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Beyond the Flesh (Re-issue) Almost ten years since its initial release Century Media re-releases "BEYOND THE FLESH" on CD and vinyl with remastered sound! After a phenomenal demo tape, SKELETAL REMAINS from California (USA) released their first full length album in 2012 which offers classic Death Metal from the rotten crypt and awakes the spirit of late 80s/ early 90s Morrisound stuff. If you like the early hymns of Gorguts, Pestilence, Death or Morgoth surely, you'll freak out with Skeletal Remains! "BEYOND THE FLESH" will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as Ltd. CD Edition (+ 4 Bonus tracks from “Desolate Isolation” Demo) and Gatefold LP (180g vinyl). Condemned to Misery (Re-issue) Half a decade since its initial release Century Media re-releases “CONDEMNED TO MISERY” on CD and vinyl with remastered sound! Three years after having released their studio debut album SKELETAL REMAINS dropped their second kick-ass Death Metal album. This is a Must-Have for fans of well-groomed Oldschool Death Metal. “CONDEMNED TO MISERY” will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as Ltd. CD Edition (+ 4 “live in Tokyo 2016”-tracks) and Gatefold LP (180g vinyl). Desolate Isolation – 10th Anniversary Edition Founded in 2011 Califonian Death Metal force SKELETAL REMAINS quickly evolved into one of the new driving forces within the hard-contested Death Metal landscape after releasing four powerful studio records. To celebrate the bands 10th anniversary Century Media releases something special and reissues the 2011 “Desolate Isolation” demo tape on 180g vinyl including various bonus content (4 “live in Tokyo 2016”-tracks, 3 bonus tracks) compiled from one decade of SKELETAL REMAINS band history. Featuring a brand-new artwork by Mark Riddick this release is the definitive SKELETAL REMAINS collectors’ item for every die-hard fan out there. “Desolate Isolation – 10th Anniversary Edition” will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as black LP and on all digital platforms.

Beyond the Flesh (Re-issue) Almost ten years since its initial release Century Media re-releases "BEYOND THE FLESH" on CD and vinyl with remastered sound! After a phenomenal demo tape, SKELETAL REMAINS from California (USA) released their first full length album in 2012 which offers classic Death Metal from the rotten crypt and awakes the spirit of late 80s/ early 90s Morrisound stuff. If you like the early hymns of Gorguts, Pestilence, Death or Morgoth surely, you'll freak out with Skeletal Remains! "BEYOND THE FLESH" will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as Ltd. CD Edition (+ 4 Bonus tracks from “Desolate Isolation” Demo) and Gatefold LP (180g vinyl). Condemned to Misery (Re-issue) Half a decade since its initial release Century Media re-releases “CONDEMNED TO MISERY” on CD and vinyl with remastered sound! Three years after having released their studio debut album SKELETAL REMAINS dropped their second kick-ass Death Metal album. This is a Must-Have for fans of well-groomed Oldschool Death Metal. “CONDEMNED TO MISERY” will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as Ltd. CD Edition (+ 4 “live in Tokyo 2016”-tracks) and Gatefold LP (180g vinyl). Desolate Isolation – 10th Anniversary Edition Founded in 2011 Califonian Death Metal force SKELETAL REMAINS quickly evolved into one of the new driving forces within the hard-contested Death Metal landscape after releasing four powerful studio records. To celebrate the bands 10th anniversary Century Media releases something special and reissues the 2011 “Desolate Isolation” demo tape on 180g vinyl including various bonus content (4 “live in Tokyo 2016”-tracks, 3 bonus tracks) compiled from one decade of SKELETAL REMAINS band history. Featuring a brand-new artwork by Mark Riddick this release is the definitive SKELETAL REMAINS collectors’ item for every die-hard fan out there. “Desolate Isolation – 10th Anniversary Edition” will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as black LP and on all digital platforms.

Beyond the Flesh (Re-issue) Almost ten years since its initial release Century Media re-releases "BEYOND THE FLESH" on CD and vinyl with remastered sound! After a phenomenal demo tape, SKELETAL REMAINS from California (USA) released their first full length album in 2012 which offers classic Death Metal from the rotten crypt and awakes the spirit of late 80s/ early 90s Morrisound stuff. If you like the early hymns of Gorguts, Pestilence, Death or Morgoth surely, you'll freak out with Skeletal Remains! "BEYOND THE FLESH" will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as Ltd. CD Edition (+ 4 Bonus tracks from “Desolate Isolation” Demo) and Gatefold LP (180g vinyl). Condemned to Misery (Re-issue) Half a decade since its initial release Century Media re-releases “CONDEMNED TO MISERY” on CD and vinyl with remastered sound! Three years after having released their studio debut album SKELETAL REMAINS dropped their second kick-ass Death Metal album. This is a Must-Have for fans of well-groomed Oldschool Death Metal. “CONDEMNED TO MISERY” will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as Ltd. CD Edition (+ 4 “live in Tokyo 2016”-tracks) and Gatefold LP (180g vinyl). Desolate Isolation – 10th Anniversary Edition Founded in 2011 Califonian Death Metal force SKELETAL REMAINS quickly evolved into one of the new driving forces within the hard-contested Death Metal landscape after releasing four powerful studio records. To celebrate the bands 10th anniversary Century Media releases something special and reissues the 2011 “Desolate Isolation” demo tape on 180g vinyl including various bonus content (4 “live in Tokyo 2016”-tracks, 3 bonus tracks) compiled from one decade of SKELETAL REMAINS band history. Featuring a brand-new artwork by Mark Riddick this release is the definitive SKELETAL REMAINS collectors’ item for every die-hard fan out there. “Desolate Isolation – 10th Anniversary Edition” will be re-released on May 21st and will be available as black LP and on all digital platforms.

One third of the drone trio France and part of the La Novia collective, Yann Gourdon's practice focuses on acoustic phenomena and dynamic relationships with the environment. Having learned to play traditional music from Auvergne by listening to field recordings, Gourdon re-orientates tradition via minimalism, honing in on a place or location's unique vibratory fields, volumes and surfaces.

Deep spiritual jazz recorded in Germany, performed by Jamaican born saxophone player Fitz Gore and his international group The Talismen, featuring a.o. bassist Gérard Ebbo from Morocco and drummer Philippe Zobda-Quitman from Martinique. This is the first reissue of their second album, released in 1976 by the small private label GorBra from Bonn, including "Delilah" and "Requiem For Julian Cannonball Adderley". The rare LP comes in a newly mastered version with original cover design and sleeve notes. Fitz Gore's music is full of tremendous tension and movement between deep seriousness, inwardness and humility; it affects your life, it liberates and heals.

Original sleeve notes from 1976:

"Soundmagnificat" is the successor to "Soundnitia" (GorBra Records F 665 532), the first release from the Talismen, an international group with Jamaican Tenor saxophonist Fitz Gore (born1935) as founder, spiritual and musical leader, main soloist. "Soundnitia" contained concert performances of June, 1975, including compositions by John Coltrane, Horace Silver and one by Gérard "Prof. Dr. Splüm" Ebbo, bassist of the Talismen.

This second offering from the Talismen is more varied. It has four tracks recorded at four different occasions. It presents Fitz Gore as a singer, a composer, as well as, a tenor saxophonist. The opener, Requiem for Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, is a moving tribute to a great American artist, the late alto saxophonist "Cannonball" Adderley. On this track, Hungarian drummer Janos Sudy is heard with the Talismen, for the first time. The playing by the quartet on this slow lament very adequately illustrates the mood of the composition

For the next piece, a concert performance, Gore selected a gem from the American Negro Song Tradition and he displays a mighty, masculine and soulful voice in Steal Away. An example of a modern artist using an old traditional to express his own inner feelings. Delilah is taken from another concert performance, the same concert as the music on "Soundnitia". It has extensive playing by Gore, a bass solo by Gérard Ebbo, leading into some exciting conga playing by Lamont Hampton.

The final track, A Sinner Kissed An Angel, was recorded by another tenor player, Wardell Gray, in 1950, but this version is all Gore's. After the piano introduction, Gore delivers the melody with authority and with an expressive use especially of the high register of his instrument. In his improvisation, Gore's playing becomes more dissonant. Some of his playing here causes me to think of the way the late Albert Ayler sounded on his first recordings done in Sweden, in the beginning of the 60s. No drums here, but nice accompaniment and solo work of Jochen Paul on vibes.

I met Fitz Gore in Copenhagen in the fall of 1975. We were both listening to the trumpet playing of Harry "Sweets" Edison at the now defunct Café Montmartre. Prior to that time, I did not know Gore and his music, but listening to his playing on this album and the earlier one, has once more widened my musical horizon. His music has struck some chords within me. "Music is communication", John Coltrane once said. I feel sure that as you listen to the music of Fitz Gore and his Talismen, you will get the message.

In these notes, I have mentioned a couple of jazz artists and another one ought to be named primarily, because he has meant a lot to Gore: Sonny Rollins. The two met in Paris in 1966. Gore says of Rollins: "He openend my eyes ...big man … phenomenon … my man". As Sonny Rollins's artistry, the music of Fitz Gore holds many aspects, some being aggressive and even hysterical, others being those of beauty and peace. As life itself … (Roland Baggenaes, June 1976)

The music of Fitz Gore, rooted in the blues, is full of tremendous tension and movement between deep seriousness, inwardness, humility and humor, hardness and tenderness; it affects your life, it liberates and heals - a hopeful, a truly groundbreaking, a timeless, a new music - Newsic!
(Gisela Braasch, 1976)

In memory of Fitz Gore.
Mastered 2020 by Roskow Kretschmann at Audiomoto,
kindly supported by Tom Sky. Vinyl cut at SST.
Producer for reissue: Ekkehart Fleischhammer,
reproduction of original cover design by Gisela Gore:
Patrick Haase aka rab.bit.

A singular group of ?experts? issues a notice of extraordinary urgency in the vicinity of various atmospheric phenomena, which are partially localized and, above all, of high intensity. Yet the sun shines with strength over the Neapolitan favela. ?Allerta Meteo? is the first album of sparkling sonics by The Funkin? Machine Collective and the newest release of Periodica Records? Pegaso Series, comprising a cross-section of jazz and funk sounds, with bright colors that are good for any season, whether rain or shine. The voice of Andres Balbucea - the binding soul of the opera - is supported by the unmistakable flow of Speaker Cenzou during the vibrant ''L'ora d'o Groove'', accompanied by the performances of Roberto Porzio on the synthesizers, Alessio Pignorio and Riccardo Betteghella on the guitars, Vincenzo Lamagna bass guitar, Andrea De Fazio drums, Paolo Bianconcini on percussions, and the extraordinary participation of Pietro Santangelo in the cinematic ''Django'' and Jeroen Verberne on Trombone in ''Rafiki''. An authentic wave of warm notes destined to overwhelm the most observant listener, the first hour followers and all the citizens.

AL presents the first musical collaboration between Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens and Japanese artist Miki Yui, operating out of Düsseldorf for almost 20 years now. Highly respected and hugely influential artist Asmus Tietchens first made his mark on the electronic music scene in the late 1970s, whereas Miki Yui debuted her sonic settings in1999.

Their first joint album NEUES BOOT envelops the listener with a poetic sound sensibility and a conceptual clarity which was processed and passed back and forth between their individual studios in Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

Asmus Tietchens: After Stefan Schneider suggested to release a Yui-Tietchens album on his TAL imprint Miki and I quickly developed some ideas towards our eventual collaboration. We agreed upon an ongoing mutual exchange of material. We have both been very familiar with each other's music for a long time and we found our individual approach towards sound design to be uniquely compatible. We do not use our electronic tools in order to merely achieve the maximum of technical possibilities, but to illustrate aesthetic necessities. This entails a deliberate reduction and refined perception of the sonic characteristics of the material. Only this approach enabled us to fully realise the complete spectrum of the sounds and noises we were working with in order to construct this New Boat. Each and everyone of my treatments is e x c l u s i v e l y based on a track supplied by Miki. I added no new sound sources. Naturally the spatial and temporal dimensions of the source material were thus altered. These transformations are exactly what makes our collaboration special and unique. Very early on we had agreed on New Boat as a working title and a guiding light . Of course in the beginning we had no idea where this New Boat might take us. Now we do know. After several months of ship-building the boat has now set sails for new sonic horizons. Ahoi!

Miki Yui: The title of the album as well as the individual tracks have been inspired by conversations with Asmus. When we had a chat after one of his concerts, he told me about Kōdō, the Art or the Way of the Scent. It is a 8th century Japanese incense ceremony. Very frequently the names of Japanese incense sticks are derived from natural themes, e.g. Bairin is the plum grove, the scent of the first blossom heralding the end of winter. This poetry, the ephemeral nature of the world reminded me of Kigo, words from a Haiku (a form of Japanese poetry), which reference a particular season or a natural phenomenon. So I chose the names of the individual pieces from Kigo as if The Boat was exploring nature whilst sailing through the seasons. Only in retrospect I realised that the titles combined create this poem:

Early spring a hazy view in the night (Oboro)
Plum groves (Bairin)
Over a Dayfly (Kagerou)
A Milkyway (Amanogawa)
Dawn (Akatsuki)
Art of fragrance (Kōdō)
On fragile thin ice (Usurai)

Buzzing new Glasgow five-piece VLURE release their hotly anticipated
debut 7” ‘Shattered Faith’ via London-based label Permanent Creeps
Records.
Bursting onto the scene at the dawn of 2020, VLURE introduced
themselves to the world with a live audio/visual performance of their
phenomenal track ‘Desire’, captured in beautiful cinematography from
the loading bay of their Glasgow studio space. Blurring the lines between
live electronics, jarring guitars and the performance sensibilities of their
post-punk contemporaries, the video offered a keyhole view into their
captivating live shows.
Combining synth laden hooks, heavy club influenced rhythms and
emotionally confronting lyrics, VLURE have already seen support from
the likes of So Young and Wax Music praising their life affirming, intense
and enigmatic live performances.
Recorded between the halls of a deconsecrated church in the heart of
the Scottish Borders, the self-produced ‘Shattered Faith’ is an indulgent,
genre bending coming of age anthem influenced by the rhythms,
repetitions and euphoric hooks of Glasgow’s thriving afterparty and club
scene with an angular post-punk foundation. Speaking on the track the
band explain: “We wanted to create something that felt at home on the
dancefloors that we all found ourselves on growing up, yet still equally at
home in the sweat-filled venues that the band was conceived in. At its
crux, ‘Shattered Faith’ is about self-empowerment. It’s the
disillusionment with where you are and what you’ve been given. It’s lying
on your kitchen floor at 3am realising who you truly are and finding
power in that - it’s a new lease of life. We believe that, if they want to find
it, there is something for everyone in this song.”
“There is nothing comparable - this is a new era of musically skeletal
human showmanship” - So Young Magazine
“Urgent, destructive and completely absorbing. Brutalist in form -
unyielding, massive-sounding, distinctive - their atmospheric, yearning
mood is overflowing with inclination and exposed tenderness -
vulnerable and exasperated. They pound the door down with every inch
of blood, sweat and tears in their vessels” - Wax Music
“This is post-punk, but not as you might familiarly expect” - Little Indie
Blogs
“One of Scotland’s most exciting new bands” - Tenement TV

The third installment of Numero’s ode to lowrider souldies, Rust Side Story compiles highly sought after sweet soul singles from the Buck Eye State. Prepare for a low and slow ride from Youngstown to Dayton, Cleveland to Columbus, Toledo to Cincinnati, all soundtracked with silky falsettos and dreamy harmonies

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’.

After NEF's album in 2019, Ici Bientôt is happy to present today the reissue of Comme Au Moulin by Nyssa Musique.

Paris 1985... ‘Extra-European’ Traditions meet Jazz and Minimal Music. An unusual array of instruments turn music into a dialogue. For a unique record ... vivid, full of texture, somewhere between Midori Takada, Don Cherry and Jon Hassell.

Beginning of the eighties, 5 musicians rehearse in a contemporary dance class hall, upstairs from the ‘’New Morning", renowned Music venue in Paris. Nyssa Musique is born. Passionate for a long time about traditional music, like those of the Middle East, India and East Asia, but also about African traditions, they throw a bridge between Jazz and ‘Extra-European’ traditions, resulting in what would be called "Spiritual Jazz" today, a little bit in the style of Don Cherry's Organic Music or Pharoah Sanders. With the notable difference, however, that their creations are strongly infused by contemporary classical and repetitive music, notably Steve Reich's work with whom they share a great interest for the traditional cultures of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and its gamelans.

In the original group we have Armand Amar, Ballet Music composer and John Boswell. Both specialists of traditional hand percussion which they had been studying for a long time in India and the Middle East, they are also very fond of synthesizers. Three other talented musicians quickly join them: Jean-François Roger, percussionist, marimba and vibraphone specialist, Henri Tournier, multi-flutist and Renaud Garcia-Fons, double bass player, who has a passion for the Middle East and has developed a virtuosic play of the bow, reminding that of Cecil Mc Bee.

Each of them enriches the ensemble with their personality, originality and musical generosity. The rehearsal hall is rapidly invaded by the phenomenal instrumentarium put together by Armand Amar. A great opportunity for the musicians, for the dancers, to have access to an endless choice of instruments, offering infinite possibilities for mixing different colors and timbres. Their sense for being a group and their great capacity for improvising culminates, in 1986, in the composition of their first and only album Comme au Moulin (« As by the windmill"), testimony of years of creating without hidden agenda.

Authentic, free and vibrant, still today, this album has no real equivalent. Even though it recalls the Fourth World current by its combination of traditional instruments with a subtle use of synthesizers, Comme au moulin gives more space to improvisation. It may also recall those of Midori Takada, less the New Age esthetics. An album that should delight as well lovers of "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane, of "Vernal Equinox" by Jon Hassell, as those of Moondog, an artist who, like them, invented a music based on the use of untypical percussions, at the confluence of 'Extra-European' traditions, Jazz and Classical, all together complex and hypnotic.

Zaumne's new album titled Élévation is a multifaceted yet subtle work, an abstract collage that is equally entrancing and immersive. Quoting passages from Baudelaire’s “Flowers of Evil”, the Polish musician promises to elevate the soul and consciousness “Beyond the sun / Beyond the ether”. Yet simultaneously, the artist wants us to stay where we are and focus on the immediate surroundings in search of our personal attachment to the world.

Initially recorded for the WET (Weird Erotic Tension) online community the four pieces are an exploration of erotic aspects of the environment and uncanny intimacy with other beings and objects that dwell in our nearest proximity. Just like on previous releases for labels like Czaszka Rec. or Perfect Aesthetics, on Élévation Zaumne maintains his interest in emotional aspects of sound and internet culture – he builds his compositions from fragments of ASMR-whispered poetry, samples of natural phenomena and field recordings from his family home and its environ.

What starts as an escapist exercise driven by uneasiness and ennui becomes an individual healing process, in which the subject rediscovers the strangely intimate relationship with the world and opens up to almost magical methods of communicating with other beings. ASMR samples and sounds of the artist touching, playing with and exciting different objects are an experiment in establishing contact with the non-human realm and a method of attuning the body and the mind to the reality in which everything is interconnected.

Zaumne tests Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” through radical, sensual intimacy with what’s near, finding a glimpse of the absolute in his own room, again quoting Baudelaire: “To a child who is fond of maps and engravings / The universe is the size of his immense hunger”.

Zaumne is the moniker of Polish musician Mateusz Olszewski. In the past few years, he has released music on labels like Magia, Perfect Aesthetics, BAS or Czaszka Rec. Élévation, released by Mondoj and initially commissioned by WET, is his first vinyl release. Blending elements of genres like ambient, dub, minimalism and tape music with ASMR samples, field recordings and spoken word, he creates work with deep emotional focus and impact.

Svart Records is proud to present The Limit. Punk & Doom originators go straight to the soul of heavy rock on their new album Caveman Logic to be released via Svart Records on the 9th of April 2021. More than a super-group, The Limit goes over the edge, to deliver real-deal, soulful Rock and Roll. Consisting of members of legendary Punk instigators The Stooges, the founders of Doom Rock Pentagram, legendary NYC Punk originators Testors and infamous Portugese metal band Dawnrider, The Limit break out from the foundations of heavy rock and defy all expectations, to show a new generation what doom and punk really means. On the new album Caveman Logic, Bobby Liebling, singer and main-man of Pentagram, one of the originators of early Doom Rock and an inspiration for generations of Heavy Rock fans, on vocals, gives the performance of his career, singing like his life depended on it. Sonny Vincent, enigmatic legend of the early NYC Max's Kansas City, CBGB Punk scene with his band Testors, having been on the road and recording with members of The Velvet Underground, lays down the guitar driven songs, his writing bearing all the hallmarks of ground-breaking Rock history in it’s filthy DNA. Phenomenal bass playing from Jimmy Recca, ex- The Stooges, and Ron Asheton’s New Order, gives The Limit the intense and world-class, speaker-destroying bottom end. Joined by Hugo Conim on Guitar and João Pedro Ventura on Drums from Portuguese band Dawnrider, The Limit fuses star-dust pedigree with an organic incendiary chemistry that’s instantly raw and real. A dream come true to those that know their Doom/Punk history, The Limit brings the past right up to date on Caveman Logic, with an essential, burning passion at the heart of their songs. Seldom has a collaboration of well known stars in music sounded so vigorous and frenzied as The Limit’s caveman-like roar. The Limit is an astoundingly fresh and hot-blooded shot to the veins that Heavy Rock needs in this day and age. Conjured forth by stone-age pioneers, Caveman Logic goes to the heart of impassioned Heavy Rock and Punk, to deliver the basic and vital elements often missing in so much of today’s music. If you want primitive and straight to the soul primal rock, fresh from the grave and exhumed for a new unwitting future, look no further than Caveman Logic. This is it.

Svart Records is proud to present The Limit. Punk & Doom originators go straight to the soul of heavy rock on their new album Caveman Logic to be released via Svart Records on the 9th of April 2021. More than a super-group, The Limit goes over the edge, to deliver real-deal, soulful Rock and Roll. Consisting of members of legendary Punk instigators The Stooges, the founders of Doom Rock Pentagram, legendary NYC Punk originators Testors and infamous Portugese metal band Dawnrider, The Limit break out from the foundations of heavy rock and defy all expectations, to show a new generation what doom and punk really means. On the new album Caveman Logic, Bobby Liebling, singer and main-man of Pentagram, one of the originators of early Doom Rock and an inspiration for generations of Heavy Rock fans, on vocals, gives the performance of his career, singing like his life depended on it. Sonny Vincent, enigmatic legend of the early NYC Max's Kansas City, CBGB Punk scene with his band Testors, having been on the road and recording with members of The Velvet Underground, lays down the guitar driven songs, his writing bearing all the hallmarks of ground-breaking Rock history in it’s filthy DNA. Phenomenal bass playing from Jimmy Recca, ex- The Stooges, and Ron Asheton’s New Order, gives The Limit the intense and world-class, speaker-destroying bottom end. Joined by Hugo Conim on Guitar and João Pedro Ventura on Drums from Portuguese band Dawnrider, The Limit fuses star-dust pedigree with an organic incendiary chemistry that’s instantly raw and real. A dream come true to those that know their Doom/Punk history, The Limit brings the past right up to date on Caveman Logic, with an essential, burning passion at the heart of their songs. Seldom has a collaboration of well known stars in music sounded so vigorous and frenzied as The Limit’s caveman-like roar. The Limit is an astoundingly fresh and hot-blooded shot to the veins that Heavy Rock needs in this day and age. Conjured forth by stone-age pioneers, Caveman Logic goes to the heart of impassioned Heavy Rock and Punk, to deliver the basic and vital elements often missing in so much of today’s music. If you want primitive and straight to the soul primal rock, fresh from the grave and exhumed for a new unwitting future, look no further than Caveman Logic. This is it.

The Young Gods’s classic debut album to be reissued on vinyl including a previously unreleased John Peel Session.

On 9th April 2021, Two Gentlemen will release a first vinyl reissue of The Young Gods’s 1987 studio album ‘The Young Gods’. Released in April 1987 on Organik and Wax Trax! Records, this sample-based record produced by Roli Mosimann is much more than


an album, it is a phenomenon - a musical revolution which appears as a milestone in the alternative music scene. Hailed by international critics, The Young Gods received a unique attention from the British music press:

‘A firestorm, a total, catastrophic sweep across the scattered fragments of rock history and rock dilapidation, “The Young Gods” used sampling not out of some nostalgic sense of mischief but to whip up everything into a hurricane of charcoal. The ultimate in technology to release the most determindely savage sound of the year. We repeat this is the future.’ — Melody Maker, Best Album of 1987

The Young Gods 1987 reissue album was remastered from the original recordings and is being released on 140 gram heavyweight vinyl.

Zwerm is a Belgian-Dutch electric guitar quartet (with a backyard rehearsal shed located in Antwerp) that operates along the borders between styles and traverses traditions that are typically not convergent. Zwerm rhymes Larry Polansky with Nadah El Shazly and are galvanized by the likes of guitars pioneers like The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, the microtonal DYI-er Harry Partch, Middle Eastern sonorities and the prog-madness of Kind Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. ‘Musical adventure’ is not just a hollow cliché for this quartet, but a genuine commitment. Zwerm calls itself a ‘guitar quartet’, but that can be interpreted broadly as well as with a pinch of salt: “If we want to do something on instruments we don’t really master, we’ll just figure out a way to make it work.”
Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Kobe van Cauwenberghe and Bruno Nelissen all met in 2007 while working on a project with Glenn Branca. A new guitar quartet was born and it became clear rather quickly that staying in the strictly contemporary compositions lane was not for this quartet-with-five-to-six-members (an organizational chart is available upon request).
An appetite for new and lasting collaborations has been a constant theme throughout their artistic parcours. The group has shared stages with theatrical producers like Walpurgis and Post uit Hessdalen, dancers such as Ecce and with the musicians Fred Frith, Stephen O’Malley, Shiva Feshareki, Rudy Trouvé, Mauro Pawlowski, Larry Polansky, Eric Thielemans, Yannis Kyriakides, François Sarhan, Serge Verstockt and Stefan Prins. These projects have not always translated into records, but they have been decisive in creating a unique musical approach. In 2015, when Zwerm was asked by De Handelsbeurs to collaborate with Fred Frith, they proceeded to pen a few new musical sketches over which Firth sublimely improvised. In 2018 ‘Badminton in Tehran’ was released, their first record that was made up completely of only the group’s compositions.
“a basket full of buttons here
and if you push the wrong one: fear
and if you push the right one: love
or maybe none of the above”
The route that Zwerm has taken is often defined by the question “What if... ?” - like a dart thrown at a musical map, not quite blindly, but naive enough to lead to unexpected endings.
“What if we play Renaissance pieces written by John Dowland, but instead of playing lutes we play these tunes with a Telecaster – and then jam it through effect pedals and an amplifier?”
“What if we connect one hundred guitar pedals and just leave our guitars at home?”
“What if we record a record with ten different one-page-pieces that we found on the Internet?”
In 2020 our metaphorical dart landed on “What if we tried microtonality?”.
‘Microtonality’ sounds a bit creepy, but actually there is nothing to be afraid of: there are no out-of- tune notes, just alternate notes. On the continents where Western musical theory is less stringently applied, microtonality is the rule, and has become the subject of many deep and thoughtfully written theories. However for Zwerm, this phenomenon occurs in many, often surprisingly lighthearted forms. A dilapidated piano that has settled into a beautiful microtonal tuning of its own accord, enthusiastic choral singing, a guitar whose three strings are tuned a quarter-tone higher, a saz (Turkishquarter-tone lute), a maddening guitar pedal, ...
"the dreams they were convicted for telling only lies reality came after for claiming to be wise what you don’t see is what you get just never light a spark I’m a crow in the dark”
“And… what if we work with a drummer?” Enter Karen Willems - dummer, extraordinaire, and ardent player in groups, projects and collaborations galore. One chance meeting and the deal was done. It was obvious before the start that Willems was the versatile and creative percussionist-in-a-toy-store necessary for this project. And in the studio, to our delight, she demonstrated an easy dexterity when switching quickly from one idea to the next.
At the reins behind the scenes was producer Rudy Trouvé, who – during previous sessions for ‘Badminton in Terhran’, when the classically trained guitarists went completely off the rails, staring deeply and forlornly into their scores, looking for answers – was able to pinpoint the problem and get the wagons rolling in the right direction again. Completing the team were Mark Dedecker (recording)and Joris Calluwaerts (mixing).
The results are in and it’s called ‘ Great Expectations’ – a title that, in several ways, fits perfectly with these strange times.‘Great Expectations’ goes wide! Zwerm is at its best when it can run along the borders between style and across traditions that otherwise would not necessarily intersect. The most straightforward rockers have a proggy tinge while the dreamy psychedelic songs lean more toward Richard Youngs. And if a nice melody dared come to close to becoming a ‘Kit-Katjingle’, then barbs-a-la-Pere-Ubu were trailed, tracked, found and promptly embedded. ‘Heavy Machinery’ sits neatly somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Richard Wagner, and ‘On My Way To Aguno’, set to an Iranian folk song chord progression, grew into a hyper-personal lullaby. Zwerm used the saz (Turkish lute) and the sinter (Moroccan gnawa bass instrument) without falling into pastiche psychedelia, but you can still sense the orient.

“Gyropedie,” Anne Guthrie’s third record for Students of Decay, takes us further into her hermetic practice, wherein expertly captured field recordings, French horn, and electronics are woven into potent and richly imagined electroacoustic environments. In Guthrie’s own words, “Quite literally a record of pilgrimage from East to West. Remnants of Midwest and East Coast soundmarks, instruments sold to lighten the travel load, sketched out and then buried under the new. Winter birds and crunching snow, frozen playgrounds, broken synths - I spent a year decoupaging over this, but of course it's still there. A second moon appears occasionally in the daytime, and there are frequent, murky transmissions. California has something alien about it I'm still trying to grasp. Primarily vintage, unabashed, corny, I find myself becoming an impressionist.”

Anne Guthrie is an acoustician, composer, and French horn player. She studied music composition and english at the University of Iowa and architectural acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she completed her Ph.D in 2014. Her music combines her knowledge of acoustics and contemporary composition/improvisation. Her electronic music has focused on exploiting the natural acoustic phenomena of unique architectural spaces through minimal processing of field recordings. Her composition has focused on the orchestration of non-musical sounds, speech in particular. Her French horn playing has focused on electronic processing and extended techniques used in improvisatory settings, as a soloist and with Fraufraulein and Delicate Sen, among others. Her acoustics research has focused on the use of ambisonics for stage acoustics.

Saturations is a composition by Danish multidisciplinary artist Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard, and features a clarinet choir consisting of 19(!) clarinet players.

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard (b. 1979) considers his work to be a basic research in realities working within the domains of imaginary & physical sound as well as other non-sonic media, and since 2012 Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard has experimented with creating music that lets the instruments transcend their inherent sonic norms and reappear in another form by way of multiplication of sound.

His work with multiplication of sound has led to numerous compositions in which one instrument is multiplied a number of times: One piece is written for 9 pianos, another for 10 hi-hats and yet another for countless triangles and so on.

The multiplication brings out bodily timbral phenomena, interference of sound waves and vibrations, and brings out what Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard calls the sound’s potential of transformation. He describes this as the quality in a musical piece, when you no longer hear recognizable instruments, but instead the individual sound, as well as the individual musician, is dissolved into the collective sound.

A sonic as well as human synthesis.

He explains the concept of this sound as follows:

“Imagine you enter a room with vibrant acoustics, such as a cafe full of people having conversations, and when you’re close to those conversations you hear the language and understand the words. If you step away from the tables, however, and stand in the doorway, you begin to loose the ability to distinguish the words from one another. Now instead of hearing the individual conversations, melts all the conversations together, and transform into a one new sound. A sound of people without words and language. Just as when you hear a group of geese squawk, or the wind in tree tops, a kind of nature given sound of people. Once the language is dissolved and the words stop making sense, what is left, is the sound."

The work of NLL has been presented at a variety of different venues and museums such as MoMA (NY - as a part of the René Magritte exhibition The Mystery of the Ordinary, 2013), Imaginary West Indies (Overgaden Copenhagen, 2017), ISCM (Vancouver, 2017), Radiophrenia (Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, 2017), CPH:DOX (Copenhagen, 2017), Roskilde Festival (2017), Harpa (Reykjavik, 2017), G((o))ng Tomorrow Festival (Copenhagen 2016, 2018), Nordic Music Days (Norway, 2019), Akusmata (SF, 2020) and his works has been released on labels such as Topos (DK), Archive Officielle (CA) and Important Records (US). NLL is associate professor at RMC in Copenhagen, and has given lectures at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Goldsmiths University of London a.o.p. NLL has been awarded with several prizes a.o. from the Danish Art Foundation and the Sonning Foundation.

Altar De Fey originated in San Francisco in the early 1980’s as part of the emerging musical form that would come to be
known as Deathrock. Out of the Zeitgeist flash of 70’s Punk Rock the new sound took the darkest elements of the counter
culture into ever deeper, gloomier and more mature territory.
Performing at legendary San Francisco venues Mabuhay Gardens, Graffiti, The Nightbreak and the rest billed with
Christian Death, 45 Grave, and all the fellow architects of West Coast Post Punk.
The original incarnation passed through a rotating cast of characters centered strongly by the vision and experimental
guitar of founding member Kent Cates. Eschewing the conventional chord progression/solo form entirely Cates’s guitar spins
strands of melody and rhythm, tone and texture in a style that to this day is all his own. The mood was perfected with the
innovative tribal drumming of Aleph Kali and Butch Mason’s haunted confrontational vocals.
Though the band had a strong base of support, no original recordings were ever released and the young members
carried on into new musical endeavors. By 1988 ADF disbanded.
Years upon years passed yet the name was never completely forgotten. As Goth Punk culture persisted, grew and
developed over time the band began to take on a kind of legendary hue among fans in the know; The lost mysterious
phenomenon of Altar De Fey. -There was a kind of poetry to it. Finally in 2011, when asked if they would play a reunion for a
festival in San Francisco Kent and Aleph surprised everyone by answering yes.
Reforming originally as a 2 piece with a drum machine Kent on guitar and Aleph on vocals to an enthusiastic reception,
the duo enjoyed it so much they decided to continue the momentum and quickly added Skot Brown on bass, Aleph switched
over to live drums, and Jake Hout was added on vocals. The new line up debuted in April of 2012 and has continued
regularly performing songs from the original 80’s catalogue and steadily adding new material ever since.
A new generation of underground Deathrock music is growing across the world, in closer, more direct communication
than ever before, and interest in the band has quickly escalated.
This unique compilation brings you 11 original ADF songs recorded between 1984-1986 (demos, rehearsal records, live
records). If you are into classic Christian Death, 45 Grave, Kommunity FK, Burning Image etc. grab this gem now before it’s
too late!