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Charlemagne Palestine (born Charles Martin ni 1947 in Brooklyn, New York) wrote intense, ritualistic music in the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against audiences' expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in music. A composer-performer, he always performed his own works as soloist. His earliest works were compositions for carillon and electronic drones, and he is best known for his intensely performed piano works. He also performs as a vocalist. Palestine's performance style is ritualistic; he generally surrounds himself (and his piano) with stuffed animals, smokes large numbers of kretek (Indonesian clove cigarettes) and drinks cognac.

Oren Ambarchi (born 1969 in Australia) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it's no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it's a laboratory for extended sonic investigation". (The Wire, UK).

Oren Ambarchi's works are hesitant and tense extended songforms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing; laminal improvisation and minimalism; hushed, pensive songwriting; the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as Morton Feldman and Alvin Lucier; and the physicality of rock music, slowed down and stripped back to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal.

From the late 90's his experiments in guitar abstraction and extended technique have led to a more personal and unique sound-world incorporating a broader palette of instruments and sensibilities. On releases such as Grapes From The Estate and In The Pendulum's Embrace Ambarchi has employed glass harmonica, strings, bells, piano, drums and percussion, creating fragile textures as light as air which tenuously coexist with the deep, wall-shaking bass tones derived from his guitar.

Ambarchi works with simple constructs and parameters; exploring one idea over an extended duration and patiently teasing every nuance and implication from each texture; the phenomena of sum and difference tones; carefully tended arrangements that unravel gently; unprepossessing melodies that slowly work their way through various permutations; resulting in an otherworldly, cumulative impact of patiently unfolding compositions.

Ambarchi has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists such as Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Pimmon, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Rizili, Voice Crack, Jim O'Rourke, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, Dave Grohl, Gunter Muller, Evan Parker, z'ev, Toshimaru Nakamura, Peter Rehberg, Merzbow, Kassel Jaeger, Anthony Pateras, Crys Cole, Giuseppe Ielasi, Judith Hamann, Sunn 0))), James Rushford, Stephen O'Malley and many more.

For 10 years together with Robbie Avenaim, Ambarchi was the co-organiser of the What Is Music? festival, Australia's premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music. Ambarchi now curates the Maximum Arousal series at The Toff In Town in Melbourne and has recently co-produced an Australian television series on experimental music called Subsonics. Ambarchi co-curated the sound program for the 2008 Yokohama Triennale. Ambarchi has released numerous recordings for international labels such as Touch, Southern Lord, Table Of The Elements and Tzadik.

Belgian drummer Eric Thielemans is one of the most idiosyncratic figures in Belgian music, someone who not only demonstrates that special musicians always seek out (and find) their own place, but above all that they always remain students of the art of questioning and listening. No musician better illustrates the difference between playing music and playing with music than percussionist Eric Thielemans. He gets to the heart of the matter with an at times extremely minimalist approach, but on the other hand he frequently relies on a range of objects beyond the regular drum kit: a drum placed on its side, a bicycle wheel with a bow, hands and the body.

"Soundmusication" ist das dritte und letzte Album des jamaikanischen Tenor-Saxophonisten Fitz Gore, eine weitere seltene und schöne spirituelle Jazz-LP aus den späten 1970ern. "Fitz hatte einen sehr tiefgründigen Glauben an die richtige Musik, die die Welt verändern und einen wirklichen Zustand des Friedens schaffen kann, weil sie die Gefühle und Handlungen der Menschen hin zur spirituellen Wahrheit bewegt. Er war überzeugt, daß Musik die heilende Kraft der Welt besitzt" (Ulrich Kurth). Fitz spielt mit Lukoki Mampasi am E-Piano, Obama Ngomo am Bass, Emmanuel Dipanda am Schlagzeug oder Gil Nguema an der Gitarre. Sie öffnen eine imaginäre Tür und ermöglichen ihrem Leader so die erstaunlichsten Dinge auf seinem Instrument. Erste Wiederveröffentlichung, neu gemastert in 2022, mit Original-Artworks und dem Bonustrack "Gisela (Lion Rock)".

“Babygirl” is the new album by CTM out on Posh Isolation. In its composition channels a sensuous consciousness. The music is like a prism reflecting tactile perceptions, light, movements and memories. Relations between the composed structures and the undetermined of the improvisations, the cracks in the form and the digital glitches, create a poetic and open elsewhere. With a sensibility of pop, the musical landscape moves from nostalgic popballads through the austere pomp of a deconstructed baroque menuet for solo cello, to lingering piano ornamentations and distorted guitars. There is a soft and wild intimacy to the music. Common collective musical languages are weaved effortlessly into the musical canvas, while the form and perspective change and move. With a profound emotional resonance in the music, tenderness and devotion are reflected in the narrative. The sense of nostalgia comes like glimpses of pastimes revisited, when life cycles reveal themselves repeating in the now. Babygirl continues in the track of her latest album “Red dragon”, exploring feverish dreams and personal material through a digital ephemera. Digital effects splinter the intimacy and transform into something more than human, shaking the balance between the codes of the popsong and the unexpected digressions, guided by the voice of CTM that is central throughout the album. The album is produced by Holger Hartvig, Malthe Fischer and Cæcilie Trier. It features vocal and instrumental contributions by Ydegirl, Coco O., Johan S. Wieth (Iceage), ML Buch, Jakob Littauer (Yangze), Emil Elg, Claus Haxholm among others. The album, containing bits and pieces of recordings and compositions made over several years, is like a musical platform with expressions of many voices, and with relations and time weaved into the compositions. Trier is a Copenhagen based cellist, singer, and composer, with her classical training apparent across her many and varied projects and collaborations. Having received critical acclaim from the earliest moments of her career, Trier's previous album 'Suite For A Young Girl' was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Music Prize in 2017.

Following up their hugely respected 2 demos (also available as a compilation) and fairly recent 7”, CHAOTIAN are back to release ultimate Death Metal barbarity into the underground in the form of their debut full length. Storming into life with a rotten amalgamation of putrescent riffing and blastbeats, the instrumental unity of this Danish titan is a juggernaut of pure filth. It is telling when a band can have those super groovy pinch harmonic laden riffs and not making them sound like all the others. This may seem a weirdly specific observation (perhaps a guitarist just being a guitarist) but it makes all the difference with heaviness, intensity and also the catchiness on the records. When met with the sewer-spewing vocals and weird dissonant spasms in the music, it doesn’t take long to recognise this will be a truly warped and maniacally brutal experience of Death Metal might. Interlinking primitive hooks that grasp you by the throat then transcend into these weird effects or spacious riffs, there’s nothing predictable about the album yet it has that familiar feeling that all good Death Metal has where it feels a bit daunting, unnerving and yet you cannot escape it. Obviously Denmark and this trio does not let the scene down. Amazingly this small country seems to have so much diversity in their rotten underground movement and CHAOTIAN are a shining example who embody the grotesqueries, masterful songwriting and tight musicianship that has become associated with this otherwise pretty and peaceful nation. It explains that mysterious gurgling from the sewers at least! Bludgeoning, cavernous and ultimately otherworldly, CHAOTIAN masterfully combine the cerebral and cosmic with brutish, old school music that is damned heavy and doesn’t feel pretentious nor directionless. Their debut LP is not just as strong as their previous works, but a more refined and complete vision, showcasing the bands full potential (so far)…

When the whole world collapses around you, sometimes the only thing you can do is stomp it all loose. Erin Anne's second album, the gleaming, electrified Do Your Worst, charts that uninhibited romp through disaster. Written amid the rubble of personal grief and professional disappointment, later exacerbated by the devastation of a global pandemic, the record deepens Erin's venture into the blur between human and machine, adding a new roster of digital instruments to the mix. Drawing on dark, glossy '80s synthpop as well as the unabashed bombast of bands like The Killers, the L.A.-based songwriter deploys a cyborg persona to articulate a feeling of displacement from the world as a queer artist struggling to survive the machinations of late capitalism. With bright, interweaving synthesizers and ripples of Auto-Tuned vocals, Do Your Worst poses a dare to the world: Whatever you have in store, I'll take it standing.

Erin began writing her second album not long after adding a MIDI keyboard and vocal processing hardware to her home studio setup. While exploring her new gear, she found that she could work in the same vein as the artists and producers she loved the most. Do Your Worst takes inspiration from the music of Patrick Cowley, the disco and hi-NRG producer best known for working alongside Sylvester. Erin was taken by Cowley's use of vocoder on the 1982 album Mind Warp, where his distorted vocals create a queer, mutant subjectivity. That album rang out against the cataclysm of the AIDS epidemic; Erin found resonance in Cowley's music during the present-day pandemic. "I have found the most catharsis and the most safety in listening to the music of people in really, really horrific circumstances making something lasting and profoundly beautiful," she says.

Throughout Do Your Worst, which was mixed by Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties, songs like "Typhoid Mary" and "Florida" reckon with loss, despair, and abjection. "This Hungry Body" sears through pandemic-era touch starvation, while "Mirror Mirror" attends to the noxious but necessary funhouse of social media. On the playful, guitar-driven “Eve Polastri’s Last Two Brain Cells Have a Debate,” Erin uses the spy thriller TV show Killing Eve to explore queer codependency and masochism. Among these fraught subjects, Erin Anne finds opportunities for release. She stages internal conflict on a scale so massive that its details start to become clear; if they don't resolve, they at least become palpable.

"I’m very much a maximalist when it comes to production. I like vast landscapes. I like a stratosphere and a core -- I want the bass to be beneath the floor," Erin says. "This record is, in a lot of ways, a collection of some of the first moments that I was technologically able to achieve accurate renderings of how I hear my own emotional world."

LTD 50TH ANNIVERSARY REISSUE

Originally released in 1971, during the dark days of the military dictatorship in Uruguay, this unique album made a strong and lasting impression on Juana Molina when she was a child. The present reissue on Sonamos (Juana's recently-formed owned label) is the result of a patient labor of love conducted by Juana and her associate producer Mario Agustin Gonzalez. This anniversary release comes our as a very limited-edition containing the remastered original LP, a second LP with 16 unreleased tracks, and a thick, informative booklet: Musicasión was a series of collective shows by a group of artists, mixing theatrical elements, poetry, improvised stage effects, and of course music, with a very special blend of rock (then called beat, in a dual reference to British pop bands of the sixties and to Beat Generation poetry), candombe (the percussion-driven style created in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves) tango, jazz and bossa nova. A combination which bears more than a passing resemblance with Brazilian Tropicália, which originated around the same time.

Naomi Alligator is fed up. She’s sick of trying to make relationships work that have already run their course, and tired of sitting in a wintry apartment waiting for her life to kick into gear. On »Double Knot«, the modern folk singer/songwriter from Virginia attempts to unwind her life from all that is holding her back. In a way, it’s a coming-of-age record about shedding what no longer serves you and, ultimately, finding something like deliverance.

On the opening track, “Seasick,” Naomi Alligator is already in the midst of a sort of awakening. Right off the bat, she sings, “I don’t know what’s happened to me / It’s like I turned 16 / It’s like I grew to be 6-feet tall.” This is the announcement of a wide-eyed artist coming out of hibernation and into their own. Still, Naomi’s vocals ache with guilt and longing, belying the track’s playful catchiness. Longing for what? Maybe attention from a crush, but mostly a sunnier place to call home.

Naomi Alligator began writing Double Knot while living in Philadelphia during the height of the pandemic and the deterioration of a longterm romance. “I scream: How’d the hell I end up here? / I’m 1-inch tall, it’s crystal clear,” she chants on “Neighborhood Freak,” returning to height and size as an emotional barometer. When asked though, Naomi rejects the notion that Double Knot is a breakup album, or autobiographical at all. Moreso, she says, it’s a personal reckoning in which, “the minute before you make a big decision, you tally up the reasons why you don’t want to do what you’re doing anymore.”

That desire to turn the page expands to the production of the album as well. Naomi Alligator generally houses her narratives in beds of minimal, home-tracked instrumentation—influenced by the stripped-down poeticism of Joan Baez and Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound tapes. Double Knot finds Naomi continuing to hone the winning combination of guitar and banjo she established on 2021’s Concession Stand Girl EP. For Double Knot though, Naomi wanted a fuller, more dynamic sound: more instruments, more harmonies, more layering, more, more, more. Inspired by the impressionistic melodies of Animal Collective and MGMT, Naomi peppers in computer-generated synths throughout the album, most notably on the song “Burn Out.” These electronic flourishes augment the more grounding string instruments, arriving somewhere more ethereal than Naomi’s earlier work while still maintaining her warm songwriting.

If anything, Double Knot is a reminder that you can always pack up your bags, try something new, and change your life. As for Naomi Alligator herself? She moved west, to California.

The Who veröffentlichen am 8. Juli ihr Album „The Who Sell Out” erneut, was als ein loses Konzeptalbum mit Jingles und Werbespots begann und zu einem der außergewöhnlichsten Alben jeder Ära wurde.

Das ikonische Cover-Design schufen David King und Roger Law und porträtierten damit ein kühnes Abbild der Zeit. In Summe eine glorreiche Mischung aus klassischer, kraftvoller Who-Instrumentierung, melodischen Harmonien und satirischen lyrischen Bildern, die sich für das erst dritte Album der Gruppe herauskristallisiert haben. Das Album wurde 1967 veröffentlicht und enthält Klassiker wie „I Can See for Miles“ , „Armenia City in the Sky” und „Tattoo”. „The Who Sell Out” wurde vom langjährigen Who-Ingenieur Jon Astley mit den Originalbändern gemastert und ist in einer Originalhülle mit Obi und Echtheitszertifikat
verpackt

Diese schwarze Vinyl-Version wurde von Miles Showell in den Abbey Road Studios mit einer Half-SpeedMastering-Technik gemastert, die einen hochwertigen Vinylschnitt ergibt.

'Hallival' is the long awaited debut album from Leeds based folk singer
and songwriter Iona Lane, Having found herself fascinated by folklore
and folk stories from across the UK 'Hallival' is inspired by natural
landscapes, scientific discoveries, equality, human relationships and the
supernatural, all tied together by a strong sense of place and a love for
being in wild places - creating something truly special.The name 'Hallival'
is taken after one of the mountains on the Isle of Rum, which inspired the
writing for the opening track 'Western Tidal Swell'
Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis, amongst others, selected 'Western Tidal Swell' to
win Feis Rois'/NatureScots' In Tune With Nature competition in 2020.With Andy
Bell on production, Iona and her band ventured to Watercolour Music (Ardgour,
Highlands) for a week of recording in April 2020. The studio was chosen due to
it's stunning location - every day the team woke up to herds of deers guarding the
studio, ever changing weather and phenomenal views over to Ben Nevis 'Hallival'.
The lead single from the album 'Humankind', featuring Jenny Sturgeon on
backing vocals, was written from the depths of the Lake District in Wasdale just
before the first lockdown. Being the closing track on the album, it reflects on how
important humans are to each other and the kindness that we can bring
particularly whilst feeling isolated, a feeling that we all know too well after the
past couple of years.
'Schiehallion' was written after discovering the Schiehallion Experiment that was
carried out in 1774. During the experiment scientists from the Royal Society used
the shape and location of Schiehallion to calculate the mass of the Earth for the
first time. After a summer of calculations on the hill, the scientists and locals had
a party in a nearby bothy. The fiddler got so drunk that they burnt their violin and
the bothy to the ground. 'Schiehallion' features Lauren MacColl on fiddle and
Rachel Newton on harp.
Stemmed from being read 'Stone Girl Bone Girl, The Life of Mary Anning' by
Laurence Ann Holt as a child, Iona's song 'Mary Anning' focuses on the life of the
groundbreaking paleontologist who lived and worked in Lyme Regis in the 1800s.
Mary made vast contributions to the scientific world, however, due to her being a
woman she was unable to present her findings and would often end up selling
them to her male colleagues. Up until very recently Mary Anning has had little
credit for her work.
Having studied under the tuition of Nancy Kerr, Jim Moray and Stuart McCallum,
Iona has been praised throughout the scene for her delicate yet powerful vocals,
which have captivated audiences up and down the country.
Iona was chosen by Karine Polwart to receive the Taran Guitars Young Players
Bursary 2020. Since receiving the bursary luthier Rory Dowling, of Taran Guitars,
has designed and built a bespoke instrument for Iona's music.

It's hard to believe it's taken this long for a proper retrospective of legendary Los Angeles collective CVE. "We Represent Billions" is a crucial portrait of one of the West Coast's most low-key influential crews - a hydra-like collective of rappers, producers, designers and engineers who were key members of the Good Life Cafe's open mic scene, going on to inspire artists like Jurassic 5, Kendrick Lamar amongst many other. Initially called Chillin Villain Posse before morphing into Chillin Villain Empire in the late 1980s, they eventually centered around the core trio of Riddlore, NgaFsh and Tray-Loc. The crew were years ahead of their time, self-producing music without samples and pioneering a stream of consciousness lyrics that still sound fresh and innovative. CVE were self-sufficient and motivated from the beginning, named "Chillin Villains" because that's how they were perceived by white America. This social motivation was channeled into their groundbreaking performances at Good Life Cafe, the South Central session that evolved into Project Blowed and later on came to influence LA club night 'Low End Theory'. It was chronicled by Ava Duvernay, herself an MC in short-lived duo Figures of Speech, in her "This is the Life" documentary, where she interviewed CVE alongside Jurassic 5, Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Rude and Busdriver. On "We Represent Billions", we're treated to a snapshot of the CVE sound from 1993-2003, their most prolific era. The retrospective collects music from the handful of albums the crew released on their own Afterlife Recordz label (mostly as limited edition CD-R's) plus many previously unreleased tracks and highlights their untethered eccentric creativity and sheer breadth of influence. Whether twisting twitchy West Coast electro on 'All Over Da Globe' or free associating over horror synths and foley sounds on 'Made in Chillz Ville' there's a sense that their music was just too future for its time. Assembled from heaving industrial samples and graced by back-and-forth tongue twisting flows, 'Thugs and Clips' is as eerie and hard-hitting as anything 2Pac's "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" full-length. Fuzzed-out and unsettling, 'Calistylics' welds an ambient synth loop and bone-rattling percussion to Tricky-esque percussion, while the flickering closer 'Unicycle' is a cross between Dr. Dre's icy G-gunk pressure and Three 6 Mafia's pitch black lo-fi funk. In many ways, 2022 is the perfect time to rediscover this music: an urgent, creative fusion of spine-tingling pre-grime electronic minimalism and mind bending wordplay that still sounds completely idiosyncratic and utterly alien. Tracks: 1 All Over Da Globe 2 Thugs and Clips 3 C.V. Vault 4 Made in Chillz Ville 5 Bring It On 6 Calistylics 7 No Feelins 8 Let's Get It On 9 Today Was A Fucked Up Day 10 Untitled (Freestyle) 11 Unicycle

It's hard to believe it's taken this long for a proper retrospective of legendary Los Angeles collective CVE. "We Represent Billions" is a crucial portrait of one of the West Coast's most low-key influential crews - a hydra-like collective of rappers, producers, designers and engineers who were key members of the Good Life Cafe's open mic scene, going on to inspire artists like Jurassic 5, Kendrick Lamar amongst many other. Initially called Chillin Villain Posse before morphing into Chillin Villain Empire in the late 1980s, they eventually centered around the core trio of Riddlore, NgaFsh and Tray-Loc. The crew were years ahead of their time, self-producing music without samples and pioneering a stream of consciousness lyrics that still sound fresh and innovative. CVE were self-sufficient and motivated from the beginning, named "Chillin Villains" because that's how they were perceived by white America. This social motivation was channeled into their groundbreaking performances at Good Life Cafe, the South Central session that evolved into Project Blowed and later on came to influence LA club night 'Low End Theory'. It was chronicled by Ava Duvernay, herself an MC in short-lived duo Figures of Speech, in her "This is the Life" documentary, where she interviewed CVE alongside Jurassic 5, Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Rude and Busdriver. On "We Represent Billions", we're treated to a snapshot of the CVE sound from 1993-2003, their most prolific era. The retrospective collects music from the handful of albums the crew released on their own Afterlife Recordz label (mostly as limited edition CD-R's) plus many previously unreleased tracks and highlights their untethered eccentric creativity and sheer breadth of influence. Whether twisting twitchy West Coast electro on 'All Over Da Globe' or free associating over horror synths and foley sounds on 'Made in Chillz Ville' there's a sense that their music was just too future for its time. Assembled from heaving industrial samples and graced by back-and-forth tongue twisting flows, 'Thugs and Clips' is as eerie and hard-hitting as anything 2Pac's "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" full-length. Fuzzed-out and unsettling, 'Calistylics' welds an ambient synth loop and bone-rattling percussion to Tricky-esque percussion, while the flickering closer 'Unicycle' is a cross between Dr. Dre's icy G-gunk pressure and Three 6 Mafia's pitch black lo-fi funk. In many ways, 2022 is the perfect time to rediscover this music: an urgent, creative fusion of spine-tingling pre-grime electronic minimalism and mind bending wordplay that still sounds completely idiosyncratic and utterly alien. Tracks: 1 All Over Da Globe 2 Thugs and Clips 3 C.V. Vault 4 Made in Chillz Ville 5 Bring It On 6 Calistylics 7 No Feelins 8 Let's Get It On 9 Today Was A Fucked Up Day 10 Untitled (Freestyle) 11 Unicycle

For Selected Works first LP we are releasing a holy grail of South African Garage Rock. An extremely rare oddity, The Black Hawks produced an amazing album on the CBS blue label imprint in 1969. Full of rawkus garage rock, and jangly surf instrumentals this record is the perfect debut for the label. Record is released on a run of 100 coloured vinyl records with tip on jackets, as well as a run of 400 black vinyl records. In association with Gallo records. Deluxe vinyl repress based on the original CBS release with all original artwork and Tip On covers.

Matmos are one of the most prominent experimental electronic artists working today, crafting work by creating new conceptual frameworks & immediately testing those frameworks absolute limits. For Regards / Uklony dla Boguslaw Schaeffer they've focused on another artist known, in large part, for doing the same. Boguslaw Schaeffer was one of the first Polish artists creating electronic music. In step with American contemporaries like John Cage and Morton Feldman, he worked across the boundaries of classical composition, electronic experimentation, and radical theater in playfully form-breaking ways. Matmos are not the first ones to recognize the power of his catalog, from Solo (a 2008 documentary that garnered numerous international awards), to the annual Shaeffer's Era Festival (most recently celebrated simultaneously in Warsaw and Los Angeles) his work continues to inspire. Regards.. however, was not just inspired by his work, Matmos were given access to the entirity of Schaeffer's recorded works to use as they saw fit, commissioned by the prestigious Instytutu Adama Mickiewicza. They re-assembled & re-combined these recorded works with modern instrumentations in a way that only Matmos could, and what emerges is a composite portrait of the utopian 1960s Polish avant-garde and the contemporary dystopian cultural moment regarding each other across a distance. To facilitate the transcultural exchange that is the album's essential premise, all song titles and liner-notes are provided in both English and Polish. The album was mastered by Rashad Becker and features illustration and design by acclaimed artist Robert Beatty (Tame Impala, Osees, Mdou Moctar). Like the anagrams of the letters of Boguslaw Schaeffer's name that were re-assembled to create some of the song titles, the album itself is a musical re-assemblage of component parts into possible but unforeseen new shapes. Adding harp from Irish harpist Una Monaghan, erhu, viola and violin from Turkish multi-instrumentalist Ulas Kurugullu, and electronic processes from Baltimore instrument builder Will Schorre, and Horse Lords wunderkind Max Eilbacher, the resulting arrangements constantly toy with scale as they move from the close-mic-ing of ASMR and the intimacy of chamber music to the immensity of processed drones and oceanic field-recordings that close the album. Offering a "life review" of production styles, Regards / Uklony dla Boguslaw Schaeffer builds temporary shelters out of the panoramic wreckage of modernist composition, sixties tape music, seventies dub, eighties industrial music, nineties postrock and dark ambient, 2000s era glitch fetishism, and contemporary post-everything collage sensibilities.

TRANSMISSION REISSUE CLASSIC INSTRUMENTAL COMPILATION
FROM THE LEGENDARY PORCUPINE TREE

'Voyage 34', an instrumental composition from 1992/93, is a journey split into 4 phases that rocks for over an hour, this was P.T.'s entry into the ambient trance genre popularised by artists such as the Orb. Combining trance rhythms alongside more typical Porcupine Tree textures & guitar solos, 'Voyage 34' was a big hit in the ambient/ chill out club scene of the early 1990's (when it was originally issued across two 12" singles). Following the now sold-out first box set
of Porcupine Tree's 'Delerium Years' & the near sold-out second box set, Kscope are re-releasing the band's records from the era, including 'Voyage 34', as a series of LP's presented in gatefold packaging.

This double LP version features the tracks remastered by Steven Wilson in 2016 with more naturalistic dynamics & EQ - remasters previously only available in 'The Delerium Years 1991 – 1993' box set.

The artwork was completely redesigned for the original re-release & contains new images from long- term collaborator of Porcupine Tree frontman & founding member Steven Wilson, Lasse Hoile.

In Wilson's own words, "The whole point about 'Voyage 34' was an exercise in genre. In that sense it stands apart from the rest of the catalogue...back in the early Nineties, there was an explosion in ambient music, a fusion of electronic music & techno music with the philosophy of people like Brian Eno & Tangerine Dream. "

Black Screen Records and Kaizen Game Works have once again teamed up to release Barry "Epoch" Topping's new album About That... Paradise Killer B-Sides - featuring three new songs, vocal tracks, instrumental versions, remixes and piano arrangements, and a lot of amazing guests (Fiona Lynch, Kyle Murray-Dickson, Fabian Hernandez, Ged Cartwright, Thomas Temple, MEEBEE and Okumura) - on limited edition translucent violet 180g vinyl with gorgeous cover art by José Salot. Paradise is blinking out of existence but we must not cry. The day has not yet finished. There is still music to be played. Listen to it. Let the warm embrace of luxurious sounds caress you as you stand on the precipice of an abyss too dreadful to imagine. Hold my hand again. Repeat that album. Paradise can last forever if we believe hard enough.

When words trail off at the beginning of claire rousay’s »everything perfect is already here«, ornate instrumentation is waiting to fill a void left by the breakdown of language. Yet it becomes clear as we trace rousay’s collaged sonic pathway that breakdown, of meaning and also of melody, is also a place to rest. everything perfect… is made up of two extended compositions that cycle between familiarity and unknowing. There are seemingly infinite ways to feel in response to these pieces of music, which shift tone across their languid duration, earnest like a familiar song but unbound from the emotional didacticisms of lyrical voice and pop form.

rousay builds a fluid landscape around the acoustic contributions of Alex Cunningham (violin), Mari Maurice (electronics and violin), Marilu Donovan (harp), and Theodore Cale Schafer (piano), whose respective melodies weave gently in and out, sometimes steady, sometimes aching, sometimes receding altogether in deference to less overtly musical sounds. That is, percussive texture in the form of unvarnished samples and field recordings: the rattle and rustle and the stops and starts of life unfurling, voices sharing memories nearly out of reach, doors closing, wind against a microphone. Everything comes from somewhere in particular, possessing the veneer of the diaristic, but sound’s provenance is secondary here and so these details become tangled and fused. On this release I hear such details not as individual ornaments or stories but the collective architecture of the greater composition. It’s an architecture that is not quite formed and thus full of openings out to the world unfolding.

“The world unfolding,” that’s a kind way of saying change, movement, loss, transformation. Things rousay here indexes, not without shards of desire or pain, still somehow what I hear is coarse peace in the in-between. These two pieces sweep you away and then bring you to earth, but which is which, anyway? Where am I now? What is different outside of me? What is different inside of me? Um. I think. everything is perfect is already here, like the answers to these questions, is loose and beautiful in surprising ways.

The music guides a certain experience of the world around. In claire’s music there is this marriage—not just a pairing or juxtaposition but an interrelationship, an eventual confusion—of song/texture, narrative/abstraction, figure/ground. Everything comes from somewhere in particular but not just the voices, the field recordings, the what is being said or meant, what matters is the where you are now. There are so many ways of anchoring oneself in the present, some have to do with fantasy or storytelling and some with accepting what is.

These two compositions find peace between these modes. They sweep you away and then bring you to earth, but which is which, anyway? Their mode of feeling is inquisitive. Where am I now? What has changed outside of me? What has changed inside of me? The music, like the answers to these questions, is loose and beautiful in surprising ways.

"Rob wollte, dass sich die Welt von The Northman rau und ungemütlich anfühlt, als wäre es mit Schlamm und getrocknetem Blut bedeckt, also war es wichtig, dass die Musik dies widerspiegelt." Die Komponisten Robin Carolan (Tri-Angle Records) und Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel) wurden vor eine Aufgabe epischen Ausmaßes gestellt, als Regisseur Rob Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) sie bat, die Filmmusik für seinen ehrgeizigen Film The Northman zu schreiben. Sie mussten eine Filmmusik schaffen, die sowohl die immensen Recherchen zur Authentizität dieses historischen Stücks aus der Wikingerzeit würdigte; als auch den filmischen Maximalismus des Films für ein modernes Publikum ergänzte. Die Künstler gingen bis an die Grenzen ihrer Kreativität und das Ergebnis ist ein wunderschönes Klangbild, das den Hörer mitten in den Film versetzt. Beim Arrangieren der Partitur zogen die Komponisten den Musiker und Ethnographen Poul Hoxbro zu Rate, um sich inspirieren zu lassen und einen Einblick in die Geschichte der Wikingermusik zu erhalten. Da Robin und Sebastian aus dem Bereich der elektronischen Musik kommen, waren sie keinerlei Beschränkung auf eine kleine Auswahl von Musikinstrumenten unterworfen, nutzten diese aber als Ausgangsbasis. "Elektronische Musik hat ein fast grenzenloses Potenzial, wenn es darum geht, Klänge zu erzeugen, und das ist natürlich eine unglaubliche Sache, aber man kann auch in ein Wurmloch geraten und sich darin manchmal verlieren. Diese Gefahr besteht nicht, wenn man nur ein paar Hauptinstrumente hat, auf die man zurückgreifen kann" so Robin Carolan. Sie benutzten traditionelle Instrumente wie die Tagelharpa, die Langspil, die Kravik-Lyra und die Säckpip, um die filmische Welt von The Northman zu erschaffen, aber sie nahmen sich auch kreative Freiheiten, indem sie Instrumente wie Trommeln hinzufügten, von denen einige Wissenschaftler glauben, dass sie in der Musikkultur der Wikinger keine große Rolle gespielt hätten, einfach weil es keine archäologischen Beweise für echte Trommeln gibt. "Eines der Stücke sollte den Klang eines Bullroarers nachahmen; ein uraltes Instrument, das in heiligen Ritualen oder in der Schlacht zur Einschüchterung von Feinden eingesetzt wird. Es erzeugt einen wirklich verwirrenden, röhrenden Vibrato-Sound und tiefe Frequenzen, die wahnsinnige Entfernungen zurücklegen können." sagt Robin auf die Frage nach einem der einzigartigeren Aspekte der Partitur. Alle Beteiligten haben so viel Mühe in ihre Recherchen und ihre Kreativität gesteckt, und dieser Reichtum ist in jedem Stück offensichtlich. Das Album als Ganzes ist ein cineastisches Meisterwerk aus Klang und Atmosphäre, wunderschön und verstörend zugleich, genau wie der Film, den es so wunderbar begleitet.

"Rob wollte, dass sich die Welt von The Northman rau und ungemütlich anfühlt, als wäre es mit Schlamm und getrocknetem Blut bedeckt, also war es wichtig, dass die Musik dies widerspiegelt." Die Komponisten Robin Carolan (Tri-Angle Records) und Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel) wurden vor eine Aufgabe epischen Ausmaßes gestellt, als Regisseur Rob Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) sie bat, die Filmmusik für seinen ehrgeizigen Film The Northman zu schreiben. Sie mussten eine Filmmusik schaffen, die sowohl die immensen Recherchen zur Authentizität dieses historischen Stücks aus der Wikingerzeit würdigte; als auch den filmischen Maximalismus des Films für ein modernes Publikum ergänzte. Die Künstler gingen bis an die Grenzen ihrer Kreativität und das Ergebnis ist ein wunderschönes Klangbild, das den Hörer mitten in den Film versetzt. Beim Arrangieren der Partitur zogen die Komponisten den Musiker und Ethnographen Poul Hoxbro zu Rate, um sich inspirieren zu lassen und einen Einblick in die Geschichte der Wikingermusik zu erhalten. Da Robin und Sebastian aus dem Bereich der elektronischen Musik kommen, waren sie keinerlei Beschränkung auf eine kleine Auswahl von Musikinstrumenten unterworfen, nutzten diese aber als Ausgangsbasis. "Elektronische Musik hat ein fast grenzenloses Potenzial, wenn es darum geht, Klänge zu erzeugen, und das ist natürlich eine unglaubliche Sache, aber man kann auch in ein Wurmloch geraten und sich darin manchmal verlieren. Diese Gefahr besteht nicht, wenn man nur ein paar Hauptinstrumente hat, auf die man zurückgreifen kann" so Robin Carolan. Sie benutzten traditionelle Instrumente wie die Tagelharpa, die Langspil, die Kravik-Lyra und die Säckpip, um die filmische Welt von The Northman zu erschaffen, aber sie nahmen sich auch kreative Freiheiten, indem sie Instrumente wie Trommeln hinzufügten, von denen einige Wissenschaftler glauben, dass sie in der Musikkultur der Wikinger keine große Rolle gespielt hätten, einfach weil es keine archäologischen Beweise für echte Trommeln gibt. "Eines der Stücke sollte den Klang eines Bullroarers nachahmen; ein uraltes Instrument, das in heiligen Ritualen oder in der Schlacht zur Einschüchterung von Feinden eingesetzt wird. Es erzeugt einen wirklich verwirrenden, röhrenden Vibrato-Sound und tiefe Frequenzen, die wahnsinnige Entfernungen zurücklegen können." sagt Robin auf die Frage nach einem der einzigartigeren Aspekte der Partitur. Alle Beteiligten haben so viel Mühe in ihre Recherchen und ihre Kreativität gesteckt, und dieser Reichtum ist in jedem Stück offensichtlich. Das Album als Ganzes ist ein cineastisches Meisterwerk aus Klang und Atmosphäre, wunderschön und verstörend zugleich, genau wie der Film, den es so wunderbar begleitet.

"Rob wollte, dass sich die Welt von The Northman rau und ungemütlich anfühlt, als wäre es mit Schlamm und getrocknetem Blut bedeckt, also war es wichtig, dass die Musik dies widerspiegelt." Die Komponisten Robin Carolan (Tri-Angle Records) und Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel) wurden vor eine Aufgabe epischen Ausmaßes gestellt, als Regisseur Rob Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) sie bat, die Filmmusik für seinen ehrgeizigen Film The Northman zu schreiben. Sie mussten eine Filmmusik schaffen, die sowohl die immensen Recherchen zur Authentizität dieses historischen Stücks aus der Wikingerzeit würdigte; als auch den filmischen Maximalismus des Films für ein modernes Publikum ergänzte. Die Künstler gingen bis an die Grenzen ihrer Kreativität und das Ergebnis ist ein wunderschönes Klangbild, das den Hörer mitten in den Film versetzt. Beim Arrangieren der Partitur zogen die Komponisten den Musiker und Ethnographen Poul Hoxbro zu Rate, um sich inspirieren zu lassen und einen Einblick in die Geschichte der Wikingermusik zu erhalten. Da Robin und Sebastian aus dem Bereich der elektronischen Musik kommen, waren sie keinerlei Beschränkung auf eine kleine Auswahl von Musikinstrumenten unterworfen, nutzten diese aber als Ausgangsbasis. "Elektronische Musik hat ein fast grenzenloses Potenzial, wenn es darum geht, Klänge zu erzeugen, und das ist natürlich eine unglaubliche Sache, aber man kann auch in ein Wurmloch geraten und sich darin manchmal verlieren. Diese Gefahr besteht nicht, wenn man nur ein paar Hauptinstrumente hat, auf die man zurückgreifen kann" so Robin Carolan. Sie benutzten traditionelle Instrumente wie die Tagelharpa, die Langspil, die Kravik-Lyra und die Säckpip, um die filmische Welt von The Northman zu erschaffen, aber sie nahmen sich auch kreative Freiheiten, indem sie Instrumente wie Trommeln hinzufügten, von denen einige Wissenschaftler glauben, dass sie in der Musikkultur der Wikinger keine große Rolle gespielt hätten, einfach weil es keine archäologischen Beweise für echte Trommeln gibt. "Eines der Stücke sollte den Klang eines Bullroarers nachahmen; ein uraltes Instrument, das in heiligen Ritualen oder in der Schlacht zur Einschüchterung von Feinden eingesetzt wird. Es erzeugt einen wirklich verwirrenden, röhrenden Vibrato-Sound und tiefe Frequenzen, die wahnsinnige Entfernungen zurücklegen können." sagt Robin auf die Frage nach einem der einzigartigeren Aspekte der Partitur. Alle Beteiligten haben so viel Mühe in ihre Recherchen und ihre Kreativität gesteckt, und dieser Reichtum ist in jedem Stück offensichtlich. Das Album als Ganzes ist ein cineastisches Meisterwerk aus Klang und Atmosphäre, wunderschön und verstörend zugleich, genau wie der Film, den es so wunderbar begleitet.

Tiptoe between the toadstools of Liverpool’s city parks, and amongst the foliage you might find a Strawberry Guy, contemplating his next chord-progression. Composing hi-fi symphonies from within his humble abode, the Welsh-born songwriter is ready to share the fruits of his labour with debut album Sun Outside My Window. A timeless vista of ethereal balladry looking towards 19th Century musical maestros and works of art, it brings new meaning to the term ‘Modern Classic’ and is the most optimistic of lockdown records yet.
“It’s about seeing the simple things in life and them making you happy,” tells Alex Stephens, the Guy behind the Strawberry. “I remember this day when I was really down… looking out the window, the sun beaming in was beautiful, it made me want to go outside – it was simple but made me so happy in that instance.”
A one-man impressionist, painting majestic soundscapes, Strawberry Guy blends truthful lyrics with lush arrangements to conjure new emotive worlds. Inspired by composers of the Romantic period, or Debussy, Ravel, and other classical artists of the 1800s, his wonderland moves like a Monet painting where arpeggios dance between meadows of dazzling dynamics and dramatic key changes. As former keyboard player of The Orielles and Trudy and The Romance, the light through his floor to ceiling windows has caused a dramatic Greenhouse Effect and now ripening on solo terms, his innocent uploads of ‘Without You’ and ‘F-Song’ comfort 2 million Spotify listeners a month. ‘Mrs Magic’ has received 40 million streams, landing at #13 in its chart and countless fan-created videos have appeared on YouTube. “Throughout history composers have tried to capture emotion, painting their own impressionist pictures with musical brush strokes… I guess I’m just trying to do the same and people enjoy that,” he suggests modestly.
Named by musical friends Her’s after his impeccable taste in milkshakes, Strawberry Guy upturns ‘bedroom artist’ perception, as each idea is crafted into a widescreen wonder where vocals tag-team instrumentals and countermelodies flourish within the Georgian walls of his Liverpool flat’s small space. “I want it to sound like I’ve squeezed an 80-piece orchestra into my room, and for listeners to wonder how all those strings got there,” he says. “Working on the 4-part harmonies, the orchestra became real; I began believing in myself.”
Imitating nature’s effect on emotion, like 70s songwriters, or the fantastical soundtracks accompanying vibrant scenes in the Japanese animated Studio Ghibli films and video games, landscape is brought to the fore. Monet’s picturesque Meadow at Giverny features as the album’s accompanying artwork – perhaps a reminder of the rural Welsh countryside views through his childhood home’s window; “I was inspired by how calm and peaceful the image felt. Its painted lines show real-life scenes in a magical way, which to me reflects my music.”
Just as the first Strawberry Guy EP Taking My Time To Be offered a slowing down for the soul, Sun Outside My Window is musically unhurried, written and recorded over 2 years. “Recording as a lone berry meant I could run with my emotions in the moment and deliver something true; it would have been an entirely different album had it been recorded in a studio,” he says.
Modern Classic? Only time will tell. For now this Guy’s happy-sad world is here to get the juices flowing and with, pandemic permitting, a US tour in 2022, life looks a whole lot sweeter. Until then, take it slow, be at one with the wilderness and remember, when life gives you lemons, swap them for Strawberries.

South American Jazz & Bossanova flavours from 60s & 70s in Liguria, north west Italy. Melody sounds really close to Brazilian Portuguese and instrumental tracks smells of South American Jazz.
Nonetheless, the sound landscape clearly reflects the Italian Library Music of the time. This mingling was made possible by the commercial and cultural interconnections during the discovery of the New World: the local Ligurian language was influenced by new stimuli from the new territories and vice-versa. Moreover, from the end of the Nineteenth Century, a strong migration of Italians involved South America, with numbers comparable to the Italian migration in the USA, but less known because less represented in films or narrative.
As a result of these connections, these songs sound mellow, carioca and exotic, based on the phonetics of one of the most musical, folkloric and peculiar Italian dialects.
The artwork project is a homage to lithographs and ADV that were inspired by the first tourist and migration trips departing from Genoa towards Rio De Janeiro. The lithographs were recovered by “L’Image” an existing art gallery in Alassio, a small town in Liguria.
"Bossa Ligure" can be seen as a micro-genre and a different form and aesthetic of Brazilian music, which is unknown to many, but that we would like to make available with this collectanea. A musical and a
cultural expression which reveals a strong influence and connection to the Brasileiro sound in an unexpected territory.

Minru is the project of Caroline Blomqvist, a Swedish musician based in Berlin. Woven from light and shadow, the interplay of her folk and indie-rock blend appears from a personal space of finding life after death. On her debut LP »Liminality« she paints melody in soft tones, whispering secrets to navigate feelings of loss.

Built around winding layers of acoustic guitar, piano, and strings, Minru is a surprisingly uplifting and stirring testament to Blomqvist’s own suffering from the passing of someone close to her. Returning to Berlin from Sweden feelings of grief, confusion, and pain travelled with her, and these emotions prompted the journey both of and within the album, heard as a dreamlike actualisation of wandering lost between them. "I read that Carl Jung used the word "»Liminality«” to describe the psychological process of transitioning. I instantly felt seen; it reflected my own experience and the feelings I carried whilst making the album – a sense of the old certainties being gone, but the new not being quite there yet,” she says.

Defined as "the threshold separating one space from another" »Liminality« moves between feeling the ground beneath your feet fall away, fighting through the darkness and the doubt, and the emerging shades of hope and light as you painstakingly make peace with mortality and find yourself as a person again. "I am happy to have encapsulated this moment of time in sound," Blomqvist says, "it will always be there as a memory."

Flourishing from a preferred position of solitude, »Liminality« sees Blomqvist’s vision radiate with intensity from her home-based studio in Neukölln - a small, 2-room apartment with squeaky old wooden floors. Capturing the intimacy of the space, she recorded vocals and synth on gear partly borrowed from friends (to swiftly reunite it with its owners), and the songs flow with a stream of consciousness as feelings become entwined with melody. Time-restraint drew the process to a natural close, preventing Blomqvist from losing herself to experimentation. “Maybe I would have been stuck in »Liminality«, trying out sounds forever,” she suggests of the way ‘Into the well’s instrumental swims into a warm stream of synth pads. "It’s the cosiest moment on the album,” she says, “Cosy is a feeling I always strive for in life."

Finished and self-produced at a Berlin-Lichtenberg recording studio alongside musical friends (Povel Widestrand, Tobias Blessing, Sunniva Lilian Shaw Of-Tordarroch, Marlene Becher and Liv Solveig Wagner), the result is beautifully detailed and rich like the folk of her Swedish roots. First picking up a guitar as a kid and becoming obsessed with it, she would skip school to spend extra hours mastering the instrument, grappling to perfect the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ intro. “As a child I was fascinated by my dad’s acoustic guitars around the house and would hit the strings to make them sound,” she recalls. After attending music high school in Gothenburg and playing in bands during her teens, Blomqvist later moved to Germany. As well as enjoying walks at Tempelhofer Feld and coffee at Leuchtstoff café, she performed with Tuvaband, Adna, and Tara Nome Doyle and played in Berlin venues Loophole and Schokoladen, where music became her world. With the passing of time she felt a growing urge to find an outlet for her own songs; Minru was the answer along with her first »Yearnings« EP.

Now writing whenever she returns to Sweden, within the calm and stillness of her family’s mountainside cabin, her skilfully constructed arrangements summon the comforting atmosphere of home. “I hope listeners will feel inspired to slow down a bit, create, draw, cook something. Just be in the moment that is now.” »Liminality« is the kind of record that rewards attention. Give this album your time, it will give you its soul.

Clear Vinyl

"Flux" is the 1981 debut solo outing of Robert Turman, an American multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer. Until recently, Turman was perhaps best known for his contributions to the ballistic NON project with Boyd Rice, as well as other obscured U.S. industrial acts such as Z.O. Voider.

In the summer of 1981 Turman decided he would take a drastic turn from the noisy/electronic/industrial work of his compatriots, and began work on what is now the classic "Flux" cassette. "Flux" was originally self-released in extremely limited numbers. Weary of the noisescapes of old, he set out to create long-form minimalism utilizing kalimba, piano, "Mini-Pops Jr." drum machine, and tape loops to create a complex bed of interweaving micro-stasis'. The results of these new experiments were as beautiful as they were perplexing.

A curious dusty fidelity carries these classic tracks across four sides of vinyl, including all of the original "Flux" content. These compositions glow with a sprawling, slow motion haze that's light years ahead of its time. "Flux" reveals wide spectrums of sound from melancholic kalimba and percussion patterns to slowed down, syrupy Exotica. Turman had complex ideas in his mind yet only the simple technologies of the day were at hand. Hear the click of the stopping and starting Tascam 3340 open-reel tape machine as one hand presses the "record" and "play" buttons and the other plays piano phrases. While there are similarities in style to Classical Minimalism, Turman's sound and vision is his own and is exclusive to his limited discography.

Released in a limited edition 2xLP set. Lovingly remastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering from the original C-60 cassette master. Original cassette artwork and scans provided by Aaron Dilloway.

Spectrum Spools released in association with Editions Mego

After having released solo albums on Western Vinyl and Preservation, Domes presents the first entirely instrumental work of the California based multi-instrumentalist Heather Woods Broderick.

Domes is a collection of meditative pieces based around the cello. While not being her primary instrument, the cello holds a very special place for the artist. Throughout the past 2 years, Heather often felt the need to find moments of respite in response to the chaotic and turbulent times we all faced in that period. Her days started or ended with the cello. A single melody initiated a process in which new elements were gradually added to the initial loop until the sounds filled her up. This process and the instrumental nature of these pieces opened the path for self-reflection and enabled her to express emotions outside the world of words or lyrics:

“The cyclical nature of the loop combined with the sound feeling like it’s surrounding me feels serene and safe. My hope is that listeners experience this as well.” - Heather Woods Broderick

Domes is a documentation of that period and offers 7 pieces which to the artist feels like dense masses – strong grounding sounds that can hold weight or be used to disperse weight - in an emotional sense. The album title, Domes, reflects this idea as domes are made out of triangles – the strongest shapes in the physical world. Coincidentally, there are 7 different triangles. As such, the pieces on Domes each reflect a different triangle, a different strongest shape which offers the listener a solid basis to find rest and calmness.

Heather Woods Broderick is a composer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Growing up in a family of musicians, music took root in Heather’s life at a very young age. Evenings spent singing along to her parents folk music collection began to shape her sense of song as a child. After many years of classical piano training, she began to expand her musical toolkit by learning to play guitar, cello, and flute among others. Deeply influenced by rich tapestries of the natural world, she excels at crafting sonic landscapes that reflect both lushness and intimacy. Heather has released three solo albums to date, and over the years has recorded and toured extensively around the world with a multitude of artists including Sharon Van Etten, Efterklang, Alela Diane, Horse Feathers, Damien Jurado, Lisa Hannigan, Laura Gibson, and more.

Historical power metal force CIVIL WAR enter their fourth battle with Invaders! Swedish historical modern power metal outfit CIVIL WAR fly the flags of international strife once again with their brand new, fourth album, Invaders, set for release on June 17, 2022 via Napalm Records. The band founded by former members of Sabaton returns with 10 new wartime anthems detailing harrowing stories of sorrow and tales of turbulent triumph from around the globe, as well as human nature itself. Invaders marks the band’s first album with masterful frontman Kelly Sundown Carpenter and formidable shredder Thobbe Englund (ex-Sabaton), and grips with riveting accounts ranging from Viking invasions and the greed of powerful nations to legendary Native American battles and magical Arthurian fantasy – all amid a profusion of enthrallingly dynamic vocals, epic soundscapes and impressive, technical instrumentals. The album starts off with the captivating “Oblivion”, inviting the listener into an apocalyptic world with its exotic, menacing sound, strong vocals and heavy guitar riffs. Packed with epic symphonic power, Invaders continues with the war anthem “Dead Man’s Glory”, telling a story of Irish resistance – fighting to preserve their way of life against a Viking invasion. The album rages on with the retelling of a legendary Native American victory at the Battle of the Wabash on the fast-paced “Invaders” and then settles into the pulsating, atmospheric “Heart of Darkness” before arriving at “Andersonville” – recounting the horrors of Confederate prisoner-of-war camp Andersonville Prison through the letters of a Union soldier to his wife. This song soars as a massive power ballad with heart-rending symphonics, choirs and emotive vocals. “Battle of Life” delivers the grand finale of Invaders as a pummeling, fiery power metal pinnacle, summoning listeners of all walks of life to persevere and call on inner strength in times of trouble. In keeping with the album’s Native American theme, the Western-inspired heavy metal battle cry “Custer’s Last Stand” sees its 10th anniversary re-recording and re-release as a bonus track, entrancing the listener with Carpenter’s passionate vocal delivery, searing guitar harmonics, keyboard fanfares and tribal drums. With Invaders, CIVIL WAR prove they’ve once again etched a position all their own in the annals of modern power and heavy metal while proving their deft storytelling skill and knack for engaging lyricism. Invaders is a must-listen! .

MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL ANALOGUE MASTER TAPES AND PRESSED ON MOFI SUPERVINYL

· A Bold Celebration of Romantics, Escapists, and Dreamers: Electric Light Orchestra’s Eldorado Marries

Rock and Symphonic Elements, Includes the Aptly Titled Hit “Can’t Get It Out of My Head”

· Mastered from the Original Analog Master Tapes for Audiophile Quality: Mobile Fidelity 180g Vinyl LP and

· Melodic, Beatles-Inspired Tour de Force Features Full Orchestra and Choral Section: Arrangements and Lyrics

Transport the Listener to Faraway Horizons



Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne did more than figuratively reach for the sky on Eldorado. Daring to be bold, and creating imaginative worlds that invite the listener to escape the mundane, the visionary composer-musician achieved a multidisciplinary fantasia and, in the process, a prog-rock landmark. Nearly 50 years later, the concept album's brilliance can be experienced like never before in cinematic fashion.



Mastered from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl vinyl at RTI, and housed in a tip-on jacket, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g LP of Eldorado allows the long-time audiophile staple to resonate with previously unheard dynamics, tones, and colours. Conjuring the feeling of journeying to different horizons, the record's songs teem with layer upon layer of details, which can now be heard as the producers intended.



Presenting the album with breath-taking clarity yet retaining the warmth, texture, and emotion that differentiate live music from reproduced sounds, this collectible reissue features reference-quality levels of in-the-moment presence, grand-scale sound-staging, and instrumental balance. Bursting with a veritable cornucopia of stimuli, MoFi's Eldorado LP also benefits from superb separation and immersive atmospherics that stem from the meticulous remastering process – as well as an ultra-low noise floor, industry-leading groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces courtesy of the MoFi SuperVinyl properties.

An artistic breakthrough that established Electric Light Orchestra as a pioneering band (and confirmed Lynne as the leading practicing Beatles disciple), the 1974 effort remains notable for its involvement of a full orchestra and choral section, the range of which are captured with exquisite results on this LP. Eldorado distinguished itself from the band's first two works not only via Lynne's sharpened songwriting but due to the hiring of an orchestra that augmented the group's three string players. Co-arranged by Lynne and conductor Louis Clark, the symphonic movements bolster the contagious fare without ever drowning it. The accents also act as transports into the varied narrative universes.



Finished as a story before Lynne put notes down on paper, Eldorado ironically owes its inspiration to Lynne's father. In response to his dad's criticisms about the band, Lynne conceived a melodic tour de force that, like The Wizard of Oz, which informs the cover art, emphasizes the power of everyday dreams and everyman heroism. It's no coincidence that the sonic journey begins with an overture punctuated by the words of a cynic who condemns "the dreamer, the unwoken fool."



Beautiful yet fun, ambitious yet consistent, Eldorado proceeds to celebrate such romantics and escapists. A Technicolor escapade marked by lush melodies, fluid crescendos, and an intoxicating blend of energetic rock and sweeping orchestral elements, the album weds rich imagery and sweeping sounds in manners that make the two inseparable. In Lynne and company's hands, reality and fantasy collide, and dissolve any dividing lines. The proof is not just in the epic production, but in the timeless (and catchy) nature of songs such as the balladic "Boy Blue," power-pop packed "Illusions in G Major," and, of course, the aptly titled hit, "Can't Get It Out of My Head."



Decades later, Eldorado doubles as the equivalent of an out of body experience, an invitation to break away from monotony whether you're listening to your Mobile Fidelity reissue on a large system or an excellent pair of headphones.



MoFi SuperVinyl

Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analog lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

BBE Music presents the first ever reissue of ‘Classifieds’, an ultra-rare, privately pressed 1985 album by Moonshine aka Monica Rypma & Friends. A naive and charming dose of dreamy DIY synth-pop interspersed with off-kilter, ambient interludes, original copies of ‘Classifieds’ are now almost impossible to dig up, but lately, thanks to the internet, the album has earned a cult following from music obsessives all over the globe. Created by aspiring songwriter and recent music-school dropout Monica Rypma, incredibly the album’s recording and production was entirely financed from sponsorship and advertising, way back in 1985. Inspired by René Van Helsdingen, the Amsterdam based composer, pianist and crowd-funding pioneer, Monica decided to sell advertising space on the album sleeve and name the album 'Classifieds', designing the cover to mimic a newspaper’s small ads layout. Written and recorded in only 5 days with René Van Helsdingen collaborator, synth wizard and multi-instrumentalist Brian Batie producing, the album was engineered by Wil Hesen at Studio Farmsound in Heelsum. With Rypma assisting, Batie composed and arranged almost all of the music on the spot, and lyrics were dreamed up by Batie, Rypma and Brian’s friend Jenny Garner. With an album full of music she could be proud of, Monica called in help from friends and family to print, fold and assemble the albums. “The original cover sleeve had three coloured bands; yellow, green or pink” says Rypma. “These were not different pressings, as most people presumed, but came from the limited budget that was left for printing. As one ink ran out, another colour was used, and this method produced the three versions.” Once copies had been distributed to the record’s advertisers and sponsors, hardly any were left. Until now, that is!

"A collection of pieces about the discovery of sounds and sonic universes hidden in objects, places and within yourself." - Feldermelder & Julian Sartorius

Commissioned by the legendary concert venue Bad Bonn in Düdingen, Switzerland, and the KRAN project, 'Bonn Route' is a collaborative album by electronic musician Feldermelder and percussionist Julian Sartorius. A location- based sound walk that can be experienced both on-site in the village of Düdingen, and as a full-length album. The eleven tracks are a sonic homage to, and an artistic interpretation of, a small village in Switzerland's heartland.

Building on his practice of site-specific performances and percussive sound walks, Julian Sartorius captured sounds and patterns at eleven locations: the train station and cemetery, on the banks of a stream, on a bicycle path, and in an intimate cavern above the village's lake, amongst other locales. Sartorius documented the soundscape of the village in field recordings, recorded samples of objects and captured percussive patterns by playing on the architecture and vegetation found on-site.

Feldermelder then processed these recordings into eleven compositions, preserving the locations' acoustic identities, but expanding on Sartorius' material. Besides the bassline on 'Veloweg', Feldermelder used only sound reactive synthesis and resonators to create additional sounds, layers and tracks, thus multiplying the spectrum and rhythms of the original material. 'Bonn Route' is a musical journey rooted in the emittance of sound, and our resonation with the world around us.

Feldermelder is a Swiss musician, sound designer, producer and installation artist. He is co-founder of -OUS and part of the audiovisual collective Encor.studio. He has previously released several releases on -OUS, both solo and in collaboration with Sara Oswald.

Drummer, artist and percussionist Julian Sartorius' precise and multi-layered rhythmical patterns are keen excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, bridging the gap between organic timbres and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music. He has previously released his album "Locked Grooves" on -OUS.

‘Self Oscillation’ is made up of 5 club-ready psychedelic workouts swaying with natural momentum, from
Ecuadorian superstar Nicola Cruz, who makes his 2nd appearance on London’s Rhythm Section INTL.

The internationally renowned producer, Nicola Cruz, has been instrumental in pioneering the sound of Andean music over the last decade. Born and raised in Ecuador, Nicola has found his own unique way to tap into Latin America’s illustrious musical past to create something utterly contemporary. His previous projects have had the 4 elements running through as major themes: Fire and lava erupted during his sophomore album, Siku, with an Ecuadorian volcano doubling up as a recording space. And now, with his second Rhythm Section release, we are met with sounds of flowing water that Nicola describes as “aqueous explorations”. On this EP, ‘Self Oscillation’, Nicola Cruz fuses experimental production techniques with underwater, bass-heavy constructions. Moods change like the tides; from euphoric highs with acid riffs and latin drum patterns, the music quickly dives to moody submarine basslines and dark, frenetic rhythms.

‘Self Oscillation’ sees Nicola’s production move to new heights as he expertly bridges the gap between natural and mechanical sounds. With the help of iconic 80s and 90s synths and the retro colours of a Roland Space Echo, his newest work is a hybrid of electronic dance music and a synaesthetic image of nature. In the spirit of his previous EP on Rhythm Section INTL, ‘Self Oscillation’ showcases the synergy - or rather ongoing battle between the organic and inorganic, the analog and digital, civilisation confronted and confounded by nature. It’s within this dichotomy that Cruz revels, and manages to say so much, without words.

»Tableau« is Rolf Hansen's second full-length album under his given name and acts as a sequel to his solo debut »Elektrisk Guitar«, released in 2019 through Karaoke Kalk. On the 14 new pieces, the Copenhagen-based composer and musician further explores the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar by opting for a radically different approach and putting great limitations on himself as a performer. »Tableau« is an experimental record in the truest sense of the word, eschewing conventional modes of playing the instrument and instead turning the guitar into a sound source for compositions that are at once abstract and concrete.

Already on his last album, Hansen had found a different approach to playing and composing, but this time went even further and created a set-up in which the electric guitar becomes a different instrument altogether. This is also expressed in its title: a tableau is, broadly understood, an image-forming momentary bodily pause in a dramaturgical or narrative process. In the context of the album, tableau is the form and sound that emerge when the musician’s usual approach to playing and the compositional practice is halted and transformed. To achieve this, the guitar is placed on a table with microphones installed around it and tuned in a static microtonal modality thanks to wooden replacement frets that have been inserted under the strings. This alters how the sounds are being generated with the instrument, which is now played from above, occasionally strummed or stroked with a tool.

The opener »Begyndelse« already sets the tone by punctuating dense layers of sound with a one-note melody that provides a rough rhythmic structure and harmonic anchor for the track that still seems to mutate wildly the further it progresses. Even in moments in which Hansen opts for a more directly accessible approach like on the following »Over Grænsen« or »Tid«, the pieces’ emotional qualities are greatly amplified by their sonic idiosyncrasies. This is best exemplified by the first track on the second side of the LP, »Højre hånd«. Using high microphone gain to magnify the high-frequency acoustic sounds of the electric guitar, Hansen captured a rich near-symphonic changing spectrum of overtones. This is typical for the attention to detail put into the overall record whose approach maximises the music’s affective impact by focusing on minute nuances.

»Tableau« is full of moments marked by almost unnoticeable shifts and changes, offering a wealth of sounds that are as evocative as they come unexpectedly. Despite their aesthetic differences, the kinship between its predecessor »Elektrisk Guitar« and these 14 compositions is undeniable. Both are based on self-imposed constraints, a radical form of reduction that made it possible for Hansen to broaden his sonic palette and compositional approach. Though mostly short, concise, and abstract-sounding, the pieces on »Tableau« speak a clear, varied and simple language.

Clear Vinyl

I met Thomas Roussel in 2017 at a Pigalle fashion show in Paris. As always with Stéphane Ashpool, the designer of Pigalle, casting is perfect and the clothes are modern and groundbreaking. But my eyes and ears were intrigued by this retro-futuristic instrument next to me, the Cristal Baschet. French composer and conductor Thomas Roussel wrote the soundtrack of the show.
He add this magnificent instrument in his "not very classical" orchestra, this is what I immediately loved with him!
He invited us into his world of classical music with a fresh twist, simplicity and audacity.
At the same time I was scratching my head to find something different to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Ed Banger records.
For a long time I had this idea of mixing both electronic and classical music together. Exactly like my heroes Metallica did in 1999 with the Symphonic orchestra of San Francisco! Thomas Roussel seems the perfect man for this crazy idea. We did Ed Banger 15 together and we became friends.
Thomas Roussel grew up in Dijon, spent his days at the conservatory and his nights at L’An-Fer, one of the most respected Techno club in France. Probably the reason why he ended up working with Jeff Mills, on two projects mixing Jeff’s 909 and a classical orchestra.
By experimenting new ways of using an orchestra, by creating state-of-the-art scenography and producing more ambitious music he quickly became the man in charge of everything "classica". The list of his collaborations is too long and will ruin this little introduction.
It could sounds like this : Chanel, Apple, Cartier, Kenzo, Nike, Dior…
Performing from Paris to Macau, from Monte Carlo to Dubai and from New York to Beijing!
In 2017 Thomas Roussel released his first album as Prequell with Universal Music.
A successful collaboration that really allows Thomas Roussel to become an artist.
In 2022 Ed Banger records is proud to release Thomas Roussel "LATE METAL" a 3 tracks EP.
Where uplifting orchestration and electronic music composing collide. The perfect soundtrack of a block buster movie mixing George Lucas & Christopher Nolan generations. It’s also a marker of our time, music boundaries are explosing. It’s time to hear the London Symphony Orchestra’s strings battling with a Drum’n’Bass beat, a way to DEIFIED classical music.
It’s also a record for your eyes. Art director Andy Picci created an algorthym and gave life to a mercury abstract form. This collaboration
marks the need for Thomas Roussel to always push the boundaries and take his project to another LEVEL.

The “Tumult Hands” duet is made by Jacek Sienkiewicz and Jerzy Przezdziecki - the producers
whose composition has - to a large extent- defined the Polish techno music. Sienkiewicz - as
early as Recognition - started his adventure with music in the late 1990s. Subsequent records,
already under his own name, were released, among others, at Cocoon Records, Trapez, Klang
Elektronik and WMFRec. Przezdziecki started publishing a little later. Over the last two
decades, he has been presenting various types of electronic music, among others, as Praecox,
Epi Centrum and Jurek Przezdziecki.
“Tumult Hands” has two EPs on its account – “Tumult Hands EP” (2014) and “Tropic
Factory” (2016). Both were published by Recognition. So a full record was a matter of time.
The album titled: “TH” (Recognition, 2022) has been prepared for many years. The repertoire
was created mainly out of improvisation. As artists themselves say, “it is the result of
discovering and accepting a chance event.” For both producers, close contact with
instruments was important during their composition; the type of interaction between the maker
and an electronic device. Individual works have been maturing for a long time. Paradoxically -
the lapse of time did not cause them to be ageing but vice versa - allowed them to mature and
gain natural weight.
“TH” brings very diverse music. In part, it is the repayment of the debt that Sienkiewicz and
Przezdziecki incurred towards the most creative techno period, that is, the 90s of the 20th
century. The lovers of experimental dance music from before the quarter of the century will
easily capture in the duet’s themes the art of Cristian Vogel, producers known from the tin
series of Chain Reaction record company or early recordings of Richie Hawtin (Plastikman,
F.U.S.E.). This is a very similar, non-standard approach to sound structure and an original
approach to rhythmic structures. Minimalist melodies, accompanying e.g. the opening of the
“enter TH” or “pow” set, contribute to the composition an element of some sublimity and
metaphysical anxiety. Obviously, it is still the dance music but the duet - to some extent by
abandoning the club functionality (understood in the techno convention) - has given its music
a definitely sophisticated, artistic elegance.
Publishing cooperation between such important makers, as well as high quality of recordings,
leads us to see “TH” as something more than just another techno record. It is an event and an
electronic adventure that all lovers looking for dance music will appreciate.

Der musikalische Werdegang der japanischen Gesangskünstlerin Hatis Noit begann einst unter ganz besonderen Vorzeichen. Nun mündet diese Reise in die Veröffentlichung ihres ersten Longplayers. Das acht Stücke umfassende Debüt ist die perfekte Eintrittskarte in ihre unvergleichliche Klangwelt. Genau genommen begann die Reise mit einem Initiationserlebnis , einem musikalischen Erweckungsmoment im zarten Alter von 16 Jahren, als die Japanerin gerade pilgernd zu Buddhas Geburtsstätte in Neapel unterwegs war. Sie hatte die Nacht in einem Frauentempel verbracht und vernahm am nächsten Morgen den Sologesang einer buddhistischen Nonne: Das Jenseitige in diesen Gesängen berührte sie so sehr, dass ihr schlagartig die unvergleichbare Kraft der menschlichen Stimme bewusst wurde. Was sie da hörte, war ein wirklich ursprüngliches, auf uralten Instinkten basierendes Instrument, das uns unweigerlich mit dem Kern des Menschseins, unserer Umwelt und unserem Universum verbindet. Ab diesem Moment wusste sie, dass das Singen ihre Berufung ist. Der Albumtitel Aura ist vom Werk des Philosophen Walter Benjamin inspiriert, der darin die Essenz der Kunst erkannte, da für ihn die Aura eines Werks unter anderem durch Echtheit und Einmaligkeit geprägt war. Hatis teilt diese Auffassung, denn sie musste feststellen, dass sie "während der Pandemie wirklich sehr zu kämpfen" hatte. "Als Sängerin bin ich einfach nicht besonders gut darin, am Computer zu arbeiten. Ich ziehe Live-Auftritte in wirklichen Räumen vor. Mit anderen Menschen zusammen zu sein, denselben Raum mit ihnen zu teilen und die einzigartige Energie und Atmosphäre des jeweiligen Moments zu spüren - das ist etwas, das mich immer wieder inspiriert. Für mich bedeutet Kunst tatsächlich genau das: dieser geteilte Augenblick."

Der musikalische Werdegang der japanischen Gesangskünstlerin Hatis Noit begann einst unter ganz besonderen Vorzeichen. Nun mündet diese Reise in die Veröffentlichung ihres ersten Longplayers. Das acht Stücke umfassende Debüt ist die perfekte Eintrittskarte in ihre unvergleichliche Klangwelt. Genau genommen begann die Reise mit einem Initiationserlebnis , einem musikalischen Erweckungsmoment im zarten Alter von 16 Jahren, als die Japanerin gerade pilgernd zu Buddhas Geburtsstätte in Neapel unterwegs war. Sie hatte die Nacht in einem Frauentempel verbracht und vernahm am nächsten Morgen den Sologesang einer buddhistischen Nonne: Das Jenseitige in diesen Gesängen berührte sie so sehr, dass ihr schlagartig die unvergleichbare Kraft der menschlichen Stimme bewusst wurde. Was sie da hörte, war ein wirklich ursprüngliches, auf uralten Instinkten basierendes Instrument, das uns unweigerlich mit dem Kern des Menschseins, unserer Umwelt und unserem Universum verbindet. Ab diesem Moment wusste sie, dass das Singen ihre Berufung ist. Der Albumtitel Aura ist vom Werk des Philosophen Walter Benjamin inspiriert, der darin die Essenz der Kunst erkannte, da für ihn die Aura eines Werks unter anderem durch Echtheit und Einmaligkeit geprägt war. Hatis teilt diese Auffassung, denn sie musste feststellen, dass sie "während der Pandemie wirklich sehr zu kämpfen" hatte. "Als Sängerin bin ich einfach nicht besonders gut darin, am Computer zu arbeiten. Ich ziehe Live-Auftritte in wirklichen Räumen vor. Mit anderen Menschen zusammen zu sein, denselben Raum mit ihnen zu teilen und die einzigartige Energie und Atmosphäre des jeweiligen Moments zu spüren - das ist etwas, das mich immer wieder inspiriert. Für mich bedeutet Kunst tatsächlich genau das: dieser geteilte Augenblick."

FRENCH COMPOSER, PRODUCER AND MULTI INSTRUMENTALIST ADRIEN DURAND’S THIRD ALBUM

"Our last album, “La Course” was released in 2020 during the lockdown. Inspired by the feedback from listeners, who received the music with special attention, the idea and need for “(Loin des) Rivages” was born.” - Adrien Durand

Bon Voyage Organisation is the story of the construction of an ensemble, the quest for harmony, through music, between beings. This story has been the central leitmotif in Adrien Durand's composition and production work for almost ten years. Adrien Durand is a renowned Parisian bass keyboard player, composer, producer and mixing engineer having worked with noteworthy projects such as Amadou & Mariam and Papooz among others. Known for his knowledge of ensemble recording and arrangement techniques, BVO is his attempt at meticulously creating a musical dialogue around his compositions with a distinguished cast of musicians from di?erent backgrounds without the pressure associated with pop music recordings reminding us of the musical ensembles of the 70’s such as that of Carla Bley, Soft Machine or Irakere. (Loin des) Rivages was recorded over five days in June 2020 at Studio Atlas, the studio of Air’s Jean- Benoit Dunckel and mixed the following summer by Adrien Durand in his Parisian studio, Bureau 12. It was an orchestrated performance considering that all ten tracks of the album were played live, gathering up to thirteen musicians in the same room. The album follows what was initiated with BVO’s previous album La Course: an entirely instrumental sound free from any constraints. The close collaboration between Adrien Durand and the members of the ensemble allowed for an exquisite completion. Together, they deliver the incredible energy of "Le Sentier des Orpailleurs", the depth of melancholy of "Apacheta", and the originality of "Et s’éveillent"... Inspired by the great explorers of the soul: Sun Ra, Moondog and Coltrane - a cover of his Naïma actually opens the album - Adrien Durand mixes humanity’s first instruments (percussion and the wind) with its latest ones (mixing desks and synthesizers). Thus, he continues the most interesting yet rewarding artistic journey: The journey inward, far from the standards of civilization, in the heart of what some can take for madness, reaching into a jungle of the soul so marvelously represented in Clément Vuillet’s artwork. This is not an intellectual record but rather a spiritual e?ort, because, as Adrien Durand likes to repeat in his concerts: "Let us step into music as we step into a sanctuary."

"The past 5 years we have taken our music all over the world: Europe, Asia, Africa besides our homeland Denmark, and even though we cannot speak with many of the people we meet, our music is a universal language that transcends borders. The meetings we have had (and continue to have) all over inspire us to create new music. But of course we are the composers of the music, so this is our representation of those meetings.

Our 3rd album is called AFROTROPISM. Tropism is a biological phenomenon that indicates growth of a plant in response to the environment; so when you see a plant turning for the sunlight, this is tropism. In other words, this is not so much about the plant's roots but more about how it reacts when it touches the air, feels sunlight or rain - in other words the outside world. So AFROTROPISM refers to the fact that we are drawn towards the African traditions, but we are "growing" our own music.

On our first two albums we have recorded extensively with African musicians, and AFROTROPISM is centered around The KutiMangoes (TKM) as a band. We are developing our artistic direction by going more in depth with how we can mix our inspirations with our own musical heritage. Our musical mission is (and has always been) to mix cultures and create our own sound.

With our background in jazz music, TKM counts virtuoso instrumentalists with a heartfelt intent and sound innovators with our horns, effect pedals, synthesizers, drums and percussion from all over the world. AFROTROPISM is a further and deeper development of our trademark bold sound that experiments with synthesizers, soundscapes and a bit of electronic effects without losing it's focus on groove, melody, atmosphere and musicianship."

The KutiMangoes, July 2019


About each track:

STRETCH TOWARDS THE SUN
This track opens up with a synthesizer groove that is inspired by the polyrhythmic grooves played by the balafon (a predecessor of the piano) from West Africa. Our rolling sequence could not be played on the balafon because of the key changes, but the basic idea comes from that instrument. Quick and light, we wanted to write a song where you can feel the sun coming out and feel the energy it's rays give. The combination of the programmed groove, the horn-arrangement, the huge percussion section and the live instruments makes for a sound that we have not heard before, and it illustrates what this album is all about (and what the track's title refers to): that we stretch towards the things that give us energy – and that although our roots are in Denmark, when we encounter a musical tradition as rich as in West Africa, it changes us and our music.

A SNAKE IS JUST A STRING
The first time we saw Mali-bluesman extraordinaire Vieux Farka Touré on stage was just after we had played at a huge festival in Burkina Faso, and we almost literally caught on fire. Their groove was so strong and insistent that we were mesmerized, and it inspired us to come up with the opening guitar part of this song. Basically a bluesy tune with some unusual chord changes and a crazy synthesizer solo by Johannes Buhl Andresen reminiscent of that fuzzy guitar-sound we love so much in the Mali blues. The title is an homage to the Nigerian writer Chinua Acheba, who in his masterpiece novel "Things Fall Apart" tells that in the village during the night, to ward off the fear of darkness, people would call dangerous animals by a different name: don't be afraid, a snake is just a string.

KEEP YOU SAFE
It is a basic human necessity to have a place where you can feel safe. But there are far too many people in our world that fear for their safety, their livelihood, their children, their relatives – and this is surely not a feeling that helps us to flourish as humans. With this song we are saying that we all need to make it a priority to help our fellow humans to feel safe. And of course, if our song can offer a feeling of safety and comfort for a short time to those who listen, we are truly thankful.

MONEY IS THE CURSE
This track is directly inspired by Fela Kuti's ability to create music that is both physical and political. Dance music with a serious message about our times. For the solo part we wanted a more melancholy, pensive feel (than the full-on baritone-trombone melody) and also wanted to experiment with some choppy, stuttering effects to make the horns sound desperate. Money is the curse because it can become the objective of our life; money is the curse because it changes the relationships we have with our fellow humans. Money is the curse.

THORNS TO FRUIT
This melody is inspired by the scales and developments of a traditional Bambara folk-song. We love the way these melodies constantly evolve with small developments and changes. We felt like an accompaniment that is really dry, sparse and earthy would fit well and then made a contrasting solo part. As a group we are interested in how to develop our improvisations together and create sonic landscapes that evoke a distinctive atmosphere – so here, we have no soloist, but a collection of synthesizer parts, saxophone lines and guitar-sounds that together create a dreamy and lush ambience.

SAND TO SOIL
We started out with a short ngoni riff played by our good friend and master musician Aboubacar Konaté. We then sampled it, built soundscapes and our own both meditative and pumping groove around it. We created a melody with both melancholy and joy, with afterthought and impulse and then the brilliant Aske Drasbæk added an emotive and blistering saxophone solo. The title refers to the contrasts in our humanism. As part of our human nature, we have a dark side that drives us (and each other) towards destruction – making the fertile soil into barren sand. The title is an encouragement to emphasize the opposite movement in our nature: to create life and help it flourish. We keep ourselves human by insisting that we must never forget this side of our nature no matter how tough, tiresome or trying it might be. Let's keep our focus on the light, the warmth, the positive energy – that can turn the cold stone into fertile ground.

It's dark in the forest. Especially in the »northwest«. You have to adjust all your senses. But once you have, the forest will take you in his arms. The forest will protect you. Just like Daniel Herrmann's first album for Live At Robert Johnson will protect you.

Herrmann is far from being unknown in the world of music - let alone in the art or photography world. In the music field, he is probably much more known under his Flug 8 moniker where he released five albums on Disko B, Doxa Records, Ransom Note, and Acid Pauli's Smaul Recordings. Under his given name, Daniel Herrmann's relationship with LARJ's label boss Ata Macias goes way back. As an artist and photographer Herrmann was the only one allowed to take pictures inside Ata's ROBERT JOHNSON club, thus creating an iconic series of pictures of clubbers and club life in general. Herrmann’s pictures of the partying punters themselves were presented as wallpaper all over Robert Johnson back in 2002.

With »Enroute« Herrmann enters new territory: It is his most ambient work up to today. And yes, it is a piece of work created during the lockdown. Herrmann's studio is situated in the outskirts of Frankfurt, near the forest - a quite remote place already in-between the Taunus mountain range. Imagine life during the lockdown in such a place … This is where Herrmann set up his former basement studio in the large living room with a variety of instruments besides a cozy fireplace spending warm light and warmth. A warmth that despite its seemingly rather "cold" atmosphere can be heard all over »Enroute«. Once you soak in the sounds (or get soaked into the sounds) of the first tracks like album opener »northwest«, »Fly By Wire« or the 11min »Dark Trace« you might feel this warmth too. A cold warmth you could say, yet a warmth that only modular systems and synthesizers can create.

There is a change of mood with »Intercontinental« - literally as it seems that Herrmann indeed is on an intercontinental journey here despite the strolls and long walks in silence through the Taunus forest. This is also the place where Herrmann took many photographs of the forest and its trees (to be seen on his Instagram account) - and the picture on the cover: This spooky yet fragile high seat in the mist in front of those trees. Yet darkness alone is not dominating this album. Even during these dark days, there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. And it shows in the beauty of »Bouncing Rays«.

»Enroute« is done all alone and in total isolation. And one can hear it. But it also invites the listener to be a part of this lonely world. And we all know that being lonely is made easier with someone on your side - »Enroute« to a better place. A place that isn't lonely at all.

PS: For all digital music lovers we have included two bonus tracks: The GLOK remix of »Bouncing Rays« and Herrmann's clattering and creaking tune »Economy« - enjoy!

Canadian songwriter and producer Jeremy Haywood-Smith needed an escape from his state of mourning when he began working on Slingshot, his most recent LP as JayWood. After the loss of his mother in 2019, and a global standstill with multiple social crises throughout 2020, Haywood-Smith yearned for some forward momentum. "The idea of looking back to go forward became a really big thing for me _ hence the title, Slingshot." Feeling disconnected from his past and ancestry after the death of a parent, Haywood-Smith made a conscious effort to better understand his identity and unique Black experience living in the predominantly white province of Manitoba. Merging fantasy scenarios, personal anecdotes, and infectious pop and dance instrumentals, Slingshot is a self-portrait of JayWood at his surface and his depths. Musically, Slingshot reaches into sounds and styles Haywood-Smith has continued to explore throughout his catalog. "I think I made a really big deal to not pigeonhole myself," he explains. "Whatever is inspiring me at one point will work it's way into whatever I'm creating." Slingshot is an amalgamation of Haywood-Smith's many musical sensibilities, achieved with help from a crew of talented peers. Haywood-Smith wrote and performed a bulk of the track's instrumentations, but the LP has notable appearances from Canadian contemporaries Ami Cheon (on "Just Sayin") and Mckinley Dixon (on "Shine.") The album's penultimate track, "Thank You," was co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The song brings JayWood's sound full circle, offering something reminiscent of Haywood-Smith's earliest recordings, while flaunting that "The best is yet to come."

After the blackest night comes the most radiant dawn; the spark of life illuminates all that which was swallowed by shadows. "Fäghring" bears the gift of rebirth - both in nature and for Swedish folk metal band Bhleg. The fourth and closing part of the album tetralogy "Ár" is the most ambitious Bhleg recording to date. Its metal parts are saturated with both primal ferocity and majestic atmosphere. The ambient interludes from their early works are still here, but now conveyed mostly through analogue recordings.

The sweeping, dreamy soundscapes are enhanced by a slew of unorthodox instruments, courtesy of S - who performs not only guitars and bass, but also lyre, hurdy-gurdy, mouth harp, keyboards, bullroarer, birch trumpet, as well as percussion such as frame drums, birch sticks, and stones. Besides the characteristic voice of Bhleg vocalist and lyricist L, "Fäghring" features various guest appearances with a range of singing styles rooted in Scandinavian folk-tradition such as Andreas Pettersson from Saiva, Êlea of Noêta, and Swedish author Lars Magnar Enoksen.

"Fäghring" will be released by Nordvis Produktion on April 1, 2022. Tracked and mixed using the band's own recording setup, Studio Asu. Mastered by Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studios. Both the CD and LP booklets have received a lot of attention, consisting entirely of custom photography and illustrations.

Sound Like: Grift, Ulver (early), Burzum, Panphage, Fluisteraars, Djevel, Skogen