Поиск:e freq

Angel Tears in Sunlight is Pauline Anna Strom's first album in over thirty years; an assemblage of music that refracts the expansiveness, and minutiae, of imagined realms while embracing the kaleidoscopic echoes of our distant epochs. The capacity to collapse time might elucidate the enigma of Pauline Anna Strom. A mystic force in music, emerging during the dawn of new age as the Trans-Millenia Consort, the pioneering synthesist channelled primordial energies into future-facing sound through a series of full-length releases between 1982 and 1988. Little was known about her, except by a constellation of devoted followers who saw a unique legacy forming amidst the (mostly male) synthesist canon of the time. Following the 2017 release of Trans-Millenia Music, an anthology revitalizing the most evocative parts of Strom's catalog, the Bay Area visionary sensed the universe telling her to return to music. As with her work in the 80s, Angel Tears in Sunlight was composed and recorded in the same San Francisco apartment where Strom has lived for almost four decades in synthesis with her machines and "dinosaurs." Populated by a compact array of modern instruments that streamline the sound of her analog past and her beloved iguanas, Little Soulstice and Ms Huff, the terrarium of her home forms an intimate yet limitless ecosystem that defies the constraints of the outside world. Within this sanctuary, Strom becomes lost in time, drawing on the ancient energies of her inner visions. Her hardware forms the crux of translating these ideas into sound. "It's the only way this stuff can be pulled out of myself, the universe, Little Soulstice, an ammonite_," Strom notes. "It couldn't be done without this machinery, because there's no other way to draw and capture these frequencies into sonic interpretation." Strom's process of recording transient live-takes enriches the mystery of her work. She renders the machinery a composer itself, a cohabitation with a living other. "Many musicians wouldn't go that far because of ego," Strom muses. "The equipment has to become part of you and your creativity. That's how I think it all comes together." Music-making becomes a harmonic language of intuition with an instrument, where Strom cultivates sound for a harvest that defies season. Shaped by circadian contours, Angel Tears in Sunlight is a celestial observatory of earthborn phonic mosaics. Strom uncovers a symbiosis between hardware frequencies and apparitions of nature in the record's arena of organic tones, emulating the melodic pulses of primeval terrain. The album transcends both shadow and light, falling to hushed stretches of sound as if not to awaken antediluvian animals, before soaring through the treetops where ancient skies peer over reptilian traffic and unsparing rains.

‘Spells’ is the ethereal and enchanting debut release by Los Angeles harpist and composer Nailah Hunter.

Each of the tracks offer tranquillity and a reflective setting. The release started off with Hunter wanting to reclaim the way she thought about creating and performing music.

Hunter says each of the eight tracks on the release represents a spell, allowing her to carry them out as steps of a ritual: “Each track is its own incantation, its own spell, its own world.” Ambient in nature, ‘Spells’ brings out Hunter’s intuitive skills as a composer.

All instrumentation on ‘Spells’ was composed, played, recorded and produced by Hunter, who is best known for creating ethereal music with the harp. She is part of Leaving Records supergroup Galdre Visions alongside Green-House, Ami Dang and Yialmelic Frequencies The project was recently featured in the New York Times.

Hunter recently contributed to 4AD’s Bing Ruth’s ‘Divergence: Species Remixes’ EP alongside Khotin Maria Somerville, Lucy Gooch and James Krivchenia.

For fans of Laraaji, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Enya, Pure Moods, Mary Lattimore and Alice Coltrane.

LP comes with an 8-page full-colour 12x12 booklet.

Hunt & Gather’s debut vinyl release comes by way of Pezzner’s cryptic moniker “The Native Language”. Written as a quasi-homeless man living off the rich in the San Juan Islands who writes music once per year to suffice his own delusions.

Walking the streets in these damp, anxious days that all run together lately, I was approached by a man who would blend right into the neighborhood, layered in flannel and sweatshirts for sleeping.

Rough, but for his shoes. (Never cheap out on anything that separates you from the ground.) “Pezzner,” he called out, from a safe distance. “What did the mangrove say to the marauding hordes.” My soul left my body for a moment and my voice responded on its own. “Petrichor.”

He caught my eye, nodded, left a padded envelope on the ground and vanished. The envelope had passed through many hands, slipped into the bed of a ferry-bound truck, passed from one fellow traveler to another, stashed under the counters of anarchist bookstores, left tucked between books at Little Free Libraries. The greenish stains suggested that at one point it had been swum across a lake. Another DAT, contents encoded here unabridged, and a letter from someone who called himself The Sentinel.

The Vessel lived out his days on Shaw Island, under a canopy of trees that gets smaller and smaller every season. His condition the same, any electricity lit his brain on fire, could only bring himself to compose one day a year, only at night, out of sight. Until he met The Angel, an eccentric with means, who built for him a device.

A Faraday Cage to block all electromagnetic emissions. Burlap walls, for atmosphere. A system of pulleys and levers, wood and rope, all running into a box that sat outside. An entirely mechanical control surface. No electrons in here. The Vessel lit fires, watched the shadows dance, closed his eyes and disappeared into the motion for hours at a time. The Sentinel came every morning to change the tapes. The Angel watched and pondered, his plans unknown.

The box sat sealed, bare except for another set of ideograms, scratched in day by day over time. Inside, the usual bedroom-producer shit. Outside, the ideograms told a story, passed from the Vessel to the Sentinel and drawn by the Angel, of a man who became another creature. Alert to the lowest frequencies, feeling music deep in the soil below their feet. Music that brings messages, from distant friends, warning of new creatures and the danger they brought. Skin alive to the world, so sensitive it can detect the landing of a single fly. A mind capable of keeping a map of the world inside. A mind that can look in a mirror and see a soul it knows well. A mind that can grieve.

After processing its contents, I filled the envelope with granola bars and walked it down to the market. The clerk gave me a knowing look as I placed it on the counter behind a stack of pork rinds from the previous century. As I walked out, a young man carrying a plastic bag and wearing impeccable shoes walked in.

Watching Abul Mogard’s Live performance in Atonal Festival 2017 and his releases on Not Waving’s Ecstatic record label were somewhat of a milestone in Malka Tuti’s sonic aesthetics. His ability to touch us with those pulsating sonic textures com-ing out of his modular machine inspired us in MTHQ for years to come. We were more then happy that Mogard chose to contact Tapan about their album and eventually deciding to remix not one but two track from the Belgrade duo… It was like a circle coming to a close.

On the A-side Mogard take the original 17 minute sax infused piece that is EUROPA and drenches it with drones and low freq pulses and atmosphere, creating a some sort of a post apoca-lyptic intense atmospheric soundtrack. The effect of drowning the horns from the original track in a sea of drones and pads, contributes to the over all impression of listening to a distant memory of music… fitting for days like these....

On the B-side Mogard takes it to the next level, capturing a line from Tapan's original collaboration with Jerusalem In My Heart's Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, and passing it through his modular system, amalgamating an epic piece of tension build ups and repetitive movements...

The original artwork was made by artist Marja de Sanctis and adapted, as always, to the sleeve by Morey Talmor.

In the 2000’s Chee Shimizu helmed an untouchable Tokyo DJ collective called Discossession alongside Dr Nishimura (House music buyer for Cisco Records at the time). Balancing out this unit were a young Scotsman-abroad named Jonny Nash (who’d later form Sombrero Galaxy ESP001 and Gaussian Curve as well as the Melody As Truth imprint), and the late guitar virtuoso and tattoo artist Zecky. Formidable DJs and multi-talents on the Tokyo scene, Discossession released two EPs on Kenji Takimi’s Crue-L imprint and various mixes individually on lovefingers, all holding well-deserved eternal cult status. Chee’s Denshi Meisou 2006 and Follow My Dream 2007 for Lovefingers as well as his legendary “listening sessions” at HiFi lounge SHeLTeR in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, laid foundation for what would become known to his followers as “Organic Music” or “Obscure Sound”, the former extending as the name of his record shop and the latter as the title of his 2013 book.

Obscure Sound chronicled his tastes in detail and has since become a sort of diggers bible for peers and younger generations. At the ESP Institute’s inception in 2009, Shimizu contributed two tracks to Lovefingers’ Concentration Vol 1 compilation as apéritifs to a later release. “Later” eventually became “forever” and the mythical piano track (appearing only as a demo on Golden Age and Dekmantel 061) is still, to this day, not ready for formal release. Skip a dozen years, musical interests and major life changes, and Chee has now unveiled something quite special in accordance with his Obscure Sound—rather than making new out of old rope, he presents a collaboration with Tokyo guitarist miku-mari a.k.a. Takahiro Matsumura. The artists frequently collaborate at the experimental audio/visual event, Sacrifice, held irregularly at Tokyo’s ForestLimit, and in 2018 when Chee was invited to DJ at Japan’s only Ambient festival Camp Off-Tone, he and miku-mari endeavored to expand these works into a 2-hour improvised performance. Chee collaged various percussion samples and personal field recordings utilizing four CDJs, supplementing with live windchimes and Andean chajchas, while miku-mari coupled a guitar-controlled synthesizer, Sound Tube software (developed by Japanese Ambient composer Hiroshi Yoshimura) and more live elements such as Tibetan bells and pyramid crystals. Rehearsals for this performance were held prior to the festival at ForestLimit, recorded as multi-tracks and edited into these two cerebral Reconstructions.

In 2019, the power-acoustic musician Francisco Meirino presented A New Instability a commission for the venerable Ina-GRM in paris. Of course, this institution is the pre-eminent center for the research and study of electro-acoustic music dating back to founding of Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer. To this day, Ina-GRM continues to be at the vangarde of the electro-acoustic composition, and it is quite an accomplishment and very appropriate for Meirino to receive such a commission.

This recording for A New Instability condenses the 32-channel original piece down to a still very active stereo version. here, Meirino continues to amplify and refine his compositions that walk a fine tightrope between raw expressivity of brutalist noise and conceptual rigor of more academic pursuits. Such a work ranks him in with the likes of Zbigniew Karkowski, Dave Phillips, Puce Mary, and Illusion Of Safety.

Field recordings from a kendo dojo in his hometown of Lausanne, Switzerland cast a pugilistic, combative arch to these recordings which snap, burst, explode, and erupt with utterances of men and women engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Searing frequencies build, swarm, and amass out of these episodes rise to psychologically tense crescendo that rupture at their heights, quickly turning attention towards a violence that originates from within. It is as if the objective observations of those martial arts recordings are sublimated within a subjective experience of psychic unease, disquiet, and imbalance.

A New Instability is another magnificent chapter in the ongoing body of work for this accomplished composer of electro-acoustic noise.

Devi Mambouka’s evolution is rooted in her past informing her
present and future.
Born to a Gabonese ambassador and a Singaporean mother makes her a child of the world, and one who learned to tap into her inner magic to overcome trauma, abuse, and addiction. Play at Night, her debut album under the moniker Masma Dream World, is the resume of such learnings and experiences.
Abruptly moving from Africa to the Bronx at 12 years old yielded intense challenges, but singing was a refuge and music was an escape. Influenced by the likes of Amel Larrieux, Toni Braxton, and Zap Mama, Play At Night challenges your preconceived relationship with darkness, guiding you to step into it.
The album encompasses elements of butoh (a Japanese spirit-led performance art), the theta frequency, and the need to hold sacred space. This space is a prime opportunity to awaken one’s power source from within.

Talk about a talented family: Willie Nelson and his Sister Bobbie Nelson each achieved massive success in country music. Even in their late 80’s, the Nelsons continue to make music and their influence can be heard through many artists in the genre. December Day, Willie’s Stash Vol. 1 is a collaboration album between the two, and upon release in
2014 it was met with positive reviews from music critics. The album spawned three singles: “Who’ll Buy My Memories”, “Laws of Nature” and “Summer of Roses / December Day”. The liner notes were written by Willie’s frequent collaborator Mickey Raphael. This record comes as a limited edition on snowy white vinyl.

Hyperspace will be Beck’s 14th album, following 2017’s Colors, which won Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 61st GRAMMY Awards earlier this year. Hyperspace’s new dimensions in sound are the result of Beck’s most collaborative efforts to date. Seven of the album's 11 tracks—including single “Uneventful Days” and “Saw Lightning” (as featured in the Beats by Dr. Dre Powerbeats Pro campaign and also included with pre-orders)—feature co-writing and co-production from Pharrell Williams. Elsewhere in Hyperspace, “See Through” is co-written/co-produced by frequent Beck collaborator Greg Kurstin, “Star” is co-written/co-produced by Paul Epworth, “Stratosphere” features back-up from Chris Martin, the album’s title track features guest vocals from Terrell Hines, and “Die Waiting” is co-written/co-produced by Cole M.G.N. with backing vocals from Sky Ferreira. Longtime Beck bandmates Jason Falkner, Smokey Hormel and Roger Manning Jr. feature on much of the album as well.

Goat Girl’s new album ‘On All Fours’ was produced by Dan Carey (Kae Tempest, Black Midi, Franz Ferdinand) in South London in early 2020. This new record sees the band veer away from the confrontational lyricism of their debut and indicates Goat Girl’s maturing perspectives in discussing the world’s injustices and social prejudices, using the music to explore global, humanitarian, environmental and mindful wellbeing.
Throughout ‘On All Fours’, Goat Girl’s frequent use of sci-fi synthesisers, off-beat chord progressions, analogue drum machines, diverse vocal styles and distinct, gritty guitars fuses a musical language that expresses both former characteristics and newer developments of the band’s sound and vision.

"New York, N.Y. is a high point in the work of leading jazz composer and arranger George Russell. Russell was an early advocate for Modal Jazz and the conceptualizer of the influential Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. For this 1959 Decca classic, Russell assembled an all-star orchestra, including John Coltrane, Bill Evans (a frequent Russell collaborator), Art Farmer, Bob Brookmeyer and Milt Hinton, among others. Singer Jon Hendricks provided beatnik-style, stream-of-consciousness narrations that opened and closed this landmark album.
Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging."

Oldschool Tribecore re-press ! Praised Tunes !

A folk/bluegrass troubadour from Vermont who delves into shape-note traditions and Appalachian ballads and makes it all beguilingly his own. His guitar lines have the fancy fingerwork of a crack banjo player and his banjo lines have the tugging suspensions of a jazzer.’ – Guardian

‘Amidon is a rare Americana artist whose … signature banjo-strewn style … and disparate mix of influences play into a sound that is at once archaically rootsy and savvily refined.’ – Wall Street Journal

Sam Amidon considers his new self-titled album the fullest realization to date of his artistic vision. It comprises his radical reworkings of nine mostly traditional folk songs, performed with his band of longtime friends and collaborators. Amidon produced the record, applying the sonic universe of his 2017 The Following Mountain to these beloved tunes, many of which he first learned as a child. ‘Pretty Polly,’ for example, was one of the first traditional tunes he learned to play, and ‘Time Has Made A Change’ is a song that his parents – singers who were on the 1977 Nonesuch recording Rivers of Delight with the Word of Mouth Chorus – sang around the house when he was young. Amidon will perform two concerts at Kings Place in London on October 3. A limited number of tickets will be available in the venue, as well as tickets to stream the event from home. Further details are available here.

Amidon and his frequent band of multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Chris Vatalaro were joined in the studio by Belgian guitarist Bert Cools (who played on his last EP), as well as Amidon’s wife, Beth Orton, who adds vocals on three songs. Acoustic bassist Ruth Goller and saxophonist and labelmate Sam Gendel also play on the album, which was mixed by Leo Abrahams. Sam Amidon was mostly recorded live in the studio. Amidon arranged the songs, which are traditional tunes, with the exception of Taj Mahal’s ‘Light Rain Blues’, Harkins Frye’s ‘Time Has Made A Change’, and ‘Hallelujah’, which is an 1835 William Walker shape-note tune using earlier words by Charles Wesley, found in the Sacred Harp collection of early American folk-hymns.

Sam Amidon is Amidon’s fifth recording on Nonesuch and follows the 2019 EP Fatal Flower Garden (A Tribute to Harry Smith). Additional recordings include his 2017 album The Following Mountain and Kronos Quartet’s Folk Songs the same year, on which he was a featured singer along with Rhiannon Giddens, Natalie Merchant, and Olivia Chaney; Lily-O in 2014; and his label debut, Bright Sunny South, in 2013.

Dancepieces, originally released in 1987, presents music that American composer Philip Glass created for two separate dance performances. The first half of the album accompanied the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation in a show called “In the Upper Room,” and the second piece accompanied choreographer Jerome Robbins’ “Glasspieces”. Glass writes the majority of his music for visual performances, most frequently dance and opera, and the presence of a visual twin to his music is evident throughout the selections from Dancepieces.

In discussing his technique for writing music to accompany dance, Glass has stated that melody, harmony and rhythm are key factors. Within the first seconds of each song on Dancepieces, the strength of Glass’ strong rhythmic sense can clearly be heard.

Blues singer and harmonica player Brian Knight (1939-2001) is counted as one of the initial members of The Rolling Stones. Co-founder of Brian Jones first band together with Ian Stewart and Dick Taylor (later Pretty Things) among others. Musical disagreement with Jones, who fancied Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry while Knight was a Muddy Waters follower, led to his departure from the group - later to be replaced by Jagger and Richards. He formed his own "Blues By Six" band, frequently with Charlie Watts on drums, and spent the following years touring and playing London clubs. In the seventies he continued with Bradford-Knight Blues Band. Always a high profile act on the English blues circuit Knight has performed with many known artists through the decades, as Rick Wakeman, Peter Green, Paul Jones, Zoot Money, Ronnie Lane, Charie Watts, Chris Farlowe...and many more. After two successful decades of touring and performing he finally got to record his debut in 1981on the independent label PVK Records. The album is a mix of standard blues and rock numbers as traditional "white blues", sometimes reminding of early British R&B from Cyril Davies or Alexis Korner. It features Dick Heckstall-Smith (Colosseum) on sax, Peter Green on guitar and Stones own Charlie Watts on drums

Following the stellar trip through Woo’s Arcturian Corridor , Quindi Records continues to explore intimate, inviting sounds with an experimental bent by facilitating the return of overlooked Italian duo Cabaret du Ciel.
Initially formed in 1986, Cabaret du Ciel’s debut album Skies In The Mirror was a low-key and extremely rare cassette release of spellbinding electro-acoustic ambient music created by Gian Luigi Morosin and Andrea Desiderà. A reissue on Hybride Sentimento in 2018 brought renewed attention to the startling music contained within this unique project.
The Breath Of Infinity is an album comprised of new works recorded over the past year, either as new pieces or reworked from old ideas with the assistance of Giorgio Ricci. Morosin and Desiderà’s natural instincts as multi-instrumentalists shine through across the record as they did on Skies in the Mirror , although these tracks were in fact composed as raw live takes using electronic workstations (with a little additional fretless bass provided by a close friend Giampaolo Diacci on “Different Suns” and “Climatic Variations”).
There is a crisp, digital timbre to the worlds Cabaret du Ciel shape out on The Breath Of Infinity – utopian pastureswith an air of optimism similarly expressed in the first waves of ambient electronica. Folk traditions exert a guiding influence on the sparkling, ethereal melodies and full-frequency harmonisation, but this is music enamoured with timeless plateaus rather than hackneyed interpretations of the past, present or future.
It’s also an album of variety. “Different Suns” tumbles with a pastoral, elemental earthiness thanks to the interwoven rhythmic murmuring of percussion and live bass, while “Lakota” pivots in sharply rendered bio-mechanical formations.
There’s a widescreen bombast to “Theatre Azure” which calls to mind mid-90s US electronica, while “Meredith” reclines in a blissful bath of plush 80s FM synthesis. “Sunset Parade March” has a distinct sense of propulsion thanks to its overdriven, broken techno rhythm and “Highlands” skips with an infectious energy despite not using any formal
kind of percussion, but even in these more kinetic moments a preference for mellow musicality maintains the dreamlike mood.
Consider The Breath of Infinity like an archipelago, where each track functions as its own distinct island of ideas while being intrinsically interconnected to the others. In a similar fashion to acts such as Ultramarine (who appeared as remixers on Quindi 001), Cabaret du Ciel emphasise the musicality in their electronic music, shaping out an
evocative, imaginative environment to idly glide through or attentively explore.

arbitrary presents the 2020 remaster & vinyl reissue of PM016 by Danish musician Mads Emil Nielsen, re-mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer, with cover artwork by visual artist Dane Patterson.

Originally released as limited edition C30 tape on Plant Migration Records in 2014, the four pieces on Nielsen’s first solo release are based on short orchestral and percussive samples manipulated by various synthesizer modules and effects processors. Variations are created by emphasizing different frequencies, harmonics, sections of short loops and the various surprises that result from the idiosyncrasies of each machine.

This vinyl reissue is part of the Black Box series of releases with music & audio originally made for theatre pieces, performances, installations, radio soundtracks, compilations and remix collaborations. The series showcases a more melodic side of Mads Emil Nielsen’s work, who, during recent years, has been focused on more abstract electronic/acoustic material – such as his collaboration with Andrea Neumann and Framework series (graphic scores & recordings).

Written & produced by Mads Emil Nielsen, Copenhagen, 2013. Originally released as limited edition C30 tape on Plant Migration Records (US), 2014.

coloured vinyl

Fractions return to Fleisch for a third time with their debut LP, unleashing eight tracks of highly effective techno-infused body music inspired by the melodrama of French films such as La Haine and Irreversible. With a palette of modernized 90s rave elements they transport the listener on a cinematic ride of contrasts between the explosive and the soothing, through violence and action to love and hope. Featuring Zanias on Track A4

restock

Following up on a strong launch with Braintalk, Human Sense Technology returns for their 2nd entry; this time from the man of many styles, Eastern Zurich's very own Dan Piu, with Modern Utopia Thought EP. Dedicated to his youth and influenced by future visions of creation, the atmosphere and arrangement on this EP permeates into the imagination with colors of suspense, harmony, and spherical textures showcasing the finer lines of deep frequency. Courageous indeed as this EP embraces the mysterious in an eccentric bliss that charms the listening experience in a way that grooves the body as much as it moves the mind. Welcome to Modern Utopia EP, where there are no constraints on creation or time.

Patrick Conway is made of snips and snails and puppy tails. This is his second offering for the ESP Institute. On side A, Hypersocial removes our minds from the daily online cesspool and pulls up emotions we haven’t felt for almost a year. We lost a Summer of dancing together en masse in clubs, fields, warehouses and pubs, but with this beautiful reminder of what true social synergy and collective ecstasy can physically feel like, the Bristolian by way of Berlin hits the nail right on the head (with a little help from his friends Quantum Thomas & Hoyahelper). Lush strings? Tick. Balmy chord progression? Tick. Ethereal vocal chops? Walloping bassline? Infectious rhythm? Goosebumps? Tears of joy? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick! On the flip-side, Safety Test is surely the tougher counterpart, the warm fuzzies are traded for a ten ton bag of grit. Here, Patrick foreshadows a sonic approach we’ll hear lot more of with his debut album early next year; a combination of abrasive rhythms, processed scraps, a grab bag of stabbing bleeps and bloops, distant car alarms, ballistic fax machines, and an arsenal of low frequencies so brutal your woofers will require jumper cables. So, a heroic slab for both a block party in your brain and sunset in your soul, these two songs will bring back the Summer you just lost.

Ginno Russo follows up summery sizzler She Is On Fire with his full debut vinyl 12' for MOM. The Valencia based DJ and producer presents a stylish four track EP. It is entitled Travelling Around Zambia and features rhythms and beats inspired by Africa. Russo has been an active DJ since he was 17, with DJ residencies in Valencia and the surrounding region, as well as frequent trips to the Balearic Islands. Due to this experience, Russo knows what works on the dancefloor. Therefore it is no surprise that all four tracks on this EP are built for club play. However, the fun rhythms and ear catching grooves also make them suited to other occasions. Lio is a powerful and uplifting opener. It features steady textured beats, a stylish keyed groove and rising strings. Dubby is a relentless follow-up. Exploding chords and a live bass take centre stage over not stopping beats. Rosas is a funky number for the dancefloor. Textured percussion and powerful synths work the groove here alongside looped vocal fragments. Poble finishes off the EP with a vocal winner. Call and response sung vocals are laid over a powerful bassline and strong beats. This is a fine debut EP from Russo.

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London



Originally released by Theresa in 1981, this frequently exquisite set features the McCoy Tyner-inspired piano of Joe Bonner on four originals, Cal Massey's "Quiet Dawn," and "Lush Life." Bonner and a rhythm section are joined by a string quartet, trumpet, trombone, and flutist Holly Hofmann (the leader provided the arrangements) for music that is both lyrical and often passionate. Bonner is an underrated talent, and this is one of his finest recordings. by Scott Yanow



Bonner is only the second-most famous pianist born in Rocky Mount, N.C., behind Thelonious Monk. It’s indicative of Bonner’s lack of fame and appreciation that Monk is listed as a notable resident on Rocky Mount’s Wikipedia page, but Bonner is not.

But the pianist Bonner was most often compared to was not Monk but McCoy Tyner. Scott Yanow’s allmusic review of Impressions of Copenhagen said Bonner’s piano playing was “McCoy Tyner-inspired.” Bonner’s admittedly biased drummer, Tom Tilton, even felt Bonner surpassed Tyner. “Joe Bonner has all the power of McCoy, he has all the capability of McCoy, but he’s so much more romantic,” Tilton said, according to westword “I mean, I’ve been there time after time where there were tears running down people’s faces when he would play a ballad. He could captivate a room like nobody I’ve ever experienced before.”

Bonner did most of his playing over the last two decades in Denver, where he was beloved and appreciated. Even Gov. John Hickenlooper was a Bonner fan. “He was without question, the most talented piano player I’ve ever heard,” the governor told the website heyreverb in a remembrance of Bonner. “… I want people to know that I loved Joe Bonner.”

“The Grind” by El Agua Es Profunda is a beautiful, ever evolving track. Building from a basic rhythm, layering and layering into an anthemic state. Fans of John Hopkins, Kaito, The Field, Gui Boratto will find a familiar vibe in The Grind, but this vivid and cinematic ten and a half minute production triggers memories of epic moments in any dancer.

The B-side holds a remix by Copenhagen‟s Kasper Marott. Highly regarded for his releases on Modeselektor 's Seilscheibenpfeiler, Courtesy's Kulør, and most recently his own Axces imprint. Marott has taken The Grind on a more intense trip, enhancing the percussive elements for the floor.

Behind the artist name El Agua Es Profunda we find the Danish music producer Jacob Funch. He has previously released four digital EPs as well as the abum “Circumnavigating Lueena“ through his own Gold Records. The productions vary in genre from melodic soundscapes and synth-pop to dance music. Besides his solo work he is a frequently used producer for several other artists on the global leftfield indie scene.

Repress

Carthago: Rare Tunisian Disco Including Unreleased Instrumentals And Eight Page Booklet When we first decided to start Habibi Funk, a label dedicated to re-releasing "funky" Arabic music from the 1960s to 1980s, a band called Dalton was the first release we worked on. Dalton was a band from the Tunisian capital of Tunis and they played a unique mix of soul & funk with an Arabic DNA. We licensed the release from the band's composer Fawzi Chekili, and when we spoke to him on the phone in preparation of the release he mentioned another band he was part of, called Carthago. Our work with Habibi Funk is like a big treasure hunt. There are too many great bands that fully vanished into obscurity and didn't leave any traces in the digital sphere yet. We are so used to the internet providing all informations we might be looking for, but Carthago was one of those bands where the internet largely failed to provide any infos despite the fact that Carthago created some incredible music in the form of an highly infectious Tunisian take on disco music. Luckily most of the members of the 1970s musical scene of Tunis are still around to tell their story.

Carthago was founded in the late 1970s as a fusion of Dalton and a second band called Marhaba Band. Both bands frequently played at hotels and night clubs in Tunis and Sousse. They had similar musical influences and despite the fact that they were competition for the most part, they came up with the idea to join forces for a new band. Musically Carthago kept on walking on the musical path of Dalton and Marhaba but incorporated disco music, a new style that was making its way to North Africa from Europe and North America. The band had quite some success on local radio and played a number of big shows with thousands of people showing up. The band's concerts were a mixture of their own compositions as well as cover versions of the hits of the time from Stevie Wonder to Chicago. At the end of the 70s they went to Paris to record their only, self titled album. For our reissue we picked out two of our favorite tracks: "Hanen" and the outstanding disco version of the Dalton track "Alech" which has proved to work on every dance floor we played over the last two years.

When I came to Tunis for the first time after the Dalton reissue I met Fawzi in person. He still lives in Tunis and still works as a full time musician though his focus has shifted more towards Jazz over the years. Luckily he did not only keep a spotless copy of the Carthago album but he also kept the master tape of the instrumental versions of the album which to this day were unreleased. Being able to add exclusive content to a reissue is something that is rare and we feel highly privileged to be able to do so. Futher more we are so happy that we will be able to add something new to the bands legacy not only musically but also visually: One day I realized that most of the releases from Tunisia I liked, be it from Dalton, Carthago or Marhaba Band had the same photographer credit.Hassen Turki started taking photos at a young age and when he was 18 he started going to the gigs of the bands of the time that were playing in the Marhaba Hotel which was managed by his father at the time. He became friends with the bands and ended up being the person to be asked when it came to shooting the photos for the covers of the records. After some research I managed to get in touch with Hassen and met him in his hometown Sousse. Luckily he kept most of the negatives of the photos he took so we're more than happy to be able to share these unseen photos with whoever is interested.

The 20th anniversary year of Dial Records couldn’t have been more exciting for us so far! After the extraordinary well-received release of Soela’s debut-album Genuine Silk and steady excitement around our ongoing series of digital anniversary compilations, we are more than thrilled to announce the second album release of this our very special year: XDB - Inspiron. As a longtime companion and true inspiration throughout the label’s twenty-year history, Kosta Athanassiadis aka XDB enriched our lives with his brilliant productions in the form of countless 12”s and legendary remixes. His long-overdue full-length debut album Inspiron in hand, we find ourselves unpacking the most beautiful jubilee present we could have ever imagined. For almost three decades now Kosta Athanassiadis aka XDB has been involved in the constantly changing world of dance music. His curiosity and dedication to electronic music spiral deep into the depth of House Music and Techno and where ever he appears he generously shares his unique knowledge in this field with equally dedicated crowds. Whether you follow his bloggish “Tracks I do really LOVE”, a collection of club essentials and a library of taste, or you witness one of his remarkable DJ sets from Panorama Bar to Freerotation Festival - XDB will elevate you to one of those unforgettably magical music moments. In 1993 Kosta Athanassiadis started his DJ career in the medieval hometown of Goettingen. To find what he was really looking for, namely, the newest and most exciting new records he frequently had to leave this picturesque city, that is most popular for inventing the traditional Baumkuchen pastry, but has not been on the maps of music connoisseurs necessarily. Frequent trips to visit records stores and clubs around Germany built a network of likely minded people. Some of his favorite and most thought after record labels of the time like the Chicago imprint Relief, or UK's Mosaic, are still fundamental to his very specific musical taste. By the turn of the century, XDB hosted a series of nights at Goettingen's Eletroosho, where he invited Dial’s own Lawrence and Carsten Jost in 2002- the beginning of a still ongoing friendship. He had established himself as a sought after and internationally active DJ and started his fist endeavors into music production as well. Later on XDB founded his own Label Metrolux and released on iconic labels like Sistrum and Wave to be followed by countless remixes for legends like Aaron Carl, Norm Talley and Patrice Scott. An extraordinary stream of gravity connects both, his productions and DJ sets. Once breaking through a seemingly transparent surface, one get’s lost in the beauty and depth of forms and figures. There’s barely DJs and producers who keep searching for this hidden formula in such a microscopically detailed way to pass a lifetime in House Music and Techno on to the world. XDB's Inspiron embraces this unique approach, filters and develops inspirations in an entirely delicate way, and magically emphasizes the desires of the most dedicated listeners and dancers.

Black Truffle is proud to announce the first vinyl reissue of Rafael Toral’s Aeriola Frequency, originally released by Perdition Plastics in 1998. Toral made his name in the world of mid-90’s experimental electronics with two releases, Sound Mind Sound Body (1994) and Wave Field (1995), both now recognised as classics and reissued on vinyl by Drag City, which saw him exploring the potential of electric guitar and pedals to immerse the listener in seemingly endless waves of sustained tones. On Wave Field, inspired by the striking resonance effects he experienced during a Buzzcocks gig with bad acoustics, he achieved a synthesis—often imitated but never bettered—of rock guitar, Ambient, and the acoustic exploration of Alvin Lucier, a kind of "liquid, abstract flux of rock sound".

On Aeriola Frequency, Toral continued the explorations of Wave Field but dropped the guitar, creating a series of extended pieces using only a simple feedback loop designed to work with pure electronic resonance. The result is far more delicate than Wave Field, a steady but unstable flow of filtered tones that continually reorder themselves into new forms. On both the LP’s sides, the tones, like growing plants, imperceptibly shift from drifting freely in ambient space to weaving strangely natural melodic patterns, as the loops unfold and the resonance gently outlines recurring rhythmic shapes.

The overall effect is strikingly organic, as David Toop noted in the liner notes included in the original release (and reprinted in this reissue): “A crystal garden, the sound grows in reeds and streams, blown like spider web strands, glittering and invisible, pulsing with translucent colour, bubbling and imploding, fraying and powdering.”
A classic of the non-academic approach to electronics that flourished in the 1990s— and a big influence at the time on Black Truffle head honcho Oren Ambarchi—Aeriola Frequency ushers listeners into an endlessly fascinating world of gliding tones and shifting details that they might never want to leave.

- Recorded at Noise Precision, Portugal, December 1997 and April 1998. Remastered by Rafael Toral in 2020.
- Liner notes by David Toop and Rafael Toral.

Between Christmas 2000 and New Year 2001 producers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu recorded an album of warm, soft, delicately crackling electronic music in the space of that week. It was christened with the ambivalent title "Heroin" and was released on CD via the label Brombron in 2001 and later in 2003 re-issued on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork on double-LP with remixes the pair had commissioned as expansions.

17 years later Heroin sees its first vinyl release to include all 13 tracks from the original CD track-list on this LP + 12“ set. The centerpiece "Herz" finally receives its long deserved vinyl treatment (side C, at 45rpm) and on the flip side Thomas Brinkmann contributes a mirror in a magnificent remix of that very piece on side D.

Ehlers and Mathieu were both highly prolific solo artists during the period 2000-2004, and in just two years after the initial release of "Heroin" each had produced over half a dozen new solo recordings: among them the serial masterpiece Ehlers' "Plays" (Cornelius Cardew, Hurbert Fichte, John Cassavetes, Albert Ayler, Robert Johnson) released as 5 stunning LPs in a series on Staubgold, while Mathieu's 'Full Swing Edits' spread over five 10" records plus his album 'FrequencyLib' on Mille Plateaux, 'Die Entdeckung des Wetters' on Lucky Kitchen and ‘The Sad Mac’ on Atsushi Sasaki’s Headz label were greeted to critical acclaim.

Both artists were expanding their conceptual sonic approaches in the glow of developing laptop technologies which would to these times in 2020 seem quite primitive, but these two in that period used the state-of-the-art to aid and abet their conceptual visions, while at times the duo used unorthodox experimentation - yet always had a distinctively melodic and musical form at its heart and soul.

Ehlers can be seen as a conceptualist, as a meta-musician who interrogates the mediums and methods of sound production - reflecting on the conditions and possibilities of improvisation (e.g. "Plays Albert Ayler") and exploits ideas of mutation and distortion of popular aesthetics played out within a ghostly form of divine pop beauty in his project März.

Mathieu, originally a drummer and co-founder of what has come to be known as the Berlin 'Echtzeitmusik' scene. His approach could be similarly described as working a critical analyst and researcher: Subtly and precisely working in the realm of processing as a method of intervening in melodious/harmonic analog sound sources.

Ehlers and Mathieu may not think too much about their singular productions and publications outcomes, but instead concentrate on the process and musical personality that characterizes their gesture- style itself stays in the background - and they usher a music from small minimal sound sources coaching a patient music of slow intervention - much like a refraction of light than a concrete painting or a blurred photograph - beatus accident.

And indeed, "Heroin" is an album that embraces the happy accident being made up of reduced, often very catchy and very direct micro hooks which seem laser-guided into a space accepting obvious melodic beauty in what feels like an observation of musics unfolding and revealing it's DNA, embed with for a kind of yearning for innocence and naiveté - as if Satie were on the jukebox in "The Crying of Lot 49". Not to say the music is "reduced", but rather: 'restricted' and born from acceptance of limitations, and the artists allowing the sounds to just "be.." with some incremental degrees of coercion.

The album not only sounds like that of 2 producers who are both dreamers and scientists, but that Ehlers and Mathieu chose to work with these means in a dialogue together to reduce pop music to its musical/tonal core, it is not Pop music anymore, rather a ghostly pointilistic itteration of song. "Heroin" is located at this transition, around that point at which tracks, that were or could have become pop compositions, irrevocably slip into a static harmonic nirvana. We are invited to follow the arch of Heroin in a slow-motion morphine musical haze.

Heroin sounded timeless when originally released and proof is that it remains so, one wishes that Ehlers and Mathieu would convene again for a week, a month or an entire year to continue this process of slow rumination, picking affectionately over the sounds they both love - and then maybe when everything is condensed, evaporated they would write more songs with those sonic refractive elements that remain.

You have reached the Infolines. Tonight, we send you on a journey packin’ east to play in the magnificent halls where thespians and rock & roll once played. ‘The Theatre’ features a compilation of cuts that inspire those who listen to sweat in the soon to be humid weather of Detroit.

Bendersnatch is back again, this time with their funky groove ‘Vice Versa’, tooled as a call to the dance floor with a kick that cuts, and bleeps reminiscent of the second wave of techno. Remote Viewing Party brings us a break beat rhythm joined by instrumentalists Ezuch & Bcota with ‘Outpost’. The duo brings shows us their depth creating an atmosphere that will bring you chills, and tears that you will probably think is sweat running down your face. Newcomer Dev-Lish is joined by Maxlow with their head banger ‘Faith In The Machine, in a collaboration inspired by the Detroit birthed genre ‘sludge’. Evil grinding tones with huge bass and dark vocals will make you want to breath. Last, but not certainly least is Francois Dillinger. This artist has been churning out his art and making waves in the electro and techno communities. He brings to the table ‘Lost Loops’ with nothing short of huge bass, large spatial tones designed to hit all frequency ranges leaving room for the crowd to breath while being taken on a journey.

As always, keep an eye on this space and be sure to call in for the waypoint to the party.

Tape / Cassette

As one half of Phantom Horse, his long-serving electronic duo with Ulf Schütte, Niklas Dommaschk co-produces beautifully muted, Kraut-inspired jams that seem to soundtrack fictitious TV ads for wondrous imaginary household appliances, e.g. a calmly efficient, if slightly unsettling kitchen robot with an integrated lava lamp feature.

In contrast, Shapes cuts tracks down to size – nothing here is longer than five-and-a-half minutes. Also, Dommaschk has turned up the treble, the prominence of the higher frequency spectrum adding bite and menace to these deceptively simple synth polyrhythms.
Whereas opening track “Benzin” (German for “Petrol”) manages to conjure the paradoxical image of something or someone meandering with urgency, “Einzeller” (German for “single-celled organism”) channels a John-Carpenter-style pulse, complete with horror sound effects. “Interference” is a truly effective representation of the term, with piercing, but quiet tinnitus frequencies set above a beat as sparse as it is crunchy. “Two Stones”, by contrast, offers a kind of robotic wistfulness whereas closing piece “Energies of the mind” fizzes out like a jumble of toy keyboards attempting to score a science programme - and failing, but instead revealing some much grander emotional truth.

This is the sound of breaking some kind of inner lockdown, of turning inwards and then projecting parts of murky inner shadows outward, as well-defined and sometimes lurid shapes, individually clear, but still in the process of becoming organized into a complete whole. The unfinished is what excites us the most. May the shapes never find their slot in the jigsaw puzzle.

All songs by Niklas Dommaschk
Recorded between 2017 and 2020 in Berlin and Nijmegen
Mastering by Edgar Medina
Artwork by Daniel Castrejón

Timeless periods of industrial rhythm: Diarmaid O Meara and Kucera collaborate to release ‘Shadowmen’ vinyl on Gobsmacked Records

Nightclubs around Europe are shut. Even in Berlin, the clubbing capital of the world, nightlife has been reduced to a simmer. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time and connect via timeless periods of electrifying and industrial rhythms”, said Irish producer and DJ Diarmaid O Meara. Together with long-time Gobsmacked techno stalwart Kucera, the two have dropped their latest vinyl ‘Shadowmen’.

The collaboration has derived from long sessions in the Gobsmacked cavern studios in Berlin. The result: A 12” that is laid out in the style of the perfect rave – with a breakbeat electronica entry that promotes procrastination, freakish, and intensely introverted thoughts created through pulsating rhythms and ghostly frequencies, industrial rave sounds for those moments of release.

Partying is a huge part of Berlin’s identity

By listening to the vinyl featuring a dark rhythm, it becomes obvious that the duo has been heavily influenced by underground techno nights in Berlin, and also regularly sharing the stage together at international events. With the pandemic-mandated closure of clubs stretching through the summer, however, playing gigs and festivals is no longer an option. Hence, illegal parties have sprung up to fill the gap and infuriated some public health officials and politicians, also in Berlin.

“Partying is still a huge part of the city’s identity”, continued Diarmaid O Meara who has been living in Berlin for over a decade and also organising parties all over the city. “Raves are a much-needed way to blow off steam after a period of isolation but we have to consider a more proactive approach, for instance district authorities making public spaces available to party organisers under conditions that ensure hygiene measures are maintained.”

Although there has been no shortage of digital music events either since the pandemic began, clubbing is more than just watching a DJ set. “Rather it’s about the unique space that’s created by artists and the crowd that are pulled together by music”, said Kucera who has been destroying dance floors across Europe with his live sets since 2004. “In times when people are still feeling more isolated than ever, our latest vinyl with the accompanying music video aims to bring a sense of connectedness and community during the lockdown.” The video imagery has been recorded live using Kuceras machine pattern triggering whilst performing the tracks live.

Unwavering dedication to the culture of counter-culture

The name ‘Shadowmen’ reflects the work both artists have contributed constantly and consistently to the scene over the past two decades with unwavering dedication to the culture of counter-culture. The artwork, in classic Gobsmacked style, comes with a tip of the cap to the global elite who have been successfully driving humanity off a cliff. “We’ve thrown a little apparent illuminati symbol in there for those who’ve been confined too long at home and on YouTube for the past 6 months”, said Diarmaid O Meara.

Both artists are working on a multitude of new tracks and events for the post-Covid era. Of particular interest is Kuceras live visual show for Gobsmacked, with visuals triggered from his machine live-set patterns. This is something he has been wanting to experiment with for a long time now and it started to take shape in the form of visual hallucinations of industrial areas and trains he had been filming while traveling across Europe before the world stopped functioning properly due to Covid-19. Diarmaid O Meara has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, including a new politically inspired alias, where both artists will take centre stage in some wacky antics.

West coast composer, artist, and producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has chartered a pioneering career with multiple critically-acclaimed albums since 2015. Following the release of The Kid in 2017, Smith focused her energy in several directions. She founded Touchtheplants, a multidisciplinary creative environment for projects including the first volumes in her instrumental Electronic Series and pocket-sized poetry books on the practice of listening within. She's continued to explore the endless possibilities of electronic instruments as well as the shapes, movements, and expressions found in the physical body's relationship to sound and color. It is this life-guiding interest that forms the foundational frequencies of her most recent full-length, The Mosaic of Transformation, a bright, sensorial glide through unbound wave phenomena and the radiant power discovered within oneself. "I guess in one sentence, this album is my expression of love and appreciation for electricity," says Smith. While writing and recording, she embraced a daily practice of physical movement, passing electricity through her body and into motion, in ways reflecting her audio practice, which sends currents through modular synthesizers and into the air through speakers. Not a dancer by any traditional definition, she taught herself improvisatory movement realizing flexibility, strength, and unexpectedly, a "visual language" stemming from the human body and comprised of vibrational shapes. Understood as cymatics, as Smith says, "as a reference for how frequencies can be visualized," much like a mosaic. Smith describes her first encounters with this mosaic; "the inspiration came to me in a sudden bubble of joy. It was accompanied by a multitude of shapes that were moving seamlessly from one into the other...My movement practice has been a constant transformation piece by piece. I made this album in the same way. Every day I would transform what I did yesterday...into something else. This album has gone through about 12 different versions of itself." As it has arrived, in a completed state, The Mosaic of Transformation is a holistic manifestation of embodied motions. Smith's signature textural curiosity that fans have grown to adore pivots naturally into a proprioceptive study of melody and timbre. Airy organ and voice interweave with burbling Buchla-spawned harmonic bubbles. "The Steady Heart" quivers to life, peppering blasts of wooden organ between winding vocal affirmations. As with a body, moving one portion requires a balance and counterbalance; here, subtle tonal twitchy signals fire in conjunction with coiling arias to create a mesmeric core. When the beat arrives at the midway mark, a swooping and jittery waltz, a sense of stasis in motion, a flow state, is sonically achieved. As soon as it syncs, it disappears back into the swirling ebbs of electric force. Other tracks stray into more ruminative physical realms. "Carrying Gravity" is built around string-like pads that expand and contract like a solar plexus, becoming taught and then loose. If the record could be summarized in a single movement, it is the 10-minute closing suite, a rapturous collage called "Expanding Electricity." Symphonic phrases establish the piece before washes of glittering electric peals and synthesized vibraphone helix into focus. Soon, Smith's voice grounds it all with an intuitive vocal hook, harmonized and augmented by concentric spirals of harp-and-horn-like sounds. Smith's music doesn't capture a specific emotion as much as it captures the joys of possessing a body, and the ability to, with devotion and a steady open heart, maneuver that vessel in space by way of electricity to euphoric degrees.

Triangulating a slinky signal to a square mile off the Swan River, Glowing Pin bring us ‘Pentagon Palette’, a master blast of frequency adjusted house, swamp stomp and chakra charmers from Australian newcomer Jonus Eric.

Though opening brace ‘The Cult’ and ‘Collect’ made first contact back in 2014, a loose connection between Perth and Hamburg hindered progress before ‘Mirrors’, ‘Emulator’ and ‘Waterfall’ walked across the web in 2019 to round out a dope debut release from this house auteur. Specialising in mind altering sound design and melodic flair, Jonus generates a neon swamp on ‘The Cult’, serving up a psychoactive roller caked in radioactive fuzz and insectile fizz. Thick bass swells and circular marimba make for a hypnotic rhythm, while a shapeshifting vocal and moody keyboard riff drag us back towards terra firma. The paradisiac refrain of ‘Collect’ soon sounds out through the jungle with a euphoric haze,

its sub-tickling bass and acid gurgle riding hyperactive drum programming as the track warps in the humidity. Soaked in serotonin and brisk at 137 BPM, ‘Mirrors’ burns off the mist to offer an airy update on the French Touch template. Though frazzled circuitry and dislocated vox serve this one with a twist, the chiming pianos and bouncy beat are still best enjoyed in a Golf GTI in the summertime. Jonus reaches for the lasers via the restless rhythm and rave sirens of ‘Emulator’, a fresh take on the funky house of the late nineties updated with unexpected breaks, squealing feedback and treated vocals usually found on a Four Set banger.

Next it’s off to the chillout room for ‘Waterfalls’, a fourth-world tone poem describing crystal caves, undiscovered wildlife and a holographic waterfall. Ditching the doof, and letting those colours tesselate, Jonus offers a +2 bump to your mana, before the post punk bassline, growling EBM vocal and off key organs of ‘YR Mind’ combine for a confrontational bonus track, only available in digital format.

F.S.Blumm is a man most might not know. He ́s no pop artist, and not overtly experimental either. But somehow with In Sight he has done the impossible: put his own sound in that perfect middle point, leaving his voice behind to deep-dive into some truly memorable, fully composed pieces.
In Sight is the kind of record you can put on at first crack of dawn, to enjoy its beautiful instrumental varieties during morning routine, while equally fitting as a listening experience towards the darker time of day, in the background or as highly rewarding deep listening experience. It ́s the kind of album that would be great to encounter played in a tiny Japanese jazz bar on a vintage, top notch speaker system together with a handful of local oddities. It sounds incredibly well produced and is full of beautiful, heart-warming, melancholic moments performed on everything from guitars to percussion, vibraphone, strings, piano and who knows what else. Frank shines on this record. He has created quietly composed pieces for moments one could only wish were real.
As often with F.S.Blumm ́s music, it ́s hard to pin down where to categorize it. He might be best known as frequent collaborator of Nils Frahm. Together they made three great duo albums for Sonic Pieces previously. Although this is far from his first solo album, it is his first for the label, and after listening to it on repeat for some time, we can only say that this is Frank on his finest, creating some of the most thought provoking instrumental music you can find in these parts of the world.

Faitiche presents a new album by Frank Bretschneider. abtasten_halten was made as part of the raster.labor installation first presented at CTM Festival in 2019. It is perhaps the most radical work in Bretschneider’s distinctive oeuvre: abtasten_halten is a self-generating composition for synthesizer modules whose sole sound source is the movement of two VU meter needles. The resulting percussive sounds coalesce into rhythmic combinations – all random, without repetition. The album resembles a meditation on infinite rhythmic variation. abtasten_halten is Frank Bretschneider’s first release on Faitiche.

One sound can give birth to thousands of tones through self-fertilization. Pierre Henry, 1982

Frank Bretschneider on abtasten_halten:
abtasten_halten (sample_hold) is a largely self-generating composition for a modular synthesizer system. Self-generating here means that as soon as a current flows, the various modules interact, but within limits set by the composer via the connections between the modules (patches): timing, tempo, timbres, dynamics. These conditions are kept variable to a certain extent or left to chance, so that the composition created is always similar but never the same. On the one hand, the use of random generators opens up possibilities that would not otherwise have been considered. On the other, it offers the fascination of the unfinished and the unique: totally unexpected musical events that you might hear only once.

abtasten_halten combines my preferences for percussive music in general and electronic music in particular. Largely avoiding repetitive structures, the piece is more like a free improvisation, quiet and diffuse, but also extremely dense, in ever-changing contrasts and transformations.

The tone generators are two modified VU meters whose needles, driven by trigger impulses, create a simple one-bar pattern by hitting against a metal spring that is connected to a piezo element (thanks to Gijs Gieskes / Gieskes.NL). The tempo is continuously varied over a period of about ten minutes by several mutually modulating LFOs, ranging from about 0.06 Hz up to the lower audio range of about 18Hz.
The percussive sounds thus obtained are then passed through low-pass filters with moderate resonance and random frequency modulation to additionally colour the sound. Further processing is then executed by an echo module whose tempo and repetitions are again determined by random parameters. Finally the audio signal is occasionally enriched with reverb to add more spaciousness to the sound.

The concept for the installation raster.labor was developed by Olaf Bender, Frank Bretschneider and David Letellier. Many thanks to raster - artistic platform.

On Frank Bretschneider:

Frank Bretschneider works as a musician, composer and video artist in Berlin, making mainly electronic work based on complex rhythmic structures and interlocking textures, whose many-layered sound is inspired by the experimental set-ups of modern physics, often supplemented by perfectly synchronized computer-generated visualizations. In 1986, he founded AG Geige, one of the most influential underground bands in East Germany. In 1996, he co-founded the label raster-noton and has since released many solo albums.

Kelly Lee Owens' meisterhaftes zweites Album "Inner Song" lässt die Techno-Produzentin und Sängerin/Songschreiberin tief in ihre eigene Psyche eintauchen - sie widmet sich den Kämpfen, die sie in den letzten Jahren durchlebt hat, und erforscht ihren persönlichen Schmerz, während sie gleichzeitig die Schönheit der Natur umarmt. "Inner Song" folgt ihrem selbstbetitelten Debüt aus dem Jahr 2017, einer Mischung aus körperbetonten Beats und introspektivem Songwriting, das von der Musikpresse mit zahlreichen Auszeichnungen bedacht wurde. Seither hat sie Björk & St. Vincent neu abgemischt, 2019 einen unauslöschlichen Club-Zwei-Tracker, "Let It Go" s/w "Omen", veröffentlicht und sich mit dem gleichgesinnten Autor Jon Hopkins für das Unikat "Luminous Spaces" zusammengetan. Ihr neues Album entstand auch aus den, wie Owens es beschreibt, "schwersten drei Jahren meines Lebens", einer emotional sehr belasteten Zeit, die, wie sie sagt "mein kreatives Leben und alles, wofür ich bis dahin gearbeitet hatte, definitiv beeinflusst hat." Während also das schöne Cover von Radioheads "Arpeggi" manchem als unkonventionelle Art und Weise erscheinen mag, ihr zweites Album zu eröffnen, repräsentiert Owens' gewundene Interpretation der klassischen Melodie - aufgenommen ein Jahr bevor die Arbeit an "Inner Song" richtig losging - die Art von klanglicher Wiedergeburt, die für die Aura von "Inner Song" so wesentlich ist. "Inner Song" wurde größtenteils über einen Monat im vergangenen Winter geschrieben und aufgenommen. Wie bei ihrem Debüt verschanzte sich Owens zusammen mit ihrem Koproduzenten James Greenwood im Studio - um dort loszulassen und offen zu sein für jede klangliche Laune. Der beschwörende Titel des Albums ist dem Opus von Free-Jazz-Maestro Alan Silva von 1972 entlehnt. Der Bass und die kitzelnden Texturen von "Inner Song" machen deutlich, dass Owens mehr denn je darauf bedacht ist, maximalen Klanggenuss zu bieten - wie die Entscheidung, die Vinyl-Veröffentlichung des Albums zu einem Sesqui-Album oder einem dreiseitigen Album zu machen, beweist: "Ich bin immer noch besessen von Frequenzen, die auf Vinyl nicht gut klingen, wenn sie den Platz dafür nicht haben". "Die Kraft, zu konzeptualisieren, wer du bist, hat dieses Album wirklich geprägt", sagt Owens über das Wesen von "Inner Song", und ihr zweites Album ist eine Entdeckung des Selbst - die jüngste Aussage einer faszinierenden Künstlerin, die weiterhin überrascht und auf eine reiche und vielfältige Karriere hinweist, die noch vor uns liegt.

LTD. WHITE VINYL

Kelly Lee Owens' meisterhaftes zweites Album "Inner Song" lässt die Techno-Produzentin und Sängerin/Songschreiberin tief in ihre eigene Psyche eintauchen - sie widmet sich den Kämpfen, die sie in den letzten Jahren durchlebt hat, und erforscht ihren persönlichen Schmerz, während sie gleichzeitig die Schönheit der Natur umarmt. "Inner Song" folgt ihrem selbstbetitelten Debüt aus dem Jahr 2017, einer Mischung aus körperbetonten Beats und introspektivem Songwriting, das von der Musikpresse mit zahlreichen Auszeichnungen bedacht wurde. Seither hat sie Björk & St. Vincent neu abgemischt, 2019 einen unauslöschlichen Club-Zwei-Tracker, "Let It Go" s/w "Omen", veröffentlicht und sich mit dem gleichgesinnten Autor Jon Hopkins für das Unikat "Luminous Spaces" zusammengetan. Ihr neues Album entstand auch aus den, wie Owens es beschreibt, "schwersten drei Jahren meines Lebens", einer emotional sehr belasteten Zeit, die, wie sie sagt "mein kreatives Leben und alles, wofür ich bis dahin gearbeitet hatte, definitiv beeinflusst hat." Während also das schöne Cover von Radioheads "Arpeggi" manchem als unkonventionelle Art und Weise erscheinen mag, ihr zweites Album zu eröffnen, repräsentiert Owens' gewundene Interpretation der klassischen Melodie - aufgenommen ein Jahr bevor die Arbeit an "Inner Song" richtig losging - die Art von klanglicher Wiedergeburt, die für die Aura von "Inner Song" so wesentlich ist. "Inner Song" wurde größtenteils über einen Monat im vergangenen Winter geschrieben und aufgenommen. Wie bei ihrem Debüt verschanzte sich Owens zusammen mit ihrem Koproduzenten James Greenwood im Studio - um dort loszulassen und offen zu sein für jede klangliche Laune. Der beschwörende Titel des Albums ist dem Opus von Free-Jazz-Maestro Alan Silva von 1972 entlehnt. Der Bass und die kitzelnden Texturen von "Inner Song" machen deutlich, dass Owens mehr denn je darauf bedacht ist, maximalen Klanggenuss zu bieten - wie die Entscheidung, die Vinyl-Veröffentlichung des Albums zu einem Sesqui-Album oder einem dreiseitigen Album zu machen, beweist: "Ich bin immer noch besessen von Frequenzen, die auf Vinyl nicht gut klingen, wenn sie den Platz dafür nicht haben". "Die Kraft, zu konzeptualisieren, wer du bist, hat dieses Album wirklich geprägt", sagt Owens über das Wesen von "Inner Song", und ihr zweites Album ist eine Entdeckung des Selbst - die jüngste Aussage einer faszinierenden Künstlerin, die weiterhin überrascht und auf eine reiche und vielfältige Karriere hinweist, die noch vor uns liegt.

‘LiteAce Frequency’ is a collection of songs influenced by 70s Manila Sound and Pinoy soul, as well as incorporating elements of Japanese funk, Brazilian sounds and hip hop.

‘LiteAce Frequency’ follows Vex Ruffin’s ‘Emilio’ EP, released on Stones Throw in May.

The album will appeal to fans of Bullion, James Pants, Dam-Funk, Teebs, Daedelus, Paul White, Anika, Toro Y Moi, Ariel Pink.

Vex Ruffin’s music has featured on soundtracks for HBO’s hit series ‘Girls’ and Netflix’s ‘Russian Doll’. Vex Ruffin has a monthly radio show on NTS and will be supporting the release of his new album
with DJ sets, live streamed performances and active social media engagement.

Vex Ruffin has previously collaborated with artists including Anika, James Pants and Bruce Haack.

After a brilliant response to Pedro Vian’s debut Album “Beautiful Things You Left Us For Memories” towards the end of 2016, we shared “BTYLUFM Remixed,” an EP that showcases five remixes from Eric Copeland, a frequent collaborator of Animal Collective; the Swedish producer Peder Mannerfelt; two from the exceptional musician and DJ Tevo Howard and Escapismo, an anonymous project of which we cannot detail any information.

Washed Out is Atlanta-based producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ernest Greene. Over three enchanting, critically-lauded albums and an EP, his music has proved both transportive and visual, each release inviting listeners into immersive, self-contained universes. With Purple Noon, his fourth album, and his return to Sub Pop, he delivers the most accessible Washed Out creation to date. Life of Leisure, Washed Out's 2009 debut EP, set the bar for the Chillwave era, shimmering in a warm haze of off-the-cuff Polaroids and pre-IG filters. Within and Without, his 2011 full-length debut on Sub Pop, morphed into nocturnal, icy synth-pop and embraced provocative imagery. 2013's Paracosm was Greene's take on psychedelia, with a full live band and kaleidoscopic light show, and saw him playing to the largest audiences of his career. The sample-heavy Mister Mellow (2017, Stone's Throw) delivered a 360 audio/visual experience, with cut-n-paste and hand-drawn animation to match the hip-hop influences throughout the album. With each release, Greene has approached his evolving project with meticulous detail and a steadfast vision. For Purple Noon, Greene again wrote, recorded, and produced the entirety of the album, with mixing handled by frequent collaborator Ben H. Allen (Paracosm, Within and Without). Production of the album followed a brief stint of writing for other artists (most notably Sudan Archives) which enabled Greene to explore genres like R&B and modern pop. These brighter, more robust sounds made their way into the songs of Purple Noon and mark a new chapter for Greene as a producer and songwriter. The vocals are front and center, tempos are slower, beats bolder, and there's a more comprehensive depth of dynamics. One can hear the luxuriousness of Sade, the sonic bombast of Phil Collins, and the lush atmosphere of the great Balearic beat classics. Mediterranean coastlines inspired Purple Noon, and Greene pays tribute to the region's distinct island culture - all rugged elegance and old-world charm - and uses it as a backdrop to tell stories of passion, love, and loss (Purple Noon's title comes from the 1960 film directed by Rene Clement and based on the novel The Talented Mister Ripley by Patricia Highsmith). Much like romantic Hollywood epics, the melodrama throughout is strong: a serendipitous first meeting in "Too Late"; a passionate love affair in "Paralyzed"; disintegration of a relationship in "Time to Walk Away"; a reunion with a lost love in "Game of Chance." Purple Noon adds a layer of emotional intensity to the escapism of Washed Out's oeuvre, taking the music to dazzling new heights.