Buscar:sonoro records

What comprises a dream?

An astral plane of our own making where thoughts, love, and desires of the inner mind abound with irreverence - ripe with connection & perspective beyond constraints of time, set, and setting.

Azu Tiwaline exists within the wonders of these interstitial worlds, diving deeper towards inner sanctums of mystic imagination, sublime intrigue, & profound understanding on her second full length LP “The Fifth Dream”.

Released again through her beloved partnership with I.O.T Records, “The Fifth Dream” finds Azu painting an expansive vision towards unified multitudes, mercurial realities, & abundant inner sanctums.

Where her first album “Draw Me a Silence” was a loving ode to her family & upbringing in the form of an elegant diptych, “The Fifth Dream" is the enactment of actualizing her roots into new routes, taking her multifaceted identity into new means of communication towards herself, the world, & the cosmic unknowns that surround her.

Throughout The Fifth Dream’s 54-minute runtime, we hear all elements of the uniquely transcendental sound that Azu is beloved for worldwide. “Antennae Opening”, “Blowing Flow”, & “Amen Dub” embody her talents for tectonic, dubwise soundscapes that channel the innately maternal elements of bassweight into bold & abstracted pulsations, indebted to the most psychedelic & body activating ends of dubstep.

Still attuned to the spatial awareness of dub sonics but giving way to the hypnotic syncopation & synaptic frequencies of techno, “Reptilian Waves”, “Long Hypnosis”, & “Mei Long” bring forth her spectacular expertise for entheogenic rave rhythms - guiding us warmly towards trance-inducing hyper states of dance & delight. Fluctuating between an adventurous velocity and enveloping stasis, the expansive abyssal planes of “Golden Dawn”, “Night in Palm Tree”, & “Canope Imaginaire” conjures a wondrously invigorating rhythmic enlightenment & celestial comprehension - simultaneously moving us forward, inwards, & outwards through Azu’s uniquely omnidirectional & kaleidoscopic musical visions.

Adorned with sampled field recordings of her deeply inspiring home in the desert of El Djerid in South Tunisia, Azu opens a portal into the synergistic inner sanctums of being, self, and the world around us that’s essential to her work as an artist - from the macro levels of humanity’s naturally intimate connection to the Earth we share, down to each of our own micro levels of culture, ancestry, and belonging. All of this is alchemized through a combination of timeless Saharan knowledge & modern cybernetic tools, creating new dimensions of bewitching, euphonious sonic energy. This is music that gives back as much as the listener wants to give themselves unto it - detailed and layered, orbiting a steady core as ethereal swirls and intonations of the natural world embrace us warmly within a spellbinding journey.

8 of the album’s 9 tracks feature a deep level of collaboration from innovative Franco-Iranian percussionist Cinna Peyghamy. Cinna’s use of Tombak, the principle drum of Iranian music throughout time, is beautifully sonorous - channeling the passion of centuries of Southwest Asian rhythm & expression into his own personalized flourishes, with Azu adding her own electrifying frequencies & undiluted artistic freedom to their shared interplay. This profoundly communicative diasporic essence is transmuted between Azu & Cinna, their expression, & the listener. Both are music lovers, intimately connected to their respected Iranian and Tunisian cultures - concurrently acknowledging the wisdom of their resonant pasts, while proudly bringing the sounds of their heritage into the present & future.

“The Fifth Dream” embodies a cosmic anodyne for those feeling caught in between life’s abyssal inbetweens, whilst aiming for a consonant awareness of where our home truly lies in the swells of life’s spiritual maelstrom. This dream belongs at once to none & to many, that of a common language unified in concentric depth - finding beauty in all aspects of our world, and ultimately, within oneself.

This September sees the fourth release from the label Either. Label founder Jamie Clarke is behind the title track ‘Angor Animi feat. Emdee’ and a second track featuring Emdee, the third track is a remix of the title track from Romania’s Barac.

Either is built on Clarke’s sure feel for early hours dance floor tunes. The releases to date are enriched by remixes from Pablo Mateo, Ryan Crosson, Silverliining…

On Clarke’s title track Emdee’s vocals carry us along over squelchy acid bass, gritty stab lines, saturated drums and tribal-tinged percussion. On track 2 ‘Extraction’ Clarke picks up the journey theme. Here the mood brightens and trips-out, Emdee’s chanting vocal carry us over sonorous organs, swinging rhythms. Track 3 returns to the dynamically processed elements of the title track, Romanian minimal maestro and Moment Records Boss Barac sweeps us into a twelve-minute rushing tide of organic drums and swaying subs.

The story of Del cuarto rojo (From The Red Room) began in March 2020, when the Peruvian composer and percussionist Manongo Mujica received a call notifying him that the visual artist Rafael Hastings, his friend of almost half a century, had passed away. Since then, and in the midst of the pandemic, Manongo Mujica began a personal journey searching for sounds, which has resulted in a new set of pieces that evoke the memory of a friendship. Del cuarto rojo (From The Red Room), subtitled Homenaje sonoro escuchando la pintura de Rafael Hastings (Sound Tribute Listening To Rafael Hastings' Paintings), is Manongo Mujica's new album, and it has also motivated the preparation of a new show by the dancer and choreographer Yvonne von Mollendorff, wife of Hastings. The history of this friendship dates back to 1974, when a young Manongo returned to Lima, after ten years living in London, while young Rafael Hastings and Yvonne von Mollendorff settled in Peru after a long period in Europe. Since then, the collaborations between these artists have been continuous, always marked by an experimental impetus. The attitude of listening to images and painting sounds was more than a metaphor and became a code that identified them and a way of working, where the crossing of disciplines set the tone, both in video works and in unusual visual / conceptual scores, works of dance and experimental music, in the context of a creative effervescence that renewed the arts and music in Lima in the 70s. Del cuarto rojo is an album that integrates many of the musical resources developed by Mujica. It is an amalgam that well sums up his own language: from the creation of environments with extended techniques and objects, to experiments in jazz fusion; from the use of field recordings and sound montages to compositions with string arrangements: everything around the hypnotic pulse of percussion and drums, which oscillate between moments of subtlety and explosive improvisation. The album features the participation of outstanding musicians such as Pauchi Sasaki (violin), José Quezada (cello), Terje Evensen (electronic effects), Jean Pierre Magnet (Saxophone), Cristobal, Daniel and Gabriel Mujica (sons of Manongo Mujica, on percussion, string and wind arrangements). It is published in vinyl LP and includes a full color 12-page booklet with a sample of Rafael Hastings' visual art, which also illustrates the album cover.

Rui Fradinho has been DJing and record collecting since the age of 15, having played drums and keyboards on several different projects and starting his electronic music production journey in 2001, when he made his first ever original track – A Bright Future (release number 1 on the label).

Lover of music of all sorts, Rui’s musical base stems across different genres, including House, Drum N Bass, Hip Hop, Footwork, Bass Music, having more recently nurtured a deeper devoted passion for all things Jazz, Fusion and Broken Beat / Nu Jazz.
There are undeniable major influences from Jazz, Soul, Funk, Latin, African, Brazilian and Global music on his productions and Rui has released remixes for several artists on several labels such as Str4ta for Colin Curtis Presents, Nimbus Sextet for Acid Jazz, Luiz Gabriel Lopes for Da Lata Music, Momenta for Lazy Robot Records, Various artists for MJDC – Modern Jazz Dance Classics, David Borsu for Broadcite, Makala for Orrua Diskak and Ray Lugo for Ammonite Records.

Highlights of his DJ career include a 6 year residency at Sociedade Anonima club in Portugal, then Bicaense Café and Lux Club in Lisboa. Earlier in 2017, he did a stint on London’s Back2BackFM, playing at Dalston’s Club Makossa, the BBE Store in East London, closing the Chill Out Gardens stage in Portugal’s Boom Festival 2018, DJ’ed at Gilles Paterson’s first edition of We Out Here festival, currently guests at Birmingham’s Bruk Up Broken Beat night and opened the Portuguese festival LisbOn - Jardim Sonoro in 2022.

Blue Vinyl

2019 saw Firescope release a seminal album, The Lonely Machine by Britain’s John Shima. The world has become a very different place since then. The pandemic, economic turmoil and global crises prevail. It is amidst such uncertainty that Shima returns with a new collection to combat the savagery of our times, enter Empty Lands.

Dauby basslines and silken strings introduce “Component”, saturated snares giving ballast as Shima’s signature style immediately comes to the fore. A throbbing kick and orbiting notes are peppered with hi-hats for “Neglected”, a sonorous stratum synergising beautifully. Shima is a student of techno. His appreciation and knowledge of the sound is central to the album as he composes within the traditions of the UK and US canon while exploring new plains. The influence of “bleep” is woven into the tapestry of pieces like “Depart” and “Mettle” with the minimalism of the 90s genre reimagined through new textures. “Sayaka” flows with a different current. Rhythms are understated, lapping against undulating keys as dawn rises. Harmony and melody are cornerstones of record, the gentle ebbs and flows of key and drum merging. Inspiration arises from home as well. The steady pulse and metallic tang of “Projection” recalling the industry of Sheffield and the pioneering electronics that sprouted from that rust red earth.

Track titles, and the album name itself, suggest periods of challenge and difficulty. “Paralysis”, “Desolate”, “Empty Lands”. Words that conjure certain feelings and responses. Shima’s music is a counterbalance to these emotions. Positive compositions of subtle shifts, complementary percussion and welcoming warmth acting as a tonic to the negativity that swirls; the ten audio works on offer acting as a balm to soothe the soul in these troubled time

Art Of Primitive Sound is a sensational journey to the origin of Music. In his crucial research chapter on the Paleolithic, Walter Maioli between 1986 and 1991 investigates the soundscape of different geographical, climatic and botanical environments, in which the mystery of the ancient human-nature relationship resides. What emerges is an expanded and unprecedented Paleorganology, with a range of acoustic and natural instruments from all over the World. Rubbing of fossils, animal artefacts, plant elements of all sorts, everything becomes sound and each object opens up forms of imaginary communication, psychic effect and unexplored languages. Whistles, flutes, leaf and shell rattles, rhombuses, horns, bone pipes, slate slabs, bamboo arches, stones, vertebrae, seeds, stalagtites etc...how great can be the Natural Orchestra inherent in the spirit of forests, rivers, caves, seas, swamps or Amazon jungles? Thanks to an interdisciplinary partnership (Anthropology, Archaeology, Botany, Ethnomusicology) of collaborating friends, Maioli directs an Opera of universal character inspired by the archaic essence of sound and infrasonic dimension.

Clear Vinyl

Downwards’ deep bonds with NYC catalyse the debut LP by Jim Siegel’s Vivid Oblivion, a reveberating post-industrial salvo produced by adopted Brooklynite Karl O’Connor (Regis), and co-mixed by Anthony Child (Surgeon) and Simon Shreeve, who also mastered it. It’s a super deep, highly atmospheric beast somewhere between Valentina Magaletti’s most expressive percussion work, Bark Psychosis, and classic, moody 4AD, which is coincidentally referenced via the artwork, made by Chris Bigg - legendary graphic designer and longtime assistant to Vaughan Oliver.

Invoking the density, vertiginous scale, and dark grimy nooks of NYC, ‘The Graphic Cabinet’ was realised by Jim Siegel - hardcore legend and occasional/regular drummer with everyone from Raspberry Bulbs to Damo Suzuki and Boredoms, made in close collaboration with Karl O’Connor aka Regis during 2021.

Stemming from intently deep listening sessions immersed in LPs by Viennese aktionist Hermann Nitsch and the myriad eras of Killing Joke, while also absorbing the atmospheres of classic Tarkovsky flicks, the album began life as gonzo field recordings of Siegel smashing the f*ck out of his drum kit, zither, scrap metal and gongs in an array of abandoned warehouse spaces. The recordings formed the basis of Karl’s compound productions, which add depth charge bass and sonorous metallic atmospheres to the mix, along with birdsong and gibbon hoots, plus guitar textures by Nick Forté (Raspberry Bulbs, Rorschach) for a dread-lusting jag deep in the belly of the Big Apple.

With a palpable tang of rust and blood in the air and grime under the fingernails, the seven tracks evoke a resoundingly brutalist portrait of space and place. Siegel’s nervy percussive discipline is framed in alternating barometric and light settings from cut to cut, variously snaking from the poltergeist clang and haunted resonance of ‘Converging and Dissolving’ to slamming motorik thrum in ‘Oblivion’ via imaginative descent into cyberpunk simulacra of the city as jungle-at-night in ‘Remnant Corridor’, replete with animalistic atmospheres that recall Organum.

While the raw attack and devilish swerve of the rhythms are utterly fundamental to the record, Karl’s atmospheric content and the animist mixing magick of Anthony Child and Simon Shreeve most potently give flesh to its bones. Patently evident on the stepping pulse and searching zither that keens into detuned orchestration on ‘Immediate Possession’, the zoned-out klang of ‘Stand Aside’ or in the flooded warehouse chaos of ‘Test For Traps’. The attention to spatial, textural and proprioceptive detail is tightened throughout, peaking with ‘Bargemaster’, a dense slab of tension that sounds like Jon Mueller’s Silo recordings fed through The Caretaker’s fogged machinery.

It’s one of the most impressive records on Downwards for a long while, bound to gnaw and spark the nerves of experimental rock and post-industrial’s greats, anything from The New Blockaders to Faust, Flying Saucer Attack and into iconic Blackest Ever Black releases in the modern era.

Aurora Records is proud to present asamisimasa's latest album with two
pieces by composer Trond Reinholdtsen – Unsichtbare Musik (Invisible
Music) and SPASTIL (Late Style)
After nearly twenty years of collaboration, this is their first collaborative release.
Reinholdtsen is among Norway's most prominent composers of his generation
and has a significant international position with a long list of commissions on his
resume. asamisimasa has premiered seven works by Reinholdtsen at festivals
such as Donaueschingen, Ultima, Huddersfield, and Darmstadt. Being a prolific
voice within the experimental opera and music theatre scene, Reinholdtsen has
previously only released two works on CD. With this release asamisimasa wishes
to shed a light on his instrumental chamber music. This is the ensemble's fifth
portrait album, their second on Aurora Records. "Unsichtbare Musik" was
commissioned for a concert at the Berliner Philharmonie in 2009, and explores
the relationship between language and music, between words and sonorous
representation. The piece challenges both the act of listening, our perception of
musical sounds, and the attempt to conceptualize musical impressions and
experiences. Composed ten years later,"Spatstil" is based on the semantic
analysis of "Unsichtbare Musik" and the ensemble's performance history with this
work. "SPATSTIL" marks a clear, yet ironic distance from the previous piece
through a dystopian self- criticism. The pieces have a unique sonorous
sophistication and aims to inspire philosophical reflection as well as aesthetic
pleasure. The aim is that the album can contribute to a reflection on music's
conditions today by focusing on the solitary and secluded listening one does at
home.
asamisimasa was founded in 2001 by musicians who shared an interest for
experimental music. Since then the ensemble has won two Spellemann Awards
(2012, 2015) and premiered more than 80 new pieces and toured all over Europe,
USA and Asia.

Following on from acclaimed recent releases on Hallow Ground and Boomkat’s Documenting Sound series, NOISEEM is a major new work from Japanese sound artist/instrument inventor Yosuke Fujita, who performs under the name FUJIIIIIIIIIIIITA. Where Fujita’s recent recorded output has focussed primarily on documentation of his remarkable self-built pipe organ, NOISEEM is the culmination of half a decade of work with highly amplified water. The evocative and timbrally rich sound of water has inspired concrete and experimental music practices since ground-breaking works such as Hugh Le Cain’s ‘Dripsody’ and Knud Viktor’s obsessively aquatic ‘Images’. However, other than his compatriot Tomoko Sauvage, few have explored the possibilities of water in live performance to the extent that Fujita has, constructing a series of water tanks that, with their pumps and amplification controlled by the performer, become a new musical instrument. The recordings contained here are drawn from live performances in Tokyo and London, edited and mixed by Fujita into two side-length pieces dominated by water, pipe organ, voice and subtle electronics. On ‘AWA’, which occupies the LP’s first side, the listener is immediately immersed in an aqueous world of recognisable drips and splashes, as well as more mysterious squeaks and squawks. While the liberal use of delay at times conjures up the sound world of early electronic music, the sparklingly clear amplification is unmistakably contemporary, lending the music a stunning weight and tactility. Building over several minutes, the piece eventually comes to a rapid boil, criss-crossed by washes of white noise splashes of electronics, before the untempered long tones of the pipe organ enter. The slowly shifting harmonies lend the remainder of the side a meditative, almost oneiric quality, inviting listeners to lose themselves in the aquatic layers that ripple across the harmonic foundation. On the second side, ‘UZU’ begins more starkly, with a single rapid bubble, quickly joined by full-spectrum wooshes and silvery, ringing tones. After a few minutes, the music undergoes a radical, entirely unexpected shift with the entry of a distorted, auto-tuned voice that repeatedly cycles through ascending and descending melodies. Left alone at times to be heard acapella, this mysterious element at times takes an odd resemblance to dhrupad singing. Eventually joined by rich, sonorous chords from the organ, the high tones of Fujita’s voice, and water, the piece takes on an ecstatic quality, channelling the sublime expansiveness of the natural element on which it is built. Disappearing as abruptly as they entered, the voices then make way for a haunted coda of isolated drips and distant whistles. Far from the intellectualised abstraction of much sound art, NOISEEM is strikingly immediate, both rigorously experimental in its explorations and unashamedly direct in its musicality. Tracklist 1. Awa 2. Uzu

‘Eighteen Movements’ is a collection of recordings captured at live performances between 2017 – 2019. The record’s rich textures combine ambient, tribal rhythms, field recordings, ritualistic vibes, and a meditative feeling that runs through the entire LP. Đ.K. is in full flight mode, illustrating the project’s aptitude for deep transcendence.

Đ.K. is a DJ, composer & producer based in Paris, France. A versatile and prolific artist, D.K. has cultivated an eclectic body of work in recent years, with acclaimed output on renowned labels including Antinote, Melody As Truth, 12th Isle, Good Morning Tapes, Music From Memory’s Second Circle imprint, and L.I.E.S. (as 45 ACP).

Luminous and mesmeric, D.K.’s work combines finetuned traces of house, synth pop, ambient, balearic, minimalism, and fourth world music, creating energies and soundscapes which aim to invoke elevated forms of consciousness.

Prismatic tones exchange space with devotional drums on ‘Clarity’ and ‘Echo Chamber’, as Đ.K. hits a hypnotic stride somewhere between Jon Hassell, HTRK & a Folkways percussion ensemble. With ‘Full Consciousness’ meditation bells ring out across a progression of gleaming new age emanations, conjuring an entrancing spell. Movements of pulse and ether.

On ‘Mirror’, sonorous, elaborate percussive phrases are interwoven with drifting ambient vapours, while ‘The Other Side’ veers into broad, rolling blasts of dub and Antipodean drone, a cavernous trance evoking the early roots of Ras Michael and Yabby You, pared back to resolute drum sequences and infused with esoteric chimes and sultry synthesis.

The finale of ‘Eighteen Movements’ represents one of Đ.K..’s most ambitious recordings. ‘Awakening’ is an epic tone poem of aqueous, outer planetary resonance that completes this mercurial cycle with a poignant, euphoric fadeout. Chronicled in the moment, alternating between rhythm and repose, momentum and aviation, 'Eighteen Movements' sees Đ.K. voyaging further, into vast, uncharted outskirts of sound. A collection of movements for heightened states and new diversions.

Mastered by Jose Guerrero at Plataforma Continental. Graphic Design by Javi Tortosa.

Analha was one of the first approaches I had with the design of analog basses and drums, to understand the way in which we can involve so many sounds and transform them to our own liking, to give it its own narrative, a sense, an identity in which it can be navigated about different styles without problem.

They are two pieces that make up totally different break paths where "Mi ama Dic K no" A1 is my own exploration and vision of the break beat, three melodies written in F # that count the subtlety, while the bass contrasts in an aggressive idea to the beat of many changing rhythms in the drums, which sorfs between a Mpc, 808, Dsm & V Modular ; Classic trip hop voices samples that guide the way this own idea progresses on the breaks and pads that generate a more complete environment with a very energetic atmosphere that is constantly on the rise in the active and natural development of the track.

Towards the B side "Run mami run" B1 is composed by a classic intro of acid cut while some seconds of drums interpose which are accompanied by a radio narration of a chase, a return change is present with a vinyl spin between voices from GTA & WU TANG CLAN which make an intro for an infusion of breaks fully aligned to the beginnings of oldskool drum and bass which are accompanied by voices recorded, treated and edited to connect more directly between the spaces interrupted by the glitch acid chords.

Among contrary structures "Analha" contains hidden but marked criticisms, it is a project that comes from 2018 and ended at the beginning of 2019 which made him think about how to involve more than music within his own sound narrative.

The sonorous identity of rachiid today is different, he understands his environment but does not believe in adapting, he tells us that each exploration and discovery during these years have led him to think how this first release was born until now but is not connected at all with what nowadays, describes his sonority today as changeable, essential and highly with IDM, experimental and breaks.

Includes Download Code and Special Insert Drawing !
Quindi Records continues to yield intriguing prospects as we reach the third edition, moving from Woo's astral ruminations via Cabaret Du Ciel's sonorous meditations on to the dusty, dusky mantras of Dead Bandit. Maintaining the ambiguous creative practices of the label's previous releases, From The Basement r eaches to the earth for the malleable grit of post-rock while making the most of the broader sonic outlooks afforded by kosmische and electronic effects processes.
Dead Bandit are Chicagoan songwriter Ellis Swan and Canadian multi-instrumentalist James Schimpl. Swan has previously released solo works including the stunning, inward-looking album I'll Be Around, a lo-fi Southern gothic dragging the husk of country ballads through battered signal chains. In Dead Bandit, Swan and Schimpl's artistic vision casts its gaze outwards on a vast expanse, where the distortion has space to stretch its legs and the drums pound out into open space. There's a common tonality at work here, the duos guitars telling a thousand hard-bitten tales where Swan's voice falls silent. It's no surprise to learn Swan and Schimpl's reference points include Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack, SF noise rockers Chrome and the imperial work of the late, great Mark Sandman of Morphine.
You can sense Jim Jarmusch's America just lingering behind the road-weary thrum of 'These Clouds' and detect the shadow of Tom Waits lurking in the raunchy lurch of 'FF M'. The pointedly titled 'Sedated' calls to mind the slowcore movement and its rejection of rock n' roll's fixation on speed. Instead, tonality and atmosphere are key across From The Basement , although the ambient lull of 'I See Her There' is the exception rather than the rule. Dead Bandit's desert sound has vibrancy and immediacy to match its moodiness, from the sultry swagger of opening track 'Mud' to the bold and borderline bombastic 'When I Looked Around'.
Like the previous Quindi releases, this record is inherently experimental in nature, but not at the expense of its warmth and instant appeal. From the basement, an inquisitive pair with primitive tools look out and imagine a colossal plain as the canvas on which to paint their picture

Straight Outta Caledonia is the first commercially available “Greatest Hits” of the outsider songwriter Jackie Leven, an artist
who has largely remained in obscurity in his native Scotland despite being one of the greatest wordsmiths – and singers – it ever
produced. A well-travelled musician who began making psychedelic, progressive music in the late 60s before emerging as an
epic storyteller full of pathos, humour and humanity in the 90s, Leven lived and wrote like many of the fragile, gregarious
characters of his songs; large, full of life and empathy. Leven passed away in 2011 after recording 30+ albums under different
guises or with his briefly successful New Wave band Doll by Doll. Straight Outta Caledonia is a compilation collated by Night
School Records on its Archival label School Daze that seeks to introduce Leven’s music to new generations.
In an age of isolation, alienation and loss of visceral experience, Jackie Leven’s music can be massive and welcoming. It feels
connected to some universal humanity and vibrates with vitality. His songs are often full of tragedy and comedy simultaneously,
cutting straight to the heart, often plugging directly into the nervous system of the listener. His lyrics are rich, dense with imagery
that can veer from apocalyptic to the comically banal in a sentence, with a songwriting panache that can be heavy handed to
almost bursting point before skewering the song with a clownish, warm punchline. His productions ranged from Bob Dylan’s
Rolling Thunder Revue style rock band orchestrations with strings and organ as on the epic Ancient Misty Morning or they could
be pared down to the purest form of folk song as on Poortoun: Leven on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, albeit played with a
mastery of the instrument that he often only hinted at. Musically his sound can bend traditional structures or stay completely
confined within them yet still forever push towards an ecstatic release, as on the cinematic Snow In Central Park.
The most exciting, jaw-droppingly effective tool at Leven’s disposal was his voice. A multi-octave instrument that, though
damaged during a savage assault in Fife, he used with flair; he had both a brazen disregard for the rules and a deep humility, all
of which is evidenced with every phrasing. A baritone that could flit up through the register – always touched by his gentle
Kirkcaldy accent – it’s the prime delivery method for his songs. Leven’s voice enabled him to inhabit the characters in his songs to
an uncanny degree, a skill that in turn enables the listener to empathise with them and, subsequently, the singer. It’s most evident
in stand out song The Sexual Loneliness Of Jesus Christ, a breathtaking re-telling of the life of its protagonist, not as a pure,
sinless messiah but as a sexually frustrated, solitary man condemned to an existential loneliness no one else will ever feel. In
many ways the track is the archetypal Jackie Leven song. Produced by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, what strikes the ear first –
after the samples of unemployed workers in Glasgow following the closing of the Clyde shipyards – is the audacious, rhythmic
tremolo effect Leven employs through the verses before the production opens up to allow Leven’s vocal to lift into a soar, a
freeing glide powered both by the force of the singer’s chutzpah and the inherent, doomed destiny of the protagonist. With any
other singer such subject matter could come across as gauche or worse, pretentiously sonorous, but Jackie Leven’s genius was
such that he could be this cinematic and brazen while touching something elemental and true in the beholder. It’s a skill evident in
every song on Straight Outta Caledonia, the trademark of a songwriter who revelled and excelled in intensity with a lightness of
touch.
In his lifetime, Jackie Leven toured, wrote and recorded at a ferocious rate. He recorded under aliases to avoid record contract
restrictions, played house shows in Europe after or instead of official concerts, events which were often spoken word story telling
masterclasses as well as performances of his often bewilderingly dense songbook. His music has traditionally been catalogued
as “folk” music and has been largely banished to a small, dedicated group of international fans and apostles both private and well
known, like author Ian Rankin or Glenn Matlock. Since his passing in 2011 however, there has been a growing recognition
amongst a newer generation, with artists like James Yorkston or Molly Nilsson publicly stating the influence of the unsung
troubadour on their own craft. Jackie Leven’s fairytales for hard men are often forensic deconstructions of masculinity, sad and
ecstatic, light and shadow, always endlessly rich, a resource as bountiful as Leven himself’s human spirit undoubtedly was.

“The earth shall rise again...”
AMOR/LEMUR finds the Glasgow quartet AMOR in partnership with Norwegian improvising ensemble LEMUR to hopeful and ecstatic effect. Conceived before the onset of Covid 19 but finished during spring lockdown, their eponymous EP is the most loose, alive and elevated recording in AMOR’s catalog. AMOR/LEMUR takes the template of throbbing avant disco expanded upon on previous recordings for Night School and lifts it into new

territories, with new tonalities and unexpected turns on the journey. More than anything, the expanded, near- cinematic expression of human connectivity feels like a lightning new energy to grasp in the dark.

Following a revelatory concert in Glasgow in January 2020 wherein the two sets of musicians met and performed together for the first time, a recording session was arranged the following day, resulting in the most elevated permutation of AMOR’s art to date. Each track was built upon a rhythmic bedrock of percussion and drums performed by Paul Thomson and samples/synthesizer by Luke Fowler. Thomson used bamboo Javanese gamelan (most notably on For You) and scrap metal, as well as traditional percussion and drums while Fowler incorporated processed ambient field recordings recorded in enclosed acoustic spaces around Glasgow. Singer/pianist Richard Youngs contributes some of the most bright and mindful work of his career. Acoustic bass player Michael Francis Duch, whose lush playing as ever provides the elastic spine to each song, scored the string parts for LEMUR on piano at home in Norway. The addition of swelling strings and drones fills out the AMOR sound significantly, lending a sonorous tone to 8 minute, epic closer For You or an ascending melodic introduction to Stars Burst that feels like a new morning dawning on a world saved from certain death. With the circumstances of lockdown forcing the musicians to work differently, a thread of optimism and utopia grounded in the moment weaves through these tracks. Unravel reveals a spine tingling vocal from Youngs. It’s a song about the simultaneously grounding and ecstatic effect of love, feeling connected to others. It’s a simple message, “I’m finding myself in your smile, always unravels me” speaks of ego death, the dissipation of the material into a nirvana of pure energy, the power of surrender. This isn’t a quasi-religious message, this is the power of each other, a love song to connection in a temporary age of isolation. Stars Burst is a play on the inner and outer cosmos, with narrator Youngs exploring wonder to a pounding galloping rhythm and snake-charming synth. It’s an open dance, with the group locked in together for the wild ride. Fear is the centerpiece of the record, starting with drones and scraped overtones before swirling synth notes filter upwards to meet reverberating minor chords. Over 8 minutes of tight but loose playing, Youngs is the shaman instructing us to use Fear as a celebration of the moment, embrace it and jump into the unknown. The only way to overcome your fear is to feel it, use it as an energy. The use of the studio as an instrument throughout side 2 is particularly important, with the dubbing and mixing prowess of engineer Paul Savage (who mixed unattended due to lockdown restrictions) and tape manipulations performed by Jason Lescallet coming into play. For You closes out with a largely instrumental, evolving composition that uses many of the abstract and novel aspects of this permutation to aid the trance. It’s massive, an unfurling creature with unexpected tonalities and serious heft.

Woods 786 is back. The alter ego of Roberto Bosco returns with “Exploration 01”, a live jam recording split in two tracks performed with Elektron Analog 4 and Analog RYTM. Last Drop Records and Sonorous Waves' founder has been for years both a producer and a DJ with dates all around the world, now takes another step forward into ambient music. His hypnotic textures invite the listener to travel without moving. Mastered at Mixmastering Studio, the first joint effort between Souterraine.org and Envlp_Imprint, “Exploration 01” is a dreamy continuum of twenty-five minutes or a way to escape from everyday chaotic life. Synthesizers brings you the sound of outer space.

DeForrest Brown Jr. is an outspoken theorist, journalist, curator, visual artist and musician. Raised in the deep South, DeForrest moved to New York a few years ago and has been shaking things up IRL and online ever since.

- He asks difficult questions that make us relook at how we think
about race, class, post-racial ideas, historical events and the social
structures in America.
- His work defies narrow bags and he’s truly a unique cultural polygot
comfortable booking an artist like Felicia Atkinson at Issue Project
Room or shaking up people on the street with his “Make Techno
Black Again” hat line.
- His project Speaker Music was inspired by Rhythmanalysis, a book
of essays by urbanist philosopher Henri Lefebvre as well as
considerations of momentum and the “chronopolitical” from British
cultural theorist Kodwo Eshun. Mobilizing freely improvised
electronic percussion and stereophonic audio recordings, Speaker
Music yearns to caress, engineer and sculpt sentiment into a multi-
textural rhythmic body, quivering moments into a collapsed
“nonpulsed time.”
- His debut for Planet Mu centers around weary sonic portraiture of
sonorous and cybernetic energy music – a music encoded with an
encrypted heat but made “with empathy and without excess.” His
“touching of frequencies” unveils a romantic abstraction of sonic
narratives that recalls previous innovations by musicians such as
Les McCann, Urban Tribe and James Stinson.

DeForrest Brown Jr. will be present at Unsound Festival in October at which he’ll be launching a new publication w/ Primary Information.
He will also present a special event at respected New York art gallery Artist Space on Friday December 13th at which he’ll be launching a book related to the album.

Additional dates will happen between October and next Spring - A Video will also be launched when the album is announced in early October (...).

WYLLOWE is Anna Sheard and Rory More – a nascent writing duo with a shared enjoyment of all things folky and groovy (think early '70s Sergio Mendes, '60s sunshine pop and modal jazz versions of Scarborough Fair). The new 7-inch release Fortunate Fool is a rolling and loping affair with a lilting melody accompanied by a chiming 12-string Fender, electric piano and Lowrey organ; its soaring lament and understated groove is an open-road elbows-in-the-wind driving song.

The B side, Berwick Street Blue, brings to the fore Anna's alluring lyricism and Rory's oscillant motifs calling to mind the compositions of continental soundtrack composers and the sonorous femme-fronted productions of the late 1960s. Lush choral harmonies, layered guitars and resonant piano and organ ebb and flow over a soulfully intoned lyrical paean to a part of London lost and changed forever.

As An Undisputed Heavyweight And One Of The Leading Figures Within The Electronic Music Scene, Icicle's Recognized As A Highly Respected Producer - Among Other Ventures Through Steaming Releases Via Hospital Records, Critical Music And Shogun Audio. Propelling His Technically Advanced Production Style Into The 140 Bpm Spectrum, It's A Sight To Behold As Dj Youngsta Reveals The Next Ace Up His Sleeve. The Uk-based Veteran Conveys His Awe-inspiring Take On Dubstep With Four Tracks On A Twelve-inch Platter - Vehemently Battle-tested As A Dubplate And Ready To Off At A Dance Floor Near You.

We Are Immersed In Dense, Granular Fog. 'raising The Dead' Begins The Ritual With Hypnotism And Anxious Unrest. Eerie Lead Melodies Lure Listeners Onwards As Relentless Percussion Takes Hold. Rigorously Increasing The Intensity With Mesmeric Style To The Ruthless Beat Of The Drums - Fragmented Vocals Flicker Through The Mist. As Ethereal Spheres Seem To Vacate, A Disturbed Melody Guides A Path Into The Low-frequency Behemoth That Is 'nt'. Driven By Its Intense Groove And Sonorous Sub-bass Emissions, The Erratic Lead Staccato Does The Rest To Keep Us Fiercely Bouncing To Icicle's Percussive Pulse.

As If It Could Get Any Hotter, We Flip To A Promising B-side Only To Be Proven Wrong Twice. Initiating The Ceremony With 'shout Me' - Haunting Female Choirs Entrance Amidst The Thunderous Sense Of Anticipation. Evolving From Intricate Breaks To Straight Shut-down Maneuvers Without Skipping A Beat. In A Final, Fulminant Outburst, 'noughties Riddim' Goes On To Wrap Up The Masterpiece In A Most Mischievous Fashion. Cutting Through The Noise, Profoundly Satisfying Mid-range Distortion Surges Flare Up In The Distance, While Continuous Pressure Continues To Evoke Cries For Rewinds.

NCZ007, 'In Memory Of,' brings together Stanislav Tolkachev, VSK, JoeFarr and ONTHEGROUND for a 4 track compilation. Each artist has contributed a track to the general theme of 'broken techno,' with outstanding, stylistically diverse results.

'Ant Parade' by Stanislav Tolkachev opens the record with a hypnotic march. Over a gently lulling rhythm, a bright melody repeats over an eerie and disorientating soundscape. VSK's 'Blue Snake' ratchets up the energy, with skittering percussion and tense, murky bleeps propelling the track frantically onwards.

Nicz records owner Myztical teams up again with Diagnetic Origin as ONTHEGROUND on 'Interstellar Gardening.' A sonorous melody emerges from rattling beats, serving up a heady communion of intangible, elusive euphoria and melancholy. JoeFarr concludes the record with 'I am a Visitor.' Staccato kicks and fuzzed out synths stretch and twist, while a dislocated, brash voice announces itself to the listener.

As bottom end provider for Cinematic Orchestra and Paper Tiger, Hunrosa (AKA Sam Vicary) already has something of a pedigree for a man of such tender years. His music glides effortlessly between Bonobo at his most sonorous, Jon Hopkins at his most ethereal and Flying Lotus at his most freaky. Currently based in Manchester, his music captures the wild organic senses of his Cornish childhood, anchoring it with a darker 2am undercurrent. Following the success of 'Ransom' (a firm favourite of BBC 6 Music's Tom Ravenscroft) Hunrosa returns with his newest offering 'We Know'. An eerie, ethereal track full of haunting atmospheres, Vicary enlists Austrian percussion maestro Manu
Delago, who lends his hang drum expertise to the proceedings weaving it amongst the twisting, intricate beats and Anna McLuckie's delicate vocals. the original is accompanied by a white label 12' containing three reworkings from burgeoning producers Lavan, Etherwood and Danvers. Newcomer Lavan is up first, moulding the organic melodies and earthy percussion into a dubbed out, soulful and bouncy 4/4 number. Hospital Records golden boy Etherwood (whose band Hunrosa is also a member of) brings a late-night liquid DnB atmosphere into play, harnessing the raw emotional power of the lyrics, as reverberating piano chords strike out into the darkness. Having turned the
heads of Bradley Zero and Gilles Peterson with his recent releases, CoOp and WotNot Music's Danvers resets the atmosphere with a zen like extended intro, before launching headfirst into a hypnotic and enthralling looped rhythm section. The groove locked in place, it rises and falls with precision, joined by spaced-out synths throughout the nine-minute duration, allowing the majestic instrumentation to gather pace as the spine chilling vocals drift overhead.