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When Kompakt came across Amsterdam-based Harm Coolen and Merijn Schotte Albers aka WEVAL back in 2014, we were blown away when we heard their slow-burning, darkly emotive tracks.

Their debut EP 'Half Age' on Atomnation featured painfully intimate and surprisingly kinetic electronic chamber pop that convinced us they were a perfect fit in Kompakt's family. Following two widely acclaimed EPs for Kompakt and playing numerous festivals including DGTL, Reeperbahn, Iceland Airwaves and Piknic Electronik, we now see the two tackle their self-titled debut full-length WEVAL. What you have before you is not a mere collection of tracks, but a complete listening experience with organic flow, emotional heft and a narrative thread.
Smitten with WEVAL's uniquely personal and catchy approach to producing dark electronic music, it didn't take much to win us over... and so came WEVAL's acclaimed 2014 label debut EASIER EP (KOMPAKT 318), followed by the bold and beautiful 2015 offering IT'LL BE JUST FINE / GROW UP (KOMPAKT 344) which saw the two soundsmiths digging deeper into the granularities of electronic funk than ever before. However, Harm and Merijn's music - while astonishingly fully-formed even in its earliest stages - always seemed destined for more, a bigger format, more space to explore the nooks and crannies of their rapidly evolving sound cosmos. Simply put, they needed to think about an album and their beloved living room studio wasn't cutting it anymore.
An old school building became WEVAL's new home, repurposed to house small creative businesses - but in the summer of 2015, it was abandoned most of the time, with everybody out in the sun while our heroes turned the building's attic into a sweet spot to make some noise, have 24-hour access and lose track of time. And apart from a sketchy tenant being evicted, the occasional soccer game with friends and live gigs across Europe, there really was no interruption to the focussed vibe. It's not like they were looking for distraction anyway: "working on the album all by ourselves in this bloody hot attic was all we had on our mind", the artists admit. And they decided that their album shouldn't sound too clean: "We try to find the beauty in imperfection. It makes things sound more human".
Weval draw their inspirations from no single genre of music but a cumulation of music that inspires them. The results present an astonishingly coherent vision - cuts like the dramatic THE BATTLE, bass growler I DON'T NEED IT or the trippy epic MADNESS share the same DNA of zestful nostalgia, a knack for immersive sound-sculpting and that certain kink in the groove. They also feed on deeply personal experiences and moods, as exemplified by the haunting electronic ballad YOU'RE MINE, the carefully layered, polaroid-tinted JUST IN CASE or the beautifully voiced closer YEARS TO BUILD. And sometimes, it's just an old, out-of-tune piano that stands in the hallway: "Whenever I'd pass by it, I couldn't resist playing it", says Merijn, "so Harm decided to start recording and it became an integral part of YOU MADE IT (PART I)". No doubt about it: this is WEVAL's most powerful and organic material yet - which means a lot, considering the amount of skill already on display in their small, but weighty portfolio.
(de) Als sich 2014 in Amsterdam Kompakts Wege mit denen von Harm Coolen und Merijn Schotte Albers aka WEVAL kreuzten, waren wir sofort Feuer und Flamme für ihre schwelenden, emotional aufgeladenen Tracks. Ihre Debüt-EP "Half Age" auf Atomnation präsentierte intimen und überraschend kinetischen, elektronischen Kammer-Pop, der wie angegossen zu Kompakt zu passen schien. Nach zwei vielbeachteten EPs auf dem Label und einer Reihe von Festvialgigs (inklusive DGTL, Reeperbahn Festival, Iceland Airwaves und Piknic Electronik) nehmen Weval nun mit dem gleichnamigen Release ihr erstes Album in Angriff. Und legen dabei nicht einfach nur eine Ansammlung von Tracks vor, sondern kreieren eine komplette Hörerfahrung mit organischem Flow, emotionalem Gewicht und einm roten Faden.
Angetan vom einzigartig persönlichen und mitreissend düsteren Klang WEVALs brauchte es nicht viel um uns zu überzeugen... und so kam es 2014 zum gefeierten Labeldebüt EASIER EP (KOMPAKT 318), gefolgt vom kühnen und wunderschönen 2015er Release IT'LL BE JUST FINE / GROW UP (KOMPAKT 344), für das die beiden Soundtüftler tiefer denn je in die Granularitäten des elektronischen Funks abtauchten. Nichtsdestotrotz - und obwohl sie schon von Anfang an ausgereift klang - schien die Musik von Harm und Merijn auf dem 12"-Format stets bestimmt für mehr: mehr Freiraum um auch die äussersten Winkel ihres rapide expandierenden Soundkosmos zu erkunden. Sie mussten schlichtweg zum Langspielformat wechseln, und ihr heissgeliebtes Wohnzimmerstudio konnte da nicht mehr mithalten.
Ein altes Schulgebäude wurde schliesslich WEVALs neues Zuhause, umfunktioniert für kleine Kreativunternehmen - doch im heissen Sommer 2015 stand es zumeist leer, da alle draussen in der Sonne badeten, während unsere Helden im Schweisse ihres Angesichts das Kellergeschoss in ein lärmfestes Aufnahmestudio verwandelten. Mit Studiozugang rund um die Uhr liess es sich bestens die Zeit vergessen. Und abgesehen von der Räumung eines zwielichtigen Nebenmieters, dem gelegentlichen Fussballspiel mit Freunden und natürlich Live-Gigs in ganz Europa, gab es auch keine Ablenkungen vom hochkonzentrierten Kreativfluss. Ablenkungen, die das Duo ohnehin nicht suchte: "ganz allein in diesem verdammt heissen Keller am Album arbeiten war alles, was wir im Sinn hatten", geben die Künstler zu. Und sie entschieden sich, dass ihr Album nicht zu sauber klingen sollte: "Wir versuchen die Schönheit im Makel zu finden. Es lässt die Dinge einfach menschlicher wirken."
Weval beziehen ihre Inspiration nicht aus einem einzelnen musikalischen Genre, sondern eher aus einer Akkumulation von Musik, die sie inspiriert. Die Ergebnisse zeichnet eine beeindruckend kohärente Vision aus - Aufnahmen wie das dramatische THE BATTLE, der Bassknurrer I DON'T NEED IT oder die Trip-Saga MADNESS teilen diesselbe DNA aus schwungvoller Nostalgie, einer Schwäche für immersive Klangschnitzerei und einer gewissen Delle im Groove. Sie nähren sich auch aus zutiefst persönlichen Erfahrungen und Stimmungen, wie zum Beispiel bei der eindringlichen elektronischen Ballade YOU'RE MINE, dem vorsichtig geschichteten, polaroid-gefärbten JUST IN CASE oder dem wunderschön gesungenen Schlussakt YEARS TO BUILD. Und manchmal ist es nur ein altes, verstimmtes Klavier, das im Flur herumsteht: "Immer wenn ich dran vorbei lief, musste ich darauf herumklimpern", erklärt Merijn, "also wurde es ein zentraler Bestandteil von YOU MADE IT (PART I)". Kein Zweifel: dies ist WEVAL's stärkstes und organischstes Material bisher - was durchaus was bedeutet, wenn man das Talent bedenkt welches bereits in schmalen, doch gewichtigen Portfolio der Band steckt.

Philippe Cam is the Thomas Pynchon of the electronic music world. Little is known about him and only a couple of pictures have been put online since he emerged on this planet to write his first and only album18 years ago. We know he worked as a sailor and that’s it. If you dig deeper you might find out that he worked as a DJ in the beginning of the 90ies in Brussels and began to study electronic music there and also began to write music for theaters and ballets.

The American distributor Forced Exposure once wrote that about him: „Philipe Cam is a star in his own field. He is among the few people who have succeeded to write hypnotic dance music without a conventional beat still conveying a thrilling, dramatic feel. Cam has developed an accurate, intense and complex formula of modulation-techno. Starting with music similar to Pan Sonic in 1996, his music turned towards a more elegant form of minimal music. Abstract soundtracks lead to an organic form of music, which was equally influenced by modern techno as Wolfgang Voigt's Studio 1/Gas or Basic Channel/Maurizio. Cam's music corresponds heavily to the Cologne scene, where his music is appreciated and played throughout the clubs by the likes of Michael Mayer, Tobias Thomas and various other DJs as well as experimental djs from the A-musik corner.“

So what’s new with his music? Basically the art of filtering is still his passion. Maybe he can be less associated with techno and the themes of his new tracks emerge in a more distinctive pattern? Well that’s hard to say, we would comment the energy of his early techno days in Brussels have returned here in a fierce way with some oft he tracks. The rhythmic movements are classy and stick with you. Whereas other tracks look for a distinctive relaxation of some kind.

We are releasing the album as a double clear vinyl with cover art by Yvette Klein who also designed the cover for his Philippe Cam’s album 18 years ago. Graphics for "Rotterdam" come from Cologne designer Daniela Thiel. We also would like to thank the cultural department of Cologne for supporting us to finance the album and to see the artistic value in this piece of minimalism.

The album kicks off with the mellow and soothing "Cocoa Beach". A Gentle beat that moves like bodies swaying in the hot summer sun. The clock moves a step forward and then a step backward as evolution takes a rest.

"Manga" feels like an acceleration to the moon, the contemplative moments come in spurts and hide in the intervals of the chords which are on the loose. Philippe Cam is the most energetic person in the world when it comes to core activity, this is head banging stuff for the ambient lounge.

"Short Summer" is a heavy and violent recognition. As intensive as it is it knows when to stop and disappear. In the ear and brain of the listeners it leaves an indisputable echo which lingers on for minutes. We suggest not to make a pause but jump directly into "Vermillions Sands".

What can be said about into "Vermillions Sands"? Be prepared some Terry Riley might lure around the corner to offer you some oranges on a silver plate, but don’t eat them. This is luring and beautiful at the same time. Maybe the best ambient track ever written and yet who can ever venture to say that without making a fool of himself. "Vermillions Sands" comes in waves and they could be longer we think.

"Rotterdam" the home of Philippe Cam for a long time but not anymore. He moved away. So that changes the perspective. But when was the track written? "Rotterdam" seems mechanical and rusty and spooky and divided. This arrangement is very different to all the other tracks so far and is almost dub in style but way more fractured. A steady stop and go emerges. But the longer it runs the better it gets. At minute 6 the brain resets itself and tries to grasp what has happened so far, reconstruction as a result of its own phantasmic imagination and hardly true at all, wonderful. Applause included!

Here comes "Bis", a short episode of a track and before we can comment on it, it is already over.

"The Game" is a mule of a track. It has a quiet stubborn sequence that bites and kicks you in the back without any change in near sight. We can hear a voice whispering, which sounds like a miniature vocoder featuring the voice of a child calling out - never stopping. This is treadmill to some extend but starts to breathe towards the middle of the track and slowly changes perspective. In fact there are some changes taking place here which go beyond a sound design that works heavily on the stereo image. Stick with it and the experience will be a great one.

"Ultimate Fly For Halloway" somehow orchestrates how you might feel after you climbed a 8000 meter high mountain and reached the top. A rejoicing off a special kind. Lava for the ears. No cheerleader murder plot sorry.

"Last Track" is a perfect example of a true minimalistic pice of music that manages to make contact with other genres and does this with elegance, determination and a lot of soul.

key selling points: The key selling point is the fact that Philippe Cam once was referred to as one of the main protagonists of the minimal music scene along with Wolfgang Voigt's Studio 1/Gas and Basic Channel/Maurizio. A true artist with a vision which is very rare.

Philippe Cam has picked up the sound he was famous for but has developed it further without selling out to any genre and expectation that rules our daily business.

Exactly this is the strength of the album to create a vivid world of impressions by using instruments in a whole different way than all software developers would suggest.

"Rotterdam" is a piece of art that can set off a firework when you listen to it and it owes nothing to anyone.

UKNOWY music is back with a new installment on its more house-leaning "Plastic Garment" vinyl series. This time the EP title is "Midnight Impulse" as every track carries the treats of nocturnal life: it's dark, it's fresh and it's open to all possibilities! Starting with Salomo we have a delivery of a definite club banger with "Transform" - devotees of the likes of Kyle Hall or Steven Julien/Funkineven will definitely get their fancy tickled here. Next comes Italian break-beat maestro Sofa Talk with a rhythmically sophisticated yet deep "ALBA", much in the vein of earlier Plastic Garment releases. Munich house duo Rhode & Brown starts the B side with "You & Me" building intricate synth arpeggios over catchy chords. St. Petersburg's very own Dices closes things off with his more dreamy and at the same time incredibly complex and beautiful "See You There" - a track for the listener or the later hours of the night.

Jonnine Standish (HTRK) listens to her inner guides on a captivating solo debut for burgeoning label Good Morning Tapes, leading on from their terrific XVARR EP and wayward shots by Tapes, Mahbunzi Nahgo Pihndi and Innsyter issued over the past year Resoundingly adored for her ice cool poise and penetrative lyrics in noirish dub-pop duo HTRK, Jonnine Standish’s music has long provided a timeless, classic antithesis to modernity. She is a rare, anachronistic spirit within contemporary music and brings a signature sense of restraint and class to ’Super Natural’; her debut suite of solo recordings channelling the sass of Twin Peaks’ Audrey Horne as much as Leslie Winer’s elegant, druggy proto trip pop.
Recorded between Peru, Hawaii, and Jonnine’s native Australia, ‘Super Natural’ unfolds a succinct grimoir or spellbook where she acts as liminal interpreter for immanent devotions that divine a poetic and romantic sense of mystery from the everyday. With thanks to Jonnine’s therapist, who encouraged her to explore a solo identity for years, she was able to tap into this insight and overcome a creative block, finally giving a confessional voice to ambiguous inner guides that have helped to prompt some of her best songwriting, as found here and on HTRK’s recent ‘Venus In Leo’ album.
In the deliciously woozy low pressure system of her opener ‘You’re Wanting It To Go This Way’, those spirits instinctively lead her down a path of self-reflective nihilism accentuated with curdled guitar and a thumping 808 heartbeat, before her husband and collaborator Conrad Standish (CS + Kreme) supplies backing vocals that tenderly accentuate the knackered tristesse of I Don’t Seem Myself Tonight’, which is also buoyed by Mona Ruijs’ subtly plangent gong tones But it’s HTRK’s groove engine Nigel Yang that distinctively underlines Jonnine’s mantric lyrics about the push/push of love best in ‘You Can Leave The Vampires’ with patented, pensile sensuality, before the EP shores up with ‘Scorpio Rises Again’, an instant classic framing Jonnine as the inner voice of Audrey Horne against stalking, plucked bass, finger-clicks and whistle by Conrad Standish, a denouement surely worthy of a closing scene in the next Lynch.
Classic..

In Spain the soup is harsh but tasty served cold to staff in empty winter discos it replenishes their souls devoid of joy as they scavenge through left behind belongings The Beatle grins and stirs the pot His recipe of gruesome memories reverberates through the stagnant air As tears fall into stale sangria.

Originally a collaboration that started in 2004 between the talents of electronic music aficionados Michael Sickinger (USA) and Jonas Thor Gudmundsson (Iceland), Octal Industries has been sketching out cavernous sounding, glacial tinged, dub-infused techno that carries with it a unique radiance that is all too often missing from the genre. Now solely the oeuvre of Jonas Thor Gudmundsson better known under his Ruxpin guise, the Octal Industries catalogue spans over the last 15 years and totals nearly a dozen releases.

After a couple of meetings between Jamie (Exalt Records) and (Andy Verdant Recordings) bosses, the idea of a label collaboration seemed a natural progression for both imprints and ‘Vertex’ was spawned. To honour their common love of music that have depth, width and atmosphere, approaching Gudmundsson for material to kickstart their new venture was an easy choice for both involved.

As the title suggests, “Our Seasons” is a 10 track excursion into the soul of the Icelandic experience, a reflection upon the stark contrasts found in their natural environment. A collection of music that continuously morphs and throws down a variety of tempos and soundscapes over two records: the total sum retains a certain character that is unique to Gudmundsson’s touch.

Setting the scene on record one with the welcoming tones of “Borg Tekin”, you’re met with an expansive sonic vista that seeps into your consciousness - vocal elements calling back and forth. Like the passing of a restless midsummer night, “Thorp | Vanda” digs further down and focuses on the pulsating axis of sub bass and swirling pads that eventually find their peace. The heavy fog of “Roblegt” is more intense by contrast, the cyclical ambience closing in with little room as tension builds. “Dreki Flyr” eases back off: gentle curves, whispering synth patterns and rhythmic patter join as they flit through the night-air.



Switching to the second record, expansive percussion and glistening atmospherics characterise the dreamlike state and playfulness of “Forever”. After which you’re brought back by the slow march of “Winter Techno”, a reflective mood brought to the fore through icy shards of synthesis that take hold. As if waking from a deep slumber, the slow poise and airy tones of “Asleep” capture that peaceful, hazy moment where light breaks in and life begins to stir. The onwards and upwards feel is continued with the fresh energy of “Another Day”, the breezy composition bathing you in the warm glow of a summer’s morning. However, the juddering intensity and tones of “Lullaby” steep you in an almost unexpected surge of heat, before the closing notes of “Times fade” bring you back to an uneasy serenity that is somehow magically unerring – a perfect summary of Gudmundsson’s vision and how he feels the world around him.

Jonas’ recordings have been lovingly engineered by José Diogo Neves and cut by Curvepusher. Consistent with both labels passion for releasing beautiful records, Our Seasons presents commissioned artwork from Andrei Kedrin with layout by Grid Pattern.

The LP will be a limited 250 edition with bespoke artwork printed on 400gsm paper inserts, printed labels, stamped outer sleeves all housed in heavy PVC outer liners.

Ghost Tropic is first and foremost the name of the third feature from acclaimed Belgian writer-director Bas Devos. The film tells the story of Khadija, a middle-aged cleaner who has no other option but to walk home through Brussels on a cold night after falling asleep on the last train. The journey is a reflection on motherhood and expectations, pride and unknown struggles, stories of the ghostly magic of a lonely night in a big city, of the kindness of strangers and the hurt felt seeing the vulnerability of someone you love.

Brecht Ameel, from the band Razen, uses his classical guitar training and his experience with various string instruments to craft a beautiful soundtrack of minimal ambient acoustic music. The Belgian musician’s intention was to create music that would be a warm blanket for the nocturnal odyssey of Khadija. A melody and rhythm to accompany her walk through the cold night, a sort of guiding light.

Ghost Tropic was premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and is set to be released on 1st January 2020. The accompanying soundtrack recording is out 2 days later.

Edouard Cheritel is a Paris based French composer who has been working on classical compositions for almost 25 years. At the age of four he started to learn the clarinet at the National Conservatory of Lyon and stayed there for 21 years. During this long development of his musical capabilities he has learned to write and play chamber and symphonic music - he studied classical composition for 15 years - and worked in the fields of modern composition for another 6 years.

In the meantime Edouard always experimented with electronic music while being a member of several electronic and pop bands. The biggest commercial success was his project "Employee Of The Year", which has released two albums, played several times on the French national television, has done remixes for SOHN & Wild Belle and provided several pieces for advertisements.

After building this foundation as a very versatile artist over years, Edouard Cheritel finished his first solo compositions called "Suite No1" in 2019. They form a compact debut Suite consisting of four movements combining the classical composition skills of Edouard with his sensitivity for electronic tunes and a lightly pop appeal, resulting in a partly melancholic and partly very energetic journey.

Beside the activities regarding the ongoing Suite series, Edouard Cheritel currently works on his debut solo full length and a project called "People" that he will realize in 2020. For "People" Edouard will compose music day-to-day together with and for the people in the pedestrian areas of Paris. Concrete plans for this project will be revealed at the end of 2019. In the future there will also be opportunitities to see his pieces being performed by himself solo in an intimate context or with a complete live orchestration he is currently working on.

"A work of searching, and in many moments, finding"

Maggie Thornton as Sky Civilian is set to release her second EP this November on Atomnation: At the Seams. It's a stepping stone, from the lyrical, gentle, genre-agnostic electronica of Open Door, to Maggie’s own rounded and angelic take on acid-house.

Maggie’s cinematic, synth-heavy style emerged after a decade of orchestral French horn playing and classical studies. She combines this brass-inspired, synth-forward approach with her weightless, almost-whispered vocals, and dance-floor ready beats. The melding of influences present in her work make Maggie a fresh and promising new artist in the electronic music scene, an artist we hope to hear more from for many years to come.

DDCT001 moves beyond genre and tempo limits on their very first release. Renowed Producers and new Talents dedicate this Label-Release to a soundsphere from smooth and laid back grooves to funky uptempo beats. Dedicate brought this artists together to start the funtastic musical adventure beyond current trends.

"Fun! Funtasy! Funtastic Adventures!" brings to you exclusive contributions by Busy Krank, DJ Friction, First Touch, Hans Nieswandt, Ise Jr., Kollege Schnürschuh, LX, Pallaspeople, Phonk D and Studio Gruppe 1.

After a three year absence, Kasper Bjørke returns to hfn music with a sublime new double EP entitled
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”. Having followed a deeply personal ambient music path that last year led to
the release of “Kasper Bjørke Quartet: The Fifty Eleven Project” on Kompakt Records, (named 5th
Best Contemporary Album 2018 in The Guardian), Kasper has found his way back to producing some
of his signature leftfield danceable beats, which “the past decade has seen Bjørke steadily rising amongst the ranks of artful, eclectic electronic producers…” (XLR8R).The Double EP “Nothing Gold Can Stay” explores both the analogue and organic side of his production work on Side A - while Side B reflects on sounds that he would play today, in one of his nightclub DJ sets. Side A contains four collaborations with four friends from LA, New York and Copenhagen. “Water” feat. Toby Ernest, the slow mo opener to the EP, revives the partnership with Toby that was last seen on 2014’s After Forever album (on the single “Rush”). Toby also provides the vocals on the cover version of Alessi Brothers’ 1975 classic “Seabird” - a track that came about through Kasper’s friendship and musical synergy with DJ and vinyl digger Christian d’Or, who is lead crooning while Toby delivers his signature falsetto. The “Seabird” cover adds a distinct contemporary feeling to the original version while staying true and respectful to the delivery and mood of the songs core. The 2nd half of the release, Side B, is directly aimed at the floor. Having stepped away from releasing club jams for a few years, Kasper is clearly enjoying getting back to the business of making people move. Side B of Nothing Gold Can Stay is both a testament to Kasper’s versatility as a producer and an all-out dancefloor assault, made with precision and sensitivity.

Plants Dub is an art project of the homonym collective based in Lecce - Italy formed by Maria Teresa Santoro, art historian and light designer, Francesco Andriani De Vito aka Dubin dj and producer, and Andrea Presicce aka NoFinger Nails, dub master and producer. They work in Plants Dub project in a mutual exchange of skills so as to be able to research in a way where art and science has no borders. Plants Dub connects electronic music and bio-acoustic researches. Through samplings and synthesizers Plants Dub produces an inter-species communication in order to form a complete human-plant audio exchange. The album was composed using melodies generated by plants thanks to a special sound device that allowed the translation of the plants' electrical impulses into sound. Plant sounds were recorded between March 2018 and July 2019 in Salento. The musical production has followed a double register: in Acanthus Mollis, Morus and in Phoenix Canariensis the vegetable melodies overlap to specially composed dub rhythms, in Laurus Nobilis, Olea Europaea and in Quercus, the tree melodies are translated into ambient sounds.

Newworldaquarium adds to his small but perfectly formed discography two unreleased extras from his Dead Bears album, and describes them as "early 2000s minimalism trying to survive in today's maximized society." 'Mercury' is a ten minute epic that journeys to the stars. Cosmic melodies shimmer in expansive skies as rubber kicks speed up and slow down back on earth. Synths twinkling and change shape, grand pads wash over you and the whole thing is utterly beautiful and hypnotic. 'Levels Halo' is a vastly spacious cut with arcing pads reaching up to the heavens as super deep kick drums gently thud way down below. Part dub, part ambient, part soundtrack, it is a truly cathartic listening experience. These are two more devastatingly deep and emotive cuts from Newworldaquarium.

A key player in the New York scene and boss of her own Dusk & Haze label, it was Francis Harris' Kingdoms that initially released Sophie Saze's standout two-part album, and that is where this forward looking package of highly original remixes lands. First up is German artist Roman Flügel, who’s responsible for a myriad of musical aliases and just as many different sounds. Here he is in experimental electronic mode and reworks 'Cure' into an elongated groove with twisted synth lines layering up over the shimmer, shadowy beats. It's a ghoulish track with a creepy atmosphere.
Swede Anthony Linell makes tripped out, heady techno on Northern Electronics, always with a stylish aesthetic. That continues here as he reimagines 'Aliens' as an absorbing cosmic soundtrack. Supple, rubbery drums bubble down low while broad pads and astral motifs colour the airways above and sink you into a state of trance. New York beat maker and Blueberry Records boss FaltyDL then steps up with a remix of 'Self'. It is a typically off-kilter groove that seems to float on post-jungle drums while distant synth details make for a dreamy atmosphere. Closing out this killer package is Saze's original track 'Dreams', an intense techno cut where coarse textures peel off the industrial clatter of the drums.

Microdosing is a series of compilation 12”s selected by Julienne Dessagne aka Fantastic Twins, and designed in collaboration with French visual artist Geff Pellet. Microdosing is a collective experiment aimed at helping you fighting back your modern obsession with happiness. You may deserve a nice day but the day does not need a nice you, nothing should be forced, everything is permitted. Microdosing will provide you with sonic healing weapons on regular basis and at irregular dosage. Those doses will favour psychedelic social techniques against self help tyranny, creation over soma, provoking over numbing, our outer-selves over our inner-selves. Microdosing refuses the fatality of the pleasure principle. Life is a struggle, time to embrace it. —— “The cure 4 pain is in the pain” The Microdosing community is an endless Tibetan geometric tattoo on a thousand backs, a black well opening on infinite space. Let us embrace the void in our lives as it is fruitful. Cooper Saver hails from L.A, a city of fallen angels. “Phase 0” is a demonic weapon of choice, its beauty rising from urban ashes. Borusiade’s “Worlds” is an industrial mantra, tribal rhythms driving you through the seven circles of agony, the voyage being the destination itself. Zillas On Acid’s “S-Test” slowly pours acid into your retina, its groove showing you that the blind are the true see-ers. Scott Fraser’s “Deliria” concludes this chapter with the serenity only known to true martyrs. This is not a soothing piece, just the realisation that peace comes from eternal damnation. Microdosing is happy to lead you through the dances that know no threshold. To the chant of “the only cure for pain is in the pain”, you will travel further through an empty eternity. (Ivan Smagghe)

An ambient journey to the inner reaches of the sound modulation. Weird rhythms that remind to Craig Leon, blended with synth sequences close to the kosmische Berlin School and experimental guitars giving an organic touch. An LP of experimental minimal electronics with ambient traces. A cyclical cloud that renovates de orography of places already explored by artists such as Dieter Moebius, Steve Hauschild, Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Harmonia...

Mecánica Clásica is a new project bound by members of some of the most interesting electronic projects in Spain, such as Güiro Meets Russia and Polígono Hindú Astral, altogether with the restless experimentation of Negro or Mental Signals.

c 03. Huyendo por lm

On this record Ben Sun presents an old style LP format - 40 minutes of moods and grooves interwoven with an intimate story, of individuals struggling to live freely in a time of oppression. After a sultry jazz opener where the characters are introduced, the LP kicks off with a sweet and slow soul track in Work Again, underpinned by a rotating acid bass. Third comes Salty Tears, the underground disco floor-filler (original limited 12" version) finding a second home on vinyl. Your Camera and Monday usher in some moody rhythms to complete the first side. Sin Casa opens the flip with some minor-blues improvisation that gives way to a spacious deep house jam, where the protagonists emerge again. Still Missing shows deeper shades of a Eurobeat style - an emotionally compelling club tune that sounds somewhere on the Italo side of 1980s Manchester. The story comes to a conclusion with Cowardice, and the casual jazz-house sounds of Maman's Lover. Killer album!!! Recommended.

TCB aka Chris Beißwenger, our boy on Jah bless road, goes a little something like: 1977, born cross-eyed, parents like Boney M; 1984, suburbia USA, DSNY, still cross-eyed; 1988, 98.7 Kiss FM New York on the school bus radio; 1989, Frankfurt Am Main, hyperactive, outsider, got lazered; 1991, drums and piano in cheesy school band; 1993, kicked out of Omen, kicked out of school band; 1994, kicked out of Omen again, got his own band; 1995, kicked out of band, finally in at Omen, The Box, Wild Pitch Club; 1996, got first car, Fasttracker, EMU ESI-32; 1999, no more car, no more Omen, Robert Johnson instead; 2002, first release, High Tide; 2003, Ableton 0.1 Beta, less MIDI, more gefrickel; 2004, exchange High Tide for CB Funk, kicked out of Cocoon; 2005, a silly move to Düsseldorf, Burkina Faso, more synthesizers; 2006, again silly in Düsseldorf, Brontosaurus, disco-house, love; 2007, Cologne and Frankfurt, back to piano, more love, still no car; 2008, with love to Frankfurt, Arto Mwambe on the road, storyteller; 2009, Mwambe still on the road, bored of work; 2010, Live At Robert Johnson, four-day week (thank God), four bike accidents; 2011, Europe, bored of piano, invention of The Citizen’s Band; 2012, modular cookery, thoughts of moving; 2013, Burkinian's death, Delphi's rise, almost made it, 2014, broke out of seven-year cycle too complicate

French DJ / producer / singer Jean Tonique is poised to announce his brand new 7-track album with the arrival of 'sunny side up' due this October and will pre-empt its release with an end of summer pop gem 'too bad'. Having released his acclaimed debut album 'Well Mannered Frivolity' last year, described by DJ Magazine as 'slickly produced' and 'irresistible', Tonique returns older and wiser with 'sunny side up', focusing on raw, organic song-writing while still maintaining his affinity for French touch, house, 70s funk and hip-hop.
Jean Tonique's previous two EP's released on Yuksek's Partyfine label, set the benchmark for his imitable club sounds and remixes for Lana Del Rey, Outkast, The Kooks and more propelled him to the world stage. 2019 looks set to take Jean Tonique even further into the stratosphere.

Mysterious trio Mount Kismet are dropping debut single ‘Teenage Fantasy’ on Oct 11th, and their debut album “Warmer Lanes” on Nov 15th via Disco Halal.
Strung together by the dark, alluring vocals of French-Canadian artist C.A.R., the 1st single, ‘Teenage Fantasy’ combines sparse, synth-driven cold wave with the kind of Middle Eastern electronic elements that have become synonymous with Disco Halal. The track will feature alongisde 9 other tracks on Warmer Lanes.
Based between Berlin and London, Mount Kismet is a project driven by an eastern music obsession and a taste for the heavy pulse of drum machines and the rumbling of analog synthesisers. The group’s only other release, the track ‘Prunes & Dunes’, was included in Perfect Strangers, a ‘various artists’ compilation put out on Disco Halal last year.
An established artist in her own right, C.A.R. has previously collaborated with the likes of Maceo Plex, Red Axes and Bawrut.
Based in Berlin, but firmly rooted in the diverse and forward-facing musical scene of Tel Aviv, Moscoman’s Disco Halal label hails from beneath the minarets of the Holy Land. The imprint exists to present a tight-knit and growing community of musicians and producers, each transmitting their unique musical identity, yet each united by a unique sensibility, as well as a harmonious balance of rhythm and experimentation

Fruit is next up for Coastal Haze.

Based in Munich, Germany, the producer, part-time DJ and Permanent Vacation label co-head Tom Bioly aka TB delivers new romantics, inspired by influences like The Cure’s „The Holy Hour“, Boards of Canada’s late 90s electronica, Miami Vice tropic percussion and Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks. Acid drops, string distortions, lushed melody bits, hushed robo vox and washed space guitars are being layered and sprinkled over machine beats and disco drums.

TB’s first release "Invitation To Love" made it on John Talabot's vinyl-only Hiverned 10" imprint and was voted amongst the best 10" releases by UK Fact magazine. GROOVE magazine wrote "..entirely superb..“, about the follow-up EP "City Girl" on Permanent Vacation, of which the title track has been licensed to the independent film „All These Sleepless Nights“ by director Michal Marczak.
In 2017 TB followed with “Heartbreak Hotel“, a double twelve-inch release with eight tracks of melancholic dance noir set in smoke-filled darkness. In 2018 he followed with the „Night Heat“ single, of which a RMXD EP with contributions by Gerd Janson, Sascha Funke, DJ Hotel and Bostro Pesopeo came out earlier this year.

TXLAX is Dave Aju’s first album in five years, and we couldn’t be more pleased to present it.

As always there is plenty of fresh genre-defying ideas in the music, but this time wrapped in a much more relaxed and focussed aesthetic - a fitting personal soundtrack for the homecom-ing theme of his move back to Los Angeles from Berlin, as the combined airport letters in the title suggest.

There is a sonic stylistic bridge of sorts between the sister cities on display as well, all im-bued with that inimitable combination of raw playfulness and warm refined soul as only Dave Aju does.

From the soaring West Coast future funk opener “Bird’s Eye”, the nautical disco-not-disco of tomorrow in “Out To C” and the bugged-out broken beat flavor of “Silverfish” to the slick me-lodic electro vibes of the title track, and gorgeous shuffling deep house closer “Yulia”, TXLAX is a masterwork filled with beauty, character, and detail that will reward many repeat listens. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Long-dawning long-player by Pacific Northwest producer Hunter P. Thompson aka Akasha System spins a suite of remote outpost rhythms and old-growth electronics variously inspired by “days and nights spent in the forests,” “long stretches of back road trails,” and “sitting alone under moss-covered trees.” It’s club music for misty mornings, towering redwood canopies, and overcast skies above uninhabited terrain: Echo Earth.

Recorded across the fall of 2018 at Thompson’s lava-lit Portland home studio, the album’s eight tracks trace cyclical arcs and seasonal tides, churning and yearning, meditative motion patterns flickering like holograms projected in the rain. Following key appearances on Elestial Sound, Neo Violence, and New Information, Echo Earth embodies all Akasha’s most evocative and elusive sonic strategies in a nuanced naturalist landscape of rust and radar, information and isolation, wires woven like roots beneath ferns.

"I Drew A Fish Hook, And It Turned Into A Flower" is the result of a dialog between the musicians Stephen Vitiello & Molly Berg and the photographer Jake Michaels, initiated by IIKKI, between May 2019 and September 2019.

Stephen Vitiello and Molly Berg met in Richmond, VA in 2007 and have stayed committed to an ongoing (if on-again, off-again) collaborative relationship ever since. Their first CD, The Gorilla Variations was released on 12k in 2008. The initial sessions for that CD began as a soundtrack for Brazilian video maker, Eder Santos. The two went on to create 2 more releases for 12k: MOSS (also with Steve Roden and Olivia Block) and Between You and The Shapes You Take. Together they make use of instruments that they do and don’t know how to play and seem to have the most productive recording sessions in offices and empty rooms rather than proper studios.

The title "I Drew A Fish Hook, And It Turned Into A Flower" comes from the book Mental Radio by Upton Sinclair (published in 1930). Sinclair and his partner did studies on telepathy, creating drawings based on aspects of mind reading. Like the previous sessions, Molly and Stephen didn't speak about what they were going to do and just relied on an unspoken interaction in ways that Stephen saw mirrored in the book. The title proposed comes from one of the drawings where one drew a fish hook and from the idea of one person starting with an image and the other twisting it into their own variation.

Jake Michaels (b.1984) is a Los Angeles based photographer. He graduated from Art Center College of Design with a degree in fine arts. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times. He is part of the on-going series called " The Look" which features a unique blend of fashion and street photography. His work is always in flux. On some days it’s an exploration of aesthetics, hard lines and California color. On others it’s an investigative journey though different subcultures around the world. Lately its been a blend of the two ideas. He currently divides time between commercial and personal photography.

12" + 7"

In 2009 Mocky made a radical decision: after having become one of the cult figures of the leftfield Berlin electronic music scene of the early 2000s, Mocky retired his sampler and travelled to Paris to embark on an all acoustic journey with the producer Renaud Letang in the vintage Studio Ferber, previously inhabited by the likes of Nina Simone and Serge Gainsbourg.

Named after a song he made up when he was 7, using imaginary words, "Saskamodie" was an instant new future/retro classic: a return to pure musical expression by a cutting edge artist who was no longer bound by the electronic music scene. "Saskamodie" was a brave step into unchartered waters, the sound of a musician exploring where his talent can take him with rare confidence and authority. At different points you could hear a vintage soundtrack suite, a debonair jazz record (minus the solos) or a golden era '60s soul ballad recording ... yet, as if all these charming stylistic sorties weren't loveable enough, cut "Saskamodie" through the middle and you'll find that sweet, inescapably infectious melody is the lifeblood trickling through its core.

Mocky is listed as playing drums, bass, rhodes, piano, guitar, percussion, bells, recorder, vocals, whistle, organ and toys as well as writing string arrangements. Taylor Savvy, Gonzales, Jamie Lidell and Feist contribute additional instrumental and backing vocal performances that make this record sound more like a live performance than a studio creation.

"Saskamodie" has definitely stood the test of time and Mocky still successfully follows the path he started with this recording - be it on his series of digital Moxtapes, his album "Key Change", his recent "recorded-in-one-day" jazz album "A Day At United", his score for the japanese Netflix anime "Carole & Tuesday" or his writing and production work for the likes of Feist or Kelela.

Originally only released as CD/Digital Download, this 10 years anniversary limited vinyl edition brings us "Saskamodie" in it's original form, re-mastered for deluxe 180g vinyl and accompanied by an exclusive bonus 7" with a new single edit of the album's hit "Birds Of A Feather", a solo piano version of "Guiding Light" by Chilly Gonzales, the recent coverversion of "Birds Of A Feather" by LA's underground funk sensation Vulfpeck and a remix featuring a collaboration with noone less than the Wu Tang's GZA.

"An exceptionally musical album – there’s no other word for it – that could fail to seduce only the hardest of hearing, or the hardest of hearts" (Pitchfork, 8.0 review)

"An amazing record…a big hit for me" (Gilles Peterson)

"If Saskamodie was a film, it would undoubtedly be The Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry. Please take that as a wholehearted endorsement" (BBC)

With a third album, ‘Return To Telepathic Heights’, released this year on Gerd Janson’s Running Back label, techno outlaw A Sagittariun returns to themes of a space western nature with a closing epilogue, ‘A Fistful of Bitcoins’.
An extended player that traverses Tucumcari, Vietnam’s Black River, and the ultimate, and final leg, of the journey; to Devils Tower in Wyoming.


Vital Sales Points:
- full picture sleeve, designed by Jonny O (Rocket Recordings/Goat)
- global PR and marketing campaign from Hype Filter
- last A Sagittairun album for Gerd Janson’s Running Back label received excellent reviews in Mixmag, DJ Mag, The Wire & more…


Selected DJ feedback:
Robag Whrume – Good one!
Shanti Celeste – love this!
Nick Höppner – Sounding great
Brendon Moeller – Dope AF!
Johanna Knutsson – Beautiful stuff
Ed Davenport – Some heavy stuff here, Road To Devils Tower is a special cut!
Bruce (Livity Sound) – Real digging the slow bits, proper gear!
John Osborn – The Sacred Chao is heaven!
Interstellar Funk – Really like ‘A Fistful Of Bitcoins’
Neil Barnes (Leftfield) – very nice and imaginative EP
Fabrice Lig – Really nice EP, love it
DJ Octopus – Great one!
Vincent Neumann – Ooh, so nice!
Ell Weston (Banoffe Pies) – Superb selection
Cormac – Black River is super nice
Cooper Saver – wow, love these
Bill Brewster – lot’s of nice gear on here, good work
96 Back (CPU) – wonderfully bleepy and dubby
Tensnake – lovely release
Kirsti (Null & Void) – So consistent, another great release from A Sagittariun

Berlin`s producer, sound designer, and composer Sven Weisemann`s 4th fulllength DESOLATE Album on FAUXPAS MUSIK arrives in Autumn 2019. Entitled
EXCEPTIONALISM, features 11 tracks melting the 90’s. The tracks are in an
intelligent DownTempo with a touch of Ambient. The Release comes as 2x12“ 180g
Vinyl Edition. Vinyl tastes better...

Nikolai Erastowitsch Bersarin, the ambivalent colonel general, communist and first Soviet city commander of Berlin, had an accident with his motorcycle in 1945 at the age of only 41. In the enraptured, now somewhat more compressed and at the same time more colorful (not more cheerful) electronic sound(track)s of the strange Bersarin Quartett, in its East Block sea landscapes with latently kitsched wallpaper and double bottoms, shadows of this strange figure Bersarin can be guessed - still or again - at a good 70 years later. But perhaps that is also irrelevant. This 'band' could just as well play imprisoned in the remixed court of the eternal, crazy North Korean presidents, whether embodied in an orchestra, quartet or as masked solo entertainer. It brings us supposedly post-rock and post-socialist grandeur, which has degenerated very slightly, in a great new splendour amidst all our irritations and emotions. And everything takes place in our heads.

The Bersarin Quartett - after thirteen years and three epic, (bad-)dreamlike beautiful albums - have settled down with their fourth album "Methoden und Maschinen" ("methods and machines"). For the time being. Because at the same time many new layers and paths are emerging. Playing live in many arrangements and at great concerts in Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic and Russia, this has grown into a quartet, but it is still the project of DJ, musician, graphic and audio designer Thomas Bücker. The numerous concert evenings with Andy Stott, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Murcof, Dictaphone or Hidden Orchestra, among others, are undoubtedly noticeable on "Methoden und Maschinen". The Bersarin Quartett continues to stand for the outing of a complex musical subconscious. 'The Dark Side of the Moon', only that the moon is shimmering here, at least now and then. It's probably also due to the sun shining on it. Minimalism and bombast go together. Constantly developing and entangling contrasts, paradoxes and contradictions are the motor. Constantly caught between two sides. Don’t believe the hype!

Ivy Falls, the delicate indie-pop band hailing from Ghent Belgium, continues its journey with this new EP. Their sound is characterised by subtle electronics, disarming vocals and meticulous arrangements. Fien Deman's silky soft, almost ethereal voice makes your head spin while her songs alternately soothe and sting you.

Fien calls this project her baby. She writes, arranges and co-produces all of the songs. She already made waves before as guest vocalist or sidekick (with Satin Jackets, Illuminine, Hydrogen Sea, I will, I swear) but this is Fien at the controls. Fien found her studio accomplices for this new chapter in Daan Schepers (Warhola, Bazart) and Pieterjan Coppejans (Eefje De Visser). Jasper Maekelberg (Balthazar, Faces on TV), Sebastiaan Van den Brande (Amatorski) and Dijf Sanders also contributed.

After releasing 'Mean Girls', Ivy Falls' debut EP in 2017, the band was able to play acclaimed venues such as Gent Jazz Festival, Boomtown, Ancienne Belgique, Trix, Botanique, alongside Sigrid, Mabel and Jessie Ware to name a few. The 'Mean Girls' EP was praised by press and radio and landed her over half a million streams.

For this new EP, Fien gathered 3 musicians to form the Ivy Falls band: Trui Amerlinck (Tsar B), Jasper Morel (Black Box Revelation) and Simon Raman (Steiger). The songs for the new record, coming out on November 15, have crystallized into velvety, warm and mature arrangements.

Ivy Falls songs often deal with resolving internal conflicts and dealing with one's own - and other people's - expectations, the struggles of growing up. More specifically on this record, Fien aims to grasp the abstract yet very distinct concept of 'The Light' with references throughout this new EP. She added this quote to the back of the vinyl: "Though I'm not sure whether we'll ever manage the craft of fueling the light when it's needed, let's pretend that we do or at least we once will."

Over de dingen die we vergeten zijn. Omdat we misschien wel beter kunnen dan dit.
Door de aard van Pu¯wawau heb ik besloten deze biografie zelf te schrijven. Na het uitbrengen van 3 solo albums (‘Let Your Hands Be My Guide’ 2013, ‘The Sparkle In Our Flaws’ 2015 en ‘Bounce Back’ 2017) en het spelen in verschillende bands zoals Isbells en Marble Sounds, voelde ik een grote urgentie om onderzoek te doen naar de kracht van de stem en de verbindende factoren van het zingen. Deze urgentie werd gevoed door het lezen van het volgende stukje tekst van socioloog Walter Weyns:
“Zodra we mensentaal leren, horen we in het geritsel van bladeren alleen nog stom geruis. We horen het, maar luisteren er niet meer naar. Het ruist alleen nog wat, het heeft ons niets meer te zeggen. Maar soms, heel af en toe, wekt iets het vermoeden dat de bladeren, de dingen, ons nog wel iets te zeggen hebben. Het is dan alsof er heel diep in ons iets resoneert met wat vanuit de verste verte komt, een vaag teken dat we niet begrijpen maar heimwee opwekt. Dat kan gebeuren, want we zijn sociale wezens. We staan open naar het andere, we willen ermee communiceren, en nooit zweren we de sociale omgang met dingen, dieren, planten, wolken en landschappen helemaal af. Al wat een vorm heeft, al wat zich toont, al wat zich laat horen, spreekt ons aan als had het ons iets te zeggen. Mensen zijn zo door-en-door sociaal dat ze in nagenoeg alles een teken, een verwantschap, een correspondentie kunnen zien en een boodschap vermoeden.”
Onze wereld lijkt zoveel nood te hebben aan alles wat er verborgen ligt onder de woorden. Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat juist dat ons kan helpen om terug verbinding te zoeken. Met onszelf e´n met elkaar. We gebruiken zoveel woorden. We hebben een mening over veel. Maar klopt dit wel? Komen deze letters van de juiste plek? Luisteren we wel? Zang heeft mij altijd een plek voor reflectie gegeven. Voor een diep voelen en ervaren. Dus ik wilde deze plek gebruiken voor een muziektheatervoorstelling. Het is tevens de eerste keer dat ik het medium theater gebruikt heb voor mijn werk. Heel bewust. Theater is een zeer krachtig middel en het heeft me ook buiten mijn comfortabele ruimte gezet waardoor ik mezelf opnieuw moest uitvinden en opbouwen. Uit deze voorstelling kwam de plaat Pu¯wawau. Een plaat waarin ik samen met zangers van Nederlands Kamerkoor NXT en een aantal muzikanten op zoek ga naar de kracht van de stem.
Valgeir Sigurdsson, bekend van onder andere zijn werk voor Bjo¨rk en Feist, heeft gezorgd voor prachtige, bevreemdende arrangementen waardoor de uitdaging nooit ver weg was. Josse de Pauw heeft zijn woorden en stem geleend voor de voorstellingen en was een aanwezig klankbord in de zoektocht en inspiratie.
Ik heb voor Pu¯wawau nauw samen gewerkt met een fijne groep muzikanten bestaande uit: Eric Thielemans, Laurens Smet, Jozef Dumoulin, Jeroen Stevens, Michae¨l Brijs, Firas Al Alwani, Beatrijs de Clerck, Katelijn Van Kerckhoven. De opnames werden gedaan door Stef Kamil Carlens, Joris Caluwaerts en Martijn Groeneveld. Een heerlijk team om mee te werken.
We deden reeds 17 try outs tijdens theaterfestival Oerol in Nederland. Enkele reacties van bezoekers:
“De essentie die we allen zijn kwijtgeraakt weer aangeraakt! Diep, diep, diep geraakt!”
“Gewoonweg betoverend.”
“Wat een prachtig ontroerend cadeau geven jullie ons.”
“Het mooiste geschenk van Oerol.”
“Wat ontzettend ontroerend en verbindend. Enorm onder de indruk ben ik. Veel dank. Ik zou nog veel langer willen luisteren en stilstaan hier bij al wat we vergeten waren.”

Take your phone, your tablet and your TV and throw them out the window! That’s the spirit and the idea uniting the eight tracks of the album “Out the Window” by Christopher Schwarzwälder & Iannis Ritter. Listening to this otherworldly piece of downtempo electronica will make you feel relieved and excited, as if you had actually removed your electronic shackles for a little while. This album is light and heavy at the same time, it’s in your room and outside, it is loud and quiet like an extroverted introvert.

The nature of this album is organic and analogue and simply weird - it’s a juxtaposition of well-known, homey sounds and the strange. The intro “Snow Broom” feels like waking up on holiday, where you hear the familiar sounds of your loved ones in the kitchen, however they are in a new kitchen, so it feels alluringly different. The title track “Out the Window” seems to conjure the listener and you will find yourself spacing out as if you were smoking really good sativa for the first time. Electron (feat. Mo) is another highlight, with its different characters it resembles an audio book of “The Neverending Story”. The vocals in “Make things smaller” and “Safe Place” feel hip-hop influenced and ancient, like someone rapping in-front of an open fire.

“Out the window” is an album for late summer, autumn, winter time or any time that you like to look out the window and inside your own mind.

It seems KPM have long been fans of Smith and Mudd and, after being introduced to each other by mutual friend Andy Allday, the peerless Balearic maestros were invited to contribute to the library label’s digital-only “Album Shorts” project. The results are predictably wonderful.

With past projects under our belt working with everyone involved so far it made perfect sense for Be With to take on the vinyl release of this instant library classic. But why is it called “Tea With Holger”?

“Holger” is of course Holger Czukay and the whole LP is dedicated to Smith and Mudd’s time spent with him and Ursa Major at Can’s famous Inner Space Studio in Weilerswist, near Cologne.

When not recording it seems they spent a great deal of time sat around being entertained by Holger’s stories and drinking many cups of different sorts of tea from all over the world. These moments provide some their fondest memories of their visits:

“Looking back, it was pretty incredible that we spent part of our lives with Holger in one of the most magical places we’ve ever known, Inner Space Studio. We have our memories and, of course, the Bison album we made with him. But to honour the time we spent with him, we wanted to dedicate an album to him called ‘Tea With Holger’. The names of the tracks are about that time.”

The album was recorded over several years in London, Margate and Gorthleck, a small hamlet in the Scottish Highlands. Mike Piggott, who played with Bert Jansch, handled the strings and played violin whilst Sam Creer lent his virtuoso cello work to the proceedings. The sessions employed a key recording technique from their time with Holger: hit record and play. They wanted to capture magical improvisational moments live and not do the work later on in editing.

In their own words (and in classic library record sleeve style) these tracks are collectively described as “Balearic themes including breezy soul, sun-dappled melodies, warm pianos and sweeping strings”. You want to hear this, right?

The album is vintage Smith and Mudd. The gentle piano ushering in opening track “The Gardener” is soon joined by low, bubbling drums. When the time is just right, lush guitars glisten above a Welsh language vocal that floats like silk. Easy as a sea breeze. “Innerspace” is of course a nod to Can’s aforementioned studio. Dark, heavy piano meets rolling drums before warm chords and luscious strings take over, gliding over moody grooves to drive you home. Closing out side A, “Weilerswist” delivers more beautifully rolling piano and guitars over thumping cellos and building drums.

Side B opens with the full, string-enhanced version of “Away From Me”. This is Smith and Mudd’s prefered version and it’s only available here on this vinyl issue. For us it’s the standout on this all-highlight album. Tribal tones, piano and cello set a melodic staccato for violin to soar over while rolling piano lines and gospel organ chords descend into a drum drop that leads to a glorious vocal lead finale.

Distant synths introduce sun-drenched guitars and uplifting strings in “Kölner Street”, before a spacey Moog solo leads to a spellbinding, sci-fi drop. The sunshine returns before the track ends. The album closes with “Tea With Holger”. Airy vocal swells are punctuated by plucked cellos and picked guitars, all wonderfully warmed by a soulful piano.

Cut by Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, “Tea With Holger” comes in a classic KPM green sleeve complete with track descriptions from Smith and Mudd themselves. The finishing visual touches come courtesy of Richard Robinson. We’ve given this record the same care and attention as we give to each our KPM re-issues, and it’s just as essential.

A collection of bedroom-engineered rhythms, psyched out slow jams and 4-dimensional steppers by GF. Very low business risk. Brought to you by Max & Can. Fictional Background: The cinematic vision of an unfinished short film project entitled ULAM SPIRAL served as the main inspiration for the score composed by Gerry Franke. Farcically over-dimensioned, the film was impossible to realise from a financial and practical perspective - a psychedelic blast of visual concepts, that lead to the unique narration style in which Franke tells an exotic story of death, a madness created by obstinacy, intrigue and coincidental creation. In 1963 Stanislaw Marcin Ulam (1909-1984) discovered a remarkable spiral formation while sketching with numbers during a mathematic lesson. He drew the natural numbers starting with 1, continuing in a left spiral and highlighting all prime numbers. Soon an unexpected pattern emerged from the sketch: The Ulam Spiral. An unexperienced director, who everyone referred to only as "Stab", was determined to realize an optical idea that alledgedly came to him while being on a trip to Jordan reading about Ulam and his spiral discovery, which initiated ideas of the connection between regularity and coincidence in Stab's mind eventually leading to the abstract script for the short film in 1993. When Franke was approached by Stab to compose the score of the film, he loved the wild imagery and the complex themes and decided to record music for ULAM SPIRAL in early 1995. A few months later Stab disappeared and Franke took a break from producing the soundtrack to focus on his band. In 1998 Stab reappeared with new ideas and convinced Franke to proceed with the score for the film, only to vanish again a couple of weeks later. Fed up with the inconsistency of the project, Franke decided to finish the soundtrack for his own listening pleasure in 2001 and kept it a secret - until today.

Kranky veteran Benoît Pioulard (né Thomas Meluch) has created his first full-length for Morr Music, complemented by a linen book of Polaroid SX70 photographs from more than two years of environmental explorations. The music on Sylva and its 84-page visual companion bear the beauty and strange shapes of nature: desert rock formations and colorful leaves, restless waters and peculiar plants. Meluch’s dreamy ambient drones and saturated lo-fi pop embody the impressionist sensation of his visual aesthetic – with this collection sound and vision are merged into an affectionate study of the organic.

Sylva is the result of one of the most productive periods in Meluch’s life. During a 9-month hiatus from his day job he embarked on daily recording sessions amid trips to the American southwest, Montana, Hawai’i and his native Michigan. Back home in Seattle, he developed his recordings and wrote the album’s two mesmerizing vocal tracks, which call to mind early Fleetwood Mac or peak pop-era Brian Eno. “Keep” is based on a tiny flower called Draba mentioned in the book A Sand County Almanac, about which “no one ever wrote a poem”; considering all the little plants he had inadvertently crushed throughout a lifetime of hikes, he wrote it for them. The piano-driven “Meristem” features a striking violin contribution from Freya Creech (London, UK), and is dedicated to Meluch’s brother, who died suddenly two years ago. Sylva’s other collaboration is the soaring vocal arrangement created for “Raze II” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/singer Caroline Shaw (New York, USA), a former touring mate who resided at the Banff Centre (Alberta, CAN) during the same period in which Meluch completed his recordings there.

The album’s ten songs are divided into four movements: Solum (soil/solitude), Ignis (fire), Coeptum (seed) and Vireo (thrive), with each group embodying a slightly different environ. When paring down the photo collection Meluch abided three guidelines: no man-made objects, no redundant textures, and a color palette as diverse as his vintage camera allowed. From more than six hundred images, 102 were selected and arranged in diptychs with a preface from the artist. Book and album work well on their own, but by experiencing them together one finds a fundamental connection as well as a three-dimensional view into their creator’s perception of the cosmos.

We are very proud to welcome RIP Swirl to Public Possession.
Other worldly experiences instantly! Guaranteed! Mutates musical expectations.
Turn on, Tune in, Drop out.
Entrance to “Paradise House” granted. A better life starts here.

Collecting orders for repress, new Cover Artwork

The year is off to a good start! The highly anticipated new Rising Sun album is going to be released any day now. We are very proud to press this incredible record on vinyl. 'The Lamentations Of Rising Sun' leaves nothing to be desired and is full of surprises. It defies categorization and shows influences of the past while taking us into the future. The bass and groove have a special energy and will inspire you to listen to this record religiously. It goes directly into the heart and soul. Vinyl tastes better!

While the first volume of Tigersushi's new compilation series showcased a rather cosmic and synth heavy side of all things ambient, this volume 2 goes in many new directions, with more experiments towards electro = acoustics and musique concrete, another side of ambient that has a long French lineage - the term Musique Concrete, a type of "acousmatic" music was invented by pioneer Pierre Schaeffer in 1948 who influenced numerous other French composers such as Pierre Henry, Laurent Bayle etc.