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Erstmalig als CD und LP erhältlich ist dieses Album das Synthwave, Rock, Metal, French House und 80er Jahre Filmsoundtracks vereint. Vector Seven aus Deutschland zitiert mit Vorliebe John Carpenter, Carpenter Brut, Gorgio Moroder, Pertubator u.a.

Almost all great music is bridge - spanning geography and time, defying easy definition. It is the product of collaboration and mutual respect - individual voice, fused within a collective force. These are the roots for the trio Vértice, an unlikely formation by experimental luminaries, Maurizio Bianchi, Saverio Evangelista, and Juan Manuel Cidrón - each hailing from their own discrete musical geography in Italy and Spain. Devotion to sound and craft are the bonds which join. Milan based Die Schachtel is proud to present Besoch Trauma, this remarkable project’s first recorded outing, years in the making and now marking the launch of a new series from the imprint - Decay Music, highlighting inspired contemporary experimental efforts in the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract.

Each member of Vértice comes from a luminous and historic musical pedigree. Maurizio Bianchi is one of Italy’s earliest and most important figures in Industrial music, beginning to issue a wild series of visionary releases during the late 1970s. Saverio Evangelista is well known for his decades longs efforts within the seminal outfits, Esplendor Geométrico and M.S.B., while Juan Manuel Cidrón is one of the great cult figures of Spanish electronic music. Together they shed skin, reforming as one, diving into uncharted waters, while remaining unrecognizable within.

Slow, sophisticated, and a deeply meditative, minimalist wonder, Besoch Trauma progresses like a melancholic dream - the slow wilting of sounds, pondering their own rebirth. Repetitive and restrained piano lines rise among drifting synthesiser tones and textural ambiances, fall away and return, fracture, break, stagger, and distort across the entirety of the albums first side, while murky, implacable sounds breed with flirting electronics and piano, sculpting the vast expanse of abstraction which emerges across the entirety of the second - clattering and droning, filled with air, fading melodies, and rippling tones - the inorganic rising as a synthetic vision of the natural world, and a music which entirely refuses to say what it is.

Two slow burning sides, unfolding with greater depth at every turn, across Besoch Trauma Bianchi, Evangelista, and Cidrón, joined as Vértice, build rich tapestry of creatively challenging sound - a hypothetical imagining of historic minimalism and ambient music, bred with industrial and punk. Dark, inhabitable, and unquestionably beautiful.

The perfectly sounding Decay Music records have been perfectly cut and pressed using a surprising thick grey hi-quality vinyl featuring a "decay-like" marbling effect. The overall design is by the usual suspect Bruno, who created a "half alchemic-half decadent" custom typeface for the series. The covers - featuring mysterious and obscure drawings by obscure artists – are printed in silver on heavy matt black paper stock, and hosted in a transparent outer sleeve, on which the typography is silkscreened in white on clear acetate.

Edition of 250 copies and pressed to 180g grey-marbled vinyl, one-time pressing, housed in pro-printed inner sleeve and jacket, itself contained in a silkscreened pvc sleeve.

Ólafsson’s second Deutsche Grammophon album, the pithily entitled Bach, contains a mixture of original works and transcriptions, which the pianist has woven together in intriguing style.The album will bring together atmospheric reworkings of music by composers such as Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Ben Frost, Peter Gregson and Valgeir Sigurðsson – reimaginings that artfully defragment the creations of Bach.
It will also feature a moving and intimate new work Ólafsson has written in memory of his late friend and colleague Jóhann Jóhannsson. Promo: His Bach album from the end of last year is in the running for a BBC Music Magazine Award and he is also performing at the Royal Albert Hall on 1st MayÓlafsson’s second Deutsche Grammophon album, the pithily entitled Bach, contains a mixture of original works and transcriptions, which the pianist has woven together in intriguing style.The album will bring together atmospheric reworkings of music by composers such as Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Ben Frost, Peter Gregson and Valgeir Sigurðsson – reimaginings that artfully defragment the creations of Bach.
It will also feature a moving and intimate new work Ólafsson has written in memory of his late friend and colleague Jóhann Jóhannsson. Promo: His Bach album from the end of last year is in the running for a BBC Music Magazine Award and he is also performing at the Royal Albert Hall on 1st May

Village Of The Sun return today with the announcement of their highly anticipated debut LP “First Light”. Due out 4th November on heavyweight vinyl via London analogue specialists Gearbox Records, the record follows their widely acclaimed double A-side single “Village Of The Sun / “Ted”. Village Of The Sun is an enigmatic collaboration between UK jazz virtuosos Binker Golding & Moses Boyd and electronic music legend Simon Ratcliffe of Basement Jaxx fame. Born out of a shared passion for improvised instrumental music, the new project sees all three of the artists steps into relatively new territory, combining their respective sensibilities to create something all at once atmospheric and danceable. Evocative of some of Simon’s inspirations such as Alice Coltrane, Airto Moreira and Masters at Work, Village Of The Sun embodies a hybrid of electronic beats, heady jazz improvisation, and sheer, raw energy, breaking ground between pseudo-Samba rhythms, dreamy ambient textures, and explosive sax and percussion. The new single “The Spanish Master” is a total embodiment of what Village Of The Sun is at it’s heart. Combining atmospheric synth lines with percussive electronics, which gently ebb around Boyd’s intricate drumming and Golding’s expressive sax. With tension building around every element the track careens into a movement of frenetic drumming, electronic idiosyncrasies, and fervent sax breakouts, which find the trio performing at their energetic, adrenaline-fuelled best. The album is truly a project of passion and exploration, and one that refuses to follow just one path. Tracks such as “Cesca” and “Tigris” emphasise Ratcliffe’s ability to weave shapeshifting keys and electronics around Golding and Boyd’s interplay, changing the mood and direction of the track at a moment’s notice. Whereas the title track “First Light” channels the sound of the current UK jazz scene with Ratcliffe imbuing a sense of dramatic tension and release with electronic atmospherics and keys that ferment alongside the almost shamanic, semi-free sax lines and uncomprimising drums. As part of one of British dance music’s biggest ever acts, Basement Jaxx, Ratcliffe and collaborator Felix Buxton led the progressive house sound in the 90s/00s with ground-breaking albums Remedy and Rooty, and by releasing a string of Top 10 singles including Red Alert, Rendez-Vu, Romeo, and Where’s Your Head At?. Ratcliffe’s own solo work includes the 1995 EP City Dreams and the 2011 EP Dorus Rijkers - both releases prove his musical versatility and virtuosity. Speaking about the Village of the Sun collaboration, Simon says, “I’ve always liked improvised instrumental music. It has this intensity and eccentricity that takes me places.

Violeta Vicci rides a motorbike, is fluent in seven languages, and feels at home in England, Switzerland and Spain. A multifaceted, contemporary violinist, vocalist and composer, she feels comfortable genre-crossing from classical to ambient, multilayered electronics, her influences ranging from Bach to Brian Eno. Her music has been played on BBC Radio 3 (Hannah Peel), Radio 4 Woman's Hour, BBC6 (Iggy Pop), KEXP and Resonance FM.

Since starting the violin at the age of four and giving her concert debut at the age of fifteen, she fulfilled her long life dream to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Violeta has recently supported the Orb on their 30th anniversary UK tour and collaborated with the likes of Thom Yorke, Elbow, Jonsi (Sigur Ros), Steeleye Span and Ellie Goulding. She also arranges the strings for Fontaines DC and writes and performs with psychedelic rock band TTRRUUCES. "We didn't have a TV when growing up, so spending time in nature, building castles in the sand, reading, playing music and listening to fairy tales, played a big role in creating my inner magical universe."

During lockdown, Vicci started "Live Music in Nature" a series of live-streamed concerts performed in beautiful natural locations around the UK, combining strings, voice and effect pedals to create a soundtrack to nature.

She has been nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award 2021 and has released two studio albums to date.

Technology was meant to be humanity’s tool to combat famine, disease, confusion, and to facilitate life, culture, and innovation. Instead, we’re mired in a digital labyrinth that few care to navigate or even solve. Perhaps it’s not a ruse and the matrices coded by keyboard maestros are a path to liberation, but without querying the constructs we cannot ruminate on their affectations on humanity.



VR SEX are audio/visual provocateurs who transpose the identifiers of death rock, synth punk, post-punk, ambient, and ethereal soundscapes into an audit on technology and its imprint on our collective psyche. Their debut EP, recorded solely by visionary mercenary Noel Skum (Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty/Marriages) and initially released as a limited edition cassette in April 2019.



Through PSRS or Procreation Simulation Reproduction Stimulation, humans can act on their hedonistic desires and not face the responsibilities and consequences that come with being an ill-prepared guardian. The future of our offspring will exist in virtual realms and population growth in turn will be stabilized. VR SEX is the cure to most societal ills.



Rather than being emblematic of influences, each song by VR SEX infuses a dire tension that cuts shimmer with fetid frequencies, never establishing an aural hierarchy or urgency. Instead, we’re led into punchy capsules of “dour pop”; the balance of saccharine and sour so emblematic of the VR SEX hive mind.



DAIS Records releases VR SEX’s “Horseplay” EP on October 25, 2019 in new limited edition 12” vinyl formats. Horseplay offers an extension of VR SEX in decay. Noel Skum helms all instruments for this home-recorded release, which was mixed to tape by engineer Mike Kriebel.

Technology was meant to be humanity’s tool to combat famine, disease, confusion, and to facilitate life, culture, and innovation. Instead, we’re mired in a digital labyrinth that few care to navigate or even solve. Perhaps it’s not a ruse and the matrices coded by keyboard maestros are a path to liberation, but without querying the constructs we cannot ruminate on their affectations on humanity. VR SEX are audio/visual provocateurs who transpose the identifiers of death rock, synth punk, post-punk, ambient, and ethereal soundscapes into an audit on technology and its imprint on our collective psyche. Their debut EP, recorded solely by visionary mercenary Noel Skum (Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty/Marriages) and initially released as a limited edition cassette in April 2019. Through PSRS or Procreation Simulation Reproduction Stimulation, humans can act on their hedonistic desires and not face the responsibilities and consequences that come with being an ill-prepared guardian. The future of our offspring will exist in virtual realms and population growth in turn will be stabilized. VR SEX is the cure to most societal ills.
Rather than being emblematic of influences, each song by VR SEX infuses a dire tension that cuts shimmer with fetid frequencies, never establishing an aural hierarchy or urgency. Instead, we’re led into punchy capsules of “dour pop”; the balance of saccharine and sour so emblematic of the VR SEX hive mind. DAIS Records releases VR SEX’s “Horseplay” EP on October 25, 2019 in new limited edition 12” vinyl formats. Horseplay offers an extension of VR SEX in decay. Noel Skum helms all instruments for this home-recorded release, which was mixed to tape by engineer Mike Kriebel.

WaqWaq Kingdom’s intense shamanic live performance, recorded to honor the local gods“kami-sama” at the ten year anniversary of Leipzig’s legendary bass head party Bassmæssageon 26.January 2019.Captured with a battered Zoom recorder through a thick veil of incense smoke, sweat and bassthis hypnotic time warp experience re-connects our animistic roots with the future of urbanneon colors.Stunning artwork by Kiki Hitomi, heaps of new tracks from the upcoming new WaqWaqKingdom album – this limited edition pink cassette is raw live energy directly baked onto tape.

The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was, which follows Thomas’ brilliant 2020 HBO special The Golden One and his Can't Believe You're Happy Here EP released earlier this year, surveys a range of emotion and offers a broad sonic palette, moving between pop punk, electro, and the obvious influence of the singer-songwriters he grew up listening to in early childhood. It conjures the ennui of Bright Eyes alongside the barefaced storytelling of John Prine, the overstuffed lists of Fred Thomas with the lackadaisical humor of Colleen Green, among many others.

Thomas attributes the dexterity of the record to Duterte, who recorded and engineered most of it in addition to serving up plenty of encouragement when Thomas got down on the process. “As a comic, I used to test out new songs during sets to see if the funny bits were hitting, but since I wrote this in isolation I ended up writing lyrics and worrying less about making jokes,” Thomas says. That said, the album’s plenty funny. Stand-out and lead single “Rigamarole” opens with a Thomas-voiced infomercial that recalls his oft-cited lookalike Jim Carrey as the Grinch, before launching into a buoyant pop song about being depressed.

Whitmer Thomas will admit that when he traveled home to small town Gulf Shores, Alabama to record his HBO stand-up special, The Golden One, he expected to be greeted as a returning hero, a conquering king, or at minimum, a guy with a moderately successful career as an entertainer in Los Angeles. “I expected a big welcome home, open arms, but when I went back I realized: nobody fucking knows me. Nobody remembers me,” Thomas says. “In the years I’d been performing that show, I’d been romanticizing my childhood in this mythologized place, but the visit made me see that I’m not really from there anymore.”

The sense of alienation compounded when Thomas recognized how few people in town remembered his mom, to whom The Golden One is dedicated and largely about. Thomas grew up watching her perform with her twin sister at the legendary Flora-Bama Lounge, where he set the special, and still counts her as one of his musical influences. His new album, The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was, isn’t overtly about his mom, her presence is deeply felt throughout. While in Gulf Shores, Thomas discovered dozens of her old recordings, all of which had been wrecked by Katrina, but upon returning to LA, Thomas paid “a fancy place in Hollywood” to fix the tapes and hired Melina Duterte (Jay Som, Bachelor, Routine) to mix them. The two struck up a collaborative friendship, and Thomas had the sound of his mom’s voice back. “I was listening to songs she recorded when she was about my age, just these heartfelt, sweet Americana songs,” he says. “I decided then that I wanted to lose the Ian Curtis voice I always sing with; I wanted to do what came naturally, because my mom always sounded like herself, even when she was singing some cheesy reggae song about, like, Jamaica.”

Thus he went into The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was knowing it was time to retire his darkwave persona, and leaning into his natural, chirpier voice, which he says sounds “like a 12-year-old’s.” It makes sense: much of the album chronicles what Thomas calls “being a kid and feeling like you have no control and overcompensating by being annoying.” “So much of the album is about witnessing drug and alcohol addiction as a kid and seeing what it does to people, but also realizing that there's nothing you can do about it,” Thomas says. It’s familiar territory (see: “Partied to Death”) but the methodology is different this time around; true to its title, The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was isn’t always looking for laughs. Thomas might’ve left his hometown behind, but his kid self is still tagging along, a Peter Pan shadow he can’t untether himself from. The first line he sings on The Older I Get, the Funnier I Was is: “There should be a room at every party where you can just sit and watch a movie.” Find a 12-year-old who wouldn’t say the same.

The France-based Australian Will Guthrie might be one of the most exciting exponent from the latest generation of experimental percussionists. For this edition, the distinctive drummer rendered some materials from things he is currently working on—from cut up of field recordings to some challenging electronics amplifications and live improvisation passages, to several tussles with a couple of Indonesian percussions such as gamelan, saron and gong. All cooked into two sagacious sides of tape that mongrelized free jazz tradition with delicate electroacoustic style. Both sides remain untitled, enticing for some adventurous expectations.

Time and duration are core themes in the work of both William Basinski and Janek Schaefer, and this long-distance collaboration took a suitably long gestation of eight years from start to finish. In that time, our collective perception of time has at times become disorienting. “ . . . on reflection” remodels that instability as an exquisite work of art – one that is unmoored by time or space. Limitation breeds creativity, revealed as an expression of minimalism and close focus. Deploying a delicate piano passage from their collective archive, Basinski and Schaefer weave and reweave in numerous ways, forging an iridescent flurry of flickering melodies. The sounds of various birds heard from late night windows on tour can occasionally be heard throughout, ricocheting off mirrored facades, reflecting on themselves as they continually reshape their own environments with song. “ . . . on reflection” looks backwards, a bustling revelry of positive emotions heard through the aging mirrors of memory. It is a celebratory meditation where sound shimmers through time like the light of the sea’s waves glistening as it folds and unfolds upon itself. Created 2014-2022 between L.A. & London. Mixed at Narnia, Walton-on-Thames. For Harold Budd. Press Quotes: “At its best, William Basinski’s music inspires the sort of rapturous testimony usually reserved for peak experiences, cult leaders and the dead.” Pitchfork // "Schaefer finds peace in discord. His musique concrete pieces tend to evoke an ominous sense of mortal doom, yet enrapture in the process.” Pitchfork

Pioneering guitarist/artist Christopher Willits and leg-endary pianist/composer Ryuichi Sakamoto have carved a niche as central figures in the experimental electronic music scene. Sakamoto, a Grammy and Academy Award winning composer, and founding member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, has had a storied career since the 1970s. Willits, a generation younger, is forging his own prolific path, cre-ating some of the past decade’s most unique guitar-based music and live audiovisual performances around the world. Their collaborations together are feats of peerless mu-sicianship and sonic invention, being described as “two visionary musicians willing to explore a common creative ground” (The Milk Factory). Ocean Fire, their first album together, emerged from the creative depths in 2008 to critical acclaim. 2012 now brings us the duo’s latest offer-ing, Ancient Future, which cements their strength as mas-ters of tranquil ambience, lush piano chords and beautiful, elongated guitar tones.

Christopher Willits is a San Francisco-based electronic music and guitar pioneer. Using his self-designed software to “paint with his guitar” (Pitchfork), Willits creates “mes-merizing, intricate electronic soundscapes” (Nowness) and lush audiovisual performances of weaving patterns, texture, and harmony. A guitarist, composer, producer, photographer, visual artist, and system designer, Willits manifests his creativity into relaxing experiences of over-lapping sound and light. Working solo and in collaboration with the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Matmos, Willits, a Mills College graduate with a master’s degree in electronic music, has released 20 plus albums within the last decade, albums of “incredibly intelligent compositions” (Tokafi) that defy genre in the spirit of beauty and experimenta-tion.

Absolute Still Life is the fourth full-length album by the experimental duo Wreck And Reference. The album marks a radical departure from the band’s heavy and noise rock origins and finds them driving toward a more electronic and abstract dimension. Like past albums, warped synthesizers and pillaged samples build up the harmonic elements of the songs, but the absence of acoustic drums gives this release a colder, more alien aesthetic. With fewer screams and stranger textures than before, the band find themselves alone again in uncharted and uncategorizable territory.

The album cover depicts a sickly still life in which edible and inedible elements mix in an unnatural and unappetizing collage of bright colors. The title reflects the absurdist version of reality that one find oneself in, unable to escape.

To date, Wreck And Reference have released four EPs and three full-length albums. Their first work, an EP titled Black Cassette, showcased distorted fragments and synthesizers in angular, heavy songs, with themes of determinism and Cormac McCarthy-esque isolation. Their debut full-length No Youth (2012) and their sophomore release Want (2014), described by Pitchfork as having “radical vision” and “boundless experimentation,” represented dramatic expansions of their sonic palette. In 2016, the band released their third album, Indifferent Rivers Romance End, perfecting their song craft and pushing their noisy, sample-based instrumentation to its limits.

Nick Leon, Swimful, DJ Znobia. One of the first artists from outside of Africa to sign to Hakuna Kulala, WULFFLUW XCIV brings his borderless productions to the label's ongoing Whitelabel series following a slew of dancefloor agitations from T5UMT5UMU, Menzi & Scratchclart, and others. "Toxica EP" builds on the mutant fusion of 2020's acclaimed "Ngoma Injection", stripping back the woozy psychedelia and chromium ambience and replacing it with pure soundsystem pressure. 'Take a Ride' bends acid techno machinery around rubbery East African rhythms, anchoring block party hedonism with a 4/4 bump that wouldn't be out of place in Kreuzberg and vocal shakes straight from São Paulo. But this isn't a mindless mashup of aesthetics, its a conversation with the world's fringe agitators, using stylistic and rhythmic strokes to highlight commonality, not exclusivity. Hakuna Kulala's own Chrisman appears on 'Tetemeka', and the two producers adapt the syrupy tarraxinha inversions the Congolese engineer perfected on last year's "Makila" full-length. Low, resonant gqom atmospheres underpin the entire track, but WULFFLUW XCIV's squeaky toy synths prevent it from slipping into darkness. Elsewhere 'Kluck' distorts the timeline completely, wedging flute-led Latin American tribal sounds into a riddim vs. trap superstructure, and 'Exp' sublimes speed dembow into delirious trance and minimal techno vapors. The boundaries between dance subgenres are slowly dissolving, and WULFFLUW XCIV's digital-era intermixture sounds like the cyberpunk carnival we're all desperately in need of

East Coast minimal wave institution Xeno & Oaklander’s seventh full-length further distills their iconic noir synth pop into a streamlined suite of gleaming, graceful retrofuturism. Inspired by ideas of synesthesia, scent, star worship, and obsolescent technologies, the duo of Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride began conceiving the blueprint of Vi/deo while sequestered at their Southern Connecticut home studio during the pandemic. The context of isolation, streaming, and remote dreaming seeped into their chemistry, manifesting as both homage to and meditation on a certain cinematic strain of technicolor fantasy: the screen as stage, distance disguised as intimacy, where tragedy and glamor crossfade into one.



Opening with the precision synthetic melancholy of “Infinite Sadness,” the album marks a peak fluidity between the pair’s fusion of analog electronics and poetic melody, both refined and oblique, classic but contemporary. Wendelbo modeled her singing on “a young boy in a choir,” alternately holding notes and whispering them, with the lyrics clear, the voice elevated. McBride’s synthesizers serve as the perfect counterpart, tiered and polished, threading fluorescent architectures of a lost audio-visual age. Theirs is a... more

Electronic musician Xopher Davidson will release ‘Lux Perpetua’ this year via Daydream Library Series. A noted protége of Maryanne Amacher, Xopher recorded these two tracks in 2020 utilizing vintage synths within the beloved music studios of Mills College in Oakland, California. Xopher builds his experiments in electronic sound from a basis in painting, photography, and film, and through an interest in electronic circuits going back to building radios and homemade circuits as a kid. He has built and explored the sound world of a homebrew modular synthesizer comprised of surplus laboratory equipment: various oscillators, pulse generators, filters and an 'analog computer. He has released 4 albums as ANTIMATTER : ‘Transfixion’, ‘Antimatter Vs. Antimatter’, ‘Our Lady of the Skies’, and ‘Reset’. As an audio engineer, Davidson has worked on projects composed / performed by: the League of Automatic Composers, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Subtropic, Diamanda Galas, Kid 606, DJ Rupture, Darwin's Bitch, Once 11, Mix MasterMike, Hans Grusel, Phoenecia, Jonah Sharp, We, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Iannis Xenakis

* Remastered by Bob Ludwig

* Vinyl cutting by Bernie Grundman Mastering

* Pressed on 2 LPs at 45 rpm

* Collector's Vinyl Edition Box Set includes deluxe booklet with new liner notes, interviews, previously unseen photos, plus replica track sheets and studio ephemera

* Limited edition import Japanese press (NON RETURNABLE)


Description:

The first official studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Pioneers of the synth-pop genre, YMO helped inspire the future of hip hop, techno and electro music. The album broke conventions from their sampling of video game sounds to the use of a music sequencer to create new electronic sounds.



Collector's Vinyl Edition box set includes the album pressed on 2 LPs at 45 rpm, replica track sheets and studio ephemera, and a deluxe booklet with newly written liner notes and interviews.

* Remastered by Bob Ludwig

* Vinyl cutting by Bernie Grundman Mastering

* Pressed on 2 LPs at 45 rpm

* Collector's Vinyl Edition Box Set includes deluxe booklet with new liner notes, interviews, previously unseen photos, plus replica track sheets and studio ephemera

* Limited edition import Japanese press (NON RETURNABLE)





The first official studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Pioneers of the synth-pop genre, YMO helped inspire the future of hip hop, techno and electro music. The album broke conventions from their sampling of video game sounds to the use of a music sequencer to create new electronic sounds. The US version features unique cover art and special mixing for the American audience.



Collector's Vinyl Edition box set includes the album pressed on 2 LPs at 45 rpm, replica track sheets and studio ephemera, and a deluxe booklet with newly written liner notes and interviews.

The second part of the yearlong project to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Yiruma’s music career. Opposite to the bigger sized orchestral and string arrangements of the first release ‘The Rewritten Memories’, ‘SOLO’ as shown on the title contains simple piano solo arrangements that has always been loved by his fans. Revisiting Yiruma’s repertoires from earliest days of making music, the songs include ‘Spring Waltz’, ‘Joy’, ‘Kiss the Rain’ and ‘River Flows in You’.

Her tracks have been played and recommended by Iggy Pop, Mary Anne Hobbs and Nine Inch Nails. ZAMILSKA, one of the most original artists on the European electronic scene, announces a new album, "United Kingdom Of Anxiety" – out October 4.
Combining the rawness of techno and the trance-like nature of world music, industrial sound and a fine blend of trip-hop, the Polish producer created a dystopian, post-apocalyptic,
fascinating vision of a collapsing world. "United Kingdom Of Anxiety" begins with a sonic assault. The breaks and powerful bass in "Phantom" awaken from hypnotic slumber, numbness caused by the daily hustle, serve as a reminder that to survive in an unfriendly world, concentration, willpower and perseverance are essential. This is the beginning of a journey through "United Kingdom Of Anxiety" - the new album by Zamilska, a sensitive outsider.

"I’m here to ruin you again," announces a voice in "Mummy," while the crescendo of beats and noise in "Better Off" further amplifies the tension. It's hard to find peace when hell lurks just around the corner. Is it the horror of civilization or perhaps cosmic dread? The answer depends on the listener's sensitivity.
The much-needed balance and coolness are brought by huskie vocals - that is Ola Myszor - an incredibly talented young artist who appears in several tracks on the album. Besides huskie, there are other guests on "UKOA": Natalia Przybysz, who, with a robotic voice, delivers a manifesto of indomitable, proud solitude in "Persist" and Lukasz Pach, the charismatic frontman of the grindcore band Hostia. His growling is heard in the intense, uncompromising "No Gods," which was presented by Iggy Pop on his BBC6 Music radioshow.

The sonic spectrum is also filled with anonymous voices: echoes of quarrels, media messages, sounds of war clamor, monologues - looped, accelerated, manic, psychotic, but also a wistful singing coming from the depths, from afar. The metaphysical horror of Lovecraft on one hand, and the sober, no less gloomy diagnosis of George Orwell on the other, constantly correspond here.
This entire album is a story about society as a whole and the contemporary, dystopian world, which is inevitably heading towards war. The track "1984" clearly defines the inspiration for the artist's post-apocalyptic vision. A distorted radio signal, alarm siren and gabba/techno beats driving into the head like nails serve as an expression of the fear and anger born in a world of impending totalitarianism.

Ziúr's 2017 debut album for Planet Mu/Objects Limited ‘U Feel Anything?’ was widely praised. It was both maximal and graceful, thoughtful but physical music that came out of the 'anything goes' approach of certain club nights she was involved with in Berlin, and stood head and shoulders above other music coming out of the city’s club scene.

Since then Ziúr has clearly been working hard, and on 'ATØ' she has developed a sophisticated toolbox of sounds from which this album is produced. Its rush of clear electronic beeps and tones, crunchy drums and cold metallic stabs share space alongside bell tones and marimba, dhol drums, r&b melodies and rich strings, as if the gritty distortion of ‘U Feel Anything?’ has given way to a bloom of colour. As a songwriter, Ziúr’s work on 'ATØ' has really grown. The songs could be loosely described as left-field pop, but like all her music there is a steely undertow of determined strength. The album features some key surrogates in the shape of singer and producer Samantha Urbani of the band ‘Friends’ and rapper Ash B, who lays down a gravelly response to betrayal on F.O.E (Friendship Over Ego). What’s even more unique about the album is that Ziúr pops up multiple times singing, her voice transformed through effects into a different character every time. On the lead track 'ATØ' her vocals are pitched down to feel like she’s a wise, otherworldly force, or the ghostly childlike voice transmitted on ‘I Vanish’, the swooning tones of Life Sick, or on the last track ‘Mother’ where she intones in her own untreated voice. 'ATØ' has a purpose laid out in its title. Ziúr describes 'ATØ' as a network of intersectional support, a network of mesh to help us through these dark oppressive times: it’s ‘THE ALLIANCE TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD’. The album was made in her words "in support of all people who struggle finding a place in this world, who are having trouble being respected AND celebrated for who they are. For everyone, who is part of resisting the status quo, for all survivors, outcasts and weirdos. For people who fight for their existence, every day."
The record is here to celebrate respect, human rights, love, intersectionality, change, pushing boundaries, bravery, critical thought, genuine support and curiosity. She says of the album, "This Record is not here to please, but to disrupt & to connect us in Solidarity."

Ziúr's music has always been difficult to classify. A longtime fixture in Berlin's nightlife, the musician, producer and DJ has cut through decades of threads to arrive on a sound that accurately represents her journey. She's sung, played guitar and drums and reduced club music to a burning cinder; with "Antifate", her third album under the Ziúr moniker, she approaches electronic music without any preciousness or reverence to genre. 2019's acclaimed "ATO" re-introduced songs to her canon, contorting her vocals over an undulating electronic backdrop. On "Antifate", she takes this idea further, pushing abstracted pop forms into mists of digital euphoria and extracting unexpected instrumental flourishes from collapsing clouds of distorted rhythm. Electronic instrumentation is melted into acoustic sounds and vice-versa, creating a breathing organic universe that's entirely Ziúr's. "Antifate" is an abstract reference to the mythical land of Cockaigne, a utopia where wine flows freely and houses are made of cake, that provided escapist fantasy for medieval peasants. As the space between our private worlds widens, this fantasy becomes alluring once more - a place where we feel free, with the people who allow us that freedom. With this in mind, Ziúr crafts a soundtrack that's fantastical and magical, hinged on the idea of closeness and connection at a time when distance is mandatory. Ghostly voices echo wordlessly over clattering beats and dubwise bass on opener `Alive, Unless?', while the album's title track sings a more epic fanfare, with a chorus of voices echoing into glittering synthesizer pearls and volcanic kicks. "Antifate" is almost even theatrical at times, something never more evident than on the Talk Talk-esque `Fringe Casual' with its dreamy piano and plucked bass and on closing track `The Carry', where flute is introduced into Ziúr's rapidly expanding narrative. It's tempting to say that this is the album Ziúr has been destined to make, but "Antifate" rejects this concept. Rather, this is the album that Ziúr needed to make now, surrounded by the people that have been able to offer her the place to do it. In mapping out her mythical paradise, Ziúr has produced an album that is deeply tender and inescapably human. It's an album about freedom, and she has never sounded so free. The album is mixed by James Ginzburg & mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by Stefan Fähler.

Dauw presents 'babel', the debut album from Belgian duo ZONDERWERK. The duo’s name means ‘’without work’’, but it also comes from “bijzonder werk”, where bijzonder is particular, special, unique. They like to work with images/paintings that are “bijzondere werken”, odd works.

babel is an ambitious exercise in translating images into sound. babel was initially created for the eponymous theatre piece by architect and artist Steve Salembier. Inspired by the biblical legend, Salembier envisions the legendary city as an abstract, sprawling modern metropolis in continuous flux. Its steel and glass skeleton is a representation of both an accumulation of overlapping contemporary cityscapes and a metaphor for the anonymous repetitiveness of our daily routines mirrored by the architecture. Subway lines, sky scrapers and whirling highways converge into a megalopolis of monstrous proportions. Despite the composition’s initial context as soundtrack for a theatre play, for the band this album is seen as a standalone work, whose complex sonic material can be appreciated without having seen the piece.

Their score focuses on fleshing out the imposing imaginary universe both in terms of scale and meaning. One of their biggest inspirations were Michael Woolf’s photographs, which served as the basis for the original theatre piece. His use of grey and repetition is translated into looped harmonies and fine-grained drones that progressively open up like blooming ice flowers.

With sounds of bells and metal as their primary materials, Carrijn and Sanders build soundscapes that are at once seductive and unsettling. The atmosphere on tracks like “DreamArp4Kort4” make for majestic, mysterious synths conjuring otherworldly visions, while the angelic glockenspiel set against subtle explosions in “VuurFeest” suggest a serene yet potentially dangerous place. Other tracks like “RoomCarousselTapeLoop5” create multi- layered textured drones through the process of tape decay, a commentary on the cannibalistic nature of the city.

Resulting from an arduous improvisational processusingold samplers with elements such as the Beam harp, a self-made metal instrument with piano strings, reel to reel tape recorders, field recordings and violin, babel perfectly captures the oxymoron of the man-made concrete jungle that is at once inhospitable yet endlessly awe-inducing.

ZONDERWERK is a duo consisting of Linde Carrijn and Dijf Sanders who started this project during the pandemic as a way of exploring their relationship as creative partners. Carrijn has a background in acting but recently came more to the fore as composer/performer with original scores for theatre and her other band Brik Tu-Tok founded with multi-disciplinary artist Maxim Storms. Sanders is a composer and gear enthusiast, more well-known for his eclectic works that draw from a wide-array of non-Western music. His milestone-album Moonlit Planetarium paved to way to a broader audience and recognition from major press in Belgium. In 2021, his work as a producer was recognized with a nomination at the Music Industry Awards.

A year after the release of Selected Organ Works, Danish artists Paw Grabowski returns to Vaknar in the form of Forgotten Works.

Paw Grabowski is a Danish based artists who focuses on hand cut collage works and has been releasing tape based music since 2007 under his øjeRum moniker.
øjeRum’s music is characterised by a brittle texture and forlorn mood, pieces may often include Organ, piano and guitar elements, as well as usually being presented in the form of continuous intervals.

Forgotten Works was compiled after the label was endowed with a vast selection of disregarded material from øjeRums archives, handed over with consent by the artist upon the labels request.

After going through each piece, the Vaknar carefully selected a variety of compositions which are now presented and aligned on four sides of tape.
Forgotten Works thus presents itself as the premiere release to give insight into øjeRum’s extensive back catalog of previously unreleased and discarded compositions, ranging from his renown organ loops to guitar pieces, drone works and more, all recorded between 2009 and 2017.

The artwork features one of øjeRum hand cut collage, riso printed and presented on a double cassette at an Edition of 80 copies.

Planet Mu begrüßt seinen Besitzer Mike Paradinas (alias µ-Ziq) mit "Magic Pony Ride", einem Album voller fröhlicher, melodischer, von Jungel inspirierter Musik, und seiner ersten LP mit neuem Material auf dem Label seit 2013. Der Titel spiegelt das kindliche Staunen des Albums wider, fröhliche Melodien stehen im Vordergrund, wortlose Vocals hüpfen und hallen, während Klänge sprudeln und funkeln. Paradinas hatte zuvor Archivalben veröffentlicht, kam aber nach einer Reise nach Wales auf den Geschmack, neue Musik zu machen (was ihn zu "Scurlage" inspirierte, seinem 2021er Album auf Analogical Force). Dieser Einfluss, Reisen als Muse zu nutzen, setzt sich in Magic Pony Ride" fort, nach einem Wochenendausflug, bei dem Paradinas in der Morgendämmerung auf Islandpferden durch eine verschneite Landschaft ritt. In den üppigen Synthie-Akkorden des Titeltracks und in "Uncle Daddy" kann man die entspannte Weite des Landes fast spüren. Das Album reflektiert auch über die Familie mit Beiträgen seiner Tochter Elka in 'Picksing' und 'Elka's Song' und 'Galope' in Erinnerung an seinen Vater, der vor einigen Jahren verstorben ist. Das Thema Familie findet sich auch in dem meditativen "Shulem's Theme" wieder, ein Titel, der von der Netflix-Serie Shtisel inspiriert ist. Diese nachdenklichen Themen passen zur diesjährigen Wiederveröffentlichung von µ-Ziqs Durchbruchsalbum "Lunatic Harness" aus dem Jahr 1997 zum 25-jährigen Jubiläum. In Mikes eigenen Worten: "Magic Pony Ride wurde als eine Art Nachfolgealbum für 'Lunatic Harness' geschrieben, zumindest was das Genre und den Stil angeht. Nachdem ich Lunatic für die bevorstehende Wiederveröffentlichung gemastert hatte, habe ich bei einigen neueren Tracks wieder auf Breaks zurückgegriffen, und das ist das Ergebnis!