Nuevos Lanzamientos Beats - Novedades

Running Back welcomes Andreas Grosser for the start of it's non-dancefloor series 'Running Back Incantations'. Think Tornado Wallace's 'Lonely Planet' or Suzanne Kraft's 'Missum' who both would have been good and early contenders for a series like that, and you are half way there. Andres Grosser though, was 'there' and that way before. Probably best-known for his 1987 collaboration 'Babel' with Klaus Schulze, Grosser is a bit of a dark horse in the universe whose big bang was krautrock and that went on to be called cosmic, space music or simply new age.

A native East-Berliner, Grosser crossed the Wall in 1981 and next to studying piano, his day job was to advise, sell, maintain and invent electronic music instruments. Naturally, Grosser had a good connection to and support from local Berlin musicians and groups, while working at night in his own studio and in those of others. Fast forward 37 years and Andreas is now one the worlds leading microphone technicians specialising in German and Austrian vintage types.

'Venite Visum' is an anthology of recordings made between 1976 and1980. Released in 1981 on UK's York House Recordings as a cassette tape only, it features some of the most out there, hypnotic and still state-of-the art space music ever to be known to man. For the first time transferred onto vinyl, compact disc and available as a digital download, it was perhaps best described by one reviewer at the time as; "powerfully relentless, repetitive themes which are constantly embellished and subjected to variations in tone colour and instrumentations. The music surges, coming in waves that approach and recede, but with each surge the waves seem to be higher up the shore.'

Now carefully transferred from an archived tape, remastered and compiled on a double album for the first time, it features the previously unreleased and not less mesmerizing 'The Quantum Leap'. Come and visit the hidden and almost forgotten

Spread across two 180g discs, spanning 24 cuts and served in a gatefold sleeve designed by members and affiliates, the Young Echo LP is a capsule intended for cementation through time.
It's been almost five years since their last album. As a group, extended radio submissions, prolonged studio sessions and notorious club nights make up the cogs of time. Over the course of these years, the network has grown continually, both as one, and with singular, multi-directional paths from each of the 11 artists that make up the Young Echo collective, counting Jabu, Vessel, Kahn, Neek, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Manonmars, Bogues, Rider Shafique, chester giles and Jasmine towards the crew, with projects such as Bandulu, FuckPunk, O$VMV$M, Gorgon Sound and ASDA adding to the table in their individual ways.However, this record aims not to be judged on any single producer or vocalist. It is most effective as a whole, simply titled Young Echo. Of course each of the artists has an important part to play, but it is very much about the act of balance, accepting individualism to form a greater whole.A good example is the welcome addition of new energy coming from Jasmine (1/3 of Jabu) who injects endless space with her vocals, perfectly answered by the cool-killin' wordplay of Manonmars - who makes his long awaited debut here - sharing stage with the immediate poetry of ASDA's very own chester giles, along the mighty sound of Rider Shafique, and Bogues' versatile style that can flit between rap & song within seconds. Five very different vocalists that could've tried to find a compromise, but instead choose to connect in different ways, finding their niche in the equal range of rhythms and sounds that sprawl in this shared space, the juxtaposition.
Detuned soundsystem stylings, love songs swaying in hacked up ambience, skeletal dancehall, microphone technique, dread electronics, outsider pop, this record manifests the outcome of the shapeshifting anarchy which rears it's head when no one idea can rule, embracing the diversities when one path must be made up of many.

Wave Stu might just be the Platonic ideal of icy, emotionally fraught synth-pop. On his debut release for Origin Peoples, Stockholm-based musician Michel Isorinne puts paragons of this style like Orchestral Manoeuvres In e Dark in his slipstream. Laced with spoken-word passages from films and television shows, Wave Stu weaves a loose tale about the nature of time, physics, and mortality that can be summarized by the key phrase, uttered by a woman scientist somewhere throughout the album, 'magic is in the molecules...'

Isorinne essentially creates introverted minimalist symphonies in which sprightly synth leads peacefully coexist with melancholy, drone-y undercurrents. Throughout the record, Isorinne's melodies bear a fruitful contrast between the morose and the jubilant. He repeatedly places exceptionally delicate and beautiful tunes amid subliminal waves of pensiveness. It truly is a masterly balancing act. e zenith of this approach is Side A's closing track, in which gorgeous countermelodies intertwine like lovers on a tropical beach while a pistoning rhythm pumps up the libido. It's instant paradisiacal bliss.

Side B contains Wave Stu 's most cheerful, uptempo track yet it never bursts into full-on euphoria. Elsewhere, Isorinne reverts back to more somber moods: an eerie, methodical chiller full of quiet wonderment and subdued sparkle reminiscent of Casino Versus Japan, Plone, and others of their gnomic ilk; a low-key anthem in which '70s Vangelis grandiosi meets the workmanlike bass-synth chug of Ulrich Schnauss; an elegiac piece that conjures an intimate majes ; a bass-heavy dirge festooned with forlorn wisps of melodiousness.

The complex, paradoxical happy/sad pendulum at the heart of Isorinne's music lends Wave Stu a tingly resonance that will reward repeat listens. Please welcome an extravagantly rich synth-pop classic.

Mouse on Mars' Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner return with their most
inventive album to date, Dimensional People. The electronic music pioneers
have been critically acclaimed for their playful and inventive sound and
production techniques on releases spanning from the early '90s to now. In
demand from a surprising array of artists their most recent contributions are
featured on the Grammy award winning album Sleep Well Beast by The
National.
The duo are joined on Dimensional People by an impressive list of guests
: Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Zach
Condon (Beirut), Spank Rock, Swamp Dogg, Eric D. Clarke, Lisa Hannigan,
Amanda Blank, Sam Amidon, Ensemble Musikfabrik, and about 20 more
musical collaborators. The cast of characters are as unique as they are vast,
clearly a rich quarry for the prodigious duo.
Dimensional People is by it's nature a collaborative album. Originally
premiering as a spatial composition using object-based mixing technology
playing with the possibilities of sonic design (4D Sound) and collective
musicianship, the recording expands upon these ideas. Dimensional People
expresses itself as a dynamic 50-piece orchestra, telling a story in sound.
Mouse on Mars offer sound as a means to encourage open-minded societies,
aided by cutting-edge technology including their own MoMinstruments
music software or a spatial mixing technique called object based mixing,
with which a spatial version of the work was created. It is a conceptual
puzzle composed around one harmonic spectrum within one rhythmic
scheme, mostly in the tempo of 145bpm (inspired by Chicago footwork,
so the dance oor is not entirely absent). Looking ahead, Dimensional
People will also be realized through installation, presenting the work as an
immersive listening experience, as well as performance.

What is the point of an artist in dark moral times Is art an impotent affectation or can artists use their work to reflect and magnify bigger concerns for the scrutiny of an audience
Over two sides of tape, two artists take very different approaches to how to respond to a fluid, uncertain time. Not political, but motivated instead by an existential moral absence at the heart of events, one reaches introspectively, the other at the broader canvas.
SPR's helplessness and frustration at reality being bent to the will of those with their hands on the controls of perception pushes outwards as an overwhelming, out-of-control amalgam of tiny layers, the truth being the sum of many untrue parts, a congruence of facets each being seen by others as a dark reflection of their own prejudices, a mirrored facade reflecting self-evident truths and withheld bias erupting in a tumult of uncertainty, lancing the boil of the unreliable narrators.
And on the flip, TVO literally tries to spin gold from the basest raw materials possible, in this case, a week's worth of output from the alt-right news website Breitbart with all the constituent parts of his piece emanating in one form or another from the site, be it the raw code, image files, hidden audio files or the text itself. Can something so irretrievably riddled with venom and falsehood be alchemically redeemed, and in doing so shine a penetrating light on the existence of such widely consumed falsehood
Whether dark mirror or golden light, to say nothing is to passively accept everything, to say something - to reflect something - is to be a voice, however small, in defianceo

In a scenario of overwhelming number of instruments, musicians often do not take the time to deepen and explore the creative possibilities of each gear they possess. One Instrument aims at counter-acting this tendency by challenging and limiting each artist in producing a composition by using only one instrument of their choice.

The LP opens with a composition by In Bloom, the new project of Martino Bertola, who drives us directly into a melodic ambience. To follow it is the dense, polyrhythmic experiment by Fabian Kempe's project 'Korridor'. Serena Butler's piece is built around spacey sounds and breezy rhythms.

Yhdessa, the newly born Dutch-Italian duo formed by Grand River (Aimee Portioli) and Enrica Falqui, leans towards ambient atmospherics and ominous sonorities with a refined Northern European touch. Yair Elazar Glotman ventures us across his contrabass player skills giving an acoustic touch to the record.

Swedish producer, Fjader (Ida Matsdotter), handles the flip with a moody techno cut filled with evasive analog acutes.

Claudio PRC delivers an electroacoustic soundscape created with a tiny, graceful drone machine.

The Dutch duo, Wanderwelle, closes the LP with a dreamy and delicate excursion evoking the mysterious sides of nature.

Présence Absente is Saåad's third release with Hands in the Dark, after Orbs & Channels back in 2013 and Deep/Float the following year.Based on the French duo's 2017 live setup and improvised sets, this new album is the quintessence of their music: raw, deep, murky, fascinating. The band's sound and experimental songwriting have matured over the course of their albums, and with this new offering we feel that they have truly blossomed both in form and in content.Their brand of experimental drone takes on a new, distinct shape and, in the space of 38 musical minutes, sends out a message in a bottle to our western world, a foreboding message of the communication breakdown and the effacement of our personal identities that we find ourselves living through as a generation. But it is also an ode to nature with tones of hope, a desire to share and to return to basics, before it's too late. It all makes for an arresting listening experience.Présence Absente is a delicate, personal album which marks a major turning point in the pair's substantial discography.

The 'Matière Obscure EP' is the first in a two-part series, whereby each composition was made using
only recordings from one specific material (metal, glass and wood). The process involved taking
everyday objects and making them resonate in every way possible, such as striking them with mallets
or using a violin bow, and building up a sample library. 'Weld (Metal_01)' kicks off the release with its
syncopated percussion and gritty groove before moving into the cavernous 'Molten (Glass_01)' that's
composed of rolling drums and sinister atmospherics. 'Carve (Wood_01)' is a lot bouncier by
comparison, with its fidgeting bassline and murky tones until the menacing 'Cast (Glass_02)'
concludes the package with machine inspired effects and a cacophony of stabs.

We have been waiting for Pele to crop up on a release from the footy mad Rothmans and what a time to play that hand card. Teaming up once more with his Aussie team mate Dawn Again and a first apperance from Leeds legends Clandestino. The first track from the EP 'Cobblejam' is nothing short of first class, a worthy italo, chuggy ,powerhouse that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. The b-side finds us with the slightly strangely named 'Woman For A Day' theres nothing strange about the track itself though . A deep and dark track that slowly drives forward into the abyss. Finishing off the record is an excellent remix from the lads over at Clandestino. Their Dessert Trance vibe brings the record together as sweetly as Pele brought together that 1970 World Cup Winning team.

From Riga via New York to Berlin on a one way ticket! There is no return now!

We are delighted to welcome Egyptology to the Hands in the Dark family. The Parisian duo, made up of Stéphane Laporte (Domotic) and Olivier Lamm have been active since the late 90's in the French post-electronica/avant-pop scene. Sur les autres mondes is inspired by a publication by French astronomer Lucien Rudaux (1937, Larousse) in which he imagined the landscapes of other planets in our solar system through scientific descriptions. Partly composed for a performance at the prestigious Louvre museum in Paris, the album is the band's first full length output since 2012, and we can assure you that it has been worth the wait. Their sharp ear for detail and the epic worlds evoked through the album make for an auditory voyage which is as graphic as the words inked by Rudaux.The duo is bringing the 70's kosmiche genre back to life in a very fresh, bold way, offering a strong shot of pure analogue sound and a fantastic, melodic approach to synth-based ambient music.

This circular item is the OAKS 04 by Prostitutes. Musica Techno Para Discoteca VOL.1 its title.
If you drop the needle on this side (A) Mighty Arms and A Glancing Kiss will play. If you flip it side (B) Albion Remains and Churns Up Into Stone will do the same. Eleven times three revolutions per minute.
Recommended for Dj use.

"Musica Techno Para Discoteca is the new series from OAKS. In it I'll showcase the Techno music that inspires me, the Techno music that I love to play, the Techno music that in my opinion should get a decent exposure due it's originality and honesty. Without paying attention to the market demand or industry standards."

Darren Cunningham's eagerly~awaited new album is an adventurous, ultramodern, thoroughly British affair, rummaging about in the inner lives of house and techno, and brilliantly elaborating the accomplishments of his debut, Hazyville.
Determinedly off~the~map and resistant to pigeonholing, Cunningham is an enigmatic and playful figure, citing Francis Bacon and Monet as inspirations longside Theo Parrish, Anthony 'Shake' Shakir, Daft Punk, 'binary codes and numeral systems', and The Avengers. He's a hard man to pin down - somehow a key player in the post~dubstep diaspora and yet not there at all - but everything comes across in his shape~shifting, richly textured music.
The South Londoner's acclaimed debut lived up to its name: a series of dreamlike sketches and ideas. For Splazsh the fog has lifted, the sounds are less submerged than before, but still sticky and close - a signature combination of exuberance and introversion, luminescence and puzzlement. Unconstrained by the formal cliches of the dance music he loves, Actress' melodies and arrangements are enthralled by their own genies. Worlds of disturbance and melancholy revolve giddyingly inside the insidious funk of tracks like Get Ohn and Lost. A range of musical influences is redrawn, from speed garage (Always Human) to grime (Wrong Potion), with none crowned king. There is a reflectiveness - the ambient drift of Futureproofing, the radiophonic judder of
Supreme Cunnilingus - in amongst the industrial, synth~wave flavours of Casanova, and the stirring, stately Maze.
Actress has quickly and justly become one of the most respected names in the UK's new dance music underground. His own label, Werk Discs, has proven itself one of the most formidable and taste~making UK independents of recent times, bringing the world extraordinary albums from Zomby, Lukid, Lone and Actress himself. In love with the mysteries of groove and repetition, Splazsh is both a culmination and a new beginning for Actress, a substantial and eccentric work from a brave and coolly individual artist.
With international press interest gathering - photo features in Dazed And Confused, and Fader in the US, and a session with Wolfgang Tillmans for the cover of the German magazine Groove - the stage is set for Actress.

Ltd. edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinylGnashing, thrashing and teeming with enchanting microtones - Machine Guitars is the definitive recorded work of Remko Scha, although the late Dutch artist didn't play a single note himself. Rather, Scha arranged a motorized, rotating wire brush and saber saw in front of suspended electric guitars and let these metallic torrents flow.Scha was a linguist and generative artist, enamored of computers' capacity for algorithmic creativity. A leading researcher at the University of Amsterdam, he also cofounded the famed arts-space Het Apollohuis in a former cigar-factory in 1980. This haven for intellectuals and underground autodidacts served as the recording studio for most of Machine Guitars (as well as Ellen Fullman's brilliant The Long String Instrument), which originally appeared in 1982 on the small Dutch label Kremlin. Machine Guitars, as the critic Byron Coley has noted, ranks among the best of the era's minimalist-inspired, avant-garde guitar statements by Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham. The semiautonomous sound-making sculptures also evoke contemporaneous work by Christian Marclay. Scha's work falls somewhere between conceptual art and avant-garde music - a total revelation for minimalists and No Wave fans alike.First-time vinyl reissue. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl.

Aymaran genre-bending producer Elysia Crampton returns with a much anticipated second album, Elysia Crampton. Exploring themes around the experience of pushing boundaries between cultures and identities, it draws

motifs from the ephemeral presences which create a sense of comfort and belonging in displaced peoples. Taking place against a backdrop inspired equally by science fiction and

discourses of radical queernees, the music on Elysia Crampton is a melting pot of fringe musical histories that tie together past and future. House music begets trap which begets musique concrete which begets New Age, which turns

into a DJ-tagged rap mixtape from 2006. Crampton's widely celebrated debut album from last year, Elysia Crampton Presents Demon City, was met with rave reviews and feature coverage from Pitchfork, SPIN, NPR, The Financial Times,

The Guardian, The 405, Crack Magazine, Tiny Mixtapes, and Vogue.

For the first time Nicolas Repac's album Swing-Swing, originally out in 2004, is released on vinyl LP!

He has a reputation as a musician's musician, a talented Jack-of-all-Trades as much at ease playing the guitar alongside his old accomplice, French songwriter Arthur H, as he is when tinkering with all kinds of machines by instinct, and creating made-to-measure contexts for instrumentalists like Michel Portal. Everyone knew he had a secret garden, the song' world of a composer and performer who was difficult to categorize, a world not only lyrical but also dark and full of tender melancholy, not to mention easily surrealist (his first record of songs, La vile', which was released on the Indigo label in 1997, has a sequel in preparation in the form of a new opus, Lovni'.) But, once again,
Nicolas Repac had a surprise in store, because he has turned up where no one was expecting him: Swing Swing is a record as magnificent as it is difficult to place, with electro ramblings around jazz (its subjects and virtues, its spirit and memory), wanderings that are playful, light, fluid in gesture and crammed with ideas, discoveries and intuition, they are at once naive and instinctive (Repac is an erudite amateur, the Ferdinand Cheval of the already-established world of electronic music), and extremely elaborate in their crushed samples, hallucinatory, rhythmic whirls and sensual, dreamlike atmospheres.

* Still Circles announce the release of their debut album, 27:36, available March 30th via Killtone Records.

* Currently at 7 in the chart on the Josh Hannen show Amazing Radio

* Session for Alan Raw BBC Introducing on Sat March 3rd 2018

* Comprised of Natalie Kolowiecki and Jack Donnison, the Bradford based duo bridge the worlds of trip-hop and ambient music: splicing slo-mo beats, grainy atmospherics, haunting melodies and soft-wax drones. Their first single, 'Only Noise' is testament to this - with its manipulated vocals, heavy bass line and lurching percussion, the track's stark surrealism evokes the thrum of their northern English town.

* Upon the surface, 27:36 has the indelible markings of the band's influences: Brian Eno, Poliça, Adrian Sherwood (to name a few) - but the duo never settle into pure pastiche. Instead, they contort the sounds of these artists into something all their own. 27:36 is an alien vision of what pop music could be.

A very intensive LP... Mixing the breakcore to the Ambient to the Hip Hop to the Noises....One of the hard to Find DHR's !

Shouting Heavy downtempo Breakcore to Speed Break Hardcore Indus... Legendary LP !

One of the very first breakcore records so far... Maeltin speed breaks to Scratch and Mc's... Intense Dancefloor !

Another excellent DHR Limited... Dancefloor matter !

Raga Abhogi
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala

Raga Vardhani
4) Alap
5) Jod
6) Jhala

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Annie Penta : tanpura

Concert recorded at the home of Shantha and Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle, Washington 9 March 1986.
Recorded by Niranjan Benegal. Files obtained from Jeff Lewis.
Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, edited by Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by unknown.
Interior photography by Niranjan B. Benegal, Dan Neuman & unknown, Seattle 1978-1980. .

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani were recorded in a private house concert in Seattle at the home of the Benegals in March 1986 (the week before the accompanying release SOMA029 Raga Yaman was recorded). The Benegals were friends (& Shantha Benegal was also a student) of Dagarsahib who sometimes hosted Hindustani music concerts in their home. It's a rare glimpse of a more intimate, personal and perhaps different kind of performance considering the form of dhrupad.

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

Stephen O'Malley would like to especially thank Bahauddin Dagar, Jeff Lewis & Jody Stecher for their enthusiasm, cooperation, patience, insight & advice toward developing these editions. Thank you also to Laurel Sercombe & John Vallier from the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives, Shantha Benegal, Philippe Bruguière, Dan Neuman, Ira Landgarten, Renaud Brizard, Ian Christe, Peter Rehberg, Rashad Becker, Daniel O'Sullivan & Kristoffer Rygg, all for their direct or indirect cooperation, assistance & patience.

Raga Yaman
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala
4) Gat (Composition in Chautal)

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Manik Munde : pakhawaj
Gayathri Rajapur & Annie Penta : tanpuras

Recorded by unknown at the University of Washington, HUB Auditorium, Seattle, Washington 15 March 1986 , concert co-sponsored by the UW Ethnomusicology Division and Ragamala.
Original digitally processed audio recording made with Panasonic PV-9000 VCR, Sony PCM-F1, PZM mics. Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle Center Folklife Festival 1979. Elizabeth Reeke & Annie Penta on tanpuras.
Inner gatefold photography by Niranjan B. Benegal & Ira Landgarten.

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Raga Yaman was recorded at a public concert in Seattle at the HUB Ballroom at the University of Washington in March 1986 (the week after the accompanying release SOMA028 Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani was recorded) at the end of his last tour of the United States. Yaman was a special raga for Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, one of his signature raags. For centuries, Yaman has been considered as one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani music and is one of the first ragas which is taught to students. A deep knowledge of Yaman gives a key for understanding many other ragas. It's filled with tranquility, contemplation, pathos and spiritual yearning. .

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

* In his first release for Milan's Haunter Record, Berlin-based producer Broshuda generates simple yet complex emotional vignettes. Evading all definitions, he makes use of an an array of tools and techniques akin to those of classic dub and contemporary sound design on obscure/ random equipment, drawing from a limited pool of sound sources while paying a lot of attention to detail in the construction of sound. His post-rave power ambient poems, coalescing with a pronounced melodic element, give the release a profoundly introspective and earthy character. Blurring and masquerading different layers of sound into new forms and shapes.

Fünf Jahre nach seinem Debütalbum "Ilp" meldet sich Kwes. mit einer neuen 6-Track EP zurück. In der Zwischenzeit arbeitete er mit Künstlern wie Bobby Womack, Solange, NAO oder Loyle Carner zusammen und mischte Kelelas Meisterwerk "Take Me Apart" ab. Die "Songs For Midi" handeln von aufregenden Entdeckungen und Erfahrungen in der Kindheit, und entsprechend fragil und sinnlich klingen die Sounddesigns dieser 6 Tracks. 12" Vinyl mit Download-Code.

As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra and an Academy Award-winning composer for his work on the soundtrack for The Last Emperor, synth pop innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto is among the most groundbreaking artists to have emerged since the late 70s. A musician's musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto
has created intriguing musical unions with artists such as David Sylvian, Iggy Pop, Tony Williams, Bootsy Collins, Jacques Morelenbaum and many others.

What kind of sounds/music' do I want to listen to'

async is the answer to this question Ryuichi has asked himself for the past several years. This is the album he is the most proud of which synthesizes all of his musical and sound interests. This is a journey through analog synth, the sounds of things and of places, an imaginary soundtrack to an
Andrei Tarkovsky film and many others musical surprises.

Emotional Rescue delves deep in to the past with the release of the first ever recordings by UK post-industrial, ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate (OYC). Recorded in Nottingham in 1983, the EP's four tracks showcase OYC's early sound: a beat-driven, lo-fi that places them alongside the early British electronic pioneers.
OYC, celebrating their 35th anniversary this year, are known for their "dirty ambient" sound - but it wasn't always thus. In their earliest incarnation OYC explored a more industrial approach characterised by tortured analogue drum machines, one-finger synth lines, played bass, tape loops and even flute. This naive sound template lasted until their debut album 'Scene in Mirage' (1984) before being jettisoned in favour of more ambient explorations.The story behind these recordings is one of brotherly love between bands. OYC swapped time in their rehearsal space for a day's use of a four-track cassette portastudio owned by their associates, Metamorphosis. Three of the tracks included were recorded on May 1st 1983 at The End Room (literally a studio at the back of one of OYC's parents houses) with the remaining track (live favourite "The Clattering Song") being produced a couple of months later.
To date OYC have remained largely unknown in the UK due to their wilfully obscure approach. They have released a series of very well regarded studio albums and innumerable spin-off and side projects that has recently seen a revival of interest in their early years, including appearances on Cherry Red's compilation of formative UK electronic scene 'Close to the Noise Floor' and Optimo's compilation of Fourth World-style music 'Miracle Steps'.
Accepting their fate as musical outsiders, OYC continue to make music with little reference to the wider world. This EP makes a fine addition to that body of work.

After four years finally a new full length. Masterworks of minimalism and glacial beauty. With Birds of Passage, New Zealand based Alicia Merz presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating journey through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation.

The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark world. With allusions to dark-pop and classic broken-folk, the reverb drenched instrumentation, metaphorical fairytale lyrics, and anti-climactic compositions remind us that Alicia Merz is a singer songwriter for people who don't like singer songwriters. After four years of silence, Merz returns with the fourth full length 'The Death of Our Invention'.

"Birds of Passage is humble and heartbroken. Her warm words are crimson berries that bear fruit in the cold depths of winter, hanging over crooked, bare branches where nothing else survives. Her dove-like vocals soar, but her introverted lyrics blossom with the fondness of love." (Fluid Radio)

"Alicia presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating journey through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation... The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark world. It's as if we are listening to the sound of winter itself, an audio exposure to the unforgiving elements of winter." (Headphone Commute)

Reissue of the second Birds Of Passage album from 2011. A masterwork of minimalism, "Winter Lady" - Alicia Merz's sophomore solo effort as BIRDS OF PASSAGE sees a return to the desolate and melancholic soundcscapes of her highly acclaimed debut, "Without The World". With "Winter Lady", Alicia presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation, a worthy addition to the oeuvre of BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark. It's as if we are listening to the sound of winter itself, an audio exposure to the unforgiving elements of winter. With allusions to dark-pop and classic broken-folk, the reverb drenched instrumentation, metaphorical fairytale lyrics, and anti-climactic compositions remind us that Alicia Merz is a singer songwriter for people who don't like singer songwriters.

With "Winter Lady", Alicia re-establishes herself as a true musical maverick - who is able to capture the imaginations of audiences as diverse as those of Sigur Ros, Grouper or Zola Jesus. In short, Birds Of Passage's "Winter Lady" is an album of authentic experimentation, masterful minimalism, immense tragedy, and glacial beauty. It is not surprising that already after the first album Nils Frahm & Peter Broderick belonged to the fanbase of Birds Of Passage.

Mastered and mixed by Nils Frahm.

Reissue of the Birds Of Passage collaboration record with Leonardo Rosado from 2011. A minimalistic, cinematic, experimental dark pop trip.

After the highly respected debut full length Without the World' and her first european tour in 2011 BIRDS OF PASSAGE ( the new rising star of experimental minimalistic dark pop') from New Zealand has released her second act in fall 2011 - a cinematic concept album she has recorded together with LEONARDO ROSADO from Portugal.

DEAR AND UNFAMILIAR is a technicolor soundtrack that traces a vivid path through darkened desolate dunes. Stories of forgotten tragedies and unrequited love liberate the journeyman from reveries of misery and guide the wanderer through contrasting landscapes of dysphoria and ecstasy.'

Mastered by NILS FRAHM the album equally should please fans of Cocteau Twins, Portishead or Zola Jesus.

This iconic LP was originally released by Incus in 1974. Recorded at a private house in West London, the side-long title track is a masterwork: a twenty-two-minute, starkly personal, freely expressive, itchily searching re-casting of orders of rhythm and sound into a new, quicksilver kind of affective and musical polyphony. Never mind the guitarist's championing of 'non-idiomatic improvisation', the poet Peter Riley gets the ball rolling in his identification of the various hauntings of Bailey's playing at this time: 'mandolins & balalaikas strumming in the distance, George Forby's banjo, Leadbelly's steel 12-string, koto, lute, classical guitar... and others quite outside the field of the plucked string.'The five pieces on side two were recorded back home in Hackney around the same time — with the exception of Improvisation 104(b), from the year before (and issued by Incus in its TAPS series of mini reel-to-reel tapes) — opening with ventriloquised guitar feedback, and taking in some cod banter about colleagues like Mervyn Parker, Siegfried Brotzmann and Harry Bentink. Crucial.

From Rebirth and a four track recorder in the year 1999 to broken tape machines, untuned guitars/synths and extreme signal processing an eternity later, Terminal Sound System has remained the primary musical outlet for musician/producer Skye Klein.

It is about stories. There is a narrative, albeit disjointed. Tends to come in threes, like dramatic characters, introduction, exploration, disintegration. It's about stories, creating a world with sound and words and exploring that until it (inevitably) folds back on itself and starts to self-reference, decay, but also sprout appendages, potentialities.

Roughly a dozen releases have tracked the evolution of Terminal Sound System from post-techno dub experiment to post-everything world-building/destroying. The Endless Sea is the third part of a trinity that began with 2013's 'A Sun Spinning Backwards'. Worlds fell, necessary actions were taken. What happens after exodus, when all is left behind and you get a blank slate Do we replay the past Recreate or reimagine

2015's 'Dust Songs' and 'The Endless Sea' bleed into one another, drawing to conclusion this particular arc. The wave curls back on itself, corrosion amplified. There are more questions here than answers, far more uncertainties than truths. Post-industrial folk stories from a barren earth. Scorched and infinite.

Snapshots of an abandoned city. Fragments of song drifting out of basements and across alleyways, muffled conversations. Scrutinized, the "music" disappears - maybe paracusia Brass Orchids, Anne Guthrie's second full-length album for Students of Decay, is an entrancing collage of new and old sounds drawn from a variety of beguiling sources. Posthumous contributions from the artist's grandfather, a jazz pianist, obsolete media palimpsests (some vanity, some necessity), tap dancing on a peeling floor... An unsettling and strangely beautiful album - akin to something on the tip of your tongue, which, before you can name it, slips away into forgetting.

Anne Guthrie is a French horn player, field recording and audio installation artist born in 1983 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She studied composition with Amelia Kaplan, David Karl Gompper, Lawrence Fritts and Michael Young. She is currently the Managing Director of the S.E.M. Ensemble in Brooklyn.

In summer of 2015 Seattle's doom fixtures Bell Witch released Four Phantoms' on Profound Lore Records, the highly anticipated doomed follow up to the band's now classic debut full-length Longing' (2012). But Longing' was not the band's first effort. Bell Witch first appeared in 2011 with a well-received demo that was simply titled Demo 2011.' At 37 minutes this recording was a massive statement of purpose which far-eclipsed the "demo" status implied by the name. It was recorded by Brandon Fitzsimons (Wormwood), the same engineer that worked on the band's debut Longing.' Demo 2011 showcased Bell Witch's minimalist depressing sound that has proven to be timeless, relevant, and undeniably sad. The band is heavy. The Flenser is proud to unleash this new pressing of a classic moment in contemporary US doom history. Artwork by the band's own Adrian Guerra (RIP) presented with an updated layout and in a more sustainable package than the initial pressing.

In summer of 2015 Seattle's doom fixtures Bell Witch released Four Phantoms' on Profound Lore Records, the highly anticipated doomed follow up to the band's now classic debut full-length Longing' (2012). But Longing' was not the band's first effort. Bell Witch first appeared in 2011 with a well-received demo that was simply titled Demo 2011.' At 37 minutes this recording was a massive statement of purpose which far-eclipsed the "demo" status implied by the name. It was recorded by Brandon Fitzsimons (Wormwood), the same engineer that worked on the band's debut Longing.' Demo 2011 showcased Bell Witch's minimalist depressing sound that has proven to be timeless, relevant, and undeniably sad. The band is heavy. The Flenser is proud to unleash this new pressing of a classic moment in contemporary US doom history. Artwork by the band's own Adrian Guerra (RIP) presented with an updated layout and in a more sustainable package than the initial pressing.

Ltd. to 120 numbered copies inside recycled stock cardboard box, incl. mp3

Byron Westbrook is an artist and musician based in Brooklyn, NY. His work focuses on dynamics of perception using sound, lighting and video to interact with architecture and landscape, often pursuing routes that involve social engagement. Confluence Patterns is an eclectic collection of recordings, containing both the sharpest and most pastoral material Westbrook has released. The pieces range from the textured drones of "Vanishing Action" to the Tony-Conrad-plays-Black-Sabbath riffing of "Perception Depth" to the Maggie Payne-influenced "Fractal Shift II'. Westbrook is interested in how sharp contrast can shape the perception of a sound. Working with texture and frequency in relation to listening duration, he considers sonic analogies as to how an afterimage affects the experience of sight. For example, the pillowy "Drifting Well" has a particular softness after experiencing the fatiguing frequencies and activity of "A Continuous Slip", and the density and detail of "Glorious Mess" plays in a particular way after the static textures of "Vanishing Action". Westbrook considers these sequential contrasts as integral elements of the work and has performed this sequence as a live set numerous times in recent years. Confluence Patterns is his third music release - after previous works for Root Strata and Hands In The Dark - and his first one for Umor Rex.

Recorded and mixed 2014-2017 in Brooklyn, NY + Los Angeles, CA, by Byron Westbrook (electronics, tape and software manipulation). Mastered by Felix-Florian Tödtloff at Ætherweight in Berlin. Design & photo by Daniel Castrejón.

Ltd. to 500 , incl. 20-page color insert, incl. mp3
Recital presents the first vinyl LP by composer/event-maker Charlie Morrow. Toot! Too culls performance recordings from 1970 to 2014. It focuses on his Wave Music series, which are compositions based around swarms of like-instruments, i.e. sixty clarinets, conch choruses, and army of drums and bugle horns, etc. A personal favorite is the 1978 piece, 100 Musicians With Lights,' which was performed at dusk in Central Park. One hundred players (brass, reeds, percussion) congregate and march in spiral formations, playing their instrument with penlights attached to them. The piece dissipates and ends as each player marches through the park to their respective homes. The sound is fascinating, a tape recording made by an audience member swirling and dancing through the performance.Charlie is an organizer: one of instruments, with the pieces that landed on this LP and dozens more, one of events, through decades of public Solstice celebrations across the world, one of publications, including New Wilderness Audiographics and EAR Magazine, and, one of friendships as Charlie has kindly introduced me to many fascinating players in this quirky game of ours. He views networking as an art form, always connecting friends with other friends, building a larger web for us to dance throughout.

In working on this LP over the past years, Charlie Morrow and I have become close. It has been a joy to have him in my life. At the age of 73, he is determined and creative and as positive as ever. Each time we speak, new projects arise - like a mysterious soup boiling up fresh aromas. One of my favorite memories with Charlie was us staying up 'til the wee small hours of the morning drinking a bottle of sweet potato shochu, me listening to him tell funny and poignant remembrances. I am happy to share these lovely recordings, just a pinky toe in his artistic footprint, but wow, such a gorgeous toe! (First Edition of 500 LPs on black wax including a 20-page color insert with program notes, artwork, & scores.)

Born in Burlington, Vermont, and conservatory-trained in the US, the cellist Tristan Honsinger moved from Montreal to Amsterdam in 1974, quickly linking with Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg, and opening a long and fruitful musical relationship with Derek Bailey. Recorded in 1976, Duo displays a performative musical approach already characterised by the lack of inhibition which would later endear him to The Pop Group: he is knockabout, exclamatory, explosively rhythmic; burping Bach and folk melodies with spasmodic lyricism, in amongst the garrulous textures and accents of his scraping, bowing and plucking, and gibbering like a monkey; throwing out his arms and stamping the floor, grappling with his instrument like an expert clown, always on the lookout for new ways to trip himself up. You can hear Bailey revelling in the company, as he ranges between scrabbling solidarity and an askance skewering of his partner's antics, on prepared (nineteen-string) and standard electric guitars — and a Waisvisz Crackle-box, for the garbled, quizzical, cross-species natter which closes The Shadow. Throughout, the spirited interplay between laconic, analytic wit and guttural, sometimes slapstick physicality is consistently droll, often laugh-out-loud funny; vigorously alert, alive and gripping.

35 years after the release of their critically acclaimed album Vibrant Stapler Obscures Characteristic Growth, Hastings Of Malawi have released a new album - an epic sound poem entitled Visceral Underskinnings. It is a 40 minuate film without light that reflects on the human conditioan, on modern society, on the nature of telephony and electricity and an attempt to make sense of the world in which we live that provides no answers. Another musique concrète jewel created with the same peculiar, disjointed, uncommercial and totally original aesthetic.

It is a sound collage of diverse elements including the voices of George Washington Johnson ('the whistling coon' 1846-1914) and Dr Hastings Banda - the first president of Malawi. It includes randomly generated computer music, voice synthesis, recordings of cold war number stations, American military sound weaponry and recordings of the some of the many sound sculptures produced by Hastings Of Malawi over the last three decades and they produced sounds that sit in that grey area where sound art and music meet but they reject both labels and cannot be comfortably placed in either camp. This is not an easy album to listen to but persevere and you may or may not be able to decipher its meaning.

Ltd. edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl

The legendary French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet exalted naivety and spontaneity in visual art, and his brazenly experimental recordings on Musical Experiences evince the same spirit through sound. He once reflected, "Certain unexpected windfalls ... come of improvising on an instrument one doesn't really know how to use."

Dubuffet, who famously founded the art brut (or outsider art) movement, began making music in the early 1960s with avant-garde figure Asger Jorn. With no training, they played a range of instruments: saxophone, bassoon, detuned piano, hurdy-gurdy, cabrette, bombarde and so on. Soon, Dubuffet reserved a room in his home for making music and bought two tape-recorders in order to manually edit the results. He wrote fondly of the recordings' crudeness and the sense that they "had no beginning and no end but were simply extracts taken haphazardly from a ceaseless and ever-flowing score."

Dubuffet's discography begins in 1961 with the release Expériences Musicales, a six 10-inch record set produced in an edition of fifty with original artwork and lithographed sleeves. Musical Experiences, compiled by composer Ilhan Mimaroglu and released in 1973 on his Finnadar imprint, collects eight of the twenty pieces on the much sought-after Expériences Musicales.

First-time vinyl reissue. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl.