Buscar:other form

The Copenhagen-based, Scottish-born composer Clarissa Connelly’s music is evocative of the whimsical and almost child-like, tainted by an undercurrent of dark sensuality, disquietude and existential dread. Characterized by complex arrangements, big compounded chords, as well as a broad array of instruments, effects and sounds, her songs orient the listener towards utopian beauty that lie somewhere between the baroque and the primordial. With an experimental approach to vocal techniques, her voice can manifest benevolent fay-like creatures as easily as banshees and maleficent spirits singing melodies that retain the accessibility typically associated with pop-music. The compositions are lyrically and aesthetically grounded in Celtic folklore and Scandinavian vitalism. The threshold between the mundane and the fantastical are accentuated in her work, in such a way that the pursuit for – and the ability to recognize – real beauty in the world become anchored in the realm of work, everyday anxiety, motivation, human brilliance and failure.

With forthcoming album The Voyager, Connelly sets out to not only to study the relationship between nature and music, but also its relationship with time. She says: “I’ve always been especially excited about times in the north before Christianity came, and how the Pagan culture and Christianity became intertwined in people through rituals and formations in the landscape - burial mounds, passage graves, dolmens, etc.” She continues: “In some way, it’s very difficult to translate nature into an understandable movement of change. Looking at a mountain I often view a still picture of time – a moment right now – but sometimes, I can look at the mountain and see millions of years of change and movement. I believe that this point of view can be assisted by art and music. In a landscape ornamented with ruined Viking fortresses or ancient burial mounds, I find that I, for whatever reason, seem to be able to perceive time and comprehend history (the history of nature and culture) as a series of changes in a more salient way.”It is here that The Voyager derives so much of its power. It roots itself in history, mythology, capable of intertwining and unravelling both past and present. Songs such as Holler and The Hills Are Crying – opening and closing tracks on the album, respectively – conjure images of these ancient Danish sites, offering something more than just a fluid, long-forgotten way, and instead a tangible reverie that can educate, engage and thrill in equal measure. Connelly explains: “I have the idea, that the mystical and fantastical nature of these olden barrows and ruins can kindle a more dynamic and historically informed perspective. I think that an understanding of time as a movement is articulated when looking at the landscape in this way and can maybe bring us out of our little bell jar, and into a greater experience of life as a whole.”

The Voyager is released in conjunction with an app Vandringen (released 27 september 2020), conceived and created by Clarissa Connelly - along with the contributions of 21 other Danish musicians, painters, sculptures, performers - which highlights special ancient Danish locations, not viewable on Google Maps. These locations are presented with local knowledge and a number of them are interpreted for the modern day by the creatives involved. Connelly concludes: “I am very eager to write music that sounds like something that is happening now but has also happened a very long time ago. I have always found it fascinating to view history through changes in the landscapes around us, and therefore I started created this app and wrote this album.”

Zwerm is a Belgian-Dutch electric guitar quartet (with a backyard rehearsal shed located in Antwerp) that operates along the borders between styles and traverses traditions that are typically not convergent. Zwerm rhymes Larry Polansky with Nadah El Shazly and are galvanized by the likes of guitars pioneers like The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, the microtonal DYI-er Harry Partch, Middle Eastern sonorities and the prog-madness of Kind Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. ‘Musical adventure’ is not just a hollow cliché for this quartet, but a genuine commitment. Zwerm calls itself a ‘guitar quartet’, but that can be interpreted broadly as well as with a pinch of salt: “If we want to do something on instruments we don’t really master, we’ll just figure out a way to make it work.”
Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Kobe van Cauwenberghe and Bruno Nelissen all met in 2007 while working on a project with Glenn Branca. A new guitar quartet was born and it became clear rather quickly that staying in the strictly contemporary compositions lane was not for this quartet-with-five-to-six-members (an organizational chart is available upon request).
An appetite for new and lasting collaborations has been a constant theme throughout their artistic parcours. The group has shared stages with theatrical producers like Walpurgis and Post uit Hessdalen, dancers such as Ecce and with the musicians Fred Frith, Stephen O’Malley, Shiva Feshareki, Rudy Trouvé, Mauro Pawlowski, Larry Polansky, Eric Thielemans, Yannis Kyriakides, François Sarhan, Serge Verstockt and Stefan Prins. These projects have not always translated into records, but they have been decisive in creating a unique musical approach. In 2015, when Zwerm was asked by De Handelsbeurs to collaborate with Fred Frith, they proceeded to pen a few new musical sketches over which Firth sublimely improvised. In 2018 ‘Badminton in Tehran’ was released, their first record that was made up completely of only the group’s compositions.
“a basket full of buttons here
and if you push the wrong one: fear
and if you push the right one: love
or maybe none of the above”
The route that Zwerm has taken is often defined by the question “What if... ?” - like a dart thrown at a musical map, not quite blindly, but naive enough to lead to unexpected endings.
“What if we play Renaissance pieces written by John Dowland, but instead of playing lutes we play these tunes with a Telecaster – and then jam it through effect pedals and an amplifier?”
“What if we connect one hundred guitar pedals and just leave our guitars at home?”
“What if we record a record with ten different one-page-pieces that we found on the Internet?”
In 2020 our metaphorical dart landed on “What if we tried microtonality?”.
‘Microtonality’ sounds a bit creepy, but actually there is nothing to be afraid of: there are no out-of- tune notes, just alternate notes. On the continents where Western musical theory is less stringently applied, microtonality is the rule, and has become the subject of many deep and thoughtfully written theories. However for Zwerm, this phenomenon occurs in many, often surprisingly lighthearted forms. A dilapidated piano that has settled into a beautiful microtonal tuning of its own accord, enthusiastic choral singing, a guitar whose three strings are tuned a quarter-tone higher, a saz (Turkishquarter-tone lute), a maddening guitar pedal, ...
"the dreams they were convicted for telling only lies reality came after for claiming to be wise what you don’t see is what you get just never light a spark I’m a crow in the dark”
“And… what if we work with a drummer?” Enter Karen Willems - dummer, extraordinaire, and ardent player in groups, projects and collaborations galore. One chance meeting and the deal was done. It was obvious before the start that Willems was the versatile and creative percussionist-in-a-toy-store necessary for this project. And in the studio, to our delight, she demonstrated an easy dexterity when switching quickly from one idea to the next.
At the reins behind the scenes was producer Rudy Trouvé, who – during previous sessions for ‘Badminton in Terhran’, when the classically trained guitarists went completely off the rails, staring deeply and forlornly into their scores, looking for answers – was able to pinpoint the problem and get the wagons rolling in the right direction again. Completing the team were Mark Dedecker (recording)and Joris Calluwaerts (mixing).
The results are in and it’s called ‘ Great Expectations’ – a title that, in several ways, fits perfectly with these strange times.‘Great Expectations’ goes wide! Zwerm is at its best when it can run along the borders between style and across traditions that otherwise would not necessarily intersect. The most straightforward rockers have a proggy tinge while the dreamy psychedelic songs lean more toward Richard Youngs. And if a nice melody dared come to close to becoming a ‘Kit-Katjingle’, then barbs-a-la-Pere-Ubu were trailed, tracked, found and promptly embedded. ‘Heavy Machinery’ sits neatly somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Richard Wagner, and ‘On My Way To Aguno’, set to an Iranian folk song chord progression, grew into a hyper-personal lullaby. Zwerm used the saz (Turkish lute) and the sinter (Moroccan gnawa bass instrument) without falling into pastiche psychedelia, but you can still sense the orient.

The sensation was perfect – Helloween, who have sold more than 10 million records worldwide, being one of the most respected German metal bands since 1984, announced their PUMPKINS UNITED WORLD TOUR in 2016. The media was raving about the TOUR OF THE YEAR, playing 69 shows in 32 countries all over the world. More than one million fans on three continents were ecstatic because it was not only a reunion of the original band, it was the summit of seven ultimate HELLOWEEN heroes: Andi Deris, Michael Kiske, Michael Weikath, Kai Hansen, Markus Grosskopf, Sascha Gerstner & Dani Löble. Or to put it simple: it was a dream come true for fans around the world, the band received five times more spectators and all of them had only one wish: »Please stay together!«

Following the excitement, one of the biggest magazines in this genre ‘BURRN!’ (Japan) honored the band with four unbelievable cover stories, this was followed by the thunderstorm of the century within the social media universe, a celebrated PUMPKINS UNITED single and the quenchless hunger for more – much more! And yes, the musicians tasted blood and it was clear: there is no way back – the future of HELLOWEEN will be written in unity. It marked the beginning of a new era and the re-birth of a metal legend with exceptional artists.
Their first new album will be released in summer 2021. Flatten the runway with a loud drumbeat: in April 2021 the spectacular single SKYFALL will be released. The 12 minute epic, written by Kai Hansen has the long yearned ‘Keeper-Vibe’ but it isn’t telling the story of the whole album. SKYFALL has a musical arch which will be loved by fans of every era: from unforgettable times to glorious adventures all the way to the upcoming first album of the HELLOWEEN new age. The epic track tells about an alien landing on earth and a dramatic chase while Hansen, Kiske and Deris duel with each other in a breathtaking manner and create a broadband adventure - with a lyric sheet with colored blocks identifying the singers as well as a video that is formidable. Produced by Martin Häusler, it will be the most elaborate clip in the history of the band, the story to be shown with 3-D animation and looking cinematic – in these times almost a dinosaur in implementation.
The base of the upcoming milestone album was already erected in the studio: using the original Ingo Schwichtenberg drum kit, the recording was done with the same modulators at the Hamburg HOME studios where back then ‘Master of The Rings’, ‘Time of the Oath’ and ‘Better than Raw’ was recorded. Back to the roots and completely analog is the UNITED impact - another great work by well-known producer Charlie Bauerfeind and Co-producer Dennis Ward before the album traveled to New York and got the final mastering polish in the Valhalla Studios of Ronald Prent (Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, Rammstein).
With all this brand new material an album has been created, an album that is set apart from the digital mainstream and showing that the essence of the band was never more solid.

The artwork of Eliran Kantor (Berlin) is clear: SKYFALL is the beginning of something big – here comes HELLOWEEN.

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

Superb Gatefold delux editioon of a magic ambient to ambient-core sound... Ritch and conceptual music... Out from the fields and upper than any montaign... this is This tale is written inside the gatefold : The Bandiagara Escarpement unravels for more than 400.000 hectares, multitude of sandstone cliffs and plateaus, ravines and caverns. A West African area of unique and exceptional beauty also known as the Land of Dogon.


Summer night is fading away when the Hogon Kalapodis stands up abruptly after days completely motionless staring at the stars through the openings of the Kukulu Kommo Cave. Time has come. The heliacal rising of Sirius is getting nearer. Aware of the power of the word to bring everything into existence by naming, the Hogon reaches with a resolute pace the Polio Kommo Plain where his ancestors wrote in stone the past and future of mankind. There he finds the Awa fully deployed in two lines, the oldest standing and the others sitting before them. Dressed with braids of dyed fibers and embroidered with cowry shells, figures of mythological beings, humans, animals hold the painted wooden masks tightly between their teeth. Behind them, the whole tribe stood around the rock ark in the kanaga position : legs well planted in the sandstone, arms waving to the lightening sky.
Just a nod and Nogod, the most skilled percussionist, starts a solo on his Gom Boy. First he keeps on repeating over and over the same obsessive pattern and then, squeezing the leather chords of the talking drum with arm and body, he modulates the frequency produced with the beats originating from the rest of the tribe. The last Dama has just begun.

The end of the mourning ritual is now looming over the cliff. Hundreds of Boy Na and Boy Tolo and Gom Boys jam together with bells and bullroarers and all the singers. The masked crews jump and dance quickly in sonic belligerence and the faster they cross one another, the more the rhythm accelerates.
Drumming gets supersonic. No longer possible to detect a percussive sound, only a single powerful Black Drone. Super fast music becomes super slow.


In the light of dawn, looking at the horizon, Sigui Sirius A Tolo is now rising. Also its dark companion Po Sirius B Tolo is over there and far away a new New form is taking shape. Nogod standing right at the middle of the vibing tribe, whispers sweetly something but somehow in all that rumble everybody hears clearly the name : S………I………R………I………U………S………C

Former member of Rodolfo Alchourrón and Gato Barbieri's bands, Cevasco's first solo effort is a combination of fusion jazz with a pinch of unexpected Brazilian flavours and electronic sounds that now, more than 30 years after the original release of the album, still evoke a refreshing feel of modernity in the same vein as many other experimental Argentine and Uruguayan artists from the same era. Includes guest appearances from artists such as Litto Nebbia or Ruben Rada. Reissued on vinyl for the first time, including insert with liner notes and previously unseen photos. Details: Few musicians can boast of having played with "the greatest" without some eyebrows to be raised. The bass of Adalberto Cevasco has been heard in multiple concerts and recording sessions of artists as diverse as the Spanish divas Rocío Jurado and Isabel Pantoja, tango genius Astor Piazzolla or the cream of the Argentine jazz scene -from Pocho Lapouble, Gustavo Kerestezachi, Rubén López Furst or Andrés Boiarsky to the great Gato Barbieri- With the latter, as part of a dream band that included artists like Nana Vasconcelos as well as other Argentines such as Lapouble or Domingo Cura, he recorded two fundamental pieces in the Impulse! label catalogue in sessions held in Argentina and Los Angeles and also toured across various countries. The daily sold-out shows at the Regina Theater in Buenos Aires and their overwhelming performance at Montreux Festival are still well remembered. It is therefore out of question that Adalberto Cevasco belongs to that top-level league of musicians whose talent has also contributed to enhance those who accompany them. The history of this album begins with an encounter. Adalberto Cevasco joins Rodolfo Alchurrón's jazz-funk project Sanata y Clarificación as bassist and meets Litto Nebbia, who is invited to sing along. Some years on, when Nebbia's Melopea record company was developing, he would receive a cassette with a collection of demos recorded by Cevasco over the years. Some of the songs dated back to 1981 while others were made well into the decade and included such outstanding collaborations as that of the Uruguayan Rubén Rada, whom Adalberto Cevasco had met playing in a group of fusion candombe called Candonga. In addition to producing the complete album, Nebbia would also collaborate in a special way in one of the most outstanding tracks (Reencuentros Nº2) by adding to Cevasco's fusion jazz some unexpected Brazilian flavours and electronic sounds that now, more than 30 years after the original release of the album, they still evoke a refreshing feel of modernity. As the Argentine press of the moment highlighted, it'd seem as if the influences received and developed by the bassist during his career as a freelance musician - from post-Piazzolla tango to proyección folclórica (a movement of revision and modernization of the Argentinian musical roots) - had been added to their superb rhythmic work in this album. "Pájaros Eléctricos" was never presented live and has remained as the only published work by Cevasco as a soloist since the date of its release.

Sam Gendel’s new album, DRM, is the follow-up to his Nonesuch debut, Satin Doll, released earlier this year. DRM features Gendel’s solo musical experiments with vintage instruments such as a forty-year-old Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, antique synthesizers, and a sixty-year-old nylon-string guitar — accompanied by his voice. While Satin Doll was a futuristic homage to classic jazz, DRM includes just one cover song: Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’, which Gendel interprets as an instrumental, playing the melody on an old German analogue synthesizer. The album’s accompanying short films were directed by Marcella Cytrynowicz and filmed at various locations around Gendel’s home state of California during COVID lockdown.



“I’m imagining people listening to DRM and thinking, ‘What the hell is this?’, like they’d just encountered some sailing ship in the sky,” Gendel says of the new work. “I imagine it as if someone many years into the future listened to the popular music of today and then tried to recreate it, without any of the tools or the understanding. Stylistically, it’s not too far from so much contemporary pop-rap music that you hear on the radio. A lot of those electronic backgrounds and instrumentals you hear today are tending towards something really out-there and experimental. It’s rhythmic and pointillistic, collaging different, seemingly unfitting elements together in cool ways. The visuals aren’t necessarily dictated by the music, but they both share the same slightly surreal feel, like I’m a video game character, inhabiting all these different backgrounds,” says Gendel.



Gendel is best known as a world-class saxophonist — it’s the instrument with which he’s led most of his bands, as well as the instrument on which he’s guested with the likes of Vampire Weekend, Ry Cooder, Moses Sumney, Sam Amidon, and Louis Cole’s Knower — but DRM is saxophone-free. “There was no active effort on my part not to include it; it just wasn’t part of the equation when I started recording it,” he says. “I just found a formula, working around this DRM32 drum machine, and rolled with it. I don’t consider myself just a saxophonist, I’m just someone who works in music.”



DRM was recorded in one sixteen-hour session, and then manipulated by Gendel with electronic percussionist Philippe Melanson. It was mixed by Blake Mills, and mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Mike Bozzi. Gendel’s previous discography includes 2018’s Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar with bassist Sam Wilkes, 4444, and Satin Doll, which the Los Angeles Times called “a woozy, blissfully twisted album.” He also performs on two other Nonesuch releases this month: Joachim Cooder’s Over That Road I’m Bound and Sam Amidon’s new self-titled album.

“It was my wish to cool things down a bit,” says David Helbock. The
Austrian-born pianist has formed a new trio with guitarist Arne
Jansen and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky and it is clear when he
talks about it how far he has already moved on since his previous
group: “In the Random Control Trio we had a lot of instruments on
the stage, there was a lot of changing from one instrument to
another… and a lot of notes.” And the new group? “It is more about
emotions. And emotions are the most important thing in music.”
There are other differences too. Whereas Helbock’s previous groups
have consisted of musicians from his native Austria, he has now lived
in Berlin for five years, and ‘The New Cool’ presents his first group
formed with players who have also adopted Berlin as their home city.
With Arne Jansen, originally from Kiel, what appeals to Helbock is
that “he is such an unselfish player, very centred and very calm - and
subtle too. With him it’s all about the music.” Studnitzky is originally
from the Black Forest and Helbock liked “his style of playing with that
very airy sound” and the fact the range of timbres and moods he
creates with just one effects device. And how does it work in the
trio? “All three of us are melody players, but we are all capable of
holding back and giving space to the others.”
It would be wrong, however, to see the elegiac feel of much of this
album as a response to the pandemic. Helbock and producer Siggi
Loch were having “a productive and fruitful discussion” about these
ideas a full year before the recording sessions took place at the Emil
Berliner studios in August 2020. Loch has a fascination for the way
cool jazz “turned the wheel around” to connect with a wide audience
and references and connections with the cool jazz movement are
scattered throughout this album. It is also the very first time that
Helbock has included a tune by his teacher for over a decade,
American pianist Peter Madsen, who toured extensively with Stan
Getz and also taught Maria Schneider.
Helbock has been inspired by the innovations and concepts of Lennie
Tristano and his sense of affinity with the Chicago-born genius runs
deep. Tristano once decreed that “the jazz musician’s function is to
feel.” Helbock, Jansen and Studnitzky have taken that maxim to their
hearts.
LP pressed on 180g vinyl with digital download included.

Legendary Sun Ra bassist Ronnie Boykins (1935 1980) stepped out on his own for his first and only release as a leader on The Will Come, Is Now. He was invited by ESP in 1964 to record his own album, and in February 1974, he told ESP that he was finally ready, and the session took place later that month. This recording not only features Boykins's solid abilities as a bassist, including his marvelous arco work, but also his talents as a composer and arranger. In addition, one is treated to an all natural bass sound, a rare sound during this particular era of jazz history. In septet format, Boykinss' six originals create a variety of moods and textures that not only evoke the music of Sun Ra but also reflect Boykins's own sensibilities as an artist. Original pressings, made just before ESP Disk' went on hiatus for forty years and thus less common than other ESP LPs, often go for upwards of $150. This limited edition of 500 is on black 180 gram vinyl and features the original artwork.

A cheeky riff on the Beatles’ White Album, Cleaners From Venus frontman Martin Newell’s second solo album from 1995 is a sophisticated follow-up to the critically-acclaimed The Greatest Living Englishman. Produced by él Records fixture Louis Philippe and featuring XTC’s Dave Gregory on guitar, it’s a vivid snapshot of Newell’s life with a French chanson-inspired ease.

A longtime fan of French music, Newell sought a Gallic quality on this record - with the vocal riding at the top of the mix, rather than blurred under indie rock guitars, as was common at the time. Philippe was happy to oblige. The effect is a clarity of both form and content - on “Arcadian Boys,” Newell’s impassioned voice careens over a heartbreaking string quartet (arranged by Philippe himself) as he wonders what’s become of those “too late for the sun.” It’s a much more emotional take on the song than the guitar-laden, uptempo version that appears on the Cleaners From Venus’ My Back Wages. But The Off White Album doesn’t dwell too long in solemnity - it’s still a Martin Newell record, after all. His classic wit is on full display, whether he’s putting an irreverent spin on the Smiths (“Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”) or fondly warning a neighbor to “watch your chemicals, girl” (“The Girls In The Flat Upstairs”).

A rich cast of characters make up The Off White Album, via both the process of its recording and the subjects of its songs. It’s a record born on the road, inspired by Newell’s experiences travelling through Europe and Asia the year of its inception. Perhaps the clearest portrait that emerges as the album draws to a close, however, is one of Newell himself: as poet, coffee shop customer, bandleader, lover and neighbor. By his own admission, The Off White Album is “a more intimate portrait of my life at that time than I’d intended.”

Saturations is a composition by Danish multidisciplinary artist Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard, and features a clarinet choir consisting of 19(!) clarinet players.

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard (b. 1979) considers his work to be a basic research in realities working within the domains of imaginary & physical sound as well as other non-sonic media, and since 2012 Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard has experimented with creating music that lets the instruments transcend their inherent sonic norms and reappear in another form by way of multiplication of sound.

His work with multiplication of sound has led to numerous compositions in which one instrument is multiplied a number of times: One piece is written for 9 pianos, another for 10 hi-hats and yet another for countless triangles and so on.

The multiplication brings out bodily timbral phenomena, interference of sound waves and vibrations, and brings out what Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard calls the sound’s potential of transformation. He describes this as the quality in a musical piece, when you no longer hear recognizable instruments, but instead the individual sound, as well as the individual musician, is dissolved into the collective sound.

A sonic as well as human synthesis.

He explains the concept of this sound as follows:

“Imagine you enter a room with vibrant acoustics, such as a cafe full of people having conversations, and when you’re close to those conversations you hear the language and understand the words. If you step away from the tables, however, and stand in the doorway, you begin to loose the ability to distinguish the words from one another. Now instead of hearing the individual conversations, melts all the conversations together, and transform into a one new sound. A sound of people without words and language. Just as when you hear a group of geese squawk, or the wind in tree tops, a kind of nature given sound of people. Once the language is dissolved and the words stop making sense, what is left, is the sound."

The work of NLL has been presented at a variety of different venues and museums such as MoMA (NY - as a part of the René Magritte exhibition The Mystery of the Ordinary, 2013), Imaginary West Indies (Overgaden Copenhagen, 2017), ISCM (Vancouver, 2017), Radiophrenia (Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, 2017), CPH:DOX (Copenhagen, 2017), Roskilde Festival (2017), Harpa (Reykjavik, 2017), G((o))ng Tomorrow Festival (Copenhagen 2016, 2018), Nordic Music Days (Norway, 2019), Akusmata (SF, 2020) and his works has been released on labels such as Topos (DK), Archive Officielle (CA) and Important Records (US). NLL is associate professor at RMC in Copenhagen, and has given lectures at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Goldsmiths University of London a.o.p. NLL has been awarded with several prizes a.o. from the Danish Art Foundation and the Sonning Foundation.

Red Vinyl

Ornament – an information carrier and a coding element for a unique and complex algorithm that modulates the state, space, intention, and path.

Embroidery technique – a conscious coding ritual, where the intention is modeled by both the external forms and the internal structures of the ornament symbols.

An embroidered structure – geometrical and sonic – is a set of energies, generating and conducting a harmonious path and destiny, where both holding the same harmony principles of the sacred process of the cryptography of the heart.

The sound ornament dances in time and space. The patterns with the rhythmic repetition of geometric tones embroider your symbolism, enhancing the expressiveness of the feeling and catching up after the spirit.

Feel the high frequencies, while perceiving the low pulsations. It is the contrast between slow and fast energies, where balance is the key. It is the basic impeccability of the curves in the harmonious flow, it is the conscious ritual of awareness with pure thoughts to create the unique.

Trace inner power into other dimensions. Encrypt intent with the ornament and weave your bright oscillation into the fabric of Existence. Explode as the calm light and jump into the Immeasurable.

Autopsia is a cult art project dealing with music and visual production.
Its art practice began in London in the late 1970s and continued during the 1980s in the art centers of the former Yugoslavia.
Since 1990, Autopsia has acted from Prague, Czech Republic.
Above all Autopsia is not concerned with music. What is Autopsia? Art? Theory? Framing? Projection? Gaze? Autopsia is
language is image is sound. Autopsia is a tombstone on the grave of time. Autopsia is archaeology. The discourse of the
beginning and about the beginning. At the beginning is Death and the pity of Death. The music is in the pity.
The music of Autopsia oscillates from romanticism to avantgarde, from industrial rhythms and dark ambient drones to relentless
choral swells and academic minimalism.
Autopsia Archive 1982-1995
Engineered & Mastered at Mustakillah Studio Prague, 2017
Released by Other Voices Records VOX 35 LP
Marketed and distributed by Kontakt Audio

Altar De Fey originated in San Francisco in the early 1980’s as part of the emerging musical form that would come to be
known as Deathrock. Out of the Zeitgeist flash of 70’s Punk Rock the new sound took the darkest elements of the counter
culture into ever deeper, gloomier and more mature territory.
Performing at legendary San Francisco venues Mabuhay Gardens, Graffiti, The Nightbreak and the rest billed with
Christian Death, 45 Grave, and all the fellow architects of West Coast Post Punk.
The original incarnation passed through a rotating cast of characters centered strongly by the vision and experimental
guitar of founding member Kent Cates. Eschewing the conventional chord progression/solo form entirely Cates’s guitar spins
strands of melody and rhythm, tone and texture in a style that to this day is all his own. The mood was perfected with the
innovative tribal drumming of Aleph Kali and Butch Mason’s haunted confrontational vocals.
Though the band had a strong base of support, no original recordings were ever released and the young members
carried on into new musical endeavors. By 1988 ADF disbanded.
Years upon years passed yet the name was never completely forgotten. As Goth Punk culture persisted, grew and
developed over time the band began to take on a kind of legendary hue among fans in the know; The lost mysterious
phenomenon of Altar De Fey. -There was a kind of poetry to it. Finally in 2011, when asked if they would play a reunion for a
festival in San Francisco Kent and Aleph surprised everyone by answering yes.
Reforming originally as a 2 piece with a drum machine Kent on guitar and Aleph on vocals to an enthusiastic reception,
the duo enjoyed it so much they decided to continue the momentum and quickly added Skot Brown on bass, Aleph switched
over to live drums, and Jake Hout was added on vocals. The new line up debuted in April of 2012 and has continued
regularly performing songs from the original 80’s catalogue and steadily adding new material ever since.
A new generation of underground Deathrock music is growing across the world, in closer, more direct communication
than ever before, and interest in the band has quickly escalated.
This unique compilation brings you 11 original ADF songs recorded between 1984-1986 (demos, rehearsal records, live
records). If you are into classic Christian Death, 45 Grave, Kommunity FK, Burning Image etc. grab this gem now before it’s
too late!

Re-issue of a soul masterpiece from 1974, 'I Love You More and More' by Tom Brock was Tom's only solo album release, but what a beautiful classic it is. For some, it is up there in the pantheon alongside their all-time treasured soul favourites such as Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On'.

Produced by the legend Barry White and released on 20th Century Records in 1974, it features the lush hallmark orchestration, heartfelt songs, and funky yet slick playing you’d expect from a White production. Like a dusting of sugar onto the top of the cake, the record also features the stunning arrangements of the great pianist, arranger, composer, and producer Gene Page, whose musical career left an impressive and prolific legacy.

'I Love You More and More' received another lease of life when it was resurrected for a new audience after having been sampled by Jay-Z, Mos Def, C.L. Smooth, and others. The record is solid throughout, but the song 'There's Nothing in This World That Can Stop Me From Loving You’ proved to be an extra-bright star in the sky and it formed the base to Jay-Z's 2001 hit 'Girls, Girls, Girls'. The sampling of Tom’s work triggered the collectors, diggers and DJs to explore his record and to transfer their passion for it onto their followers too.

Tom Brock passed away in 2002, but left behind his sensational soulful voice on a handful of amazing dusty 7" singles, several assorted productions recorded by other artists, and this absolute winner of an album, which will be cherished for years to come.

• Half-speed vinyl cut at Abbey Road Studios

• Sampled by Jay-Z, Mos Def, C.L. Smooth…

• Produced by Barry White, arranged by Gene Page.

LTD. CLEAR BLUE VINYL

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

One of the most highly regarded modern Brazilian jazz trios, Caixa Cubo announce ‘Angela’, their latest album and first to be licensed for European release by Heavenly Recordings.

 ‘Angela’, their Seventh since forming in 2007, was named as one of 6 Music’s Recommends Albums Of 2020 (Presenter Picks), chosen by DJ Huey Morgan. The single ‘Palavras’ is currently on the 6 Music playlist. Heavenly Recordings picked up on the record when DJ Giles Peterson played ‘Palavras’ on his show.

 Recorded in December 2018, the album features the singer Zé Leônidas on ‘Palavras’ and includes arrangements of songs like ‘Baião Malandro’ by Egberto Gismonti and ‘Dark Prince’ by Geri Allen, in addition to the group’s original compositions.

 Made up of Henrique Gomide (keys), João Fideles (drums) and Noa Stroeter (bass), the trio have split their time between Brazil and Europe in recent years, having been awarded scholarships to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands.

 They have performed at many respected European venues and festivals including Jazz à Vienne Festival (France), Anton Philip Hall (The Hague), A-Trane (Berlin), Riverboat Festival (Denmark) and others in Paris, Brussels, London, Birmingham, Lisbon and Rotterdam. They also performed in Maputo, Mozambique, as well as renowned venues in Brazil, mainly in Sao Paulo (Auditório Ibirapuera and SESC Consolação, Museu da Casa Brasileira).

Once upon a time, two operators stared at their screens. They sat silently for hours, their whole being dedicated to the task they had been assigned to. Days and nights passed in the same monotonous manner. Suddenly signals showed up on their monitors. Alarms started to ring. Both reacted at the same speed and did what they were supposed to do. Controls and commands were entered, as was protocol. After observing these waves for 61:01 minutes, everything became quiet again. What they had just witnessed made them wonder. For the first time they addressed each other. "The data is transferring through our system," announced the first. “Let us both check how this can be interpreted.” The second validated the response. Together, they looked at what had been recorded. Ideas raced through their complicated minds until they realized simultaneously: sounds! They listened. “Is this an unknown language?” one asked. “This is the first time this has been heard throughout our history,” the other answered. They listened again and again. “This electricity has been arranged to form a cohesive entity,” the first said. “Why would machines be used to create that?” the second mused. Something had awakened inside of them, an obsessive curiosity they had never experienced before. They did not understand and were blown away by the beauty of it. “Do you think it could have been left by humans before us?” one whispered. “If it was, these would be Major Signals,” the other concluded. As they processed these thoughts, the two artificial intelligences sat still.

Back in 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BBC broadcast of Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange’s “Inventions For Radio: The Dreams”, The Eccentronic Research Council released their own super-limited edition cassette soundtracking the recalled dreams (and nightmares) of friends, artists, actors, musicians, scientists, poets and filmmakers. The release was called “The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volume 1”. Five years on, and with a large part of the planet under lockdown and with nowhere to go but within their imagination, the ERC put a call out once again to music collaborators, nurses, teachers, truck drivers, writers, journalists and shop workers to upon waking, record their dreams straight into their phones and to then send them to the ERC to soundtrack. And thus, Volume 2 of The Dreamcatcher Tapes was born!

How did you make the album during lockdown?
“We got around 26 dreams sent to us via email over the space of a couple of weeks then Dean Honer my partner in The ERC and I revved up the old analogue equipment and would record music and collage sounds to the dreams (remotely) from our home recording studios and bounce them back and forth to each other till they were done. It was a really good way to work actually, sometimes I didn’t even have to put on any trousers!” says ERC/ Moonlandingz founder Adrian Flanagan. Why a second volume of The Dreamcatcher Tapes? “I was really interested to see how the enforced lockdown and the removal of people’s basic needs such as human contact and hanging out in close proximity to friends was affecting the dreams of my friends, peers and those at the very front line of this horrible pandemic”, Adrian continues. “The Important shared experiences for people’s mental health such as going out to gigs, the pub, the cinema etc. ”It was an interesting experiment. Nurses dreaming of inadequate PPE and having to use blow up Elvis costumes to protect themselves. Teachers dreaming of zombies and lots of people dreaming about sex - where the hair of Greek sorceress’s Circe meets bouncy castle breasts and where other dreamers dream of serial killers or seeing dead family members, or taking baby elephants for a walk, or having discos for one in the middle of the ocean and so much more. I’m really proud of this record. It’s psychedelic in its truest most cerebral form”

Who’s on “The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volumes 1 & 2”? Who are the dreamers?
“Although our long time collaborator Maxine Peake wasn’t on the very first tape (her dream ended up on LTD edition split 7” ERC single we did with Pye Corner Audio) - she was the first dream that we soundtracked when I came up with the idea of doing the concept record. However, on the new vinyl and tape box set - she opens volume 1. Across the 2 volumes there’s film maker Carol Morley, Andy Votel from Finders Keepers records, John Doran from The Quietus (who also wrote the albums brilliant sleeve notes), acclaimed writers Benjamin Myers & Adelle Stripe, musicians such as Evangeline Ling from the group Audiobooks, Lias Saoudi from my ‘semi fictional band’, The Moonlandingz and fat white family, Sidonie from The Orielles, journalists /writers Wyndham Wallace (he wrote lee Hazelwood’s brilliant biography) and Daniel Dylan Wray amongst a whole array of musician friends, eccentrics and people with actual proper jobs!”

Why did you chose Castles in Space for this release?
“Jim Jupp at Ghost Box records suggested them to me so I looked into them and saw they were doing loads of really great strange little bespoke electronic record releases. I think that because this is a very niche limited run release, it required a label that was willing to treat it like a piece of art and not a throwaway mass produced commodity. So making sure the packaging was special, the artwork was bang on point and the sleeve notes were written by a writer we like all were very important to us. “It was also important that we could turn it around from the finished recording to being in people’s hands really quickly as Dean and I have another ten projects between us on the boil - and so far, Castles in Space have been true to their word. It’s an artists label done with love and there’s not many of them about anymore - believe it or not.“

“The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volumes 1 & 2” is an immense collaborative achievement which makes for a thoroughly compelling, and gloriously disorientating listening experience.

It is released as a double coloured vinyl LP in deluxe gatefold sleeve w/insert and a highly limited deluxe double cassette box set. The album is released on March 19th, 2021.

"Modern Uganda" is a unique project-it's the exquisite debut album of a band, which no longer exists!

delay_okwas a band from Gdańsk, Poland, which was formed in 2017 and played together till 2020 in the belief that making music must be fun. It was a trio consisting ofPiotr Chęcki(tenor and baritone saxophone, flute, casio),Szymon Burnos(synthesizers, moog, guitar, vocals)andJacek Prościński(drums, spdsx, percussion). On this, their debut album you can also hear the peculiar sounds of the Sopot's MDK Orchestra, the guitar ofMichałZ ienkowskiand a Tanzanian rap byAlex(Alex Mussa), met in Zanzibar.

"W e create impulsively, not ignoring our first - sometimes trivial - ideas,because it is in them that we find the joy that accompanied us at the very beginning of our musical paths. W e do it so that we can sit together in front of the speakers and have fun listening to our own songs again. "Modern Uganda" is a small collection of our interests, so we kind of do it out of the selfish need of doing something for
ourselves"

The band oscillates around the sound of IDM, lo-fi, and other sub-genres of modern electronics, with an element of jazz improvisation. The album was DIY recorded and is a tribute to the most famous African ski jumper from Uganda-Dunstan Odeke.

"Modern Uganda" vinyl record comes in two colors(flamingo pink and classic black). Mix and mastering were done byMaciej Milewski, the cover photo with shoebill was taken bynao-cha, a Japanese artist from Tokyo.

Mouse on Mars, the Berlin-based duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, approach electronic music with an inexhaustible curiosity and unparalleled ingenuity. ‘AAI’ (Anarchic Artificial Intelligence) takes their fascination with technology and undogmatic exploration a quantum leap further.
Emerging from a primordial ooze of rolling bass and skittering electronics, hypnotic polyrhythms and pulsing synthesizers propel the listener across the
record’s expanse. Hidden in the duo’s hyper-detailed productions is a kind of meta-narrative.
Working with AI tech collective Birds on Mars and former Soundcloud
programmers Ranny Keddo and Derrek Kindle, the duo collaborated on the creation of bespoke software capable of modelling speech; text and voice from writer and scholar of African Studies Louis Chude-Sokei and DJ/producer Yağmur Uçkunkaya were fed into the software as a model, allowing Toma and Werner to control parameters like speed or mood, thereby creating a kind of speech
instrument they could control and play as they would a synthesizer.
The album’s narrative is quite literally mirrored in the music - the sound of an artificial intelligence growing, learning and speaking. This exploration of artificial intelligence as both a narrative framework and compositional tool, allowing the duo to summon their most explicitly science-fiction work to date. Original artwork by Casey Reas, inventor of the computer graphics language Processing.
Recently, Mouse on Mars received the 2020 Holger Czukay Prize for Pop Music.
Mouse on Mars have been regularly streaming performances throughout 2020, partnering with organizations like Goethe-Institut, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Conditions of a Necessity and others and will continue these in 2021.
‘AAI’ is available on grey or black double LP packaged in a single sleeve with full colour insert / lyrics. CD comes with 8-panel poster booklet.
“Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner continue to create soundscapes that blur the line between programming and live musicianship, and sometimes between Earth and outer space.” - AV Club
“Enthralling and impossible to categorize.” - Pitchfork
“Sustained and ephemeral electronic sounds conjure unearthly open spaces… It’s not a song; it’s sound as a temporal phenomenon, a few minutes of sculpted attention.” - The New York Times

PHILLIP BALLOU Pittsburgh-born Phillip Ballou’s earliest years were spent in the gospel field; after he moved to New York City in the ‘70s, he teamed up with Bennie Diggs and Arthur Freeman, founding members of The New York Community Choir and singer Arnold McCuller to form the group Revelation. The quartet recorded for RSO Records, scoring some R&B success in the US with tracks like “Get Ready For This” and “You To Me Are Everything,” touring the Bee Gees among others. Phillip also sang on albums by NYCC recorded for RCA Records and continued with Revelation until 1982. Frequently hired for sessions in and around New York, Phillip teamed up with UK soul music journalist David Nathan (who he’d met in 1974 during Nathan’s first US visit) and John Simmons, formerly a member of The Reflections, another New York vocal group to write a series of songs for his own proposed solo record deal. Although a contract did not materialize, one of the songs – “Ain’t Nothing Like The Love” – got some interest from famed Philadelphia producer Thom Bell who presented it to The O’Jays. Ultimately, the tune was turned down by Kenny Gamble and John Simmons, by then musical director for Stephanie Mills, recorded his own version for a small independent label in 1981. Phillip continued his own musical journey, touring and recording with James Taylor and Todd Rundgren. In addition, Phillip’s name graced recordings by George Benson, Billy Ocean, Kashif, Nona Hendryx, Jonathan Butler, Teddy Pendergrass and Melba Moore; in 1981, he began recording with Luther Vandross and became a part of Luther’s touring band for many years, as well as singing on productions by Luther on Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and others, continuing his association with him until Luther’s 2003 stroke. Phillip returned to his gospel roots in 2004 as Minister of Music at a Brooklyn church and passed away in March 2005, aged 55 .We are proud to bring you Phillips second single on Super Disco Edits, and perhaps his best! "We'll be together" is an uplifting song with an almost gospel tinged melody. But the songs lyrics portray a love thats just about to blossom.

Soft Cell’s 2002 reunion album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ is set for reissue in new expanded and remastered 2CD format, as well as being released on vinyl for the very first time.

Long regarded by many fans as an overlooked masterpiece, the album features a lyrical outlook that was as true to Soft Cell’s maturity and perspective back in 2002 as it is relevant and accurate to the world situation in 2020. Harshly honest, fatalistic and bleakly humorous, Cruelty Without Beauty also preserves the band’s highly distinctive and edgy sound, and stands alongside their greatest work.

The new 2020 version includes tracks originally destined for the album, but for various reasons not on the final cut. It also includes brand new 2020 versions of album highlights Monoculture, Together Alone, Darker Times and Last Chance, updated this year by Dave Ball. Also included are a number of unreleased live versions of album tracks, plus rare remixes.

Cruelty WithoutBeauty, Soft Cell’s fourth studio album, and the first since their original split in 1984, happened after Marc Almond and Dave Ball reunited in the studio after Dave’s ‘other’ band The Grid (with Richard Norris). They worked with Marc on some tracks from his 1991 Tenement Symphony album, which eventually opened the door for some live Soft Cell dates and areunion in 2001. As well as this album release in 2002, the band toured thealbum extensively in the UK, and across Europe and the US, including many festival appearances throughout 2002 and 2003.

The album includes the singles Monoculture and a cover of Frankie Valli & The Four Season’s classic The Night, which became the band’s first Top 40 hit since since 1984.

Most recently in 2018, Soft Cell sold out London’s O2 Arena and were the subject of a career retrospective BBC documentary. They have recently signed to BMG and are currently recording a brand-new album, set for release in 2021. Before then, all of their classic Phonogram-era albums will be reissued in new expanded editions via Universal Music.

Marc Almond commented at the time of the album release ‘I always felt it was an unfinished story, and I’m glad we’re able to write another chapter’.

Dave Ball also commented ‘As soon as we work together, we become Soft Cell, you know’. I don’t know what the magic element is, but it just seems to be there’.

They Say: “Exploring the wide range of moods and sounds produced by percussion”.

We say: MPCs at the ready because this does exactly what it says on the tin, to devastating effect. Oh, and the sleeve is stunning.

Originally released in 1979, Percussion Spectrum was produced by the legendary percussionists Barry Morgan and Ray Cooper. With dope beats taking in diverse styles, from funk and soul and jazz through to Latin, Brazilian, samba and Afro-Cuban, this is an amazing sample source filled with killer drum-breaks and percussion flares. Unsurprisingly it’s one of the most sought-after records from the Themes catalogue.

This library LP is a library in itself, with its mix of short themes of single beats, short breaks and some longer, more fully-formed DJ-friendly tracks. Trust us when we say that this is a box full of percussion firework ready to be thrown onto the dancefloor at the just right moment. We don’t have anywhere near enough space to describe all 34 tracks (there isn’t even enough room on the labels to list them all!) so we’ll pick out some favourites.

Favourites like opener “Impulsion”, a percussive masterclass with drum upon drum upon drum making it feel like a neat prototype to the percussive underscores of Peter Lüdemann and Pit Troja’s eternal The Now Generation LP. And the dramatic “Fast Action” is exactly that, racing along on a rapid roll of congas, cymbal crashes and throbbing kicks. “The Chaser” is classic library cop-funk with dilapidated drum figures, and the outrageously funky “Heat On” is the perfect accompaniment to your wild action sequences.

A real highlight is “Runaway”, and not just because it sounds like nothing else on the record. Here are drums and percussion in that tight funk style that just cries out to be sampled. “Percussion Power” is an extended, near-three minute suite of funky drum solo after funky drum solo that just aches to be looped: open drums to die for people! “Shivers” is a tense, apprehensive underscore with shock stabs that builds to a climax whilst “Drums On Parade” is a showcase of head-nod drums and cymbals in march time. Did someone say “funky”?

Side B starts with a stroll down “Samba Street”. With the noise of the crowd in the background, this is riotous, authentically drawn samba that sounds like it’s been beamed straight in from Rio in full flow. Drop this at midnight and watch the cobwebs fly off any dancefloor. Prefer it without the fake crowd? “Samba Street (b)” has you covered.

The simple, innocent “Child’s Themes” (all five of them) provide a nice, sweet respite from all the funk. Nursery sounds tinged with only a touch of melancholy. The gentle marimba solo of “Tropical Peace” only adds to the sense of serenity we get from the relatively calm second side. The album closes out with a veritable toolkit of tom toms, snare drum rolls, timpani, vibraphones and chiming bells.

Percussion Spectrum is a joyous collection of sounds, as bright, beaming and downright funky as the vibrant cover. The Themes series is known for each record having its own particularly striking sleeve, which was unusual for library records at the time, and Percussion Spectrums’s multi-coloured drumsticks make for one of the most eye-catching.

As with all of our other Themes re-issues, the audio for Percussion Spectrum comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. As usual Richard Robinson has taken the same care with restoring the original sleeve from archive scans. This is another one ticked off the list of library records that should be out there for anyone who wants a copy.

Special Request continues his impeccable run of form with a typically fervent entry into the DJ-Kicks mix series. His adventurous 25 track mix takes in personal favourites, new school classics and of course a selection of his own brand new and exclusive edits, dubs and reworks next to some overlooked gems. Leeds based Paul Woolford dares to go where few others do. He can do face-melting underground bangers, peak time piano anthems, ambient cinematics or chart climbing crossover hits. What unites his work as Special Request across labels like Houndstooth and R&S, though, is precision engineering, but never at the expense of real, raw emotion and visceral impact. He is an artist who very much pours his heart into everything he does, and has been on such a prolific run in recent years that it has been impossible to keep abreast of all his many projects. Even in this mix, he hints at yet more new sides and sounds. As always with Special Request, this is an emotional, full spirited ride through the musical mind of one of the most accomplished artists of the day.

Los Saicos created a raw, wild and visceral sound, the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the garage rock that was coming out of the US and their anthem 'Demolición' is one of the most insane '60s punk songs of all time. Unavailable on a 45 for over a decade, here it is again! The archaeology of rock'n'roll is much like any other form of digging. Significant finds demand the re-addressing of previously considered certainty. You can hear direct links to both The Stooges and The Cramps here and several more equally enthralling combos. The latter spawned several generations of individuals who would dig deep to previously (mostly) unheard seams of music and other forms of culture that have since become part of the mainstream fabric. When Los Saicos' front man Erwin Flores was asked how aware he and his friends were of what was happening in Britain and the US at the time, here's what he had to say: "We knew the Beatles, they were our idols. We heard the Rolling Stones after recording 'Demolición' and also Bob Dylan and others. The primitive nature of our songs is something that came spontaneously out of my head. The band had no problem with assimilating and arranging it. We thought of ourselves as bad boys and that must have been a driving force." "Primitive to the point of primordial, Los Saicos are an important benchmark. Not were. Who ever thought there could be a combo out there in Peru that would make The Sonics sound like Simon and bloody Garfunkel? There is quite possibly some other music out there, someplace, that could well make us re-address this consideration, but until then, cherish this short course of Saicotherapy."

First pressing of 400 units comes as yellow vinyl! "I was guzzling wine at my favorite bar in San Francisco, the Rite Spot, and the entertainment that night was some local opera singers singing along with a big video screen showing a collage of various operatic moments with subtitles. One particular subtitle, 'Ah!-(etc)' made me laugh, I thought it was a perfect description of life - the joy of existence against the etcetera of it all, the struggle. With a heavy head of rose' it seemed like ecstatic poetry! I scribbled it on a napkin and thought it might make a good title for something" And so the mystery behind the title of Kelley Stoltz new record is solved. Less of a mystery is the quality contained therein_ after 12 self-titled releases and a several more under pseudonyms, Stoltz is the word for "one-man-band-home-recording-pop-songs of idiosyncratic character." A quick follow up to his more power pop and pub rock LP only "Hard Feelings" offering in the summer, "Ah-(etc)" finds Stoltz returning to his sweet spot, writing songs that never were, but should have been in the 60's and 80's. As with other LPs Stoltz makes virtually every noise on the album which was written and recorded in 2019 at his Electric Duck Studio in. San Francisco. A few friends popped in to play along_ Stoltz former bandmate, Echo & the Bunnymen's Will Sergeant adds electric guitar to "The Quiet Ones" a sort of Scott Walker lyrical take on strangers and neighbors. Karina Denike formerly of Dance Hall Crashers adds gorgeous vocals on the bossanova groover "Moon Shy", where Sergeant pops up again in a spoken word role on the outro. Allyson Baker of SF's Dirty Ghosts sings on "She Like Noise", a song Stoltz wrote for her in celebration of her love of seeing live bands. The album was mastered by Mikey Young in Australia.

With XXI Century remastering: "La Ventana" (1973) by Los Jaivas is released now on vinyl format for the very first time. Los Jaivas has often been considered one of the most important rock bands in Chile and South America. This influential Chilean band formed in 1963 mixes psychedelic rock and progressive rock with Latin American folk instruments and rhythms. In this album Los Jaivas shows many different artistic facets from improvisation and song writing to the first steps of symphonic creation. "La Ventana" version 2020, is the first work of a series to rescue the musical heritage of the band, which includes the search for archival material saved for years and the reissue of other historical titles of Los Jaivas. More info: Finally available on vinyl, 47 years after its original release on the Chilean label IRT, here it is Los Jaivas' "La Ventana", the iconic album that includes the anthems 'Todos juntos' and 'Mira niñita'. Original master tapes have been used for this reissue, following the reels find at the IRT vaults after years unavailable. State of the art technology has also been used to guarantee a top-quality remastered sound that shows music details barely noticeable in the original pressing. The artwork restoration process has been undertaken by Martín Uribe, a member of the band's team, with great attention to detail, by using several copies of the original issue. According to Felipe Domínguez (Al Albordaje Muchachos SPA), supervisor of this reissue project, "we aimed to publish a top-quality release, improving on previous rather average reissue editions. So, when we opened the box containing the tapes of "la Ventana" and found the reels with all the annotations made at the time, we knew we would be able to make a difference." This is the first in a series of various projects that will make the musical heritage of Los Jaivas available again, including recordings that have remained archived for years and the reissue of other historical titles of the band. This is the aim of the Los Jaivas Cultural Foundation: "to pass on its experience to new generations, along with encouraging a love for music without distinction of race, faith, political color or gender", highlights Mario Mutis, bassist and vocalist of the band. This 2020 reissue is presented in its original artwork and complete tracklist.

An unlikely meeting of two like-minded spirits, »First Man in the Moon« sees the former Swans guitarist and Hallow Ground regular Norman Westberg and the prolific double bass player Jacek Mazurkiewicz collaborate for five evocative tracks. The pair finds common ground beyond the boundaries of atmospheric drone, abstract jazz and experimental music and blurs the lines between the acoustic and the electronic.The two first met when the composer Mazurkiewicz supported Swans with his solo project 3FoNIA on their 2014 European tour. »I really enjoyed his approach,« says Westberg about the Polish musician’s blending of the acoustic qualities of his instrument with electronically generated sounds. A decision to collaborate was made and when the US-American musician returned to Eastern Europe to support Michael Gira on his solo tour in late 2019, Mazurkiewicz reached out to him with the idea of booking some studio time before Gira’s two concerts in Warsaw. »Recording was very fun and easy,« remembers Westberg. »It was just two people enjoying hearing and reacting to what the other is doing.« »First Man in the Moon« is not however a plain document of these improvised sessions, but also shaped by Mazurkiewicz’s approach as a composer. Once the recordings were finished, he selected and edited the recorded material, refining the peculiar dialogue between the guitarist’s meditative drones and bright chords and his own rhythmic yet subtle approach to playing the double bass, sometimes plucking the strings and occasionally using his bow to underscore
Westberg’s fleeting melodies, but also using the instrument in unconventional ways to generate sound. A feeling of weightlessness prevails throughout the aptly-titled »First Man in the Moon.« Even at their most abstract however, these five improvisations-turned-compositions remain tangible, lively, and joyfully explorative. It is a record that you wouldn’t expect from either of these musicians, but
the logical result of two idiosyncratic minds sharing not only space and time, but also their respective visions with each other. Credits:
Recorded at Studio Diamentowy Pies/ Damian Pielka, engineering/Piotr Mazurek, engineering assistance/Jacek Mazurkiewicz, mix/
Lawrence English, mastering/John Fell, photographs.

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

BACK IN 2001, when Detroit exploded all over the airwaves, the Dirtbombs’ released this album.. it flew out.. and here it is again on glorious vinyl format. Mick Collins and his merry band of Dirtbombs (which, this time around, features Bantam Rooster's Tom Potter and Detroit studio wiz Jim Diamond) bring the soul on their sophomore album Ultraglide In Black, named after Ultraglide in Blue, a cool late-nite flick from your youth. All the influences that helped shaped his sonic psyche are in the forefront here - Sly & the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Parliament, the Miracles and host of others too obscure to mention all have their presence felt. If the Temptations owned fuzz pedals and read too many comic books they might've sounded something like this. There are a lot of young bands claiming to be creating "soul" music and "testifying" (we won't name names) but this here is the authentic item - accept no substitutes. "The Dirtbombs' combination of squealing feedback-driven guitar, dual drumming and walloping bass presence rivals that of the Velvet Underground. Imagine the Velvets, Gories and Oblivians battling to the death inside a tuna fish can, their raw and ultra crude instrumentation blazing away with hell-bent fury. Led by Mick Collins (who spent time fronting the Gories and the rockabilly grunge outfit Blacktop), the Dirtbombs' distinctive Motown howl and wicked axe slingin' escapades shred like one of Dolemite's rapid-fire, X-rated monologues.… Collins executes some snarling, self-professed "cyclone" guitar riffs underneath the stomping, mummified mayhem. These Detroit cavemen have found their place in a fuzz-drenched, garage band sound reminiscent of Question Mark and the Mysterians fused with the sonic annihilation of the Stooges." -Tucson Weekly
Every shop /home NEEDS THIS ALBUM.

As a rock icon and filmmaker with a unique vision, ROB ZOMBIE has continuously challenged audiences as he stretches the boundaries of both music and film. He has sold more than fifteen million albums worldwide, and is the only artist to experience unprecedented success in both music and film as the writer/director of eight feature films with a worldwide gross totaling more than $150 million.
ROB ZOMBIE has achieved great success in the music industry, first as a member of the multi-platinum band WHITE ZOMBIE and later as a solo artist with even greater results collecting numerous multi-platinum and gold albums along the way including Hellbilly Deluxe, The Sinister Urge and Educated Horses. In 2013, the seven-time GRAMMY® nominee released his fifth solo album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, on his Zodiac Swan label through UMe. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and spawned two Top 10 Active Rock singles, “Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Super Town” and Zombie’s spin on GRAND FUNK RAILROAD’s anthemic “We’re An American Band.”
In April 2016, ZOMBIE released his 6th studio album, The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard Top 200 making it the sixth consecutive release to debut Top Ten. Produced by Zeuss, it was recorded and mixed at Goathouse Studios. A full return to form by the rock icon, The Electric Warlock… features John 5 (Guitar), Piggy D (Bass) and Ginger Fish (Drums).
October 2020 sees the release of the first new ZOMBIE track and video in over four years — “King Freak: A Crypt Of Preservation And Superstition” off of the forthcoming full-length album entitled The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy. A classic ZOMBIE album through and through with high-energy rages like The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man and Get Loose to heavy-groove thumpers like Shadow Of The Cemetery Man and Shake Your Ass-Smoke Your Grass. This new slab of ZOMBIE madness hits in early 2021
For the past two decades ROB ZOMBIE has also directed dozens of music videos for himself as well as other artists including Ozzy Osbourne. ZOMBIE was also the first self-directed artist to win an MTV Video Music Award. He’s also directed a special episode of CBS’s CSI: Miami, two Comedy Central specials, and uncharacteristically macabre commercials for various brands.

One of the most highly regarded modern Brazilian jazz trios, Caixa Cubo announce ‘Angela’, their latest album and first to be licensed for European release by Heavenly Recordings.

 ‘Angela’, their Seventh since forming in 2007, was named as one of 6 Music’s Recommends Albums Of 2020 (Presenter Picks), chosen by DJ Huey Morgan. The single ‘Palavras’ is currently on the 6 Music playlist. Heavenly Recordings picked up on the record when DJ Giles Peterson played ‘Palavras’ on his show.

 Recorded in December 2018, the album features the singer Zé Leônidas on ‘Palavras’ and includes arrangements of songs like ‘Baião Malandro’ by Egberto Gismonti and ‘Dark Prince’ by Geri Allen, in addition to the group’s original compositions.

 Made up of Henrique Gomide (keys), João Fideles (drums) and Noa Stroeter (bass), the trio have split their time between Brazil and Europe in recent years, having been awarded scholarships to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands.

 They have performed at many respected European venues and festivals including Jazz à Vienne Festival (France), Anton Philip Hall (The Hague), A-Trane (Berlin), Riverboat Festival (Denmark) and others in Paris, Brussels, London, Birmingham, Lisbon and Rotterdam. They also performed in Maputo, Mozambique, as well as renowned venues in Brazil, mainly in Sao Paulo (Auditório Ibirapuera and SESC Consolação, Museu da Casa Brasileira).

Be assured that even dawning on sixty and with a career spanning more than 30 years, Popa Chubby continues to fight against the injustices of this world !
And the least we can say about 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic is that it offered him the “magnificent” inspiration that fed into the creation of his new album “Tinfoil Hat”! As he writes himself, this record’s creation was self-evident from the beginning of the first lockdown in March.
Back at his base in the Hudson Valley and following his last show played in Florida, our man immediately wanted to send a message of empathy and support to his fans, and that’s how the song “Can I Call You My Friends?” was conceived. The reaction was so sudden, warm, and intense that he found there was enough material for continuing this “dialogue” by composing other songs that today form the framework for “Tinfoil Hat.”
The whole thing was entirely “homemade,” recorded and played by Popa Chubby with the extra Guts and Soul that great causes often bring to life. “Tinfoil Hat” and the 11 songs that make it up were born from a mixture of love, despair, fear, frustration, pain, joy, sorrow, resolution and the leap into the great unknown imposed by the coronavirus that has been with all of us all since last
March. The Trump administration’s chaotic and reckless management of the crisis provided Popa Chubby with the inspiration for uncompromising lyrics. Like those of the title song (supported by, to say the least, an explicit clip) or themes such as “You Ain’t Said Shit,” “No Justice, No Peace,” or “Another Day In Hell.”
Without forgetting to pass on messages of hope (“Someday Soon, Change Is Gonna Come”) or even for good behavior in the face of the virus with “Baby Put On Your Mask.” In the album notes, he writes, “Like all of you, this pandemic has pushed me to the very edge of my humanity. But the music, the sweet music, has put me back on the right path once again. So I offer this work with humility and the deep devotion I have for you!”. That says it all!

In the cinema, the composer must go to meet the filmmakers, enter their world, but without giving up his own. This is the difficulty or the paradox of music for the image. By collaborating with directors from a wide variety of backgrounds, I think I have indirectly discovered a lot about myself. It helped me to progress, to explore territories that were not naturally mine. Cinema is a laboratory where I have sought to construct original orchestral formulas combining Corsican polyphonies, musicians from jazz, variety, classical, or even rappers. Like the world today, a fragmented world where all cultures mingle. So said Bruno Coulais, one of the most innovative composers of contemporary cinema, during the tribute paid to him in 2011 at the Cinémathèque de Paris

In 1978, Bruno Coulais, a young composer of concert works, discovered in film music a new means of expression, a way of bringing the demands of his writing to the masses. François Reichenbach, then Josée Dayan, Jacques Davila, Souleymane Cissé or Laurent Heynemann, first on television and then in the cinema, lead him of his own accord in the discovery of this new world.

In 1995, he composed the music for Microcosmos. This centimeter-scale initiatory journey offers him the opportunity to reveal the full dimension of his writing. He injects into his score a strange lyricism, between wonder and fantasy, confirming the lesson learned from François Reichenbach: "to any documentary image, music brings a part of fiction".

The success of Microcosmos established the musician and made him the indispensable composer of other natural tales, notably alongside Jacques Perrin (Le Peuple migrateur, Oceans, Les Saisons, etc.). Other long-term relationships will be forged, in particular with Benoît Jacquot, with whom he has worked for more than a decade, not to mention Frédéric Schoendoerffer, James Huth or Jean-Paul Salomé.

In addition to great popular successes such as Les Choristes, Brice de Nice or Sur La Piste Du Marsipulami, it is hardly surprising that this insatiable curiosity has found in the animated cinema the most inspiring playgrounds, in particular through his collaboration with two exceptional designers, Henry Selick and Tomm Moore.

The first, American director of The Nightmare Before Christmas produced by Tim Burton, invites Bruno Coulais to sign in 2009 the magnificent score of Coraline (film nominated for the Oscars). 10 years later, he is about to find him for a new and beautiful Wendell & Wild adventure. For Irishman Tomm Moore, Bruno Coulais has already composed the music for two Oscar-nominated films, The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song Of the Sea (2014), and in 2020 he will sign the score for Wolfwalkers.

Whether it is about author's films or more mainstream films, Bruno Coulais maintains the same standards, always considering his art as a window open to the world. Much less wise than it seems, he reveals in it a gift of a modern alchemist and a very personal way of mixing the most diverse cultures in universal harmony at work.

First run on silver marbled vinyl!

2020 was a year like no other. Thankfully, Shipwrec is slowly returning to normality. Not only is the label back to releasing form, but also the roster of artists is being expanded with the superb addition of Caron. Known for his releases on labels like 030303 and Brokntoys, Caron debuts on Shipwrec with a four tracker of sheer quality. Off-kilter percussion introduces the breathy pads and grandeur of "Ancestry," a piece of dreamy chords and acid undertones. The haunting "Common Sense" follows. Drums stagger next spectral vocals in this chilling electro piece. A similar stalking note continues on the flip with the 303 soaked "Lost." A steady kick offers a bedrock from which looming keys, bitter squawk and dancefloor paranoia take hold. Hopeful shades arrive with the brilliance of "Ruins." From industrial percussion and metallic rinses, a deep and intricate finale forms to bring "Shattered" to a terrific close.

Strut continue their in-depth archive reissues from the Black Fire label witha definitive edition of JuJu's 'Live At 131 Prince Street',recorded in 1973 atOrnette Coleman's gallery in New York and featuring a previously unheardrecording of the Pharoah Sanders composition "Thembi". After forming in San Francisco while working on the Marvin X theatre piece'The Resurrection of the Dead', JuJu began to hone their uncompromisingfusion of Afro-Latin rhythms with free and spiritual jazz before signing toStrata-East for the 'A Message From Mozambique' album in 1972. "Wemoved to New York and became part of the avant-garde community on theLower East Side and Greenwich Village," remembers bandleader PlunkyBranch. Following a high profile live show at the Lincoln Center, OrnetteColeman invited JuJu to his gallery and loft at 131 Prince Street to performthere and to stay on while he left on tour. "That was life-changing for us,"continues Plunky."It was fabulous. The recordings you hear on this albumare in close proximity to each other, maybe across one day or a weekendat the gallery."Alongside tracks written by the JuJu band members, like the5/4 tempo 'At Least We Have A Horizon Now', they play choice coversfrom their peers. Plunky explains, "'Thembi' is a Pharoah Sanders piecewhich he wrote for his wife in 1971 and it's one of my favourite pieces byhim. 'Azucar Pa Ti' was written by Eddie Palmieri; we loved him too andenjoyed Latin music in general. Here we play 'Mozambique', based on anAfro-Cuban rhythm and we regularly played that for 10 minutes beforemorphing into 'Azucar'. 'Out Of This World', written by Johnny Mercer andHarold Arlen, was inspired by John Coltrane who recorded a version of iton his 'Coltrane' album in '62." JuJu's 'Live At 131 Prince Street' is out on Strut on 12th February 2021 on2LP and 1CD. Remastered by The Carvery from the original reel to reeltapes and including full sleeve notes based around a new interview withbandleader James "Plunky" Branch.

What is the utility of pain? Can it do anything but fester? In Ferneaux explores pain in motion, building audio-spatial chambers of experience and memory. Using an archive of field recordings from a decade of global travels, isolation gave Blanck Mass an opportunity to make connections in a moment when being together is impossible. The record is divided into two long-form journeys that gather the memories of being with now-distant others through the composition of a nostalgic travelogue. The journeys are haunted with the vestiges of voices, places, and sensations. These scenes alternate with the building up and releasing of great aural tension, intensities that emerge from the trauma of a personal grieving process which has perhaps embraced its rage moment. An encounter with a prophetic figure on the streets of San Francisco presented the question of "how to handle the misery on the way to the blessing." This is the quandary of the impasse we now all find ourselves in, trapped in our little caves, grappling with the unease of the self at rest - without movement, without the consumerist agenda of "new experiences." The possibility of growth, always defined by our connections with others, held in limbo. Sartre said that "Hell is other people," but perhaps this is the Inferno of the present: the space of sitting with the self. A blessing is often thought of as a future reward, above and beyond the material plane. With In Ferneaux, Blanck Mass wrangles the immanent materials of the here-and-now to build a sense of transcendence. Here, the uncanny angelic hymn sits comfortably beside the dirge. The misery and blessing are one.

*** UNRELEASED AOR / YACHT ROCK FROM 1979 AS FEATURED ON PRAISE POEMS 7***

It is a rare occurrence, especially when you consider that we are writing this in the year 2020, that an unreleased AOR/Yacht Rock album surfaces after 40 years. The Tramp crew first heard about it while discussing Penn Central's inclusion of their song "Sometimes" on "Praise Poems Vol.7".

The band Penn Central was formed about 1978 by Gary Phelps and his younger brother Shawn Phelps. They had been playing together in a few different groups in the Erie, Pennsylvania area since Gary returned there from Penn State in 1974. In 1978 Shawn was going to college at Edinboro State University, just south of Erie, where he met Curt Salvador, a student from the Pittsburgh area. They began playing together in a local Edinboro group when Shawn introduced Curt to Gary. Gary, Shawn, and Curt began to collaborate and soon Gary brought in friend and former high school bandmate Allen Bennett who was an accomplished musician on trumpet and percussion. Shawn then found Dave Lindgren who was playing drums in various bands locally and Penn Central was formed.

The group began rehearsing and playing small venues together. Soon, they began to work on original songs that Gary and the band were writing. They decided in 1979 to record some of the original music at a small independent studio in Erie that was owned and operated in by Keith Veshecco and John Mazza. Soon after recording 7 songs there, a large FM radio station, WDVE, in Pittsburgh sponsored a contest for local bands for a compilation album of local groups. Because of Curt's roots in Pittsburgh, he entered the Penn Central song "Sometimes" in the contest and it earned a spot on the 10 track album that was released in 1980. The band subsequently played in the area for the next few years before drifting apart as the members left college, began new careers, and started raising families. Gary, his brother Shawn, and Curt continued playing together and with other group configurations and as solo artists off and on since that time. They remain friends and share musical ideas to this day.

Key selling points:

- previously unreleased album from 1979
- all songs taken from the original reel-to-reel master tapes
- including full album download code

Hawkwind have always been associated with music festivals, most notably the free festivals, where Dave Brock has said that, at

those events, the band is not shackled to appease an audience by giving them what they expect and have paid to see. With that obligation removed, the band can relax and experiment more than usual and gigs become even more fun. Their sessions, where they played for free, sometimes with the Pink Fairies, at Canvas City, outside the official site of the Isle Of White Festival in 1970, are a matter of legend and Nik Turner gained much attention when he painted his face silver and was much photographed as a result. During his set, Jimi Hendrix referred to him as 'the cat with the silver face'. However, when we think of Hawkwind and festivals, the word Stonehenge leaps to the fore.

The band always loved being there, enjoying the whole event as well as the freedom of how and when they played. This was not a time of business, but a time of fun. The most important one of these was Stonehenge 1984, which proved to be the last festival before the authorities moved in the following year to block the festival from being set up and Hawkwind ended up playing a few miles away instead. It was the sad end to an era. It had taken place twelve times and, had it been allowed one more time, it would have become a public event and the powers that be were determined to prevent that from happening. Happily, the 1984 festival was recorded and filmed and the Hawkwind Solstice Eve and Solstice Morning were both preserved...and we should be grateful for that.


The fact that Hawkwind were playing for free didn't mean it was a basic show. As well as the line-up of Dave Brock, Harvey Bainbridge, Huw Lloyd Langton (who played the evening session, but not the following morning), Nik Turner, Alan Davey and Danny Thompson, there were half a dozen dancers, a mime artist and fire spitting. A free event, it was the ideal time to introduce the new rhythm section to the band in the form of Danny Thompson on drums and Alan Davey on bass, with Harvey moved to keyboards. A move which was to have a long term affect in the way he made music, leading to his solo career, as well as years playing synths for Hawklords, in years to come, after his stint as the Hawkwind keyboards player came to an end.. Danny fitted the bill comfortably and drummed for the band until he left in 1988, to be replaced by Richard Chadwick. Danny went on to play for other bands including Bedouin and Pre Med. He also recorded a cassette album called Skinwalker. Alan made a good team alongside Dave Brock and it can be seen on the video just how pleased he was to be playing alongside Dave Brock, a man whom he had only met for the first time in November 1982, backstage at the Ipswich Gaumont. He went on to be the longest serving Hawkwind bass player, before moving on to pursue solo projects and form a nmber of bands. So in terms of the line-up, Stonehenge 1984 had a notable impact on the formation of the band for a number of years and, indeed, the destinies of Harvey, Danny and Alan. As if that were not enough to make the event special in the annals of Hawkwind, they played an interesting and varied main set in the evening, featuring a blend of old and new Hawkwind songs, along with numbers from Inner City Unit and

Bob Calvert's Lucky Leif And The Starfighters album. In keeping with the relaxed atmosphere, there was a considerably extended

version of Ghost Dance, lasting around ten minutes. The sunrise set was special too, with a long, laid-back, jam at dawn, in fitting with the occasion.



A lovely and relaxing start to the day and the kind of jam they couldn't really play to a paying audience. It's good to have the

memories of this significant festival gathered together in three formats.

Enjoy this special set, which commemorates a special event, not only in the history of Hawkwind, but of the saga of Stonehenge festivals.