Suche:give me monaco

Parenthesis was born out of the creative exchange between Yarni and GMM. The project wasn't intended to become an album. More so a general swapping of ideas in the hope of composing some music and sharing each other's experience in their musical fields. What started out as a few unfinished demos became the focal point of reflection.

Not that the pandemic became the subject of the record, more so a coincidental catalyst that projected their initial muses to become completed bodies of work. The idea of a Parenthesis casting over the paused pieces became the core concept in which it flourished.

Daniel Monaco and John Noseda join forces for Alektra, a new project born out of a deep love for Hi-NRG and raw 808 sounds. Renowned for their dj sets, trips that delve into tropical obscurities, Chicago jack and Rimini romances, the pair have channelled a unique blend of untamed house and shimmering italo melodies into pure dancefloor euphoria. Their debut release, “Shake Your Body,” drops on Bordello A Parigi. Neon synthwork is punctured by clean punches of percussion, scaling melodies set firmly in the golden analogue era. Key stabs drive the track with Only Bee’s honeyed lyrics pushing the energy levels higher. In true 1980s anthem form, the flip is dedicated to the instrumental with the synthesizers and their hypnotic melodies taking centre stage: Alektra’s machines smouldering with fiery intensity. That same intensity closes, Only Bee’s mellifluous vocals given the limelight for the acapella close. Dancefloor definitions redefined. Welcome to Alektra.

With Michaela Melián's LP "music for a while", a-Musik is releasing the first album by the visual artist, co-founder of F.S.K., and solo musician since "Monaco", which appeared on Monika Enterprise in 2013. While her last releases, Electric Ladyland (2016), Music from a Frontier Town (2018), and Tania (2022) were created as part of exhibitions and sound installations, "music for a while" is Melián's fourth autonomous LP, characterized on the one hand by her unmistakable dreamlike sound along the interfaces between dark chamber music, solemn ambient techno, and cinematic sound art.

As with her previous albums, there is also a wonderful avant-pop cover version—this time of the track “My Other Voice” (1979) by the Sparks. On the other hand, music for while, whose cover is adorned with Melián's photographs of the clouds above her new home of Marseille, spreads a comparatively ominous mood – one that is nevertheless appropriate given the circumstances in 2025 – thanks in part to the sedate, almost ticking drum sounds of co-producer Felix Raethel. Once again, the multi-instrumentalist, supported by Ruth May on violin and Elen Harutyunyan on viola, weaves her recordings of various string instruments — cello, guitar, bass, and zither — into fascinating, lurching, looping, and almost hypnotic soundscapes, but atonal synthesizer sounds in tracks such as “traverse benjamin” and “märchenwald” open up the music to electroacoustic and experimental music. The concluding cover version of Irving Berlin's “they say it's wonderful” (1946) rounds off one of this year's most impressive releases in an incomparably groovy and melancholic way.