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REPRESSED !
A sublime and quietly hypnotic work belied by steadfast conceptual rigour, Grafts is the most ambitious and involving work yet from Kara-Lis Coverdale, her first since 2015. In three parts of cascading yet plaintive multi-instrumental gestures, Grafts expands on the processing and self-temperement techniques explored on 2014's A 480 into a more encompassing palette. Uncompromisingly distinct while redolent of modal minimalism, 70s, new age, and folk music, Grafts effectively blurs distinctions between traditional composition and more open, overlapping genres that hover in the half-light between acoustic and electronic refinement.
Rather than anything grandiose or explicitly seductive, the effect of Grafts is best compared with the subtle intoxication of micro-dosing on LSD or the clarity afforded by quiet meditation, in a sense dilating the listener's focus to a heightened awareness of the piece's intricate peripheral tones as much as its melodic centre ground, with a beautifully understated, surreal resolution.
The piece flickers with gentle optimism, never at random, illuminating unseen spaces that quickly gradient into nothingness.Frames of reference are numerous and on the face of it largely disconnected, the deviant pop instinct of Arthur Russell, the organic/synthetic love songs of Art of Noise, the meditative, almost hallucinogenic spiralling compositions of Philip Glass and Terry Riley, the intoxicated minimal romance of Erik Satie, Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto's austere, beautiful sound sculpting....all, and none of the above.In both concept and execution, Grafts firmly resonates with Kara-Lis Coverdale's deeply established roots as an improvisational virtuoso and accomplished pianist as much as her academically informed approach to electroacoustic composition that showcases a distinct omnivorous appetite for the digital. But it's an emotional generosity that proves to be its defining, most intangible characteristic. Never fully coming to a resolution. Lingering on like a slowly dispersing plume of smoke.

The Broken Glass is a work conceived and produced between Austria and Spain and represents the eleventh reference of the catalogue of Sto¨rung Label. In this collaboration field recordings and synthesis processed by Asfe´rico create cyclical and hypnotic structures, which Mia Zabelka furnishes with her violin and voice.
The LP version consists of two versions of the piece, the first more minimalist and conceptual and the second more rhythmical and synthesizer based.
Through a display of distorted and isolated sounds, we are driven in the first version into an deep listening, as if sounds where placed under a microscope or we were contemplating them through a telescope. This approach lets us perceive the bare physicality of sounds in a way which enables us to grasp subtleties and aspects of sound which we are not used to.

The second version continues where the first version left us, but in this piece, we are eventually flooded by hypnotic loops, white noise and synthesis and the experience has a different flavor. Now what we have acquired through the first version, the enhancement of our listening and appreciation of subtleties of sounds, is inserted into a rhythmical structure which acts as a strong current, pulling us inside an ocean full of astonishing sounds.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Jimmy Tamborello has been a key figure in refining what today is considered electronica for over 20 years. "The Seas Trees See" is the first of two Dntel albums to be released in 2021 by Morr Music in collaboration with Les Albums Claus: a free-floating and rather loose stroke of musical genius, giving ambience a whole new meaningful context. It combines crackles and hiss with deep, yet modest, synths and poignant, yet elegant, vocals and lyrics. "Away", its counterpart album, will follow later in 2021. It will showcase Dntel’s unapologetic love for pop music from a long-gone era, presenting yet another aspect of his multi-faceted personality. Dntel has always covered many musical grounds – from the pop-infused hits on "Life Is Full Of Possibilities" (Plug Research, 2001) to his much more abstract works on "Aimlessness" (Pampa Records, 2012), "Human Voice” (Leaving Records, 2014), and his electronics for The Postal Service (Sub Pop). Whatever his style – Tamborello has retained his very own musical voice.

When it comes to producing music, it can be a good idea to get away from the studio and find a more relaxed environment. Inspiration does not necessarily require huge bass bins. Fewer pieces of gear make it easier to really focus on ideas first and let them be. After recording "Hate In My Heart" – his most recent album, released in 2018 – this way, Tamborello continued working in that fashion, mainly jamming and getting ideas together for upcoming live shows. One of the first results of this creative process was the opening track of "The Seas Trees See" – a cover version of "The Lilac and the Apple", originally recorded by Californian folk singer Kate Wolf in 1977. Tamborello turns the acapella song into a vocoder-like extravaganza. Working with the original recording, the track perfectly sets the tone for what "The Seas Trees See" turns out to be – a quiet yet mesmerizing journey through sound and emotion, bringing together his very own sound design, disguised samples and an incredible feel for moods and atmospheres.

"I thought a lot about making an album that you would find in a thrift store", Tamborello remembers. Something "like a mysterious collection of sketches that leaves a lot unanswered. It doesn’t beg for attention or have any big moments." Despite its perfect and gentle flow, it is worth digging deeper, to surrender oneself to all the painstakingly placed details. Whether the beautiful and haunting piano work on "Movie Tears" or the almost sidechained-sounding "Yoga App" – every aspect of this album has been beautifully crafted, often bringing one of life’s biggest questions to the table: What if? What would have happened if Tamborello would have done this on that track or that on this track? It is good that he did not. Small things add up to something great, diverse and riveting.

The subtlety of his latest endeavor is fascinating. It opens up a new world, in which small musical sketches mean at least as much as perfectly produced pop anthems – if not more.

Musically and emotionally, Superpitcher's third full-length studio album, The Golden Ravedays is a one sound autobiography that exhibits the skill, feeling and style that the artist has honed over a period of twenty years, musically, and forty-plus-years, emotionally.

And full-length it is:

The Golden Ravedays is an epic album of 24 tracks that was released in January 2017 and is stretching over 12 respective chapter albums during a one-year period.
The 9th link of The Golden Ravedays chain will be released on Hippie Dance in September 2017.

Where number 8 of the series took us to outer space, number 9 introduces two tracks that are an under-water celebration of all that is good and all that is sad.
Side A features Hiding.

Imagine galloping sea horses pulling a Christmas chariot filled with dreams-come-true past enchanting mermaids, smiling sharks, waving tortoises and nonplused eels, leaving a gifted blanket of mystical sound in their wake.

Hiding stretches and breaks into many layers of listening love without enforcing one particular sound.


Side B features Flying.

The piece is occupied by a subaquatic melody colored by whale sounds and the echoes of immersed guitar strings.

Flying is not about complex development or diversity but the weightless drifting of sounds that create a wonderfully hazy cloud to lose oneself in and fly, deliciously with the dolphins.

Rest assure, the ending is be speckled with whimsical chimes showers, paving the way for the softest of landings

Working backwards from the expanded 2020 edition of ‘Grafts’ and the first vinyl appearance for 2015’s ‘Aftertouches’, Kara-Lis Coverdale finally presents a first time vinyl pressing of her 2014 debut album ‘A 480’, giving a breath of new life to five sublime virtual choral synth studies rendered in the digital sphere.
Entirely made up of “virtual choirs” - synthetic versions of actual recorded singers that were disembodied, disfigured, and displaced over forty times before finally reappearing through a convoluted process of digital reincarnation - ‘A 480’ essentially catalogues the birth of one of the most distinctive artistic voices of our time. Using fine editing, layering, and convolution of the original material to reshape meaning via minute shifts of repetitive arrangements, the pieces here function effortlessly as a sort of environmental music, but really come into their own on closer inspection, where the slightest alterations ripple with something like a butterfly effect to create
cosmically scaled harmonic changes and unique expressions of compressed melodic counterpoint.
The five works oscillate between succinctly pop-tart and stately pieces, and into more expansive, panoramic and meditative parts that offer a glimpse of developments to come later in Coverdale’s oeuvre. Those shorter numbers take in precision-tooled loops recalling Carl Stone’s pop chop-ups in ‘A 480’ and ‘A 476,’ and opiated airborne pulses reminiscent of Stephan Mathieu via Wolfgang Voigt in the darker allure of ‘A 478,’ and act as moments of preparation, punctuation and reflection around the album’s two peaks; the banking noctilucent choral clouds of ‘A 479,’ and the gently thizzing delirium of ‘A 477.’
This deluxe vinyl edition comes with a printed booklet including graphic scores that contain the sources and structuring of the A 480 audio text-files, transformation procedures used to arrange and compose them into their present form, and keyword routes of re-creation. The cover art is by Daniele De Batté, and inside the sleeve you’ll find a blue-cell sticker that can be placed on the grid to recreate the original 2014 version of the cover. to recreate the original 2014 version of the cover.

It's A Funny Old World, And Yet Again, The Black Dog Have Provided The Soundtrack. Our Fast-approaching Dystopia Has Been Envisioned And Documented By The Band For Decades. Now, The Black Dog's Two New Albums, Post -truth And Black Daisy Wheel, Translate Their Growing Horror Into Some Of Their Most Accessible And Impactful Music, Translating Our Manufactured Reality Into High Energy Dancefloor Constructions On Post -truth, And Reflective Ambient Excursions On Black Daisy Wheel.

Long Familiar With The Tropes And Pitfalls Of Esoteric Undergrounds, In Both The Pre- And Post Internet Eras, The Black Dog Have Ventured Deep Into Contemporary Conspiratorial Cultures With A Trenchantly Critical Eye. In The 80s, Conspiracy Theories Were A Tonic For A Sceptical Mind, A Stimulant To Agile Thinking. Today, They Have Become The Stock In Trade Of Mainstream Political Influence. The Scene Has Morphed Into A Rabbit Hole Where Nothing Is 'really' Real, Everything Is A Hoax, And Everyone Is Out To Get You. The Mindset Is Beyond Paranoid, The Discourse So Far Post-fact That Only Opinion And Assumed Identity Matter. Arguing Against Proven Science Is A Part Of The Entry Criteria, And Wilful Pedantry Its Standard Currency. The Impact On Mental Health Is Corrosive: Fear, Uncertainty And Doubt Multiply And Replicate Until The Most Ridiculous Theories Are Invented To Explain The Most Basic Things: Tarmac, Banana Skins, Duvets. Auto-suggestion Is Rife, Where Willing Victims Drink Bleach (mms) At The Behest Of Youtube Videos, Flat-earthers Are Taken Seriously, And The Manufactured Fearful Believe They Are Being Gang-stalked For Finding Monsters On Pixelated Screens. The Distinction Between The Real World And The World Of An Auto-hoaxer Is So Blurred That Reality Melts Away; You're Only Ever One Personal Detail Away From Being Doxxed, At Which Point Reality Bites Back, Hard.

You Couldn't Make It Up, Even Though That Is Exactly What The Conspiratorial Fringe (now One Sharp Corner From The Mainstream) Always Do. The Fact That There Are Real People Involved In This Scene Creates A Real Sense Of Pathos And Anger Which Is Deeply Embedded In The Music On These Two Albums. As Soon As You Start Engaging With People In The So-called 'truth Movement', One Minute It's Painful, But The Next Can Be Genuinely Funny; These Are People Who Are Both On Edge And Upon The Edge Of A Larger Social And Political Reality That, For Worse And For (even) Worse, Defines Our Times. Hence These Two Very Different Albums. Black Daisy Wheel Is Reflective, Often Intense, Frequently Compassionate; While Post -truth Was Written While The Black Dog Was Fully Engaged With People Whose Paranoia Was In Full Swing.

Welcome To Our Disinformation.

Limited To 500 Copies - 180g

Mathias Schaffhauser, founder of German label Ware Records debuts on Third Ear with a 3-track 12". This is 'big-sky', expansive, driving Techno; even the beatless version of Grad Minus 12. Mathias Schaffhauser's Ware Records had a very recognisable sound. It was one of the defining labels of the Cologne Sound, most associated with Kompakt these days. But in the 90s and early 00s, Ware was as significant a label, especially for DJs. This release is very much a good example of THAT sound, still sounding fresh and bristling with good energy.

2x12"

Delsin turns its attention to the archives of one of the great early pioneers of Dutch techno - Eevo Lute Muzique. The label was founded in 1991 by Wladimir Manshanden and Stefan Robbers (who was already recording seminal early techno records as Terrace for Djax-Up-Beats). Channeling the inspiration of the Detroit originators and mixing it up with their own synth pop and new wave influences, Manshanden and Robbers (adopting the Florence alias) forged a bold aesthetic with Eevo Lute, both musically and visually. This was an early iteration of techno as listening music, with an emphasis on expression and narrative over dancefloor functionality, helped in no small part by Manshanden's striking poetry. This double set of remastered, reissued tracks gathers together the earliest Florence and Wladimir M. material, largely recorded between 1991 and 1994, across five discs - the definitive document of a treasured piece of Dutch techno history. Comes with inlay and liner notes by Oliver Warwick.

Nach Ihrem Vielgelobten Debütalbum "penelope One" 2017 Auf Optimo Music Veröffentlicht Die Londoner Künstlerin Penelope Trappes Nun Ein Limitiertes 7"+cd Bundle Als Teaser Zum Nachfolger "penelope Two" Demnächst Auf Houndstooth. Dabei Setzt Sie Ihren Intimen Und Geisterhaften Ambient-gothic-romantizismus Gekonnt Fort. Während Sie Auf Dem Bonustrack "i Can Hear You..." Von Ex-wire-frontmann Colin Newman Begleitet Wird, Liefert Der Enigmatische, Serbische Produzent Abul Mogard Ein 13-minütiges Drone-remix-meisterwerk Des Titeltracks Ab, Das Exklusiv Auf Der Cd Erscheint.

The Eskapist with his second statement of personality, handing in a seasonal Ep ranging from a seriously immersive Opener to the shuffling full-force rhythms of 'Islet Observer', gently flowing tides on 'Brittle' and finally some soulful electrifying alien techno, as 'Voluptuous Brittle' takes us home. This is where the Eskapist dwells, here we find freedom.

Continuing on the thematic thread of soundtracking an imaginary short movie, label founder DJ Tennis aka Manfredi Romano, asks some of the greatest contemporary club producers to take on the task of interpreting this idea in their own unique style. Romano explains that 'the score is a translation of our imagination, memories and emotions into music, with no protocols.' Opening the soundtrack, Vatican Shadow swaps his thunderous techno for a more cosmic and gentle approach, setting the tone for an equally serene soundscape from London based DJ and producer Midland. Japanese Future Terror head honcho, DJ Nobu, layers dense cerebral textures exuding the punk spirit of Life and Death. A similar rule defying energy can be heard by Ninos De Brazil who fuse carnival percussions with straight up old school techno. Both Scuba and Uchi bring the futuristic synths of a space age tomorrow we've all been waiting for. German producer Isolee interprets the task with his minimal productions and Italian producer Cosmo closes the compilation with Psychedelic Soundscapes turning into a distorted gabber missile. As the decade edges closer to it's decade anniversary, Romano proves yet again that Life and Death is a label which evolves through each reincarnation of itself, never failing to impress.

Beautifully Designed 1LP, 180g Vinyl Press kit: Following his Extended Play EP on Other People last year, Jream House is the turbulent and spiritual debut LP of Mark Hurst aka A Pleasure. Blending mathematical composition with an unrestrained studio experimentalism, the sound of A Pleasure charts a space where formative influences confront the most immediate performative impulse. Using a process of numerical transposition, the names of personally significant bands and composers are converted into drum patterns. He then lets loose, improvising around these structures with a variety of traditional and unorthodox instruments: bass and guitar, bowed cymbals, drum machines juggled like turntables, blowtorch on aluminium, to name but a few. With his influences as start-points, he builds rhythmic structures literally in their namesake, blasting their hulls with walls of noise, monolithic basslines and any other jam-yielded shrapnel. Despite the chaos and complexity of the process, the results sound neither clinical, nor garbled. The tracks always find their way to an emotive melody or strong groove. Lush guitar strums and yearning keys ride the high-speed beat of Slow Channel", which seems to soar through cloud-cover as one snaking mass. The Order of Things' folds a cosmic guitar-part into a backdrop of heavily side-chained noise. Arthur Russell' features a neck-snapping rim-shot and crushed snare that splash up the bits of an elegiac vocal part. Through violent and idyllic atmospheres, Jream House jettisons its inspirations like landing shuttles, always in search of new ground. These are songs, not just experiments.

Dead-Cert dip their dusty digits back in Ami Shavit's precious archive for another hemispheric harmonisation of biofeedback techniques and hypnotic synth sonics following Finders Keepers'
reissue of In Alpha Mood back in 2015.
With an enviable private collection of synthesisers first started in 1972 during his travels to the US and shipped home to Tel Aviv, as an established kinetic artist, as well as a professor of both
philosophy an art, Ami's main focus was art that involved technology; in particular being able to give something mechanical an emotive angle.
As such he sought to combine his love of electronic music acts such as Tangerine Dream and Philip Glass and this new synthesiser technology with his interest in the relatively new technique of biofeedback - a process in which technology is used to relay information about the body's functions enabling a change of physiological activity in order to manipulate them. Combined with his understanding of of alpha brainwave (primarily attributed to a function of the brain that deals with relaxation), Ami embarked on an experiment with what he called Alpha Mood - a state in which the brain is working in relaxation and in which he used music as a means of helping induce his own meditative state.
With practically no formal musical training and working in complete isolation of the Tel Aviv music scene - with the exception of allowing cult prog nearly men Zingale and a handful of close friends to use his private studio - over the course of two years he recorded hours of experimental improvised music, or 'sounds' as he prefers to call it.
The fruit of that experimentation came in the form of a single privately pressed LP aptly titled In Alpha Mood. Part outsider electronic album; part physiological experiment; part work of art, it was limited to only 500 copies and distributed exclusively by a longtime friend, agent and owner of a small local record shop in Tel Aviv. Five 1/4 inch tapes (including the In Alpha Mood master tape) represent the only remaining artefacts of Ami's experiments - the rest having been either lost, given to friends or simply thrown away.
Undated and unannotated, these raw studio recordings proivde a rare glimpse of Ami at work in his attempts to perfect his technique and reach the plane of Alpha Mood.

Mana Can Be Understood As A Powerful, Often Magical, Force Contained Within Objects. As These Objects Get Passed From One To Another, In A Cycle Of Gifting, They Retain The Spirit Of The Giver And Propel Themselves Onto The Next Recipient, Weaving A Network Of Social Bonds. In This Light, Mana Describes The Coming Together Of This Mixtape. The Exchanging Of Avant-garde, Traditional And Electronic Music--old And New--between Andrea Zarza, Curator At The British Library Sound Archive, And Matthew Kent, Founder Of Blowing Up The Workshop, Is What Makes Up The Language And Landscape Of Mana The Record Label, And Its Subsequent Arrival On A Cassette Tape For Queeste, Before Being Sent Onwards, As Our Gift To Listeners. Limited Edition Cassette Tape. Jelly Yellow Colorway. Comes In Resealable Bag With A5 Postcard Designed By Fallon Does And Mana X Queeste Sticker.

A Goal is an Image is City's debut LP for Rabit's Halcyon Veil, providing an elusive yet tangibly bittersweet testament to the Vancouver artist's hybrid of experimental metal and weightless electronics. Further to his Arcadia (2016) mix for Halcyon Veil, City distills that release's ideas into 11 naturally tempestuous takes on the digital zeitgeist, ripping away its hi-fi sheen to reveal a reactive ecology of overgrown, semi-organic textures and pranging rhythms wrapped up in chaotic harmony.
Getting right under the skin of his thing, Will Ballantyne has realised a mean contribution to the conversation around peripheral club music and its electronic production, morphing its perimeters between computer game and film soundtrack tropes, soundsystem-testing prangs, and styles foreign to the putative club experience. The effect is simultaneously hyperreal and severed from the daily grind; a simulacra of impossibility animated with physically reactive impact.
Across the album listeners are torn in and out of 'the box', perpetually reframing his sound between naturally elegant and digitally unreal environments in a way that resonates with the LP artwork.
He establishes this upending uncertainty with the gravelly whorl of field recordings, processed textures and floating, Coil-like harpsichord motifs in Provinces and Your Stream, harnessing a sense of struggle against gravity in the buckshot-riddled mass of Pain/Power and with searing trance riffs nailed into place on End Zone like Lorenzo Senni running a gauntlet of snipers.
City's experi-metal impetus bleeds thru most strongly in the glowering poise of Inevitable, and with needling bite in the towering recursive riffs of Ffaith, quite literally galvanised thru electronic process, leading to the record's most captivating, expansive pinnacle with field recordings and sample pack presets diffused into the otherworldly detachment of SAR and his trance dress-down, Immaculate.
As Halcyon Veil's first full length feature album, A Goal is an Image arguably epitomises the label's aesthetic - unflinchingly upfront and uncannily emotive - and gives voice to a true outsider spirit that will be recognised by anyone of a similar disposition.

Ilpo Väisänen (Pan Sonic) and Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM) retitle themselves die Angel for Entropien 1, their eighth LP of electro-acoustic music together, and the duo's debut for Shapednoise's Cosmo Rhythmic label.
Accompanied by skilled improvisor Oren Ambarchi on two tracks, die Angel model a complex physicality through raw, elemental inputs, exploring a flux of reactive feedback processes and mutating, unstructured sonic states generated from crackling fusions of electronics, drums, electric guitar and field recordings warped and riddled with FX.
Taking its title from both the Finnish word and German plural for entropy - in physics, the measure of thermodynamic disorder within a system - Entropien 1 renders seven examples of their kinetic systems in elusive action, keening from arrhythmic mulch to sloshing brownian motions and a brilliantly towering 15 minute exploration that tips into billowing, white hot feedback with scintillating effect.
The amorphous results document and describe a freeness of energy travelling from body to machine and diffused across alternating acoustic environments. Each player works as controlled, external variables which act upon and interact with the different acoustic conditions to tempestuous impact, convulsing between squashed, recursive diffractions in Roha, to the sublimated roil of jazz drums and electric guitar wail in Terminen Kevät, before harnessing sloshing feedback chaos in the combustible, diaphanous two parts of Entropia - both North and South - which bring the LP to its logical, compelling conclusion.
With the addition of Wold or KTL-like metal emulsification and lacquer-bubbling grain in Kitka, and Ambarchi's plasmic overdubbing in the burning plasmic plong of Silvaticum, the overall impression is like auditive DMT, dissolving the senses and the ego - simultaneously theirs and the listeners - to better snag us in the music's metastable potential and aid our unanchored exploration in those dimensions. Entropien 1 is dedicated to Mika Vainio.

Mad, hypnotic rhythms and darker ambient by DJ Neumann. Contactless over Bank Transfer. Zero EUR paid. Brought to you by Funkycan & Max Gee. Double 12 inch plus: locked grooves included!

At night, things get a lot more unpredictable. A stranger can become a friend, you suddenly become intimate with a woman or a man who's name you will never find out, while darkness also allows you to conceal your true identity - even become someone else. Inspiration for this album emanates from the fascination towards the intensity of what nightlife has to offer ; euphoria and melancholy, spotlights or incognito, sexual contact or lonely voyeurism... Francois X entertains the listener with playful ambiguity and unsettling, yet sensual atmospheres.

Always one to explore, Shipwrec have set sail and discovered a new isle of musical experimentation. Phainomena is a terrain for ambient introspection, dream-filled drone and stunning soundscapes. An old friend returns to the fold to inaugurate this venture, Julian Edwardes. Seven works of abstract immersion coalesce to create "Consonance." The Dutch artist journeys into far-flung realms and worlds, sweet silken synthlines and juddering noise being his transportation tools of choice. Off-centre echo and muted delay swirl in these audio planets. Mountains, oceans, unending skies are conjured as notes bulge, expand and disperse. Wildlife buzzes, chirps and trills in this land of sonic undulations, plants are given musical form with modulated ruffles as bleeps of cloud scud across an expanse of frequencies. An album of brilliant brightness, shifting shapes and unearthed undercurrents where expression is as ephemeral as it is eternal, a sentiment captured in Rob van Hoesel's sublime cover work.

Debut by Julia Bu¨nnagel, Patricia Koellges and Tamara Lorenz who have a background in the visual arts. The title SPEC- TODRAMA goes back to a concept by Xanti Schawinsky, a Bauhaus artist who developed his ideas of expanding theatrical possibilities by integrating sound, light and forms as elements equal to the actors. Sculptress of Sound do alike in their mul- tifaceted performances, weaving abstract stories by means of voice, custom-made instruments, bass guitar and synths along with overhead projections, visual effects and objects. Softness meets hysteria in SOS's music: word collage, drony sounds and noisy elements form a peculiar landscape, immersing us into a feverish world where jewels seem to work as some kind of strange attractor and Andy Warhol is being deconstructed.
SPECTODRAMA comes as beautiful 180g black vinyl. Sleeve and inlay designed by the artists. Limited edition of 300.

Conceptually linked to its predecessor Silent Earth from 2016, Refugium delves deeper into the same vision of a peaceful and apocalyptic utopia. Taking an intimate and introspective point of view, the album explores the quiet and in-between moments of being. Using hypnotic patterns, organic pulses and complex layered drones, Refugium is ambient music that spins around its own set up atmosphere. It evokes a pendulum of emotion and thus creates an in-between moment all by itself, a refuge, a haven.

Wælder are moving between ambient, industrial and pop. Their rhythms and soundscapes of voices, obscure samples and distorted field-recordings build spaces of barren material and soft ground, which teem and crawl - strange and harmonious. To present their music live, Wælder are mixing analogue and digital effects with guitar, synthesizers, vocals and loops. Rhythms and atmospheres blur, dissolve and re-assemble. Their live shows are often framed by visuals, generated in collaboration with various visual artists.

What are the best non-physical landfills for discarded thought? Do waves transition between naturally occurring substrates and audio signals? Does adrenal fatigue and replenishment in the human brain relate to cycles of euphoria and dysphoria in music? What is the mental effect of visual versus aural repetition? Is all music fictional? Can the language of objects and memories impregnate sound? Are bodies out of fashion? What is the music production equivalent to a green screen in film? What is the best non-physical preservation method for sound? Is film editing a way of ordering memories? Is repetition therapeutic? Are all films fictional? Have physical forms slipped into obsolescence? Did Erik Satie have an anxiety disorder? Is background music parasympathetic? Are physical players more virtuosic than virtual instruments? Is thought finite? Is physical music a fetish? Is reality fictional? What is the most elegant way to float between corporeal and ethereal forms? Do memories deteriorate and fade like audio signals exposed to the elements? Can thought exist without the body?

With his album IN BETWEEN re:deep presents not only an impressive specimen of his musical spectrum. The artist also merges Deep House elements and experimental Folk as well as extremely minimized Indie Pop into a whole new sound concept. re:deep intensively bends the boundaries of the genres, delves deep into the soundscapes of different epochs and styles. Thereby warmly crackling field recordings blend into analogue basslines and sequencers as well as melancholic guitar drones meet sensitive vocals.
The always smoothly appearing and cocooning sound is the subtle recurring theme of the whole album, which develops a close intimacy and captivates by its analogue warmth, which you can't escape of. Tender strings float on vibrant drums and wafting surfaces. The album features the Japanese artist COKIYU, her voice in combination with the arrangement form a symbiotic relationship and evolve WEARING LIGHTS into a journey through slowly drifting Electronica landscapes.
The field recordings, which were made - inter alia - in Iceland's rough countryside, are particularly noticeable between the lines and infuse the soul of the album as well as the love to detail in general. A total of nine tracks are featured on the album, which convince not only by their sound density and close interconnectedness, but also by the shift in emotions. Music, that is enjoyable at your home as well as on the dancefloor and - after all -just touches your body and soul.

Mit dem Album IN BETWEEN präsentiert re:deep nicht nur eine beeindruckende Werkschau seines musikalischen Spektrums. Der Künstler fusioniert Deep House Avancen mit experimentellem Folk sowie bis aufs Mark reduziertem Indie Pop zu einem vollkommen neuen Soundkonzept. Genregrenzen lotet re:deep intensiv aus, und taucht tief in Klangwelten unterschiedlicher Epochen und Stilarten. Dabei treffen warm knisternde Field Recordings ebenso selbstverständlich auf analoge Basslines und Sequencer wie auch schwermütige Gitarren-Drones auf feinfühlige Vocals.
Der stets weich anmutende und umhüllende Sound zieht sich dabei fast unmerklich wie ein roter Faden durch das gesamte Album, dass durch seine analoge Wärme unweigerlich eine intime Nähe entwickelt und in den Bann zieht. Zarte Streicherarrangements gleiten auf IN BETWEEN über pulsierende Drums und dahinschwebende Flächen. Japanerin COKIYU ist als Featuregast vertreten und beflügelt mit Ihrer Stimme WEARING LIGHTS - Stimme und Arrangement gehen hier eine vollkommene Symbiose ein und avancieren den Track zu einer Reise in langsam dahingleitende Elektronika-Landschaften.
Zwischen den Zeilen machen sich vor allem die Field Recordings bemerkbar, die unter anderem in der schroffen Naturlandschaft Islands entstanden sind und die Seele des Albums ebenso erfüllen wie die Liebe zum Detail überhaupt. Die insgesamt neun Tracks überzeugen jedoch nicht nur durch die Klangdichte und tiefe Verwobenheit, sondern auch durch den Wechsel der Emotionen. Musik, die gleichermaßen im heimischen Wohnzimmer, sowie auf Tanzflächen ihren Platz findet und am Ende eines gemein hat - Körper und Seele zu berühren.

Plr25.2 "spring", The Second Of Four Retrospective Records To Be Released In 2019. This One Is Packed With Robust Sf Talent: Elexos Park (formerly Ghosts On Tape), Lily Ackerman, Caltrop, Memeshift, And Kudeki. Copenhagen's The Hug Also Appears On The Release, Offering A Perfect Segue From Opening Track "sudden Bloom", A Truly Poignant Springtime Ode, To Ackerman's Highly Anticipated Vinyl Appearance Of Her Intriguing Track "bathroom". B3, meen Obat' From Oakland's Creative Memeshift, Is A Blistering Idm-esque Track Setting Us Up For The Next Record For The Collection, "summer", As It Promises Unstoppable Dance Floor Heat (stay Tuned For More Announcements.

Through the Sparkle is a collaboration between French ensemble Astrïd and American pianist and composer Rachel Grimes.
Rachel Grimes is best known for her chamber music project Rachel's, a hugely influential group formed in 1991 in Louisville, Kentucky, releasing six studio albums between 1995 and 2005. She has also released a string of contemporary classical works in recent years on labels such as Temporary Residence. Astrïd is a collective of four musicians based in Nantes, releasing records on Rune Grammofon and Home Normal.
After years of mail and email back and forth over the ocean, from Nantes to Kentucky, astrïd invited Rachel to come for a residency to make music together and play shows in France. They gathered for a few days, here and there, in 2012 and 2013 to write songs in Cyril and Vanina's home studio in the countryside.
The compositions found on Through the Sparkle glow with a unique, connected energy and a pure, instinctive musical understanding. Considered contributions from all sides allow the pieces to unfurl naturally. Each note and phrase feels like it simply couldn't be placed anywhere else in the album.
Charming, gentle and cinematic sounds are found here in abundance. Melodies circle and reveal themselves without force, allowing the listener to focus and explore the depths of what is on offer. Musically, Through the Sparkle is an expansive and evocative album. There is a presence to be felt throughout, from Cyril Secq's emotive tremelo'd guitars of M5 to the darker, more haunting mood of The Theme, to the tension in Mossgrove & Seaweed. Strings and woodwind coalesce around intricate piano and guitar movements creating a wealth of harmony and melancholy.
Through the Sparkle is a record of miniature symphonies, of elegant restraint. A gracious and generous offering from a group of musicians at one with each other and at the top of their game.
- Artwork by Gizeh's in-house art dept. SmilingPaperGhosts
- Rachel Grimes - previously of The Rachel's - this record will certainly appeal to fans of the band
- Astrïd will tour in October to support the release
- Both artists have released on such labels as: Temporary Residence, Nome Normal, Touch & Go, Rune

The ever forward-thinking and experimental Pregnant Void label welcomes electroacoustic sound sculptor Massimo Amato for a spellbinding new album, Lost Sunsets, due in 2019.

Amato hails from Rome and has put out a fantastically innovative and cultural selection of albums that fuse ethnic, spiritual funk and jazz musics made with analogue and acoustic gear. Label head Simone Gatto first met Amato in Lecce in 2017 when he was invited to play by a local electronic music festival. He performed his last album In The Mood and Gatto was so impressed so invited him to work on his label.

This, his third album, was composed between 2007 and 2010 and features collaborations with a series of excellent musicians including Gigi Masin. Tracks feature a mix of synthesizers, harmonium, harmonica, toys and percussions that convey a range of exotic moods and grooves throughout.

An enchanting tone is set from the off, with the heavenly chords and innocent vocal whispers of "Time Capsule" then the rhythmic synth sequences of "To Love The Love". Drifting trumpets bring real melancholy to the electronic glitches of "Dreaming of You", while "Lightwaves" is a transcendental meditation on long sustained chords that empties your mind.

"Lost Sunsets" features exquisite piano notes and glassy tinkles, "Nightflower" is a deeply insular and inward late night ambient track before "Folksong" is an uplifting piece with gentle distant drums and more magical synth work. There is a Middle Eastern feel to the rippling chords of "Blue Petals" and "I Found Love" and the outro is another subtly uplifting piece that is stunning in its celestial synth work.

This is a serene and patient album of richly detailed sound that manages to be stunningly light and deft yet make a huge emotional impact throughout.

"Thanks Simone Gatto and Pregnant Void for being close to me and all the great musicians and friends who helped me. A special thanks to Luca Barlocci and his third eye/camera for capturing the emotion of sound."

Massimo Amato - synthesizers, harmonium, harmonica, toys and percussions.
Imi Gavin - vocals on A1 and D2
Massimo Berizzi - trumpet on A3
Gigi Masin - synth on C1
Mario Fob - reverse guitar on D2

St. Petersburg seeker Vladimir Karpov's first ever release as X.Y.R., initially issued on a almost-private run of 30 tapes via his own Singapore Sling Tapes imprint back in 2012, is finally getting the vinyl treat it deserved, thanks to the Mixed Up label out of Italy. "Robinson Crusoe" takes its name and sonic prerogative from the infamous novel by Daniel Defoe, and somehow anticipated of some years the New Age revival explosion which we all have witnessed in the recent times. Here X.Y.R. established the fundamentals for a signature sound he has then developed over the years with massive release for the likes of Los Angeles's Not Not Fun and London's 12th Isle imprints, while also appearing in the unmissable Jon Hassell-inspired compilation by Optimo Music, alongside masters of ambient music such as Ariel Kalma, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and Hassell himself. Listening to Robinson in retrospective is now refreshing experience, a different trip on its own: far from being just recollected as revival New Age music, and more comfortable with some strains of Italian Library from the '70 (from the nautical atmosphere of Biologia Marina to the arid soundscapes of Il Deserto by Egisto Macchi) here Karpov fills both the island and the novel's plot with a peaceful yet obscure pathos, mixing wild nature field recordings with some of the most beautiful, outspoken and bold melodies - as stated above, not just average "furniture music" for designers. The tracks sequence opens a full sensorial deprivation for the listener, who might casually finds himself caught between catchy motives and more abstract and transitional vignettes. Using nothing more than a vintage analog Formanta-Mini synth and a couple of pedals and loop stations, X.Y.R. has created one of the most singular ambient album of the this decade, now fully remastered from tapes and issued for public consumption. Get lost.

It didn't take too long until CPR and RSOT realized that there is a logical connection between two worlds. Where RSOT defines himself with his warm unearthly loops, floating into an unbounded void while reinventing beauty, CPR comes along to complete these with their more dark psychedelic, acoustic and organic oriented sounds. The "Earth Is Heaven / Heaven Is Hell" EP is beyond logic; it is the conclusion of combining both universes, where space and time confront themselves and will be burned down within the ritualistic circle. The void filled with warmth and sparkles, detached from their original source, a rebirth of natural primitivism.

Memory Disks. Volume Two. Chevron. Jonathan Valentine returns to Shipwrec with a second instalment of his mind and motherboard melting music. This mini album is packed to bursting with ten tracks of acid soaked electronics, chiptune glossed chicanery and retuned rock reworks. Volume two picks up where the first left off as the Blackpool wizard reimagines and reshapes drill and bass, beatless ambient and funfair funk. A catherine wheel is ignited from the needle drop to send a rainbow of sounds and styles spinning and swirling under the shimmering brilliance of Valentine's daring creativity. Stand back and simply enjoy.

Contemplate, reflect, observe and record. Constanijn Lange presents a story of reminiscence and memory, partial witnesses of past and present journeys. Ideas and ideals of what has been and what could have been entangled between complementing poles of drive and meditation. The result is his rst full length album and a personal story that unfolds all its details the closer you get.

(en) While the last Kompakt offering from legendary Russian synthesists SCSI-9 dates back to 2008, when the duo released their album Easy As Down' (KOMPAKT CD 068), co-founder and techno/house virtuoso ANTON KUBIKOV kept himself busy cultivating his own label Pro-Tez Records - and establishing a career as solo artist with a clear penchant for dub-infused soundscapes and ambient music. WHATNESS is Kubikov's first solo full-length under his proper name, weaving airy and iridescent sonic tapestry that takes up where his excellent contributions to our Pop Ambient compilations left off.
ANTON KUBIKOV's special ear for ambience and tonal spaces was always an integral part of SCSI-9's musical DNA that would alternate between tight dance workouts and vast melodic range - but it's as a solo artist that he truly started to explore these spaces, following mysterious sonic trails into foggy, reverb-heavy territory. Kubikov's contributions to the several instalments of our Pop Ambient compilation series announced the arrival of a promising new project in our talent pool - a promise more than satisfied with the immersive sound bath of first solo outing WHATNESS.
Going from the richly layered electronic drones of LIQUID MIRROR or ENTRANCE to the lush ambient dub of OTHER THE SEA and KURT'S FOREST, or the minimalist, evocative piano of OKTOBER and PIA, the album covers lots of stylistic ground, but remains committed to its overall aesthetic of misty mountains and serene valleys. With the endearing APRIL, a true Pop Ambient classic from the 2016 compilation (KOMPAKT 345 CD 128) makes a welcome return, priming the canvas for the subtle bass throb of NORTH and its charming synth bell orchestra. Masterfully refining and extending his sonic pallet on WHATNESS, ANTON KUBIKOV can claim his spot among the very best of today's ambient composers.
(de) Obwohl die letzte Kompakt-Offerte aus dem Studio der legendären russichen Synthesizeristen SCSI-9 schon eine Weile zurückliegt - 2008, um genau zu sein, mit dem Album Easy As Down' (KOMPAKT CD 068) -, hat Co-Gründer und Techno/House-Virtuose ANTON KUBIKOV nicht auf der faulen Haut geaalt, sondern sein eigenes Label Pro-Tez Records gepflegt - und eine Karriere als Solo-Künstler mit klarem Drang zur verdubbten Tonlandschaft und Ambient-Musik in die Wege geleitet. WHATNESS ist seine erste Solo-Album-Veröffentlichung unter eigenem Namen und webt einen luftigen wie schillernden Klangteppich, der genau da weitermacht, wo Kubikovs exzellente Beiträge zu unserer Pop Ambient Compilation-Reihe aufgehört haben.
ANTON KUBIKOVs besonderes Ohr für Ambientes und tonale Räume war schon immer integraler Bestandteil von SCSI-9s musikalischer DNA, die gerne zwischen fokussierter Tanzathletik und ausufernden Melodieräumen changiert - doch erst als Solo-Künstler macht er sich daran, diese Räume wirklich auszuloten und geheimnisvollen Klangspuren in neblige, hallende Gegenden zu folgen. Kubikovs Gastspiele auf mehreren Ausgaben unserer Pop Ambient-Serie deuteten auf ein vielverprechendes neues Projekt im Talentpool hin - ein Versprechen, das mit dem mitreissenden Klangbad von WHATNESS mehr als erfüllt wird.
Von den reichhaltig verschichteten elektronischen Drones von LIQUID MIRROR oder ENTRANCE zum üppigen Ambient-Dub von OTHER THE SEA und KURT'S FOREST, oder dem minimalistischen, andeutungsreichen Klavierspiel auf OKTOBER und PIA erstreckt sich das Album über viel Stilgebiet, bleibt aber der eigenen Ästhetik dunstiger Gebirgszüge und einsamer Täler true. Mit dem überaus reizenden APRIL macht ausserdem ein echter Pop Ambient-Klassiker von der 2016er Ausgabe (KOMPAKT 345 CD 128) seine Aufwartung und bereitet den Boden für den subtil pochenden Bass von NORTH nebst charmantem Synthieglockenorchester. Meisterhaft veredelt und aufgebohrt, ist ANTON KUBIKOVs Klangpalette auf WHATNESS Grund genug ihm einen Platz zwischen den besten Ambientkomponisten unserer Tage zu sichern.

Tresor's newest release features BNJMN on Body Reflections Pt. 1.

The four track EP captures a uniquely subdued mood that resides at the nexus of ambient dance music, and that integrates seamlessly with Tresor's penchant for restrained and dub-inflected techno.

Each track on the EP introduces symmetry and rhythm in the form of organic percussion. "Overskies" and "Enceladus" are more lethargic and ethereal, each blanketed with discordant melodies and arcing synth lines. "Hadal Zone" is more dance-oriented - here, a sophisticated interplay of percussive elements loop over plaintive vocals and soft harmonies. "Syzygy" then brings the EP to a techno-focused close with driving kicks, oscillating synths, and repeating minor chords.

Body Reflections Pt. 1 is deeply illustrative of BNJMN's affinity for creating nuanced and delicately balanced layers, and a culmination of his vast experience.

Delving deeper into the Oubys universe, beyond known and unknown territory. A true trip from start to finish, and backwards!

Pop subversives Beth Roberts and Andrew Hargreaves (The Boats, Tape Loop Orchestra) pose their 2nd album as The Mistys with 'Pregnant Mannequin', following some five years on from their debut album 'Redemption Forest'. It basically sounds like an incredible, saccharine shoegaze/dreampop album recorded to a salvaged D90 tape that's about to disintegrate, warbling in and out of time.Referencing a wealth of pop archetypes via their uniquely claggy, recombinant filter to render a new vision for subversive pop music, Beth Roberts' sugary vocals are smudged and buried deeper in the mix, processed with fizzing textures that only add an extra poignancy and a sense of struggle to the classic pathos of her voice. In key, Andrew Hargreaves lends some of his most sharpened, devastating hooks, bringing their project closer to a polysemous conception of ambient-EBM-pop.
The formative experience and naivety of 2013's 'Redemption Forest' album has given way to a newfound complexity over the five year interim. It's there in the sense of gauzy ambiguity that
oozes through the record's synth, drum machine and vocal construction, with results that speak to a mix of uncertainty and determination, asking and answering ideas of imposter syndrome that can sometime undermine the urge to self-expression.
The diaphanous scale of 'Bite Marks' welcomes us into their distant, yet familiar world, where the tape worn cadence of Beth's vocals leave indelible marks on the mind in 'Womb', and 'Velvet Water' leads us down a pinched ginnel of darkwave pop, to arrive in the stately air of 'Heat Death'. At their most forceful, they're still a pair of tender souls, though, as in the push and pull of tempered rage and romance in 'Cut by Degrees', while 'Celluloid Skin' sees them offer a warm, fuzzy embrace of
shoegaze-pop akin to The Cocteau Twins heard underwater, and the dark blue swells of 'Blades and Boardwalks' and 'Metabolisms' reveals their natural affinity to what was once called Witch House, and can now be heard as a modern form of cold wave or gothic synth-pop - styles that take their pleasure from a feeling of negative ecstasy, an effective inversion of 'poptimism'.