Léman Records proudly presents the swiss producer Mystic V on this new swiss imprint project curated by himslef, Leo Luscher and Wolff. Blessing us with a perfect summer 4 track EP titled "Ever Since That Day I Met You".
Delivering his signature sound between mellow grooves and deeper sounds, a good way to start your holiday season
Two of the most prominent activists on the current European reggae scene join forces on this brand new song. ‘END OF THE DAY’ is a combination between Bristol singer JOE YORKE and Swiss reggae band THE 18TH PARALLEL.
Written by master storyteller Eeyun Delroy Purkins from The Co-Operators who recently released a highly acclaimed album with Joe Yorke titled ‘A Distant Beat’, ‘End of The Day’ showcases the remarkable talent of both crews: on the one hand enchanting melodies and thought-provoking lyrics provided by Joe’s soulful voice and Eeyun’s brilliant pen, on the other infectious grooves and impeccable musicianship by The 18th Parallel.
This mesmerizing collaboration is highlighted by Westfinga’s perfect early 80’s rub a dub mixing. When these extraordinary forces collide, magic happens. Step into the rhythm and embrace a state of pure musical bliss!
After a convincing self-released EP in 2019 and a first introduction on BMM Records with a track feature on the "Groove
Dingueries Vol. 1" compilation, Swiss quartet mohs. present their debut album "Mirage", an ode to creativity.
Guitarist Erwan Valazza, trumpeter Zacharie Ksyk, bassist Gaspard Colin and drummer Nathan Vandenbulcke distill jazz,
hip hop and afrobeat elements in an ocean of blissful synths while keeping a wary eye on the sound texture. From the funky
instrumentation surrounding Fang The Great's vocals on "Heartbreaker" to the the nostalgic guitar loops of "Mirage", all the
way to the relaxing, almost ambient soundscapes of "Lonely Cowboy", this album will comfort your ears like a warm blanket.
Carla Durisch unveils her debut EP ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ on Crosstown Rebels, with long-standing label favourite and close friend Seth Troxler on remix duties.
An exciting name who looks set for a breakout year in 2023, DJ/producer Carla Durisch is an artist whose passion and deep- rooted understanding of electronic music led to her being marked as a talent to keep an eye on. An integral part of the Swiss electronic and club landscape through residencies at the likes of Nordstern (Basel), plus both Hive and Zukunft (Zurich), her recent explorations within the studio have seen her deep and groove-led style translate into her own productions. These explorations are on display for the very first time as she debuts on Damian Lazarus’ renowned Crosstown Rebels imprint, following appearances at Get Lost in Miami and Watergate Berlin, plus forthcoming Ibiza sets alongside the label boss this summer at Hï.
Led by the captivating words of Nanghiti and Carla’s own vocals ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ is a warping and colourful ride through rich synths, refined drums and bright stabs as it builds and descends across an engrossing near-seven-minute journey. Next, ‘Be The Thing is a stripped-back, hypnotic house effort as snaking percussion merges with sharp lead melodies and further vocal interjections.
Needing little introduction, Seth Troxler’s remix of the title cut is an example of the American at his best, fusing bubbling acid-dipped bass patterns with skittering percussion and surging synth lines for a trippy, late-night take. To close, ‘4AM’ picks up those early hours sonics as crisp claps, echoed vox snippets and dubby grooves take a hold.
Mattias Petersson debuts on the Swiss label Hallow Ground with »Triangular Progressions,« a suite in nine parts written entirely in the SuperCollider environment using additive synthesis. The starting point for the evocative piece is a magic number triangle that Petersson invented during his early composition studies and which has been an obsession of the artist for over twenty years, previously forming the foundation of many other of his works. By exploring the harmonic progressions found hiding within the triangle, »Triangular Progressions« at once emits a sense of introspective calm that fosters deep listening and evokes a whole spectrum of emotions, mediating between the abstract and the visceral.
The Stockholm-based Petersson, also known under the moniker Codespira1 and for his long-term collaboration with violinist George Kentros as There Are No More Four Seasons, has been active as a composer of computer music as well as an artist in the realms of live coding and modular synthesis for over two decades. Originally trained as a classical pianist, he also holds a diploma in electro-acoustic composition from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where he currently works as an associate professor. Besides his activities as a musician and teacher, Petersson is pursuing a PhD in composition at the Luleå University of Technology. Researching modular systems comprising both human and non-human modules, he is part of the GEMM))) Gesture Embodiment and Machines in Music cluster.
»Triangular Progressions« can be considered a perfect synthesis of Petersson’s academic interests and aesthetic ideas, combining a mathematical approach with artistic rigour. The magic number triangle highlights the beauty of symmetrical properties. By exploring its idiosyncrasies, the composer manages to translate them into engaging sounds. The lush melodies and harmonies of the music at times call to mind the intimate organ and drone works by label mates Kali Malone and Maria W Horn while also maintaining a unique signature sound. The addition of pure sinusoidal waves enables a deep listening exploration of the counterpoint between melodic and harmonic rhythms, chord structures and spectral harmonies that Petersson extrapolates from those magic numbers.
Hania Rani announces "On Giacometti" a tender meditation on the life and art of Alberto Giacometti and family. "On Giacometti" is a collection of beautiful recordings inspired by the renowned artist and family and features some of Rani's most profoundly delicate compositions to date. Invited by film director Susanna Fanzun, to score her forthcoming documentary on the legendary artist Alberto Giacometti, Hania Rani took herself to the Swiss mountains to compose in blissful isolation. As Rani explains eloquently below the compositions are based on improvised melodies, simple harmonies and structures and inspired by the silence of the mountains as Rani returns to her main instrument, the piano. The results are beguilingly reminiscent of her beloved debut album Esja, but with subtle extra layers of synthesiser, and on two tracks cello from friend and long-running collaborator Dobrawa Czocher.
'On Giacometti' is presented as a limited edition LP with bespoke packaging featuring Les Naturals - Chocolat (Gmund) sustainable recycled paperboard made from 100 % recovered paper with Foil Artwork by Łukasz Pałczyński. Plus Double sided printed insert and download code inside.
Hania Rani "On Giacometti":
‘When I was asked to compose a soundtrack for a movie about the family of Giacometti I didn't think twice.
Alberto Giacometti, a Swiss artist, who worked mainly as painter and sculptor has been one of my favourite artists for a long time. His individual style, aesthetics and the character of his creative process is still fascinating to me on many levels, so being able to dive even deeper into his universe, getting to know not only him but also his family was an opportunity that I couldn't miss. Little did I know how far this "yes" will take me - not only mentally and on a creative level but also physically. Thanks to the director of the documentary - Susanna Fanzun and by a stroke of luck and a couple of extra questions I decided to move for a couple of months to the Swiss mountains, not far away from the place where Giacometti was born and where the place he called home was, although he didn't live there. Susanna showed me a place close to her hometown where I could rent a studio and work on the soundtrack but also for my other projects. It was the middle of a winter, the area was full of ice and snow, just like only it can happen still in the mountains. The residency house was located in a valley surrounded by high mountains and the sun in the winter season was not coming up for too long during the day. I remember she told me about it and added "that not everyone is feeling well there, but I hope you will". I did.
Being almost separated from reality, the city and its entertainments, people rushing and everything that usually takes my attention I could fully concentrate on the music and soundtrack, spending most of the day with my own thoughts and having enough space to experiment and be free in a creative process. This soundtrack would probably be a very different thing if composed in a place that I am usually living in. I took this a chance to explore something new about myself as a composer and human being, taking the opposite direction that I would usually choose for myself.
The album "On Giacometti" includes the excerpts from the soundtrack, the most representative tracks and those which became a strong voice itself. Based a lot on improvised melodies, simple harmonies, structures and silence it reminds me of my debut album "Esja" which was partly composed and recorded in another chilly place - Iceland. All these components, both mental and physical, guided me back to my main instrument - piano, which I tried to redefine again with a language of the space that I was working in. The space is usually the key element that gives me the answer about the arrangement or character of the project. Space seems to be the first to appear and music is the invisible power which is changing its angels.’ Living surrounded by mountains makes you change the perspective and understanding of scale as Alberto Giacometti once famously wrote in a letter: It gives an impression that things that are actually far away, like mountains, are close and the other ones that are not so far away, like people, seem small, watched from a distance. You feel like touching the mountain top with your finger could be as easy as touching the tip of your nose. The snow additionally protects the whole area from the noise, each sound lands softly on the ground accompanied by echoes of immeasurable space. Each scratch or whisper is becoming an autonomic entity, opening the gate to the world of ghosts and lost spirits. It's easy to think that time stands still there, while nothing is moving and changing at the first sight. But the ubiquitous ice and snow reveal the passage of time, transforming frozen paysage into the wild stream of water - each day, hour and second. Melting and vanishing, clearing the space from white powder and noise consuming surface. Invisible process for a one night traveller, becomes painfully real for longer time settlers. Time flows with each new wave of sound coming through the river, reminding us that we are part of the cycle, which endlessly repeats itself.
smokey vinyl / 180 grams /
For the second release, the Swiss Label present a classic Dub techno track produced by AudioChain (A duo composed by the Label owner Brenno Della Vecchia and his friend Luca Gaggetti). A timeless track with a deeper groove born directly from the Alps!
The remix otherwise, is a faster interpretation remixed by the Dub techno producer from S. Francisco, Federsen. A wonderful relaxed track full of details able to bring you inside Kelly's rhythm.
Limited to 300 copies, only on vinyl!
Ltd coloured 2LP edition, w/ etching on side D! "I'm obsessed with late 90's Meshug- gah, early Dillinger Escape Plan, and early Cult of Luna," explains guitarist Pierre Carroz deftly about the influences behind the sound of his brainchild. Combining the sonic agility of the American math-core pioneers with the relentless ferocity of the Swedish progressive metal innovators, Herod produce a brand of heavy music that is truly face melting. Having played with le- gendary metal acts like Obituary, Napalm Death and Carcass, Herod are no strangers to the international metal scene, and it shows in the calibre of their music. Their upcom- ing third album The Iconoclast puts the full power of their artistry on display, redefining musical heaviness and atmosphere at every turn imaginable. Iconoclast sees the Swiss quintet paint with a consistent palette of groovy syncopated riff- ing, heavy breakdowns, and a diversity of vocal techniques and deliveries. Using similar col- ours and textures to create many different pictures, it's an approach that feels almost experi- mental. Like great abstract painters like Kazimir Malevich or Jackson Pollock, Herod continue to develop their technique and method throughout their oeuvre. Iconoclast is a creation of pure magnificence, combining an undeniable artistic mindset with the best of what modern metal has to offer. «The Edifice» features the incredible Matt McGachy from Canadian technical death metal legends Cryptopsy while the album closer sees the band collaborate with long-time friend Loi"c Rosetti: «The Prophecy» poses him against a most ferocious backdrop, capturing two amazing vocalists of the past and present Ocean Col- lective teaming up and facing off, since Herod's vocalist Mike Pilat was the main vocalist on The Ocean's «Precambrian» album (2007). FOR FANS OF Meshuggah, Gojira, Cult of Luna, LLNN, Vildjharta, Primitive Man, Uneven Structure
Welcome to the enchanting Universe of Buddha-Bar This 4-CD box set offers a great selection of hypnotizing sounds, mostly unreleased captivating and exotic tracks. Crafted by the coolest Chill-Out & Organic House artists around the universe, this new selection will take you through the four galaxies of Mr. ID (Morocco), Milo Häfliger (Swiss), The Soul Brothers (Mexico) and Ravin (Buddha-Bar Paris resident DJ). Get ready for an interstellar odyssey, an escape through time and space, where reality fades into dreams, where music is the journey. Welcome to a new dimension, welcome to the Universe of Buddha-Bar
"The Concert" is the first discographic collaboration between percussionist Alexandre Babel and visual artist Latifa Echakhch. The record is intimately linked to the eponymous exhibition presented at the Swiss Pavilion during the 59th Venice Art Bienniale.
For her exhibition in the Swiss Pavilion, Latifa Echakhch created an orchestrated and enveloping experience, a rhythmic and spatial proposal that allowed the visitor a complete perception of time and of his own body. What is the origin of rhythm? How does the body perceive time? How does the mind rearrange it? Can we substitute one perception for another, the visual for the sound? Can fragments of memory go back in time and recreate a different story?
Her proposal entered a dialogue with the building around it, designed by Bruno Giacometti. The artist revisited its architectural programme as well as the prototypical progression of these exhibition spaces, originally defined for the display of classical art. She appropriated the entirety of the spaces, simultaneously exploring continuity, movement and sequence. Their relationship to light, and the different sounds that emerge from them. Yet the exhibition was entirely silent and the musical composition "The Concert" functions as its sound rendering, by following a similar path.
This one-sided vinyl is a complementary and inseparable partner piece to the exhibition and its eponymous catalogue, the latter having been published in April 2022 by Sternberg Press. The music features field recordings made at the Swiss Pavilion itself as well as pre-recorded percussion sounds and significant contributions by the Berlin-based musicians Jon Heilbronn, Rebecca Lenton, Theo Nabicht, Nikolaus Schlierf.
The record, available only after the closing of Latifa Echakhch’s exhibition offers a concluding phase to the project. The resonance of its sensory score. It reactivates the experience of the physical journey of the installation, without imposing itself as a transcription or an illustration. Through texture, temporality and its totality, the record stands as a resonance of the rhythms that have structured the pavilion, the harmonies that have composed it and the sounds that have inhabited it.
Latifa Echakhch Lives and works in Vevey, Switzerland. She graduated from the École nationale supérieure d’arts in Cergy-Pontoise and the École nationale des beaux-arts in Lyon. Galleries representing her include kamel mennour (Paris and London), kaufmann repetto (Milan and New York), Dvir Gallery (Tel Aviv/Brussels) and Pace (New York). She took part in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale Arte in 2011 and was awarded the prix Marcel-Duchamp in 2013 and the Zurich Art Prize in 2015. Through her interdisciplinary installations, Latifa Echakhch is recognized for the fine balance between forcefulness and fragility of her visual language, inserting surrealist and conceptual elements, and her use of symbols that–in her own words–are both "political and poetic".
Alexandre Babel Lives and works in Berlin. He is a drummer, composer, and curator. His projects redefine the boundaries of musical convention, confounding listener expectations in the conquest of new contexts. Babel has been the artistic director of the contemporary percussion group Eklekto 2013–2022. In 2020, the monographic Festival Les Amplitudes in La Chaux-de-Fonds focused on Babel’s compositional and curatorial work. He is a laureate of the Swiss Music Prize from the Federal Office of Culture 2021.
2023 Repress
it was in february 2015 when japanese producer and sound designer kuniyuki takahashi, sometimes known as koss, releases with the ep 'newwave project '2' a record, that tapped some roots of his musical education: new wave, german electro punk from bands like a daf, ebm from acts like front 242 as well as industrial music.
styles, about kuniyuki claims that they are his 'favourite music'. now, nearly two years after his first newwave project ep, he drops an album that is leaning towards his musical love from the past. compared to his former work, that was rooted in worlds of classic, jazz, house, ambient, and electronic song-writing, his new tunes are full of melodic drifts and rhythmical shifts.
as usual all is loaded with tones and rhythms straight from the heart that filter and modulate human emotions without losing their natural source. to get a sound that is fresh but still leaning to the 1980ees, he used some old synthesisers like a roland jupiter 8, a juno 60, a korg ms 20, an old tape echo machine but also new instruments like the roland aira. furthermore, his modular synthesizers talk too.
instead of having a masterplan, kuniyuki just made sound, drifted on his machines and moved into a territory, that his far away from his former sound. also the use sampled voices and other alienated sound sources of unknown origin inject his new tunes otherworldly atmospheres.
his skills as a fine instrumentalist is evidence as kuniyuki also played the piano, percussions or flute, if he felt their warm sound is needed for his freely grooving tracks. some dance in a house or techno outfits.
other slam like a mix of funk and ebm. tunes like 'puzzle' or 'body signal' are twisted treasures that bemuse deeply. in-between you hear the echoes of cosmic spheres, the darkness of the cold war days and some bewitching tribal jungle vibes. a new, moving, unorthodox and yet catchy side of kuniyuki takahashi.
it is not totally novel to him, as he already released some industrial, ebm and electronic with the project drp in 1990 on the belgium label body records. but for his listeners, that know him for detailed house, jazz and classic or that love him as a man of collaborations who already worked together with artists like innervisions jazz house heavyweight henrik schwarz, the famous japanese pianist fumio itabashi or the british synth-pop protest spoken word icon anne clark, the 'newwave project' sheds a light on a different artistic side of kuniyuki takahashi.
it is diversified, has many rhythmical and atmospheric turns but stays stirring and compelling in all twelve tracks. a true new wave, formed, played in and envisioned with a view on the past that was filtered through the now while feeling the future. the cover art work comes from the swiss artist augustin rebetez - a man who also loves to generate unknown poetic universes in his drawings, sculptures, videos and installations.
The ten-track LP marks the latest collaboration of "Swiss born Gotham bred" (SPIN) indie rocker Sam Koechlin with his longtime producer / "Second Beatle" Daniel Schlett (Iggy Pop; The War on Drugs) and mastering engineer Greg Calbi and features Chris Egan (Solange; Blood Orange) on drums and Josh "JD" Werner (Ghostface Killah; CocoRosie) on bass.
Singles Golden Days (Sept 16) and Never Let Me Go (July 22), the album's title track, offer a taste of what to expect from the "King Of Tears’" (Radiotélévision Suisse) sophomore effort: a soundtrack for the first day after what looked like the last, fueled by the madness of a rapidly accelerating career trajectory, the thrill of touring with his band again, and the promise of a reopening world whose studios, stages and dance floors we get to share again at long last. In 2021, Sam released his debut album Power Ballads, a largely home-recorded yet “well-crafted set of atmospheric post-punk” (KEXP) to international acclaim.
Damage and Their Slices” is a collaborative album NVST and Theo Muller, in which they invite the listeners to a deep dive into an esoteric universe where dark magic meets political revolt.
The Swiss artist NVST shouts, preaches, stirs up and questions the consciences of his audience with a deluge of words about this sick society, the capitalist infection and the abuse of power. In tune with this mantra of georgeorwellian rhetoric, the music by Frenchman Théo Muller turns the malaise of the content into form: paranormal psychedelia, arcane dub, industrial ectoplasms, esoteric ambient and paranormal drones. In short: a friction of electronic sounds that Kraftwerk, years ago, unwittingly defined as metal on metal. Live, this call to action to necromancy and revolution takes on an amphibious, organic, almost cathartic and revealing form.
Franco-Swiss composer & director of INA GRM François J. Bonnet, aka Kassel Jaeger, returns with a new solo album. Following a compositional approach stemming from the musique concrète tradition, without adopting a structuralist aesthetic, Shifted in Dreams explores a wide range of instruments and techniques, going seamlessly from instrumental improvisation to field recording, via micro-editing and the use of asynchronous loops. Mixing the electronic sounds of an ARP 2500 synthesizer with the acoustic drones of a positive organ, articulating guitar layers with the resonance of the Cristal Baschet, bringing together recordings of slamming windows and sound produced by complex modular synthesis patches, Bonnet offers a rich and generous palette of sounds, inviting a constantly renewed sonic investigation.
Born Jephté Mbisi in Genève, Varnish La Pisicine is a 25 year Swiss Rap author,composer & producer . After his former works under the name Pink Flamingo who maDe him work with Sébastien Tellier & Philippe Zdar, Varnish La Piscine also became a movie director and realized his first film “ Les contes du Cockatoo” whose Ost enhanced with bonus Tracks was released by Color Records under the name “ Metronome Pole Dance Twist Amazone”. After they met, Pedro Winter signed him on Ed Banger Record for his next works. “This Lake Is Successful” is the brand new 7 song mini-album.
The new album of Swiss artist Martina Lussi joins what no longer is conjoined. Conceived and realized over a period marked by major changes in both the private sphere and the world at large, Balance brings together the before and after. The album is held together by a common feature: Lussi’s voice, with which every composition began. Her singing, modified by effects, is supplemented by other sounds, which are light at times, bittersweet at others, and sometimes replace her voice altogether, like on the album’s fulcrum “Fragments of Attention.” On the first half of Balance, Lussi’s singing plunges “Meditation on the Multitab” into a cosmic soundscape; occasionally a rhythm irrupts into it. On “Time Laps,” a track from the album’s second half, the artist’s singsong articulates rhythmical elements and propels them towards a reluctant euphoria.
Balance appears open and fragile, at times even vulnerable, but Lussi’s relentless openness derives from the immense strength needed to weather changes both small and large.
For a quarter of an hour, Zürich was the navel of the world. Let's look back: at New York's CBGB's, pre-punks were shredding away, Malcolm McLaren, as a man with a fine-tuned taste for the hip, imported the sound to London, where his sweetheart Vivienne Westwood dressed the test-tube band The Sex Pistols. A few pop magazines later (we are in an analog world!) punk bands sprouted everywhere, like shiny pimples on poorly fed teenagers. Contrary to legend, even back then, it was often those with a musical background who were the most successful. One such example, Henrich "Wüste" Zwahlen, who had learned the violin, attended a jazz school and went into prog-rock before joining the Nasal Boys, one of the first punk bands in Zürich. The scene included the female band Kleenex (cover: Fischli of art heroes Fischli/Weiss), whose minimalism was praised by the London music press, while the world's most important rock theorist, Greil Marcus, wrote an ode highlighting Zürich's role as the birthplace of Dadaism. A fertile ground for the militant youth movement that exploded in 1980 and stirred up the city of banks, protestantism and boredom with raw wit and expressive violence. Gathering at concerts of local bands and fueled by endogenous and artificial substances - they paid homage to exuberance and self-indulgence.
The mantra of "everything-is-possible" was driven forward on the musical front by progress in terms of means of production: analog electronic instruments were no longer reserved for hippie nerds, who sat in front of large plug-in boards like autistic-psychedelic switchboard operators connecting cables for their sound carpets. Now snazzy stage personnel elicited fast-paced sounds from handy devices often made in Japan. Kraftwerk was fashionable, the Zurich duo Yello experimented with new synthetic sounds, and the groundbreaking album "Alles Ist Gut" by the Düsseldorf based duo D.A.F. (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft) was released, which chanted its program of provocation times danceability with lines such as "Tanz den Jesus Christus, tanz the Mussolini, tanz the Adolf Hitler." In England meanwhile, electronically backed New Romantic bands were replacing New Wave. The Human League, Heaven 17, Duran Duran, OMD, Depeche Mode or Visage stormed the charts.
In Zürich's underground, the duo Aboriginal Voices caused a stir at that time. A couple, good-looking, styled, looking cool into the cold neon light, with a danceable beat and sequenced electro sounds, to which Micheline gave a very unique touch when she sang in French and English. Micheline had a classical piano education, had left home early, worked as a lighting technician in a strip joint and at Booster, the hottest boutique in town (one of the relicts that still exists). Voilà: a musician who was as stylish as she was tough. She was already playing with Wüste in the band "Doobie Doos", a band where everyone played an instrument they didn't master. In 1980 the Aboriginal Voices were formed, initially with vocalist Magda Vogel (of later UnknownmiX fame), who was trained as a classical singer.
Frustrated by organizational friction and constant hassles with band lineups, Wüste and Misch decided to do everything as a twosome: self-mixed, self-styled, self-produced. With the top-of-the-line Linn drum machine clocking the beat, Wüste's guitar and Micheline on the Yamaha synthesizer created a unique sound of danceable electronic music. Whereby the Aboriginal Voices acted as a kind of proto-influencer, receiving the latest equipment to try out, especially since they made it a point not to work with tapes, but to design everything for live shows. They had an interface built for the legendary Roland MC-4B, who sequenced the modular Roland System 100M but where one output controlled a light show synchronized with the sound. A pioneering act that fit well into the DIY spirit of punk, with its self-distributed tapes and fuck-you attitude towards the cretins of the music industry. Consequently only two cassettes and an EP were released. There was something futuristic about the sound, the vestiary style and the electronics, while the attitude remained rebellious. Of course something so deeped in the Zeitgeist wasn't meant to last. Wüste moved to New York, Micheline stayed in Zurich, both still active in the music scene to this day.
Sven Regener, head of the band Element of Crime and one of Germany's most successful pop writer said a few years ago when asked if he knew of any Swiss music: "Of course! In 1983, a Swiss band called Aboriginal Voices played with us at a festival in Zurich. Great, avant-garde electro-pop. That was my first encounter."
If you ever saw them live, you never forgot them, and so over the years you belonged to a teeny-tiny circle of insiders, happy to be joined after all these years by new aficionados who appreciate the sound of that quarter-hour, when Zurich was ravishing, creative and exciting.
- Thomas Haemmerli
WRWTFWW Records is very excited to present a new full-length collaborative project by Japanese ambient/environmental legend Takashi Kokubo (Ion Series) and Italian/Swiss trombonist Andrea Esperti (Esperti Project): Music for a Cosmic Garden.
Recorded during the heights of the pandemic and completed in February 2021, the majestic 8-track ethereal/botanical soundscape created by Kokubo and Esperti is available as a limited edition double LP, a digipack CD, as well as in digital format.
Takashi KOKUBO, environmental music figure, celebrated sound designer, and founder of Studio Ion, has released over 20 albums, including the genre-defining and highly sought-after Ion Series. He's also played a major role in the sonic identity of Japan, creating the country’s mobile phone earthquake alert sound, credit card payment validation jingles, and much more. In 2020, Takashi Kokubo received a Grammy nomination for his track "A Dream Sails Out to Sea, Scene 3" off Light in the Attic’s Kankyo Ongaku compilation. He is known for recording “sound scenes from nature” around the world using a binaural CyberPhonic microphone of his own invention and for his very unique brand of healing music.
Andrea ESPERTI is a Swiss trombonist and composer originally from Puglia (Italy). He plays in multiple genres (classical, pop, world, electro, jazz) with a globe-trotting approach: encounters with peers, rhythmic exchanges, and unplanned music projects; this is where lies the foundation of his work.
Music for a Cosmic Garden is an ode to celestial botanics, a contemporary and hallucinogenic take on the soothing ambient genre immortalized by artists such as Midori Takada and Satoshi Ashikawa, a beautiful pairing of synthesizers and the mighty trombone, taking you to a meditative galaxy far, far away, where other-worldly is just another word for cozy.
Recommended track for maximum pleasure: "Gaia’s Love Theme".
WRWTFWW Records is thrilled to announce the first ever release of the soundtrack for the sci-fi Amiga demoscene wonder Odyssey by the Alcatraz group, with music from Greg - and what is possibly the first ever vinyl release for an Amiga demoscene soundtrack, if not the first ever vinyl release for a demoscene soundtrack whatsoever!
The special limited edition vinyl features the complete soundtrack of the demo sourced from the original masters as well as printed innersleeves, a 24x24 inch double-sided poster with extensive liner notes on the fascinating history of the Amiga demoscene on one side and a floppy disk print on the other, and a WRWTFWW sticker sheet. Odyssey is also available in digital format.
Wikipedia says: The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions (graphics, music, videos, games) are shared at festivals known as demoparties, voted on by those who attend and released online.
In the demoscene galaxy, one era was particularly exciting: the Amiga years during which the demos were created for the Commodore Amiga home computer - a time of intense rivalry between programmers, graphics artists, and computer musicians, testing the limits of the (fixed) Amiga hardware.
The Odyssey demo was one of the largest productions ever released by an Amiga group, a real sci-fi movie on five floppy disks made with 3D sequences. It was presented at a demoscene party in 1991 and won the competition, setting a new standard for Amiga demo possibilities.
One of the highlights of the demo was the funky cosmic music from Swiss composer Greg, a true space opera, the 90s galactic soundscape you didn’t know was missing from your life! And so here it is, available for the first time, 10 tracks of pure video game music joy, adventurous computer pop, pixelated techno-trance, Star Wars gone floppy disk, and interstellar beats for days.
For this uniquely personal retrospective spread over twelve vinyl discs, Sven Väth takes us back to the early days of his DJ career. On What I Used To Play we meet great pioneers of electronic music, gifted percussionists, obscure wave bands, and innovative producers of a bygone 'new electronic' era. Rough beats and irresistible grooves from the identification stage of house, techno, and acid remind us not just how far electronic music has evolved over the past four decades, but how great it was to dance to EBM, techno, and house for the very first time.
If there is one protagonist of the electronic music scene who has remained curious, innovative and at the very cutting edge of music for over four decades, it's Sven Väth. His multi-layered artist albums and Sound of the Season mix compilations have been defining the genre for over two decades, and even today, he is constantly on the lookout for the next top tune to add to the highlights of his next set. At least, that's the case when he's not producing them himself as an artist or remixer. "Actually, it's always been part of my DNA to think ahead," and nothing had been further from his mind than looking back at his past, but when in spring of 2020 the international DJ circuit had to be scaled down to virtually zero, the 'restless traveler' suddenly had time. Time to stop and reflect on "how it actually was back then, at the very beginning of my career..."
"It was a great trip and with every track, beautiful memories came flooding back".
In the London apartment, he had just moved into, Sven has set up a "little music room", where he cocooned himself for several days, "to look way back for the first time and review my musical journey through the eighties, so to speak."
The interim result was six thematically oriented playlists with a grand total of 120 tracks from 'early 80s' to 'Balearic late 80s', together with excursions into afrobeat, European new wave, and EBM sounds and a few epochal techno/house tracks from the USA in between. From these 'Best of Sven Väth's favorites', the project What I Used To Play crystallized. Sven remembers how the Cocoon team reacted to his proposal: "They found the idea of making a compilation out of it MEGA from the beginning and everyone said 'Sven, go for it', but then, of course, the work really started, namely, to clear the rights and to get clean sounding masters of the up to 40-year-old tracks. There was also disappointment, of course. We couldn't clear certain titles because the rights holders in the USA had fallen out with each other or simply disappeared from the scene. In short, it wasn't easy, but now I can safely say we got the most important tracks."
Finally, after two years of research, curation, design, and administrative fine-tuning, the "little retrospective" from 1981 to 1990 is available. The exquisitely packaged, and three-kilo heavy box set is not only physically impressive, WIUTP is also the definitive record of Sven Väth's musical development. On each of the twenty-four sides of vinyl, you can trace track by track, what influenced him during which phase, and how he took off as a DJ from his parents' Queen's Pub straight into the spotlight at Dorian Gray. There and at Vogue (later OMEN), Sven became the style-defining player in the DJ booth that he still is today.
1981 - 1990: Future Sounds of Now
In the early eighties, the crowd in clubs like Vogue and Dorian Gray danced to what nowadays we call 'dance classics' - mainly disco, funk, soul, and chart pop. It was up to a new generation of DJs, including Sven Väth, the youngest protagonist in the Rhine-Main area at the time, to create their own club-ready music mix. Good new tracks and potential floor-fillers were rarities that had to be sought out and found, in order to prove oneself worthy.
Without MP3s, internet streaming, or other digital download possibilities, music didn't just gravitate to the DJ, instead, it had to be tracked down. In well-stocked record stores in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden or even in Amsterdam, London, or New York, Sven and friends sourced the material for countless magical nights. On WIUTP we can follow Sven's very personal journey through this wild, innovative era in which synth-pop, funk, hip-hop, and disco were successively replaced as 'club music' by house, techno, acid, and breakbeat. By the end of the decade, it was clear to see that these once exotic 'fringe' phenomena would soon become 'mass' phenomena.
Early 80s
Dirty Talk by the Italian-American duo Klein & M.B.O. represents the most innovative phase of the Italo-disco genre in the early eighties like no other track. Mario Boncaldo (I) and Tony Carrasco relied entirely on the original synthetic drum and percussion sounds of the Roland TR-808, coupled with the raunchy vocals of Rossana Casale and guitar accents of Davide Piatto. Of course, other tracks from this period were also influential in style, most notably Unit by Logic System, which worked as the perfect soundtrack to the laser lighting system at the legendary Dorian Gray club. With stomping beats and robotic rap interludes, Bostich by Yello also belongs on Sven's eternal playlist - after all, it caught the attention of Afrikaa Bambaataa, who invited the Swiss duo to perform at the Roxy in New York in 1983.
EBM Wave - Mid 80s
From today's point of view, the almost ten-minute-long, downtempo track Giant by Matt Johnson's band project The The, would probably not be considered an obvious club classic. However, a closer (re)listen reveals the rhythmic intricacies of the percussion overdubs by JG Thirlwell (aka Foetus) on Johnson's composition, and it becomes clear why this exceptional piece of music is one of Sven's absolute favorites. Other classics from this phase include Kaw-Liga by the mysterious The Residents, the hypnotic-synthetic Our Darkness by Anne Clark (and David Harrow), and last but not least, the somber, monotonous anthem Where Are You? by 16Bit, one of Sven Väth's projects together with Michael Münzing, Luca Anzilotti from 1986.
US House - Late 80s
You certainly can't talk about Chicago house without mentioning Frankie Knuckles. The resident DJ at the Warehouse not only gave the name to an entire genre, but also produced epochal floor fillers on the Trax label like the timeless Your Love, sung (and moaned) by Jamie Principle. Acid house protagonists Phuture also hail from Chicago, and on We Are Phuture (also released on Trax) we hear the chirping acid sounds of the legendary Roland TB-303 in full effect. Another featured classic is No UFO's by Detroit's Model 500 aka Juan Atkins, who is rightly considered the 'Godfather of Techno' even if the genre-defining track from 1985 still breathes with the spirit of hip-hop and electro from the first breakdance era.
Afrobeat
Le Serpent, by Algerian-born Abdelmadjid Guemguem, is a track that sounds completely different from everything else on WIUTP. Made in 1978, it's a monumental, rousing groove created without bass or synths, just with five congas! Even though Guem sadly passed away in 2021, his immortal, acoustic beats are understood all over the world and will continue to enrich many thousands of DJ sets for years to come. Another classic that not only Sven appreciates beyond measure is Hugh Masekela's Don't Go Lose it, Baby. In addition to being one of the most important jazz pioneers, the trumpeter and freedom fighter from Johannesburg was very experimental, integrating electronic sounds into his music in later years, in a similar vein to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. Dutch jazz pianist Jasper van't Hof's afrobeat project Pili Pili has also aged well. The trance-like, almost sixteen-minute-long track of the same name, manages to fill a whole side on the seventh of twelve vinyl discs in the WIUTP box.
UK-US-Euro - Late 80s
Time for a change of scene, in the truest sense of the word, and from a musical perspective, this section is like landing on another planet. First up is Andrew Weatherall's classic remix of Primal Scream's Loaded, featuring the iconic Peter Fonda sample (lifted from the 1966 biker film Wild Angels) that came to personify the mood triggered by the British Second Summer of Love in the late eighties: "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do, and we wanna get loaded...". This period also saw the emergence of M/A/R/R/S whose only single, 1987's Pump Up The Volume, became a club classic with support from DJ legend CJ Mackintosh. In this most eclectic of sections, we also encounter New York house and reggae producer Bobby Konders and his seminal Nervous Acid.
Balearic - Late 80s
Those who know him, know that Sven had already lost his heart to the 'magic island' of Ibiza as a teenager, so with that in mind, the WIUTP project couldn't end without a Balearic chapter. Inspired by Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4, the immortal, eponymously titled Sueño Latino belongs in there without question. Equally popular on the island was, and still is Break 4 Love by Raze, which thinking about it, would also fit perfectly into the house chapter. Last, but not least, there's an overdue reunion with Sven Väth himself, in his role as frontman of the successful Frankfurt trio OFF. Together with Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti (later of Snap!) this 'Organization For Fun' created the off-the-wall club hit Electric Salsa in 1986 which incidentally turned into an international chart smash, putting Sven in the enviable position of having to decide between pop stardom and a DJ career. Well, we all know how that decision turned out and the rest, as they say, is history. A not insignificant part of his story is What I Used To Play. Enjoy!
