Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

After an almost 6 year hiatus, and the break up of the audio-visual trio it had evolved into, Origamibiro returns with Miscellany, a body of work amassed during the years since the release of 2014’s Odham’s Standard.

Though the group never officially disbanded, a number of life-changing events meant it simply became impossible to continue together. As such, the project organically reverted back to the solo pursuits of composer Tom Hill. Fellow multi-instrumentalist Andy Tytherleigh, however, remains a strong collaborator.

Miscellany comprises a varied mixture of work, ranging from electroacoustic to orchestral chamber music. Drawing upon much of the found-sound style for which Origamibiro became known, the DIY approach to sampling and composing continues to play a central role in the process.

Exploration into the tangible nature of everyday objects and textures - both in and outside of the home - is a theme relished in much of Origamibiro’s work. Forest brambles and plastic toy Easter eggs are examined in surgical detail alongside the debris of demolished piano parts, to be repurposed into whatever sonic potential they offer up.

However, new additions to the instrumental palette - viola da gamba, piano, zither, singing bowl, glockenspiel, drum machines and gongs - contribute to an even broader timbre.

THE EYE OF TIME is the Solo-Project of the French musician Marc Euvrie. Euvrie's musical development is deeply connected with the French diy scene though he has been classically trained as well. He started to play piano being 9 years old, composed his first pieces with 15 and studied cello at the conservatoire after finishing school. Being influenced by Claude Debussy, Philip Glass, Eric Chopin, J.S. Bach, Michael Nyman just as Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion or Portishead Marc Euvrie began to translate his personal reflection of our complex world into music.

Acoustic II is Marc's sixth album and the second one only based on Piano & Cello works. Marc about the development of the album:

"Playing Piano and Cello has taken a more important place into creation the last years. After Acoustic (2014) I felt a need to do more acoustic songs.

In the mean time, a dream I've always had came true. In summer 2018 I travelled across Europe for 2 weeks, with an acoustic upright piano and a cello to play outdoor shows that most of the time took place in natural areas.

The audience and feedbacks were so wonderful - so it gave me the energy to compose more songs as well as a really new experience of cello drone set, made with cello loops and beats made by tapping on the cello. It took me a whole year after composing to make everything done and recorded. The recording finally happened at the Library of Cherbourg, my hometown, where I grew up, with a very high quality grand piano.

The work of creation and composing was way more exhausting and hard than the electronic one, due to the difficulty of the composition. Some of the tracks had to be written before practicing. Since I've always been self educated with the piano, it was a huge challenge for myself to reach the goal that I was expecting. It gave me the experience and the energy to continue as well as my fans were really helpful by giving me an amazing endless support, to help me understand that I have to keep going on, when I had hardtimes of doubt on this and sometimes wanted to really let it go. The struggle to keep it to the goal was a very big deal because of the doubts and the financial issues, but I'm glad and proud that I made it, and that Denovali was enthusiast enough to make "Acoustic II" happen."

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Backfire of Joy, a previously unheard recording from Phew, John Duncan and Kondo Tatsuo, documenting a concert at Tokyo’s Hosei University in 1982. Though the fertile exchange of ‘zines, tapes and records between the Japanese underground and the Los Angeles Free Music Society meant the artists were familiar with each other’s work, this performance (occurring on Duncan’s first visit to Japan) was their first meeting and only performance as a trio. Duncan is heard on his signature shortwave radio set-up, while Kondo performs on synth, tape loops and echo-drenched piano, providing a spacious backdrop for Phew’s astonishing performance of spontaneous, free-associative song moving between Japanese and English. A testament to the unhinged exploration of the 1980s experimental underground, the trio careen wildly between crashing percussive tape loops, deluges of shortwave noise, insistent piano figures and playful synth melodies. On the B side, we are treated to a remarkable ten minute sequence moving organically from spaced-out synth and radio textures to a stunning finale of improvised balladry centred on piano and voice, unexpectedly broken up by electronic interjections. Beautifully recorded in crunchy vintage fidelity, Backfire of Joy arrives accompanied by archival photographs and newly authored liner notes from all three participants.

Krautrock, das fällt einem bei dem Namen Joachim Witt nicht grade als erstes ein, auch nicht hinterher, eigentlich gar nicht. Und dennoch ist Witt ein Veteran des deutschen Kunstrocks der 70er Jahre. Genre-Fans erinnern sich gern an die Band „Duesenberg“ (benannt nach der US-amerikanischen Automarke) und Witt war ein Drittel des Ender der 70er für Aufsehen sorgenden Trios.

Von US-amerikanischen Westcoast-Rock mutierte Witt In den frühen 80er Jahren zum Top Star der aufblitzenden Neuen Deutschen Welle. Sein Evergreen "Der goldene Reiter" (Nr. 2), der einen schizophrenen Menschen skizziert wird zu einem der wichtigsten Titel der NDW-Bewegung. Als gegen Ende der 80er Jahre der NDW-Sound langsam verschwand, verschwand sein Star – bis er sich 1998 zur Überraschung der breiten Öffentlichkeit wieder erhebt. Mit seinem neuen Partner Peter Heppner, der sich mit der Band Wolfsheim bereits einen Namen gemacht hat, schickt Witt sich an neues Terrain zu erobern. Das mystische, im angesagten „gotischen Sound“ vorgetragene Opus "Die Flut" begeistert zuerst die Goth Szene, dann schließlich ganz Deutschland und landet auf Platz 2 der Verkaufs-Charts. Auch das Album „Bayreuth Eins“ wird zum Bestseller und Platin Erfolg. Das Album ist noch immer ein Klassiker und gilt zusammen mit dem nachfolgenden Album „Bayreuth Zwei“ als Vorläufer der anschließend aufkommenden Strömung “Deutscher Dance Metal“, oder des auch als “Neue Deutsche Härte“ bezeichneten Trends, deren spätere Vertreter Top-Acts wie OOMPH! oder RAMMSTEIN sind.

Die Original LP „Bayreuth Eins“ ist seit langem vergriffen und „Bayreuth Zwei“ ist nie vorher als Schallplatte erschienen. Zwei Klassiker in der Wiederauferstehung, einer davon sogar als Premiere auf Vinyl.

The second release on Constructive (sister label of SN Variations) is Last Afternoon by Japanese composer Takuma Watanabe. Having studied at Berklee College in America, he is now living in Japan where he composes for film using his own string ensemble. This is Watanabe's first full length artist album.

He also created the animation music videos for the two tracks Tactile and Last Afternoon creating a unique imaginary visual counterpoint to the music.

Last Afternoon features collaborations with American vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara known for her recorded works with John Cage, Morton Feldman, Robert Ashley and composer and software developer Akira Rabelais known for his collaborations with Bjork and David Sylvian. The album is mastered by Jim O'Rourke. Cover photo courtesy of Swedish photographer and cinematographer Anders Edström.

Tape

Dylan Henner is back on Dauw with his new album "Great Prairie Plains: studies of American Minimalism". The album is a celebration of two pieces of music that he loves and have been hugely important to his musical life and education.

The album starts with an arrangement of Terry Riley's In C. During his school-time, Henner was allowed by his music teacher - with plenty of persuasion, in an environment of mostly much straighter classical music - to study this piece. He not only had a deep familiarity with it, but also the pdf scores that he transcribed for his homework. The arrangement was created mostly with the marimba, as an instrument that can layer very deeply without muddying the frequency range and also includes some synths, piano and a VST choir.

“I tried to balance my boundless admiration for the piece with a personalised arrangement. It would be pointless to copy Riley's original - it's too good - but I can at least try to do well by it.”

Alongside In C is an arrangement of Su Tissue's 2nd Movement, from her near-mythical "lost" album Salon de Musique. After trying to buy a copy of this record for years - they are so scarcely found he suspects he never will – Henner wondered if the next best thing would be - instead of owning a copy - to create his own copy. He started this arrangement with as much faith as he could. According to Henner, Su’s work is too rare to warrant changing, but instead should be honoured with autencitiy.

“It's not until the end of the piece that my arrangement begins to take a different shape to Su's. Once I started playing along on the piano, the rest fell into place.”

Dylan lives in Brighton, works as a photographer's assistant for his day-job and plays analogue synths, tuned percussion and cello. Last year Dylan released well-received albums on Dauw and AD 93 (fka Whities) among others. Even though he is a relatively new name, with these albums he already came to the fore as a promising artist within the electro-acoustic field.


a 01. In C [Terry Riley]
[b] 02. 2nd Movement [Su Tissue]

[a] 01. In C [Terry Riley]
[b] 02. 2nd Movement [Su Tissue]

Limited clear vinyl LP format!

Folk-minimalists announce vinyl issue for breakthrough album, Animalia.

"The semi-classical drums/sax/piano trio Mammal Hands mutate into a high-volume rave act" The Guardian

Captivating, ethereal and majestic, Mammal Hands (saxophonist Jordan Smart, pianist Nick Smart and drummer and percussionist Jesse Barrett) has carved out a refreshingly original sound from adisparatearray of influences: drawing on spiritual jazz, north Indian, folk and classical music to create something inimitably their own.

Hailing from Norwich, one of Britain's most isolated and most easterly cities, they have forged their own path away from the musical mainstream and their unique sound grew out of long improvised rehearsals. All three members contribute equally to the writing process: one that favours the creation of a powerful group dynamic over individual solos. Their recordsare entrancing and beautiful affairs,while their hypnotic live shows have seen them hailed as one of the most exciting bands in Europe as they push their unique line-up to the outer limits of its possibilities.

Over the course of three albums, Animalia, Floa and Shadow Work they have built a committed following and established themselves as one of the finest live bands in Europe. But while Floa and Shadow Work were both issued on vinyl this is the first time that Animalia has been committed to wax.

Produced by Matthew Halsall and recorded at 80 Hertz Studio, in Manchester, and engineered by George Atkins, Animalia features the band breakthrough hits Mansions of Million Years, a slow building tune that takes it's name from Egyptian mythology and draws the listener into the band's distinctive sound world. And the gorgeous hooky Kandaiki which makes stunning use of looped melodies in different time signatures, creating a wonderful interplay between the parts.

Other highlights include Snow Bough a short, melancholic, but moving, ambient composition, the Irish folk music inspired Spinning the Wheel, which also features drum beats inspired by chopped up electronic drum patterns and hip hop instrumentals. The jaunty Bustle and delightful Inuit Party and Street Sweeper. Finally the album closes with Tiny Crumb, which explores melodic ideas inspired by Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson and builds in intensity from a quiet start to a powerful collective improvisation and heavily features Jesse's Tabla.

Not all music can cope with physical reality. Instruments can be pushed until they lose grip. Eventually, they will slip so far that their untethered voice is all that remains. Panoram engages in eleven excursions into playing the part of the piano that doesn't exist, coaxing out inarticulate feelings in lieu of familiar characteristics. Sounds and rhythms resulting from thoughts that can't be put into quite the right word

La grande vallée (1993/95), 20'41

Musical composition, design and sound production carried out at the INA grm Studios (Paris) in 1993/95

Original audio recordings in the Drôme and the Mont Ventoux areas

Voice: Hélène Bettencourt

Vocal occurrences: Frédéric Malenfer, Bruno Roche, Lionel Marchetti

Bass clarinet (for processing): Jean Andréo

Micro-climat (1989/90), 21'33

Micro-climat is the first movement of the Sirrus cycle (Micro-climat, Passerelle, Sirrus) composed in 1989/90

Musical composition, sound design and production, audio recordings in 1989/90 at the CFMI studios in Lyon (Lumière University, Lyon 2)

"I wonder if my fascination for clouds (without being an obsession) may have risen at the end of the 80s as, whilst composing Micro-climat, I would regularly wander between the Vercors mountains and the high plateaus of the Monts du Forez discovering, through my eyes, body, breath, active observation and walk, that natural forms when constantly changing and yet swollen with a unity of matter (in this instance, water) open one up to a deep, fundamental breath and a clear field for the mind. The sky and its forces: our ally.

A model for a natural music which, although fixed, as in musique concrète (a rule of the genre), moreover on a recording tape, will remain charged with such a poetic quality that (isn't it its role or rather its reality?) it will ensure a perpetual renewal for our senses, so as to reach another idea of the world, far more open and richer than what we could have imagined."

Lionel Marchetti, 2011

Lionel Marchetti is a major figure of the "third generation" of concrète musicians, a term he values. Listening to these works, imbued with poetry and traversed by micro-narratives, one can indeed retrieve the original concrète spirit, the one that draws from the sonic world, with ears wide open, so as to extract a fertile, rich and multiple substance then shaped and conveyed towards a formal and musical abstraction. Lionel Marchetti has mastered this process, but his real distinctive feature is a truly unique talent for setting climates (as one sets traps) and keeping us on constant alert. The two pieces in this record perfectly illustrate the entrancing dimension of Lionel Marchetti's music, whose charm leads us, through each successive listening, to become voluntary captives so as to better liberate ourselves.

François Bonnet, Paris, 2020

A companion volume to the ‘Sun Piano’ album, this LP was recorded at the same session in a Brooklyn Church. Whereas the former record lent itself to the more uplifting side of Laraaji’s keyboard improvisations, ‘Moon Piano’ explores the more introspective and minimal pieces captured by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, The War On Drugs, Mary Lattimore) and edited by Christian Havins (Dallas Acid). Laraaji describes this set of tracks as “Contemplative sound painting, embracing quiet tranquil unfolding of nurturing reflection.” In a recent interview with Aquarium Drunkard, Laraaji described the improvisatory process of making both piano albums: “I’d sit down, touch the piano and through free association, also blending it with my prepared mental state, I was able to tune in and affirm my highest sense of presence. The piano became an instrument for the imagination to suggest higher or finer worlds, to suggest a joy, euphoria, bliss, also to suggest silence, minimalism, relaxation, and contemplation. So, all of that music was spontaneous but with those influences shaping and guiding it along the way.” Whilst ‘Moon Piano’ almost shades into melancholy with a contrasting night-time vibe to ‘Sun Piano’s daytime joyfulness, certain themes from the first record reoccur - side two’s ‘Pentatonic Smile’ is a longer edit on the central riff underpinning the former album’s ‘Temple Of New Light’. ‘Sun Piano’ has been widely praised as a new phase in the new age icon’s career, picked as The Guardian’s contemporary Album Of The Month and the subject of a major feature in The Washington Post and the artist’s special home-recorded lockdown sessions have been broadcast by BBC 6 Music, Resident Advisor and Boiler Room. ‘Moon Piano’ is the second release in a trilogy which will culminate in an extended EP of piano / autoharp duets.

Single vinyl LP in full colour sleeve with digital download card.

Statistique Synthétique draws as much from the history of computer sound synthesis as from its latest developments. But well beyond developing simply as a proof of concept, this piece aims to transcend the abstract status of synthetic sound objects and lead them to a properly hallucinatory state, that is to say to a meeting point where the object and perception dissolve into each other, in a sort of transcendental field. Beyond, also, hylomorphism, to reach the world of matter-form fusions, where perception knows how to see "shoulders of hills", as Cézanne wrote.
Teum (the Silvery Slit) is, as the title suggests, an overture, an opening to the game of multiplications, fragmentations, duplications. But it is also the opening understood as the void that blossoms between two borders, a break from which escapes a double tension, both the pulling force of these two edges which move apart and the opposite force of reconciliation, of compression. Okkyung Lee invites us to a truly telluric moment, a rare moment of expression where tectonic movements and shear stresses become music. If the earthquakes were, as we thought in the 18th century, due to underground thunderstorms, there is no doubt that this piece of music, both celestial and continental, could have been their audible manifestation.
Text by François Bonnet


HeckerStatistique Synthétique2020 / 25'15Computer-generated sound with resynthesized situated texture recordingsWritten and produced by Florian Hecker, 2019 - 2020Texture analysis and resynthesis algorithm: Axel Röbel, Analysis/Synthesis Team, IRCAM, ParisMastered by Rashad BeckerPhoto by Mauricio Guillén, 2019
Thanks to Axel Röbel for his commitment to the project and special appreciation to GRM, Luke Fowler, Mauricio Guillén, Dirk Mayer and Porta33
Location Texture Recordings, using DPA 4060, DPA 4017B, DPA 4021 and DPA 4060 microphones to Sound Devices 702 recorder; except segment 04:31 - 05:37, recorded by Luke Fowler, April 2019 using Sony M10.
00:00 - 02:00 Lopud, Croatia, June 200802:00 - 03:12 Ponta do Sol, Madeira, ER 101, April 201903:12 - 04:14 Prentiss St, Cambridge, MA, February 201504:14 - 04:31 Anjos, Ponta do Sol, Madeira, ER 101, April 201904:31 - 05:37 Atelier Cézanne, Aix-en-Provence, April 201905:37 - 08:31 Anjos, Ponta do Sol, Madeira, ER 101, April 201908:31 - 09:46 Praia dos Anjos, Ponta do Sol, Madeira, ER 101, April 201909:46 - 10:39 Private garden, Kissing, September 200910:39 - 11:15 Praia dos Anjos, Ponta do Sol, Madeira, ER 101, April 201911:15 - 15:11 Porto do Paul do Mar, Calheta, Madeira, April 201915:11 - 16:53 Prinz Eugen Strasse, Vienna, June 200816:53 - 24:27 Risco, Rabaçal, Madeira, April 201924:27 - 25:15 Bois de Boulogne, Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Paris, September 2015
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Okkyung LeeTeum (the Silvery Slit)2019 / 20'03Performed, recorded and composed by Okkyung Lee (ASCAP)Mixed by Lasse MarhaugMastered by Guuseppe IelasiPhoto by Lasse MarhaugPart of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, September 2020Sleeve design by Stephen O'Malley

„Lamberts Musik bricht gängige Hörgewohnheiten“ – Die Welt Lambert ist ein Unikat, und das nicht etwa nur etwa deshalb, weil er seine Musik versteckt hinter einer in
Sardinien handgefertigten Ledermaske zum Besten gibt und kein Zuhörer sein Antlitz bislang zu Gesicht bekam. Bereits mit seinem letzten Album “True” ist der Berliner Pianist und Komponist Lambert ganz anonym in die unterschiedlichsten musikalische Identitäten geschlüpft. „Die Miniaturen von Lambert, der ausschließlich mit Maske auftritt, zeugen von einem enormen Gespür für Melodien.“ – Rolling Stone Nun erscheint mit “False” bereits das fünfte Album des inspirierenden Künstlers für welches er für jedes einzelne Stück ein besonderes Alter Ego kreierte, um das Verwirrspiel um seine Identität perfekt zu machen.
Bei Lambert hat diese Verhüllung etwas poetisches, das sein meditativ impressionistisches Klavierspiel im
Niemandsland zwischen Klassik, Jazz und Pop noch etwas entrückter und verzauberter klingen lässt. Lamberts Welt ist nicht nur geheimnisvoll, sondern auch randvoll mit genialer Musik, die sich mit jedem
Titel neu erfindet. 14 neue Kompositionen mit 14 verschiedenen Gesichtern — so erweitert Lambert sein
musikalisches Schaffen um eine breite Fülle stilistischer Einflüsse.

Erased Tapes artists and friends Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm have separately carved out a musical career that defies genres both with their unique live shows and a loyal fan base that's always eager to hear what their prolific output will bring.

Their latest collaborative 2-track release 'Life Story Love and Glory' is a live improv affair on two pianos, recorded in 2012 at Nils's Durton Studio in Berlin. Fans may wonder why they have waited until 2015 to release these tracks, but having revealed a new website you may think this may not be the end to their musical story this year.

We would meet in Reykjavik or Berlin with the intention to share some days off work, hiking, swimming or eating pizza. That is great for a couple days, but after a while we would always end up back in the studio, fiddling with synths or pianos.' - Nils Frahm.

You can hear in the beginning of 'Life Story' how I have already started playing the piano whilst Nils is still moving microphones around and preparing everything. It was all kept in! - Ólafur Arnalds
'Life Story Love and Glory' will be released as a 7' on Erased Tapes - exclusively through record stores only on August 21, 2015 ahead of its digital release later on - as an ode to this classic and beloved format.

GREY MATTER is a series of Snapchat filters created by artist Karen Vanderborght that explores the poetic and existential potential of AR (Augmented Reality) and social media - suggesting selfies as self-reflective mirrors informed by the wisdom of our elders. These filters, soundtracked by ACT!, were released exclusively to Snapchat in 2019 and are available now.

Beginning in 2018 – Karen filmed and interviewed 10 seniors who brought diverse and universal wisdom to some of life’s biggest questions. Andrew; an Ojibwe leader who lived through the residential school program, Alf; a church organist who publicly came out as gay at 80, Anne; the first black Senator in Canada – all the seniors provide unique and profound perspectives on life and aging. See their words, thoughts, and appearances transpose and intersect with your selfie in an edifying engagement on themes of age, memory, time, regret, and resilience.

Timofeev was born and raised in Riga, Latvia and has recently lived in London, Berlin, Rotterdam and New York. While often collaborating with artists from these various scenes - including Kaspars Grosevs (Zolitude, Quantum Natives, 2017), Bryce Hackford (Safe Exits, Spring Theory, 2020), and nihiti (For Ostland, Lo Bit Landscapes, 2014) - Timofeev's work has always stubbornly remained his own. His music, just one branch of his work, is complimented by experimental games, drawings, paintings and performances. Timofeev's output is united by an interest in systems that are interwoven to the point of absurdity; logic is pushed to the limits of comprehension. This is evident in his self-playing simulations, labyrinthine works on paper and throughout the new album. Each track on Exocursion consists of mutating iterations of a single loop, growing and occasionally contracting between cycles. There is something undeniably Eastern European to it. The modal harmonies conjure a stroll through a decaying landscape littered with post-Soviet monuments, while its repetitive nature calls to mind an expansive horizon of monotonous civic infrastructure.

Der Wechsel der Jahreszeiten und auch der Wechsel des Lebens mit seinen Stimmungen und Gefühlen stehen hinter den Klängen des Projekts »XII«, mit dem Deutsche Grammophon neue Werke von innovativen und kreativen Musikern der Gegenwart präsentiert.

Razen celebrate their 10 yr anniversary with “Ayîk Adhîsta Adhîsta Ayîk”, an album that takes a paragraph from CG Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections as a reference point to set off a journey that goes from light to dark, from day to night, from life to death, and back.

As much a reflection of primal imagery and rituals of knowledge as a way of coming to terms with anxieties about the chaos of the night, the album concerns itself with the question: who - or what - are we in the moments before (re-)birth, before waking up, in the state inbetween darkness and light?
On “Ayîk Adhîsta Adhîsta Ayîk”, the wind instruments and organ stabs of band leaders Kim Delcour and Brecht Ameel are expanded with Pieter Lenaerts’ five string double bass and sarangi, Jean-Philippe Poncin’s bass clarinet and chalumeau, and Paul Garriau’s hurdy gurdy.

The album sees the group explore new straight-to-the-gut emotional territory, while simultaneously showcasing Razen’s intuitive, continuous investigation of the acoustic properties and resonant possibilities of churches and chapels in the countryside around Brussels; after “Remote Hologram” (2014) and “ The Xvoto Reels” (2017), this time the St Agatha Church (St.-Agatha-Berchem) functions as the conduit for Razen’s acoustic sound jolts.

With the past ten years entirely devoted to the search for archetypical timbres and connotations by improvising on Early Music instruments, it’s no wonder that the world of Razen would one day collide with the world of CG Jung and take his writing as an inspiration.

A sonic hex tour de force from this unique ensemble, “Ayîk Adhîsta Adhîsta Ayîk” is a present-day, nocturnal emitter of the Coleridge quote that opens Jung’s Memories:
‘He looked at his own soul with a Telescope. What seemed all irregular he saw and shewed to be beautiful Constellations and he added to the Consciousness hidden worlds within worlds’.

SN Variations is pleased to announce its 5th release.Adrian Corker returns after a break living in Warsaw with two tracks composed for Lock Grooves recorded onto acetate,percussion by Sam Wilson(Riot Ensemble/Actress) and violin performed by Aisha Orazbayeva.The tracks also feature the piano of Mark Knoop and the voice of Josephine Stephenson.

A lock groove is one cycle of one groove on a record.This is 1.8 sec cut at 33RPM and 1.33 cut at 45RPM.Having used lock grooves on film scores for British film Waiting for You and The Have Nots directed by Florian Hoffmeister, Corker wanted to explore their potential further in a standalone more percussive release. He used the cutting lathe currently residing in the living room of The Exchange mastering legend Graeme Durham to experiment with different sounds cut onto acetate and then recorded over different durations back into a computer. These are combined forming frames for performances of violin, percussion and piano.

The record will be released on a vinyl pressing of 250 copies and download on July 5th

Grace Ferguson is a Pianist, Composer and Sound Designer based at Eastmint Studios, Melbourne, whose works seek to position the audience in a space conducive to subjective inflections, inarticulate knowledge and felt encounters.

Her debut LP release 'Voler' (out on Music Company) was met critical acclaim and reached number #4 on the Australian Independent Record (AIR) charts. The album now gets a limited vinyl pressing in a custom die cut sleeve.

Meet the intoxicating, meditative sounds of Claude Debussy (1862-1918), one of the greatest innovators of Western music. The impressionist composer was inspired by the classical myth of the sirens, female sea-demons with such unearthly beautiful voices that they managed to lure all passing sailors into their deadly arms. In a similar way, Debussy wanted to enchant his listeners with his esoteric composition Trois nocturnes, inspired by the atmosphere of the night. In the first part, Nuages, one can hear silvery-lit clouds slide slowly past the moon. The second part, Fetes, depicts nocturnal festivities and blazing torches, and the third part is devoted to the mysteriously singing Sirens. Unlike his contemporaries, Debussy did not compose elaborate, bombastic symphonies, but rather dreamy, self-contained music that is still topical today, and breaths the free spirit of nature. It 'would resound through the open spaces and float joyfully over the tops of the trees.' The lucid performance of the Orchestre National De Lyon comes close to Debussy's ideal, and seduces the listener to lose himself in otherworldly dreams and mind-expanding fantasies.

Violostries (1963/64), 16'39

Premiered and recorded in April 1965 at the Royan Festival - France, by Devy Erlih (violin) & Bernard Parmegiani (sound projection).

Violostries represents the intersection of several musical research directions, presented as two simultaneous dialogues - composer/performer and instrument/orchestra.

After a short introduction tutti very spatialized:
1. Pulsion/Miroirs: multiplied by itself, the violin is projected into the four corners of the sound space.
2. Jeu de cellules: concertante piece for violin and audio medium, the latter being made up of very tightly woven microsounds.
3. Végétal: slow and invisible development following a continuous time, resulting from an internal and permanent processing of the matter.

Capture éphémère (1967, 1988 version), 11'48

This work was composed in four tracks in 1967 for quadraphonic diffusion.
Remixed in stereo in 1988.
Premiered at the Studio 105 of the Maison de la Radio, Paris, May 1967.
Sounds - noises that circulate as time unfolds - continue to exist despite our recording them.
Breaths, fluttering wings: ephemeral microsonic sounds streaking space, sound scratches, landslides, bounces, vertigo of solid objects falling into an abyssal void, multiple snapshots forever frozen in their fall. As many symbols leave inside us the permanent trace of their ephemeral brushing against our ear.
Some day, a desert, a sound, then never again....
Somewhere, in my head and body something still resonates... resonance, what could be more ephemeral.

La Roue Ferris (1971), 10'45

Premiered at the Festival des chantiers navals, Menton, on August 26, 1971.
Sound projection: Bernard Parmegiani.
La Roue Ferris (Ferris wheel) spins, merging with its own resonance, stubbornly perpetuating its variations. It only sketches a regularly evolving movement around a constant axis. Each of its towers generates thick sonic layers that penetrate each other, producing a very fluid interweaving. The crackling of the origin eventually metamorphoses into sonic threads whose lightness recalls high-altitude clouds, cirrus clouds, haunted by the cries of swifts twirling in the warm air. The wondrous arises and dies off, leaving us with an illusion of duration.

Airwave’s latest album, Classical Reworks, ventures into the classical world, a place where Laurent finds inspiration.

As a special treat we’ve decided to have this masterpiece cut onto glorious wax for the die-hard fans and vinyl enthusiasts alike.
Organic pianos steeped in melody, soaring strings laced with rich dynamics and a pure passion are just some of the traits manifested here.

Savour the moments and feel the emotion with newly arranged compositions of 'Save Me', 'Alone In The Dark' and 'Sunspot' - on the A-Side, ... then flip over for more of the same with 'Innerspace', 'Angelica', 'When Things Go Wrong' and the brand-new 'Soleil D’Hiver' ... which you can find on the B-Side.

It's the perfect late-night soundtrack that will bring warmth to the fast approaching Winter months, not to be missed!

WRWTFWW Records is very happy to announce the official reissue of Motohiko Hamase’s astounding ambient house album Technodrome (1993). The album is sourced from original masters and available on vinyl for the first time ever as well as on CD. It comes with liner notes from the artist. This marks the fourth release from the ESPLANADE SERIES which focuses on the works of Yoshio Ojima, Motohiko Hamase and Satsuki Shibano. Inspired by John Cage, Jon Hassel, Brian Eno, and the emergence of house and techno music, Technodrome is jazz bassist turned electronic experimentalist Motohiko Hamase’s foray into what he calls ambient house or, as he explains, “using the gritty sensation inherent to the core of house music” to create an ambient record “aiming to express inverted images, optical illusions, and the sense of déjà vu that modern people can get in the city". Technodrome is constructed around innovative minimalism, a robotic funk orchestrated by bass lines and percussions, and monochrome moods. It’s the most intriguing project in Hamase’s discography, a ghostly ride set in 90s urban landscape, where repetition sets the groove and brings things to life, echoing Hamase’s deeper subtext for his compositions: “and attempt to recreate (as metaphor) the time in our mother’s womb". The album was initially released in 1993 by Newsic, the cult label started by Tokyo’s Wacoal Art Center (also known as Spiral), home, notably, of Yoshio Ojima who co-produced the album. It is now reissued in conjunction with Motohiko Hamase’s #Notes of Forestry and Anecdote albums.

Vinyl edition of Stars of the Lid 2nd album in print for the first time in over 20 years.

The release of Music for Nitrous Oxide, the 1995 debut album by Stars of the Lid, heralded a new strain of the american underground music scene, one borne of the heat and humidity, boredom, and the insular, constipated, rockist music scene of Austin, Texas, the home of the duo of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie. It was a muffled lashing out against surrounding musical conventions, a small middle finger to the local dominant americana' scene, but one that nobody could see outside the shack of a house in which they recorded or at their occasional sparsely populated live performances. It was as punk a move as anyone could make at that place and in that time. But in a surprise to the two members of SotL, people took notice, as related rumblings and grumblings were taking place simultaneously in other parts of the american landscape.
Coming quickly on the heels of that release was our current subject, Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life, released one year later. This is a transitional release that travels from the scruffiness of the debut's ambiance to more extended and subtle undulating tides of assembled sound, yet still dominated by processed guitars as the primary sound source. It also serves as an omen to the mini-orchestral works to come beginning with the Avec Laudenum album a few years later. Gravitational Pull... is a small masterpiece.

Only 21 years of age when this was recorded, Olafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsb?r, just a few kilometres outside Reykjav?k. He as immersed himself completely in the world of delicate symphonic compositions in a near weightless orchestral undertaking. Mixing strings and piano with loops, ambiance, electronics and beats, his music fits into the Erased Tapes catalogue like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Debut album 'Eulogy for Evolution' took the listener on a journey, representing different periods in life, from birth to death. The first pressing of the follow-up EP 'Variations of Static' sold out on his winter tour already and will now be available in stores. While keeping the classical foundations of his debut album, here Arnalds incorporates crackling electronics and the dead voice of a machine; like vague memories of tradition lost within the digital age we all live in. It comes with a voucher for a free digital copy of the 'Erased Tapes Collection I' compilation to celebrate the label's 1st anniversary. The 10" is a super limited clear vinyl issue, we are getting 100 copies only.

One of those essential pieces of music for both classical music listeners, sound track aficionados and more spiritual techno heads! According to astrology, every planet in our solar system represents a certain mood. Inspired by this idea, Gustav Holst (1874-1934) composed his seven-part orchestral work The Planets, in which the planetary moods are convincingly turned into sound, from the aggressive Mars to the mystical Neptune and the tender Venus. The Planets has had much influence on the later genre of film music. With John Williams's Imperial March from Star Wars films as the most clear example, but also Techno producers such as Jeff Mills took inspiration from this work, and even did record his own rendition as the most recent example. The London Philharmonic Orchestra's performance recorded in 1978, led by ninety year old Sir Adrian Boult, is considered one of the very best recordings of The Planets and presented in this premium package pressed on high quality 180 grams 2lp in a limited edition run of 300 copies!

The debut album from writer and artist Holly Childs and artist Gediminas Žygus formerly known as J.G. Biberkopf.

Initiated in 2017, Hydrangea grew out of a series of performances emphasising conspiracies and the designer realities that they generate. Navigating a tangle of digitally induced subjectivities and relationships, Hydrangea sees Childs & Žygus amidst a continuously evaporating world in which narratives dissolve, leak, fold in on themselves and loop.

Childs & Žygus ask: As individuals are siloed online, can rifts in reality ever be reconciled? Is history a form of science fiction? And are narrators ever reliable? The process of creating Hydrangea was defined by the search for a form to bind fiction, poetry, and musical experience. Its narrative is influenced by technical instructions, lectures and whispered conversations, in which slippage and floating focus can create new meanings in the listener that weren’t intended by the speaker.

Aspects of physical and informational security including passwords, codes, locks and obstacles speak to the ways in which meaning or material can be locked, unlocked or instrumentalised for a range of potential outcomes. Hydrangea reflects on the Machiavellian strategies of political ideologists such as Steve Bannon, Aleksandr Dugin and Vladislav Surkov who have made use of contemporary and postmodern artistic strategies to design narrative uncertainty—covertly braiding together questionable truths, slippery narratives and bespoke reinterpretations of history for undisclosed political ends.

"Hydrangea’s Just the Password Though, Right?"

Childs & Žygus employ a musical language that layers their cumulative practices and experiences. The compositions are cinematic and spatial, working with the illustrative qualities of Disneyesque string melodies and taking cues from Maurice Ravel’s impressionistic piano works.

The work is also influenced by both artists’ lifelong experiences of rave culture, beginning for Žygus during childhood in newly independent Lithuania, spending time juggling Disney and happy hardcore cassettes on the family stereo, and for Childs as a preteen in Australia, tagging along with her sisters to doofs and warehouse parties. Initiated while the artists were both working between Amsterdam and Rotterdam in 2017, the work also draws on Dutch gabber music.

Hydrangea’s development has been influenced by collaboration with artists and filmmakers Metahaven, who created the album art.

Holly Childs is a writer and artist. Her research involves filtering stories of computation through frames of ecology, earth, memory, poetry, and light. She is the author of two books: No Limit (Hologram) and Danklands (Arcadia Missa); and has presented her work at ICA (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Trust (Berlin), Elam School of Art (Auckland) and more.

Gediminas Žygus is an artist working within the fields of sound, documentary and performance. Their practice assembles a spectrum of influences deriving from architecture, ecology, ethnography, science studies, and media theory. As J.G. Biberkopf, their releases have found homes on Knives and Danse Noire. Žygus has performed at Barbican Centre (London), Berghain (Berlin), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), and Centre Pompidou (Paris), among others. credits

‘The Other Side’ sees musical styles woven together into a lyrical tapestry of sound, blending improvisation with co-created original compositions. A truly unique ensemble in compositional process and performance style. On 5th June, Quest Ensemble will release their sophomore album ‘The Other Side’. With nods to influences as broad as the contemporary minimalism of John Adams and Steve Reich, the experimental melancholic textures of Radiohead to the progressive jazz precision of Brad Mehldau, ‘The Other Side’ inhabits its own soundworld somewhere in the gaps between chamber, jazz, folk and contemporary classical music. From the emotive ‘Moments’, the elasticated melodies of ‘Pendulum’, to the fluid lines and compelling urgency of ‘The Boatman’ and ‘Pedal Down’, Quest Ensemble’s compositions fuse layered melodies and rhythmic patterns to create contrapuntal webs of sound. The process involves sharing improvised ideas, building up layers of music on each instrument to create a patchwork of musical themes with a rich vein of surging Reichian rhythms underpinning each. Fusing their backgrounds in western classical, Indian classical, jazz and improvisational technique, Filipe Sousa (piano), Tara Franks (cello) and Preetha Narayanan (violin) are all graduates of the Guildhall School of Music Leadership Programme. In May 2014, Quest Ensemble released their much-lauded debut album ‘Footfall’, a collection of part-composed and part-improvised original compositions, steeped in the sense of place that inspired the sound and imagination of their stories.

A monumental debut work for Shelter Press, ‘Death Star’ is something of a definitive statement or magnum opus in the explorative oeuvre of NYC artist/composer Marina Rosenfeld - a big RIYL Stephan Mathieu, The Caretaker, Félicia Atkinson Marina first grabbed our attention with the uncannily echoic industro-dub environs of ‘P.A./ Hard Love’ in 2016 (a real precursor to Jay Glass Dubs we reco), before showing a quieter, more sensitive side in her collaboration with Ben Vida ‘Feel Anything’. Now on ‘Death Star’ she places deeply uncanny proprioceptive sensibilities to stunning use across an album focussed on the microphone as listening device and instrument - a sort of mechanical ear/eye - with impressively elusive/illusive results.
The original recordings come from an installation - a plexiglas orb housing seven microphones - that picked up and fed back samples of visitors to an exhibition at Portikus gallery, Frankfurt.
Marina’s album reworks those recordings with fragments of piano played into the same system or orb of mics, generating utterly enchanted ethereal spaces that speak to the listener’s atavistic
responses to echoic space and acoustic phenomena.
In four movements Marina grows the source material from liminal, plasmic and dreamlike as she begins to feel out the work’s scope in ‘Death Star’, all quite polite but edged with a menace that gets more complex, with a chamber ensemble playing back notation of the original location recordings in more atonal and aggressive iterations re-amped thru banks of speakers to edge on KTL’s electro-acoustic doom or Iancu and Ana-Maria Avram’s spectralist music.

Furcula is a collective work by composer Asger Baden and recording artist & actor Peder. Peder and Asger Baden work as film composers on a daily basis at their townhouse studio in central Copenhagen. They have worked for 'Breaking Bad", 'Beastie Boys", 'Wolfpack' amongst others. Whenever they have some time, they work on Furcula. The music is based on the acoustic colours of two very different rooms: The Village (large orchestral studio in Copenhagen) and Vor Frue Kirke - the biggest church in Denmark which features a reverb of over 7 seconds. All sounds, instruments and samples are recorded in these two rooms and used as samples in the studio to create the music. The result is the depth and contrast between the huge reverb and very close textures that feel as though they're right next to you, scratching your skin. The result is ghostly, dark, cinematic and beautiful. Art by Rob Sato. - Debut album as a collective by filmcomposers Asger Baden & Peder who has had music featured in Breakin Bad. - Peder has 4 solo albums under the belt released by Ubiquity records, Wordandsound, Fake Diamond and allways featured in Radio Nova. Featured artists like Oh Land, Coco (Quadron) Jonas Bjerre from MEW amongst others. - Asger Baden solo debuted with a classical album 2015 recorded in Prague and The Crooked Spoke in 2008. - 2/4 of danish group Cours Lapin - As cinematic as it gets.

"...The most beautiful thing about my burrow is the stillness. Of course, that is deceptive. At any moment it may be shattered and then all will be over. For the time being, however, the silence is with me." - Franz Kafka

In early 2019, at the Sonic Pieces 10 year anniversary in Berlin, label head Monique Recknagel hand-picked three duos from the imprint to perform live together for the first time. One of the collaborations was between Deaf Center's Erik K Skodvin and electronic composer Jasmine Guffond. The performance went so well that Monique commissioned the duo to record a full-length together.

Six months later, Guffond and Skodvin headed to Berlin's VOX-TON studio and recorded for two days, joined by Finnish musician Merja Kokkonen (Islaja), who improvised wordless vocals. With Guffond on laptop and a cymbal and Skodvin using piano, feedback, farfisa organ and percussion, the two composed an album of deep, enveloping sound that slithers through genre, absorbing Kokkonen's unique voice into five intricate and evolving pieces.

"The Burrow" takes its name from Franz Kafka's unfinished short story that was written only six months before his death. The tale, published posthumously in 1931, centres around a small creature who builds a burrow that's anxiously fortified in an attempt to protect against perceived attacks. This sense of fear of the outside world feels even more focused in 2020. Each track is named after animals that are either extinct or almost extinct, adding a sense of loss that hangs in the air, punctuated by screams and deep reverberating piano hits. As the world we thought we knew quickly retreats from view and the idea of safety shifts rapidly, Skodvin and Guffond explore the impulse to protect what we know with an emotionally charged sound that provides a foil with cautious, haunting spaces in between.

Among the musicians whose work closely reflects the reduced forms in experimental music, perhaps the most interesting is Cristián Alvear, a Chilean guitarist performing formally radical post-Cagean music, as well as Laurent Peter aka d'incise, a composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, one of the key figures of the eclectic scene in Geneva. The numerous projects in which they participate prove their strictly defined artistic vision and active involvement in networking the music community, so it’s appropriate to consider them as transitory elements between several scenes on different continents. They have collaborated, among others, with Ryoko Akama, Cyril Bondi, Michael Pisaro, Sarah Hennies, Seijiro Murayama, Taku Sugimoto, Lance Austin Olsen and The Pitch.

Bow Down Thine Ear, I Bring You Glad Tidings is a good example of the refinement of the style developed by Alvear and d’incise in recent years. One can observe here how their musical language and range of instrumental techniques in the use of guitar and idiophones got crystallised.

The classical form of a musical piece organized in time and characterized by a set of elements that create a coherent narrative is replaced here by the primacy of repetition, pitch, precise articulation and reverberation. Sounds seem to be clearly rooted in specific acoustic spaces, which allows the space itself to be treated as a real instrument that adds another layer of meaning. Repetitive sound sequences operate in a similar way to the metronome, determining an obsessive rhythmic pattern, a kind of matrix on which all the details are inscribed. The static structure of the pieces allows the music to function as a sound sculpture - breaking time constraints in favour of continuous duration and acting in a multi-perspective way. This material, does not promise any solution, but strictly accompanies the listener and tries to close itself in the continuous present.

At the same time Bow Down Thine Ear, I Bring You Glad Tidings is a clear dialogue with the work of Henry Purcell. The title of the album is a reference to the anthems written by the British composer (Z11, Z2) and the titles of the pieces refer to his sacred songs (Z192, Z342). Apart from a skillful attempt to decontextualize the lyrics (biblical or rooted in the tradition of baroque religious poetry), we can see here not so much an attempt to give the music a metaphysical character, but certainly Alvear and d’incise tend to replicate a similar mode of listening, as in the case of Purcell's compositions - meditative and at the same time oriented to all elements of the musical situation.

Following up on their debut LP Kick Drunk Love for Marcel Vogel’s Intimate Friends imprint a few years back, we are proud to present the next installment in the sporadic KAMM legacy: Cookie Policies.

Far more sonically rich and musically adventurous than its predecessor, Cookie Policies sees the band make bold strides into new territories where classically hardwired categories such as jazz, indie rock, and electronica melt into one another with immaculate, timeless ease.

The band members’ positions are more clear cut as well this round, with Marc David Barrite (aka Dave Aju, who also did one of his coveted mix engineering jobs on the LP) on prominent lead vocals in many of the pieces, Alland Byallo on trumpet, Kenneth Scott on synth bass, and Marc Smith adding guitar sections while the others shared the arranging and programming duties. This makes for a deeper continuation of the otherworldly combination of their known individual production styles, as well as a musical whole truly greater than the sum of its parts.

The set starts off with “Bird Call”, whose opening ode to Morricone ok corral-meets-samurai showdown riffs flow into a loose and drifting psychedelic boom bap blip, building until a glorious change-up of key and energy brings the track to its peak and deconstructed back down. “Rachel, the Largest Bullfrog” then takes things in a sweeter, slightly more traditionally-structured direction where dusty indie-folk ballad vibes intersect with an array of twisted cosmic tones, bits of computer keyboard percussion, and deep rolling sub bass. “Buckle Down” then moves things back away from acoustic restraints into a beautiful synth-laden musing on potential regret, with an ultra-potent horn section from Byallo vs a nasty stacked Roland SH-101 finish.

“CCBPGC” cools things off for a few minutes with an ambient field recording slice-and-dice motif, which slowly but surely evolves into a slinking jazz noir groove from another dimension. The more traditional song structures return on the lovely “La Luna”, where Barrite’s pen and soulful voice take to nautical longing themes over apropos waves of sonic textures. The ebb and flow of the verse/chorus sections eventually rise and give way to an absolutely gorgeous denouement. “Shleem” then takes us into pure unadulterated soaring sci-fi soundtrack ambient blast-off bliss, while the epic closing track “The Soft Glow of Electric Sex” gives a hearty nod to early masters of sprawling psychedelic jam sessions, from Pink Floyd and Can to In A Silent Way-era Miles and Liquid Liquid, while bringing it clearly into futurist millennia. The gradual evolution of the piece into its grand finale is the stuff we true music-lovers live and die for. We hope you enjoy the ride as much as we do.

Frei aber froh! This was the motto of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): ''Free but happy!'' The Romantic composer formulated it in response to his friend Joseph Joachim, who after the divorce of his wife went through life under the painful motto Frei aber einsam. In his intoxicating Third Symphony, Brahms - through the three notes F(rei) A(ber) F(roh) - focused on his personal love of freedom, as well as the heroic struggle it takes to become a free, independent individual. It is known that Brahms never got married, but often fell in love with young, beautiful female musicians, and felt a lifetime attraction to Clara Schumann, the wife of the famous composer. That romantic yearning can be heard in the lyrical, melancholic Poco allegretto, one of Brahms's best-known melodies. The second movement of the symphony, Andante, has a rustic character, and Clara called it ''a pure idyll''. Here one can hear the carefree, cheerful side of freedom, that of long walks in nature and the absence of oppressing tires. Being free is also frightening and difficult, which is reflected in the majestic motifs in the first and fourth movements, which follow each other at a furious pace and only in the final measures of the composition are reconciled in the recurring Frei aber froh-motif. This performance of Brahms's Third Symphony by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the world-famous Jaap van Zweden, is of the very highest quality.

Meet the poetic sound patches of Claude Debussy (1862-1918), one of the greatest innovators of Western music. In an eventful period in his life, in which the composer left his wife and toured the coast of France with his new mistress, he wrote his impressionistic masterpiece La mer, an ode to the turbulence of the sea. Debussy was an ardent lover of William Turner and Claude Monet, whose colorful seascapes he translated into music through a rich palette of instruments. La mer, an exceptionally picturesque composition, captures the shine of the midday sun on the sea surface, the breaking of waves, the splashing of foam and the sparkling of water drops. In the first part, De l'aube a midi sur la mer, one can hear the sun rise majestically to its highest point in the sky, a process that leads to an ecstatic climax. In the second part, Jeux de vagues, the sea shows its kindest, most playful face, and in the third part, Dialogue du vent et de la mer, the wind and the waves become entangled in an intoxicating dance. La mer, a symphonic poem full of mood swings, seems to symbolize life as a whole, which is just as capricious as the sea, and subject to the same dynamics of ebb and flow. This lucid performance of La mer, by the Orchestre National De Lyon, is of the very highest quality

C.R. Gillespie is a Canadian musician and sound artist. Born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, coastal living on Vancouver Island influenced his textural overlapping of “waves”; focused layering of soothing tones that tremulate and merge in a vast and expansive synthetic ocean. This aesthetic is at the forefront of his new release, Concentration Patterns, a sprawling 75-minute ambient suite which envelops the listener in a vibrating collage of drifting texture and glacial subtlety.

Generated using analog equipment in a home studio overlooking Toronto’s rail line, the piece began as a private meditative therapy-aid on synthesizer, sampler, prepared-guitar and spatial effects. In the process of anxiety alleviation, however, he began to associate the surrounding traffic and city noise as part of the fuller piece. A glowing palette of synthesizer tones coalesce with sundry field-recordings to form a more complete and organic whole, propelled by a barely discernible accumulation of melodic information. In this way, Concentration Patterns seeks not to obscure one’s surroundings, but to assist in the unconscious creativity of the senses and to apply that synaesthesia to their current environment.

Due to the necessary breakup of the whole piece in the vinyl format, a unique opportunity to accentuate the listening experience arose in suggesting the pairing of pure sine tones (indicated in specific Hz frequencies), which allow the listener to root each side to a low-register key centre, in which the tonal information of the piece may freely float above a constant foundation.

Combining elements of binaural beats and vibroacoustic therapy , Concentration Patterns is a modern embrace of “new age” pseudo-theory in an effort to temper incessant daily fatigue.Inspired by the technological deep-listening pioneered by artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel and Steve Roach, Concentration Patterns debuted in January 2020 as a sound installation as part of the Calgary Arts Common’s +15 Soundscape project. Situated in the city’s+15 walkway system, It’s locality as part of a metropolitan commute further illustrates its purpose as an accompaniment to both the mundane and surreal. Now, released in the hopes of assuaging similarly felt anxieties in its listeners, C.R. Gillespie invites you to submerge in the ambient pathways of unconscious reflection.

Craig Tattersall made quite a name for himself by offering a series of consistent releases on his own imprints Cotton Goods and Other Ideas. After more than 5 years of silence, our favourite bee is finally back with 2 new full length albums: Daymark and Nightmark. Both albums are made around the same time and can be seen as complementary odes to these different and opposite parts of the day.

In the same vein as his previous releases, each album consists of 2 long form pieces in which melancholic piano tape loops are mixed with subtle electronic arrangements. The combination of both results in the typical lo-fi textured Humble Bee sound for which he is known and praised for. Without providing any additional information on the music, the listener is left with 80 minutes of music which gladly take you on a new and most welcome sonic adventure.

‘Evolve’ is the first full length album from composer, music producer and violinist Vito Gatto, a concept album that guides the listener on a one-way journey through the various phases of an imaginary evolutionary process. Gatto graduated in Violin from the Milan Conservatory of Music, his research starts from the unconventional application of a classical background into both making music in the studio, and live performances. For this work, Vito decided to put himself in a restricted composing and technical environment; all the arpeggiated sounds on the album are made from one single violin note that Vito sampled. He transforms the same note throughout the entire album, using the different treatment of this micro sample and the arpeggiator programming as the construction of a mutating and evolving structure. The album is Instinctively executed, almost improvised, and elements like distorted bass lines, hardcore inspired percussions, whistles and alienating string melodies represent unexpected alterations. Vito decided to keep these instinctive additions clean from excessive control as a representation of the beauty of the unpredictable. The album track list is an expression of evolutionary phases. From the minimalistic piano piece ‘Decomposition’ to ‘Quiete’ which expresses the state of calm after a shift has occurred, ‘Nostalgia’ and ‘Stasi’ represent a hazy trance like state. Vito challenges the listener to ask questions like ’am I in the right place? Is this who I set out to become? Do I have to keep evolving, or should I try to regress?’ ‘Evolve’ creates continuous connections between traditional and experimental music, creating dialogue between classical instruments and industrial techno, ambient, noise and de-constructed sounds. The Album will be released in both digital and vinyl formats via NeMu, a fresh new label founded by Vito Gatto himself. The label will focus on experimental projects based on the exchange between acoustic, concrete and electronic sources. The Artwork is part of ‘Jewels’, a series of ceramic sculptures by Benni Bosetto, courtesy of the artist and ADA Project, Rome

Hungarian “minimalist” instrumentalist/composer Tibor Szemző is considered a genius by many, although his accomplishments as an artist are sometimes overshadowed by the likes of superstars, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Snapshot From The Island was originally released by Leo Records in 1987 and now 33 years later the album gets the proper reissue on his own label.

Snapshot From The Island is a wonderful excursion into ambient-electronic-acoustic dreamscapes which could also be considered an offshoot of what many call the “minimalist movement” The title track, “Snapshot From The Island” is a 24-minute tone poem featuring Szemző performing on computer drums and flutes of various pitch. Here, Szemző provides a soft rhythmic undercurrent to balance the somewhat ethereal and delightfully hypnotic motif as he also electronically emulates bird and animal sounds which magnifies the mood or imagery of a far away “Island” paradise.

Szemző is a true artist, a painter with a fertile imagination, as he invites the listener into his introspective world of thoughts and dreams. Szemző’s lush, yet subtle flute work evokes a surreal landscape on ”Water-Wonder”. On this piece, Szemző pursues circular passages while also intelligently utilizing a dash of echo to enhance the aura of a magical or mystical place, which for all intents and purposes seems timeless or otherworldly. “Let’s Go Out And Dance” is a dream-laden piece, featuring Szemző’s “cosmic” flute performances atop a soft pulse and László Hortobágyi’s synthesizer backwashes which conveys a sense of fulfillment or perhaps a scenario of – peaceful celebration. Again, Szemző offers up more visions of paradisen, which could very well have been a subtitle to this beautiful recording. The overall organic nature of Tibor Szemző’s music makes it all seem so real or something that our imaginations can easily grasp. There are no hidden clues or underlying mysteries behind all of this as Szemző’s artistry speaks for itself. A museum piece for the ears.

Tibor Szemző - flutes, voice, drum computer, sound installation
László Hortobágyi - synth. on "Let's go out and dance”
Mixed by László Hortobágyi and Tibor Szemző
Remastered by István Szelényi 2020

Tape / Cassette
A peculiar recollection of a haunting hallucinatory experience, narrated through spectral harmonies. In what is best described as “horror musique concrète”, Polish multidisciplinary artist and musician Samutek (Mateusz Woś) has composed a 47-minute album that emits a distinctive, hypnotic aura — intricately developed and mastered over the years.

Ingrained with echoes of gongs, chimes, crickets, drones and a plethora of haunted sounds recorded and found, “Omamy” (Polish for “Hallucinations”) is the soundtrack of a phantasmagoric spiral, summoning an unceasing terror usually conjured in cinematic works like Ari Aster’s Midsommar and The Blair Witch Project.

A recent Masters graduate with a thesis on the paranormal, centering around 19th century spirit photography, UFO photography and thoughtography, Samutek continues this expressive exchange through sound. With a towering 31 albums under his belt, “Omamy”, his first official album release on a label, is his most distinguished and fully-formed piece of work to date. Each track serves as distinct chapters in a haunting nine-part anecdote.

The trek begins with an unnamed character engulfed in a metaphysical battle as depicted in “Samospalenie” (Polish for Spontaneous Human Combustion), paralysed with an inability to distinguish reality from an unearthly torment.
The title track and first single “Omamy” sets the pace for the rest of the album, as the character eventually reaches the gateway to a tunnel, its walls pulsating with death and desolation. “Pożeracz” (Polish for Devourer), a composition scattered with deformed growls and ceremonial bells, seals their fate. The album ends with a meditative closer, “Krąg” (Polish for Ring) as the character succumbs to this inscrutable creature, with predator and prey transmogrifying into one.

“Omamy” is an invitation to Samutek’s peculiar world of horror storytelling, a result of his personal explorations of the supernatural.
Be prepared for a strange and discomforting experience that will leave you spellbound.