Beats News

MANSUR is the newly initiated project by Jason Kohnen (ex-The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, ex-The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation) joined by Dimitry El-Demerdashi (ex-Phurpa) and introducing Martina Hórvath on vocals. The sound of MANSUR navigates between the waters of musical fantasy and reality - it morphs and blends traditional instrumentation with modern day electronica.

Using kalimba, violin, cello, ney, erhu, zhonghu, jinhu, kemenche, dilruba, bansuri, rammerdam, double bass and various percussive instruments such as cajon, castanets, krotal and various organic shakers and drums MANSUR leads the listener into mystical and magical unknowns, that lie far past the realms of material perception. The result is a new unique sound which is at the same time warm, dark, misty, cosmic, mystical, cinematic and dynamic. It's an escapist journey.

MANSUR are starting this trip with the five-piece debut record called "Temple" followed by the debut album "Karma" in late 2020.

The globe-trotting Robert Millis returns to Helen Scarsdale for this beautifully fragile album of dissolved glass rendered as a collage of recontextualized minimalism. To astute listeners, Millis should be a household name due to his work in the unpredictably diverse Climax Golden Twins as well as his impeccable curations for Sublime Frequencies (collections include the Deben Bhattacharya: Men and Music on the Desert Road and Indian Talking Machine books). Hie previous solo work include Relief (released here on The Helen Scarsdale Agency in 2013) and The Lonesome High for the Sun City Girls’ Abduction Records in 2016. His scholarship into the hidden corners of music across the world has also earned him Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships.

Related Ephemera is an album composed mostly from the hiss, the crackle, the surface noise of 78rpm shellacs and wax cylinders. “Horrifying,” Millis explains “is the concept to record collectors that vinyl degrades and can be easily damaged. however, initially records were considered ephemeral, especially 78rpm records. They were novelties. Fleeting. Entertainment.” Millis intends for the album to be a feedback loop whereby the patina of handling, playing, living with the record will circle back to the original source material. Furthering that metaphor, Millis amplifies and dilates feedback tones generated from his collection of vintage gramophones.

That said, Millis does cite the intrusion of exactly one field recording, a broken toy, and a few notes from a cello. But the construction of these rarified tones, crispy textures, ghostly rattles, and fluid resonance that ripples through all of Related Ephemera has its origins in the tactile nature of the vinyl medium. It’s hardly the stuff of sentimental nostalgia though. Related Ephemera is more an act of time travel, slipping backwards and forwards with the scratch of a needle (Watch out! What pre-recorded needle jump sound is not your turntable going haywire!). The emotional core to the album is that of a resigned melancholy, almost Bergman-esque in its starkness but not without a brief moment of dark humor.

Here is an album that aligns itself aesthetically with Nurse With Wound’s Soliloquy For Lilith, Philip Jeck’s more languid collages, and even some of Harry Bertoia’s sculptural atmospherics.

The vinyl was mastered and cut by Helmut Ehler at D&M Berlin, whose expertise was necessary given that part of the original compositions from Millis’ reworked surface noise were exceedingly problematic to cut. The D&M cut does temper the composition into a mysterious, diaphanous cloud; where the digital-only mastering provides a cascade of insects gnawing within your inner ear. Two facets. One piece of music.

Through Passages of Time by The Hardy Tree is the second LP from Clay Pipe Music's founder Frances Castle.On stunning turquoise vinyl and with unique artwork designed by Frances. This is a limited run of 500 hand numbered records.

2020 Repress

2017 Reissue of "Succubus" - the second work of The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation (the improvisation alter ego of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble) from 2009. Not existing anymore since 2012 The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation now finally makes all long-time sold out releases available again on all formats (cd vinyl digital).Seductive but perilous, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble's session under the Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation name is a new combination of drones and jazz. Creating sensual, murky and dark atmospheres, Succubus' the evolution of this band, with stronger horns and a focus on hypnotic, soundtrack-like material. A deep, dark and yet seductive trip again for the corporation. After the corpses, the succubus. Faithful to the original The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble concept of drawing inspiration from movies, they recording what later became Succubus' while watching Jess Franco's film of the same name. This iconic 1969 movie, with its strong erotic mood, fragmented story line and oneiric photography encompasses perfectly the goal and means of TKDE / TMFJDC, in the way the band builds mesmerizing, deep and otherworldly atmospheres. More jazz-oriented than their heavier first album "Doomjazz Future Corpses", Succubus' leaves more room to Charlotte Cegarra's vocals and Hilary Jeffery's trombone, while the narrative is still led by Gideon Kiers's drums and Jason Kohnen's bass. Additional improvised charm by Eelco Bosman on guitar and Sarah Anderson on violin. Succubus' displays the corporation' in its most macabre yet entrancing side. Audio cinema has seldom sounded so lustful like on this album. Currently founding member Jason Kohnen is paving the way with his new dark jazz project "The Thing With Five Eyes", continuing the mystical and occult universes people got to love from the "Here Be Dragons" period. In a parallel corner - founding member Gideon Kiers and trombonist Hilary Jeffery are conjuring up a twenty first vision of spiritism with Inconsolable Ghost, working together with artists such as the cellist Anthea Caddy, the viola player Zsolt Sorés Ahad and the filmmaker Makino Takashi. Vocalist Charlotte Cegarra went on to explore her ambient and lyrical vocals as part of Psychedelic-Pop duo Charlotte&Magon.
Together with "Bohren und der Club of Gore" and "The Dale Cooper Quartet", The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation through the years have succeeded in creating a brand new genre of music. Time to get absorbed again by this unique and fresh sound.

Sbire Label Boss Isolated Lines And Colombian Producer Gotshell Come Together In An Inspired Meeting Of Minds, Collaborating On 'particule' And 'dual'. On The B-side, Two Solo Tracks From Isolated Lines Complete A High Quality Ep And Step In A Darker, Dancefloor Direction For The Label.

Having Met Whilst Isolated Lines Was Touring In Colombia, The Pair Found Common Ground In Their Tendency Towards Austere Atmospherics And Tense Exercises In Rhythm. Their Collaborations Here Are Mind-bending Bleep Techno Tracks With High-impact Arrangement And Sound Design; 'particule' Recalling The Eerieness Of Isolated Lines' 'obsid' On Tommy Four Seven's Label 47. On The Flip, His Headier Side Is On Show. Alluring Pads Sweep Between The Drums Like An Icy Wind, Making These The Type Of Tracks That Glow Within A Techno Set. The Record Delivers On The High Expectations Set For These Rising Artists And Shows Sbire To Be Pushing The Front Line.

Lixo - The Production Alias Of Alex Hislop, Founder Of Influential London Party Collective, Getme! - Returns To The Crew's Label Arm With New Ep 'cicada'.

The Follow-up To 2016's 'writer's Block'single Feat Trim And 2017's "ida" Ep In Collaboration With Quays.the "cicada" Ep Sees Lixo Explore The Gamut Of Electronic Music With Washed Out Vocal Sampling, Warm, Tribal Bass Sounds And Fluttery, Dreamscape Melodies That Tug At The More Experimental, Exploratory Corners Of London's Club Music Landscape.

With A Back Catalogue Already Spanning 19 Records - Including Key Releases From The Likes Of Lil Jabba , Slime, Trim And Dam Mantle - The London Party-come-label Getme! Have Established Themselves As One Of The City's Key Electronic Hubs Over The Last 10 Years. Formed By Alex Hislop (lixo) In 2006, The Brand Now Spans Events, Radio And Their Aforementioned Label Arm.

Schwarzes 180g Vinyl im Gatefold inklusive Download Code

Following his critically acclaimed 2017 debut album Apeiron, enigmatic artist Noumen, aka Andriy Vezdenko, returns to CPU with his second album 'Obscurium'.

Vezdenko demonstrates mastery in the studio again with his signature melodic, uneasy and challenging rhythms. Obscurium travels down a path seldom trod in experimental electronic music; thoroughly enjoyable and brimming with musicality.

Quintessential abstract electronics.

If you like Autechre's LP5 or Jega's Geometry you will love this.

Die 2CD besteht aus jeweils 10 Fabric- & FABRICLIVE-Exclusives, die beiden LPs erscheinen entsprechend separat. Fabric steht für den Londoner House- und Techno-Underground, ob melodisch von Nina Kraviz, electroid von Steffi oder experimentell von Margaret Dygas. Der neue Resident IMOGEN serviert Dark Techno, Marcel Dettmann seinen klassischen Late-Night-Sound. Call Super (Houndstooth) lässt es deep-melodisch angehen, Maya Jane Coles spielfreudig-housig und der britische Dance-Pionier Sasha bestreitet das Finale mit euphorischen Höhen aus Vocal- und Melodiestrukturen. FABRICLIVE repräsentiert das beste aus Dubstep, D&B, Jungle, Breaks und Experimental-Beats. Den Anfang machen Junglist Special Request (Houndstooth) und die D&B-Koryphäen Source Direct und J Majik. Shackleton und Pinch & Trim zeigen die neuesten Entwicklungen in der Bassmusik auf, Daniel Avery und B.Traits ihre Dancefloor-Flexibilität, Mantra die Zukunft des Londoner Undergroundsounds. Das Finale bestreiten zwei der frühesten Gefährten des Clubs, Groove Armada und Original-Resident James Lavelle als UNKLE.

This album features sound recordings of the low-level vibrations pulsing through the megastructure that is the Coventry Ring Road. Built between the 1950s and 70s, it was a key part of the plan to rebuild Coventry after the devastation of World war II. The Ring Road was intended to keep traffic out of the city centre and form the basis for a radical vision of a modern pedestrian-focussed city. However, politics, economics and the contingencies of history combined to produce a situation in which the plan was compromised in a number of ways. Nowadays, the Ring Road has come to be seen as a misguided Modernist project that ended up deterring pedestrians and killing the city centre. The process of disassembling, mitigating, and repurposing the structure is already under way.

To capture these sounds I used contact microphones attached to the concrete pylons that support the road, at various points around its circumference. I was immediately surprised by how melancholy the ring-road sounds. The first track is a collage of field recordings from around the Ring Road. Most of the subsequent tracks take these recordings as raw material from which to build a series of poetic interpretations of the lifeworld of the Ring Road. The final track adds induction coil recordings of the electromagnetic fields that surround and emanate from the structure, including the flittering fragments of the EM fields dragged around by traffic passing above.

Frédéric D. Oberland and Irena Z. Tomažin’s »ARBA, DÂK ARBA« was conceived as the soundtrack for the eponymous installation piece by the French artist Fanny Béguély. First presented as part of the group exhibition »Panorama 21 - ›Les Revenants‹« at Tourcoing’s Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains in December 2019, Béguély’s chemically painted photographs focused on humankind’s propensity for self-examination and its attempts to probe the mysteries of the past, present and future. Oberland’s heavily processed electric hurdy-gurdy, the »boîte à bourdons,« provides the foundation upon which the Borghesia member Tomažin unfolds her gripping vocal magic(k). Their dense mesh of soundscapes and singing mediate between the mystic and the modern, the natural and the all-too-unreal to further examine our persistent desire to decipher the signs we find in nature. As the first collaboration between these prolific experimental artists, »ARBA, DÂK ARBA« is as evocative and thought-provoking as the art that has inspired it.

It’s easy to see why a curious instrument like Oberland’s electric hurdy-gurdy would be well suited for the duo’s ends, and within its first few minutes the opening track »Grotta« makes it clear that the Oiseaux-Tempête co-founder is more than capable of weaving dark psychedelic sound tapestries with only limited means. The ritualistic energy that Béguély’s »ARBA, DÂK ARBA« draws on is channeled through abstract drones that mirror the aesthetics of the eight suspended paper rolls the artist’s audience were faced with. When the music becomes denser and Tomažin finally enters the picture with her signature glossolalic vocal performance, it seems as if the drones emanating from her musical partner’s curious instrument bleed right into her voice. Even as the sound of the boîte à bourdons becomes more visceral and Tomažin’s voice more discernible, »Grotta« remains as intangible as the mythological oracles that had informed the work of Béguély. Shorter pieces like »Amena« or the closing track »Hereafter,« though condensed, offer just as much to decipher - a whole musical world to get lost in, full of riddles and uncertainties.

»Fumes« and »Hieromancy« in the second half of the LP are the best examples of how much creative friction lies at the heart of the French experimentalist and the Slovenian singer’s collaboration. While in the former song, Tomažin first takes the lead singing uncanny, circular motives before stepping aside so Oberland can let the processed sounds of his hurdy-gurdy evolve into chilling crescendi, the latter sees both of them take turns in channeling the pervasive mysticism around them. Blurring the lines between the physical and psychic as well as the real and the hallucionary with their music, Frédéric D. Oberland and Irena Z. Tomažin’s »ARBA, DÂK ARBA« is one of the most radical albums in recent years. An unsettling dialogue between two kindred, yet freely wandering spirits.

Uniting cosmic tones and lovely notes, unique sound collages and electronic noises, Muzak pour ascenseurs en panne ("Muzak for Broken Lifts"), Brigitte Barbu's first album, explores a dreamy universe, at the crossroads of electronica and the 70s’ post-tune-in/drop-out, echoing shadows of the peculiar doppelgänger; Pépé Bradock. Ça Plane pour Brigitte Barbu…

Resonant guitar notes, odd sounds, electronic hallucinations, and unexpected warm synth layers all gather together in Brigitte Barbu's first enigmatic album. Recorded and mixed during a reclusive one-week residency in a very special studio, under the benevolent cubic radiation of "Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant,” using a computer, synthesizers, and various string instruments, giving birth to this resolutely unique album. The guitars were sharply disciplined, propelling strings into strange and hypnotic limbos, somewhere between a weightless journey through time and a fresh science lab experiment.

A perky cosmic album running away from rules and gravity.

"I wanted to compose an ethereal abstract Hip-Hop LP" says Brigitte, "with guitar as a brainwashed instrument, mirroring machines and computers, even if surely far from being unplugged". So much for that… With a real introspective dimension, the record stands out for its pure whimsical mood. The artist had strict rules for composing: “Each track is based on the association between a title chosen for its consonances, an open tuning, a random tempo and frequencies chosen for their supposed effects, real or imagined, on the mind, body & soul.” For example: Taro Patch -> Whale -> 93,75 BPM or Dobro -> Bear-> 118,125 BPM, Air Resistance -> Open Em -> Panther-> 480 BPM etc.

Brigitte surgically framed an electro-acoustic compendium, finding its atmospheric mothership… Brigitte Barbu, referring to a special interlude from a vintage release "Escalope de Dingue” (Fool’s Cutlet), explains that Muzak pour Ascenseurs en Panne is in fact a custom tribute to family, friends, triggered cosmonauts, René Clément and the card game where the winner is the bearded monarch nonchalantly stabbing himself in the head. It’s a lot!

In 2018 I landed in Amsterdam to start a Europe Tour. The venue could not find a hotel for me, so I asked Gilbert, who invited me to stay in his guest room. I felt at home when I saw what was on Gilbert's table/mind. The book 'Shantaram', a double reed flute photo, Saravah... (as a friend of Pierre Barouh, I had visited Saravah where I met Jacques Higelin in the 70s). Gilbert and I exchanged many ideas, and I invited him to record at my place in Australia. He did, and here is the result! I am thrilled that the words issued from my Head Voices are highlighted by the arrangements co-created with Gilbert - also the sheer genius of I:Cube to polish our gems has a lot to do with that!

Enjoy your listening experience!
Ariel Kalma

DRUMIRA features four heavyweight tracks by Stefan Schneider, ghanaian drummer Nicholas Addo Nettey and percussionist Sven Kacirek (Hamburg).

Nicholas Addo-Nettey was a former percussionist with Fela Kuti and his famous Africa 70 band during the most legendary years of his career. He has left band in 1979 in Berlin where he has been living ever since. His early solo album PAX NICHOLAS from 1971 has gained fame through a reissue in 2009.

It is interesting to note that DRUMIRA was first released anonymously in 2011 in a minuscule private pressing edition which only had a Spiegelmotiv hand stamp on the sleeve. Due to legal issues in 2009 with some of the mapstation releases, Stefan Schneider decided to put his project on hold until things got cleared. After nine years the record finally finds a place in the mapstation catalogue and gives full credit to all musicians involved. The EP comes with a luxurious hand assembled sleeve in a small edition.

Music-wise this EP is most distinguished by the combination of slow paced dark electronics and inimitable percussion patterns by Nicholas Addo-Nettey.

Nicholas Addo-Nettey: Percussion
Stefan Schneider: Electronics
Sven Kacirek: additional percussion

Absorbing new album from this very special artist. Hand printed sleeves. Very limited edition.

Marta De Pascalis is an italian composer living and working in Berlin. Her solo works employ analog synthesis and tape loops, incorporating free playing into steady, repetitive patterns. She has produced two albums of Berlin School minimal synth excursions: the self-released Quitratue (2014) and Anzar (The Tapeworm, 2016). Her new piece ‘Her Core’ has been published on spring 2018 by The Wormhole. Marta creates densely layered collages of glowing melodic shards and growling bass lines, her hypnotic minimal synth figures warping and whirling around each other before dissolving into entropic oblivion. For her compositions she uses improvisation on a tape-loop system, in which patterns of repetition create a sense of a dense, dynamic and cathartic distance.

All music by Marta De Pascalis Recorded at WORM Sound Studios in Rotterdam, artist's studio and Big Snuff Studio in Berlin, between 2019 and 2020. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Artwork by Lorenzo Mazon Studio. All rights reserved to the respective owners. doser039LP - Morphine Records 2020

"Nicolas Gaunin's surreal sound experiments lift you out of the everyday and transport you to an off-world Tiki lounge set high amongst the tree tops of a tropical rainforest, where you're surrounded by bizarre, colourful creatures and weird psychotropic plants. Noa Noa Noa is modern Dada, a neon soundtrack to your most outlandish fever dreams.
Nicolas Gaunin is the alter ego of Nicola Sanguin, part of the vibrant experimental music scene around Padua, Italy where he plays in outsider rock groups The Lay Llamas and Orange Car Crash. Nicolas Gaunin is his solo electronic project, a bright and playful cosmic mash-up that uses the rhythms of traditional African percussion groups and skews them slightly to create unsettling, off-kilter grooves. These drum machine experiments are laid over a teeming microscopic sound world of bird calls, insect chatter and weird jingles reminiscent of advertising earworms or video game soundtracks.
Noa Noa Noa takes its influences from music from around the world, and inspiration from high and low culture; from composer Gyorgy Ligeti to the cosmic sounds of Italian DJ Danielle Baldelli, from the experimental music of Moondog or Harry Partch to the playful sounds of Francis Bebey or the exotica of Martin Denny, from Iannis Xenakis to 8-bit video game music. Noa Noa Noa ends up sounding something like the imaginary soundtrack to the Nintendo Gameboy version of a lost William S. Burroughs novel.
Incredibly, most of the tracks on Noa Noa Noa were recorded live in one take with the express intention of creating music that is, in contrast to much of today's electronic music, bright, sunny, light-hearted and mischevious. The resulting album is both totally essential and also completely throwaway.
These tracks were originally released in 2018 by Artetetra Records (Italy) as Noa Noa (cassette & digital) and Danse de l'Oiseau (digital only). Hive Mind Records are proud to present Noa Noa Noa on vinyl for the first time."

Hypersonic tunes and (un)danceable break-beat rhythms. A new hero has landed on Land Of Dance.

Nine tracks of classic Muslimgauze material: Tribal and percussive, mixed with tape loops, ambigue atmospheres and some noisy edginess. Bryn Jones originally recorded and mixed this album at the Abraham Mosque in Manchester. It was then released in 1995 on CD (in an edition of circa 1800 copies) via the Portland based Soleilmoon Recordings, which was a sister company to Staalplaat back then. The nine tracks have been remastered for this reissue, that also comes with a new artwork.

All tracks written and played by Muslimgauze.
Recorded and mixed at the Abraham Mosque, Manchester.
Engineered by John Delf.
Re-mastered by C-drik.
Artwork concept and photography by Dmytro Fedorenko.
Artwork design by Zavoloka.

Limited edition of 300 copies of Natureboy Flako's all new 4-track EP "Besito".

Dario Rojo Guerra aka Natureboy Flako is set to release a unique musical room shaker. Picking up the energy of productions such as “Kuku” from his debut album, these four new banging tracks invite to dance and have fun while bouncing them out loud. The title track “Besito” is carrying a sincere message of love with an unmistaken production quality, also found on his previous release entitled “Theme For A Dream” which explores the boundaries of music, science and spirituality. His rather unpredictable but inspiring output will be continued with a full length album of library-like songs & soundscapes which is set to be released before summer also. But for now level up the energy and enjoy singing along to “Besito”.

“WOW I’m happy you are still making such incredible heat! I actually lost my fucking mind as well as the rest of the club.” - Gaslamp Killer

Acid Waxa are thrilled to present the debut release of AYU Acid aka Sheffield laddies Christopher Rave and Tich Off Me Nut in this Crystal Maze EP of highly infectious, feel good acid bangers!

Holy shit! If it isn’t three unheard 1960s and 1970s reels from the unreal and unreleased Basil Kirchin Tape Archive. Sublime pastoral jazz, autistic children screaming, spooky vocals, experimental tape manipulation and more from the master of such thing.

HISTORY:
The three parts of this new Basil Kirchin album come from three very different tapes from his archive. All parts were unreleased until now.

“Pat’s Pigs” actually sounds to me like a Basil bird recording, slowed and treated, mixed with simple improvisation. But it could well be pigs. Pat’s pigs. This whole tape recording may have been an early experiment towards what was to become Worlds Within Worlds Parts I and II. A lot of Basil’s work was headed in that direction.

“Electronic” – first of all this is not that electronic. There are elements of the classic Kirchin drone sound here, mixed with multiple and treated recordings of the autistic children of Schurmatt, along with Esther, his wife, singing. I remember speaking to Basil many years ago about his Schurmatt recordings. Esther worked as a nurse with the children, Basil got to know many of them, and became fascinated by the extreme musical noises they would make with their voices. This recording is not necessarily for the faint hearted, but makes for extraordinary listening, based on the fact this would have been made and mixed, simply as a classic and progressive Kirchin experiment, back in the late 1960s/ early 1970s. This also has untreated elements that would eventually contribute towards Quantum, his preferred version of the W W W concept.

“The Suspended Fourth” comes across like a soundtrack, so it could well be part of what Basil called his “imaginary film music period”. It has a very distinctive and pastoral Kirchin style leitmotif that repeats along its glorious and slightly disturbed 21 minutes. It’s very well produced, possibly built up and improvised over a few days, could well have been an experiment, a pitch or just something that had to come out in the groovy studio. The tape itself states that this is The Suspended Forth with a subtitle: “The Musical Study Of A Mind, Part 1 Schizophrenia”. It therefore could even be something to do with a soundtrack he was asked to make for a mental heath conference for psychiatrists at Earls Court in the late 1960s (see States Of Mind, JBH005LP – the British jazz musical line seems like it could well be the very same). But who knows for sure? I shall continue looking in the archive for other possible parts.

Before I go, the original title for this album and the artwork come from an empty tape box in the archive, which I think sums up all sorts of things about Basil, his awesome music and the tape archive all at the same time.

More reel discoveries will follow. Thanks for listening as always.

Uniformity of Nature, the second release on Prague based Detach Recordings, marks an exciting collaboration between Romanian producer DYL (re:st, Alpha Cutauri, Skutta) and Germany's Senking (Raster Noton, Karaoke Kalk).

DYL pushes the bounderies of his sound beyond his 170 roots, with the powerful electronics of 'Phrases' and the electrifying team-up with Senking on 'Destroyed City Lights'. Two tracks see DYL in the more familiar peripheries of D&B. The percussive 'Words', with its curious background atmospherics, and the driving, hypnotic collaboration with DB1 on the title track 'Uniformity of Nature'. 'Launch' sees Senking slow the tempo down and delve into a more murky space, yet still highly-charged with razor-sharp sound design.

DYL closes the EP with the abstract 'Semantics', a further excursion into experimental electronics. The record comes housed in a screen-printed transparent sleeve, with a limited edition insert by Romanian artist Teodora Gavrila.

After successful releases on Black Orpheus and Oscillate Tracks, UK rising talent and Super
Hexagon boss, J.Wiltshire returns to MUSAR for his debut album ‘Resa’, a pure listening experience of ambient soundscapes and forward-thinking sci-fi cuts, the second release
in MUSAR's new limited Cassette Tape series, that focusing on producers edgy sides.
'Resa' finds Wiltshire sharing 11 sci-fi and futuristic ambient gems, blends melancholic
movements with rich layers of harmonics, resulting in a sequence of slowly unfurling tracks
that sounds brilliant first time around, but also reveal more intricate details once you've listened a few times.
Listening through from start to finish, where it comes on like a genuine soundtrack to a
melancholic, space film, it's an evocative musical journey that stirs the senses and toys with
your emotions.
Opener 'Barefoot Pilgrim' is a welcoming hazy warm-up atmospheric piece, together with
'Lumb' and 'In The Position' reflects on how Wiltshire maps human calm and tranquillity onto
the softer parts of the natural world, a place where everything sounds calm and peaceful, in
his own words: "I was using music composition for a creative release but mainly as a tool for
calming anxiety."
There are also intense ambient moments and post-IDM dreamscapes inside, such as - 'Dismantlers' and 'Denied', It is in turns icy, futuristic, introspective and blindingly picturesque.
'Other Fruits Resplit' is a particularly standout highlighted track of a sharp and catchy vocal
chop melody, while 'Same Thing Twice' and 'No Longer Concerning' are gorgeously melancholic.

Emotional Response presents the final recordings of the Saint Petersburg Disco Spin Club, a loose band alias of Kirill Sergeew aka Kito Jempere. Principally active for just a few years, these recordings were never finalised - lost as such, until now.

Growing out of Kito's productions, the 8-piece band, including friends Lipelis (Public Possession / Animals Dancing) and Sergey Lipsky (Simple Symmetry), was developed to create live transformations of his music.

The EP captures SPDSC at their peak; working with a desire to experiment via live improvisation. Can't You See Me, their version of an earlier studio release, morphs the original's melodic 4/4 in to an expansive, surround sound slo-mo Balearic funk experience for the heavens.

This is backed with a remix by Auf Togo Meets Becker & Mukai. After EPs on Leng, Aug Togo, aka Clement Cachot-Coulom and Sasha Crnobrnja (In Flagranti), previously teamed up with Jean-Gabriel Becker and Susumu Mukai (Zongamin), for an acclaimed EP on SaS Recordings. Their remix sensually creeps up, skilled musicianship creating a warm dub, as soothing bass and laid back vocals float to sunset horizons.

As finale, Simple Customers is an 11-minute whirl of lazy, psychedelic beauty. The interplay between bass, drum and guitar is water tight, letting vocals shine to some latter day anthem. A fitting epitaph, a band at ease, confident and as one, these proved to be their last output before Kirill regrouped as today's Kito Jempere Band.

Brooklyn-based outfit Wetware (Roxy Farman and Matt Morandi) return with the intense follow-up album to 2018’s Automatic Drawing, an electronic dirge, simply titled: Flail

Formed in 2015 and known for their odd and unpredictable live performances, Wetware’s new album captures this disorienting confusion in a series of definitive documents that encompass a concentrated, noisier sound that pushes and pulls against electronic textures and frenetic vocals, creating a palate of wild, unhinged sonic collages.

Presented across eleven new tracks in a tightly wrapped and smartly delivered album, Flail is exemplary of Wetware’s dynamics and tension. The 42 seconds of “Car Dancer,” act as a trailer for tension, setting up the episodic blast of “Kismet,” challenging the listener to find a wall to grab. Lead single "Exaggerated Bliss" pulsates before spinning unexpectedly into a chilling spoken narrative. Bitterly terse storytelling follows the staccato map of emotion, and as sparse as “Divided In Halves” is, “Rivalries Regulars” immediately answers with a dense oration that features Farman cursing “I know the reason for it” in stoic repetition, agnostic of rhythm yet in sync with mania.

Re-Release

Black Truffle is honoured to present the premier recordings of two recent works by legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier. A friend and contemporary of pioneers like Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Gordon Mumma, and Christian Wolff, Lucier has been crafting elegant explorations of the behavior of sound in physical space since the 1960s. Lucier is perhaps best known for I Am Sitting in a Room (1970), in which he repeatedly re-recorded his own speaking voice being played back into a room until the room's resonant frequencies entirely obscure the spoken text. Beginning in the early 1970s, he has written a remarkable catalogue of instrumental works that focus on phenomena produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches, such as audible beating, often using pure electronic tones produced by oscillators in combination with single instruments.

Demonstrating the restless creative drive of an artist now in his 80s, the two recent works presented here both feature the electric guitar, an instrument Lucier has just recently begun to explore. In Criss-Cross, Lucier's first composition for electric guitars, two guitarists using e-bows sweep slowly up and down a single semitone, beginning at opposite ends of the pitch range. The piece is a model of simplicity, exemplifying Lucier's desire not to 'compose' in the conventional sense, but rather to eliminate everything that 'distracts from the acoustical unfolding of the idea'. In this immaculately controlled performance of Criss-Cross by Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley, (for whom the piece was written in 2013), a seemingly simple idea creates a rich array of sonic effects - not simply beating patterns, which gradually slow down as the two tones reach unison and accelerate as they move further apart, but also the remarkable phenomenon of sound waves spinning in elliptical patterns through space between the two guitar amps.

In the comparatively lush Hanover, Lucier draws inspiration from the beautiful photograph that provides the LP with its cover, an image of the Dartmouth Jazz Band taken in 1918 featuring Lucier's father on violin. Using the instrumentation present in the photograph, Lucier creates an unearthly sound world of sliding tones from violin, alto and tenor saxophones, piano, vibraphone (bowed) and three electric guitars (which take the place of the banjos present in the photograph). Waves of slow glissandi create thick, complex beating patterns, gently punctuated by repeated single notes from the piano. The result is a piece that, like much of Lucier's instrumental music, is simultaneously both unperturbably calm and constantly in motion.
Stunning LP design by Stephen O'Malley including an inner sleeve with a portrait of Alvin Lucier by Kris Serafin.
Criss-Cross' recorded at Studios Ina GRM, Paris by Francois Bonnet and mixed by Alvin Lucier. Hanover' recorded in Zurich and mixed by Alvin Lucier.
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Belin.
Criss-Cross' recorded at Studios Ina GRM, Paris by Francois Bonnet and mixed by Alvin Lucier. Hanover' recorded in Zurich and mixed by Alvin Lucier.
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin.

Frost is a Brighton-based collaboration between French-Swedish sound artist Johanna Bramli (vocalist for Stereolab offshoot Imitation Electric Piano) and Fujiya & Miyagi's synth player and producer Steve Lewis.

For fans of the likes of Broadcast, Silver Apples and Kraftwerk together the duo create angular and electronic music by blending Motorik and hypnotic radiophonics into neatly wrapped often bilingual pop structures. On 28 September Frost release their debut album Matters via Lost Room Records. The duo has previously released two singles, the murkily glitchy 'Crackling on the Wire' (December 2016) which Edith Bowman made 'Record of the Week'with support also from Annie Mac (BBC Radio 1), Nemone and Gideon Coe (BBC 6 Music) and John Kennedy (Radio X). Followed by second single 'Keratin' (March 2017) - described as 'A detour through the best of 80's pop' (The Lineof Best Fit) - and Frost's debut E.P. of the same name (May 2017).

Dragon Skin is a new conceptual compilation around the ideas of protection and safety released by Cønjuntø Vacíø that showcases new artists and some classic acts of the label.

Dragon Skin was a type of ballistic vest formerly made by the now defunct company Pinnacle Armor, currently produced in Missoula, Montana by North American Development Group LLC available for public, law-enforcement and military customers. Its characteristic two-inch-wide circular discs overlap like scale armor, creating a flexible vest that allows a good range of motion and is intended to absorb a high number of hits compared with other military body armor. The discs are composed of silicon carbide ceramic matrices and laminates, much like the larger ceramic plates in other types of bullet resistant vests.

On August 3, 2007, the Department of Justice announced that the NIJ had reviewed evidence provided by the body armor manufacturer and had determined that the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate that the body armor model would maintain its ballistic performance over its six-year declared warranty period. Because of this, Dragon Skin was found to not be in compliance with the NIJ’s testing program and has been removed from the NIJ’s list of bullet-resistant body armor models.

De:tuned continue to celebrate their 10th anniversary with this second EP of the series and dive deep down into the ambient techno world. The A side makes you drift away on a rare Sun Electric get together, followed by a Higher Intelligence Agency piece of beauty. DeepChord's dubbed lushness completes this highly intense journey.
Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Pressed on 180 gr vinyl and a separate digital version will be available from the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!

LIMITED EDITION COLOURED VINYL!

Versalife's second release for 20/20 Vision sees Dutch producer Boris Bunnik aka Conforce return with another slab of signature electro. 'Clandestine Development' serves up dark tones and melodies layered within insistent electro beats and growling bass, that sounds huge on big room systems. 'Aegis' delivers a double dose of mechanical funk, played over atmospheric strings and auditory acid delights. On the B side 'Lamba' continues to impress with a moody laidback bass line holding the groove down over a solid rhythm & dystopian keys. Wrapping things up the title track 'Asimov's Code' plays out like war drums from space pounding away after a blissful intro of building synths.

A loose, organic swarm of steel-bound percussion, meditative bass frequencies and improvisational tonal shifts mark the second instalment of Gaia Tones, with the label’s vision remaining conscious: one track per side filling the entirety of the 12” plate, giving these tunes a life of their own. GT002 sparks to life with side A’s “Chains”, a warped, mystical groove that speaks for the imprint’s deep-rooted sufferation. With a slow-burning swagger of four-to-the-floor, side B’s “Shackles” digs deeper into the earth’s elements, allowing the room to fill up with that familiar gust of machine haze. Experimentation with a message."

Comes in hand made sleeve artwork.

The enigmatic Ando Laj’s latest full-length excursion—9-tracks of heady sonic explorations that defy neat categorization, a plethora of textures & forms arranged with the producer’s signature attention to compositional minutiae. Dog Insight is a series of personal recordings in an inimitable sound world that once again sees the producer taking their esoteric style into new territories. Resolute, mechanized thump is brought to gradual equilibrium by weightless cascade on “Soj Alm”, while skeletal opening number “Aal Tn” rattles into chrysalis, unravelling itself out of murky depths over its duration. A shrouded collection of slow-to-evolve melodic & rhythmic feedback loops, plucked from a haze of nostalgic familiarity—sound sources of indeterminable origin, sequenced & processed to mystical effect. Another intriguing & devotional experience from the Toronto artist.

Recorded at INA GRM and Steamroom

Piano: Eiko Ishibashi // Violin, viola: Atsuko Hatano // Trumpet: Eivind Lonning

Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, February 2020

Photo by Eiko Ishibashi // Sleeve design by Stephen O'Malley

Special thanks to Francois Bonnet and Jean Schwarz for bookending 30 years

Due to the wide dynamic levels, please adjust your volume accordingly

Shutting Down Here is a special work. Symbolically, it covers a period of thirty years, between two visits by Jim O'Rourke to the GRM, the first, as a young man fascinated by the institution and his repertoire, the second, as an accomplished musician, influential and imbued with an aura of mystery. Shutting Down Here is a piece shaped like an universe, a heterogeneous world in which collides the multiple musical facets of Jim O'Rourke: instrumental writing, field recordings, electronic textures and cybernetic becomings, dynamic spaces, harmonic spaces, silent spans . This variety of approach, strangely, does not in any way weaken the coherence of the whole and this is the talent of Jim O'Rourke, a talent, properly speaking, of composition, where all the sound elements compete and participate to stakes that exceed them and of a common destiny, that is to say of an apparition.

Released in association with Editions Mego.
Coordination GRM: François Bonnet, Jules Négrier

Executive Production: Peter Rehberg

new quartet by Samuel Rohrer, Max Loderbauer, Stian Westerhus & Tobias Freund In the present era of media saturation, the artist's dilemma has shifted away from the question whether to fuse disparate stylistic elements, towards the decision of which energies to draw upon: a situation most rewarding for those who listen to musicians navigating this limitless terrain. One such journey, the captivating full-length release from Samuel Rohrer's new Kave quartet coming out this May, is bringing together players who are equally well-versed in the quick-thinking mechanics of free group improvisation and the compositional strategies of contemplative / ‘ambient’ electronic music. With Rohrer acting as creative director and most of the quartet sharing synthesizer duties, there’s a strong sense of unified purpose to this set, and a narrative flow that never causes the listener to focus on one constituent part at the expense of the whole. At the same time, the players know all well that cohesion counts for little without those constituent parts being compelling in their own right. Rohrer and Loderbauer, for example, have previously crafted a unique techno-organic approach with the Ambiq trio, and the lessons learned from that partnership are put to inspired use within this new configuration. Stian Westerhus’ contributions on guitar and vocals, along with Tobias Freund’s electronic reinforcements - Freund also has worked since many years with Max Loderbauer as NSI - all conspire to make something that Rohrer aptly compares as “forest”-like. It’s a descriptor that will have vastly different meanings for each listener. For Rohrer, it refers to music that is confident in the “deep-rootedness” of its foundations and defined by a density and mystery easily confused with darkness, while nevertheless proving its bright vitRight away, on the introductory odyssey 'Cambium' the quartet sets out to make good on this metaphor, creating a hypnotic foundation for what is about to unfold during the next 42 minutes, with brooding, slow, 'searchlight in a fog,' synth washes and percussive stridulation. The twin 'Hibernation' tracks show all the unique elements beginning to coalesce: the emotional tenor is one of vulnerability that melts into the determination of 'staring into the void', a temperamental state challenging to represent authentically in music. The atmosphere of psychic challenge effort lessly gives way to the faintly nostalgic glimmers of 'Giant Peach' - a literary reference to the macabre whimsy of Roald Dahl.
The ultimate dissolution of barriers between organicism and synthesis is accomplished on the majestic 'Divided We Fall', a title referring to Westerhus’ smoky vocalization that winds into a double helix formed from electronic surges.
Again, the ease with which it all comes together is mesmerizing, and while there’s an aura of risk accompanying this walk through the woods, there’s a much more enduring impression of carefully orchestrated growth and change.

- the Picture You See Is No Portrait Of Me (true Faith 1989) With innere Tueren', Ergin Erteber Publishes His Artistic Approach To Sound And Vision. It Is A Journey In Which Sound And Images
Unite Compellingly And Form Multidimensional Spaces.
After A 5-year Period Of Experimentation, innere Tueren' Is His Decampment And, At The Same Time, His Liberation From The Dogma Of The Often Functionality-reduced Claim In Electronic Music. With Him Sound Formations Arise Exclusively Through Images, Already In Existence. He Sets These Images To Music And Fills Them With An Emotionality That Was Hardly Heard Before.
Born And Raised In Heidelberg, Ergin Erteber Has Always Been A Prisoner Of His Very Own World Of Images, Which Later Led To His Intense Involvement In Design And Photography. Constant Companion In These Times Was The Music With The Result That He Had To Merge Both Worlds For Himself.
In The Course Of This His Way Led Him To Darmstadt Where He Discovered Music-production In Addition To His Studies. At The Same Time, He Was Both Creatively And Musically Involved In The Art And Club Project galerie Kuzweil'. In This Environment, He Was Able To Gain Many Experiences That Were Certainly Also Formative For His Approach To Music.
His Previous Projects Such As things From The Basement' Also Show Stages Of This Development. In This Particular Collaboration With Steffen Neuert (bergheim 34) It Was Already Apparent That He Was Less Concerned With Functionality, But Rather With Aesthetics And Charisma - In A Figurative Sense, A Rapprochement With The concept Of Beauty' By Umberto Ecos, Whereby Here Rather The Ear As The Eye Is The Center Of Perception. This Approach Is Now Even More Delicate In innere Tueren'.
With The Help Of Jan Barich (map.ache) Ergin Erteber Has Now Been Able To Translate His Own Fragile-poignant Soul Language Into Wonderful Music. The Album, Which By The Way Was Mastered By Josh Bonati In New York, Appears On March 22nd In 2019 On Kann. On 21.03.2019 An Exhibition For The Album Will Take Place In The Gallery Ortloff In Leipzig.