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Village Of The Sun is the new collaboration between London jazz trailblazers Binker & Moses and Simon Ratcliffe, one-half of legendary UK Electronic pioneers Basement Jaxx Evocative of Ratcliffe’s inspirations such as Alice Coltrane alongside Masters at Work, the track ‘Village Of The Sun’ itself is awash with atmospheric vibes, a future Balearic classic ‘TED’ is enormously catchy, uplifting and feel-good. And classy as you like. Written around an extraordinary chord porgression by Ted Moses from the tune ‘Dreamship’, it compels you to dance with a smile on your face Initial pressing comes in a special edition die-cut sleeve

Golden Days is the late completion of Ethimm’s EP trilogy on Light of Other Days and it continues exactly where the group left off 4 years ago. What started as the groups signature „tension music“, oscillating between dark repetition and moody improvisations is slowly morphing into a production style that features a heavy pop sensibility infused with conciliatory optimism.

The opener and title track of the EP recounts the meeting of a new lover in an autumn sunset. Starting with dreamy piano chords, a rhythmic bass and handclaps, it provides a beautiful musical backdrop for Tizi’s longing voice. During the course of the track, modulating synths and plucked guitars join her vocals as she sings about the „Golden Days“ spent with her lover.

Over & Out starts off in typical Ethimm fashion. Dubbed guitars, minimal beats and a sparse piano melody sets the tone for Elisabeth Thimm’s fragile vocal. In Over & Out Elisabeth negotiates her wish for freedom and how she breaks with her daily constraints. Albeit initially being drained in melancholy, the track ends on a musically hopeful note when a beautiful chord progression suddenly appears, colliding with an extended synth solo from outer space.
On Echoes in the Distance, glorious arpeggios accompany a sophisticated 303-style bass line and haunting vocals. The track follows one of Elisabeth’s dreams into a frantic, nondescript, deserted backdrop and slowly morphes into the most ecstatic piece of the EP. The multi-layered arrangement combined with Ethimm’s yearning voice on top, sound like about 3 tracks seamlessly sticked together. The track ends in pure ecstasy and the listener is left with the exciting feeling of wanting more.

The EPs finale is made up of the hopeful and minimalistic Day by Day, a track reminiscent of the balearic pop from the 1980ies. Gracefully and drained in beachside sunshine, Ethimm reminds us not to waste our days with unnecessary actions and focus on the beautiful small things in life.

Enki's promises have brought me to Eridu, now im full of hope and expectations.

In my dreams night falls over the city of art and creation and magic while my eyes adjust to the rays of the sun.

Try Anything Once is the first solo album created by Alan Parsons following the split of The Alan Parsons Project. This album features vocals by Ambrosia's David Pack, Duran Duran backing singer Jacqui Copland, former Mindbender and 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band frontman Chris Thompson.

The album takes a different turn from the previously ethereal Project albums, and seems to continue the directional development that started with Stereotomy and Gaudi (MOVLP631), combining rock elements ( Back Against The Wall' & Breakaway') and mood-oriented beats ( Turn It Up' & I'm Talking To You'), while still retaining certain elements of the classic Project albums that are unique ( Mr Time', Wine From The Water', the instrumentals).

With the Music On Vinyl edition of Try Anything Once, this awesome album is available on vinyl for the very first time!

Yet more fresh heat from the Soundscape Versions camp and this time round with a special tentrack compilation by different artists across the globe with wide scope of electronic music produced and performed using all analog hardware gear. Release comes out on
c70' cassette and digital.

Jon Tye and Pete Fowler have been making music as Seahawks for a decade now. Given the sounds they’ve been exploring over those ten years it was a cosmic inevitability that they would be asked to contribute to the catalogue of the legendary library label KPM.

They replied with Island Visions, an exploration of sound for vision where they construct “audio micro-worlds to explore and inhabit”. A way to transport the listener away from the everyday without the bother of getting on an aeroplane. Mind travel is space travel after all, and much better for the environment.

Mostly recorded at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with additional recording at Studio 34 in London, Jon and Pete’s travelling companions on this particular trip were boogie wunderkind Sven Atterton on fretless bass and keys, Nick Mackrory on percussion and the Seahawks live team of Dan Hillman and Alik Peters-Deacon.

From the grooves of Brian Bennett to the moog vibrations of Mike Vickers, the lush textures of Les Baxter to the experimental sounds of Delia Deryshire and David Vorhaus, this new music channels sounds and moods from across the KPM universe.

The spacious “Hot Sand Shuffle” opens the record with some of Seahawks’ familiar “deck-shoegaze”. The slinky digi-dub of “Sky Blue Sky” follows, gently encouraging us to lay back and relax. “Mystic Beach” is a refreshing ocean spray of a synthetic groove that clears the head, priming a pathway to receive “Crystal Forest”, a new age house groove of birds and flutes.

Dense, deep and dreamlike, “Distant Shore” is ambient rainforest house with a 90s vibe, its dense foliage clearing to let us bask in the shimmer and shine of “River Run”. Hang drum, electric gamelan, flute and loon close side A.

Side B bounces into being with “Catch A Wave”, an upbeat beach groover of synthetic guitar, effervescent synth and snappy drums. Equatorial bubbler “Paradise Bird Bath” soon glides in with marimba, crisp beats and fat synth bass. Fender rhodes, space echo and fretless bass make “Smooth Runnings” a laid-back poolside groove.

“Spirits Have Flown” conjures a hazy vibe with marimba, sax, synth funk bass and chilled beats before “Rolling Deep” serves up a light cocktail of sultry rhythms, refreshing textures, cooling sax and fretless bass. Almost-title track “Island Blues” brings the horizontal poolside feels with melodic chimes, oboe and more fretless bass for maximum vibrations. The marina drone of modular electronics, celestial trumpet and jungle ambience pay the album’s final respects to the cosmos on “Sun Salute”.

Like many KPM suites, this is a record of two distinct sides. The sunrise of side A brings a deep meditation, a journey within to renew the jaded self. Side B refreshes with cocktails by the pool and a chance to groove away the evening at some sunset beach party before dancing under the stars in the house of dreams.

Pete’s front cover for the LP is part map, part postcard: “the record has five different sections and I wanted to reference those in the worlds they created, musically and physically. From beach campfire, to poolside hanging and nighttime dancing. A kind of portal to those places and the pictures they inspired in my mind. All places we’d like to be in this turbulent year”. The track descriptions on the back help guide the way.

2020 marks 10 years since Ocean Trippin’, the first Seahawks release, and Island Visions is the perfect distillation of the sounds, sights, textures and moods that Jon and Pete have been exploring over the last decade. Sunrise to sunset condensed to two sides of an LP. The normal rules of space and time don’t apply here.

This is the first time Be With has worked with Seahawks, but individually Jon and Pete have been members of the extended Be With family since forever (Pete did those posters for our Ned Doheny tour and we worked with Jon on the vinyl version of Hatchback’s Colors Of The Sun). Of course we were going to put this out on vinyl.

Mastered by balearic engineer of choice (and Be With’s regular audio co-pilot) Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, the sonic frequencies of these Island Visions have been precision tuned and encoded for optimum travelling conditions. Take the trip.

3 years after the release of his debut EP « Seize The Day », DJ, producer and founder of Roche Musique Cezaire is back with another evocatively named project : "Attraction".

Faithful to himself, he creates a sensual ambience made of warm and swaying tones, the sweet fruit of the melodic groove which always drives him. Once the eyes closed - the imagination becomes fertile and takes us back in a 90’s daydream accompanied by hypnotic synths. Regardless of the place, it’s all about lightness and smooth vibes.

Between G-Funk influences and francophone contemporary soul, the 5 titles EP unveils the producer’s taste for retro and voluptuous sounds, echoing to the universal theme of desire.

“This second EP is to me a logical follow-up which falls within my path. Of course, its central theme is attraction, but by that, I refer to one thing : making your dreams come true. ”

Spencer Clark is back with a futuristic eco-friendly record. It’s life on earth as you never heard it.

The story goes like this: Spencer wanted to do a soundtrack for the yet to be made “Avatar 2”. And if you know Spencer’s work, you’ll know that he engaged on this mission reading material that influenced the rich and crazy imaginary world of “Avatar”. If you think about it a little bit, something like “Avatar” could have really come out from the mind of Spencer Clark.

But it didn’t. So, he dwelled around the idea of that soundtrack, working on what is now known as “Avatar Blue”. The record we now release is a selection he made from the 2CD released last year on his own Pacific City Sound Visions.*

Like many of Spencer’s other alias or incarnations, Star Searchers introduces the listener to a new world. Besides making sounds/soundtracks for alternative realities he cares about making a world for his music to live in. It’s never superficial or dedicated just to the act of imagination, Spencer creates sounds that sustain the reality he imagined. That’s why they’re so rich and consequential in the realization of music as a medium.

“Avatar Blue” is music but also literature. And cinema. Star Searchers’ sound creates an absorbent sound about what’s happening in aquatic life. It goes beyond the perception of what we’ve seen or what we’ve known, it’s a neo-future aquatic life, with a world building structure and sounds and narratives that go along with it.

All done with a sound-aesthetics that could be described as slowed-down-trance, that fits 1980s synth nostalgia and dreams of sci-fi to come.
*Note: The 2CD version is available as a digital download with a purchase of the album on selected stores.

Max Essa completes a trio of terrific releases on Hell Yeah with The Great Adventure EP. It's packed with more grown up dance floor dynamite and later in the year will be collected together with the first two parts to make for a full album.

By now you will know that Essa is part of the UK's Balearic mafia. He's served up big tunes on Is It Balearic?, Aficionado, Music For Dreams, and his music always acts as a sonic raft that floats you out to sea and leaves you bobbing up and down in a state of pure bliss.

Opener 'Tombolo' starts as acoustic music and the sound of a muffled crowd but soon awakens into an uptempo affair littered with toms, guitar licks and claps that are driven by bumping drums. There are elements of old school, Italo and classic house but somehow it feels completely new and fresh as it takes you ever higher.

'The Great Adventure' is masterfully sun kissed disco with crisp 80s drums, love struck chords and a yacht rock feel that is pure joy, something like topless dancing with sand between your toes and umbrellas in your cocktails.

Closer 'Fool in the Pool' sinks into gentle tabla drums and unhurried chords. It's horizontal and thoughtful - the sound of a lazy afternoon somewhere on the Mediterranean coast, gazing at glistening seas through the romantic lens flare in your sunglasses.

This EP is already great feedback from the DJ dons who have been giving it early plays, so act now to snap up your first summer sounds of 2020.

MIDTGAARD is danish Balearic DJ/ producer Anders Midtgaard. Sommerfugl (means Butterfly in danish) - the Original version was handed out to a few DJs in Ibiza last year. First up Italy's finest, Luca MOPLEN has in masterful style been re-working this piano driven groover that oozes summery flavour all over. The package here also comes with a great balearic re-rub from Denmarks Mike Salta (MFD) and the Original version. Support and kind words from the likes of Kenneth Bager (Music For Dreams), Francois Kevorkian, Phil Mison Colleen Cosmo Murphy, Willie Graff and many others.

First time on vinyl. Recorded for DC's Black Fire Records in 1976, Theatre West's music never made record until now. Selected works taken from the master tapes of James "Plunky" Branch (Oneness of JuJu, Experience Unlimited etc). Hailing from Ohio and resident in DC, Theatre West was made up of musicians from Slave, Gil Scott Heron's Midnight Band, The Fabulous Originals, Malone & Barnes and others. Serious jazz-funk-soul selections via the vaults of Plunky and Black Fire Records.

On his third and album, Rainbow Doll, the New Jersey house mystic Joey Anderson speaks to us. Of course, like everything Anderson does, the message is encoded. On tracks like "Beside Me" and "Cindy," his voice rings out in dream incantations-on the latter, he repeats a Mark Hollis-like mantra over a perfect, minimalist house loop while the former sounds like the late, great Ron Hardy taking the razor-and-tape to Ike Yard.

It's his third record for the Berlin-based label Avenue 66, and graciously illuminates the dream logic introduced on his debut for the imprint, the 2013 leftfield classic "Above The Cherry Moon." While Rainbow Doll satisfies those outre impulses, the album's core comprises what are perhaps Anderson's most indelible dance tracks to date, like "Bounce With It," a jacking anthem which sees him at mission control, sending widescreen synth lines soaring through the atmosphere.

With the aforementioned vocals punctuating five of the eight tracks, Rainbow Doll is Anderson's most personal work to date. It's his first album in four years, but also his shortest, most concise full-length. Even with a more direct approach, the elusive, dreamlike quality which has made his work so intriguing remains intact. He speaks of dreams throughout the record, even as his uncanny methodology comes into focus. More than ever before, we understand the materials Anderson uses to construct his Escher-like tracks. We hear his fingers on the keys, the sturdy east coast house beats he learned to dance to. The dreams have become lucid. As he puts it deep in the album, they "seem so real."

Hot on the heels of "Vegator", we give you Øyvind's Magnum Opus: "Lullaby To A Never Ending Sunset".
Including a variety of tempos, moods and emotions, we hope this EP gets a premiere spot in your record box, on your digi stick
or youtube channel for some time to come.

Prins Thomas, Oslo, January 14th 2020

“The combined forces of Frederik Valentin & Loke Rahbek first found a way into the world in 2017 with the album 'Buy Corals Online'. Together they now present 'Elephant', an eight-track album that composes an inquisitive space with it's parts.

The economy of movement across Rahbek and Valentin's new collaborative album makes for a gentle transmission of its abstract intimacies. This presence, which we caught glimpses of on their previous work 'Buy Corals Online', is shaped by the delicate interplay between acoustic instrumentation and synthetically rendered sounds. Hauntingly melodic at times, the album feels like a suite of uncanny lullabies that grant access to realities that can only be found in dreams.

Rahbek and Valentin are always leading us somewhere and showing us something—one piece of the scene at a time, coming and going with different parts of a puzzle that eventually settles into a complete form. And through all this we perceive an inviting restlessness on their behalf, encouraging us to stray further and further into the private space of 'Elephant'. Valentin is perhaps best known for his work in the exquisite atypical pop group Kyo, though his widereaching music and videography practices covertly underpin his flagship projects.

Most recently, Valentin has been working with Yung Lean as both producer on his 'Nectar' album as Jonatan Leandoer127 as well as on their commission for Sweden's Cullberg Ballet. As Croatian Amor, Rahbek has made similar forays into unworldly pop and his work with Christian Stadsgaard as Damien Dubrovnik has been as critical as their cofounding of Posh Isolation.

Modest interventions from processed field-recordings and semi-erupting synths invite you to zoom in enough to hear the human hand. An attention to listening, to how sounds cradle the small movements and gestures that naturally accompany the playing of guitar, piano, and viola, is acutely developed by Rahbek and Valentin.

It's in this way that 'Elephant' persuades us that even small stories unfurl into the most intricate and tremendous of sagas"

A Colourful Storm presents the first ever compilation of work by Velocette, the nom de plume of Jason Williams and one of the most unique producers from the '90s' wider ambient-techno landscape of the United States. Gathered from recordings originally released on Jonah Sharp, aka Spacetime Continuum's Reflective label and Williams' own Parallel Recordings, the tracks are sublime, sought-after and primed for modern audiences. "Bound in a Nutshell" and "Microcosmik" are chill-out room dreams while "Memories For The Future" and "Stumm" are pure dancefloor and after-hours euphoria. Dreamy selection for dancers and and stargazers alike. "Listening to Velocette is like gazing into a brilliant night sky - a blanket of stars shimmering like a kaleidoscope just beyond reach." For fans of Klaus Schulz, Stasis, Likemind. Full-colour printed reverse card sleeve with liner

Emerging this January with a duo of debut EPs, Black (Vegan Tinder Lord) and White (Hexxex) , Ϟᑢrəən ϟHAᗌ/W blends pummelling techno, industrial grit and experimental noise for a mood-spanning sound inspired by everything from Google Street View to visiting the dentist.

The Black EP gleans from the heavier end of the club music spectrum, plunging into a hardcore well of nosebleed kicks and synapse-frying synths that bang with raw dancefloor energy. The White EP pauses for reflection, transforming Screen Shadow's spiky reveries into tightly-woven technicolour dreamscapes.

Track highlights include the humour-spiced, pitch-shifted "Vegan Tinder Lord"—immortalised by its disembodied, Amnesia Scanner-esque voice—and the percussive, hardstyle-tinged assault course of "Scanna Hex".

On it's white counterpart ,"Hexxex" builds on a Drexciyan beat, while "Corridor" explores the sort of glitchy experimentalism that gets under your skin."Vaxuum" and "Time Orphans" mine deep ambient soundscapes, with the former constructed from a grainy loop and the latter built from rich orchestral tones.

Artwork and music go hand in hand, with logo designer Number III (Paul Nicholson, Aphex Twin logo designer ) cooking up the striking black and white imagery.

Emerging this January with a duo of debut EPs, Black (Vegan Tinder Lord) and White (Hexxex) , Ϟᑢrəən ϟHAᗌ/W blends pummelling techno, industrial grit and experimental noise for a mood-spanning sound inspired by everything from Google Street View to visiting the dentist.

The Black EP gleans from the heavier end of the club music spectrum, plunging into a hardcore well of nosebleed kicks and synapse-frying synths that bang with raw dancefloor energy. The White EP pauses for reflection, transforming Screen Shadow's spiky reveries into tightly-woven technicolour dreamscapes.

Track highlights include the humour-spiced, pitch-shifted "Vegan Tinder Lord"— immortalised by its disembodied, Amnesia Scanner-esque voice — and the percussive, hardstyle-tinged assault course of "Scanna Hex". Inspired by the unpleasant act of a dentist drilling a tooth cavity, "Bodies" burrows deep into your brain, while the glitchy experimentalism of "Corridor" gets under your skin.

Across the two EPs, vocals are processed and reshaped into other sounds using the sculpture-primed Nord modulars. These '90s instruments have since been discontinued, but remain a staple in the Screen Shadow studio and the upcoming live setup.

Artwork and music go hand in hand, with logo designer Number III (Paul Nicholson, Aphex Twin logo designer ) cooking up the striking black and white imagery.

'Postlude' is the second release on Solitary Dancer's new imprint, Private Possessions. After having released on some of the world's most esteemed underground labels such as Dark Entries, Graded, and Optimo, Private Possessions was borne out of a desire to control all aspects of output pertaining to the development, creation, and dissemination of their music, video, and other media. Following their debut LP 'Rites Of Passage', 'Postlude' is a three-track affair which juxtaposes two of the album's floor-focussed cuts with an extended version of 'Test Dream'. The latter has been processed into a 15-minute "Devisualization" using degradation techniques that slowly destroys the piece over time, harkening the ever-changing lucidity and memories of our own dreams.

For Patrick Flegel, Cindy Lee is more than just a recording music project. It is the culmination of a lifelong exploration of art, the electric guitar, queer identity and gender expression. "Singers like Patsy Cline and The Supremes carried me through the hardest times of my life," explains Flegel, "and also provided the soundtrack to the best times."

Following the dissolution of Canadian experimental indie band Women, Flegel would delve deeper into songwriting that bends further toward high atmospherics and bracing melodies – a unique space where splendor naturally collides with experimentation. Delivering moments of sheer beauty through somber reflections on longing and loneliness, Cindy Lee is something to hold onto in a world of disorder.

What's Tonight To Eternity, Cindy Lee's fifth long-form offering, showcases the project's most entrancing strengths: ethereal snowdrift pop and sly nods toward classic girl-group motifs. Recorded at Flegel's Realistik Studios in Toronto and featuring younger brother Andrew Flegel on drums, the album travels hand in hand with a spectral guide.

Flegel found inspiration for Cindy Lee in the form of Karen Carpenter, drawing on the singer / drummer's early recordings as well as her look and style. "I found a deep interest and comfort in Karen's story, which is a cautionary tale about the monstrosity of show business, stardom at a young age and being a misfit looking for connection. The darkness and victimizing tabloid sensationalism she suffered is easily tempered and overwhelmed by her earnest output, her artistry, her tireless work ethic. Something utterly unique and magical takes shape in the negative space, out of exclusion. What I relate to in her has to do with what is hidden, what is unknown."

What's Tonight To Eternity remains a mix of pop culture indoctrination, pain and suffering, hopes and dreams, fierce confrontations and wide-open confessional blurs. Closing with the song "Heavy Metal" (dedicated to the memory of former Women bandmate Chris Reimer) and adorned by Andrea Lukic's Journal of Smack artwork, the album continues the bold and rewarding path on which Cindy Lee has embarked.

When Elena Colombi launched the Osàre! Editions label in the autumn of 2019, she explained that the label would become home to bold, daring, future-facing music rooted in experimentation and free-spirited musical abandon. These are all descriptions that could apply to the label’s latest release, a retrospective album of little-known works by Greek musician and producer Thanasis Zlatanos.

Many will not have heard of Zlatanos, or Nekropolis, the band he fronted alongside dear friend and regular collaborator Trygve Mathiesen, yet the music he made during the 1980s was otherworldly, intergalactic and undoubtedly alluring. These songs and instrumentals made extensive use of analogue synthesizers and lo-fi drum machines, as well as Zlatanos’s trusted Gibson Les Paul guitar and his own distinctive voice.

Stylistically, the musician and producer refused to settle on a specific sound, preferring instead to create inspired, often mind-altering pieces that join the dots between wave music, skewed leftfield pop, ambient, prototype electronic and Madedonian folk music. Operating for much of the period from a crumbling house earmarked for demolition, Zlatanos kept up a daily music-making vigil that resulted in a vast vault of music, most of which has remained unissued since the 1980s.

The breadth of and width of Zlatanos’s distinctive approach is laid bare on Retrospective, a compilation album prepared by Colombi and the artist himself that draws on tracks from his numerous albums, those by Nekropolis – whose sophomore set “The New Europeans” was banned in Norway – and his epic archive of previously unheard material.

The artist’s singular but wide-ranging musical vision is free for all to see across the 13 tracks stretched across the vinyl version of the album (digital buyers also get a further four superb cuts). It veers attractively from the ghostly, traditional-meets-futuristic new age electronica of “The Crystal Sight (Excerpt)” and the doom-laden coldwave throb of “Master Chameleon”, to the undulating, soft-touch creepiness of “Surreal Moment”, the Vocoder-laden operatic poignancy of “The New Barbarians” and the squally guitar solos and effects-laden electronics of “The Light”.

Words from the artist___:
"I live in the Internet. Visits from outer space make me compose. I breathe here. I am the master chameleon, the psychedelic clown. I am not here anymore, neither in the picture, nor the reflection. Our bed is a boat that takes us tomorrow without us.

Here is an album of dreams and digital emotions. Analogue recordings made with a Prophet, a Moog Rogue, a tape recorder and a Gibson Les Paul guitar.

As far as I can remember I have always been in a recording studio. I listen to, understand and live my life through songs and music. I have worked alone and with friends such as Trygve Mathiesen. Although I am a guitarist, I continue to work with synthesizers on music that blends elements of Macedonian folk music, recordings from the streets and embryonic electronic sounds.

Some of my albums have been critically acclaimed, others banned by radio stations. For years I worked on endless recording sessions in a crumbling house that should have been torn down. The music on this retrospective compilation was recorded at various points between 1982 and the present day. Some of the compositions first appeared on previous albums, while others have never been released before. They were sat on tapes waiting for a saviour. Now that saviour has arrived and they can be free.

For further proof of Zlatanos’s unique sonic approach, check the startling contrast between the bass-laden slacker pop headiness of “No Expectations” and the spacey ambience of “The Dead Don’t Remember”. Considered together, the selected pieces and those elsewhere on Retrospective forms a snapshot of a genuinely unique and visionary musician, composer and producer. It’s a celebration of someone whose work has previously been overlooked."