Beats News

Dutch label Field Records is back with another special album project, this time from Japanese producer ENA aka Yu Asaeda. Bridge is an introspective soundtrack for a documentary also called Bridge - out this Spring - which is about the Dejima bridge, a reconstructed symbol of the Dutch-Japanese trading history in Nagasaki, Japan. The album finds the producer stepping outside of his usual remit of dark ambient and experimental music, and instead comprises ten shorter tracks that touch on abstract and rhythmic sounds that define the essence of Japanese culture. Although he has worked with the director before, this is ENA's first Original Sound Track and finds him freely inspired by the movie and heading in exciting and unknown directions. Hugely atmospheric throughout, there is hypnotic repetition of sounds, strange audio design and a mixture of melancholic moods with more dreamy synths. Sometimes gloopy rhythms gently ripple beneath soothing harmonies and at others times a micro-rhythm appears through the constantly shifting and evolving found sound loops. It's a compelling and unusual album that seamlessly mixes human emotions with a mechanical sense of industry.

Dj feedback:

Mano le Tough (Permanent Vacation): "Amazing sound"

Inverted Audio: "Subconsciously affecting, emotionally invigorating work here. Loving this."

DJ Mag LA: "This album shows that the of ENA sounds are an overflowing line that perfectly combines human emotions. Feel is the perfect word to define the entire album."

Samuli Kemppi (Deep Space Helsinki): "Really really good album. Thank you."

Eric Cloutier (The Bunker NY): "absolutely brilliant."


Philip Sherburne (Pitchfork): "Really interesting stuff here, looking forward to delving into it."

Amandra (Semantica): "Love it ! Thx"

Nihad Tule (Sloboda): "perfect cinematic scapes, thanks!"

Breach (Aus Music): "super enjoyable on a lot of levels and so warm. "

Jonas Kopp (Tresor): "love it ! thanks."

Mosca (Not So Much): "First two tracks are enough for me to know I'm into this"

Fugal (BleeD): "<3"

natural/electronic.system. (Tikita): "This is a great release. Thanks!!"

Roger Gerressen (Yoyaku / Sushitech): "lovely"

Maarten Mittendorff (Indigo Aera): "Amazing all over!!! <3 ENA... really out of the box organic evolving music. Big up Field for releasing this beautifull music!"

Albert van Abbe (VANABBE / No Comment): "This is just great! Suburb travel music, thanks!"

Simo Cell (Livity Sound): "Yes this is brilliant ! "

Efdemin (Dial): "Great textures and sounds. Really interesting work!"

Clouds (Electric Deluxe): "wow this is dope!"

Zadig (Construct Re-Form): "Need to check quietly but i know i already love it. Beautiful ... Thanks !! "

Voiski (Super95): "really beautiful bridge music "

The King is a remarkably absorbing collection of abstract torch songs by Cee Haines aka Chaines, a Manchester-based artist in possession of a starkly singular sonic language, who has collaborated extensively with the London Contemporary Orchestra and had their work performed at The Roundhouse, Union Chapel, Printworks and Tate Modern.
Leading a thematic expansion of Chaines' OST (2015), their 2nd solo release yields a phantasmic and richly evocative soundtrack-esque series of works written over the past three years, including exclusive versions of their commissions by the LCO and Union Chapel, all serving to frame an intimate yet beautifully elusive portrait of a unique artist coming into their own.
In eight parts, Chaines draws a mercurial line that connects the almost bestial intimacy of purring strings and whispered vocals in For Your Own Good to something like Scott Walker-invoking-
Fantasia in Eraserhead, conjuring a mutably surreal and mystic atmosphere that keeps listeners teetering between knife-edge suspense and sublime relief as they scale from delectably detailed
avant-garde psychedelia in Knockturning to a bout of Grouper-as-spectral-Jazz diva styles of Population 5120, and all in a way that makes the exploded hyaline castles in the sky dimensions of Airship seem totally feasible next to the cavernous avant-techno impulses of Carpathia. Never following a linear path, Chaines is as likely to incorporate doom-laced chamber motifs and
asymmetric techno rhythms as operatic vocals and microscopic sounds, always with a sensitivity to the metaphysics of space and spirit which coolly sets their work apart.
Held up beside Slip's celebrated recent releases such as Yeah You's Krutch and Object Collection's opera-in-suspension based on Fugazi, It's All True, Chaines find themselves amid exemplary,
boundary-morphing company, whose diversity finds a common strength in the will to express something of a pathos beyond easy comprehension, yet which can be felt and understood
immediately and instinctively by anyone with an open mind and a thirst for the new.

Sven Weisemann is set to release his 'Bilateral Relations' EP via Copenhagen's Echocord this September, comprising four originals from the German producer.
Sven Weisemann has been immersed in the underground House and Techno scene for quite some time now having started DJing in 1997 during the rise of the scene on his home turf of Berlin and going on to release material via the likes of Amsterdam's Delsin, Mojuba, Telrae and liebe.detail amongst many more.
Here though we see Sven joining the roster of Echocord, a perfect fit for his more dubbed out compositions with artists like Fluxion, Rod Modell and STL on the roster.
'Lunation' opens the release and sees Weisemann fuse emotive string melodies and cavernous vocal echoes with off- kilter rhythms and rounded sub hits before title-track 'Bilateral Relations' embraces a more direct four-four approach via sparse percussion and tumbling toms alongside choppy bass stabs and ever-unfolding, echoing dub chords.
Opening the flip is 'Monistic', an airy ethereal number employing billowing pads, bright synth chimes and a dropped tempo dubbed out feel to create something truly stunning and thought provoking before the 'Decimation (Valvle tR9 Mix) closes things on a darker tip with looming stab swells, heavily swung drums and sporadic growling bass drones.
Sven Weisemann's 'Bilateral Relations' EP is out on Echocord 8th September 2017.

DEMENT3D is proud to welcome Valentino Mora on board, and share with you a part of his spiritual journey. Slow Hyper-controlled Motion has been inspired by Butoh moves, but also is a homage to early New York spiritual house. In creating this record he also took field recordings in the forests of Japan. The concept of Slow Hyper-controlled Motion is to recreate this 90's spiritual house vibe, but in a more experimental way.

Spazio Disponibile welcomes Valentino Mora for a new EP featuring four tracks of rhythmic exploration. Boss of the IDO label and known for his atmospheric deep techno sets, he brings a richly infused palette to his music. The four tracks on 'Transmagnetic' are steep in moody atmospheres, with exquisite sound design colouring in the grooves which range from dark and eerie to more subtly uplifting and enlightened. Icy synths, abstract motifs and a sense of paranoia and tension characterise each one, with barely-there drums all working to sink you into a trance.

A very Musical Acid dark EP... Starting with a shodow Glitch IDM tune. Then comes a downtempo hardtechno (with a Doom ambiance appart of the kick witch is defenitly techno). Superb Negative Glitch musical side ! The flip rave it up to the sky with a beautyful Degraded tune and an Acidolido pityless tribe acid masterpiece !

In the afterglow of rave's white heat, the mid-90s were a period of going as far out in all directions as possible - and Luke Slater's The 7th Plain tracks were certainly about exploration of the deep space of the imagination. Cosmic, analogue, orchestrated, they still represent some of the most emotionally intense music ever to come out of the techno realm. Whether built on percussive frameworks or sweeping nebulas of dissipated sound, Slater's synthesizers still sing space-travelers' tales compellingly and beautifully.

For this reason, Ostgut Ton sublabel A-TON launched back in 2016 with The 7th Plain's Chronicles I, establishing itself as a platform for archive, ambient and art-related releases. This first eight-track compilation was split between classics from the albums My Yellow Wise Rug and The 4 Cornered Room on the one hand and previously unreleased tracks on the other, with the goal of providing a different, remastered framework for Slater's futuristic visions from the past.

Now, with the release of Chronicles II and Chronicles III, as well as a special edition vinyl boxset, the journey continues further into outer and inner space. Like its predecessor, Chronicles II is divided between previously released material from the aforementioned albums, as well as four unreleased future classics: 'Silver Shinhook', 'Wand Star', 'I Think I Think Too Much' and 'JDC'.

In contrast, Chronicles III is made up solely of music from the General Production Recordings label catalogue and stylistically skews less toward percussive techno-funk and more toward free-form broken rhythms - though tracks such as 'Lost', 'Time Melts' or 'Millentum' stand strong as hybrid pillars of both.

Luke Slater pioneered the UK's electronic landscape as Translucent, 4 Slots For Bill, Planetary Assault Systems, The 7th Plain, Clementine, and later as L.B. Dub Corp, by partly focussing on, partly bypassing the traditional, puristic values of techno. Together with Dave Sumner (Function) and Steve Bicknell he also operates as LSD.

Chronicles is a three-part series of Luke Slater's The 7th Plain project, including both previously released and unreleased material. All music is available for the first time digitally and on CD. All three Chronicles are also available as a special edition 6xLP boxset, including an essay by Joe Muggs, download codes and stickers.

Ultimately, when listening to all three parts of Chronicles, it's apparent that 7th Plain music is cut from the same emotional cloth, one related strongly to the backroom, the chillout, the after-party, the solo headphone voyage. These weren't and never should be considered separate zones from the dancefloor.

In other words, as Luke Slater puts it, in the mid-90s, they were 'part of the night, part of the experience... where ideas could be shared.' And like Global Communication, Mira Calix, The Future Sound of London, the Artificial Intelligence generation, Slater's 7th Plain was a response to those hallucinatory, spiritual, but still social spaces at the heart of underground communities - and the magic is still strong in it.

Aside from the special vinyl boxset (6x12' LP), which includes Chronicles I - III, limited edition stickers, an essay by Joe Muggs and a complete download code, all releases are available individually on CD, 2xLP and for the first time in digital formats.

In the afterglow of rave's white heat, the mid-90s were a period of going as far out in all directions as possible - and Luke Slater's The 7th Plain tracks were certainly about exploration of the deep space of the imagination. Cosmic, analogue, orchestrated, they still represent some of the most emotionally intense music ever to come out of the techno realm. Whether built on percussive frameworks or sweeping nebulas of dissipated sound, Slater's synthesizers still sing space-travelers' tales compellingly and beautifully.

For this reason, Ostgut Ton sublabel A-TON launched back in 2016 with The 7th Plain's Chronicles I, establishing itself as a platform for archive, ambient and art-related releases. This first eight-track compilation was split between classics from the albums My Yellow Wise Rug and The 4 Cornered Room on the one hand and previously unreleased tracks on the other, with the goal of providing a different, remastered framework for Slater's futuristic visions from the past.

Now, with the release of Chronicles II and Chronicles III, as well as a special edition vinyl boxset, the journey continues further into outer and inner space. Like its predecessor, Chronicles II is divided between previously released material from the aforementioned albums, as well as four unreleased future classics: 'Silver Shinhook', 'Wand Star', 'I Think I Think Too Much' and 'JDC'.

In contrast, Chronicles III is made up solely of music from the General Production Recordings label catalogue and stylistically skews less toward percussive techno-funk and more toward free-form broken rhythms - though tracks such as 'Lost', 'Time Melts' or 'Millentum' stand strong as hybrid pillars of both.

Luke Slater pioneered the UK's electronic landscape as Translucent, 4 Slots For Bill, Planetary Assault Systems, The 7th Plain, Clementine, and later as L.B. Dub Corp, by partly focussing on, partly bypassing the traditional, puristic values of techno. Together with Dave Sumner (Function) and Steve Bicknell he also operates as LSD.

Chronicles is a three-part series of Luke Slater's The 7th Plain project, including both previously released and unreleased material. All music is available for the first time digitally and on CD. All three Chronicles are also available as a special edition 6xLP boxset, including an essay by Joe Muggs, download codes and stickers.

Ultimately, when listening to all three parts of Chronicles, it's apparent that 7th Plain music is cut from the same emotional cloth, one related strongly to the backroom, the chillout, the after-party, the solo headphone voyage. These weren't and never should be considered separate zones from the dancefloor.

In other words, as Luke Slater puts it, in the mid-90s, they were 'part of the night, part of the experience... where ideas could be shared.' And like Global Communication, Mira Calix, The Future Sound of London, the Artificial Intelligence generation, Slater's 7th Plain was a response to those hallucinatory, spiritual, but still social spaces at the heart of underground communities - and the magic is still strong in it.

Aside from the special vinyl boxset (6x12' LP), which includes Chronicles I - III, limited edition stickers, an essay by Joe Muggs and a complete download code, all releases are available individually on CD, 2xLP and for the first time in digital formats.

Art-aud is thrilled to present you a big thing. Its been in the work for a while, a project collaboration with the historical Italian label, Interactive Test. Founded in '91 from the crazy minds of the two brothers Franco and Riccardo Falsini, it was one of the first real underground imprints to born in Italy and to propose an innovative sound at the time, that soon after exploded all over the world more and more. With almost 40 releases done in a few years, the two brothers have really created an empire, a stronghold in the hills of the belle Florence. Now, after more than 25 years, we have decided to bring back the light to what for us are the most significant tracks and visions from their world, sign of a past but still very current present and future, in a sort of "greatest hits" vinyl compilation. Six tunes of six different names, and different vibes, taken from different eps (all rare to find now), nicely remastered from the source files by Alden Tyrell.

The debut album "Computerlove" from Belgian/Russian artist Veronica Maximova, sets the scene for a broader vision for the label, while also establishing Veronica as a fresh and important artistic voice on the VOITAX roster. The title of the album describes a generation that is connected more than ever, and yet still alone in a society where happiness is mandatory. The attachment to a screen is instilled in almost every waking activity of a generation that knows how good it feels to share their life with somebody, but also knows how vulnerable and insecure one can become by sharing.

A deep and melancholic journey in a colored sleeve.

Ambient duo Space Afrika offer a bird's eye view of the city centre at night with Somewhere Decent To Live, their keenly anticipated first album on Sferic - the Manchester-based label they run in conjunction with Will Boyd.

Taking gaseous form as a series of dark blue hues and electromagnetic subbass impulses, the vibe inside is delectably elusive. Unlike their previous transmissions on Where To
Now and Köln's LL.M., the pair's dancefloor urges are dissolved in favour of suggestively mutable ambient frameworks this time, leaving the kicks in the club whilst they appear to float overhead like the dead kid embarking his Bardo in Gaspar Noé's Enter The Void.
Unshackled from dancefloor needs, but still inspired and feeding off its spirit and romance, the pair respectfully acknowledge the undercurrents of Jungle, dubstep, ambient techno and deep house which feed into their home city's late night economy,
dowsing their tributaries back to dub and rendering the findings in a quiet, modestly lush ambient haze with a flawlessly anaesthetising effect.
In firm but gentle style they feel out eight interlinked headspaces, drifting like spectral flanneurs from the Diversions-like opener uwëm/creãtiõn to intercept telepathic thoughts from Teutonic friends in the percolated subs and drizzly ambient clag of sd/
tl, before arriving at the most arresting moment in their catalogue thus far with the masterfully widescreen yet immersive bly and its sublimely smeared timbral thizz.
The 2nd half of the record subsequently describes a more inward journey from wistful loops in u+00B1 to the sylvan 2-step of gwabh and curve feat. Echium, ultimately culminating in the echo chamber melt of dred.

Andrew Hargreaves (The Boats, Cotton Goods) channels paranormal music in a hypnotic eulogy to infinity and ephemerality on the Tape Loop Orchestra's penultimate Instrumental
Transcommunications volume, a sublime choral treatment that comes highly recommended if you're into Ian William Craig, Jóhann Jóhannsson or Max Richter.
Return To The Light' emulates a cumulative swell of Electronic Voice Pheneomena imaginatively intercepted from the ether and arranged into a hauntingly affective symphonic chorale. Sharing
conceptual roots with his peer, Sam A McLoughlin's ace Tongues of Light project, 'Channelled Messages at The End of History', TLO presents himself as a sort of conduit, a spiritual lightening
rod or a dark interpreter, who absorbs the messages encoded in the frequencies of ancient light and the electromagnetic spectrum, in order to transduce and limn their meanings to our mortal, temporary vessels.
The results are wonderous, otherworldly, blessed with the aching vulnerability and fragility that many listeners have come to adore in Tape Loop Orchestra's music.

DEMENT3D is proud to welcome Valentino Mora on board, and share with you a part of his spiritual journey. Slow Hyper-controlled Motion has been inspired by Butoh moves, but also is a homage to early New York spiritual house. In creating this record he also took field recordings in the forests of Japan. The concept of Slow Hyper-controlled Motion is to recreate this 90's spiritual house vibe, but in a more experimental way.

French duo Ligovskoi are to release Esam, their second artist album and first on Field Records. It features eight expertly crafted tracks that take the listener on a spacey and hypnotic journey towards inner bliss. Formed by Nikolai Azonov and Valerio Selig in 2010, Ligovskoi once again draw on a sound palette that includes samples, synths, vocals, feedback, guitar and field recordings that merge in a painterly and romantic form of music. It recalls vast landscapes, abstract patterns and poetic movement. The title 'Esam' refers to a small, isolated mountain located on the moon, and the album is a journey to a similarly otherworldly landscape absent of human life. It features free improvisations, repetitive patterns and experimental materials that convey a wide range of emotions and styles from weightless shiny atmospheres to dark, heavy and swarming textures, leading the listener to deep contemplation. 'We spend a lot of time exchanging thoughts and feelings about the experiences we had while creating and listening, like old friends looking at clouds and discussing the shapes they see. By publishing our music, we hope that listeners will recognise their own feelings and that they will understand or feel something in common with us.' From sombre musical landscapes made from lingering drones to more uplifting, light emitting tracks, this is a slow burning but high impact album. Tracks like 'Behaim' suspend you in comforting sound, the title track prompts inward reflection and the likes of 'Cortage' is the sound of being listen to the heavens. Esam is a transportive, thoughtful album that takes you deep into a unique musical world.

Kamazi is a freshly coined moniker of Andy Hart, the founder of Voyage Recordings and now contributor to Deep Sound Channel."Inner M31" premieres three tracks rooted in the world around us. The whispering "Aerocentric" introduces the EP. Broad sonorous strokes are met by bubbling bass and skittering beats as Hart creates a work of pure immersion. Drums are bolstered in "Flight Inertia." Amidst the glazed rinses and metallic sheen runs a line of deep melody, beautifully fragile strings cutting through the trembling resonance of air and speed. The finale comes in the form of "LOx." Returning to nature, Kamazi crafts an ambient work of embracing warmth, shimmering chords and stargazing hope. From the bucolic to the urban, Hart sculpts atmopheric and intimate music with a tenderness of touch that is simply unique. First run on solid blue vinyl.

Snuffo is super excited to present you In The Dark Again 10. This very special vinyl release contains songs by the maestro Iron Blu and the very talented Federico Leocata. It's like a soundtrack to an imaginary movie, truly music made for dreaming.

Iron Blu (aka Mick Clarke) is a UK producer, DJ and broadcaster on Intergalactic FM and Living In The City Radio. He runs the labels Flight Recorder and Weapons Of Desire. His production career spans more than three decades and the genres of krautrock/cosmic, post-punk and electro funk. Iron Blu was also original member of postpunk electronic band Naked Lunch. For In The Dark Again 10, this legend created three magic pieces calling up the tradition of artists like John Carpenter, Brian Eno or Vangelis, while making his own mark.

The second man on the release, Federico Leocata, is an Italian audio-visual artist. His beautiful and dark work has been shown in Athens, Thessaloniki and Catania, and released on labels like Frustrated Funk, Abstract Forms, Central Processing Unit or Shipwrec. Leocata's two tracks for In The Dark Again 10 are emotional and sinister pieces, that round out this record wonderfully.

Very Special And Highly Limited Project From The Fundamental Records Camp, Produced By Different Artists That Will Remain Anonymous If They Choose To. Words About The Project: ''the Main Aim Of This Project Is, On The One Hand, To Provide The Artist With Complete Anonymity In Order To Create In Absolute Freedom And, On The Other Hand, To Offer The Listener The Work Of The Artist Without Any External Distortions. The Use Of Words To Describe Or Define Music Is A Senseless Task. Most Of The Time The Intention Of Descriptive Text Is Not To Shed Light On The Work Of The Artist, But Rather To Serve As A Promotional Tool To Drive Sales And Increase Recognition. This Often Has The Unfortunate Result Of Limiting The Creator And His Work. Music Is All We Need, Any Other Additives Are Completely Dispensable. This Project Is Also A Tribute To The Legendary James Stinson, An Artist Who Was Blessed With The Gift Of Creating With A Mind That Was Completely Free From Prejudices. He Took His Music Beyond The Imaginable. Beyond Any Name, Label Or Genre.''

Kingdoms welcomes Finnish composer, producer, visual artist and filmmaker Hannu Karjalainen. His recording career now spans over a decade, beginning under the pseudonym Hannu and later under his full name for 'A Handful Of Dust Is A Desert' on Karaoke Kalk. Now, this seven track mini album on Francis Harris' Kingdoms sees Karjalainen continue his explorations in new directions - touching on field recordings, soundscapes and esoteric instrumentation to build a truly meditative and moving record. 'Drift' begins with 'Sermon to the Birds', featuring beautiful plucked strings and ambient atmospheres, before 'Carnivorous Flower' casts us into enormous otherworldly dronescapes. 'Untitled #34' brings about a beat of sorts, but deeply deconstructed to a crawl, allowing acres of space between the hits and sub bass pulses. 'Sunless' is, conversely, a ray of light - bright, weightless pads provide the feeling of being completely cut adrift. Segueing into 'Nightfall', the tones become a little duskier and more intense, building throughout the track. 'That Obscure Object' is another trip into the space, as white noise and fragments of melody intersect. The album ends with 'The Nile' - a treated piano plays a haunting melodic sequence, seemingly suspended in air. It's a beautiful, emotional conclusion to an album that encourages the listener to take the time to experience its many pleasures.

The new album from Danish electronic trio System is a special kind of collaborative effort with piano magician Nils Frahm. His purpose-built improvisations on synth, organ and piano served as source material for the members of System (Thomas Knak, Anders Remmer & Jesper Skaaning), who merged his warm acoustic tones with their minimalist digitalism and set out to translate their distinctive clicks 'n' cuts electronics into vivid soundscapes. Over two years in the making, the resulting nine tracks are as sonically intriguing as they are touching. Ranging from the mellow bliss of the title track to echoes of 90's and 2000's electronica and ambient sequences frequented by mesmerizing movements and sounds. The blending of piano and digital tones and noises into emotive pieces might instantly recall the work of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, though System and Frahm come to quite different results.

Thomas Knak met Nils Frahm at one of his concerts in Copenhagen. They stayed in touch, exchanging thoughts and ideas. Two years later, Anders Remmer was also introduced to Nils. From then serious ideas for a collaboration formed. As Nils was a fan of System's self-titled debut album (released in 2002 via Pole's Scape label) their talks centred around Dub and minimalism, elements that constitute most of System's music as well as their side and solo projects. This in mind, System began producing sketches and brought them to Nils´ Durton Studio in Berlin in December 2015, where they recorded ten hours of him playing keys and effects to their drafts. Back in Copenhagen, they decided to change direction. - As Nils had told us about his fascination with our debut album, we tried to rediscover this minimal clicks 'n' cuts era. But hearing Nils playing to our rhythmic beds, we felt the need to scrap those beats and instead head in a more cinematic direction.'

So they started building new pieces from the Durton recordings, maintaining some of the minimal and static quality while new layers of synth sounds and noises created a richer and more organic quality compared to older System albums. The solo projects of Thomas (Opiate), Anders (Dub Tractor) and Jesper (Acustic) always relied on steady beats or rhythmic material, so the productions of 'Plus' with their focus on acoustic and melodic elements, ambient layers and cinematic moods, sees them pushing forward into new areas.

This way, the trio avoided copying what they had already done years ago, when they built a reputation as Denmark's prime originators within electronic music in the 90's and 2000's. 'Plus' is a triumphant example of collaborative experimentation and may be the dawn of a new era for System: - For us it was really satisfying to focus more on actual sound rather than rhythmic aspects. There is a lot of potential in this field, so it would only be natural for us to pursue this, maybe as a series of collaborations with other people who's music we admire.'

achim Nordwall marks 20 years of his iDEAL label with 'The Black Book', a blinding sweep of original material from JASSS, Stephen O'Malley, Ramleh, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Carlos Giffoni &
Prurient, Ectoplasm Girls, JH1.FS3, JS Aurelius, Autumns, John Duncan, and many more.The story of iDEAL starts out in London 1998, when Nordwall was living the hardscrabble life: working in an underwear shop near Liverpool Street station; living in a filthy Bayswater apartment; scoring industrial records from the Music and Video Exchange; getting drunk in cheap pubs, and dreaming of starting a new record label and platform. He called it iDEAL, and 180 releases, 20 years later, it has become an invaluable node for non-standard, wayward expressions of modern electronic noise in all its mutable variation.
iDEAL's success and longevity may well be down to the way that Nordwall treated it as a social and artistic home, offering a place where mutually exclusive styles could bed down away from the
mainstream or the genre police, and feed into a much larger, work-in-progress definition of fringe music. 'The Black Book' extends, in the spirit of the label, an idealised compilation of disparate possibilities connected by a sense of musical mystery and chaotic energy.
To focus on just a few highlights, the ever unpredictable JASSS makes a notable inclusion with the serene vignette of LP opener, 'Parental Youth', while Jim O'Rourke unfurls 17 minutes of gloaming post-industrial drone with 'In Regards'. Label friend Jonathan Uliel Saldanha contributes the tense, searching horns of 'Siren Frontier', and Ectoplasm Girls cook up the grim, thrumming electronics of 'Neuropean'. John Duncan parses the airwaves to find the curdling organism of 'Shortwave6', and Frederikke Hoffmeier (Puce Mary) and Jesse Sanes seduce with the narcotic drone-pop of 'At The Bottom Of The Night' as JH1.FS3, alongside a powerful rhythmic oddity from Stephen O'Malley,
a stark death rattle from Trepaneringsritualen as Týr × Reið × Vend with 'nd þau né átto, óð þau né hfðo', and Norn Iron's Autumns 'Lose It' on a mucky acid 'floor swille.

Long live iDEAL!

Boomkat Editions is honoured to present a first vinyl edition of Akira Rabelais' sophomore album, 'Eisoptrophobia' a spellbinding, uniquely decayed rendering of solo piano pieces by Erik Satie and Bela Bartók. The 2001 release forms a poetic farewell to the
20th century and a bittersweet embrace of new technological possibility. It's required listening for lovers of The Caretaker's haunted ballroom elegies, Stephan Mathieu's electro-acoustic microphony, or indeed the original, classical pieces.
First released in 2001 on CD by Ritornell, a sub-label of Mille Plateaux, 'Eisoptrophobia' is an early iteration of Akira applying his Argeïphontes Lyre software to classical music, and opening a fascinating schism between the original object and his modern, subjective perspective in the process. This process would also generate rarified and haunting results on Akira's 'Spellewauerynsherde' (2004) CD, which was coincidentally issued on vinyl by Boomkat Editions for the first time in 2017.
The original piano recordings of Satie and Bartók pieces were made at Wave Equation Studios in Hollywood, California, and subsequently transformed with Argeïphontes Lyre, Adobe After Effects, SoundHack, Peak, and Pro Tools with beautifully elusive results.
The recognisable melodies here ring out in myriad new ways, sometimes fractured and indented by patinas of crackle that echo the original contours, while, at other times, they're smudged into mind-bending obfuscation or spectral, timbral thizz. They have
the uncanny capacity to resemble exhumed artefacts, dug up after decades of decay, and riddled with potently psychedelic mycelium ready to spore on the listener's mind.
In its unique process and disjointed effect, 'eisoptrophobia' is arguably an album without precedent, and one that never ceases to yield anything less than a deeply reflective, perhaps even transformative experience with keener ears.

a1 | Notturno
a2 | Troisième Gnossienne
a3 | Aphorisming, Second
a4 | Rhythme Bulgare
a5 | Aposiopesis
a6 | En Y Regardant À Deux Fois
b1 | Gymnopedie No. 1
b2 | Gymnopedie No. 2
b3 | Gymnopedie No. 3
b4 | M2s Broken & Together
b5 | Berceuse
b6 | Bociumeana
c1 | Cinquième Gnossienne
c2 | Première Gnossienne
c3 | Aphorisming, First
c4 | Notturno (Lovely)
d1 | Quatrième Gnossienne
d2 | Aphorisming, Third
d3 | À L'Orientale
d4 | Impromptu In Second Person
d5 | m2s M7s (Fragmented)
d6 | Pe Loc
d7 | Sarabande No. 2

Emile Facey (Plant43) has been at the forefront of electronic for more than twelve years. During that time the British producer has released on a host of seminal labels, expanding his style and sound in new directions. Although Plant43 is typically classified as a purveyor of electro, behind those driving rhythms and steely percussion a tenderness has always been present, an emotion expressed in lilting melodies and complex harmonies. It is these melodies and harmonies that come into focus on Plant43's debut ambient album. On "From Deep Streams" is a rich and textured tapestry of synth work, a soundtrack that organically unfurls from nightime woodland walks and city stargazing to mindful solitude. The eight tracks offer the listener a calming journey into stillness, an excursion through gentle audio currents and a moment to pause and take in an inspiring vista of sound. Recorded over the space of 3 months, this album gives the quiet, the subtle and the sometimes underappreciated centre stage whilst casting light on yet another side of Emile Facey's ever-evolving music.

The latest work from Ulwhednar (Abdulla Rashim & Varg) scans the club for afflicted movers with variations of overcast fervour. It's cavernous anguish seen with dilated pupils, marking a mood that's as hostile to hedonism as it is holding you to its tactics.

Tallinn duo MAVA & NEBUKAT deliver four tranquil cuts on Estonia's LIITHELI, featuring remixes by Leleka founder VAKULA and 1212a alongside label boss ALI ASKER.
Mava and Nebukat have been an important part of the Estonian underground scene for some time, promoting parties and DJing in and around the capital. Their grafting has seen them join up with Green Village producer Ali Asker, who launched LIITHELI in 2016 to focus on local talent with early offerings from himself and fellow Estonian N1MA.
First up, 'Polymer' immediately grips us with rising tension - progressive synth-lines and fluttering percussion becomes the main focus here. 'Ambient Track' provides synthetic luscious melodies harmonising delightfully with the broken-beat drums.
1212a and Ali Asker's remix of 'Polymer' offers a captivating dubbed-out theme throughout, balancing delicate minimalism, with breezy atmospheres. Ukrainian producer Vakula presents a heavenly six-minute healer through precise, fluid pulsations and intriguing, melodic sound design.

Since the release of their album Wonderland a couple of years ago, Demdike Stare have been recording material for this new doublepack Passion; an asymmetric re-imagining of UK club styles taking in frenzied drum trax, shortwave jungle, pinging dancehall and clipped, post punk riddims. During this time they've been busy curating their DDS label (inc releases from Shinichi Atobe, Mica Levi, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and Equiknoxx, among others) and have been commissioned by both the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and the surviving members of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to mine and rework their archives. Enlisting visual artist Michael England (Autechre, Gescom, Leila), they've created a cinematic accompaniment for their collaborative live shows, resulting in the image which adorns this cover - a hybrid/composite portrait exploring/questioning the current use of software in creating hyper reality and the manipulation of the self. The accompanying film Includes documentary footage filmed at a Voguing event in NYC, Blackpool promenade and a Newark, New Jersey roller rink, the end result smudgng the lines between live performance, documentary and sonic cinema. It's an idea that's echoed on Passion, continuing a process Demdike began on their Testpressing series of dismantling lines between analogue and digital realms, between urban realism and fantasy, between experimental, pop and soundsystem cultures. An outlandish configuration of avant-garde and ultimately functional club weapons designed and honed for the weightiest bassbins, it's also their most direct and fucked up record to date - a raucous, joyful 9-track smash that comes off like a night on a glamorous, neon-lit bender.

Christoph de Babalon places his revered sound design skills at the service of dread-filled dramaturgy in 'Teyas', an abstract opera written in collaboration with Warsaw sisters Antonina Nowacka and Bogumila Piotrowska, a.k.a. WIDT.

Reframing De Babalon's patented palette of diaphanous atmospheres and blood-dripping jungle breaks with a more theatrical purpose, 'Teyas' is a logical extension of his interests in macabre and gothic themes. Working in the shadows of rave, dark ambient and classical theatrical scores, the possessed presence of WIDT really sets this side apart, out there with de Bablon's most memorable releases such as his recently reissued 'If You're Into It, I'm Out of It' classic.

Both WIDT and De Babalon bring a strong visual sensibility to 'Teyas' that vividly speaks to sound-to-image synaesthesia, with vocals detached and processed into an ungodly array of shapes and set against some of de Babalon's most precise stage mise-en-scene, adding up ot the kind of sound that doesn't struggle to suspend the listeners disbelief.

The result is 5 stunning parts of fathomless electro-acoustic space and sparingly-used percussive rushes shaded and kerned into a captivating narrative that's highly recommended to fans of everything from Jani Christou to Maja Ratkje, Sophia Loizou to Kreng.

Re-issue of the valuable Schematic classic, with additional Prins Thomas Remix.

Fourth release on Kutiman's own record label Siyal Music following the sold out 'Space Cassava EP', 'White Monkey' 45 and '6am' album.
In the era of the brand, KUTIMAN is an anomaly. A musician who's a video artist who's a producer who's an animator who's also the unwilling star of one of Israel's most successful recent documentaries, his every record contrasts with whatever it was that came before. But that's fundamental to his appeal: no one, not even him, really knows what to expect next. Unsurprisingly, therefore, DON'T HOLD ON TO THE CLOUDS is no different, which means it's like nothing he's ever done. Most artists would acknowledge this by working under pseudonyms, but KUTIMAN is - yes, you've guessed it - different again.
Kutiman's upcoming LP DON'T HOLD ON TO THE CLOUDS is comprised of just four tracks -- the shortest of which, 'Lucid dream', still clocks in at almost eight minutes - it orbits within reach of, among other styles, Ambient, Electronica, Minimal and New Age, but refuses to settle on merely one. The A-Side features the airy 'Behind the noise' and 'Unknown', reeling the listener into a deep and meditation. Flip it over to the B-Side and you'll find 'Mineral' and 'Lucid dream' inducing an ethereal state. This new record is unusual to Kutiman's typical style, revealing his love for the sounds of Terry Reilly, Moondog, Alice Coltrane and William Basinski.
Recorded live by KUTIMAN over the course of the last year, the album also draws upon his growing love for Indian music, and, alongside extensive use of a Juno 6, features his first, unorthodox use of a tabla he received from his mother. DON'T HOLD ON TO THE CLOUDS is meditative and enigmatic, like nothing he's done before. 'I hope it will offer peace,' he smiles, adding hurriedly, 'not in a big global way, but just as a break from reality. If anyone feels like head banging, I'll be happy as well, but it actually helps me fall asleep. I can't say that about any other record I've made.'

Portland, Oregon resident Mary Sutton's solo debut materialized in the wake of a performance she gave at a clothing-optional soaking-pool sauna: 'I had never composed for synth before but wanted to make something people sitting motionless and naked in hot bubbly water would want to hear.'
It was while in this headspace that she reconnected with Satie's entrancing cyclical motifs, particularly the way 'he subtly spins melodic fragments, and pivots harmonies and phrases so the repetitions feel new and surprising yet soothingly familiar, as if casting a spell.'
The nine intuitive instrumentals comprising The Deep End accomplish exactly that, threading complementary shades of soft-hued hypnosis, dazed modal introspection, icy amusement park reverie, and lunar lullaby into a prismatic suite of contemplative melody and synthetic communion.
Sutton's songs are active rather than ambient yet their structure is more suggestive than scripted, full of lulls, asymmetries, and daydreams. Each track was written specifically to be played live on an analog synthesizer, with no overdubs or post-production wizardry. The sound of Saloli is one of warm-blooded wiring, turned on and tapped into, emotive and electric, storied machines speaking through all too human hands.

The third solo record by Skymn further articulates the width of his artistry by taking us on a melancholic night ride across retro-futuristic skylines and dimly lit neon roads.

The record has received early support from artists such as Claudio PRC, Deepbass, Ness, Svreca, Artefakt, Etapp Kyle, I/Y, Iori, Jonas Kopp, Kwartz, Rasmus Hedlund, Samuli Kemppi, Takaaki Itoh, Eric Cloutier, Conrad van Orton and S100 to name a few.

Joachim Nordwall and Henrik Rylander pound out a powerful new Saturn And The Sun album on the former's iDEAL Recordings, following up an album for The Tapeworm and the death of their
band, The Skull Defekts, with a monotonous, harsh missive from the cold North.
Recorded at the legendary Gothenburg Sound Experiment in 2017, 'In Love With The Extreme' finds the duo explorating core influences, consolidating everything from '60s minimalism to
early techno and tribal musics into a densely textured, future-primitive sort of rhythmic noise possessed with mesmerising traction and troubling distortion.
With brute force and admirably unrefined, intuitive intent, the pair palm out four hot streaks of molten electronics, fulminating tarry basses and noxious clouds of buzzing metallic overtones
with pineal-pinching effect. This approach manifests stealthily in the subliminal transition from viscous atonal roil to undulating noise techno on opener 'In Love With The Extreme', while the bitter
thizz and grungy bass distortion of 'Saturn War Chant' feels like a slowed-down, ancient Viking battle cry to alien foe.
On 'Cross The Line' they invoke the elemental might of Mika Vainio in a hauntingly gutted and head-engulfing tract of high-register stress and sickly subharmonics, and again the charred electronics of 'Pleasure Is Relief' clearly nods to their departed peer's Pan Sonic output.
Killer.

Mary Jane Leach has played an instrumental role in NYC's pioneering Downtown avant-garde community since the 1970's, working alongside peers including Arthur Russell, Ellen Fullman, Peter Zummo, Philip Corner and Arnold Dreyblatt, as well as devoting years to the preservation of Julius Eastman's legacy since his death in 1990. Her vinyl debut Pipe Dreams arrived last year via the Blume imprint. For (f)lute songs, Modern Love is honoured to bring together four pieces composed for flute and voice, spanning a period of over 30 years and triggered by a fascination with sound and performance. As Mary Jane explains: 'In the late 1970's I was practicing playing and singing with tapes that I had made of myself performing long sustained tones. It had started out as an exercise in intonation, and ended up with a fascination for sound phenomena: difference, combination, and interference tones. The first piece I wrote for an instrument that I couldn't play was Trio for Duo (1985), for live and taped alto flute and voice. I had noticed that my voice matched the sound of the bottom fifth of the alto flute, and so the voice in this piece is sung to sound as much like an alto flute as possible. By using glissandos, more 'extra-notated' sounds are created than appear on the page. Bruckstu¨ck (1989) was originally written for eight sopranos, but is played on flutes on this recording - using the same pitches, but sounding very different. The piece is polyphonic, with a lot of closely resolving intervals - primarily major and minor seconds. I initially wrote Dowland's Tears (2011) for nine flutes, thinking of it as a recording project and not a concert piece (it now has a 'solo' tenth part added), while Semper Dolens (2018) is for solo and six taped flutes, with sustained harmony and dissonance in mind'. These four recordings feature noted Roman flutist Manuel Zurria, who has worked with some of the most important composers around the world. In 1990 he founded Alter Ego, a leading group for contemporary music in Italy. Numerous composers have written pieces for him, and he has expanded the repertoire even further by re-orchestrating compositions into pieces for multiple flutes, as heard on almost forty albums.

Gost Zvuk marks tenth release with a new full-length by Vtgnike, arguably the most influential producer on the Russian electronic scene who is also partly responsible for shaping the label's aesthetics and sonic identity.

During the years of his practice Vtgnike meticulously sculpting a sound unique to himself finding a gap yet unexplored - somewhere between current hardcore continuum trends and the sounds of classic IDM era. But despite falling somewhere on the UK music territories, 'Collection' creates a space of its own - the one inspired by the al the splendors and miseries of Post-Sovietness one cannot get rid of.

Low Jack & Equiknoxx join Dominick Fernow's Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement on a new double vinyl expansion of 'Red Ants Genesis'.Recorded in winter 2017, 'Red Ants Genesis' finds the Hospital Productions boss discovering strength in collaboration following the triumph of his 'Ambient Black Magic' classic, which was conjured with the crucial assistance of Juan Mendez a.k.a. Silent Servant. Here, he works with Phillippe Hallais aka Low Jack and of Editions Gravats, who also tags in his pals Gavsborg and Time Cow from Jamaican digidub futurists Equiknoxx for a killer new version of the title track.
On the tape's original four tracks, Low Jack transmogrifies Fernow's high volume microphone recordings of synthetic field ecologies with masterful sleight of hand in-the-edit, resulting in a
hyperreal detachment and realignment of spatial proprioceptions executed with exquisite textural tactility. It's far more oblique and desiccated than the relatively lush 'Ambient Black Magic' outing,
rendering the stark durational immersion of their 30 minute 'Red Ants (Mics)' split over the first disc, while Low Jack's percussive edits really come into play on the utterly gutted 'Shields Ferns /
Brown Pine Magic' and the slow, febrile push of 'Papua Land (Live Edit).
No doubt one of the biggest attractions here is the curveball of an Equiknoxx remix of 'Red Ants Genesis'. Surely one of the first meetings of Jamaican dancehall and dark ambient in existence,
it's a spellbinding piece of dub physics that demonstrates the endless, mutable imagination of Gavsborg and Time Cow in haunting and deeply mystic effect.Unmissable.