Buscar:sonic experience

Over the course of two decades The Body - Lee Buford and Chip
King - have consistently challenged assumptions and defied
categorization, redefining what it means to be a heavy band.
On ‘I’ve Seen All I Need To See’, they test the boundaries of the
studio to explore the extremes and microtonality of distortion to
find its maximal impact.
Their most incisively bleak album to date, a towering monolith of
noise, Buford’s booming, resolute drums paired with King’s
obliterated guitar and howl.
Course, bristling distortion contorts every instrument, with
samples of spoken word, cymbals, toms and King’s already
noxious tone emerging from layers of feedback.
Features guests Ben Eberle (Sandworm) and Chrissy Wolpert
(Assembly of Light Choir).
Recorded with long time engineer Seth Manchester at Machines
with Magnets (Lightning Bolt, Battles, Daughters) and mastered by
Matt Colton (Sumac, Brian Eno, Uniform, Sunn O)))).
Available on CD, metallic silver vinyl and black vinyl. LP formats
include digital download code.
The Body have collaborated with many, including Full Of Hell,
Thou, Uniform and Bummer.
“The distortion has this ability to envelope you, and not push you
away. It has this strange kind of beautiful timbre... once you give
into the sheer power of it, and let it take you on a ride then it
becomes this whole other kind of sonic experience.” - Matt Colton
The Body have continued to mould their sound into something
even more devastating, gorgeous and terrifying... As a whole, The
Body’s discography is, and will continue to be, without peer.” -
Metal Injection “Some of the most captivating heavy music around right now.” - Rolling Stone

‘Instant Opaque Evening’ is an epic offering from The Underflow, the new trio of Mats Gustafsson, David Grubbs and Rob Mazurek. It makes vast strides on the heels of their self-titled 2019 debut (Corbett vs. Dempsey/Underflow Records) with nearly 90 minutes of intensely focused live performances from January 2020 shows in France, Belgium, Italy and Poland. That tour was a revelation for all three members, experienced as they are, with this still-new group’s freedom to walk onstage each night determined to surprise one another, moving from long instrumental improvisations into and out of songs and covering a terrific amount of ground at each of these concerts.
‘Instant Opaque Evening’ conveys this broad sweep, from the full-tilt electronics of ‘Self-Portrait As Interference Pattern’ and the climax of the seventeen-minute ‘Instant Opaque Evening’ to the inspired, alternate universe chamber music of ‘Planks’ and ‘A Thin Eternity’ and the group’s spontaneous arrangements of three previously recorded songs by Grubbs, ‘Gethsemani Night’, ‘An Optimist Declines’ and ‘Cooler Side Of The Pillow’.
The short version of the long tale of intersecting paths bringing together these three musicians begins in Chicago in the 1990s, with all three active participants in numerous convergences among jazz, free improvisation, experimental rock and more. Both Gustafsson and Mazurek appear as guests on Gastr del Sol albums (‘Upgrade & Afterlife’ and ‘Camoufleur’ respectively; that’s Rob’s cornet taking ‘The Seasons Reverse’ to new heights) and shortly thereafter Grubbs and Gustafsson recorded two duo albums, including the deep minimalism of ‘Apertura’, a talismanic favourite of both musicians.
David Grubbs has played in Gastr del Sol, the Red Krayola and Squirrel Bait and performed with Tony Conrad, Susan Howe, Pauline Oliveros, Will Oldham and many others. He’s the author of the books The Voice in the Headphones, Now that the audience is assembled and Records Ruin the Landscape.
Saxophone player, improviser and composer Mats Gustafsson is known as a solo artist and for international tours and projects with, among many others, Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Jim O’Rourke, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Yoshimi, Peter Brötzmann, Neneh Cherry, Christian Marclay, Albert Oehlen, Ken Vandermark and the working groups FIRE!, THE END, LUFT, ANGUISH and Gush, as well as collaborations with contemporary dance, theatre, art, poetry and projects with noise.
Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, performance, painting, sculpture, video, film and installation, who spent much of his creative life in Chicago and then Brazil. He currently lives and works in Marfa, Texas. He leads/co-leads many ensembles of various sizes and shapes including his flagship large ensemble Exploding Star Orchestra, Chicago Underground and São Paulo Underground. He has
collaborated with Bill Dixon, Pharoah Sanders, Roscoe Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Nicole Mitchell, Chad Taylor, Jim O’Rourke, Naná Vasconcelos and many others.

CLEAR VINYL W. PINK STREAKS

2xLP pressed on virgin vinyl, packaged in a wide spine jacket printed on uncoated stock with custom high gloss slipcase and free download card. Love is what makes us human. It guides our decisions, shapes our worldview, and defines our experiences. Its absence equates to tragedy while its presence gives our lives meaning. "Love has been well worn theme throughout a lot of rock music, but most commonly in terms of love-lost, overly romanticized versions of new love, or as a veil for sexual conquest," says SUMAC guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer, ISIS). "It is rarely addressed in its more spiritual and vulnerable aspects." Those less-traversed territories of humankind's connective bond became the central theme SUMAC's third full-length album, Love In Shadow, though their explorations of that motif are a far cry from traditional manifestations of love in the realm of art. Across four protracted songs, Turner and his cohorts-Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists, Erosion) on drums and Brian Cook (Russian Circles) on bass-interlace and mangle sounds from their instruments in a sonic homage to both the innate warmth of human magnetism and the cold realities of corrupted love-jealousy, obsession, perversion, addiction.

In his essay ‘The Meaning of My Avant-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music’, Henry Flynt talks about how his music should be analysed as an intellectual tribute to the music of the autochtone, setting aside plain folk references, but adopting academic insights to mold the music one makes as a folk creature. Much of Flynt’s discourse applies to the music of Glen Steenkiste’s Hellvete. Over the past twenty years he has been thoroughly investigating both the ethnic musical language of various regions as well as the contemporary pioneers that preceded him as a drone musician, internalizing concepts such as e.g. deep listening or just intonation. Casting off any redundant ideas or sounds, and stripping down the focus to develop singular concepts, his working method lead to pieces such as ‘Droomharmonium’, in which he shapes the endless variations on a theme, emphasizing detail and nuance rather than multitude. The Indian harmonium here serves as the main device to worship ancient ghosts and masters, and to preserve a continuum in a tradition that touches both folk and avant-garde culture. The materialisations are sustained tone compositions which become a means of appreciation of the people and cultures that paved the way for forms of mutual escapism. This might well be the core of what Hellvete’s music is about. As much as it is a form of self-entertainment – like folk music in the old days – it also invites the listener to a shared experience of sonic reverie, it is a casual gift to the community.

This is certainly true for the pieces presented on this album. They were first presented in a smoke filled and darkened art space in Ghent, Steenkiste surrounded by only a couple of candles and just enough stage light to see him erratically moving to the rhythm of the piece, occasionally twiddling the knobs of a Doepfer synth that processed the prerecorded harmonium tracks. Unlike most of his other performances this piece embraced the audience in a trance that was similar to that of an old-school rave club. Flynt writes: ‘The music should be intellectually fascinating because the listener can perceive and participate in its rhythmic and melodic intricacies, audacity of organization, etc. At the same time, the music should be kinesthetic, that is, it should encourage dancing.’ ‘Voor Harmonium’ does exactly that; it builds on the artistic ideas that have long been established in Hellvete’s oeuvre, but the ecstatic nature of these pieces merges the usual spiritual transcendence with one of determined physical bliss. It encourages both mind and body to step into the sound, to be enraptured, to celebrate.

Lucrecia Dalt is a Colombian recording artist, songwriter, and producer. After studying civil engineering in Colombia, Dalt worked at a geo-technical company for two years and has since lived in Barcelona and Berlin, where she currently resides. She has released six solo albums and has collaborated with musicians Aaron Dilloway, Jan Jelinek, and Gudrun Gut, to name a few. No era sólida is Dalt's seventh solo record, and her second on RVNG Intl., following the release of 2018's Anticlines. No era sólida is an introspective venture into visceral sonic terrain, as Dalt sets out to capture the moment when one becomes pure sound. The album observes a transition in Dalt herself through the emergence of an alternate ego / state of self named Lia. Each song identifies a different state experienced by Lia, opening with Disuelta (`dissolved') and transforming through pieces such as Seca (`to be dry'), Ser boca (`to be mouth'), Espesa (`thick'). Lia's poetic reflections on the panspermia echo her origins, having come from some other ether. As a lifeform seeded through sound, the very essence of Lia is embodied in the exploratory instincts of her creator Lucrecia Dalt, an artist whose innate sonar system traces the far reaches of musical experimentation.

Terry Gross is an engrossing trio composed of guitarist Phil Manley (Trans Am), bassist Donny Newenhouse, and drummer Phil Becker. The trio are also connected as owners and engineers at Bay Area recording spot El Studio, where they began improvising together as a way to test the boundaries and gear of the studio. Their loose, organic chemistry burgeoned into a deep camaraderie and a sound both expansive and exacting. The three experienced musicians crafted their first fulllength album through the pure joy of playing together with no expectations. With the tapes rolling on their rehearsals, the band captures the exuberance of live performance and elevates those recordings through a deft use of the studio as their collective instrument. On their debut LP Soft Opening, Terry Gross channels their cosmic powers and considerable chops into a gleefully mesmerizing odyssey fit for an arena. Soft Opening took shape over the course of 2016-2019, with Terry Gross writing and refining their songs. "Space Voyage Mission" and "Worm Gear" parallel one another as sinuous jams that pulse with adamantine fervor. Each mountainous epic churns spellbinding repetition and simplicity into dizzying gallops that take hairpin turns into sinewy riffing and elysian vocal melodies. Phil Manley's guitar takes on a constellation of tones across "Space Voyage Mission" with drifting delays soaring over the Newenhouse and Becker's driving rhythm section which all succumb to frothing overdrives that spin the song into entirely new pastures. The hypnotic throb of "Worm Gear" grows all the more enchanting as Newenhouse and Becker add subtle shifts to the single-chord barrage. "Specificity (Or What Have You)" contrasts these two in its more traditionally pop-oriented structure while retaining its predecessors wide-eyed energy and delves further into the album's lightheartedyet-earnest take on sci-fi tropes from space and time travel to the singularity. As Terry Gross, Phil Manley, Donny Newenhouse, and Phil Becker are sonic scientists traversing the borderlands of rock. Soft Opening captures the simple joy of a no-holds-barred trio in stunning detail, transporting the listener into the splendor and freedom of rock.

Ecstatic Meditations’, the follow up to 2016’s acclaimed debut solo outing ‘Interludes’, features six beautifully crafted new tracks leading with an edit of the 20 minute album opener and lead track ‘Journey In Ecstasy’. An adventurous deep listening experience, the new collection was recorded, mixed and mastered by Furse at his electronic studio on the Margate coast.
A sonic tapestry of sound that takes inspiration from the likes of Alice Coltrane, Laraaji, Eno and Steve Reich together with a new found appreciation for Japanese environmental music composers such as Akira Ito and Yasauki Shizimu. The result is an intense yet playfully refreshing take on ambient and electronic music.

M.S.W. brings together key components from his work in solo projects HELL and CLOUD to come to terms with topics of intense personal struggle.
Here in his first album under his given name, we hear the familiar melodic atmosphere of Cloud coupled with intense, somber doom of Hell for a new sonic experience that is familiar but altogether its own entity of great despair.

• Doctor Who Edge of Time is an immersive VR video game and Demon Records are proud to release the soundtrack to this adventure.
• On Vinyl for the first time, this is an original composition by Richard Wilkinson, specially created for this VR experience.
• Double LP, pressed on 140g colour vinyl (Red and Purple LP) and presented in a gatefold. Side D has an etching of the ‘Seal of Rassilon’
• Story line: Mysterious enemy threatens to tear apart the universe and only you can stop them! Armed with the Sonic Screwdriver, players will solve mind-bending puzzles, grapple with iconic monsters and encounter new horizons in a quest to find the Doctor and defeat a powerful force that threatens to destroy the fabric of reality.

When Lindstrom and Prins Thomas get together, expect the unexpected. The Norwegian production duo's third album III is also their first outing together in eleven years, since II from 2009 and as ever, Lindstrom and Prins Thomas have crafted their own unique sonic world between the two of them. This is expansive, luscious electronic music rich with texture and intricacy, patiently revealing every eccentricity while constantly pulling the listener in. Getting lost never sounded so good. Since the release of II, Lindstrom and Prins Thomas have remained more than busy with their respective solo careers, but work on III was taking place behind the scenes the whole time - slow and steady by sending files back and forth. "There's a different process with every album," Thomas explains. "With the first two albums, we had a door between separate rooms in the studio, so I could open my door and play him something. We also toured together a lot after the first album, and after that experience we realized that we work better together at a distance. We're doing our best work by not worrying too much about what the other one of us is doing." Eventually, the bulk of III came together over the last year, as Lindstrom and Prins Thomas teamed up to craft a lush and lovely work that recalls the hazy atmospherics of Air, the loose-fit jazz of Lonnie Liston Smith, and the genreresistant electronic music that both artists have made their name on over the course of their impressive careers. "Our partnership is very democratic "we never turn down each other's ideas. And if it goes wrong, we blame it on the other guy," Thomas says with a laugh. "The tracks that Lindstrom sent me this time were almost like standard house tracks. I already had an idea of what I wanted to do, so I forced those tracks into new shoes and dresses." Above all else, III is a testament to the adventurousness of Lindstrom and Prins Thomas when it comes to soundcraft. Both artists have established separate careers on bodies of work that feature infinite twists and turns, thrilling their audiences with the suggestion of where they've been and where they're about to go. Together, they've crafted what might be their most beguiling and inviting work yet, a jeweled box of electronic music ornately crafted but never losing the sense of playfulness that so many have come to love from them.

The sublime songs comprising Los Angeles-based musician Ana Roxanne's second release, Because Of A Flower, germinated gradually across five years, inspired by interwoven notions of gender identity, beauty, and cruelty. She describes her process as beginning with “a drone element and a mood,” then intuiting melody, syllables, and lyrics incrementally, like sacred shapes materializing from mist.
The experience of identifying as intersex informs the album on levels both sonic and thematic, from spoken word texts borrowed from tonal harmony textbooks to cinematic dialogue samples and castrati aria allusions. It's an appropriately interstitial vision of ambient songcraft, a chemistry of wisps and whispers, sanctuary and sorrow, conjured through a fragile balance of voice, bass, space, and texture.
Despite a background studying at the prestigious Mills College in Oakland, Roxanne's music rarely feels conceptual, instead radiating an immediate and emotive aura, rooted in the present tense of her personal journey. She speaks of the flower in the title as a body, singular and sunlit, as many petals as thorns, an enigma beholden only to itself. But whether taken as surface or subtext, Because is a transfixing document of a rare artist in the spring of their ascension.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WRWTFWW Records is feeling total bliss as it announces the full official reissue of two major works from the great Somei Satoh gathered into one LP: the mystic and meditative Emerald Tablet (1978) and Echoes (1981), sourced from original masters and available on vinyl with liner notes by passio-nate Japanese music connoisseur/collector/critic/dj Masaaki Hara.

Fall into the ambient vastness, let yourself go…

Originally released by highly respected label ALM, these pivotal pieces of late 70s / early 80s Ja-panese experimental music majestically showcase Satoh’s intuitive approach to composition and mastery of creating infinite worlds of sound from very, very little.

Emerald Tablet, recorded at the fabled NHK Studio of Electronic Music in 1978, is a spellbinding take on musique concrète meets tape music relying solely on sound harmonics from tubular bell, cymbals, and 'kin' (Buddhist standing bell) overdubbed endlessly, voyaging into vertiginous sonic depths.

Echoes was composed for the Mist, Sound, and Light Festival, a 10-day event organized by the hot spring tourist association of Kawaji, Tochigi Prefecture, held on May 20-29, 1981. It was played in the Kawaji hot spring's Ojika river valley, with 8 gigantic loudspeakers set up on hills surrounding the stream and connected to an octuple channel-tape system - thanks to a combined length of cables exceeding one kilometer - while artificial fog rose from a ravine and laser beams shot up on the mountains. Cinematic and resonating, this breathtaking piece from Somei Satoh is a transcending sonic experience.

Emerald Tablet / Echoes is reissued in conjunction with Somei Satoh’s Mandala Trilogy + 1 double LP, also available on WRWTFWW Records.

FILM Recordings will release the debut LP from Denial of Service.

The album follows up EP's Sensou (2015), and more recently Contour & Shape (2017) - but marks the producer's most expansive release on the label thus far by some margin. Clocking in at 15 tracks, the lengthy opus draws from the same palette found on previous work - drum machine driven, heavily mutated Electro and IDM sit alongside low slung Techno cuts and arpeggiated EBM references. As ever, the production is stunning - crisp and plosive, as much a record for the club as it is a tempered headphone experience; whilst the mood channels that same dank, claustrophobic energy found on previous missives.

As a body of work, the LP displays the distinctive touch of a production veteran. The transformative shifts in structure on opener A Fine, New Mother Now belie a kind of boldness found less often across the contemporary electronic music landscape; and the drum programming on IDM-leaning explorations Autoimmune & Supercell bear the hallmarks of a perfectionist with time on his hands and in full control of his art. Space and the placement of sonic components plays a huge role in the artist's work and the 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch displays this canny knack for generating both textural, wide angle soundscapes whilst maintaining that wrought-iron edge to drums and percussive elements - even more fervent, noisy compositions like Dr Manahattan manage to keep hold of this remarkable balance. It's impressive stuff, a fine and well worked meeting point between artistic vision and engineering prowess.

An elongated discussion, no doubt - but worth hearing every word. Each twist and bend, however sharp, remains carefully placed and beautifully recorded. Dryer works Slither & Junkie Foxtrot towards the LP finish offer a less introspective, more hard hitting angle to the work, and by the time the listener arrives at dual closer the Daisy Chain - Adults - they're ready for its heady catharsis.

The debut album from Denial of Service is a trip, and the line between club space and home listening environment is decidedly blurred - an emotive exploration of true psychedelic Electronica, delivered direct from the source.

D Leria debuts on Avian.

Giuseppe Scaccia shows his range on a new six track EP, arriving late 2020.

Produced diligently across the last two years, the record showcases a range of styles. Tonally, the material is bound by a recognisable engineering palette – driven, but not to the point of corrosion, tight and focused in the low end with caustic, percussive synth patches driving much of the more dance floor material.

In the terms of the form, though – Scaccia draws for a disparate arrangement. Opener A Life On The Run clocks in at over 140bpm, with a demented lead synth line providing the action buoyed by a simplistic drum machine rhythm. Divergences offers a more immersive experience in terms of tempo – again letting the lead do the work, while shifting hats operate around the sonic periphery to break up the recording. On Il Giardino Degli Unicorni the artist utilises a single, staccato sequence, letting the sends do the bulk of the business with careful processing and live articulation helping to build the intensity. On the flip, pulsing workout Noises from The Room develops surreptitiously over its run time – fathoms deep kicks are submerged under a heated sequence and Red Flowers, an exercise in careful reduction reintroduces a little musicality to the record, before warping closer Tribalism places the listener back on the dance floor with a half-time rhythm driving the droning sound design.

A careful meeting point at which the multiple styles that underpin Scaccia’s D Leria project meet, Still Standing offers insight into how future work might manifest whilst remaining a valuable document on the current state of both left field Techno music and the artist’s own creative identity.

Ocean Moon is a solo project from Jon Tye of Seahawks. A long time explorer of the sounds of spaciousness, having released the ambient classic LP iO in 1994 as MLO, Crystal Harmonics is a document of Jon’s latest discoveries. An ambient/new age/modern classical library suite for KPM, this is inter-dimensional music for mind, body and spirit.

Island Visions, the recent collection of music from Seahawks for KPM, touched on the deeper, more spatial side of music and led to Jon exploring this territory in greater depth, again for KPM, under his Ocean Moon alter ego. This time he brought along some of today’s most visionary musicians: Jon Brooks (The Advisory Circle / Ghostbox) for his intuitive melodic mastery, Seaming To (Graham Massey’s Toolshed) for her extraordinary vocal talents, Steve Moore (Zombi) for his sophisticated and inventive rhythmic sensibility and Richard Norris (The Grid) for his sensitive and deeply resonant ambience. The initial recordings were made at The Centre Of Sound in Cornwall, with the collaborators various contributions coming from London, Derbyshire and the US.

The supremely serene electronic flute and bells of “Crystal Drift” ease us into our journey and we take our next steps with “Rainbow Ripples” as it gently folds space with arpeggiated synth swells and delicate machine beats. Light vocal tones, bells and breath FX on “And Breathe” keep us going, accompanied by synth drones and billows of electric piano.

We travel through the synth-space-surf haze of “Lost Oceans”, with soft bass and warm ambience, to reach the “New Infinity” of revolving melody, spacious pads and light electronic beats. The celestial tone floats of “White Mirror” close out the first side.

Temple bells ring out to running water flowing together with deep resonant vocal tones as the second side opens with “Peace Bells”. “Revolving and Evolving” follows, a tranquil electronic meadow of lush pastoral synth tones where we rest for a while for “Mountain Dreaming”, a light rhythmic dance of zither and birdsong.

The undulating “Forest Motion” ripples with synth arpeggios, dreamy Solina strings and percussive modular electronics before allowing the crackling ambience and Cantonese whispers of “Sleep Golden” to wash over us. Finally we find ourselves on “The Long Path”, its warm temple ambience of drones and chants guiding us home.

Crystal Harmonics is inspired by four particular albums from KPM’s catalogue. There’s The Electronic Light Orchestra by Adrian Wagner from 1975 and then Temple Of The Stars, Breath Of Life and finally Keith Mansfield’s Circles, these last three coming from KPM’s mid-1980s run of modern classical/New Age gems. For Jon, “making library music can be very liberating. I really enjoyed the additional focus it brought to the music working on different facets of composition with each collaborator”.

But Crystal Harmonics is no mere exercise in vulger pastiche. As the past, present and future sound of paradise, this fresh exploration of mid-90s ambient and original New Age sounds exists outside of our linear experience of time.

The cover started as a collage Jon made a couple of years ago, a different expression of the same impulses that guided the music. As a nod to the records that provided seeds of inspiration, the collage was framed by KPM’s house style of the 1980s for the finished sleeve by Richard Robinson.

Mastered for vinyl by Be With’s sonic shaman Simon Francis, cut by the legendary Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, Ocean Moon’s Crystal Harmonics is the tranquil balm for these turbulent times.

MEET THE CHOIR THAT HOUSE BUILT

The late great Frankie Knuckles once called house music: “church for people that have fallen from grace.” Anyone who has been caught up in the rapture of a true house classic can testify to its power to unify and uplift.

HGC is an electrifying House meets Gospel experience that never fails to get audiences clapping, dancing and singing along. HGC shows bring together a group of outstanding singers, a full house band and DJ, creating an effortless live fusion of the biggest house and gospel tunes that never fail to raise the roof!

House Gospel Choir’s magic is their ear for production, thanks to the songwriters, producers, vocal arrangers and selectors who make up the collective. The choir have been bubbling away in studios across London, working with a roll call of iconic dance music producers, from global house icons Todd Terry, DJ Spen, Grammy Award winner Alex Metric, to Toddla T and UK gospel icon Nicky Brown. Their monthly public Mass Choir open rehearsal, at Rich Mix in East London, has featured guest appearances from house and techno icon The Black Madonna, and electro pop singer Georgia.

The current House Gospel Choir has grown to over 150 members of all religions and backgrounds. They take us to church, literally and metaphorically and remind us, whatever spiritual inclination we may have, of the sonic swells in our ribcage that truly great harmonies can inspire.

We Are One has become the choirs mantra, Founder & Creative Director Natalie Maddix explains “We can’t all speak at the same time and have our voices heard, but we can sing together as one voice and be understood”.

“The choir have a really unique energy. Beyond the uplifting vibes of Gospel Music…they’re like family” Annie Mac

“I’m so crazy about them” – THE BLACK MADONNA

Libreville Records is proud to present a focus on legendary electronic swiss project Mega Wave Orchestra in the form of a compilation LP including unreleased material.Originally released privately in Geneva in 1988 as a box set containing five LPs by The Mega Wave Orchestra and five prints by the artist H. Richard Reimann. The Mega Wave Orchestra, the brain-child of musician, mathematician and composer Christian Oestreicher, was conceived as an multi-media electronic music big-band. It was comprised of seven multi-instrumentalists Christine Schaller, Vincent Barras, Jacques Demierre, Olivier Rogg, Rainer Boesch, Roger Baudet, and Benoit Corboz, with Oestreicher as arranger and producer.The Mega Wave Orchestra created a new hybrid music. It was a music with roots in the jazz and classical traditions, but one which also drew on the sonic freedom of musique concrete and the kind of total experience offered by psychedelia. The diverse backgrounds and specialisms of each of the band leaders/writers resulted in a wide variety of music across the five discs: from austere drones and granular aural detail to warm oddball fusion and gorgeous but cracked vocal jazz. There are useful contemporary comparisons to be made: zoned synth jazz like the Azimuth LP on ECM or Karin Krog’s Freestyle; Larry Heard’s sequencer dreamtime; the Valium minimalism of Pep Llopis or Jun Fukamaki; Dexter Wansel’s shimmering arrangements for Loose Ends, or even the FM sheen meets cold war threat of Donald Fagen’s Night Fly. Here, too, is the sound of music technology about to snowball and define its own aesthetic, unknowingly prefiguring auteurish bedroom producers like Black Dog or The Detroit Escalator Company.Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered from Master tapes. 600 copies.

It's been three years since the last vinyl by Ntogn was unveiled and now we're glad to share with you the result of his venture through the recent winter.

'Smedjan' is inspired by the dwarven craftsmanship of Norse mythology. It is made completely with organic sounds gathered from, and recorded in, the forests of Bålsta which is rich with northern heritage. Everything you hear is either processed textures of birch wood blocks, layers of a custom made Ukrainian artisan mouth harp or the artist's own voice.

There is no synthesis in this record. The kick drums are made by hitting these pieces of wood against each other with contact microphones. Bass layers are extracted from bark scraping against bark. Hi hats are crafted by recorded fire of the same wood logs burning and ambiance is built from the forests where the trees grew and from the woodshed where the artist chopped the wood during winter to keep his cabin warm. The rhythms and sounds in this shed is what inspired the making of this record.

By shaping these sounds of wood and metal Ntogn strives to create a sonic experience that connects the listener to the old Norse stories of the dwarven craftsmanship of Svartalfheim. It is they who made the famous trinkets and weapons that empower the gods of Asgård through stories of trickery and despair which has later inspired tales and literature for over a thousand years.

The record has been distilled from material that was meant to become a two-hour live set specifically made for Mo:dem festival which was unfortunately cancelled due to the corona pandemic. It was also the foundation of the artist's thesis at the university of sound design where he made a study of the effects of organic sound on an electronic expression such as techno music.

It will be released digitally and as a 200 copy limited edition black vinyl adorned with an artwork drawn by the artist's partner Gabriella Holmström using the ashes of the same birch wood blocks that was used to make the sonic content.

The record has received early support from Francois X, Takaaki Itoh, Abstract Division, BLNDR and Rambadu to name a few.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Ntogn en'togg-n is a conceptual electro-acoustic project developed by Hypnus Records' founder and sound design graduate Michel Iseneld (b. 1988, Sweden). It aims to breath life into a fascination for magic with the use of contemporary and classic sound design techniques. This has resulted in what Resident Advisor's William Lynch describes as 'fierce, artistic techno that sounds like little else out there' and a discography ranging from earth-shattering techno to dark, throbbing ambient excursions.

After spending nearly three years in isolation, deeply lost in literature on history, philosophy, occultism and epic fairy-tales; Michel developed an inner world which eventually found an outlet through the means of music in 2013. By the use of field recordings and various samplings of his voice and surroundings, something peculiar sprouted as his inner images started to manifest and mature into an organic sound inspired by the emerging hypnotic deep techno scene.

Today, all music is released on his own imprint Tome in order to preserve the projects' artistic freedom and originality. After two years of sound design studies at the university and a new-found passion for modular synthesis; there's plenty of music in store aimed to satiate the curious minds.

"Lugar Alto's newest project is the idiosyncratic album MUMIA (portuguese for MUMMY). Never released before, it is a work that was originally recorded on cassette and combines elements of post-punk, industrial and ambient music.

Kodiak Bachine and Celso Alves formed the ephemeral and eponymous duo in 1988. The partnership resulted in a single recording derived from improvised sessions using minimal amounts of electronic equipment at Celso's country house, located in the interior of São Paulo.

Bachine was an important figure in the São Paulo underground. His most renowned project was the band Agentss from 1981, which also consisted of Miguel Barella, Eduardo Amarante, Elias Glik and Lyses Pupo (later replaced by Thomas Susemihl). In its brief duration, the band released only two seven inches that were considered seminal artifacts in the Brazilian post-punk scene: “Agentes / Angra” from 1982 and “Professor Digital / Cidade Industrial” from 1983. These two rare records are highly sought after by collectors and DJs from around the world for their inventiveness and originality.

Similar to Agentss, MUMIA brings with it extreme authenticity, managing to extrapolate the barriers of more traditional Brazilian music and interact with unorthodox elements. The lyrics are a mixture of Portuguese and English and it is still possible to identify picturesque fragments of Spanish, French and German. In addition, sonically, the record portrays aesthetics from the eighties and dialogues with themes relating to LSD. Another notable feature is the fixation on Egyptian post-mortem themes, providing a cinematic and lysergic experience of the desert landscapes from the African country.

It is a recording with comic passages which provokes an unpretentious reaction from the listener. However, it still has more ethereal and atmospheric moments, such as the opening song “Ave do Deserto”. In the final two tracks, it is possible to enjoy a darker MUMIA, which with “Massacre da Serra Elétrica I” and “Massacre da Serra Elétrica II”, provide a sound experience capable of accompanying intense scenes from the macabre productions by Tobe Hooper and George Romero.

The striking new artwork was created by the Sometimes Always studio, a partner of Lugar Alto and responsible for diverse graphic collaborations with artists, venues and parties in Brazil. The album, mastered by the prolific Arthur Joly, also has a booklet containing Kodiak’s texts in Portuguese and English, in addition to the lyrics, which serve as a logical exercise for further understanding of the album.

MUMIA was unearthed by the renowned Brazilian DJ Millos Kaiser, who in addition to kindly curating this album, put together the compilation “Onda de Amor: Synthesized Brazilian Hits That Never Were (1984-94)”, released by Soundway Records.

Now, after 32 years in its tomb, the MUMIA has risen and thanks to Lugar Alto it can finally be celebrated and appreciated."

Steve Von Till has charted an extraordinary musical path over the last several decades, from his main duties as singer and guitarist of the boundary-breaking Neurosis to the psychedelic music of his Harvestman project and the gothic Americana he's released under his own name. But No Wilderness Deep Enough is truly like nothing you've ever heard from him before—an album that's devastatingly beautiful and overwhelming in its scope, reminiscent of the tragic ecstasy of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' recent work as well as the borderless ambient music pioneered by Brian Eno, late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's glacial compositions, and the electronic mutations of Coil. 

FOR FANS OF : MARK LANEGAN/MICHAEL GIRA/NICK CAVE.

Over the course of recent time, an aching, growing void has developed where our normal way of life has resided. Uncertainty abounds, and Steve Von Till's No Wilderness Deep Enough provides a voice of existential wisdom and experience to offer comfort and perspective in an era of uncharted territory. These six pieces of music shape a hallucinatory landscape of sound that plumbs the depths of the natural world's mysteries and uncertainties—questions that have vexed humanity since the dawn of time asked anew amidst a backdrop that's as haunting as it is holistic.

Von Till’s fifth solo album is a swirling and iridescent blend of ambient, neo-classical, and gothic Americana that swan-dives into the darkness of modern life, with the resulting emergence a sonic document of rural psychedelia that transcends the physical world—towards a greater spiritual acceptance that connects naturalism, spiritualism, and the corporeal form.

With a foundation of simple melancholy piano chord progressions embellished with mellotron, cello, french horn and electronic treatments Von Till's scorched ache spreads across the terrain of No Wilderness Deep Enough like a brushfire, adding a tactile level to his sonic creation as well as an inviting level of friction to the burning beauty painted across the album's framework.

With a foundation of simple melancholy piano chord progressions that came to fruition during jetlagged nights in his wife’s childhood home in Germany, No Wilderness Deep Enough was further embellished with mellotron and electronic treatments in Von Till’s home studio in North Idaho.  Viewing the emerging result as an ambient instrumental album, he consulted friend and engineer Randall Dunn (Marissa Nadler, Earth) about adding live cello and french horn and piano in a proper studio.  After enlisting Brent Arnold on cello and Aaron Korn on french horn, he challenged Von Till to sing over the music and make it his next solo album—which is exactly what happened, with final work being completed at Tucker Martine’s (the Decemberists, Neko Case) Flora Recording and Playback in Portland.

F.S.Blumm is a man most might not know. He ́s no pop artist, and not overtly experimental either. But somehow with In Sight he has done the impossible: put his own sound in that perfect middle point, leaving his voice behind to deep-dive into some truly memorable, fully composed pieces.
In Sight is the kind of record you can put on at first crack of dawn, to enjoy its beautiful instrumental varieties during morning routine, while equally fitting as a listening experience towards the darker time of day, in the background or as highly rewarding deep listening experience. It ́s the kind of album that would be great to encounter played in a tiny Japanese jazz bar on a vintage, top notch speaker system together with a handful of local oddities. It sounds incredibly well produced and is full of beautiful, heart-warming, melancholic moments performed on everything from guitars to percussion, vibraphone, strings, piano and who knows what else. Frank shines on this record. He has created quietly composed pieces for moments one could only wish were real.
As often with F.S.Blumm ́s music, it ́s hard to pin down where to categorize it. He might be best known as frequent collaborator of Nils Frahm. Together they made three great duo albums for Sonic Pieces previously. Although this is far from his first solo album, it is his first for the label, and after listening to it on repeat for some time, we can only say that this is Frank on his finest, creating some of the most thought provoking instrumental music you can find in these parts of the world.

New album of one of the biggest Reggae/Dub french soundsystem starring MacGyver, Rooty Step & Pupajim (who worked with Alpha Steppa, Biga Ranx, High Tone, Mungo's Hi-Fi ...).

Available as super limited edition including 60x60cm Poster !

Since their inception at start of the 2000s, Stand High Patrol have rocked sound systems to their own riddim, assimilating and re-purposing the codes of the genre in their own unique style. From tiny bars in Brittany to huge festival stages, on independent radio or across national airwaves, the crew have quietly trod their own path, never compromising their core value of independence. Connoisseurs have long recognised Stand High’s credentials both as a dub group and a leading sound system, but they stand out from the crowd because of their ability to deliver the unexpected, whether live or on record. Their ability to draw such a diverse audience is testament to this atypical approach to making music.

In 2020, almost 20 years since their humble beginnings, the collective presents their fifth album, “Our Own Way”. As with their first two albums “Midnight Walkers” and “Matter Of Scale”, now considered as classics in their genre, this new opus asserts itself as the latest representation of the crew’s versatile approach to crafting sound. Their music, a blend of its own known as “Dubadub”, has always borrowed influences from multiple sources, and over the course of their career their roots in dub and reggae have intertwined with hip-hop, jazz, new wave, trip-hop and numerous other genres. The ‘Dubadub Musketeers’ have never ceased experimenting, forever seeking to increase the sonic territory they cover, day after day. Both live and recorded, they’ve made it a point of honour to never offer up the same thing twice. Any resemblance that “Our Own Way” might bear to those first two albums is a consequence of this obvious creative continuity, rather than of going “back to basics”.

In contrast to the last two Stand High Patrol records, the hip-hop inspired “The Shift”, or the Bristol indebted “Summer On Mars”, “Our Own Way” doesn’t have a unifying concept or theme. Rather than being limited to a single aesthetic, the LP pays respect to the entire canon of Jamaican music, all unified under Stand High’s inimitable production values. With the wealth of experience gained during the recording of their last two records, the collective decided to aim for a freer project, letting themselves be guided by their own music and their own instincts. The end result is a musical portrait of what Stand High Patrol is in the present moment.

The tracks that make up the new LP burst out of the studio, each born out of unbridled, impulsive creativity. Previously unheard compositions and specially re-tooled dub plates have been assembled into a tracklist that shifts and moves like a classic Dubadub Musketeer live set. Each step of the process has been refined by years of practice : composition, effects, and the final mix. Throughout “On Our Way”, the brutal dub stepper, though still a favourite for sound system sessions, is noticeable by its absence. Instead, it’s the full weight of the crew’s reggae heritage that’s expressed in the mix. It's not just the depth and weight of each tune that strikes the listener, but also the spaces heard between the notes that grab and hold their attention.. The sense of a trip, whether musical, internal or geographic, is omnipresent throughout the LP, linking each track to those before and after. “Our Own Way” finds Stand High Patrol exploring as usual, yet also narrating their journey as they’ve rarely done before

Washed Out is Atlanta-based producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ernest Greene. Over three enchanting, critically-lauded albums and an EP, his music has proved both transportive and visual, each release inviting listeners into immersive, self-contained universes. With Purple Noon, his fourth album, and his return to Sub Pop, he delivers the most accessible Washed Out creation to date. Life of Leisure, Washed Out's 2009 debut EP, set the bar for the Chillwave era, shimmering in a warm haze of off-the-cuff Polaroids and pre-IG filters. Within and Without, his 2011 full-length debut on Sub Pop, morphed into nocturnal, icy synth-pop and embraced provocative imagery. 2013's Paracosm was Greene's take on psychedelia, with a full live band and kaleidoscopic light show, and saw him playing to the largest audiences of his career. The sample-heavy Mister Mellow (2017, Stone's Throw) delivered a 360 audio/visual experience, with cut-n-paste and hand-drawn animation to match the hip-hop influences throughout the album. With each release, Greene has approached his evolving project with meticulous detail and a steadfast vision. For Purple Noon, Greene again wrote, recorded, and produced the entirety of the album, with mixing handled by frequent collaborator Ben H. Allen (Paracosm, Within and Without). Production of the album followed a brief stint of writing for other artists (most notably Sudan Archives) which enabled Greene to explore genres like R&B and modern pop. These brighter, more robust sounds made their way into the songs of Purple Noon and mark a new chapter for Greene as a producer and songwriter. The vocals are front and center, tempos are slower, beats bolder, and there's a more comprehensive depth of dynamics. One can hear the luxuriousness of Sade, the sonic bombast of Phil Collins, and the lush atmosphere of the great Balearic beat classics. Mediterranean coastlines inspired Purple Noon, and Greene pays tribute to the region's distinct island culture - all rugged elegance and old-world charm - and uses it as a backdrop to tell stories of passion, love, and loss (Purple Noon's title comes from the 1960 film directed by Rene Clement and based on the novel The Talented Mister Ripley by Patricia Highsmith). Much like romantic Hollywood epics, the melodrama throughout is strong: a serendipitous first meeting in "Too Late"; a passionate love affair in "Paralyzed"; disintegration of a relationship in "Time to Walk Away"; a reunion with a lost love in "Game of Chance." Purple Noon adds a layer of emotional intensity to the escapism of Washed Out's oeuvre, taking the music to dazzling new heights.

Compilation album curated by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

The directive for the composers featured on Breathing Instruments was, in effect, to accentuate the ways in which instruments sound like they are breathing. Some have recreated the literal experience of feeling or hearing the human breath. Others take a more abstract approach, where “breathing” is more motif than object of emulation.

From hushed pulsations and distant vocals in Kathryn Shuman’s ‘Objects creating a womb-like environment to Julianna Barwick’s blissful ‘Newborn’ the tracks give sonic form to the experience of emerging from the womb.

There is also a striking concurrence of woodland sounds throughout this collection from the ghostly tones of Emily A Srague’s ‘Flew’ to Cool Maritime and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s dew dripped ‘Daybreak’.

Meanwhile the undulating seascape of Geotic’s ‘Uncaught’ conjures moments of Evening Star by Fripp/ Eno, but supplants that album’s crystalline production with the warm crackle of vinyl.
If we learn anything from Breathing Instruments it is that we are inextricable from the natural world.

Washed Out is Atlanta-based producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ernest Greene. Over three enchanting, critically-lauded albums and an EP, his music has proved both transportive and visual, each release inviting listeners into immersive, self-contained universes. With Purple Noon, his fourth album, and his return to Sub Pop, he delivers the most accessible Washed Out creation to date. Life of Leisure, Washed Out's 2009 debut EP, set the bar for the Chillwave era, shimmering in a warm haze of off-the-cuff Polaroids and pre-IG filters. Within and Without, his 2011 full-length debut on Sub Pop, morphed into nocturnal, icy synth-pop and embraced provocative imagery. 2013's Paracosm was Greene's take on psychedelia, with a full live band and kaleidoscopic light show, and saw him playing to the largest audiences of his career. The sample-heavy Mister Mellow (2017, Stone's Throw) delivered a 360 audio/visual experience, with cut-n-paste and hand-drawn animation to match the hip-hop influences throughout the album. With each release, Greene has approached his evolving project with meticulous detail and a steadfast vision. For Purple Noon, Greene again wrote, recorded, and produced the entirety of the album, with mixing handled by frequent collaborator Ben H. Allen (Paracosm, Within and Without). Production of the album followed a brief stint of writing for other artists (most notably Sudan Archives) which enabled Greene to explore genres like R&B and modern pop. These brighter, more robust sounds made their way into the songs of Purple Noon and mark a new chapter for Greene as a producer and songwriter. The vocals are front and center, tempos are slower, beats bolder, and there's a more comprehensive depth of dynamics. One can hear the luxuriousness of Sade, the sonic bombast of Phil Collins, and the lush atmosphere of the great Balearic beat classics. Mediterranean coastlines inspired Purple Noon, and Greene pays tribute to the region's distinct island culture - all rugged elegance and old-world charm - and uses it as a backdrop to tell stories of passion, love, and loss (Purple Noon's title comes from the 1960 film directed by Rene Clement and based on the novel The Talented Mister Ripley by Patricia Highsmith). Much like romantic Hollywood epics, the melodrama throughout is strong: a serendipitous first meeting in "Too Late"; a passionate love affair in "Paralyzed"; disintegration of a relationship in "Time to Walk Away"; a reunion with a lost love in "Game of Chance." Purple Noon adds a layer of emotional intensity to the escapism of Washed Out's oeuvre, taking the music to dazzling new heights.

Conrad Van Orton and Jheal sign the third release for Eyes Have It, 30D sub-label that, as usual, explores the darkest, coldest and even suffocating side of the techno spectrum.

As it happened in the second release (‘Sei Tracce In Nero EP’ by Reeko & Group), the high contrast between both sides gives sense to the album, giving it a strange but perfect balance, this time quite more oriented to the dance floor. It’s for sure that some people will think that CVO and Jheal might use elements that at first sight might be familiar but, let’s be honest, both have the ability to make everything sound very original.

On the A side Conrad Van Orton, an Italian producer with a lot of experience in techno and the most experimental electronics, elevates the listening to a sonic musical experience, literally. The three tracks, although ‘Dysfunctional Organic Device’ is probably the best example, are pure techno brutality, as highly raw, energetic and obsessive as they are obviously functional. Three true ‘monsters’.

On the B side Jheal, a face already known to the label thanks to his brilliant participation in ‘Close Encounters 002’, brings melancholy (‘150 Wreaths’) and tons of introspection (‘Our Fathers’) to the record. It is not easy for industrial techno to sound as emotional as when Alejandro manipulates it, something especially remarkable for such a young producer. Congratulations.

Djebali and Jorge Savoretti combine to deliver their ‘Fraires’ EP on Infuse, accompanied by a remix from Stephan Bazbaz.

Two producers at the heart of today’s modern house and minimal scenes, Paris favourite Djebali and Argentinian DJ and producer Jorge Savoretti have grown to become two of the most consistent and impressive talents active within the scene today. With over thirty years of experience between them, releasing material via the likes of Freak’n’Chic, Raum…musik and Cadenza plus Djebali’s own self-titled imprint, the pairing now turn their attention to new ground as they make their collaborative debut on FUSE sister imprint Infuse this summer, offering up three fresh productions via their ‘Fraires’ EP alongside a remix from Tel Aviv’s Stephan Bazbaz.

The slow-blooming and hypnotic sonics of ‘101’ open the EP in style as the two talents merge sweeping synth lines atop of warped electronics and slick percussion shots, whilst Stephan Bazbaz’s remix ups the tempo and builds on the original with a combination of energetic builds and icy hats. On the flip, ‘Pigalle’ delves into a deep journey guided by a resonant lead line and hazy background murmurs, before closing with the classy ‘Devote Ville’ – a smooth and well measured production which oozes sophistication and quality from the opening minute.

L’Escalier des Aveugles, or The Stairway of the Blind, was commissioned in November 1990 by Spanish National Radio (Radio Nacional de España). Asked for a piece to premiere as part of the European Day of Music, Luc Ferrari returned with a radiophonic concept that organised his anecdotal music into montage form, sequencing short, elusive narratives in a successive way.

The completed composition is formed of thirteen chapters containing a mixture of environmental and synthesised sound, commentary, chatter, and encounters with people and places. Each focuses on a small event within this playbook, and Ferrari notes that each “in addition to being a realistic photograph, will be the subject of a ‘setting to music’: fragments of voice and atmosphere will be sampled and will produce musical matter or a ‘song’.”

The sonic language of Madrid forms the setting to which Ferrari lays out the persistent theme of the piece, that of the composer being guided throughout the city by a young woman. Using a game-like structure (liners for this edition include Ferrari’s “Regles de Jeu”, or “Rules of the Game” which act as a script or score to the piece) the motivation is posed: imagine that one day you are told “I know a place in Madrid that sounds amazing (or bizarre)”, to which you reply “Let’s go to it together.” The recordings toy with the relationships between guide and tourist, translator, director and actress, and masculine and feminine that emerge as Ferrari and the actresses follow this action, documenting the shared experience and connections they make as they visit these places.

Six actresses guide Ferrari (and the listener) through locations simultaneously ordinary and sonically rich: the metro; the El Corte Inglés department store where we hear the gossip from changing rooms set against music emanating from the PA; vagabonds declaiming their political stance in the Conde de Barajas plaza; interactions buying apples in a market; the reverberant and spacious halls of the Prado Museum where one actress gives a moving description of her favourite painting - Goya’s The 3rd of May 1808.

Ferrari replies in French to their comments in Spanish, and there are several self-referential plots, devices, and word games that flirt with the poetics and rhythm of language and sound. A recital of Lorca’s poem "La Casada Infiel" in “Hommage À Lorca” in amongst the location recordings feels striking, and the call and response of “La Nouvelle de L’Escalier”, where one of the actresses descends the staircase of the blind - a long stone stairway in Madrid proposed to Ferrari as an interesting location to visit during the trip by producer José Iges. She replies to Ferrari’s vocal enunciation of the place (and title) in French - L’Escalier des Aveugles - with the place-name in Spanish: La Escalera de los Ciegos.

Using this repeated title and image of the staircase of the blind as a symbolic place, a line is drawn to a situational landscape experienced and diffused through snapshots and allusion rather than holistically overviewed, sound conjuring pictures within the imagination. In the sensorial qualities of Ferrari’s treatment of emotion and language—fortified with electro-acoustic motifs and musical properties—the piece accelerates towards a render that is truthful, beautiful, yet also surreal; somewhere between theatre and reality, a gonzo cinema of the ear.

Re-release of the record originally released on 2016-02-05!

Remastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin and presented in an exact replica sleeve of the original 1966 release by Stephen O'Malley.

sales information: Black Truffle is honoured to present the first vinyl reissue of the classic debut album from AMM, AMMMusic. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its recording in 1966, this reissue makes one of the cornerstones of the experimental music tradition available again in its original form, replete with Keith Rowe's beautiful pop art cover and the terse aphorisms by the group that served as its original liner notes. A testament to the interaction between the experimental avant-garde and the countercultural underground, the album was originally released on Elektra, recorded by Jac Holzman (the label's founder, responsible for signing The Doors, Love, and The Stooges) and produced by DNA, a group that included Pink Floyd's first manager Peter Jenner. (Pink Floyd paid tribute to AMM's influence on their improvisational sensibility with the track 'Flaming' on their debut album, named after the piece that occupies AMMMusic's first side, 'Later During a Flaming Riviera Sunset').

Formed in 1965 by three players from the emerging British jazz avant-garde - Keith Rowe and Lou Gare had played with the great progressive big band leader Mike Westbrook and Eddie Prévost played in a post-bop group with Gare - AMM quickly evolved from a free jazz group into something decidedly more difficult to categorise. By the time these recordings were made, two more members had joined the group: another Westbrook associate, Lawrence Sheaf, and the radical composer Cornelius Cardew. Then at work on his masterpiece of graphic notation Treatise, Cardew brought with him extensive experience of the post-serialist and Cageian currents in contemporary composition. Using a combination of conventional instruments and unconventional methods of sound production (most famously Keith Rowe's prepared tabletop guitar, but also prepared piano and transistor radio), the group performed improvised pieces often running for over two hours and ranging from extended periods of silence to terrifying cacophonies.

Evan Parker famously described the improvisational logic of AMM's music as 'laminal', in contrast to the 'atomistic' approach more common among the generation of British improvisers (Bailey, Rutherford, Stevens and co.) to which he himself belonged. AMM improvised in layers: layers of sound subtly rising and falling or abruptly starting and stopping without being propelled by the implied pulse of free jazz improvisation. Rather than a pulse, AMM's music began with the sound of the room in which it was played, the Cageian anarchy of silence. By embracing the non-synchronous simultaneity of layered sound, AMM was able to create a musical container into which nearly anything could be incorporated at any moment: on AMMMusic, long tones sit next to abrasive thuds, the howl of uncontrolled feedback accompanies Cardew's purposeful piano chords, radios beam in snatches of orchestral music (and, on the LP's second side, an extended fragment of 'Mockingbird').

AMM's clearest break with jazz-based improvisation concerned the idea of individuality. Where improvised music has tended to foster the development of idiosyncratic stylists who move freely from one group to another, AMM, initially through an engagement with eastern philosophy and mysticism and later though a politicized communitarianism, sought to develop a collective sonic identity in which individual contributions could barely be discerned. In the performances captured on AMMMusic

the use of numerous auxiliary instruments and devices, including radios played by three members of the group, contribute to the sensation that the music is composed as a single monolithic object with multiple facets, rather than as an interaction between five distinct voices.

- Francis Plagne

This is the 4th ep that continues a volume of a 5 ep project. Its own kind of album type edition so to speak. Destination celebrates the drum and bass genre with its own style reminiscent of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. type programming. It fuse’s eclectic beats with a more common flow of bass licks that cruise throughout the track. With a more psychedelic presence this track offers a complexity of rich sounds that will encapsulate any avid lover of electronic music from the headphones to the dance floor. Bouncy and fun yet with deep exploration of ‘Abstract sounds’ bringing a serious edge, Destination is equipped for any explorer seeking any type of Destination. Then comes Arrival. Not an ordinary piece of music, with the artist expressing themselves from past musical influences, to curve their own piece of storytelling art, through audio sonic means. An inner world reflective explanation can be as follows - An epic piece revealing the adventures of seeking depth, from ones dense conscious reality, tribal like mannerisms, traveling to a higher frequency of light and wonder, breaking through to the heart centre of ones own unique truth. By doing so, welding together the whole aspects of being, Arriving at ones own true balance of self. Reuniting with the dense tribal like self yet with a complete transformative understanding of life and self in relation to life as a whole. Ones outer world of reflective explanation can be this - starting from earth, leaving the tribal terrains of earth based reality, exploring out into the cosmic wilderness, looking back from a distance, witnessing Earths magnificence and enigmatic beauty. Continuing to swim out to the depths of the galaxy to ‘Arrive” at an unexpected splendour unknown to the human consciousness ,to a cosmic giant….. giant what? This remains to be unseen! It’s left to the imaginators discretion of wonder within the experience of the audio sonic delights presented in,….. ‘Arrival’.

After years of searching for the elusive sensation of heart-rending beauty, Avondlicht releases his debut album on 3 April, 2020 on all digital platforms. The LP will be out on 8/4.

Hyperromance is the culmination of an emotional and geographical journey, as Belgian producer Matthias Dziwak sought to find and examine idealised moments of true romance within the less-than-romantic reality of existence.

Having already achieved a great deal with his initial run of EPs for labels like PIAS, Fog Mountain and Unit Delta Plus, Antwerp-based Dziwak became obsessed with the concept of Hyperromance – “a moment or idea so heavily romanticised that it seems impossible to be really experienced.” The melancholic feeling it sparked in his heart set him off on a journey through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, via a month-long stay in Amsterdam and finally to settling for six months in Portugal. Throughout this time he made field recordings and began writing pieces that would feed into the finished album. Along the way he found a full spectrum of moments that allowed him to view the world in a truly romantic way, from the majesty of the Andean mountains and the snow falling on the Amsterdamse Grachten to encountering love in Lisbon. At other times he found himself lost, adrift and heartbroken, pulled back to Earth, as is the cyclical nature of the human experience.

Musically, Hyperromance’s grapple with day-to-day reality and rose-tinted fantasy is embodied through the contrast between organic instrumentation and high-definition electronics. Dziwak began writing his songs as simple piano pieces, which then transferred to a staple of synths and sound processing as they became more wholly defined. Sonically, the sound sweeps from modern classical and bombastic electronica to evocative ambient, even touching on jungle and techno along the way. Rather than being defined by genre associations though, Hyperromance is shaped by the swooning beauty of its composition, as the music pulls you in and out of richly rendered moments of joy and pain following Dziwak on his personal journey of truth and beauty. With visceral life experiences woven into the fabric of the record, Hyperromance is expressive on the most intimate level. It’s a record that dazzles with searing bright wonderment and casts creeping shadows as the time passes – a journey as nuanced as life itself, elevated by romance and grounded by reality, beautifully told by Avondlicht.

Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capitol K, is a multi-instrumentalist and record producer with a long history in London’s most interesting under-the-radar music places and spaces. With a musical story like his, you can expect side streams. New record ‘Birdtrapper’ is “the sound of an initiation rave in a utopian hidden village”, and his latest exploration of Mediterranean audio mythos following from ’Goatherder’ (2018). The six track mini-album was similarly formed from ritualistic improvisations performed in Malta (where Capitol K was born), using home-made flutes, reed pipe, bamboo percussion, drum machine, bass guitar, but this time features a wider use of synthesizers, with the alternative dance floor in mind. Where ‘Goatherder’ was an awakening of genetic primitivism, ‘Birdtrapper’ is an evocation of sonic bird callers, proto-rave abandon, ambient resonance and an ecstatic captive state, along with the previous work's visions of hunters, temples and scrub land music
‘Goatherder’ caused a quiet kind of quake and was beloved by The Quietus, BBCR3 and 6Music. Vinyl Factory described it as “like a series of manipulated field recordings that have an ancient, ritualistic quality … Goatherder shimmers with Balearic strangeness, rooted in an earthy outer-national dance music tradition”. For the last seven years K has been behind the consoles at the heavily influential Total Refreshment Centre, recording and mixing records with the likes of Trash Kit, The Comet Is Coming, Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume, Dry Cleaning, Flamingods Cykada, Ibibio Sound Machine, BAS JAN and John Johanna. It’s not just recording. He’s also become an influential if understated mentor to a new wave of producers and bands. His experience in studio environments is long and storied, including stints at Studio Plateaux on an island in the middle of the Thames and in the Royal Symphonia’s squatted rehearsal rooms. Capitol K has released seven albums and the 'Birdtapper EP' follows a legacy of influential releases on early 2000s electronica labels including Planet Mu and XL. Aside this he also runs the record label Faith & Industry. It’s a friends and family, love not money affair and he has released music by Champagne Dub, John Johanna, Super Best Friends Club, Blue House & Clémentine March.

The Current Inside”, Marja Ahti's sophomore album for Hallow Ground, plays with the theme of currents - connecting and animating movements in the form of air, water and electricity. It approaches sound as a poetic medium, focusing both on the experience of sound as form and energy and on a loosely narrative arc, suggesting a riddle on the relations between the sounds. It implements alternative as well as intuitive tunings, analog and digital synthesis, recordings of sonorous spaces and vessels, electromagnetic fields transduced into audio, acoustic close-ups of elements in motion and other field recordings. Fluently connecting quite diverse sound sources, Ahti's music lingers in a zone between abstract sonorities and vaguely familiar acoustic environments.

The first half of the album consists of ”The Altitudes”, a piece commissioned by Ina GRM for Présences Électronique and Sonic Acts. It was inspired by descriptions of the layers of Earth's atmosphere. Imagining a movement through layers of air, the piece unfolds with a slow intensity, interweaving concrete sounds and closely tuned electronic sonorities. Traversing the altitudes, a landscape of entangled elements, masses and currents emerges. The air around us has weight and it presses against everything it touches. As gravity pulls it to Earth, it is sensed as pressure. The rotation of the planet, the angle of the sun at any new moment sets the elements in motion in a chain reaction.

The other side consists of four shorter pieces. ”The Currents” opens with a dance of trembling charged movements. ”Lost Lake” extracts resonant tones from a trail of close-up recordings of winter environments, while ”Fluctuating Streams” channels streaming air in different forms. The closing track, ”Sundial”, could be construed as the steady turning of the planetary angle towards the sun, unfolding through fragments of everyday activity against the backdrop of piercing, slowly twisting, suspended tone.

Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a musician and composer based in Turku, Finland. Originally from Sweden, Ahti has been a part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years in different constellations. She is currently active in the duo Ahti & Ahti with her partner and as a member of the Himera artist/organizer collective. Her critically acclaimed 2019 solo debut, Vegetal Negatives, explored a new formal language and sonic palette inspired by a short text by René Daumal.

Gigantic producer/DJ from Scotland, Creep Woland, lands back on the Astral Black heli-pad with his 'Chamberlain' EP. Four blistering breaks-led, club ready, jungle tracks intended as an ode to the rolling bass and rainy days that raised him. Picking up near enough where his Close Reading debut left off, Chamberlain sees a more refined and honed execution of the hard hitting electronica Woland has become known for.

Informed by the experience of playing to dance-floors, as well as educational journeys down to London for radio sets, these new tracks are fine tuned and bass heavy - perfect for existential club experiences or the driving of sports vehicles. The subdued intrigue of EP opener 'Imposter Syndrome' sets the mystical and reflective tone of the record, while down the line junglist anthems 'Medieval Draw' and '0800-Falkirk Triangle' call for slow motion gun finger. Written at a time of personal hardship and mastery of oneself, the hopeful promise of closer 'Lord Chamberlain' acts as a sonic representation of the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel of this particular time in Woland's life.

Recently, Chamberlain EP's 'Imposter Syndrome' has been receiving early radio support from Rinse FM's Jossy Mitsu & Impey on NTS, whilst his debut release Close Reading received radio support from the likes of Josey Rebelle (in her award-winning Essential Mix), Om-Unit and JD. Reid as well as critical acclaim from FACT, CLASH & Hyponik. In addition to its various accolades, Close Reading also lead to Woland being handpicked by Lanark Artefax as the opening act for his 'Enter The Gateway' performance, and has since performed alongside the likes of Om-Unit, Proc Fiskal, DJ Storm and more.

Vinyl Only, Limited to 150 copies

Mysterious Berlin label MASK return in 2020 with a vinyl only release consisting of a pair of raw cuts entitled ‘Marilyn’.
MASK preserve their esoteric philosophy of delivering well-crafted, modulated house and techno cuts produced on hardware equipment and ‘Marilyn’ certainly follows suit. MASK releases are the result of anonymous artists live jamming together in unison with the first five releases picking up support from the
likes of Laurent Garnier, Marcel Dettmann, Elena Colombi, Machine Woman and many more.
The A side is 13-minute voyage featuring fluttering, resonant drums, lo-fi synth stabs and growling oscillations that take the focus in the later stages while on the B side sweeping pads, spacey undertones and squelchy, acid soaked sci-fi elements keep the sonical experience obscure yet fascinating throughout.

2x12"

Circle Vision proudly presents the anticipated debut album of Copenhagen producer and label head RDG aka. Ruben Nielsen.

"Planetary Sound Fiction" marks the Danish label's 10th release with a subbed-out panoramic trip deep into the current state and future of bass music, with sound allies Killa P, Rider Shafique, K Man, Ill Chill, Monti and Yaa Aisin all complementing the hands and ears of the accomplished Danish producer throughout the album.

Drawing on experience from decades of DJing, musical production, sound engineering and intergalactic excursions, RDG has thoroughly matured his undeniable skill of orbiting and perfectly blending the dimensions of jungle, dubstep, techno, DnB, experimental, leftfield and downtempo music into a coherent and captivating sonic journey.

Following more than 25 EP releases over the past 10 years, "Planetary Sound Fiction" is by far RDG's most exhaustive work to date and presents a sound, encompassing anything else released by the Danish producer so far.

Like an ode to your Walkman and to those 90-minute tapes that you used to rewind with your pen, DA BREAK's first LP was all about Funk & Hip Hop 90's flavors. Like an ode to your Walkman and to those 90-minute tapes that you used to rewind with your pen, DA BREAK's first LP was all about Funk & Hip Hop 90's flavors. This was completely unexpected, a major learning experience, and above all a lot of fun and gave the Lyon-based gang a whole lot of ideas for the next stage in their musical journey, propelling them towards new musical horizons: infectious riddims with grooving keyboard & guitar licks as their bedrock and free association leading them into jazz, broken beat, soul or disco vibes … During the creation of Let It Shine, all doors were wide open and all musical genres potentially welcome. The production still has a « home made » feel to it, like the previous album, but with a modern, sonic twist when needed- a result of three years on the road together and new creative input from group members. Whether it be on a New York summertime roof-top, or settled in a Low-Rider with some G-Funk, or moving to some phat Jamaican style bass-lines or getting sensual on a tight breakbeat, lead singer Hawa knows how to shine her feminine and versatile brilliance on the project. She gives to the songs the final touch and the emotion needed to share with us her stories about human relationships - everyday tales sharing her real life-experience. This ever-expanding musical spectrum, Da Break play with it, explore it and also let it kick
completely free at times ! Song after song, they bring a magic glow to LET IT SHINE.

Following the 360-degree drum & bass experience that is ‘Waveforms’, Logistics continues his three-part EP series, linking the sounds of past, present and future on the ‘Headspace’ EP. With seven solo albums, six EPs and several collaborative releases under his belt, Logistics is one of Hospital Records’ most prolific artists. He’s joined by the lyrical extraordinaire Inja and the vocal stylings of family mainstay Thomas Oliver. Opening this four-track EP is ‘Stay True’, a sublime dose of rolling liquid with the workings of New Zealand’s singer/songwriter Thomas Oliver. Atmospheric pads, nimble organ work and graceful harmonies come together for an elegant dose of Logistics’ drum & bass mastery. Following a path of deeper liquid is ‘Rebuild’ with its low rumbling frequencies and super sharp sonics, topped with layers of mysterious atmospherics. On a darker tangent is the title track, ‘Headspace’, rolling and hypnotic, it’s a testament of Logistics’ long-standing ability to carve out timeless, melodic grooves. Switching up the vibe is ‘Brand New Beginning’ featuring the enigmatic Inja. Setting the tone with tranquil hip-hop beats, this nod to Inja’s history outside of drum & bass transitions into an upbeat number, beaming with Inja’s trademark positivity. As one of the most renowned artists in drum & bass, Logistics’ reputation is far-reaching with regular presence across major radio airwaves with support from the likes of the BBC’s Annie Mac, Rene LaVice and Mary Anne Hobbs. He can be found at festivals and events worldwide in 2020 including a main stage set at the forthcoming London D+B takeover, Hospitality Returns To The Dock.

Given Jones' rather slack approach to track titles (both being consistent with and sometimes even just supplying them), it's a bit of a relief to realize that two tracks with the same name are indeed related. In the case of "Arab Jerusalem", which makes up nearly half of the newly-released Lalique Gadaffi Handgrenade, that kinship is immediately apparent even though both tracks are clearly their own experiences. Released as the first track on the Minaret-Spearker picture disc 7" in 1996, "Arab Jeruzalem" (spelling also sometimes being fairly slack) is 5:42 of effectively shifting dark ambience, wordless female vocals drifting over the hand percussion, chimes, and static of the track, with eventual conversational loops discussing ... something underneath.

The end of that version is especially striking for the way the woman's wordless singing starts being sampled in such a way that it overlays the whole track (and, slightly, itself). The almost 24-minute "Arab Jerusalem" here might be called the Deer Hunter version of the same story, building with great patience and many more abstract detours towards what now seems like simultaneously an excerpt and, now, a climax.

As with many of Jones' more ambient tracks, the great length just lets it cast its spell more thoroughly and entrancingly. The other three tracks, meanwhile, suggest some of Jones' other work but never evoke them as directly as "Arab Jerusalem". "Jordan River" is nearly as long (a second shy of 20 minutes) but strips out the vocal elements in its predecessor, focusing instead on a more active percussive workout (analogue and digital both) and a river of hiss running down the center of the track. The title track of Lalique Gadaffi Handgrenade might bring to mind the title of "Lalique Gadaffi Jar" from Libya Tour Guide (last reissued by Staalplaat in 2015), but if they're sonically related Jones must have practically melted the other track to get this one.

And the closing "Desert Gulag" (like the title track, a much more manageable length than the first two epic tracks here) bears a slight resemblance to "Negev Gulag" from 1996's Fatah Guerrilla, here what was a piercing, repetitive drone is softened and looped over more of Jones' percussion. The result is a well-rounded release that shows off many aspects of Jones' sound as Muslimgauze, while existing (like many of these DAT tapes do) in conversation with much of his previously released work.