Search:out of limbo

Tresor Records is proud to announce 333 Mirrors from Torus, the artist alias of Joeri Woudstra. Coupled with its catalogue number
333, it indicates the large-scale conceptual thoughts behind the record, typical of Woudstra's practice. As an artist, he sets out to
frame re-interpretable references that trigger some subconscious recognition in listeners, with no set way to interpret them but leading to singular feelings and thought processes. The eect, a combination of static electronic sounds and looser field recordings, speaks to each listener differently.

333 Mirrors is, in part, the continuation of a project called These Cars Do Not Exist, made with videographer Mark Prendergast during the Covid-19 limbo. The live performed short film sold out selected popup cinemas in 2020 in a short sprint of shows. Two of the tracks on that project, Sound of the Drums and Chroniko, are re-imagined on 333 Mirrors, emanating as versions created in live performances. Set to be released as a single, Chroniko VIP will be accompanied by an enduring theme from that project, the three-winged bird, this time deceased. On 333 Mirrors, in exploring the ambient, stretched sonic universe of this project more, Woudstra moves from these three winged birds to the phoenix, finding a rebirth on the b-side with tracks that inhabit a similar sound as Deep Mid, Torus's inclusion on the recent Tresor 30 compilation. The sound of Torus places importance on the multi-faceted approach to sampling, pushing the idea behind the practice beyond usual boundaries. How to break the unwritten rules? Woudstra looks within by resampling previous Torus releases and reverse-engineering the sounds of the most revered pop and electronic musicians alive today, references that trigger recognition, melancholy and nostalgia in the listener.

3000 Mirrors features a staccato arpeggiating rigid pattern, the sonic eect of standing in front of a strobe until it becomes the anchor. Silence and interruption are used as a device to explore the physically uncomfortable, more the central compositional tool than the disrupted harmonic structures. Woudstra has never stepped foot in Tresor, so when writing this record, an enduring question spoke to him, what is Tresor when you have never been? How do you sample the essence of an unknown location? The closing track, Omnia, is the sound of anticipation, where the rave beckons. This imagined industrial space is calling for you.

The Source - nearly 30 years in the tradition of the infinite peculiar. The Source is a quartet with a long history. Actually started in 1993, with the founding members Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), Per Oddvar Johansen, Trygve Seim og Oyvind Brække, who all by then studied at the Jazz Course at the Trondheim Music Conservatory. The new quartet album; " ... but swinging doesn`t bend them down" will be published in October on the legendary record label Odin. The title is an excerpt from the poem "Birches" by the American poet Robert Frost, a title that encompass a child's dream of climbing the treetops and swinging birch branches. It could be read as a reflection over the conflict between the free play in nature and the boundaries of adult life awaiting on the ground_ But maybe the ground can wait? Just join the sheer joy of climbing the trees and the careful balance that is needed not to fall and be at one with the flexibility of nature. After several season-related albums, like "The Source: of Christmas" and "The Source: of Summer", it is now a pure quartet display out in the tube, only based on original music. The pieces are all signed by the quartet members and covers a vast register; raga, shuffle, swing, lyrical spots, improv and even a rough trombone/drum outing, and more.The Source: Oyvind Brække, trombone Trygve Seim, saksofon Per Oddvar Johansen, trommer Mats Eilertsen, bass.

Flashback to 2008. Barack Obama is in charge of the US, China is hosting the Summer Olympics and Amy Winehouse's 'Back To Black' is ruling the charts. In Belgium - more specifically in Aalst - four friends of friends decide to make music together. A year or so later, Intergalactic Lovers achieves its first successes and in 2011, with 'Greetings and Salutations', the band records its first album. The press is wildly enthusiastic, the gigs are piling up, the train is rolling...

13 years and two more successful albums ('Little Heavy Burdens' (2014) and 'Exhale' (2017)) later, singer Lara Chedraoui, guitarist Maarten Huygens, bassist Raf De Mey and drummer Brendan Corbey know each other like the back of their hands as they have navigated many waters together, both professionally and privately. The unbreakable foursome is ready to start the next chapter in the career of Intergalactic Lovers. "We kept a low profile the last two years" Brendan admits, "but we always have to disappear for a while after a tour. From the stage and from each other. Otherwise, you couldn't keep doing this for 13 years alongside a job, a family..."

Composer, electronic music innovator, and Pere Ubu's original synthesist Allen Ravenstine returns to Waveshaper Media with the diptych LP (comprised of 1 EP per side) Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir, the final two parts in Raventine’s Tyranny of Fiction series. Waveshaper Media first came into contact with Ravenstine when we interviewed him in 2012 for our modular synthesizer documentary I Dream Of Wires.

Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir brings together 21 of the prodigious composer’s recent lyrical and abstract compositions collectively comprised of the sounds of analogue and digital synthesizers, alongside traditional acoustic instruments. The first 10 recordings, subtitled Nautilus, are found on Side A of this LP while the second 11, Rue Du Poisson Noir, comprise Side B.

Using a singular blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, each track on Nautilus, weaves its own wayward travelogue amidst stray bits of audio verité and wafting musical fragrances—by turns tropical and foreboding. Rue De Poisson Noir takes cues from its fragmentary companion both in palette and approach, slithering between cinematic intrigue, off-brand jazz, avant-garde mischief, and fried electro without ever batting an eye. Together they form a beguiling collection of hyperrealist miniatures that remains strange, restless, inquisitive and — most of all — evocative throughout.

For those in the know, Allen Ravenstine has been one of the most creative synthesizer players of the past forty-plus years. Ravenstine started out in the mid-1970s experimenting in his Cleveland apartment with an analogue EML 200 synthesizer, eventually creating a piece in 1975 that became known as Terminal Drive. While he had no intention of releasing his compositions, word got out about the kind of sounds he was experimenting with, which led to an invitation to join pioneering “avant garage” group Pere Ubu for the recording of the group’s first 45, “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” He soon joined Pere Ubu full-time, bringing to the band’s sound unpredictable textures, effects, bleeps, squalls, pulsating washes of sound—whatever he felt could enhance the soundscape of the band’s performances and recordings.

By the early 1990s, Ravenstine had grown sick of the road, band infighting and the music industry in general. Deciding a change was needed, he opted to forego music altogether, making his living as an airplane pilot. His music career remained in limbo until 2012, when an interview for the I Dream Of Wires documentary, alongside Robert Wheeler who had succeeded him as Pere Ubu’s synthesist, turned into a recording session for the duo, leading to a series of collaborative releases. As well as having his 1975 Terminal Drive recordings released to great acclaim in 2017, Ravenstine has been prolific in recent years, with Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir now marking his 4th solo full-length.

Type O Negative is an American goth-metal band formed in Brooklyn in 1989 by Peter Steele (lead vocals, bass), Kenny Hickey (guitar, backing vocals), Josh Silver (keyboards, backing vocals), and Sal Abruscato (drums, percussions), who was later replaced by Johnny Kelly. Slow, Deep and Hard is their debut studio album, released in 1991 on Roadrunner Records. The album, originally titled None More Negative and released in 1990 under the group’s former name Repulsion, launched the band’s career. The album has a rawness that was prominent in Peter Steele’s previous band, Carnivore, but it incorporates elements that became standard for Type O Negative, merging styles including doom metal, gothic rock, new wave and industrial music.
Slow, Deep and Hard is a semi-autobiographical album with heavy amounts of black humour, based on a failed relationship in which the vocalist/bass guitarist Peter Steele was involved. In keeping with the band’s notable humour, the album’s cover artwork is a blurred image of sexual penetration. According to guitarist Kenny Hickey, Steele based a riff of “Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10 – 8 cm – 3 gm – 1 sec – 2” (later known as “Gravity”) from the theme song of the 1964 American sitcom The Munsters. For the 30th anniversary of Slow, Deep and Hard, Roadrunner Records in conjunction with Run Out Groove, is reissuing the debut on vinyl in all it’s remastered glory.

The Sublime Sculpture of Being Alive,’ the new album from
Los Angeles-based Media Jeweler, is a three-dimensional reckoning with
the contradictions of life in all its manic altitudes and claustrophobia.
Recorded over three chaotic weeks in Omaha, the band’s elaborate sonic infrastructures carry the same sense of studied experimentation as Palm, Guerrilla
Toss or Deerhoof, rollicking across an energetic spectrum that parlay the band’s
post-punk roots, jazz rhythms and art punk choruses into something greater
than the sum of its parts.
The most fully-fleshed release yet, a myriad of musical collaborators were enlisted uniting a finely-tuned sense of adventurousness that roves between the
personal and political to frame an acute portrait of modern day societal revelation.
‘The Sublime Sculpture of Being Alive’ is out on Fire Talk (Dehd, Deeper, Mama

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.
The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.
When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.
“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.



After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.

The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.

When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.

“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.

After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

Lingering at the remains of a campfire before dawn, with the politics of the personal burnt into ash, running his stick through what’s left, Wand singer/guitarist Cory Hanson is reflecting on a series of moments in which he steps farther into himself, finding the ultimate big sky country on the inside of his skull. It’s a combination of songs and sounds that journey
through bleak and broken territory and places of sweet, lush remove and it adds up to the best record he’s been involved in yet: his second solo album, ‘Pale Horse Rider’.

 Cory’s first solo, ‘The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo’, was an intense affair, a grand experiment that produced inspiring,
nconventional music - but this time around, he wanted to breathe a bit easier, to feel that breath in the music as well. So he and his band drove out to the desert to record in a lowstress environment: Brian Harris’ Cactopia, a house surrounded by 6ft tall sculptural psychotropic cacti. They built a studio inside and then they made music and lived off pots of coffee and chili and cases of Miller High Life as they played guitars, bass, keyboards and drums in what seemed increasingly like a living biomech, their tech made out of fungal networks and cacti needles.

 It was loose and flowed onto tape well. Recorded by Robbie Cody and Zac Hernandez (who assisted on Wand’s ‘Laughing Matter’), the sounds were great from the get-go. First takes were mostly best takes. Fuelled with DNA lifted from country-rock cut with native psych and prog strands, Cory guided his craft toward the cosmic side of the highway, a benevolent alien in ambient fields hazy with heat and synths, early morning fog and space echo spreading the harmonies wide.

 ‘Pale Horse Rider’’s got a lot to get out of its mind, looking around and seeing that, on the surface, things don’t always look like much. A lifelong Californian, Cory’s naturally found himself standing to the left of most of the
country. The west may be only what you make it; these days, the roadside view looks exceptionally sunbleached and left behind. ‘Pale Horse Rider’ eyes the city, the country and the fragile environment that holds them both in its hands - a record as much about Los Angeles as it can be with its back to the town and the sun in its eyes; as much about
ostalgia as new music can be with the apocalypse over the next rise.

 On ‘Pale Horse Rider’, Cory Hanson moves ceaselessly forward. The old myths weave and waft, the shadows of tombstones flickering in the mirages and the light that lies dead ahead.

Lingering at the remains of a campfire before dawn, with the politics of the personal burnt into ash, running his stick through what’s left, Wand singer/guitarist Cory Hanson is reflecting on a series of moments in which he steps farther into himself, finding the ultimate big sky country on the inside of his skull. It’s a combination of songs and sounds that journey
through bleak and broken territory and places of sweet, lush remove and it adds up to the best record he’s been involved in yet: his second solo album, ‘Pale Horse Rider’.

 Cory’s first solo, ‘The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo’, was an intense affair, a grand experiment that produced inspiring,
nconventional music - but this time around, he wanted to breathe a bit easier, to feel that breath in the music as well. So he and his band drove out to the desert to record in a lowstress environment: Brian Harris’ Cactopia, a house surrounded by 6ft tall sculptural psychotropic cacti. They built a studio inside and then they made music and lived off pots of coffee and chili and cases of Miller High Life as they played guitars, bass, keyboards and drums in what seemed increasingly like a living biomech, their tech made out of fungal networks and cacti needles.

 It was loose and flowed onto tape well. Recorded by Robbie Cody and Zac Hernandez (who assisted on Wand’s ‘Laughing Matter’), the sounds were great from the get-go. First takes were mostly best takes. Fuelled with DNA lifted from country-rock cut with native psych and prog strands, Cory guided his craft toward the cosmic side of the highway, a benevolent alien in ambient fields hazy with heat and synths, early morning fog and space echo spreading the harmonies wide.

 ‘Pale Horse Rider’’s got a lot to get out of its mind, looking around and seeing that, on the surface, things don’t always look like much. A lifelong Californian, Cory’s naturally found himself standing to the left of most of the
country. The west may be only what you make it; these days, the roadside view looks exceptionally sunbleached and left behind. ‘Pale Horse Rider’ eyes the city, the country and the fragile environment that holds them both in its hands - a record as much about Los Angeles as it can be with its back to the town and the sun in its eyes; as much about
ostalgia as new music can be with the apocalypse over the next rise.

 On ‘Pale Horse Rider’, Cory Hanson moves ceaselessly forward. The old myths weave and waft, the shadows of tombstones flickering in the mirages and the light that lies dead ahead.

Uniting cosmic tones and lovely notes, unique sound collages and electronic noises, Muzak pour ascenseurs en panne ("Muzak for Broken Lifts"), Brigitte Barbu's first album, explores a dreamy universe, at the crossroads of electronica and the 70s’ post-tune-in/drop-out, echoing shadows of the peculiar doppelgänger; Pépé Bradock. Ça Plane pour Brigitte Barbu…

Resonant guitar notes, odd sounds, electronic hallucinations, and unexpected warm synth layers all gather together in Brigitte Barbu's first enigmatic album. Recorded and mixed during a reclusive one-week residency in a very special studio, under the benevolent cubic radiation of "Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant,” using a computer, synthesizers, and various string instruments, giving birth to this resolutely unique album. The guitars were sharply disciplined, propelling strings into strange and hypnotic limbos, somewhere between a weightless journey through time and a fresh science lab experiment.

A perky cosmic album running away from rules and gravity.

"I wanted to compose an ethereal abstract Hip-Hop LP" says Brigitte, "with guitar as a brainwashed instrument, mirroring machines and computers, even if surely far from being unplugged". So much for that… With a real introspective dimension, the record stands out for its pure whimsical mood. The artist had strict rules for composing: “Each track is based on the association between a title chosen for its consonances, an open tuning, a random tempo and frequencies chosen for their supposed effects, real or imagined, on the mind, body & soul.” For example: Taro Patch -> Whale -> 93,75 BPM or Dobro -> Bear-> 118,125 BPM, Air Resistance -> Open Em -> Panther-> 480 BPM etc.

Brigitte surgically framed an electro-acoustic compendium, finding its atmospheric mothership… Brigitte Barbu, referring to a special interlude from a vintage release "Escalope de Dingue” (Fool’s Cutlet), explains that Muzak pour Ascenseurs en Panne is in fact a custom tribute to family, friends, triggered cosmonauts, René Clément and the card game where the winner is the bearded monarch nonchalantly stabbing himself in the head. It’s a lot!

2LP Gatefold Sleeve.

Lost Ethnography of the Miscanthus Ocean” contains six of their earlier works from 2013 to early 2014. The original release was on cassette from Guruguru Brain which was sold out less than a month. There is a new added D2. Miscanthus Ocean only for the LP version. The album is dedicated to Grass Mountain and the incredibly hot, humid summertime in Taipei. This is also the echo of their instrumental trio period before they moved on to digital composing.

Band Info:
Formed in Taipei, Taiwan in 2013, comprised of member Lu Li-‑Yang and Lu Jiachi, Scattered Purgatory is a name
derived from a Taoist ritual which expiates the souls of the innocent from a state in between life and death and then at last, release.
Growing up in Taipei, where two wheeled transportations are popular, the basin city of such population density and humidity had
inspired their sound distinctively differentiates from the US west coast desert drone. If we use Taiwan new cinema wave in 80s as
the analogy, the massive use of longshots of those films expressed a different halo from the Western Spaghetti; Scattered
Purgatoryʼ’s sound expresses soundscape to the world by using a familiar approach ‒– but with an oriental narration geographically
and spiritually.

Last year we welcomed Grup Ses to our sister label Sucata Tapes with "Program #01", a mystically mixed soundtrack of far-out new age and film sountracks from Turkey circa 1986. A new set of Turkish delights were prepared for this year's release. "Deli Divan" it's a two-part record with incredibly crafted beats that tell a different story depending on the version you chose to listen.
A side captivates by its voracity. Hi-tech and fierce beats drop with the sharp voice and flow of Ethnique Punch, delivering 14 - yes, f-o-u-r-t-e-e-n - short and punchy tracks. The diggin' liveliness
of Grup Ses is well present in the samples used, manufacturing beats that serve well the fast paced and nocturnal voice of Ethnique Punch. The first part of "Deli Divan" is pretty much a straight story. A good one.
But then comes the surprise. The other side. The same fourteen tracks without voice, just the beats. And here "Deli Divan" tells a completely different story. It loses the emergency, darkness and
robustness of the A side, specially because the beats float on a limbo without a voice. But that limbo reveals the straight forwardness of the beats created by Grup Ses for this record. There's a hidden narrative here, without the voice the short tracks connect like an outer world radio broadcast.
But there's no narrator. Just time-travelling beats that interlink past, present and future, synthetizing complex ideas in short bursts of 1 or 2 minutes. A Deli-Delight this is.

White Shadows In The South Seas is the title of a book written in 1919 by Frederick O'Brien as part of a trilogy he wrote based on his experiences living in the Pacific islands in the early part of the 20th century. His book was taken as the starting point for a film to be directed, initially, by Robert Flaherty (famous at the time for his groundbreaking documentary / fiction film Nanook Of The North) with W.S.Van Dyke as his support. The film, ultimately, apart from the title, had little to do with O'Brien's book and Flaherty left the film after a few months leaving Van Dyke to finish it.

I purchased O'Brien's book, along with many others, from Basement Books, a secondhand bookstore in Melbourne/Australia. Part of my 'Islomania' and on going fascination with all things Pacific. When I discovered there was a 1929 silent film based on the book I sought it out and started to present it as part of my 'Live Music/Silent films' repertoire. Tabu by Frederick Murnau, which coincidently also had Flaherty as co-director originally, was the first film I ever wrote / improvised a score for and presented as a live film/music performance. My repertoire extends to over 23 films now.

My eclectic and diverse musical and artistic interests extend into 'Hawaiian', 'Exotica', 'Ambient' and 'Electronic' Music. I have produced several volumes of so called 'Electronic, Ambient, Exotica' on CD and Vinyl, including Kiribati, Globe Notes, Rayon Hula ( on Vinyl, CD and digital format ) and most recently, New Globe Note on Vinyl and White Shadows In The South Seas on CD.
White Shadows In The South Seas features some of the music presented in my live screenings of the 1929 silent film.

The film is the story of Dr. Matthew Lloyd, an alcoholic doctor who is disgusted by the exploitation by white people of the natives on a Polynesian island. The natives dive for pearls, however, numerous accidents occur and one diver dies. In anger, Dr. Lloyd punches Sebastian, the employer. As revenge and to prevent further interruption of his activities, he tricks Dr. Lloyd onto a ship with a diseased crew (thinking they are ill) and his men rough him up and send the ship off into a storm. Dr. Lloyd survives and is washed ashore on an island where none of the natives have ever seen a white man before. Lloyd is rescued and ultimately falls in love with the chief's daughter, who is Taboo, hence Lloyd is prevented from pursuing his love for her. An incident occurs and a young boy is thought to have drowned but Lloyd is able to revive him, earning him points and permission with the chief's daughter. Lloyd begins to realise that the local islanders have no sense of the value of the black pearls which grow in abundance around their island and he starts to dive for them and collect them. One morning the white man Sebastian unexpectedly turns up on a scooner and starts to offer the islanders trade for their pearls. Llloyd tries to interrupt the encounter and is shot and dies. His wife and the islanders morn for his dead body and, symbolically, the passing of a way of life.

Mike Cooper plays - Electric and acoustic lap steel guitars / electronics / Zoom Sampletrack / Kaos Pad / Casio SK1 / Korg Drum Machine / Self Made Instruments.

It also features field recordings made on Pulau Ubin by Mike Cooper during a month as Artist In Residence for The Artist Village / Singapore.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Lawrence English (Room40 Records) for his assistance and encouragement with the original recordings and the CD version of White Shadows In The South Seas.

All music written and played by Mike Cooper PRS/MCPS - except Po Mahina (trad. Arr. Cooper) and Hilo Hanakahi (trad. Arr. Cooper)

Recorded and Mixed at the Steelworks in Rome 2012/2013.

A White Shadow In The South Seas
In February 2014 'A White Shadow In The South Seas' was the title of an audio-visual installation I made at the Teatro In Scatola in Rome, Italy, presented as part of a series of sound installations titled 'Visitazioni' produced by Proposte Sonore.

The essay below, as well as our collection of Hawaiian shirts, Exotica and Hawaiian vinyl records, was an inspiration for this installation.

'..the transformation and reconstitution of the souvenir commodity as an indigenous ethnic art form and a scarce relic of Hawai'i's romanticized past...' from - Clothing and Textile Reasearch Journal - From Kitsch to Chic by Marcia A. Morgado.

And....
Michael Thompson's Rubbish Theory (1979)
' ...a critical aspect of Western culture is the pre-disposition to see objects in terms of two overt categories: the transient and the durable. Objects identified as transient have finite life spans and lose value over time, whereas those identified as durable have infinite lives and over time increae in value....category assignments are arbitrary, but once assigned a category membership determines relative value. Fashion apparel-by defenition-is assigned to the transient category; paintings commonly are designated durables....how is it that transient objects.. ( e.g. Hawaiian shirts and vinyl records ) ..sometimes become durables.

Objects assigned to the rubbish category are largely invisible, have no value and, ideally, no life span. Fashion for example, no longer worn and relegated to the back of the wardrobe has fallen into the covert rubbish category. But rubbish can be rescued and transformed. Thompson says ' What I believe happens is a transient object gradually declining in value and in expected life span may slide across into rubbish. Here it exists in a timeless and valueless limbo where it has a chance to be re-discovered and be successfully transformed to a durable. Such transferes are radical: objects gradually slide from transcience to rubbish, but the transformation from rubbish to durable involves an all-or-nothing leap across two boundaries, that separating the worthless from the valuable and that between the covert and the overt. Things drift into obscurity but they leap into prominence.

The delightful consequence of this hypothesis is that in order to study the social control of value we must study rubbish.

The rubbish-to-durable transformation is accompanied by the development of highly specialized knowledge derived from the discovery of subtle variations and complex details that went unnoticed in the objects transient stage. The discoveries initiate renewed interest in the object and its market value begins to climb. As prices soar beyond the reach of ordinary people, the object becomes available only in high priced collectors' markets. Furthermore, as market values rise, the aesthetic value of the object undergoes a reassessment as well, and it becomes increasingly apparent that the objects intrinsic beauty has been overlooked. Ultimately the object is re -assigned as a durable and becomes recognized as a timeless classic.

Exotica, Ambience and Pacificism - A dialogue with Mike Cooper & Professor Philip Hayward Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor of Research Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia.

Sami Baha is a Turkish producer based in South East London. His music was introduced to the world via his 2016 EP 'Mavericks'. Sami got into producing through being a rapper himself, working with local rappers in Turkey and producing beats for them, before setting his sights outside the country. 'Free For All' features MCs from all corners of the globe: UK drill squad 67's Dimzy, Stockholm's Yung Lean and Chicago rapper and singer DJ Nate (aka Flexxbabii). The record also features Egyptian MCs Dawsha and Abanob. Sami's production is refined and elegant, familiar tropes are reassembled in original ways, the instrumentation reflecting his background and influences simultaneously. Everything Sami brings to the album sounds relaxed and minimal, but tough, built from thoughtful arrangements and instruments, shot through with emotion and a dreamy night-time feel.

Archie Hamilton touches down on Fuse once more for the 'Mercury Rising EP'. Right Hook kicks things off in typical Archie style with a snaking groove, resplendent with another one of his trademark catchy b-lines. 'Limbo' is the EPs VINYL ONLY track and delves a slightly deeper furrow with a headier vibe whilst 'Mercury' rounds off the package; a brisk tech-houser with warm attitude via blissed out pads and a charmingly understated synth riff.

Presenting 'Envelope'. Album written, produced & mixed by Milan W. and pressed on 180g vinyl, by Ekster. Coming out on the 6th of June 2018, with foil-stamped cover-drawing by Gerard Herman. Mastered & cut by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering.
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Milan W (AKA Milan Warmoeskerken) is an Antwerp-based musician. In 2015 he released the Slo Mo cassette, on local label JJ Funhouse. The Intact LP a year later. Compositions constructed from gentle, yet persistent, rhythms. Intricately textured downtempo echoes. Brain-dancing, rather than four-to-the-floor raving. 2017`s split with Ekolalis, for The Hague`s BAKK, made clear the direction Milan`s headed in. His contribution being a seventeen minute float. The kick largely removed. The textures cut-up, expanded and magnified. Envelope, for Ekster, builds on this work.

The harlequin turns the handle. The contraption sucks in air, and breathes. Blows out tone poems. Wordless ballads that soundtrack enchanted scenarios. Issues forth magic. A sorcerer`s apprentice casting its spell. Animating the inanimate. To everything a life. Sets the frozen fluttering. Pirouetting in red shoes. Illuminates what was dark. Astma sings a Gamelan lullaby. Summons comforting angels to a post-Industrial landscape. Glaasjes has Jazz ghosts inhabit an empty bar room. Spirits stealing excuse-me`s under its deserted spot. In Limbo amplifies their whispers. Lead soldiers court jewellery-box ballerinas behind shuttered shop fronts. On Heraldic Snippets, a tin infantry marches. Ten thousand men up to the top, and back down again. Keys make-believing that they are massed brass and fife.

The bellows pump, and the pipes all the while wheezing. An automaton philharmonic at the bidding of a steam-punk master. Analogue and digital. Clockwork and glitch. Malady finds sounds isolated, extrapolated, mutated. Orchestral`s organ-grinder moves with urgency, and alchemy. Spinning straw into gold. Snare rolls become bubbling mercury. Metallic, yet fluid. Racing at the speed of flight and escape. Slope is the music of water chasing through crystal caves. Slow Runner, a funeral crawl. Shoved into motion by a drama of strings remembered.
Like the charismatic Rat-Catcher of Hamelin, the harlequin turns the handle, and we bang the cup.

Southern Italian sociologist, DJ and electronic music producer Simone Gatto is about to release his second album, 'Heaven Inside Your Frequencies', in November 2017.

Gatto's second album represents a complete excursus of his personal and professional paths, into which he combines music, words, studies, researches and experiments. Along with the album, split in two parts and to be released on both his labels Out-ER and Pregnant Void, the artist is also releasing his first essay, named as the album; the latter offers a theoretical and practical analysis on the use of sounds and frequencies in diverse areas of interest, dedicating space to music therapy and primordial techniques as well as their application in the current digital and virtual era.

Both the album and the essay result from Gatto's personal experiences as well as his ten-year's artistic career: the love of his motherland and his parents, the first approach to clubs, the studies about the potentiality of frequencies, the electroacoustic experimentation and last but not least, the aesthetic sonorous research.

The the first part of the album showcases Gatto's experimental inclination for electronic and electroacoustic music; as such, the upcoming on his label Pregnant Void, has been created to enhance the sounds of the environment and personal panoramas by agglomerating artists, projects and publications. The second part definitely focusses on Gatto's dance personality and club vision, even so, it stays strongly connected to its first part as complementary for the artist's objective.

Ranging in between his favourite club niches, and collaborating with producers with whom he has shared embryonic projects, DJ booths or vinyl releases, Gatto prepares the audience for a complete journey into his idea of club music and grooves, featuring wide aesthetics and emotional resonance. It goes from the gentle tidiness of ambient and deep techno - 'No Te Olvides De Acordarte', 'Today Will Be Tomorrow ft. Kaelan', 'When I Was With You' and 'Limbo' to the intrinsic vitality of break beat, dub and funk tracks 'Caronte' and 'Holographic Drama' continuing with the dynamism of a typical Detroit techno brand of sound reinterpreted in a modern context, like in 'Forbidden Area' and 'Amazonia ft. Aubrey', and finishing with the joyful wildness of distorted sounds, in 'Jamming On The Couch ft. The Analogue Cops, OL047' in collaboration with long-time friends OL047 and The Analogue Cops; the last track, 'Il Canto Dell'Anima', is a partial excursion into the electroacoustic sound, articulated by ethereal soundscapes and piano arpeggios. The whole work is enriched by samples, field recordings and filtered vocals, sound elements which have been deeply explored in the first part of the album, confirming Gatto's aesthetical aptitude as for the club's universe as for the aesthetic sonorous research dimension.

'Heaven Inside Your Frequencies', recorded and produced between his motherland and other significant spaces and cities - the Ionian coast and natural parks of Lecce, his second home Berlin, the Whitney Museum in New York City and other significant places - 'Heaven Inside Your Frequencies' combines Gatto's theoretical background with personal and artistic maturity, achieved in the last decade. Simone Gatto's life, culture and emotions translate into a sonorous and written project, among sounds, frequencies and attempts to achieve empathetic communication with people. Specifically, the second part of the album in meant to increase the sensibility about potential interaction between performer and audience as for club contexts. The album listening and the essay reading are therefore complementary and equally functional to the achievement of the artist's goal: the empathetic communication through sounds.

Eight releases in, Leonidas & Hobbes have honed a mutual love of soundtracks, disco, jazz, house, techno, acid, psychedelic, African and dub sounds.
Web Of Intrigue is one part tribute to lost 70s soundtracks, when music was created on the finest analogue hardware, featuring full bands, session players and lush orchestrations, one part tribute to 70s disco gods Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (Chic) and one part mid-tempo but nonetheless cosmic house. The three parts fuse to form an instrumental track sounding as fresh as a whole meadow of daisies in 2017 and one that's been going down extremely well with international DJs who have road-tested the material.
Heavy Weather flips the script for a deeper workout in a 3/4 time signature - more of a cosmic waltz. Taking its main cue from 70s jazz fusion heroes Weather Report and The Doors' Ray Manzarek, it incorporates rich African percussion, spaced-out flourishes exhibiting the duo's love for the dubs of Lee Perry, King Tubby et al, and a good old fashioned arpeggio of an acid line - definitely a more esoteric number, all told.
The 'Dawn' and 'Acid Rain' mixes push different buttons for the heads, as suits the mood. It all adds up to a very Balearic confection, fitting snugly in with the burgeoning revival for this somewhat ineffable sound - a trend that seems to be getting stronger/bigger every year, popping up every time the sun gets his hat on and we all remember how to party like the lucky residents of that infamous White Isle....
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London/Edinburgh analogue electronic duo Leonidas & Hobbes released debut EP "Machines, Tapes & Electronic Setups" via the Hobbes Music label back in May 2013, picking up plaudits and support from the likes of Resident Advisor, Mixmag, Erol Alkan, Ashley Beedle, Alan Braxe, Shadow Child, Jimpster, Nick Warren, M.A.N.D.Y., Leftside Wobble, Mr G, Auntie Flo, Sasha, John Digweed and many more... The duo were consequently commissioned to remix the Pet Shop Boys.
Second EP "Mo' Machines" came out on the label in April 2014 and received equally high praise, with i-D Magazine inviting the duo to record a DJ mix which has to date chalked up a whole lot of love on Soundcloud.
Leonidas has released two other collaborative EPs with London-based Japanese DJ/producer Kay Suzuki via his Round In Motion imprint, equally winning fans worldwide, with a track now forthcoming on new label YAM Records' You And Music Volume 1 EP plus much more in the pipeline for 2017. Leonidas also has his own lovetoparty label, releasing edits of much-loved disco tunes on limited edition 12" vinyl format and free download. Previously, Leonidas made a name for throwing word-of-mouth parties around east London on his audiophile 'lovetoparty' sound system (providing some of the inspiration for much-admired late-night watering hole Brilliant Corners).
Equally, Hobbes ran the widely acclaimed Trouble nights for ten years in Edinburgh/Scotland, working with the great and the good from across the soul/jazz/dance spectrum since '02, and championed up-and-coming live talent via his Limbo 'gig-in-a-club' nights at The Voodoo Rooms for nine years since '07. Hobbes has toured his DJing style to the various corners of the dancing planet, including gigs in the Far East, much of Europe and across the UK. The Hobbes Music label has otherwise featured artists as diverse as Auntie Flo, JD Twitch (Optimo), Neil Landstrumm, Craig Smith (6th Borough Project), Ali Renault, iO Sounds, Joe Howe, Debukas, Fudge Fingas, Marco Bernardi, Dimitri Veimar, Mick Wills and Nightwave, with further support from Ben UFO, Justin Robertson, Motor City Drum Ensemble, KiNK, The Revenge, T.E.E.D, Kiki, Groove Armada, Maceo Plex, OOFT!, Domenic Capello (Sub Club), XDB, Ben Mono, Masa Sutela, Bawrut/Scuola Furano, Numbers, John Heckle and many more...

Six years after his last album on Miasmah, Schattenspieler, it's great to find Marcus Fjellström resurrected after several long years spent composing his audio-visual opera Boris Christ.

Born out of shattered dreams and an obscured vision of the future, Skelektikon is a delirious yet lucid exploration of the farthest and most conflicted reaches of the heart, teeming with confusion, passion, and ghostly shadows. Being no conventional composer in any way, Marcus stumbles further down his musical domain of detuned orchestral (re-)arrangements and pain-inducing synth passages, arriving at a most unique and personal result. Where Schattenspieler gave way to noir filled alleyways, Skelektikon fills them with paranoia. It's the sound of Limbo, of dancing amoebas, of deviant skeletons, nostalgia and futurism, or quite possibly none of that.

Inhabited by the bizarre and the beautiful, Marcus's music is a blurred yet encouraging representation of how you can never trust your own feelings - or eyes and ears for that matter. And yet, we can't shake the idea that the truth is to be found somewhere within this alien language, as delivered to us through the speakers. Opening our eyes after the final track has dissipated, we wouldn't be surprised to find someone or something there, staring at us, in silent and unsettling knowledge.

Hotflush are proud to welcome an exciting new talent to the roster. Her name is Or:la and she arrives at her debut 12' already boasting a formidable reputation as a DJ and promoter in the UK - her long-standing Meine Nacht party is Merseyside's finest and her appearances on WHP line-ups are turning heads. The 12' in question is 'UK Lonely' - a four track EP that flaunts enviable range and seems to contradict the producer's youthful years. In it she covers a broad spectrum of past and contemporary influences spanning garage, Afrobeat, breaks and dubstep.
The A-side is punchy yet elegant: vocal cut-ups drift through off-beat percussions in title track 'UK Lonely', while riddims and melodies weave in and out of each other on an exotic 'Limbosoup'. The B-side is more contemplative: 'X & O' recalls the wistful vocals and layers them over aughties breakbeats before 'Jaipur' rounds off this opening salvo in delicate and playful fashion, hinting at things to come.

Three brand new versions of the Villalobos smash hit from 2008. The record comes with two uplifting remixes by Oliver$ && Nils Ohrmann and René Bourgeois. Kouhei Matsunaga licensed one of his outstanding drawings for cover artwork. Vital Sales Points: - Three new versions of the heavily polayed by Villalobos smash hit from 2008 - Remixes by Oliver$, Nils Ohrmann and René Bourgeois - Cover drawing by Kouhei Matsunaga