The 4th in the Transhumanism series is here. These four now well established Dutch producers approach Electro from their own angles, resulting in four energetic cuts ranging from the haunting vocal laced work of TFHats to the swirling darkness of RXmode.
The successful Transhumanism series has been supported by the likes of Dave Clarke, Juan Atkins, Helena Hauff, UMEK, Alienata and many others.
“We have always been very fortunate to meet and know many talented producers. In recent years, we have been exploring those relationships with different remixes and collaborations, and every time something exciting came out. That’s why we started our Synchronicity project. To challenge ourselves making inspiring, fun and beautiful music.‘Synchronicity’ means "the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. This very well describes how our path led to the place we are now – somewhere between the club and indie scenes.” – WhoMadeWho
KOMPAKT welcomes back Copenhagen’s WhoMadeWho. Tomas Barfod’s penchant for electronic music poetically juxtaposed with Tomas Høffding and Jeppe Kjellberg’s respective backgrounds in rock and jazz, gives their music an electrifying combination of sounds, merging a variety of influences to produce a unique sonic fingerprint that is emotive, irresistible and immensely satisfying.
Though we both have yet to strike a note together since the release of their 2012 full length “Brighter” (KOM 254), WhoMadeWho have been remarkably productive. With two full lengths, a DJ mix for Watergate’s series and releasing two of 2019’s most played out club tracks together with Rampa (Innervisions) and Artbat (Watergate Records), the trio have found themselves diving more and more into the world of electronic music, tapping into their goldmine of connections within the scene to spearhead an array of collaborations.
Synchronicity is all about ‘meaningful coincidences’ – bringing interpretation to bear on connections that have no actual causal relationship. It’s a canny concept to pin onto Copenhagen trio WhoMadeWho’s latest album, which sees them return to Kompakt for the first time since 2012’s Brighter.
This re-established connection helps us to understand the synchronicity at play, the way that the WhoMadeWho core ave built an album around collaboration with friends and peers, much as Kompakt is all about cross-connections and family. On Synchronicity, WhoMadeWho call on friends old and new – Michael Mayer, Echonomist, Adana Twins, Alex Boman, Robag Wruhme, Frank Wiedemann, Sainte Vie, Mano Le Tough, Marc Piñol, Rebolledo, and Perel is the cast list; WhoMadeWho direct the material, shaping it into one lovingly flowing gem of dance-pop glory.
There’s something particularly generous about hearing an album as all-inclusive and open-hearted as Synchronicity in the midst of the profound social and cultural shifts we’re currently experiencing. While some songs on Synchronicity were recorded together, in real time, such as the collaborations with Adana Twins and Rebolledo, most of them have taken place via long distance, thanks to the pandemic lockdown. But you don’t need to know who was where to understand either the magnesium-flare melancholy of “Sooner”, recorded with Piñol, which has you holding your breath with the gentle thrill of the song’s lush melody, or the stomping strut of the following Adana Twins collaboration, “Shadow Of Doubt”.
Elsewhere, there’s the stentorian robot voice at the heart of “Hamstring”, where they’re joined by Michael Mayer; the lustrous headsoak of “Twenty Tears”, a tender intervention by Rebolledo; the strip-light, slow-motion disco strut of “Cecil”, produced alongside Echonomist; or the glittering, arpeggio dreamwork that Perel helps sculpt into shape on “Der Abend birgt keine Ruh.”… Really, there’s so much to celebrate here, a panoply of pleasures. From pop revelations to dancefloor delirium to slow-burning brooders, Synchronicity is just that; a space for the joys of the unexpected to collide, and to be given meaning by their coincidental co-existence in WhoMadeWho’s beautiful world.
"Wir hatten immer schon das Glück, viele talentierte Produzenten kennenzulernen. In den letzten Jahren haben wir diese Beziehungen durch verschiedene Remixe und Kollaborationen vertieft und jedes Mal kam etwas Aufregendes dabei heraus. Aus diesem Grund haben wir unser Synchronicity-Projekt gestartet: um uns selbst herauszufordern inspirierte, lustige und schöne Musik zu machen. “Synchronizität” bedeutet das gleichzeitige Auftreten von Ereignissen, die scheinbar in einem signifikanten Zusammenhang stehen, aber keinen erkennbaren kausalen Zusammenhang haben. Das beschreibt sehr gut, wie unser Weg zu dem Ort geführt hat, an dem wir jetzt sind - irgendwo zwischen der Club- und der Indie-Szene". – WhoMadeWho
KOMPAKT freut sich über Rückkehr der Kopenhagener Band WhoMadeWho. Tomas Barfods Vorliebe für elektronische Musik im poetischen Kontrast zu Tomas Høffding und Jeppe Kjellbergs jeweiligem Hintergrund im Rock und Jazz macht ihre Musik zu einem elektrisierenden Konglomerat, in das verschiedene Einflüsse zu einem einzigartigen klanglichen Fingerabdruck verschmelzen: gefühlvoll, unwiderstehlich und immens befriedigend.
Obwohl wir seit der Veröffentlichung von "Brighter" (KOM 254) in 2012 keine gemeinsamen Dinger gedreht haben, waren WhoMadeWho in der Zwischenzeit bemerkenswert produktiv. Mit zwei Full-Length-Alben, einem DJ-Mix für die Watergate-Reihe und der Veröffentlichung von zwei der meistgespielten Clubtracks aus dem Jahr 2019 zusammen mit Rampa (Innervisions) und Artbat (Watergate Records), taucht das Trio mehr und mehr in die Welt der elektronischen Musik ein. Für ihre Kollaborationen greifen WhoMadeWho immer wieder auf ihre Goldgrube an Bekanntschaften innerhalb der Szene zurück.
Bei “Synchronicity” geht es um "sinnvolle Zufälle" - also um die Interpretation von Verbindungen, die keinen tatsächlichen Kausalzusammenhang haben. Es ist ein ausgeklügeltes Konzept, das dem neuesten Album des Kopenhagener Trios WhoMadeWho anheftet: Diese wieder hergestellte Verbindung hilft uns, die Synchronizität im Spiel zu verstehen; die Art und Weise, wie WhoMadeWho ein Album um die Zusammenarbeit mit Freunden und Gleichgesinnten herum aufgebaut hat: schließlich geht es auch bei Kompakt um Querverbindungen und Familie. Auf Synchronicity richten sich WhoMadeWho an alte und neue Freunde: Michael Mayer, Echonomist, Adana Twins, Axel Boman, Robag Wruhme, Frank Wiedemann, Terr, Sainte Vie, Mano Le Tough, Marc Piñol, Rebolledo und Perel stehen auf der Liste. Das Trio führt Regie und sorgt für den Feinschliff. Das Ergebnis: ein echtes Juwel aus Dance, Pop und Glorie.
Inmitten der tiefgreifenden sozialen und kulturellen Veränderungen, die wir derzeit erleben, ist es etwas Besonderes, ein Album zu hören, das so offenherzig ist wie “Synchronicity”. Zwar wurden einige Songs gemeinsam und in Echtzeit aufgenommen – etwa die Kollaboration mit den Adana Twins und Rebolledo – die meisten Sessions fanden aufgrund der Pandemie jedoch über größere Entfernungen statt. Letztlich muss man aber gar nicht wissen wer wo war, um die Melancholie von "Sooner" mit Marc Piñol zu verstehen und im sanften melodischen Rausch des Liedes den Atem anzuhalten. Auch die eher brachiale Energie der darauf folgenden Adana-Twins-Kollaboration , "Shadow Of Doubt" vermittelt sich eingehend über die soziale Distanz hinweg.
An anderer Stelle ertönt die schallende Roboterstimme im Herzen von "Hamstring", wo sich Michael Mayer zu ihnen gesellt; die schimmernden "Twenty Tears", einer zärtlichen Intervention von Rebolledo; der Zeitlupen- Disco-Nummer "Cecil", die zusammen mit Echonomist produziert wurde; oder der glitzernde Arpeggio-Traum, den Perel in "Der Abend birgt keine Ruh" in Form bringt.. Ja, es gibt tatsächlich einiges zu feiern: Von Pop-Enthüllungen über Dancefloor-Delirium bis hin zu Stücken, die sich ihre Zeit nehmen - Synchronicity bietet Platz für all das; das Album spendet Raum, in dem die Freuden des Unerwarteten aufeinanderprallen und durch ihr zufälliges Nebeneinander in der Welt von WhoMadeWho Sinn ergeben.
Subheim adds a new chapter to his catalog of shadowy raves with ΠΟΛΙΣ – the fourth long player. Pronounced "Polis," the Greek word for "city," ΠΟΛΙΣ doesn't so much evoke the rapid cadences of life in a modern metropolis as it does the unspoken tension between longing to escape and being trapped in some kind of concrete stasis – living together with millions of souls in an expansive emptiness.
Subheim uses ΠΟΛΙΣ as a vehicle to depart from traditional songwriting structures, crafting each track as a piece of a larger sonic collage. Songs come out of nowhere, abruptly come to end before they even get a chance to start or introduce new motifs and surprise reprises long after we expect the next track to cue up. These stutter-start forms reflect the four years it took for the record to take shape: a series of failed musical experiments, indecision, balancing an unstoppable creative drive with the unavoidable emotional ebb and flow of life.
Though this is clearly Subheim working at a new level, listeners will recognize the sound of ΠΟΛΙΣ instantly as his, with both hints of the IDM/electronica of Approach era and the unmistaken human element that is present in all his work. The natural, off-grid time feel of the record is effortlessly augmented with field recordings and found sounds, this time around with the addition of more grit and power, and with heavier use of analog synthesizers.
Despite the album being born out of a feeling of alienation from one’s surroundings, it's impossible to ignore the sense of hope that runs through this LP. In ΠΟΛΙΣ, we hear an arrival at a deeper understanding of oneself, an inner peace amidst the decay and a cautious optimism that comes from someone who just happens to feel most at home in darkness.
The debut album from writer and artist Holly Childs and artist Gediminas Žygus formerly known as J.G. Biberkopf.
Initiated in 2017, Hydrangea grew out of a series of performances emphasising conspiracies and the designer realities that they generate. Navigating a tangle of digitally induced subjectivities and relationships, Hydrangea sees Childs & Žygus amidst a continuously evaporating world in which narratives dissolve, leak, fold in on themselves and loop.
Childs & Žygus ask: As individuals are siloed online, can rifts in reality ever be reconciled? Is history a form of science fiction? And are narrators ever reliable? The process of creating Hydrangea was defined by the search for a form to bind fiction, poetry, and musical experience. Its narrative is influenced by technical instructions, lectures and whispered conversations, in which slippage and floating focus can create new meanings in the listener that weren’t intended by the speaker.
Aspects of physical and informational security including passwords, codes, locks and obstacles speak to the ways in which meaning or material can be locked, unlocked or instrumentalised for a range of potential outcomes. Hydrangea reflects on the Machiavellian strategies of political ideologists such as Steve Bannon, Aleksandr Dugin and Vladislav Surkov who have made use of contemporary and postmodern artistic strategies to design narrative uncertainty—covertly braiding together questionable truths, slippery narratives and bespoke reinterpretations of history for undisclosed political ends.
"Hydrangea’s Just the Password Though, Right?"
Childs & Žygus employ a musical language that layers their cumulative practices and experiences. The compositions are cinematic and spatial, working with the illustrative qualities of Disneyesque string melodies and taking cues from Maurice Ravel’s impressionistic piano works.
The work is also influenced by both artists’ lifelong experiences of rave culture, beginning for Žygus during childhood in newly independent Lithuania, spending time juggling Disney and happy hardcore cassettes on the family stereo, and for Childs as a preteen in Australia, tagging along with her sisters to doofs and warehouse parties. Initiated while the artists were both working between Amsterdam and Rotterdam in 2017, the work also draws on Dutch gabber music.
Hydrangea’s development has been influenced by collaboration with artists and filmmakers Metahaven, who created the album art.
Holly Childs is a writer and artist. Her research involves filtering stories of computation through frames of ecology, earth, memory, poetry, and light. She is the author of two books: No Limit (Hologram) and Danklands (Arcadia Missa); and has presented her work at ICA (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Trust (Berlin), Elam School of Art (Auckland) and more.
Gediminas Žygus is an artist working within the fields of sound, documentary and performance. Their practice assembles a spectrum of influences deriving from architecture, ecology, ethnography, science studies, and media theory. As J.G. Biberkopf, their releases have found homes on Knives and Danse Noire. Žygus has performed at Barbican Centre (London), Berghain (Berlin), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), and Centre Pompidou (Paris), among others. credits
Despite current circumstances, Speedy have had a busy year. The London-based label run by producer Dan Carey alongside Alexis Smith and Pierre Hall were recently coveted with the Best Small Label Award by AIM after being nominated for the second year in a row. Carey also picked up UK Producer Of The Year earlier in the year at the prestigious Music Producer Guild Awards. He also produced the critically acclaimed sophomore album ‘A Hero’s Death’ by Fontaines D.C. which landed a welldocumented No. 2 position in the official album charts.
Speedy Wunderground released their fastest ever selling 7” - The Lounge Society’s timely tour de force ‘Generation Game’, the second band to be signed to the label for a forthcoming EP release following Squid’s ‘Town Centre’ EP in 2019. They also announced the label’s first ever full album release - Tiña’s ‘Positive Mental Health Music’, with recent single ‘Golden Rope’ having just come off the A-list at 6 Music.
Bringing bands into the studio wasn’t an option so the label started an ongoing project called ‘The Quarantine Series’ in which Carey under his Savage Gary techno/electronic alter ego collaborated with artists and friends, old and new over the internet and then uploaded them to the label’s Soundcloud/socials with little or no fanfare - no PR-ing or radio pluggers, just let the bands do their own thing, organically.
The common thread throughout all is Carey, whether it be in his regular name or his Savage Gary guise. However, collaborators in the series so far have included a wide range of people: Kae Tempest, PVA, Willy Mason, Heartworms, Warmduscher, Charlotte Spiral, Boxed In, Stephen Fretwell, Goat Girl and more.
“We chose two tracks/artists that I think we really wanted to shed some more light on” says label co-runner Pierre Hall. “Two that we really didn’t want to go under the radar - and in our opinion reflect this parallel strand of the label that’s forming - with new artists we’re really excited about - and that will hopefully draw people in to explore the series as a whole.”
First on the release is ‘Wait & See’ from rising Bajan artist RoRo. A hypnotic masterful flow which meanders seamlessly around Carey’s pulsating electronics. It’s bursting with attitude and originality. “I saw Dan Carey play with Kate Tempest on one of my first few times ever being out in London” she says, “it was such an amazing show. I was extremely excited to then get the chance to work with him. I’d been trying to do so while in London, but it didn't quite work out that way. We did manage to make it happen remotely whilst I was back in Barbados though, and we knocked it out!”
Second is ‘Cigarettes Pt. 2’ from the enigmatic Londoner youngblackmale AKA Rutare Savage: “It’s a poem, transformed into a song by the ever amazing Dan Carey. It touches (lightly) upon the topics of fear of the police, drug and alcohol abuse, family, and pulling oneself out of a nihilistic worldview driven by a newfound lust for life. This is me trying to reason with the void.”
A contemporary dance score for award winning British choreographer Wayne McGregor inspired by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872-1929). 'My composer for Dyad, Icelandic musician ?lafur Arnalds, is coming in next week to finish work on the score. It's an amazing piece of music ? it's melancholic and spatial then cuts to extreme rhythmic violence - it's hauntingly inspiring' ? Wayne McGregor (Random Dance) 2009 has already proved quite a year for Iceland's neo-classical export ?lafur Arnalds. Still high on the success of his 7-song series 'Found Songs' ? recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter; ?lafur was approached by the world renowned and critically acclaimed choreographer Wayne McGregor to create a 30-minute score for his ambitious new work 'Dyad 1909'. The dance piece, inspired and created 'In The Spirit of Diaghilev' premiered at the Sadler's Wells theatre this October and became an unpredictable and much talked about 5-nights of live music, dance and visuals. This 'fascinating collaboration' (Guardian) will go on a EU-wide tour this autumn with Arnalds included in an impressive creative line-up alongside visual artists and filmmakers Jane and Louise Wilson. In December ?lafur's 'evocative and lyrical score' (The Times) will see a 10" vinyl, CD and digital release via Erased Tapes ? the label behind his previous releases as well as Peter Broderick's recent and much noted dance score release 'Music For Falling From Trees'. Born in 1987, ?lafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsb?r, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjav?k. He has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics which makes him a perfect fit for cinematic pop label Erased Tapes. His motivations are clear: "The classical scene is kind of closed to people who haven't been studying music all their lives. I would like to bring my classical influence to the people who don't usually listen to this kind of music?open people's minds." This young artist is steadily gaining recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut 'Eulogy for Evolution' and the 2008 follow-up EP 'Variations of Static'. In April 2009 online experiment 'Found Songs' received more than 200,000 downloads via foundsongs.erasedtapes and the physical edition released this August has instantly become a best seller, demonstrating that music in its physical format still attains a particular charm. ?lafur conceived 'Found Songs' as a way to collate several lost and found musical sketches and ideas in a 'very challenging, but fun' series. The experiment offers its listeners an intimate insight into ?lafur Arnalds' creative world with artwork contributions from fans via Flickr. With the next full-length release due in 2010, 'Found Songs' hasn't just inspired 2-D work. Esteban Di?cono ? a young motion graphic artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina ? created an astonishing animation video for 'Lj?si?', which found its way into the heart of UK illusionist Darren Brown among over 400,000 others within 4 weeks via Vimeo and YouTube. The music video is now available for download via iTunes. ?lafur is currently in the studio with Bardi Johannsson (Bang Gang) who will be co-producing his upcoming and highly anticipated second full-length album.
In August 2016 Ultramarine created a photo film featuring photographs from Ian Cooper's Survey East website which focuses on a particular stretch of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex.
The film (and accompanying soundtrack) was screened on rotation at the Caught By The River Thames festival at Fulham Palace in London.
For this original Blackwaterside audio/print project, Ultramarine created two new pieces of music inspired by their time working close to the estuary. Glasgow based printmaker/sculptor Bronwen Sleigh visited this remote corner of Essex to sketch and draw, using these visual references to create a lithograph, printed in three colours, which features on the cover of the book accompanying the 7" single.
The book features a series of Ian Cooper's original photographs, alongside poetry by the writer Philip Terry, inspired by the Essex coast, taken from his book Quennets.
- Originally released by publishing imprint Random Spectacular
- Re-released by Blackford Hill with obi strip
- 7" vinyl single
- 28-page booklet of photographs and poetry
- Wraparound cover by printmaker Bronwen Sleigh
- Digital download card (including an extra 16 minutes of bonus audio)
- Limited edition of 350 copies
- Played by Nick Luscombe on BBC Radio 3 'Late Junction'
- Played by Gideon Coe on BBC Radio 6
blue LP[25,63 €]
Blue Note 1963 - Classic Vinyl Reissue Series Lee Morgan’s magnum opus The Sidewinder — recorded in 1963 and release in 1964 — was both a comeback and a coronation. The prodigious trumpeter had debuted on Blue Note in 1956 at the age of 18, but personal problems in the early-60s forced him off the scene temporarily. His rebound recording turned out to be The Sidewinder, an assured and energetic set of 5 indelible Morgan originals featuring tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Barry Harris, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins. The album became his biggest commercial success fuelled by the irrepressible title track.
Icelandic contemporary composer Olafur Arnalds created and released a new song, one per day for one for one whole week during the month of October 2011. The songs were recorded and filmed live in the living room of his Reykjavik apartment and released instantly for free as streamed videos and mp3 downloads. Thousands of fans followed this exciting project online at: livingroomsongs.olafurarnalds Living Room Songs will now also be released on CD, Vinyl and as High Quality Downloads via Erased Tapes on December 5th, 2011. Following in the spirit of ?lafur Arnalds' critically acclaimed Found Songs (2009) where he wrote, recorded and released a free song every day for a week - now comes Living Room Songs. This time ?lafur takes the idea further and invites the audience into the comfort of his living room, where the songs were recorded live and the whole process filmed. The songs were instantly released in form of a free mp3 download and video stream- straight from ?lafur's Reykjavik apartment. In his own words: 'One night I was just playing my piano here in this apartment and I was writing a new song and I didn't have my phone on me which I usually use to record ideas. So I actually took out my MacBook and I didn't want to open like a proper recording program, so I just opened Photo Booth and recorded a video of myself playing the song so that I would remember the song. And I really liked the atmosphere of that video and that's when I thought I should do a series of songs in my living room...' ? ?lafur Arnalds
Killer tape from YPY, group A, Kohhei Matsuda(Bo Ningen), Kenichi Iwasa + Tot Onyx(group A).
group A's charity compilation series "NO Recording" spotlights on over 1000 unreleased tracks, improv sessions and random recordings from our past. In order to act fast to emergency campaigns, fundraisings and people who are in need of help, the strict "no additional recordings" rule is set and instead we challenge ourselves to cook with what we have in our fridge. Rough edges and unfinishedness are left partially unintentionally; most of the demos and jam sessions were recorded direct to stereo, hence the mixing is limited, and partially intentionally as a part of the process of chance operations (we also just like it rough). This method allows us to break our own preconceptions and discover new comprehensions.
Vol.2 features YPY(goat), Kohhei Matsuda(Bo Ningen), Kenichi Iwasa, Tot Onyx(group A) and group A. This time all of us naturally took a more bricolage way of composing, which gave us a lot of new inspirations and comprehensions. It's going to be limited to 150 cassettes with hand-made covers (incl. digital DL code). This release celebrates 75years anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing and we will donate all the proceeds to ICAN, The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
About "NO Recording"
We started this charity compilation series this year in order to keep donating to communities in need of help, while we ourselves are having a financially difficult time due to the cancelation of tours and shows. We don't have money to spare but instead plenty of time. Vol.1 was self-released digitally on our Bandcamp page on Juneteenth, all the proceeds were/are donated to NAACP. Vol.1
Blue Note 1967 - Classic Vinyl Reissue Series In 1967, pianist McCoy Tyner was ready for a new start. He had left the seminal John Coltrane Quartet two years prior and moved on from Coltrane’s label Impulse! Records, as well. With his Blue Note debut The Real McCoy, he made his masterpiece and firmly established himself as a creative force of his own. Featuring a world class quartet with Tyner joined by tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Elvin Jones, the album presented five timeless Tyner originals including “Passion Dance,” “Search for Peace,” and “Blues on the Corner.”
resh imprint Caldeira open their account with the first vinyl retrospective of Swiss composer Louis Crelier, whose FM sorcery and LinnDrum drama takes the listener away to an imaginary Africa.
Standing proud amid the sound waves, Caldeira emerges with a singular mission; to bring us music with hidden depth. Whether it’s a reissue or retrospective, archival or original, each release reflects the Michelin-grade tastebuds of label founder Camille Bertin AKA Plastic Bamboo.
Operating out of the shadow of Les Puces, the Saint-Ouen digger, DJ and producer has turned those in the know onto a wealth of zouk, boogie, proto-house and Balearic bombs over the past couple of years, but it seems he’s saved something truly special for this first release.
Rich with FM synthesis, infectious rhythms and evocative motifs, Rester Partir transports us to a fantasised Africa, found onstage at a Lausanne Theatre in 1985. Scoring a story about a 19th Century French missionary’s trip to Timbuktu, Swiss composer Louis Crelier created his own sonic landscape, capturing the exoticism and otherness of an imaginary Mali. Though the hypnotic rhythms and cascading mallets conjure images of the continent, the queasy keys, dubby idents and synthetic sonatas suggest something more interplanetary - picture James T. Kirk and Spock beaming down into the ochre dust of a ruined city.
Aided and abetted by a selection of ambient interludes, jazzy diversions and polyrhythmic excerpts from Crelier’s film work, as well as the exceptionally Balearic Deep In The Dale from TV series Alpine Academy, the largely unreleased compositions on Rester Partir finally break the fourth wall to find the wider audience they deserve.
Words by Patrick Ryder
Much like its predecessor, In Decay, the 2014 compilation of unreleased, early Com Truise recordings, In Decay, Too unlocks a new set of rarities and unheard fragments from the past for the producer's legion of fans. To accomplish such a feat, the Com camp tapped the Internet's foremost Com Truise archivist, Polychora (formerly Comrade), whose YouTube channel has diligently documented Seth Haley's musical output since his earliest Komputer Cast (Haley's podcast mix series) days. Polychora's vault and input helped Haley and the team locate and curate the ultimate sequence of career-spanning off-album material, showcasing an artist in perpetual orbit of hazy machinist nostalgia. Haley's singular style of melodic beat music is the work of countless iterations; with In Decay, Too, his idiosyncratic exercises, experiments, and pivots pause for a rightful wave of appreciation. Following the smeared introductory tones of "Zeta," the album locks into its first robotic groove on "Compress_ Fuse," a trademark Truise treatment with cascading synth lines and deep, sinister low-end bass stabs. Further down is the suspiciously bright "False Ascendancy," which lures listeners through a labyrinth of drum patterns and siren-like keys, all colliding into "Constant Fracture." The track pushes to the point of stress, reaching the album's apex with a punishing series of blows before fading to relief, where the beatless and contemplative "Trajectory" awaits. In 2019, Com Truise left his previous sci-fi narratives behind for the visceral Persuasion System, a markedly more human record, which now makes In Decay, Too something like a bookend to an era. One last transmission from coordinates unknown; a culminating exhale ahead of what's still yet to come.
Much like its predecessor, In Decay, the 2014 compilation of unreleased, early Com Truise recordings, In Decay, Too unlocks a new set of rarities and unheard fragments from the past for the producer's legion of fans. To accomplish such a feat, the Com camp tapped the Internet's foremost Com Truise archivist, Polychora (formerly Comrade), whose YouTube channel has diligently documented Seth Haley's musical output since his earliest Komputer Cast (Haley's podcast mix series) days. Polychora's vault and input helped Haley and the team locate and curate the ultimate sequence of career-spanning off-album material, showcasing an artist in perpetual orbit of hazy machinist nostalgia. Haley's singular style of melodic beat music is the work of countless iterations; with In Decay, Too, his idiosyncratic exercises, experiments, and pivots pause for a rightful wave of appreciation. Following the smeared introductory tones of "Zeta," the album locks into its first robotic groove on "Compress_ Fuse," a trademark Truise treatment with cascading synth lines and deep, sinister low-end bass stabs. Further down is the suspiciously bright "False Ascendancy," which lures listeners through a labyrinth of drum patterns and siren-like keys, all colliding into "Constant Fracture." The track pushes to the point of stress, reaching the album's apex with a punishing series of blows before fading to relief, where the beatless and contemplative "Trajectory" awaits. In 2019, Com Truise left his previous sci-fi narratives behind for the visceral Persuasion System, a markedly more human record, which now makes In Decay, Too something like a bookend to an era. One last transmission from coordinates unknown; a culminating exhale ahead of what's still yet to come.
Four Flies are proud and honoured to release the first vinyl reissue of Bruno Nicolai's outstanding original score for GEMINUS, a 1969 Italian TV mini-series directed by Luciano Emmer and starring Walter Chiari, Alida Chelli, and Ira von Fürstenberg.
Originally released under Italian label Gemelli, Nicolai's soundtrack has been remastered from the original master tapes and comes in a glossy, tip-on style jacket featuring the restored original cover artwork, as well as extended liner notes by film critics Francesco Cesari and Roberto Curti.
Bruno Nicolai composed and directed an eclectic score that brings together different music genres and influences, from 60s beat, psych, and progrock to baroque and experimental music. He did not hesitate to mix classical forms and structures with new instruments andremarkable, eccentric arrangements.
In 'Giano' (Janus), the interplay between a distorted electric guitar and a hypnotic harpsichord creates a strange, somewhat troubling ambience.
The delicate, celestial voice of Edda Dell'Orso leaves its unique emotional imprint on the most lyricalpiece in the soundtrack, 'Tema Barocco' (Baroque Theme).
The main theme 'Il cielo cade' (The Sky Is Falling) features a luxurious arrangement and stunning orchestration enhanced by enchanting vocal harmonies sung by 'I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni'.
In other pieces, such as 'Larve' (Larvas), 'Il sognatore' (The Dreamer), 'Eclisse di luna' (Moon Eclipse), 'Visioni' (Visions), 'Catacombe' (Catacombs), and 'Notti romane' (Roman Nights), expressive and experimental solo passages played by instruments such as the vibraphone, sitar, harmonica, or percussions, contribute to the sombre, mysterious atmosphere of the score as a whole.
"This second series of Konduko reissues continues with the rare and in demand Street Talk. Noel Williams (aka King Sporty) again shows the breadth of his talent, recording reggae, funk, soul and disco in the space of a few years with groundbreaking results.
Back recording at Miami's legendary Quadradial Studios, alongside master engineer Paul Speck, Williams created a synth-assisted, beat-programmed bomb, adding Jeanette Williams and Betty Wright's vocals and Bert Bailey's (The Ex-tras) blazing guitar, Street Talk heralds the dawn of the computer funk called electro boogie.
The inclusion of Benji "The Mad Bomber" for some South Beach rapping showed Williams' encompassing new music styles that led to his music being heavily sampled and revered at the birth of Miami Bass.
This all comes together and out the other side in the panoramic Discomix by Rune Lindbaek. A legend of the Norwegian sound that has conquered far and wide, Rune is one of the elder statesmen, from setting up his own long standing Drum Island label, to releasing with Noid, Repap and recent edit excursions on Norsk Tripping. His psychedelic dub wonderland is an all-together outer-body experience where vocal and rap soundclash deep, deep in the echo chamber.
Gondwana Records are delighted to announce parts 3 and 4 of the '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal, each 7" is limited to strictly 300 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.
The return of Portico Quartet was one of the musical stories of 2017 and Endless was one of the tunes of the year. It's one of the band's biggest tunes and on the flip here is the ethereal groover Undercurrent.
Side A Endless A catchy earworm, with a hypnotic groove that announced the band's return to their signature sound and marked their first new music in five years
Side B Undercurrentcut at the same session, and making it's vinyl debut after previously only being available as a Japanese bonus track.
The latest release in the much loved Mr Bongo Record Club Series, Available on CD, 2LP Standard Vinyl & Special Edition 2LP Pink Translucent Vinyl.
Curating the tracks for a Mr Bongo Record Club compilation is always such a pleasure. At a time when the expression "Music is My Sanctuary" has an even greater cathartic impact for many people, we set out to make this volume an extra special one - like an old favourite mixtape or playlist.
For Volume 4 in this series we continue in the same mould as with previous editions, selecting current favorites and rare lost gems from the Brazilian, African, soul, funk, and disco genres. We present tracks from artists such as Azwon, Cindy & The Playmates, and Zé Roberto to name just a few. However, one main departure and progression to this edition is the first time inclusion of recordings by contemporary artists. These come from Matthew Tavares (of BADBADNOTGOOD fame), Wax Machine, and DJ Format & The Simonsound, which were originally featured on either limited private press vinyl releases or were previously only available digitally. We felt their inclusion was important and wanted to share these wonderful discoveries with a wider audience. They also complement, enrich, and fit perfectly with the flow and journey of the compilation.
Here at Mr Bongo we hope you will enjoy this selection of seventeen eclectic songs (in tempo and style) as much as we do, whether they make you move your feet, take you on a trip somewhere, or trigger a happy memory.
Released on 20/11/20 on double vinyl and CD with artwork illustration by Nicolas Burrows.
clear vinyl edition
The Belgian party organisation and record label De:tuned presents the final outing of their 10 year anniversary vinyl series. "DE:10.10" kicks off with a trippy Plaid remix of Humanoid's "sT8818r" track. The remix provides some more 3AM rave pressure for those sweaty basement parties. Erik Van Den Broek aka Shiver follows with a previously unreleased mix of "Primerose", an emotive late night acid track that was released on the 5 Years De:tuned box set in 2014. The B-side offers "Formulate", music straight from the soul produced by the physical embodiment of UK emotive techno and one half of B12, Steven Rutter. Lone completes the series with "Dream Ache", an exclusive track that graced Rustie's BBC Radio One Essential Mix back in 2012, finally pressed on wax.
Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Mastering. This 12" is pressed on 180 gr vinyl and is housed in a detailed silver foil sleeve to celebrate "10 Years De:tuned". Stay tuned!
Unbegrenzt is the third in an ongoing series of archival records of the unheard music of Swedish composer Catherine Christer Hennix, co-released by Blank Forms Editions and Empty Editions. It follows Selected Early Keyboard Works and Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku (named the #1 archival release of 2019 by The Wire), in addition to a two-volume collection of Hennix’s writing titled Poësy Matters and Other Matters.
Recorded in February of 1974 and featuring Catherine Christer Hennix (recitation, percussion, and electronics) and Hans Isgren (bowed gong), Hennix’s realization of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Unbegrenzt” (German for “unlimited”) from Aus den Sieben Tagen is an elaboration both rigorous and radically different from the canonical 1969 recording issued by Shandar. The collection of 15 text pieces written in Paris during May of 1968, Aus den Sieben Tagen, denies its performers notated direction and instead provides poetic cues that hinge upon Stockhausen’s conception of “intuitive music,” a Eurocentric perspective on improvisation antithetical to the vernacular forms Hennix had engaged with as a young drummer performing in Stockholm jazz clubs with musicians like Bill Barron, Cam Brown, Hans Isgren, Lalle Svenson, Allan Vajda, Bo Wärmell, and many others. While both Hennix and Isgren saw the formal prospect of Aus den Sieben Tagen as a productive development of and beyond La Monte Young’s event scores, she here steadfastly counters his rationalization of intuition with the Principle of Sufficient Reason. (Cf. Brouwer’s Lattice.) Eschewing the busy, conservatory-addled lapses into idiomatic citation of Stockhausen’s 1969 recording, Hennix’s alternative realization of the “Unbegrenzt” score’s instructions to “play a sound with the certainty that you have an infinite amount of time and space” is based on her concept of Infinitary Compositions, the trademark of her ensemble The Deontic Miracle which, at one time, considered adding Stockhausen, La Monte Young and Terry Jennings scores to its repertoire. Taking a mature, minimal iteration of Stockhausen’s compositional method of “moment-forming” to heart, her version’s dark, controlled feedback and amplified bowed gong subtly shift through an immanent sequence of formative moments, step by step. Its bubbling computer noise, percussion, and repeated ominous transient sounds of temple blocks over the bowed gong terminate with the integrated recitation of exotic text fragments from Hevajra Tantra which faithfully take Stockhausen’s score into deeper vistas of the unconscious and a more devastating opening to the unlimited time and space of a dreaming mind.
Audio restoration and mastering by Stephan Mathieu, with an essay by Bill Dietz.
Catherine Christer Hennix (b. 1948) started her creative life playing drums with her older brother Peter, growing up in Sweden where she heard jazz luminaries, such as John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Archie Shepp, and Cecil Taylor perform from 1960 to 1967. Directly after high school, Hennix went to work at Stockholm’s pioneering Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), where she developed early tape music, incorporating computer generated speech done at the Royal Technological University (KTH), where she was an undergraduate student. After traveling to New York In 1968, she met artists Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles who invited her to stay at the Something Else Press Town House where she had the opportunity to meet, among others, composers John Cage, James Tenney, and Phil Corner. During the following years she developed fruitful collaborative relationships with many composers in the burgeoning American avant-garde, including, most significantly, Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. Young introduced Hennix to Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath and she would later study intensively under him as his first European disciple. While Hennix continued to make music performing alongside Arthur Russell, Marc Johnson, Henry Flynt, and Arthur Rhames, she also served as a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at SUNY New Paltz and as a visiting Professor of Logic (at Marvin Minsky’s invitation) at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In recent years Hennix has led the just-intonation ensemble the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, which has featured musicians Amelia Cuni, Amirtha Kidambi, Chiyoku Szlavnics, Hilary Jeffrey, Amir El-Saffar, Benjamin Duboc and Rozemarie Heggen. She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey pursuing studies in classical Arabic and Turkish makam.
