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Valentina Goncharova's fundamental conceptual musical work released in full uncut form as part of Hidden Harmony Lost Tapes series (HHLTS01). Restored and mastered from the original 6.3 mm analog tapes. A large-scale work comprising eleven parts of varied, brooding, mystical reflection in which the author alters the instrumentation to fit both programmatic and musical character of each section.
Includes a 12-page booklet, which detailly explains the album's conceptual basis, background and creation context, and provides insights into unique sound recording and technical solutions adapted during the album recording in 1988. Created and written with direct involvement of V. Goncharova and I. Zubkov.

From the Liner notes:

"My task is to allow the listener to penetrate deeper into the music. The music is wholly improvisational. It has no concept in the rational sense of the word. It’s concept is purely intuitive. It presumes The Law of Analogies: “As above so below. Man is the same as the Universe. The Universe is the same as Man.” ("Emerald Tablet” by Hermes Trismegistus"). This intuition is a kind of rephrased logic which uses many more symbols which contain not only philosophical but also imaginative meanings/ visionary interpretations.

This music is a stream of consciousness in its purest form: not an imitation of a stream, as in the ‘suggestive poetry’ of the 20th century, but a stream where one flow is superimposed on another (a multilateral passage of recording). And, if we think this flow of music will be better understood under the influence of a verbal flow, then the verbal flow should also be more intuitive and associative, as objective for this short write-up you are currently reading.

Ocean did not appear within the coordinate system of logical scientific thinking of the last four centuries. It can be said that it is based on an intuitive concept of representations of the world which are captured in music figuratively. Similar to how myths were created in time immemorial with only partial support from verbal associations. Ocean is an experience of passing the Human Soul and Mind through the different states of the material world: birth, development, and achievement of perfection, transformation at the points of The Way and Silence, the manifestation of the harmony of the world (Om), which until then had remained in a latent state. It is averse to both mainstream contemporary physics and fringe scientific research. It exists outside their explanatory power.

Ocean is the source of all forms that can receive their life within time and space. Here it is. It has everything: beautiful and terrible, good and evil, self-sacrifice and betrayal. Boundless love and inspired creativity. But contact does not happen immediately. The memory of a bygone civilization is still fresh, and of the dearest things left with it."

Written, performed and produced by Valentina Goncharova
Composition A1 to C4 recorded in Kose subdistrict, Tallinn, Estonia (Recording period August-October 1988)
Composition D1 recorded in artist´s home studio in Lasnamäe subdistrict, Tallinn, Estonia (Recording period May 2021)

Numero cuatro in the series arrives with Touching Distance- A summertime tour de force effortlessly refined to lure you outside while cleansing you inside. One note guitar licks cozy irresistible gated voxscapes .

Think Lotus Espirit Turbo Challenge on the balearen tinged Mulberry Road- Palm Trees , Fire Sunsets and Open Road. Driving, dreamy and subtle come to mind but take a listen for yourself.

Just like Ancient Philosophy, there’s no expansion without contractions, day and night, Yin and Yang. The B Side’s

Heartbeat Drive low slung pensive breakbeat Rhythm takes the urgency down like a long lost Dub of a mid 80s Ballad. Just Passing Through touches different styles in a culmination of this slightly romantic Art of Noise esque Pop beauty.

THE CULT 1990 DEBUT ALBUM OF INFLUENTIAL UK GRINDCORE FROM
PROPHECY OF DOOM - PRESENTED ON THE VINYL FORMAT WITH
COVER ARTWORK FROM THE ORIGINAL 1990 PRESSING.UK grind/death
veterans Prophecy Of Doom formed in Gloucestershire, 1988, with
bassist Martin Holt & vocalist Shrew Schroder uniting to embark upon a
journey to create something challenging & memorable to stand out in the
UK scene
After a few personnel changes whilst looking to establish a permanent recording
line-up after their 1988 demo & the 1989 EP, 'Calculated Mind Rape' (which had
brought the band to the attention of legendary DJ John Peel), the time had come
to create their debut full- length album. And so 'Acknowledge the Confusion
Master' came to be & was released in 1990 on the burgeoning Peaceville Records
& their then newly established sub- label, Deaf Records. A highly effective
concoction of blasting amid a titanic wall of raw grinding riffs & chaos propelled
Prophecy Of Doom to the forefront of the scene, also leading to two recording
sessions with John Peel & further enforcing Prophecy Of Doom's position on the
map of notable British grind acts.
As a further distinguishing factor, there was a great depth & consideration to the
themes of the album, perhaps in stark contrast to how the tracks were presented
sonically. Written by mainman/vocalist "Shrew", there with a strong philosophical
element to the lyrics, an exploration of awareness & intuition amid an era of
increasingly suppressed feelings & an urge to rise above mental restrictions.
This vinyl edition of 'Acknowledge the Confusion Master' contains cover artwork
from the 1990 release with printed inner sleeve containing lyrics & receives its
first vinyl pressing on Peaceville since that initial 1990 edition.

IATT is pleased to once again team up with Black Lion Records for the follow up to 2019's Nomenclature; our new full length album entitled Magnum Opus. We've meticulously crafted this album to leap from where Nomenclature left us thematically.
The listener is catapulted from the 1700s (Arsenic Ways) further back in time to a much darker, older world and the esoteric sciences of Alchemy. It was in this time man aimed to harness the world around him, bending the natural elements in a quest to obtain power, knowledge, control, and even immortality itself.
Alchemy was the key to unlocking the secrets of existence and elevating one's self to the pinnacle of enlightenment through transmutation and manipulation of the earthly elements. It was only through the process of Magnum Opus (the great work) that alchemists could harness the elementals in their purest form to create the Philosopher's Stone - the key to power, enlightenment, and immortality.
Just as in alchemy itself, creating this album has been a journey of transformation for us; a period of great growth as individuals and as a unit. It's through adversity, struggles, and the forging of the elements - of literal blood, sweat, and tears - we strive to transcend and elevate to our highest selves, "the great work", Magnum Opus.

Sound Like: (Immolation, Spawn of Possession, Death, Emperor, Obscura)

Der musikalische Werdegang der japanischen Gesangskünstlerin Hatis Noit begann einst unter ganz besonderen Vorzeichen. Nun mündet diese Reise in die Veröffentlichung ihres ersten Longplayers. Das acht Stücke umfassende Debüt ist die perfekte Eintrittskarte in ihre unvergleichliche Klangwelt. Genau genommen begann die Reise mit einem Initiationserlebnis , einem musikalischen Erweckungsmoment im zarten Alter von 16 Jahren, als die Japanerin gerade pilgernd zu Buddhas Geburtsstätte in Neapel unterwegs war. Sie hatte die Nacht in einem Frauentempel verbracht und vernahm am nächsten Morgen den Sologesang einer buddhistischen Nonne: Das Jenseitige in diesen Gesängen berührte sie so sehr, dass ihr schlagartig die unvergleichbare Kraft der menschlichen Stimme bewusst wurde. Was sie da hörte, war ein wirklich ursprüngliches, auf uralten Instinkten basierendes Instrument, das uns unweigerlich mit dem Kern des Menschseins, unserer Umwelt und unserem Universum verbindet. Ab diesem Moment wusste sie, dass das Singen ihre Berufung ist. Der Albumtitel Aura ist vom Werk des Philosophen Walter Benjamin inspiriert, der darin die Essenz der Kunst erkannte, da für ihn die Aura eines Werks unter anderem durch Echtheit und Einmaligkeit geprägt war. Hatis teilt diese Auffassung, denn sie musste feststellen, dass sie "während der Pandemie wirklich sehr zu kämpfen" hatte. "Als Sängerin bin ich einfach nicht besonders gut darin, am Computer zu arbeiten. Ich ziehe Live-Auftritte in wirklichen Räumen vor. Mit anderen Menschen zusammen zu sein, denselben Raum mit ihnen zu teilen und die einzigartige Energie und Atmosphäre des jeweiligen Moments zu spüren - das ist etwas, das mich immer wieder inspiriert. Für mich bedeutet Kunst tatsächlich genau das: dieser geteilte Augenblick."

Der musikalische Werdegang der japanischen Gesangskünstlerin Hatis Noit begann einst unter ganz besonderen Vorzeichen. Nun mündet diese Reise in die Veröffentlichung ihres ersten Longplayers. Das acht Stücke umfassende Debüt ist die perfekte Eintrittskarte in ihre unvergleichliche Klangwelt. Genau genommen begann die Reise mit einem Initiationserlebnis , einem musikalischen Erweckungsmoment im zarten Alter von 16 Jahren, als die Japanerin gerade pilgernd zu Buddhas Geburtsstätte in Neapel unterwegs war. Sie hatte die Nacht in einem Frauentempel verbracht und vernahm am nächsten Morgen den Sologesang einer buddhistischen Nonne: Das Jenseitige in diesen Gesängen berührte sie so sehr, dass ihr schlagartig die unvergleichbare Kraft der menschlichen Stimme bewusst wurde. Was sie da hörte, war ein wirklich ursprüngliches, auf uralten Instinkten basierendes Instrument, das uns unweigerlich mit dem Kern des Menschseins, unserer Umwelt und unserem Universum verbindet. Ab diesem Moment wusste sie, dass das Singen ihre Berufung ist. Der Albumtitel Aura ist vom Werk des Philosophen Walter Benjamin inspiriert, der darin die Essenz der Kunst erkannte, da für ihn die Aura eines Werks unter anderem durch Echtheit und Einmaligkeit geprägt war. Hatis teilt diese Auffassung, denn sie musste feststellen, dass sie "während der Pandemie wirklich sehr zu kämpfen" hatte. "Als Sängerin bin ich einfach nicht besonders gut darin, am Computer zu arbeiten. Ich ziehe Live-Auftritte in wirklichen Räumen vor. Mit anderen Menschen zusammen zu sein, denselben Raum mit ihnen zu teilen und die einzigartige Energie und Atmosphäre des jeweiligen Moments zu spüren - das ist etwas, das mich immer wieder inspiriert. Für mich bedeutet Kunst tatsächlich genau das: dieser geteilte Augenblick."

"Prime Sequences" is the latest album by dj and electronic music producer GummiHz, real name Alexander Tsotsos. Alex has an ear for what he describes as elastic frequencies, thus gummi-hertz! In other words, low bass lines, airy synth phrases and shuffle rhythms, playfully arranged within loose forms. A philosophy that comes across throughout this long player. Elements fall in and out of order, time swings back and forth, all together in perfect harmony! Pushing the boundaries of what has become his signature sound, a fusion of house and techno all the way from Berlin to Detroit! This package features underground music coming straight from the heart, or the Hertz more appropriately! The story unfolds within no less than nine tracks showcasing Alex's versatility in making waves!

The opening track titled "Berlinopolis" is a sonic portrait of the city of Berlin, where Alex lives since more than a decade. A smooth soundscape produced by combining abstract melodies with field recordings of the city's ambience. "'Second Wave" follows airy jazz chords and drum parts to launch the listener into trajectory. It feels like the sort of track that would probably make it into Herbie Hancock's deep house collection! The title track "Prime sequence" is a Detroit brewed piece with some Berlin minimalism rawness in the rhythm section! Combining a mixture of drama, suspense and shaking drums to dominate the dance floor. Next up comes "Submerge", a tight and hypnotic affair carrying the right amount of subtle release. It locks in right from the start and doesn't let go! "Prime Dub" dives deeper into the frequency spectrum. Rhythm and sound stimulate the brain waves as a heavy chord phrase cycles to infinity. "Proto Sequence" follows a simple still infectious groove laced with various modulations. This track has party written all over it! Inspired by proto-house motifs pioneered by artists like Chi-town's Ron Hardy. "Metafunk" reaches out to Berlin's club culture at its core. That is, the youth and street culture! The phrase on repeat signifies the urge to reclaim the streets, while endlessly flowing within finely tuned electronics. "Mindloop" is a track written for the after hours looping state of mind. Another minimal house cut with a fair dose of psychedelic sound design. Lastly, "Descension" relaxes the mood through deep pulsating rhythms and playful arpeggios. Pushing towards a meditative state by stimulating mind, body and soul!?

"Prime Sequences" covers a wide range of styles like ambient electronics, peak time house and techno, as well as seriously effed up after hour minimalism! Made for both djs and music lovers, this is the second long player by GummiHz to come out on vinyl after his debut album "Sleepless Nights" back in 2009! While it succeeds his latest EP, "Groove is in the Hertz". What makes it even more special is that it comes out on brainchild Claap, giving the artist total freedom of expression.

Bobby Oroza puts his desire for the profound on wax with his sophomore album Get On The Otherside. Musically, he has updated the formula we were introduced to on the first record. But lyrically, songs are bravely rooted in the more complicated, ubiquitous inner tangles of life like self-examination and coming to terms with the vastness of the human experience. With Coronavirus bringing the world to a halt, Bobby-a father and husband-had to do something. No tours to play or studio time to fill, Bobby found himself back in the construction yard, doing blue-collar work to provide for his family. "I was super grateful for the work-a lot of my colleagues didn't have an option like that," Bobby admits. More than a few personal hardships forced him to acknowledge and work through some brutal truths. And what came of it? Well, for one, this new record Get On The Otherside which pretty well describes what Bobby's been through: He had to demolish his ego, his old ways of thinking, and his tried approaches to anchor into a refreshed perspective with new understandings. As Bobby tells it, "I had to do some real self-searching, come to terms with what was wrong, and how much of it I was responsible for." So how does this translate to the new album? Moments of clarity as to where the real value in life lies on "I Got Love," encouraging numbers like the title track "The Otherside", and declarations of self actualization on "My Place, My Time." Even the more straightforward love songs are outside the box lyrically like "Sweet Agony" and "Loving Body." If you have never had the pleasure of catching one of Bobby's live shows you may have no idea that he is a maverick on the guitar. He lets us in on a little of that on "Passing Things" with a solo that possesses the same restrained and space that his lyrics do. As we'd expect, the songwriting still has that raw, direct edge to it. But an evolution has taken place. There are new points of view on familiar territory which in Bobby's words "For me to love, I needed to take a bigger view of love. One with less ego and more empathy" really hold true. The result is a record with Bobby's new found humility on full display and a message of encouragement to anyone who is struggling and can't see a way out. It still may be hard to nail down and define Bobby and his sound. He's no one thing more than the other. But what he's showing us now, on Get On The Otherside, is that we can also label him a soulful, philosophical optimist. Someone who can say a lot with a little, and who wants us all to know that it's us that has to do the hard lifting to truly live a life in love-both with the world and with yourself.

LIMITED TO 500 COPIES // HIGH-QUALITY TIP-ON COVER // INCL. DOWNLOAD CODE

OFFICIAL RE-ISSUE, DONE IN COOPERATION WITH THE FAMILY OF BOBBY COLE !!!

If you lived in New York during the 1950s through the 1990s and liked jazz, you knew about Bobby Cole. He played piano, sang, composed, arranged and, in 1967, released an album of original compositions titled "A Point of View" (Concentric Records). He had fans but avoided becoming mainstream. He stayed contemporary without becoming current. Jazz, folk, rock, modern dance scores…he wrote and performed them all. He smoked too much, drugged too much, drank too much. He was also cerebral, curious, a prodigious reader of poetry, philosophy, theology, and an uncommonly intelligent and literate lyricist.

On a December night in 1996, he had a heart attack while walking to work. An ambulance brought him to New York Hospital where, a few hours later, he died. Bobby Cole performed throughout Manhattan for forty years, but he spent most of the 1960s headlining at Jilly's, the midtown bistro owned by Frank Sinatra and his friend Jilly Rizzo. Sinatra called Bobby "my favorite saloon singer."

Bobby Cole caught the attention of Judy Garland, who visited Jilly's one night in 1964. She was hosting a weekly television show, and in the midst of a feud with her special materials arranger, Mel Torme. Three weeks later, Mel was out, and Bobby was in. He performed on Judy's show with his Trio. Bobby was scarcely 30 years old and it was his first time on television, but he was unruffled, sophisticated, and so damn cool. After Judy's show ended, Bobby occasionally arranged and conducted for her until she died.

Today, Jilly's is called the Russian Samovar and the piano is in the same spot. My husband and I ate there a few years ago. As we enjoyed our meal, I talked about Jilly's in the Sinatra era. Jilly had an apartment on the upper floor. I pointed up to the apartment and the balcony, where Jilly and Frank would sometimes drop water-balloons on unsuspecting pedestrians below. Another story described Jilly's as "tough, and you had to be tough to work there. Bobby Cole was tough. Frank and Jilly used to throw firecrackers at him to see if they could rattle him, but nothing rattled Bobby Cole. He ignored them and kept on playing." In the 1980s, Bobby headlined at a club called the Café Versailles. His daughter sometimes visited with her friends. She recalled that when she and her father would exit the club after work, a panhandler would be waiting for him. Bobby, who fought his own losing battle with the bottle, would slip the guy twenty dollars and wryly admonish him, "Be sure not to spend it on food." The night my husband and I visited the Russian Samovar there was a guy playing piano there, very young, and trying hard. I talked to him a little bit between his numbers about Bobby and the history of Jilly's and he was sweet, but I could tell he didn't care. I felt like one of those old people who bore young people to death with stories about things that happened before they were born – which, let's face it, is what I was. Nonetheless, when we were ready to leave, I put twenty dollars in his tip jar and said, "This is with compliments from Bobby Cole." After we left my husband said I should have added, "Be sure not to spend it on food."

Marie Hegeman (December 2021)

Am 3. Juni erscheint das 3LP Album ”The Matrix (The Complete Score)” mit der gesamten Musik aus dem Original-Blockbuster-Film.

Mit insgesamt 44 neu gemasterte Tracks und ein exklusives Interview mit Komponist Don Davis! Die Matrix gilt seit langem als einer der einflussreichsten Filme aller Zeiten und läutete bei seiner Veröffentlichung 1999 eine neue Ära des Kinos ein. Unter der Regie der damals noch relativ unbekannten Wachowski-Geschwister schildert der Oscar-prämierte Film eine futuristische, dystopische Gesellschaft, in der die Menschen unwissentlich in einer simulierten Realität leben. Mit Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne und Carrie-Anne Moss in den Hauptrollen verbindet The Matrix philosophische Grundsätze, CyberpunkKriegsführung und ausgefeilte Kampfsporttechniken mit bahnbrechenden Spezialeffekten. Der geschickt komponierte Soundtrack von Davis ist das Bindeglied zwischen der atemberaubenden Optik und der verblüffenden Handlung des Films.

Wie der Filmmusikjournalist Kaya Savas in seinem Interview mit Davis im Jahr 2020 feststellt, war die Filmmusik ”anders als alles, was man bis dahin in einem Action- oder Science-Fiction-Film gehört hatte.
Das gilt auch heute noch. Abgesehen von den Fortsetzungen gibt es keinen anderen Stil und keine andere Herangehensweise an die Vertonung von Science-Fiction- und Actionfilmen als die von The Matrix.”

Gondwana Records sign LA bassist and composer Seth Ford-Young's Phi-Psonics project and announce a remastered deluxe-edition of The Cradle featuring bonus material

Phi-Psonics is a meditative, immersive instrumental group from Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulfulmusic draws on jazz and classical influences together with Ford-Young's own musical experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, to create something uniquely its own. Phi-Psonics' name and ultimate aim is to find 'Phi' – the golden mean – in art, nature and self. Ford-Young explains:

"It's a bit of a cliché, but music saved my life many times and instilled in me a belief in the great power of healing through art. It is my hope and intention that this music provides healing to someone somewhere."

Originally from Washington DC area, Ford-Young moved to California in the early 90s and fell in love with the deep sounds of the upright bass and the music of Charles Mingus, John and Alice Coltrane, and Duke Ellington along with Bach, Chopin, Pärt, and Satie. He immersed himself deeply in music and keen to learn combinedintense personal study with collaborations, tours, and recordings with artists such as Tom Waits, Beats Antique, and John Vanderslice. In 2010 he moved from the San-Francisco Bay area to the Los Angeles hills and continued his explorations. But great music is rarely just about music and Ford-Young's meditative, soulful music draws on more than just the twin wellsprings of jazz and classical music:

"My mother was a yoga teacher from the early 70's until recently and taught me yoga and meditation at an early age, my stepfather is an Aikido instructor and student of the teachings of Gurdjieff. Those were all early areas of study that I came back to many times throughout my life. Phi-Psonics has been a project that unapologetically synthesizes some of these ideas into our music".

It's this mixture of influences, musical and extramusical, that gives the music of Phi-Psonics it's immersive quality and quiet power. Revealingly the music that would becomeThe Cradle, wasn't written specifically for an album, originally Ford-Young was just writing down what was coming through. As time went by and the album began to take shape, the world situation seemed to be getting darker and his compositions aim to offer hope as a response to the negative influences that abound today. Remarkably for such a beautiful sounding record, it was recorded at the composer's home, rather than in a studio, but the relaxed nature of this process gives the music an airy lightness that propels the music to some magical spaces.

Originally self-released on vinyl in a limited run just as the world went into lockdown, The Cradle reached Matthew Halsall (founder of Gondwana Records) when he aws looking for music for his Worldwide FM show and he was blown away, hearing a kindred spirit at work. Halsall explains:

"Phi-Psonics make beautiful, humble and honest music, it's not showy, but it has a deep vibe that will elevate your mind and soul if you let it. When we heard The Cradle we reached out and are really super delighted to welcome Seth and his band to our label". Whereas for Ford Young: "Connecting with Matthew and the Gondwana records family has been a light in the darkness of the last years - to have my music make connections even as we are more isolated."

Ford-Young is currently putting the finishing touches to the second Phi-Psonics record, but aware that only a select few had heard The Cradle, let alone had the chance to buy a copy, and entranced by its deceptive simplicity and elevating energy, Halsall suggested that Gondwana present the album as a remastered 'deluxe edition' with an extended running time featuring extra tracks and new artwork from Daniel Halsall.

The Cradle starts with First Step, perfectly setting the tone for the whole album, it is a beautiful, soulful slice of musical calm gently propelled by Ford-Young's resonant bass and elevated by sublime flute and Wurlitzer electric piano solos. The seductive title track The Cradle was written way back in 2011 during a time of great personal change that led the composer to a feeling of newness and nurture. The magical, winsome Desert Ride is inspired by many rides through the grandly cinematic Mojave Desert. You can experience how incredibly full of life it's harsh landscape is if you slow down to its tempo. The gentle, sublime Mama is a tribute to mothers of all kinds, beautiful and heroic. Drum Talk was largely improvised, Ford-Young and the band agreed on a topic and recorded their conversation. Choosing their notes based on how Josh's drums were tuned. Like Glass is named for the special properties of Glass. Like some music, glass is delicate, yet has structure. The first of the two bonus tracks Still Dancing was written during the early days of 2020 in response to the challenges we all were facing then. It's a reminder that the figurative dance continues and that real dancing is essential. And the second, The Searcher, also written as a response to 2020, is a gently hypnotic song about the introspection and growth that can spring from a difficult situation.

This then is The Cradle, a quiet self-contained masterpiece, life-affirming and elevating in equal measure and the first offering from a wonderful new voice in spiritual jazz and the latest members of the global Gondwana Records family.

Los Angeles-based experimental producer Al Lover will release his new studio album ‘Cosmic Joke’ on May 27th via Fuzz Club Records.
A staple of the global psychedelic scene, Lover has spent nearly a decade fine-tuning a broken, abstracted form of electronica that pools together a tapestry of trip-hop, synthesised krautrock, dub and dark ambient. Utilising an arsenal of samples, drum machine, analogue synths and live instrumentation, Lover’s is a kaleidoscopic sound that’s J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Lee Scratch Perry by way of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and Kluster. Central to Lover’s music is a desire to explore the fringes of psychedelic music and the common threads that run through its far-reaching styles, drawing elements from the past and connecting them to the future. Through the years he has released a number of studio albums and beat tapes, remixed the likes of Osees and Night Beats, been resident DJ for the Levitation and Desert Daze festivals and collaborated with the likes of Goat, Anton Newcombe, Cairo Liberation Front and White Fence. Now, Lover returns with his latest studio album, ‘Cosmic Joke’ – a series of synthesised philosophical meditations on modern life, in all its tragicomic absurdity. "'Cosmic Joke' came from observing the rising, compounded absurdity in recent years and seeing structures of normalcy dissolving. It’s my attempt to view these things as part of a higher-order process, through a metaphysical lens rather than an ideological one. It’s been an exercise in holding the paradoxical relationship of comedy and tragedy, joy and pain, growth and decay, scale and decline as part of an interlocked system that, at a deep level, is essential to how we interface with the world.”

Deluxe Edition is on 180g transparent green vinyl, gatefold sleeve, printed inner-sleeve.

Los Angeles-based experimental producer Al Lover will release his new studio album ‘Cosmic Joke’ on May 27th via Fuzz Club Records.
A staple of the global psychedelic scene, Lover has spent nearly a decade fine-tuning a broken, abstracted form of electronica that pools together a tapestry of trip-hop, synthesised krautrock, dub and dark ambient. Utilising an arsenal of samples, drum machine, analogue synths and live instrumentation, Lover’s is a kaleidoscopic sound that’s J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Lee Scratch Perry by way of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and Kluster. Central to Lover’s music is a desire to explore the fringes of psychedelic music and the common threads that run through its far-reaching styles, drawing elements from the past and connecting them to the future. Through the years he has released a number of studio albums and beat tapes, remixed the likes of Osees and Night Beats, been resident DJ for the Levitation and Desert Daze festivals and collaborated with the likes of Goat, Anton Newcombe, Cairo Liberation Front and White Fence. Now, Lover returns with his latest studio album, ‘Cosmic Joke’ – a series of synthesised philosophical meditations on modern life, in all its tragicomic absurdity. "'Cosmic Joke' came from observing the rising, compounded absurdity in recent years and seeing structures of normalcy dissolving. It’s my attempt to view these things as part of a higher-order process, through a metaphysical lens rather than an ideological one. It’s been an exercise in holding the paradoxical relationship of comedy and tragedy, joy and pain, growth and decay, scale and decline as part of an interlocked system that, at a deep level, is essential to how we interface with the world.”

Trees Speak are back!
Speak’s new album, “Vertigo of Flaws: Emancipation of the Dissonance and Temperaments in
Irrational Waveforms” comes as a double-vinyl edition, single CD and digital release. The limitededition first pressing only of the vinyl includes a bonus 45 enclosed in an 8-page 7”x7” booklet
insert housed within the gatefold sleeve with cover artwork created by Soviet Union propaganda
artist Lazar Markovich Lissitzky in 1911.
Trees Speak are back!
This new release is a vast leap into an ocean of space and sound, a quantum leap into cybernetics, biology, anti-gravity,
time travel, dream speech and transfiguration. A seriously next step release!
Showing no signs of slowing down their rapid creative pace – incredibly this is their fourth album in the space of just over
one year – ‘Vertigo of Flaws’ is a mighty 29 tracks, one and a half hours of music across one double album that is surely
going to be a defining point in their musical career, a giant leap into the sonic unknown, an epic exploration of intensity
and sound.
Alongside their now trademark German krautrock motoric-beat rhythms, angular New York post-punk attitude, tripped-out
60s spy soundtrack, psyche-rock, and 70s synthesizers and vocoders, here you will also hear a new cosmic spacial
awareness (both personal inner space and galactic outer space) and a truly wilful pushing of sonic boundaries - as police
sirens, static noise, alarms, radio signals, avant-garde voices, and orchestral string quartets, all collide to add beautiful
dissonance to uber-powerful, intense, addictive and propulsive rhythms - in the process creating a truly unique
soundscape that Trees Speak have made wholly their own.
If you ever wanted to hear Can, Hawkwind, Destroy All Monsters, Pere Ubu, electric eels, John Cage, Liquid Liquid,
Tangerine Dream, Suicide, Neu!, Laurie Spiegel, Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Barry, Mother Mallard’s Portable
Masterpiece Company, Sun Ra, Stockhausen, John Carpenter, Electro-Acoustic and Musique Concrete and Mars in one
band - then this is it!
Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic nighttime magic of Arizona’s natural desert landscapes. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing
information and data in trees and plants - using them as hard drives - and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.
Special guests from the hyper-creative hub of the Tucson music scene on this release are Gabriel Sullivan, Ben Nisbet, Saul
Millan, Stephani Guilmette, and Davis Jones.
The album Vertigo of Flaws was recorded in Brooklyn, New York, and Tucson, Arizona during the plague of 2021.
Extract from Vertigo of Flaws sleevenotes:
‘As we travel through space and time, avoiding the discarded remains of the industrial period, the
deconstruction of social norms through the expression of art, music, and philosophy guide the human
experience towards the unknown.
All that remains are musical echoes scattered throughout the universe, like ancient vibrations that now
populate the cosmos. These waves now show signs of decay. Melody, beauty, tonality have all but fallen
away as dissonance blossoms. As John Cage wrote in 1937,
“Whereas, in the past, the point of disagreement has been between dissonance and consonance, it will be,
in the immediate future, between noise and so-called musical sounds. New methods will be discovered,
bearing a definite relation to Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system and present methods of writing percussion
music and any other methods which are
free from the concept of a fundamental tone”.
Similarly, George Van Tassel claimed the Integratron as capable of
rejuvenation, anti-gravity, and time travel. So, what remains of the
“people”? We have adopted from them our own Zeitgeber: their pulses
now guide our sun, our planets, our earths, and are the new circadian,
diurnal, and ultradian rhythms of the galaxy. Traumsprache, dream
speech, is now the internal language of trees.
Decaying metal and machines liberated the note unto nature’s table,
and we sip the delicious nectar of music once more irrational, elaborate,
violent, vast. The past is the future, musical disintegration its own rebirth.
We are nature, once more the computer of the Universe.’

Coral City return early in 2022 with an excellent release. N&W are on duty again, here with three stand-out tracks.

Rave on the A-Side does exactly what it says on the tin. It's 808 State meets Larry Heard with a touch of Inner City. Stripped down and four to floor. Classic Roland 909 drums are met with a hook that shakes any dancefloor. Expect early support on this.

Speed is a killer Nu-Disco / Boogie affair with a nod to the seedy underworld of the '80s. Picture Michelle Pfeiffer throwing shapes on the dancefloor in Scarface.

Finally, Cherry is an all-out Italo / Hi-NRG workout, the linndrums, the driving arpeggio bassline and overall melancholy feel, is reminiscent of Bobby Orlando.

DJ Feedback

Gerd Janson:
"Tip top super record!"

Jim Stanton / Horse Meat Disco:
"Great things again all three are sterling stuff x"

Justin Robertson:
"Very nice stuff cheers."

Luigi Di Venere (CockTail D'Amore/Philoxenia):
"Good times!"

Marco Passarani:
"Will def play cherry and rave. Loving it."

Vincent Neumann (Distillery / Leipzig):
"Another cute package from N&W! Thx"

AOW is a new collaborative project from Dan Ghenacia and Tolga Fidan emerging from a new period of creativity and inspiration for the Lisbon-based artists.

Long time friends and fellow lynchpins of the European house and techno scene, Ghenacia and Fidan started working closely together through 2020 and 2021 while sharing studio space at Boa Lab. They found themselves at the heart of an artistic community of musicians, designers and engineers, which took shape around Ghenacia’s experiments with alpha wave generation, inspired by Bryon Gysin’s Dream Machine.

Ghenacia and engineer Anine Kirsten developed a modern update on Gysin’s 1950s design, which has been installed at exhibitions in London, Lisbon and Paris. At its heart, the project explores the natural hallucinatory effects of alpha wave projections on the eyelids, and the therapeutic benefits of the experience. Out of this spirit of psychedelically-charged experimentation, Ghenacia and Fidan have been working beyond the confines of their typical club-oriented material, creating ambient soundtracks to artist exhibitions in Boa and auditory backdrops to Alpha Wave Experience installations.

AOW bridges the gap between this new period of creativity and Ghenacia and Fidan’s life-long passion for electronic dance music. Compared to the strictures of house and techno they’re best known for, the three tracks on Hear the Light explore a more open, inquisitive sound with roots in UK electronica and West Coast psychedelic breaks (a seminal scene when Ghenacia was in the Bay Area in the 90s). Crucially though, it’s not a pointedly retro sound, but rather a result of rich streams of inspiration meeting and passing through crisp, modernist production techniques to offer something
genuinely fresh on the ears.

Working outside of their comfort zones and guided by creative philosophies springing from research, shared experience and community, Hear the Light marks a new step forward for Ghenacia and Fidan, with many more developments promised for the future.

Pachakuti is a musician and producer with family roots in Colombia. He plays keys, tenor saxophone and clarinet. While living and working in Berlin, he draws inspiration from the natural world, investigative travels, and ancestral traditions of Latin America and beyond. His expressive and rhythmical playing and his instantaneous compositions are directed at the human core, arousing subtle experiences. While not being conformed to one style, it always invokes a sense of liveliness and depth to be delved in. young.vishnu is a producer and DJ. He has studied philosophy and music in Hildesheim, Germany, which heavily influenced his views on meaning and mythology in music. In his DJ sets he selects and plays classic and contemporary Funk, Soul and Afrobeat. His practice as a DJ informs his work behind the boards directly, adding also more organic grooves and broader spectrum of musical styles to his in Hip-Hop based production. If you had to put one single tag on their forthcoming album Dédalo, the best choice would be Jazz. That being said, Pachakuti and young.vishnu's sound worlds might be better described in their own words: "We just make music and try to incorporate what we love about it". They are musical freethinkers with shared interests in eastern philosophy and botany who interweave Hip-Hop, Latin and Funk with musical storytelling and world mythology. Undoubtedly, their most ambitious work to date, Dédalo (Spanish synonym for labyrinth), recorded and produced over the course of a year, shows Pachakuti & young.vishnu's ambitions and growth. Where their debut work Semilla (2020) centered around the image of the seed, Dédalo takes on the entire garden. Besides playing multiple instruments by themselves, Pachakuti & young.vishnu invited a growing group of befriended musicians into the studio, including percussionist maestro Eric Owusu (Pat Thomas, Ebo Taylor, Jembaa Groove) and drummer Leon Raum (Bokoya, Wyl), as well as Brazilian newcomer vocalist Laíz, and members of their former band project Soularkestra. The 16 recorded songs, ranging from 1:19 to 14:58 minutes, take you on an emotionally honest, metaphoric journey through the maze of human existence, of modern society and mythic poetry. The mostly instrumental tracks build on expressive melodies, layered rhythms, and a wide range of musical instruments, merging the sounds of Jazz with the classical word of orchestras and choirs, and urban soundscapes with traditional instruments such as the Andean Kena and Charango, the Colombian Gaita and Marimba de Chonta, and an Indian harmonium. The Album thus weaves together past and future, and diverse cultural threads, sounds and ideas in an act of cultural appreciation and global conscience. Mixed and mastered by Roe Beardie at The Brewery Studios, Berlin. The album artwork itself merges the visionary art of Mexican painter Sergio Chávez Hollar with an original artwork-inlay of Brazilian artist Laíz and the work of Carsten Pölking of the Nima Compositions Archive.

Dédalo will be available digitally and on double-vinyl with inside-out print cover and colored inlay with credits and painting by Laís De Mello Barbero.

In a generation of musicians that came of age in postwar Japan, Kazuki Tomokawa stands as a pioneer of radical individualism, with a sound marked by shocking intimacy and blistering honesty. In his third album, A String of Paper Cranes Clenched between My Teeth, released by Harvest Records in 1977, Tomokawa creeps "ever more inward," as Kiichi Takahara writes in the record's original introductory text-embracing an attitude pervasive amongst musicians of the time who interrogated the prosaic and the profound alike, eschewing politics and society in favor of an "attitude of total self-containment." Tomokawa recorded the album over the course of a month-from August 24 to September 25, 1977-at Tokyo's famed Onkio Haus studio in the bustling Ginza district. The arrangements, accordingly, are amped up: paired with the Black Panther Orchestra, Tomokawa's "screaming philosopher" vocals find their match with the orchestra's electric guitar, bass, piano, tuba, and ground-thumping drums played by the Brain Police's Toshi Ishizuka-who appears on Tomokawa's first three records and remains his collaborator to this day. "This is Kazuki Tomokawa in the flesh," concludes Takahara. A String of Paper Cranes Clenched between My Teeth is, in Tomokawa's uncanny way, able to cut through facade and artifice in pursuit of truth. "You call that life?" he heckles, exhausted by the melodrama and nihilism of youth counterculture, "try saying you're alive!"

In the 1970s, Kazuki Tomokawa catapulted into Tokyo's avant-garde scene with his cathartic and utterly electrifying performances. Straight from the Throat, Tomokawa's second album, released in July 1976 by Harvest Records, finds the musician in his truest form: as the "screaming philosopher" he would come to be called-cynical but fair, cheeky and melancholic, and looking at the world with truth-seeking eyes. In Straight from the Throat, Tomokawa shrieks and shouts and wallows with ritualistic abandon-his avant-folk stylings are cosmic and, at times, well to ground-shaking rock. He speaks of adolescence, passing hearses, and wedding chapel cars in a poem to his younger brother, Tomoharu, and watches ice melt on the Mitane River with spring's turn. Tomokawa's sound is, as Kiichi Takahara would later dub it, "I-music": revelatory and deeply intimate songs that turn to the everyday and the interior. They are portraits of a man in search of meaning, who is taking stubborn control of his life by doing so. As he croons in "The Spring Is Here Again Song," "I'll drink till I've had my fill / And fall in love until I die."

Most known for his role as songwriter and lead singer of punk rock band
Pennywise, JIM LINDBERG has been making inspiring, thought-provoking
music since the 1990's
Musically, he is influenced by an array of genres from punk and folk music to old
school country and americana. Lyrically, Jim takes inspiration anywhere from
transcendental philosophers to real life events; seeking always to tell a story or
find the answers to life's big questions.
This acoustic solo project is the first from JIM LINDBERG. Produced and mixed
by Tedd Hutt (Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, Dropkick Murphys) it's full of heartfelt
songs, some rousing some sentimental, that are a departure for Jim but will
appeal to diehard Pennywise fans and fans of folky punk singers like Chuck
Regan and Frank Turner

Retro-Future beats for stubborn ravers.
Phase O'Matic is a London based promising producer.
Philoxenia is delighted to have him on board.

Clear Vinyl

Written and conceived by Stephan Crasneanscki, ‘LOVOTIC’ is a concept album by Soundwalk Collective, composed in collaboration with lauded actress and singer/songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg. Featuring veteran techno stalwart AtomTM, rising singer/composer/performance artist Lyra Pramuk, celebrated actor Willem Dafoe, and writer/philosopher Paul B. Preciado, the album is released by the new Berlin-based Analogue Foundation.

Inspired by a relatively new field of research that seeks to explore and develop the possibilities of sexual and emotional relationships – and even love – between humans and robots, ‘LOVOTIC’ interrogates the impulses, ideas, and needs underlying this phenomenon. The project ventures into a future where sex, intimacy and desire are reformulated through the connection of humans, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

In an age of such hybrid entanglement with the machine, human identity requires the construction of new forms of intimacy, gender, and sexuality. At present, however, such technologies are primarily used to produce programs of limited sexual iterations that do not question the preformatted categories of gender and sexual orientation. In contrast, on ‘LOVOTIC’, Soundwalk Collective ask whether the future of sex and sexuality could instead be an exponentially expanding kaleidoscope. Where does the impulse of preference come from? What sets of words from our vocabulary can be communicated to the AI mind to generate a new identity for desire? Could the machine be another technology that brings us closer together?

Sonically ‘LOVOTIC’ is unidentifiable, artificial, and genuinely futuristic, occupying an amorphous androgynous netherworld at the borderlands between biotic and android. Traditional musical signposts are virtually non-existent, instead offering a mercurial, formless sound which mirrors the flourishing of gender fluidity it suggests could be on the horizon.

The production tangibly evokes the odd, rubbery textures of faux flesh, the slick virtual glide or glitchy mishaps of software, and the sleek shine of hardware. Gleaming sound design creates shard-like surfaces redolent of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Glass’, the slippery stretched sonics Gabor Lazar, and the unsettling dark ambience of TOWERS and Hallmark ‘87.

At turns intimate and inviting, with whispering-in-your-ears ASMR vocals evoking blissful, heightened sexual states, within ‘LOVOTIC’ there’s optimism, but also unease; As well as the positive, it implies the negative ramifications of technology. At points a synthetic siren’s call appears to lure the listener to a darker place, with audio malfunctions suggesting dystopian science. Voices morph from gentle to distorted – a glitch in the system causing the mask to slip, like virtual lizards – ‘They Live’ or ‘V’ (?), for the metaverse age.

Here, Charlotte Gainsbourg invokes a being of unknown identity – an artificial eve, the oracle and the portal – speaking from an unspecified time in the future. The voices of AtomTM, Lyra Pramuk and Willem Dafoe weave in and out of Charlotte’s, often overlapping, merging into one another, expressing the entity of a being that’s ephemeral and in constant flux, oscillating between the natural and artificial. The record’s other bonafide singer, Lyra Pramuk’s delivery alternates between spoken word, operatics and partially- unintelligible language.

A multi-media project, ‘LOVOTIC’ also features the work of writer, philosopher and curator Paul B. Preciado – a leading thinker in the study of gender and body politics. Paul contributes a post-apocalyptic, quasi scientific and fictional text, which adds further fantasy, artistic and intellectual depth, augmenting the listener’s experience. Like all the best Sci Fi, his words seem prescient, describing what could become a likely reality in the future. Paul performs his written texts on the opening and closing tracks of the album; ‘The Age Of Mutation’ (in Spanish) and ‘Primate Love’ (in English).

Soundwalk Collective is an experimental sound collective helmed by Stephan Crasneanscki in collaboration with Simone Merli, which operates in a continuously rotating constellation of sound artists and musicians. The Collective’s approach to composition combines anthropology, ethnography, non-linear narrative, psycho- geography, the observation of nature, and explorations in recording and synthesis.

Micheal “Eyedea” Larsen and Gregory “DJ Abilities” Keltgen first met in the mid-90s and soon began a working relationship that would play a prominent role in the burgeoning Indie-Rap movement of the time. After numerous successes across nearly every notable MC or DJ battle of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, including HBO’s Blaze Battle, the Rocksteady Anniversary, Scribble Jam, the DMC’s and more, they had already cemented their legacies both as individuals in the battle scene and as the dynamic duo, Eyedea & Abilities, for their live performances and showmanship. However, determined not to be dismissed as one-dimensional, they set out to prove they were to be taken just as seriously at writing and recording. Together, they developed a near symbiotic creative union that produced three albums—First Born; E&A; and By The Throat—before Eyedea tragically passed away in 2010, at the age of 28.

The release of their debut album, First Born, had revealed their talents to be much more versatile and expansive than previously expected. The boastful arrogance and punchlines that had become synonymous with battling were notably scarce on the album. Eyedea chose to tackle subjects that were more conceptual and philosophical in nature, focusing on matters of reality and altered states of perception while pushing his urgent, dense delivery into darker, more abstract terrain. Meanwhile, DJ Abilities was able to craft worlds of depth and emotion, pairing hauntingly suspenseful beats with meticulous turntablism. The resulting album was rich in ambition, ideas and humanity. First Born came at the forefront of an exciting new era of underground hip-hop, delivering messages that emphasized questions over answers, ambiguity over certainty, and self-expression over exploitation, to an audience that was eager to expand their horizons beyond the commercial programming and clichés of the time.

Nach den Erfolgen der 3LP- (schwarzes Vinyl) und 4LP-Ausgaben (farbiges Vinyl) - jeweils mit 33 Tracks - erscheint nun mit der LP 'The Greatest Harry Potter Film Music Collection' die Essenz der Filmserien-Soundtracks mit den 11 besten Tracks von John Williams (der zwei Oscar-Nominierungen für die Reihe erhielt), Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper und Alexandre Desplat, eingespielt von den weltberühmten Prager Philharmonikern. Schwarzes Vinyl.

Diskotopia is ecstatic to launch our 11th year with a bombastic new LP from label co-founder BD1982. Initiation Insight follows 2021's seminal Distance Vision LP - which garnered inclusion in Bandcamp's Best Electronic Music, JunoDaily's Best New Albums, and coverage in The Wire, RA, and Louder Than War - surveying the previously-plotted sonic ley lines and expanding upon them in drastically robust and kaleidoscopic directions.

Musically, the tracks across Initiation Insight have been composed with an ear towards ritualistic structures, with the album's themes touching upon spirituality, hermetic philosophy, dreams, and human evolution in the face of impending natural destruction.

On this release, BD1982 favors stylistically nomadic production and a drive for emotion over genre constraints to explore further depths of songwriting and structures not yet heard in his previous material. Tribal-informed industrial and molten-electro styles coalesce with both future-facing and ancient-rooted textures – spread across an underlying current of soundsystem-savvy sonics.

Initiation Insight proves to be another major step in the evolution of BD1982's sound, a caustic yet covalent natural mutation that will appeal to fans of Killing Joke, My Bloody Valentine, PJ Harvey, Cabaret Voltaire, Samhain, and Tricky alike.

Mastered by Dominic Clare at Declared Sound.

Available as a limited-edition cassette.

Gondwana Records sign LA bassist and composer Seth Ford-Young's Phi-Psonics project and announce a remastered deluxe-edition of The Cradle featuring bonus material

Phi-Psonics is a meditative, immersive instrumental group from Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulfulmusic draws on jazz and classical influences together with Ford-Young's own musical experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, to create something uniquely its own. Phi-Psonics' name and ultimate aim is to find 'Phi' – the golden mean – in art, nature and self. Ford-Young explains:

"It's a bit of a cliché, but music saved my life many times and instilled in me a belief in the great power of healing through art. It is my hope and intention that this music provides healing to someone somewhere."

Originally from Washington DC area, Ford-Young moved to California in the early 90s and fell in love with the deep sounds of the upright bass and the music of Charles Mingus, John and Alice Coltrane, and Duke Ellington along with Bach, Chopin, Pärt, and Satie. He immersed himself deeply in music and keen to learn combinedintense personal study with collaborations, tours, and recordings with artists such as Tom Waits, Beats Antique, and John Vanderslice. In 2010 he moved from the San-Francisco Bay area to the Los Angeles hills and continued his explorations. But great music is rarely just about music and Ford-Young's meditative, soulful music draws on more than just the twin wellsprings of jazz and classical music:

"My mother was a yoga teacher from the early 70's until recently and taught me yoga and meditation at an early age, my stepfather is an Aikido instructor and student of the teachings of Gurdjieff. Those were all early areas of study that I came back to many times throughout my life. Phi-Psonics has been a project that unapologetically synthesizes some of these ideas into our music".

It's this mixture of influences, musical and extramusical, that gives the music of Phi-Psonics it's immersive quality and quiet power. Revealingly the music that would becomeThe Cradle, wasn't written specifically for an album, originally Ford-Young was just writing down what was coming through. As time went by and the album began to take shape, the world situation seemed to be getting darker and his compositions aim to offer hope as a response to the negative influences that abound today. Remarkably for such a beautiful sounding record, it was recorded at the composer's home, rather than in a studio, but the relaxed nature of this process gives the music an airy lightness that propels the music to some magical spaces.

Originally self-released on vinyl in a limited run just as the world went into lockdown, The Cradle reached Matthew Halsall (founder of Gondwana Records) when he aws looking for music for his Worldwide FM show and he was blown away, hearing a kindred spirit at work. Halsall explains:

"Phi-Psonics make beautiful, humble and honest music, it's not showy, but it has a deep vibe that will elevate your mind and soul if you let it. When we heard The Cradle we reached out and are really super delighted to welcome Seth and his band to our label". Whereas for Ford Young: "Connecting with Matthew and the Gondwana records family has been a light in the darkness of the last years - to have my music make connections even as we are more isolated."

Ford-Young is currently putting the finishing touches to the second Phi-Psonics record, but aware that only a select few had heard The Cradle, let alone had the chance to buy a copy, and entranced by its deceptive simplicity and elevating energy, Halsall suggested that Gondwana present the album as a remastered 'deluxe edition' with an extended running time featuring extra tracks and new artwork from Daniel Halsall.

The Cradle starts with First Step, perfectly setting the tone for the whole album, it is a beautiful, soulful slice of musical calm gently propelled by Ford-Young's resonant bass and elevated by sublime flute and Wurlitzer electric piano solos. The seductive title track The Cradle was written way back in 2011 during a time of great personal change that led the composer to a feeling of newness and nurture. The magical, winsome Desert Ride is inspired by many rides through the grandly cinematic Mojave Desert. You can experience how incredibly full of life it's harsh landscape is if you slow down to its tempo. The gentle, sublime Mama is a tribute to mothers of all kinds, beautiful and heroic. Drum Talk was largely improvised, Ford-Young and the band agreed on a topic and recorded their conversation. Choosing their notes based on how Josh's drums were tuned. Like Glass is named for the special properties of Glass. Like some music, glass is delicate, yet has structure. The first of the two bonus tracks Still Dancing was written during the early days of 2020 in response to the challenges we all were facing then. It's a reminder that the figurative dance continues and that real dancing is essential. And the second, The Searcher, also written as a response to 2020, is a gently hypnotic song about the introspection and growth that can spring from a difficult situation.

This then is The Cradle, a quiet self-contained masterpiece, life-affirming and elevating in equal measure and the first offering from a wonderful new voice in spiritual jazz and the latest members of the global Gondwana Records family.

25 years of perpetual, subtle and occasionally lunatic compositional, recording- and production-wise workouts finally result in the first and withal last album „Asphalt“ from the realms of Rico Puestel's childhood pseudonymous getaway „Tetzlaff“.

„Asphalt“ tells genuine stories of mobility and industrialisation, freedom and boundaries, the reciprocity of humanity and technology within the tension of past, present and future. Beneath its overall nostalgic and somehow timeless electronic retro charme it has been inspired by different currents, questions and approaches from philosophy to diverging sciences that shaped this long-haul monument of creation.

Following numerous artistic and technical ordeals, the consistently analogue production went through an emotional roller coaster ride while growing up, defined by the diverging poles of magic momentums and withering setbacks and combined with a fear of never finishing what once has been initiated, wanting to become reality some day.

Years and years of striving and searching for the right gear and recording setups to make this miniature album sound the way it should, never left out the central aspect of one perceptible and pure storytelling. Each song, as intimate, neat and almost predictable it might appear, has been elaborately designed moment by moment, second by second, byte by byte, revised hundreds of times, scrapped and recreated, dismantled and reconstructed.

„Asphalt“ enters and exists stage as a conceptual and musical unicum of its own that claims its self-fulfilling destiny by an endless circularity of endings and new beginnings...

"Ten years after signing his first record deal with Big Machine Label Group’s The Valory Music Co., arena-packing superstar Thomas Rhett — dubbed “the most reliable maker of No. 1 singles in country music” (Variety) — has five studio albums, 18 MULTI-PLATINUM and GOLD-certified No. 1 hits, 12 BILLION streams and the longest current active streak of consecutive No. 1s in the format (Mediabase/Country Aircheck Chart). He has been honoured with eight ACM Awards including Entertainer of the Year, two CMA Awards, five GRAMMY® Awards nominations, plus trophies from the CMT Music Awards, Billboard Awards and iHeartRadio Awards, in addition to being recognized with two CMA Triple Play awards for penning three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period. Thomas Rhett is delivering his sixth studio album WHERE WE STARTED on April 1. Inspired by his return to the road, the set marks a similar return to his in-the-moment mix of tempo, transcendent romance and tip-of-the-spearsonic trailblazing, as Country’s resident good-life philosopher.
RADIO: BBC Radio 2, Absolute Radio Country, CountryLine Radio, Downtown Country, Smooth Country
PRESS: MTV UK, The Express feature, Why Now, 1883, Atwood, Darkus, Maverick, country specialist outlets, UK bio written by Lisa Verrico (The Times)
SOCIALS: TW: 2.4M, FB: 2.4M, IG: 4.4M, TikTok: 802.5K
Available as a 2 LP black vinyl."

Gondwana Records sign LA bassist and composer Seth Ford-Young's Phi-Psonics project and announce a remastered deluxe-edition of The Cradle featuring bonus material

Phi-Psonics is a meditative, immersive instrumental group from Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulfulmusic draws on jazz and classical influences together with Ford-Young's own musical experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, to create something uniquely its own. Phi-Psonics' name and ultimate aim is to find 'Phi' – the golden mean – in art, nature and self. Ford-Young explains:

"It's a bit of a cliché, but music saved my life many times and instilled in me a belief in the great power of healing through art. It is my hope and intention that this music provides healing to someone somewhere."

Originally from Washington DC area, Ford-Young moved to California in the early 90s and fell in love with the deep sounds of the upright bass and the music of Charles Mingus, John and Alice Coltrane, and Duke Ellington along with Bach, Chopin, Pärt, and Satie. He immersed himself deeply in music and keen to learn combinedintense personal study with collaborations, tours, and recordings with artists such as Tom Waits, Beats Antique, and John Vanderslice. In 2010 he moved from the San-Francisco Bay area to the Los Angeles hills and continued his explorations. But great music is rarely just about music and Ford-Young's meditative, soulful music draws on more than just the twin wellsprings of jazz and classical music:

"My mother was a yoga teacher from the early 70's until recently and taught me yoga and meditation at an early age, my stepfather is an Aikido instructor and student of the teachings of Gurdjieff. Those were all early areas of study that I came back to many times throughout my life. Phi-Psonics has been a project that unapologetically synthesizes some of these ideas into our music".

It's this mixture of influences, musical and extramusical, that gives the music of Phi-Psonics it's immersive quality and quiet power. Revealingly the music that would becomeThe Cradle, wasn't written specifically for an album, originally Ford-Young was just writing down what was coming through. As time went by and the album began to take shape, the world situation seemed to be getting darker and his compositions aim to offer hope as a response to the negative influences that abound today. Remarkably for such a beautiful sounding record, it was recorded at the composer's home, rather than in a studio, but the relaxed nature of this process gives the music an airy lightness that propels the music to some magical spaces.

Originally self-released on vinyl in a limited run just as the world went into lockdown, The Cradle reached Matthew Halsall (founder of Gondwana Records) when he aws looking for music for his Worldwide FM show and he was blown away, hearing a kindred spirit at work. Halsall explains:

"Phi-Psonics make beautiful, humble and honest music, it's not showy, but it has a deep vibe that will elevate your mind and soul if you let it. When we heard The Cradle we reached out and are really super delighted to welcome Seth and his band to our label". Whereas for Ford Young: "Connecting with Matthew and the Gondwana records family has been a light in the darkness of the last years - to have my music make connections even as we are more isolated."

Ford-Young is currently putting the finishing touches to the second Phi-Psonics record, but aware that only a select few had heard The Cradle, let alone had the chance to buy a copy, and entranced by its deceptive simplicity and elevating energy, Halsall suggested that Gondwana present the album as a remastered 'deluxe edition' with an extended running time featuring extra tracks and new artwork from Daniel Halsall.

The Cradle starts with First Step, perfectly setting the tone for the whole album, it is a beautiful, soulful slice of musical calm gently propelled by Ford-Young's resonant bass and elevated by sublime flute and Wurlitzer electric piano solos. The seductive title track The Cradle was written way back in 2011 during a time of great personal change that led the composer to a feeling of newness and nurture. The magical, winsome Desert Ride is inspired by many rides through the grandly cinematic Mojave Desert. You can experience how incredibly full of life it's harsh landscape is if you slow down to its tempo. The gentle, sublime Mama is a tribute to mothers of all kinds, beautiful and heroic. Drum Talk was largely improvised, Ford-Young and the band agreed on a topic and recorded their conversation. Choosing their notes based on how Josh's drums were tuned. Like Glass is named for the special properties of Glass. Like some music, glass is delicate, yet has structure. The first of the two bonus tracks Still Dancing was written during the early days of 2020 in response to the challenges we all were facing then. It's a reminder that the figurative dance continues and that real dancing is essential. And the second, The Searcher, also written as a response to 2020, is a gently hypnotic song about the introspection and growth that can spring from a difficult situation.

This then is The Cradle, a quiet self-contained masterpiece, life-affirming and elevating in equal measure and the first offering from a wonderful new voice in spiritual jazz and the latest members of the global Gondwana Records family.

Last copies of ultra limited version on half & half black/red vinyl. Only around a 100 available!

“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig” reasoned George Bernard Shaw. “You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.” True to form, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have left the wiser of us aware that they are no band to be messed with. This is made manifest on ‘Viscerals’, their third proper, and an enormous leap forward in confidence, adventure and sheer intensity even from their 2018 breakthrough ‘King Of Cowards’.

Incisive in its riff-driven attack, infectiously catchy in its songcraft and more intrepid than ever in its experimental approach, ‘Viscerals’ is the sound of a leaner, more vicious Pigs, and one with their controls set way beyond the pulverising one-riff workouts of their early days. Yet Pigsx7 have effortlessly broadened their horizons and dealt with all these new avenues without sacrificing one iota of their trademark eccentricity, and the personality of this band has never been stronger, whether on the Sabbathian and philosophical warcry of ‘Reducer’, the debauched, Jane’s Addiction-tinged swagger of ‘Rubbernecker’, the Melvins vs Sonic Youth demoltion derby of ‘New Body’ or even the demented MBV-meets-Twisted-Sister party-banger from hell that is ‘Crazy In Blood’.

“We’re a peculiar bunch of people - a precarious balance of passion, intensity and the absurd” notes vocalist Matt Baty. Such is the unstoppable character of this unique and ever-porcine outfit; still the hungriest animals at the rock trough.

Abrakadabra The success and acclaim of You Can’t Kill My Rock N’ Roll inspired the band significantly and writing for the next record enthusiastically started whilst out on tour. Connecting with so many fans, old and new has helped to influence the shape and sound of the new record, with Adde commenting that the new album “feels like the record we should have released after the Black album”. Abracadabra will be released worldwide on March 25 - 2022, containing 10 hard hitting songs exploding with riffs, attitude, intensity and that magical feeling you get when work is over and the weekend is here. This is an album for the fans and best shared with great friends, cold beers and very loud speakers!! Recorded in 2020 and early 2021 at both Österlyckan and Bombastik in Musikens Hus - Gothenburg, the decision was made early on to once again work with Johan Reiven, who was responsible for production duties on the bands ‘Black Album’. Adde states “Working with Johan was like stepping back in time, there’s a shared intensity and commitment to excel that collectively drives us and ultimately brings out the best in us all… I am 100% happy with the result”. This shared intensity can be heard on every one of the tracks from the defiantly rebellious “Dream in Red” through to the bar soaked philosophy of “One For All” and the thundering powerhouse that is “Catch Me If You Can”. Abracadabra is uncomplicated, Rock N’ Roll escapism and entertainment at its best… sprinkled with a little bit of magick for good measure --

Abrakadabra The success and acclaim of You Can’t Kill My Rock N’ Roll inspired the band significantly and writing for the next record enthusiastically started whilst out on tour. Connecting with so many fans, old and new has helped to influence the shape and sound of the new record, with Adde commenting that the new album “feels like the record we should have released after the Black album”. Abracadabra will be released worldwide on March 25 - 2022, containing 10 hard hitting songs exploding with riffs, attitude, intensity and that magical feeling you get when work is over and the weekend is here. This is an album for the fans and best shared with great friends, cold beers and very loud speakers!! Recorded in 2020 and early 2021 at both Österlyckan and Bombastik in Musikens Hus - Gothenburg, the decision was made early on to once again work with Johan Reiven, who was responsible for production duties on the bands ‘Black Album’. Adde states “Working with Johan was like stepping back in time, there’s a shared intensity and commitment to excel that collectively drives us and ultimately brings out the best in us all… I am 100% happy with the result”. This shared intensity can be heard on every one of the tracks from the defiantly rebellious “Dream in Red” through to the bar soaked philosophy of “One For All” and the thundering powerhouse that is “Catch Me If You Can”. Abracadabra is uncomplicated, Rock N’ Roll escapism and entertainment at its best… sprinkled with a little bit of magick for good measure --

Nach seinem letzten Album Singularity und der kürzlich erschienenen Piano Versions EP - nicht zu vergessen die Meditations-Stücke aus dem Jahr 2020 - beschreitet Jon mit Music For Psychedelic Therapy, wie der Titel schon vermuten lässt, klanglich und philosophisch einen neuen Weg. MFPT umfasst Jons Reisen durch geografische und kosmologische Spektren und ist eine unnachahmliche und allumfassende Reise an und für sich. Jon Hopkins erklärt: "Like everyone, I went through a lot of intensely heavy stuff in the last year. Somehow this music flowed through me in that time. I honestly have no idea where it came from - the whole creation process happened in something of a trance. I felt driven by a force way beyond myself and it was unforgettable…."

Format: 140G schwarze 2LP im Gatefold Sleeve inklusive Downloadkarte

What started as a duo in 2017, merging a core of
sludge, stoner and audio effects, soon became a
trio, adding a third member to accomplish their
enthralling fusion of monolithic sounds with a
visual concept.
 Both musical and philosophical, Italian band
Pachiderma add a special and unique touch to the
heavy music world, while combining various movie
samples and vibrant effects, inspired by the dark
myths and reality of humanity yet driven by the
soul of heavy stoner rock and sludge metal.
 Pachiderma’s ‘Il Diavolo, La Peste, La Morte’ is a
concept album, divided in four acts, and was
inspired by the philosophy previously issued in
Bergman’s filmography. The album was recorded
in a ‘one shot’ weekend session by Andrea Lenoci
at Molotov Recordings.
 For fans of Bongripper, Electric Wizard, Sleep,
Weedeater, Dopethrone, Bongzilla, Acid King.
 LP pressed on yellow vinyl.

With the world in chaos, exhilarating new music has become more
important than ever before.

As a re-sult, the emergence of French tech-metal mavericks Stengah could hardly be better timed. One of the most exciting new bands on the planet, the French quintet have spent the last few years in a state of per-petual evolution, armed with some of the most visceral and forward- thinking riffs and refrains in recent memory. Now, the band are ready to introduce themselves to the world. Founded by drummer Eliott Williame in 2013, Stengah have the sound, the smarts and the
ambition to push heavy music ever further into the future. After years of steady evolution and meticulous attention to detail, the band – completed by bassist Benoit Creteur, lead guitarist Maxime Delassus, rhythm guitarist Alex Orta and powerhouse frontman Nicolas Queste - have honed their sound to a state of cutting- edge perfection, as showcased on their formidable, forthcoming debut album SOMA SEMA."The music is about (re)connecting with yourself," says Eliott.
"It's about people, their fears, their faiths and their philosophies. How sometimes those things can guide them, and how sometimes they can blind them. It asks, with no judgement, about how odd and how strange the social and emotional behaviors of human beings are. It's all about the power to believe, in creativity, and in consciousness. Our music is technical but fun to play," adds Eliott. "People often become surprisingly transfixed by our energy, espe-cially when they haven't
seen us before. We love being on stage, we are truly passionate and that is what you see and feel during our live performances, from the first to the last song."

The history of metal is littered with the burnt-out shells of bands that lacked the vision and the vivacity to make things happen. For Stengah, the sheer power and fury of their music drives them forward. Mean- while, the sheer quality and ingenuity of Soma/ Sema looks certain to propel the band swiftly up the heavy music ladder and into the spotlight. Newly signed to Mascot Label Group, they're just getting start-ed and the sky's the limit!

Prolific punk pioneers Penny Rimbaud and Youth proudly present their collaboration album ‘Corpus Mei’, out November 19th via One Little Independent Records, with limited edition grey vinyl available from January. Vinyl edition is limited to 500 units. Recorded and mixed over the year 2011 and then remixed in 2019 (it took all that time to see the depths), 'Corpus Mei' brings together two disparate elements and makes them as one – Penny Rimbaud and Youth. Rimbaud is perhaps best known as a founder member, drummer, and lyricist of the seminal anarchist punk band Crass. Since those times, he has dedicated his life to the headier pursuits of poetics and philosophy. Youth, whose post punk band, Killing Joke, remains a vibrant musical force, has at the same time become one of the most sought-after record producers of today. Realising from the outset that they shared an interest in the creation and promotion of “matters spiritual”, these two now legendary

Introducing Skygirl, with their 4-track debut release.

Skygirl is Eva and Hanna. The two got together by chance, but definitely not by accident. After they were introduced at a festival through mutual friends and danced the night away, it became clear that both have musical ambitions and their artistic vision aligns. The band was formed before the hangover was gone, and songs were written before the weekend ended.

The kind of “after-party-Monday-mood” also functions as an entry to the band’s lyrical and musical cosmos. Rest assured, this is not your mundane headache, but rather a working class meets art school kind of philosophical approach. Sparse instrumentation meets two voices. Life-affirming, yet informed by a somber future.

Reference points may be groups like Young Marble Giants or Shakespears Sister. Brittle but strong voices, molded by urban decay.

The US-born, Norwegian-Mexican musician and producer Carmen Villain, real name Carmen Hillestad, has spent the last nine years and four albums gently unraveling song into the sound of emotional impulse. From the tilt and croon of her first two albums to the expansive warmth that flows and pulses beyond ambient in her more recent output, Hillestad's journey is artful musical deconstruction but also somehow spiritual growth.Hence new album Only Love From Now On, her fourth full-length and the culmination of a build-up that really began with the turn in sound evident from third album Both Lines Will Be Blue (2019, Smalltown Supersound) and the subsequent releases Affection In A Time Of Crisis (2020, Longform Editions) and Sketch For Winter IX: Perlita (2021, Geographic North). While the seed of her aesthetic was planted earlier, it has blossomed into something unexpected, benevolent in its composure and altogether luxuriant in its sensuality. If her themes, especially now, are wide, philosophical, and occasionally abstract, the emotional tenor of Hillestad's music is clear and purposeful. Makes sense that her key musical touchstones are dub, ambient, and cosmic jazz - flexible vehicles for tranquil wonder. While it may not contain voice or lyrics, as her two earliest records do, she describes it as, "wishing to maintain a sense of careful optimism for the future, while on the cusp of something unknown." Listening to Only Love From Now On is simultaneously comforting and alluringly strange. Partly it's the contributions of guests Arve Henriksen (trumpet, electronics) and Johanna Scheie Orellana (flutes). Partly it's the fluidity between instruments - such as clarinets - field recordings, the studio, jam, and careful composition. She calls the process a conversation with sound that occurs in her deliberate attempts to experiment with new methods, like granular synthesis, for her music-making. But mostly that strange comfort is in the peace and grateful contentment she has found via the stark recognition of her own privilege - laid bare by the pandemic. Only Love From Now On is fueled by the sense of scale in feeling small in the face of things so large, the contemplation of how the biggest impact we can have is in the people close to us, the attempt to make sure that impact is a positive one, and the choice to try to focus on love instead of fear.

Demon Records is proud to reissue this album as part of the Gary Crowley’s Lost 80s project. This Classic LP
reissue is presented on double 140g translucent blue vinyl.
Blue Rondo A La Turk were a lively 6 piece British latin/jazz/pop group, formed in 1981 by singer/lyricist Chris
Sullivan, and disbanded in 1984 when several members moved on to form the hit-making band Matt Bianco.
‘Chewing The Fat ‘ is the debut album, originally released in 1982 and includes the charting singles ‘Me And
Mr. Sanchez’ and ‘Klacto Vee Sedstein’
Included in the release is a bonus LP of official remixes on vinyl for the first time.
“If there was one band I wanted to be in back in 1982 it was Blue Rondo A La Turk. Named after the classic
Dave Brubeck song, they were a bunch of sharp suited hedonists with a philosophy straight out of Spinal Tap,
have a good time, all the time! Thinking about it though they probably would have left a lightweight like me
for dead in some Soho gutter after the first couple of drinks on a night out. Known and loved for their
infectious blend of salsa, funk, pop and cool bop and swing as well as their renowned live performances, why
they didn't break through to the nations charts remains one of pop's great conundrums. But those who
knew, knew and for energy and sonic pleasure this, their debut album "Chewing The Fat" takes some beating
and I'm thrilled it's available once again on vinyl under our GC Lost 80s moniker. It really is a wonderful
reminder of their collective talent that was sadly never given time to flourish.

Mother Tongue keeping the pressure high and unleashing straight away the follow up to the deadly YJ Vol.1.
This second Yellow Jackets double A sider feautures Chicago’s royalty Ron Trent and the extra talented multi instrumentalist Other Lands.

Again one track per side and full powerful cutting to maximize the sound impact in pure YJ philosophy. Ron Trent ‘The Medi’ was actully constructed while riding trains and in hotel rooms through Italy, used as a secret weapon in special occasions…and we can hear why: a mind expanding suite that keeps evolving and going in places and spaces while constantly beating you hard! On the Flipside Other Lands brings things down to more abstract realms with the floating almost Kraut inspired jam ‘Matter’.

A very special release and a hint of what Yellow Jackets has in store for us in the near future…