Techno Vinyl New Releases - News

Tilman Robinson’s third album, CULTURECIDE, is an investigation of the anthropocene; a seven part lamentation for our chaotic world.

Tilman Robinson is an Australian composer and sound designer creating electro-acoustic music across a range of genres including classical minimalism, improvised, experimental, electronic and ambient. Tilman’s diverse output focuses on the psychological impact of dense sound employing acousmatic and psychoacoustic principles. His third album CULTURECIDE will be released on Iceland’s Bedroom Community label in April 2020.

CULTURECIDE: “...processes that have usually been purposely introduced that result in the decline or demise of a culture, without necessarily resulting in the physical destruction of its bearers.” D Stein

CULTURECIDE is a rich sonic collage, harvesting sounds from a range sources including field recordings, medical machines that monitor the human body, traditional instruments and synthesisers, often melted electronically. The result is an unsettling paradox with sounds constantly on the edge of recognition. Each piece references a specific socio- political issue ranging from colonialism to neo-liberalism to climate change and the impending singularity of humans and machines. Far from an answer to these questions, CULTURECIDE invites us to meditate on their place in our life and approach personal understanding.

Recorded and produced almost completely in Australia, a land at the forefront of the devastation of climate change, CULTURECIDE was an attempt at catharsis for its author frequently appalled at his country’s incredible apathy and inaction. Mixed by Bedroom Community regular Daniel Rejmer and mastered by Lawrence English, works from the ambitious and unsettling record saw Tilman nominated for the 2019 Melbourne Prize for Music.

Genre blending and audience crossing drummer/percussionist Eric Thielemans is proud to present a brand new, exciting combo together with Rudy Trouvé , Mauro Pawlowski , Roman Hiele and Jean-Yves Evrard . With this eclectic band ET sets out to explore, or rather rub against the obscure repertoire by Jazz masters such as Ornette Coleman, Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler .Are The Mechanics a Jazz combo The Mechanics don't know. As of yet, The Mechanics have no real memory of their own. What they do know is that they are impatient to check out the mechanics behind those musics that tick their tock. They will do so as they are feathered. In colours, primal and expressive. And what better way to understand something than by breaking it and then trying to fix it .Tagging The Tag : The Ex, Liquid Liquid, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, James Chance, Alice Coltrane, Aphex Twin, Roland Kirk, John Cage, The Love Substitutes, Hiele, Evrard, Trouvé, Pawlowski & Thielemans.
Tag Away ! The Mechanics is an exciting new band operating out of Antwerp, home base to bands and musicians such as dEUS, Evil Superstars, Dead Man Ray, Chantal Acda, Tape Cuts Tape, Gruppo Di Pawlowski, The Love Substitutes, Kiss My Jazz, Mâäk's Spirit, The Mechanics bring together 2 generations of musicians out of the avant jazz, improv, rock, songwriter and electronics scenes. Mixed into an exciting cocktail of energies childishly bald and raw, maturely tender and constructive, spiritually curious and rocking loud with electronic burning sonic edges.

The seventh instalment from Gravitational Waves, Plasma Phenomenon is another uncompromising release from the ever-evolving imprint. Made up of ominous landscapes and sinister beats with harsh 80's industrial and body music influences, this six track EP is perfect for the most daring of modern day dance floors. Side A features three cuts of electro-infused mutant machine music from label boss Dj Nephil, with Golpe Erotico taking over Side B with her nightmare inducing industrial project. It is definitely not one to be missed

Ghettoplanet Classics From Hellboii's Vault. As Heard At The Legendary Dystopia Parties And On The Hague's Pirate Radio. Some Of His Best And Most Personal Recordings Of The Past 15 Years.

Rory St John returns to Voitax with "Excommunication", a hyper-deep, futurist take on classic dub techno. Skillfully assembled, each of the four tracks hypnotically morph and evolve, forgoing the cheap tropes of today's 'rise and drop' techno for a more immersive listen - one gets the feeling that each and every sound is wielded with precision, and exists exactly where and for as long as it should. Reacting to the increasingly harder-edge sound that proliferates today's techno, Rory St John strove to push his sound in the opposite direction. The result is sombre and introspective - a slick, reverberating antidote to mainstream anthems. This release is markedly different to the abrasive stylings of his previous "Run Your Mouth" EP and reveals yet another side to the producer's sonic palette.

Early support by Dax J, Eomac, Etapp Kyle, Inigo Kenndy, Marcel Dettmann, Samuel Kerridge, Slam and many more....

Rephlex legend Bogdan Raczynski debuts on UTTU with 5 signature tracks filled with unique breakbeat chaos.

First release on Alone Records. His journey start with three tracks dreamy, dark and particular. LP: White center with graphics done whit handmade stamps.

Newly reworked selected classics by the 2020 line-up of the legendary pioneers of electronica and ambient. Including “Phaedra”, “Stratosfear”, “Tangram” and “Yellowstone Park”. Tangerine Dream have been a fundamental influence on electronic music since Edgar Froese founded the band in West Berlin, 1967. Providing the groundwork for multiple electronic music genres including ambient and electronica, inspiring musicians and other art forms, from The Future Sound of London to Porcupine Tree, the widely popular TV show ‘Stranger Things’ (for which their music also featured in) to seminal video game ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (for which they helped to write the soundtrack). The group have also received seven Grammy
nominations, written over 100 studio albums and were led by Froese, who developed an instantly recognisable synth-based instrumental music based on a meditative musical experience that came to prominence in the 70’s and 80’s. Fast-forward to the present day, when popular culture is rediscovering synthesizers and sequencers, and Tangerine Dream are in the mix of an exciting time for an evolving electronic music scene. Modern Tangerine Dream has seen the beginning of ‘The Quantum Years’, which began as a concept and series of musical sketches by Froese before he passed away in 2015. Remaining band members Thorsten Quaeschning, Ulrich Schnauss and Hoshiko Yamane worked together to realize Edgar’s visions and
expectations of a conceptual body of work that attempts to translate quantum philosophy into music. The new direction led to the 2017 album ‘Quantum Gate’, which was described by The Guardian as their “most interesting release in years.” With ‘Recurring Dreams’, the new generation of Tangerine Dream pay homage to the band’s timeless beginnings with captivating and emotional renditions of selected classics, such as “Phaedra”, “Stratosfear”, “Tangram” and “Yellowstone Park”. These new recordings are not just re-recorded covers but heartfelt and individual interpretations, featuring all generations of synths and sequencers, added layers and new arrangements, applying Froese’s new quantum dream to these highly influential tracks.

6 new songs by industrial tribalism / minimal wave duo DAME AREA. Inspired by Coil, Suicide, Franco Battiato, Gary Numan and Dino Buzzati. Dame Area surges from Barcelona's fertile underground scene and revisits the post-industrial aesthetic with a dissident and a free spirit approach through tribal rhythms, hypnotic keyboards, oneiric sounds and eerie vocals. When 20 year old Silvia Konstance came back from a year living in Turkey and integrated on Barcelonas label and collective Magia Roja she didnt expect that her bedroom project Dame Area would be joined by the collective honcho Viktor L. Crux (aka Futuro de Hierro, ex-Qaa, ex-Ordre Etern, collaborator of Nurse With Wound, Jochen Arbeit and various Gnod-heads) and together would be releasing records not much later. Now Dame Area has released several records and found its way into sets from some of the current bravest Djs like Vladimir Ivkovic, Lena Willikens, Yamatsuka Eye (Boredoms), Identified Patient, Rivet or Mr TC, between many others. Edition of 300 copies.

TAMBURI NERI’s WORKS 2 is the first LDDLM release of the new decade. Following their acclaimed EP on Optimo, Claudio Brioschi (aka Brioski) and Andrea Barbiera further their exploration in stripping down their psychedelia. There is a long tradition of slo-mo tribalism in Italian dance music, cosmic or not. But Tamburi Neri dissolve the tribal decorum, focusing on the beat-as-heartbeat, and on Italian language as incantation.

INDIO, the faster paced track, has been a staple in our DJ sets, pure raw energy for when things get settled in darkness. RELIGION REBEL is an exercise in menacing trance-funk, whereas IL VORTICE puts the vocal forward, a track and a story.

We have been a fan of Marco Passarani for more than two decades, a man constantly reinventing himself and rewriting the history of Italian electronics. He here remixes RELIGION REBEL in some kind of power-balearic anthem, a record for, yes, ecstasy and sunsets.

2x12"

A MELODIOUS JOURNEY THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSAL HISTORY Founded by Safak Ozkutle, Oceanvs Orientalis is a one-man formation which aims to challenge the aesthetic perception in electronic music. It blends itself with the archaic tunes of mankind’s cumulative musical history and in this very context believes that “everything comes from the east”. He uses electronic music to carry the old vibes he grew up with to the dance floor, transforming irregular local rhythms into 4/4 electronic beats. Since 2011 he has been making both DJ sets and live performances, and since 2015 he focused to perform mostly as live shows Ex Nihilo (Latin “out of nothing”) It’s and immersive experience where digital art and music collides. A melodic Story told by Safak Ozkutle aka Oceanvs Orientalis through his first thematic album which tells 10 different stories of 10 breaking points of the Universal history, from the Planetary scale to the Human dimensions. Beginning right from the first point of creation, the big bang in title track ‘Ex Nihilo’, Oceanvs travels through the timeline that in turn saw the evolution of our planet and universe as it is today, whilst touching briefly on where we may end in the future. SONG OF THE CREATIONPERFORMANCE The Ex Nihilo Show is planned to be performed by a 17-piece small orchestra. This orchestra will be consisted of strings, brass, a small choir and percussions, and will be led by a conductor.

Indonesia’s Gabber Modus Operandi’s debut album for Shanghai’s maverick Sbvkvlt kru despatches eight hooligan alloys of heavy metal, militant Dutch kick drums and native styles of gamelan and Dangdut Koplo - local folk-pop - for a totally unique proposition no matter what angle you’re coming from. It’s a seethingly up-for-it and puckishly immediate sound, lending a thrilling new spin to well-trampled tropes in a way symptomatic of the current wave of rave goods.
Working a sound bound to unite scallies from Sunderland to Rotterdam and Jakarta, ‘Hoxxya’ toggles the pressure between mixtures of industrial panel beating and BM atmospheres in ‘Genderuwo’ to the hypnotic meld of pealing horns and bonehead stamp in ‘Sangkakala III’, getting the heart rate up with the adrenalised stepper ‘Semeton 10 Ton’, along with the scudding swagger of ‘Kon’, nodding south to the Bloody Fist crew and their apocryphal Pyongyang Hardcore Resistance in ‘Tekyan’, while ‘Trance Adiluhunxxx’ gives a stinging shot of melodic energy, and the hyper percussion of ‘Calon Arang’ and ‘Padang Galaxxx’ get us gurning like a hellish tribal mask.
Radge.

Originally released in 1971!

Kicking off 2020 – Great Circles takes a step away from the dance floor with the release of the monolithic new work from Philadelphia-based artist Radere, ‘I Do Not Want What I Have.’ This long-in-gestation set of slow burning electronics and shadowy drones is part of the label’s growing selection of releases dedicated to deep listening, following on from the 2017 Prefix Moniker LP.

Radere is the ongoing project of Carl Ritger, who has worked under the nom de plume since 2009 and has deep ties to the Great Circles family. He played some of his earliest shows at Inciting HQ, the recently shuttered, label-affiliated venue, and invited Justin Gibbon AKA Westov Temple and Great Circles label founder to contribute to some of his earlier recordings. While he started out as a more straightforward ambient guitarist, Ritger’s work developed into more experimental textures as he explored modular synthesis and processed found sounds.

Ritger’s releases from his time spent living in Denver, CO c. 2011-2018 are marked by a particular strain of east coast nihilism and an angular aesthetic that keeps the listener off balance. Now back in his native Philadelphia, the two long-form pieces that comprise ‘I Do Not Want What I Have’ represent a perhaps more nuanced meditation on pain and loss. “Spitty Kisses,” the 15-minute album opener, takes aim at the listener with a brutal salvo. It is almost sadistic in its sonic intentions – acerbic modular sound and abrupt stuttering in the material leave a listener personally affected. “You’ve Been A Ghost Your Whole Life,” on the flip, delivers a salve for the A-side’s wounds and resolves its masochistic tones.

Written through a period of intense personal trauma as a means to seek comfort and solace through creative action, it’s clear that the puerile humor of nihilism is gone and grown out of in Ritger’s work.

FFO: taking long walks off of short piers, the legend of the monk Kelpius living among the trees of the Wissahickon, traditional creation and destruction stories in polytheistic faiths, and John Coltrane.

The record is accompanied by a digital-only series of remixes by friends of the artist and regular collaborators, including new works from Borne and Shivers, as well as Great Circles alums Westov Temple, Chaperone, and WOLF DEM.

In 3 years DJ Nephil has taken Gravitational Waves into the contemporary dance music paradigm with tenacity. Nephil has built Gravitational Waves into a formidable entity and the culmination of this effort brings results with his latest EP. Here the label continues in powerful form with 6 cuts of raw metallic persuasion, enlisting veteran producers Nick Klein and Enrique as well as debuting new talents in Mike Tansella Jr. (featured on vocals in "No Sell Out") and the mysterious Berlin resident, Hannibal lll. Also featured is Unhuman, known for his production prowess on AMOK tapes, Instruments of Discipline, Veleno Viola and most recently Strange Therapy and Betek who has been featured on Rotterdam Electronix, Balans and Black Stripe Records.

Red Vinyl
In 9 records and 22 years Schmer has given you the same four dudes: Prototype 909, DJ RX-5 and bpmf. Now is the time to unleash a new generation of Schmers on an unprepared world and they are prepared to set the world on fire.

Coming out strong to whip us all into shape we've unleashed Isabella and she'll leave you "Spun Out". Isabella has done tracks for Jacktone, Embalming Lately, Borft, S1, Peder Mannerfelt Produktions. She uses hardware, live, to produce unhinged techno. Now she has done one for Schmer, which had already lost its hinges decades before.

Since 2015, Ciel's monthly radio show "Work In Progress" in Montreal has been highlighting the best and weirdest in underground electronic music produced by women. She has released tracks on Junted (Marshall Applewhite's new imprint), the benefit compilation Power Puerto Rico, and a three- track EP on Peach Discs which landed on numerous year-end lists from Fact Magazine, Mixmag, and Resident Advisor. She provides Schmer with the pristine sounds of "Bad Luck Comes in 3s".

Hiroko Yamamura is the Classic Chicago ride or die style DJ/producer influenced by The Warehouse, technology, and straight up techno, its no wonder she has been named one of Chicago's top 10 DJs by XLR8R magazine. Finally Schmer stops messing around with the Chicago sound and puts the real thing out with Hiroko's "Babyayez" track.

Experimental Housewife is Evelyn Malinowski, a longstanding DJ and maker of music.(Run The Length Of Your Wildness / Jacktone Records / Perfect Location / Juxtatextureall) Now based in San Francisco, she partakes in multiple open collaborations, like the one with the highly skilled DJ and producer Andrew Bowen aka Bilaga´ana. "Free Ends" was created, a track with grit yet full of innocent meandering. Its the cherry on top of our Schmerlicious cake.

Following two releases on Public House Records, Jon Michaelides returns with the third DALHAM album - "HEAT DEATH".

“Heat Death” is a scorched earth set of pieces with a broad narrative - a concept album with follows the arc of a lifeform from its incipience, through to the peak of its developmental activities and onwards to the representation of the lifeform's inevitable decay. Says Jon, "The music is intended to sound scorched or sandblasted, exploring the sometimes violent aspects of creation and existence, whilst still allowing the light to shine through.” It’s a wonderful electronic record which whilst being incredibly accessible, has an unsettling anxiety at its core.

Jon explains “For this album, literature and art are just as strong an influence as any other music, and it was reading the likes of Stanislaw Lem, Aldous Huxley or viewing the reimagined worlds of Simon Stalenhåg that inspired some of the concepts and feelings behind "Heat Death". It’s an attempt to convey something about a plane beyond our immediate experience and perception.”

Jon grew up in the Suffolk countryside, but currently resides in London. A pianist since a young age, he started to produce electronic music following the aquistion of a relatively cheap synth bought on impulse. These first steps developed into an addiction to the “inspiring and rewarding” sound vistas available to him as an electronic musician and as the collection of equipment grew, so the Dalham project developed into a fully formed concern about three years ago. “Heat Death” is his most complete work to date and the one where he feels he is closest to achieving what DALHAM should be.

Art has the power to mirror and capture its creators surroundings and environment. Art can also reflect something much more personal by offering us a glimpse of the artist’s mind. Hands Rest, the 2nd studio album by German composer and musician Aparde, does both. While reflecting the essence of Berlin’s club scene, in which Aparde undoubtedly is immersed in, the album also takes us to the depths of the musician himself, far from clubs and live sets, to a world that is both intimate and profound. “I think that I always process circumstances uncon- sciously in my music and that my way of thinking is full of internal conflicts,” he says. It is this duality, of an artist who is both entertaining Berlin’s nightlife through electronic sounds and delving deep into his own emotions through avant-garde pop, that epitomises Aparde’s work.


Hands Rest, which was created over the span of one year, has a cathartic feel to it, “the process was very diffused in terms of time, because over the past year my life circumstances have been very complicated and often frustrating, and I had to motivate myself again and again.” While he crafted the tracks, Aparde was in fact processing his own thoughts and feelings after the end of a long relationship, and listeners navigate through varying soundscapes that seem to accompany Aparde’s own internal commotions as he himself navigated a turbulent year. “It the break up was accompanied by numbness and repression. This was followed by a period of inactivity and the thought of ending my activity as a musician,” he tells.

Matière Mémoire presents the MMXX Series: In anticipation of the year 2020, Matière Mémoire asked 20 experimental/electronic artists to create an original 20 minutes piece and an artwork. Throughout this year, each quarter will see the release of 5 new vinyls.

Each record is limited to 500 copies and comes as a crystal clear vinyl featuring an original track of 20 minutes on one side, and a laser engraved artwork on the other. Each 12" is housed in a transparent sleeve printed with the MMXX logo, coming with a print of the artist artwork.

Participate in this series:
Franck Vigroux, John Duncan, Phill Niblock, Jim O’Rourke, Reinier Van Houdt, Stephen O’Malley, CM Von Hausswolff, Hampus Lindwall, Oren Ambarchi, Kevin Drumm, Bérangère Maximin, Kassel Jaeger, Daniel Menche, Charlemagne Palestine, Giueseppe Ielasi, Carlos Casas, Susanna Santos Silva, Joachim Nordwall, Karbé Dinel, Mauro Lanza

Originally composed by Maggi Payne between 1984-1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tennenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing and music.

Ahh-Ahh was first released in 2012 on Root Strata. Composed on an Apple II computer & various early sampling devices, Payne's compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analogue swells, dense fog-like drones and cascading rhythms that shift in space, AHH-AHH is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer based music as well. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley & David Berhman.

We instantly fell in love with Razen the first time we saw them live in September 2018. It was during a unique Sunday morning mass at the Friedenskirche (which translates literally to mean ‘the church of peace’), as part of the Meakusma Festival. Slightly sleep deprived and still euphorically intoxicated from the night before, their performance in front of a full mass of devotees had a biblical aura to it from the first note they played. They delivered a stunning set which was somehow, paradoxically, both relaxing and formidably tense.

Two years later and the group are now bringing their talent for restraint and slow tension-building to the fore on “Robot Brujo”. Each of the six improvisations on this double LP is made up of the barest of materials, with the three musicians relying on a limited combination of tones. They lay their focus on small variations in timbre, timing, articulation and vibration, which creates a narrowing of consciousness, and feels something a bit like staring meditatively at the minute changes of leaves blowing in the wind.

Recorded over two sessions, in what Razen themselves refer to as their detached playing style, "Robot Brujo" stands as an auditory magnifying glass of concentration, in all its uncanny and minimal glory.

It is yet another new step up from the deep listening ensemble from Brussels, after 10 years exploring music together.

Our man Assel returns with this banger party record. We can just say BOOM!

12" vinyl limited edition of 200

art-aud is proud to welcome to the label the legendary hungarian trio and acid boyband, Wedding Acid Group, for the first output of the new year! They started jamming together at Ballacid Studio in ?jpest around 2009 and did some live gigs, when then they finally released their first thing on tape on Farbwechsel in 2014. They are back now so, after 6 years, with some new fresh material (for the first time on vinyl !), two tracks of pure analog fun, mixing frequencies that are satisfying both for dancefloor and listening pleasure...straight acid for mind, body and soul. To make everything more crispy and fat, we called also on board two other giants such as rephlex alumni EOD and Clone/SHUT knight Ryan James Ford, that brought amazing own interpretations of the ogs. what more to say? it would not be up to us to tell it but... this is a BUY ON SIGHT : )

"Tensal - Graphical" album split.

"Tensal - Graphical" album split.

New myths; remember downstream, the truth and sacred geometry. Unlikely and bright, it weighs waves like an anchor through pinch unconscious - unread and still. We are understanding - process born from fact. The rope is taut, calm, made of ritual and leading us back - but in telling it transforms; pre-linguistic, stamped, fully dynamic, the start refracts into new versions and inwards we fold. It remains rhythm in absence, but grows as we watch. Next thread drawn from the Mirror Zone, this one built by Vector Trancer. Our plate reads panoptic; dark dub and ambient loaded with psychoactive EBM. See further; MSB's vital experiments powered by half-speed Beat Box; distant Objets D'Art channelling through Namlook's Fax; pared down FSoL at the hands of Autocreation. Celestial fringe echoes, viridis mantra, and guttural/ceremony trudge. Direct knowledge, heavy and charged.

Following the watershed madness of his ‘Yield’ tape for V I S, Meandyou. co-founder Herron unbuckles in rude and fractious form for Peder Mannerfelt Produktion, alongside the bossman’s
own remix.
Where Herron’s music was mostly 4-squared and greyscale until recently, it’s now rambunctiously off-kilter and swirled with iridescent electronics that appeal much more to our heads at least.
‘Billy’s Walk Home’ epitomises this new energy in a swarm of swanging electro and fizzing automated FX, while ‘Throwing Mud’ sounds like classic T++ swilled with gravel, and ‘Losing Spirit’
parries with chewy acid electro recalling Gescom, and ‘United Walls’ sidesteps into stranger eldritch folk melody and crunching vintage AFXisms. Bravo, lad. Peder Mannerfelt is also on hand
to resculpt ‘United Walls’ with a bolshier techno pressure.
Strong stuff!

Vatican Shadow’s impossible to find early tapes finally arrive on vinyl, kicking off a completist
series of new D&M remasters with a first volume featuring: ‘Byzantine Private CIA’, ‘Mural of
Saddam’, and ‘Yemeni Commandos’
Arriving under a shroud of anonymity in 2010 with the four tracks of ‘Byzantine Private CIA’,
Vatican Shadow has since become one of the most vital projects manned by Dominick Fernow
(Prurient, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement). Daring to grasp the nettle of US geopolitics at a time
when nobody else would (and that hasn’t really changed), Vatican Shadow hijacked imagery and
text from a plethora of news articles, books and government publications, and used them to adorn
and title his all-instrumental compositions, recontextualising U.S. foreign policy in a way that
recalls how original industrial, noise and post-punk mutants used their art and music to express
feelings towards the cold war and western socio-economics during the late ‘70s and thru the ‘80s
- with a particular, explicit thread of inspiration coming from Bryn Jones’ prolific Muslimgauze
catalogue.
The first LP ontains all four cuts from Vatican Shadow’s first release, ‘Byzantine Private CIA’, taking
in the cold thuds and clamouring background noise of ‘Deny Military Involvement’ alongside
highlights in the militant trample of ‘Cairo Sword Unsheathed’ and the sludgy industrial dirge of
‘Gunman With Silencer’. The second LP follows with three tracks off ‘Mural of Saddam’, including
the brittle, Muslimgauze-like stepper ‘Schwarzkopf Arc of Triumph’, and the furtive trip hop of
‘U.S. M1A1 Abrams Exhaust Rises Between The Hands Of Victory’, before concluding with some
the project’s most sublime work in the opiated lushness of ’Shadow War In Yemen’ and ‘Asymetric
Warfare Studies Group Double Game’ from the ‘Yemeni Commandos’ tape.
Sounding more compelling than ever, thanks to the remastering at D&M, and with original tapes
now impossible to find for love nor money, these vinyl pressings of early VS gear are practically
worth their weight in gold.

Coloured Vinyl

From Mille Plateaux to Leaf, Staubgold and Raster-Noton, ~scape, or on his own label Ripatti, the Finnish artist Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay has been exploring various iterations of the dub culture vs. electronica, since 1997. His sonic crafts and unique signature sound has been sought after by an eclectic range of bands and artists, ranging from Massive Attack, Hauschka, Black Dice, Autopoieses, Animal Collective or AGF.

Somewhere between the old-school electronica culture, the soundscaping, the experimental paths of Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood, ghostly clubbing anthems, minimalism, pop, jazz, without being, influenced, Vladislav Delay is building a drifting and coherent sound enigma.

Vladislav Delay met Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (the most prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo) thanks to a series of jam sessions. Trumpet player Nils-Petter Molvaer had been asked by the Jamaicans to join them and he invited Delay alongside guitar player Eivind Aarset to tag along, which eventually turned into the Nordub project.

The result of these jam sessions turned into an album, mixed and mostly produced by Vladislav Delay, released on the label Okeh. It was also followed by an extensive series of live dates. This one-shot reunion was the beginning of another story: a trio composed by Delay, Dunbar and Shakespeare.

In January 2019, Vladislav Delay went to Kingston and spent some days at The Anchor studios, to record drums and bass with S&R, some voice takes and a series of atmospheric field recordings. Back to Finland, Delay started to experiment with this precious material, mixing and overdubbing, in the comfort and quiet of his studio, based on the island of Hailuoto, Baltic Sea, Northern Finland, giving another feeling to the Jamaican trip.

This became a tribute to the 'dub spirit', but in a very personal way, far beyond any influence or "the obvious". 500-PUSH-UP is two worlds collapsing, merging, also showing some intriguing approach of the Jamaican groove, used as a filigree, like the echo or the ghost of reggae, converging and conversing with a post-industrial and experimental approach. To file beside experiments - for instance - such as Lee Perry's 'Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires' or the On U-Sound productions.

Debut EP from Milan newcomer Leo, crossing the borders between emotion and hypnosis. Limited to 150 hand-numbered copies, housed in semi-transparent antistatic bags. Vinyl only, no repress.

The product of an old friendship between Akatana and Ombossa, this is an album that has been written after the two artists lost touch for nearly 20 years.
We met at 3 years old and were the closest friends until early teenage, we then lost touch completely until recently when I moved out of Montreal to Berlin, where Akatana lives. We
now are flatmates and friends again after this long hiatus. It happens that we both followed a path to producing electronic music, even tho playing music was not a thing at all for us at
that time. Each of our separate lives somehow brought to this common ground. This happy hazard inspires us.'

The album is written at 84bpm because we were both born in 1984 and the tracks are named after the lexis of the heart. Myocarde is the muscle of the heart, in french.

Deep bass and surreal atmospheres.

With love,
Akatana & Ombossa

Brendan Gregoriy (aka Chymera) returns to A Strangely Isolated Place with his second album under his synthesizer-based ambient moniker Merrin Karras, titled Northwest Passage. Brendan's 2016 debut 'Apex' was needle-point precise in its execution; quantized MIDI notes and sequencers bought unmistakable energy and flair. With 'Northwest Passage' Brendan aimed to create something a little slower-paced and blurred in nature. To achieve this added dimension, the instrumentation is primarily Wavetable and FM synthesis, as well as his small arsenal of analog synths. The result is a glacial feel, reminiscent of the mystery and adventure of the Arctic. The Northwest Passage is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic, which is normally only accessible in the summer months. Unfortunately, this passage is opening longer each year due to climate change. With a slightly heavier mood across its eight tracks, the epic, expansive and confident textures and colors of Merrin Karras are however, still instantly recognizable. The star-gazing drones of tracks like 'Passage' and 'He Became Something Else', sit alongside more energetic, pulsing pieces like 'Meridian' and 'Monument'. 'Crevasse' stirs up the drama of a classic synthesizer soundtrack and album closer 'Dominions' brings the turbulent waters to an icy froth. Northwest Passage is a unique take on music that can engulf and enthrall.

Up next on Lawrence English‘s Room40 label is Argentina-born, France-based composer Beatriz Ferreyra with her Echos + album. Ferreyra has played a hushed but critical role in the development of musique concrète since its early days, working with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) directed by Pierre Schaeffer, with whom she collaborated during the writing of his Solfège de l’Objet Sonore. Echos+, one of only a few collections of her work available on vinyl, collects three of Ferreyra’s most affecting pieces, each of which explores questions of mortality and the afterlife.

ADESSO, the new sublabel of Disco Segreta, is proud to open his catalogue debuting with the first Gino Pavan album in 40 years!
Absolute' is a full-on contemporary electronic concept album', entirely written, composed and played by Gino. Eight tracks, where Gino explores the multiple dimensions of the concept of the absolute, experimenting on guitars, synthesizers, electric sitar and percussions, on a 30 minutes journey into darker territories. With every sound originally crafted by Gino in his studio, and a compilation of videos created as a visual companion for each track, Absolute' sheds a light upon the music he always wanted to release, revealing his erudite background as a musician/composer.

“The North Bend is about the Pacific Northwest region of the USA, where I lived at the time the album was made. Still, today I consider that region my spiritual home, even though I am now living on the East Coast I had met Lawrence English in Poland back in 2009 and he kindly invited me to make a record for the label. I was a fan of his releases so this was really an obvious thing for me to say “yes” to
and a chance to create something special. I had released a few EP’s & and LP under my name, all influenced by the so-called “modern classical” ambient style pioneered by the late great Jóhann Jóhannsson and minimalist composers like Harold Budd and Arvo Pärt. The North Bend is the first work that dealt with “place” and explored a locality, the first in a series of recordings all released
with Room40. Since this album came out, I’ve left the Pacific Northwest for another location, New York state, which couldn’t be a starker contrast from the life in the PacNW. I had to start from scratch here in NY, as everything I owned until age 36 was stolen the night before I left to drive to NY. It was both a curse and a blessing. Not having the baggage & pitfalls of old ideas was wonderful, but also losing all the recorded & written works I had was harrowing at the time. Remastering The North Bend seemed like a natural thing for me. Not so much as revisionist history, but rather thinking how to make a record sound in a certain way without being able to revisit any of the mixes. In other words, the creative choices I made at the time (2010) are 100% preserved, there wasn’t any opportunity to revisit those, but rather make the record sound as good as I can framed through hindsight and a decade of separation from the period it was created. “

Tyyni is the third album by Finnish-born sound artist and musician Cucina Povera aka Maria Rossi. The second album recorded using a more studio-based scenario – as opposed to last year’s Zoom, a collection of in-situ, spontaneous recordings – Tyyni feels like a slowly unfurling mediation on the clash between nature and mechanical living, a rumination on the complexities of modern life that begin to unveil more about the inner landscape of the artist as it progresses. A Finnish word referring to still, serene weather, the title belies a new note of turmoil in Cucina Povera’s soundworld. Tyyni represents a more detailed focus on the sculpting of sounds that curl around Rossi’s hymnal vocal performances. It’s a more adventurous work than Rossi’s previous output that goes further into noise elements and vocal abstraction while maintaining the balance and ecclesiastical ecstasy of her debut Hilja.

While tension at the core of Cucina Povera is always prevalent, previously it was organic sounds that were used to counterpoint Rossi’s singing but on Tyyni these are often replaced with aggressive synths and distortion, profane clashes with the seemingly sacred hymns. Whether close mic’d and intoning in a loop or in full flight, Maria Rossi’s voice remains in the foreground, set here against a more synthetic backdrop. This development builds new worlds for Cucina Povera, a digital environment which brings in a sense of the alien for Rossi’s vocal to duel. The effect is often dazzling. On Salvia Salvatrix, an ode to the medicinal plant used to ward off evil spirits, Rossi’s invocation is encircled by a distorted synth sound tearing at the fabric of the composition. It’s an inspired juxtaposition, leaving the listener to appreciate both sounds as separate and as a duet. Anarkian kuvajainen embraces a sense of chaos, an accidental transmitting mobile phone’s pulse is swept up gently with looped synth swells as Rossi’s prayer-like vocal rhythmically teases the composition into loops that embrace and then drift apart. Teerenpeli flirts with a minimal beat rendered by sampler and processed, layered field recordings of capercaillies, while Side A ends with one of Rossi’s most beautiful, simple tracks yet recorded. Varjokuvatanssi is an a cappela recording built on top of a wordless glossolalia, a shadowy interplay which foregrounds the solo vocal.

Pölytön nurkka is the most melodic song yet recorded by Cucina Povera. While it still maintains an off-the-cuff performance style, the synthesized chimes and 4/4 beat are smothered by a distorted synthesizer which almost replicates the bravado of an electric guitar feedbacking into the night. Rossi’s subject matter talks of trying to start anew, getting rid of extraneous material, perhaps still feeling powerless to affect positive change. On Haaksirikkoutunut, the protagonist vocal is lost, a vessel rudderless on the ocean, buffeted by waves metaphorical or real, digital, atonal chords gurgling and splashing against the bow, a storm forever brewing on the horizon. Saniaiset recalls Coil in its eldritch, nocturnal tone and digital-bell like synth, Rossi’s half-spoken/half-sung voice attaining a creepy tone before flipping into flight. Album closer Jolkottelureitti uses an escalating, sequenced synth that splinters into both abrasive tones and harmonising chords creating a kosmische effect, reminding the listener of Kluster or synth-era Popol Vuh, all the while elevated by Rossi’s searching vocalising.

For an artist with such a singularly unique musical language, Cucina Povera is continually teasing new strands and emotive tones from an evolving palette. Most importantly, Tyyni appears to be pulling back the veil to uncover an artist finding a synergy between her own emotional inner world and practice. As such, on her third album, Maria Rossi has found a third way between abstraction and extraneous emotion, personal experience turned inside out to reveal more about the listener.

“Branislav Jovančević from Belgrade has created something deep, dark and beautiful for his first vinyl release and we are honoured to welcome him here on DISK!

All 4 tracks take it easy at first but will not let you off the hook until they are done with you! They’re gonna drag you down far below that surface of the flickering chirrs where that summer night felt still warm and snug.

I can not tell you what’s waiting for you down there cause whatever it is emanates from your subconscious as much as it does from Branislav’s machines. And like that park of machines, all animated by their own will, the machines of desire residing in your unconscious may respond and connect however they feel like - independent of your conscious control. Trust me - that’s exactly what will happen!

That being said, it also works great for dancing in clubs!
On top of all that Igor Milanović made an exceptionally beautiful cover which comes stamped with gold hot foil!!”