quête:the drones

For his second output on his own label, the Swiss electronic composer Robin Félix, takes this time the listener to West-Africa ; that said, Incantation is lightyears away from “world music”, but closer to the first “Fourth World” LP Jon Hassell recorded with Brian Eno. Moreover, Robin has teamed up with fellow Swiss sculptor, Christian Pauchon, who makes “woodoorina”, inspired by “bolis”, some rather objects used by the Bamanas in Mali and neighbouring countries, that ethnologists view as “fascinating mediators between man and his environment” ; a topic that led the Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako and Damon Albarn to compose the opera, The Theft of the Boli. Right from the outset of Goat Skin, one realises that Robin has applied his idiosyncratic way of (mis)treating field-recordings, to dissect and re-model an array of woodoorina calls (sometimes close to drones) entwined to a rhythmic pulse, conjuring up a starry night under which a shaman, adresses his incantations to the spirits of Nature. Robin Félix being who he is, as soon as Corten, his form of quiet electronics show that he is no stranger to Throbbing Gristle or Cosey Fanni Tutti, the self-explanatory Ritual Smoke taking it a little further. The spellbinding organic basses of Rains and Cauris, fused to textures that remind the experiments of David Toop and the electroacoustics of Pierre Henry, lead the listener even deeper into a contemporary avatar of a spiritual journey. In tune with the “call and response” mode, ubiquitous in African music, Pangi brings the EP even closer to the beating heart of the continent, the interactions of the sculptor and the composer blending to such a point that one may wonder if they have exchanged roles. As a meeting point of disciplines and art forms which are not supposed to meet, Incantation is also a convincing demonstration of what the word “inspiration” means, the superb visuals included ; of course, it requires a lot of finesse and respect on all sides

On June 6th, Death In Vegas return with new album ‘Death Mask’, where disintegration, overload and total sonic immersion tell a personal tale. With dirty circuitry and rough-hewn textures at the fore, this is gritty, unpolished techno; an audio outlier that’s full of personality, and a bold artistic statement. It’s closer in DNA to the grainy growl of sunn O))), or the searing intensity of Underground Resistance at their fiercest, and as far from generic influencer business as you could possibly get.

“I’ve been soaking in Ramleh’s ‘Hole In the Heart’, the machine funk of Terrence Dixon’s Population One, Jamal Moss’ psychedelic techno jams, the stunning minimalism of Mika Vanio’s Ø and Panasonic, the layered drones of LOOP, and drowning in the acid of TM 404”

Broader inspirations are weaved into the album’s fabric too; from his Thameside Metal Box studio and evocations of nautical ghosts, to lamentations for a broken world, to memories of a youthful Detroit pilgrimage, and the innocent fraternity of rave euphoria, there’s a lot going on, acting as a chronicle of moments, and locations.

AN ATLAS OF LOSS

Do minerals dream of becoming semiconductors? Do they yearn to carry charges, amplify, switch, and convert energy into emotions comprehensible to humans? And what if, from the darkness of the underground, they had been listening to us sing in caves before the emergence of the first flute? Could they have guided us, through the course of history, to find them, extract them, and create new sounds through sinusoidal waves, to form valves and bend circuits?

If so, minerals would transition from what philosopher Eugene Thacker defines as the ‘planet’—that virginal and unreachable realm for humans that we study through geology, paleontology, and environmental sciences—to the ‘world,’ the space we inhabit, interpret, and synthesise in our daily lives. Sadly, we only remember the world when it erupts violently, through climate catastrophes or when a new virus emerges. Sometimes a tsunami collides with a nuclear plant, or viruses are cultivated as biological weapons in high-security laboratories, provoking a deep biological anxiety, hard to quell, which we all feel beneath our skin.

There exists a third realm, disconnected from both the world and the planet: the ‘earth’, an immense, dense rock floating in space alongside other planets, situated in the cosmological dimension. Relating to the earth is so complex that we only do so through theoretical speculations of a scientific nature or through science fiction, interweaving until one becomes the prophecy of the other, in an infinite, pendular dance. Beyond the darkness of space and Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, the fantasy of human extinction is the most recurrent: to reach a collapse so devastating that we do not survive it, even though the earth does, without us.

In a world where we quantify everything through body sensors, financial algorithms, nanometre-scale robots, and surveillance drones—a world in which everything that can be domesticated and controlled can also be commodified—a superior artificial intelligence would survive the collapse of the species (some speculate it might even cause it) and learn from our mistakes, thanks to our obsessive gathering of data.

Long after our voices fade, minerals will persist in the darkness of screens, in the silicon of chips, and in their pure form, still unexploited underground. Over the millennia, this intelligence might piece together fragments of our reasoning, as if an alien civilization finally connected with one of our spacecrafts loaded with messages cast into the void. It would sort through endless streams of data, unable to grasp the depths of emotion behind what it quantified, recreating simulations of our past, stripped of the nuance that once defined us and conducting experiments in sandboxes.

Some remnants of our existence—faint echoes of forgotten beauty—would be pieced together in an atlas of loss, buried beneath layers of numbers, decayed bots, and corroded hard drives. What will follow? Perhaps bison will once again roam—trotting to the strange pulse of techno, their ancient forms framed by the ruins of our cities.

Buildings will crumble, slowly dissolving under the soft touch of ambient music, and a thousand flowers will bloom with that ancient music created through electrical signals and computation. 7 songs for a future both improbable and inevitable—a final message from a world lost to itself, from planet Earth to planet Earth.

Alfons Pich, 2025

An immersive long-form composition in two parts that seamlessly blends a collage of spoken word, field recordings and drones with elements of dub, jazz, fourth world and ambient music.

Son Of Chi is the latest project of Rotterdam-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Hanyo van Oosterom. Van Oosterom’s prolific career spans multiple decades and genres; among countless projects he has been involved in, he is known for founding the Dutch ambient collective CHI in the early eighties, and in recent years for his prolific collaboration with CHI co-founder Jacobus Derwort as Chi Factory. Following Derwort’s passing in 2019, van Oosterom decided to close the CHI circle with the birth of Son Of Chi.

Sonically, the world of ‘We Carry Eden’ is fully immersive; it ripples with depth and shimmers in detail. Motifs, ideas and fragments, arise and disappear like passing thoughts, drawing the listener deeper and deeper inwards. For those familiar with Oosterom’s work as Chi Factory, the depth and meditative nature of the work will come as no surprise; however it is Oosterom’s skill with grooves that shines equally bright here; his infectiously dubby basslines and percussion rise up from the ether, grounding the listener to the earth. ‘We Carry Eden’ at times invokes the fourth world landscapes of Jon Hassell, (with whom Oosterom has collaborated) but as a whole, it remains the unique work of an artist fully in tune with their vision.

Thematically, storytelling traditions lie at the heart of ‘We Carry Eden’, with van Oosterom’s long-time collaborator Omar Ka playing a central role. Ka, who hails from the West African nomadic Fulani tradition of storytelling, responds to the collage of field recordings and sounds collected by Oosterom. His voice is woven throughout ‘We Carry Eden’, creating a narrative that binds the multiple sound sources of the album together.

As with much of van Oosterom’s musical output, inspiration is drawn from the Greek Island of Patmos and the wisdom and prophecies of the Native American Hopi Tribe. Since his work with CHI in the early eighties, van Oosterom has often incorporated quotes from Hopi Elders into his music. Gods, spirits, animals and humans, all existing in one unchangeable relationship tied to nature; ‘We Carry Eden’ is rooted in this philosophy, serving as a peaceful message of beauty, harmony and respect for the wisdom of the Elders and ancient traditions.

Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

The London trio of Molinaro, Moreiya, and Wendy Lavone aka Rest Symbol's self-titled debut brings together exotica, orchestral ambience, psychedelic dub and smoky soul for Brian Foote's new label FO. It's a record that reinvents downtempo music by transforming crumbled breaks into gooey caramel with string phrases aged under tape noise and Moreiya's voice sunk deep into endless reverb. There is a surrealist style to this album that brings new life to the embers of trip-hop as crackling samples and orchestral drones make for something decidedly futuristic.

Berlin-based Italian artist expands the musical facets of the label with his first vinyl. The EP ventures into an intriguing cognitive space where club rhythms meet abstract organic and experimental sounds, written inbetween January and March 2024, A dead river is defined by its dynamic energy and rich layered textures.

The sounds emerge from a synergie of pure analog processing and modern digital sound design. In the building blocks are combined atonal drones and atmospheric elements to create moody storytelling. Uptempo beats on a solid groovy structure pronounce his repetitive groove punchy tribalism.

Low Order returns with his sixth EP in five years, building on his reputation for relentless industrial body musick. Opening with immersive noise textures, the record takes shape with the stern syncopated bass drum pressure of “See The Land”, echoing Portion Reform’s classic The Supreme Negative. Disciplined cuts such as “Angel Cycle”, “Stand Still” or the remorseless title track further demonstrate the unstoppable forward momentum with which he’s been tearing up clubs across Europe. The final “Eyes On You” cloaks the listener with dream-pale atmospheres of drones, feedback and mutated vocals that almost feels like the embodiment of a gritty realization, of a burdened history that inescapably lingers within. It rounds off an EP that is clearly rooted in the rich history of extreme styles but never takes its eyes off the dancefloor. Recommended for everyone who’s into all the hard, uncompromising stuff!

Refracted's "In Veil" materialises as the third emission in the Titrate series. A gradual unfolding across six passages, each step a study in the dissolution of boundaries.

Here, time becomes elastic - synthetic textures breathe alongside captured moments of reality, neither demanding prominence nor seeking refuge in the background. Percussion appears as memory rather than rhythm, while drones hover like fog over unknown lands.

Cut to 180g vinyl and embraced by 350gsm reverse board, "In Veil" doesn't announce its presence but rather seeps into awareness.

Title-cut ‘Tivoli’ opens and sets the tone with twitchy acid lines, murky dub swells, skippy percussion and eerie textural atmospherics. ‘Agree’ follows and shifts gears into deep house realms courtesy of a bright organ hook,

swirling pad lines, tension building strings and oscillating bass drones, all underpinned by a crisp rhythm section.

‘Wonderful Transmission’ kicks off the b-side next with a electro tinged feel, fusing robotic voices and squelchy bass flutters with saturated drums and haunting resonant synth leads. Last up to conclude the EP is ‘Haunted’,

an apt title for the eerie, intricately textured composition featuring heavily processed voices, warbling bass notes and robust drums.

Nitechord is an anonymous "ambient-tech duo" that impresses with this fine debut, Lume, which is a meditative exploration of the calmness and mystery of the night as distilled through mid-tempo rhythms and atmospheric whispers. These sounds were first submitted as a raw, uncredited cassette demo in 2002 and have hardly been changed from that state but for the mastering. Tracks like 'Reflect' and 'Near' blend shimmering guitar loops, sub-bass and subtle twangs over dancefloor beats. 'Dim' breathes with layered drones, while 'Absent' offers mournful serenity and last but not least, 'Carry' blossoms into orchestral harmony. A sublime soundscape.

'Cupar Grain Silo' is Sam Annand's first release on the Blackford Hill label. Its nine tracks blur the lines between ambient electronica and sonic history, as synthesised melodies and rhythms reverberate through the extreme acoustics of the disused Cupar Grain Silo in Scotland. Built in 1964 as a sugar store, the silo towers 60 metres above the surrounding Fife countryside. Its industrial life was short: in 1971 it was closed, and barring a short period as a grain store, remained empty for decades.

In 2014, Sam Annand was given access to the silo as part of the Resono project, set up to study a series of highly reverberant locations across Scotland. The ambitious industrial architecture of the Cupar Grain Silo has given the space a reverberation time of 36.5 seconds. This measurement describes the time a sound takes to decay or 'fade away' in a closed space. To put this in perspective, the Cupar Grain Silo reverb time is around three times longer than that in cathedrals like York Minster and St Paul's.

"The acoustics are immediately noticeable when climbing the ladder into the main chamber", Sam says. "The sound of your voice begins to circle around and above you, inviting you to shout, clap and bang objects to excite the space into revealing its intimidating architectural voice."

Sam began to experiment with musical compositions which responded to the unique acoustics of the silo space. He used impulse responses – a short, sharp sound like a gunshot – to record these acoustics, allowing him to experiment with the silo's reverb in his production. Sam's compositions were performed using a modular synth system, a Roland Juno-6 polyphonic synthesizer and a bowed ride cymbal.

"Chords can be constructed in time by hanging successive single notes in the air," Sam describes, "The flutter echoes from the immediate cylindrical walls can be used to create bursts of scattering spatial imagery and harmonic blooms, following short percussive moments."

Originally recorded on 21st May 2016, 'Cupar Grain Silo' is now released on 12" vinyl with an accompanying booklet of imagery and essays. The compositions are at once true to the unique architectural acoustics of the silo whilst also being playful and experimental with the creative possibilities it offered. Arpeggiated melodies ebb and fall across extended call-and-response shapes formed by the silo's reverb; modular drum patterns crackle like dying machinery; whilst bowed drones waver and wash over.

"We all love reverberation," reflects Prof. Peter Stollery, Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music at the University of Aberdeen, on the project. "As kids, we play in it – yelling in forests and caves, surreptitiously dropping objects in huge churches – mouths wide open at the lingering smears of sound which come back to us."

In 'Cupar Grain Silo', Sam Annand has harnessed the extraordinary acoustics of the disused silo to tap into this sense of joy and amazement that reverberation can bring.

Following a fallow 2023, a rejuvenated Growing Bin return to your turntable with this sublime collaborative LP from Gosha Martynov & Natasha Sinyakova. On their first foray into the physical, the duo expand the spectral ambience and medicated breaks of their earlier work with lithe touches of organic jazz and Cafe Del Mar cool, creating a complex assemblage of dreamy downbeat and emotive electronica that's entirely easy on the ears.

Opener "Pozhaluysta" seduces with smart syncopation and beguiling melody, its flute and fretwork finding ample space to slip around Natasha's voice, equal parts Cocteau operatics and jazz-club coquette, in an expression of a want beyond words. The mood shifting "Osvobodi Menia" sees the solemn, snaking sound of a sampled duduk drift into an optimism of airy pads and escapist mantra, suspended in reverb until the end of time. "Ya Tebia Zhdala" began life as a break-led experiment, gradually evolving into a romantic and naive sketch rich with splashes of piano and dynamic chorus pads. Naturalist hymn "O Dereve" weaves a dark and intimate tale from the point of view of a veteran tree as its buzzsaw guitar loops blossom into multilayered vocals full of emotion.

Awash with sonar sweeps, sumptuous pads and rolling subs, the titular "Imena Rek" channels post-rave bliss into the hypnagogic anthem the contemporary IDM-ographic have been searching for. Infectious hooks and spaced out pads ride the breakbeat rhythm for a dreamy experimental pop banger from another planet. The sombre sway of "Rany", filtered through the fog of a broken cassette recorder, trance djembe and unpredictable bass tones rivals the finest Motion Ward or In:dex releases for crepuscular charm, while "Smeshno" sees serrated drones sink into a slinking rhythm, playing counterpoint to the tender chords and yearning vocals.

"Iskra" closes out the chiasmus with a return to the organic experience of the opener, the flute and acoustic guitar augmented with nuanced hand percussion and a music box refrain. Listening to this album is like a midnight walk through an ancient forest - an experience which both scares and tempts you at the same time. From touching damp moss to feeling the thick fog with your body and watching mushrooms glow in the dark, 'Imena Rek' guides you through the terrain.

Flawlessly arranged and executed, this LP alludes to a long lineage of innovative downbeat, feels absolutely essential in the present and pushes the trip hop revivalists towards a fascinating future - Gosha Martynov & Natasha Sinyakova have created a timeless piece of music,
but what else do you expect from the Bin?

Phooka also known as Francesco Maddalena, is the co-founder of Concrete with Maurizio Cascella and is a respected producer who has released on his own label as well as listing appearances on Diffuse Reality, Warok Music and Blackwater

Remix duty welcomes Sweden's Anthony Linell, the renowned Northern Electronics label boss that features most of his original music, but he can also be found collaborating with Adiel on Danza Tribale, or remixing Tensal to Amotik for example. Under the significant Abdulla Rashim moniker, his tracks have also been released on top projects such as Prologue to Svreca's Semantica.

The second remixer included in the release is Plants Army Revolver, a notable duo from Italy who have released on Shifted's Avian, Mental Modern, Sense Code and HomeMadeZucchero.

The first track is Anthony Linell's remix of "False Flag" that uses a stuttering kick drum to create an abstract vibe and is met haunting tones and metallic percussion.

The "False Flag" original has a patient yet regimented rhythm from a thundering kick and warm, pulsing sub bass to showcase an interesting dystopian aesthetic.

Remixing "The Rug Pull," Plants Army Revolver harness a throwback, looping, tribal sound with dub techno influences and mesmerising hypnotic elements.

Track four sees "The Rug Pull" and its original abstract idea. Using sparse beats with congas and shakers amidst harmonic drones and other shimmering effects, it creates a unique sound tapestry experience.

"A landmark in 80s experimental ambient music - previously tape-only, here released for the first time on vinyl, spread across a double LP with five additional tracks, four of which were previously unreleased. Remote Dreaming has been freshly remastered and includes an insert with photos and liner notes.

Dark Entries summons Philadelphia synthesizer scribes The Ghostwriters to rouse their ambient masterwork Remote Dreaming. The late Buchla maestro Charles Cohen and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain joined up in 1971 to craft electroacoustic chaos as Anomali, later renaming themselves The Ghostwriters.

Their collaborations with choreographers and visual media artists led to their singular style, straddling improvisation and composition, the oneiric and the immediate. Following their debut album, Objects in Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear, they were approached by ambient outlet Mu-Pysch. Remote Dreaming would take shape in various studios over nine months. Jeff Cain's instruments on this project included electric and acoustic pianos, the Juno 106 synthesizer, and a Mirage sampler, while Charles Cohen used his signature Buchla 200 Series Electronic Musical Instrument. A stark departure from the tightly wound first LP, Remote Dreaming shows the duo unfurling with soothing pianos and psychoacoustic textures, its somnambulant drones just skirting the edges of the uncanny. Although ignored in its time, Remote Dreaming is now heralded as a landmark in 80s experimental ambient music.

Proceeds will be donated to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse), a nonprofit that combats online child sex abuse and trafficking"

Eaux proudly announces a new collaborative mini-album from label boss Rrose and Polygonia. Containing six tracks and over 40 minutes of music housed in a fully printed sleeve with artwork by Jon-Paul Villegas, the record focuses squarely on the dancefloor while infusing it with the kinds of psychoactive drones, intricate polyrhythms, and relentless modulations that have come to identify both of their approaches to sound. Featured heavily are their shared interests in sonic shapes that resemble natural forms and conjure tactile feelings, in this case related to themes of skin-like surfaces and circulatory systems experienced simultaneously on a micro and macro level. While several of the tracks hover in a flexible tempo range between 125 and 130 bpm, "Stretcher" reaches up to 142, and the closing track "Vena Cava" trades the kick drums for spectrally processed percussion and endlessly diverging high-frequency pulses.

The story behind the release starts in 2022, when Rrose reached out to Polygonia after noticing that her tracks were appearing in their sets more frequently than any other artist. Never before had Rrose proposed a collaboration with someone they hadn't met before, but there was such an obvious connection in their approach to sound that it felt necessary. As it turns out, Polygonia had only become interested in techno after hearing Rrose perform at a festival in 2018. It all made sense, and they began sharing sketches and unfinished ideas with each other, trading them back and forth until they reached completion. Without any announcement of their collaboration, the two artists have since been asked to share the stage together several times. It seems there are other people out there sensing a connection...


Bios:

RROSE

Rrose is an alias of the multi-disciplinary artist Seth Horvitz, born and raised in California, and currently based in London. Active since 2011, the Rrose project explores the intersection of hypnotic techno, experimental composition and psychoacoustic phenomena with a meticulous touch. The first major breakthrough was 2012's "Waterfall" for Sandwell District which followed "Motormouth Variations," a collaborative project with composer, improviser, and activist Bob Ostertag. After the shuttering of Sandwell District, Rrose established Eaux, a home for further solo productions and collaborations. Building on his studies in electronic composition and history at Mills College, Rrose's electronic pieces blur the lines between thrillingly claustrophobic club tracks and destabilizing sound art explorations. In 2015, she released an extended version of James Tenney's postcard composition "Having Never Written a Note For Percussion" for solo gong, and in 2018 collaborated with Charlemagne Palestine on "The Goldennn Meeenn + Sheeenn" for two grand pianos. These works overlapped with the development of Rrose's singular techno: EPs like "Vanishing Pools," "The Ends of Weather" and "Arc Unknown" as well as 2019's debut LP "Hymn to Moisture" and last year's follow up "Please Touch." Rrose is also active as a touring DJ and live performer, equally comfortable commanding sweaty warehouse dancefloors and seated audiences in historic concert halls. Appearances include Unsound, Atonal, Semibreve, Dekmantel, Mutek, Sonic Acts, Nuit Sonore, Mostra, Parallel, Theatre Graslin, Nextones, and Berghain.
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POLYGONIA

Polygonia represents a multidisciplinary music and art project conceived by Lindsey Wang from Munich, Germany.

She draws inspiration from her many years of practicing various acoustic instruments and her keen interest for other cultural forms of expression, which she translates into the digital language of electronic music and art.

Her productions' soundscape exudes a mystical, organic quality, featuring intricate and compelling rhythms. Polygonia's sound palette ranges from energetic, groovy Deep Techno, Downtempo, Grey Area to textural and/or harmonic Ambient. Besides, she is not afraid to include influences from the genres House, Drum and Bass, Electro etc.. In addition inspiration from nature play a major role in many of her productions. Exemplary for her style are for instance her 'Otro Mundo' EP (2023) on Bambounou's Bambel Imprint, her 'Bloom' EP (2022) on the American record label Sure Thing, the release 'Deformed Human Nature' (2021) on her own label IO, as well as the album 'Abbilder einer vergessenen Welt' (2021) on the Korean label Huinali.

Her DJ and live sets too reflect her passion for different genres. Depending on the time of day and setting, Polygonia shows a different musical side. What unites all her dance music sets is the hypnotizing effect that invites to completely lose oneself in the world of sounds for a longer period of time. Several voices from the audience also confirm that the musician always tells a complex story within her mixes, allowing for very clear highs and lows. In the same set there can be very harmonic passages, which provide emotional moments and on the other hand extremely texture-heavy dark tracks, which establish a connection with the subconscious and put the listener in a kind of trance.

Polygonia has already visited numerous of prestigious venues. She is now a regular at Tresor or Berghain in Berlin and additionally started her residency in 2023 at Munich-based BLITZ club.

Members of Papir & Causa Sui travel through new musical realms. 3 musicians with their own compass: Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt have shared a wide range of musical quests: from Causa Sui’s “Bitches Brew of Stoner Rock” crossing the folk meditations of Sun River and arriving most recently as members of the pre-fusion electric dealings of the London Odense Ensemble. Papir guitarist Nicklas Sørensen is not merely adding a new layer to an established duo, but his presence to the party have brought it into more meditative dwellings. These pieces move slowly, evolving like the slow growth underneath the ground. Whereas Causa Sui & Papir have always excelled at blistering panoramic and often sundrenched sounds, Edena Gardens take a dive inwards and downwards rather than outwards. But there’s also an electrically charged ecstatic rawness to the dealings. Like Æther, the 10 minute opener’s 2 guitars-and-a-drum kit improv, finding it’s way from tumbling drones into monolithic slow riffage. Elsewhere, we find trails of electronic vapors, misfiring bursts of noise and slow drones stretched out. Edena Gardens is a thing to be experienced first hand - it’s not for everyone, but those who decide to stay are greatly rewarded. It’s a debut unlike any other record on El Paraiso, perhaps unlike any you’ve ever heard. Welcome to Edena Gardens. Tracklist: 1. Aether 2. Sliding Under 3. The Canopy 4. Hidebound 5. Now Here Nowhere 6. Iod 7. An t-eilean Dubh

Seattle's own Manatee Commune (aka Grant Eadie) makes his long-awaited return to
Bastard Jazz with his fourth album, 'Simultaneity'. Lush and vibrant production is
familiar to his previous works, though Eadie has significantly matured in the activation of
space and character. A step away from standard songwriting, and a total disassociation
from lyrics at all, has made this record closer to the ambient genre than anything
Manatee Commune has released, all the while keeping one solid foot in the realm of
dance music.

'Simultaneity', as a whole, is an exploration of the collision between texture and time.
Captured recordings reminiscent of wind in wheatgrass, soft rain showers in the open
plains, and cascading beach sand wash over the mix, splashing into warm drones and
ascending melodies that cleanly syncopate against a steady rhythm. Though decidedly
electronic at times, a raw human element is ever-present in the form of a vocal motif:
just tiny moments of a loving voice lost in a sea of reverberation.

The album is a noticeably positive evolution from previous works. All nine tracks depict
a calmness and subtlety in musicianship, relying primarily on tenuous snippets of live
instrumentation and synthesis that hypnotically coil and coalesce with one another.
'Love Tone', the opening track, features Eadie's partner, a small voice memo clipped
and expanded into an ethereal vocal melody. A crisp felt piano delivers a complex
arpeggiation in 'Mosaic', a warm sonic bath scape reminiscent of Olafur Arnalds or
Kiasmos. Simple, undemanding bass lines drive tracks 'Path' and 'Faulted', though their
simplicity is contrasted with a variety of patterns that combine to create unique auditory
shapes, both building and landing in satisfying climactic movement. The album
culminates in the final track, 'Touch Theme', where a block of sound in the form of a
broad, open synthetic chord warms the ears, eventually twisting and shifting to rhythmic
chunks that shove against a familiar house rhythm.

microCastle’s second offering of 2024 welcomes Upercent back to the label for a new EP. Since first appearing in 2011, Valencia based sound architect Upercent has developed a distinct brand of electronic futurism. An enthusiastic attitude towards experimentation, coupled with extraordinary creative vision has made the Spaniard one of the more unique artists to emerge in the last decade. Upercent’s first microCastle project, 2018’s 'Vuit', not only served as the imprint's second ever vinyl release, but continued the Valencia resident’s mission to create contemporary club tools and destabilizing sound explorations. Seemingly in constant motion moving forward, Upercent would go on to record projects for Diynamic, Kompakt and Watergate, amongst others, firmly establishing his place amongst the underground’s premiere talents. Now more than five years on from this elusive string of projects, it has been Habitat, Innervisions, Sum Over Histories and TAU which have been vehicles for his creative swell over the last two calendar years, reminding us of the niche he carved out during his initial rise, as he continues to maneuver himself through the confines of electronic music. With 2024 being highlighted by ‘Falling’, a two-track collaborative project with Germany’s Adana Twins, Upercent now returns to microCastle with ‘Persevere’.

Beginning with the organic monochromes of ‘Oracle’, Upercent’s craftsmanship reveals itself across the slow-burning piece, one where funked-up beats and rubbery basslines get peppered with skittering rhythms, thought provoking vocal samples and glitched-out electronics. Its subdued yet swing-heavy suspense while perfect for an astute dancefloor, also acts as an ideal segue into the hopeful qualities of ‘As It May See’. Paul Brenning’s vocals feature here, falling like raindrops atop woody kick drums and clustered sonics, eventually giving way to an interlude of soulful phrasing, coaxing beautifully with granular textures and ghostly swirls of wind, before tastefully moving forward as panoramic arps emerge for a mesmerizing finale.

Upercent’s distinct aesthetic continues on the fourth selection ‘Cult’. Perhaps the most direct composition on the EP, its six-minute running time quickly sets you adrift in a techno-inspired wasteland of deconstructed vocals and retro chord stabs. Both intimate and wide-ranging, it's a series of crystal-like drones which engulf your attention whole, creating a sombre, ceremonial backdrop for misty glitches and fog-like swells to create a scenic storyboard. Reverberating hits and twitchy rhythms fill the space of closer ‘Blau Cel’, a production where Upercent crafts a trek through mountainous dancefloor trails. Unbound by gravity, orchestral gestures sweep across mossy plains and frost-filled sighs, offering listeners another immersive journey into the uncharted realms of musical expression.

The third collaborative album by ASC & Sam KDC is here, entitled Surfacing. A six track excursion through sombre mood setting drones, relaxing hypnotic melodies, with a heavy slice of melancholy setting the scene throughout.
Pressed on clear/white heavyweight 180gram vinyl, with a high quality picture sleeve, designed by ASC.