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MUSIC IS MEDICINE. - Produced & Mixed By Johnny Jewel.
Artwork By Johnny Jewel. Mastered By Mike Bozzi At Bernie Grundman Mastering. Vinyl Cut By Bernie Grundman In Hollywood.

Chromatics share a new video for "Move A Mountain" which is directed by Johnny Jewel - The track is taken from their album 'Closer To Grey'.

- The album is available to pre-order on 180g Coloured 2xLP. -

WRWTFWW Records is insanely happy to announce the first ever vinyl reissue for both volumes of Yoshio Ojima's superb environmental music project Une Collection des Chaînons I and II: Music For Spiral, originally released in 1988 on CD only. Each volume is sourced from original masters and comes as a double vinyl LP with liner notes in English and Japanese . This marks the inaugural release from the ESPLANADE SERIES by WRWTFWW Records which focuses on the works of Yoshio Ojima and friends.

Une Collection des Chaînons II (along with its complementary predecessor Une Collection des Chaînons I) gathers selected music pieces conceptualized and produced for sound-designing the Wacoal Art Center in Aoyama (Tokyo) also known as Spiral, a hub for a wide range of sophisticated cultural proposals spanning visual arts, theatre, music, design, fashion, and lifestyle.

Named after its superb curled-shaped structures laid in a vast atrium, Spiral is a monumental work of architecture by Fumihiko Maki, designed according to the principles of Metabolism, a movement advocating the fusion of the notions of megastructures and organic biological growth - in essence, evolving designs and constructions, adapting to human needs naturally.

Evolving, organic, adapting, these are notions that perfectly describe Yoshio Ojima's divinely designed brand of environmental music. Continuing, embellishing and bringing the Collection des Chaînons (which translates as collection of links) full circle, this second volume approaches sound design in relation to various contexts, sizes, and shapes. The nanoscopic neoclassical lullaby "Les Trois Grâces" brings attention to the importance of small details, "Pulse at Soothe" starts with the minimalism of a Satoshi Ashikawa piece and slowly drifts into mystical landscapes and cavernous echoes, "Entomology" and its melancholic artificial forest feels like a Twin Peaks mirage, and "Atrium" literally feels like a floating visit of a gigantic open space structure. With each timbre selected with extreme precision, each element placed in space with the utmost care, and textures worked to allow a wide canvas of emotion for the listeners, Yoshio Ojima's music is the constantly transforming connecting point between humanity and architecture.

Sitting alongside Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass, Satoshi Ashikawa's Still Way, Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green, or Yutaka Hirose's NOVA, Une Collection des Chaînons is a pivotal work of Japanese environnmental/ambient/minimalist music.

A note from Yoshio Ojima: "Please listen to this album at around the same volume as daily life sounds such as air conditioners and refrigerators."

Artwork by Hiroshi Yoshimura, 350gsm Sleeve with selected UV High Gloss Varnish, Liner Notes by Midori Takada, Satoshi Ashikawa, and Gareth Quinn Redmond, Sticker

Initially released in 1982 as part of the Wave Notation series*, Still Way is, without a doubt, a seminal Japanese environmental/ambient/minimalism album, often mentioned alongside Midori Takada's Through Looking Glass and Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green as one of the genre's most important pieces.

"Like the moment of stillness, after the wind passes through the garden, when the rain stops for a brief second…" Notably inspired by Erik Satie's Furniture Music and Brian Eno's ambient work, Satoshi Ashikawa aimed to compose music "intended to be listened to in a casual manner, as a musical landscape or a sound object…not something that would stimulate listeners but music that should drift like smoke and become part of the environment."
The result is simply phenomenal, subtle minimalism and emotional elegance exquisitely orchestrated by Satoshi Ishikawa and his team consisting of his wife Masami Ashikawa (on flute), Midori Takada (on vibraphone), Yuko Utsumi (on harp), Tomoko Sono (on piano), and Junko Arase (on vibraphone).
In conjunction with Still Way, WRWTFWW is releasing Laistigh den Ghleo, a companion album by Irish ambient/minimalist composer Gareth Quinn Redmond, inspired by Ashikawa's approach.
*The Wave Notation series also includes Hiroshi Yoshimura's Music For Nine Postcards album.

WRWTFWW Records is blissful to announce the expanded reissue of one of the most fascinating Japanese ambient/environmental albums ever made, NOVA + 4 by Yutaka Hirose. The double LP includes the album known as Soundscape 2: Nova, sourced from its original masters, as well as 50 minutes of never-released-before recordings. It comes in a beautiful gatefold sleeve, packed with liner notes from the artist in English and Japanese. NOVA + 4 is also available on double digipack CD.

Initially released in 1986 as part of the Soundscape series* commissioned by Misawa Home Corporation for use in their prefabricated houses, Yutaka Hirose's NOVA has grown to become a mythical piece of the Japanese minimalist/ambient/environmental scene of the eighties. Initiated around the enchanting landscapes of the two first tracks recorded for the project, "Nova" and "Epilogue", Yutaka Hirose's magnum opus serenely blends vintage synth with nature sounds, exploring soothing palettes and organic backdrops. For "Slow Sky", Hirose explains he "went for a pointillism-like sound, and tried to express a scenery of awakening, where the portal of a heart is opening up", while on "Humming The Sea", he "tried to compose a kind of music that expresses the daily, lazy life of child-like innocence in a summer vacation in some small town."

The bonus LP gathers four long unreleased pieces created around the same period of time for installations, described by Yutaka Hirose as "not music per se but rather sound sculptures", and including the haunting "Shadow Of A Water Droplet" which was recorded for an Ikebana exhibition.

All in all, NOVA + 4 is a transcendent experience of nature in the urban context, an oeuvre which, much like Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass or Satoshi Ashikawa's Still Way, holds the power to appease the soul in turbulent times. As one inspired YouTube commenter once said when describing Yutaka Hirose's masterstroke: "I can't tell if the birds are singing inside or outside! Thank you!"

*The Soundscape series also includes Hiroshi Yoshimura's Surround album.

The neon lights that decorate a dive bar's window cast a vivid reflection in rainwater on the pavement outside, as steam rises from deep beneath the ground. A slow pan across the scene, past alleys cast in shadow, twilit corners & glass doorways streaked with the mist of humid bodies fuming inside: the camera catches the denizens of an unnamed city, studying faces heavy with secrets too sad to bear. Cut to the motorway. Sleek cars barrel through the night. Sirens moan. Engines rev. You're behind the wheel, over the edge as the credits roll.

This film does not exist — but the soundtrack does. Symmetry is Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker, & Themes For an Imaginary Film is their two-hour cinematic opus pokus, a sprawling score for a movie that screens only in your mind. A 'conceptual tangent between Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, & Desire's more abstract sides,' as Jewel himself describes the project, Symmetry is a vigorous, electric, restless exploration of ideas on the bleeding edge of instrumental sound. Analog synthesizers roll and crest, drums collide, keys cascade clear & crystalline. These themes evoke the phantasmic images that inspired them: urgent and ethereal, sinister & romantic. It's a neo-noir epic of pink fog & femme fatales hidden behind rain drenched windshields after dark.

Produced By Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker

It is said that every generation casts its mind back to a previous era in times of crisis; the resources that will allow us to decode the questions of our moment may lie in the myths of another era.

Le Renard Bleu, the new musical and cinematic collaboration between Lafawndah and composer Midori Takada, and filmmakers Partel Oliva, takes a cross- generational echo as ground zero for recovering a crucial myth for uncertain times: the blue fox.

As transmitted by Takada, the fox appears in both ancient Senegalese and Japanese folktales as the trickster archetype; belonging both to the heavens and to the earth, the fox is the agent of chaotic good, shaking the world up when its energy has become stagnant. Above all else, the fox is famous for its cunning nature.

Renard Bleu marks the first new music released by Takada in nearly twenty years; it would be difficult to overstate the importance of her return to the public eye. Her first solo record, 1983's Through the Looking Glass, has been rediscovered and heralded as a lost classic; the influence of her percussion trio, the Mkwaju Ensemble, continues to permeate and inspire a new generation entranced by its lucid beauty, playfulness, and sensual patience. Takada has performed in numerous film score orchestras, including the ensemble for Akira Kurasawa's Dreams, coincidentally a key influence on Renard Bleu.

In the ensuing years, Takada has worked closely with theater group the Suzuki Company of Toga on productions of Electra and King Lear, an experience, she says, that allowed her to pursue 'a unity of music, body and space.' Recent live solo performances have evinced the depths of her exploration of all three.

Equally, it is Lafawndah's freedom of tone, decentralized maps of ancient and modern music cultures, and alloying of devotional intensity with modern songcraft casts her as a distinct relative of Midori Takada's.

Over the course of two EPs, self- directed music videos, and countless live performances, Lafawndah has drawn out an uncompromising exploration of how theater, situational intervention, and choreography can amplify the affective palate of forward pop music. One can trace the influence of artists such as Meredith Monk, Carlos Sara, and Andy Kaufman as much as musical antecedents AR Rahmann, Missy Elliott, or Geinoh Yamashirogumi.

It is in a mutual commitment to this unity that Lafawndah, Takada and Partel Oliva find fertile aesthetic common ground.

The music of Renard Bleu originated in Takada's preoccupation with the legend of the fox; after constructing a vivid instrumental composition dramatizing the spirit animal's journeys through waterphone, bells, marimba and various forms of drums, Lafawndah responded - in her inimitable mix of fairytale and undertow-- with melodies and lyrics capturing a dialogue between her and the fox himself. Eventually, the duo met in Tokyo for a week of communing with the material at Avaco Creative Studios, where new elements were composed on site.

Created in partnership with KENZO and premiered today via their channels, it was Partel Oliva who imagined a contemporary cinematic frame for the myth of the fox to re- appear, creating a hybrid of choreography and narrative around Takada and Lafawndah's performance of their joint composition (also titled Le Renard Bleu.) Returning to film in Japan for the third time, Partel Oliva's moving image work (Club Ark Eternal, The Pike and the Shield) has set the standard for and revolutionized the fashion art film. Their deployment of original music, dance, and a highly stylized mis en scene coalesces here in the casting of Los Angeles krump artist Qwenga as the eponymous fox, stalking the halls of the ancient Noh theater in which Takada and Lafawnda's performance takes place.

Why call up the myth of the fox now In Le Renard Bleu, Lafawndah and Takada's collapsing of distance between generations, styles, and milieus intimates that the relationship to time must be shaken. The future lies in fragments in the past; to remember is to recover it; the fox rises to thicken the plot.

Das ursprünglich 2013 erschienene und international gefeierte Werk "Stories" war das erste Album, das der in Berlin lebende Komponist und Vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita unter eigenem Namen veröffentlichte. Es bildete den Auftakt für eine Trilogie von Solo-Vibraphon-Alben, dessen letzter Teil, "Book Of Life", im Sommer 2018 bei Erased Tapes herauskommt. "Book Of Life" ist letztlich auch der Grund dafür, warum das Londoner Label "Stories" als weltweite Neuauflage noch einmal in die Läden bringt. Der Zeitpunkt ist gut gewählt, da 2018 perkussiver Ambient eine Art Renaissance erlebt, unter anderem befeuert durch die Wiederveröffentlichung von Midori Takadas wegweisendem Album "Through The Looking Glass" in 2017 sowie Ryuichi Sakamotos "Comeback", dessen Soundtracks durchaus Parallelen zu Masayoshis Storytelling-Klangwelten aufweisen. In den vorangegangenen Jahren fokussierte der ausgebildete Schlagzeuger sein künstlerisches Schaffen ausschließlich auf das Vibraphon und prägte so einen ganz eigenen Ansatz zwischen Ambient und moderner Komposition. Das Vibraphon "ist ein recht junges Instrument, und doch wird es fast immer auf dieselbe Art gespielt", so der Berliner Exilant. "Ich habe das Gefühl, dass es da noch viel mehr zu erkunden gibt mit dieser spannenden Erfindung."

Etch Presents the second release on his new imprint Altered Roads. Again looking down different avenues in terms of sonic diversity, tempo and functionality with disregard for preconception. Opening with the spacious and weightless drum choppage of 'Lost Orbit VIP' looking back to BBC Radiophonic era synth work and all the cosmological imagery that conjures up. The second track 'Phenomena' is a different beast altogether, stripped back to the bare minimum of a claustrophobic sub bass, off-kilter Loefah-meets-J Dilla beat and the monotonous groan of an unknown entity, built off the back of an admiration for psychological survival horror video games such as Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren. The first track of side b 'Beggars Belief' is a distant cousin of Etch's 2015 release on Wisdom Teeth 'Toxin', with grimey basslines clashing with swung beats, broken glass and gushes of warm synth chords. The final track 'Paging Dr.Octagon' Etch directly inputs his admiration for Kool Keith's alien surgeon. Chopping up old school breaks in the hardest way possible over looped synths and samples from the Mo Wax classic.

Beautiful 1 LP Edition with 350g cardboard old Stoughton tip-on sleeve, Sticker - MKWAJU ensembleâs highly sought-after album reissued on vinyl for the first time since 1981. Also available on CD. - 33 rpm LP mastercut by Emil Berliner from original tapes! WRWTFWW Records is over the moon to announce the official reissue of legendary album KI-Motion by Japanese percussionist Midori Takadaâs MKWAJU ensemble, sourced from the original masters and available in two versions: a vinyl LP cut at Emil Berliner Studios and housed in 350g old Stoughton tip-on sleeve, and a digipak CD. A highly creative and transcendental fusion of marimba, vibraphone, bamboo percussion and synthesizers, KI-Motion was recorded in 1981 and captures the birth of Midori Takadaâs exploration of minimalism, African rhythmic tradition, and ambient music. The album takes its conceptual inspiration from the tamarind ( âmkwajuâ in Swahili), a drought resistant tree notably used to craft some of the first mallets and marimbas but also known for its culinary and medical uses, an essential symbol of life and identity for the Central African grasslands. Drawing from the regionâs culture and music as well as the crucial notion that rhythms represent the very fabric of life, Midori Takada leads her ensemble into environmental heaven to create one of the highlights of her recording career and an absolute must-have from the golden age of Japanese ambientâ¦the ideal companion to her majestic Through The Looking Glass opus!

Camarão - The Imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie 1964 - 1974
In 1960 we received an invitation to play in Recife, a wonderful, exciting and dangerous place, often described as a social jungle'.

The Forró party took place at Caxangá´s neighbourhood theatre, on the first floor, with its high ceilings, wooden floors and balconies, the place was perfect for these kinds of events. When all the windows were wide open, there would be a wonderful breeze during the hot tropical evenings.

Since everyone was looking for amusement, the place was packed on weekends. People from all corners of society would arrive nicely dressed, animated and chatting loudly over the sound of clinking glasses.

Pernambuco´s Cachaça, considered by many, especially by the locals, to be the best in the country, had started flowing generously and the popular sugar cane based alcohol lives up to its reputation.

We always had a few shots to warm up before performing and by the time the place was packed we were already in a very good mood.

Our local cachaça had loosened the bodies and minds of everyone in the room, people started to pair off and twirl around to the sound of forró music, smiling and sliding their feet off the floor - a reflex picked up from dancing in rural villages to avoid kicking up the dust'.

Inspired by a longstanding respect for the pioneering sounds of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia & John Foxx, the legendary K. Leimer fuses tape loops, Moog tones and a variety of real and imagined instruments into an immersive journey brimming with electronic emotion throughout this homage, 'Mitteltöner.'

A key figure in America's musical avant garde, Leimer's experiments with tape manipulation, fractal loops and textured ambience have been well documented in recent times, with RVNG and VOD both offering excellent and exhaustive retrospectives of the artist's seventies and eighties output. Tracing Leimer's discography from 1979's 'Translucent: / Memory' to 1983's 'Installation View', via the dislocated rhythms of the Savant project, these archival releases detail a move from the pastoral synthesis of kosmische into more angular, experimental territories. Simultaneously looking to the past and the future, this Origin Peoples release is both a return to Leimer's earliest stylistic explorations, and his first vinyl release of original work in twenty five years.

Oddly for such a sonic outlier, 'Mitteltöner' (midrange to non teutophones) takes its conceptual cues from the idea that the midrange contains all the core information. Over ten tracks, Leimer employs subtlety and skill to navigate the emotional depth of the kosmische genre while maintaining the focus and detail which has remained constant in his work.

Opener 'Dunne Luft' owes as much to post rock as krautrock, evolving from chiming harmonics and understated rhythms into an optimistic roar of motorik percussion and towering guitars. From there, 'Webermelodie' dives into crystalline calm, tracing delicate arps around a processed groove before 'Anode' sends us skywards, drifting through glistening piano refrains and hypnotic sequences. Te dramatic 'As Long Ago As This' glides through a deserted city of metal and glass leaving the measured ambience of 'Entferntemusik ' to close out the side in a swell of static.

Leimer shifts tone as we move onto the flip, segueing the stomping, cybernetic Sturm Und Drang of 'German Defaults' into the propulsive electronics of 'London Interiors', a dynamic sample-topped suite in the tradition of Bill Nelson. The addition of graceful piano motifs and swathes of hazy synthesis lends a tranquillity to the pulsating bass of 'Auf Einem Fahrrad', while 'SHM' marries soothing melody and crunching rhythm into a thoroughly medicated experience. Finally, 'Café Florian' pays homage to Schneider or Fricke with a euphoric fusion of metallic percussion and esoteric energies.

Far from a simple homage to the electronic idols of his youth, 'Mitteltöner' finds K. Leimer reimagining their nuanced sonic framework through a lifetime of musical experience and experimentation.

Phonica Records Special Editions in association with Play It Again Sam is delighted to present the incredible Quiet Village remix of Agnes Obel's 'Stretch Your Eyes', lifted from the Danish born, Berlin based singer songwriter's critically acclaimed 3rd studio album 'Citizen of Glass' .

Obel was at an early age guided into music by the influence of her parents, who would play and listen to a blend of the classical greats, folk music and contemporary pop. She learnt to play piano as a child but it was her move to Berlin in 2006 that prompted her to take her music to the next level. Her debut Philharmonics was released in 2010, a quiet phenomenon that spent seven consecutive weeks at number 1 and sold in excess of 100,000 copies in her homeland alone. The release of 'Aventine' in 2013 cemented her status as a household name across Europe and as an icon to piano players throughout the world.

Quiet Village are the British duo of long-time record-collector and DJ Joel Martin and Matt Edwards, the house and techno producer known as Radio Slave and the head of the Rekids label. They came to our attention with a series of highly sought after twelves on the DJ Harvey-related Whatever We Want label from New York, alongside excellent remixes of The Osmonds, Toby Tobias, Black Devil Disco Club and Francois K before releasing their acclaimed album on K7 Records in 2008. After a break from using the Quite Village name, the duo are back with a bang and recently graced the Phonica White label with a fantastic techno 12' 'Social Music' / 'Change'.

Needless to say, Quiet Village were the first producers Phonica thought of when looking for remixes for this project and their slow, dark, dub-heavy atmospheric groove perfectly compliments Agnes's vocal, with echoes of Massive Attack's timeless 'Teardrops' coming to mind. It's one of the finest remixes we've heard in recent memory and we're proud to present it as a limited 12' on the Special Editions label.

- Beautiful 1 LP Edition with heavy 350g Sleeve, Poster Inlay with Liner Notes and Photo, includes CD with incl Bonus Tracks - 33 rpm LP mastercut by Emil Berliner - Midori Takada and Masahiko Satoh's 1990 masterpiece LUNAR CRUISE LP available on vinyl for the first time ever, as well as on CD, sourced from the original studio masters, with all new liner notes. - Featuring Yellow Magic Orchestra's Haruomi Hosono (bass) and Kazutoki Umezu (saxophone, clarinet). *** TERRITORY RESTRICTION - NO SALES TO JAPAN *** Following the successful reissue of Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass, WRWTFWW Records is delighted to announce another release from the legendary Japanese percussionist: 1990's LUNAR CRUISE, her superb collaboration with jazz pianist, synth master, composer and arranger Masahiko Satoh. Arguably the best kept secret in Midori Takada's fascinating discography, LUNAR CRUISE is an under the radar masterpiece that captures Takada (on marimba and minimal percussion set-up) and Satoh (on Korg M1 and Yamaha DX7II synths, Ensoniq EPS sampler, and acoustic piano) vibrantly fusing traditional African and Asian percussion with jazz, ambient, and minimalism. The album also features the great Haruomi Hosono (Yellow Magic Orchestra, Happy End...) and Kazutoki Umezu. LUNAR CRUISE is available in two versions: a first-time-ever vinyl LP cut at Emil Berliner Studios, housed in a 350g sleeve and including a bonus CD of the album with 2 extra tracks, and a standalone digipak CD version. Both versions are sourced from the original studio masters (DATs) and come with new liner notes. Tracklisting Vinyl LP

At once foreign and familiar, Desert Sound Colony brilliantly scores a nostalgic journey through the proverbial looking glass. The plaintiff vibe of "The Way I Began" envelopes the listener in warm guitar licks and hushed vocals, transporting them to a time when innocence and insecurity gave way to transcendence. The road takes a turn with "Fire Egg", a classic stomper that drives introspection with looping guitar melody and bouncy bass. And before we return to size, "Iris" carries us further inward with scattered claps and a skipping kick, before releasing us into a deep and chugging, eyes-wide-shut, euphoric roller.