House News

'Confection' is a surprise-album from the talented composer Sebastien Tellier released on October 14, 2013 by Record Makers.

Apart from one song, ‘Confection’ is an entirely instrumental piece that Sebastien conceived like a motion picture score. Several romantic musical themes are showcased in different versions, orchestral or acoustic. Their sequence brings the listener on a succession of subtle climaxes, creating powerful emotions and leaving room for fantazised images.

The recording session of 'Sessions' was definitely old-school, as decided by the maestro. The very team which helped Tellier create his cult classic song 'La Ritournelle' 7 years ago was reunited for the occasion:

Tony Allen, of Fela fame, on drums. Rob, keyboardist for Phoenix. Emmanuel d'Orlando on string arrangements and Philippe Zdar mixed the record. He is also responsible for mixing albums for Phoenix, Cat Power, Beastie Boys, or Kindness and part of Cassius

The album artwork and ‘L’amour naissant’ video are from Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

'Confection' is an album as close as possible to Tellier's soul, a testimony of his deep musical skills. it showcases his outstanding composer talent as rarely before, reminding of his early albums such as 'L'incroyable vérité' or 'Politics'. 'Confection' is a love letter for a film that doesn't exist yet.

To celebrate the release of 'Confection' and for the first time in his career, Tellier will perform a special concert with an orchestra, in Paris on October 12.

Arriving 6 years after the release of his breakout EP, El Búho returns to Wonderwheel with a very special Deluxe Version of said Cenotes EP including 3 previously unreleased tracks: "Manana Tepotzlan (feat. Gotopo) Vocal Version," "Tecolotin (Chancha Via Circuito Remix)," and "Tecolotin (Dub Version)." The EP is also set to be pressed to vinyl for the first time with a special splatter 12" invoking the cover art.

"Cenotes" was originally released in 2015 to widespread fan acclaim, firmly planting El Búho in the upper echelons of the Latin Electronic pantheon. Recorded in Mexico City after relocating from Amsterdam, "Cenotes" marries his influence of Dub, IDM and Electronic vibes with the rhythms, traditions and melodies of Latin American & Andean folk and the organic sound of waterfalls, birdsongs and crackling leaves, resulting in a dreamy, deep, melodic journey that entrances as much through headphones as it does on the dancefloor. Having studied Latin American Studies in Glasgow, El Búho (aka Robin Perkins) spent time living, studying and working in Argentina and travelling throughout the continent. Alongside his music, El Búho is also an environmental activist, having worked for over eight years at Greenpeace, being a member of DJs For Climate Action and coordinating the non-profit project "A Guide to the Birdsong" a series of albums that raise funds and awareness for endangered bird species through electronic music.

"Cenotes (Deluxe Version)" hits all digital streaming services December 3rd, with the vinyl 12" to follow shortly after.

Formats:

GONDLP037LE — (Limited 500x only edition on Clear vinyl, printed in reverse board Gatefold sleeve with printed insert)

GONDLP037 — (Double black vinyl, printed in reverse board wide Gatefold sleeve with printed insert)

GONDCD037 — (Card wallet sleeve, printed in reverse board sleeve with booklet)

"I feel like 'Home' is a second part of the same book, that the start was in 'Esja', a musical prelude to a real plot. I feel Home is a story with an ending, so the next book can tell a totally different one. I am constantly looking for new ways of expression. I am curious where 'Home' will lead me and my music". — Hania Rani

Hania Rani is a pianist, composer and musician who, was born in Gdansk and splits her life between Warsaw, where she makes her home, and Berlin where she studied and often works. Her debut album 'Esja', a beguiling collection of solo piano pieces on Gondwana Records was released to international acclaim on April 5th 2019 including nominations in 5 categories in the Polish music industries very own Grammys, the Fryderyki, and winning the Discovery of the Year 2019 in the Empik chain's Bestseller Awards and the prestigious Sanki award for the most interesting new face of Polish music chosen by Polish journalists. Rani also composed the music for her first full length movie "I Never Cry" directed by Piotr Domalewski and for the play "Nora" directed by Michał Zdunik. Her song "Eden" was used as a soundtrack of a short movie by Małgorzata Szumowska for Miu Miu's movie cycle "Women's Tales"

If the compositions on Esja were born out of a fascination with the piano as an instrument, then her follow-up, the expansive, cinematic, 'Home', finds Rani expanding her palate: adding vocals and subtle electronics to her music as well as being joined on some tracks by bassist Ziemowit Klimek and drummer Wojtek Warmijak. The album reunites her with recording engineers, Piotr Wieczorek and Ignacy Gruszecki (Monochrom Studio) and the tracks were again mixed again by Gijs van Klooster in his studio in Amsterdam and by Piotr Wieczorek in Warsaw ( Ombelico and Come Back Home). Home was mastered by Zino Mikorey in Berlin (known for his work on albums by artists such as Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnalds).

For Rani, 'Home', is very much a continuation of the work she started on 'Esja', "the completion of the sentence" as she puts it. The album offers a metaphorical journey: the story of places that become our home sometimes by chance, sometimes by choice. It is the story of leaving a place that is familiar and the journey that follows it. Home opens with the fragment of the short story "Loneliness" by Bruno Schulz, which can be seen as a parable of a journey that does not necessarily mean going beyond the physical door but can signify going beyond the symbolic limits of our knowledge and imagination.

"One can be lost but can find home in his inner part - which can mean many things - soul, imagination, mind, intuition, passion. I strongly believe that when being in uncertain times and living an unstable life we can still reach peace with ourselves and be able to find 'home' anywhere' This is what I would like to express with my music - one can travel the whole world but not see anything. It is not where we are going but how much we are able to see and hear things happening around us". — Hania Rani

Home is also about the inevitability of change. We never find places exactly how we left them. Time flies and life with it. Just like art and music. Once you started the trip, you will never be back really to the place where you started with. It is a sentiment that is at the heart of Home, not just its themes, but at the heart of Rani's music too. Following the success of Esja it would have been easy for her to stick to the same solo piano formula, but while Rani expresses her surprise and gratitude for the success of Esja, "I wasn't sure how this album - based on Piano and silence - will be received by the audience. The reception was a big surprise to me" it has also given her the confidence to express more of herself as an artist. On Home Rani steps into more of a producer's role, adding strings, bass and drums where needed, exploring the sounds of synths and electronica, but also creating textured layered songs made from acoustic samples, mostly from piano recordings. "I try to explore new genres and discover new artists, I don't want to be stuck in things that I know, I want to learn about things that are still new to me". But perhaps most notable is her singing, Rani has a fragile, beautiful voice, both pure and expressive. Long a feature of her live shows she uses it as another instrument, adding extra layers of melody and emotion to her already deeply expressive music.

"I consider voice as another instrument. Maybe if I wasn't so often alone on the stage, I would take another instrument to play the melody that I have in my mind. But while I am alone, singing allows me to have more possibilities at the same time. The human voice has a real magic, nothing carries emotions as easily and powerfully as the voice, and I think being able to bring this atmosphere on stage opens up new possibilities of expression for me". — Hania Rani


Home also features Rani's new band, bassist Ziemowit Klimek and drummer Wojtek Warmijak who appear on some of the albums stand out tracks, the beguiling single 'Leaving', the title track 'Home', atmospheric 'Tennen' and the beautiful 'I'll Never Find Your Soul'. After working and touring alone Rani begin to feel stuck with her own ideas and thoughts, and sounds. It was a prolific period for her compositionally, writing the music on Home, but also a film score and music for the theatre, but she felt that someone else's vision might bring new ideas to things that she already knew. Shortly before she was about to record Home she attended a concert of the young Polish jazz trio, Immortal Onion, in Gdańsk, her hometown. She liked what she heard and sked the double bassist and a drummer if they wanted to meet and something clicked. They spent most of the next week improvising and jamming on her music. This gave a whole new insight for some of the songs and brought new ideas for arrangements. And having enjoyed working together on the album Rani is looking forward to touring with the boys.

"Touring with band is a totally different thing, way more challenging technically, but it also brings a new energy and new sound possibilities. I am very curious how we will manage to bring the album to life. I would like to keep the show balanced - mixing the new textures of Home with the atmosphere of minimalistic songs from Esja." — Hania Rani

For Rani, this sense of exploring is a key part of her art. But it isn't only the music, Rani is keenly interested in art and architecture (as anyone who follows her exquisitely curated Instagram feed will know) and how her music works in the wider world.

"I try to keep my eyes and ears wide open. What I want to master in my art is how to build the right atmosphere on stage, in recordings. To do this you need to be aware of many aspects - not only music, but also the full range of gestures, acoustics, visual aspect. I want to learn how to bring particular atmosphere and bring people to a specific space. I observe how music works in different contexts, how the feeling of sound changes in different acoustics, space, light conditions. The same thing happens with artwork that I share. I feel like everything of what I am bringing to the the world and sharing with others has an impact of reception my music. If we are an inseparable part of the ecosystem, then the music should be considered similarly." — Hania Rani

The album's distinctive cover artwork was designed by the architect Łukasz Pałczyński, who combined his sketches with the stills from the music video for the song Leaving shot by her regular collaborators Mateusz Miszczyński and Jakub Stoszek in Greece and together with Rani's music and vision it is this sense of collaboration that gives Home it's power as Rani starts to give full expression to her own unique vision and perhaps the most exciting thing is that it is just another step on her journey, one that we are all lucky to be a part of!

After more than a year of strengthening our bodies through workout, our poetic endeavors via the discovery of our inner worlds, and also the life of plants and mushrooms, insects, arachnids, birds and wild mammals, after a year and a half that saw us in lockdown, shattered around the planet, after one a and a half year in which we deepened our production skills and also the meaningfulness of our work, Cómeme returns to a new planet with new music.

The beginning is this unique collaboration between Medellín based musician and DJ Julianna, and Matias Aguayo aka “The Don” himself.

In this deep therapeutical exploration of rhythm and sound, these artists established a magical dialogue on distance, leading up to this EP called “Que si el mundo”, roughly translated: “What if the world”.

Between soulful industrial expressions, emotional breakdowns but also discoveries free of any grids and algorithms, Julianna and Aguayo have created a beautiful piece of work, intense as the movements that we had to experience mentally and economically. “Que si el mundo” is state of the art electronic music of today, a work that is both introspective but also extremely open to the outside world and the universe. Compositions reminiscent of Coil, Angelo Badalamenti, Closer Musik, Steve Pointdexter or Mark Broom, shaped this EP that can be considered a short album in its conceptual layout and narrative. Let’s dive into it...

A1. Hiedra
One of the more danceable tunes, ideal for both a sensual warmup or the very late night to the rising sun sensitivity, is polyrhythmical melancholy and hypnotic inevitability, slow dance, deep trance.

A2. Primer Paso
A fat, slick and modern synth sequence, accompanied by heavy drumming and celestial drops that seem to fall onto the body of the listener or dancer, this post EBM stomper is a manifestation of elegant minimalism and reason. As if Liaisons Dangereuses reincarnated in a cloudy forest, to then pause towards the end of the track, with sentimental and gloomy synth chords that open the view towards the horizon.

B1. Que Si El Mundo
The title track keeps up the more melodic approach - somewhere between ambient, avant- garde and late night jazz. Morphing melodies that are both disturbing and soothing at a time encounter smooth free jazz drumming with drums that seem to have travelled from the sixties to today’s world.

B2. Bajo Tierra
This track continues the deep drumming experience that this record means, between laid back rides and intense taikoesque drumming. Distorted dark pads and subterranean choirs build up to a heavy sadness and intensity. Again, a therapeutical track to send those demons fly.

B3. Micelio
A more hopeful conclusion of the EP is “Micelio”. Open chords, soothing and melancholic, spread over profound drum grooves of champed and house. Nothing seems as it was before. A new life has begun.

Tokyo based artist machina debuts on UTTU! Fresh from appearing on Bicep’s Mercury Award nominated album Isles & dropping her 3rd studio album ’Compass Point’. Here the South Korean artist showcases 4 tracks absorbing a more intense leftfield dance floor sound.

This winter, Detroit techno pioneers Octave One re-establish their introspective side-project Never On Sunday with a fantastic new double EP, Contemplate.
It follows some taster remixes earlier in the year and shows another super side to the brothers’ famous sound. The Burden Brothers have been as busy as ever in 2021 with a third volume in their Locus of Control series, some new reworks and first Never On Sunday tracks since the 90s.

It is a project reserved for more pensive atmospheres and deeper grooves, so naturally came back to the fore during the quiet months spent at home during the pandemic. Although the iconic Octave One live act is back on the road, the pair have also found time to craft this first full Never On Sunday release in 30 years.
‘The Bearer’ (main mix) opens up in beautifully melancholic fashion. A wistful lead synth hangs in the air while a crisp breakbeat powers the groove along, but it’s Karina Mia’s stunning and tender vocal that really tugs at the heat. She again lights up the tumbling breakbeats of ‘Contemplate’ (main mix), her aching voice providing the centre point amongst the cosmic melody all around. Closing out the Side A, ‘Enterstella’ is an intriguing three minute ambient piece with gurgling machines and slithering synths taking you deep into another world. The fantastic ‘Price We Pay’ (main mix) is another celestial excursion with bright, lush cosmic twinkles and Mia’s heartfelt voice soothing your soul. The broad bass adds real weight then ‘A Moment of Truth’ slows things down to an absorbing and atmospheric pace. Majestic string sounds, astral lights and a gentle breakbeat sink you into a pensive headspace, then closer ‘Metal Forest’ leaves your brain feeling cleaned with its watery sound effects, glass tinkles and heavenly atmosphere punctured only occasionally by big, sonorous bell hitsThis cinematic EP proves that Never On Sunday is a perfectly thoughtful yin to the more energetic techno yang of Octave One.

"Die Insel" is the first release from Amatori, a various track 12” EP that invites the listener to a magical journey. It explores the five authors' inner sound in its purest form and proposes a way back to our origins: The tribe.

For our third release on The Secret Sun series, we compiled a second volume of previously unreleased material from the DATs archive of Ballet Mechanique. Produced between 1992 and 1999 and spanning thru different styles all the tracks have Ballet Mechanique’s distinctive and very unique sound: emotive, epic, ravey, funky, uplifting, romantic… some of our favourite adjectives to describe Jeroen Borrenbergs’ music.

It’s all about timing! This release wasn’t on the schedule, but when we’ve received the demos of Igaxx (that we didn’t knew earlier), it made evidence that it should be release on Macadam Mambo as soon as possible. All ingredients were here to make a very special record. The fully analog music produced by the Tokyoite, Shota Ikawa aka Igaxx, immediatly rang a bell to our memory : Irdial Discs, the legendary UK label that we instantly connected with his music, the long housy loops, the deepness of the atmosphere, the tropical jungle sounds was not without remembering Aqua Regia or Pluto to name a few… the EP alternates infectious ambient tunes, hypnotic beats and dance music. It’s the kind of gem that could very quickly become a classic, TIP.

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Deathday formed toward the end of 2007, solidifying around brothers Alex Guillén and Giovanni Guillén. Constructed from the aggressive textures of early industrial music, the ambience of cold wave and shoegaze, and the
carnal energy of post-punk, Deathday was originally devised to manifest ideas specifically designed for a live duo accomparied by vintage drum machine. As their sound progressed and became more focused, Joevanie Lopez was recruited to add drums and expand the outfit's execution. With the addition of new bass player Jeramy Graham , the band has already begun work on a second full-length album, and is currently recording a number of tracks for planned split releases with The KVB (UK) and LA's Bestial Mouths, and contributions to upcoming compilations on Sweating Tapes, Downwards and Italy's Mannequin...

Introducing Jogada, the group behind PÚCA001, a Berlin based trio made up by João Comazzi, Dave Murrin & Gavin Kenny. ‘Cavalo' is their debut release and is the result of a string of weekly sessions held throughout the stagnant year of 2020, when they were forced to put their dancefloor energy into the studio. After years of friendship and sharing music together, they started exploring what happens when different musical backgrounds join forces. The group is heavily inspired by traditional Brazilian rhythms, instruments and sounds from nature, infused with some dusty synthesisers and a quest for exploring the unknown.

Anthony Naples, the in-demand producer whose name is on the tip of everyone's tongue, has returned with a new EP for Will Bankhead's Trilogy Tapes. After the release of the magnanimous House-styled Mad Disrespect EP on Mister Saturday Night Records last year, El Portal EP sees Naples using fragments of previous releases but evolving these into new realms of sound.

Garies come through for Future Times! After putting a killer on the FIGS Compilation last year (the excellent “Don Bongo”), Lumigraph and New Jackson team up and go wild for a four-song collection. Again channeling a few sounds at once, Garies go up and down with the tempo from the lazer-and-dirt-soaked opening rumbler “Emergency Tenner” thru the Dance-Mania-off-the-rails energy of the B2, “What A Room.” Get In.