Beats News

Featuring tracks by Jonnine (HTRK), Gi Gi, Rezzet’s Tapes, E Ruscha V, Kiki Kudo, Shakali, and others, this is the 4th entry in the »All Welcome« compilation series. Good Morning Tapes' global almanac speaks to the diversity of their bonds with the ambient and downbeat rhizome.

Jonnine's ‘I Won't Lift Another Finger’ once again transcends its surroundings, this time on an instrumental tip that sounds something like a drowsy Vini Reilly playing electric bass and wind-chimes. Tapes, aka Jackson Bailey, aka one half of Rezzet, also does his thing in typically memorable style, his ‘Indigo Tide’ managing to sound like an inversion of Mr Fingers ‘Can You Feel It’ x something lifted off RDJ’s ‘Analogue Bubblebath, while Kiki Kudo features with Haruka Hirata in tow for the spongiform ambient club sway of ‘Hzaruigara’ and E Ruscha V gives it slow mo Acid, Pye Corner Audio style, for his ‘Memory Leap’. Finally. Alexis Le Tan & Joakim’s slow trance duo Full Circle get it right with the pendulous Goa-learic satellite ‘A Definition of What’, and Gi Gi dial up the ‘90s breeziness on ‘Opioid Rev’, giving us blissed flashbacks to a diff, better time.

One of ASC's finest musical moments, repressed for 2018 on crystal clear vinyl.

To the extent that necessity is socially dreamed, the dream becomes necessary. The spectacle is the nightmare of imprisoned modern society which ultimately expresses nothing more than its desire to sleep. The spectacle is the guardian of sleep.

Fantas is the epic opening track on Caterina Barbieri’s acclaimed 2019 release Ecstatic Computation. The original Fantas laid out a magical path of patterns leading the listener on a journey into the sound itself. Fantas Variations maps out eight new potentials sprung from this initial path as constructed by a diverse mix of artists lending to a wide spectrum of new works extrapolated from the original work. For this project Barbieri invited friends and long time collaborators from a variety of musical backgrounds to create a more sustainable and inclusive landscape in terms of stylistic, geographical, gender and generational balance. The results are a diverse array of approaches and instrumentation which blur the boundaries between the acoustic and electronic.

Fantas Variations embraces a platform for mutual exchange and support between like-minded artists, where active and collective re-imagination is prioritised over the traditional model of remixes, which is often strategic, functional and more passive.

Longtime friend and collaborator Kali Malone rearranged Fantas to a slowed-down, austere and eerie version for two Organs. Evelyn Saylor created a piece for a vocal ensemble consisting of her, Lyra Pramuk, Stine Janvin and Annie Garlid, joining forces to express the choral, psychedelic and vitalistic nature of the piece. Barbieri’s former guitar professor at the Conservatory in Bologna, Walter Zanetti, composes Fantas for electric guitar, by translating every single gesture of the original electronic piece into a personal, nuanced and detailed interpretation. Bendik Giske’s reinterpretation for Saxophone and Voice captures the atmospheric essence of Fantas and its psychic meteorology. Longtime collaborator and along with Barbieri the other half of the outfit Punctum, Carlo Maria, resynthesizes Fantas for TR808 and MC202, bringing a more club-oriented dimension of the piece to life whilst unveiling the sonic continuum between rhythm and pitch through a sensitive timbral approach. Jay Mitta’s Singeli reinterpretation of Fantas transpires with pitched-up percussion and turbo-fast polyrhythmic patterns unleashing the frenetic, shifting, transformative matter within the piece to a higher plain of euphoric dance. Baseck’s variation is a rave fantasia, where the prismatic trance of the original is channeled into fierce, uncompromising hardcore, whilst Kara-Lis Coverdale’s take is a phantasmagoria for piano that gently, yet inexorably, captures the relentlessness chimerical qualities of the original, unveiling its spectral backbone.

Evelyn Saylor (feat. Lyra Pramuk, Annie Garlid & Stine Janvin) - Fantas Variation for Voices (7’38’’)
Composed by Evelyn Saylor. Performed by Evelyn Saylor, Lyra Pramuk, Stine Janvin and Annie Garlid. Recording, mix and additional production by Bridget Ferrill at Real Surreal Studio, Berlin 2021.

Bendik Giske - Fantas for Saxophone and Voice (7'31'')
Adapted and performed by Bendik Giske. Recorded, mixed, and produced by Bendik Giske in Funkhaus, Berlin 2020.

Kali Malone - Fantas for two Organs (10'21'')
Arranged for The Utopa Baroque Organ, The Sauer Organ and tuned sine waves. Recorded by Benny Nilsen at Orgelpark, Amsterdam 2020.

Walter Zanetti - Fantas for Electric Guitar (7'27'')
Recorded by Walter Zanetti, Bologna 2020.

Jay Mitta - Singeli Fantas (12'03'')
Recorded by Jay Mitta in Sisso Studios, Dar Es Salaam 2020.

Baseck - Fantas Hardcore (4'44'')
Mixed by Anthony Baldino, Los Angeles 2020.

Carlo Maria - Fantas resynthesized for 808 and 202 (4'29'')
Recorded by Carlo Maria, Milano 2020.

Kara-Lis Coverdale - Fantas Morbida (3'04'')
Performed, recorded and mixed at The Shop in Valens, Ontario by Kara-Lis Coverdale, January 2021. Engineering assistance from Robert Coverdale and Adam Feingold.

Cosmica Bandida’s debut studio album “Lagrimas Saladas” is an amalgam of sounds influenced by the diverse backgrounds of the members, who find themselves in Munich a city where the leftovers of cosmic music and 70s disco meet cumbia and tropical vampirism. Dark cumbia and psychedelic music collide with the moods of space disco in an album that engages the body. The first two songs that open the record, “5K Caballo” and “Lágrimas Saladas” explore the textures of synthesizers and the atmospheres of Colombian public pools in incandescent villages, while “Pájaro del Desierto” paints desert landscapes influenced by Turkish and Egyptian psychedelic music. Closing the A-side with “Salsa Bandida” the band pays tribute to the basic and classic salsa rhythm in a Lo-fi reinterpretation with the Bogota fashion of cold and mountainous tropical music making.

On the flip side, a group of eight remixers has united to deliver remixes for all the Club enthusiasts out there. Lipelis sets vinyl lovers on fire with his Dubby Disco Remix of “Salsa Bandida”, while MaSpaventi, Volta Cab, Los Pulpitos, and Hektisch Sprengen DJs bring their soulful and dubby trip-hop torch songs to the release. Prepare yourself for Grischerr & Heap’s glitchy and deconstructed industrial reggaeton remix of “Pájaro del desierto”, along with a powerful deconstructed club beatdown by Kobermann. Jacques Satre’s psychedelic stupdep remix adds the perfect finishing touch to the package.

The album’s B-side and some of the digital remixes occasionally pays homage to the influential sounds from the 1990s era, think Rockers Hi-Fi, K&D, Nightmares On Wax, and Warp, but with a fresh and bold twist that brings a super fat sound to the entire release. Dropping this October 2023 for an endless summer 4eva exclusively on vinyl.

“Sainen Hildo” is an album based on Miguel’s original compositions, recomposed and rearranged for accordion and voice by the two composers. Using the natural resonance and harmonics of these two instruments to influence their introspective interactions, resulting in evolving drones and tones and puzzling percussive outbursts. Unusual and at times unsettling, they manage to create a calibrated, deep and complex exploratory universe of ambience and drone where listening becomes a ritual. Highest recommendation for fans of Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue or Phill Niblock.

Garazi Navas (accordion + voice). Original compositions by Miguel A. García. Recomposed and rearranged by Garazi Navas & Miguel A. García. Recorded by Ibon Rg at Azkuna Zentroa (Contemporary Art Centre in Bilbao) in June 2022, as part of the associated artists program. Mixing and mastering by Juan Carlos Blancas. Compiled by Mikel Acosta.

Acrylic painting on heavyweight paper by Maite Mugerza Ronse. Limited edition of 300 black vinyl LP’s housed in a coloured matt laminated cover. Released by Hegoa Diskak.

Dopelganger is the project in collaboration between classically trained accordion player and singer Garazi Navas (Usansolo, Bizkaia-Biscay, 1995) and Miguel A. Garcia (Vitoria-Gasteiz), an artist living in Bilbao with an extensive career in the fields of experimental music and sound art.

Garazi Navas / Classically trained at Musikene School of Music in San Sebastian with a masters in traditional music, Garazi, is a restless accordionist who, despite her young age, has taken part in a multitude of projects in theater, poetry, ballet, art installations and even playing with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. Her works are a personal interpretation of the close relationship which she feels exists between cutting-edge and traditional music.

Miguel A. García / Has performed extensively in Europe, America and Asia, both as a solo artist, improvising and in multiple ensembles. He has collaborated with dozens of artists (Al Karpenter, Jean Luc Guionnet, Sébastien Branche...) in studio and live, and appeared in more than a hundred albums. At the same time, he is organizer and curator of events, being founder of Club Le Larraskito, director of Zarata Fest, and part of the coordination of the cycle Hotsetan at Azkuna Zentroa itself

After five years from "Cash On The Line" Admiral returns with some hot served distillate of his sweet psychedelic bliss. Admiral takes us on an acid soaked journey through the many realms of consciousness offering a unique and alluring soundscape that defies traditional boundaries."Do You Want To Sit On The Green" sounds like library music coming from a parallel universe where the familiar and the surreal seamlessly blend to create a musical tapestry that is both nostalgic and avant-garde.

Heute kündigt die mitreißende Pfeiferin Molly Lewis ihr Debütalbum „On The Lips“ an, das am 16. Februar über Jagjaguwar erscheint. Im vergangenen Jahr hat Molly an der Seite von Mark Ronson und Andrew Wyatt eine der emotionalsten Szenen des Hollywood-Hits „Barbie“ vertont, Modehäusern wie Chanel, Gucci und Hermes ihr einzigartiges Talent geliehen und Weyes Blood auf Tour unterstützt. Auf ihrem kommenden Debütalbum lädt sie ein ins Café Molly, eine Lounge-Bar, wie es sie nicht mehr gibt. Das Licht ist gedämpft, die Martinis sind eiskalt, die Bänke sind aus Samt, und die Bühne ist bereit für das elektrisierende Talent der Pfeiferin Molly Lewis. Nach dem exotischen Stil der „The Forgotten Edge“ EP und der an Tropicalia angelehnten „Mirage“ EP wollte sie den Sound des Café Molly für ihr Debütalbum „On The Lips“ einfangen, eine verträumte Hommage an klassische Stimmungsmusik, die neblige Visionen von Hollywood-Jazzclubs, italienischen Kinosoundtracks und anhaltenden Umarmungen zwischen Liebenden heraufbeschwört. Ziehen Sie sich also einen Stuhl heran, bestellen Sie Ihren Lieblingsdrink und machen Sie sich bereit, sich zu verlieben. „On The Lips“ wurde mit dem Produzenten Thomas Brenneck (Menahan Street Band, Charles Bradley, Amy Winehouse) in den Diamond West Studios in Pasadena aufgenommen. Während der Sessions wurde Molly auf den 10 Tracks des Albums von einer Reihe gefeierter Musiker unterstützt, darunter Nick Hakim, der für den Latin Grammy nominierte brasilianische Gitarrist Rogê, Leland Whitty und Chester Hansen von Badbadnotgood, die Chicano-Soul-Gruppe Thee Sacred Souls auf dem melancholischen "Crushed Velvet", der experimentelle Jazz-Pianist Marco Benevento und Leon Michels von El Michels Affair. Das Album enthält zwei Coverversionen: Dave Berrys Pop-Standard "The Crying Game" aus den 1960er Jahren und Jeanettes "Porque Te Vas" von 1974. Gleichzeitig mit der heutigen Ankündigung wird die Single "Lounge Lizard" mit Musikvideo veröffentlicht, inspiriert von Julie Londons Erscheinung im Film The Girl Can't Help It von 1956.

First Vinyl release of Artscope. South Korean experimental label Based in Seoul, Artscope is a deep techno label.

"The world is full of artificial sounds which is not just annoying noise, but rather pulsing, oscillating with emotion".

This music unites our common love for the essence of music, which contains harmonic structures and emotionality without borders." — Musique Infinie

Musique Infinie, the new duo consisting of Noémi Büchi and Feldermelder, is rooted in a shared desire to intertwine two composing veins, and to merge them into a new, massive core. While Büchi combined her background in classical and electro-acoustic music with a bold approach to composition on her highly acclaimed debut album 'Matter' (-OUS, 2022), multi-disciplinary musician and artist Feldermelder has been expanding his artistic practice into unexplored realms for over 20 years. Mutually, they've challenged themselves to fully engage on an artistic exploration aimed at making use of the elementary forces that unfold between them.

Their debut album, simply titled 'I', is a musical hybridization. The compositions make use of simple motives that are radically transformed by expanding them into intricate structures and fantastic layerings. The overcoming of genres with eclectic elements from classical music, jazz, film music and traditional music, combined with the vocabulary of experimental electronic music, complete the vertical plunge into this thickness. The emerging pieces lead into a paradoxical world, both disturbing and euphoric. Pieces that don't give in to calculations and expectations, but progress through ruptures and repetitions. The richness of the compositions and their analog, acoustic and orchestral character reflect the density of the world with its violence, its decadence, its fragility, but also its power, its ingenuity and its beauty.

Composer and sound artist Noémi Büchi creates electronic, symphonic maximalism. Her music is defined by a delicate synthesis of textural rhythms and electroacoustic-orchestral abstraction. She explores the potential of consonance and dissonance, contrasts rhythmic physicality with disruption and playfully emphasizes irregularities, creating an expansive listening experience marked by detail and elevation.

Feldermelder is a polymathic creative whose artistry spans composition, sound design, installation and code. He is co-founder of -OUS Records and an active member of Encor.studio, a collective specialising in creating immersive audio-visual installations. Through his work, he explores the idea of secrecy and its impact on our lives, using music and sound to create a thought-provoking and immersive experience for his audience.

Recital presents the first full-length vinyl LP by sound artist Asha Sheshadri. Whiplash combines elements of sound poetry, diary-like narrations, and delicate incidental music. Sheshadri has crafted a unique and marvelous album.

Asha Sheshadri is a visual artist and musician, who “meditates on meaning, context, and impermanence” (Joshua Kim). Moves freely between video, writing, sound, and photography. Her forms flow together to create unpredictable observations of the overlooked, while documenting personal and political networks within our collective, imperfect memory.

“This record is an alternate approach to the autobiographical ‘confessional’ – I wanted to stitch together some pivotal sketches in self-understanding and forgiveness. While their designs may seem affectively disparate, they are in fact quite interrelated. My intention (as with past recordings) is to task the listener with tracing the contours of the narrative (or lack thereof). Each track contains sound from video work, excerpts from writers I admire, ethnographic methods, recovered and recycled voice/text memos, photographs from personal and public archives, and research-driven fictions. These sources expand and collapse into each other, only to reveal the eponymous "whiplash". To me, the feeling of "whiplash" is the collision of: a refracted ambivalence towards what was once real, the endless cycle of reckoning with wherever "home" has taken place, the fraught process of anchoring one’s self in the wake of slow-release trauma, and how (if even possible) to translate all of this into artwork.” –Asha Sheshadri, 2023

“Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other. There is no place like home.” –Yi Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.

All tracks arranged & recorded by Asha Sheshadri; in bedrooms, living rooms, libraries, bars, airplanes, backyards and parks across North America.
Mastered by Sean McCann.

Entombed between the approaching war machine, Berlin's squat metal underground and the corrosive electronics broadcast from the Hague's bunker network, Chaosy's "Bad Magic" marks his first on the label, with tracks pulled together from equipment left behind in Ukraine and resurrected in makeshift studios while on the road.

Across the LP's eight tracks, the record dials into this modern day horror and occult activity from throughout the ages, flipping between cave dwelling techno, breakbeat, gnarled Ukrainian rap and wails found between the gaps in the machine. A full blown sonic assault into the belly of the beast.

*Repress*

Robert Rental is an artist as influential as he is overlooked. An anchor of the early British DIY and post-punk scene, his name is most frequently uttered alongside illustrious collaborators such as Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Dark Entries and Optimo ally to illuminate some of Rental’s early solo works with an expanded reissue of his debut 7” Paralysis /A.C.C.. Both labels have previously excavated Rental’s catalog; we reissued the collaborative LP with Glenn Wallis in 2017, and Optimo released a collection of demos in 2018.

The double A-side Paralysis /A.C.C. 7” was self-released on Regular Records in 1978, around the same time as Leer’s Private Plane/International 7”. The record is a perfect document of the DIY ethos. It was recorded with the assistance of Leer in the council flat that Robert lived in, using an assortment of budget electronics: a Roland drum machine, a Stylophone, an Electroharmonix DrQ, and a TEAC A3440 4-track recorder. The record’s sleeves were surreptitiously photocopied after hours at the offices of Virgin Records by Robert's partner Hilary Farrow, and the labels were hand-stamped The initial print run was a scant 650 copies. With its prominent notes of Krautrock, prog, dub, and ambient, Paralysis /A.C.C. points to a then-emergent musical form. “Paralysis” makes its four and a half minute runtime feel like an eon, an endless morass of processed vocals and mournful melodies underpinned by the static whirrings of synthesizers. “A.C.C.” is an angular pop song that is at once both fractured and droning, like a skipping record that sounds incrementally more warped with each iteration. The original 7” material is joined here by three previously unreleased tracks. Instrumentals “G.B.D.” and “Ugly Talk” evidence Rental’s outre-prog and melodic electronic sides, respectively. Sitting between the instrumentals is “Untitled”, a sparse gem that layers Rental’s gently processed vox with guitar and drum machine, beautiful in its simplicity.

The Paralysis EP has been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy studios. The record comes in a sleeve with the original xeroxed 7” artwork. Also included is a four page booklet with lyrics, photos, and archival press material.

Milano-Bristol connection Bristol NormCore deliver their 8th release, following up heavy hitters from Katatonic Silentio and Kelan, with this tripped out, hi-tek and deftly future-facing, cyberpunk-styled LP of grime and afx type ambience and rhyhtmics, from the producer known as FFT.

Elite Controller’ c/w ‘Softness on the Other Side’ is the second 7” single containing two of four tracks produced by transcontinental duo ‘Gruuel’, featuring James Vinciguerra and Beau Wanzer, between 2019 and 2023. The duo appear here in an expanded form with third member and Vinciguerra ‘Act Now’ collaborator Tarquin Manek, heard as multi instrumentalist jack-of-all-trades performing guitar, bass guitar, synthesiser and bass clarinet to accompany Wanzer’s hazy drum machine patterns and Vinciguerra’s mutated vocals.

The single is the first release on Elations Recordings’ ‘Deviations’ imprint, focusing on the outer realms of experimentation and fringe expression. Two subterranean, science-non-fiction snapshots capturing the spirit of the forward looking art-experimental groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s that were lumped in with the punk movement.

The a-side ‘Elite Controller’ is the more immediate of the two tracks; a paranoid fever dream of raw, psychedelic guitars underpinned by dub bass and Vinciguerra’s deranged mutant vocals; while the b-side ‘Softness on the Other Side’ takes a more self-reflective turn. A passive, spoken word cautionary telling of the dangers while searching for personal nirvana accompanied by Manek’s tortured bass clarinet impressions. Recommended for fans of Chrome, Tuxedomoon or K. Leimer’s experimental “artificial” band ‘Savant’.

In 2022, Osàre! Editions founder Elena Colombi approached artists and musicians with a prompt: Every body, everyone needs love to flourish. In her book The Will to Change, the eminent author and social activist, Bell Hooks, invites men to excavate their innermost selves, challenging the way that patriarchal society limits their capacity for intimacy, tenderness, care and emotion. As hooks lays out, feminist thought and work requires the collective participation of all genders in order to realise a liberated world. How can we imagine cross-gender solidarity through music and art? And how can we tell sonic stories that facilitate our full potential as desiring beings? These are the questions that The Male Body Will Be Next starts out from.

The title of the record draws connections between hooks' writing, a film by Rebecca Salvadori and Peter de Potter's stunning photo series of the same name. In de Potter and Salvadori's depictions, men's bodies appear as vulnerable, naked and exposed.

Divided into two parts, the first instalment of The Male Body Will Be Next hinges on colliding energies – the melding of club dance floors and haunting ambient textures, agile techno and noisy experimentation.

'The sun on my skin… it’s so warm and gentle,’ speak-sings Olivia Salvadori on ‘Su Di Te M’Infrango’, visualising utopias. Laurel Halo crafts a dreamscape spun from golden threads of synth and strings. Pensive and reflective, Ben Bertrand’s bass clarinet roams searchingly, its piercing tonality full of longing. Yet, in between these lucid, cinematic passages and spoken word, The Male Body Will Be Next finds space to dance together. Moving in fervent, rhythmic patterns, Sepehr’s ‘Divooneh’ pivots between tension and release. Filmmaker unleashes a wave of energy and The Spy delivers a potent take on vintage electro, the track title hinting at the double-bind of gendered expectations. Propelled between these eclectic styles, the record encapsulates the full spectrum of sonic expression.

Welcome to the magenta world of Emil Valev. During the late 1980s and 90s, at the helm of Violetov General, he pioneered a darkly melancholic, avant-garde formulation of the new wave sound. The band enjoyed international acclaim, spending time in the underground scenes of Bulgaria, Berlin and Slovakia. Since then, Valev has gone on to refine his hypnotically idiosyncratic style with a number of solo releases and appearances at electronic music festivals. Now, Osàre! is honoured to present Gentle Reactor. Collecting together twenty-five years of remastered and more recent material, the album is powered by the sensual fission of harsh textures, metronomic beats and playful excess.

Label boss Elena Colombi initially received over eighty songs from Valev, two of which appeared on the compilations Il Monte Analogo (2021) and Il Lupo Della Steppa (2020) respectively. But it was clear that a full album dedicated to Violetov General needed to be in the works. The pair spent two years combing through recordings, selecting the tracks that would eventually form the double-sided LP. From the locked-groove beat of ‘Valahoveine’ to 'Poliani’s sizzling industrial refrain and the slap-bass finale of 'Black Cat', Gentle Reactor is a wild ride.

The record takes the darkwave genre on a cosmic journey across the realms of prog rock, noise, Eastern European folk-tinged melodies, ritualistic percussion and a patchwork of vocal breakdowns. Driven by an intuitive compositional process and slick production, the retrospective is a fascinating slice of experimental music history that's anything but backwards facing.

KOU is the new project by Apolline Schöser (half of Nina Harker) & Thomas Coquelet.

Apolline & Thomas have been performing since 2022 under the KOU guise with 24 electronic harmoniums. Producing dense layers of tones & overtones. On their debut album KOU steers in another direction. The harmonium appears occasionally, but more prominent are delicate guitar pluckings, distant vocal effects, synths, flutes, piano strokes, a touch of musical magic and Apolline’s jazz not jazz vocals.

As soon as the needle drops it’s clear we are jump-cutting straight to the other side of the mirror. Cats purr, a woman sings as if asleep, drum machines stutter and warp and Alvin Lucier is not 'sitting in a room that is not different to the one you are not in now’. If you’re already confused, join the club. But, it’s the good kind of confused, a bewildering experience akin to the first time hearing the Faust Tapes or watching Inland Empire. Wait though, as pigeons coo and the tape machine clunk-clicks a gorgeous weirdo version of Roger's and Hart’s Blue Moon emerges to let you know this isn’t just dada splurge, there’s a genius pop sensibility at work here too. Side two takes us further into the murk with mournful detuned brass, stoned Joan La Barbara-esque vocalese and a droning Farfisa hymn, before ending with another too-tempting snatch of DIY pop. Some of the references are recognisable. All kinds of 70s/80s European art prog - think early Battiato, Pierot Lunaire’s Gudrun, Lucia Bosè and Gregorio Paniagua's Io Pomodoro etc etc. There’s a strong whiff of 90s us goof-off surrealism too- Bongwater, Siltbreeze, Royal Trux’s Twin infinitives, the damaged folkier side of Alastair Galbraith, Half-Japanese, early Beck even all feel relevant.

Like an oddball group of friends you might meet by chance and end up weirding-out with for days, the minds behind this deliciously odd music allow you to stay for a while in their strange subcultural world. You might not want to live here forever but a short trip, while it lasts, rewires your brain for the better.

Dark Red Vinyl. Lambent Material is the debut album by Eluvium , the moniker for composer Matthew Robert Cooper 's sonic experiments and explorations. First released in May of 2003, Lambent Material was immediately recognized as much for its artful simplicity as it was for its deceptive complexity - an album of melodic austerity, alien transmissions, and titanic waves of cathartic noise. Previously only available on vinyl as part of Eluvium 's Life Through Bombardment Vol. 1 box set (a 7xLP collection released in 2008 that has been sold out for well over a decade), Lambent Material - Anniversary Edition finally gets its first standalone vinyl release. Beautifully remastered for vinyl by LUPO at Loop_O Mastering, it is packaged in a full-color jacket and heavyweight inner sleeve with fully restored original artwork.

João Almeida (trumpet) and Pedro Melo Alves (drums), two of the most creative and prolific Portuguese jazz musicians of their generation, are MOORIS. Recorded in May 2021, right after the second lockdown in Portugal, “I” shows them freely exploring their instruments of choice but also finding and creating sound with “objects”, as they describe.

Both musicians leave behind familiar ground and use their instruments to create sounds that appear ceremonial or even manifest themselves as rituals. “+” sets the tone, dark, sparse and haunting, and the next four tracks (all on the "positive" side, with “+” added to each title) make use of the freedom proposed by this experiment with the uncanny. The “objects” start appearing, creating movement, confusion and dancing around different genres, from dark metal to industrial.

Flashes of jazz can be heard throughout, particularly on the B side (the "negative" side), with all tracks following the same conceptual logic as the A Side (“-”, “- -”, etc.). The atmosphere is clearer here. João’s trumpet ascends to a new level and creates new concepts in the fourth world realm. In a matter of seconds, it shifts naturally to somewhere else, the dense/dark atmosphere experienced on the A side becomes a distant memory and we are now flowing with the sounds, not trapped in them. A beautiful release after a tense/intense beginning.

After spending the last year constantly listening to “I”, MOORIS' debut still sounds brutal and unforgiving. A rare breed.

'Martyr Shrapnel' was originally released by The Muslimgauze Preservation Society in 2012 in a limited CD edition. Now available on double vinyl.

Written, played, and recorded by Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze from 1996 to 1998.
Mastering by Yuriy Bulychev.
Design by Zavoloka. Photography & production by Dmytro Fedorenko.

Shrapnel and destroyed machine-gun cartridge were kindly provided by Maryna Fedorenko and Georgiy Potopalsky.

Whisky soaked, nocturnal, brooding. Aging’s album »Troubles? I Got A Bartender« was a noteworthy, film-noir infused suite that quietly slipped out on cassette in 2015 by a then budding Manchester avant-jazz ensemble, led by David McLean.

In 2020, amidst the pandemic’s tempest and winter's gloom, the idea manifested of showcasing McLean’s slow burning, wistful soirée in a new light via a curated effort by Berlin’s Vaagner label, which invited a series of hand-picked artist to rework selected compositions from the album, rendering its mournful, smoke-tinged resonances into new shapes.

Its result is »Reworks (Rewoven)«, and it presents 6 new interpretations by 5 artists. These range from ruminating, tape smudged ambient works interlaced with sublime acoustic strums by fellow Manchester musicians The Humble Bee and Tape Loop Orchestra, to poignant steel guitar renditions by Nashville based Kelby Clark. Furthermore, Barcelona based Dania and London based Laila Sakini, each present pieces that draw the listener into opaque realms harbored by swooning reverie and eerie, glistening prophecy.

Carefully assembled across two sides of vinyl, McLean’s penchant for hard-boiled detective novels, vintage Japanese crime flicks and film noir iconography have a continued lurking presence in the reworks, yet the new pieces each add a modern facet to the original’s cinematic narrative, its morose and sulky mood now opening into new avenues of interpretation. And whilst some artists have chosen to dive further into the themes of contentious ambivalence and pensive solitude, others have sought to slightly lift the haze, stirring up melodies tinged with a sense of hope, hinting at times, towards instants of poise and vivacity.

In the end this leaves us with a new body of work that manages to feel poignant in its complexity whilst remaining dissonant and elusive in its renditions, hinting at a modern day existence even more opaque, intricate and convoluted than the film noir classics of old might have pictured the world.

''come, Memory: fieldwork'' is the culmination of a long-cherished research project initiated in September 2021, revolving around three immersive journeys to ancient European sacred places, with a particular focus on Neolithic sites. This project encompasses extensive research, the capture of Super 8mm film, 35mm photography, and audio recordings, the creation of three experimental short films, and the development of a scenographic installation. In May 2023, this installation was exhibited at the artist-run project space WET in Rotterdam. ''come, Memory: fieldwork'' represents another facet of this journey--an extended research and sound documentation, crafted through the collaborative efforts of Katrina Niebergal and Bergur Anderson.

The first album in 7 years from seminal electronic music pioneers and twice Mercury Prize Nominated, Leftfield. Currently reaching a new audience through Idris Elba’s Gucci ad, this will be their 4th album in their 28 year history. The new single will be featured in the soon to launched eFootball by Konami (previously PES).

Their last tour (in 2017) featured 7 sold out UK shows (including 2 X Brixton Academies), a sold out world tour and various festival headlines.

Quote from Neil Barnes: "I wanted ‘Pulse’ to be the first statement from the new album. It felt strong. Dance floor. Human. Positive. And I love the bass. It’s Leftfield."

Full pitch notes with bio to come

CULTURE

Leftfield (originally comprised of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley), have been at the cutting edge of dance music since the 1990s, releasing albums that have become some of the most influential electronic records of all time around the world with their debut LP 'Leftism' being widely regarded as one of the most boundary-pushing electronic LPs ever released.

In 2010, Neil Barnes reignited the Leftfield name, and went on to release an acclaimed new album (Alternative Light Source) touring the world with the full live band. Neil has also been cementing his reputation as a top-tier DJ and record collector unleashing modern dance floor weapons, selling out venues, headlining festivals and creating some amazing nights with his sets.

upsammy enters the acoustic realm with her new side-project Sweepsculp. Five addictive tracks fusing minimalism, IDM, folk, krautrock and various styles of jazz - using only an acoustic guitar besides drums. Live recorded, digitally edited/sculpted and produced in her singular style.

Burnt down utopias and urban paranoia, Hidden Horse are back with their second album. “Incorporeal” is the follow-up to 2022’s “Opala” and the band’s first release on vinyl. Composed by João Kyron (keyboards/electronics) and Tony Watts (drums), long-time friends and collaborators on different projects, the most prominent one being the exotic and dreamy Beautify Junkyards (Ghost Box). As a duo they’re a totally different game.

Playing live regularly after the release of “Opala” offered them the possibility to explore a more freeform approach to their sound. Their live sets were often unpredictable, focused on the communication dynamic between the trio (Ana Farinha joins them on their performances) and where they could be led to, instead of reinterpreting the songs. “Incorporeal” embodies that attitude, it is a less confined album and it is not worried about being referential or even self-referential. They finally discovered how to expand the hauntology dynamics and free themselves from design restraints.

The album feels lighter, fluent, more optimistic. It remains thematically close to the eternal sci-fi discomfort, imagine Burial living in Lisbon, Portugal. João and Tony feel free from any doubts they might have had in the beginning of this project and are now more confident about how Hidden Horse sounds and unpreoccupied about the narrative: it is rock oriented but dressed as the electronic / dance music they would like to listen and dance to. Guest slots from Arianne Churchman (“The Tape Spool Within The Horse’s Mouth”) and Clothilde (“Espectros no CCTV”) offer a new range of feelings and confirms how Hidden Horse’s music evolves into new grounds when accepting new ideas and voices. “Opala” was a trojan horse to come out – of the pandemic? – and play. “Incorporeal” feels like the real deal.

“A startling step sideways from Beautify Junkyards’s sweetly spooky psychedelia, this parallel project brings the New Sonic Architecture of Eighties electronica into the 21st Century. Spacious and eerie, these glistening vistas bear comparison with Cabaret Voltaire, Chris & Cosey, and The Tear Garden, as well as the desolate moodscapes of Burial and Actress. Unmissable.” - Simon Reynolds

Singular Texan musician Craig Clouse hurtles unstoppably towards the 20th birthday of his dancefloor-splintering electronic project Shit And Shine, releasing a landmark LP, his first full-length for The state51 Conspiracy, ‘2222 And AIRPORT’. Acid house, minimal techno, electro, funk, krautrock, hip hop, found sound, spoken word, live percussion and industrial are blown apart stupendously and then reassembled – mad-scientist style, in a way peculiar to Clouse – into 13 hypnotic and transportative tracks.

Lead single SWISS, out 24 March, is a gloriously minimalist funk jam that sounds like the exact point at which someone turns the lights off at a lowkey house party and a wild night for the ages gets under way. An almost scornfully skeletal riff, sounding like a misfiring Cyberdine Systems Model 101 summoning up a Prince circa Sign “O” The Times riff while crashing head first into the hyper-processed early work of Prefuse 73, also featuring a cheeky sample of revered Mancunian DJ Luke Una talking about “existential fucking darkness”.

This is followed on 4 April by INFINITE SHITE, arguably the epic central track to the album, is a Shit And Shine banger for the ages, its dancefloor affect, undeniable. An unforgiving, pulsating Byetone-style bass drone worthy itself of being blasted on a Funktion-One rig, is just the background for a colossal acid b-line, destroying all in its path.

Micro details bristle at the liminal level, threatening to only reveal themselves to those in a club, those listening on headphones or those experiencing a heightened sensory state.

Invisible Inc is back with another remarkable release, this time diving even further into ambient, spiritual and folk-infused psychedelia.

“Mondo Organico”, as the name suggests, is a concept compilation that captures the “organic” side of Invisible Inc. The use of non-electronic instrumentation is a familiar theme explored by the label previously with the likes of Komodo Kolektif, Immaculate Rivombo and Peter Power...but this time the instruments and voices, tranquil and meditatively hypnotic in places, display an even deeper spirituality.

Featuring the talents of Andi Otto and his fello (electronic cello), Anna vs June's ethereal vocals, Tyler Ov Gaia's zoned-out mantra rhythms, Pieter Kock's 8-minute bass and guitar psych odyssey, as well as label favourites Sordid Sound System and Puma & The Dolphin, the record is enthralling and mesmerizing from start to finish - and yet another notch in Invisible Inc's rather idiosyncratic belt.

This record was pressed on eco vinyl. Everything from the sleeve to the inks are recycled too, in an attempt to address some the environmental issues we face today, albeit fractionally.

“Mondo Organico” is the future.

Never one to pull inventive punches, Left Coast electronic music producer Dave Aju reassembled this notorious cast of characters for a remarkably fitting album package made during one of the most strange times our world has ever faced in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. While things were essentially shutdown, reopened, cycle-repeat worldwide, and every other species in mother nature's kingdom temporarily rejoiced while humans remained still in their caves, Aju and The Invisible Art Trio, his formidable if not-seen-in-a-minute musical team behind such underground anthems as "Be Like the Sun", went to work in the final days of the glorious G-Son studios in Atwater Village LA to record this LP.

Indeed, the same four/five walls and vocal booth that saw the Beastie's iconic Check Your Head and Hello Nasty come to life, became the birthplace of Glossolalia, Aju's fifth studio album and appropriately impressive seven-song set. As always, myriad musical styles and influences are strung together and boldly combined here, to the degree that drawing comparisons or attempting genre references feels futile. There are, however, clear visceral expressions of political provocation, hope and anger, fear and joy laid over twisted yet dedicated grooves in a lockdown era where Aju's imaginary collective dance floor feels in the temporary absence thereof and bizarro sixth-world unification strategy of recording every song's lyrics in complete non-languages aka total gibberish, feels right at home. Even the vocal guests join in the literal chant here, granting us diverse spell-casting and sensual nonsensical lyrical lines over tech-funk mother lodes, before closing the otherworldly proceedings with a powerful grand finale tribute to the US of A's proud boys-in-blue in the wake of George Floyd's very public assassination.

Equal parts timely anti-establishment and uplifting call-to-action, Glossolalia serves as a decidedly coarse yet crucial reminder of the possibilities in collaborative and devoted noise-making, booty-shaking, and alternative world-building during greater global disarray - beyond stylistic, nationalistic, and linguistic dividing lines. An overtly universal and unifying message liberating us from any fixed cultural identities and thus differences, to instead just focus on how the music delivers and we physically respond, together, as the foundation. Perhaps also an inspired response to the talking heads in every corner of the world's media, spewing useless and politically-tainted mouth data at us amidst these turbulent times.

Theresa Stroetges returns to Karaoke Kalk with her second album for the Berlin-based label, her fifth solo full-length with her Golden Diskó Ship project in total. Having released records with the Indian-German band project Hotel Kali as well as Painting, a group dedicated to audio-visual concepts, »Oval Sun Patch« sees her embrace influences from club culture, advanced electronic music, and pop more firmly than ever before. Over the past 15 years, Golden Diskó Ship has served a vessel with which the Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist has traversed a variety of genres and circumnavigated all conventions in the process. With »Oval Sun Patch,« Stroetges again sets sail into unknown waters with what is perhaps her catchiest album so far—beat-driven, playful, atmospheric, and at times thoroughly anthemic. This is the sound of Golden Diskó Ship moving forward.

A life lived in transit, the vastness of bodies of water and the isolation of islands as well as more generally notions of processes and progress have been recurring motives throughout Stroetges’ previous records and also mark »Oval Sun Patch.« In fact, the foundation for the six pieces was laid when she was working abroad and at times close to the sea. The massive three-part album closer »Earth Before The Space Race« was conceived as a multi-channel audio-visual performance piece during a 2021 residency at Zaratan Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon. The others were written in the following year during two other residencies when Stroetges first spent time in Austria at the sound art festival Klangmanifeste in Lindabrunn and then visited Portugal once more for a stay at Goethe-Institut in Lisbon. With the help of Shelley Barradas, who lent her a guitar, and Julia Klein, who helped her setting up a temporary studio in the Goethe-Institut Portugal’s auditorium, she made the preliminary recordings of what would later become this album.

»Oval Sun Patch«, later refined in Berlin and mixed in close collaboration with London-based engineer Hannes Plattmeier, is a direct result of Stroetges having to work with what was available to her at the time of writing and recording. While her distinct guitar playing—evocative yet funky, complex but catchy—once more features heavily and she uses her voice in manifold ways to sometimes harmonise with herself or creating complex canons as counterpoints to her her own lead vocals, the electronic gear she worked with dominates the album both compositionally and sonically. Stroetges’ music has always displayed a passion for club culture and advanced electronic music, but on »Oval Sun Patch« she proves once and for all how well these influences can be integrated into her unconventional approach to songwriting.

However, the punchy beat and Moroder-like bassline that form the backbone of »Dolphins With Soft Helmets,« the throbbing house and techno grooves underneath »Ephemeral Carnivores« and »Well-Oiled Machine« as well as the jittery IDM rhythms of »Google Your New Name« and her nods to trip-hop with »Tiny Island« do not so much follow established formulas as they use them as a starting point for wild experimentation instead. Stroetges juxtaposes complex rhythms with interlocking melodies and rich harmonies in ways that continue to surprise throughout and still leave enough space for the occasional wistful guitar or vocal passage. Nowhere does this approach feel more epic than on the 12 ½ minutes long »Earth Before The Space Race,« which takes its time to unfold, changing its pace and mood throughout.

»Oval Sun Patch« is an album about change. The lyrics describe constant transformations of sceneries, relationships, physical and emotional states as well as the climate throughout its running time. Stroetges in the meanwhile leads the way as a singer, songwriter and producer who lets her music evolve constantly. This is sound, moving forward.

In 2020, Pali Meursault and Thomas Tilly collaborated to create Radio Glaces, a fourteen-part sound collection featuring recordings of glaciers in the Alps and testimonies from people who have a close relationship with this environment: glaciologists, geomorphologists, hut wardens, mountaineers and high-mountain guides.

As a continuation of this first project, Melt* was a series of improvised performances by the duo of sound artists, playing back the sounds and vibrations of the glaciers as they conducted a microphonic auscultation of the crevasses, rimayes and torrents of the Oisans mountain range.

The outcome of a research project that began over three years ago and is still ongoing, Melt* is based on the recording of a concert at GMEA (Albi) in early 2023, and is available as a vinyl record published by Fragment Editions.

Credits

Sound recordings made in 2020 on the glaciers of Mont-de-Lans, la Girose, Sarenne, la Pilatte and Saint-Sorlin (Oisans-Écrins, France), for the Radio Glaces project.

Field recordings, sonified ice, processing and sine waves played live by Pali Meursault & Thomas Tilly at Grand Théâtre d’Albi on February 4th, 2023, in the frame of ‘L’Expérience du Terrain’, a program by GMEA.

Recording by Benjamin Maumus. Mastering and Cut by Frédéric Alsdat/Ångström.

Named after a metro station located in East Paris, Pointe du Lac originated in 2014 as the brainchild of analogue gear enthusiast Julien Lheuillier, joined shortly after by multi-instrumentalist Richard Francés, followed by Quentin Rollet on Saxophone a few years down the line. Les siphonophores des eaux froides et profondes de l'Arctique (“Siphonophores of the cold, deep Arctic waters”) is the project’s third studio album, the first one written as a three-piece as well as their first release on Hands in the Dark.

Like the organisms the album title refers to, Pointe du Lac’s music is highly polymorphic and complex, using a subtle and distinctive blend of Electronica, Krautrock, Jazz and Kosmische as vessels for the band’s fantastic instrumental imaginary voyages. Compared to previous albums and EPs -which tended to suggest cosmic odysseys- this new cinematic outing is diving deep and intends to shed light on fascinating, mysterious and diverse creatures and their habitats. Supported by (paradoxically) warm and impeccable sonic forms, the exploration turns out to be an unsurprisingly expansive one, yet accessible and oddly familiar sounding. There is a sense of assurance and serenity in the French trio’s latest offering, the musicians mastery and open-ended approach to free ambient music lets their ideas flow and never stagnate. The narrative of this expedition is one that will be remembered long after the listening finishes.

Sven Torstenson's notorious Drugs is a loopdigga's fever dream, bursting with breaks for days and featuring possibly the most iconic cover of all library music's cult classics. First released in 1980, it's now a hyper-rare and seriously sought-after electronic album full of experimental soundscapes and samples just waiting to be flipped. It's both terrifying and terrifyingly good. So much so, it's been brilliantly sampled by Kendrick Lamar and Chance The Rapper.

The sleeve describes Drugs as containing "the newest dimensions of electronic sounds. Dramatic underscores for all problems of today's life and society, at the border between reality and delusion." That's pretty spot-on. The fast moving "Euphoria" is an incredible, unignorable opener. It's loaded with disorientating effects and really needs to be heard to be believed. It's followed by the gorgeous "Soft Hallucinations", containing quiet, meditative and beautiful sounds - as the title suggests. One listen and you'll want to live in the warm embrace of this beatless, harmonic gem. Sinister squelchy synth stabs don't distract from the sheer beauty of the track's main (gentle) thrust. They only serve to elevate its trippy magic.

Next up, "Sky Move"'s agitated and repetitive rhythm makes it an intense listen but with a broad melody that will appeal to many. "Destroyed Dreams" utilises a muffled church organ and it sounds heavenly to begin with but it gradually invites increasingly distorted elements. Yes, you've had trips like this, we're pretty certain. Mental! Talking of bad trips, never have they sounded so good as "Horror Trip"; this fractured drama-synth just needs some some dusty beats to hold it up - get involved.

"Floating Illusions" almost sounds like a beatless Spiritualized bomb from the early-mid 90s; melodic, synthy, church organ-drenched. The mournful, dramatic "Lost Chance" pulses along on a bed of acidy synths whilst "The Morning After" is the sonic equivalent of the extreme fear and doom experienced in the aftermath of the previous night's carnage. Whilst somewhat uncomfortable listening, again, it's pretty compelling thanks to the myriad effects being expertly utilised. Fascinating. The sprawling, fragmented "Random Thoughts" is described as containing "confused melody phrases" - yeah, pretty much sums this one up.

The B-Side is ushered in by "Heroin" and it's as sketchy as you might think, all mysterious minor chords with a dominating - but not overbearing - bass refrain. Next up, the dream-like synthy fanfare of "Night Trip" climaxes after a few minutes of dramatic, ecclesiastical sounds whilst "Day Trip" layers its melody over a repetitive rhythmic base.

Next up, one of the *REAL* highlights makes itself known. Absolutely not to be missed, "Dealer's Corner" is all shifting tenors from quiet to hectic and back around again. The hectic parts are like a totally synthed-out-the-eyeballs jazz-funk collective wigging out with the latest electronic toys from 1980. This one totally SMOKES.

The dramatic "Sad And Hopeless" is appositely replete with dissonant, minor church-organ chords whilst "Riding Pegasus" uses a creepy ostinato bass melody to create irrational bleepy menace that's ripe for sampling. The penultimate track, "Hopeless Chaos" is another disorientating trip, a bleepy confection of sounds and phrases whilst closer "Goin' Mad" is all electronic percussion with an unpleasant rhthymic feel and irritating melody. Music to annoy your partner with!

Established in Munich in 1965 by Gerard and Rotheide Narholz, Sonoton introduced library music to Germany. Initially intended to cater to the country's new TV market, the library also provided an avenue for Gerhard Narholz's astonishing musical prolificacy, and soon became a haven for a wide range of European composers and musicians. In 1969, Sonoton struck a deal with the British label Berry Music for international publishing rights, exposing its catalog to a worldwide audience; when Berry was bought out by EMI in 1973, Sonoton transitioned into a full-fledged international label, with successes in the library and commercial fields and many innovations to its credit. Now a worldwide operation with hundreds of producers and composers under its employ, Sonoton nonetheless remains an independently run business still helmed by its founders - a remarkable achievement in an era when nearly every other major library has been absorbed by a multinational conglomerate.

The audio for Drugs has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

Magic Mountain is the third full-length album from the itinerant American businessman, composer, and producer Martin Glass. Inspired by German electronic music pioneer Edgar Froese, Vangelis, early Warp Records releases, The Orb and The Future Sound of London, the album is a Fellinian memory maze of new age wellness culture, mid-20th century Hollywood glitz, exhaustion, dreams, fantasy, desire and listless ennui. The less sense it makes, the more we can't stop listening to it.

Drawing from the impressionistic recollections of an unreliable narrator with an ever-loosening relationship with time and space, Magic Mountain tells the story of Martin’s feverish stay in a celebrity health resort in the hills beyond Hollywood. Over the course of thirteen evocatively titled tracks, the album unfolds like a half-remembered dream of a place somehow lost and imagined but not beyond our reach. Expressed through sweeping, retrofuturistic synthesisers, haunted old-time melodies, grainy samples and the occasional gently lulling rhythm, it plugs directly into emotion and pleasure, calling the listener to fall into the fantasy.

“As I’ve got older, I just want the music to be evocative, to take people away, to transport them somewhere, to move them,” Martin says. That’s such a basic requirement of music, I know, but – to me, increasingly – it’s becoming the only requirement! How can this record stop somebody on their mobile phone and make them feel something or yearn for something?”

Flora Yin Wong’s ravishing interiority finds lucid expression on an absorbing second album for Modern Love, manifesting her instrumental storytelling in a syncretic bind of supernatural themes with hyperrealist, concrète sound design.

Through ten parts, Flora crystallises the ennui that followed an uncanny, disorienting trip to East and Southeast Asia. “On an unexpected stopover in Hong Kong after five years away, my friends took me to a Bazi reader one night - something I was curious about, but much of a ritual for them - ” Flora recalls. “My father told me that when I was born, he had obtained an auspicious reading that since stayed like a guiding talisman with me. It was almost past midnight but people were still lined up, rather shaken and visibly upset, to see the old man. He had kind eyes and asked me why I was there and I said I was at a crossroads. He asked me my time and date of birth, and told me to pick one of his four little white canary birds as a vessel for divination.”

This was the final stretch of an ultimately aimless few months across the continent, including a 20 year overdue return with her father to his adoptive family in his hometown Kuala Lumpur - for many reasons, ended up as a strange and uncanny trip. She spent solitude in a haunted house during the quiet snowfall of Kyoto, where she might have offended some spirit... and nights in mountain temples with South Korean monks, and an equally strange feeling return to the Island of the Gods.

“It culminated in what felt like a final disillusionment with Asia - sudden deaths and a breakdown in beliefs - somewhere I never really have or will be able to connect with. The process of the reading summoned a final blow to my gut - an overwhelming sense of rootlessness, and understanding that all there is is emptiness and entropy. No birth-divined protection, just a measurement of the night sky based off nothing and everything.”

Heavy with a sense of nightmarish dissociation and grief, Flora read about Giuseppe Tartini’s ‘Violin Sonata in G Minor’, aka the Devil’s Trill Sonata, a notoriously tricky c.18th composition which attempted to transcribe music heard in a dream, which the composer felt he could never fully bring into reality. It’s this soporific motif that binds and underpins ’Cold Reading’, finding Flora chasing the dragon of fleeting fantasy through passages of etched melancholy, pinched with hypnagogic jerks that linger in the memory.

From her use of the ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata in ‘All My Dreams are Nightmares’ through evocations of subtropical humidity in the Bryn Jones-esque, resonant hand-played percussion of ‘Konna’ and ‘Banjar’, to a breathtaking dreampop denouement ‘Nectar Dripping’ and the Enya-like lush of ‘Beautiful Crisis’, Flora blooms her ideas with an openended ambiguity so often missing from so called Ambient music, ushering the listener into a soundworld that disturbs and displaces, just as much as it calms.

A year and a half has passed since Slovak-Hungarian artist Adela Mede self-released her debut album ‘Szabadság’. Its liner notes described it as “a navigation”, a search through “the personal, familial, cultural, folkloric and geographic of her past and present.” Her second album, ‘Ne Lépj a Virágra’ no longer searches; here, she puts down roots and delves deeper into the earthy reality of her home, Central Europe. Mede sings in three languages with newfound conviction and grace – this is an album of profound faith and confidence in the potential of this fertile soil.

Composed and recorded during the last 18 months in Bratislava, Slovakia – a city where three countries meet, where the East and the West collide – 'Ne Lépj a Virárga' translates to “don't step on the flower”. Its themes – budding potential, recognizing the beauty in the ordinary, solidarity, turning despair into hope – emerged through Mede's wholehearted involvement with her community, teaching singing to both children and adults, and various grassroots volunteering initiatives. It features collaborations with local artists, Mede's singing students, as well as fellow Eastern European contemporary artists Martyna Basta and Wojciech Rusin.

Adela Mede embellishes carefully crafted songs with minimalist and folklore influences, but also embraces more experimental approaches. The result is a collection of quite varied yet consistent pieces which highlight Mede's proficiency as a singer, arranger, producer and improviser. It is a grounded, confident next step for the Bratislava-based artist. Whether her vocals are naked, heavily processed, warped and reversed, or looped and layered; whether the production is sparse and minimalist or overwhelming and swampy; none of that changes the fact that the gentle tentativeness of her debut is gone. This is “Central European music”, at its most striking and meaningful: patient, determined, embracing both complexity and possibility.

‘UFO Forest +’ is the third and most alchemically satisfying archival anthology of unreleased material from the Argentinian composer, building on a growing recognition of her poetic, psychosonic investigations ongoing since her studies in the early 60’s with Nadia Boulanger and Edgardo Canton, and at the renowned Parisian institute INA-GRM.

In three longform parts and one vignette, she projects hallucinatory designs for the imagination, oscillating from the shearing vortices of the magnificent title piece to the sharp plunge into Amazonian ritual on ‘Vuelo de signos y remolinos’, and out to planes of sci-fi dread, ecstasy and chaos on ‘Cercles des ronde’. Collected, they speak to a unique grasp of unruly dynamics, right on the cusp of natural wildness, and an ability to develop ideas from kernels of sound that blossom into cataclysmic events.

'Cercles Des Rondes' is especially unsettling and surreal; a longer, darker composition, it brings a new level of drama to the anthology, including a deliriously doomed synth fanfare and robotic voices, dissolved into blaring surrealism when Ferreyra starts to add corrupted electro-acoustic elements.

It's a genuinely rare pleasure to inhabit any of Ferreyra’s immersive works, and never more so than on this set, which feels a bit like peering down a telescope fixed on just one tiny sliver of a cosmic multiverse, or like looking at a vast, luminscent tapestry in the dark with a flashlight.

Repress !

In 1991 Coil released the third of their early classic full-length albums “Love’s Secret Domain”, seemingly casting aside the gloom and funeral beauty of its predecessors in favour of a painstakingly multi-layered hallucinogenic electronic beast, which unlike some of their fellow ex-industrial contemporaries’ releases of the time wasn’t an attempt at easy accessibility or (the-gods-forbid) danceability, but a vibrating psychedelic masterpiece unrivalled in their discography and still a landmark album. artwork by Steven Stapleton released in co-production with Infinite Fog Prod.