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The next chapter of the Natural Information Society is here. Since Time Is Gravity, credited to Natural Information Society Community Ensemble with Ari Brown, presents a newly expanded manifestation of acclaimed composer & multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams nearly 15 year, 7 albums &-counting flagship ensemble. Joining the core NIS of Abrams (guimbri & bass), Lisa Alvarado (harmonium) Mikel Patrick Avery (drums) & Jason Stein (bass clarinet) are Hamid Drake (percussion), Josh Berman & Ben Lamar Gay (cornets), Nick Mazzarella & Mai Sugimoto (alto saxophones & flute), Kara Bershad (harp) & Chicago living legend of the tenor saxophone Ari Brown. Recorded live to tape at Electrical Audio & The Graham Foundation, cover painting Vibratory Cartography: Nepantla, by Lisa Alvarado. 2xLP on Eremite USA, 2xLP & CD on Aguirre/Eremite Europe. Out 14-04.

Since first developing Natural Information Society in 2010, Joshua Abrams has been gradually expanding the group’s conceptual underpinnings, its musical references & the sheer number of the group’s members. Its music is, in a sense, an expansive form of minimalism, based in repeated & overlaid rhythmic patterns, ostinatos & modality. Its roots, its scale & its meaning become clearer in time. If time is gravity, it also allows us to carry more. Having begun as fundamentally a rhythm section with Abrams’ guimbri at its core, the version here can stretch to a tentet, including six horns.

Abrams has been expanding his minimalism gradually, but he has long understood a key to minimalism’s potential: the breadth of its roots in the late 1950s & early 1960s, ranging from the dissatisfaction of young European-stream composers with the limitations of serialism to the simultaneous dissatisfaction of jazz musicians with the dense harmonic vocabulary of bop & hard bop. The former began exploring rhythmic complexity & narrow tonal palates in place of harmonic abstraction (Steve Reich’s Drumming, Philip Glass’ Music with Changing Parts; perhaps above all Terry Riley’s In C & his late ‘60s all-night organ & loop concerts); the later reduced dense chord changes to scales (signally with Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, but rapidly expanding with John Coltrane’s vast project). In the 1950s the LP record opened the world with documentation of Asian & African musics, key influences on both minimalists & jazz musicians. If John Coltrane’s soprano saxophone suggested the keening shehnai of Bismillah Khan, the instrument was rapidly taken up by two key minimalists, LaMonte Young & Riley, similarly appreciative of its flexible intonation, the same thing that kept it out of big bands.

If the guimbri, the North African hide-covered lute that Abrams plays with NIS, involves a rich tradition of hypnotic healing music associated with the Gnawa people, Abrams’ music also touches on other musics as well — other depths, memories & healings, different drones, rhythms & modes. As the group expands on Since Time Is Gravity, he has made certain jazz traditions in the same stream more explicit as well. If there is a mystical & elastic quality involved in the experience of time, both in direction & duration, you will catch it here. The parts for the choir of winds expand on the roles of Abrams’ guimbri, Mikel Patrick Avery & Hamid Drake’s percussion & Lisa Alvarado’s harmonium: at times, the winds are almost looping in the tentet version, each hitting a repeating note in turn, at once drone & distinct inflection on temporal sequence. The brilliance of the work resides in Abrams’ compositions, the NIS’ intuitive execution & in Ari Brown’s singular embodiment of the great tenor saxophone tradition, including the oracular genius of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, & Yusef Lateef. The three pieces by the expanded NIS featuring Brown —the opening “Moontide Chorus” & “Is” & the ultimate “Gravity”— have an immediate impact, & togther might be considered a kind of concerto for tenor saxophone. Here Brown presses almost indistinguishably from composed melody to improvised speech, getting so close to language that he might have a text. Everything here is a sign. Note the tap of the Rhythm Ace that links “Moontide Chorus” to “Is”, the attentive heart always present, even when signed by a machine. There’s a link here to the methodologies & meanings of dub music & the linear & vertical collage of beats, textures & tongues: treated with reverence, a sample of a beat-box can be as soulful, as hypnotic, as a mbira or a tamboura. If those pieces with Brown are heard as a suspended concerto, the three embrace & enfold the other works, like the sepals of a flower. That placement will also touch on the mysteries of our perception of time.

Particularly in “Is”, but elsewhere as well, a phenomenon of transcendence arises in which time appears to be tripartite, at once moving backwards & forwards & standing still. This is an act of technical brilliance certainly, but also an illumination of music’s ability to represent temporal consciousness through polymetrics. This particular listener has only heard it before in a few places, including the horn shouts & bowed basses of Coltrane’s Africa, in moments of Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint & the Sinner Lady, in certain pieces where tapes were literally running backwards, & earlier still in Dizzy Gillespie’s Cubana Be, Cubana Bop, in which the composer George Russell & conguero Chano Pozo found a music that spoke at once in the voices of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring & the vestigial rites, rhythms & songs of the Yoruba language & Santeria religion of inland Cuba.

In Joshua Abrams’ compositions & the realization of them by the NIS, in the time of one’s close listening & memory thereof, distinctions between the “natural” & the “social”, the “quotidian” & the “transcendent” are erased, suspended or perhaps irrelevant. Consider two of the ensemble pieces, one named for nature, the other social science. In “Murmuration” the repeated wind figures of flute & alto saxophone combine with the interlocking patterns of harp, guimbri & frame drum (tar) to create a perfect moving stillness, not an imitation but a witness to the miracle of the starlings’ astonishing collective art, a surfeit of beauty that might be the ultimate defense tactic.

“Stigmergy” takes its name & concept from the Occupy movement’s Heather Marsh, who proposes a social system based on a cooperative rather than competitive models, one in which ideas are freely contributed & developed as ideas rather than an individual’s property. In its form, Abrams’ “Stigmergy” is the closes thing to traditional jazz, a series of accompanied solos by each of the wind players. However, the composed accompaniment is a radically collectivist notion: a repeated rhythmic figure, call it ostinato or riff, in which the different winds each play only a note or two of the figure, a concept both more collectivist & individualistic in its conception than any typical unison figure. It suggests another of the underlying recognitions that propel the Natural Information Society, the group as social organism, the teleology of hypnotic anarchy, all parts in place, functioning systematically, evolving & expressing itself, its nature & society, as a transformative organism.

George Lewis has described music as “a space for reflection on the human condition”. This suggests that, rather than a “distraction”, at least some music might serve as a distraction from distraction. It’s a focus, a clarity, a awareness, an external invitation to interiority, as if music itself is a model for form & contemplation, an organism contemplating for us or as us. If that is a possibility, & I am sure I have heard such musics, than this music is among them. How many of our rhythms, melodies & harmonies (cultural, historical, biological, psychic) might such music carry, translate & transform in the particulate ecstasy of our own murmuration? (Stuart Broomer, April 2022)

Andrius Arutiunian’s debut album »Seven Common Ways of Disappearing« was first conceived as an installation for the Armenia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022. The Armenian/Lithuanian artist and composer uses hybrid forms of music, focusing on sonic vernaculars, hypnotic musical forms, and aural cosmologies. Arutiunian is known to work with installations, sound objects, and time-based collaborations with ensembles and performers. The piece on this record was written for two musicians, a retuned piano and analogue electronics, and it borrows an enneagram as its score—the world-ordering model introduced by the controversial Armenian-Greek mystic and composer G.I. Gurdjieff. The result is an album that is both aesthetically and spiritually intoxicating music of the spheres, at once reminiscent of the masterpieces of minimal music and improvised, if not stochastic music. G.I. Gurdjieff was one of the first thinkers and (quite possibly charlatans) to introduce a syncretic idea of Eastern philosophy into the West. His unique way of teaching was based on an esoteric blend of Middle Eastern, Buddhist, and Dervish philosophies, and oscillated between a genuine search for enlightenment and a complex form of trickery. Borrowing from Gurdjieff’s writing on the world ordering and musical tuning, Arutiunian used the enneagram to organise the musical and structural matter of the piece that was originally conceived as a live performance.»Seven Common Ways of Disappearing« is written for a grand piano—the epitome of Western composition and musical production—and follows a simple set of rules: the two musicians have to navigate the topography of the score, rendering the piece in a different configuration each time. In a sense, this gripping recording is thus only one of the potentially infinite versions of how it could be played, but also seems to take on different shapes and forms with each new listen. It documents a truly mystical composition that follows its own logic

Timo Kaukolampi, frontman for Finnish electronic rock group K-X-P and tireless sonic wanderer, is releasing his second solo album, this time on Optimo Music. Exquisitely rendered, shadowy, curiously claustrophobic and even occasionally paranoid, Inside The Sphere is an album wholly deserving of its name.

A sense of paranoia is one of the threads through this glittering, winking electronic maze. Kaukolampi says “I came up with this metaphysical concept of the “sphere”. When you are manipulated you are ‘Inside The Sphere’. It’s like this dome of ‘undue influence’ that you don’t know exists around you. It’s a bit like the inside of a cult.”

Indeed, it’s amazing the effects achieved with a few sparse electronic textures, the odd smattering of studio trickery, and two or three well-placed synthesizer parts. Though the result might sound ostensibly simplistic, Inside The Sphere is an album of reduction rather than addition. The rhythmic and textural scaffolding is based around what’s not there, rather than what is. Take ‘VCS3’. At first listen, it seems forged from a few synth lines and a simple percussion part – so far, so simple. But listen closer, enter the sphere, look behind the mask – notice the slightly detuned drones, the chattering percussive textures, that distant swell of bass, the way the central fugue shifts and mutates somehow statically, like a barber’s pole.

Might we be listening to an album within an album, a more complex song cycle hiding within the folds of an ambient electronic album? This ties in with another of Kaukolampi’s thematic frameworks – that of the mask. He references Oscar Wilde’s quotation that “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

Inside The Sphere is not a one-note album. For every moment where a clammy ambient space enters, a buttery analogue bassline is there to fill it. This clash seems to be the album’s engine room, its power supply.

Timo references devotional and choir music as an influence on this album. The paranoia and foreboding is tempered by these headier aspects. Kaukolampi mentions “empty and hollow spaces” in relation to several of the songs. Perhaps this is the very space behind the mask, where outward disguise merges with inner reality. Perhaps inside the sphere is not always such a bad place to be.

Shlomi Aber is taking over the 088 instalment of his Be As One Imprint with a cutting edge 4 tracker EP of stomping old school, Detroit and 90's influenced techno.

Limited copies, Inc Vinyl only versions.

Tenderly propelling and full of haunting melodies: Studio Mule re-issues Sakura Tsuruta’s so far digital only, self-released debut album “c / o” from november 2022.

An evocative first long player by Tokyo based artist, who was trained in classical piano during childhood, played with brass instruments, studied music production, and is today active as a composer, live performer, and versatile dj.

With “c / o” she expressed her personal history in a fluid, around 43-minute long light flooded, yet dark-ish musical vision. eight profoundly composed tracks, melding complex rhythms with emotional airs, tripping arpeggios, and ghostly sounds, slightly influenced by some of her fa-vorite artist like björk, holly herndon, or kaitlyn aurelia smith.

“c / o is a love letter for the experiences, people, and memories i had in the last two years that i spent producing this album. i also like that the letter “c” looks like an incomplete circle, whereas the letter “o” is a full circle.

Tidal Waves Music proudly presents ‘Fly By Night’ for the FIRST TIME on vinyl (the album was only released as a limited compact disc back in the early nineties).
This unique record comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (strictly limited to 500 copies) with obi strip.NonReturnable.

This vinyl edition also features the original painted front cover artwork by Virgil Grady (known for his work with Tribe records) and back photography by acclaimed Detroit scene photographer & author Barbara Barefield, whose work has appeared in many renowned publications such as The New York Times, LA Times, People magazine and countless others.

Released exclusively for Record Store Day 2023 (UK/Europe) and available in participating stores on April 22, 2023.

Wendell Harrison was born in Detroit in 1942 where he began formal jazz studies for piano, clarinet and tenor saxophone. At 14, while still in high school, Harrison started performing & recording professionally with artists such as Marvin Gaye, Grant Green, Sun Ra, Hank Crawford … and many others.

In 1971, Harrison began teaching music at Metro Arts (a multi-arts complex for youth) where he also connected with Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney and Phil Ranelin…soon after they formed the (now
legendary) Afro-centric TRIBE record label and artist collective. TRIBE used the Metro Arts complex as a vehicle to convey a growing black political consciousness. Wendell Harrison also published the very popular TRIBE magazine, a publication dedicated to local and national social and political issues, as well as featuring artistic contributions such as poetry and visual pieces.

In 1978 Harrison and McKinney co-founded REBIRTH, a non-profit jazz performance and education organization, in which many notable jazz artists have participated. Around the same time Wendell Harrison
also created the WENHA record label and publishing company, which released many of his (now classic) recordings as well as those of other artists, such as Phil Ranelin, Doug Hammond and Reggie Fields (The Real ShooBeeDoo).
In the early 1990s, Wendell Harrison was awarded the title of “Jazz Master” by Arts Midwest. This distinction led Harrison to collaborate with fellow honorees and gave him the chance to tour throughout the UnitedStates, Middle East and Africa. Even to this day Wendell Harrison's recordings for the TRIBE, WENHA and REBIRTH labels have a large worldwide fanbase.

It is on WEHHA in 1990 that Harrison released (and self-produced) the opus: ‘Fly By Night’ which we are proudly presenting you today. ‘Fly By Night’ is a monster of an album featuring an all-star line-up that
includes Doug Hammond (Mingus, Lonnie Liston Smith) on drums, Kirk Lightsey (Chet Baker, Calvin Keys) on piano, Cecil McBee (John Hicks, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane) on bass, Jaribu Shahid (Sun Ra) on contrabass and Pamela Wise (Tribe) on Piano. Harrison is killing it here with this selected ensemble (guys he grew up with in Detroit in the late 50’s, when hard bop was the thing and Miles and Coltrane were the heroes of the day). This group of talented veterans are taking this classic album to unseen heights.

On ‘Fly By Night’ the gloves come off…no more jazzy-funk or poppy-jazz. Wendell picks up his tenor for one tune but the remainder of the sessions he performs on clarinet. Wendell’s mastery coaxes the sweet piquant sound of the instrument and as it re-emerges in the contemporary jazz scene. The eight handpicked tunes demonstrate the fertile new directions Wendell Harrison has been working on, combing standards with a fresh new approach.

On these amazing recordings (recorded at the Rebirth Studios in Detroit) the listener is invited to experience a synthesis of what has been and what is now. The record shows Wendell’s trademark proficiency. All of the above makes this incredible record both timeless and as relevant today as it was back when it was initially
released.

Over the past five years, Mark has forged a unique identity in underground drum’n’bass, alloying traditional junglist motifs and electroacoustic ambience through a series of singles on A Colourful Storm and Unterton. A Colourful Storm now presents the culmination of his work and debut album, a shapeshifting expression of luminescence and rhythmic complexity.

Mark’s ambitions with Integrier Dich Du Yuppie (2017) and The Least Likely Event Will Occur In The Long Run (2018) reflected upon the relationships between - and division of - people, place and power. Now he responds with two pieces featuring his signature skittering drums, seismic sub-bass and atmospheric passages recalling Roland Kayn, Luigi Nono and Bernard Parmegiani. Moonlight shines, choral voices appear from above. Arresting, unnerving tranquility.

Recommended for fans of Eli Keszler, Hiro Kone, Torsten Pröfrock and Kali Malone.

Vinyl is available in two versions - classic black or various color limited "Indie Shop Edition".

Both versions have 180g record and printed inner sleeve.

The idea for "PORTRETY" was simple - to invite esteemed drummers to record a song that will be signed with their name. There was no musical framework - they could invite guests or record everything themselves - no need to necessarily use drums. This is how the first PORTRAITS in 2019 were created, and now we present their next installment.


" 'Part two' seems to suggest a series, so just as with the bad joke from four years ago, I'll lead with the short, age old adage: "10 musicians and a drummer". Admittedly, it is rudimentary and unfunny, however, it is significant: It's easy to forget an instrumentalist's other specialities, but here, the drummers don't let themselves to be forgotten.

This series - the brainchild of Marcin "Groh" Grośkiewicz - is composed of up-close portraits. A task which not only shifts accents, but also changes the lives of those normally considered the unsung heroes of the background. One of the tracks from "Portraits" was picked for an advertising campaign for a well known smartphone producer, others topped industry charts and inspired new bands where drums were in the spotlight.

Part two brings us eight drummers who are among the most multifaceted musicians on the Polish music scene. What are they doing here? Teo Olter tells a complex story, asking in the very title, where he is going? Wiktoria Jakubowska, known for backing big stars, shines through with her own composition. Miłosz Pękala - an interpreter of avant-garde composers and an academic lecturer - thoroughly entertains. Famous from Immortal Onion, Wojtek Warmijak energetically explores high tempos, while Wojtek Sobura - those slower, patiently sculpting a club beat with sonoristic* abstraction. Macio Moretti surprises, as expected, stylistically moving towards his hero: Zappa. Tymoteusz Papior impresses, effortlessly juggling accents and chopping time signatures. And Inferno, despite being associated with the group Behemoth, shows he can do it… drum-less. Some invite other musicians, but they always remain - as their studies or professional experience taught them to be - the musician with the widest set (be it drums or skills) on the team.

So, how does the second part of the series compliment the first? It further completes the gallery of collector's cards with Polish Percussion's superheroes and heroines. Each a different personality and an individual set of features. But does it satisfy? Strikingly.

Enough, I won't drum it into you."

Vinyl is available in two versions - classic black or various color limited "Indie Shop Edition".

Both versions have 180g record and printed inner sleeve.

The idea for "PORTRETY" was simple - to invite esteemed drummers to record a song that will be signed with their name. There was no musical framework - they could invite guests or record everything themselves - no need to necessarily use drums. This is how the first PORTRAITS in 2019 were created, and now we present their next installment.


" 'Part two' seems to suggest a series, so just as with the bad joke from four years ago, I'll lead with the short, age old adage: "10 musicians and a drummer". Admittedly, it is rudimentary and unfunny, however, it is significant: It's easy to forget an instrumentalist's other specialities, but here, the drummers don't let themselves to be forgotten.

This series - the brainchild of Marcin "Groh" Grośkiewicz - is composed of up-close portraits. A task which not only shifts accents, but also changes the lives of those normally considered the unsung heroes of the background. One of the tracks from "Portraits" was picked for an advertising campaign for a well known smartphone producer, others topped industry charts and inspired new bands where drums were in the spotlight.

Part two brings us eight drummers who are among the most multifaceted musicians on the Polish music scene. What are they doing here? Teo Olter tells a complex story, asking in the very title, where he is going? Wiktoria Jakubowska, known for backing big stars, shines through with her own composition. Miłosz Pękala - an interpreter of avant-garde composers and an academic lecturer - thoroughly entertains. Famous from Immortal Onion, Wojtek Warmijak energetically explores high tempos, while Wojtek Sobura - those slower, patiently sculpting a club beat with sonoristic* abstraction. Macio Moretti surprises, as expected, stylistically moving towards his hero: Zappa. Tymoteusz Papior impresses, effortlessly juggling accents and chopping time signatures. And Inferno, despite being associated with the group Behemoth, shows he can do it… drum-less. Some invite other musicians, but they always remain - as their studies or professional experience taught them to be - the musician with the widest set (be it drums or skills) on the team.

So, how does the second part of the series compliment the first? It further completes the gallery of collector's cards with Polish Percussion's superheroes and heroines. Each a different personality and an individual set of features. But does it satisfy? Strikingly.

Enough, I won't drum it into you."

Powel returns to All Day I Dream to release his newest celestial sonic masterpiece, the Piano Reeves EP

Enter the ethereal sonic realm of Paul Chriske, the German musical maestro known as Powel, who specializes in “creating harmonious illusions of sound.” Powel is a longtime family member of Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream imprint, having first released on the label in 2015. Releasing his four track Piano Reeves EP on May 19, Powel returns to All Day I Dream to release his first record with the label since his The Beauty of a Polaroid album in 2020.

A pianist since youth, Powel's extensive experiences from a lifetime of performing with bands and orchestras has imbued his music with depth and complexity. Finding inspiration in the people and places he encounters on his travels, Powel draws from a vast and nuanced musical palette. Piano Reeves epitomizes Powel's unique touch as a producer, weaving together warm celestial vibes, airy atmospheres, and delicate rhythms.

Tommy Prine’s debut album is not only a long-awaited introduction but a testimony to Prine’s twenties and the loss, love, and growth that has defined them. Co-produced by close friend and kindred musical spirit, Ruston Kelly, and beloved Nashville engineer and producer, Gena Johnson, the album is rich and dynamic, from cathartic jams to nostalgic storytelling. The son of late songwriting legend, John Prine, Tommy Prine grew up in Nashville surrounded by music, art and writing. As a child, he thought all parents were musicians, as his father “going to work” meant performing shows for adoring fans and writing songs. Tommy learned to play guitar by watching his father play, copying the ways his fingers moved and inadvertently developing his own singular style. Summers spent in his mother’s homeland of Ireland lent their own inspiration too and ten straight years camping at Bonnaroo introduced Prine to a swath of music not belonging under the greater Americana umbrella and his musical tastes grew to become decidedly eclectic, spanning John Mayer, Outkast, Bon Iver, the Strokes and more. In a way, what makes Prine’s own music so special is how he’s navigated life and creativity apart from his family’s name—as he once said, on stage, to a disorderly request for one of his dad’s songs, “You’re not about to get an hour of John Prine Junior.” It wasn’t until Prine reached his mid-twenties, though, that he considered a career of his own in music and began to share with others the songs he wrote in private. It took a long while for Prine to even share the songs he’d been writing about the triumphs and tragedies of his life, only recently deciding to let his friends and now-collaborators Ruston Kelly and Gena Johnson hear what he’d been putting together. This Far South is an emotionally complex but universally accessible debut that sonically brings together a colorful patchwork of musical influences and lyrically explores existential questions and emotional experiences.

Wirski’s debut on MISBHV Recordings offers a nuanced narrative operating in its own genre of Eastern European rough-edged club melancholy.

MISBHV004 opens with Inside The Dark Echo – a claustrophobic, stifling, relentless, sensual dance with desire. Darkroom complexity with heavy surface tension built on an EBM undercurrent flirt with subtle psychedelia and traces of acid that slowly firm up their multi-layered grip through its running time of six and a half minutes.

Warszawa paints a stripped-back, tantalizing picture. Opening with a brutalist, militant drum programming and surprisingly spacious, warm bassline, its rigid rhythm, tightened up by a repetitive, cold breath mantra eventually opens up to bright, shimmering synth flickers evoking olibanum – the sacred scent of altar candles. Warszawa is looking at the multilayered melody of its landscape – from eerie Soc-realist blockhouses, through neon-lit, seedy strip clubs of the 90s to opulent sacral architecture.

Warm Waters Of Eternity subtly weave a cinematic, Carpenteresque soundscape with a sense of overpowering, ecstatic innocent euphoria that invokes a dream of an early 1990s rave deep in the dark woods of Poland.

Combining soft sunshine-pop harmonies with complex, acid-tinged
arrangements, this '69 concept album features the work of ex-Gestures
member Dale Menten! The-album-turned-rock-opera became a huge hit,
full of ethereal ballads, mind-bending solos and enough hammond organ
that'll leave your head spinning

repress !

After Space Ghost’s first album Endless Light took to international airwaves and echoed out of cities from London to Los Angeles, his forthcoming release Aquarium Nightclub brings back his signature lo-fi aesthetics with a fresh hit of inspiration from the natural world.

Melding irresistible vintage synths with a meditative groove, Aquarium Nightclub is a journey of sorts. Taking listeners on a tropical tour through 80s house drums, lush synth landscapes, and deep bass melodies, the thirteen-track LP is as adventurous as it is restrained.

Growing up in a small town a few hours from California’s East Bay area, Space Ghost (Sudi Wachspress) moved to Oakland ten years ago to study at the California College of the Arts. In a city known for its vibrant cultural fabric and its experimental music scene, Space Ghost represents a new generation of young artists. His DJ collective Late Feelings, launched in 2013, has allowed him to find his own groove amongst monthly all-vinyl dance parties, where he plucks influences from various corners of the world.

More complex than last year’s release, Aquarium Nightclub shows off Space Ghost’s artistic hunger and unique sonic signature.

Kicking off with “Sea Snake Island,” a track that is best described as late 80s house melancholia is a beautiful dance of shimmering keys, drum machines, and sounds of the jungle. The single “Sim City” ft. Morgan is a classic Chicago house beast; dark but uplifting with heavy bass undertones, fuzzy drum pulse, and plenty of mysterious synth melodies. Other tracks like “Ocean Odyssey,” “Night Dive” and “Aquarium Nightclub” plunge into an ambient world of slow 80s funk, though always rooted in the Bay Area sound.

A product of record-collecting and dance party hosting, Aquarium Nightclub is a glittering postcard from Atlantis. Profound yet undeniably groovy, its mesmerizing tropical undertones promise a safe journey back to the endless days of summer.

We complete 2019 with the "Sky, Horse and Catch EP" by label boss Noema himself.
On his quest to 'Bring the Jams', the world traveling DJ delivers two stunning tunes, streaked with percussion that he recorded on a trip to Sao Paulo.
Last but not least, Noema's EP comes along with a mind-bending remix by our favourite Romanians Khidja.

The title track translates a 90's Detroit House Groove to the present day and adds Cuica, Berimbau and several other Brazilian drums on top. Riding the complex groove, you encounter eccentric synths, mysterious soundscapes and of course the horse, on this 11 minute long hack.
'Minhocao' trades the horse for a racing car and takes you on a cruise on the same-named elevated highway that leads through the city of Sao Paulo. Surrounded by driving beats, guitar single-notes, massive synth-bass howls and a gritty Moog theme, this jam is a hell of a joyride!

Khidja strips down the original title track to its core and creates a solely percussive version in a half-time groove. By adding a virtuoso Qanon/Saz-like sound the tune develops an arabesque flavour with a dubby bass as the cherry on the top.

‘Where is Agartha? What is the specific region in which it lies? Along what road, through what civilizations, must one walk in order to reach it?.’ Saint-Yves d’Alveydre in 1886

Agartha, the debut full-length album by Japanese producer Wata Igarashi, is a mysterious, divine thing. Named for the mythical secret kingdom, understood as a complex maze of underground tunnels, perhaps designed by Martians who colonised the Earth tens of thousands of years ago, it’s a similarly mystical, perhaps even cosmic trip – but this time, exploring an inner, deeply personal cosmos. Beautifully detailed and bustling with rich incident, it takes Igarashi’s music to new places, which still retaining his unique sonic imprimatur; in this respect, it’s perfectly at home with Kompakt, a label that’s always encouraged artists to make the visionary music they need to create, to take risks and make sideways steps into uncharted territory.

An eloquent producer and DJ, Igarashi has been releasing techno for eleven years now, appearing on such imprints as The Bunker NY, Delsin, Midgar, and Time To Express; he has also self-released his productions via his WIP net label. Throughout, Igarashi has consistently explored his unique approach to techno and electronic music, one that’s eloquent and poised, even when it shifts into more psychedelic terrain; he’s a master at balancing the sensual and the functional, and he has an unerring ear for the right texture, the right tone, at the right time. He brings all of this into Agartha, his most thorough-going expression of self to date.

For Agartha, Igarashi had a strong concept he wanted to explore. Visualising specific scenes from an imaginary film based on the titular secret kingdom, he created soundtracks for those scenes, spending time during the pandemic in his studio, working away carefully at the ten tracks here. Given his background in creating music for television and advertisements, Igarashi is well-placed to explore the marriage of the sonic and the visual in such intimate ways, but freed from commercial concerns, he let his imagination run riot. He also drew on a rich palette of musical influences – techno is in there, of course, but you can also hear the smoky, improvised jazz of the likes of Miles Davis (to whom the album’s title is an indirect nod), and the minimalism and systems music of Steve Reich.

The latter is particularly pronounced on the gorgeous, beatless drift of “Floating Against Time”, where an arpeggiated sequence lingers, lovingly, around your ears for nine blissful minutes, coasting across swooning drones and waves of ambient noise. “Ceremony Of The Dead”, originally composed as part of a Sony 360 Reality Audio spatial sound concert, is a deep pass into systems composition, with various patterns overlaid and interlocking, before a wordless vocal rises from the depths, a gorgeous counterpoint to the swarming textures that gather across the track. On the other hand, tracks like “Burning” and “Subterranean Life” nudge toward Fourth World territory, painting deluxe dreamscapes of uncertain provenance; the title cut is an abstract drift-world, Igarashi painting an alien tableau dotted by shape-shifting creatures.

Agartha’s conceptual framework means that everything on the album sits perfectly together; listening to it in one sitting is a dizzying, lush experience. Its imaginings of inner landscapes recall, in some respects, the nautical, aqueous mythologies of the Drexciyan universe, though from different perspectives. But the result is Igarashi’s own creation, a deluxe, enchanting trip through the visionary Agartha of this unique producer’s cinematic mind’s-eye.

Wo liegt Agartha? In welcher spezifischen Region liegt es? Auf welchem Weg, durch welche Zivilisationen muss man gehen, um dorthin zu gelangen?'

Saint-Yves d'Alveydre im Jahr 1886

Agartha, das Debütalbum des japanischen Produzenten Wata Igarashi, ist ein geheimnisvolles, göttliches Ding. Benannt nach dem mythischen, geheimen Königreich, das als ein komplexes Labyrinth unterirdischer Tunnel verstanden wird, die vielleicht von Marsmenschen angelegt wurden, die vor Zehntausenden von Jahren die Erde kolonisierten, ist es eine ähnlich mystische, vielleicht sogar kosmische Reise - aber dieses Mal erforscht es einen inneren, zutiefst persönlichen Kosmos. Wunderschön detailliert und voller reichhaltiger Begebenheiten, führt es Igarashis Musik an neue Orte, die dennoch seine einzigartige klangliche Handschrift bewahren. In dieser Hinsicht hat es bei Kompakt ein perfektes Zuhause gefunden - einem Label, das Künstler immer ermutigt hat, jene visionäre Musik zu machen, Risiken einzugehen und seitwärts Schritte in unbekanntes Terrain zu tun.

Der eloquente Produzent und DJ Igarashi veröffentlicht seit elf Jahren Techno auf Labels wie The Bunker NY, Delsin, Figure und Time To Express; außerdem hat er einige Produktionen über sein Label WIP net selbst veröffentlicht. Dabei hat Igarashi stets seinen einzigartigen Ansatz für Techno und elektronische Musik verfolgt, der kontrolliert und ausgeglichen ist, selbst wenn er sich in psychedelisches Terrain begibt; er ist ein Meister der Balance zwischen dem Sinnlichen und dem Funktionalen und hat ein untrügliches Gespür für die richtige Textur, den richtigen Ton zur richtigen Zeit. All das bringt er in Agartha ein, dem bisher umfangreichsten Ausdruck seiner selbst.

Für Agartha hatte Igarashi ein starkes Konzept, das er erforschen wollte. Er stellte sich bestimmte Szenen eines imaginären Films vor, der auf dem titelgebenden geheimen Königreich basiert, und schuf Soundtracks für diese Szenen. Während der Pandemie verbrachte er Zeit in seinem Studio und arbeitete sorgfältig an den zehn Tracks. Mit seinem Hintergrund als Komponist von Fernseh- und Werbemusik ist Igarashi prädestiniert dafür, die Verbindung von Klang und Bild auf solch intime Weise zu erforschen, aber frei von kommerziellem Dünkel ließ er seiner Fantasie freien Lauf. Er schöpfte auch aus einer reichen Palette musikalischer Einflüsse - Techno ist natürlich dabei, aber man hört auch den rauchigen, improvisierten Jazz von Miles Davis (an den der Titel des Albums eine indirekte Anspielung ist) und den Minimalismus und die Systemmusik von Steve Reich.

Letzteres ist besonders ausgeprägt in dem wunderschönen, beatlosen "Floating Against Time", wo eine arpeggierte Sequenz neun Minuten lang liebevoll um die Ohren fliegt und über schwelende Drones und Wellen von Umgebungsgeräuschen gleitet. "Ceremony Of The Dead", ursprünglich als Teil eines Sony 360 Reality Audio-Raumklangkonzerts komponiert, ist ein tiefes Eintauchen in eine Systemkomposition, bei der sich verschiedene Muster überlagern und ineinander greifen, bevor sich ein wortloser Gesang aus der Tiefe erhebt, ein wunderschöner Kontrapunkt zu den wimmelnden Texturen, die sich über den Track legen. Andererseits bewegen sich Tracks wie "Burning" und "Subterranean Life" in Richtung der Vierten Welt und malen luxuriöse Traumlandschaften ungewisser Herkunft; der Titeltrack ist eine abstrakte Scheinwelt, in der Igarashi ein außerirdisches Tableau malt, das von formwandelnden Kreaturen übersät ist.

Der konzeptionelle Rahmen von Agartha ermöglicht, dass alles auf dem Album perfekt zusammenpasst; es in einem Zug durchzuhören ist eine schwindelerregende, opulente Erfahrung. Wata's Vorstellungen von inneren Landschaften erinnern in gewisser Hinsicht an die nautischen, wässrigen Mythologien des drexciyanischen Universums, wenn auch aus einer anderen Perspektiven betrachtet. Aber das Ergebnis ist Igarashis ureigene Schöpfung, ein luxuriöser, bezaubernder Trip durch das visionäre Agartha dieses einzigartigen Produzenten mit seinem cineastischen Blick.

Lime green (yellowish?) vinyl LP Finnish noise rock duo NYOS deliver a clairvoyant Celebration of the present, written at a time when that present was shimmering just like the feathers of the cover art courtesy of animal photographer Zac Herr. Combining the danceable grooves of Battles with Sonic Youth - infused noise bursts and the yearning electric melodies of And So I Watch You From Afar, Celebration is a defiantly joyful, loud, and festive affair. A promising cure for the drudgery of the times we live in. Recorded by Brooke in his own Tonehaven Recording Studio, Celebration is the latest testament to the undeniable synergy these musicians have built over the past seven years. With the material largely written before the advent of corona, Celebration is a reflection of life before lockdown, filled to the brim with infectious grooves and glaring melodies. "We tried for something upbeat this time to contrast the times," explains Tom Brooke about the recording process, which in turn did take place during pandemic life. "We always love it when people can move to our music, so a big focus for the record was to embrace the dance vibe and go for it." This collection of eight colourful, jarring tracks is rife with small nods to dance music throughout the world. Take a song like "Light" with its complex syncopated drum pattern that recalls the Amen Break so typical for drum and bass music, but listen closely and the song reveals an off-beat skank that flips over into experimental reggae territory. Similarly, a track like "Tucano" recalls the experimental IDM of Bristol-based producer Vessel, while "Gold Vulcan" offsets a gnarly gyrating guitar riff with Latin- American and oriental melodies. The attention to detail on Celebration is phenomenal. The album contains some of the band's most layered compositions to date, but it is also the first NYOS record to feature improvised live recordings, the aptly named "First Take" as well as the celestial "Cloudberry". These musical sketches show two musicians at the apex of their connectedness. Every time that one of them appears to be taking a somewhat questionable turn, you'll find yourself carefully and respectfully readjusting your own interpretation of the song's intention - and what NYOS are all about.

Drawing influences from Doom, Psychedelia, Post- Metal, and Grunge, Burial Clouds' well crafted songwriting is ambitious in sonic scope. Heavy without being cliche, complex without falling into self-indulgence and epic without pretension.

Burial Clouds were originally an instrumental band, but have recently been joined on vocals by actor/ musician Michael Malarkey (Vampire Diaries, Project Blue Book). With this addition the band have reached a new level of expansiveness through Malarkey's crooning blues-esque vocals and blistering screams.

Fellow violinist Stuff Smith marveled, "He plays violin like Coltrane plays saxophone." Born in 1942, the French violinist Jean- Luc Ponty transported jazz violin playing into the world of modern jazz. On Frank Zappa's urging, Ponty moved to the States in 1970. Over the next years he toured with Zappa, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Chick Corea's "Return to Forever".If Ponty's 1983 album Individual Choice was the sketchbook of his decision to take his music in a new direction, Open Mind (1984), released the following year, was a deeper
exploration of the emerging world of synthesizers and sequencers and their impact on live and studio performance. Here, complex rhythmic patterns shift in the background while new sounds appear and disappear on the surface in colorful bursts, and outstanding jazz improvisors create familiar music in new settings. It's almost an audio version of a kinetic wind sculpture.

Ponty chose to use a Roland rhythm machine instead of faking real drum and percussion sounds and played all the keyboard parts himself in order to further explore the concept he had introduced in Individual Choice. He additionally asked two longtime friends to solo on various tracks: George Benson, whom JLP had met and played with when they were both 21 years old, and Chick Corea, who
excels on two tracks with his Moog synthesizer. Open Mind has been re-mastered by 2023 Grammy Nominee Christoph Stickeland includes new liner notes.

This is a Double LP Gatefold Silver plate !

Bacchus Harsh is the alias of Melbourne based multi-disciplinary artist Christian Bishop. Predominantly known in international music circles as Australian breakcore pioneer Xian, Bishop has expanded his already widescreen musical horizons to embrace an even broader creative cosmos under this new alias. Bacchus Harsh is the sonic embodiment of occult-themed electronics and deconstructed club music. De-territorializing exotica, occult psychedelia and industrial techno with polyrhythms and distorted blast beats, Bacchus Harsh confuses the dance floor.

Caveat Tumultum is an expansive double LP of icy post-breakcore industrial heaviness, where hallucinogenic cinematic atmospheres collide with sample-driven mania and complex mechanical rhythms. The resulting album is a 60-minute masterclass in foreboding electronic production, dystopian sonic manipulation and the thrillingly visceral experience of true underground party music.

Manchester's Avant-Jazzy-Funk outfit Swamp Children were enviably eclectic and Taste What's Rhythm is their mini masterpiece. Flitting gracefully through a feast of genres with consummate ease, the band were almost indefinable and, accordingly, nigh-on impossible to market. So whilst this cult EP, originally out in 1982 on Factory Benelux, remains in demand for those in the know, it has also glided under the radar of many otherwise clued-up heads for over 40 years. If you don't know, get to know...

The Taste Whats Rhythm EP was originally released in 1982 on Factory Benelux (an informal partnership between the legendary Manchester-based Factory Records and Belgium-based Les Disques du Crépuscule). With it's kaleidoscopic brightness, silky panache and superb execution, it remains one of the most startling documents of a remarkable time and place.

The EP opens with the oh-so-Balearic title track. "Taste Whats Rhythm" gently unfolds with a Spanish guitar, hazy, drifting vocals and sun-bleached Latin percussion. After this most sumptuous of intros, the tempo is raised, the rhythms grow in complexity as horns jostle amidst the restrained chaos quite wonderfully. And then it winds down again. Proper fluctuating rhythms and tempos throughout. I guess that was the point - taste the variety!

“You’ve Got Me Beat” is a *perfect* piece of post-punk pop-jazz. A mysterious, after dark jazz-dancer, the aching vocals serve as a touching, tender resignation to love. A guitar hook which seems to elegantly reference The Blackbyrds' "Rock Creek Park" and a flowing pulse from New York's No Wave scene. It still sounds so fresh all the years later.

Closing out this most perfect of EPs, the twisted synths and nimble rhythms of bass-heavy roller "Softly Saying Goodbye" combine to create a super-slinky gem; Brit-Funk of the highest order.

Swamp Children formed in Manchester in 1980, around core members Ann Quigley (vocals), Tony Quigley (bass, metalaphone, percussion), John Kirkham (electric & acoustic guitars, metalaphone, percussion), Ceri Evans (keyboards, bass, percussion, background vocals), Cliff Saffer (saxaphone, clarine) and Martin Moscrop (drums, percussion, trumpet). They initially practised at a rehearsal space shared with fellow post-punk funkers A Certain Ratio and Joy Division/New Order. Young and relatively inexperienced upon getting together, the ages of Swamp Children's members ranged from just 16 to 19. Talk about the brilliance of youth.

From the outset, Swamp Children shared DNA with A Certain Ratio. Martin Moscrop was a founder member of Ratio, while Ann provided artwork for them. Although the close association with ACR led some to assume that Swamp Children were simply a splinter group, the new band pursued a more overt latin and jazz tinged direction, at the same time adopting a post-punk attitude towards making music, influenced by the records they were listening to at the time: Miles Davis, Brazilian jazz fusion and heavy funk dancefloor sides.

The band made their live debut at Manchester's infamous Beach Club in May 1980. Thanks to a double-booking blunder another support band turned up and were turned away, having travelled all the way from Dublin for a string of British dates. The name of the unlucky band was U2...

With arrangements that emphasised Tony Quigley’s darkly-coloured basslines (and Ann Quigley’s impressionistic vocals as another instrument in the mix) Swamp Children possessed an easygoing grace and a bubbling energy which indicated that the band's true strength was as an ensemble. The band’s musical sophistication (a fusion of funk, jazz, and bossa nova) would prove to be a strong influence on later UK acts like Sade. Indeed, Swamp Children themselves later mutated into the more known and acclaimed latin jazz outfit Kalima.

Working directly with James Nice, custodian of Factory Benelux, means that the audio for this re-issue of the classic EP comes from the original tapes. Cut at 45 RPM and released in the house Be With disco sleeve, we’ve made sure this record is well up to the job of having a permanent place in every DJ’s bag. As far as we’re concerned, this is essential stuff.

Die Singer-Songwriterin, Multiinstrumentalistin und Produzentin Lindsay Olsen aus der Bay Area ist der brillante Kopf hinter dem schrägen und magischen Projekt Salami Rose Joe Louis. Auf der Grundlage ihres Studiums der Planetenwissenschaften erschafft sie eine einzigartige Erfahrung: Sie erforscht Ideen von Multiversen und Klimawandel durch die Linse eines fiktiven postapokalyptischen Erdenbürgers mit Keyboard, einer Taschenlampe, einer Dose Cashews und einem hoffnungsvollen Optimismus. Durch die Verschmelzung von Einflüssen aus Jazz, Rock und Hiphop, wie bspw. Shuggie Otis, Captain Beefheart, Stereolab oder R. Stevie Moore, schafft sie eine einzigartige Mischung aus experimentellen Klängen aus der Galaxis mit jazzbeeinflusstem Gesang und Keyboard.
Das neue Album folgt auf kürzliche Kollaborationen mit Toro Y Moi oder Alice Phoebe Lou für ihr Strongboi-Projekt, auf einen Remix für die Brainfeeder-Labelbuddies von Hiatus Kaiyote und auf die Mitwirkung am Song „Scapegoat“ des mit einem GRAMMY ausgezeichneten Rappers Baby Keem. Olsen hatte außerdem die Ehre, mit Flying Lotus, The Cinematic Orchestra, Toro Y Moi, TuneYards, Clairo, MNDSGN, Homeshake, The Comet is Coming und Still Woozy zu touren. „Akousmatikous“ ist die erzählerische Fortsetzung von ihrem letzten Studio-Album: Nachdem das Metropolis-Raumschiff am Ende von „Zdenka 2080“ auf die Erde gestürzt ist, kommt es zu einem dimensionalen Kollaps. In der Folge verwandeln sich die Köpfe und Hände der Erdbewohner:innen in Bildschirme, womit das neue Album beginnt. Die Erdbewohner:innen stecken in einer nicht enden wollenden Video-Feedback-Schleife zwischen ihren Köpfen und Händen fest. Ein interdimensionales Wesen, Zeeanori, manipuliert diese Rückkopplungsschleife, weil es will, dass die Pflanzen die Erde zurückerobern und die Natur wieder blüht und gesund wird. Ein alter Freund und frühere Liebe des Monsters, Akousmatikous (von einem fernen Planeten), kommt auf die Erde, um es zu sprechen, weil er neugierig auf seine Motive und die komplizierte ethische Situation ist. Akousmatikous stimmt zu, dass die Natur schön sein und blühen wird, ist aber besorgt über das Schicksal der Erdbewohner:innen, die in unendlichen Rückkopplungsschleifen gefangen sind. Akousmatikous hofft auf eine Lösung, die für jedes Wesen und jede Entität von Vorteil sein kann, einen Weg zur Symbiose.

First released back in the fall of 1989, the In Order To Dance album was a compilation LP that pulled together tracks from a
select band of electronic producers, pushing the boundaries of the house and electronic music that was in its infancy stage.
Released on the R&S Records label, the IOTD series would become pivotal in the development of the electronic music scene
at large.
The world of music is a constant shape shifting, trend moving behemoth. Style may come and go (and come back around
again), stars are made, stars can fall. But the ethos behind In Order To Dance remains the same as it ever has, with a fierce
independent spirit, and a pledge to bring forward the next generation of young artists and their music. And so, here we arrive
at a new collection, fresh for 2023, and just in time for the labels 40th anniversary year, and with the ardent A&R’ing of label
founder Renaat Vandepapeliere, a selection of new tunes is assembled to reinforce the strength and power to be found within
music.
Across thirteen tracks, a squad of refreshingly contemporary producers from around the globe are brought together under the
In Order To Dance banner. Ushering the series into a new era, new variations on the electronic genre and fresh ideas are
fused into a delightfully engaging collection of tracks. There’s deep breakbeats courtesy of UK producer Dharma, smooth and
dubby live action from Saytek and complex bass heavy rhythms from Vromm. There’s esoteric electronics from Hyphen, epic
piano driven deep house from Dino Lenny and swinging jazzy breaks from Nphonix & Matrika. Paul Roux’s melancholic
‘Bapteme’ unfurls waves of deft pianos and guitar swirls over taunt beats, and a driving electro tone is set on Acidulant’s
contribution. Intoxicating rave tropes and hefty breaks come courtesy of Pascal Nuzzo and Adam Antine delivers a wall of
sound anchored by shuffling, funky beats on ‘Sortavala’.
And to accompany the new wave of In Order To Dance, a series of music videos have been produced. Acclaimed artists and
video directors, including Alessandro Amaducci, Ben Marlowe and Gala Mirissa, have all stamped their digital artistic
visions onto these stunning compositions, synching audio and visual for a multi-sensory experience!
‘In Order To Dance 4.0’ by Various Artists is available on R&S Records from 14th April 2023 on 3LP vinyl, download &
streaming services.

Canto A Lo Divino is the unique musical expression of the Chilean peasant world - a conversation with the divine nourished by Biblical and other sacred texts. It is communal music, played in packed rooms throughout the night on the 25-string guitarron, its ancient melodies transmitted through the 10-line decima form originating in Spain and found across the Caribbean, South America, and even into the Mississippi Delta. Rooted in the remote Central Valley of Chile at the skirt of the mountains and following the slopes of the major rivers, the Canto tradition has persisted for centuries in the voices of hundreds of men and women who sing of saints, divine images, and angelitos (very young children who have died). The verses are also centered around daily life in the valley - labor and drought, family, animals, and plants. There are countless entonaciones (melodies) that define this region, its communities, and its unique worldview. Mississippi Records is privileged to work with the Museo Campesino En Movimiento and their archive of hundreds of hours of intimate field recordings of the Canto - music rarely, if ever, heard outside of the region. Artwork is provided by another inhabitant of Chile's Central Valley, a baker called Frederico Lohse, who brought divine visions from the Cantos to life, painted on reused flour bags. Canto A Lo Divino celebrates the complexity and solemn, stunning beauty of this nocturnal, communal form of musical devotion. Double vinyl LP comes housed in deluxe gatefold jacket with 8 pages of lyric translations and liner notes about the Canto tradition by researcher Danilo Petrovich.

Vinyl release compiling both Nukuluk EPs on one LP. Curating their own unique sound and captivating crowds with their refreshing approach to hip-hop, electronica and indie, Nukuluk return with their new EP ‘SUPERGLUE’ on 21 April. The writing and recording process has never been executed in a conventional style for the group, a series of laptops and bedrooms manifesting the groups’ studio, aspiring to a fundamentally collaborative process as they piece their separate parts together in ever surprising ways. Respective members lead through a variety of formats, bringing a demo, a motif or concept in what can be a deeply stimulating process, ensuring the sound is ever-evolving. The EP acted as an educational vehicle that held the group together as they learned how to overcome certain challenges, and hold it together as one, hence the title SUPERGLUE. It presents a fractured journey and chaotic growth of five individuals trying to create the new together; honest vulnerable expression married with complex soundscapes, pulling from whatever genre feels natural and trying new combinations of internal collaborations in the group. The release spans genres from hip-hop to alternative rock, ambient to metal, dance music to r’n’b in what the band note as: “a kaleidoscope of sonics, songs, beats, noises and stories lurching between vulnerability and bravado, as a body of work growing in all directions at the same time.” Their latest single ‘I Just Wanna Luv U’, the follow up to the high octane ‘Covered In Gold’, marks a charged change of pace; an introspective, meditative trip-hop piece, with creeping synths, electronic drums and gruff vocals transitioning into acoustic guitars, live drums and rap verses. It tells the story of wrestling with childhood trauma, isolation and self-acceptance. Vocalist/producer Syd Nuku explores an eerie modern condition before conversing with an inner child’s trauma and memory - “be slow kid, go and take a place below the ceiling where it won’t fall”. The accompanying video was co-directed by Luke Kulukundis (Syd Nuku) and Iso Attrill, and takes reference from the likes of Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman and David Lynch. Nukuluk are Monika, Syd, Mateo, Louis and olivia. Entirely self made the collective successfully blend genres and styles to reach new spaces through a broad range of influences (including JPEGMAFIA, Jockstrap, SOPHIE, Wu-Lu and Yves Tumor as well as esteemed groups like Massive Attack, Portishead and Gorillaz). Formed in the midst of lockdown, the collective played their first show in July 2021 before releasing their debut EP DISASTER POP to critical acclaim in November, which subsequently led to multiple festival appearances and a 3-night sold out residency at Bermondsey Social Club in 2022. Their release campaign was littered with videos and creative visuals that were constructed by the collective and its extended family of artists - this multifaceted creative output of the group making them a unique prospect; directing and producing their own videos, exploring many avenues of creation and trying to exist in a unique contemporary DIY space. With nods across the spectrum of the music media – including The Quietus, CLASH, NME, Ransom Note, DIY, DORK, So Young and many more – Nukuluk are steadily carving out their own space in the British leftfield.

Gatefold Green Vinyl Double LP with design by Dian Vandermeulen, the popular Canadian visual artist
(limited edition cassette version will be released by Not Not Fun).

Between December 2018 and 2019, Stefana Fratila embarked on a series of research trips across North America (including to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Centre), meeting with astronomers and scientists in order to address a complex question: “If each planet in our solar system were a different room, what would each room sound like?”

Her ongoing creative research culminated in Sononaut, eight open-source VST plug-ins created for digital audio workstations (DAWs) that emulate the atmospheric conditions of the planets in our solar system (made in collaboration with artist and coder Jen Kutler, using calculations by NASA astronomer and planetary scientist Dr. Conor Nixon).

Her forthcoming album I want to leave this Earth behind is the sonic extension of her creative research.

In her own words: “The album is conceptual, in that it centres on outer space exploration and my understanding of 'Crip futurity'. My vision is for the album to engage listeners in an exercise of imagining the sounds of interplanetary atmospheres– conditions which are inherently unlivable, unbreathable, converting all human body-minds into disabled-bodied-ness. Since I identify as Crip, or disabled, this idea deeply resonates with me. I am the first artist (a disabled producer/musician, no less) to have worked with NASA researchers on a sonic imagining of the solar system’s atmospheres that incorporates real scientific data. If we are all 'disabled' in (or by) outer space, my music is concerned with propelling all listeners into space, leaving Earth behind them, through my music.”

The solar system’s planetary bodies are inherently prohibitive even in regards to Earth’s most ‘able-bodied’ subjects. Her project seizes upon a form of radical agency and science-fictive ambition, placing all human subjects within new worlds, into the interplanetary bodies of our solar system, through her own sonic imaginings.

The album will be released by Toronto-based label Halocline Trance (Casey MQ, myst milano, ACT!).

During a 2019 residency at CMMAS (Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras) in Morelia, Mexico, Fratila began writing the album on an octophonic sound system (8 planets = 8 speakers).

Afterwards, from her home studio in Toronto, she recorded additional synthesizer parts, finalized arrangements, and incorporated Sononaut (her 8 solar system VST plug-ins) into the album’s production. The album was recorded, written, and produced by Fratila. She worked with mixing engineer Jeremy Greenspan (Jessy Lanza, Caribou, Junior Boys), as well as mixing engineer Lisa Conway and mastering engineer Sage Kim.

Underlining each track is a five-minute soundscape representing the weather on that planet, based on Fratila’s research at NASA. The weather patterns are interwoven with layers of synths and time-stretched samples.

There are very few disabled femme electronic artists gaining exposure in Canada today.

SPF 50 returns to Professional Music with 'Secret Technology', a diverse 5-track EP of playful, sonically rich material aimed at the dancefloor. The record explores some of the the core staples of the dance: bouncy grooves, rippling, psychedelic synth lines and a few cheeky vocal chops.

Heavily inspired by golden era tech-house, but with an ear for modern sound design, the music comes in with bad-boy energy but hints at something deeper bubbling beneath. Heavy kicks and sharp hats mingle with complex, modular basslines. Dusty breaks and euphoric vocals jiggle over top of lab-concocted acid. This one is for fans of serious fun.

Brazil Classics 4: The Best of Tom Zé Massive Hits, which comes in a limited Brazilian Blue gatefold edition, and The Hips of Tradition, which comes in a limited Amazon Green edition, here’s what you have in store: Household appliances and tools in arrangements with horns, strings, “prepared” guitars (punctuated by grunts, screams and other wild percussion), all melded with eccentric metaphorical lyricism.

Brazil Classics 4: The Best of Tom Zé Massive Hits, which comes in a limited Brazilian Blue gatefold edition, and The Hips of Tradition, which comes in a limited Amazon Green edition, here’s what you have in store: Household appliances and tools in arrangements with horns, strings, “prepared” guitars (punctuated by grunts, screams and other wild percussion), all melded with eccentric metaphorical lyricism.

Murmer is the long-standing project for Estonian field recordist and composer Patrick McGinley, and in Tether, The Helen Scarsdale Agency welcomes Murmer back to our roster, over a decade since he graced us with his last production for the Agency. His field recordings often center upon the amplification and activation of resonance from a particular space, landscape, or object. Such sounds emerge from a condition as begin fleeting, inconsequential, or ephemeral and explode into that which alien, sublime, and profound. Here lies the tremendous prowess of the contact microphone, as wielded by an accomplished musician! The source material cited by McGinley includes cables, fences, wires, and vents.

There is a heft to many of these sounds as heard throughout all of "Taevast" with deep throbbing pulsations from arctic wind generating subharmonic patterns upon thick high-tension wires. Elsewhere the subtle dissonance from a rasping cooling fan blooms into a brooding ambience that is sublimely rich in its metallic timbres and complex reverberations. McGingley has long been an exemplary artist in the field of phonography even as he is less prolific than others. On Tether, he has produced a majestic if occasionally foreboding work on par with the mythic wire recordings of Alan Lamb, Jacob Kirkegaard's haunted resonance from Chernobyl, and much of the Touch catalogue for that matter!

Patrick McGingley on Tether:

In 2006, I made a collection of recordings at a mobile phone mast in Mooste, southeast Estonia. It is a guyed tower, 80 meters tall, affixed to 3 support points with heavy cables. I attached my self-made contact microphones to these cables with poster tack, and spent many hours over several weeks recording the various wind and weather variances (it was summer), and the birds that passed or settled on the tower or cables. This was one of my first visits to estonia, where i now live, and one of the things that marked me about that experience was the access: the tower had no fences or protections around it (I have not been back there recently to answer my own question of whether or not this is still the case); it stands in the middle of a field of tall grass along a dirt road in the countryside, just out of view of the few nearby houses, and during all the hours I spent there I was never disturbed or shooed away.

For more than 16 years, I have been thinking about this location and these recordings, and have made several attempts to work with them. I have used the sounds in installations a handful of times, and uploaded one short edit to the Aporee soundmaps, but have never managed to use them in any composed work. They always seemed too big for any structure I could provide them, whether I left them on their own, or partnered them with other sounds. Finally, in 2019, after putting them down and picking them up again repeatedly over so many years, they seemed to allow me in, although it took me another few years before they were happy with what I could offer. They stand now not quite alone - the majority of the layered sounds in the piece come from various edits of those cable recordings, but I added two other contrasting sounds, related to one another: one is snowflakes landing delicately on a plastic cakebox with microphones inside it, and the other is a frosted field of grass thawing on a lightly warming autumn morning (both these recordings can also be heard on their own on the Aporee maps).

Coming back to those cables brought to mind so many other wind-driven sounds that I had spent time with and recorded, but never returned to, that I began digging through my archives looking for them. I ended up with a pool of sounds from resonant wires, cables, fences, poles, fans, and vents, which became the basis for the 2nd work on this release. One of these sounds is among the first sounds I ever recorded, possibly within a month or so of buying my first microphone and minidisc recorder: the rhythmic fan of a beer cooler in a pub where I worked in North London in 1999. Other sounds in the piece include another phone tower, recorded on the northern coast of France in 2008, a telephone pole recorded in the Beaujolais region in 2010, the drone of ventilator fans at a factory in Tezno, Slovenia in 2012, an electric sheep fence in the Scottish borders in 2013, a hanging wire in a storage space in Rovaniemi, Finland in 2016, and, with no relation to cables or wind at all, calcium deposits being cleaned from the inside of an electric kettle here in Estonia in 2019.

I offer these two new pieces as my first solo publication since 2018, the first release on a physical medium since 2016. No one has ever accused me of working too fast, or being too prolific. I have a need, it seems, to leave a physical space of time around my work, before I can consider it 'finished'. Perhaps it is a simple need to forget how I did something, or that I did something; perhaps I have a need to be able to hear a work as a first-time listener would, before I can consider it ready for such an encounter. In some part of my mind I have to forget it before I can let it go. Well, I've just about forgotten that London beer cooler now, and that walk in the Beaujolais (with my father, who has since passed away), and that sheep fence next to our campsite in the borders, and that kettle that is now leaky. So I guess it's time.

With his 1981 solo debut album The Red and the Black, Jerry Harrison proves his formidable talent as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. Dense, abrasive and focused, The Red and the Black’s complex and funky musical style was ahead of its time. Harrison's observations throughout the album on the modern condition ring all the more true in our digital age. This limited edition 2LP edition features the 1981 album recut from the original tapes plus a bonus LP of previously unreleased outtakes and alternate mixes.

A compilation of Minimal Wave from around the world ‘79-‘85. »The Hidden Tapes« features rare, unreleased, and licensed tracks from as far as Japan and the former Yugoslavia. Most of the bands on this compilation recorded on 4-track tape in their bedroom studios while two of them went further to collaborate by sending tapes through the mail. The sounds on this record range from raw proto-industrial to naive danceable Belgradian new wave, to filmic synthesizer music to more complex, vocal-driven melodic synthpop.

Taavi Suisalu is an Estonian media artist particularly interested into complex and adventurous sounds, field recordings and harsh audio emergencies, organized under the form of symphony or as a result of performative interactions.

In 2014 Suisalu received the Young Estonian Artist Prize as curator of Project of In-existent Villages, an articulate exhibition full of installations and site-specific sound performances. The use of peripheral spaces and the crossovers, sometimes extremely creative, of human interactions, data, sounds and technologies, are recurring in the works of Suisalu, whose subjective perspective unconventionally investigates different social and cultural phenomena. He is always attracted by the different forms of technologies. It can be an old seismograph he reconstructs to record the underground vibrations of a volcano, or, it can be some 3D models he uses to analyze a grain of soil coming from the ancient Pompei. The results of the researches would lead to the installations. The whole set of data is often the premise of a narration, a datafiction, as in the case of the signals recorded from some abandoned satellites, who are later presented with a speed set by the position of other satellites gravitating above the gallery hosting the event.

“Noisephony of Lawn Mowers" was originally composed in 2013, but it was unreleased until now, when Staalplaat, a fundamental label for its unusual experimental connections and for the sound events performed in unconventional spaces, decided to publish it. It's a score for lawnmowers, whose making is given to a conductor and executed by a group of artists. Suisalu reminds us that historically, lawn has been a symbol of power and wealth as it required substantial upkeep and unused land. Today, it still indicates wealth, but is mainly maintained by the owners themselves. This puts us in a schizophrenic situation where we strive to be privileged by taking the role of the servants.

“Silver Meets Ted” is the other track included in the selection. It's a recording of over ten minutes, whose trend cryptically moves on and with some unsettling minimal tolls, always more metallic. Some deaf beats follow, and then we have a splash of water and some slightly hinted neighs, chirps, different spills of liquid, more intense and measured, clackings and vibrations, some hardly identifiable frequencies and again a series of punctuated metal bells. The work by Taavi Suisalu stands out as a calibrated combination of mathematical coherence and elements of surprise, automatized and causal processes, some small oblique utopias, that work well together by improving highly subjective resources and create some slightly unsettling final results.

Arovane's acclaimed 2004 album »Lilies« has been out of print on vinyl for nearly 2 decades now. It finally gets a well-deserved reissue through the Berlin based Keplar label. The new version has been remastered by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering and comes with a brand new cover artwork.

»Lilies« was a follow-up to »Tides« in every sense, exploring a trip to Japan and drawing on shimmering textures and the sort of melodies that you might need some time to recover from. There's a hugely evocative sense to these tracks, emotionally driven, free of complexity or conceit, piano melodies providing the central focus for a twilight cascade of light that seems perfect for the Tokyo skyline - just as the sun sets. It's an album that radiates warmth and vulnerability, fusing the technological might at the heart of each track (and at the heart of the city) with an age-old understanding that certain echoes of sound, small melodic changes and cushioned lullabies can imprint sounds on your mind like childhood memories - remembered forever. Like a dreamlike score, or maybe even an alternate soundtrack to »Lost in Translation« - the sort of music that intertwines with images and stays in your mind indefinately.

After coming back from Tokyo and completing the production of »Lilies«, Uwe Zahn disassembled his studio in the big flat in an old building in Berlin's Prenzlauerberg district and stored it away in boxes. He needed a break from making music. »Lilies« was the last album prior to a nine-year hiatus for Arovane, ending in 2013 with the release of »Ve Palor«.

"Inner Eye" and "That Voodoo You Do" originally released in digital as "Every Dog Has Its Day vol.12" (2020)
"Nocturnal Moves" originally released in digital as "Every Dog Has Its Day vol.9" (2020)

Axis Expressionist Series:
A collection of vinyl and limited digital releases, curated by Millsart, an alias of Jeff Mills, of his most eclectic and transcendent compositions that derive from his Every Dog Has Its Day project as well as new unreleased works.

Vernacular creations that fall off from the "other side" of the Electronic Music tree, this project is designed for the experienced Techno music listener, and its goal is to reflect upon the pure artistry of the craft of storytelling. A realization between music and life.

Whereas "dancing" is the goal of Dance Music, the goal of this music is about "reflecting on the complexity and simplification of life". Soundtracks for people in their evolutionary process.

Following in the footsteps of 'L'Espròva', a record released in 2018 by and 'Mantras', a body of long instrumental pieces, Ernest Bergez joins Jacques Puech, Elisa Trebouville and Loup Uberto to explore the possibilities of a collective energy. L'Herbe De Détourne achieved to catch the vivid energy of the band playing live and combined it with all the sonic explorations the musicians had in mind for a long time, in a completly free state of mind. Themes and songs are wound up in complex rhythmic gears and follow one another in a continuous momentum. Freely digested, the traditional repertoire from the Massif Central mutates and hybridises with invented forms, inspired by traditional Greek, Persian and North African music... The result is music that is as much for the ears, the feet, as for the guts and perhaps the heart.
It can be a ball, a concert, or a spontaneous ceremony. The Occitan language takes a central place, both as musical material and as a poetic and emotional springboard. Inspired by traditional canvases, a poetic form emerges and makes its way through the old words, passed from mouth to mouth.

Constantly evolving and adapting his sound, Shackleton has releases
spanning labels such as Honest Jon’s, Perlon and his own imprints, Skull Disco (co-founded with Appleblim) and Woe to the Septic Heart!.
Shackleton now finds a home for a brand new project on the Barcelona-based, Modern Obscure Music.

Undoubtedly Shackleton, but taking the meditative aspects of his sound to a new plane, The Purge of Tomorrow, is an alias born to transmit a less dancefloor-orientated experience to whomever is ready to receive it.
‘The Other Side of Devastation’ is an investigation into a novel form of
deepness. Adverse to the reductive label of ‘Ambient’, these tracks are spawned from a live performance context. The essence was to create an immersive encounter where listeners are called on to actively unburden their mind of unnecessary thoughts. Staying true to the trance elements that Shackleton is renowned for, this EP is not dependent on traditional structures or a linear narrative.
‘Time Moving’ presents itself through a journey of disquieted moments and contemplative states. Hypnotic strings provided by Kathy Alberici construct pastoral phrases that mesh with the larger looming drones,
culminating to conjure a daydream-like energy. Following on, ‘Waves’
twists through various forms, awash with cascading vocal splices and
soothing murmurs contrasted with rousing sub pressure.
Reflective and sometimes provocative, as an artist who resents the
pigeon-holes of genre, The Purge of Tomorrow presents an exciting new direction for Shackleton. Bursting-at-the-seams with emotional
complexity as to echo the woes of the human condition, this EP is
steeped in feelings of forgone events doomed to be replicated.

Multi Culti co-founder Dreems joins forces with Jacoby for kaleidoscopic sonic wizardry that flows seamlessly from symphonic dream pop to ambient esoterica.

If this album had been produced by ai the prompt would have been: create the perfect mix of daft punk - homework crossed with Brian Wilson - pet sounds containing shades of Moby - play but with the complexity and scope of the avalanches - since i left you, containing a few saucy licks of Nile rogers funk, dainty fragments of French psychedelic library-kitsch, mind-expanding flourishes from the BBC radiophonic workshop, all culminating with a bell-filled percussive piano ballad outro masterpiece produced by Brian Eno and four Tet on 180 mics of LSD after watching sesame street with lee perry.

It’s a record of fantastic imagination, full of surprises. Crack open your head, dive in and enjoy the trip!

Limited edition 7” containing ‘all your time’ and ‘in your mind’.

repressed !

A lot can happen in 15 years. Few things manage to thrive for a decade and a half, especially in music. But a scrappy, left of center, Bay Area house music label, Dirtybird, has managed to do just that. Claude VonStroke, Dirtybird’s founder, is marking this 15-year milestone the only way he knows how… working. This year, VonStroke will throw two dozen-plus parties, three festivals (including the famous Dirtybird Campout), host his traveling Dirtybird BBQ series in major cities across the US, publish a coffee table book, release a seasonal clothing line, stage art shows, produce a fly on the wall docu series...and kick it all off by releasing a new album, out February 21st.

What began as a free party, turned basement record label, has morphed into a truly thriving community whose familial, fun and welcoming vibe has won over hearts and minds across the world. And while Dirtybird has grown and evolved, VonStroke’s core focus on music remains unwavering. The new album ‘Freaks & Beaks’ is a celebration of quirky innovation and a relentless pursuit of something new and fresh, while hearkening back to the freewheeling spirit that inspired the launch of his label. This is a project that draws upon the inspirations of family, old friends, new fans and proper dancefloors.

Claude will let his flock wet their beaks while they wait in anticipation of the new album with two new singles demonstrating the breadth of the dance music landscape explored on the record. Youngblood touches on the deeper sides of Claude VonStroke, a throwback to the label’s early days, featuring local LA music house talent Wyatt Marshall, while All My People in the House is a dancefloor heater that is sure to unite new and old Dirtybird fans together.

Today, Claude also delivers fans part one of an intimate video series, shot by his sister Emily (an accomplished filmmaker), documenting the creation of ‘Freaks and Beaks’, celebrating this historic milestone and taking a deeper dive into the day to day life of Claude VonStroke on the road.

‘Freaks and Beaks’ is the fourth artist album and sixth full-length project from Claude VonStroke. He approached the album with a new process, including committing to daily creative time, experimenting with a lot of new hardware and having fun creating a huge amount of sketches. He made music on many levels of gear all the way from complex modular synths to simple drum apps on his iPad. Keeping it all DIY, he sampled his own voice and his two children on several tracks as well. He allowed himself to breathe while creating over 130 ideas, which were whittled down to the finished 11 album tracks.

Freaks & Beaks nods at the inspirations that underpin VonStroke’s world, inside jokes between him and Justin Martin (FlubbleBuddy), unused experimental live sessions (Session A), playful noodling on synths (Alpine Arpline), obscure French producers (Frankie Goes To Bollywood), championing new talent (Youngblood), irreverent self-aware humor (Birthday Messages) and genre inspirations that range from ghetto tech and drum n bass to hip-hop and breaks. This is VonStroke’s love letter to the vibrancy and genre diversity that have made Dirtybird such a singular label.