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A work that literally immerses the listener into an acoustical substance. The sound becomes almost like matter, like jelly. Soon, you're swimming in sound, getting lost inside it.

With the Sonic Waters project initiated in 1978, my aim was to situate field of electronic music within a liberating and futuristic experience, outside the concert halls and in sync with the development of new instruments - in particular the Synclavier digital synthesizer, the first model of which I acquired in 1977. As concert space, the Pacific Ocean seemed to me to be the ideal experimental medium for both acoustic and cultural reasons. I then developed the aesthetic and technical elements that would contribute to the conception of Underwater Music. Numerous performances would follow spanning four decades, in natural sites or in large public pools such as those of Sydney, Paris or Venice during the 2006 Biennale.

Michel Redolfi (1951), French composer and sound artist, is the founder of Underwater Music. The natural elements captured and highlighted by experimental technology are a constant in Redolfi's catalogue: many compositions explore the earth environments such as in 'Pacific Tubular Waves', 'Jungles', 'Desert Tracks' (re-released on Sub Rosa records) and especially with 'Sonic Waters', a work that literally immerses the listener into an acoustical substance. During the mid-seventies Redolfi carried out his electro-acoustic research in the United States, with major electronic music centers including the California Institute of the Arts and chiefly the University of California in San Diego. As invited resident of their studios, Michel Redolfi launched the underwater music concerts, with the series 'Sonic Waters' performed in the Pacific Ocean. Michel Redolfi's underwater creations have since been regularly programmed by major international festivals, with multi-media installations held in ecological marine reserves or in historical city pools. Among them, the Sydney Festival, Paris 'Nuit Blanche', Ars Electronica in Linz, the 2006 Venice Biennale (nominated Golden Lion) and lately the 2018 Ars Musica festival in Brussels. This record presents different variations of Sonic Waters from 1980 to 1987, alternating studio mixes with their re-recordings in the depths of the Pacific. Michel Redolfi CD's and LP's are currently published by Sub Rosa, INA-GRM and Radio France.

After an impressive label debut in March this year, Swedish pair Patrick Siech & Sandra Mosh re-link for a multi-faceted follow-up. Inspired by the '90s production ethos of broad-minded genre agnosticism, the EP spans a trio of dreamy, yet functional cuts, displaying the producers’ fluid production arrangements. A fourth track bucks the sonic trend, ‘PPMV1’ a tribute to a pigeon the duo rescued but ultimately succumbed to the virus of the same name. In contrast the track is a punchy bass-led weapon, simultaneously deliciously disorientating and immersive.

Siech has been a symbol of quality in the Swedish underground techno scene going back more than a decade, collaborating with the revered Sebastian Mullaert and releasing on Minus, Parabel and Break New Soil, among others. Sandra Mosh, similarly, is deeply respected by those in-the-know, gaining wide recognition with a show on Swedish national radio P3, playing festivals and clubs including Sónar, Berghain and Kazantip and running her own label MOSH Muzik.

Penny Records presents the vinyl version of the soundtrack from the TV Series "Anna" written and directed by Niccolò Ammaniti. Fueled by Niccolò Ammaniti's passionate and immersive creative style, the score for 'Anna' was approached almost as a character study. 'Anna' exposes a world of extreme conditions where the essentials of human existence flourish in a wide range of emotions and sentiments tainted through the eyes of children. Striking brutality and primal savagery go hand in hand with the beauty of innocence and hope. Rauelsson's musical language for 'Anna' includes tense and spare textures that blend seamlessly with intimate ambient minimalism; classical elements that coexist with electronic drone experimentation and tribal rhythms, candid piano melodies buried in tape loops and otherworldly rituals of wordless voices. To arrive at this music landscape, Rauelsson enlisted an international cast of collaborators including Finnish percussionist Tatu Rönkkö, German cellist Anne Müller, American multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick and Oslo-based vocalist Simin Tander. With this ensemble, Rauelsson's music documents a journey of survival that highlights the power of imagination and love.

Credits:

Music by Raúl Pastor Medall except A3 (Salvatore Cardillo, lyrics by Riccardo Cordiferro), A5 (Raúl Pastor Medall, Peter Broderick and Anne Müller), B3 (Raúl Pastor Medall and Anne Müller) and A2, B1, B2 (Raúl Pastor Medall and Tatu Rönkkö)

Played by Peter Broderick (Violin), Anne Müller (Cello), Raúl Pastor Medall (Piano, Electric Piano, Synthesizers, Electronics), Tatu Rönkkö (Drums, Percussion) and Simin Tander (Voice) with additional contributions from Christoph Berg (Violin), Aisha Burns (Violin) and Giulia Dragotto (Voice)

Recorded in 2020 at Rockaway Studios (Castelló, Spain; engineered by Raúl Artana), Niu (Benicàssim, Spain; engineered by Raúl Pastor Medall), Old House at Galgeberg (Oslo, Norway; engineered by Olav Torget), Tanum Church (Bærum, Norway; engineered by Olav Torget) and Indigo Studios (Palermo, Italy; engineered by Fabio Rizzo)

Additional recordings by Peter Broderick (Co. Galway, Ireland), Anne Müller (Berlin, Germany) and Tatu Rönkkö (Helsinki, Finland)

Produced by Raúl Pastor Medall and Niccolò Ammaniti. Mixed by Raúl Pastor Medall and Adam Selzer at Niu and Type Foundry (Portland, OR). Mastered by Adam Gonsalves and Adam Selzer at Telegraph Audio Mastering (Portland, OR). Lacquer mastercut by Andreas LUPO Lubich at Loop-O (Berlin, Germany). Artwork by Emiliano "Stand" Cataldo.

Limited edition vinyl set featuring eight live installations from the ISM Hexadome, recorded in binaural sound at MASS MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts) in December 2019. Listening to the recordings on headphones recreates the detailed sense of spatialisation and movement of the ISM Hexadome's immersive 52-channel sound system that these works were exclusively composed for. The album also includes artwork prints of 10 still images excerpted from the installations created by visual artists in collaboration with the sound artist. The prints by Holly Herndon & Mathew Dryhurst and Tarik Barri are bonus visual material, as it was not possible to use the tracks for the record.

Following on from the acclaimed Tiger Balm / Amazonia Dreaming / Immersion LP (BT028), Black Truffle is thrilled to present two major new instrumental works from legendary sound artist and experimental composer Annea Lockwood. Demonstrating the ever evolving and radically open nature of Lockwood’s practice, these two recent works were developed in close collaboration with their performers. ‘Becoming Air’ (2018), developed with and performed by trumpeter Nate Wooley, uses extended technique and electronics to interfere with Wooley’s virtuosic control over his instrument, pushing him into areas of fluctuating pitch and timbral instability. Motivated by a desire for ‘the letting go of sound to be itself’, ‘Becoming Air’ unfolds as a series of texturally distinct moments separated by pauses, each fixing on a particular approach to the instrument (long tones, upper-register whistles, breathy wooshes) and maintaining it in an essentially static fashion, focussing our attention on subtle changes and variations. Dipping into near-inaudibility in the fragile high tones of its opening section, the piece dramatically increases in volume and intensity in its final third, climaxing with a passage of roaring distortion, where the interaction between feedback and trumpet pitches calls up the shuddering interference effects of Robert Ashley’s Wolfman.

‘Into the Vanishing Point’ (2019) is a collaborative work developed with New York piano and percussion quartet Yarn/Wire, who have performed work by major contemporary composers such as Olivia Block, Catherine Lamb and Klaus Lang. Carrying on the ecological and environmental concerns of some of Lockwood’s previous works, ‘Into the Vanishing Point’ was inspired by a devastating news article on the global collapse of insect populations. Discovering that the four members of Yarn/Wire had also read this text, Lockwood mapped out a loose structure for the piece that would allow the composer and four performers to explore their ‘feelings about what is happening ecologically’. Working with a huge variety of instruments, objects and techniques of sound production, the resulting work is an alluringly lush, organically unfolding tissue of unorthodox textures and haunting tones. Though not intended to sonically represent ecological issues in any direct way, its unique sound world of rubbed piano strings, gently handled objects and chiming pitches often calls up natural images: of insects and frogs, wind rushing through trees, a bird’s wings in flight. Presented in a stunning gatefold cover with liner notes by Lockwood, Wooley and Yarn/Wire, Becoming Air/Into the Vanishing Point is a testament to the generosity and experimentation that continue to characterise the work of this extraordinary artist, active for over fifty years.

Swarm Intelligence’s new album is a remarkable homage to decay and bleakness. He has spent the last year gathering recordings of abandoned power stations and factories, corroded metal and found objects. The source material was rearranged, processed and woven into intense, distorted landscapes and sharp, metallic drums. With “Rust”, Swarm Intelligence has taken the cold hard elements of metal and forged them into a warmer, more organic sound, resulting in a strikingly stark, dissonant and immersive journey. Originally released October 6, 2015 All tracks recorded and produced by Simon Hayes Cover art by Victor Mark Photography by Michelle Hughes Mastered by Angelos Liaros at 4Be

Daptone Records is honored to announce the release of Innov Gnawa's full-length, Lila. Formed in NYC, this grammy-nominated group of Moroccan expats has been making waves locally and abroad with their hypnotic live shows. The group is led by Ma'alem Hassan Ben Jaffar, a master musician and spiritual elder of the ensemble who plays a three-stringed african bass known as a guembri. Ben Jaffar is accompanied by a brotherhood of musicians – (Amino Belyamani, Ahmed Jeriouda, Samir Langus and Nawfal Atiq) – all playing the qraqeb, metal castanets that represent the shackles and chains of slaves and also singing chorus responses. Gnawa music is a spiritual tradition rooted in Moroccoʼs ancient history. Often referred to as “Sufi Blues”, Gnawaʼs African influence originated from West African slaves brought to Morocco centuries ago. Not unlike blues music in the American South, Gnawa music is revered throughout Morocco as treasured indigenous soul music.

After seeing a performance at a mutual friend's party, producer and local Gnawa enthusiast, Bosco Mann, invited Innov Gnawa to come record some tracks at The Daptone House of Soul. The invitation was accepted and over a five-hour session, the group tracked an entire albumsʼ worth of material - all in one take. The session tracked that evening is what we humbly offer up to you, the beloved Daptone Family. Lila, literally meaning "night" is a traditional ceremony in which the Ma'alem and his qraqeb ensemble dedicate an evening of healing through music. This all-night rhythm fest is a spiritual ritual which cleanses the body, mind, and spirit. We invite you to immerse yourself in Lila. Experience Freedom, Liberation and the power of healing through music. The spirit of Gnawa is people. Experience the freedom, liberation, and power of healing through music. You are not alive if this music doesn't move you.

Over the last few years, NuNorthern Soul has established a number of traditions, most notably annual releases that provide a snapshot of the label’s output while also considering their suitability for certain seasons. Perhaps the most popular is founder Phil Cooper’s Summer Selections series, which each year showcases warm and sunny gems mined from a range of forthcoming releases.

The 2021 edition of the sampler, the third in total, may well be the best yet. Six tracks deep and as subtly varied as you’d expect, the entertaining set features tracks from a mixture of exciting newcomers, experienced producers and long-time members of the NuNorthern Soul family.

To kick things off, Cooper introduces us to Marshall Watson, an American producer who later in the year will release two five-track EPs on the label. ‘A Door To The Sky’, which will feature on the Sunsets On Larkin Part 1 EP, is sumptuously sun-kissed, with delay-laden electric guitar textures and sparkling electronics reclining over a tactile electronic groove.

LOVA’s ‘Echoes of Memories’, the track that follows, recalls the atmospheric, synthesizer-sporting new age Balearica popularised by Quiet Force in the late 1980s. The Italian producer was signed after bringing a USB stick of productions to one of Phil Cooper’s gigs in Ibiza; his Gypsophilia EP will be one to check when it drops later in the year.

Gusk’s ‘Sketch #4 - Anafi Nights’ is seductive and exotic. It’s a crackling and atmospheric musical painting that daubs starry stabs and yearning melodies atop a bubbly, lo-fi drum machine beat. It provides a perfect snapshot of the Greek musician’s Mediterranean Sketches EP, which gathers together home recordings made between 1997 and 2003.

Arguably even more immersive and enveloping is ‘Aqua Blancas Sunrise’ by Tambores En Benirras, the musical project of Cumbrian selector DJ Gripper. A slow-burning delight full of intricate musical flourishes –think drifting female vocalizations, Indian-influenced percussion, twinkling pianos and haunting clarinet motifs the track is one of the many highlights on the Barrow in Furness based producer’s forthcoming debut album for NuNorthern Soul.

To round things off, Cooper has chosen to offer-up cuts from two very experienced artists. George Solar (real name Georg Boskamp) is an Ibiza-based German producer who has been collaborating and releasing music since the late 1980s. ‘Infrared’, his contribution to Summer Selections 3, is a languid and glassy-eyed slab of slow-motion Balearic dub. His Los Ra-yos Del Sol EP will be one to look out for later in the year and is his debut solo release.

The sampler’s final missive fittingly comes from long-time friend of the family B.J Smith, a regular contributor to NuNorthern Soul releases who has reunited with Huw Costin – a vocalist he previously worked with on Smith & Mudd releases for Claremont 56 for a double A side single due later in 2021. ‘Sun When You Come’ is as warming and hazy as you’d expect and features Costin’s emotive, reverb-laden vocals and mazy electric piano solos rising above a suitably horizontal groove. It provides a stunning, sunset-ready conclusion to another superb set of Summer Selections.

After a year of enforced isolation, we've all become experts at introspection. After all if the outlook is grim, why not look inwards instead? Just don't be surprised when all that naval gazing gives you a bellyache. Luckily, Cass. is back on the Growing Bin with the beguiling beauty of 'Ambient Music For A Young Girl', a soothing set which demands your full attention.
In the era of deserted dance floors, when the house and techno crowd export uninspired ambient to keep the streams flowing, Cass. offers an alternative approach to slow listening straight from the heart. Niklas came to Basso with a wealth of sensuous sounds to curate for a new LP, and these six expressionistic vignettes sit together like paintings at an exhibition. All born from the same brush but varied in tone, texture, mood and approach, they achieve an immersive effect without ever fading into the background. Sonic synonyms of Rothko, Turrell and Kapoor, each imbued with hidden depth, each utterly compelling, each conveying a profound calm.

The debut “Moover” EP from the young Bulgarian producer and DJ - Raredub (Petar Vasev) on Sofia Records features energetic and emotional music that finds its place equally in those hands-in-the-air moments in the middle of the dancefloor, as well as laying on a carpet in the afterhours.


Far from formulaic fast-food dance clichés, SOF005 offers fine and delicate layers but as always with its base in spicy street rawness.
Playing the records from start to finish one finds immersed in care-free optimistic melodies, passing through deeper and dreamy sequences, towards stripped down and honest groove. All garnished with the youthful energy that Raredub generates.

Flambéing it all, we have Sofia’s own KiNK collaborating on the track “How The Fire Started” urging all DJs and dancers to grab a fire extinguisher.

With this EP Raredub displays his unique musical personality combined with a strong execution - forming something very special that promises to age well.

Over the past 16 years, Rebelution has had nearly everything a band could
ask for: chart-topping albums, hundreds of millions of streams, a GRAMMY
nomination, even their own festival in Jamaica.The only thing they haven’t
had, it seems, is time.
“When COVID hit, we found ourselves in uncharted territory,” says frontman
Eric Rachmany. “Suddenly we were just sitting still, which was a completely
new experience for us.”
Difficult as it was to leave the road behind, pressing pause proved to be a blessing in disguise for a band that has emerged from lockdown with their most
captivating, eclectic record to date: ‘In The Moment’. Recorded remotely in the
midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the collection is deliberate and wide-ranging, infusing the quartet’s soulful, exhilarating brand of modern reggae with
addictive pop hooks, alt-rock grit, and hip-hop grooves.
The performances here are bold and self-assured, and the production is equally ambitious, drawing on swirling reverb and trippy delay to create an immersive sonic universe that’s both futuristic and vintage all at once. Strip away the
intoxicating atmospherics, though, and what remains is a work of profound
reflection, a probing, revelatory meditation that balances joy and introspection
in equal measure as it contemplates the meaning of time and invites us to sit
back, slow down, and live ‘In The Moment’.
Includes guest appearances by Busy Signal, Kabaka Pyramid, Durand Jones, and
Keznamdi.
coverage out in reggaeville worldareggae niceup Print: Rock at
Night Magazine
Radio plays for “Old School Feeling” on BBC Radio 2 David Rodigan, The Random Reggae Show Swindon 105.5 Swindown FM and Vibes FM Reggae My
Limits

Brian Leeds a.k.a. Huerco S' West Mineral label present a groggy Midwestern ambient doozy with Chat, the first collaborative release by Pontiac Streator and Ulla Straus
Pontiac Streator previously appeared as a guest on the first West Mineral LTD release, Pendant's Make Me Know You Sweet, while Ulla Straus is perhaps best known for her part on the cultishly adored bblisss compilation tape which introduced Huerco S.'s Pendant alias to the world at large.
Their first album together is a bedroom-crafted confection where drowsy blues and raga smudge with lounging exotica themes in a blunted style to properly heavy-lidded effect.
Chat was recorded on July 5th in Pilsen, Chicago on Ulla's bed after a long week spent dancing with friends, staying up all night typing in chatrooms, and hate-watching Fox news. The results channel that experience into four lop-sided creations that feel satisfyingly burned out and immersive, like the murmur of zonked chat between close friends.
In four parts; Chat One thru Chat Four, the record unfurls with a muggy mid-fi tension between its illusive fidelities, kindling a smoky atmosphere that colours listening spaces with seductive smells
and a muggy, keening tension that recalls the minutes before sundown
This balmy feel of the surreal comes out in a sylvan patina of sweetened cicadas and curling pads urged along by a stream of wooden drums, variously recalling Spencer Clark on some kind of
Aguirre soundtrack mission in the tropics, a heatsick Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement piece, or, in the dream-pop drift of the last part, like Leven Signs smudged by Muslimgauze.
Coolly serving to expand West Mineral LTD's remit after that spellbinding Pendant album and a 12" of ectoplasmic dubs from uon, the flux of arid/fluid textures and para-dimensional fidelities in
Chat feels somehow calming yet fraught with a somnambulant appeal that's dangerously easy to

According to the artist himself, zake's first solo album of 2020 was recorded and produced during "a four-day excursion in several secluded areas" in South Carolina. As a result, listeners can expect to hear babbling brooks, birdsong and the gentle rustling of leaves beneath Zake's alluring mixture of enveloping ambient chords, unearthly drone tones, opaque electronics and slowly-shifting, heavily processed neo-classical movements. The results are hugely immersive and undeniably enjoyable, with each of the four tracks delivering a head-in-the-clouds journey that ripples with becalmed, atmospheric intent. In other words, it's the kind of ambient music you can get lost in. More please!

Though most debuts are the culmination of a lifetime of influences
and experiences, few artists succeed in mapping their musical
journey quite as vividly as Baba Ali has on ‘Memory Device’.
Tracing his Nigerian heritage, an adolescence absorbing No Wave
and the hip-hop on NYC’s Hot 97, time immersed in the techno
scene in Berlin, and the experimental punk spirit of his current
base in London, ‘Memory Device’ is an enthralling introduction to a
musician who resolutely defies pigeonholing.
Written during lockdown and recorded with Al Doyle (LCD
Soundsystem, Hot Chip) in East London, ‘Memory Device’ is both
a dizzyingly inventive exploration of Baba’s complex musical DNA,
and a thought-provoking treatise on the collective angst of modern
existence; a dance record dealing in small ‘p’ politics that,
spiritually, has been three decades in the making.
It was after moving to London that he began writing new music as
a solo artist, with his debut EP, ‘Nomad’, released in 2017. Soon
after he met British guitarist Nik Balchin while they were working
together at a bar in Whitechapel. Nik brought with him an entirely
new set of references, ranging from LCD Soundsystem and the
Pixies to Suicide and Iggy Pop. The new collaboration resulted in
the February 2020 release, ‘This House’, an eclectic four-track
collection fusing funk, blues and soul and featuring production
from Jamie Hince of The Kills. In July the same year the duo
released an unofficial mixtape, ‘Rethinking Sensual Pleasure’,
which they wrote while locked down together at Baba’s parents’
house in New Jersey, having been temporarily stranded in the US
following their New York shows.
Today Baba describes this process of producing a longer body of
work as being akin to “ripping a Band-Aid off,” giving them the
confidence to begin writing their debut. Work on ‘Memory Device’
began shortly afterwards, culminating in the pair recording the
album between November 2020 and February 2021 with Al Doyle,
who was chosen for his vast experience operating at the
intersection between dance and rock music. There’s no question
that Baba is leading by example with ‘Memory Device’.

Though most debuts are the culmination of a lifetime of influences
and experiences, few artists succeed in mapping their musical
journey quite as vividly as Baba Ali has on ‘Memory Device’.
Tracing his Nigerian heritage, an adolescence absorbing No Wave
and the hip-hop on NYC’s Hot 97, time immersed in the techno
scene in Berlin, and the experimental punk spirit of his current
base in London, ‘Memory Device’ is an enthralling introduction to a
musician who resolutely defies pigeonholing.
Written during lockdown and recorded with Al Doyle (LCD
Soundsystem, Hot Chip) in East London, ‘Memory Device’ is both
a dizzyingly inventive exploration of Baba’s complex musical DNA,
and a thought-provoking treatise on the collective angst of modern
existence; a dance record dealing in small ‘p’ politics that,
spiritually, has been three decades in the making.
It was after moving to London that he began writing new music as
a solo artist, with his debut EP, ‘Nomad’, released in 2017. Soon
after he met British guitarist Nik Balchin while they were working
together at a bar in Whitechapel. Nik brought with him an entirely
new set of references, ranging from LCD Soundsystem and the
Pixies to Suicide and Iggy Pop. The new collaboration resulted in
the February 2020 release, ‘This House’, an eclectic four-track
collection fusing funk, blues and soul and featuring production
from Jamie Hince of The Kills. In July the same year the duo
released an unofficial mixtape, ‘Rethinking Sensual Pleasure’,
which they wrote while locked down together at Baba’s parents’
house in New Jersey, having been temporarily stranded in the US
following their New York shows.
Today Baba describes this process of producing a longer body of
work as being akin to “ripping a Band-Aid off,” giving them the
confidence to begin writing their debut. Work on ‘Memory Device’
began shortly afterwards, culminating in the pair recording the
album between November 2020 and February 2021 with Al Doyle,
who was chosen for his vast experience operating at the
intersection between dance and rock music. There’s no question
that Baba is leading by example with ‘Memory Device’.

Cole Pulice is a saxophone player from Minneapolis. An improviser of Ambient Jazz who earned his merits touring with Bon Iver, working with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and releasing wonderful electroacoustic gems with the groups Iceblink (Moon Glyph) and LCM (Orange Milk). With Gloam - his solo debut - Cole Pulice offers us six spacious audio holograms, one-take recordings of his saxophone entangled with live electronic hardware. We hear undulating pitch shifters, ring modulations and spectrally rich harmonizers. Cole applies all signal processing live, augmenting the calm, serene melodies Cole plays on his saxophone. The electronics never serve as a mere effect here. Instead, Cole’s fine-tuned setup functions as one whole instrument with which he effortlessly morphs shapes and colors, like fractals within a kaleidoscope or fragments of stained glass in a rock tumbler. Cole mentions the Synchromism visual art movement as an influence for this record, an American avantgarde style of the early 20th century in which colour and sound were treated as equivalents. It’s a spot-on analogy for these musical gems which serve to immerse us in imaginatory prisms. Cole’s sessions conjoin artificial processes with the vibrations of his breath to create electro-acoustic lullabies which reveal ever more timbral layers with each listen. Gloam was released on tape by the Moon Glyph imprint from Portland during the first lockdown in 2020 and has been licensed to Pingipung for this vinyl edition.

Though most debuts are the culmination of a lifetime of influences and experiences, few artists succeed in mapping their musical journey quite as vividly as Baba Ali has on Memory Device. Tracing his Nigerian heritage, an adolescence absorbing No Wave and the hip hop on NYC's Hot 97, time immersed in the techno scene in Berlin, and the experimental punk spirit of his current base in London, Memory Device is an enthralling introduction to a musician who resolutely defies pigeonholing.

‘Kerber’, the new album from Yann Tiersen, is a
beautifully textured, highly immersive and
thoughtfully constructed piano-based album fused
with electronic music.
Piercing piano keys merge with swirling
soundscapes, as Tiersen explores the possibilities
of infinite smallness.
The album was created and recorded at The
Eskal, the studio he built on Ushant (the island
where he lives), and ‘Kerber’ is named after a
chapel in a small village on the island while each
track sonically maps the landscape that surrounds
Tiersen’s home.
An extensive European tour is scheduled for 2022.
CD in eco card pack with poster illustrated by Katy
Ann Gilmore.
Black vinyl LP includes digital download code.

Kevin Martins erstes Solo-Album unter dem Namen The Bug seit sieben Jahren könnte zeitlich nicht besser passen: „Fire“ - der dritte, berauschende Teil eines urbanen Triptychons, das mit dem explosiven „London Zoo“ von 2008 begann und mit dem bewusstseinsverändernden „Angels & Devils“ von 2014 fortgesetzt wurde - besteht aus vierzehn Tracks, die die Synapsen zum Schmelzen bringen, die den Körper durcheinanderwirbeln und die Hörerinnen und Hörer auf cineastische Weise von der Beschwörung einer düsteren, abgeriegelten Stadtlandschaft bis hin zu schwindelerregenden, tiefenscharfen Nahaufnahmen der Psyche von Martin, die ihn und seine Kollaborateur*innen an die Belastungsgrenze führen.

Die Aggression, die Attitüde, der beeindruckende Umfang und die destabilisierende, beunruhigende Raserei des Bug-Sounds ist durchweg perfekt umgesetzt, aber „Fire“ ist keine bloße Wiederbelebung der Vergangenheit - für Martin ist das Album sowohl eine Antwort auf die einzigartigen Umstände des vergangenen Jahres als auch eine Chance, seine eigene Reise vom zurückgezogenen Sound-Besessenen zum Familienvater zu reflektieren, und seinen Durst zu stillen - in einer Zeit erzwungener hermetischer Isolation - nach Kontakt, nach dem Chaos, das nur zwischen Menschen, Lärm und Bässen stattfinden kann, die Irritation der Sinne, die stets Bugs Methode und Weg waren, seit er in den späten 90ern aus den tiefsten Ecken Londons herauskroch.

Es ist das bisher beste Album von The Bug, möglicherweise die wildeste und bewegendste Musik, die Martin je gemacht hat, und es berührt immer noch die anfänglichen Sehnsüchte und Impulse, die „London Zoo“ wie eine Rohrbombe durch den Briefkasten in Ihre Welt katapultiert haben. Es ist eine hungrige Platte, in jeder Hinsicht.

Die MCs, die auf dem Album zu hören sind - einerseits langjährige Weggefährt*innen wie Flowdan, Roger Robinson, Moor Mother, Manga Saint Hilare, Irah & Daddy Freddy, andererseits relativ neue Namen im Bug-Stall wie Logan, Nazamba und FFSYTHO - reflektieren unweigerlich den äußeren Wahnsinn einer auf den Kopf gestellten Welt, graben aber auch tief in sich selbst, um nachdenkliche, erbarmungslos ehrliche Darstellungen der Wut, des Widerstands und der Resignation zu schaffen, die das letzte Jahr in uns allen hervorgerufen hat.

Fractal City, the latest Cubenx album is a collection of terrestrial jams and arachnean ambient ballads that are particularly apt for urban listening. If its predecessors cracked the musical codes in force and shone by the versatility of their references, this new opus offers its listener an intense and symbolic sound environment.


The raw material of Fractal City was first conceived as a series of sound patches, designed to run in parallel with Canadian digital artist Maotik's installation. Broadcasted in real-time by generative patches reacting to various external and non-human data, those musical excerpts have been rendered in hundreds of nuances and extended over infinite durations. This unusual approach confers to the recording of the finished album's outstanding immersive strength.

Recorded live on a single track over a short period of a few weeks, the nine compositions of Fractal City capture the obsessions of its author for postmodern urban landscapes, and the revelation of new perspectives on the city of Paris.

The opening piece `Ssarg´ seems to hide the figure of the Mexican ambient producer Jorge Reyes. Cubenx built a cocoon of energetic layers, a new home of the mystical kind harmoniously integrated in a flourishing rainforest ecosystem.

`Transect ´refers to the urban development model of the same name, which is based on a division of the city into autonomous "fractal" zones. It also echoes the concept of "metro polarities" which considers the city as a mosaic of social groups. "By cycling in the evening with a friend, we could get away from the city centre to the suburbs of Paris. The contrasts are striking. You move from chic districts to bedroom communities, from industrial zones to improvised caravan camps. But there is a kind of energy in this heterogeneity that pushes you to always pedal further."

A few miles away, it would look like Art and urbanism have tried to level the cultural and social discrepancies of the outskirts of Paris. "Architectural sites like the Arcades of Bofill are splendid. There are completely extravagant projects, which seem to emerge from nowhere."
These buildings with ambitious aesthetics off the beaten tourist track, deteriorate over time and often remain far from the expectations of the local population. A feeling of nostalgic beauty is particularly perceptible on the slowest and most introspective ballads of the album as 'Urban Decay', 'Hagel' or 'Axe Majeur'. The producer leaves nonetheless no room for melancholic emptiness. "Every time, I have the impression that urban culture is taking its rights back and that young people appropriate the places in one way or another."

Just like `Transect', ` Quantified' and `Fractal City' present themselves as mirrors of a daily urban life in constant motion. All three are empowered by an overheated factory, which dispatches hypnotic beats and burst of analogue compressors with a clinical precision and direct them straight away to the reptilian areas of their listener's brains.

The sequencing leaves however space and time to take breath and makes way for aerial sonic excursions of spiritual and enlightened nature. On `Human Dilemma', Cubenx shows some concerns to opening the Pandora's box of transhumanist theories. While a long cosmic wave gives the listener a feeling of perfect fullness, a dizzying guitar distortion cast doubts on long term outlooks. `Smash Other' on the other way alternates gentle dissonances over an ocean of white noise and concludes the album on ethereal note.

With ´Fractal City", Cubenx eludes his irreconcilable love for shoegaze pop song and techno to concentrate exclusively on the production of mutant experimental materials. The result is an uncanny musical object, rich in image and sensation. Cubenx give us a guiding framework, enthralling enough to engage the listener to a tour of town. But he leaves it to the sole listeners to design their own projection of the city.

Following “La Contra Ola” (BJR015), Bongo Joe presents 'La Ola Interior', a compilation exploring the ambient side of the Spanish electronic music produced in the 80’s, bringing together 19 little-known and innovative pieces from the golden age of Spanish electronic music !

It gathers musicians from various horizons and of many generations, who shared the desire to create an immersive soundscape and to combine electronic music with non-Western musical traditions. As a general rule, the Anglo-Saxon tropism did relate the spanish peninsula’s ambient music to the Balearic Sound, that is to say to the relaxing music played in Ibiza’s nightclubs. But this music takes place in the productive territory of experimental musics, and particularly in its two main breeding grounds: the tape recording underground and the independent musicians-producers scene.

Inseparable from the processes of self-publishing, distribution and exchange of music that were then taking place in Spain in an artisanal way, the vast underground movement of cassettes was divided between an "ethno-trance" combining industrial beats and oriental sounds on the one hand (Esplendor Geométrico, Miguel A. Ruiz / Orfeón Gagarin) and unclassifiable low-fi tinkerers on the other hand (Camino al desván, Eli Gras, Mataparda, Victor Nubla). Hyperactive, this scene is radical and strongly dominated by the hardest musical styles, but the ambient, influenced by the German Kosmische Musik and "krautrock", also develops here.

The second vein of Spanish ambient comes from some of the independent labels of the peninsula (DRO, GASA, El Cometa de Madrid, EGK) whose activity will mark the return of some of the most adventurous musicians-producers of the 70s. Some were influenced by American minimalism (Luis Delgado / Mecánica Popular, Suso Saiz, Javier Segura), others by Fourth-World Music conceived by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno (Finis Africae, Jabir). Having passed through folk, ancient, traditional or contemporary music, and being familiar with improvisation and studio techniques, these artists come from a mutant hippie culture, capable of phagocyting many musical styles from electronic ambient to ethnic improvisation and modal jazz.

These two scenes and generations that make up LA OLA INTERIOR intersect around a common interest in non-Western musical traditions. Their exploration may be that of the tribal origins of electronic rhythms or the Arab heritage of Spain. Above all, it is a dreamy exoticism, an immobile journey as the sounds, rhythms or instruments of these traditions are scrutinized by Western practices (avant-garde music, electronic technology). The result is a hybrid music, filtered and reinvented, neither Western nor extra-Western, with a pronounced taste for the fusion of opposites, which we have called "Acid Exoticism" because of its permanent search for trance or contemplation. Atmospheric, contemplative and serial, these musics still plunge us today into a sensorial journey, at the same time interior and distant, organic and technological, between exotic reminiscences and interior visions.

Repress

Myst launches his label and wishes to leave a trace of his past events through immersive records.

This first EP takes us back to the Prologue of our history and invites two emblematic artists: ABSL & Size Pier.

In these uncertain times, we still want to claim our ideals through this passion that brings us together. Chaines et Denuement will therefore be the first vinyl of a long series.

This summer, multidisciplinary producer, designer and 3D artist Raynor de Groot serves up Future Static, his debut full-length on Atomnation as Coloray. More than simply a collection of music, the record will be presented in an all-new virtual space where each track is a portal to a different world.

Dutchman de Groot has proven himself as an accomplished conceptual artist who draws together many different creative fields. He has released everything from lush synth-pop to deep techno, and has real songwriting ability. 2019's 'Can't Stop' in collaboration with Eagles & Butterflies proved that as it crossed over multiple scenes and became one of the year's standout tracks thanks to support from heavy hitters as diverse as Hunee and Four Tet. Âme & Dixon have also regularly supported Coloray's music and asked him to release 'Gazing Eyes' on their Innervisions label.

Two years after his Real Life Cinema EP on Atomnation, Future Static finds de Groot open a new chapter that explores a more conceptual sound. The album "translates the concept of man and computer creating a new reality where logic and emotion seems to be at odds with one another." Its 12 tracks have club-ready grooves, but also exquisite synth designs that are edgy and uptempo. They will be translated to a live show and interactive music experience in VR, on your phone and desktop. In the show, online visitors will be able to get lost inside the mind of an AI and watch and interact with a Coloray performance.

Presented with an artfully designed gatefold sleeve, Future Static is a groundbreaking project from Coloray that pushes creative boundaries while offering an immersive listening experience.

The debut album from LIMINA, the new project from film and game score composer Tyler Durham, comprises six pieces that, taken together, reflect on the ways in which inspiration eases into existence and, through collaboration among muse, body and technology, wrangles its way into being. Combining ideas drawn from ambient electronic music, contemporary classical, and new age, the album openly explores transitive passages and the very nature of the creative process. Crafted for single-sitting immersion with each of the six works building on musical ideas expressed in earlier movements and seamlessly flowing from one track to the next without interruption.

ANGEL DOVE GLOBAL / 812 RECORDS / JAM DEUCE / IZIPHO SOUL RECORDS are proud to present the first vinyl release from the current lead singer of The Four Tops - the soulful, raw and real Alexander Morris! Upon hearing ‘PRETTY GIRL’ you are probably asking yourself, how on earth has this new recording got such an authentic ‘Northern Soul’ vibe - well the answer is the musicians are the cream of Detroit players, led by Earl Van Dyke Jr. - music director, arranger and conductor for The Four Tops. Written and produced by fellow ‘Top’, the legendary Ronnie McNeir. Our thanks extend to Ronnie for allowing Alex to stamp his own mark on this Detroit classic. LOVE’S KNOCKIN’ was set to be recorded by The Temptations until Dr Marlin McNichols used all his powers of persuasion to keep it ‘in house’ and we are so pleased he did. Immerse yourself into this slow jam - two minutes in and there’s no going back - the truly outstanding close ‘God did make little green apples…..’ will leave you wanting more!

REISSUE - from original press release: For three decades the reclusive Revolutionary Army of The Infant Jesus (RAIJ) have confounded musical classification and studiously declined every invitation to explain their unique form of musical and artistic experimentation. Initially the Liverpool outfit built their reputation on their extraordinary immersive multi-media performances combining multiple layers of visual imagery, elements of ritual, enigmatic samples, field recordings and mesmeric live music. Their cult status was further reinforced with the release of the now much sought-after two studio albums The Gift of Tears (1987) and Mirror (1990) and two EP collections, Liturgie Pour La Fin Du Temps (1992) and Paradis (1995). After an 18-year hiatus the appearance of a new RAIJ album, and the apparent relaxation of their strict vow of silence, are generating predictable excitement and expectancy. Beauty Will Save the World does not disappoint. RAIJ's intoxicating mix of ethereal beauty, dazzling soundscapes and oblique mystery reach new levels of intensity and subtlety. The album title - a quote from Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky - is one of the many literary, cinematic and spiritual references underpinning RAIJ's unexpected comeback. Founder members Paul Boyce, Jon Egan and Les Hampson, joined by a fresh wave of collaborators, have crafted an album of unique beauty and originality. Prolonged silence seems to have deepened rather than dimmed their creative impulse. As ever it is the breadth of musical genres, cultural references, borrowings and retrieved sounds that define the RAIJ aesthetic, but there is also a more consistently meditative and melodic strain that underpins the album's integrity and purpose. In a rare insight into the RAIJ's creative method, Jon Egan explains: "Although our work takes elements and inspiration from many disparate sources we have never viewed it as deconstruction. We are looking for the thread that connects every manifestation of beauty, however fragile, transitory and seemingly accidental. " In addition to the album release on Occultation, RAIJ's second coming also includes a live performance at this year's Greenbelt Festival and the re-release on vinyl of The Gift of Tears by California-based label Feral Sounds. "There is renewed interest and appreciation of our music and that's great", said Leslie Hampson. "We have never tried to cultivate obscurity or anonymity, we simply wanted to avoid having to explain and justify a creative process that isn't necessarily premeditated. Isn't it enough to listen to and experience it?"

"Medieval Femme", Fatima Al Qadiris neue zehn Stücke umfassende Suite, die von den klassischen Gedichten arabischer Frauen inspiriert ist, beschwört durch die Metapher eines islamischen Gartens einen Tagtraum herauf, an der Grenze zwischen Depression und Sehnsucht, wo sich die Gegenwart vorübergehend auflöst und nur Vergangenheit und Zukunft übrig bleiben. Mit einer Mischung aus Neon-Drones und den schwachen Umrissen einer arabesken Melodie offenbart "Medieval Femme" eine vollendete, traumhafte Szenerie, schattiert mit Farben und subtilen Reibungen. Fatima versucht, den Hörer in einen Zustand melancholischer Sehnsucht zu versetzen und ihn an einen Ort der Träumerei und Trostlosigkeit zu entführen, um die Grenze zwischen zwei scheinbar gegensätzlichen Zuständen zu hinterfragen und sich an himmlischer Trauer zu erfreuen. "Medieval Femme" verwendet Instrumente aus der Musik des Mittelalters, die in einer futuristischen Umgebung neu arrangiert wurden; sanfte Synthesizer-Laute, Orgeln und Pfeifen hallen im Raum, während hauchdünne Pulse als Antwort kräuseln. Fatimas Gesang aus wiederholten, mantraähnlichen Phrasen wird manchmal gepitcht und verändert, um immer intensivere Spitzen, engelsgleiche Refrains und sehnsüchtige Beschwörungen hervorzubringen. Bei "Tasakuba", Kaltham Jassims Rezitation eines Verspaares des Dichters Al-Khansa aus dem 7. Jahrhundert, erhält die Trauer ihrer Worte einen turbulenten, halluzinatorischen Rahmen, bevor sich das Album im letzten Song, dem klaren, luftigen "Zandaq", auflöst.

The first thing that strikes you when hearing 'Nosso' is its feeling of intimacy and warmth. The title, which means 'Ours' in Portuguese, is apt since he sees the record as the result of letting a wild variety of people into his world. João notes that 'I didn't know most of the collaborators before meeting up with them in a studio somewhere in the world, so most of these songs are coming from a very immediate and honest sense of collaboration where you spend an afternoon with someone learning about each other at the same time as you're making music. It's a shared experience, a moment where two or more people came up with ideas together, that they probably wouldn't have had if they were in their comfort zone.' These meetings were turned into songs at home in Lisbon once the main ideas were created collaboratively elsewhere. 'On this album, like in everything else I did so far, the focus on the instrumental side of things was experimenting with rhythmic patterns and genres from the Portuguese-speaking universe while applying them to songs created with other artists from completely different backgrounds and places.' There's something in this process that has left the album sounding super fresh as this is a sound without borders that pulls you in. It's music everyone can be a part of, where even the most rugged up-tempo cut sounds welcoming. It's an overwhelmingly positive and joyous experience to immerse yourself in 'Nosso.' It's no wonder that the central motif of the album artwork shows a less common view of Lisbon, one where instead of looking at the historic city centre we face the suburbs, where these musical and cultural experiments have been and still are occurring, undeniably shaping the musical and cultural landscape of Lisbon in the process. As much a soul record as it is a record infused with the beats of the Portuguese-speaking world, 'Nosso' is a reflection of Branko's ongoing musical explorations and his vision of Lisbon as a privileged cultural hub for the Portuguese-speaking world and beyond. Branko fuses local rhythms from kizomba to baile funk and afrohouse through European electronic genres with a clear accessible pop sensibility and the aim of creating a unified sound that puts all these individual musical expressions in perspective as part of a greater whole. For João, this is the logical next step in his musical evolution.

Kolektif Istanbul verbindet traditionelle anatolische und thrakische Melodien mit Funk, World und Jazz zu einem treibenden Sound, der ebenso Schmelztiegel ist wie ihre Heimat Istanbul. Türkische Rhythmen und westliche Einflüsse verschmelzen zu einer immer tanzbaren Melange, die man mit einem Augenzwinkern als progressive Hochzeitsmusik bezeichnen könnte und für ausgelassene Stimmung unter den Zuschauern sorgt. Das dabei entstehende kreative Chaos lässt einen dabei zu keinem Zeitpunkt vergessen, dass die einzelnen Bandmitglieder ausgezeichnete Instrumentalisten sind, die eine enorme Bandbreite an musikalischen Genres zu bieten haben - vom Jazz über Balkanmusik bis zu türkischen Standards. Gayda (Dudelsack), Klarinette, Tarogato, Saxofon, Akkordeon, Sousafon (ähnlich der Bass-Tuba), Zurna (eine Art türkischer Oboe), Perkussion und Schlagzeug dominieren die Klangästhetik, die durch Asli Dogans klare Stimme eine ganz besondere Ausdruckskraft erhält und die Sensibilität der Songs perfekt einfängt.

STANDARD 2LP VINYL EDITION - LIMITIERT Geboren 1970 in Tokio, verbrachte Jonathan Meese seine frühe Kindheit in Japan, und kam mit drei Jahren 1973 gemeinsam mit seiner Mutter zurück nach Deutschland. Als Kind sprach er nur japanisch und englisch. 1995-1998 Studium an der HfbK in Hamburg, 1998 Durchbruch als bildender Künstler auf der Berlin Biennale. In seinen Gemälden, Performances und Aktionen thematisiert Meese immer wieder die Rolle Deutschlands und deutsche Mythen. Eine ursprünglich beauftragte Meese-Inszenierung des ûParsifalë 2016 in Bayreuth wurde 2014 wegen angeblicher Unfinanzierbarkeit gekündigt. Der Münchener Techno- und House-Produzent Hell ist seit zwei Jahrzehnten ein Bewunderer Meeses. Als Hell vor zwei Jahren bei Jonathan Meese anfragte, ob dieser das Cover für Hells neues, kürzlich erschienenes Album ûHouse Music Boxë gestalten wolle, sagte dieser sofort zu. Die Wertschätzung entpuppte sich als gegenseitig. Man verabredete eine experimentelle Studiosession, um auszuloten, ob die polarisierenden Sprachperformances von Jonathan Meese in Verbindung mit Musik von Hell eine eigene Qualität entwickeln würden. 2019 nahmen Hell und Meese zum ersten Mal gemeinsam auf. Meese steuerte Textideen auf Papier bei, Hell hatte Instrumentals vorbereitet, die sowohl Hells stilistische Interessen, als auch Meeses musikalische Vorbilder - von DAF über Sisters of Mercy bis hin zu Kraftwerk - berücksichtigten. Hell: ûMir wurde in vielen gemeinsamen Gesprächen klar, wie musikaffin er eigentlich ist und wie viel unterschiedliche Musik er kennt. Und vor allem: Wie sehr die Musik ihm auch in seiner Kunst als Inspirationsquelle dient.ë Die Sessions - insgesamt drei, davon zwei gemeinsam mit Meeses 91-jähriger Mutter Brigitte - fanden im Trixx-Studio am Berliner Moritzplatz statt. Meese assoziierte Freestyle über Beats und Loops von Hell. Hell: ûIch bewundere Jonathan Meese nicht zuletzt als performativen Künstler - und gerade auch seinen stimmlichen Vortrag. Im Studio sang, sprach oder flüsterte er dann seine improvisierten Texte über die Tracks, die ich vorbereitet hatte.

After the exploration of snowy mountains of Alpestres, released on Hands in the Dark in 2018, French composer Matthias Puech ventures into new territories, sketching a cartography of the invisible where the journey, in chiaroscuro, is announced as a rite of passage. A Geography of Absence, as introspective as unpredictable, immerses the listener into a unique sensory whirlwind where organic matter becomes almost palpable. A researcher in theoretical computer science and an engineer at GRM, Matthias Puech constructs a dialog between synthetic music and field recording, capturing sounds that surround him and creating his own sonic language with the help of synthesizers he designs and develops; notably the Oscillator Ensemble and the Tapographic Delay, made by the American company 4ms.

Composed during a moment marked by ordeal and mourning, A Geography of Absence retraces an inner journey where the physicality of sound leads the listener into an initiatory tunnel filled with apparitions, ghosts, visions. With sound oscillations as a navigational map, we progress, step by step, through the meanders of an unknown world, dazzled by the prospect of a new synthetic horizon, an electronic biotope teeming with life and incarnations. Playing with time, space and matter in an approach similar to that of musique concrète, Matthias Puech combines ambient and noise, floating sounds and electroacoustic experimentations, thus shaking up our listening perspective, which finds itself walking through a parallel universe, strata after strata, sequence after sequence.

The trip begins with “Hollow”, as if on board a night train travelling at full speed through ghost towns. Or is it a spaceship? Removed from their original habitat, sounds – picked up during walks or moduled by synths – are free to be interpreted differently by everyone, according to the memories that shape us. Granular and metallic, this first piece takes us to an elsewhere in orbit. "Work Song" is built around the pulsation of the void, of space, where strange creatures and liquid emanations abound. We become fetus, cocoon coiled in the placenta, heart beating to the rhythm of the gooey choreography of the human body. "Chrysalis" awakens the racket that lies dormant in us, when the skin changes, when the transition takes place. One seems to recognize certain sounds stemming from nature but they could also be mirages, imitating reality to render the barely perceptible engulfing. “Tunnel Vision” brings out a herd of haunted bells, slowly swelling in a pastoral maelstrom, ending in a deafening buzz. Further on, the chirping of an animatronic bird mixes with the hooting of an owl: "A Faint Beacon" invokes a nocturnal vigil that mixes the crackling of a fire and icy gusts of wind blowing everything away. Like an epic, sucking the listener into the breach of a black hole in the center of the Milky Way, it's up to "Homeostasis" to conclude in the high spheres and contemplative vapors, where the balance of dawn announces a rebirth.

A Geography of Absence is a meticulous and sensitive piece that constructs a delicate symphony of extremes, between introspection and desire for the unknown. Accompanied by the ink work of the artist Léa Neuville, whose folds of prints sketch this imaginary atlas, Matthias Puech becomes a narrator of mental adventures. And succeeds once again in transcending reality to dig a path to the unspeakable.

Unveiled Nuance is the newly founded imprint by Manchester’s Means&3rd, a platform solely for his own productions. The Eastern Bloc Records staff member inaugurates his debut vinyl release with 3
tracks covering a balance between hypnotic and driving techno, in keeping with his adopted style of recent years.

‘Thought contortion’ opens the EP with a thunderous low end, propulsive rhythms and immersive sweeps of sound design, teamed with modulated synth patterns that assist the unfolding of its persistent structure. ‘Fragility of perception’ follows with its elastic 3 step synth groove and reverb rich textures which provide the bed while the percussion provides an airy dynamic. ‘Aural Dissociative’ closes the EP with an all together headier affair, a dynamic drone providing the backdrop while flickers of rhythm supplement its evolution and heavily modulated lead lines take the focus.

Pressed on 140g Black Vinyl, reverse board full colour print sleeve with poly-lined inner sleeve

GRAZ, das Debüt Album von Nils Frahm. Was, wie bitte? Wer den Klaviervisionär und -virtuosen schon einmal im Konzert erlebt hat, wird bereits wissen, dass Nils auch gelegentlich den einen oder anderen Scherz macht, ohne dabei eine Miene zu verziehen. Die Pointe kommt dieses Mal etwas verzögert: Graz ist tatsächlich das erste Studioalbum, das er schon 2009 für das Londoner Label aufgenommen hat. Nur ist dies irgendwie unter Verschluss geblieben - bis jetzt. Nils Frahm hat in aller Ruhe die gesamte Musikwelt auf den Kopf gestellt; er hat die jahrhundertealte Figur des Pianisten-Komponisten neu definiert, sie ins Jetzt überführt - für eine vollkommen neue Generation. Während seine Musik über Mundpropaganda immer mehr Menschen erreichte und in ihren Bann zog, kehrte auch sein Instrument zurück in den Fokus der Popkultur. Eine Entwicklung, die ihn und einige Gleichgesinnte im Jahr 2015 dazu inspirierte, den jährlichen Piano Day ins Leben zu rufen. Einen neuen Feiertag im Kalender, der eine der größten Erfindungen der Menschheitsgeschichte zelebriert. Mit Aufnahmen, die den Menschen und dieses Instrument in den Mittelpunkt rücken. Graz ist so eine Aufnahme. Eine bislang unveröffentlichte Momentaufnahme eines jungen Nils Frahm, mitgeschnitten im Jahr 2009 im Mumuth, dem Haus für Musik und Musiktheater der Kunstuniversität Graz, als Teil der Abschlussarbeit Conversations for Piano and Room, produziert von Thomas Geiger, der dafür im selben Jahr den 1. Preis in der Kategorie Classical Surround Recording der 127. AES Convention in New York in Empfang nehmen durfte. Zwar wurde damals beschlossen, jene Graz-Sessions am Konzertflügel beiseite zu legen, um sich stattdessen auf die gedämpften, ganz intim klingenden Klavierexperimente zu konzentrieren, die dann 2011 auf seinem gefeierten Studioalbum Felt zu hören waren. Jedoch sollten zwei der Kompositionen - und das gilt ganz besonders für Hammers - in seinen Livekonzerten weiterleben und sich erweitern; neu aufgenommen für Spaces, jenes Album, das ihm 2013 endgültig den Durchbruch bescherte. Graz dokumentiert den Moment, der ganz am Anfang jener wortlosen Revolution steht, die Nils in den Jahren danach auslösen sollte. Sein Genie, die Essenz seiner Handschrift ist schon hier zu erkennen: der harmonische Ausdruck der Klassik, die Unmittelbarkeit des Jazz. Es wirkt so, als würde Nils jede Idee für sich aufgreifen, ganz behutsam, nur auf den Moment konzentriert, um auch ja nicht die Muse wieder zu vertreiben.

Die weltbekannte Band aus Island ist mit ihrem elften Studioalbum, dem hoch emotionalen "Mobile Home", zurückgekehrt und veröffentlicht damit ihr erstes Album seit 2018. Das Kollektiv beweist einmal mehr die Meisterhaftigkeit, seine künstlerischen Grenzen zu erweitern, indem sie eines ihrer ambitioniertesten und kraftvollsten Alben seit Jahrzehnten veröffentlichen. Für ihr neuestes Album holten sich GusGus die VÖK-Sängerin Margrét Rán zur Hilfe, um ihren Stil zu erweitern und den Sound des Kollektivs so frisch wie immer zu halten. Das 9-Track-Album bietet eine Mischung aus elektronischem Rock, Ambient, Darkwave, Downtempo und Synthpop. GusGus besser denn je!

World-renowned group GusGus have returned with their 11th studio album, the highly emotive Mobile Home, marking their first album release since 2018. The collective once again prove their commitment to pushing their artistic boundaries as they release one of their most ambitious and powerful albums in decades. For their latest record, GusGus call on VÖK’s lead singer Margrét Rán to help expand their style, keeping the collective’s sound as fresh as ever. The 9-track album features a concoction of electronic rock, ambient, darkwave, downtempo, and synthpop.

After announcing a new album in October 2020, GusGus wowed fans with their first single “Higher,” offering a first taste of how VÖK’s impactful vocals mesh seamlessly with GusGus’ intelligent and powerful electronic production. “Higher” was soon followed up with the darker, downtempo “Stay The Ride” and the bright and energetic synth work on “Our World.” The three captivating singles each received equally remarkable music videos courtesy of founding members Arni & Kinski, the directing team known for working with the likes of Sigur Rós, Kiasmos, Ólafur Arnalds, Of Monsters and Men, and more.

Every track on Mobile Home doubles as a window into a futuristic dystopian world that has been overtaken by machines. A nod to the rise of technology and ever-growing uncertainty surrounding automation, the album explores themes of solitude, rebellion, science fiction, hedonism, pleasure, and anger. Swirling within this world is a disconnected, aching soul who is on the verge of slipping into complete dementia. Forgotten purpose and goals but continues to be driven by the hedonistic default program of material consciousness; sensually self-indulgent and engaged in the pursuit of pleasure alone. In Mobile Home, GusGus challenge themselves like never before, resulting in a wonderfully chaotic reflection of the ongoing war between soul and machine.

With Mobile Home, GusGus show the quality and sonic diversity of the singles pervades throughout the full LP, while preserving the melodramatic themes that tie its 9 tracks together. “Simple Tuesday” showcases the group’s aptitude for blending contemporary electronic production with pop sensibilities while keeping an optimistic tonality at the forefront. Meanwhile, “Love Is Alone” and “Original Heartbreak” offer a slower, more pensive take on synthpop, and evoke feelings of solitude and deep melancholia. “Silence” and “The Rink” boast some of GusGus’s more experimental production, each alternating between radio-ready vocal verses with inventive and exciting synth elements. GusGus closes Mobile Home with “Flush,” an instrumental score that leaves the listener riding high as they finish the LP.

Black Truffle is pleased to present Sylva Sylvarum, an epic new work from Ora Clementi, the collaborative project of crys cole and James Rushford. Primarily conceived and recorded over several months together in Melbourne, Sylva Sylvarum is a stunning step forward from the mumbled, creaking sound world of the duo’s debut, Cover You Will Softer Me (Penultimate Press, 2014). From the opening ‘Peach of Immortality’, which takes an unpredictable journey from layers of chiming bells, vocal harmonies and lush synth pads to a desolate landscape of half-animal, half-digital wooshes and cries, it is immediately clear that cole and Rushford are working here with an entirely unique sound palette. Throughout the record’s four sides, we hear a large array of carefully detailed synthesizer sounds (many of them recorded at the remarkable Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio), sparse drum machine hits, wind instruments and field recordings of animals, often with a twistedly late 80s/early 90s flavour that at various points calls up New Age references, Robert Ashley’s later operas or the thinned-out textures of early digital GRM.

Threaded through this distinctive array of sounds are the two musicians’ voices, sometimes singing, sometimes speaking through varying degrees of manipulation. A guiding thread through the pair’s collaboration, beginning with their initial experiments with lip-readings, the presence of these two voices – cole’s crisp and sibilant, Rushford’s rich and low – reinforces the sense that the music is immersed in itself, less performed by two people than occurring between them. On Sylva Sylvarum, these voices first come to the forefront on the third piece, ‘Dialogue Between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller and a Genoese Sea Captain’, where in unison they intone fragments of a description of an imaginary space taken from a 17th century utopian text. The two voices resurface periodically thereafter, most stunningly in the unexpected turn into cushiony dream pop on ‘Magic Mountain’. At other points, the subtle manipulation of pitch and intonation in the close-miked vocal performances filters the recitations through a fog of abstraction that climaxes with the almost incomprehensible alternating syllables of the side-long closer ‘Forest of Materials’. Like the album’s title, these textual elements are drawn from various literary descriptions of utopias, a theme that also informed the pair’s musical approach. Far from anything dryly illustrative, utopia figures into Sylva Sylvarum as an invitation to inhabit otherworldly spaces that, like the empirical details that proliferate in these literary utopias, are grounded in mundane reality but shot through with the eldritch. Admirably framed by the abstracted digital topographies of Sabrina Ratté’s artwork, the uncanny sweep of the album’s fifteen pieces is expansive enough to take in stretches of crackling austerity, warped microtonal keyboard etudes and moments of stunning beauty, the latter most strikingly when cole and Rushford are joined by Callum G’Froerer on trumpet and Joe O’Connor on trombone for a series of dream-like moments moving from growling overtones to poignant lyricism.

Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with stunning artwork by Sabrina Ratté and pressed on mint green vinyl. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Berlin.

oracle and audioMER. are honoured to announce the release of a new LP; Reading the City with music by oracle, Laszlo Umbreit & Mira Sanders.

In 2019 oracle invited artist Mira Sanders to interact with their practice through her writing. Due to the corona crisis, their shared working time couldn’t happen in the planned way:

“The writing project was originally planned as an exchange while travelling together one week on the Buratinas boat, navigating on the canals and rivers starting from Brussels. Due to the sanitary conditions with the Covid19, the trip together could not be realised or at least was complicated.

Instead of seeing the situation as an obstacle, I saw it as an opportunity to travel with them from afar. Me, living outside the city and them, inside. My question was ‘how, through their voices echoing with the urban spaces, will I imagine the city’s everyday life?’. Because one of the things that oracle’s practice does is to offer ways to perceive and encounter the city and its inhabitants.

For the texts I was inspired by the recordings oracle sent me every day during one week. Besides that, the book Invisible Cities written by Italo Calvino gave me a way of structuring my imagination.” – Mira Sanders

Following this artistic exchange and during a collaboration with sound artist Laszlo Umbreit, the idea of the record Reading the City was born. The existing recordings and the written sci-fi episodes by Mira Sanders functioned as a source of inspiration for the electronic sound composition Places, infiltrated by the original voices and city soundscapes. The recordings of the texts From Afar reflect oracle’s playful and spontaneous way of interacting with their given environment. From Afar is an invitation for the reader to immerse in the city while being in movement. Each track on this side has its own identity or colour, often in relation to what Mira’s text evoked, but this also happened in an empirical way, by trial and error.

Places is a composition in movement, following the idea of interaction with imaginary cities but regularly coming back to a presence of the workshop’s raw documentary sound. While being a carefully edited piece, it tries to keep a certain sense of immediacy and improvisation through semi-random dropping of heterogeneous sound materials in the timeline. Accidents are welcome. The arc drawn by the journey through different “places” is an interpretation of what can happen inside (and outside) when experiencing the oracle practice: being around them, imagining what was felt at different moments in the street, from a distance, preparing the itinerary in the city beforehand, talking about what oracle could be as a record and if it can exist outside the moment it happens.

From their genesis as members of the Venus club in-house band in the early 70s, Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band were at the forefront of the musical revolution during an era where modern instruments and foreign styles superseded the traditional fare to become the staple sound of Ethiopia. No one would argue that the Walias were the trailblazing powerhouse of modern Ethiopian music. They were the first band to form independently without affiliation to a theatre house, a club or a hotel; unprecedented and risky as they had to raise all funding for expenses by themselves including buying equipment. They were the first to release full instrumental albums, considered to be commercially unviable at the time. They opened their own recording studio, with band members Melake Gebre and Mahmoud Aman doubling as technical buffs during sessions. They were also the first independent band to tour abroad. In short, they were the pioneers every band tried to emulate; some more successfully than others.
Odds are, any Ethiopian over the age of 35 who had access to TV or radio by the early 90s, will instantly recognize the sound of Walias. What is not a given is, how many would actually identify the band itself. Barely a day went by without hearing the Walias either in the background on radio or as an accompaniment to various programs on TV.

This Tezeta album, the band’s second recording, released in 1975, is one of those that have been impossible to find for nearly three decades. Sourced by Awesome Tapes From Africa and expertly remastered by Jessica Thompson, its unique and funky renditions of standards and popular songs of the day are so quintessentially Walias, flavorful and evocative. Hailu's melodic organ, unashamedly front and center in every track, makes even the complex pieces accessible.
Profoundly engaging; it's an immersive trip down memory lane for those of us getting reacquainted with it, while also an enthralling and gratifying experience for fresh ears.

Virtually unknown recording outside Ethiopia.
Documents Mergia & Walias legendary early period.
Follow-up to reissue of hugely popular seminal Ethiopian instrumentals LP Tche Belew (ATFA012)

Cassette-only, released in 1975 on the band’s in-house label to fund their record store.
Beautifully-rendered instrumentals of classic Ethiopian standards.

Having already unearthed three collections of archival ‘70s recordings by Catherine Christer Hennix, Blank Forms continues their annual illumination of the visionary Swedish composer’s music by turning to more recent work with this first-time vinyl edition of Hennix’s “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis,” a 2014 piece first released as a CD in 2016 (Important Records).

The double album captures the April 22, 2014 premiere of Hennix’s composition by by the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, her expanded just intonation ensemble, featuring a brass section of Amir ElSaffar, Paul Schwingenschlögl, Hilary Jeffery, Elena Kakaliagou, and Robin Hayward; live electronics by Stefan Tiedje and Marcus Pal; and voice by Amirtha Kidambi, Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, and Hennix herself. Intended to reveal the blues’ origins in the eastern musical traditions of raga and makam, “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis” has its roots in Hennix’s 2013 realization of an “Illuminatory Sound Environment,” a concept developed in 1978 by anti-artist Henry Flynt on the basis of Hennix’s own “The Electric Harpsichord.”

As Hennix explains in Other Matters, Blank Forms’ 2019 collection of her writings:

“Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis presents fragments of ‘raga-like’ frequency constellations following distinct cycles and permuting their order, creating a simultaneity of ‘multi-universes.’ When two such ‘universes’ come in proximity of each other and begin unfolding simultaneously along distinct cycles, there is a kaleidoscopic exfoliation of frequencies as one universe is becoming two, but not separated—the effect of cosmosis is entrained, binding two or more frequency universes into proximity where their modal properties interact and blend, creating in the process entirely new microtonal constellations in an omnidirectional simultaneous cosmic order with phenomenologically ‘transfinite’ Poincaré cycles (cyclic returns to initial conditions).”

As with Hennix’s best work, the organic unfolding of this quivering drone belies a precision that opens onto the infinitesimal. Upon its mesmerizing ebb and flow, the vocalists incant a devotional poem written in Arabic by Hennix and featuring quotations from the Quran. Also reproduced on the album’s gatefold jacket, Hennix’s reduction of the sacred text to its most elegant formulation invites the contemplator to bring their inner knowledge to the composition for use as a prompt for meditation. Yet the piece offers depth to even the most secular listener willing to immerse themselves in music brimming with such serene intensity.

Catherine Christer Hennix (b. 1948) started her creative life playing drums with her older brother Peter, growing up in Sweden where she heard jazz luminaries, such as John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Archie Shepp, and Cecil Taylor perform from 1960 to 1967. Directly after high school, Hennix went to work at Stockholm’s pioneering Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), where she developed early tape music, incorporating computer generated speech done at the Royal Technological University (KTH), where she was an undergraduate student. After traveling to New York In 1968, she met artists Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles who invited her to stay at the Something Else Press Town House where she had the opportunity to meet, among others, composers John Cage, James Tenney, and Phil Corner. During the following years she developed fruitful collaborative relationships with many composers in the burgeoning American avant-garde, including, most significantly, Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. Young introduced Hennix to Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath and she would later study intensively under him as his first European disciple. While Hennix continued to make music performing alongside Arthur Russell, Marc Johnson, Henry Flynt, and Arthur Rhames, she also served as a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at SUNY New Paltz and as a visiting Professor of Logic (at Marvin Minsky’s invitation) at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In recent years Hennix has led the just-intonation ensemble the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, which has featured musicians Amelia Cuni, Amirtha Kidambi, Chiyoku Szlavnics, Hilary Jeffrey, Amir El-Saffar, Benjamin Duboc and Rozemarie Heggen. She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey pursuing studies in classical Arabic and Turkish makam.

The DISCO REGGAE LOVERS series reaches a zenith with the first ever reissue of Dambala and their beautiful reggae roots song Lorraine. Long a diggers secret, it seemed only apt to ask the DJ who brought it to the attention of many, with a wonderful dub by label stalwart, Lexx.

Born in Lagos, Nigera but growing up in the Harrow Road area of West London, Augustus "Gus" Anyia immersed himself in the music of area during the vibrant 60s awakening of African and Caribbean cultures. Learning drums as a boy, he quickly progressed to classical guitar and would perform at school and beyond.

Jamming with guitarist Alvin Christie led to them forming Dambala in 1975. Their first releases set them on their way, produced by Jimmy Lindsey, mixed by Dennis Bovell and cut by Porky. From there more singles followed, repeatedly touring Europe and recording for a TV documentary, before pressures took hold and following a change in line up, the band recorded their sole album, Azania.

Lorraine was the stand out, a wonderful love song of youth's forlorn love, it's warm drum and bass encompassing the yearning lyric. A small masterpiece of UK roots in it's own right, this special 7" comes with a simple, but perfect dub mix from Lexx and will be followed by a comprehensive reissue of Dambala by the label.

Es gibt sie noch, die guten Nachrichten: Jan Delay meldet sich mit seinem neuen Album zurück. “Earth, Wind & Feiern” ist voll Bass, Bumms und positiven Vibes: eine Platte für den Club in unserem Herzen.
“Earth, Wind & Feiern” ist Jan Delays fünftes Soloalbum und sein erstes seit 2016. Wie immer bei Jan Delay schöpft “Earth, Wind & Feiern” aus fünf Jahrzehnten Popgeschichte. Vor allem aber spielt die Platte im Hier und Jetzt. In ihr stecken Burna Boy und Stefflon Don, Daft Punk und Drake, Sly & Robbie und Meek Mill. Es gibt Afrobeats, Disco, Trap und Ska, sogar Stadiontechno und LatinX-Riddims.
“Earth, Wind & Feiern” ist eine Platte für den Club in unserem Herzen. Sie ist voll Seele und Bounce und positiven Vibes. Denn so bedrückend und komplex die Welt manchmal auch scheinen mag: Ein paar simple Wahrheiten werden nie von ihrer Gültigkeit verlieren. Wenn Hass herrscht, hilft Liebe ganz bestimmt. Und das Wichtigste ist, dass das Feuer nicht aufhört zu brennen. Jan Delay ist zurück, um es am Lodern zu
halten.

Thomas Köner is one of the most influential modernist minimal composers. Alongside Wolfgang Voigt's "Gas" project, Köner has been centrally responsible for electronic music's fascination with depth and reduction. His signature sound is vast, seemingly endless, which at first seems homogenous and infinite, but once exposed to it, when our senses calibrate to the fine nuances of changes, we discover and immerse into abundance of textures, richness of modulations and almost infinite range of sonic titilations. Köner's work was inspired by his frequent travels in the Arctic, and listeners feel his music as a journey to mysterious worlds of the Arctic region. The experience of being exposed to the extreme cold, the hightening of our senses and ability to notice even the slightest changes in color, sound, light or density that creates this dangerously reductive environment, is like an immersion in the sonic world of this German artist, where masterfully crafted layers of sound open into colossal spaces, teeming with aural life, waiting to be discovered by those who venture into it. The titles of Köner's highly regarded albums from the 90's ever so often play with this affinity - Nunatak, Permafrost, Teimo - all reference to the world of the Artic region, just as his album Nuuk that points us to the capital of Greenland. Subdued and minimal at first glance, this album is brimming with low-end frequences, shadowy resonances and boreal ambience, but at the same time, constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, makes it very organic, human and almost comforting, like the tiny harbour existing in the sea of ice, it is named after.

Techno isn't a genre that has birthed many consistent albums, and the dub techno subgenre even less so, but one indisputable classic is Porter Ricks' debut 'Biokinetics'. Originally issued on the legendary Basic Channel sub-label Chain Reaction in 1996 following a trio of 12"s, 'Biokinetics' was the first of the label's album releases, and still stands as its crowning achievement. Porter Ricks are Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig, and between them they re-framed the techno sound, imbuing the spacious ambience pioneered by label bosses Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald with a frosty, isolated experimental bent, and combining it with the sort of haunted minimalism of early Plastikman.
What separated 'Biokinetics' from other albums at the time was its unwavering narrative - the exact sound has been interpreted countless times since, but the immersive qualities of this singular record have rarely been touched. Maybe it is down to the silvery underwater concept that ties each track together - the bubbling pads, sub-aquatic basses and muffled kick drums. But as with any great album, it's hard to exactly put your finger on what makes it a classic. Simply put 'Biokinetics' is one of the most important records in the genre and one of techno's finest albums. It has been re-released ten years ago by Type Records, and now Mille Plateaux is celebrating Porter Ricks' and Biokinetics' 25th anniversary with this sumptuous double viny edition.

Über den Zeitraum von mehreren Wochen während des Lockdowns entstanden, präsentieren Nick Cave & Warren Ellis in dieser Woche ihr neues Gemeinschaftsalbum: Carnage – was zu Deutsch so viel wie Blutbad oder Gemetzel heißt. Cave beschreibt das Gemeinschaftswerk denn auch als „eine brutale, aber wunderschöne Aufnahme, eingebettet in eine gemeinschaftliche Katastrophe.“ Obwohl die beiden schon viele Soundtracks zusammen komponiert und aufgenommen haben, und Ellis zudem seit geraumer Zeit Mitglied von The Bad Seeds ist, handelt es sich bei Carnage tatsächlich um den ersten Longplayer, den sie auch offiziell als Duo eingespielt haben.

„Die Arbeit an Carnage war eine komprimierte Phase intensivster Kreativität“, sagt Ellis, „denn es dauerte gerade mal zweieinhalb Tage, bis diese acht Songs in irgendeiner Form standen. Dann erst sagten wir uns: ‘Ach komm, lass uns doch ein Album machen!’ Das alles war also nicht sonderlich geplant.“

Das Klangspektrum der neuen Aufnahmen reicht vom düsteren, elektronischen Puls des Stücks „Old Time“ bis hin zum sehnsuchtsvoll-wunderschönen „Albuquerque“, einer klassischen Ballade, die auf einer kreisförmigen Klavierfigur basiert, überzogen mit hypnotischen Streicherparts. Insgesamt hat das Album eine etwas rastlose Energie, die Perspektive ist im Vergleich zum gefeierten Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds-Vorgänger Ghosteen eher nach außen gerichtet – wobei die beiden auch dieses Mal versuchen, die Grenzen des Songformats zu verschieben, immer wieder neu auszuloten, was ein Song eigentlich alles sein kann…

Während die eigentlichen Aufnahmen in recht kurzer Zeit stattfanden, waren die Songs von Carnage schon davor länger herangereift, in den ersten Lockdown-Wochen, die Cave damit verbracht hatte, „zu lesen, regelrecht zwanghaft zu schreiben und einfach nur auf meinem Balkon zu sitzen und über die Dinge nachzudenken.“ An ein Album dachten die beiden denn auch gar nicht, als sie zusammen ins Studio gingen, um zu jammen. „Das Album“, so Cave, „ist dann einfach so vom Himmel gefallen. Es war ein Geschenk.“

Carnage ist die Fortsetzung jenes kollektiven Improvisationsansatzes, auf den die beiden schon für Ghosteen gesetzt hatten – was Cave zugleich erlaubte, das klassische, eher narrativ strukturierte Songwriting hinter sich zu lassen. Als Rohmaterial dienen ihnen Textideen, die Cave zuvor über einen längeren Zeitraum verfasst und verfeinert; sie handeln zumeist von wenigen Kerngedanken und -themen, einzelnen Bildern und Metaphern, die er mit Worten umkreist. Die eigentlichen Songs entstehen dann in ausgedehnten Improvisations-Sessions im Studio: Anfangs sehe das so aus, wie Ellis berichtet, dass „da zwei Menschen im Raum sitzen und sich etwas trauen, indem sie erst mal einfach passieren lassen, was gerade passiert“. Ihre endgültige Form bekommen die Stücke daraufhin erst durch intensives Editieren und Filtern, wenn Musik und Text zu einer Art Klangcollage zusammenkommen. Das Element der Überraschung spielt bei jedem dieser Schritte eine zentrale Rolle, und mal geht alles ganz schnell – „Shattered Ground“, zum Beispiel, sei, so Ellis, „gleich im ersten Take fertig“ gewesen, während andere, wie beispielsweise der Titelsong, „sich erst kurz vor dem Abschluss der Mixing-Phase zu erkennen geben sollten.“

Wenn man bedenkt, dass Carnage in relativ kurzer Zeit entstanden ist, wirkt die enorme Bandbreite an Themen und Stimmungen um so beeindruckender, denn das Resultat klingt einerseits absolut eindringlich („Old Time“), andererseits auch zutiefst kontemplativ („Lavender Fields“). Wie sich die Stimmungen und Energien verschieben und überlagern, erkennt man auch daran, wie die beiden gewisse Zeilen, Refrains und flüchtige Bilder auf immer neue Weise in den verschiedenen Songs wieder auftauchen lassen, was dem Album insgesamt etwas Kaleidoskopisches gibt. In Songs wie dem aufrüttelnd-aufgebrachten „White Elephant“ und dem fast schon fiebrig-psychedelischen „Balcony Man“ kollidieren surreale Bildwelten, so dass die Zeilen nicht mehr wörtlich zu verstehen sind und an ihre Stelle etwas Suggestives, Impressionistisches tritt.

Die einzigartige kreative Chemie zwischen Cave und Ellis basiert auf einer langen gemeinsamen Geschichte, die sie als Kollegen und Solokünstler verbindet: Erstmals begegneten sich die zwei schon 1993, als Ellis die Geigenparts für einige Songs von Let Love In einspielen sollte, das achte Album von Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Wenig später schaute Cave bei einem Konzert von Ellis’ Band Dirty Three in Brisbane vorbei – und landete schließlich auch selbst auf der Bühne, wo sie gemeinsam Interpretationen von Neil Youngs „Helpless“ und Roy Orbisons „Running Scared“ zum Besten gaben. „Damit fing das alles an“, erinnert sich Ellis, der schließlich selbst festes Mitglied von The Bad Seeds wurde. Auch beim 2006 gegründeten Bandprojekt Grinderman arbeiteten sie zusammen, was laut Nick Cave ein Ventil für „die beste Midlife-Krise war, die sich ein Mann wünschen kann“. In dieser Konstellation sollten sie zwei Alben aufnehmen, Grinderman 1 und 2, bis sie die Band dann 2011 wieder auflösten.

Seit 2005 haben Cave und Ellis zudem an etlichen Soundtracks für Film, TV und Theater gearbeitet – u.a. für The Road (2009) und Lawless (Die Gesetzlosen; 2012), beide entstanden unter der Regie von John Hillcoat, sowie für David MacKenzies Hell or High Water (2016) und Taylor Sheridans Wind River (2017). Das gemeinsame Erschaffen derart atmosphärischer Instrumental-Scores, wobei oftmals elektronische Loops von Ellis als Ausgangspunkt fungierten, über denen Cave am Klavier improvisieren sollte, hat ihre Arbeitsweise und ihr Songwriting nachhaltig geprägt.

Mit Carnage legen sie das nächste Kapitel ihres musikalischen Abenteuers vor: Ein Album, das quasi aus Versehen entstehen sollte, während des langen, weltweiten Stillstands der Pandemie-Monate. Die verschiedenen Stimmungen und auch das Rastlose an diesen Aufnahmen spiegelt die existentielle Ungewissheit wider, aber zugleich flackern auch immer wieder Momente der Ruhe auf, Augenblicke der meditativen Selbstbesinnung. Unterm Strich ist es ein Album, entstanden in und gemacht für diese unbeständigen Zeiten, das durchsetzt ist mit Augenblicken konzentrierter Schönheit. Aufnahmen, die ihre unumstößliche Zuversicht fast schon trotzig zum Ausdruck bringen.

Tonnon produced the album with longtime collaborator, and The Beths’ guitarist and producer, Jonathan Pearce. Tonnon wrote the bulk of the songs during an extensive period of touring after the release of Successor - a period where Tonnon performed with Nadia Reid in Europe, The Veils in the USA, and The Chills, The Phoenix Foundation and Don McGlashan in New Zealand. The pair workshopped songs between tours, often recording new parts as the live versions developed.

Tonnon and Pearce recorded between 2017 and 2020, and in that time, Tonnon’s practise evolved heavily. He incorporated new technology into his set, including the Wellington-designed Synthstrom Deluge, which allowed him to adapt his set for new performance environments;Art Galleries, Museums, even New Zealand Fashion Week. He took that technology further when he collaborated with the Otago Museum on the immersive show for Planetariums, A Synthesized Universe, which travelled to Arts Festivals around New Zealand in 2019.

Creating a music video for ‘Old Images,’ which explored a lost passenger train network, Tonnon came to the idea for a new experience-based show called Rail Land. It took audiences on railways to reach distant community halls around Aotearoa. The show saw Tonnon combine historical research and spoken word narrative, with the immersive lighting and musical technology he developed for A Synthesized Universe. In March, Rail Land finished a three-night run at Auckland Arts Festival, cementing Tonnon’s move to the concept show.

Over time, Tonnon and Pearce’s production moved further from the traditional rhythm sections that powered songs like Successor’s ‘Water Underground.’ In their place came off kilter electronic rhythms, like the beat in ‘Two Free Hands,’ and textures that blur lines between organic and synthesized sound. Guitars are set against synthesizers, and drums against drum machines in ‘Entertainment’ and ‘Peacetime Orders,’ which Tonnon also used in his soundtrack for RNZ’s 80s spy-themed podcast The Service. In ‘Leave Love Out Of This,’ a ballad starts with a piano and a string quartet, but ends in a wall of electronic sound.

The constant has been Tonnon’s lyrics. Whether singing about evolution and the future of work in ‘Two Free Hands,’ the television industry in ‘Entertainment,’ or environmental disaster and regulatory failure in ‘Mataura Paper Mill,’ Tonnon has followed a distinct approach to subject matter, description and phrasing that have seen him longlisted for the APRA Silver Scroll three times.

Tonnon’s explorations of local government and civic infrastructure in his work - an unusual preoccupation for a songwriter, have taken new meaning in his adopted home of Whanganui, where last year, he was elected by councillors as Whanganui District Council’s representative for public transport.

After Tonnon moved to Whanganui, and Pearce toured almost constantly after the success of The Beths’ first album, the pair conducted their collaboration over distance, but with key sessions at Pearce’s Karangahape Road studio, including drums and bass with long time band members Stuart Harwood and David Flyger, a string quartet led by Charmian Keay and arranged by Matthew Bodman, and additional drums with The Beths’ Tristan Deck.

As Leave Love Out Of This is released, Tonnon and Pearce find themselves in very different places to where they started, working on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, close to the venues like Wine Cellar and Whammy Bar where they regularly performed. Back in New Zealand since Covid, Pearce has had to adjust to being in one of Aotearoa’s best-known bands, while Tonnon, when not working on conceptual shows, wrestles with how to restore civic infrastructure to a post industrial city in the regions.

Created over a life-altering period of, Leave Love Out Of This is the culmination of years of experimentation and development - with new technology, new sounds, and new ways of creating, and performing music.

Jan Hertel, so CHAOZE ONE bürgerlicher Name, ist ein gesellschaftskritischer Rapper, Autor und Theaterschauspieler aus Mannheim. In seiner ersten aktiven Phase von 2000 bis 2009 veröffentlichte er zahlreiche Alben und EPs. Die Musik war immer Vehikel für seine politische Arbeit, die im Vordergrund seines künstlerischen Schaffens steht. 2019 veröffentlichte Hertel das Buch "Spielverderber - Mein Leben zwischen Rap & Antifa", in dem er seine musikalische wie politische Sozialisation beschreibt. "Venti" von CHAOZE ONE erscheint auf dem Hamburger Label Grand Hotel van Cleef. Auf dem Album finden sich 17 Stücke in knapp 70 Minuten. Als Gäste sind u.a. Torsun Burkhardt von Egotronic, Mal Éléve, Shana Supreme sowie Autor Jan Off und zahlreiche mehr zu hören. "Venti ist die erste Hip Hop-Platte auf GHvC, und der Opener Memento Moria / Die Welt brennt der erste echte Rap-Track auf unserem Label. Aber Genres sind egal. Denn beim Hören dieses Songs - auch beim vierhundertsten Mal - fangen und Gehirne und Herzen an zu glühen. Der Song und diese Platte umfasst all das, was wir denken und fühlen, wie wir Dinge sehen und was wir fordern. Und zwar ohne Zeige-, dafür ab und an aber gern mit Mittelfinger", lässt sich das Hamburger Label zitieren.

The twenty-fourth - and final - issue in FatCat’s long-running and much-loved Split 12” Series features acclaimed Canadian singer/composer Ian William Craig alongside the brilliant but little-known Estonian Kago - two artists each using their voice as a central element of their craft, mediated through technology to conjur startlingly singular sound-worlds.

Neither side here will sound quite like anything you’ve previously heard. Ian William Craig provides a 19-minute-long immersive tape piece, with Kago delivering a warped, acid-tinged slice of Eastern European freak-folk.

Hand-drilled + numbered sleeves with full printed inner sleeve.

Der in Chicago ansässige Multi-Instrumentalist JODI, aka Nick Levine* (ex-Pinegrove) ist sanft und doch sehr kraftvoll in seinem Songwriting und veröffentlicht mit "Blue Heron", das JODI selbst als "queer country" bezeichnet, - eine Reihe von intimen und bemerkenswert präsenten Momenten, die an Größen wie Jason Molina, Mount Eerie, Duster und Julie Doiron erinnern. Für Levine ist JODI eine Art Alter Ego, eine Linse, durch die es Fragen stellen, Grenzen verschieben und aus der inneren Welt heraustreten kann. Das Album fängt Levines fortwährende Suche nach Bedeutung ein; eine Suche, bei der während des Schreib- und Aufnahmeprozesses ein paar zufällige Begegnungen mit einem Vogel - einem großen blauen Reiher - JODI lehrte, den Zufall des kreativen Ausdrucks zu umarmen und sich seiner Symbolik als Metapher für das Verständnis der eigenen Arbeit und der Welt hinzugeben. Indem JODI sich ganz der Symbolik verschrieb, ließ sich Levine einen großen blauen Reiher auf den Rücken tätowieren und tauchte in einen gefrorenen Teich in Chicago ein, um den Blaureiher für immer als Cover und Titel des Albums zu verewigen. Während "Blue Heron" an den Fäden der Bedeutung kratzt und versucht, der Welt einen Sinn zu geben, ist es ein Werk, das letztlich nur in der vollständigen Hingabe an Kräfte, die größer sind als man selbst, einen Abschluss findet. Es umarmt den Zufall, die Zufälligkeit und das Schicksal mit einer erhabenen Neugierde und findet schließlich einen Sinn in der Zufälligkeit von allem.

Legendary psychedelic guitar music from the Islamic Republic of Mauritania finally available on vinyl!
Originally released as a double CD in 2010, Wallahi Le Zein! has persisted as a cult classic, a collection of a rarely heard and utterly unique underground music scene, raw and unfiltered.
For fans of the more raw side of Sublime Frequencies, Sahelsounds, the ripping tape-hiss psychedelia of Les Rallizes Denudes, and anyone remotely interested in GUITARS.
12” 160 gram black vinyl LP, with 2 spot color reverse-board jacket, and 8-page full sized booklet with extensive notes and photos, and a history of Mauritanian guitar playing.
‘’this is the first curated collection of unfiltered Mauritanian guitar music ever, and I'm glad it's been introduced with such thoroughness and care.’’ 8.0 Pitchfork
The LP version we now present is intended as an immersive entry into this music: gnarled and virtuosic electric guitars weave hypnotically throughout melismatic sung poetry and exclamations, pulsing hand drums, party chatter, buzzing rigged desert sound systems, and all manner of the ambient sounds of Nouakchott wedded to oversaturated cassette in all its swirling, breathing, psychedelic glory. Operating entirely outside of any local recording industry, these songs were collected from bootleg tape stalls, wedding souveniers, and networks of musicians, expertly curated, researched and produced by Matthew Lavoie.
Drawing from the deep well of Mauritanian classical music, the gamut of musical modes and the tidinitt lute repertoire are transposed to the electric guitar - often with frets removed or additional frets installed, “heavy metal” distortion pedals and phasers built into guitar bodies, blurring the lines between Haratine and Beydane musical cultures, the ancient and the futuristic. At times transcendent and transfixing, and conversely a furious and cascading intensity that commands jaw-dropping attention.

‘The Woman You Want’ is Eliza’s 2nd album to be released on July 16th the same day as the single ‘Fine & Peachy’ with a firm nod to the female greats of the 90s is a solid guitar/bass/drums indie classic in the making. Eliza’s vocal oozes a sardonic disquiet that immerses the listener into her fury culminating in an almost evangelical middle 8. The campaign so far has had support from Radio 1, 6 Music, BBC Intro, BBC Scotland, The Times, The Independent & Clash. 12 date UK tour is on sale for November and a major live event will go live on Sky Arts 15.7.21 ‘The real deal’ Guy Garvey (Elbow) BBC 6 Music. Available on CD and 'bottled green' vinyl formats.

Im Jahr 2008 war Portugal. The Man seit etwas mehr als zwei Jahren eine Band und ritt auf einer kreativen Welle, wie man sie nur selten sieht. In den ersten zwei Jahren ihres Bestehens hat die Band drei Alben, eine EP und ein paar Singles veröffentlicht und dabei knapp 500 Shows gespielt. Die junge Band aus Alaska fuhr von Stadt zu Stadt, kaufte säckeweise Reis und gönnte sich nur selten etwas von ihrem Taco Bell-Feed The Beat-Geld. PTM waren engagiert. Sie beendeten die Tour im Dezember 2008 und anstatt eine dringend benötigte Pause einzulegen, trafen sie die Entscheidung, den Höhepunkt dessen aufzunehmen, was ihre Live-Performance geworden war. Sie fanden ein seltenes Juwel von einem Studio in den Vororten von Portland, und versammelten sich dort mit ihrem Live-Equipment und einer Handvoll Freunde mit Handkameras. Der langjährige Mitarbeiter und Filmemacher Graham (Baclagon) Agcaolli und der Tontechniker/Mixer Jacob Portrait (der später zu Unknown Mortal Orchestra stoßen sollte) halfen bei der Dokumentation. Sie spielten ihr komplettes Set einmal durch - ohne Nachvertonungen oder Overdubs - nur die Band in ihrer natürlichen Form. Ein paar Wochen später gingen sie ins Studio, um ihr nächstes Album, "The Satanic Satanist", aufzunehmen, und "Oregon City Sessions" wurde in ein Regal gestellt. Dort lag es über ein Jahrzehnt lang. Nur wenige sahen den ganzen Film. Die Band, ihr Manager oder Tour-Manager boten gelegentlich an, zu den Leuten nach Hause zu gehen und ihn für sie zu zeigen. Manchmal zeigte die Band auf dem Parkplatz eine Handvoll Songs für die lokalen Fans. Sie knüpften Freundschaften, aber wann immer sie gefragt wurden, war die Antwort: "Ja, wir werden das irgendwann veröffentlichen." Jetzt ist die Band seit über einem Jahr nicht mehr unterwegs, die mit Abstand längste Pause seit ihrer Gründung, und die Zeit scheint einfach reif. Hier ist "Oregon City Sessions", ausgegraben aus den Archiven. Unberührt, unverändert von dem Tag, an dem es fertiggestellt wurde. Es ist eine Zeitkapsel einer Band, die ihren Weg findet. Ein Schnappschuss von jungen, rohen Talenten, bevor sie Preise gewannen, bevor sie Millionen von Platten verkauften, bevor sie Headliner von Festivals waren. Nur ein paar Kids aus Alaska, die die Welt bereisen und Musik machen wollten.

This release is represented by Luxus Varta, where his solid electro has been mixed with a flavour of experimentalism. If you are ready to stop the time, don't be scared to immerse.

Vinyl only.

Pianist McCoy Tyner was an acknowledged force of nature. On the aptly-named Expansions, Tyner fronts a remarkable band consisting of Woody Shaw on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Gary Bartz on alto saxophone, Ron Carter on cello, Herbie Lewis on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums. Stand-out tracks in a program of four Tyner originals and one standard include the timeless masterpiece “Peresina” and the immersive opening track “Vision.” Blue Note Records’ Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tapes, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe gatefold packaging. Mastering is by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) and vinyl is manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated (RTI).

Klasse Indie-Rock von Downunder. Riley Jones, Louis Forster und James Harrison sind seit Ewigkeiten beste Freunde deren gemeinsame Leidenschaft die Musik ist. Folgerichtig manifestierte man den Bund der Freundschaft in einer gemeinsamen Band schon zu High School Zeiten - The Goon Sax waren geboren. "Mirror II" ist bereits das dritte Album der australischen Indieband, gleichzeitig ihr Debüt auf ihrem neuen Label Matador Records und zudem ein Aufbruch in neue Soundwelten. Das 2016 erschienene Debütalbum "Up to Anything" war eine Mischung aus Selbstfindung und musikalischen Feldversuchen zum Nachfolger "We're Not Talking" (2018) hatten man seinen ganz eigenen Sound gefunden hatte. Für "Mirror II" ließen sich die drei Australier drei Jahre Zeit. Louis zog zwischenzeitlich nach Berlin, wo er in einem Kino arbeitete, während Riley und James eine Post-Punk-Band mit dem Namen Soot gründeten. Alle drei experimentierten in dieser Zeit mit teils abstrakter Musik und atonalen Sounds, nun folgt die Rückbesinnung zum Pop. Jedes Bandmitglied bringt dabei seine ganz eigene Art des Songwriting ein. Rileys musikalische Vorbilder wie Les Rallizes Dénudés, Keijo Haino aber auch Kylie Minogue hört man auf "Desire" und "Tag". Louis ist wiederum beeinflusst von avantgardistischem Pop. Er liebt Bands wie HTRK, Young Marble Giants und Stereolab, aber auch Hits von poppigeren Künstlern wie The 1975 oder Justin Bieber. Aus diesen Einflüssen entstanden Songs wie "Psychic" oder "In the Stone". Seine Art Songs zu schreiben brachte ihm immer wieder Vergleiche mit der großen australischen Band The Go-Betweens ein - kein Wunder, schließlich ist Robert Forster sein Vater. Da fällt der Sound nicht so weit vom Stamm. James Harrison ist wiederum ein großer Bewunderer von Syd Barrett, den Walker Brothers, Felt und Jandek, was man den psychedelisch geprägten Tracks "Carpetry" und "Caterpillars" auch anhört.

WHITE COLOURED VINYL

Klasse Indie-Rock von Downunder. Riley Jones, Louis Forster und James Harrison sind seit Ewigkeiten beste Freunde deren gemeinsame Leidenschaft die Musik ist. Folgerichtig manifestierte man den Bund der Freundschaft in einer gemeinsamen Band schon zu High School Zeiten - The Goon Sax waren geboren. "Mirror II" ist bereits das dritte Album der australischen Indieband, gleichzeitig ihr Debüt auf ihrem neuen Label Matador Records und zudem ein Aufbruch in neue Soundwelten. Das 2016 erschienene Debütalbum "Up to Anything" war eine Mischung aus Selbstfindung und musikalischen Feldversuchen zum Nachfolger "We're Not Talking" (2018) hatten man seinen ganz eigenen Sound gefunden hatte. Für "Mirror II" ließen sich die drei Australier drei Jahre Zeit. Louis zog zwischenzeitlich nach Berlin, wo er in einem Kino arbeitete, während Riley und James eine Post-Punk-Band mit dem Namen Soot gründeten. Alle drei experimentierten in dieser Zeit mit teils abstrakter Musik und atonalen Sounds, nun folgt die Rückbesinnung zum Pop. Jedes Bandmitglied bringt dabei seine ganz eigene Art des Songwriting ein. Rileys musikalische Vorbilder wie Les Rallizes Dénudés, Keijo Haino aber auch Kylie Minogue hört man auf "Desire" und "Tag". Louis ist wiederum beeinflusst von avantgardistischem Pop. Er liebt Bands wie HTRK, Young Marble Giants und Stereolab, aber auch Hits von poppigeren Künstlern wie The 1975 oder Justin Bieber. Aus diesen Einflüssen entstanden Songs wie "Psychic" oder "In the Stone". Seine Art Songs zu schreiben brachte ihm immer wieder Vergleiche mit der großen australischen Band The Go-Betweens ein - kein Wunder, schließlich ist Robert Forster sein Vater. Da fällt der Sound nicht so weit vom Stamm. James Harrison ist wiederum ein großer Bewunderer von Syd Barrett, den Walker Brothers, Felt und Jandek, was man den psychedelisch geprägten Tracks "Carpetry" und "Caterpillars" auch anhört.

The album features a notable line-up of musician such as: Sami Yaffa (New York Dolls/Joan Jett), Dave Richmond (Serge Gainsbourg/Elton John), Christophe Deschamps (Jean-Michel Jarre), Kath Guifford (Stereolab), Will Crewdson (Adam & The Ants/The Selecters), Danny Ray (Bo Diddley/Brian Setzer)...Mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios and cut to vinyl across a 180g LP in a gatefold sleeve with booklet. L'homme de l'ombre immerses you from start to finish in a sonic and lyrical journey that rewards your mind and emotions. Here you will find the glamorous rock attitude of Marc O's musicianship colliding brilliantly with the wise and witty writing of french philosopher Bruno Pons Levy. The result is not so much a double identity, but an intangible and powerful third element, much like the mathematical equation described in the song The triangle squared (Le triangle au carré). This song is emblematic of Marc O's persona: a musician of style and vision, crossing cultures and decades to collaborate with a remarkable team and create this, his most personal album. Press quotes: Ten well realised, vintage aesthetic fantasies ****" MOJO "Singular debut set that lurches from glam-punk to Air-meets-Gainsbourg purr, infectiously Pulp-ish electro-rock and gauche, Bowie-esque panther strut. Formidable! 8/10" UNCUT "Never less than fascinating, this is an important and hugely enjoyable work ****" RECORD COLLECTOR "Propelled by his core rhythm section and lyricist collaborator, they address some weighty subjects with passion ****" SHINDIG! "Blends aggressive and powerful textures and melancholic soundscapes to break down language barriers and deliver a powerful, evocative and stunning album" LOUDER THAN WAR "The music is as strong as Pons Levy's lyrics, mingling melodic rock with chanson in the grand tradition ****" RNR

Manche kehren immer wieder in die Vergangenheit zurück um die Erinnerungen und Empfindungen von damals mit dem Hier und Jetzt zu vergleichen, während andere einfach nur stur nach vorne blicken - Lucy Dacus gehörte lange zur ersten Gruppe. Ihr drittes Album "Home Video" basiert auf Erinnerungen ihrer Coming-Of-Age-Jahre in Richmond, Virginia. Viele der Songs beginnen wie Memoiren und alle haben die Passion, den Humor und die Ehrlichkeit von erfrischend autobiographischen Texten. Während einer langen Zeit auf Tour hatte sich Lucy gefreut, endlich wieder Zeit in ihrer Heimatstadt verbringen zu können, nur um dort festzustellen, dass Menschen sie wie ein Zerrbild ihrer selbst betrachteten. So brach sie im August 2019 nach einem Monat der Stille kurzerhand auf, um in den Trace Horse Studios in Nashville mit ihren Freunden und Bandkollegen Jacob Blizard, Collin Pastore und Jake Finch an neuem Material zu arbeiten. Ihre boygenius Kolleginnen Phoebe Bridgers und Julien Baker stießen hinzu um ihre Stimmen den Refrains von "Please Stay" und "Going Going Gone" zu leihen. Dass "Home Video" in einer verwirrenden Zeit wie dieser erscheint, wirkt wie vorbestimmt. Nach mehr als einem Jahr zuhause und in einer Lebensphase in der Videocalls die nahezu einzige Form von Zwischenmenschlichkeit waren, ist Retroromantik für viele zum Anker und Fluchtpunkt gleichermaßen geworden. "Home Video" ist ein Beispiel dafür, wie man Verletzlichkeit in Stärke verwandelt. Ihre Stimme und Songs liefern dabei das Fundament für einen hoffnungsfrohen Blick in die Zukunft, der die teils düstere Vergangenheit im Rückspiegel verblassen lässt.

Die Liga der gewöhnlichen Gentlemen ... sind sie Troglodyten, welche mit heiligem Ernst über Hemden, Speiseeis und Ferien singen? Sind sie vollkommen aus der Zeit gefallen, mit ihrem aus zerkratzen alten Madness-, 60s-Pop-, A&M-, Northern-Soul-Platten destillierten DIY-Sound? Oder gerade deshalb modern? Schaffen sie nicht gerade aufgrund ihrer Sturheit stets etwas Eigenes, etwas Neues, ja etwas Modernes? Ja, Ja und nochmals Ja! möchte man nach Hören der "Gschichterln aus dem Park Café" ausrufen. Die Liga der gewöhnlichen Gentlemen ist die größte kleine Popband der Welt! Zumindest aber die größte kleine Popband West-Hamburgs.

Tape Crackers: An Oral History Of Jungle Pirate Radio. Rollo Jackson is a London-based filmmaker who grew up immersed in the city's dance music culture of the mid-90's. His films, whether for the likes of Hot Chip, Man Like Me, or Warp Records bare the traits of someone whose formative years were spent clad in the brash hues of a Versace print shirt and the bright white of a fresh pair of Reeboks. Whatever his subject, the spirit of too many late nights spent doing homework to the crackling sounds of pirate radio, or of weekends spent in booming, sweaty warehouses on the outskirts of London is always threaded throughout. Rollo presents a documentary DVD entitled Tape Crackers, an oral history of Jungle music and an affectionate, touching, and, at times, incredibly funny, tale of bedroom obsessiveness. Told through Michael Finch's tape collection which he recorded while growing up in Islington, North London, it's also an untold (or more accurately unheard) history of UK underground music of the last 10 years - Jungle, Garage and Grime are all knitted into the story through the MCs and DJs who manned the decks and mics. Movers of the underground today such as Riko Dan and B Live are on some of the tapes played in the film. The D90s might be dusty but this music still sounds ultra-crisp. Warning, may contain: late days of Dream FM, middle days of Kool FM/MC Ruff and DJ Uproar on Dream FM/MC Fize and DJ Swiftly/Riko Dan on Pressure FM/Evil B on Rude FM/DJ Target and Maxwell D on Rinse FM/DJ Brockie, MC Five-O and MC Moose on Kool FM in 1993/DJ SL with Strings, Koji and Flinty Badman (Ragga Twins) + Demon Rockers.

Wir haben gehört, dass Post-Punk es bis auf die Frühlingsseiten der Sunday Times geschafft hat. Oh, bleibt da dran - Desperate Journalist wüten schon seit gefühlten Äonen mit ihrer melodramatischen Mischung aus traumatisierten Gitarren und kunstvoll gebrochenem Gesang gegen den Konzern-Apparat. Sechs Jahre sind vergangen seit dem Erscheinen des teuflischen "Desperate Journalist"-Debuts in 2015. Das stürmische zweite Album "Grow Up" erschien 2017, während 2019 das stellare "The Search For The Miraculous" weit und breit zu hören war. "Maximum Sorrow!", das komplett in Crouch End inmitten der Covid-Pandemie aufgenommen wurde, strotzt nur so vor Alt-Rock-Muskeln, die in sieben Jahren unermüdlicher Auftritte und Veröffentlichungen aufgebaut wurden, wie ein wilder Panther auf der Pirsch. Angetrieben von Simon Drowners ohrwurmverdächtiger Bassline zeigt sich das Quartett schon beider Lead-Single "Fault" in makellos brutaler Form, mit Banshee-Heulen und selbstzerfleischenden Texten von Sängerin Jo Bevan: "And those teenage hangups are hard to beat / When your closet is piled up with defeat", schnauzt sie an einer besonders stacheligen Stelle, während ihr Gitarrist Rob Hardy und Schlagzeuger Caz Hellbent nur noch feuriges Öl in die akustischen Flammen gießen können. Wie ein Großteil des restlichen Albums ist "Fault" sowohl verspielt als auch voll mit Wut. Das sind Desperate Journalist in hyperdynamischer Form, superglatt, aber nie krankhaft glatt; ambitioniert und expansiv, aber immer noch selbstverliebt und durch und durch DIY. Es gibt traditionelle verzweifelte Reisen in das Herz der Dunkelheit - siehe die doomig-prägnanten Desintegrationen von "Armageddon". Und es gibt brillant beleuchtete Lichtblicke: die ohnmächtige Eleganz von "Utopia", die sardonische, melodieverliebte Frechheit von "Personality Girlfriend", die Ruhe von "Formaldehyde", ein tragisches Finale auf jedem anderen Album - hier als Opener. Ein Lob auch für die raumgreifenden, epischen Chorschübe von "Everything You Wanted" und die spektakulär bittersüßen Sehnsüchte von "What You're Scared Of", die mit verstreuten Zuckerwürfeln bestückt sind.

20 Jahre TURBOSTAAT galt es Anfang 2019 zu Feiern - die Band beschenkte sich selbst mit dem üppigen Livealbum NACHTBROT! Die Alben drei bis sieben der Band charteten allesamt, zweimal davonTop 20 und 2020 "Utlande" erstmals sogar Top 10. Die Live-CD sowie die neue Vinylversion 2021 ist via Cargo erhältlich: Doppel-LP, weißes Vinyl, 140 gr, Klappcover mit 16-seitigen Foro-Booklet in LP-Format! "Rückblickend ist es leider nicht mehr zu beantworten, ob überhaupt jemand von uns zur ersten Probe erschienen wäre, wenn wir damals gewusst hätten, dass das automatisch bedeutet, für die nächsten zwei Jahrzehnte Verpflichtungen zu haben. Unser erstes Konzert spielten wir am 08.05.1999 als eine von drei Bands im Husumer Speicher. Marten war im Besitz eines 8-Spur Tape Recorders, dem Yamaha MT8X, mit dem wir, so gut es eben ging, im Juli 1999 im eigenen Proberaum ein Demo mit fünf Liedern aufnahmen..." Der Rest ist Geschichte, dauert nun schon 20 ereignisreiche Jahre und ist nachzuvollziehen auf "Nachtbrot", dem ersten Turbostaat Live-Album. Aufgenommen bei drei aufeinanderfolgenden Konzerten im April 2018 im Conne Island in Leipzig. Ihr langjähriger Wegbegleiter und Freund Moses Schneider produzierte das Album. "Nachtbrot" liefert eine Zusammenfassung der Bandgeschichte, zusammen mit den stets wichtigsten Bandmitgliedern: ihren Fans. Denn Turbostaat stammen aus einer Szene, in der das Agieren auf Augenhöhe Teil der Definition von Punk ist. Wie immer, seit 20 Jahren, verabschiedet sich Jan nach jeder Show mit dem gleichen Satz: "Danke euch, dass wir das hier machen dürfen".

Leng Records has long had close ties with the underground music scene in San Francisco, with low-slung dub disco and psychedelic disco outfit 40 Thieves releasing their acclaimed album The Sky Is Yours on the imprint way back in 2014. Now Leng has turned to another stalwart of the Bay Area scene, Cole Odin, on a single that’s every bit as trippy and engrossing as you’d expect from one of San Francisco’s most frequently overlooked talents. Cole made his Leng debut earlier in the year, contributing the electro-influenced track ‘Numbers Game’ to the label’s 10th anniversary compilation. On ‘Little Boxes’, he’s joined by good friend Eddie C, a much-loved disco and house producer from Canada best known for his releases on Endless Flight and Red Motorbike. The pair recorded the track while Eddie was staying with Cole in San Francisco last year.



In keeping with the low-slung, hallucinatory sound that has always been a big feature of the San Franciscan scene, ‘Little Boxes’ is a trippy, mind-altering affair in which waves of sitar sounds, cosmic synths, effects-laden guitars and kaleidoscopic electronics rise above a weighty punk-funk bassline and crunchy, snare-heavy beats. It has serious dancefloor chops but is also atmospheric and immersive: perfect 5am music for Bay Area beach parties and mushrooms-fuelled forest raves.



Fittingly, it’s 40 Thieves who provide the accompanying remix, a 10-minute epic created with the assistance of Adonis and Rodney from the psych rock band ‘Guavatron’ for additional synths and the guitars. Beginning with tabla-style percussion, swirling chords, psychedelic guitar licks and mystical sitar sounds, the remix builds in waves, with looser drums and even weightier bass propelling the track forwards at a metronomic and hypnotic pace. By the time the eyes-closed guitar solos drop two thirds of the way through, you’ll be tripping hard and reaching for the lasers. It’s a genuinely stunning remix of a genuinely intoxicating, mind-mangling track.

Vinyl kommt in blau, Klappcover und bedruckter Innenhülle! Die meisten Dinge im Leben entstehen zufällig. Die große Liebe, eine schicksalhafte Begegnung und manchmal auch eine zweite Karriere. Oliver Perau alias Juliano Rossi hätte 1996 sicherlich nicht damit gerechnet, dass er 2021 immer noch als Rossi unterwegs sein würde. Damals hatte sich gerade die alternative Rockband Terry Hoax, die Perau 1988 mit einem Freund gegründet hatte, nach acht europaweit erfolgreichen Jahren aufgelöst. Doch Perau wollte sein Versprechen, bei der ersten Ausstellung des befreundeten Fotografen Olaf Heine zu singen, halten. Also fragte er den Jazzpianisten Lutz Krajenski, ob man zusammen alte Swing-Klassiker präsentieren könnte. Schließlich war Perau seit frühster Kindheit begeistert von Sammy Davis jr., Dean Martin, Burt Bacharach, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones und Frank Sinatra. So stand Perau im Sommer '96 mit dem eilig ironisch hinzugefügten Künstlername Juliano Rossi vor Galeriebesuchern und Terry-Hoax-Fans und sang entrückt What the world needs now von Bacharach. "So viele entsetzte Gesichter habe ich selten gesehen" sagt Perau lachend und ergänzt nach kurzer Pause "aber für mich war es wie eine Offenbarung". 25 Jahre später veröffentlicht Juliano Rossi sein fünftes Album, Terry Hoax gibt es auch wieder und zusätzlich tourt Perau seit 9 Jahren durch Pflegeheime und macht Musik für Menschen mit Demenz. Ein sehr ungewöhnliches und in dieser dreigleisigen Konsequenz sicherlich einzigartiges Sängerleben, dass offensichtlich glücklich macht. So jedenfalls wirkt Herr Rossi und sein neues Album "Drunk On Love". Aus der Zeit gefallene glamouröse Songs irgendwo zwischen The Doors, Burt Bacharach und Dean Martin.

Die meisten der für dieses Album ausgewählten Tracks sind Aufnahmen, die mit einem einfachen Stereo- (2-Track) Kassettenrecorder aufgenommen wurden. Die Situation im Studio sah dann ungefähr so aus: Drumcomputer (ohne Midi) und Sequenzer waren miteinander verbunden, liefen somit rhythmisch synchron. Die darin eingestellten Tonfolgen und Rhythmen wurden dann meist manuell mit Hilfe der Tastaturen auf die jeweilige gewünschte Tonhöhe transponiert. Oft wurden während dieses Ablaufs noch weitere Instrumente dazu live gespielt. Dabei wurden mit Hilfe eines Mischpults die Summe aller Tonquellen für die Aufnahme in einer Art "Live Recording" zusammengemischt. Da man bei einem Fehler immer wieder von vorne anfangen musste, und viele der Klänge nach dem Verstellen der Regler nur mit viel Akribie wieder hergestellt werden konnten, kamen mit der Zeit viele Kassetten zusammen, oft mit endlos langen und verschiedenen Versionen des gleichen Titels. Demo Tapes 1984-86 umfasst eine Auswahl aus den Anfängen der elektronischen Musik und merkwürdigen Klangwelten von Heiko Maile

Biz's Set Me Free EP is an adventurous and personal exploration of techno which is composed for the dance floor but also sparks the heart. The grinding grooves of opener 'Set Me Free' immediately shows a pairing of a tough mentality with a supreme sense of soul. The exquisite 'Don't Stop' builds with an enthralling techno tension that finally lets up and will immerse the listener in liberation. Last but not least 'Autumn Blues', a perfectly melancholic journey through deeper techno that lifts the spirits with optimistic synths.

From their genesis as members of the Venus club in-house band in the early 70s, Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band were at the forefront of the musical revolution during an era where modern instruments and foreign styles superseded the traditional fare to become the staple sound of Ethiopia. No one would argue that the Walias were the trailblazing powerhouse of modern Ethiopian music. They were the first band to form independently without affiliation to a theatre house, a club or a hotel; unprecedented and risky as they had to raise all funding for expenses by themselves including buying equipment. They were the first to release full instrumental albums, considered to be commercially unviable at the time. They opened their own recording studio, with band members Melake Gebre and Mahmoud Aman doubling as technical buffs during sessions. They were also the first independent band to tour abroad. In short, they were the pioneers every band tried to emulate; some more successfully than others.
Odds are, any Ethiopian over the age of 35 who had access to TV or radio by the early 90s, will instantly recognize the sound of Walias. What is not a given is, how many would actually identify the band itself. Barely a day went by without hearing the Walias either in the background on radio or as an accompaniment to various programs on TV.

This Tezeta album, the band’s second recording, released in 1975, is one of those that have been impossible to find for nearly three decades. Sourced by Awesome Tapes From Africa and expertly remastered by Jessica Thompson, its unique and funky renditions of standards and popular songs of the day are so quintessentially Walias, flavorful and evocative. Hailu's melodic organ, unashamedly front and center in every track, makes even the complex pieces accessible.
Profoundly engaging; it's an immersive trip down memory lane for those of us getting reacquainted with it, while also an enthralling and gratifying experience for fresh ears.

Virtually unknown recording outside Ethiopia.
Documents Mergia & Walias legendary early period.
Follow-up to reissue of hugely popular seminal Ethiopian instrumentals LP Tche Belew (ATFA012)

Cassette-only, released in 1975 on the band’s in-house label to fund their record store.
Beautifully-rendered instrumentals of classic Ethiopian standards.

Over the past decade, Egyptian-born, Barcelona-based DJ and techno producer Raxon, known to friends and family as Ahmed Raxon, has popped out a steady stream of twelve-inch singles, precision-tooled, for labels like Cocoon, Drumcode, Diynamic, Truesoul, and Ellum Audio. An alumni of Kompakt’s Speicher series – check the insistent, vibrating pulses of “The Ancient” and “Dark Light” on 2019’s Speicher 107 – with Sound Of Mind, Raxon has produced a long-awaited debut album that’s ready and aching both for the dancefloor and the boudoir, traversing the heat of the club and the warmth of the home.

“The idea of an album has always floated around in my head for the past few years,” Raxon confirms, “but it was never the right moment in my mind.” Instead, he’s been insistently pursuing his vision of deep, elegant techno, taking him from early DJ gigs in Dubai, including the legendary audio tonic night, then relocating to Europe on the recommendation of Herman Cattaneo, all the while allowing his experiences to inform and transmute his producer’s thumbprint. He’s an architect by training (though he gave architecture up for electronic music), which might explain why Raxon productions are so sturdy and well-designed; but remember also that architecture is a field filled with brave experimentation, something Raxon definitely draws on throughout Sound Of Mind.

Like many albums from the past twelve months, Raxon’s debut developed partly thanks to the unique social situation the planet has found itself caught within. “In the beginning of 2020 I started working on a few tracks with the album in mind,” he recalls, “with no idea of what’s to come in the next few months. As catastrophic as the situation was/is, I found myself in the studio; in a way the lockdown gave me that creative freedom in the studio, to try to tell my story through sound.” And indeed, there is something in the way of ‘life writing’ about Sound Of Mind, particularly in the way Raxon’s productions pay subtle homage, perhaps, to his formative listening experiences in the late nineties.

It’s no retro trip, but there’s plenty of variety here, and a few moments that’ll tickle the collective memory – see the prowling pulsations of the opening “Majestic”, the alien breakbeat action of “Vice” and “Journey Mode”, where the interstellar tones feel like Foul Play or Steve Gurley, the leaking gas and woozy keys that make “Droid Solo” so subtly destabilising, or the strobelight drones that sputter and flare throughout “El Multiverse”, where dappled organ tones fight it out with interdimensional transmissions, all sucked into the vortex of a late-night techno mantra. Beautifully sculpted, Sound Of Mind feels consummate, an elegant set that pulls Raxon’s vision into its sharpest focus. Alive with possibilities, it’s a fever dream of creativity.

In den letzten zehn Jahren hat der in Ägypten geborene und in Barcelona lebende DJ und Techno-Produzent Raxon, der Freunden und Familie auch als Ahmed Raxon bekannt ist, eine ganze Reihe von 12inch-Singles auf Labels wie Cocoon, Drumcode, Diynamic, Truesoul und Ellum Audio veröffentlicht. Wir kennen Raxon außerdem durch seinen Beitrag zur Kompakt Extra/Speicher-Reihe – man höre sich nur mal "The Ancient" und "Dark Light" auf dem 2019 erschienenen Speicher 107 an. Nun hat Raxon mit “Sound Of Mind“ sein lang erwartetes Debütalbum produziert, das sowohl für den Dancefloor als auch für die eigenen vier Wände geeignet ist und dabei sowohl die Hitze des Clubs als auch die Wärme des eigenen Zuhauses durchmisst.

"Die Idee eines Albums schwebte in den letzten Jahren immer in meinem Kopf herum", bestätigt Raxon, "aber es gab nie den richtige Moment." Stattdessen verfolgte er leidenschaftlich seine Vision von tiefem, elegantem Techno, die ihn von frühen DJ-Gigs in Dubai, einschließlich der legendären Audio-Tonic-Nacht, dann auf Empfehlung von Hernan Cattaneo nach Europa führte. Im Laufe dieser Zeit sammelte er unzählige Erfahrungen, die es ihm erlaubten, seinen Stil als Produzent mehr und mehr zu transformieren. Raxon ist gelernter Architekt (obwohl er die Architektur für die elektronische Musik aufgegeben hat), was vielleicht erklärt, warum seine Produktionen so robust und gut durchdacht sind; aber man sollte auch nicht vergessen, dass Architektur bestenfalls immer ein Feld mutiger Experimente ist, etwas, worauf Raxon in “Sound Of Mind“ definitiv zurückgreift.

Wie viele andere Alben der letzten zwölf Monate auch wurde Raxon’s Debüt von der einzigartigen gesellschaftlichen Situation, in der sich der Planet momentan befindet, beeinflusst. "Anfang 2020 habe ich angefangen, an ein paar Tracks für das Album zu arbeiten", erinnert er sich, "ohne zu wissen, was in den nächsten Monaten auf uns zukommen würde. So katastrophal die Situation auch war/ist, ich fand mich im Studio wieder; in gewisser Weise gab mir der Lockdown auch eine kreative Freiheit im Studio, um zu versuchen, eine Geschichte durch meinen Sound zu erzählen." Und in der Tat gibt es auf “Sound Of Mind“ so etwas wie eine "Lebensgeschichte", besonders in der Art und Weise, wie Raxon’s Produktionen eine subtile Hommage an seine prägenden musikalischen Erfahrungen in den späten Neunzigern darstellen.

Es ist fürwahr kein Retro-Trip, aber es gibt hier viel Abwechslung und ein paar Momente, die das kollektive Gedächtnis kitzeln werden - zum Beispiel der sich langsam heran pirschende Pulsschlag im Eröffnungstrack "Majestic", oder die außerirdischen Breakbeats von "Vice" und "Journey Mode", in denen sich die interstellaren Sounds ein wenig wie Foul Play oder Steve Gurley anfühlen. Dann das ausströmende Gas und die wummernden Tasten, die "Droid Solo" subtil destabilisieren, oder die Strobo-Drones, die in "El Multiverse" herum sprudeln und flackern, wo einzelne Töne einer Orgel mit interdimensionalen Transmittern um die Wette strahlen und schließlich in den Strudel eines nächtlichen Techno-Mantras gesogen werden. “Sound Of Mind“ fühlt sich formvollendet an, wie ein elegantes Set, das Raxon’s Vision verstärkt in den Fokus rückt. Ein Fiebertraum voller Kreativität und Möglichkeiten.

The Chilean/French duet are known for their hypnotic music which incorporates eerie sounds generated by raw and mineral materials (metal, rocks etc) to create tracks that are in turn hyper-rhythmic and dreamy, poised between postpunk rock and electronic dance music. The band have also been very active in the field of multimedia & performance arts, and Xpujil explores that other dimension of their talent. Released on Crammed's revered MADE TO MEASURE series (which is dedicated to experimental, minimal & ambient music), Xpujil consists of a single 40-minute track, which draws the listener into an aural, immersive experience. Based on sounds recorded by Nova Materia during a trip in the Mexican jungle, in Maya territory (Xpujil is the name of an old Mayan city, now lost in the middle of the forest), the album was then produced in the band's Parisian studio, and features contribution by electronic musician/drummer Ikue Mori (of DNA fame) and cellist Gaspar Claus. The album was mixed in binaural, and is best enjoyed on headphones. Nova Materia will be performing Xpujil in appropriate settings (museums, performance arts spaces), with multichannel immersive sound systems. Nova Materia are Caroline Chaspoul and Eduardo Henriquez, formerly with Panico, the alternative rock band they had created in Chile, with which they toured around the globe and released several albums.

Gaspard Augé hat schon immer brillant reißerische, musikalische Welten geschaffen, in denen man sich
verlieren kann. Am bekanntesten ist er als eine Hälfte von Justice, dem Duo, das Mitte der 2000er Jahre
Rock und Rave vereinte und dessen Dancefloor-Smashes eine ganze Generation definierten. Sein diesjähriges
Solo-Debütalbum „Escapades“ besiegelt seinen Ruf als Meister des Maximalismus, ein elektronischer Autor,
dessen imaginäre Soundtracks ein erfrischender Ruck aus der Realität sind. Seine köstlich massiven Traumlandschaften beschwört Bilder von progressiven, heidnischen Ritualen im Orbit oder Spaghetti-Western auf
einer Raumstation herauf. Seien wir ehrlich, der Zappa-artige Produzent hatte nie vor, eine introspektive
Platte zu schreiben: „Ich war schon immer davon besessen, überlebensgroße Musik zu machen“, sagt er.
„Vor allem, weil es mehr Spaß macht“.
Das letzte Mal hörten wir von Augé, als er und Xavier De Rosnay von Justice einen Grammy 2019 für ihr
Album ”Woman Worldwide” gewannen, ein Überarbeitungspaket ihres Katalogs aus dem letzten Jahrzehnt.
”Das Tolle an den Grammys ist, dass man im Voraus nicht weiß, ob man gewonnen hat oder nicht, also kam
es völlig überraschend”, sagt Augé. Es war eine verdiente Anerkennung für ihre gemeinsame, bahnbrechende
Arbeit. ”Wir haben uns einfach gefreut und dachten: ’Wir müssen etwas richtig gemacht haben’”, sagt
Augé. ”Und wir dachten: ’Okay, jetzt können wir dieses Kapitel abschließen’.”

Manche kehren immer wieder in die Vergangenheit zurück um die Erinnerungen und Empfindungen von damals mit dem Hier und Jetzt zu vergleichen, während andere einfach nur stur nach vorne blicken - Lucy Dacus gehörte lange zur ersten Gruppe. Ihr drittes Album "Home Video" basiert auf Erinnerungen ihrer Coming-Of-Age-Jahre in Richmond, Virginia. Viele der Songs beginnen wie Memoiren und alle haben die Passion, den Humor und die Ehrlichkeit von erfrischend autobiographischen Texten. Während einer langen Zeit auf Tour hatte sich Lucy gefreut, endlich wieder Zeit in ihrer Heimatstadt verbringen zu können, nur um dort festzustellen, dass Menschen sie wie ein Zerrbild ihrer selbst betrachteten. So brach sie im August 2019 nach einem Monat der Stille kurzerhand auf, um in den Trace Horse Studios in Nashville mit ihren Freunden und Bandkollegen Jacob Blizard, Collin Pastore und Jake Finch an neuem Material zu arbeiten. Ihre boygenius Kolleginnen Phoebe Bridgers und Julien Baker stießen hinzu um ihre Stimmen den Refrains von "Please Stay" und "Going Going Gone" zu leihen. Dass "Home Video" in einer verwirrenden Zeit wie dieser erscheint, wirkt wie vorbestimmt. Nach mehr als einem Jahr zuhause und in einer Lebensphase in der Videocalls die nahezu einzige Form von Zwischenmenschlichkeit waren, ist Retroromantik für viele zum Anker und Fluchtpunkt gleichermaßen geworden. "Home Video" ist ein Beispiel dafür, wie man Verletzlichkeit in Stärke verwandelt. Ihre Stimme und Songs liefern dabei das Fundament für einen hoffnungsfrohen Blick in die Zukunft, der die teils düstere Vergangenheit im Rückspiegel verblassen lässt.

Zweiter Streich der jungen Briten ist ein innovativer Höllenritt. Weder Covid-19 noch das zweite-Album-Syndrom konnte die vielleicht spannendste britische Rock-Hoffnung bremsen: "Cavalcade", der Nachfolger zum gefeierten Debüt "Schlagenheim", ist ein so dynamischer wie innovativer Höllenritt. Und eine weitere Standortbestimmung einer immer getriebenen jungen Band, die sich nicht auf dem bisher erreichten ausruhen will. Die Bedeutung des Titels beschreibt eine feierliche Prozession wie eine königliche Parade und black midi sehen ihr neues Album als eine Song-Parade von übermenschlichen Persönlichkeiten. Gefallene Kult-Führer, antike Leichname, die in einer Diamanten-Mine gefunden wurden oder die legendäre Sängerin Marlene Dietrich werden hier thematisiert. Musikalisch bedienen sich black midi aus einer ausufernden Palette an Einflüssen von Rock über Jazz, Hip Hop, elektronischer Musik, Klassik, Ambient und Prog.

Indie Retail Exclusive Water Spirits color vinyl LP More Energy Fields, Current is a definitive new peak in the recorded continuum of prolific producer/percussionist Carlos Niño. Featuring contributions from more than a dozen exciting voices in the creative music constellation of Los Angeles (of which Niño's has been a central force for over 2 decades), including Sam Gendel, Nate Mercereau, Jamael Dean, and Jamire Williams, the album collects 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique "Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage" style. The album is ripe with "ambient" passages that function like open portals between moments of consonance and clarity, and epic post-hip hop opuses like the heavy/heady "Thanking the Earth." But even in the occasional absence of drums, there is a powerful pulse implicit in the program's frequency of consciousness. It's a testament to Niño's foundations as a DJ. His distinct ability to craft a kinetic, cinematic sonic experience from dozens of independent, often rhythmically-ambiguous improvisational memories is more fluently displayed on More Energy Fields, Current than anything we've heard from him to date. It resonates, lucidly, with the way Niño's mentor Iasos - who is known to the world as an original founder of New Age music - has described his work: "Real Time Interactive Imagination, Flow Texturization." On More Energy Fields, Current, Niño immerses us in the watery depths of his world, spiriting us like a submarine through exotic nether-leagues of untouched sound. And when we arrive at the final, bookending piece "Please, Wake Up." (an extended version of the opening theme, featuring saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings), it's like a return, safely to shore.

Sasha introduces LUZoSCURA, a new compilation that hasevolved from the thriving eponymous playlist. Featuring adiverse package of original works from a host of fresh talent, aswell as established artists and Sasha himself, it traverse selectronica, ambient, breaks and techno. Meaning light and dark, LUZoSCURA began on Spotify as a stash of tracks sent to Sasha which didn't meet the pace of his clubsets nor suit his venerated label LNOE, LUZoSCURA came into itsown through 2020 as Sasha gravitated toward more mellowed sounds while being off the road, and clubbers diverted their ears to home listening. Gaining a renewed source of energy inconnecting with more gifted, budding producers and seeing the project blossom, the idea for the compilation came off the back of doing a live stream solely featuring tracks from the playlist. Meticulously compiled to flow like a DJ mix for home listening, Sasha kicks it off with the buoyant, breaks-influenced 'Corner Shop', the first of his three tracks on the compilation. MJ Cole is among the established artists to feature with blissed out track 'Maestro', while The Micronaut, a multi-instrumentalist whose back catalogue was a favourite of Sasha's through lockdown, offers an immersive trip in 'Koelsa'. Lau.ra, lead singer from British experimental rock band Ultraísta, evokes a sense of spiritedness in 'I'll Wait' before we hear again from Sasha with another breaks-loaded trip in 'HNDI' and a collaboration withB ritish producer Franky Wah. Closing the odyssey with a stirring, expansive soundscape is synth duo Felsmann + Tiley.

Perila (Aleksandra Zakharenko) left her native Russia six years ago, landing in Berlin. Finding her place almost immediately - first at Berlin Community Radio and through that amongst a group of like-minded creative individuals (including her current flatmates Special Guest DJ and exael) - she started a regular practice of working on an expressionistic "sonic diary" of field recordings and electronic sound research for her own pleasure. When the opportunity arose to create her own podcast series, WET (or Weird Erotic Tension) was born. Upon hearing her evocative and atmospheric music layered with friends Nat Marcus and Inger Wold Lund's erotic spoken word poetry, Sferic Records asked to release it, and Perila - a project name originally used for her BCR show - truly came to be. Aleksandra, who was raised in St. Petersburg, has been involved in music since childhood thanks to her melomaniac father. She's been both drummer and singer in local bands in Russia, and is also the co-founder of radio.syg.ma - one of the first online stations in Russian focusing on experimental sounds - but Perila is something else entirely. You could loosely describe it as ambient, but her soundworld is so specific and transportative, filled with detail and movement, it's more akin to hauntological musique concrète, touched by song. Her fascination with voice and language - she studied English literature at university - is still evident, although that's now her voice, her texts, her crooning you can hear on the Everything Is Already There cassette (Boomkat Editions, 2020), her processed breaths on the Meta Door L cassette (Paralaxe Editions, 2020). The Wire Magazine got it right when they said about Irer Dent that, "Sensuality is presented as a secret pass to a higher consciousness." For her debut album, How Much Time it is Between You and Me?, released via Smalltown Supersound on June 11th, Aleksandra takes inspiration from the concept of time, which she felt keenly during the pandemic. Recorded primarily in September 2020 in a rural village in France - her only travel during the first year of the pandemic period - surrounded by mountains but otherwise alone with no internet, her perception of time there differed immensely. She describes the trip as, "an immersive experience into self," viewed through a "silence prism" where everyday sounds usually ignored felt amplified. While her work has always dealt in intimacy - be it the private thrills of WET or the audible closeness of our surroundings - the organic response and consistent feedback she gets for Perila made Aleksandra recognize a longing, a need for it in today's world. Intent on creating work based in honesty and tenderness, Perila's practice also explores how we feel music and emotion throughout the body and how sound can help to release it. How does the sound enter a body and travel through it? Where does movement start? How do you reach and unblock emotional clusters with the help of sound and deep listening of the body responses? Aleksandra likes to describe her music and performances as trips - thick narratives drifting along sound to get closer to self. Let Perila guide you through this journey.

Papiro’s approach to music is never technical, but always personal. Since the mid-Nineties, he has released a handful of noteworthy albums, each carefully put together and seemingly self- contained, yet all sharing an unmistakable musical language and a certain escapist aura.

La finestra dentata (The Toothed Window), is no exception. It includes both studio and concert recordings from 2016–2020. The sounds on this album appear infinite and full of marvels, ingenious in portraying imaginary creatures and environments.

The title track and Anelli take up most of the first side and include live outtakes. Papiro likes to describe his performances as therapeutic. These swirly symphonies are specifically intended as immersive deep-listening experiences for concert venues, and have been edited for this album to meet the physical demands of vinyl and domestic use. Imagine the younger cousins of Laurie Spiegel’s Concerto Generator performance, or Terry Riley’s Shri Camel.

However, those who know Papiro only from the stage might be unaware of a different side to his oeuvre; starry-eyed miniatures that may appear frivolous in comparison to the more heady stuff, but are nonetheless well worth discovering. Each piece adds a chapter to a phantasmagoric world populated by such characters as "Giant Duckling", "King Hard-Beard", or the "Bodulator". Tracks like the opener Odilon or Il triciclo nascosto, meanwhile, emanate a candor rarely found in the domain of serious music, and revisit Papiro’s early days of instrumental storytelling.

About Papiro:

Marco Papiro is a Swiss-Italian musician, composer and graphic designer. He teaches at the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel and is known for the posters and album covers that he's created for a number of prolific artists (Sun Araw, Sonic Boom, Panda Bear, Oren Ambarchi)

‘Several Others’ marks Whispering Sons’ first full-length release
since their 2018 debut ‘Image’, which has notched up over
20,000 sales locally in Belgium as well as tallying up millions of
streams for their dark and unique blend of experimental and
frenetic post-punk.
Similarly, prior to lockdown, their ferocious live shows had also
seen them begin to firmly cement themselves as a must-see
live band, playing alongside the likes of The Murder Capital,
Patti Smith, The Soft Moon and Croatian Amor, as well as
touring across the UK and Europe with Editors in 2019 and
2020.
The new album sees the band distil the ferocious post-punk
aesthetics from which their sound first emerged and pushes
them to the absolute limit. The tracks toy with the delicate
balance between moments of fragility and their capability for
relentless and driving intensity, experimenting at the point in
which no wave, industrial and avant-punk converge.
The anxious and propulsive instrumentation is eerily abstracted,
whilst Fenne Kuppens’ words, sung in a dramatic and utterly
distinctive low register, inject that extra central tension and
darkness.
What the critics said about first single ‘Surface’:
“The first sign that they're fast outstripping the genre-trappings
of their post-punk roots, and an ample showcase for Fenne
Kuppens’ magnetic presence on lead vocals.” - The Quietus
“Bold, dark, and immersive” - CLASH
“A confounding, confusing and continually climaxing song of
dead-ends, narrowing avenues and night-time awareness” - The
Line Of Best Fit

Wenn eine Band sich von ihrem langjährigen Klangbild löst und - wieder einmal - häutet, kann sie heute alles Mögliche sein. Großes Orchester oder Laptop-Projekt. Das Skizzenhafte kann neben dem Ausgefeilten stehen. Das Beeindruckende neben dem Unscheinbaren. Das Aufwändige neben dem Simplen. Die Frage ist nur: Will man das überhaupt? Und wenn ja: Zieht man das durch? Auf ihrem neunten Album "Talks Of Paradise" präsentieren Slut sich in einem ungewohnten und neuen Soundgewand. Die Gitarrenwände haben sie ersetzt, das Klanggewitter neu gedacht. Stattdessen gibt es analoge elektronische Töne, eine tiefe Transparenz und einige beinahe minimalistische Skizzen. Den hymnischen Indie-Sound ihrer früheren Alben gibt es immer noch. Das hört man unter anderem auf der Vorab-Single "For The Soul There Is No Hospital". Es geht aber nicht darum, zwanghaft etwas Neues zu versuchen. Oder um den Zweikampf Synthie vs. Gitarre. Vielmehr um das Abschalten von Automatismen. Um eine Suche nach dem Momentum. Auch wenn dabei anfangs ein Mosaik aus vermeintlich widersprüchlichen Eindrücken entsteht. Slut ist etwas bemerkenswertes gelungen: Eine etablierte Band aus Leuten und Freunden, die sich schon sehr lange kennen, hat sich entschieden etwas wirklich Neues zu wagen. Und das auf der gesamten Strecke. Tell your friends!

Official OST for film The Reason I Jump. Based on the book by Naoki Higashida, this immersive film explores the experiences of non-speaking autistic people around the world.

De Brassers were one of the most notorious bands in the Belgian new wave/punk history. With their no nonsense attitude they scared the shit out of the local catholic community of Hamont. De Brassers were a local mixture of the Sex Pistols (in the lowest gear) and Joy Division (they always performed a cover version of Joy Division’s Shadowplay), combining a criticism of bureaucracy and politics with experiences of psychological and existential tensions. The doomed sound they produced tells a lot about the dark atmosphere of the late seventies and early eighties: the fear of atomic bombs, cold war pessimism, police violence against squatters, the first cases of AIDS, and the grim years of Reagan & Thatcher.

This compilation takes you back to that time. All tracks from their first 7″ "En Toen Was Er Niets Meer” & their self-titled 12″, plus rare & unreleased tracks taken from various live performances & the cassette “Levend”. If you’re in for a raw slice of Belgian history let de Brassers immerse you in a cold wave of punk.

This journey, this slowly drifting sonic meditation, is an 'inner soundscape', a dialogue between the senses, the conscience and the world, inside / outside, interconnected. Like waking up from a long dream, and being stuck into its echo. The April Sessions immerges the listener into a drone-ish universe, full of random acousmatic events, inner monologues and a vast and unwritten subjective map to be drawn.

The April Sessions has been living in a seedy hotel in Brussels for a few months. She listens to the sparse traffic outside her window, locked in and locked down. 'Everything is constructed', she says to herself, 'even the sound of a solitary aircraft at 25,000 feet traverses the sky no further out than the inside of my skull'. Other weird sonic phenomena criss-cross the inner cosmos of her brain and streak across her private sky like comets. And then there is the unshakeable presence of that inner monologue, known to her variously as the Tacit Dictator, the Subvocaliser and, nightmarishly enough, the voice of the Merlucid Hake. (Anthony Moore, St Leonards, 10th of March 2021)

Anthony Moore, Dirk Specht and Tobias Grewenig have known each other and worked together since the early 2000s. They have collectively participated in a number of projects including live performances and recordings. In 2016, as part of The Missing Present Band, they released the live LP 'The Present Is Missing' on A-Musik. The following year they released 'Ore Talks', a double LP, realised in collaboration with Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln.

Anthony Moore was born in 1948, founded the band Slapp Happy (circa 1972) with Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause, then worked alongside a.o. Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson in the unclassifiable band Henry Cow. He released several solo albums, composed soundtracks for experimental movies. His path also crossed Kevin Ayers's, Pink Floyd's, Richard Wright's. He was appointed professor for research into sound and music in the context of new media at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. He still continues to write and perform.

Dirk Specht is a sound artist, musician and curator. He studied architecture and media art and is active in the fields of sound works for choreography, radio drama, sound art, film and video art soundtracks. He published releases with several bands and projects. He has been an assistant for research into sound from 2011 to 2016 at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, and is a founding member of Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln.

Tobias Grewenig studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. He primarily deals with non-linearity in his audiovisual installative works and performances, including projects with the artist group 'Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln', the ensemble 'The Knob, The Finger & The It' and the improvisation collective "Frequenzwechsel". The conception and development of electronic instruments and code is a key component of his artistic work. He lives and works in Cologne.