For our ninth release, we are glad to have Konerytmi with a 5 tracker EP. Konerytmi?s CMYK is a dedication to the 80's. This is not a just simple tribute but own interpretation of the tastes of 80's generation. All tracks are homage to the musical fashion of those years. Timbres & drum sounds & melodies & harmonies takes you back to those times. If you don't have a time machine and you miss the 80's just listen to this 12.
The record captures an expansive performance in Poitiers, France in November 2023. First working together in an unpredictable trio with minimalist legend and eccentric extraordinaire Charlemagne Palestine, Ambarchi and Thielemans quickly established a remarkable musical chemistry that led to an ongoing series of duo concerts, including the performance documented on their LP Double Consciousness (Matière Mémorie, 2023).
Kind Regards finds the duo refining their shared language while continuing to take risks, allowing the music’s gravitational pull to lead them from meditative calm to unexpectedly expressive passages of melodic invention and rhythmic drive.
Recorded in sparkling fidelity and carefully mixed by Ambarchi’s longtime collaborator Joe Talia, the LP contains a single unbroken performance, stretching out for over 45 minutes. Guitar and drums weave together into a symbiotic whole that nevertheless affords us ample opportunity to marvel at the highly personal approaches these two musicians have developed to their chosen instruments through decades of diverse collaboration and prolific performance. The set begins with Thielemans’ hypnotic tom patterns, around which Ambarchi’s wavering, shimmering guitar tones—achieved with the help of the rotating speaker of a Leslie cabinet—flurry and swirl. Thielemans’ drums play subtle tricks with time and perception, adding and dropping beats within repeated patterns to create an effect at once rhythmically insistent and liquified. Growing at first into a rapidly pulsing texture of brushed drums and flickering harmonics, the music builds momentum into an irregular groove over which Ambarchi’s guitar is transformed into haunting, monumental electric organ chords, strikingly recalling the Wurlitzer work of Alice Coltrane, before settling into a section of gentle portamento melody embedded into the tactile clicks and clangs of Thielemans’ percussion.
When Thielemans adopts a more traditional jazz approach to the kit in some of the set’s second half, the results are stunning, demonstrating a feel for shifting accents and sensibility to the touch of the stick on the drum or cymbal that recalls greats like Jack DeJohnette or Billy Hart (one of Thielemans’ mentors). And when Ambarchi turns up the heat, he does so in an unexpected and delightful way, letting loose a swarm of jittering delayed tones straight out of Henry Kaiser’s classic It’s a Wonderful Life, with a more active use of the guitar’s fretboard than his usual approach to the instrument allows. As the performance draws to a close after a climactic episode of distorted harmonic groans and crashing cymbals that manages to be at once thunderous and carefully attuned to detail, it is clearer than ever that, for these two serial collaborators, this is a very special pairing.
Kind Regards shows us the kind of magic that can happen when two masters who have dedicated decades to reimagining their instruments simply begin to play, following the music wherever it goes.
Where to begin with a figure like Simon Fisher Turner? From teenage stage and screen star to illustrious recording artist for Creation and Mute and score composer of Caravaggio, Blue and The Epic of Everest - via a stint with The The and collaborations with Derek Jarman, David Lynch and Tilda Swinton - Turner embodies a distinctly British sensibility and boundless curiosity for sound. For A Colourful Storm, discovering Deux Filles, his mysterious project with Colin Lloyd-Tucker that has since been reissued by Dark Entries, was a significant moment in shaping their identity.
In August 2023, A Colourful Storm presented Simon Fisher Turner and Time is Away at Spanners, London. Performed at the tail end of Blue Now, a series of events celebrating Derek Jarman's last feature film, Blue, the recording reveals a lifetime of significant events and influences. Terre Thaemlitz's remix of Turner's Shishapangma (Comatonse Recordings, 2015) is reworked and appears on vinyl only, Jarman is privately recorded reading White Lies, Bertrand Russell is sampled, and Turner records his brother practising the Great Rissington organ for their father's funeral.
"My wife and I lived in Brixton, near the venue, on Coldharbour Lane, 20 years ago. We were above a takeaway shop. The air extractor was a nightmare and the flat smelled of grease. The market was a great place to buy fish. We adopted a giant snail, who we called Ayrton. I used to take him all over town and he loved lettuce and tomatoes. There was a wonderful small pizza shop too, which was so delicious. But back to the music. Brixton is music and I'm a lucky man."
2025 Repress
Running Back’s Double Copy subsidiary for house music history returns with four musical masterpieces from Chicago, London and an international cast from Italy on its first various artist sampler.
Originally released on Roy Davis Jr.’s Undaground Therapy outlet, Destination Heaven by the enigmatic Earth Boys project delivers a piece of cloud-nine-deep-house that was a staple at Frankfurt’s Wild Pitch Club and during the early days of its successor Robert Johnson. Produced by Cloudy Eyes and Cole Brooks, we unfortunately have never heard from the duo again. Luckily, Family of Few have been a little bit more productive. Also known as Mind Readers, Kevin Elliot and Billy ‚Jack“ Williams produced some of the more tender moments on Detroits 430 West label. Intervoles is amongst the most peculiar and catchy tracks that slow-burning dance floors can hope for.
The flip side turns the attention to the conclusions that Europe drew from its US-role-models. Released in 1992 on Rena Records with the involvement of New York’s JoVonn (a distinct genius of deep grooves himself), the keyboard skills of Pierre Audetat and the production work of I. Betti, M. Clemente and W. Brown, Dummy Head is one of a kind. Swirly echoes, dubby textures and a heavy bass line mate on the Edit Mix of I Have Been Wanting You to create one of the very first examples of fully formed dub-house.
Similar pioneering properties can be ascribed to the work of Rob Mello. We don’t have enough room here to list all his merits, but rest assured that the UK’s house scene wouldn’t be the same without him (Luxury Service Records, Classic et al). Under the Karim guise, Mello delivered a unique stroke of genius. Distilling the essence of deep house, while looking far into the future, In My Mind is many things at once: broken beat, electro, house with embracing chords, and – if you will – a warm-up banger. and does, what all the tracks in here do: turning heads then, turning heads now. Hardcore Deep House!
Electronic music has never been solely about the music itself or its fame. It has been a fight, a totem. Every week it becomes a universal communion, a celebration, a reconciliation with both ourselves and others. No frontiers, no territories, no certainties other than being as authentic as possible.
As a musician and producer, after five albums, I clearly know that my proposition will always be about diversity more than a single crafted sound. This is how I am: multifaceted, nourished by social human exchanges and my encounters in science, art, and technology. I have one life and different bodies. I can be physical and digital, technological and organic, house, techno, and soul. This album is about shedding light in a vertical period where the fight for truth and visibility becomes crucial, where Blockchain might become our right to vote. It's about making complex things sound simpler, joining the dots. A proposition more than a promise: Unshadow.
The metamorphosis is happening; embracing all generations on the same song with Nile Rodgers and Madison McFerrin! Embracing the diversity of backgrounds, styles, and geography, from Sacha Rudy to Dominique Fils-Aimé (Canada), through Natalie Sade (Australia). As a citizen of the world, having traveled endlessly for 30 years now, I know how lucky I have been to experience and experiment with various situations. If this album can simply share some of the joy I have received and spread some goodwill and white magic to the listener, I will be the happiest seeing the light that chases away the shadow.
Zongamin and Mytron reunite on Multi Culti with an album of collaborations. Exploring the depths of leftfield outer nationalism these two mainstays of our global family serve up a colorful array of mind-altering disco and interdimensional dub. Tribal motifs merge with field recordings while synthesized animals call out over exotic hand percussion. Jams on vintage synths meet 8-bit sampling bounced onto spring reverbs and digital delays from the 80s. Started mid-pandemic, this collaboration ignored the surrounding havoc and social distancing, instead focusing on Good Vibes TM and positivity with a genre-defying approach belying trans-continental origins. The result is a playful symbiosis that is Phatter than the sum of its elements. Mytron is Jacek Janiszewski, a pan-European multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ, born in Poland, raised in Holland and Germany, and now living in London for the best part of a decade, his releases, for labels including XXX, Codek, Bordello A Parigi, Multi Culti, Nein and Les Yeux Orange, herald a similar nomadic spirit. Zongamin, Susumu Mukai is a composer, producer, and illustrator based in London. He has released records on Multi Culti, Flesh Records, XL recordings, Ed Banger, ESP Institute, and AD93, and has remixed for Air, John Cale, Trevor Jackson, Sandro Perri, and others. He is a member of groups Vanishing Twin, V/Z, Holy Tongue, and Stalactite.
DJ Support: Frank Rizardo, Capriati Bros, Dice, Marco, Bibi, Pawsa, Rossi, Richy Ahmed, Jamie Jones, Illario Alicante, Blondish
The Leeds/Hull born DJ has always championed new and younger artists. But with Nature his aim was to begin to develop the careers of next-gen talent alongside already established tech-house figures. After overseeing a steady stream of serious tech-house numbers as the Nature head, wAFF will take back the reigns for the label’s 12th release.
‘Leaving You’ sets off with an addictive groove that vigorously permeates throughout the 7-minute opener. Like many of Nature’s releases, the track features a vocal lead that will remain with you long after leaving the dance. Its vibrant sound design is underpinned by a tough bassline and simmering percussion.
wAFF employs a taut and squelchy pad combo on ‘Underbite’ to accompany a tumbling bass. The track unrolls like a coiled spring, steadily expanding into a hi-energy, foot stomper that oozes with a sugary ambience despite its somewhat hard-edged undertone.
The snappy claps and zig-zagging synths that open ‘Fat Couch’ are a constant throughout the EP’s final number. It’s another playful but sharply presented track that switches up late on as an ominous, Jaws like melody circles before a chopped vocal – which is instantly recognisable – signals the last few measures of oscillating bass, hypo hats and snares.
The NOW Yearbook series continues with the ultimate soundtrack to one of pop’s most dynamic years: 1998 - out February 14th! This collection brings together the biggest and most iconic tracks from the year, presented across three stunning coloured vinyl discs, pressed in neon violet with 43 tracks from the era and two CD editions available as a standard 4-CD set, and as a special edition 4-CD set in ‘hardback book’ packaging, which includes a 28-page booklet packed with notes about all of the 80 featured tracks that capture the unforgettable sounds from the year. Whether you’re reliving the hits or discovering them for the first time, this collection brings you the best from the singles charts of 1998.. Whether you're revisiting these unforgettable hits or discovering them anew, NOW - Yearbook 1998 brings you the best from the singles charts of 1998!
Dear Friends, Shouldn’t we all take a moment to reect on ourselves from time to time, break away from habits, and venture down new paths? Simon Hinter, widely recognised as a house producer with releases on renowned labels such as Freerange, Quintessentials, and Kerri Chandler’s Madhouse Records, is now daring to explore something new with us, while embracing something old: Drum’n’Bass is his great old love, now rekindled with his Confusion EP.
Unsurprisingly, this comes with intense emotions, and the four tracks of the EP oscillate between profound euphoria and melancholia. You can sense both, the beginning and the end of a party night at the same time. These tracks, however, defy the current listening habits shaped by the need for instant grati¬cation. Instead, they are an ode to the loop. Here, the mind is invited to engage, to actively listen and perceptually complete the experience. We hope you enjoy this rollercoaster of emotions! Sincerly yours, Brombért P.S.: The physical release comes with handcrafted, screen-printed artwork by the fabulous graphic artist Zatina Kessl
Since launching her own club night, “Motivation,” back in 2018, B.AI has played a key role in bringing the underground’s club sounds to her home country, China. While introducing some of the scene's most exciting artists to her local audiences, she emerged as one to look out for as well: first as a DJ and quickly thereafter as a producer. Her original takes – a sensitive, highly personal approach to melody and a knack for playing with expectations – crystallized in a slew of A+ releases and a couple of international tours. This trajectory, shaped by taking matters into her own hands and self-empowerment, now sees a logical next step, with the inception of a label that will also operate under the “Motivation” banner and features her own “Hope” EP as its first release.
Sparkling mallets, with synth-pop quality catchiness, open the title track. Rather than further evolving, their two-bar arrangement gets looped over and again, serving as the foundation for a slick FM bass rhythm and a variety of hooks. Although these incline to the bright, the overall vibe is melancholic. In vintage B.AI style, the aptly titled “Hope” is more ambiguous than its patches suggest. Similarly, the vocal this type of palette would call for ultimately comes in the form of aloof, covert musings. A bit buried in the mix, they are most efficient – just like the tension that keeps brooding underneath the surface.
“Murderbot Diaries 1991” turbocharges four-to-the-floor synthetic drums with an arpeggiated rolling bass. The blue note melody on top feels sequenced via a pocket calculator, and the dissonant, electroclash-reminiscent stabs that follow might sound even more angular. The tune is frantic, sinister – and perhaps above all tongue in cheek. It reaches fever pitch with the arrival of a tubular bell theme between the two breaks.
“Once”’s slomo cutoff modulation on the 16th note mid-bass instantly creates a sultry atmosphere that meshes greatly with the pastel cool of the gently delayed DX7 leads. The energy drifts between effortless control and uncertain outcome. These contrasts are amplified as the drums alternate amidst moderation and beat-repeat rendered havoc.
On “Only We Know,” a progressive sine lead lays out the central motif. Yet as briskly as it appears, it makes way for detuned, gliding square waves taking on the same theme. This outlines the track’s structure: as slightly morphed repetitions keep getting introduced almost haphazardly, a dreamlike, mesmerizing ambience unfolds. Techy drum rhythms and a 101-type bass make sure everything stays fuelled. Within the ingenious tapestry of melodies and new twists, it never loses touch with the dance floor. It illustrates B.AI’s club savvy neatly and is therefore a perfect closer for this EP.
Dubstep and garage pushers Hotflush make a surefooted return, welcoming Perth producer Odd Occasion to their roster with an al dente next-gen garage cookoff. This 'Jukebox' offers six choices to the discerning listener, though you'd be hard-pressed to find a pub owner who'll take them on in toto - unless the landlords happen to be real heads, that is! All's well that this is a machine with niche appeal, with its formal calculations and dark contusions tempting fans of all things bass-led. Though the record begins on a volatile yet minimal note, the A3 'Simple' takes a glassy dubstep turn, virtifying the mix with hollow sound design and a stealthy grime vocal sample. The B-side betrays a sacrifice of genre focus, with 'Salt' bringing brutal trade zone techno via experimental trap sound design, and 'Tape' progressing through tender zithers, which help uptick the mix to reach a snappy folktronic finish.
Posh End Music is excited to announce its 12th release, featuring Melvyn Ortega, also known as Casual Treatment. Originally from Toulouse and based in Berlin, Melvyn collaborates with the label’s founder, Fear-E, on this split 12-inch record. He has gained international recognition through his releases on prestigious techno labels such as Hayes, the Mord sub-label Kazerne, Axis, and Ben Sims’ Hardgroove/Symbolism imprints. This release includes two tracks from Melvyn, further enhancing his reputation and perfectly complementing Fear-E’s contributions.
Chalo & Vell return with Made From Moss Volume 2, marking the next step in their collaborative EP series. This four-track of club rollers explores a range of styles and tempos, each track anchored by distinctive rhythms and textures aimed squarely at the dancefloor.
Bangkok, despite being a bustling metropolis, boasts a music scene that feels as intimate and vibrant as those found in smaller European cities. It’s a place where local creatives from various disciplines come together, leaving their artistic imprint across the city. This collaborative energy resonates through Boiled Wonderland’s catalog, which features artists like DOTT, Sarayu, and Chalo—pioneers of Thailand’s burgeoning underground music movement. Both DOTT and Sarayu are co-founders of the record store and label More Rice Records, while Chalo plays a pivotal role as the mastering engineer at Thailand’s pressing plant, Resurrecc. It’s here that the Made From Moss project took root.
While Boiled Wonderland continues to champion eclectic and boundary-pushing music, its sonic direction has evolved to embrace a more dancefloor-oriented approach. This shift reflects the label’s immersion in Bangkok’s electrifying club culture and the inspiration drawn from the city’s warm, sunlit atmosphere.
The Made From Moss series emerged from a creative dialogue between Chalo and label founder Vell. Moss, with its simplicity yet dynamic nature, became the symbolic foundation for a series focused on rhythmically driven, danceable tracks. This vision also sparked the creation of Mosspit events and welcomed MetalMetal as a core contributor.
Chalo’s opener, Feeling, weaves house-inflected vocals with acid synth lines, building a steady groove that carries effortlessly to the finish. Tolerance Break follows, layering dynamic snares, tight breaks, and basslines that pulse with energy. On the B-side, Vell leads with The Ship Rolls Through, a euphoric roller balanced by flickering sound effects that keep the track grounded. Back To Normality closes the EP, leaning into progressive tones with bouncing bass lines that sizzle toward a breaking point, bringing the EP to a close.
The record is already receiving support from the likes of: Ploy, Mixtress, Raresh, Space Dimension Controller, Jennifer Cardini, Answer Code Request and many more.
Two sought after artists, Deft and Manni Dee, combine their uniquely eclectic sounds on collaborative EP ‘Swamp Season’ arriving on Hooversound in March 2025.
Deft, a familiar favourite within the Hooversound family having released two EP’s on the label, is no stranger to breaking boundaries when it comes to sonic stereotypes. Enter: Manni Dee. Another equally exciting name on the London circuit who is an advocate for non-conformism. Between them they have released on Exit, 1985 Music, Critical and Fabric Originals - their style has been recognised globally and continues to grow. Both creatives bring something refreshingly new to the table, whether it’s with their amalgam style of music making, their esteemed record platforms (Silk + Steel, B4 Music) or their DJ sets - it makes perfect sense for the duo to unite on their vision.
Their latest offering combines their boundaryless artistic style of forward-thinking atmospheric production on an EP named ‘Swamp Season’. The two producers play with different elements of club music and hip hop by blurring genres and throwing the rule book out of the window. The end result highlights how Deft and Manni Dee have excelled once again across five bass-fuelled tracks which will expand your perspective on electronic music.
On their single, the duo said “‘Charged’ was the last track we wrote for the EP. Rooted in the simplicity of 00's hip hop instrumentals, on steroids, adapted with the wider electronic sphere in mind. Inspired by the past and present, facing the future.”
Deft and Manni Dee also explained how they came to collaborate; “We've always shared the same taste in hip hop and electronic music, and also share a studio together underneath FOLD in Canning Town, so it just made sense for us to make a record together. Our process was creatively free with no preconceptions, having worked together remotely and together across multiple studios around the world. The result has created a new and exciting avenue for us both, opening the floodgates to eliminate boundaries. It's Swamp Season.”
Liverpool’s breakout techno star Massano’s second solo release on Drumcode, ‘The Lights’. Following this year’s stellar three-tracker EP ‘Telepathic’ after Massano’s track on last year’s Drumcode A-Sides Vol. 12, Adam Beyer welcomes him back to his imprint.
Massano’s rise continues meteoric, with thunderous festival performances at Tomorrowland, Kappa Futur Festival, Ultra, & ElRow, sold out headline shows at Mute, Brooklyn Mirage, and Hi Ibiza … alongside releases on Afterlife and his own label Simulate which reflects his technology-dominated futuristic vision.
With chart topping success and the prestigious honour of having a BBC R1 Essential Mix, Massano’s aggressively powerful techno and rattling, insistent percussion interspersed with strong melodic riffs is clearly in ever-increasing demand. ‘The Lights’: with typical insouciance, Massano audaciously and successfully melds contrasting scenes/cultures/times – a bubbling, arpy bass and breakdowns of melodic, ‘hammered synth’ notes bring a North African/Middle Eastern vibe, until an interlude of building tension, with demanding drums, siren call, hard stabby chords and a huge drop, introduces a spacey, dystopian, futuristic techno sound. Fast, furious, takes no prisoners, dancefloor-compulsive.
1. Watermelon Man
This track version actually came from an improvisation that Allesandro IIona (Keys) made on a live show at RonnieScott's at the start of the year. I think we were were having some issues with one of the monitors on stage and it juststarted making this beeping sound. Then I remember Alleh just came in with that piano riffat the start and the rest was history. This one of thefirst tracks we recorded for the EP and I'm super pleased with how this one turned out. Afterseeing Herbie Hancock live for thefirst time the year before, this felt like the perfect tribute to him!
2. Mandible
The majority of the writing on this album was done at my studio space in Hither Green, where I am every tuesday! I usethis space to record but mainly a space to develop my art. So this EP all came from a few sessions there. We all haveour own creative things going on so it was really great to collaborate as a band and trash out some ideas we had.Mandible is one of my favourite tracks on the EP. It's very simple but leaves us a lot of space to explore some more freeimprovisation. I think in some of my previous recorded music I was more focused on creating well crafted music withgreat melodies and harmony. Whereas here there's a bit more focus on playing as a group and being more explorative inimprovisation. We also didn't have a melody for this track until a week before the recording! Sometimes it just takes awhile tofind that melody or it might just pop into your head one day.
3. Slum
This is a tune that was actually written by myself in 2017/18. Round about that time, I had been playing at a jam night ata warehouse unit in Limehouse called Unit 31. The night was ran by Pianist Raffy Bushman and Drummer Sam Michnikand was focused on hiphop and Jazz fusion. We would usually play a set of instrumental music before it opened up forvocalists and other instrumentalists to come and jam. It was a great place to try out new ideas, so I wrote this tune for itbut we never recorded it. It was really nice to revisit this tune and get it recorded properly at 'That SoundStudios' (Seven Sisters). This track is all about dynamics and a slow build throughout. Descending to more chaos at theend!
4. Red Pistachio
For thefirst two sessions we wrote with a different bass player to Edmondo Cicchetti who is on the recordings. A greatbass player and friend of mine Tom Driessler. This track started kinda exactly how it starts on the record, with that basshook. I'm very influenced by Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah and his melodic writing. Particularly on his album 'StretchMusic'. So this felt really inspired by that album. The chords don't really move around too much until the solo sectionwhere it becomes more like a blues. Then Allesandro get's a bit more loose at the end with the descending sequence.
5. Jerome arrived Late
Quite simply we started writing this tune before Jerome (Drums) arrived late. In the recording session we were a bitundecided about what to do in the solo section. We tried out a few different options before we eventually landed onfeaturing Gabriele Pribetti on Sax. I'm really into his solo on this as it's rhythmically and dynamically really exciting. As Imixed the record it was also a great solo to mess with and run through lots of different plug-ins. There's some weirddelays and phasing going on that and I added some octaves too in places.
While they’ve been active for more than two decades, it’s only been in recent years that the Berlin and New York based contemporary sonic arts platform, Soundwalk Collective, has begun to gather the accolades and attention that they rightfully deserve. Firmly rooted within a multi-disciplinary practice that engages the narrative potential of sound within the contexts of visual art, dance, music and film, as well as tapping anthropological, ethnographic, and psycho-geographic research, they’ve gained great note for collaborations with Jean-Luc Goddard, Nan Goldin, Sasha Waltz, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and numerous others.
Building on the back of 2023’s brilliant “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”, Soundwalk Collective now returns with “Khandroma”, one of their most fascinating and singular endeavours to date, which re-engages their enduring creative partnerships with Patti Smith. Issued by Ubi Kū, a brand new imprint founded by the Italian Buddhist Union dedicated to the relationships between Buddhist cultures, music, and sound, across the album’s stunning two sides this incredible ensemble draws inspiration from and conjures Tibetan deities, the Himalayan Plateau, the valleys of Nepal and the highest peaks where the most ancient Buddhist temples reside, culminating as a sprawling sonic tapestry like little else. Issued as a beautifully produced, limited edition vinyl LP and CD, mixed and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, complete with a booklet featuring liner note essays penned by Chiara Bellini and Filippo Lunardo, and images by Stephan Crasneanscki, it’s hands down among our favourite releases by Soundwalk Collective to date and not to be missed!
An international experimental sound art collective founded in 2001 by the artists Stephan Crasneanscki, who was joined in 2008 by producer Simone Merli, Soundwalk Collective is a contemporary sonic arts platform, featuring a rotating constellation of artists and musicians, that, in vastly varied number of ways, has continuously explored the remarkable potential of sound within the contexts of visual art, dance, music and film, offering particular emphasis to anthropological, ethnographic, and psycho-geographic research, examining conceptual, literary or artistic themes. In addition to their many collaborations and accolades that attend to an increased ambitious catalog of releases, they scored Laura Poitras’ film, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”, which won the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, as well performed and exhibited at Berghain, CTM Festival, documenta, Manifesta, New Museum, and Centre Pompidou, where they notably opened “Evidence”, a exhibition with Patti Smith comprising an audio-visual journey from the work of French poets Arthur Rimbaud, Antonin Artaud and René Daumal. While Soundwalk Collective’s output and use of sonority - sometimes original composition and others manipulated archival recordings - and context is varied, the project’s endeavours are unified by a focus on sound as material that is both tactile and poetic, pursuing layered narratives that address ideas of memory, time, love and loss. Their latest, “Khandroma”, enlisting Patti Smith’s contribution on one of its tracks, stands among the most exciting and rich of these explorations yet.
Perhaps the best way of approaching “Khandroma” is through Soundwalk Collective’s longstanding focus on the discipline of psycho-geography - a practice that interrogates the impact of an environment’s embedded histories and meanings on the psychology of the present - as well as the group’s integration of observations of nature, and uses of non-linear narrative, as a vehicle for recording and the synthesis of meaning. Like previous projects that have encountered them traveling extensively across the world, occupying diverse environments for long periods of investigation and fieldwork, during which they source materials for subsequent works, the material roots of “Khandroma” are a body of field recordings made by Crasneanscki, Francisco López, and Merli at altitudes between 2,760 and 4,500 meters, in varying locations across Upper Mustang during 2016.
Drawing the album’s title from the Tibetan feminine deity who reigns the skies, the album’s two compositions weave a stunning sonic tapestry from collaged sounds of nature, bells, drones, unplaceable tones and vocals, and in the case of its second piece, “Chasing the Demon”, the voice of Patti Smith, culminating as a deeply emotive and imagistic expanse that taps something far more profound than any of its single parts. As the collective states: “the album traces the continuous morphing of the wind into sound expressions. The Himalayan Plateau seems designed to amplify and echo the encounter of the breaths, the prayers, and the chants emerging from around and within those temples; amid the sounding of bells, the turning of prayer wheels, and the billowing of flags. A resonant musical body that we recorded so as to capture its boundless mutations; an unstoppable force that cries, whispers, and blows through and over stones, wood, empty halls and monastic robes, etching an ever-changing sonic landscape onto the surfaces it encounters.”
Immersive, stunningly beautiful, and haunting, “Khandroma” draws the ancient and distant into the consciousness of the present, close to home, bordering on the profound. Issued by Ubi Kū as a beautifully produced, limited edition vinyl LP and CD, mixed and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, complete with a booklet featuring liner note essays penned by Chiara Bellini and Filippo Lunardo, and images by Stephan Crasneanscki, we can’t recommend it enough.
