) amongst its members and cement its place in the annals of experimental, electroacoustic and early electronic music history. www.finderskeepersrecords.com 2016 €21.00
25YLOKI do-CD "When we decided to celebrate our 25th anniversary in Paris together with our French friends of Au-delà du Silence we thought about something special for the event and we came up with the idea of a 2CD for the festival – one CD with unreleased tracks by all performing artists and one CD with some kind of mix. One person came straight into our minds: the infamous DJ Philipp Strobel from Berlin would be a perfect match of doing a special mix for our 25YLOKI compilation. We asked him if he could imagine something like this project and he jumped in, packed his record bag full of LOKI & PAS releases and worked on the mix to celebrate the LOKI label history. For a limited time we uploaded the DJ mix of Philipp Strobel at Soundcloud. Thank you Philipp and to the rest of you! CD1: S.E.T.I. Child Stage INADE The Library of Babel FJERNLYS The Nightshade CIRCULAR Into the Deepest Currents PHELIOS Vox Aeterna BAD SECTOR Radial Body 2 (Live) CD2: Tracklist Philipp Strobel – 25YLOKI DJ Mix: Ionosphere – Deep Interior Research [PAS 19] Inade – Ethos Anthropo Damon [LOKI 57] Penjaga Insaf – Pulang [PAS 27] S.E.T.I. – Mare Crisium [PAS 39] Bad Sector – April 12, 1961 [PAS 33] Fjernlys – Trunkene Flut [LOKI 42] Predominance – Four Symbols [LOKI 34] Circular – Intersection At The Infinite Space [LOKI 52] Fir§t Law – Bad Influence [LOKI 43] Ionosphere – Polarized Light [PAS 38] Bad Sector – 1969-11-12T10-41-11+01-00 – Rooms [PAS 30] Northaunt – If Only My Heart Were Stone [PAS 34] Circular – A Lightning Cycle [LOKI 52] Turbund Sturmwerk – Gloria Mundi [LOKI 36] Ex.Order – We Want No One To Escape [PAS 21] Phelios – White Ashes [LOKI 54] Northaunt – If Only My Heart Were Stone [PAS 34] www.loki-found.de 2016 €13.00
NEKROPHILE REKORDS 1983-1990 10 x LP BOX "Symbolically limited to 666 copies, housed in a deluxe wooden box, and also including an exclusive t-shirt and a 240-page book, this magnificent set feature no less than ten LPs and two 7" vinyl records covering the entire Nekrophile Rekords original output, with the welcome addition of two unreleased full-lenght albums by Coming To Now and Metgumbnerbone. Comprehensive edition about the legendary Nekrophile Records tape label. Founded in Vienna by Michael Dewitt, also known as Zoe Dewitt, the label was specialized in occult / ritual industrial music (self-described as 'Martial Music for the New Aeon'). During its lifespan it released eight cassettes and various printed materials. The label was notable for releasing solo material from Throbbing Gristle member Genesis P-orridge (with Stan Bingo), and also for early material by the noted Industrial band Coil (with Zos Kia), with the participation of Peter Christopherson, another member of Throbbing Gristle. Dewitt released solo material on the label under two names: Korpses Katatonik, and Zero Kama. The Zero Kama album "The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H." is purported to have been recorded in its entirety using human bones and skulls as musical instruments. The overall content and design of Nekrophile's releases clearly drew inspiration from the occult, with many references to Aleister Crowley and Thelema in particular." [Soundohm] LP01 NRC01 1983 Korpses Katatonik Subklinikal Leukotomy 1Lp LP02 NRC02 1983 Genesis P-Orridge / Stan Bingo What's History 1Lp LP03 NRC03 1983 Various The Beast 666 1Lp - Korpses Katatonik Choronzon 4:26 – Coil Here To Here (Double Headed Secret) 4:22 – Hunting Lodge Learn To Will I 4:28 – Kathan Spiss The Serpent 6:38 – Toy Muzik Introducing The Brides Of Christ II Part A 7:45 – Stigma Diaboli La Force Pas La Joie 10:18 – Hunting Lodge Learn To Will II 5:08 – Mr. Vile Thumb Introducing The Brides Of Christ II Part B 4:44 – Zero Kama V.V.V.V.V. 6:59 – Post Mortem: The Sea Of Cefalu 1:45 LP04 NRC04 1984 LAShTAL Thoum Aesh Neith 1Lp LP05 NRC05 1984 Zos Kia / Coil Transparent 1Lp LP06 NRC06 1984 Various The Archangels Of Sex Rule The Destruction Of The Regime 1Lp – Sleep Chamber W:O:M – Zero Kama Prayer Of Zos – Ain Soph Theme III – Ewald Spiss Gbvrh – Metgumbnerbone Death – Coming To Now Thy Call To Kia – Zero Kama Seven Nights Of Tantra – Ain Soph Theme II – Ewald Spiss NTzCH – Sleep Chamber Coven Of Angels LP07 NRC07 1984 Zero Kama The Secret Eye Of L.A.Y.L.A.H. ‎(Cass, C60) 1Lp LP08 NRC08 1985 Ain Soph Ars Regia ‎(Cass, Album, C60) 1Lp LP09 Coming to Now „Closer to Silence“ 1Lp LP10 Metgumbnerbone For the Raven“ Lp plus 7inch "Wait, some ritualistik musick in Vital Weekly, reviewed by FdW? That'll be some fine trashing! If you thought that, then I have to disappoint you. I am a fan here, which is a very personal thing. When in the early 80s I discovered Throbbing Gristle, I somehow got hold of a cassette by Genesis P. Orridge and Stan Bingo, 'What's History'. I assume I purchased it at Staalplaat. My musical partner bought 'The Secret Of L.A.Y.LA.H.' by Zero Kama, and together we headed out to the nearby town of Arnhem to see that band perform on what turned out to be one of the very few occasions they ever played live. We thought it was a disappointment. We were promised a concert with skulls and bones, but save for some flutes, all the drumming was on drums, plus some easy blood spatter on a naked girl. My friend asked one of the members what Zero Kama meant and got the dry reply 'zero karma'. Still, we both found the cassette a fascinating thing. Skipping a few years, I found myself behind the counter of Staalplaat. While I had very little interest in the world of death, industrial, and gothic, I found these CD reissues that Staalplaat had made of the Nekrophile Records quite interesting. As part of my research into 'what am I supposed to sell here', I took copies home of the available titles. Coil/Zos Kia had not been released yet, and we came close to doing it ourselves (or not? That story is somewhere else), Ain Soph was no longer available, but the rest was still there. For a few reasons, I liked this. It was a world of its own, a label that only released a handful of cassettes mysteriously disappeared and yet almost all of it was on CD. I still have the CDs, and I still take m out on occasion to play them in one row. When Vinyl On Demand announced a 10 LP/2 7" set, it was a no-brainer to spend my Christmas allowance on a box, mainly because there was also a book. Now books about record labels have my utmost interest, even if I don't like the music. This, obviously, is not the case here, as I enjoy the music. Vinyl On Demand delivers heavy books using heavy paper and is almost like an art catalogue. They aren't easy to read but look great. In this book, we find the story of Nekrophile Records well documented, first and foremost by Zoe deWitt, who ran the label in the early 80s (as Michael deWitt). We read of her interest in Psychic TV, magic and occultism as part of industrial music, rather than death and destruction. The music also changed, quieter, using bells, and flutes, next to synthesizers and electronics. deWitte first operated as Korpses Katatonik, later as Zero Kama, when the music became even more rhythmic. Skulls and bones were sourced at an old graveyard, and a legendary cassette came to fruition. As they do those days, deWitt was in contact with other musicians, and, also as they did, this leads to compilation cassettes, which included the first ever track by Coil, and music by Hunting Lodge, Stigma Diaboli, Toy Muziek, Sleep Chamber, Ain Soph, LashTal, and the aforementioned P.Orridge/Bingo tape. The book in this box details the various problems with these releases, such as musicians promising too much or forgetting what was promised. The book has some fine examples of letters from them, such as John Balance's fine writing (as recently also detailed in another book, 'The Abrahadabra Letters'), Steve Stapleton's blunt 'no' to an invitation, catalogues and pamphlets. All with excellent photo material, which made me sad that such things are no longer made (letters, booklets et al., I mean) in these days of digital communication. Of course, the music is not an insignificant portion of the material. There is an exciting variety here. There is the more experimental synthesizer/electronics side of the ritual industrial music on the one hand. Here we find Korpses Katatonik, LashTal and Ain Soph (the latter, to my surprise, as that one is missing from my old collection, and I was never too fond of their later work). In contrast, the ritual, rhythmic aspect is represented by Zero Kama, whose LP gathered quite a cult following over the past thirty-something years and Metgumnerbone. Their LP was initially not released by Nekrophile, but contacts were established back in the day. The group gained notoriety because of their gravedigging for skulls and bones and subsequent arrest. Another album planned at that time that only sees the light of day now is Coming To Now, a duo of Luther Howard and Andy H. Their music has a fine blend of ritualistic slow drums, flutes and voices and is also similar to the more ritualistic rhythm side, and charming naive quality. The compilations have material from both ends of the musical spectrum, and the Psychic TV influence on Coil, Zoskia, Orrdige/Bingo is a clear one, a little diversification. It is topped with two 7"s by Toy Muzik, quite an unknown entity from the UK in this story, and more Metgumnerbone, to top this off. A small label, whose overviews fit in one wooden box (coffin is the apparent reference), offers a beautiful insight into the ancient and arcane world. I love it!" [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2022 €299.00
Anthology of Exploratory Music from India CD The new Unexplained Sounds Group’s compilation of exploratory music and sound works from India intends to present a comprehensive collection of sonic practices that have emerged from the desire to break away from India’s traditional sounds, e.g. classical music and folk tunes, while simultaneously drawing on ideas and inspirations from these lineages and auditory heritages in the form of recurring motifs and sonorities as well as textures and open-ended compositions. The fragile but complex connection between tradition and modernity is the crucial point of entry in this body of works contributed by Indian-born sound artists and experimental musicians. What is ‘sound art’ and what is ‘experimental’ can be debated at length, but sound art is a Western construct, and experiment is something Indian musicians have long been engaged in whilst keeping their traditions alive and transformative. What is new in this compilation is locating the tension between historical trajectories of sound thinking and the intervention of modernist technologies like recording and mixing that the artists continue to negotiate through their interpretations and reconfigurations of temporality and spatiality. That is why the western invention of CD as a form of sonic object-hood can be a constraint for Indian sound practitioners. This compilation therefore asks its listener to consider the CD just a trace of the sound experience, while the actual listening is ephemeral. This spatiotemporal tension uncovers a few questions around (de)coloniality and its shadows on emerging sonic practices in South Asia with new perspectives. The release, co-curated by Raffaele Pezzella and Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, contributes to the ongoing research Connecting Resonances that encourages critically listening to the sound practices and auditory cultures in the Global South with an interest in sonic confluences and decoloniality, to stand on the right side of music history. [Budhaditya Chattopadhyay] https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album /anthology-of-exploratory-music-from-india 2021 €13.00
Visions of Darkness II ( (In Iranian Contemporary Music ) do-CD When the anthology "Visions Of Darkness (In Iranian Contemporary Music)" was released in 2017 (co-published in collaboration between Cold Spring and Unexplained Sounds Group), it was immediately clear that the Iranian music scene was not just promising, but already a rich chest of treasures. Years later we have further confirmation of the creative excellence and variety of musical languages that flourished in the Persian land. In spite of the title, this second volume of the legendary anthology also gives us a broad picture of the musical experience of the Iranian underground that is not limited to the dark ambient, but explores sonic territories that reach concrete music, electroacoustic experimentation and sonic abstractionism. Persia, the cradle of a millenary culture, is teeming with young talents who continue their musical research with enthusiasm, pride and self-denial in the territories of drone music, as in electronic experimentalism and in the contamination of genres. To some familiar names already present in volume I (Xerxes The Dark, IDFT, Reza Solatipour, etc ..), new discoveries are added that contribute to making the journey through the new Persian music exciting to the point that we can no longer speak of an emerging scene, but of a consolidated musical reality akin to others in the West. Presented in a double digipak. https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-darkness-volume-ii-csr316cd 2022 €17.50
  Territorio del Eco : Experimentalismos y Visiones de Lo Ancestral En El Perú (1975-1989) LP Territorio del eco: experimentalismos y visiones de lo ancestral en el Perú (1975-1989) The Land of Echo: Experimentalisms and Visions of the Ancestral in Peru (1975-1989) First compilation brings together the Peruvian experimental scene from 1975 to 1989, a period was the most prolific for a generation of Peruvian artists who, based on musical conceptions derived from modern jazz and techniques inherited from avant-garde music, sought to integrate the sounds of Andean, Afro-Peruvian and Amazonian cultures in search of a new musical universe. Native instruments and folk melodies were used in compositions that demanded modern recording techniques and electronic sounds. This generation was articulated in Lima and was made up of musicians such as Omar Aramayo, Manongo Mujica, Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, Miguel Flores (Ave Acústica), Douglas Tarnawiecki (Espíritus), Luis David Aguilar, Chocolate Algendones and Corina Bartra. But more than a movement, it was a set of individuals from dissimilar origins, who came from rock, jazz, contemporary classical and popular music, but also from the visual arts and poetry, and who had in common the cultural climate of the late seventies and early eighties in a country marked by a series of social and economic transformations, as well as the emergence of new visions and insertions of Andean culture and folklore in the city. The appearance of a mythical substrate connected the work of these musicians and defined an aesthetic, based on the deconstruction of folklore and the exploration of the possibilities that indigenous instruments offered. And from there they could go towards abstract, symbolic and conceptual forms, but also towards more melodic forms, with a strong influence of jazz, while also taking advantage of electronics and the possibilities of the recording studio. Territorio del eco: experimentalismos y visiones de lo ancestral en el Perú (1975-1989) - The Land of Echo: Experimentalisms and Visions of the Ancestral in Peru (1975-1989) - is a compilation that offers an overview of what was one of the moments of greatest creative intensity for experimental music in Peru in its encounter with indigenous sounds. Rescued from private archives and limited editions on cassette, these pieces are reissued for the first time in vinyl LP format. The album includes extensive notes written by Luis Alvarado, author of the compilation, as well as much visual documentation. Cover art by Paloma Pizarro. Beneficiary project of the Economic Stimuli for Culture 2020 of the Ministry of Culture of Peru. -------------------- Primera compilación reúne la escena experimental peruana desde 1975 a 1989, período que fue el más prolífico para una generación de artistas peruanos que a partir de concepciones musicales derivadas del jazz moderno y de las técnicas heredadas de la música de vanguardia, buscaron integrar los sonidos de la tradición andina, afroperuana y amazónica en búsqueda de un nuevo universo musical. Instrumentos nativos y melodías del folclore fueron empleadas en composiciones que demandaron de novedosas técnicas de grabación y de sonidos electrónicos. Esta generación que se articuló en Lima, la conformaron músicos como Omar Aramayo, Manongo Mujica, Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, Miguel Flores (Ave Acústica), Douglas Tarnawiecki (Espíritus), Luis David Aguilar, Chocolate Algendones y Corina Bartra. Pero más que un movimiento se trató de un conjunto de individualidades de procedencias disimiles, que venían tanto del rock, como del jazz, de la música clásica contemporánea, y popular, pero también de las artes visuales y la poesía, y que tuvieron en común un clima cultural como fue el de ese tránsito de los 70s a los 80s en un Perú marcado por una serie de transformaciones sociales y económicas, y de la aparición de nuevas visiones e inserciones de lo andino y el folclore en la urbe. La aparición de un sustrato mítico emparentó el trabajo de estos músicos y definió una estética, basada en la deconstrucción de lo folclórico y en la exploración de las posibilidades que los instrumentos nativos ofrecían para a partir de allí ir hacia formas abstractas, simbólicas y conceptuales, pero también hacia formas más melódicas, de marcada influencia jazzística y con un aprovechamiento de la electrónica y del estudio de grabación. “Territorio del eco: Experimentalismos y visiones de lo ancestral en el Perú (1975-1989)” es una compilación que ofrece un panorama de lo que fue uno de los momentos de mayor intensidad creativa para la música experimental en Perú en su encuentro con las sonoridades nativas. Rescatadas de archivos privados y tirajes limitados en casete, por primera vez se reeditan en formato de vinilo LP. El álbum incluye amplias notas escritas por Luis Alvarado, autor de la compilación, así como mucha documentación visual. Arte de tapa por Paloma Pizarro. Proyecto beneficiario de los Estímulos Económicos para la Cultura 2020 del Ministerio de Cultura del Perú. https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/territorio-del-eco-experimentalismos-y-visiones-de-lo-ancestral-en-el-per-1975-1989-essential-sounds-collection 2021 €23.00
VAN GULICK, JASON Concrete LP "Jason Van Gulick is one of the most inventive drummers on the contemporary music scene. For more than a decade, he has used his education as an architect to explode the foundations of drumming. Maintaining a distance from all aesthetic, disciplinary or formal limitations, he has developed his artistic approach in the confrontation between the acoustic character of his chosen instrument and architectural resonant spaces. This piece is the result of several years of research on the deep existing connection between the production of sounds and their dffusion in space. It has to do with our primitive bond to music, with the concrete experience that is specific to every diffusion of sound and explores the acoustic specifities of an architectural space through percussions. The work combines, through the process of improvisation and of composition in situ, the idea of the metamorphosis of material : « Halle B » due to its volume, its ability to reverberate the sound and its echoing faculty, transforms the sound of the percussions following the example of former places of worship. This industrial nave made of concrete has forged the creation of the music by imposing to the latter a specific temporality and an almost spiritual depth." [label info] 2More along the lines of Vital Weekly is the work of percussion player Jason van Gulick. I didn’t review his previous release, 'Entelechy' (Vital Weekly 930), so this is the first time I hear his music. I believe he is from Belgium, but recorded his CD in Halle B of the 'La Condition Publique' in Roubaix. It is apparently a space with some great acoustic proportions and Van Gulick has an interest in using sound and the way it travels through a space. Interestingly enough not all of the five pieces here have this massive, natural reverb. In the opening piece everything is very close and quite direct. The ringing of cymbals open up and at one point in this (untitled, all are) piece the sound is being picked up from a bit further away and we hear a massive drone like. Van Gulick shifts back and forth with his playing, using sticks, bows, and objects on the entire kit. This results is an occasional thick, massively sound, in which Van Gulick's playing blends refined with the travels of those sounds through that space. I can imagine he used quite a bit of microphone set-ups in this to come up quite close or, as a total opposite very far away and in the process of making this CD, Van Gulick mixes these recordings together. While it may sound like a 'live' record, I am pretty sure it isn't. Quite a bit of work went into balancing the various recordings and Van Gulick delivers a beautiful record. Loud and dark, light and quiet; he knows how to built excellent soundscapes in space, but also he knows how to transfer these to the listener and give him a similar experience." [FdW / Vital Weekly] 2018 €20.00
VELIOTIS, NIKOS & XAVIER CHARLES Kaspian Black LP "Kaspian Black create sonic landscapes that balance between extremes of uninhibited 'cacophony' and painstakingly detailed exploration of static floating sounds, powerful attacks and serene atmospheres. Kaspian Black is Xavier Charles [clarinet] & Nikos Veliotis [cello] Nikos Veliotis - After an initial involvement in the Athens pop/electronic scene during the late 80s as a founding member of In Trance 95, Veliotis later turned to the experimental field (working primarily with cello & video). Since the late 90s he has pushed the boundaries of sound and image using unorthodox cello techniques,silence and multilateral abstract visuals. Collaborations include Cranc (with Rhodri & Angharad Davies), Looper (with Martin Kuchen & Ingar Zach) and Mohammad (with ILIOS & Coti K., and released on PAN records). Xavier Charles is an active clarinetist in the world of improvised music, known from a variety of constellations and ensembles like ‘Dans les arbres’ and ‘Contest of Pleasures’. Currently his musical research ranges from performance on the clarinet and bass to the installation of vibrating speakers, at the edge of improvised music, noise and electro-acoustic sound. He is further involved in the music world as an organizer of the fesival Densités (FR). in heavy silk screened sleeve. ltd to 250 copies" [label info] www.altvinyl.com 2015 €19.50
VERGARA, JESUS A. R Derive Aplysia MC There is always something special about tracks that were made of field recordings. Sometimes it is just the moment you recognize the original sounds that makes you happy but sometimes the tracks engrosses you, so you find yourself in a soundworld that takes you on a journey you don´t want to miss. Well, Jesús Vergara from Mexico does exactly that. The title track is a massive piece of music and a statement of an Mexican artist, who has to tell a story worth listening to. If you want to find out more about the background of the album, you can read further below in the artist text, but you also can search for hints in the artwork. Tegh from Iran did a remix for the B Side of the tape, that takes the track further into songstructures without loosing the original field recordings storyline. https://midirarecords.bandcamp.com/album/r-derive-aplysia 2022 €11.00
VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA same do-LP & DVD "Public service reissue of this impossibly rare and choice title in the Vibra oeuvre, originally issued by the band in 2004 as an edition of 250. Featuring the “classic” lineup (Mick Flower, Neil Campbell, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport, Julian Bradley) that made “Queen of Guess” (vhf#77) and “Dabbling With Gravity and Who You Are” (vhf#66), this self-titled double takes a wild ride through the inner-workings of VCO’s stream of consciousness. Many of the tracks (selected from research & development jams) here cut in abruptly, continuing the informal, expansive vibe of the band’s other self-released items. The thick blanket of signature drone-fog is never far away, anchoring the tunes which veer from early Velvets-style rock jammers (“Thrift”) to swirling electronic mystery (“Clear”). On side 3, “Gist” builds up a looping, guitar-led rhythm like a lost A.R. & Machines track, sharing the same side with the pulsing “Flötz,” which rides a taut electro-pulse bolstered by group small percussion. This lengthy double concludes with the almost side-long “Minkey,” featuring the full complement of VCO sound signatures in one big hallucinatory swirl. Exclusive to this release is a 35 minute DVD of three live performances put together by Mick Flower. A rare chance to see some cinema verité of the group in action, the performances here (shot in the UK in 2005 and 2007) are all on the rocking side, with furious drumming and guitar strangling. Perhaps best of all is Mick Flower and Neil Campbell’s optional audio commentary track (!) on “Wisdom T,” providing some insight on the how’s and why (and some witticisms, too). Covers hand printed by SIWA, each one a little different. Cut by John Golden, audiophile pressed at RTI (a huge improvement over the original issue). Limited pressing." [label info] www.vhfrecords.com 2012 €23.50
VIDNA OBMANA 1984-1986 [Testament of Tape] 3 x LP-Box "1984-1986 Testament Of Tape captures vidnaObmana in its most experimental phase during the obscure tape period, searching for its own musical voice, Dirk Serries (well-known sound-artist, especially known for his Fear Falls Burning-Releases) is moving on this Box-Set through various styles. From utterly relentless noise music to rhythmical industrial outbursts. This 3LP set features unreleased and extremely rare tracks from a personal friend's private collection (music that was recorded exclusively for him) to songs from early cassettes releases. While Lp Number 1 combines very beat-orientated-material in best manner of early Blackhouse or even Esplendor Geometrico. Lp2 and 3 presents the fundament and roots for his later works (Lp1 lmtd.123 copies, 3LP-Box lmtd. to 477 (300 members, 177 for wholesale/distribution)" [label info] www.vinyl-on-demand.com 2009 €46.50
VIVENZA Realite de l'automation directe LP "Réalité de l'automation directe: Bruitism is the representation of a living, biological body, not unrelated but on the contrary intimate to the substance. The nature/technique gap is totally, in The Art of Noises, the most accomplished form of a reconciliation with industrial mechanization. By highlighting the autonomy of the dialectical movement in its inaugural tension, bruitism reestablishes this relationship with the pure objectivity of the substance, which is the cornerstone of the program of futurism and remains more than ever valid for the future of all futures. The sonorous world, the noises of life, are not just a simple residual environment but the material of a new art, The Art of Noises ! Luigi Russolo declares : « In a few years the engines of our industrial cities can all be skilfully sounded so as to make from each factory an exhilarating orchestra of noises ». The futurist objective is « a will for a back to original forces »[3], it finds in bruitism the most intense form of a participation to the universal energy of the being of the world. Extract from L'art des bruits futuristes (The Art of Futurist Noises), Vivenza, 1982 1. L. RUSSOLO, The Art of Noises, Milan, 1913. 2. L. RUSSOLO, The Noises of Nature and Life, Milan. 1913. 3. L. RUSSOLO, The Art of Noises, Milan, 1913." [credits] "From his first works in the middle of the 70s, Jean-Marc Vivenza places himself in the field of the theorico-political link attached to the Italian Futurists and Russian Constructivists trends whose bruitist-plastic propositions are the only theorical sources having ever been developped with consistency, and qualifies his music as « bruitist futurist » rather than industrial. It is the re-appropriation of noise as a formal plastic aid. He explores the field of perspectives that the acoustico-plastic material offers and works on a concept that he calls « the objective materiality of noise », basing himself on the futuristic thesis of Luigi Russolo, exposed in « The Art of Noises » edited in 1913, constituting the working guide for Vivenza and remaining the base of any authentic bruitism. He is then the first, between 1976 (with the band Glace) and 1979, to build a bridge between the thesis of Luigi Russolo and our time. The originality of Vivenza is to use industrial sonorous material in the literal sense of the word (machines, workers in action, factories) and records real industrial sonorities in factories : reality is the subject of futurist research." [biography info from the label) http://rotorelief.com 2011 €23.00
VOGEL, MICHEL Une petite musique de Nuit LP "PLANAM proudly presents the first LP by the artist and sound sculptor Michel Vogel. Born in 1941 in Strasbourg, France, Michel Vogel artistic activities start in 1960 when, as a painter under the materic influences of Antoni Tapies and Jean Dubuffet, his mineral and sound experimentations built a universe influenced by free jazz, extra-European music and Olivier Messiaen. His researches develop with new sculptures and the creation of his own resonating metal instruments. His friends of the minimalist group, and specially the Fluxus artists, support and push him to carry on his acoustics explorations while his sonic creations get closer to the music of John Cage, Philip Corner, Morton Feldman and Giacinto Scelsi. For this first project PLANAM selected, in direct collaboration with the artist, an improvisation for large size gongs prepared with metal rods, little gong, Chinese cymbal, caoutchouc ball, titled Une petite musique de nuit. Recorded live with no over-dubbing the night of January 18th, 2002. A very deep and alfa-wave oriented listening that will make you discover very intimate as well as stellar new sonic dimentions. Edition limited to 300 copies." [label info] 2009 €19.50
  Ronde Matutinale a Amilis / Berenice LP "PLANAM proudly presents the second LP by the artist and sound sculptor Michel Vogel. Born in 1941 in Strasbourg, France, Michel Vogel artistic activities start in 1960 when, as a painter under the materic influences of Antoni Tapies and Jean Dubuffet, his mineral and sound experimentations built a universe influenced by free jazz, extra-European music and Olivier Messiaen. His researches develop with new sculptures and the creation of his own resonating metal instruments. His friends of the minimalist group, and specially the Fluxus artists, supported and pushed him to carry on his acoustics explorations while his sonic creations get closer to the music of John Cage, Philip Corner, Morton Feldman and Giacinto Scelsi. After the deep cosmo night music of 'Une petite music de nuit' (Vogel first LP) PLANAM decided to issue two more early-morning oriented realizations, or 'Ronde mattinale à Amillis' and 'Berenice'. These alfa-wave improvisations for 'prepared' gongs and self-built metal instruments, selected in direct collaboration with the artist, will make you enter into luminous sonic dimensions. Edition limited to 270 copies with full colour space cover and inner sleeve." [label info] 2011 €19.50
VON EULER-DONNERSPERG, DITTERICH Weisheit aus des Kindes Mund tut uns stets die Wahrheit kund LP Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg, also known as Uli Rehberg and most certainty other names, is a mythologized figure in Germany's industrial underground. The man behind Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien, a label responsible for early releases by Throbbing Gristle and SPK and for being the home of the enigmatic Werkbund, it is long believed that Ditterich is part of, or completely behind, Werkbund himself. A Colourful Storm presents another piece of his puzzle. Wisdom from the child’s mouth always tells us the truth. It’s hard to overstate the influence of Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg on A Colourful Storm; indeed, it’s almost impossible to imagine the label’s existence without it. A figure whose movements within Germany’s industrial avant-garde span almost forty years, it would be in 2010 that he unknowingly entered our orbit through two important releases. At the time, SPK’s Auto-Da-Fé and Throbbing Gristle’s Journey Through A Body left some impression on us, their discovery propelling an interest in the possibilities opened up by industrial music that we still explore today. Responsible for publishing these releases was Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien - who, or what, were they? Founded in 1980 by Hamburg-based Uli Rehberg, Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien was a base for Laibach, Asmus Tietchens and Werkbund as well as Rehberg’s own artistic endeavours: the most devilishly humorous his adopting of the name Dr. Kurt Euler, spokesperson of a satirical political party comprised of musicians Felix Kubin and Gregor Hartz. The project would foreshadow the life of Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg, an alias unveiled in 1998 with the first in a series of spoken word 7” picture discs that have since become highly collectable. Attracting an enviable list of collaborators throughout his career (John Duncan, Thomas Köner and Column One have all lent their expertise), it is perhaps the enigmatic Werkbund project that remains most coveted within the world of von Euler-Donnersperg. Cloistered and clandestine since their inception in 1987, their brooding, synthetik atmospheres have long been speculated to be the work of von Euler-Donnersperg himself. Listen to Werkbund’s Skagerrak or Stahlhof and tell us we’re wrong... The culmination of decades of sound research and electroacoustic investigation, Weisheit aus des Kindes Mund tut uns stets die Wahrheit kund is significantly also a tribute to von Euler-Donnersperg’s children, their voices and spoken word hocus-pocus conjuring clairvoyant visions amongst soaring metallic sheen and spectralist digital debris. Cybernetic ooze spilling into servers and causing subdued bleep signals and static. A slasher film soundtrack starring the German avant-garde dressed in laboratory coats. The latest piece of von Euler-Donnersperg’s peerless, endlessly imaginative puzzle. https://acolourfulstorm.com/album/weisheit-aus-des-kindes-mund-tut-uns-stets-die-wahrheit-kund 2021 €20.00
VON HAUSSWOLFF, ANNA All Thoughts Fly (Pink) LP Sacro Bosco (“Sacred Grove”) is the starting point for Anna von Hausswolff’s new album All Thoughts Fly, incoming on Southern Lord on 25th September. Here in solo instrumental mode, the entire record consists of just one instrument, the pipe organ, and represents absolute liberation of the imagination. All Thoughts Fly radiates a melancholic beauty, and is distinguished by fluid transitions of contrasting elements; calmness and drama, harmony and dissonance, much like the place that inspires the music. Sacro Bosco is a garden, based in the centre of Italy, containing grotesque mythological sculptures and buildings overgrown with vegetation, situated in a wooded valley beneath the castle of Orsini. Created during the 16th Century, Sacro Bosco was commissioned by Pier Francesco Orsini, some say to try and cope with his grief following the death of his wife Guilia Farnese, others speculate the purpose was to create art. About the album Anna explains “there’s a sadness and wilderness that inspired me to write this album, also a timelessness. I believe that this park has survived not only due to its beauty but also because of the iconography, it has been liberated from predictable ideas and ideals. The people who built this park truly set their minds and imagination free. All thoughts fly is a homage to this creation, and an effort to articulate the atmosphere and the feelings that this place evokes inside of me. It’s a very personal interpretation of a place that I lack the words to describe. I’d like to believe Orsini built this monumental park out of grief for his dead wife, and in my Sacro Bosco I used this story as a core for my own inspiration: love as a foundation for creation.” The accompanying video for the first single “Sacro Bosco” is, just like the music, an interpretation of the park with an imaginary twist. Directed by Gustaf and Ludvig Holtenäs. Anna summarises, “Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo is a creation carved out from one man’s head. A frozen thought lasting throughout time and touching people across generations. All thoughts fly, Ogni Pensiero Vola, is about this: the importance of sharing for surviving, creating space and evolving. Once you’ve shared your words they are not only yours anymore.” All Thoughts Fly ultimately embodies the exploration of any and all possibilities, and the audience is invited to listen, liberate the mind and let it wander. Notes on the recording process: The organ on All Thoughts Fly is situated in Gothenburg and is a Swedish replica of the Arp Schnitger organ in Germany. It is the largest organ tuned in Quarter-comma meantone temperament in the world. With it’s four manuals, one pedal and 54 stops, it was built as part of a ten-year research project reconstructing 17th Century North German organ building craft. The tuning temperament is an important detail to note here, as it deeply affects the sound and tuning, and thus radically changed the process of creating this album. Anna speaks of a pleasant surprise during recording, the organ’s ability to create beautiful “pitching” notes through its stops and air supply system. She remarks “We took advantage of this so most of the pitching sounds and notes that you hear on the album comes from the mechanics of this organ, effects made entirely acoustically.” The organ was recorded with two room mics for atmosphere and two pairs of close mics placed inside the organ to capture nuances and detail for further organ sound processing by Filip Leyman in his studio. All songs written & played by Anna von Hausswolff Organ sound design by Filip Leyman and Anna von Hausswolff Produced and mixed by Anna von Hausswolff & Filip Leyman Mastered by Hans Olsson at Svenska Grammofonstudion Recorded in Örgryte New Church, in Gothenburg January 2020. Organ recorded with mobile equipment from Svenska Grammofonstudion Cover photo & inner sleeve photo by Gianluca Grasselli Layout & design by Tina Damgaard https://annavonhausswolffsl.bandcamp.com/album/all-thoughts-fly 2022 €25.00
VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M. (CARL MICHAEL) 800000 Seconds in Harar CD " CD digipak. CM von Hausswolff says: 'I was approached by my old friend and Radium 226.05 colleague Ulrich Hillebrand, now director of Angered Theatre in Göteborg. He informed me that there was a new play in the process of being written by author and theorist Michael Azar called 'Jag r en annan' (I is another) stemming form the famous letter written by Arthur Rimbaud in his youth. The play uses Rimbaud's life from being a young poet in Charleville ending with him being the trader in Harar, Ethiopia. Hillebrand asked me if I was willing to compose the music to this play. I accepted. I told Hillebrand that I needed to use material that had something to do with Rimbaud's life and as he had connections in Ethiopia and in the small city of Harar he said: why don't you go to Harar for 10 days and see what you can find ? So I went to Addis Ababa where a guy was waiting for me and drove me the 10 hours beautiful ride to Harar. I made recordings and looked for other useful material. There are 2 tracks. On the first track, which consists of three 'parts' I have used material from Harar. The long dronic sounds are taken form an instrument that I, after searching for days, bought in Harar - it's called a 'krar' and is a string instruments (it's quite clear that I have used a string instrument- also if you study Ethiopian music you came across the name of Saint Yared and he was the first to construct a notation system for music... much earlier than the Europeans). As I could not really master the actual playing of this instrument, I bought a bow for a violin and some rosin and with this I got one good tone out from this krar. Then the computer helped me to sort the modes and pitches out. On this piece there also two location recordings: the first one you hear is a recording I did outside Harar on a hill where there are next to no car sounds or other machine sounds - just the wind, insects, some kids and that (I wanted this recording to be more or less timeless or at least 19th century and forward...). The second location recording was done in the night in my hotel, where I woke up one night and became fascinated by the leaking taps in my bathroom so I decided to records this. On the second there are only oscillators used... several of them... And using one low pitch oscillator I ran a sound filtered through. This sound is the low 'rhythm' you can hear, and it's a low pitched morse code signal... and the text is the famous poem Rimbaud wrote in his youth called Le Dormeur Du Val (The Sleeper in the Valley). This poem is a beautiful text starting off in the nature, where a person is sleeping in the grass. Slowly Rimbaud zooms in and we read that it's a soldier and at the very end we are told he has two red wounds on his chest - the guy is dead!' Arthur Rimbaud lived in Harar from 1884 until shortly before his death in 1891. This is Carl Michael von Hausswolff's first album for Touch, but the connection goes back many years, of course. Carl Michael von Hausswolff was born in 1956 in Linköping, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm. Since the end of the 1970s, Hausswolff has worked as a composer using the tape recorder as his main instrument and as a conceptual visual artist working with performance art, light and sound installations and photography.' [label info] www.touchmusic.org.uk "Dem Minimalismus wird definitiv in der heutigen Zeit viel Raum gewährt. Vergleichbar dem graphischen Design einer Designer Republic wird Weniger zum Mehr, ist die Leerstelle längst Ausdrucksmittel für den mondänen Zeitgeist. Hausswolff fährt diese Schiene seit Jahren erfolgreich, verlässt sie aber nur für kurze konkrete Zwischenhalte (siehe das Triptych für das Laton-Label) um dann wieder drei Alben mit konsequent kurzgeschnittener Konzeption und Kuration zu veröffentlichen, deren Sinn sich in stehenden Tönen auf Viertelstundenbasis und kraftvollen Feldaufnahmen äußert. Die Vergangenheit die Hausswolff hier besingt, schleicht sich auch in Künstlerreichweite, denn die Kuration aus alter skandinavischer Galeristenarbeit wirkt auch Jahrzehnte später bei Hausswolff nach. Sicherlich ist »800 000 Seconds in Harar« ein im heutigen Sinne weitaus ausgewogeneres Werk, auch wenn die spärlichen Akkordwechsel der Drones eher lange auf sich warten lassen. Geduld muss vorhanden sein, das Goutieren der Musik wird schlagartig zum Spiel mit Zeit und Raum. Erst im dritten Stück entfalten sich orgelartige Strukturen, auf die John Cage angesichts seines Jahrtausendwerkes ORGAN2 stolz sein dürfte. Ähnlich verlangsamt, aber mit präsenten Bassschwingungen hallen die organischen Zutaten eines Besuchs in Harar umso mehr am Hörknochen noch. Nichtsdestotrotz ist Hausswolff auf dünnem Eis. Das sorgfältige Konstrukt aus Schwebungssummern und genau präzisierter Hertzzahl gerät angesichts der emotionalen Verortung in der Musik bisweilen ins Wanken. Dann muss man Geduld aufbringen, um dieses Werk in seiner vollen Länge zu würdigen. 4/5 " [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG] "Selbst wenn man die Hintergrundinfos zu dieser CD nicht kennt, ist es immer wieder ein Vergnügen dem "Meister des Drones" zu lauschen. - Nun, auf CD ist das bei CM von Hausswolff immer so eine Sache, da seine meisten Tracks sehr lang und auch abhängig sind von der Qualität der Stereoanlage, denn der Herr hier bevorzugt extrem tieftönendes Klänge. Live und direkt ein unglaubliches Erlebnis, wenn er die Filter zum glühen bringt, man in den Sitz gepresst wird und die Kleidung wie Folie sich um den ganzen Körper spannt und das nur durch einen herrvoragend aufeinander abgestimmten Drone. Für diese Veröffentlichung, die gleichzeitig Musik für eine Theaterstück über die letzten Lebensjahre von Arthur Rimbaud in Harhar ist, wurde CM kurzer Hand in ein Flugzeug verfrachtet und zehn Tage nach Äthopien geschickt und das nur, weil er sagte, er bräuchte Basicmaterial für seine Kompositionen. Also hört man hier die bearbeiteten Klänge der Originalschauplätze, Reiseeindrücke und Aufnahmen auf der Grundlage traditionellen äthiopischen Musikinstrumenten. Wunderbare und meditative fließende Drones umschmeicheln den Hörer und nehmen ihn mit auf diese (Traum)Reise!" [Carsten Vollmer / OX] 2011 €14.00
  Squared CD "digipak designed by Richard Francis. Ltd. to 300 copies On “Squared”: Squared consists of two longer pieces. a) is a recording of a live performance executed at ZKM in Karlsruhe. It is an abstract piece of music that has evolved during the time the composer has performed live - since 1980. For the composer, generally, a live performance is always the "same thing", but listening to the early recordings it occurs that the music has changed drastically - only the format is still there. This is analogue to life in general - Earth looks the same like always, but, of course, it isn't. This piece won the Karl Sczuka Price Price in 2014. The piece is a co-production with ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe and Südwestrundfunk (SWR). b) is a piece using the sound generated from the soil in the German cemetery in Montevideo, Uruguay. With a technique called emission spectroscopy the composer has experimented with the frequencies that emits from the actual material in the ground and by pulling out samples from these recordings, organising them and looping some this piece became the soundtrack for the film "North Cemetery, Montevideo, Uruguay" directed by Jan Håfström, CM von Hausswolff and Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena. Biography: Carl Michael von Hausswolff lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden Since the end of the 70s, von Hausswolff has worked as a composer using recording technology as his main instrument and as a visual artist using video and still photography as well as other media. He currently curates the sound-installation FREQ_OUT (including artists like Jana Winderen, JG Thirlwell, Finnbogi Petursson, Anna Ceeh and others) and collaborates with artist Leif Elggren, film-maker Thomas Nordanstad, EVP re-searcher Michael Esposito and author Leslie Winer. He has exhibited in documenta, Kassel, the biennials in Venice, Moscow, Liverpool, Istanbul, Sarajevo etc and in Rijeka, Stockholm, Nicosia, Tokyo, London, New York etc. His music has been played in festivals such as Sonar (Barcelona), Red Bull Adademy, CTM (Berlin), L’audible (Paris), el niche Aural (Mexico City) etc. and released on record by labels alike RasterNoton (Berlin), Touch (London), Laton (Wien), auf abwegen (Cologne), iDeal (Göteborg) and MonoType (Warszaw). www.cmvonhausswolff.net" [label info] www.aufabwegen.com 2015 €13.00
VOUDOURIS, DIMITRI NPFAI.1/PALMOS/NPFAI.3/PRAXIS CD Vier interessante Arbeiten eines südafrikanischen Komponisten (geboren 1961 in Athen); so werden bei NPFAI.1 Originalklänge von afrikanischen Zeremonial-Instrumenten (Kundi & M'Bira / bzw. Kalimba) computergestützt in mysteriöse Granularwellen & -welten verwandelt, die die ursprüngliche Klang-Atmosphäre der Objekte beibehält. Ähnlich werden bei den anderen Stücken Klangdetails einzelner Instrumente analysiert und elektro-akustisch bearbeitet, so daß bestimmte musikalische Parameter wie durch ein Mikroskop näher betrachtbar werden. Besonders gut gefällt das letzte Stück PRAXIS, wo ein griechisch-orthodoxer Chor herhalten muss für VOUDOURIS unheimliche Transformationen, die sich bis ins Unkenntliche auflösen, um dann wieder zurückzukehren zum Ausgangsmaterial. Genial! Wieder erstaunlich, zu welchen Neuentdeckungen das POGUS-Label animiert ! "South African composer Dimitri Voudouris (b.1961 Athens, Greece) began composing in the 90¹s. He composes for acoustic instruments, electronic sound sources, multimedia, including dance and theatre. He bases his technical and theoretical compositional approach in research of cognitive psycho-acoustic behavioral patterns in humans and the behavior of sound in relationship to continued environmental changes. His socio-cultural interests have led him to research the survival of music in the 21st century and the impact that media and technology have on the composer. NPFAI. 1 (New Possibilities for African Instrument) is an electro-acoustic composition for kundi and m'bira with computer assisted processing. Kalimba or m'bira is a finger piano made of wood and metal strips used in ceremonial music. In Western Africa this instrument is known as m'bira and in Eastern Africa it is called a kalimba. The kundi a bowed harp is a ceremonial instrument originating from the Mangbetu tribe of the Congo. In NPFAI.1, working with each individual layer gave Voudouris better control in the change of sound characteristics as some sound phenomena changed, disappeared and new sound phenomena surfaced creating new possibilities. In Palmos, Voudouris chose three Western instruments - the Hammond organ, oboe, and the bandoneon - whose overtone and harmonic capabilities allowed for interlocking moments to take place, a phenomenon that is ever present in African traditional music. Spectrographic analysis of sounds produced by each individual instrument was carefully monitored which allowed for a deeper understanding of timbre [harmonic content], attack, decay and vibrato. Subtractive synthesis further allowed for the isolation of certain inaudible frequencies to be enhanced to an audible level and the elimination of others. These compositional elements allow the listener to perceive the sound as stable individual tone and noise spectra, frequently of surprising purity. NPFAI. 3, third in a series of electro-acoustic studies, is for African marimba and computer assisted processing. The African marimba used in this work is a tenor marimba, used traditionally as a rhythm instrument. The marimba is tuned in Xhosa tuning with just intonation in Eb (with added A's). The instrument was played with traditional mallets; the recording was processed and constructed on computer. Granular, algorithmic and subtractive sound syntheses were used in the construction of NPFAI.3. These procedures were not to defamiliarize the sound of the instrument but rather to explore the deeper analogies of organic identity in the construction of micro sound environments, focusing on capturing the physical properties of the instrument and its organic sound textures. PRAXIS is a four-channel tape piece using a recording of Christian Orthodox Greek male choir and computer assisted processing. 566 sound compartments were created that ranged from 10 to 40 seconds in time duration. Each sound compartment was constructed and manipulated individually, allowing for better control in maintaining individuality in the sound structures. The computer further allowed for the individual micro-rearrangement of pitches in each sound compartment, leading to the notion of continuous macro-timbre. The methods used allowed for greater control in spacial differentiation of each sound. The distorted nature of the sound source was not eliminated but was build into the composition." [label info] www.pogus.com 2007 €13.00
VRESNIT Seed Solar CD "Joint release of Aquarellist and Vetvei labels - new Vresnit album recorded in winter-autumn 2010 in cooperation with Kshatriy, Hladna and Neznamo. Qualitatively new in project creativity a five-part ambient space dedicated to the Culture Solar beginnings and transfiguring seeds disseminating. Vresnit art is turned to research primary being experience, - human consciousness conditions being resonant to the general nature. Sparkling cosmogonic Drone Ambient twined from voices, string and wind instruments, bells, singing bowls, electronic instruments and field recordings. Great Kshatriy mastering, solar full-colored envelope and card Vresnit & Vetvei Art. First 13 copies incl. 4 additional cards and 30x27 foto on big wooden board." [label info] www.vetvei.ohms.ru 2010 €13.00
WATSON, CHRIS & MARCUS DAVIDSON Cross-Pollination CD "Touch presents a piece by British environmental sound archivist Chris Watson and a collaboration between Watson and British composer, producer and keyboard player Marcus Davidson (Spire). "Midnight At The Oasis" is a 28-minute time compression from sunset to sunrise in South Africa's Kalahari Desert and features the dense and harmonic mosaic of delicate animal rhythms recorded in this remote habitat. The piece was first performed at the Marquee in Parliament Street, York, on September 13th, 2007 as part of SightSonic's contribution to the BA Festival of Science. The Kalahari Desert is a vast and open space where most of the wildlife is nocturnal. After sunset, the dunes, grasses and thorn bushes are patrolled by an emerging alien empire -- the insects. "Midnight At The Oasis" presents an unseen soundscape from this beautiful and hostile environment. "The Bee Symphony" is a project by Chris Watson originally for Pestival (an international arts festival dedicated to "insects in the arts and the art of being an insect") in 2009 to explore the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees in a unique choral collaboration around and within the hives of an English country garden. Recorded live at The Rymer Auditorium, Music Research Centre, University of York, England on December 17th, 2010 by Tony Myatt, using a Soundfield SPS200 microphone recorded onto an Edirol R4 (surround version) and 2 x Neumann U87 microphones via Grace Microphone Preamplifiers, recorded onto an Edirol R44 (stereo version). Composed and arranged by Marcus Davidson using recordings made by Chris Watson & Mike Harding and diffused through a 4.1 Genelec system by Chris Watson." [label info] www.touchmusic.org.uk "What on earth am I doing inside the house? The sun is bursting, with a totally friendly temperature, which scream: walk! walk! walk! But no, I am inside, listening to music. Music made with the use of field recordings to be precise, as is certainly the case with the first piece by Chris Watson. Entirely recorded in the Kalahari desert, from sunset to sunrise, but then trimmed down to twenty-eight minutes. A remote area, where most of the wildlife is awake at night - with lots of insect chirping and buzzing. Its almost an electronic piece of music, which I guess is exactly why this is such a great piece of music. With much of the field recording artists who merely capture the environment, Watson takes it all a step further and actually composes with those sounds into quite a captivating piece of music. No by looping sounds, or putting on fancy plug-ins, but merely a process of editing and fading. Simple but difficult in order to create such an overwhelming mass of sound. And masses of sounds is also what's happening on the second piece, which is by Watson and one Marcus Davidson. It explores the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees. Watson is here responsible for the field recordings used (which he did with label honcho Mike Harding), while Davidson gets the credit as composer. The bee choir consists of five human voices, who buzz like bees. If you are melissophobic then this will surely be a scary piece. A lovely CD of music derived from nature, as well as an interaction of human activity and animal sounds. Now its time to go out and the hear the real action." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2011 €14.50
WHITE, FRANCES In the Library of Dreams CD "I was going to write about how this is an absolutely beautiful and disturbing record, but I think quoting from the liner notes of James Pritchett really does sum it up. 'Frances White invites us to take a walk through her Resonant Landscape. Where are we going? We are walking through the woods, marshes, and streams of New Jersey. She points out the birds and frogs that make their home there, the water that flows through it and the wind that shakes the trees. But then we turn and there is that other sound world, the one in which these woodland sounds are transformed, or in which we find sounds altogether new: spectral birds singing to us through a sparkly haze; distant colored winds, like the breath of giants; the air around us, alive, charged with long, low drones and sudden electric crashes. There is something magical about this other world, and (like most magic) there is something disturbing here as well. We move between the two worlds almost at random, bumping into one sound after another. We find ourselves rising off the path and floating, then falling abruptly into silence, reappearing in a marsh full of geese and blackbirds. This is more than a sonic postcard from Princeton: it is a journey into the inner world of Frances White. We could call it an electroacoustic dream drawn from her memories of hikes in the woods. As in a dream, real experience is placed in a surreal context, a play of inner and outer. We fill in the gaps, supplying connections among the random fragments of reality, memory, and imagination. This gets to the heart of White's music. She has made a body of work in which she takes the real, brings it into her being, transforms it there, and then brings it out again in her compositions. Technically, she works by using the computer to manipulate recorded sounds and to synthesize wholly new ones. She mixes her timbres by hand as a painter would mix colors, and she applies them lovingly and painstakingly to her canvas of silence. But the power of her work comes from her ability to take listeners on journeys through her inner sense of sound, finding something luminous, exalted, dramatic, and at times frightening there. Her music is like the work of dreams, both the pleasant ones and the nightmares. It is not by accident that Gus Van Sant set the calmly-executed bloodbath of his film Elephant to one of White's Walks through 'Resonant Landscape'. White's unsettling juxtapositions of real and imagined sound work well with Van Sant's matter-of-fact treatment of almost unwatchable violence. Frances White studied composition at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. She has received awards, grants, commissions, and fellowships from organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Prix Ars Electronica, the International Computer Music Association, ASCAP, the Bang On A Can Festival, and the Other Minds Festival. Ms. White's music can be heard on CD on the Wergo, Centaur, Nonsequitur, Harmonia Mundi, and Bridge Records labels. A CD devoted to her chamber works, Centre Bridge, was released in August of 2007 on the Mode label. Ms. White's music was featured as part of the soundtrack of three of Gus Van Sant movies." [label info] www.pogus.com "This new Pogus release is a work of a composer who is completely new to me. White studied composition at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. Some of her work has been released by labels like Mode, Bridge, Harmonia Mundi, etc. This new release gathers six compositions for very different line ups. The first one, ‘Chosi’ is for solo shakuhachi, beautifully played by Ralph Samuelson. White studied Shakuhachi herself and feels inspired by traditional music that has shakuhachi in a main role. Also she feels inspired by nature. No wonder that she often uses natural field recordings in her electronic work. Just like Jonas Braasch, White has a comparable fascination for space and environment in her musical output, like titles as ‘Walk through Resonant Landscape 5.1’and ‘Walk through Resonant Landscape 5.2’ indicate. Both titles provide a picture or metaphor that describes how one can experience these pieces: it feels like a travel through different parts of a jungle. Here birdcalls dominate, there sounds from insects. The works are built up as a series of waves of manipulated environmental sounds. The works have a fine balance of acoustical natural sounds and electronics. White builds successful imaginary landscapes and surroundings. Also I would say she is searching for some spiritual quality in sound. The title piece ‘In the Library of Dreams’ is written for viola d’amore played here by David Cerutti, against a background of electronic sounds. Only one piece is for an ensemble, ‘The Ocean Inside’ played by Eight Blackbird, an ensemble of six musicians. It is a romantic piece of work of slowly moving patterns that disappear in a background of fragile sounds. The closing piece ‘The Book of Roses and Memory’ has very sensible playing by Liuh Wen Ting on viola and Thomas Buckner as narrator. The electroacoustic music of White takes you into dreamy atmospheres, with compositions that are not extremely complicated. In fact her work is very accessible. It is also very solid work and far from some easy romantic pastiche." [DM/Vital Weekly] 2012 €13.00
WINTER FAMILY Red Sugar CD "Second long awaited album by duo Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine, actually based in Brooklyn. A rare and unique audio worldview expressed by the singular approach of Ruth Rosenthal (voice) and Xavier Klaine (harmonium, organ etc..). From the first bares of Searching Donkeys this new album creates a glowering and intense atmospheric...part nightmare, part uplifting dreamscape. It permeates and builds into a compelling whole. a reference point might be some of the output of Constellation records - indeed GYBEs Norsola Johnson plays on this record.. However it is doubtful whether any of those artists ever produced anything to match the taut tension of the title track Red Sugar..an hymn to absence. The ambition of Winter Family is evident on the expansive, orchestral epic dancing in the sun..crank your speakers, sit back and open your mind.. it WILL blow you away." [label info] www.subrosa.net 2011 €13.00
WORBY, ROBERT Factitious Airs (Electronic Music) LP This LP by Robert Worby (Langham Research Centre) focuses on recorded sound and structures made with recorded sound. How the original sound was produced and the objects used in the production of the sounds is of secondary interest. Tiny details in the sounds are important and what might appear to be insignificant, dull or uneventful is often salient. Acute, obsessive listening brings these elements to the fore. In the process of making these structures, meaning begins to emerge and unfold. This is always highly subjective, ambiguous and uncertain and might fleetingly resonate with many ideas, objects, narratives and situations that are not connected with sound. Inspiration often comes from existing music but also from the entire history of ideas and, again, a tiny detail might produce a kind of creative resonance. Curiosity is predominant and drives forward the process of composition. "Can a music made with the modern tools of digital music and contemporary production sound eerily as if created with the same equipment that Stockhausen, Henri and Berio all availed themselves of in the radio studios of the 50s and 60s – and yet sound bright and fresh to the ears of today's listeners? Robert Worby shows us how, with Factitious Airs." — Carl Stone 2020 €25.00
XEDH Serpents mCD-R Reverberating metall-percussion, monumentally vibrating drones & odd effects, alienated vocals at the end, real archaic “handmade” industrial.... destructive and authentic stuff, recommended ! Comes in greenly oxidated copper-sheet cover ! “Since 1995, Miguel A. Garcia, through his project "XEDH", has been developing an incessant search of new musical proposals within the more industrial and noisy side of music. More familiar to old bands, such as Throbbing Gristle or Esplendor Geometrico than current panorama which has a more conventional attitude. Garcia's sound forms are strengthened by noises and rhythms trying to create an environment that reflects simultaneously the self-destruction of the human being and the decline of a society that becomes less and less human. "Serpents" is a good example of that: obsessive rhythms that evoke in the distance the sound of the human machinery into action. Sounds are based on dissonance, manipulated voices, noise "increscendo" no exempted from influences within the most brutal noise panorama and the light fragments of most conventional music (that calles melody). The soundtrack of a world on the verge of extinction, the present time, and the mortality through the personal apocalypse of a single human being.” [label info] 2004 €7.50
Z'EV A Handful of Elements CD "With “A Handful Of Elements” Z’EV returns to the “dense, carefully laid and deep drone works” [adnoiseam.net] of “Sum Things” (CSR101CD). However, for this release he has drawn deep from his 40 year old sonic archive (from live performances both instrumental and vocal to a range of soundscapes from around the world), producing soundtracks to accompany you to the other side of ambient, through the door between your eyes." [label info] www.coldspring.co.uk "Readers who has been studying the history of Industrial music should know that Stefan Joel Weisser is a true legend of industrial sound expressions. Side by side with more well-known Industrial legends Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, Z'EV was an important part of the Industrial pioneers in the 70's. Thus Z'EV was one of the presented industrial pioneers in the ground-breaking work "The Industrial Culture Handbook" out on RE/Search back in 1983. The California-based multi-talented artist has specialised in producing concrete soundscapes using found sounds of Industrial materials. Present album titled "A handful of elements" is no exception. Having dug into the 40 year old archive of sound materials from Z'EV, Stefan Joel Weisser delivers a work of dense, carefully structured noise drones divided into five intersections. The expression belongs to the ambient scene however do not expect any kind of chill-out atmospheres on this one. That Z'EV has its roots in the industrial scene seems obvious as you wander through the territories of threatening metallic noises giving you the feeling of being trapped alone on a distant space station light-years from any kind of human contact. Turn of the light and let you drift into this sonic nightmare of seductive industrial soundscapes." [NM /Vital Weekly] 2013 €13.00
ZAFFIRI, ENORE La Voce ed il Sintetizzatore CD "After almost forty years of creative activity, the name Enore Zaffiri still sounds new, as his extraordinary artistic output has remained to a great extent unreleased. Pioneer of multimedia, electronic and ambient music (he founded the Turin Studio of Electronic Music in 1964) Zaffiri used the electronic instrument to find a new musical perspective based on a structuralist principle derived from Euclidean geometrics. In this works, dated between 1973 and 1988 he approche the combination of the electronic music with the voice the meeting of the newest instrument, at that time the arp synth, and the oldest one, the human voice. Enore Zaffiri was born in Turin on March 29, 1928. He studied in Turin at the Conservatorio G. Verdi, taking a diploma in composition, choral music and pianoforte, and subsequently in Paris at the Conservatoire National with Tony Aubin. From 1954 to 1982 he held the Chair of General Music Culture at the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Turin. In 1964, he turned his interest to electronic music and founded SMET (Studio di Musica Elettronica di Torino) which made its headquarters in Turin at the Conservatorio. Zaffiri's first objective was to overcome the historical elementary principles which coordinated the relationships between the sounds of traditional musical language for acoustic instruments and then concentrate his efforts on electronic means, searching for new sound perspectives originating from a structural principle based on the Euclidian plane geometrical figure by which means the various sound parameters can be coordinated and the formal and spatial dimension extracted. In 1965, together with other operators in the visual field, he set up the Studio di Informazione Estetica and started an interdisciplinary research into sound and visual phenomena. The main objective of the research was to generate the elements relevant to the sound and visual fields from a single basic structure. The extreme limit of the formal rigorism was achieved in 1968 with the project Musica per un anno, the purpose of which was the sonorization of environments. From 1970, Zaffiri turned his attention towards the live performance of electronic music. He combined electronic sound with the human voice - sometimes crossing the border into total theatre (Il giuoco dell'oca from the novel by E. Sanguineti and Raptus based on a text by M. Châtel). In the period, the first scores for synthesizers appeared, permitting the live performance of pieces specifically written for this instrument. At the end of the seventies, he extended his research into visuals to the video, maintaining the interdisciplinary process using the instruments that technology offered and which represented, for the author, the means and support for what he intended to express." [label info] www.rossbin.com/rs023.htm 2005 €6.00
  Riverberazioni Sonore 7inch + magazine Author: Enore Zaffiri Title: "Riverberazioni Sonore" Label: Rossbin Format: 7” + Magazine Catalog #: Rsep001 Time: 11:00 SIDE A: Riverberazioni Sonore n° 31 (05:26:00) Recorded in Torino / Year 1998 SIDE B: Sonetto CXLIV (02:37:00) Recorded in Torino / Year 1973 Riverberazioni Sonore n° 31 02:59:00 Recorded in Torino / Year 1998 Enore Zaffiri was born in Turin on March 29, 1928. He studied in Turin at the "Conservatorio G. Verdi", taking a diploma in composition, choral music and pianoforte, and subsequently in Paris at the "Conservatoire National" with Tony Aubin. He perfected his piano studies with Guido Agosti in Siena at the "Accademia Musicale Chigiana". From 1954 to 1982 he held the Chair of General Music Culture at the "Conservatorio G. Verdi" in Turin. As a composer he won various awards. In 1964, he turned his interest to electronic music and founded SMET (Studio di Musica Elettronica di Torino) which made its headquarters in Turin at the Conservatorio, and he also became a lecturer in this subject. Zaffiri’s first objective was to overcome the historical elementary principles which coordinated the relationships between the sounds of traditional musical language for acoustic instruments and then concentrate his efforts on electronic means, searching for new sound perspectives originating from a structural principle based on the Euclidian plane geometrical figure by which means the various sound parameters can be coordinated and the formal and spatial dimension extracted. In 1965, together with other operators in the visual field, he set up the Studio di Informazione Estetica and started an interdisciplinary research into sound and visual phenomena. The main objective of the research was to generate the elements relevant to the sound and visual fields from a single basic structure. The extreme limit of the formal rigorism was achieved in 1968 with the project Musica per un anno, the purpose of which was the sonorization of environments. From 1970, Zaffiri turned his attention towards the live performance of electronic music. He combined electronic sound with the human voice - sometimes crossing the border into total theatre (Il giuoco dell’oca from the novel by E. Sanguineti and Raptus based on a text by M. Châtel). In the period, the first scores for synthesizers appeared, permitting the live performance of pieces specifically written for this instrument. At the end of the seventies, he extended his research into visuals to the video, maintaining the interdisciplinary process using the instruments that technology offered and which represented, for the author, the means and support for what he intended to express. At the end of the eighties, he produced the video L’arte nella Storia published by Cooperativa Books and Video in Turin. www.rossbin.com/rsep001.htm 2005 €18.00
ZANNI, ADRIANO & ENRICO CONIGLIO A Corte CD + BOOK listen: https://adriano-zanni.bandcamp.com/album/a-corte Human intervention modifying nature and occupying it by integrating into its space through architecture, nature reshaping spaces by (re)settling among structures in the form of a pulsating living organism, an ecosystem, a forest. An aural reflection on the experience of space and sound, and how the natural sound of a place can interact in particular with the architectural space that has occupied it. A visual, photographic and aural investigation of contemporary mountain landscape change, of what could have been, should have been, but was not. "A Corte" is a photographic work by Adriano Zanni, a selection of excerpts, part of a much larger work of photographic and aural research / documentation carried out around the architectures of the former Eni Mountain Village in Corte di Cadore (Belluno, Italy) conducted over the last 15 years. "A Corte" Consists of a 24-page booklet with an equal number of photographs coming with a companion "sonorization" created by Adriano Zanni and Enrico Coniglio, in which field recordings and sounds are mixed giving shape to a soundtrack that deeply explores folds of the soul of a place, overstepping realilty to become a dream. A total immersion in an "other" dimension among woods, villas, tents, camping, village, colony, church. Among the mountains of Cadore. 13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2259_zanni_coniglio.htm 2022 €18.00
ZEITKRATZER [old School] Alvin Lucier CD "1| Alvin Lucier Fideliotrio [1987] 12:10 for viola, cello and piano 2| Alvin Lucier Music For Piano With Magnetic Strings [1995] 13:21 for grand piano and as many as five e-bows 3| Alvin Lucier Silver Streetcar For The Orchestra [1988] 10:03 for amplified triangle 4| Alvin Lucier Violynn [2001] 09:38 for violin and tape 5| Alvin Lucier Opera With Objects [1997] 10:59 for performers with resonant objects zeitkratzer directed by Reinhold Friedl || Burkhard Schlothauer < violin, viola, objects || Anton Lukoszevieze < violoncello, objects || Uli Phillipp < objects || Reinhold Friedl < piano, objects || Maurice de Martin < triangle, objects || Frank Gratkowski < objects || Hayden Chisholm < objects|| Matt Davis < objects || Hilary Jeffery < objects || Ralf Meinz < sound || [1-5] recorded live at Philharmonie Luxembourg, Luxembourg, October 3, 2009 [4] recorded at GreenHouseStudios Schwielowsee, Germany, June 4, 2010 recorded and mixed by Ralf Meinz and Reinhold Friedl, produced by Reinhold Friedl Beautyfull Lucier compositions, recorded at the Philharmonie Luxembourg. Including: Silver Streetcar, Fideliotrio, Music for Piano with Metal Strings, Violynn, Opera with Objects. And the thirs release in the series [old school] now ! “zeitkratzer are creating a New Music, worthy of the name!” [Rob Young, The Wire Magazine] The internationally acclaimed “hilarious releases” [vital weekly] of zeitkratzer records go on. This is the third release in the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] have been highly acclaimed. London’s Wire Magazine wrote: “The rigour and discipline they collectively bring to this compositions make both discs utterly enthralling, from start to finish.” The new release is dedicated to the music of Alvin Lucier. In 2011, the [old school] series will continue with two more releases, dedicated to the music of Morton Feldman [zkr0012] and Karlheinz Stockhausen [zkr0014] respectively. Alvin Lucier is one of the most outstanding American minimalists. He could be called a sound physician and his compositions regarded as acoustic research settings. Often his pieces turn inside-out the inner properties of the room they are played in and the instrument that they are played on. zeitkratzer had the chance to work with the composer in Dijon, France in 2008, and continued to work on and to program his music in different places. The Philharmonie in Luxembourg turned out to be the ideal space for recording. On this CD you can hear how Lucier enables zeitkratzer to create sounds, most people have never heard before. Ringing overtones, a singing piano, a thrilling concert triangle, pencils on little objects, and how irritating a violoncello, a viola and a piano can sound together creating sonic interferences. This music is not only a physical phenomenology, but becomes inherently a sensual listening experience." [full press release info] www.zeitkratzer.de "In der Reihe [old school] arbeitete ZEITKRATZER dieses mal mit dem amerikanischen Minimalkomponisten Alvin Lucier im Auftrag der luxenburgischen Philharmonie zusammen. Herausgekommen sind 5 Stücke die sich alle mit Obertönen und dem akustischen Phänomenen der gegenseitigen Klang-/Tonaufhebung, bzw. Beeinflußung befassen. Das Prinzip kennt jeder: Ein durchgehender Ton trifft auf einen schwingenden Ton und man meint, dass auf einmal beide Töne schwingen würden, was aber nachweislich nicht der Fall ist und eben ein solches akustisches Phänomen ist. Treibt man die Sache nun bewußt voran und lotet diese Grenzen klangtechnisch und kompositorisch aus, kann man wirklich sehr interressante Effekte im Raum und für eine Aufnahme erzeugen.Klänge verschmelzen und erzeugen dabei neue Musik! Großartig und spannend zugleich und gar nicht kopflastig, sondern wirklich sehr seltsam, wunderbar und auch noch schön anzuhören!" [Carsten Vollmer / Ox-Fanzine] "Old School is a series of works performed by Zeitkratzer Records dealing with one composer, although they are not always 'old' (as in 'still alive'). Following James Tenney and John Cage (see Vital Weekly 724), the ten piece ensemble performs here works by Alvin Lucier, another particular hero of mine. Lucier doesn't just compose pieces of music, he explores sound, and the way they move around in space. Zeitkratzer keeps to the scores, most of the times, such as in 'Silver Streetcar For The Orchestra', in which the triangle plays an important role or in 'Opera With Objects', where the orchestra plays with small objects indeed. These are the compositions by Lucier which are 'free' in a way: a set of instructions to be performed and Zeitkratzer is, as we know, good at that. The more fixed pieces here, 'Violynn' and 'Fideliotrio' (which I must admit have never heard performed anywhere else) seem to be following the score more careful, i.e. playing the right notes at the right time. Zeitkratzer does an absolute great job at that. Lucier's originals are expanded here into small ensemble pieces and each instrument gets his own place in the composition. Five excellent executions thereof. Old master pieces." [FdW/Vital Weekly] 2010 €15.00
ZURRIA, MANUEL Again & Again do-CD This is the third and final chapter of a project/research on "minimalisms" that the Italian flutist Manuel Zurria, acclaimed instrumentalist and passionate lover of the more adventurous contemporary music, began in 2007. The double CD include near two and a half hours of music, which reveal how much different the approaches to the beloved "minimalist" verb can be. And how much an inquiring and participatory interpretation can lead to exciting results. In this brilliant collection Zurria not only "plays" pieces by some of the most important and exciting composers on the international scene, but "it makes them its own", reinterprets them, adapts them to his sensitivity, finally making a "version" that transcends the limits of the genre. Here you find an exhilarating review (transgressive but, in a personal and deep way, "faithful") where the research spirit of Zurria introduces us to old and new authors from Eastern Europe (such as Sáry, Szemző, Demoč, Kabelis, Mažulis) and makes us re-know essential musicians such as Riley, Reich, Glass, Tenney, Skempton, Volans. Music that will make you fly!! Manuel Zurria is an Italian flutist and multi-instrumentalist of international fame. He worked with composers such as Sylvano Bussotti, Aldo Clementi, Alvin Lucier, Salvatore Sciarrino. Composers from around the world wrote pieces for him; in between them Giancarlo Cardini, Philip Corner, Noah Creshevsky, Bernhard Lang, Mary Jane Leach, James Saunders, Stefano Scodanibbio, Jacob TV and many many others. As a performer he played the music of Terry Riley, Arvo Part, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Kevin Volans and a plethora of others, all around the world in international festival and concert series. He recorded wih BMG Ariola, Mode, Stradivarius, Ricordi, Die Schachtel, EdiPan, Capstone, Another Timbre, Mazagran, Megadisc, ANTS. He's author of a unique discographic project on Minimalism in 3 parts and 7 CDs ("Repeat!" by Die Schachtel -2007-, "Loops4ever" by Mazagran -2011- and "Again & Again" by ANTS -2020-). 2 CD set, comes in a gatefold cardboard cover with 12-page colour booklet with liner notes by the author in Italian and English. https://ants4.bandcamp.com/album/again-again 2020 €16.00