Beats News

another piece in the anom vitruv puzzle. might be something about what it's like to be a shadow.who can flip it like this

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An absorbing look at Ariel Rosenberg's early musique concrète epic. All songs written, recorded and produced by Ariel Pink. Restoration and mastering by Alain at One Million Mangos Berlin.

Thrash and Burn dates from a time when Ariel Rosenberg, then a few years from turning "Pink", first proclaimed himself a "20th Century Composer", without a trace of irony in his voice. Appropriately, this early work takes the form of a musique concrète epic forged from Rosenberg's late-90's faux-primitif, garage-punk, and tape-loop experiments. At 94 minutes and 36 tracks, Thrash and Burn displays the symphonic ambitions of his genre-devouring pop saga, Haunted Graffiti, but with little in the way of fastidious album-oriented constructions. Rather, Thrash and Burn is a free-form tape ramble that uses gauzy atmospherics to strike up a wicked dialogue with the likes of Rosenberg's non-pop influences, like Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Schaeffer and Luc Ferrari. (In particular, Schaeffer's "Symphonie pour un homme seul" seems to get plenty of nods here.) Thrash and Burn was discovered in 2005, in an ankle-deep pile of cracked cassettes and scratched CD-R's in Rosenberg's Beverly Hills flat. Grier and Rosenberg then made an initial reconstruction attempt, and Thrash and Burn became a 4-cassette box set for the inaugural release of Human Ear Music, in 2006. The Wikipedia page for Thrash and Burn places its origin sometime in 1998. Thrash and Burn was remastered in September 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The final master was brought up to 24 bit resolution, dynamically and tonally balanced on an Apogee Rosetta and two solid-aluminum monoblock amps.

Body Consonance is the follow up to Precipice, Byron Westbrook's critically acclaimed debut from 2015.

Taking a turn towards greater immediacy, this new album is far from "ambient" with ecstatic abstract rhythm as its anchor. An artist who also operates in visual contexts, Westbrook utilizes binaural qualities of the stereo listening format to sculpt three-dimensional sounds in perpetual motion, producing works that are both pointillistic and psychedelic.

Body Consonance is a meditation on physicality, a virtuosic choreography of sonic textures, colors and shapes woven together, Bodies in motion, conversing, orbiting, colliding.

Matt Mondanile's sixth full-length album as Ducktails, Jersey Devil, is a mature, multi-faceted work that showcases the New Jersey musician's return to his DIY roots. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources, including the cosmic jazz fusion of Haruomi Hosono, the album is a huge leap forward in songwriting and production. It is also a testament to Mondanile's artistic perseverance and the project's true magnum opus.

Jersey Devil was recorded over the span of two years despite frequently unfavorable circumstances. Mondanile started working on the record in Los Angeles prior to his departure from Real Estate, in a cramped, stuffy warehouse space he converted into a modest studio. A few good friends came to his aid: John Anderson (Girls, Sky Ferreira) and Malcolm Oliver Perkins both played guitar and helped to compose and produce the songs, Perkins and Samira Winter also sang beautiful harmonies while Josh da Costa contributed brilliant drum fills. Mondanile also flew over Chi Yoon Hae of the South Korean indie band Parasol to play bass.

However, the music really became what Mondanile had envisioned after moving back to his hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey, where he finished writing and recording the songs in his mom's basement. The quiet, familiar space surrounded by wood-paneled walls provided endless inspiration. Once finished tracking, Mondanile would take the commuter train to Hoboken, grab a cup of coffee from Dunkin' Donuts, and mix the album with engineer Ernie Indradat at Sonic Youth's studio. Everything felt right, the mini-mall across the street, the stock brokers walking their dogs, and the sweet summer smell in the air,' says Mondanile about the final days of work.

Debut album of Manchester post-punk band."When I was first told about Duds, it came with the considered opinion that the guys were far from what you'd call 'careerists'. 'They don't take themselves too seriously' was another comment. I could have taken this as a warning that they weren't in it for the right reasons—but that couldn't be further from the truth. From my perspective Duds simply won't bend over backwards to 'get on'. They do what they do and you can take it or leave it. I took it—with both hands...with a vice-like grip. They have the invention and urgency of Edinburgh legends The Fire Engines. The Post-Punk ethic. Short songs, short sets = short album.They're one of the most thrilling bands I've seen in years—and the fact that they're releasing this brilliant piece of work on the Castle Face label adds the last piece of a perfect 'outsider' jigsaw puzzle. Duds sitting alongside Oh Sees, Ty Segall, White Fence, Useless Eaters, et al. There is a god!" —Marc Riley, June 2017

Following an earlier release on Opal Tapes, several releases through her Summer Isle imprint and a smattering of vinyl issues on the esteemed BANK Records NYC and Aught Void, Rita M's E-Saggila project returns to Opal for the most advanced statement of intent from her so far. Lux Campaign is an elegant union of industrial and rhythmic noise music with techno (Lux Campaign, Green Zone) Jungle + DnB (Stature and Scent) and as stand alone pieces of gothic abstraction.

Holotype Editions was founded as a means of bringing out music by some of the most unique and peculiar artists of the last decades. What could be more fitting for the imprint's seventh release, than the duo of cult artist Ghédalia Tazartès and multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer Maya Dunietz.

Recorded live at Cafe Oto, in December 2013, Schulevy Maker documents the duo's first live appearance. An amalgam of bizarre samples, concrete sounds, live piano and bells, juxtaposed with the otherworldly voices of Dunietz and Tazartès. At times light and humorous, at others dark and ritualistic, Schulevy Maker can hardly be labeled or tagged. The album title refers to Shoemaker-Levy 9, a disrupted comet that collided with Jupiter in July 1994. Tazarte`s and Dunietz freely reassembled the syllables of the comet's name, coming up with this obscure title.

A truly life-affirming record, by two artists defying categorization, Schulevy Maker comes in a limited edition of 300 copies, pressed on black vinyl with a beautiful cover designed by We Are Still Bold and Beautiful.

Group Rhoda is the solo electronic music project of Mara Barenbaum, based out of Oakland, California. The project started around 2009 with a debut album 'Out of Time, Out of Touch' in 2012 on Night School Records and '12th House' in 2013 on Not Not Fun. She is also one half of Max and Mara who released the album 'Less Ness' in 2013 on Dark Entries Records. She is committed to live performance, situated within the analog synthesizer and drum machine medium.

'Wilderless' is Group Rhoda's third full length and first for Dark Entries Records. Each of the these 7 songs draw forth tones of tropical darkwave and soft industrial, while negating the sound of conformity and control. The album explore themes of societal and spiritual displacement, contemporary serfdom, the depths of empathy, regeneration through destruction, and the tyranny of claiming recognition and power. Lyrics are poetically expressed through allegory and explore archetypes rooted more in abstract observation rather than hard line experience. Through transgression and imagination, Group Rhoda explores the arc of songwriting interwoven into stark electronic environments, and creates a bridge between the corporeal and the dream worlds.

Each song was mixed by Mark Pistel at Room 5 in San Francisco and mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each LP is packaged in a jacket featuring a colorful custom made collage by Hugo Barros and includes a full color sticker and digital download card.

Hainbach is the experimental electronic project of the German composer Stefan Paul Goetsch. Using modular synthesizers, tape loops and his voice Groetsch is able to excise the most haunting tones from his rig. These are laid out or the listener to peer into or to hold the shell to the ear. The sound is organic, microbial almost, rich with micro-details and texture like some sonic mold sporing out. Later some crystals form as recital of new age styles never quite realised, the fata morgana, a desert environment where the smallest gestures are noticable against such minimalism. A fragile and exquisite listen.

Planet Mu are very excited to announce Jlin's long awaited second album Black Origami'. A percussion-led tour de force, it's a creation that seals her reputation as a unique producer with an exceptional ability to make riveting rhythmic music. Black Origami' is driven by a deep creative thirst which she describes as this driving feeling that I wanted to do something different, something that challenged me to my core. Black Origami for me, comes from letting go creatively, creating with no boundaries. The simple definition of origami is the art of folding and constructing paper into a beautiful, yet complex design. Composing music for me is like origami, only I'm replacing paper with sound. I chose to title the album "Black Origami" because like "Dark Energy" I still create from the beauty of darkness and blackness. The willingness to go into the hardest places within myself to create for me means that I can touch the Infinity.' Spirituality and movement are both at the core of Black Origami', inspired largely by her ongoing collaborations with Indian dancer/movement artist Avril Stormy Unger whom she met and collaborated with at her debut performance for the Unsound festival - 'There is a fine line between me entertaining a person and my spirituality. Avril, who collaborates with me by means of dance, feels the exact same way. Movement played a great role in Black Origami. The track "Carbon 7" is very inspired by the way Avril moves and dances. Our rhythms are so in sync at times it kind of scares us. When there is something I can't quite figure out when it comes to my production, it's like she senses it. Her response to me is always "You'll figure it out". Once I figure it out it's like time and space no longer exist.' Similar time shifting/folding/disrupting effects can be heard throughout the record - especially on Holy Child' an unlikely collaboration with minimalist legend William Basinski. She also collaborates again with Holly Herndon on 1%', while Halcyon Veil producer Fawkes' voice is on Calcination and Cape Town rapper Dope Saint Jude provides vocals for Never Created, Never Destroyed . Jlin will be touring extensively this year and is currently lining up appearances including Sonar festival. Later this year she will be collaborating in London with acclaimed UK choreographer Wayne McGregor who played her music recently on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and described her music as quite rare and so exciting".

For the third full length document of his classical works, Mario Diaz de Leon presents his most unified offering to date, distilling the modernistic hellfire of his previous releases to a crystalline essence. Sanctuary' is an album length piece created in collaboration with TAK Ensemble, a brilliant NYC based quintet devoted to energetic and virtuosic performances of contemporary music. Featuring soprano voice, flute, violin, bass clarinet, marimba, and the composer's own synthesizer work, the album is a hypnotic and ritualistic journey through realms of angelic and demonic experience, combining acoustic and electronic elements with visionary intensity.

Since 2002, Mario Diaz de Leon has created a significant body of new works for acoustic instruments and electronics. Following his teenage years playing hardcore punk, metal, and electronic music, Diaz de Leon was inspired by the mystically oriented modernisms of Stockhausen, Scelsi, Messiaen, and Dumitrescu, and soon after developed his signature style while a student at Oberlin Conservatory. His debut album as composer, "Enter Houses Of" was released in 2009 on John Zorn's Tzadik label, and praised by the New York Times for its "hallucinatory intensity". A second album, entitled "The Soul is the Arena", was released in 2015 on Denovali, and was named a notable recording of the year by New Yorker Magazine. Pitchfork wrote that the album "combines his interests seamlessly into music that throbs with snarling exuberance." Both releases were performed by his longtime collaborators in the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

He currently leads the metal band Luminous Vault as vocalist and guitarist, whose Charismata' EP was released on Profound Lore Records in spring 2017. From 2012-2016, his solo electronic project Oneirogen (o-NI-ro-jen) toured internationally and released three full length albums on Denovali. He collaborated with director Zev Deans to create the score for Alien: Biotic, a short film commissioned by Fox as part of the official Alien: Covenant campaign. In 2016, the Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned and premiered his Lightmass' for their Noon to Midnight' festival of contemporary music. He has also collaborated with Nate Young of Wolf Eyes on Standard Deviance One', which they recently performed at Tectonics Festival Glasgow with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Minnesota, he has lived in in New York City since 2004, and received a doctorate in music composition from Columbia University in 2013, where he currently teaches.

21st century chamber music that combines crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.' - WIRE Magazine
Plenty of people can write a one-off 'amplified' piece for chamber musicians, but few artists have built a language as stable and rewarding as Diaz de Leon's.' - Pitchfork

Nazoranai is the supergroup of Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley. For close to four decades, Haino has been a legendary figure in Japan's avant-garde community through his commanding presence in the band Fushitsusha and numerous solo ventures. Ambarchi, a prolific electro-acoustic composer of heavy ambience and hypno-rock, has long stood at the leading edge of Australia's experimental music scene, while O'Malley remains a principle architect for the drone / doom metal project Sunn O))) in harnessing extreme sub-harmonic frequencies.

Collectively, Nazoranai operates as a live recorded collaboration, although Haino is quick to point out the difference between the words "nazoranai" (which in Japanese calligraphy means "not repeating," as in developing a distinct, individual style) and "sokkyo" (referring specifically to improvisation). In this parsing of terms, the group separates themselves from the free-music scene, which can be just as convention-bound as the established genres from which improvisers hope to escape.

On the trio's third album, Beginning To Fall In Line Before Me, So Decorously, The Nature Of All That Must Be Transformed, Nazoranai explore two side-long tracks of superb abstraction. Ambarchi and O'Malley provide the perfect brute-rock rhythm section to Haino's wrecklessly pure expression through instrument and voice. Blurred noise, dark hurdy-gurdy and thunderous harmonics build an accretive mantra of jagged electricity.

While Haino's extensive discography resists easy interpretation, he constantly challenges himself to further his art by channeling the unknown. Shifting from his native Japanese to English, he asks: "Do you still have a mystery" This existential plea could apply to the artist's own deep inquisitions or stand to confront his audience about that which eludes their understanding.

W.25TH / Superior Viaduct present Nazoranai's latest work, recorded at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo, which marks the band's first release on an American label.

Le Cabanon presents a new artist, Othello Aubern, for the 4th installment of their Couleurs record series.

Born in 1987 from an Italian mother and a Swiss father, Othello Aubern is now living in Omsk. He begins to shape his own radio transmitter at the age of 12. During his teenage years, Othello became interested in the exchange of Earth-Moon-Earth signals and in sound synthesis.

His work led him to record his experiments and, later, to sequence them. Othello's first EP is the result of this work of collecting, assembling and creating musical figures.

Ships September 19th. Autotomy is a collaboration between Belgium's Sleeperhold Publications, Brooklyn-based musician Patricia (Max Ravitz) and the Dutch artist Louis Reith. This output is the result of a long process of contemplation, discussion and elimination which gave us a record that encapsulates both Patricia's sense for hardware production and dance floor rawness. Describing this release is not a simple task. So we'll just tell it like it is: it's a record that slows down and, in this process, reveals its mystery. Referencing the title of this release, wunderkind Max Ravitz seems to provide the listener with the possibility of transformation, a way to shed part of your own being.

When running though the tracks, one discovers the essentials of Patricia's sound architecture: the presence of lightness, of longing, mixed with the ability to deny it in the next instant. Sonically, there's a careful balance in these productions that belies their fundamental function as body music. It's ambient yet danceable, approachable despite it's often deconstructed layout, and ultimately warm and inviting.

The entire record is made using Ravitz collection of hardware, which gives it its uncompromising texture. The presence of kicks, beats and soundscapes does not originate from a clean digital source but from a physical action, an excerpt of movement, a tick of the human hand. It is floating versus rhythmical movement, visceral versus strict. But above all, it is alive.

The artwork used for Autotomy's sleeve design and the etching on the B-side was provided by Louis Reith. (All three tracks feature on the record's A-side.) Just as Patricia, Reith tries to resist technology in favour of physical and craft-based media, though the contrast between digital and analog is always present.

Dutch artist Louis Reith produces works through a variety of different media, ranging from collages to wood sculptures, to paper objects and ink on paper works, always keeping an interest in simple abstract shapes and their combination. With an interest in materiality Louis resurrects found footage and creates new landscapes of shape and color, celebrating the human hand at work. Deliberate compositions form an illegible visual language where hidden words are portrayed as abstract sculptures.Reith also co-runs Jordskred, an independent publishing company worth checking out.

Ravitz certainly is unstoppable and releases in a relentless and uncompromising fashion. Besides many collaborative projects with an array of artists (released under monikers such as Masks, Pulpo, Inhalants, DSR.MR...) he's released music on labels like Opal Tapes, L.I.E.S., Russian Torrent Versions, Ghostly Intl.,... 2017 has been quite a year for him so far. He not only founded his own imprint, Active Cultures, but also released a triple LP. Ghostly Intl. describes the release as a kaleidoscopic, a multi-faceted techno trip' and we couldn't agree more.

11 years since it´s inception, the surreal and darkly romantic Knive still sounds like a mystery and something that´s hard to pin down. Svarte Greiner´s debut album feels like a trip into the forest at midnight, with all the sounds and impressions that comes with it. Spiritual, horrific and fragile in essence, it´s melancholic core is hard to shake off, and feels as present today as it did back then.

While starting off the sub genre of Accoustic doom' back in 2006, it´s difficult to say what else to name it now, with it´s inspiration and elements from countless genres. The record flows through the dissonant cello´s and washed out vocals of Ocean out of Wood' past the introverted church organs of The Black Dress', distorted guitars and wooden beats of The Dining Table' to the operatic finalé of Final Sleep'. Everything scattered with field recordings from crows, branches, walking, sleeping, rain, wind and who knows what. Knive stands on many feet, wherever they may be.

Erik K Skodvin´s path as Svarte Greiner have since been dwelling more and more into this world, picking each element apart to focus on them, stretching them out or cutting them down, looping, experimenting and flooding with reverb - trying to make time stop and night fall. But for now a re-visit to where it all started seems appropriate.

Apart is a mini-album containing a set of cello improvisations, concieved during days of solemn recording in the basement of an unused industrial space outside of Bern, Switzerland.

- In autumn 2015 I was invited to perform and stay for a week - residency at the - as it turned out one off - Rebirth Festival in Bern, Switzerland. I was staying at an abandoned farm in the hills, half an hour outside the city with the group of young people responsible for the festival. My room was equipped with a mattress on the floor, some strange paintings, and a lot of spider webs. The view outside was straight into an open field with mostly hills, a forest, and some tents, all of which would be covered in fog every morning. By night I was driven to the venue - an unused industrial building slightly outside of central Bern. Three of the nights there I was given a cello, a sleeping bag, full access to the building, and especially its big open basement space for recording. Something that ended up as both a fruitful and an uneasy experience. The walls were spray prainted and the space was scattered with bizarre, elaborate tree / steel sculptures. Most of the rooms was made into some kind of surreal art object, often recalling a sort of Mad Max post-apocalyptic feel.

I realised that getting a clean recording here would be nearly impossible, as the building had a tendency for strange noises, clicks and sounds, seemingly turning itself on and off at random. It was also located right next to the train tracks, which meant I had about 10 minutes of quiet in which to record in between the thunder of passing trains - a lot of recordings were ruined. However, all these off elements somehow had their charm. Having such a big empty space for myself, filled with strange installations and sculptures set up for the festival, was both inspiring and eerie. When not playing and just sitting still, it was unnerving. The lights were on motion detectors and would automatically turn off after 5 minutes without movement, leaving me alone with nothing but a small lamp and my thoughts. Sometimes I wished my imagination would be less vivid, as I´d have an easier time not imagining all kinds of obscure happenings in the shadows. Then again, this is also something that intruiged me so much that I felt no choice but to investigate closer. Spurred by this intrigue/paranoia, I would often walk around the empty building to soak up the atmosphere and check if someone was there. - Svarte Greiner

There's so much complexity in life and human emotion that I have a hard time feeling convinced a song is always either happy, sad, melancholic, angry or scared. I look at these emotions like elements that are constantly colliding with each other, so it's my duty as a songwriter to reflect that. I want to fall in and out of the cracks of genres, finding the nerves not yet hit. It's usually in the disturbing part of the spectrum...'

So says Joe Haege, who's earned a reputation for unsettling sounds with 31 Knots and Tu Fawning, and also performed as a member of Menomena and The Dodos. Haege formed WHITE WINE (also known early on as Vin Blanc) as a solo project, but it developed into an informal duo following the release of second album, 2013's In Every Way But One, after Haege invited Menomena / Tu Fawning soundman Fritz Brückner to join him on a European tour. When an apartment fell vacant next to Brückner's home in Leipzig, Haege deserted Los Angeles, and, newly settled in Eastern Germany, added Chistian "Kirmes" Kuhr (of local heroes Zentral Heizung Des Todes) to the coven while helping to build what would become WHITE WINE's default home, Haunted Haus. Having our own fully functioning studio,' he points out, is just an incredible tool to have at our disposal.'

This new line-up finds Haege delivering the most realised, intense and, at times, horrifying music of his career. The product of 18 months spent touring together, Killer Brilliance emerged, he says, from the trio's need to get something dark and sinister out of our systems', and this is reflected, too, in the album's title. We're all killers in some way or another,' he continues. Some kill hope. Some kill honesty. Some kill fear. Some kill greed. Some kill out of greed. All kill, in some ways, for our sheer survival. However, the underlying fact is that so many ways of killing are simply amazing in their complexity. When you really dig into the details, one can see how there is no escaping a little bit of blood on everybody's hands.'

This sordid realisation is mirrored in Killer Brilliance's disturbing, sometimes even distressing songs. Brückner's effects-heavy bassoon gives the record a macabre depth, while Kühr's aggressive drumming and percussion, firmly upfront in the mix, drive songs relentlessly to their ultimate demise. Haege, moreover, displays the urgent, menacing air of a preacher man delivering sermons about an imminent apocalypse. Punctuated by contrastingly feminine, spoken word vignettes that add to the uneasy cinematic mood - one that draws upon dystopic visions to '60's style Film Noir - Killer Brilliance piles in with the rabid 'Broken Letter Hour' and the desperately tense 'Hurry Home' (which opens notably with the line Feeding on the flesh of the young and indifferent') before the extraordinary title track, with its sinister chorus, pops eardrums and eyeballs. There's also the Birthday Party malevolence of 'Falling From The Same Place', the growing threat of 'Abundance' - which addresses notions of prosperity and its price - the baroque, carnivalesque 'I'd Run' ( Release the devil!') and the deceptive calm of 'Bird In Hand', which begins with Haege's description of how The streets were just crawling with people just dying to breathe...' and concludes with the ugly truth that When one of us wins, some of us must lose'.

Musically, WHITE WINE feed upon an extraordinarily diverse range of ingredients, including PJ Harvey, Liars, Beak, Suicide, Minute Men, David Bowie, Chuck D and Diamonda Galas. I like to make music that is played when a cafe is closed,' Haege cackles, and not when it's open.' Lyrically, meanwhile, Killer Brilliance exhibits Haege's self-confessed weird affinity for double entendres. It fits my thinking when attempting to cover the ground of a subject. In a world of art and media overload, and the unyielding barrage of advertising, it's not easy to find any territory not already well-trodden. Many musicians seek to create music of a fantastic escapism, poetically reframing the harsh reality we're all forced to swallow every day. It's an unbelievable skill that I wish I had. However, I'm not one of these. For some weird reason, I have this need to hold onto the sheer madness of existence, all of the suffering and celebrating happening at the same time.'

Timely and unflinching, this is, by name and by nature, Killer Brilliance. Here's to your health. You'll need WHITE WINE.

BKV013 is 7 inches of infectious, Osaka-matured, aquatic dub from 7FO. 7FO-san has been in touch with Bokeh for over a year and kindly showed them round Kyoto on the BKV Japan world tour (we ate a baby squid that had a boiled egg where the brain used to be - crazy).


This is 7FO's first proper wax outing after homegrown albums made local waves with his fusion of Japanese new age and dub miniatures. Previous albums also had mastering credits by Bokeh alumni and Osaka mixing desk alchemistKabamix.


2016 saw 7FO reach wider audiences withWater Falls Into A Blank,a cassette and multi-media project viaRVNG Intl's Commend See series. Bandcamp userStandard Greysummed it up best:


"IfJoe Meeklived on to collaborate withHarry HosonoandInoyama Landand make idiosyncratic dubbed out Japanese Minyo and off-world colony exotica... "


'Water Vapour' features the enigmaticSea Urchin- the duo of Francesco Cavaliere (on FX) and Leila Hasan (on otherworldly vocals). They've released an LP for Belgian imprintKraakand Francesco notched a 2016 highlight with his solo LPs onHundebiss.

These is the 4th Bokeh release to come out of Japan.....

Stonedwave presents the latest EP offering from Jochen Heym, - Sonoaut on snow white vinyl limited to 300 copies. Bridging the gap between Hardcore, Drill and Bass and Braindance on tracks like Exit Vessel and Init Conversation the artist creates dadaistic piano arrangements that meet talking funk basslines while the tracks are still heavily rooted on the dance floor. Songs like Winterlicht and Unreachable connect the artwork taken by Icelandic Photographer Halldor Ingi to muted microtonal sounds and hypnotic piano loops . Inspired by his hiking trips to remote locations in northern Europe Jochen Heym started to invent his own microtonal tunings which can be heard throughout the whole release and define his personal unique sound character.

Establishing his style of writing electronic music and creating music with classical instruments in 2005 Jochen Heym kept on composing tracks on a daily basis of which a small exclusive selection can be heard on this record.

Expanding from 5.1 Surround Installations and orchestral recordings in Darmstadt / Germany the artists relocation to the city of Cologne also exposed his writing style to unusual tunings and ambient textures while still true to his roots in hardcore, breakcore and acid house. Artists like Miles Davis, Jacques Loussier are in the same way present in the music as more comtemporary composers like Aphex Twin, Stockhausen and Autechre.

Sononaut is the first installation of a series of releases where additional tracks will be selected from the vast archive the composer created during the last decade.

We begin our history with the first full-length Dada Ques release, written and produced by the founder of the label, Flaty.

Called '1' ('One' or 'Album One'), the release is timed with the launch of ANWO / AMONARI-NO-WORD which has been conceived and designed as a creative platform for own musical projects and various other art initiatives.

'Album One' presents a wide array of styles grinded and melted into one solid and breathing soundscape, it's electronic romanticism with advanced detail.

After collaborations with Merzbow and Daniel Avery, Alessandro Cortini (Modwheelmood, Nine Inch Nails) moves to The Point Of Departure for his third solo full length album. Alessandro Cortini today announces his third solo LP, AVANTI, due for release on 6 October via The Point of Departure Recording Co. Speaking about 'Perdonare', the first single to be taken from AVANTI, Cortini says: Perdonare embodies the often strenuous search for strength to forgive someone for their behaviour, when it becomes apparent that such behaviour is not conscious nor wanted, but merely a by-product of one's upbringing.There are few more potent examples of the power that music holds over our memories than hearing a song and being instantly transported back to a specific time or place. But what if we could change the soundtrack retrospectively If the scenes from our life played out on a big screen, how would we choose to score them It's an idea that Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Cortini found himself preoccupied with on his latest album AVANTI.
Prior to making the record, Cortini rediscovered an archive of home videos made by his grandfather, who passed away a few years previously. Among the cache were several Super 8 films of family gatherings as well as hours of dinner-time conversations recorded on cassette for posterity. It was as if Cortini had unearthed a perfect fossil of his childhood. The films, however, were missing one crucial element - the sound. So Cortini decided he would restore the miss-ing audio in his own way, by composing a musical accompaniment to the footage.
As it turned out, Cortini had a few blanks to fill in himself. The films exposed some inconsistencies in his memories, moments that he romanticised or misremembered. But what surprised him the most was that the recordings appeared to be almost as fallible as his recollections - both showed signs of degradation. I really like that about memory and music, both from an instrumentation and playback point of view, I like imperfection,' he says.
AVANTI is rich in anomalies and irregularities - much like our memories - which Cortini let creep into his compositions by recording live on a single synthesiser, the EMS Synthi AKS, without overdubs. Just like the films, there are errors and mistakes in the music, some of which became the theme and some which are peculiar things that happen once or twice,' he says.

An organismic moment denotes a state of unity with nature. It's a state of fulfillment, even euphory, but it never lasts for very long... The album is a protest against the line of thinking stating that humans stand above nature. Even though it is an obvious truth that we all spring from this planet, we are manipulated to ignore it, there is profit to be made from people forgetting the Earth and its needs. The music taps into a sense of grief for something we've lost in modern society, mixed with humour and a feeling of having someone telling you an ancient story. It is a soundtrack for an alien perspective of a possible future. Limited edition of 300 copies.

The release will be accompanied by music videos to Earth by Jonathan Penca, and Observatorum by Gertje Graef.

This is a selection of previously unreleased tracks created at home by Enrico Serotti, without any purpose other than the fun of playing with new musical devices. The tracks date from 1983 to 1999. A pretty long time span, coinciding with the transition from analog to digital technology. Cover Art by Alessandro Pessoli.

Double LP: first one includes tracks remastered from "Kondens" original master tapes (originally released in 1982), second one includes unreleased tracks taken and remastered from 1983-1984 original master tapes (produced and composed for Scandinavian "theatre" performances)

First release from the Beat catalogue serie which is focused on new artists. All music produced and mastered by Kevin Skyler. Electronic delight ranging from dance to experimental style

Sonder: The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. -- Introducing the new ambient tape series from Banoffee Pies Records You don't remember how you got home and now you're waking up again. The alarm won't stop ringing, and the person on the radio won't stop talking, you're opening your phone while your brain is busy, and it's burning right into you, stinging all over the parts of your mind that you cannot reach. So you arrive here, because your thoughts are piling up, and falling over, and crashing round your head and you want to take the swirling mess and hold it outside of you. Repeat Machine.

Seductive and cinematic soundscapes between ambient, drone and indie-neoclassical music: these are the best words to describe Hior Chronik's style. A style that captures ears and soul, bringing you into an imaginary world, arousing emotions, making the mind wander to distant places. This is the goal of the Greek musician, now living half of the year in Athens and the other half in Berlin. You can hear it in his new record "Out Of The Dust", produced by himself, mixed by John Vallasis and mastered by Francesco Donadello at Calyx Studio, Berlin. I tried to combine ambient and drone sounds with strings and piano following a harmonic direction", Chronik explains. I wanted to make a soundtrack for a movie that was never shot'. The mood is melancholic, but not only that: There's a dark side, but I made it run parallel with bright soft melodies', Chronik continues. And on the topic of his music influences: It's hard to specify what exactly they were, but I think I'm close to Max Richter and in some ways to Arvo Part. Besides that, true inspiration comes from my life experiences, even the small little things: books, films, people I meet, travels. And being close to nature: I would say that's the base of everything'. After three solo records and two in collaboration with Arovane, Chronik is now ready to launch his new work Out of The Dust'. The title is a political quote about how we can fight against the crisis, but also against the existential anguish of surviving. A movement of no fear and the beginning of a new life', he explains. On how he developed the songs, he says: I recorded piano, trumpet and strings in their analogic sound, then I used effects as I always do for the ambient and drone sounds'. Out Of The Dust' shows a personal and unique style that brings Hior Chronik's music to a wider audience. His sound is able to embrace at the same time the delicate piano themes and the dark ambient/drone tones, while at the same time searching for new territories to explore in the neo-classical scene.

On the surface, Giallo Oscuro is a pop-oriented project about 60's italian love songs. Giallo Oscuro is the missing link between romance, lightness, recklessness and fear, terror, murder and psychosexual dementia. It's an homage to the music of those "maestri" who forever changed the sound of pop music, as much as the movie soundtracks of the time: Bruno Nicolai, Egisto Macchi, Alessandro Alessandroni, Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Ennio Morricone...

More than a rereading of this beautiful music, Giallo Oscuro is about love, loss, distance, time, heartbreak, falling, "pop star's" fall and decadence. This project is about death, about the dead.

Silk-screen, hand printed cover.

On the surface, Giallo Oscuro is a pop-oriented project about 60's italian love songs. Giallo Oscuro is the missing link between romance, lightness, recklessness and fear, terror, murder and psychosexual dementia. It's an homage to the music of those "maestri" who forever changed the sound of pop music, as much as the movie soundtracks of the time: Bruno Nicolai, Egisto Macchi, Alessandro Alessandroni, Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Ennio Morricone...

More than a rereading of this beautiful music, Giallo Oscuro is about love, loss, distance, time, heartbreak, falling, "pop star's" fall and decadence. This project is about death, about the dead.

Silk-screen, hand printed cover.

Dieter Moebius (1944-2015), Teil des legendären Duos Cluster und Pate des Elektro-Krautrocks, war ein Avantgardist der deutschen elektronischen Musik. Tim Story und Jon Leidecker sind zwei amerikanische Elektronikmusiker, die unterschiedlicher kaum sein könnten: Story ist bekannt für seine warmen Soundscapes, Leidecker hat sich unter dem Pseudonym Wobbly vor allem mit experimentellen Klangforschungen einen Namen gemacht. Außerdem ist er Mitglied des Musik- und Kunstkollektivs Negativland. Im September 2012 quartierten sich die Drei in den Bergen Montanas in Brett Allens fantastischem Aufnahmestudio Snowghost ein, das hoch über dem Whitefish Lake inmitten der Rocky Mountains thront. Dort verschmolzen die Tage ineinander und hatten weder Anfang noch Ende. Aus Improvisationen entstand Musik, die erst im Moment des Klangs zu dem wurde, was sie war. Nach sieben Tagen hatten die Musiker eine Festplatte voll mit Material gefüllt, aus dem später die Alben "Snowghost Pieces" - das 2014 bei Bureau B veröffentlicht wurde - und "Familiar" entstehen sollten. Auf "Familiar" scheinen explizite Anspielungen auf die Schönheit der umgebenden Natur nur schwer zu finden zu sein - das Album enthält etliche der ruhelosesten und abstraktesten musikalischen Arbeiten des ganzen Aufenthalts.

'Trax Test' is the first ever survey of Italy's pioneering, visionary and influential label and mail art collective Trax, which ran from 1981 - 1987 as a network for the creation of collaborative projects. The collective included a pre-NWW Colin Potter and some of the earliest work from Masami Akita aka Merzbow, but also had deep connections with the art world; a few trax members went on to become famous designers and artists - Ettore Sottsass of hugely influential Memphis Group even guests on vocals on the last track of the compilation. The whole selection here is rare as heck and sorely in-demand by collectors, much of it now making its vinyl premiere some 30 odd years after the fact.
With credit due to compilers Vittore Baroni of Trax and Ecstatic's avowed wave fiend, Alessio Natalizia (Not Waving) - who was also behind the 'Mutazione (Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988)' compilation - 'Trax Test' is a portal to the international scene which laid the grassroots for a proliferation of electronic music over the proceeding decades - a pioneering part of the infrastructure for independent music distribution which could be said to pre-echo the myriad social networks and platforms which exist for sharing music today.
As Frans De Waard astutely points out in the 16-page booklet, there were no 'templates' for this thing back then - as opposed to the forms of Soundcloud, Spotify or YouTube nowadays - meaning artists did everything DIY: from cutting, pasting and xeroxing their artwork to xperimenting with recording techniques and disseminating their work; all resulting a wonderfully daring and freeform mosaic of ideas which valued the virtues of ostensibly 'unfinished' or open-ended work, when compared with more expensive, 'proper' studio output.
Traces of disco, cosmic krautrock, jazz, electro-pop and industrial noise are all tessellated across the compilation's 25 tracks, with a number of artists and the same equipment - cheap drum machines, synths, FX and tape - cropping up in various, mutant formations.
In terms of obscurity, quality and variation, this set is right up there with the best compilations from Vinyl-on-Demand (an early supporter of this project), Light Sounds Dark (although Ecstatic guys did it legit, lol), or Minimal Wave, and likewise probably saves you the few months wages it would take to track down all the originals. Fucking bravo, we say!









REDNIGHT (EXCERPT)

This is Amateur Childbirth's Christian Rock album. The previous LP from Ivan Matthew David's solo project, 2015's Pripyat, concerned itself with the blighted belief systems of UFO worshippers, Your Afterlife Is Cancelled expands this compelling solo project's field of enquiry to look at a wider array of religious anomalies' - cults, for want of a better word. Each song is about a different such anomaly.To call Hicks' vision apocalyptic would be to underplay its cruelty. The Bible's rampant sadism pales in comparison.

Hungarian composer and musicologist László Hortobágyi, took his first expedition to North India in the late 1960's to record music, study philosophy and learn traditional instruments such as the rudra-vina, sitar, surbahar and tabla. These ongoing trips heavily influenced his musical style and much of his recorded work. LFI is happy to announce the reincarnation of one of his most illustrious works, Transreplica Meccano originally released by Hungaropop in 1988.
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As a child László fantasised about interacting with otherworldly muses and imploring them for the hope and guidance he yearned to escape the intellectual bareness of his surroundings. His early feelings of alienation combined with the almost sensual pleasure he remembers from these interactions, influenced and helped shape his life long musical journey. In 1980 he established the musical society called Gáyan Uttejak Mandal. It was named after the Hindu-Moslem musician's society founded by Navraojí Kabrají in 1870 (it was the school of the great musicologist, V.N Bhátkhánde).
The society expanded throughout the 1980's with an archive of oriental music, to be considered unique and unrivalled in Eastern Europe, which has operated parallel to the Gáyan Uttejak Studio and the Gáyan Uttejak Orchestra. The members have made it their duty to practice and study the world heritage of traditional cultures.

The remastered and revised edition of Transreplica Meccano is reborn after 31 years. László weaves a tapestry of sample based magic, transcribed from travels across the orient, transporting the listener to a fascinating world of archaic musicality. His sound palette is rebuilt and restructured using PCM morphology and FFT spectrum analysis as well as virtual overtone processing synthesis software he developed in 1988. The new live program's repertoire is also based on the classical Indian instrumental technique of the Gáyaki-Ang and the Tablá-tárang polyrhythmic structure, and is mixed with his developed sound morphology of the granular systhesis technique according to his original 'computed memesis of music' concept. The result is an incredible amalgamation of musical worlds, allow yourself to be immersed in a truly unique dialect.

Following up on their intricate and thought-provoking cassette from Berlin's Circula, and a string of highly appreciated Bandcamp compilations, Loose Lips turn the tables to present this debut album from Japanese producer, Masaki Uchida.

The mysterious composer presents his inaugural venture into album territory with a full length LP soaked in atmosphere, intimidating noise and razor sharp attention to detail. Uchida's uncanny approach leaves the listener dazzled, moving from perturbed ambience and experimental sound design through to baffling broken rhythms.

Xenolinguistics' thoughtfulness comes from anger, prayer and sorrow. Despite sounding alternative in its construction, Masaki's desire is to to share these expressions with popular culture.

The album is rounded off by 2 remixes from Loose Lips crew members, Rico Casazza and T-Scale. Following Casazza's masterful album of moody electro on Archipelearlier this year, the inspired Italian here covers 'Logos' in sophisticated breakbeats & moving instrumentation. Then T-Scale's remix transforms the already overwhelming 'Black Puzzle' into a lengthy industrial labyrinth.

Mastered at Dadub Studios.

Dear ladies and gentleman, May I allow myself to present to you something quite special. Perhaps you are not quite able to imagine, or maybe you just don't know any better, but incase it is not already obvious: OTTO - whose last album 'Greatest Hits' created furore not only with their female fans - have just backed it up with a new release more advanced than most. Which of the two can play the flute, or which has a drivers license you ask Most likely can the strongest clues be found in their delirium. Do enjoy.

This new soundtrack album features 13 original compositions by the acclaimed experimental composer Ben Frost, creator of the critically-lauded studio albums by The Throat (2009) and Aurora (204), as well as music for the film Sleeping Beauty and 2015 British television series Fortitude. For this release the artist creates vivid minimalist textures that capture the drama of the compelling new film Super Dark Times. When Kevin Phillips approached me to write music for his film it resonated immediately. As a composer, the thing that perhaps excited me the most is that Super Dark Times, is in many ways of a period drama, and that within that idea there was a largely untapped world of sound to explore. Whilst the sound of the '80s has long since moved into the realm of retro, 1995 still feels uncomfortably close. CD Walkmans, digital delays, Boss Metal Zone distortion pedals, Intel Pentium chips, and Peavey practice amps inadvertently defined the music of the period (and my teenage years), and it was from that world of technology and my own memories of the confusion, the anxiety, the black hair dye the music for Super Dark Times was born.' - Ben Frost

Limited edition 180g vinyl reissue 2LP's on Virgin EMI. Download cards included.