quête:state

David Allred is a prolific composer and producer based in Portland, Oregon. His new album The Beautiful World captures an enriched, realised understanding of why he composes in the first place. Dedicated to the expression of existential themes such as death, grief, longing and loss, the album’s core theme centres around the suicide of a young girl Lauren, who was a family friend to Allred. For as long as he could remember, Allred always created music out of a kind of dissociative state which he finds alluringly easy to lapse into. A repetition of a motif is usually where he begins composing. But unlike his previous works, The Beautiful World firmly has one foot in reality and is deeply intertwined with Allred’s relationships, past and present. Through his correspondence with Erased Tapes label head and the album’s producer, Robert Raths, over the past year, he came to realise that everyone has a Lauren in a way – someone they’d lost. Through writing to Raths, Allred was able to draw out this thread from the work and position it more clearly as the central concept to this work. The music doesn’t reflect the chaos of trauma, instead it has a therapeutic quality. It was through this dialogue that Allred was able to create what may be his most cohesive body of work to date. The 11 track album unfolds around Oh Lauren, providing the core of the album’s sentiment – how grief returns to us throughout life over and over. Embedded more than halfway through the album, Allred allows listeners to cohabit a meditative space through ambient textures, drones and ballads echoing the vocal sincerity of Arthur Russell, Daniel Johnston and the hypnotic storytelling of Robert Ashley. To truly reckon with The Beautiful World’s emotional position, listeners must understand the importance of the figure of Lauren, and the significance she has had throughout Allred’s life. Lauren’s suicide as a child provided the catalyst for Allred’s lifelong grief. But it was death anxiety and grief itself which provided Allred a link to a universal relationship that people have with each other and the world they live in. Impermanence and loss are the driving force behind all of our connections. The trance-like nature of the album perhaps comes from David Allred’s time sense – particularly when it comes to memory and trauma. Time becomes non-linear rather than a straight line – where one can repeat or return to the same themes but older and in a different frame of mind. Grief continues to manifest itself in life and despite personal growth, there will always be moments where the same feeling will manifest itself again. The album encourages listeners to sit with the concept of grief, and Allred is hopeful they can find comfort and learn to process it in a healing way. The Beautiful World is therefore heavily influenced by Allred’s work in therapy, particularly his relationship to writing music. In the past, Allred would be composing music as a means to dissociate from his life, but the album sees him engaging and connecting more authentically than ever with others and himself. Despite his prolific previous works being made in the company of others, Allred needed to step back from the scenes that he’s worked in to discover what he really wanted to create. Allred concludes: “In the power of love, curiosity, humour, and reconciliation, we give you The Beautiful World.”

Back in December 2016, Jeshi fell asleep whilst driving home from a party at 5am, and he crashed into a park car, only to be woken up by the airbag exploding in his face. This is the inspiration for album two. The new album is a statement of waking up and levelling up from the last period of his life. This is a new era, and full of energy.

SHORT BIOG

Jeshi doesn't run away from fire; he runs with it. The East London artist is on a quest to feel alive in every sense. To him, feeling alive means being present in each experience, no matter how challenging. For Jeshi - who has spent the last few years establishing himself as one of the most exciting voices of his generation - this is what life and art are all about. Chaos, then, is not something to shy away from, but where great ideas are born.
Jeshi's electrifying second album, AIRBAG WOKE ME UP is a collection of moment-capturing songs built to ignite reactions and start conversations. His scene-stealing jaunts to stages worldwide clearly influence its live-wire sound, as Jeshi and his cohorts smash through moods and tempos like kids let loose on funfair dodgems. "I want to make things that have intent and feel like statements," Jeshi declares. His versatile voice is the conductive thread that pulls everything together. "On Universal Credit, my voice was used in one way, whereas on this it's used in ten ways," he notes.
AIRBAG WOKE ME UP is an exploration into what happens when you emerge from tough times, and how they encourage you to view the world a little differently. It's bolder in ambition and built from renewed energy. Chaotic, but in the very best way. "In my head, this is the real arrival chapter," states Jeshi. "The 'I am here, I've arrived' moment."

Rob Mazurek graces the Keroxen Records waves with a genre defying album of field recordings, modular electronics, trumpet harmonies and spirit call chants.

An unstoppable force since his first recordings in the early 90’s Rob Mazurek has been at the forefront of experimen-tation and adventurous improvised music for most of the last 4 decades. The American composer, cornetist, and visual artist has been developing his own style of improvisational music with a myriad of collaborators, too many to list but amongst them true giants of the 20th and 21st century music cannon like Bill Dixon, Pharoah Sanders, Jeff Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Yusef Lateef and Naná Vasconcelos amongst many many others.

Nestor’s Nest is yet another addition to Mazurek’s mammoth catalogue of cosmic unity, coming like a spur of the moment whilst staying at Nestor and Pura’s house in Tenerife during the Keroxen Festival edition of 2023. Dead time doesn’t exist for the American cornetist and whilst hanging at the organisers house Mazurek decided to record and interact with his colourful tropical surroundings. Mangos, Papayas and Star Fruits all make an appearance here as does the quietness of an idyllic garden juxtaposed with Mazurek's stormy interferences, unleashing his modular synths and other acoustic paraphernalia into an ecstatic mix of pure celestial energy. As he beautifully states on the albums back cover:

Fruit from the trees of life, Stop All War. Stop the Killing, Open the senses, Breath. Listen . Feel!

Rob Mazurek: Modular Synths, Moog Sub 37, PolyEvolver, Trumpets, Voice, Bells, flutes

Made from field recordings in and around the Keroxen Tanque and the House of Nestor and Pura in Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Final mix at Marfa Experimental Studio, Marfa Texas
Mastered by Daniel Baez
Cover photo by RM

Dive into the cosmic grooves of Nebulous, the 8th album by UK's most enigmatic library music composer, to be released on digital and vinyl in January 2025.

This 9-track odyssey takes The Natural Yogurt Band’s signature sound to an even richer galaxy with keyboardist Huw Rees aka The Oracle, who adds warped organs and electric pianos over gritty drum breaks and electric pulses, echoing the raw energy of space's farthest reaches—ideal for jazz heads seeking a unique listening experience.

American Standard is the second studio album by American post- grunge band Seven Mary Three. It was released in 1995. The album would be Seven Mary Three’s breakthrough success, rising to number 24 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in the United States and Canada. Many of the songs were rerecorded
versions of tracks off Seven Mary Three’s independent debut, Churn.

The album’s biggest hit single was “Cumbersome” (#1 on Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, #7 on Hot Modern Rock Tracks, and #39 on the Billboard Hot 100).Other Billboard-charting singles were “Water’s Edge” (#7 on Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and #37 on Hot Modern Rock Tracks), and “My My” (#19 on Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks).

American Standard will be available as a limited numbered edition of 1000 copies on black & clear marbled vinyl and contains an insert

Brooklyn Sounds legendary second album from 1972, full of heavy Nuyorican underground salsa dura propelled by raw trombones, off-kilter piano and in-your-face percussion. A perfect blend of barrio attitude and Caribbean swing, the album proves Brooklyn has sabor y salsa! Pressed on 180 g vinyl, our reissue includes liner notes featuring never-before seen photos. “Libre – Free” is the now legendary second album by the short-lived Brooklyn Sounds and is arguably even better than their self-titled debut, displaying a more mature and practiced sound, no doubt honed by their experiences playing more gigs in support of their first record. Brooklyn Sounds were one of a handful of garage salsa bands from the independent scene that was gathering steam in the early 1970s in the New York boroughs, despite little support or exposure in the mainstream Latin music industry from more dominant labels like Fania, Mericana, Cotique and Alegre. As with many others, Brooklyn Sounds briefly fluoresced in a burst of creativity and defiance, yet flamed out shortly thereafter, dying like a flower among the ruins of burned-out apartment blocks in the barrios of its home city. Though the band only cut two LPs and a couple singles in their brief half-decade of existence, and never really broke out of the cuchifrito circuit in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, their music gradually spread far and wide, eventually becoming a sought-after global commodity by the late 1990s. In contrast to the first album “Libre – Free” is uptempo and ebullient, with fewer slow songs and more confident, creative arrangements, full of heavy Nuyorican underground salsa dura propelled by raw trombones, off-kilter piano and in-your-face percussion. Standout tracks include the uplifting, anthemic ‘Libre soy’, and ‘Ha llegado el momento’, with its minor key ‘Moliendo café’ quote at the
beginning—both of which have become dance floor anthems over the years. Another mid-tempo killer is ‘Guaguancó tropical’, a favorite in Colombia since the 1970s. A perfect blend of barrio attitude and Caribbean swing, the album proves Brooklyn has sabor y salsa!

Lucero lead singer Ben Nichols and keyboardist Rick Steff spent a day at Grammy Award winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang's Southern Grooves Studio in Memphis, TN recording acoustic versions of Lucero songs. Spanning the band's career, the songs range from some of Lucero's most popular crowd favorites to more obscure rarities and were all recorded live in the studio featuring grand piano and acoustic guitar. The double album, Lucero Unplugged, presents 20 stripped down tracks that offer fresh takes on the band's exceptional catalogue.

The chronicle continues, deepening the legend… Out Under Streets serves as a milestone in the profuse and vastly intangible catalog of Bug Bus Piano – a decade into the cult project's existence, this album stands as its first LP. But Bug Bus Piano, the originator of Hard Ambient, is perhaps better understood as an outlook or world unto itself. At any given moment it is a spirited performance of hyper-ambivalence, a refuge and processing center for personal history, populist strife and achievement, a besieged utopian commune. Out Under Streets is the newest export of this philosophy and perhaps the finest point of entry yet into all that is Bug Bus Piano. Far from didactic, the journey underground and back again concept which structures the record serves as a vehicle to consider what lies beneath the potholes in our pavement and centuries of cracked sidewalk. Every demolition or collapse and each successive failure at putting the pieces back together again. Having received the blessing of Carriswheel, Stern Records is proud to inaugurate itself with a major handmade ambient statement by Bug Bus Piano.

Theresa Stroetges returns to Karaoke Kalk with her second album for the Berlin-based label, her fifth solo full-length with her Golden Diskó Ship project in total. Having released records with the Indian-German band project Hotel Kali as well as Painting, a group dedicated to audio-visual concepts, »Oval Sun Patch« sees her embrace influences from club culture, advanced electronic music, and pop more firmly than ever before. Over the past 15 years, Golden Diskó Ship has served a vessel with which the Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist has traversed a variety of genres and circumnavigated all conventions in the process. With »Oval Sun Patch,« Stroetges again sets sail into unknown waters with what is perhaps her catchiest album so far—beat-driven, playful, atmospheric, and at times thoroughly anthemic. This is the sound of Golden Diskó Ship moving forward.

A life lived in transit, the vastness of bodies of water and the isolation of islands as well as more generally notions of processes and progress have been recurring motives throughout Stroetges’ previous records and also mark »Oval Sun Patch.« In fact, the foundation for the six pieces was laid when she was working abroad and at times close to the sea. The massive three-part album closer »Earth Before The Space Race« was conceived as a multi-channel audio-visual performance piece during a 2021 residency at Zaratan Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon. The others were written in the following year during two other residencies when Stroetges first spent time in Austria at the sound art festival Klangmanifeste in Lindabrunn and then visited Portugal once more for a stay at Goethe-Institut in Lisbon. With the help of Shelley Barradas, who lent her a guitar, and Julia Klein, who helped her setting up a temporary studio in the Goethe-Institut Portugal’s auditorium, she made the preliminary recordings of what would later become this album.

»Oval Sun Patch«, later refined in Berlin and mixed in close collaboration with London-based engineer Hannes Plattmeier, is a direct result of Stroetges having to work with what was available to her at the time of writing and recording. While her distinct guitar playing—evocative yet funky, complex but catchy—once more features heavily and she uses her voice in manifold ways to sometimes harmonise with herself or creating complex canons as counterpoints to her her own lead vocals, the electronic gear she worked with dominates the album both compositionally and sonically. Stroetges’ music has always displayed a passion for club culture and advanced electronic music, but on »Oval Sun Patch« she proves once and for all how well these influences can be integrated into her unconventional approach to songwriting.

However, the punchy beat and Moroder-like bassline that form the backbone of »Dolphins With Soft Helmets,« the throbbing house and techno grooves underneath »Ephemeral Carnivores« and »Well-Oiled Machine« as well as the jittery IDM rhythms of »Google Your New Name« and her nods to trip-hop with »Tiny Island« do not so much follow established formulas as they use them as a starting point for wild experimentation instead. Stroetges juxtaposes complex rhythms with interlocking melodies and rich harmonies in ways that continue to surprise throughout and still leave enough space for the occasional wistful guitar or vocal passage. Nowhere does this approach feel more epic than on the 12 ½ minutes long »Earth Before The Space Race,« which takes its time to unfold, changing its pace and mood throughout.

»Oval Sun Patch« is an album about change. The lyrics describe constant transformations of sceneries, relationships, physical and emotional states as well as the climate throughout its running time. Stroetges in the meanwhile leads the way as a singer, songwriter and producer who lets her music evolve constantly. This is sound, moving forward.

Dive Into the Pulsating Beats and Euphoric Melodies of Liverpool's Electronic Sensation, North 90, as They Unleash Their Highly & New Anticipated Ep. Hailing From the Heart of the Uk, This Band Draws Inspiration From the Iconic Sounds of Early '90s Uk House, Paying Homage to Legends Such as 808 State, a Guy Called Gerald, Lfo and Altern 8. Venture Further Into the Ep, and North 90 Reveals Their Profound Connection to the Madchester Era, Evoking the Spirit of Happy Mondays, Remixed by Paul Oakenfold, and the Psychedelic Vibes of Stone Roses, Remixed by Grooverider. the Sonic Exploration Reaches Its Zenith With the Opening Track, the Incredible and Euphoric "I'll Say Yes (Becca Mix)," a Masterpiece Reminiscent of the Cult Project Band N-Joi. as the Ep Unfolds, Each Track, From the Powerful "Baracuda" to the Ethereal "Fantasy" and the Dynamic "The Hack," Showcases North 90's Mastery in Crafting a Sonic Landscape That Transcends Time. the Collective Brilliance of the Ep Leads Us to Proclaim North 90 as a Band to Watch, With Tracks So Exceptional That They Border on the Realm of Genius. in a Musical Journey Where Each Note Reverberates With the Essence of a Bygone Era, North 90 Stands as a Testament to the Greatness of England. the Beats Are Timeless, and the Memories Are Eclipsed in a Symphony of Sound. England Is Vast, England Is Eternal, and North 90 Emerges as a Beacon, Carrying the Legacy of Uk House Into the Future. Their 12 Inch Is Not Just an Ep; It's a Sonic Testament to the Enduring Spirit of Electronic Music....

LP limited to 500 LP copies. Nina Garcia ’s first solo record widely available via international distribution. Nina has collaborated with artists like Stephen O’Malley, Sophie Agnel, Fred Frith, Antoine Chessex, Louis Schild, Leila Bordreuil, and supported for bands like Sonic Youth, SUNN O))). After a decade of performing concerts under the Mariachi guise, Nina Garcia has finally unveiled her unique approach in Bye Bye Bird, her first album under her name. Bye Bye Bird is her second solo album. With no pretence or demonstration, the album is a captivating blend of chiaroscuro, melodies, and raw emotion. Nina Garcia’s album takes on an almost documentary-like quality by adopting a simple approach to gesture and sound recording. It offers a candid portrayal of a moment, a lack, a state, and a breathtaking energy. With ostinato as her only credo, Nina Garcia’s music is an experiment in freedom, where the peaks answer the abysses, and the power of movement and the emotion of sound serves as her compass. From very short (01:28) to never very long (07:34), the eight tracks that make up this set explore a moment, a space, a mechanism, an intention or a way of doing things. As a common feature of almost all these pieces (all but one, the last), Nina Garcia explores a new technique. She adds to her instrumentation, reduced to the essentials (a guitar, a pedal and an amp), an electromagnetic microphone which, when held in hand, makes it possible to listen in on the exact zones where the vibration of the string creates a sound amid vast spaces of silence. The guitar is unplugged, and the body/instrument relationship changes in dimension. In this series of variations, you can get caught up in masses of noise seen from very, very close up, evocations of melodies in the making, feedback on ridgelines, pulsations that hold their own, modulations weakened by exhaustion and harmonic bursts that hint at better days to come. Neither hopelessly chthonic nor beatifically ethereal, Bye Bye Bird is a sum of musical pieces that make a whole and give voice to echoes of what has been, the presence of what is and the hope of what will be, a record movement in the form of flight and salvation. Since 2015, Nina Garcia has been researching and creating around the electric guitar, halfway between improvised music and noise. On numerous stages in Europe and North America, she has played occasionally with Stephen O’Malley, Sophie Agnel, Fred Frith, Antoine Chessex, Louis Schild or with Luke Stewart and Leila Bordreuil’s Feedback Ensemble, in addition to more regular formations in which she participates, such as the ensemble Le Un, mamiedaragon, Autoreverse (with Arnaud Rivière), duets with trombonist Maria Bertel and percussionist Camille Émaille, and the installation piece De Haut En Bas, De Bas En Haut Et Latéralement (with Christophe Cardoen, Jennifer Caubet, Etienne Foyer, Anna Gaïotti and Romain Simon). “Nina Garcia has been actively moving the art of noise guitar into surprising and intriguing new spaces. She has been at it for some time now, a bit of a secret weapon all the while hiding in plain sight. As I listen to her music and ruminate upon seeing her perform it brings me to a realization which I have with very few musicians: the ego inherent in making art can be transcended through a purity of direct action. At least that’s the feeling I have when experiencing Nina’s music which comes across as serious and radical and wholly engaged in the moment of its creative impulse.

Born and raised in Argentina, Morita Vargas is an experimental artist and producer based in Buenos Aires. She manipulates her voice through reverbs, delays and whispers, singing in a self-invented 'language'. The sound of Morita’s voice is a portal into her thriving, dreamlike world brimming, shimmering and beating with unrefined natural sensations which stimulate something primordial yet strangely contemporary.

As far back as 2014 she began work on her first productions - early sketches which later became the basis for ‘8’. It all started off as voice memos on her phone (recorded while roaming the streets and riding the trains of Greater Buenos Aires). Later on, Morita introduced various instruments into her vision: kalimba, harmonica, keyboard, flute, tambourine, chajchas, and cajón. Composed and performed from that period until its original release in 2018, ’8’ features 10 original voice-led compositions that in scope recall evocative portraits of synthesized landscapes and rainforests, attuned to a vibrant modern pulse and enchanting vocals. Morita Vargas “8” has achieved a kind of polyphonic soundscape which evokes unfamiliar realities through voyages within and between the realms of ambient and experimental music.

In numerology the number 8 symbolizes the transition between heaven and earth, the illumination of our infinite capacity for various metamorphoses. Tackling ideas of transformation, mutation, cyclical processes, death, creation, melancholy, and joy, the album you are holding is a monumental and deeply personal statement. You are invited to walk barefoot down the mystical path and indulge in the process of spiritual expulsion and renewal that is ‘8’. The path lies along the route of infinite meanings, somewhere on the border between dream and reality.

Unfettered by studio time limitations with their own home base of Echo Canyon, SYR 2 shows Sonic Youth chasing the shadows of predecessor SYR 1 and the series' distinct aesthetic: total exploration of freedom and further discovery. While the cover art evokes European contempo classical releases of yore, Sonic Youth distinctively reinvent their own personal output potential the way those kinds of records revolutionized a previously defined genre. Their ethos of utilizing the roots of the Ramones, Television, VU, Stooges, and No Wave to shape their first decade now find the band in later years bullet-pointing fascination in AMM, MEV, improvised music, free jazz and other outer-limit/organic refractions of traditional rock. While Sonic Youth's spontaneous-creation moments had long been showcased in their recordings, Peel Sessions, and live, SYR 2 sums up the band's state in 1997: rolling lots of tape, fine-tuning ideas and presenting great moments of exciting new directions, allowing deep-listener type fans to gain better insight into their sound process. Add to that the alchemy of Jim O'Rourke's gradual entry into the core band which would soon be fully on display for SYR 3, and this series is an X-ray of evolution, dissection and reconstruction.

While 1995's Washing Machine LP moniker was a thinly-veiled jab at the corporate aesthetic ("no, you cannot turn Sonic Youth into a household appliance brand", the band even considered changing its name to Washing Machine but settled on the album title instead), their major label relationship was indeed a curious buzzpoint of talk on the street after their intake to DGC in 1990. It wouldn't be fair to say that this state of existence propelled the band to reinforce its independent mindset by releasing a series of opaque-looking, French-language-dipping, highbrow-looking releases on their own that focused on the more abstract improv/compositional side of the band; in all truths they had been heavily steeped in self-releasing spillover material prior to that. But after a pressure pot of the early 90's indoctrination into a new operational mode for the band and its visibility, and the forces around it attempting to shape their direction, it seemed like a good time to create a strong show of radical concept.

The Anagrama EP became the first in a series of the SYR label's Perspective Musicales releases seemingly cementing Sonic Youth's connectivity to an increasing public awareness in experimental composers of the 20th century (French or otherwise). The irony was that many of those original avant composers being rediscovered by the indie audience (Partch, Neuhaus, Reich, Messaien) often found themselves on major labels anyway! So, perhaps this reverse approach was a necessary concept/comment given the music biz climate of the 90's. Regardless of how apples and oranges fell in Xenakian probability/theory, it was clear that both Sonic Youth's stature in progressive music, aided by now unlimited taperoll time thanks to a home base studio downtown established after their Lollapalooza stint, gave the band plenty of trailblazing time for their self examination of untraveled avenues.

"Anagrama" unfolds into nine minutes of delicate textures, starting with thick drone segueing into moments reminiscent of the post-crescendo flutter/comedown of "Marquee Moon's" trail-out; Thurston, Lee and Kim's guitars all circling round each other taking delicate pokes and stabs before drifting into some post-rock rhythmic moves tapered with delicate percussive guidance from Steve Shelley. "Improvisation Ajoutée" reaches further out into dissolve with whirring oscillations, guitars hissing and clanking radiator-style in a short blast format that continues into "Tremens" and a spooked-out landscape of gelatinous notes snaking up slowly. The sparseness of attack is colorful, textures emit and linger, silent spots shine, all flanked by tasteful drumming that provides the thread to all the abstraction. Shelley's approach here is interestingly sideways to any kind of usual rock action, it's tempered, mutant and metronomic simultaneously. The finale track "Mieux: De Corrosion" is a real pedal-palatte showcase. Here, Plutonian guitar wash flanges upwards to buoy a myriad of colorful eruptions of amp-spuzz, chopped up tone blasts and general confusion. Out of the blue, some metallic one-note choogle kicks in and threatens to explode into some Judas Priestly motion, before it all sputters into aural glass showers, clang, and finally a ferocious wave of more flange hiss that crashes down on a dime.

This initial foray into SY's Perspectives Musicales series continued onward with releases featuring other co-conspirators, peaking with the ambitious 2CD Goodbye 20th Century that finally connects the band into full-on interpretations of other composers' pieces (as well as displaying their own new ones). The whole series is not so much an outlet for another "side" of the band, but a run that went hand in hand building new approaches of songcraft onto their own, more overground direction which included Jim O'Rourke (who hopped on during SYR3), adding additional density to A Thousand Leaves and other LPs of his era. Fans of the '86 Spinhead Sessions as well as the recently-exhumed later jams of In/Out/In will take in the sounds of SYR1 with glee.

Mel Keane transcends from his former state of earthly frog into a new and empty world that he must endeavour to furnish with his Airs.

Gracie Abrams veröffentlicht am 21.06.24 ihr mit Spannung erwartetes zweites Album „The Secret Of Us“. Nach zwei gefeierten EPs war das letzte Album ”Good Riddance” (2023) das erste musikalische Statement in voller Länge – Gracies Definition von vertonter Poesie und intimem Pop - mit lebensnahen Texten und ganz viel Tiefgang. Wie auch schon der Vorgänger ist „The Secret Of Us“ wieder von Aaron Dessner (The National) produziert. Schon als Achtjährige zu ersten eigenen Songideen inspiriert, gab Gracie Abrams ihr erstes musikalisches Lebenszeichen Ende 2019 von sich. Für ihre ersten beiden EPs „Minor“ und „This Is What It Feels Like“ als Rising Star gefeiert, verzeichnen viele ihrer bisherigen Songs (u.a. „I miss you, I’m sorry“, „21“ und „Feels Like“) Streamingzahlen in zwei- bis dreistelliger Millionenhöhe. Für ihr letztes Album „Good Riddance“ wurde Gracie Abrams für einen Grammy in der Kategorie „Best New Artist“ nominiert. Zuletzt war Gracie Abrams als gefeierter Support Act auf einigen Taylor Swift Konzerten zu sehen.

George Clinton’s imagination knew no bounds and, defying normal music industry convention, by 1978 had five bands signed to three different record labels. One of these comprised of three Parliament / Funkadelic female backing singers working under the name of Parlet, whose debut single, ‘Pleasure Principle’ was released on Casablanca Records in March 1978.

It was Clinton’s idea that two other backing singers, Lynn Mabry and Dawn Silva, become the Brides Of Funkenstein, a character he invented for the 1976 Parliament LP, “The Clones Of Dr Funkenstein”. “I have to be honest – at first, I hated the name and I thought George was kidding,” Mabry told Blues & Soul, “But I have gotten to like it – especially just the Brides.”

Clinton got the Brides signed to Atlantic Records and their first single was ‘Disco To Go’ / ‘ When You’re Gone’. The A-side was written and produced by Clinton and Bootsy Collins and had originally featured in live shows by Collins’ live band. Clinton was asked by Black Echoes why the song was recorded by the Brides rather than Bootsy. “He could, and it would have been a smash too,” he replied. “But we thought it sounded too much like James Brown, so we gave it to the girls. Now it don’t sound like James Brown.” It certainly did not and this electronic bass and horn-powered banger – complete with an Old MacDonald nursery rhyme refrain – debuted on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart at #80 on 30th September 1978. By the time the P-Funk crew were flying across the Atlantic in early November it had peaked at #7. Sadly for UK fans, ‘Disco To Go’ was only available on import although a Black Echoes review stated it was a “Slow chunky handclapper. It sounds not unlike Funkadelic’s own ‘Coming Round The Mountain’”.

‘Disco To Go’, went gold in America selling over 500,000 copies. It was the perfect springboard for the Brides debut LP, “Funk Or Walk” which quickly climbed into the upper reaches of the R&B chart and even saw the duo embark upon a signing tour of record stores. All of the songs on “Funk Or Walk” were written by legends of P-Funk, such as Bootsy Collins, Rodney Curtis, Bernie Worrell, Gary Shider and Clinton. “George has got thousands of tracks,” Mabry told Black Echoes. “When we go into the studio he says, ‘Like this one?

Maria Callas was born to a Greek family in New York in 1923. Her vocal training took place in Athens, where her teacher was the coloratura soprano Elvira de Hidalgo, who had sung with Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin. After early performances in Greece, Callas’s international career was launched in 1947 when she performed the title role in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda at the Arena di Verona in Italy.

Her voice defied simple classification and her artistic range was extraordinary. In her early twenties she sang such heavy dramatic roles as Gioconda, Turandot, Brünnhilde and Isolde, but over the course of her career her most famous roles came to be: Bellini’s Norma and Amina (La sonnambula); Verdi’s Violetta (La traviata); Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, Cherubini’s Medea and Puccini’s Tosca. Though her timbre was not always conventionally beautiful, Callas’s musicianship and phrasing were in a class of their own. She brought characters to vivid life with her skill in colouring her tone and making insightful use of the text.

She is credited with changing the history of opera: by placing a perhaps unprecedented emphasis on musical integrity and dramatic truth, and by transforming perceptions – and reviving the fortunes – of the bel canto repertoire, particularly Bellini and Donizetti.

The 1950s marked the height of Callas’s career. Its base lay in the opera houses of Italy, and she became the prima donna assoluta of Milan’s legendary La Scala – notably in the productions
of Luchino Visconti – but her operatic appearances also encompassed London’s Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opéra, the Vienna State Opera, and the opera houses of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Lisbon, and, in the early 1950s, Mexico City, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

From 1959, when she started a life-changing love affair with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, her performing career slowed down and her voice became more fragile. Her final stage performances came in 1965, when she was only 42.

There were many plans for a return to the stage – and for further complete recordings – but they never reached fruition, though in 1974 she gave a series of concerts in Europe, North America and Japan with the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano; he had partnered her frequently in the opera house and in the studio, not least in the 1953 La Scala Tosca under Victor de Sabata, considered a landmark in recording history. Callas died alone in her Paris apartment in September 1977.

Faszinierend, energiegeladen und hypnotisch! Prepared - ein freigeistiges Trio, das in kammermusikalischer Besetzung unkonventionell und instinktiv Tanzimpulse weckt und den Hörer in einen tranceartigen Klangraum entführt!

Ein Pianist, der auf dem Flügel unablässig hämmert, klopft und zupft. Ein Klarinettist, der in den Tiefen seiner Bassklarinette mehr Bass als Klarinette spielt. Und ein Drummer, der wie eine gute Schallplatte immer weiterläuft und die Grooves fortwährend im Kreise dreht.
Drei Münchner Jazzmusiker, vereint in Ihren Gegensätzen. Wo der eine mit Quadro Nuevo argentinischen Tango, der andere mit Dreiviertelblut "folklorefreie Volksmusik" oder der dritte mit Moop Mama deutschen Hip-Hop spielt, lassen sie in ihrem neuen Projekt Prepared gemeinsam zyklische Motive und raffiniert geschichtete Muster in minimalistischen, aber höchst virtuosen Kompositionen zu einem faszinierenden Gesamtkunstwerk verschmelzen. Als hätte man Jonny Greenwood, Dawn of Midi, Nik Bärtsch und Steve Reich in einen Topf geworfen.

Line-Up:

Chris Gall • prepared piano
Flo Riedl • bass clarinet
Christoph Holzhauser • drums

The Recording: Für eine "state-of-the-art" immersive Musikproduktion wurde die Musik "live" in einem Raum ohne jegliche Overdubs aufgenommen. Dieses Album wurde mit erstklassigen 3D-Aufnahme- und Mikrofonierungstechniken für Dolby Atmos aufgenommen und von renommierten Toningenieuren gemischt und gemastert.
Recorded by Kseniya Kawko at Kyberg Studio, Munich, mixed by Kseniya Kawko at MSM Studio, Munich and mastered by Christoph Stickel at csmastering, Vienna

Format: Schwarzes Vinyl inklusive Downloadkarte

Belt of Orion by Stockholm-based Isak Edberg is the composer's second solo release on XKatedral, and his first to focus solely on instrumental music in the form of two pieces of extended duration for solo piano. Isak Edberg is a composer of electronic and acoustic music as exemplified by Ondulations from 2017 and Lamé written in 2010 and released in 2022, both on XKatedral. Edberg was also a member of Golden Offense Orchestra, active from 2012 to 2014. Edberg writes that his music is informed by an enchantment of being and a search for holiness, rapture and transcendence through stillness, contemplation, dreaming and an attempt to uphold the present. Edberg regards his music to be an adornment of time. The two works presented here were composed in the south of France and in Stockholm during a period spanning the years 2016-2018. The music was inspired by the cold winds, starry nights and desolate, palely bright landscape of the provençal autumn, as well as reflections during a time of escapism and isolation in the life of the composer. More concretely, this music grew out of hours of improvised playing on an old piano while living alone on the countryside, during which harmonic structures and gestures were slowly worked out by means of performing and listening, assessing and balancing sounds and silences. Stylistically, the music draws on a range of sources, such as Feldman's use of space and resonance as projected through both harmonic and temporal distance, the ritualistic gestural repetitions of Satie, as well as Messiaen's resonant harmony, together with some of the harmonic lushness of Scriabin's late work. Belt of Orion is a piece that explores the contrast of two musical textures, the one being fluid, airy and progressive, the other being static, steady and repetitive. The music sequences through a series of harmonic tensions in search of a place of peace, exposing a rift in the weave of time where everything momentarily stands still. In Vestiges repetitive and rhythmic materials form a major part of the musical structure, while sections of sparse, floating harmonies temporarily interrupt with reflective pauses of stillness. The music thus employs two different and contrasting kinds of musical hypnosis, with the aim of cradling the listener into a dark and perhaps unsettling sleep. The music on this recording was performed by the renowned Swedish pianist Mats Persson, who has for many decades been a legend in the art music scene of Stockholm. Through his languid yet distinct interpretations the delicacy and intimacy of these works are elegantly brought to the fore. The recordings heard here were made over the course of two evenings at Fylkingen in Stockholm. Isak Edberg's music moves slowly through the seemingly endless world that is harmonic sound. In his practice he uses heavily reduced and carefully controlled materials to create states of maximum clarity.