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Hailing from Sydney, Australia, prolific producer Cabu (860K Monthly Listeners and more than 90M cumulative streams on Spotify alone) has come a long way; from his successful remix work – from Joe Hurtz's "Stay Lost" edit (37M Spotify-streams) to Big Wild's "Empty Room" flip (20M Spotify-streams) – to his consistently catchy original productions, Cabu's only getting started. He keeps this momentum alive with the EP "So Far To Go", his first to be released by Ta-ku & Jakarta Records' sublabel 823 Records.

823 is a perfect place for Cabu's bouncy, hypnotic grooves and is a return to form for what "Cabu" represents: a driving force in the pursuit of happiness through sound. It's a well-timed collaboration, as Cabu's fanbase has continuously grown over the past few years through features on Australia's Triple J, DJ Complexion's Future Beats Radio, Soundistyle, The South East Grind, Mutual Friends, ThisSongIsSick, Majestic Casual, Soulection Radio, BBC 1xtra, Pilerats, Maison Kitsune and more. To that end, "So Far To Go" features some of the most talented artists to come out of the Pacific continent, such as Milan Ring (95K monthly Spotify listeners) – coined "Australia's R&B Princess" by Apple Music – Brisbane native hit-maker Young Franco (1M+ monthly Spotify listeners), Kamaliza (123K monthly Spotify listeners), NOÉ, Gabby Nacua, Pastel and of course label-head Ta-ku himself.

1st single, "Process" featuring Ta-ku & Milan Ring was released on November 3rd. Hypnotically bouncy, with heavenly synth pads, crisp percussive elements combined with the ethereal voices of Ta-ku and Milan harmonically push the sonic envelope to make this track an infallible groovy knockout. As Cabu says, "Process" is "the dream-like state in which you take gratitude in your current situation whilst being hopeful in the future." The track provides a perfect taste of these artistic and creative powerhouses. The stunningly beautiful music video – directed by Sydney based Redscope Films and premiered on The Sound You Need – is the perfect accompaniment.

2nd single, "Sun & Moon" featuring Young Franco & NOÉ is set to be released on December 10th along with an announcement of the EP and pre-order. The song is a contagiously bouncy bop, with the different vocal harmonies and synth chords giving the track an almost prime 00's throwback, it's the perfect year-end anthem to keep dancing and growing through the good and bad.

The album's focus track, "About U" featuring Kamaliza will be released along with the EP release on January 28th, 2022. The song perfectly blends electronic elements within an R&B / Soul aesthetic, and is all about moving forward with intention, from the lyrics to the groove, making you feel tipsy on life.

All singles off the EP will be accompanied with custom visualizers by Perth-based design / creative firm Gesture Systems. The album's single-releases and videos will be promoted in-house via the artist's and the label's social media channels in Germany and Australia.

The 823 label represents the appreciation for the people, ideas and places that inspire and push their protagonists forward. "823 celebrates the simple beauty of everyday life and the people in it that inspire us." (Regan Matthews aka Ta-ku)

The highly anticipated debut album from Franco American conductor/composer/arranger. Uèle Lamore specializes mixing orchestral and acoustic textures with modular, electronic and synthetic elements. Not just affiliated to classical music, she likes to dive into the fields of composition and arranging through many musical styles: electro, new wave, rock, techno, minimal, neo-soul and many more that are left to explore leaving an infinite range of possibilities. The ten album tracks were composed and produced by Uèle Lamore herself and include 3 features from English speaking artists including Gracy Hopkins, who featured on the critically acclaimed The First Tree. Previous collaborations include Radiohead, Frank Ocean, Jonny Greenwood, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Thom Yorke, Mica Levi, Beck and many more. Promo/marketing activity.

Alex Van Pelt writes songs for ghosts and broken hearts.

French multi-instrumentalist Alex started making music fifteen years ago when he was still a teenager, in bands such as Coming Soon, Mont Analogue, or as a guitarist for Sierra Manhattan, Norma, François Virot and Adam Green. But today he grows up and shows what he’s made of as a solo artist.

After his debut album Tum Tum (2019), in which he stated the basis of a rich and sensitive musical vocabulary made of DIY synth and post-romantic songs, he cultivates and confirms his originality with his new opus, Global Crush (out in November 2021). Words reverberates with sounds, and structures assumes ever shifting shapes : passed Global Crush’s melodic immediacy, one soon perceives a will to disrupt the conventional ground rules of pop music.

Like in a Kitano or Wong Kar Wai movie scene, Alex’s songs mix melancholy and humor. He has put together the intimate patchwork of Global Crush in a landscape painter fashion, and the result somehow works as a map to the artist's interests and influences (to name a few : the Everly Brothers’ breakup songs, Supertramp’s melodies, Daniel Clowes comics and video games ost such as Final Fantasy and the Sims).

"In Vivo" is the result of the photographic work of Klavdij Sluban at the Fleury-Mérogis Young Offender Institution (France) from 1995 to 2016 Beds in addition to his work from Izalco prison, located in El Salvador, from 2008 [visiting rooms] connected to the music of Gareth Davis.

Gareth Davis is an artist, composer and musician living in Amsterdam. He plays clarinet(s), the result of a somewhat impulsive purchase whilst window shopping in Covent Garden, London, around ten years before the turn of the century. The serendipitous location of a rather wonderful (and equally important, rather cheap) second hand record shop less than 10m from the bus stop required for seven years of schooling, combined with delivering newspapers on a daily basis, lead to a somewhat eclectic, dusty and generally unclassified taste in music.

The result. Activity covering sonic art and contemporary classical music through rock, improvisation and noise with collaborations that have included the premiering of new written pieces by composers such as Bernhard Lang, Peter Ablinger, Toshio Hosokawa and Jonathan Harvey, soloist with orchestras including the SWR Symphonieorchester, Warsaw Philharmonic and Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, performances with groups and performers ranging from the Neue Vocalsolisten and Arditti Quartet through to improvisers Elliott Sharp and Frances Marie Uitti, electronic artists Robin Rimbaud and Merzbow and multimedia work with artists including Christian Marclay and Peter Greenaway.

"In Vivo" is his second solo release after to have recorded a bunch of collaborative albums with artists such as Scanner, Machinefabriek, Steven R. Smith, Kleefstra Brothers, Frances-Marie Uitti, Merzbow, Adain Baker, Duane Pitre and more...

Klavdij Sluban, winner of the European Publishers Award for Photography 2009, of the Leica Prize (2004) and of the Niépce Prize (2000), main French prize in photography, is a French photographer of Slovenian origin born in Paris in 1963.

He develops a rigorous and coherent body of work, nourished by literature, never inspired by immediate and sensational current affairs, making him one of the most interesting photographers of his generation. The Balkans, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean, Central America, Russia, China and the Antarctic (first artistic mission in the Kerguelen islands) can be read as many successive steps of an in-depth study of a patient proximity to the encountered real.

His images have been shown in such leading institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Photography of Tokyo, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Rencontres d’Arles, the Museum of Photography in Helsinki, the Fine Arts Museum in Canton, the Musée Beaubourg, the Museum of Texas Tech University. His many books include East to East (published simultaneously by Actes Sud, Dewi Lewis, Petliti, Braus, Apeiron & Lunwerg with a text by Erri de Luca), Entre Parenthèses, (Photo Poche, Actes Sud), Transverses, (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) and Balkans -Transit, with a text by François Maspero (Seuil). Since 1995, Sluban has been photographing teenagers in jails. In each prison he organizes workshops with the young offenders to share his passion. First originated in France, in the prison of Fleury-Mérogis with support of Henri Cartier-Bresson during 7 years, as well as Marc Riboud and William Klein punctually. This commitment was pursued in the disciplinary camps of Eastern Europe –Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldavia, Latvia – and in the disciplinary centres of Moscow and St Petersburg as well as in Ireland. From 2007 to 2012, Sluban has been working in Central America with imprisoned youngsters belonging to maras (gangs) in Guatemala and Salvador. In 2015, he started photographing imprisoned teenagers in Brazil. In 2013, the musée Niépce showed a retrospective of K.Sluban’s work, After Darkness, 1995-2012. In 2015/16, he was awarded the Villa Kujoyama Residence in Kyoto, Japan. K.Sluban is member of national and international jurys, such as prix Niépce, prix de la Jeune Photographie de Niort, prix Leica, All About Photo…

"CHRISTMAS SPECIAL EDITION OF JOHNNY HALLYDAY'S 2 SYMPHONIC ALBUMS COMBINED
INCLUDES INSTRUMENTAL VERSIONS OF DIÉGO AND LE PENITENCIER, 4LP Coloured VINYLS • 32 PAGES BOOK • LIMITED EDITION An exceptional Christmas special edition accompanied by many photos The whole story of the realization of this event project With the exclusive testimonials of YVAN CASSAR: arranger and musical director and of FRANÇOIS DARMIGNY photographer of the two albums. Reviews and Ads in R2 and London Macadam "

"CHRISTMAS SPECIAL EDITION OF JOHNNY HALLYDAY'S 2 SYMPHONIC ALBUMS COMBINED
INCLUDES INSTRUMENTAL VERSIONS OF DIÉGO AND LE PENITENCIER, 4LP Coloured VINYLS • 32 PAGES BOOK • LIMITED EDITION An exceptional Christmas special edition accompanied by many photos The whole story of the realization of this event project With the exclusive testimonials of YVAN CASSAR: arranger and musical director and of FRANÇOIS DARMIGNY photographer of the two albums. Reviews and Ads in R2 and London Macadam "

Kinlaw & Franco Franco follow up their cult debut album with this new, hi-grade blast of fvct-up cyberpunk rap & rawness entitled 'Mega Dopo Mega' (including 12" sized, 6 page comic book sleeve), via Avon Terror Corps. Mastered and cut by Lewis at Stardelta. Comes with 12" size, six page comic book sleeve.



[c] A3 The Chase [Digital Footprint]

Cinedelic Records is proud to present Paolo Vasile’s score to Enzo Castellari’s 1980 poliziottesco fim, Il Giorno Del Cobra. This record features one of maestro Vasile’s most iconic themes as featured on various polizio compilations. This release will include three bonus tracks and will be pressed in a limited quantity. The cues on this soundtrack feature a wonderful mix of cool keyboards, horns, funky basslines, and driving kick drums — a perfect reverb-fueled accompaniment to Franco Nero’s onscreen antics. (Alfonso Carrillo)

"Live in Paris" - Nathan Davis, (sax); Georges Arvanitas (p, org); Jack Diéval (p); Jacky Samson, Jacques Hess (b); Franco Manzecchi, Charles Saudrais (dr)

Style is not a given. Not many musicians reach the level of artistic personality where you can unmistakably recognize them. It takes character, roots, honesty, soulfulness. Nathan Davis had style.

His tone on tenor was unique. So was his soprano sound and his distinctive approach to flute. His musical world was equally original and knew no boundaries.

This concert in Paris is audible proof that as a performer, his fluid phrasing, distinct articulation, booming bottom register, growls and shrieks were fuelled by tremendous drive and furious invention - the man was on fire!

These live sessions demonstrate the limitless invention of Nathan’s solos. Holding no punches, weaving signature phrases, shouts and riffs into his solos, he was a fierce and fervid performer. With a sort of hollow resonance at the heart of his reedy and warm sound, Nathan Davis was a highly original artist, from an era when having a distinct sound on your instrument was the grail of jazz artistry. Harold Land, Jimmy Heath, John Gilmore, Paul Gonsalves, Charlie Rouse, George Coleman, Booker Ervin, Clifford Jordan ... Jazz is made of such giants and Nathan Davis was one of them.

"First Noel is a Christmas album including 25 of the greatest classics as well as three exclusive new tracks I composed especially for the very first Christmas of my son, and in honor of my grandma Odette's last one, past year. The Christmas memories I have are full of wonderful moments, so I insisted on recording this album staying true to the magic of these instants.

First thing, I surrounded myself with 3 great friends of mine and long-time collaborators: François Delporte (guitar), Frank Woeste (piano) and Sofi Jeannin (choirmaster). Sofi has selected 8 singers with celestial, sublime voices. We recorded in two magical places: the studio of my friend Armand Amar - where I had the chance to work on my first albums (Babel Studios in Montreuil) - and the Church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. The latter being the most ancient church in Paris - only a few meters away from the Notre-Dame Cathedral - has always been at the center of significant moments in our family history in France. My father was a sacristan there in the '60s. It is in the sacristy that he elaborated and worked on his trumpeter career. My aunt Hind - whom I loved - also a pianist, and my beloved grandmother, Odette, both had their funeral in this church. It is also in this same church that I got engaged and married… So many milestones.

After recording many albums, I felt it was the right time for me to share my versions of those great Christmas classics, by giving them a much less childish dimension and a more musical, also spiritual one, but still preserving their subtle and necessary fragility, specific of children's music or of those great classics renowned and sang all over the world. I was hoping that First Noel would not be yet "another" Christmas album, with Frank Sinatra-like crooners and Hollywood-style arrangements. Instead, a simple, humble, instrumental album, in the original meaning, without lyrics, allowing the melody to be at the center of it all. Soothing music to dream, to reunite us, regardless of our mother tongue, our age, our culture and more importantly regardless of our religion.

That is how Odette viewed things, and this is also the way I wish Nael and Lily, my children, would listen to the world."

Aufgang is back with its 3rd album, “Broad Ways”, slated for release in November 2021

With this 3rd album, the franco-lebanese duo perpetuates its winning alchemy by drawing on the psychic and collective traumas of recent History at the crossroads between European and Middle Eastern cultures.

What more was there to prove for the Aufgang duo since their re-invention of US techno a few years ago through the means of organic instruments like piano + drums, and releases on Infiné & BlueNote/Decca ?

Maybe that they would from now on independently take onto themselves, the full conception and distribution of their body of work, supported by a collective of visual-arts creators, dancers, and emerging talent-incubators (Bi:Pole/Believe/ BigWax/Alter-K)...

“Broad Ways” could be translated as «in many ways» in the sense that there are many ways of seeing the world, and that everything is not binary and that on the contrary, our lives are shaped by the each other’s own paradigms...

In this clever mix of experimental techno, lyrical prowess and melodies in the Arab tradition, can one imagine a future that would solve the world’s current contradictions in a boiling magma so complex of which Edgar Morin would be proud... Following this unique trademark, this art of mixing influences and cultures, along the New York, Paris, Lebanon and now Sydney axis... how far will they go?

According to Pitchfork, AUFGANG “blends piano, drums and electronic music with virtuosity, with one foot in the club and the other in the conservatory.”

Rami KHALIFÉ, composer and pianist, transcends the classical heritage of his years studying at the Juilliard School in NYC and the Middle Eastern origins of his masterful family: his father Marcel KHALIFÉ is a major composer and musician in the Arab world.

The drummer and producer Aymeric WESTRICH has an instinctive DIY approach and infuses his music with his knowledge of urban and electronic cultures, developed with Kery James, Cassius, Phoenix and more recently Lomepal.

Taking their inspiration from multiple artistic movements and currents, from the Disco of the mythical Larry Levan to the poetry of Oum Kalthoum, these two free electrons have created their sound between Paris, Beirut and New York, in reaction to the frenetic energy of big cities, as if in an effort to prevent this energy from corroding their freedom. It’s a unique experience born from the sublime diversity of these two masterful approaches.

PAURA explores the horror repertoire from the precious CAM Sugar archives taking us on a hypnotic journey into the labyrinths of fear, through the different variations that Italian horror took on from the esoteric and supernatural to the slasher films of the early 1970s; to reinterpretations of Romantic literature and gothic fiction to the splatter films of the ‘80s; and from witchcraft to metropolitan horror. This is not a real “best of” but an eclectic menu full of mysterious voices, childlike lullabies, sweet melodies, obsessive music boxes, obstinate harpsichords, crazy distortions and threatening synthesizers, conceived as a succession of sequences, as if a film edit. The new collection includes some of the most creative music ever written and strives to do justice not only to some of the best known composers in this genre, but also to many great unsung composers: From celebrated composers like Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani & Stelvio Cipriani to long-forgotten personalities who fed the industrial backbone of Italian cinema such as Daniele Patucchi, Marcelo Giombini & Berto Pisano. The collection includes 6 previously unreleased tracks plus 3 tracks released on vinyl for the first time and 5 tracks available commercially for the first time (originally released only as a limited promo item).

Am 22.Oktober erscheint ein komplett neues Album von Pulp-Frontmann Jarvis Cocker: „Chansons d’Ennui
Tip-Top“. Wes Anderson bat Jarvis Cocker, eine neue Version von ”Aline” für seinen neuen Film ”The
French Dispatch” aufzunehmen. Der französische Pop-Hit aus dem Jahr 1965, ”Aline”, wurde ursprünglich
von Christophe gesungen. Der Song taucht in einer entscheidenden Szene in ”The French Dispatch” auf:
Die Figur Tip Top erscheint auf einem Plakat in dem Café, in dem sich die revolutionäre Jugend von Paris
versammelt, während der Song in der Jukebox läuft. Anderson und Cocker beschlossen, gemeinsam ein
ganzes Album mit französischem Material aus der gleichen Zeit zu machen, ausgewählt wurden ChansonKlassiker von Françoise Hardy, Serge Gainsburg, Jacques Dutronc und vielen anderen.

Born in Majorca, Marc Melià is a composer/producer, who’s been based in Brussels for over 10 years. First spotted alongside Françoiz Breut, Lonely Drifter Karen or Borja Flames, he released Music for Prophet in 2017. It was issued on Gaspar Claus’s label Les Disques du Festival Permanent, as part of Flavien Berger’s curation.

On that first album, Marc Melià had explored the possibilities of a mythic synth; on Veus, as if sloughing, he applied the process of sound modification to his own voice, until becoming an android. But an android who sings of love and dreams, a sensitive automaton who plays with the tropes of pop music. Through this device, Marc Melià knowingly seeks poetry and beauty within transgenics, in the search of a universe where one can surf though waves of profoundly moving chord patterns, hear voices unconstrained by range limitations, or dance freely, as in zero gravity.

Part of the album has been recorded in Une ferme dans les Vosges, courtesy of Rodolphe Burger. It was recorded with Roméo Poirier, one of the most promising figures of ambient, and the elegant multi-talented Lou Rotzinger. As if progressing in parallel with his own linguistic experience, to add another layer to the sloughing, side A is sung in Catalan, Marc Melià’s mother tongue, and side B in French, his adopted language.

Like an echo to his previous album, Veus opens with an instrumental, “Pulse on a E”, which starts with a sequence created with a single note transposed to its octave, just like “Fata Fou”, the last song on Music for Prophet.

Although the title seems to reference an iconic 80s synth, “DX7” is actually about the seven days of the week. It is a love song, about the temperamental oscillations which make every morning the blank canvas of an unpredictable story. Wednesday, I hate you, Sunday, I love you. With few words and a lot of emotion, a synthetic voice is trying to grow more human each day.

“Dent de Serra” deals with the weight of memory on our relationships, but also with the way we revisit them constantly in order to integrate souvenirs within present relationships. Suddenly, the song stops and enters a new dimension, everything is different, as if what had just happened was now forgotten forever.

Oxytocin (“Oxitocines” in Catalan) is said to be the hormone of love. This song deals in a playful way with the duality between science and faith, between rational and magic, when it comes to sentimental relationships. Love is a universal theme, it is everywhere in the world, and love songs have been written for a very long time. But this particular love song is an ode to an aspect of love that has been less sung about: biology, which makes it possible to feel like you’re floating in space when you fall in love.

“Les étoiles” is a trio with Flavien Berger and Pi Ja Ma. The song is about attraction. What attracts humans to each other, but also the inevitable gravitational attraction. The song is also about accidents, magic moments that take us outside of our daily lives and give us the possibility to imagine a sidereal, infinite love.

“A propos d’une chanson” was born after Marc Melià had dreamed he had written the most beautiful song he’d ever created. When he woke up, he realized that song was actually O Superman by Laurie Anderson.

Aside from these songs, Marc Melià offers a few breaks, instrumental but no less narrative.

“Final d’hivern” conjures these quiet moments between two intense events; sleeping at night between two days; the calm that settles in after a hard winter, right before spring properly starts.

Using a musical language that clearly references Ryuichi Sakamoto, “Romain”, with its theme based on a melancholic chord pattern, could be the soundtrack to a 1970s movie lost in time. Little by little, elements that seem to come from a completely different context find their place, while turning the initial mood into something strange and unexpected.

Finally, “Retorn”, which finishes the album, is a reprise of the theme of “DX7”.

From the chords that make up a song, to the days that make up our lives, existence is but a cycle, and Veus is an exploration of them. Marc Melià keeps on drifting on his personal path, between homage to the past and visions of the future.

Effortlessly hopscotching between vintage acid and 80s Rn’B, insouciant Francophone pop and twinkling electro house, Lou Hayter has delivered something at once utterly unique and defiantly timeless with her much anticipated debut solo LP, released on Skint Records. It has been a long time coming for London native Hayter, who first made her mark professionally as keyboardist for New Young Pony Club, one of THE bands at the epicentre of the white hot day-glo nu rave scene alongside the likes of the Klaxons and Test Icicles in 2006. But, to fully place her debut album in context, it is necessary to rewind a little bit – to the very beginning in fact, with Hayter growing up on a diet of Bowie, Prince, Human League and Jellybean-era Madonna while concomitantly learning classical piano from the age of five. The flames of this deliciously varied musical palette were further stoked by trips to record shops in Soho with her brother (Soul Jazz was a particular obsession), but it was while studying in Cambridge that the match was well and truly struck – she used her student grant to buy a set of Technics and started putting on club nights, before moving to London and working at Trevor Jackson’s seminal Output Recordings, placing Hayter smack bang in the middle of all the action, with disco punk fever hitting full force and bands like the Rapture and LCD Soundsystem first breaking out.

The hugely successful, Mercury-nominated New Young Pony Club followed shortly after, but it’s through her subsequent output that she started to distil and refine her idiosyncratic tastes. And certainly, you can hear hints of both the New Sins, the 80’s New Wave duo she formed with Nick Phillips, and Tomorrow’s World, the swooning Gallic pop act she fronts alongside Air’s JB Dunckel, in her remarkable debut. Full to bursting with evocative electro-soul love letters to her home town of London alongside addictive disco torch ballads, it’s like Kylie meeting Mr Fingers or, Jam & Lewis producing Jane Birkin – something beautiful and melancholic yet sharply modern and new. From the warm, woozy, lysergic harmonies of opener “Cherry on Top”, which sound like a beloved old cassette unravelling, to the fizzy, infectious “Cold Feet”, which calls to mind Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam at their most heartworn, taken in toto the album perfectly nails the essence of gorgeously nostalgic synth-pop with a twist; crisp, stylish and sophisticated music which heralds the next chapter of Lou Hayter quite nicely, actually. Her retro-futuristic results will give 2021 the pop fix it so desperately needs.

Moments, Guy Mantzur's brand new label returns with its second release, presenting over fifteen minutes of revolutionary material by Tamir Regev. The two parts of this conceptually coherent release create an exciting and exceptional soundscape. Tamir uses his high-tech studio skills to form an elegant contemporary production with a fluid arrangement. However, this brilliant, forward-thinking artist doesn't just focus on the latest tricks in the book. His tonal elements address the thousand-year-old traditions of the Middle-Eastern culture. The music that tastefully connects the past and present. Nevertheless, Tamir's artistic expression isn't just an impractical experiment but powerful dancefloor tools. It's an electronic dance sound that can turn any party into a spectacle.

Licensed in 1975 by Gemelli, Rendez Vous is possibly a holy grail in Nicolai’s long-running career as a composer. The orchestra director and musical editor is been active for at least 30 years and his majestic opus an overwhelming data for any avantgarde freak or moviegoer obsessed. While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, he befriended Ennio Morricone and formed a long working relationship, with Nicolai eventually conducting for and co-scoring films with Morricone. Nicolai also scored a number of giallo exploitation films and wrote many scores for director Jesús Franco. His work was featured in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill: Volume 2 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Tension! Pretty much what this whole record is all about. An imaginary soundtrack that turned out to be an in-demand obscure library, Rendez Vous shows up the many skills of the composer and his alumni. Possibly Morricone is playing muted trumpet in several episodes – Diffidenza and Subdolamente – absorbing thrilling experiences similar to the Maestro soundtracks for Dario Argento early movies (not a case that Nicolai was the conductor for several adventures in movie sound theatre such as ‘L’Uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo’, ‘ Il Gatto A Nove Code’ or ‘4 Mosche Di Velluto Grigio’).

Rendez Vous is now to be ranked among the most adventurous Nicolai soundtracks, a unique combination of classic contemporary arrangements and superb jazz noir sketches

Mannequin Records is elated to present for the first time on vinyl the reissue of Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici’s first video soundtrack, originally released in 1984 as an audiotape in less than one hundred copies. Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici (literally Mundane Mechanical Youth) or GMM was one of the most unclassifiable audiovisual experiences to emerge from Italy in the 1980s. Maurizio Dami a.k.a. Alexander Robotnick, a pivotal member of GMM, was responsible for the group’s music output.

Founded in 1984 by Antonio Glessi and Andrea Zingoni in Florence, GMM was an art collective whose production represents the quintessential expression of postmodern transmedia hybridity. GMM pioneered the genre of computer comics, created video installations, developed “multiple identity” performances, and was involved in fashion, media, and music productions, and later on produced cyberdelic environments, artificial reality projects, and proto-memes.

Alexander Robotnick’s first contribution to GMM was this soundtrack for the group’s eponymous first video, the animated version of a computer comics they coincidentally published on legendary Frigidaire magazine. Restored by Dami and reissued here for the first time by Mannequin Records, the composition was also split into two “suites” and released as an audiotape distributed by Materiali Sonori, also responsible for other releases by both Robotnick and GMM.

Determining in this work is Dami’s adoption of the alphaSyntauri, also known as the first affordable digital synth (priced less than $2000 when it was released in 1980), which was playable through its own software, “alphaPlus,” on the Apple II computer. The same computer was used by Glessi to “draw” the 3-bit strips scripted by Zingoni recounting the joyrides of the Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, three merciless cyborgs in black suit and sunglasses dividing their time between nightclubs, rapes and murders.

As Robotnick, Dami developed an innovative formula of Italo disco that was attractive to the dance floor yet at the same time highlighted the expressive properties of the instruments he used, notably Roland drum machines and Korg synthesizers. For the soundtrack of GMM’s videos and installations, he left aside the danceable synth rhythmics in favor of ambient sounds that produced rarefied atmospheres, psychological tensions, and enhanced states of consciousness.

Dami’s scores for GMM’s artworks could be associated with Italian avant-garde music of the 1970s and 1980s, ranging from composers who adopted electronics flirting with pop and songwriting to minimalist musicians exploring seriality and drones, including Franco Battiato, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Francesco Messina, and Riccardo Sinigaglia. Analogies could also be traced with the playful and humanizing approach to personal computers that characterizes the music output of Marcello Giombini and Doris Norton.

The futuristic escapism of minimal synth and ambient music’s psychological nature is infiltrated by drifting harmonics typical of new age, as if in search of a spiritual dimension of technology. Characteristic of the postmodern ethos of GMM Suite, in line with the humanizing approach to technology that is at the base of GMM’s computer comics, is the melancholic take at speculative dystopias in which human beings would find themselves increasingly trapped into identity crises: a true cyborg’s melodrama.

What a relief to escape the humdrum, to conquer one’s ennui, to spice up the too-long evenings stuck at home... Here’s a proposition: SEX-O-RAMA!!! Oh la la, such an aptly named compilation! Rascally El Vidocq this time dares to sway outside his comfort zone. Here humanity’s oldest obsession is tackled tastefully, with class. The selection is amusing, but ever well-meaning, for these songs are as stimulating to listen to as they are to dance to! Naturally, our intrepid collector had to roam beyond his habitual ‘50s and ‘60s, for the real sexual revolution did occur a tad later... A few seductive caresses of varying insistence (Michele Mercier, Geraldine), a few advances “in due and proper form” (naughty Prince Buster!), an eloquent series of moans and groans (Rita, Armando Travaioli, Noelia Noel), chance encounters (intransigent Jean Yanne)... not to mention a few exquisite parodies (Jacqueline Mayand and Bourvil, as drole as they are tender)... So hesitate no longer! Stop biting your lip! The sap is rising, as they say, so time for a change of ambiance... Time to slip on some SEX-O-RAMA!

Joshua is the follow-up album to Olympic. While the second album, typically, often shows what critics call “maturity”, here Simon has released instead an album of adolescence. The musician opened up his own memory box to contemplate his childhood souvenirs, and dust them off of all nostalgia. At that time, he would VHS-record movies from TV and tape record soundtracks directly from the TV speaker, so he could listen to them in his bedroom. This is when he “discovered the power of music, the way it makes you enter another world, far from reality. I wanted to pay tribute to the era I shaped myself in – the ’80s and ’90s”. Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Soft Machine. Logically, these are the sonic signatures that seem to haunt the album. The timeless pioneers of synthetic music constitute the sound references, without any established chronological timeline, that blend with the atmosphere of typically “French Touch” movie soundtracks – long before the term was even coined. “I use a musical palette that acts as a flashback to my favourite teenage movies: the synth sounds of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; the synth pads in Jean-Jacques Cousteau’s fascinating documentaries about the sea world; the melodies in the manner of François De Roubaix; the themes that evoke the soundtracks of late-night TV sessions (those by Verneuil, those with Belmondo, Depardieu, etc.); and the sci-fi ambiences like in Blade Runner.” In short, an aesthetic was decided on by Simon very early on: French analog synths instead of North American symphonic orchestras.

The name Joshua has two meanings for French 79: one is linked to the idea of nostalgia, the other to adventure. On the one hand, the computer in the 1983 movie Wargames, and on the other, the boat of French sailor Bernard Moitessier.

The track titled Joshua synthesizes the spirit of the album – an odyssey, a neverending crossing of the world in search of oneself, a spontaneous escape into the future, under the benevolent eye of the past. This epic invites everyone of us to a specific place in our imagination, which is also the source of an indescribable pleasure for French 79: a gust of wind, a sailboat ride, a skateboarding trick, the smell of freshly fallen snow, or the dull roar of an impatient audience.

The same aesthetic preferences are found in the videos that illustrate Joshua’s first tracks: for Hold On, the skateboarder chose to recall the cult ’90s skate videos that he would watch on repeat as a teenager, while Hometown hints at Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Although he now calls Marseille home, Simon continuously draws with passion from the anachronic contemporaneity of his childhood in the Eastern French region.

“I need escape to be able to create. A two or three-day sailing trip gives me enough inspiration to lock myself in the studio for a week when I’m back on dry land.” His boat takes him far away from everything, far from the Old Port where she moors, the rest of the time Simon would escape by walking the streets of his city or climbing the Alpine mountains.

Not only does the new version French 79 reveal a few biographical pieces of Simon henner's history, but it also inaugurates the first vocal track for the musician. One feels a guilty pleasure when hearing him take the lead on the first track, The Remedy. The electronic fugue that opens the album sets the tone: Simon has found the cure for his inner turmoil and wants us to discover our own treatment too. Hold On is a sonic explosion that celebrates the feeling of freedom - what's more of a teenage dream than this feeling - and it eventually command one to feel the same way too. Echoing Olympic, the electronic argonaut invites his muse again, singer Sarah Rebecca. On By Your Side and Touch The Stars, the native of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, now based in Paris, hoisted the mainsail of dream pop. First, though a dialogue that surfaced their unfailing attachment to the bonds of friendship, then through the light hearted atmosphere that leaves us with no choice but to believe in our own dreams and do anything possible to fulfill them. The quest for peace in the midst of the daily din is heard in both Code Zero and the title track Joshua, two majestic journeys in search of hedonism, combined with introspection.

Ltd Black Vinyl Gatefold edition + 32 Page Booklet + Download Code

The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah.

+ a booklet with writings by contemporary thinkers like Shumon Basar, François J. Bonnet, and pictures by, Araki, Juergen Teller, Elizaveta Porodina, Dani Pujalte, P Jack Davison, Zhong Lin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Adrià Cañameras, Javier Tles among others. Lacquer cut by Josh Bonati & Mastered by Rashad Becker

'PRSNT' is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21st century. Vital electronic musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lafawndah, Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt and Visible Cloaks have each contributed tracks, which are approximately 32 seconds long.

The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing.

Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno's famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest.

'PRSNT' acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution, or "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners' busy lives, which are often spent tackling ever-increasing workloads.

Born and bred New Yorker Jean Pierre is stepping out with his own brand new label, Pakate. The vinyl-only outlet kicks off with a fantastic first EP from FLETCH featuring remixes from Pierre himself and Franco Cinelli.

This exciting new label will be an outlet for Jean and other friends to serve up mature and minimal sounds focused around unique designs and powerful grooves. Dealing in heady underground sounds that also work on larger dance floors, the label comes after Pierre has spent 15 years entrenched in the electronic scene. This is his way to carefully curate his own music exactly how he wants to, with three releases already lined up for 2021.

The first one is from FLETCH, a red hot UK talent who has released on the likes of Kaluki and Whippin’ Records. His opening tune 'Actin Up' is a slick and slippery minimal groove with real depth and freaky sound designs that make it pop. 'Want Me' then hits harder, with loopy house drums and squelchy synths all bubbling away beneath soulful female vocal sounds and cosmic synths.

The first fine remix is from France Cinelli who takes 'Actin Up' super deep, with punching kicks and rolling bass that gets you in a state of hypnosis., Closing out the package is a Jean Pierre remix of 'Want Me' that shows off his ability to lay down stripped back but compelling house grooves with deft sound design and a freaky atmosphere.

This is a standout first EP that perfectly sets the scene for what is sure to become a vital new label from this American mainstay.

Ltd White Vinyl Gatefold edition + 32 Page Booklet + Download Code

The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah.

+ a booklet with writings by contemporary thinkers like Shumon Basar, François J. Bonnet, and pictures by, Araki, Juergen Teller, Elizaveta Porodina, Dani Pujalte, P Jack Davison, Zhong Lin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Adrià Cañameras, Javier Tles among others. Lacquer cut by Josh Bonati & Mastered by Rashad Becker

'PRSNT' is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21st century. Vital electronic musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lafawndah, Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt and Visible Cloaks have each contributed tracks, which are approximately 32 seconds long.

The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing.

Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno's famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest.

'PRSNT' acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution, or "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners' busy lives, which are often spent tackling ever-increasing workloads.

Following a limited 7” vinyl release of SunPalace edits in 2020, BBE Music finally delivers the full-length versions of Moodymann and Kenny Dope’s ‘Rude Movements’ remixes, alongside brand new interpretations by François K, Frankie Feliciano and OPOLOPO, plus a special edit by Phil Asher.
François Kevorkian needs no introduction to fans of House and electronic music. Featuring keys by Eric Kupper, his ‘SATS Dub’ and ‘TradMix’ versions of ‘Rude Movements’ are simply classic works, summoning House music’s golden era forward in time, to the here and now.
Bonus spaced-out ‘Flerken Space Bubbles’ and beat-less ‘Atmosphere’ revisions are also included in the digital version: both invaluable tools for DJs. Ricanstruction label founder and
long-time champion of the good groove, Frankie Feliciano delivers a slick and faithful update of ‘Rude Movements’, with a slight Latin soul twist. Swedish mix-king OPOLOPO turns in a typically live-sounding, funky and dancefloor-ready jam (ready whenever the dancefloor is,
anyway) The full, extended version of Moodymann’s remix retains the original ‘jammed’ feel of Rude Movements, adding stellar flute, sax and piano solos to that hypnotic vibe. Kenny Dope’s Afro-Latin inspired ‘Dancefloor Powder’ version is joined this time by a rough’n’ready, street tough ‘O'Gutta’ mix; calling all b-boys and b-girls! For the expanded digital package, we are also including a special edit by our sorely missed brother Phil Asher, created for his
own DJ sets and now available to all.
Made famous by David Mancuso at his New York Loft Parties, ‘Rude Movements’ was an obscure Brit-funk b-side recorded in the home studio of Mike Collins. The track’s unique sound, coupled with pristine sonics and production values caught the audiophile ears of
Mancuso, and the rest is history. Soon the track found its way into the hands of Loft Party denizens Larry Levan, Nicky Siano, Frankie Knuckles and Danny Krivit and continues to influence House and electronic producers through to this day.

Silent Room, the duo formed by Enzo Carniel and Filippo Vignato is a conversation.
Between the piano of the first and the trombone of the second, two living forces of the
European jazz scene; between France and Italy; between acoustics and electronics. A
patient dialogue initiated on the benches of the conservatory in Paris, which was nourished
by the music of German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff (to whom the duo paid homage for a
concert at the Cité des Arts in 2014), musical moments shared as a group (Enzo Carniel's
sextet at the Jazz à la Villette festival in particular) and in pairs - for numerous concerts
given on both sides of the Alps - before perfecting their common grammar, giving birth to
their own repertoire, creating their own space.

This first album, Aria, released on the Franco-Japanese label MENACE, was recorded in the
setting of the Villa Cicaletto in Tuscany, whose Silent Room the duo made their own in
September 2019. Carniel had just released Wallsdown, the third elegiac disc of his House of
Echo project (Jazz & People, 2020) and Vignato of an intense live duo recorded with
American cellist Hank Roberts (Ghost Dance, on CamJazz in 2019).

The album is carried by simple melodies, tenuous threads on which the two improvisers who
have slowly got to know each other crisscross and let their voices express themselves. Aria
can refer to the opening of Bach's Goldberg variations, to sung opera arias, but above all to
any expressive melody that develops the imagination. Aria is also the air in Italian: the air
that comes from the breath, the air that fills the room, the air that vibrates and is transformed
into sound. The repertoire is therefore this collection of Arias composed by Enzo Carniel and
Filippo Vignato.

If the duo advocates with this album its jazz heritage - that of improvisation and
conversation, of freedom and virtuosity - and claims to be Carla and Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett,
Gary Valente, Albert Mangelsdorff, Ornette Coleman or John Surman; it also explores the
contemporary colors of electronic music, ambient and Japanese minimalism. The use of the
prepared piano, Fender Rhodes and synthesizers colors the sound space of the acoustic
piano and trombone. The eponymous composition that opens the album in acoustic, closes
it in an electronic version, illuminating the path of the duo between the two universes.

In the almost plant-like composition "In All Nilautpaula", Enzo Carniel evokes the water lily
(in Sanskrit) coming to purify the water around him. On "Babele", Filippo Vignato invokes the
great question of language: thanks to Arias, and therefore melodies, language becomes
universal through music, and only the sensory experience counts.

Born from Carniel and Vignato's desire to create a sound space that would be filled with as
many melodies as silence, a place for listening, dialogue and meditation, Aria is one of those
rare records that contain entire worlds.

After severals EPs on labels such as Lumière Noir, Kill the DJs or Bahnsteig 23, here is the first album of french duo Il Est Vilaine, infused with a "Yellow Magic Orchestra-ish" touch, rooted in the french musical landscape.

A road trip in Brittany as a red thread, the two hooligans of Il Est Vilaine revisit Kawaii pop, crazy rock like DEVO and Detroit techno with a surprising coherence. An album long matured and awaited by the band's fans.

Il Est Vilaine aren’t Bretons, but they sure are tricksters. The Francophiles among you might have caught on to the corny pun in their name (beating a certain presidential candidate to the punch all while turning the name of the pastoral Ille-et-Vilaine region into, literally, “he’s a nasty woman,”) but the real takeaway is that these born-and-bred Parisians don’t take themselves too seriously – especially in an era in which there is much too much of that happening.
It was in 2014 (and on Dialect Recordings) that Florent and Simon tossed their debut 12” into the ring, the rightfully named Scandale – a tight little bombshell released that roused the electronic music scene out of its complacent little catnap.
So there we had it, two outcasts refusing to eat at the same table as the tech-house scene queens, serving up three whiplash-on-the-dancefloor cuts drenched in sweaty hedonistic disco and wrapped in a battered motorcycle jacket (with a gooey post-punk-pop core for good measure.) A clear mission statement right out of the gates, watermarked with mystical incantations and throbbing with rock ’n’ roll’s primitive drive. Everything and the kitchen sink, and a bag of chips – an invitation to just let lose that’s even better than the sum of its parts.

In 1980 the trio Humair / Jeanneau / Texier
recorded this album, which was initially intended to
illustrate an animal documentary. The trio did not
know that ‘Akagera’ would become one of the
founding moments of an aesthetic and an ethic of
French jazz which, 40 years later, remains a model
of the genre.
First of all, the instrumentation (sax / bass / drums)
is already singular for the time, then the creative
power of a trio where each musician finds a
cardinal place, very far from a mere rhythm section
accompanying a soloist. Finally, the three
musicians are also composers, each of them
contributing original themes tinged with Africa and
the Savannah, modal and mysterious World Music,
inexhaustible subjects of unbridled improvisations.

For a good number of Spanish musicians, attracting attention from somewhere outside of Madrid was a mission impossible for several decades. While the Movida Madrileña, commonly referred to as the “Madrid scene” in English, stirred things up and made front page news on the basis of new wave music, musicians that were on the fringe or directly beyond it had few platforms from which to be heard.
Although Javier Segura has been recording music in his studio almost continuously since the 70's, his relevance and recognition as a musician has been limited to underground music circles. The fact
that he worked outside of the country's spotlight of power kept his name relatively unknown for years, something which even the arrival of the internet could not illuminate. Only the appreciation of a few collectors and disc jockeys kept the light on.
Passat Continu delivers here the first ever compilation by the spanish musician Javier Segura (born 1955), who worked as an isolated cell from his home studio in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, in the Canary Islands. Working for decades from the underground, Segura build up some brilliant ideas producing dozens of richly textured songs, stretching borders on ambient, experimental rock, dreamy folk or concrete music. Using guitars, rhythm boxes, trumpets synths or simply pedals, Segura managed his own career and produced while published a handful of albums by himself: El ser y el tiempo (1976), No mires atrás (1983), Nostalgia de lo humano (1986), Lamento bereber (1989), El ángel caído vol I, la lluvia azul (2004), Levántate (2005) and El orden y el caos (2006).
He also teamed up with Juan Belda on only impro project Arte Moderno (1981-1982), using the Roland TR-808 rhythm box as a main actor for the first time in the post-Franco’s Spain era.
'El sol desde oriente' uses three of that songs and add six more previously unreleased productions from 1980 to 1990, probably his most active period of time. Available on vinyl and digital through
Bandcamp. Digital version includes two extra tracks. Vinyl comes with insert with unseen photos and liner notes by Javier Segura and Passat Continu’s curator David G. Balasch.
All music written by Javier Segura except Jardín marroquí, written by Javier Segura and Juan Belda
under the name of Arte Moderno.

Daughters of Darkness is a 1971 English-language Belgian horror film. Directed by Harry Kümel this cult erotic vampire film stars Delphine Seyrig, Danielle Ouimet, John Karlen, and Andrea Rau. The film was well received, and a retrospective poll by Time Out in the early 2010s placed the film at number 90 in their top 100 horror films.

Its score was created by multiple award winning composer François de Roubaix. It has long been a much sought after title, with De Roubaix’ son Benjamin commenting that the “composer achieves a perfect balance and the result is a bleak and eerie soundtrack that stands on a par with the music of Ennio Morricone in A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin or - in a different style - that of Isaac Hayes for Shaft”. Parts of score would eventually be sampled by several hip- hop artists, including American rapper Lil Wayne on his song “President Carter”.

After NEF's album in 2019, Ici Bientôt is happy to present today the reissue of Comme Au Moulin by Nyssa Musique.

Paris 1985... ‘Extra-European’ Traditions meet Jazz and Minimal Music. An unusual array of instruments turn music into a dialogue. For a unique record ... vivid, full of texture, somewhere between Midori Takada, Don Cherry and Jon Hassell.

Beginning of the eighties, 5 musicians rehearse in a contemporary dance class hall, upstairs from the ‘’New Morning", renowned Music venue in Paris. Nyssa Musique is born. Passionate for a long time about traditional music, like those of the Middle East, India and East Asia, but also about African traditions, they throw a bridge between Jazz and ‘Extra-European’ traditions, resulting in what would be called "Spiritual Jazz" today, a little bit in the style of Don Cherry's Organic Music or Pharoah Sanders. With the notable difference, however, that their creations are strongly infused by contemporary classical and repetitive music, notably Steve Reich's work with whom they share a great interest for the traditional cultures of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and its gamelans.

In the original group we have Armand Amar, Ballet Music composer and John Boswell. Both specialists of traditional hand percussion which they had been studying for a long time in India and the Middle East, they are also very fond of synthesizers. Three other talented musicians quickly join them: Jean-François Roger, percussionist, marimba and vibraphone specialist, Henri Tournier, multi-flutist and Renaud Garcia-Fons, double bass player, who has a passion for the Middle East and has developed a virtuosic play of the bow, reminding that of Cecil Mc Bee.

Each of them enriches the ensemble with their personality, originality and musical generosity. The rehearsal hall is rapidly invaded by the phenomenal instrumentarium put together by Armand Amar. A great opportunity for the musicians, for the dancers, to have access to an endless choice of instruments, offering infinite possibilities for mixing different colors and timbres. Their sense for being a group and their great capacity for improvising culminates, in 1986, in the composition of their first and only album Comme au Moulin (« As by the windmill"), testimony of years of creating without hidden agenda.

Authentic, free and vibrant, still today, this album has no real equivalent. Even though it recalls the Fourth World current by its combination of traditional instruments with a subtle use of synthesizers, Comme au moulin gives more space to improvisation. It may also recall those of Midori Takada, less the New Age esthetics. An album that should delight as well lovers of "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane, of "Vernal Equinox" by Jon Hassell, as those of Moondog, an artist who, like them, invented a music based on the use of untypical percussions, at the confluence of 'Extra-European' traditions, Jazz and Classical, all together complex and hypnotic.

Carl Craig has announced Detroit native and hotlytipped selector DJ Holographic is next in-line for his prestigious 'Detroit Love' mix compilation series dropping on Planet E Communications. Following in the footsteps of predecessors like Stacey Pullen and Wajeed, being invited to mix vol.05 of the series is testament to DJ Holographic being one of Detroit's most anticipated breakthrough DJ's. Born and raised in the Motor City's deep musical legacy, Ariel Corley aka DJ Holographic is an ambassador for Detroit through and through. Having cut her teeth as a DJ in the local scene over the past decade DJ Holographic is admired for her versatility, eclecticism, and impeccable taste. Ariel has firmly established herself as a staple of Detroit's modern underground scene, a core member of the city's LGBQT+ community and a devoted activist for local humanitarian causes - love for Detroit underpins every element of Ariel Corley's life. Released 16th April via Planet E and K7!, Detroit Love Vol. 05 is packed to the brim with exclusive tracks handpicked by DJ Holographic who takes the listener through a vibrant and flawlessly-mixed showcase of breakthrough artists, ones to watch, and longestablished artists Ariel has a personal affiliation to. The mix was curated by DJ Holographic at the artist creative hub below Submerge Records in Detroit - home to labels such as Underground Resistance, Transmat, Red Planet, and Distorted Soul.

Zwerm is a Belgian-Dutch electric guitar quartet (with a backyard rehearsal shed located in Antwerp) that operates along the borders between styles and traverses traditions that are typically not convergent. Zwerm rhymes Larry Polansky with Nadah El Shazly and are galvanized by the likes of guitars pioneers like The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, the microtonal DYI-er Harry Partch, Middle Eastern sonorities and the prog-madness of Kind Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. ‘Musical adventure’ is not just a hollow cliché for this quartet, but a genuine commitment. Zwerm calls itself a ‘guitar quartet’, but that can be interpreted broadly as well as with a pinch of salt: “If we want to do something on instruments we don’t really master, we’ll just figure out a way to make it work.”
Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Kobe van Cauwenberghe and Bruno Nelissen all met in 2007 while working on a project with Glenn Branca. A new guitar quartet was born and it became clear rather quickly that staying in the strictly contemporary compositions lane was not for this quartet-with-five-to-six-members (an organizational chart is available upon request).
An appetite for new and lasting collaborations has been a constant theme throughout their artistic parcours. The group has shared stages with theatrical producers like Walpurgis and Post uit Hessdalen, dancers such as Ecce and with the musicians Fred Frith, Stephen O’Malley, Shiva Feshareki, Rudy Trouvé, Mauro Pawlowski, Larry Polansky, Eric Thielemans, Yannis Kyriakides, François Sarhan, Serge Verstockt and Stefan Prins. These projects have not always translated into records, but they have been decisive in creating a unique musical approach. In 2015, when Zwerm was asked by De Handelsbeurs to collaborate with Fred Frith, they proceeded to pen a few new musical sketches over which Firth sublimely improvised. In 2018 ‘Badminton in Tehran’ was released, their first record that was made up completely of only the group’s compositions.
“a basket full of buttons here
and if you push the wrong one: fear
and if you push the right one: love
or maybe none of the above”
The route that Zwerm has taken is often defined by the question “What if... ?” - like a dart thrown at a musical map, not quite blindly, but naive enough to lead to unexpected endings.
“What if we play Renaissance pieces written by John Dowland, but instead of playing lutes we play these tunes with a Telecaster – and then jam it through effect pedals and an amplifier?”
“What if we connect one hundred guitar pedals and just leave our guitars at home?”
“What if we record a record with ten different one-page-pieces that we found on the Internet?”
In 2020 our metaphorical dart landed on “What if we tried microtonality?”.
‘Microtonality’ sounds a bit creepy, but actually there is nothing to be afraid of: there are no out-of- tune notes, just alternate notes. On the continents where Western musical theory is less stringently applied, microtonality is the rule, and has become the subject of many deep and thoughtfully written theories. However for Zwerm, this phenomenon occurs in many, often surprisingly lighthearted forms. A dilapidated piano that has settled into a beautiful microtonal tuning of its own accord, enthusiastic choral singing, a guitar whose three strings are tuned a quarter-tone higher, a saz (Turkishquarter-tone lute), a maddening guitar pedal, ...
"the dreams they were convicted for telling only lies reality came after for claiming to be wise what you don’t see is what you get just never light a spark I’m a crow in the dark”
“And… what if we work with a drummer?” Enter Karen Willems - dummer, extraordinaire, and ardent player in groups, projects and collaborations galore. One chance meeting and the deal was done. It was obvious before the start that Willems was the versatile and creative percussionist-in-a-toy-store necessary for this project. And in the studio, to our delight, she demonstrated an easy dexterity when switching quickly from one idea to the next.
At the reins behind the scenes was producer Rudy Trouvé, who – during previous sessions for ‘Badminton in Terhran’, when the classically trained guitarists went completely off the rails, staring deeply and forlornly into their scores, looking for answers – was able to pinpoint the problem and get the wagons rolling in the right direction again. Completing the team were Mark Dedecker (recording)and Joris Calluwaerts (mixing).
The results are in and it’s called ‘ Great Expectations’ – a title that, in several ways, fits perfectly with these strange times.‘Great Expectations’ goes wide! Zwerm is at its best when it can run along the borders between style and across traditions that otherwise would not necessarily intersect. The most straightforward rockers have a proggy tinge while the dreamy psychedelic songs lean more toward Richard Youngs. And if a nice melody dared come to close to becoming a ‘Kit-Katjingle’, then barbs-a-la-Pere-Ubu were trailed, tracked, found and promptly embedded. ‘Heavy Machinery’ sits neatly somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Richard Wagner, and ‘On My Way To Aguno’, set to an Iranian folk song chord progression, grew into a hyper-personal lullaby. Zwerm used the saz (Turkish lute) and the sinter (Moroccan gnawa bass instrument) without falling into pastiche psychedelia, but you can still sense the orient.

10 track compilation of obscure, quirky and irreverent 90s Europop/dance music from the ever-reliable Born Bad Records crew.
”Real” house music emerges in early 80’s Chicago (where the Warehouse club, which allegedly gave its name to the genre, closes down in 1983). England’s acid house and Belgium’s new beat, its European offshoots, fed the cravings of tabloids in 1988 and 1989. The house music we’re interested in though, the type bound to soon overwhelm European charts, is already pretty far away from the Afro-American music born in Chicago. So far away it inherited a new name: dance music.
Just like it had been the case with disco a few years back, house and techno aren’t exactly in the good books - acid house and new beat even less so. And it’s precisely the genre’s mainstream iteration this compilation focuses on; the house en Fran ais, which strives to get on board the running train in 1990.
The house which sports the all-over jean look, bandana, cap, chewing gum, Peugeot 205 complete with snazzy beats on the radio. The big deal big fuss type, miles away from the original, underground house. It might not have been born in the nineties, but that’s clearly when house music became mainstream.

Mira Lu Kovacs ist als vielfach ausgezeichnete Künstlerin und ihrer Mitwirkung in Projekten wie 5K HD, Schmieds Puls oder My Ugly Clementine eine zentrale Figur der brodelnden Wiener Indie/Songwriter-Szene. 2021 veröffentlicht sie erstmals ein Album unter eigenem Namen und unterstreicht mit ihrem einzigartigem Timbre und starkem Songwriting, dass sie - ganz in der Tradition von Ani di Franco, Aldous Harding oder Adrianne Lenker - zu den herausragenden Stimmen der Gegenwart zählt. Produziert wurde "What Else Can Break" von Aushängeschildern dieser "Zelle" in Wien, nämlich maßgeblich von Sophie Lindinger (My Ugly Clementine), in Teilen (bei "Stuck") Marco Kleebauer (Leyya, Oehl, Bilderbuch) oder der mehrfach Grammy-nominierte Yakob (bei "Pull Away").

In the cinema, the composer must go to meet the filmmakers, enter their world, but without giving up his own. This is the difficulty or the paradox of music for the image. By collaborating with directors from a wide variety of backgrounds, I think I have indirectly discovered a lot about myself. It helped me to progress, to explore territories that were not naturally mine. Cinema is a laboratory where I have sought to construct original orchestral formulas combining Corsican polyphonies, musicians from jazz, variety, classical, or even rappers. Like the world today, a fragmented world where all cultures mingle. So said Bruno Coulais, one of the most innovative composers of contemporary cinema, during the tribute paid to him in 2011 at the Cinémathèque de Paris

In 1978, Bruno Coulais, a young composer of concert works, discovered in film music a new means of expression, a way of bringing the demands of his writing to the masses. François Reichenbach, then Josée Dayan, Jacques Davila, Souleymane Cissé or Laurent Heynemann, first on television and then in the cinema, lead him of his own accord in the discovery of this new world.

In 1995, he composed the music for Microcosmos. This centimeter-scale initiatory journey offers him the opportunity to reveal the full dimension of his writing. He injects into his score a strange lyricism, between wonder and fantasy, confirming the lesson learned from François Reichenbach: "to any documentary image, music brings a part of fiction".

The success of Microcosmos established the musician and made him the indispensable composer of other natural tales, notably alongside Jacques Perrin (Le Peuple migrateur, Oceans, Les Saisons, etc.). Other long-term relationships will be forged, in particular with Benoît Jacquot, with whom he has worked for more than a decade, not to mention Frédéric Schoendoerffer, James Huth or Jean-Paul Salomé.

In addition to great popular successes such as Les Choristes, Brice de Nice or Sur La Piste Du Marsipulami, it is hardly surprising that this insatiable curiosity has found in the animated cinema the most inspiring playgrounds, in particular through his collaboration with two exceptional designers, Henry Selick and Tomm Moore.

The first, American director of The Nightmare Before Christmas produced by Tim Burton, invites Bruno Coulais to sign in 2009 the magnificent score of Coraline (film nominated for the Oscars). 10 years later, he is about to find him for a new and beautiful Wendell & Wild adventure. For Irishman Tomm Moore, Bruno Coulais has already composed the music for two Oscar-nominated films, The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song Of the Sea (2014), and in 2020 he will sign the score for Wolfwalkers.

Whether it is about author's films or more mainstream films, Bruno Coulais maintains the same standards, always considering his art as a window open to the world. Much less wise than it seems, he reveals in it a gift of a modern alchemist and a very personal way of mixing the most diverse cultures in universal harmony at work.

‘No Limits’ is a record that has been causing waves since 2019 when it was originally released on Gladys Pizarro’s Launch Entertainment imprint.

Born out of an inspired studio session in 2018 between Danism, Train and DJ Rae, the song immediately felt special, evoking memories of the heyday of the soulful NYC sound. The production and, in particular, the sublime vocal delivery from DJ Rae made it stand out and the NYC-based Launch Entertainment seemed the perfect home for it. The record was a hit on the soulful house scene with heavy support from Louie Vega, Todd Terry, Francois K, Terry Hunter, CJ Mackintosh, Mr V, Sandy Rivera, DJ Spen, Brutha Basil, Sy Sez, Richard Earnshaw and loads more.

Fast forward to 2021 – and in partnership with SoSure Music - ‘No Limits’ is set for release on vinyl with the unquestionable expertise of Danny Krivit laying down a signature re-edit of this soulful house gem. Looping up DJ Rae’s vocals to expert effect at the beginning of his edit, Krivit amps up the anticipation for that sensuous, soulful house drop as twinkling keys reverberate from ear to ear. This is emotive house at it’s very best. The full length and original Vocal Mix graces the B-side.

With this release Danism, Train and DJ Rae also launch their DTR project alias. With the continued success of ‘No Limits’ plus brand new material set to follow throughout the year on Launch Entertainment it makes sense to cement their initial collaboration into something more solid. Danism, Train, DJ Rae combine as the DTR Project with Danny Krivit on remixes duties. A delightful combination to kickstart 2021.

‘Banane Bleue’ (French for blue banana), the brand new album from Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains, is a nomadic and truly European record, hailing from rented workspaces in some of the continent’s key cities - Berlin, Athens and Paris - and recorded with instruments that were often borrowed from likeminded musicians.
Written solely by Frànçois Marry himself, close collaborator and Weird World artist Jaakko Eino Kalevi was enlisted for production duties whilst Renaud Letang (Feist, Gonzales, Connan Mockasin) mixed the album.
The title of the album is taken from the ‘blue banana’ concept, a geographical theory that groups together a corridor of Europe’s biggest cities, originally conceived in the 1980s. The theory states that the blurring of these cities’ boundaries has resulted in the formation of one massive, interconnected megalopolis.
Expanding on the theory, Frànçois poetised it, picturing a luminescent blue banana shape that you can see from space with vibrant, ethereal currents that surround and bind us. It explores common cultural and romantic ground, creating an album full of missed meetings and misunderstandings.
CD into printed inner wallet and 8-page booklet.
Vinyl into printed inner sleeve with digital download card.

Directed by Just Jaeckin, the creator of Emmanuelle, starring Françoise Fabian, Madame Claude is inspired by the fictionalized memories of Fernande Grudet, the sulphurous instigator of the most famous luxury prostitution network in Pompidolian France. The totally disco-funk Original soundtrack of this film released on screens in 1977 from Serge Gainsbourg is sublimated by the immense arranger- Jean-Pierre Sabar". Without forgetting the generic song of Madame Claude “Yesterday, Yes a Day” interpreted by Jane Birkin. Reviews in London Macadam, and L’Echo Ads London Macadam and L’Echo

This is the first ever archival collection of material from the Italian Minimalist Tiziano Popoli, featuring fourteen previously unreleased recordings for installations, theater, and radio broadcasts spanning from 1983 to 1989. Featuring extensive use of the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, TR909 drum machine, and early sampling techniques, these recordings trace the organic, hybridized elements of Italian experimental music as it convened in the hands of Tiziano Popoli and his friends, uniting elements of pop music, minimalism, and manipulations of found sound. Popoli's first album, Scorie, recorded with Marco Dalpane, is a highly sought after LP, and was finally repressed in 2018 by Italian label Soave. "Burn the Night / Bruciare la Notte: Original Recordings, 1983-1989" is a joint release between RVNG Intl. and Freedom To Spend, and was compiled from hours of material unearthed by Tiziano Popoli from his archives, and then meticulously remastered from original sources by Rashad Becker. The 2xLP and CD include printed inner sleeves and booklets with extensive liner notes written by Bradford Bailey, archival photographs, and ephemeral enrichment. RIYL: Philip Glass, Franco Battiato, Lino Capra Vaccina, Oren Ambarchi, RAMZi, Roberto Musci, Faust, CAN, Art of Noise, Durutti Column, Roberto Cacciapaglia.