Cerca:avant

Tom Zé and Faust collide in Domenico Lancellotti's "machine samba"

Domenico Lancellotti's SRAMBA reaches back to the roots of samba whilst completely revamping its blueprint, indoctrinating guitar and percussion-led rhythms with analogue synthesisers, courtesy of album producer Ricardo Dias Gomes.

The majority of SRAMBA was recorded over two months in The Cave - Domenico's home studio in Lisbon, the city both Brazilian ex-pats reside in, where the arrival of a couple of Russian-designed synths purchased by Ricardo influenced the direction of their initial experimentation: "Ricardo had these instruments, modular machines" remembers Domenico, "and I had my guitar, some percussion instruments. On the first day we started making sounds and recording them, and songs started to appear, sambas started to appear."

The son of a renowned samba songwriter, at home Domenico would watch his father play and compose. At parties, the adults would hand his father a tamborim (a small tambourine) and ask him to play along. "I grew up inside samba, it's my roots", he says. "For me, everything is samba, I bring it into whatever style of music I am making".

Domenico and Ricardo instantly saw how the synthesisers were not at odds with the sambas they were playing, instead they had a similar sound to its typical percussion instruments (ganza, repinique, surdo, tarol). What's more, they saw a connection with roots samba, the samba that existed before bossa nova and samba jazz came along. This was rhythmic samba, with grooves that could go on ad infinitum. "It's samba de clave, geometrically structured" says Domenico. "It's ostinato samba", adds Ricardo.

"Diga" is a great example of what their proposal is capable of, as what begins as a glitchy machine whirring into action soon turns into a glorious samba in which the gurgles and scratchy beats coming from the analogue equipment only add to the arrangement. Likewise, on "Tá Brabo" it's an aching melody from one of the synths that gives the guitar rhythm its needed counterpoint, and shows how the duo's greatest accomplishment is not in invention alone, but in creating a great samba album. It's an album that can go from the opening track "Ere" with its reverberant bass thud, mantra-like vocals and staccato rhythms to the string-accompanied "Nada Sera de Outra Maneira", a swooning samba that pays tribute to the Brazilian ensemble Tamba Trio, who along with Tom Zé's Estudando O Samba, Domenico names as the biggest influence on their treatment of samba.

Other important reference points are made clear on "Um Abraço No Faust". One of three instrumentals on the album its title riffs off a JoãoGilberto song, "Um Abraço no Bonfá", but whereas JoãoGilberto was giving a hug (um abraço) to bossa nova guitarist Luiz Bonfá, Domenico and Ricardo are giving theirs to the German avant-gardists Faust. "Quem Samba", with its horn section and dramatic melody give a whiff of Domenico's Italian ancestry, while "Descomunal" is devoid of rhythm whatsoever, guest vocalist Tori singing over a bed of electronic drums, cello and swirling synths, that highlights the duo's unwillingness to stick to a particular formula.

Both Domenico Lancellotti and Ricardo Dias Gomes are revered names within Brazilian music over the past 20 years. As a member of the +2's, with Moreno Veloso and Kassin, Domenico released a trio of albums on Luaka Bop in the early 00s that pioneered a new Rio samba sound with elements of funk and psychedelia. With Veloso and Kassin he would later form Orquestra Imperial, a big band intent on reviving ballroom (gafieira) samba, and that has worked with guest vocalists such as Seu Jorge, Elza Soares and Ed Motta. SRAMBA is his fourth solo album. Multi-instrumentalist Ricardo Dias Gomes first came to notice as a member of Caetano Veloso's band Cê which helped reinvigorate Caetano's career with a sound influenced by British new wave. As well as collaborations with Lucas Santtana, Negro Leo and Thiago Nassif, and work with his own group Do Amor, he has released a series of acclaimed solo albums that reveal a restless music-maker.

SRAMBA is a glorious showcase of the duo's style, uniting Domenico's playful lyrics and rhythmic, samba-rooted songs with with Ricardo's assured accompaniment of unorthodox textures and instrumentations. It may be a new language for samba, machine samba (samba de máquina), but as Domenico says, "samba da máquina is samba".

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For polymath artist Wesley Joseph, writing a song is like shooting a film. He sees in terms of scenes and colors, lighting the proper mood, drawing the right emotional arc_far beyond just getting a catchy melody down on tape. Music and filmmaking are Joseph's two great loves. Film came first_he started making DIY videos at age 12 to entertain himself and his friends growing up in a small UK community_but when he moved to London to study it, the energy he discovered in the city demanded to be captured in song, resulting in his 2021 debut ULTRAMARINE, a distinctly cinematic collection of avant-R&B and soulful future-pop shot through with moments of surprising aggression and an intriguingly complex postmillennial aura. Since collaborating with the likes of Jorja Smith and Loyle Carner, he returns with GLOW, eight more songs of love, loss, anxiety, and joy about coming of age at a time of unprecedented change. Showcasing his range across songwriting, performing, and production_not to mention his flawless transitions between singing and rapping, between character studies and raw emotional honesty_it's a stunningly beautiful work that makes it clear Joseph's on the path to becoming a worldchanging talent. As on previous projects, Joseph is providing his own visual accompaniments for GLOW, creative directing its artwork and directing its first video. "COLD SUMMER" finds Joseph singing from a supervillain's perspective over woozy film-score strings, and the concept bleeds over into its video accompaniment, a cryptic post-post-Tarantino gangster comedy shot in Kazakhstan. It's usually hyperbole to call an artist as young and new as Joseph "visionary," but it's undeniable that he has a vision, one that transcends old ideas of genre and medium, one that seems to get bigger and richer every time he steps into a studio or behind a camera. GLOW is one of the deepest and most satisfyingly cinematic listening experiences of the year_and Wesley Joseph is just getting started.

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Gost Zvuk prepare for a busy 2023 with an enthralling double LP's worth of futurist sound design from Flaty. In the game for more than a decade now, the producer, mastering engineer and all-round visionary artist has delivered an impressive range of music across both his own ANWO imprint as well as for West Mineral ltd., 12th Isle, Firecracker and more.

Always content to subvert expectations and blur stylistic lines, on Intuitive Word there is a clear fascination with a spectral, whittled-down-to-its-core type of avant-pop/RNB hybrid. Digital strings, dubbed beyond recognition semantic snatches, re-imagined new age style synthesis and even flourishes of MMORPG computer game soundtracks all combine into something that feels uniquely Flaty. In a sense, Intuitive Word marries ambient sound collage and hyperreal, narrative-style vocal processing. However, glimmers of shoegaze and old 'ethereal' bands (think Harold Budd & Cocteau Twins) crop up on tracks like 'Tree' and 'Nepal Lit', a testament to Flaty's skill for world-building and atmospherics.

Across the 19 cuts there is a recurring theme of choral style, computer generated elegies. A kind of 'cristal trance', in their words. 'Mint' combines these with overtly RNB style vocal samples, whereas darker, more broken beat soundscapes can be heard on the Madteo collab 'Observer'. With plenty of sombre and cinematic style ventures such as 'NEWS' breaking up the album and eschewing this focus on vocals, we find one of the most consistent producers in the current Russian scene delivering what may well be his most accomplished collection yet.

The popularity of Brazilian music from the 60s, 70s and 80s has experienced quite the renaissance; artists such as Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Arthur Verocai, Joyce et al, have become household names to an international audience passionate about global sounds. However, even for die-hard fans and collectors of Brazilian music of the past, discovering contemporary Brazilian artists is not always easy, nor accessible. But, if you know where to look, you will see that there is a resurgence well underway that can be epitomised by an exciting new wave of Brazilian artists beginning to break through and gather momentum overseas. It’s with thanks to Sound and Colours, a website devoted to promoting Latin American music and culture, that we can help shine a light on one particular collective, bursting with creativity and camaraderie.

‘Hidden Waters: Strange and Sublime Sounds of Rio de Janeiro’ is compiled by Joe Osborne (founder of specialist Brazilian music platform Brazilian Wax) and Russ Slater (editor at large of Sounds and Colours). Focusing solely on the 'Rio Scene', rather than taking on the mammoth task of tackling Brazil as a whole, this collection presents 20-plus ground-breaking artists selected from Rio’s resurgent music scene. By presenting a snapshot into the pulse of the city and the vibrant musicians that live in it, ‘Hidden Waters’ collates tracks from a wide spectrum of musical genres from the avant-garde edge to bossa nova, samba, Candomblé, lo-fi rock, jazz and funk.

‘Hidden Waters’ showcases musicians such as iconic Rio mainstays Negro Leo & Ava Rocha, Brazilian jazz upstart Antônio Neves, critically lauded Avant-pop trailblazer Thiago Nassif, breakthrough artists Ana Frango Elétrico and Letrux, lo-fi psych rocker Lê Almeida, plus the Latin Grammy-winning Bala Desejo who are set to explode onto the world stage. The music featured on ‘Hidden Waters’ is unequivocally Brazilian, swelling with samba, bossa nova, funk, and jazz. But it’s within the album's blend; from sunny psychedelia to dusky synth-pop via experimental electronics, that marks the compilation as the sound of modern, multicultural Rio.

This comprehensive compilation comes with album artwork designed by Rio music’s leading album artwork designer, Caio Paiva. It features essays by professor and music critic Bernardo Oliveira and music journalist Leonardo Lichote, plus extensive notes on each track by the artists themselves.

LDS returns to Monnom Black and hits a career high with his new ep, an astonishing take on modern dub techno featuring 6 tracks of futuristic grooves. LDS is an artist that stands at the cutting edge of technology, influenced by artificial intelligence and digital innovation. The ep showcases his unique production aesthetic, complex sound design and nuanced details that place him a cut above the rest. AI was used to create the artwork for the release, merging together the digital and physical realms, moving ever closer to the singularity.

The duo WILDES from the south of Germany, consisting of Jana Pantha and Jenny Tulipa, presents a musical mix of electro-synth-pop, post-punk and dark disco influences. After the release of their first EP “RAWWR” in 2021, their debut album entitled “KLISCHEE” will be released on 3 February 2023. Released via the Kommando 84 label, the album features 11 songs and a musical re-interpretation of German-language Neue Deutsche Welle sounds. The songs combine spoken word passages in which the singers combine a certain irony with word-playful rhymes. In addition to world-political, social issues, the songs revolve around the complexity of the new romance in love - between cosmos and stereo. The strong and experimentally avant-garde lyrics accompany the danceable pulse of the drum computer, melodic synth waves and the shimmering solos of the lead guitar.

The album “Klischee” begins with an electro-pop track that combines consistent grooves with atmo- spheric sound arrangements and a lead guitar that accompanies our journey to the moon. With the chorus’ high-pitched words, „Konsum - leg mich auf den Moon“ (“Consumption - put me on the Moon”), WILDES dryly yet humorously allude to a society that couldn’t fly “higher”.

The following cheeky song Leger in Schwarz combines impeccable post punk with influences from the NNDW scene. A short love story led by the electronic beat of the synthesizer makes the hearts of the night beat faster. With casual reduction, a guitar riff leads through the song. The guitar solo finally rounds off the plea about the longing for a good flirt.

Italo disco shimmers and pulsates on the driving song Capri. With lyrics like “Pack the boats - Vai a bordo”, Capri is a homage to the tried and tested Italo feeling with a cappucino on the terrazza, or indeed on the yacht with a view of the rocky walls of the island. An electric charge of sequencers and synth tracks acts here as a lightness of being in contrast to the porosity of the rock.

An electrifying electric guitar solo kicks off the fourth track with a mysterious invitation to Steig ein translated, get in. Hypnotised by the lights of the road, dazzled in the side mirror, a clearly repeating rhythm leads into the chorus and through the coming verses. English spoken-word lyrics add to the stoicism of the German language. The song’s great power ends with the line Lost in the dark, holding open the finale of the “Night Drive” encounter.

Digital and stereo on all channels, the distinctly tight and robust rhythm sounds in the song Apparat. A clear and simple synth melody is heard as a contrast and the electric bass gives the balance of the machine at points. Hiddenly, WILDES points here to the superior power that can control human action beyond all limits. A piece as a laudation to all the science fiction novels that play with the switching of the individual parts.

Side One of the vinyl is finalised by a song called La Grande Bellezza that motivates to dance and sing along. The punky pop craft lives through the recurring beat of the rhythm guitar. Here the focus is on the woman in all her facets. The great beauty, una donna, who can do everything as well as wanting everything and nothing...a strong woman who, however, also staggers and wants to jump off the cliff. Clearly and distinctly, the musical accompaniment of the drum machine and the accompanying synth melody reflect hidden parallel worlds and the ambiguity of character - of life? We get a desire for more and turn the round record.

The B side starts with a powerful guitar riff, complemented by a catchy and strong bassline that runs through the song. In this work, WILDES provocatively describes the West’s lust for the much-cov- eted Schwarzes Gold black gold. The song is reminiscent of the works of the band D.A.F. and thus ties in with the electronic punk sound spate.

The driving guitar riff joins in with the reduced synth bass sequence - the electro-pop song with the title Hitze (Heat) came onto the digital music market as the first single from the LP in the summer of 2022. Pulsatingly, the drum computer lets the beats vibrate to the rhythm of heated air. The duo po- etically describes heat with supercooled voices, a clarity in the sky that makes everything flow, that makes the breath dry. The work ends with a melodic synth solo.

Ich lad dich ein, I invite you - we have all said or heard this sentence before. A chance meeting of two people later leads to the altar in love. A far-reaching question that more or less arises in many love relationships at some point “Do you dare?” positions itself in lyrical contrast to the simple ques- tion in the refrain “Do you need sugar?”. WILDES plays with laconic poetry and, full of irony, makes the listeners think about living together. Krautrock contours are skilfully used in this piece. Reduced to the essentials, the chorus immediately sticks in the ear. A cheerful mix of steel drums and infec- tious solo.

Toccami - touch me! We sit on padded leather chairs - “you’re a rocket! Peng Puff Peng” - this song by the band WILDES joins experimental art-punk-pop, electronically with flowing synth waves we take off immediately. Melodically sung, lyrical layers of lyrics dance loosely light and gracefully in the ears of the viewer. The rhythmic beat visualises the feeling of floating in a spaceship. It’s love in the universe - “I love you, my darling” sounds tipsy in the beat-heavy disco refrain.

Hypnotically, WILDES launches into the final song of the entire LP. The title Zone takes us on a journey through time. Inspired by the film Stalker, we find ourselves in a science fiction setting that couldn’t be more present in today’s European events. The musicality of the electric guitar riffs ac- companied by simple new wave drums drives the listener into unknown realms.

Repetition and electronic synth sounds play a compositional role alongside rocking guitar riffs like their forerunners in the NDW scene. Lyrically, each song varies between pop-romantic and politically critical passages. Listeners start pondering about hedonistic life and its consequences. Sometimes it feels like listening to a Tarantino soundtrack in German, other times it feels like listening to an 80s track by a James Bond. Science fiction fantasies and reality add up in dadaistic theatricality to spir- ited synthpunk of the New German Wave from the South. Discoid beats and driving drums in digital are included.

For polymath artist Wesley Joseph, writing a song is like shooting a film - he sees in terms of scenes and colors, lighting the proper mood, drawing the right emotional arc. Music and filmmaking are Joseph’s two great loves. Film came first—he started making DIY videos at age 12 to entertain himself and his friends growing up in a small town in the UK. “There wasn’t really much happening,” he remembers, “and from a young age it created this mindset that doing everything myself was the only way to do it.”

But when he moved to London to study as a filmmaker, he discovered something in the freedom and independence of city life that demanded to be captured in song, and found a crew of collaborators—including A.K. Paul, Dave Okumu, Joy Orbison, Leon Vynehall, Lexxx, Loyle Carner and his childhood friend Jorja Smith—to help him do it. The result was his breakthrough single ‘Ghostin’’ and the 2021 debut ULTRAMARINE - released on his own imprint EEVILTWINN - a deeply textured collection of avant-R&B and soulful future-pop that stretched from psychedelic ballads to hard hip-hop bars (often in the span of a single track) and crystallized the mood of a young cohort trying to find love and live their dreams while the world is falling apart. Whilst his collaboration with Loyle Carner on single ‘Blood On My Nikes’ lead to him featuring on the artist’s critically acclaimed - and #3 charting album - earlier this year.

Now the nascent auteur returns with his Secretly Canadian debut GLOW, eight more songs of love, loss, anxiety, and joy about coming of age at a time of unprecedented change. Showcasing his range across songwriting, performing, and production—not to mention his flawless transitions between singing and rapping, between character studies and raw emotional honesty—it’s a stunningly beautiful work that makes it clear Joseph’s on the path to becoming a world-changing talent.

GLOW opens with the title track’s warm analog synths and cascading vocals that channel the harmonious Northern soul Joseph’s dad raised him on, a shimmering bed of clouds for the project’s opening credits. But like any good director, he quickly deepens the mood, drawing together disparate influences and emotions to build a unique sonic world spilling over with synchronicities and juxtapositions. “MONSOON” conjures nocturnal hedonism at the same time as it contemplates grief.

As on previous projects, Joseph is providing his own visual accompaniments for GLOW, creative directing its artwork and adding to his growing filmography as a director—he’s repped by the renowned production company Stink—with its first video. “COLD SUMMER” finds Joseph singing from a supervillain’s perspective over woozy film-score strings, and the concept bleeds over into its video accompaniment, a cryptic post-post-Tarantino film shot in Kazakhstan.

“I've never really seen them separately,” Joseph says of music and film. “They kind of just constantly drift into each other. And when they come together, it's like it was meant to be in my head the whole time.
It’s usually hyperbole to call an artist as young and new as Joseph “visionary,” but it’s undeniable that he has a vision, one that transcends old ideas of genre and medium, one that seems to get bigger and richer every time he steps into a studio or behind a camera. GLOW is one of the deepest and most satisfyingly cinematic listening experiences of the year—and Wesley Joseph is just getting started.

Kevin McCormick's unreleased bedroom studio tape material (1982-1984). Moods similar to Durutti Column, Woo, Crosby’s spacey moments, and Boards Of Canada’s nostalgia.

Following the release of Light Patterns in 1982, Kevin recorded a series of songs onto tape that explored the sonic possibilities of a solitary guitarist. Shedding the acoustic sound of his previous effort, he adopted a swelling electric palette to apply his moods to. These recordings are a shift in direction to a sparse and ambient style, and their hazy, repetitive movements create room for evocative melodies.

Kevin fills a deficiency of guitar-forward music with his minimalistic approach that is somewhere in the space between ambient, rock, jazz, and avant-garde. On Sticklebacks, he casts away the morning elegance of Light Patterns and leans further into the introverted feelings of the small hours. It is a nascent springtime journey that shows just what Kevin is capable of with six strings.

Limited Edition RED Vinyl – 100 units Hand numbered

Omid's parents were Iranian but he spent his childhood in Putney, London. He grew up listening to rock music, and listed Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and the Cure among his favourite artists – after Robert Smith became a fan Omid would later remix various Cure songs. He learnt to play guitar and formed a rock band, but after hearing hardcore records played on pirate music stations he began making his own tracks on basic equipment that he had bought. Beginning in 1995, his early house and techno singles were released on his own Alola and Disclosure labels under the names of 16B and Phaser, but they soon attracted the attention of big-name DJs such as Derrick Carter, François Kevorkian and Sasha, and he signed to Sven Väth's Eye Q label to release his debut album Sounds from Another Room in March 1998, which was described by the Independent on Sunday as "avant-garde" and by Muzik as "quite breathtaking".
Although he started out as a producer, Omid gradually moved into DJing, at the request of friends who asked him to play records at parties. He secured a regular spot playing the Elements club night run by Hooj Choons record label boss Red Jerry. In October 2001 Omid released The Witch/Which Equation under the alias of the Sixteen Million Dollar Man.Inspired by Prince initially releasing his Planet Earth album as a covermount with a British newspaper, Omid released his third studio album Like 3 Ears and 1 Eye (Part 1) in a similar manner as a covermount with the November 2007 issue of DJ Mag.
Omid also formed the SOS collective of DJs, consisting of him, Desyn Masiello and Demi. The trio secured a residency at London's Ministry of Sound nightclub, and were asked to produce the club's first mix CD in 2010

Formed by Alison Statton of much-loved Welsh avant-garde/indie pioneers the Young Marble Giants alongside guitarists Simon Booth and Spike, Weekend have been more than a cult band during their short career. La Varieté was their 1982 debut album a delicate collection of songs set against a jazz backdrop, switching across several musical settings including samba, cabaret, Afrobeat and truly original contemporary exotic pop. The album was originally released in 1982 on the Rough Trade label and still deserve the status of a masterpiece. It was revered by critics on release as a bold new departure from the prevailing post-punk ethos and served as a major influence on future indie stars as Saint Etienne and Belle And Sebastian.

"Plastic Music For Deep Thinkers" is a peculiar fusion of electronic music inspired by a cross-section of Warp Records releases, enriched with intelligently used elements of jazz, hip-hop and experiment. This multicolor creates an original mixture with a very emotional expression. Post-hip-hop, irregular beats intertwine with the club pulse and jazz harmonies, and the omnipresent sounds of synthesizers meet organic samples.

"Conceptually, this album is the result of an insight into the current state of the apogee of "plasticity" and confusion of the world, and at the same time its downfall in shape we know it. The title, full of contradictions, speaks of an artificial and exaggerated reality, but also of necessary, deeper reflection on it. Plastic, integrated circuits and synthetic sounds tell the story of human transformation in modern realities."

As the author himself admits with a grain of salt: "This record sounds familiar, but it is similar to nothing - like the reality I observe."
Szymon Burnos is a pianist/keyboardist, composer, producer and improviser. With his eclectic sensitivity he combines various, often extreme, musical worlds and his inclinations and inspirations reach many languages - from electronic music, through jazz, hip-hop, ambient, to avant-garde. He's known mainly for his activities on the Tri-City improvised music scene and from groups such as Algorhythm, delay_ok, Nene Heroine, Tomasz Chyła Quintet or Mu and the Alpaka Records label.

Szymon Burnos is a pianist/keyboardist, composer, producer and improviser. With his eclectic sensitivity he combines various, often extreme, musical worlds and his inclinations and inspirations reach many languages - from electronic music, through jazz, hip-hop, ambient, to avant-garde. He's known mainly for his activities on the Tri-City improvised music scene and from groups such as Algorhythm, delay_ok, Nene Heroine, Tomasz Chyła Quintet or Mu and the Alpaka Records label.

"Plastic Music For Deep Thinkers" is a peculiar fusion of electronic music inspired by a cross-section of Warp Records releases, enriched with intelligently used elements of jazz, hip-hop and experiment. This multicolor creates an original mixture with a very emotional expression. Post-hip-hop, irregular beats intertwine with the club pulse and jazz harmonies, and the omnipresent sounds of synthesizers meet organic samples.

"Conceptually, this album is the result of an insight into the current state of the apogee of "plasticity" and confusion of the world, and at the same time its downfall in shape we know it. The title, full of contradictions, speaks of an artificial and exaggerated reality, but also of necessary, deeper reflection on it. Plastic, integrated circuits and synthetic sounds tell the story of human transformation in modern realities."

As the author himself admits with a grain of salt: "This record sounds familiar, but it is similar to nothing - like the reality I observe."
Szymon Burnos is a pianist/keyboardist, composer, producer and improviser. With his eclectic sensitivity he combines various, often extreme, musical worlds and his inclinations and inspirations reach many languages - from electronic music, through jazz, hip-hop, ambient, to avant-garde. He's known mainly for his activities on the Tri-City improvised music scene and from groups such as Algorhythm, delay_ok, Nene Heroine, Tomasz Chyła Quintet or Mu and the Alpaka Records label.

Szymon Burnos is a pianist/keyboardist, composer, producer and improviser. With his eclectic sensitivity he combines various, often extreme, musical worlds and his inclinations and inspirations reach many languages - from electronic music, through jazz, hip-hop, ambient, to avant-garde. He's known mainly for his activities on the Tri-City improvised music scene and from groups such as Algorhythm, delay_ok, Nene Heroine, Tomasz Chyła Quintet or Mu and the Alpaka Records label.

First release on this Milan-based reissue label fueled by a passionate interest for visionary genre-crossing music,

A young, free-reined musician with a rich music vocabulary and avant-garde sensibilities pours his heart out on cutting-edge musical equipment. Recorded in Northern Italy in 1989 by Michele Tadini, this release effortlessly fuses ambient and library overtones with the influence of early digital electronic music, underlined by an ethereal atmosphere eerily reminiscent of the best soundtracks by John Carpenter. Seemingly unplaceable in time and space, it is both Italian and world-spanning.

Students of Decay presents "Kaivajaiset" by Finnish composer Niko-Matti Ahti. Best known for his work alongside his partner Marja as Ahti & Ahti, Niko-Matti has been an active participant in the Finnish underground since the late 1990s. "Kaivajaiset" is his first solo recording and was originally conceived of as an installation. Part horspiel, part musique concrete, it is a piece of music that draws comparisons to the work of pioneering avant-garde composers such as Henning Christiansen, Annea Lockwood, Luc Ferrari, and Pierre Mariétan. Ahti weaves vivid foley and domestic recordings together with oration and classical instrumentation (violin, clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute) to arrive at an expansive, narrative, and at times thrilling composition. “Kaivajaiset" was exhibited in two Finnish galleries: B-Galleria in Turku (2019) and 3H+K in Pori (2020). The installation drew inspiration from The Diggers' 1649 pamphlet and Michel Foucault's extension of Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of genealogy, and consisted of sounds, opinion pieces, a print copy of the pamphlet, and four cardboard collages. This record is a summary of the sounds of the installation.

Joel Vandroogenbroeck was an arranger, conductor, producer and, above all, a unique multi-instrumentalist in the world of music. The Belgian artist was also famous for being the only permanent member of the group Brainticket and the main promoter of its creativity, often renewed with the contribution of exotic instruments. At the dawn of the Seventies, this versatile musician began a parallel life as a composer of singular music libraries tailored to comment documentary images. “L'Immagine Del Suono” was one of them, originally released by Italy's Flirt Records and now repressed on vinyl
by Musica Per Immagini for the first time. This album circulated, however, unnoticed in a limited number of copies among insiders, only rediscovered later by fans, thus raising Joel Vandroogenbroeck as a real pioneer of ambient and new age music.

It is appropriate to consider the twelve short-lived pieces of L'Immagine Del Suono” as a sort of continuous and visionary experiment, with the addition of electronic gasps, a strong dose of inevitable psychedelia, fragments of synthesized jazz, all coming from experiences both internal and external, hallucinatory and hedonistic. All of this combined creates a mysterious and abstract hybrid. Sonic raw material is sculpted with artisanal care, at times twisted and cryptic, characterized by a transversal irony, to the point that the interference of rock elements in the course of the set divert the listener's attention and momentarily interrupt the flow of consciousness. “L'Immagine Del Suono” is a concentrated example of the avant-garde, free from categorisation of any kind, developed in a non-commercial key and, equally, is drawn from a direct line via what was previously expressed within the folds of the then contemporary works of Brainticket.

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French composer Lucie Antunes is broadening her sonic horizons with second album “Carnaval”. Following the resounding critical success of 2019’s “Sergei”, the Perpignan-born, classically-trained drummer and percussionist releases an ebullient, electronically-oriented followup that is designed for the dancefloor. Antunes unites the pop world with the avant-garde, with a crossover appeal that traverses genres and borders with ease. “Carnaval” also sees Léonie Pernet come on board as producer, who brings frisson to these eleven tracks whilst helping to augment the grooves. Using and manipulating the human voice for the first time, Antunes was inspired in part by the American composer Meredith Monk, to use her voice as percussive instrument, conveying meaning with nonverbal phrases and phonemes. ‘Carnaval’ is more coquettish, curious and creative than anything she’s yet done, imbuing the listener with the cerebral mischief of Laurie Anderson on ‘It’s Amazing’—an opening track which more than fulfills its titular promise.

Civilistjävel! returns to Copenhagen label FELT with a four track EP following on from 2022's Järnnätter album.

Equally well placed next to the Biosphere / early Fax +49-69/450464 camp as well as various decades of electro-acoustic drone practitioners, Fyra platser (Four Places) also includes a trip-hop leaning collaboration with Cucina Povera. Whilst Järnnätter drew influence from the cyclical, chasmic nature of dub techno, Fyra platser hones further in on the ‘between’ areas in a minimal, reductivist fashion. The rhythms are there to follow but are primarily beatless and more expansive, though skewing perceptions of time in the same trademark manner.

Three locations in the Nordingrå area of the Swedish high coast are exorcised and channelled through sound. ‘Kolugn’ is a deliberately grainy, sepia-tinged continuation of the likes of Robert Rutman’s work across the 70s American avant-garde. It sits in contrast to the more obviously synthesis-led direction of fellow longform piece ‘Valmsta’. The location slowly changes to Finland via Athens, scenes of cafe conversations and hazy polaroids informing the lyrics of ‘Louhivesi’. The result sounds like a 90s illbient record dropped around 30 bpm and the stylus has caught on a perennial 8-bar loop. The balance of Cucina Povera’s cold, reverb-heavy vocal inflections drive the track into another dimension. If Moral were the Scandi Joy Division, this pairing must be the Scandi Massive Attack.

Welcome to the "Consume Land Flea Market". This is the atmospheric setting and at the same time the luminous title of the debut album of young producer Noayama. "It centers on the contradiction between turbo-capitalist consumerism and the desire for vintage stuff in all kinds of shapes and colors to escape reality for a bit. I think it's quite a nice and suitable metaphor for the position my generation is in right now" says the 21-year-old producer, musician and interdisciplinary artist.

On about 40 minutes, Noah Berger, who grew up near Munich, spans a wide musical arc with his alter ego Noayama. He combines Hip Hop aesthetics with playful Electronica and acts skillfully in the interstices of Pop. Hints of 70s Funk hedonism, Old-School House vibes and modern J-pop sensibilities can also be found on "Consume Land Flea Market." The binding agent of the album is Noayama's "Punk Attitude" which comes through clearly on his tracks and beats and is an elementary part of his producer DNA. "I just like to drift, it's very central to the way I work" adds Noah.

Just as important for him are intergenerational collaborations, which adorn his debut work in numerous ways. An illustrious round of artists is therefore represented on CLFM. It starts with young female rap artist Maassai from the New York underground scene who can be heard on the pulsating opener "Get You Back". Also from N.Y.C is Hprizm, a member of the legendary avant-garde rap group Anti-Pop Consortium, who is featured on the dark and gritty "I Went Left" and the bouncer "War." Funkstörung is also involved here. Not too much of a coincidence as Noah has been encouraged since his teenage days by his father Michael Fakesch, one half of the Glitch-hop pioneers who became famous in the late 90s. With "The Legendary Godmother of Japanese Electronica" Coppe' on "Majesty" and the German singer-songwriter her tree on the song "Flâner", introverted pieces have also found their place on CLFM. In addition multilingual verses with Silo Inf3rnx from the townships in Gugulethu on "Ingozi" and on top "the homies from the neighborhood" Anothr and Taprikk Sweezee who give the album further facets through their contribution.

Noayama combines elements and working methods of the last five decades in a relaxed manner and bundles them into a genuine piece of work. Emblematic of this approach is the choice of features. So is the gear he uses. He incorporates old synths (Roland Jupiter 8, Nordlead) and drum machines (Roland 808, Roland 909) with playful ease with common software tools. It's also pretty convenient that he's currently studying Digital Arts at the Kunstuni Linz. In fact, his semester project is the visualization of his own album which means that every single track and every interlude gets its own video. Well, Noayama is just a gambler.

Repress!

Silver Sleeve 2012 Version

This special edition 2LP package comes housed in an a silver jacket featuring DOOM’s infamous metal mask icon embossed on it.

Each record is pressed on black vinyl. An absolute must have for the DOOM completist. The long awaited reissue of DOOM's first solo gem, Operation: Doomsday. Remastered from the original Fondle 'Em 1999 issue. Side A is listed as "Side Zero". Side B is "Side One". And so forth. Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF DOOM hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)’s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving frontman Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF DOOM and the Rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol’ Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, “Rhymes Like Dimes,” Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting ‘only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.’ Who You Think I Am? features DOOM‘s crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on “?” he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom’s avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on “Tick, Tick...” where he and guest MC MF Grimm’s flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today’s bland commercial Rap universe, Operation Doomsday’s left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy.

Cairo, late 2013. In a city in turmoil, where the curfew had just been lifted after a second coup d'état, where the walls were still covered in dreams and revolt, where even the clubs of the city-centre echoed with anti-Islamist and anti-army slogans, I was deeply touched by the voice of Abdullah Miniawy at the 100Copies music studio, a stone's throw from Tahrir Square. A singer, writer, poet, poetry-slammer and student from the El-Fayoum oasis, this spokesman for Egyptian youth was shaking up the music scene and social networks with his hypnotic voice and unique blend of electro, sufism and jazz music, both punk and psychedelic, secular and avant-garde. Three months later, Abdullah's first on-stage revelations took place at the La Voix est Libre festival in Cairo with the "Jimi Hendrix of oud", Mehdi Haddab, followed by his first meeting with composer and saxophonist Peter Corser at the D-CAF festival (Downtown Contemporary Art Festival), created in the aftermath of the revolution by leading figure in theater Ahmed El-Attar. After three years of administrative battles, while censorship was making a comeback in Egyptian artistic circles, Abdullah finally arrived in Paris where he recorded an initial version of Purple Feathers with Peter Corser, which was broadcast on Soundcloud.

In 2017, gripped from the very first seconds by these soaring vocal and instrumental performances, Erik Truffaz accepted our invitation to become involved with Peter's hypnotic loops and Abdullah's electric vocals, and was soon joined by the visceral strings of cellist Karsten Hochapfel. Five years later, Le Cri du Caire is still turning heads, and often moving audiences to tears. Both free and spiritual, sensitive and elusive, their music elevates the soul to giddy heights and flies towards what may well be one of the shortest paths from zero to infinity.

"Lightning Dreamers" is the new work by composer, trumpeter, post-rock and avant-jazz legend Rob Mazurek and a follow-up to the widely-acclaimed 2020 release "Dimensional Stardust".

Gemeinsam macht zwei plus zwei nicht vier, sondern eins.
Dieses ungewöhnliche Quartett bildet eine Einheit des Geistes, aus der ein einziger, fließender Klang entspringt.
Weder Jazz noch traditionelle Volksmusik, weder Kammermusik noch Avantgarde für sich ist das, vielmehr von allem etwas und alles auf einmal. Ein Album, in dem sich Virtuosität in einer besonderen Kunst der Komplizenschaft ausdrückt und wo aus der Idee des gegenseitigen Zuhörens ein hinreißendes vierstimmiges Lied entspringt.

— Als Digipak CD oder 180g schwarzes Vinyl erhältlich

— Ballaké Sissoko (Kora), Vincent Segal (Cello), Vincent
Peirani (Akkordeon) und Emile Parisien (Sopransaxofon)

— Eine außergewöhnliche Paarung, die für Genre-Experimente und deren Überschreitungen steht

Meshuggah wurden 1987 im schwedischen Umeå gegründet, vom legendären Rolling Stone-Magazin bereits als "eine der zehn wichtigsten Hard- und HeavyBands" bezeichnet, und haben sich den Respekt und die Bewunderung von Fans und Musikern gleichermaßen
verdient.

Es ist unmöglich, über Experimental- oder Avantgarde-Metal zu sprechen, ohne diesen wirklich bahnbrechenden Act zu erwähnen: MESHUGGAH mischen ultra-komplizierte rhythmische Muster mit
massiven Riffs und aggressiven Growls und kombinieren
Death Metal, Mathcore, Thrash und Progressive Metal, um ihren einzigartigen Stil zu kreieren.

Das Jahr 2023 markiert nun das 15-jährige Jubiläum des Meilensteins der Band: "ObZen"

The axolotl is a species of salamander native to Mexico, living in a state of larva and having the capacity to regenerate damaged organs. This brief introduction doesn’t tell us if the axolotl sings. But, for the one that concerns us here: yes indeed.

In Paris, at the end of the 1970s, Etienne Brunet and Marc Dufourd would improvise regularly, inspired by some other saxophone-guitar duos: Claude Bernard-Raymond Boni firstly, then Evan Parker-Derek Bailey. When Jacques Oger (a saxophonist whom Brunet had met at a workshop given by Steve Lacy at the Châteauvallon festival in 1977) joined the duo Brunet-Dufourd, Axolotl was born.

Iconoclastic, the trio was bound to please Jac Berrocal, and he proposed to record their first album on the label ‘D’avantage’. In spring 1981 three days were just enough for Oger (tenor and barytone saxophones), Brunet (alto saxophone, bass clarinet and ‘things’) and Dufourd (electric guitar) to complete Axolotl, the first album by a group which would record ... two.

If there was a collective of iconoclasts, the trio would be there with some relatives: Alterations, Fred Frith, John Zorn, the ROVA Saxophone Quartet... and then because we mention a collective, Axolotl steps (considerably) beyond the domain of free improvisation to lean towards jazz (“Illusion”, “Paris, froissé”), No Wave (“Ombre pilée”, “Trottoirs défunts”), contemporary (“Oreiller”, “D’autres seuls”), and even what we could call ... acid fun (“Dehors”).

Above all, Axolotl wanted to really get to grips with sound via an expression as direct as it was liberating, as can be heard on “Ozone, flocon, torsion”, producing a noise that, even today pierces the brain. All we can hope is that now, thanks to this wonderful reissue, listeners will be able, like the axolotl, of regeneration.

Meshuggah wurden 1987 im schwedischen Umeå gegründet, vom legendären Rolling Stone-Magazin bereits als "eine der zehn wichtigsten Hard- und HeavyBands" bezeichnet, und haben sich den Respekt und die Bewunderung von Fans und Musikern gleichermaßen
verdient.

Es ist unmöglich, über Experimental- oder Avantgarde-Metal zu sprechen, ohne diesen wirklich bahnbrechenden Act zu erwähnen: MESHUGGAH mischen ultra-komplizierte rhythmische Muster mit
massiven Riffs und aggressiven Growls und kombinieren
Death Metal, Mathcore, Thrash und Progressive Metal, um ihren einzigartigen Stil zu kreieren.

Das Jahr 2023 markiert nun das 15-jährige Jubiläum des Meilensteins der Band: "ObZen"

Woke rhythms and high-spirited grooves from the vaults of two seminal Italian jazz labels, between the 70s and 80s. Intensely curated by Khalab.

Hyperituals is a philological investigation that deeply delves into the possibilities of sound, rhythm, remix, and endless sampling. Inspiring listening, interpretation, and reinterpretation.
This volume is dedicated to the catalogue of the Italian Black Saint. Thanks to a constant, cutting-edge, and meticulous commitment, Black Saint & Soul Note established themself as two of the most important imprints for international jazz. They always placed the artists, their visions, and their music at the centre, giving them total freedom of creative expression. By combining jazz tradition with the political vanguard sentiment of the time, the two labels were able to press and produce more than five hundred records, many of which are by some of the brightest names in creative jazz or the ‘avant-garde’ of the era.
Curated by Khalab, the selection - focused on rhythms, grooves, and Afrocentric traditions - blends moments in which the rhythmic aspect is powerfully explicit, with others in which the kinetic aspect dialogues on different levels with African American cultural contexts.

After the ambitious A Distant (Dark) Source (2018) and the subsequent artistic triumph of its live recording in 2021, French avant-garde metal outfit HYPNO5E return with their sixth studio album. Once more, these four visionary musicians and cinematographers take us back to the lost shores of the palaeolithic Lake Tauca, where we dive deeper into its dark source to fnd vibrant visions of a memory both distant and hazy as well as warm and evocative. Sheol shows HYPNO5E at the top of their game, revealing the epitome of their idiosyncratic sound while also exploring new and exciting aspects of their artistic identity. Since 2006 HYPNO5E have been taking grand strides in honing their brand of cinematographic metal, with each of their albums developing elements that would become essential building blocks to their sound. Their 2007 debut album Des Deux l'Une Est l'Autre harnessed a raw, chaotic energy, while the following Acid Mist Tomorrow (2012) saw them apply a hazy filter to their ferocious sound. On Shores of the Abstract Line (2015) HYPNO5E already transformed into the true modern metal grandmasters they are today, while the special soundtrack album Alba - Les Ombres Errantes explored a more subdued acoustic side of the band. Sheol sees the band sounding warmer and brighter than anywhere else in their storied discography, and the arrival of new drummer Pierre Rettien and bass player Charles Villanueva adds a fresh touch the classic HYPNO5E sound. The sweeping finales of «Lands of Haze» and «The Dreamer and His Dream» as well as the pastoral qualities of the quiet finger-picked parts on «Bone Dust» and «Lava From The Sky» hearken back to the old prog rock records of the seventies, albeit with an updated sonic palette and modern production parameters. Besides, these eight tracks also see the band carefully exploring new patterns, shapes, and forms within their own musical universe: from the alternating use of ritardando and accelerando on the aforementioned rim-clicks to the increased employment of string sections and vocal harmonies. With the addition of a whole new palette of warmer and brighter tones, HYPNO5E superbly bridge the sounds of the modern progressive metal and retro prog-movements creating an evocative sonic experience. FOR FANS OF Gojira, Opeth, Periphery, Uneven Structure, Steven Wilson Limited (100 copies ww) Single Colour (Gold Vinyl) Edition!

The 1st volume of »San Francisco Moog: 1968-72« introduced the world to a trove of recordings from a little-known hinge point in electronic-music history. Vol. 2 brings to light the rest of tapes—and the rest of the story. In 1968, Bay Area native Doug McKechnie got hold of one the very first modular Moog synthesizers ever made and began finding his own way to play it. Soon, he was hauling the finicky instrument around to perform improvised concerts at colleges and psychedelic ballrooms, as well as an ill-fated appearance on the bill at Altamont. Some of the performances were recorded, and the surviving tapes—never before released—capture a free-flowing, transportive sound that fills in the gap between the austere mid-century academic avant-garde and the expansive cosmic suites of Tangerine Dream and the rest of the Berlin School in the ’70s.

Vol. 2 captures a wider range of sounds and moods, encompassing austere sonic experiments, early sequenced pulses, and melodic etudes.

“These pieces represent amazingly fully formed early approaches to the very idea of musical synthesis...arresting even to modern ears.” — Goldmine

“Presages both Tangerine Dream’s soundtracks and, in its most grimy moments, Acid Tracks.” — The Wire

It’s been seven strange years since The Veils’ last studio album Total Depravity, and Finn Andrews has a new double LP to show for it. "...And Out Of The Void Came Love" is the result of this tumultuous period of injury, isolation and new life...

Following the release of Total Depravity, Andrews released a solo album and began a worldwide tour. One night, while lashing out at a particularly intense moment on piano, he broke his wrist on stage. “It sounds wild and Jerry Lee Lewis-esque, but it was an absolute fucking nightmare,” Andrews says. He played on and finished the rest of the tour, but it wasn’t until he got it examined much later that he realized what a bad move that was. “The scaphoid bone in my wrist had died, which I didn’t know was possible. My sister said that at least it was a really ‘on brand’ injury for me.”

Finn’s convalescence meant a lengthy hiatus from touring, so he did what he does best and stayed at home and wrote songs. “I was in a cast and couldn’t use my right hand. I sang the melody lines, then recorded the right hand piano part, then the left hand part. It might have been an interesting, avant-garde process if it wasn’t also just profoundly annoying.”

Just when his hand had healed sufficiently for him to play again, The Veils found themselves in need of a new record label but Finn set about starting to make a new record regardless. Producer Tom Healy invited Finn to his small studio underneath the old Crystal Palace ballroom in Mount Eden, and they listened through the legions of songs he had amassed throughout the previous year.

“Tom was incredibly patient, it was a really laborious process - I brought a lot of junk down there and we had to sift through it all to try and find the parts worth saving.”

Following another two years of intermittent recording between lockdowns, Finn’s wife became pregnant, and yet more songs started coming.

By the time the songs had been recorded, it was clear that arranging the album into two halves best suited such varied material - but the meaning of the songs as a whole still eluded Andrews. “Then my daughter was born, and suddenly the whole record made sense to me,” he says. The music was telling a story, and somewhat strangely for The Veils, it seemed to have a happy ending.

The result of all these years of questioning, confinement and precarious uncertainty is the magnificent new double album from The Veils … And Out Of The Void Came Love. It is an album intended to be listened to in two sittings with a short break in the middle, or as Andrews instructs: “Make a coffee or smoke a cigarette – but don’t mow the lawn or go to the movies or something, that takes too long.”

Composer Victoria Kelly’s soaring string arrangements play an integral role in bringing the songs to life, as do musicians Cass Basil (bass), Dan Raishbrook (lap steel, guitar), Liam Gerrard (piano), Joseph McCallum (drums) the NZTrio and special guests the Smoke Fairies on backing vocals.

“Refreshingly passionate… Andrews rages with a Herculean intensity.” The Guardian
“Horse-whipped, lightning-crash clamor… magnetic.” Pitchfork
“One of the finest songwriters of his generation.” Drowned in Sound

Existing somewhere between the post-psychedelic period of Soft Machine and the electric funk of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Black And White, the 1976 album from Norway's Vanessa is without question a formidable beast of a jazz-rock record. A potent brew of sonic experimentation and pulsating off-kilter groove. Taking their name from the genus of Nymphalidae butterfly, Vanessa was founded in 1971 by saxophonist Svend Undseth and pianist Frode Holm, the founder of the Oslo record store turned imprint, Compendium Records. Unsurprisingly analogous to the music championed across the Compendium catalogue Black And White is clearly influenced by the UK Canterbury scene, highlighted by Compendium's focus on the recordings of Soft Machine alumni Hugh Hopper and Elton Dean. Vanessa's spirit also lies synonymous with the collective pedigree on the label's roster including British progressive jazz stalwart Keith Tippett and Mirage (a UK group consisting of ex-members of Centipede and The Mike Westbrook Orchestra), together with the avant-rock collective Henry Cow and the experimental synthesiser-jazz of US ex-pat Joe Gallivan (together with Charles Austin).

Often dubbed the 'Compendium house band' owing to Holm's association with the label, the Vanessa sound is inherently familiar yet undeniably original. Each of the album's four long compositions are a meld of complex angular jazz laced with swirling electronic textures - furious rhythms that surge in intoxicating intensity before easing into fluid passages of soulful post-bop. The dichotomy of these styles plants the group firmly into radical new jazz territory alongside their Canterbury contemporaries. Despite their brief existence, the band, alongside the label left an indelible mark on Norwegian jazz-rock and the headier side of European progressive music at large.

Reissue of 1976 Norwegian Jazz-Rock album.
Post-psychedelic period Soft Machine meets the electric funk of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters
Transferred and restored from the original master tape.

World-renowned horn player Mats Gustafsson teams up with Joachim Nordwall to create THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIME- TO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH- OR WORSE- an avant-garde masterpiece. Gustafsson and Nordwall push their instruments to the limit, almost mirroring the title of the record by "reaching across space and time". The duo creates a sense of vast, three-dimensional auditory expanses. "This is where acoustics and analog synths meet. It is unique music. Unheard Vibes. Perfect for special venues and good PAs..." -Gustafsson & Nordwall. We encourage listeners to take multiple journeys through the expansive spacial exploration that is THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIME- TO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH- OR WORSE. Joachim Nordwall has been active in creating psychedelic electronic music since the late 80s- A cornerstone of the Swedish musical underground, exploring the extremities of guitar music with The Skull Defekts and solo recordings as The Idealist that access the spiritual and political dimensions of electronic music and dub. Nordwall also runs the esteemed and boundary pushing iDEAL Recordings, cementing his position as a major player in the contemporary scene. Mats Gustafsson is a prominent figure in the modern jazz scene, working as a composer, improviser, and saxaphone player. He has been involved in hundreds of projects, including work with Sonic Youth, Neneh Cherry, Peter Brötzmann, and Merzbow, as well as being an active member of groups such as FIRE!, The END, and Swedish Azz.

World-renowned horn player Mats Gustafsson teams up with Joachim Nordwall to create THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIME- TO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH- OR WORSE- an avant-garde masterpiece. Gustafsson and Nordwall push their instruments to the limit, almost mirroring the title of the record by "reaching across space and time". The duo creates a sense of vast, three-dimensional auditory expanses. "This is where acoustics and analog synths meet. It is unique music. Unheard Vibes. Perfect for special venues and good PAs..." -Gustafsson & Nordwall. We encourage listeners to take multiple journeys through the expansive spacial exploration that is THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIME- TO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH- OR WORSE. Joachim Nordwall has been active in creating psychedelic electronic music since the late 80s- A cornerstone of the Swedish musical underground, exploring the extremities of guitar music with The Skull Defekts and solo recordings as The Idealist that access the spiritual and political dimensions of electronic music and dub. Nordwall also runs the esteemed and boundary pushing iDEAL Recordings, cementing his position as a major player in the contemporary scene. Mats Gustafsson is a prominent figure in the modern jazz scene, working as a composer, improviser, and saxaphone player. He has been involved in hundreds of projects, including work with Sonic Youth, Neneh Cherry, Peter Brötzmann, and Merzbow, as well as being an active member of groups such as FIRE!, The END, and Swedish Azz.

A Late Lunch’ is the soundtrack to Akiko Iimura’s eponymous movie realized in 1978. It is based on acoustic instruments and field recordings, brilliantly reconfigured and mixed by Bekaert to create a surreal, immersive soundscape. The technique used includes superposition and speed change of recordings, radical sound effects and juxtapositions of sounds. The players were prominent musicians of the 1970’s, including Maggi Payne, George Lewis, David Rosenboom and Blue Gene Tyranny.

‘A Summer Day at Stony Point’ was composed in 1969, with participation of David Behrman, Shigeko Kubota and Charlotte Warren. The piece was commissioned by English composer Hugh Davies who presented it at the Harrogate festival the same year. Stony Point is a small village in New York State where John Cage co-owned a small pseudo-commune art resort where like-minded artists gathered. ‘A Summer Day at Stony Point’ is nothing more than a page of a journal, a fragment of a notebook that utilizes a series of sound sources recorded at Stony Point on one beautiful day in the summer of 1968. Other electronic sound sources were recorded at the Brandeis University where Alvin Lucier was professor. The final realization of the piece was done at Henri Pousseur’s APELAC Studio in Brussels, 1969.

The soundtrack for Akiko Iimura’s ‘Mon Petit Album’ was composed on the basis of a simple description of the technique of the film and its time span. It includes David Behrman on alto, from an outdoor recording at Stony Point, plus excerpts from a Transition concert in London, the band Bekaert formed in 1971 with Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers. The atmosphere is quiet and pastoral throughout with a very dreamlike flavour.

Jacques Bekaert (1940-2020) was a man of many gifts: author, journalist, composer, photographer, visual artist, wine connoisseur, radio talk show host, diplomat and expert in Southeast Asian affairs. His whole life Bekaert has been actively involved in music but not much of his work got recorded or published. In the early 60’s Bekaert studied with Pousseur and through his frequent visits to the US he became friends with artists like John Cage, David Tudor, Charlotte Moorman and most of all David Behrman with whom he had a close friendship ever since. Bekaert helped organize the first European tour of The Sonic Arts Union (David Behrman, Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier) and in the early 70’s he formed the group Transition (with Belgian jazz pianist Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers). His meeting with Japanese experimental film-maker Akiko Iimura resulted in two film soundtracks featured on this one of a kind discreet avant garde album.

When asked in a 1979 interview about his double life as a musician and a journalist, Bekaert replied, “I suppose they’re both unsafe, unstable, questioning jobs—composing and reporting. Journalism takes me to places, shows me the world as it is. My music is my wish for the kind of world I’d want to live in. The little peaceful state I dream for everyone, where you can be yourself, and happy, and as collective as possible without giving up total privacy.”

Originally released in 1981 on the Belgian Igloo label this reissue comes with the same sleeve as originally designed by Alain Géronnez.

Inspired by three movies of avantgarde cinematographer Maya Deren (At Land, Ritual in Transfigured Time and A study in Choreography for Camera), Francesca Bono (vocalist, performer, founder of Ofeliadorme and member of the Donnacirco collective) and Vittoria Burattini (percussionist, multi-faceted drummer and member of influential Italian avant-rock band Massimo Volume) created a dense hypnotic transfixing collection of songs based upon the sole use of the Juno 60 synthesizer and the organic linear pulsating sound of a drum kit.

These apparent limitations set the scene for an incredibly rich and rewarding voyage that immediately establishes a strong identity that oscillates between circular dream soundscapes and psychedelic rhythmic architectures. Bono / Burattini excels in threading magical images where objects transform without warning (Your House Is A Ghost) and collapse into kosmische grooves (La Trama Del Desiderio) or when humming electronics mold into temporal dimensions (Sogno Nel Vigneto). Burattini’s astonishing use of the drum kit and her mallet driven timbre produce space and tension (Dinner Illusion) perfectly complementing Bono’s synthesized realm made of nuance and reflection (Dancing Demons). One of the album’s key elements is the sparse use of Bono’s singing, an intricate mix of measured phrasing, breathing, spiral structures and extrasensorial-like choirs that seem to reference the rich Italian tradition of cosmic jazz, library music and the unmatched work of the RAI engineers in the 70s working with Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Morricone, Daniela Casa. The driving Can-like pulse of Le Ossa shows force and flow while Stella’s haunting piano recreates a futuristic horror-movie OST.

Suono In Un Tempo Trasfigurato is beautifully recorded and mixed by Italian composer Stefano Pilia, a perfect match for Bono / Burattini’s sonic explorations and for a record that intersects experimental wave, alien grooves, contemporary electronics and futuristic sci-fi. Their blend of analog electronics and organic pulses place them in a time out of joint where dancing remains the one constant ritual.

TRUST's XY recombination series is back with a second volume of cutting-edge sonic fictions: Electro legends Ultradyne join techno avantgardists Peder Mannerfelt, Second Storey, and Alex Cortex in remixing classic TRUST tracks by Microthol, Clatterbox, and /DL/MS/.

With French Connection, discover rare tracks of Funk, Soul and Jazz made in France. 23 avant-garde nuggets from the 60"s and 70"s gathered in a nice double vinyl! With: Cortex, Janko Nilovic, Godchild, Francis Lai, Bernard Estardy, Philippe Sarde, Edition Spéciale, Bruno Leys, Jean-Claude Petit, Serge Gainsbourg...

„Forever Forever“ ist das neue Album von Genevieve Artadi, der in L.A. lebenden Singer-Songwriterin, Produzentin, Bogenschützin und Dr. Mario-Liebhaberin. Artadi ist ein kreativer Tornado und bekannt für ihre Mitwirkung bei KNOWER, Expensive Magnets und ihrer früheren Band Pollyn. 2020 unterzeichnete sie bei Brainfeeder, um ihr Soloalbum, „Dizzy Strange Summer“, mitten in der Corona-Pandemie zu veröffentlichen. Im darauffolgenden Jahr arbeitete sie mit Thundercat, Raedio und Louis Cole an ihrem Track, „Satellite Space Age Edition“, für den Soundtrack der fünften Staffel von „Insecure“ (HBO). „Forever Forever“ umfasst eine wahrhaft kaleidoskopische Bandbreite an Einflüssen, die eine stilistische Eingrenzung unmöglich macht. Verwurzelt im Jazz, aber auch im alternativen Rock oder Avant-Pop, stehen sie in der Tradition der legendären Grenzgänger:innens Stereolab und Talking Heads. Artadi gehört zur unverschämt talentierten Crew, zu der auch Louis Cole, Pedro Martins, Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, Jacob Mann und Chiquita Magic gehören, die ein ähnliches Fundament aus klassischen und Jazz-Traditionen mit einer gesunden Punk-Attitüde und einer Leidenschaft für musikalische Hybridität und Fusion mitbringen. Sie gibt zu, dass es sie selbst motiviert, wenn sie von diesen talentierten Menschen umgeben ist, etwas zu schaffen. Die Hälfte der Songs für „Forever Forever“ wurde ursprünglich für eine Big Band geschrieben, da Artadi in Kontakt gekommen war mit der Grammy-nominierten Norrbotten Big Band aus Schweden, mit der sie als ‚Composer in Residence‘ tätig war und viele Male live aufgetreten ist. Auf der Suche nach einem „kreativen Funken“, so sagt sie, hörte sie Duke Ellington und Gil Evans mit Miles Davis. „Der Rest ist, glaube ich, einfach alles aus meiner Vergangenheit, was in meinem Unterbewusstsein ist.“, sagt sie. „Zufällige Inspirationsblitze von Chopin, Bach (ich habe während des Lockdowns einige zweistimmige Inventionen gelernt), Debussy, Nancy Wilson, Björk, Ryan Power, Nobukazu Takemura, den Beatles, Dionne Warwick…”

In seinem neuen Projekt mit der Sängerin von The Unthanks offenbart Maximo Park Sänger Paul Smith seine Liebe zum Folk. Über 10 beeindruckende Songs mit wunderschönen Harmonien entsteht ein Folk-Album mit Einflüssen des US-Avantgarde Rock der 60iger ohne auf die klassische Fingerstyle-Gitarren zu verzichten. 'Nowhere And Everywhere' ist erhältlich auf CD und LP und ein absolutes Muss für Fans von Paul Smith und Folk-Liebhaber:innen.

BLUE NOTE CLASSIC VINYL EDITION: Stereo, komplett analog von Kevin Gray von den Originalbändern gemastert, Optimal-Pressung (180 g), wattierte Innenhülle.

“Empyrean Isles” war 1964 Herbie Hancocks viertes Soloalbum für Blue Note. Obwohl der Pianist mit “Watermelon Man” von seinem Debütalbum “Takin’ Off” bereits einen echten Hit gelandet hatte, etablierte er sich erst mit “Empyrean Isles” endgültig als eigenständiger Künstler. Wie auf den vorangegangenen Alben
stellte Hancock ausschließlich eigene Kompositionen vor, aus denen vor allem der zeitlose Hit “Cantaloupe Island” hervorstach.

Dem Pianisten zur Seite stehen hier mit Bassist Ron Carter und Schlagzeuger Tony Williams zwei Musiker, mit denen er damals parallel auch im zweiten großen Quintett von Miles Davis
zusammenarbeitete. Zu ihnen gesellte sich außerdem der Trompeter Freddie Hubbard.

Der Saxofonist Sam Rivers hatte sich schon sehr früh in seiner Karriere durch bemerkenswerte Originalität ausgezeichnet. Nach einem kurzen Intermezzo im zweiten großen Quintett von Miles Davis, spielte Rivers im Dezember 1964 für Blue Note sein Debütalbum “Fuchsia Swing Song” ein. Das Repertoire bestand aus sechs Kompositionen von Rivers, die zwar fest im Post-Bop und Blues wurzelten, aber die avantgardistischen Tendenzen des Saxofonisten auch nicht leugnen konnten. Das Highlight des Albums ist
die atemberaubende Ballade “Beatrice”, die später sogar von den Tenor-Giganten Joe Henderson und Stan Getz aufgegriffen und interpretiert wurde.

BLUE NOTE CLASSIC VINYL EDITION: Stereo, komplett analog von Kevin Gray von den Originalbändern gemastert, Optimal-Pressung (180 g), wattierte Innenhülle.

“Empyrean Isles” war 1964 Herbie Hancocks viertes Soloalbum für Blue Note. Obwohl der Pianist mit “Watermelon Man” von seinem Debütalbum “Takin’ Off” bereits einen echten Hit gelandet hatte, etablierte er sich erst mit “Empyrean Isles” endgültig als eigenständiger Künstler. Wie auf den vorangegangenen Alben
stellte Hancock ausschließlich eigene Kompositionen vor, aus denen vor allem der zeitlose Hit “Cantaloupe Island” hervorstach.
Dem Pianisten zur Seite stehen hier mit Bassist Ron Carter und Schlagzeuger Tony Williams zwei Musiker, mit denen er damals parallel auch im zweiten großen Quintett von Miles Davis
zusammenarbeitete. Zu ihnen gesellte sich außerdem der Trompeter Freddie Hubbard.

Der Saxofonist Sam Rivers hatte sich schon sehr früh in seiner Karriere durch bemerkenswerte Originalität ausgezeichnet. Nach einem kurzen Intermezzo im zweiten großen Quintett von Miles Davis, spielte Rivers im Dezember 1964 für Blue Note sein Debütalbum “Fuchsia Swing Song” ein. Das Repertoire bestand aus sechs Kompositionen von Rivers, die zwar fest im Post-Bop und Blues wurzelten, aber die avantgardistischen Tendenzen des Saxofonisten auch nicht leugnen konnten. Das Highlight des Albums ist
die atemberaubende Ballade “Beatrice”, die später sogar von den Tenor-Giganten Joe Henderson und Stan Getz aufgegriffen und interpretiert wurde