Cerca:technique

Carved out from between the cracks of life over a 2 year period, Low Flung presents his eighth full length album ‘The Wheel’. Together, the 11 tracks provide a space to process and sit with difficult change. This takes the form of microscopic minimalist landscapes. Presented in both audio and physical form as micro grooves on a 12” vinyl.

At times the sound wanders and walks, other times it remains still, clear and precise. The omni-present artifacts found in ‘The Wheel’ are left to breathe a different life during each listen. Drones act like familiar trails losing their path as space transforms like a breeze over a table of sand. Hyper focused spores evolve around blurred waves of time. Electronic tones are captured flowing to the rhythm of a decaying natural world.

‘The Wheel’ is a patchwork of sonic experiments made using modular synthesis, fixed architecture synthesis, Buchla Music Easel (replica), outboard effects, cassette manipulation techniques, samplers and field recordings taken along the texturally rich and historically questionable eastern coastline of Australia.

The tracks have been composed with a materiality that embraces the acoustics of different listening environments. Much like mood, this means each listening experience is unique due to the natural acoustics of your listening space. The sounds on this album embrace this phenomena, creating a rich, visceral listening experience that slowly scratches away at discrete moments of time

Rather than attempting to traverse new sonic fields of experimentation in ‘The Wheel’, the album touches on the various spaces Danny has explored over the past ten years as an Audio Visual artist. Although technically eighth, it would be more fitting to say this album draws a clear line from ‘Blow Waves (2018)’ to ‘Outside The Circle (2020)’ to become the third and final chapter in the expanded non linear, unintentional landscape series. Serendipitous that each was conceived over 2 year periods of time.

While the key focus is sitting with difficult change, this album is also a celebration of any moment you might find yourself in. Good, bad, easy or hard, this album is an attempt to help with feeling content wherever you are along your path. With each cycle a new context.

Eternally Frozen consists of a series of canon based compositions for brass ensemble, percussion and synthesizer by Andrea Belfi. The canon is an ancient compositional technique in which an initial melody is imitated at a specified time interval by one or more parts, creating illusionary never-ending musical journeys.

The work is inspired by the evocative image of the Deprong Mori, a mythological bat with the alleged ability to fly through solid matter by bending atoms by its natural skill of audio echolocation. The myth suggests that one of these bats had been “eternally frozen” in a wall of solid lead in 1952 by the researcher of the Rockefeller University, Donald R. Griffith. This story is exhibited in a display at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, an institution renowned for both speculative, fantastical reinforcement of mythology and playful and beguiling distortions of mysterious could-be truths.

Both the canon and the “frozen” Deprong Mori are man-made illusory simulations of eternity. Their attempt is to create mirages, where the insinuation of facts is more meaningful than the reality.

After many years of sonic explorations with percussion, drums, and electronics, Belfi is here projecting himself as a composer through the direction of an astonishing brass ensemble in the realization of these canonic works. There are evident echoes of the works of Arthur Russell, Miles Davis, Moondog, William Basinski, and the Italian soundtrack tradition of Ennio Morricone and Egisto Macchi.

On Delta Estácio Blues, São-Paulo-based singer, composer and actor, Juçara Marçal delivers an electric, unflinching take on contemporary Brazil where samba, tropicalia and maracatu are reimagined via hip-hop production techniques.

Created under an oppressive political climate as Brazil suffered from the pandemic, pain, anguish, chaos and anger run through Delta Estácio Blues. Co-produced by Marçal with fellow Metá Metá founder Kiko Dinucci the album was partly inspired by Danny Brown’s 2017
leftfield rap masterwork ‘Atrocity Exhibition’.

For fans of: Metá Metá, Moor Mother, Kiko Dinucci, Damon Locks, Neneh Cherry

The roots of Leo Anibaldi's sound. “Pro Pop” (2023) is his first instrumental hip hop album, or an incredible mix of different musical genres, always among his favorite listens, as well as a constant source of inspiration during his 'early life' as an electronic producer. The 'second' starts now. Over the months of the pandemic, the historic Italian artist has literally centrifuged blues, funk, jazz, r 'n' b and, of course, hip hop sounds within eleven brand new songs. The idea behind the project entrusted to Neo Life Records is simple: create music that can be enjoyed by everyone and listened to in company in all circumstances. A choice that also coincides with an 'old school' recording technique with old 60s microphones and tape recorders in order to obtain an apparently 'dated' sound with a melancholy background. “Pro Pop” thus embodies a different style than the noisy glories of a rave past, revealing his desire to get back into the game once more and, above all, to continue experimenting. After branding the history of made in Italy techno, experimenting with acid, breakbeat and house sounds, here is a more intimate Leo Anibaldi and, as always, against the tide.

Jazz music has more than its fair share of overshadowed figures that whilst contributing much to the music have little presence in its collective conscious. One such musician is the talented multi-reedist, Sahib Shihab. Born Edmond Gregory, as he was known before he adopted the Muslim faith in 1946, Sahib Shihab's music background shows a deep and significant evolution, influenced by Thelonious Monk, Dizzie Gillespie (his experience in Dizzie's band marked Sahib's switch to Baritone, the instrument he became most readily associated with), and above all by Charlie Parker's Bop. Had it not been for the post-war migration of many top American jazz musicians to Europe, it is quite likely that the legendary Clarke-Boland Big Band might never come into existence. Sahib, one of this musicians disillusioned with the politics and racism of the United States, accepted to join the band of Quincy Jones for an European tour in 1959. When the tour ended, Shihab he remained in Europe where he joined, in 1961, the Clarke-Boland Big Band. The collection 'Companionship', whose line up consists of seven elements which derives from this original band, spotlights the consummate musicianship and individuality of Sahib Shihab and is testimony to his special musical gifts - not only as a top-rank flautist and baritone saxophone but also as a composer. Furthermore, it provides a welcome reminder of the high quality of the Clarke-Boland Big Band's rhythm section, the lively style of vibraphonist Fats Sadi and the power and personality of two of the C-BBB's horn-playing stalwarts, Benny Bailey and Ake Persson. Here's a real rarity, surely a desert island disc. This double album has it all from frantic banging percussive workouts to modal numbers to beautiful ballads. It's a staggeringly good piece of music and worth every penny of the price tag it commands. Let's have a look to the most significant pieces. Francy Boland's "Om Mani Padme Hum", taken from a Tibetan prayer, shows Shihab in exuberant mood, playing against a vigorous percussion background and making dramatic use of his special technique of combining voice and flute. Boland contributes an incisive, effervescent solo. "Bohemia After Dark", a classic original by bassist Oscar Pettiford which he first recorded back in August 1955, finds Shihab in exultant form on baritone. "Companionship" has a Bossa Nova beat and features Bailey on flugelhorn and Shihab on flute, playing with a limpid, floating sound. Bailey's minor-key original, "Stoned Ghosts" was, he says, inspired by listening to some music written by Bela Bartok before he emigrated to the United States. The piece has an infectious back-beat pulse and showcases the superb walking technique of Jimmy Woode. In "Con Alma" Shihab's mellow flute set against a churning 12/8 beat in this stylish Boland arrangement. Woode's performance of the superb Mei Torme ballad, "Born To Be Blue", reveals his great affection for the song. "lt is the perfect combination," he says, "a beautiful melody married to a great lyric. I really love that tune." It is a song of rueful resignation, putting a brave face on the blues. "Balafon" is an up-tempo Francy Boland original written for the French mime artist, Marcel Marceau. The rhythm section really cooks on this track with Kenny Clarke's cymbal work outstanding. Boland's solo here is notable for its neat, left hand punctuations. "Calypso Blues" has been written by Nat King Cole and Don George. lt tells the wry and wistful tale of a Trinidadian in New York desperately homesick for the land where everything 5 so much cheaper (in New York "a dollar buy, a cup of coffee and a ham on rye") and the girls more natural than the artificial, painted beauties of New York. Woode's composition, "Sconsolato" is a haunting theme in A minor and it brings to a close a truly fascinating album. This is dynamic music played with vigour, verve and vitality - and it is an enormous pleasure to rediscover it. A shadowy fugitive from his home in the land of jazz, Sahib Shihab remains a true unsung figure, worthy of more attention. With his equally expert technique on Baritone, Flute, Alto and Soprano saxophones and his capacity to adapt easily to a variety of musical settings. His warm, individual, singsong sound in improvisation and his unusual and interesting compositions mark him out as a hidden treasure in the dusty corners of jazz archive.

Duane Pitre's Varolii Patterns was made with an eight-voice synthesizer, tuned in Just Intonation. These consonant pieces explore shifting polyrhythms that slip in and out of rhythmic focus and "Common Rhythmic Pulses" that carry over as the pattern evolves within a piece.

Duane Pitre's statement:
"While experimenting with microtonal electronics for a piece I was writing for Zinc & Copper, which would eventually be titled Pons, I came across a process-based technique that I was quite keen on. Although I wouldn't use this technique on the Zinc & Copper piece, I would later implement said process to make up some of the electronics on Omniscient Voices. During this time I carried out dozens and dozens of instances of this process and recorded them all. Varolii Patterns is composed of a small collection of these recorded takes, ones I felt were stand alone pieces on their own and that worked well together as a whole."

Subtil's 25th release signs Romanian duo Alsi, formed by Alex Florea (Limpid) and Silviu Tanase (Einzig), marking their debut on the imprint. Since 2016, Alsi have created their very-own concoction of minimal, hypnotic and profound music, showcasing sharp drum programming skills and creative, intensely detailed sound synthesis.

'Madness EP' sees Alsi at the top of their game, displaying three tracks brimming with power, detail and bold sophistication. Under the infinite structures of expertly crafted rhythmic syncopations and hefty basslines, and as indicated by the EP's name, the themes of madness, hallucination, and hypnosis echo through the entire sonic palette. Such sound design techniques evoke several mental states one usually doesn't find in minimal techno, certifying there are enough layers of musicality for the boldest of DJs and the most curious of listeners.

Amsterdam based DJ and producer Mayo joins the Fides family with her Frenemies EP marking the 15th release of Fides Records.

Mayo showcases 5 cuts of finely crafted electro and EBM-influenced Techno, it's impossible not to be drawn by her distorted voice that defines each track.

Unrelenting grooves and a deeper look into her analog sound design flair, these tracks are timeless in sound and production quality.

“Tell me how you die” kicks it off as the A1 with stomping analog kick and drums, a dark jumping bassline pushing the groove with ethereal synths.

“Not your shadow” as the A2 strips it back into a 303Acidbass-based track marked by singular industrial sounds and Vocal Shots that are lost in the groove carried by a background synth sequence that follows throughout the track.

The last track of the A Side is “Frenemies” a pulsing, meditative composition featuring label owner and Tresor resident Z.I.P.P.O, who added to Mayo's energetic, analog and eventually dark sense, a more mental, deep and intense face typical of the Italian artist. The B Side starts with Miami Legend Danny Daze’s Hell Mix of “Frenemies” in which he exhibits his unique sound design techniques, combining tribal-tinged rhythm, sharp FX that pops up from the corners of the soundscape with stretched vocals in order to highlight the track's protagonist: a modulated brass bass.

Mary Lake’s Remix of “Tell Me How you Die” closes the EP with a deep kick drum driven forward with rolling and modulated closed hats that run through the track while atmospheric sounds carry the filtered Brass before dissolving into the end of the track.

One of those tracks you simply can't forget - perhaps because it's a hard one to put in any specific genre category - laying somewhere in between the realms of synth pop and italo disco with hints of even new beat, this Austrian diggers delight has been haunting Discogs want-lists for years. Aesthetically smooth and sexy (as it shares chord changes with non other than “Careless Whisper”) but with accents of less orthodox production techniques in the “Wunderbar” mix emphasize a uniquely charming playfulness. Originally released as a 7” single, THANKYOU brings it back to your record collections now in a 12” format with an additional extended cut by Castro for those of you who might have thought the original was just a little too short. Remastered by Man Made Mastering.

Drawing from a strong history of electronic influence, Tomashevsky has created his own underworld of foreboding techno. We enter this EP with Incoherent, which exudes ominous sounds - reminiscent of murky radar blips that may be heard deep underwater in the metallic bowels of a submarine. Bubbling electronic delays remain adjoined to these metronomic blips and oer lateral, spontaneous movement around an otherwise sturdy song structure. Jittery melodies scatter nervously under lead elements, remaining disjointed and resulting in increased energy and a darkened excitement.

As we move through the EP, we face ups and downs, both in tempo and mood. Leading on from the first, Rollback is destabilizing, energetic and mean in all the right ways. Wobbling low ends open into a mood of uncertainty, held in place only by the stability of the drums. Rollback suits a peak-time club atmosphere thanks to the gritty synth leads and fast-paced feel.

Ending with the two tracks on the B-side, Tomashevsky still seeks to surprise. Rejected seems to be a distant relative of the Incoherent, following the synthetic blip structure but allowing snares and other percussions to build more prominently. Finally, we arrive at the closing track which marks itself as more obscure. Leaning on kick drum patterns initially reminiscent of electro/breaks, the use of half-time tempo gives a change of pace and a platform for a slightly different song structure and mixing potential.

Mesmeric and entrancing, these songs give any DJ or listener to chance to turn mind chatter o and lock into a hypnotic groove. Drawing on classically techno foundations, Tomashevsky has tipped his hat to the founders of the genre whilst adding his own flavour and subtle techniques that make this EP shine.

Wooohaaa! The figure 8 always meant more to us than just a symbol on your screen. For this very reason on our eighth vinyl release from Minor Notes Recordings we’re featuring non other than the legendary producer BMB SpaceKid. Stemming from St. Petersburg and from an early age, BMB proved himself to be an extraordinary musician. Able produces top quality compositions with ease, and in any style, but all with his unique twist.

To date BMB is best known in hip-hop circles as he made album beats for many key underground rap artists. He also went international and produced joint tracks with Dj Premier, Anderson Paak, Raekwon, GoldLink and many others.
BMB has also performed at the Fabric Club in London, the Outlook Origins festival, live on Boiler Room and BBC Radio 1. He also participated in the Red Bull Bass Camp and the Hip-Hop Academy.

On the record "Taste Booster" BMB SpaceKid showcases his taste and skills in the production of house style dance music. A tribute to the traditions of African-American music, the virtuoso mastery of MPC and sampling techniques, and an outstanding approach to melodic rhythms.
We are convinced that this record will appeal to everyone who loves true house music, acting as a breath of fresh air. To enhance the overall effect we invited one of our favorite French producers Art Of Tones, who for a long time, and just like us, has been promoting the organic sound of electronic music 4x4.

Four years in the making, Duct Tape Project is the new brainchild of Tripmastaz in the realms of Trip-Hop and Downtempo. And it's a project that makes perfect sense to anyone familiar with Andrei's background (making Hip-Hop beats since his teenage years), musical capabilities and decades-long experience. Duct Tape Project joins Andrei with a troupe of stellar musicians not only from many different corners of the world but also from acutely distinct genres - Guti, Argenis Brito, Mad Dim, Denis Kaznacheev, Krussia, Damien Vandesande of DOP, Sarkis Ricci, Andrey Orenstein, and vocals by Inga.

Featuring all sorts of live instruments, drum machines, synthesizers and modular systems, Duct Tape Project brings forward a complex work brimming with musicality. Using Hip-Hop, not only its rhythmic structures but also its sampling techniques, as a foundation, Tripmastaz created a vibrant and fascinating ecosystem with enough sonic texture to leave one captivated, enraptured and lost at the edge of words. There are 13 musical compositions in total that explore all things Hip-Hop, Downtempo, Trip-Hop, Chill Pop and Lounge, forming a cohesive and deeply soulful album.

The Minneapolis-raised DJ/Producer’s second album following 2014’s ‘Monoliths’ lands on Radio Slave’s Rekids imprint in November.

Although based in Berlin for several years, Dustin Zahn has continued to exert influence over the fertile but steadfastly underground Minneapolis techno scene as part of the Intellephunk collective whilst cultivating a worldwide rep via releases for Blueprint, Token and his own Enemy Records. The ‘Gain of Function’ LP sees Zahn channelling the groove-fuelled techno of the late ’90s and early ’00s and shaping eight powerful but funky contemporary techno tracks that display the decades of experience under his belt.

Forged from a series of live jams with two drum machines and two synths, the album is a refined collection of raw, purist techno brilliance. Across the A-side ‘Tell Me About Paradise’ brings shimmering staccato chops under bright and airy percussion before ‘Tangie Groove’ picks up the pace with floating pads, vocal slices, and a rumbling bassline. On ‘Lucid Dreams’, scattered percussion plays with hypnotic synth licks, while ‘Smoking in Silence’ sees off-kilter leads dancing between emotive vocals and evolving drum loops.

Opening the second disc is the deep and shuffling ‘Crimson Cheeks’, with trance-inducing samples nestled between sharp drum hits and rolling synthesis, and ‘Days Like These’ takes a darker turn as twinkling arps and droning pads carry the track. ‘Shark Rodeo’ featuring Jeremy Black mangles samples into a dense rolling affair, before closing number ‘Next Level Looseness’ drops the 4/4 pattern for a raucous club track, combining oddball sound sources and unruly production techniques for a trippy finish to the album.

Since the late ’90s, Zahn’s hypnotic and driving techno has consistently caught the ears of top DJs and labels worldwide, with anyone catching his marathon sets at the likes of Berghain exposed to expansive sets. In addition to his techno-heavy catalogue and DJing prowess, Zahn has lent production and engineering skills to bands and singers, recently working with Poliça and on Carm’s Pitchfork approved eponymous album. Beyond this, his vital work with Intellephunk includes the nearly two decades long running Communion after-hours events, cementing his invaluable contributions to the scene.

We first discovered this when Noir recieved the promo from Ten Ven.Noir then started spreading the word about his love for this new 'Ten Ven' act and shortly after we were generously offered to release it on Noir Music.
We did not hesitate for a second to sign this and we are delighted to be able to present such a great 4-tracker on the label from a new and exciting act. Not only do we believe that Ten Ven could be the next big thing but we also strongly believe that these solid house grooves might lead the way of the changes in the underground this year. Its a throw-back to french and filtered house as it started out more than 20 years ago melted into todays production techniques. It's super refreshing to hear this sound again and we promise there's more to come over the summer period.

Since he started producing music, Berlin-based American sound artist Jake Muir has been obsessed with sampling. His 2018 album "Lady's Mantle" was based on manipulated chunks of vintage Californian surf rock, and its follow-up, 2020's midnight symphony "The Hum Of Your Veiled Voice" was sourced from a wide variety of old records, and inspired by the work of experimental turntablists like Marina Rosenfeld, Janek Schaefer and Philip Jeck.

On "Mana", Muir looks back to a misunderstood musical movement. Around 1995, a group of New York producers and DJs - including DJ Olive, DJ Spooky and Spectre - pioneered a genre-dissolving sound by unifying hip-hop techniques with ideas pulled from dub, jungle, ambient music and industrial noise. Badged "illbient", it was a short-lived genre that felt like a high-minded psychedelic cousin of the UK's trip-hop.

Muir uses illbient as the springboard for "Mana", utilizing a selection of samples to inform his frothy drones and foreboding atmospheres. He ushers the material into 2021 by diverting it through his own contemporary worldview, attempting to recreate the hyperreal fantasy histories of Japanese RPGs (think "Dark Souls" and "Final Fantasy") and nod to sensual, tactile soundscapes of European industrial labels Staalplaat and Soleilmoon. The result is a magickal, sensory journey that's as physical as it is representational.

If the illbient producers were encouraging a burgeoning experimental music landscape to emphasize the tactile feeling of turntablism and sample manipulation, Muir is doing the same with "Mana". Each track heaves and breathes not just with his cultural reference points, but with layered, complicated emotions. We can hear joy, sadness, desire and anguish, obscured by disintegrating noise, hallucinogenic harmonies and sub-aquatic bass. It's electronic music that's rooted not in technology, but in touch.

It is with great joy that we present the Mr Bongo edition of Marcos Valle's 1983 self-titled masterpiece. A pure vintage that features the ultimate Brazilian-boogie cult-classic ‘Estrelar’ and iconic 80s cover art that sees a gloriously sun-drenched Marcos dressed in a pink v-neck t-shirt surrounded by a generous selection of deadly-looking neon cocktails.

The album was produced by the legendary Lincoln Olivetti and Marcos' brother Paulo Sérgio Valle. It showcases a real who's who of Brazilian music at the time, with stellar performances from vocalists and musicians such as Rosana, Serginho Do Trombone, Robson Jorge and Oberdan Magalhães to name but a few. This was Marcos’ second album, after having moved back to Brazil from his time living in Los Angeles, and that US influence is evident through its prominent boogie, soul and funk sounds. It also features collaborations with the US singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, keyboardist, and record producer, Leon Ware, who co-penned three tracks including 'Estrelar'. To complete the album there are tracks such as 'Fogo Do Sol', which is pure AOR / Balaeric vibes, and tracks that are more MPB and pop-inspired, making a well-balanced track list for both home-listening pleasure and dancefloor business.

What could we do to give one of Marcos' most celebrated albums the treatment it deserved and produce the most definitive re-issue possible? The answer was to enlist the services of Miles Showell, Abbey Road Studios Mastering and lacquer-cutting engineer and all-around audio-magician, to cut a special half-speed master edition. Miles had previously worked his half-speed magic on our Arthur Verocai album re-issue, and once again we are totally blown away by the richness which Miles has brought out in his mastering technique. He has enhanced the listening experience and taken this wonderful album to another level.

To celebrate the release we have pressed up several vinyl versions; both standard master, and Miles' half-speed mastering editions on Black vinyl, alongside special limited edition Rose and Mint-Green coloured vinyl variants that were inspired by the audacious-looking cocktails on the cover - sheer 80s excess!

The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in Düsseldorf, Germany 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums.

Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. AUTOBAHN 1974, RADIO-ACTIVITY 1975, TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS 1977, THE MAN-MACHINE 1978, COMPUTER WORLD 1981, TECHNO POP 1986, THE MIX 1991, TOUR DE FRANCE 2003. Their compositions, using innovative techniques, electronic sounds and synthetic voices combined with computerised rhythms, had a major musical influence on Electro, Hip Hop, Techno and Synth-Pop. 

We are honored to release the debut album from Violet, the alias of Inês Borges Coutinho, Lisbon born and raised DJ, producer boss of Naive records, co-founder of Rádio Quântica, and mina resident. Violet began producing music in 2012 and has released music on One Eyed Jacks, Love on the Rocks, Paraíso and Naive. Inês uses her seemingly boundless energy to amplify other artists all the while progressing her own creative practice.

‘Bed of Roses’ contains 10 songs made as a sort of childhood-teenage memories diary, a return to things Inês liked then and also the difficult things she’s been through. The feeling behind the album is self forgiveness in an optimistic way but also in an adult way, aware of the bruises (thorns) but also of the invaluable love and life experiences (roses). The title comes from the Bon Jovi song that Inês loved as a 9-year old and doubles as an intent of positivity paired with the inescapable darkness of life. Inês says, “I wrote this music as a healing device that I hope can somehow help heal others too.” All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The jacket features an original design by Eloise Leigh that incorporates themes of self-inspection and hope mixing a teen bedroom girly vintage scrapbook aesthetic with contemporary 3D mapping techniques. Each LP contains a postcard featuring a childhood photo of Inês with notes.

After more than 30 years Early Sounds and Halfway Ritmo are finally releasing unpublished recordings (1982-1989) from former Tangerine Dream and Iggy Pop's drummer Klaus Krüger.
Advanced Dance combines a sweeping mix of Krüger's handcrafted acoustic drums and distinctive electronic sounds of the late Berlin-School years, creating a unique blend of advanced polyrhythms.
Krüger achieved a balance between creativity and classic drum patterns giving birth to an unconventional and avant-garde type of music that could be easily defined as a precursor of techno.
His progressive mentality led him to delve further into the tape collage technique and unique ways of triggering his drums. It was a whole new world of music - sustained by his artistic surroundings, which included collaborations as well as friendships with other influential artists such as David Bowie, Martin Kippenberger and Helmut Newton.
In the time of German division, the pulsating West Berlin became a melting pot of creativity and international encounters. Advanced Dance is the result of the blazing heat feeding the unstoppable thirst of discovery which characterized that generation, creating tunes that transform the listener's experience into one blissful moment amidst beautiful confusion.

Parasole's music fits the bill for cutting-edge electronic music. Infrared Vision is a display of his love for polyrhythmic drum patterns, post-club sketches, twisted dance floor gems and classy, big room-ready tunes.
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Few words of the artist:

''When I started to conceptualize my album I had a few end goals'', explains Parasole. ''I wanted to string my own style through Infrared Vision, so it would be familiar to the people who like my music. In tandem, I strived to produce a fresh voice sonically and experimented with a few new production techniques. I also grabbed ideas outside of techno and house, because I didn't want to be influenced by anything new. I was listening to a lot of jazz, hip-hop, Nine Inch Nails and Prince for example.''

Parasole took his time to write, produce and record Infrared Vision, dividing the process into three steps. ''First I wrote the album in words, pinning down ideas and track concepts on a notepad. Subsequently I transferred my ideas to my gear. Due to a heavy tour schedule I sometimes brought gear with me on the road, to continue my sketch process on the hardware. I then recorded it at home and at Phil Moffa's studio in New York. When the music was fully finished the album morphed to its final version. Phil Moffa laid down the final mixdown at Butcha Sound Studios, while Marco Spaventi handled the mastering.''

Immersed in the early days of the 90s midwest rave scene, Bill Converse began DJing at a young age in Lansing, Michigan. Luminaries such as Claude Young, Traxx, and Twonz were key early influences. Since moving to Texas in 1998, he has experimented with analog techniques in varied studio bunkers. Early techno, noise, ambient, tape, and paranormal processing are all part of his uncanny sound palette. Warehouse Invocation' is Converse's debut 12 release, collecting material from a cassette release on Obsolete Future plus a new unreleased song. Three of the tracks, Warehouse Invocation', Senys Magick' and Consulted Acid', were recorded in Austin TX between 2012-2013 at home and direct to tape with no overdubs or multi-tracking. Riverbank' was also recorded at home in early 2014 in one take with a mic placed outside of the window to record the the sounds of the river late at night. Bill is informed by his surroundings, influenced by scenes of desolation in nature, the sea, the desert, and places of industry, like power stations, old factories, and warehouses. The songs on this EP length reveal a sublime influence from Detroit techno, early Chicago house, and Acid. The album was recorded and mixed by Bill at his home studio in Austin and mastered by Dave Alex. All songs were EQed for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. A custom-made jacket designed by Eloise Leigh features a mystical collage by Josua Dorje Ngodup with acid yellow hues on a deep blue-purple background. Each copy includes a postcard with notes and a Buddhist mandala

Honey Soundsystem releases 'Cosmologist', the latest offering from our Resident DJ: Robert Yang aka Bézier. A multi-instrumentalist, Robert was trained in saxophone starting at age 10, before moving onto a Fender Telecaster after high school. After being exposed to Southern California rave culture in the late 90s, he moved onto DJing and collecting records. By the time he planted his roots in San Francisco in 2005, Robert had built an impressive analog synth-based studio, which also serves as the creative hub for his riveting live performances.

'Cosmologist' explores Robert's personal universe with three tracks that connect his varied musical lineages. "Cosmos", a celebration of the late 80s/early 90s KIIS FM universe, is built around an infectious freestyle hook that morphs into a seven minute tour of intersecting styles. "Ether" begins as gothic night-driving electro, but breaks into fantasy-scapes inspired by Italo and 1980s Japanese anime theme songs. The final track, "d. Quelle", clocks in at over 11 minutes, incorporating bebop jazz solos drawn from his early exposure to improvisation techniques by Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, and Stan Getz. All songs have been mixed by Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated) at Room 5, San Francisco and EQed for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios.

Italian sound artist Giulio Aldinucci returns with his 5th album on Karlrecords: "Materia" is unsurprisingly a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece that adds perfectly to a series of critically acclaimed albums like “Disappearing In A Mirror” (2018) or “Shards Of Distant Times” – some of which made it onto several year’s best lists.

Giulio Aldinucci is an Italian composer and sound artist from Siena, Italy. His work focuses on ambient and experimental music, blending field recordings, electronic processing, and acoustic elements. Active since the early 2000s, he has released several solo albums on international labels including Karlrecords, Home Normal, and 99chants. His compositions often explore themes of memory, perception, and the relationship between sound and place.

Aldinucci's music is characterized by immersive, multilayered textures and meticulous attention to sonic detail. He constructs expansive soundscapes by integrating processed environmental recordings, choral elements, instrumental timbres, and subtle harmonic shifts. His style draws from both the aesthetics of contemporary ambient and the techniques of electroacoustic music, resulting in works that are at once atmospheric and conceptually grounded. The interplay between organic and synthetic sound sources is central to his approach, blurring the boundaries between the natural world and the constructed sonic environment.

His works have been presented at international festivals. He has also created art installations and multidisciplinary performances. In addition to his solo output, Aldinucci has collaborated with a wide range of musicians and artists, developing projects that intersect sound art, composition, and performance.

Aldinucci about "Materia": "Materia focuses on the idea of sound as a matter, which can be shaped into complex forms by removing excess material from the sound mass.The album originates from the dichotomy between accumulation and subtraction, creating compositions out of frequency-dense audio material in order to unearth what is “hidden” inside the raw sound mass. Unlike sculpture, in music time can be matter too by shattering sounds into milliseconds andrecompose them with a different fragments order, going beyond the traditional notions of rhythm and duration.“

Jason Dungan (aka Blue Lake) and Johan Carøe find beauty in the rhythms
and repetitions of domestic life for collaborative album, 'Routine' - out September 25

Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalists Jason Dungan and Johan Carøe didn't set out to make an album. Instead, as the title 'Routine' suggests, they found their way there through a process of habitual making and listening, developing an intuitive musical language to reflect the dreamlike meanderings and creative play of life's quiet moments. 'Routine' blends pop orientated sounds, Avant-garde minimalism, folk and new age with the emotive depth of film-score.

Their meeting was not entirely coincidental. Previously in bands such as Squares and Triangles, Jason Dungan has since recorded multiple albums under the moniker Blue Lake, including the lauded 'Sun Arcs', pursuing his passion for self-built percussion and multi-string instruments. Johan Carøe meanwhile is a composer whose film soundtrack work has seen him collaborate with Angelo Badalamenti, Arp, and Sofie Birch, at whose Andersabo residency (curated by Dungan) the pair first met, resulting in the highly praised album 'Repair Techniques' written by Birch and Carøe.

'Routine' emerged organically over many years against the backdrop of great personal change. As Carøe said goodbye to his father and welcomed his first child, the pair sent each other fragments of melodies and patterns, working up responses when time allowed to assemble a sonic palette that combined acoustic instrumentation of zither, clarinet, cello, saxophone (among others) with the textures of tape, drum machine and Yamaha DX7 synth. Inspired by the vulnerability and DIY ethos of Arthur Russell's home recordings, the vision of labels like Disques de Crepescule, and the art pop, experimentation inherent to late '70s and early '80s recordings from NYC and Japan alike, Dungan and Carøe conjured new forms for their folk, leftfield pop and avant garde influences from the low-lit living rooms of Copenhagen and rural Sweden. "I'm very interested in the ways in which music and art emerge from our wider experiences as people, workers, parents and in the daydreaming activity of making music," Dungan explains of a process which allowed the duo's individual styles to drift apart and merge together seamlessly. "I think the process was definitely capturing moments in time, but over a long time," Carøe adds. "It was a bit like improvisation, but with time stretched."

The music floats with grace and humility, remaining sophisticated yet acutely introverted.
Whether on 'Clouds', where soft layers of zither and clarinet are moved along by a featherlight bass riff and the hypnotic clip-clop of the primitive groovebox, or the gentle grandeur of cello rising and falling through 'Routine 1', the album reveals itself over 10 instrumental tracks, evoking the ineffable calm that descends when the light changes and the world turns inwards. The act of time passing became a key creative ingredient to the evolution of the album, enriched with the exciting challenge to transform their passing rounds of home recordings via a slow release musical dialogue. Jason found creative moments in the twilight hours to lay down zither, melodica, acoustic guitar to name but few, while Johan utilising "line-in and headphones" would manipulate, stretch and pitch Jason's melodic pathways during newly born naptimes.

Carøe rhythmically plucks and slides the stringed cello instrument, leaving palpable foundations on 'Hymn' and 'Chords', in a treated, stylistic approach akin to Mabe Fratti, while 'Silence' draws to a close with a gospel touch. Dungan's harp-motion zither flourishes reveal more classical connotations on 'Reunion' with inspiration of Bedroom Community's Nico Muhly as organs rise with Moogs, culminating with a climatic choral outro from friend, mezzo-soprano Anna Caroline Olesen.

'Routine' then is their first collaboration, an album of deep and sincere reflection with inviting overtones that gesture with unrushed authenticity. A document of a new-found friendship that opens a window into the most personal of spaces, where the daily practices of music and life exist side-by-side to wondrous effect.

Errands is the first duo recording from Marja Ahti, Swedish-Finnish sound artist and electroacoustic composer, and John McCowen, a native of Southern Illinois, now residing in Iceland, whose work centres on a radical exploration of clarinet multiphonics. Working without the aid of electronics, McCowen has spent years finessing performance techniques that allow him to layer beating patterns and split tones that belie their source in a monophonic instrument. Ahti, in contrast, has built up a stunning body of work in recent years using a classic electroacoustic palette of electronic, field recordings and instrumental sounds. Sharing a bill at the 2024 iteration of Stockholm’s Edition Festival, the pair discovered a sensibility shared across their different sonic means, beginning the collaborative process that would eventually result in the mercurial side-long pieces heard on Errands.

The word ‘errand’ suggests something purposeful but routine, and Ahti’s and McCowen’s work is suffused with the everyday. Meeting with McCowen to record in Iceland, Ahti used the opportunity to gather field recordings, capturing not the natural sublimity often associated with the country—think Chris Watson’s shifting glaciers—but everyday life in Reykjavik. Snatches of bustling streets and what could be humming engines thread between static sinewaves, stretches of clarinet resonances and fleeting textures, the latter often at once visceral and impossible to identify. Errands: we are a long way from the grandiose framing devices favoured by the pioneers of electroacoustic music, yet many of their principles are at work here. The gradual metamorphosis of one sound into another, the carefully achieved ambiguity between the acoustic and electronic, the treatment of the stereo field as a compositional element: all of these link Ahti and McCowen’s music to the electroacoustic tradition, yet their sensibility is radically different. The overall effect is a kind of stillness, but one at peace with continuous change. Like the unwieldy but somehow stylish everyday forms captured in the Hertta Kiiski photographs that adorn the record's sleeve, the music seems to prize a kind of deliberate awkwardness, interrupting static held textures not with an abrupt cut, but with a quick fade, suddenly revealing background as foreground.

Ahti and McCowen’s world is everyday and unornamented, but also shadowed by the numinous. Halfway through 'Chorales', we hear an arrangement for overdubbed recorders of an early motet of Messiaen’s, O sacrum convivium! Played on recorders, the piece shrinks into delicacy and dim memories of childhood music lessons, while at the same time its harmonies retain the grandeur of their liturgical origin. This double quality inflects much of what follows on Errands, including snatches of field-recorded water or air, which seem at once elemental and domestic. Enlivened with countless details that repay repeated relistening, Errands is a record that leaves the listener ready to open their ears anew to their own sound environment.

Lummer is the Swedish name for the now protected family of vascular plants (Clubmoss/Lycopodiaceae). Lummer grows slowly and the spores with which it reproduces can take 12—20 years to develop. These spores, known as Nikt in Swedish, were once ground into an extremely flammable light yellow “old woman’s gunpowder” that was used for early theatrical pyrotechnics. Volatile and explosive, Lummernikt requires careful handling.

There is something of the small scale dangerous in Finn Loxbo’s Lummernikt, too. A not-at-all-risk-free traversal at the limits of technique: building, blowing up and working through a band’s worth of harmonic scaffolding. Eight songs on a stage. Dramatic, breath-taking. At the same time the wild, flickering rush of tones spins up a centrifugal force that suspends a certain calm or sitting still at the music’s core.

On Lummernikt, Loxbo’s guitar often sounds more like a concert harp or the West African kora as he shifts a set of melodic fragments and extended lines through rapid-fire arpeggiated permutations with a spontaneous energy that is countered only by his extraordinary touch on the instrument and an undeniable sensitivity to his material’s dynamic potential.

It’s a glorious extension of the chiming chords and experimental preparations heard in his contributions to Magnus Granberg's Skogen (Another Timbre) or via his own ensemble Kommun (Fönstret, Thanatosis) and in striking contrast to the distorted wail he contributes to Anna Högberg Attack’s Ensamseglaren (Fönstret) or his all-in-the-red trio Kyosaku (Corbett vs Dempsey).

It’s now several years ago that Finn sent me the first recording of his new band Kommun and asked if I had suggestions for a label that might want to release it. I played that recording on repeat until I couldn’t shake the idea that I needed to start a label to put it out myself. Lummernikt is the spark that keeps that fire alive.

Remastered limited edition double vinyl with double-sided screenprinted poster-cover (sleeve folds out to be one huge poster). A real collectors item!

When Off Off came out around June 1984, one couldn’t speak of an independent music scene in Portugal. Warm Records’ vague existence didn’t have any impact and Dansa do Som’s inaugural release appeared only in December. 10 years after the revolution, after two IMF interventions, a lot of political instability (not to say turmoil, in the first couple of years) and the natural excesses of a sudden burst of freedom, the Portuguese consumer had more choices but a generally poor standard of living. There was no entrepreneurial culture and serious second thoughts about investing private money in risky ventures.

After many complaints about the whole music scene (institutions, critics and record label executives, popular and classical music alike), something that would continue well beyond the end of the decade, Telectu decided to finance, record, produce, release and sell an album with complete independence from outside structures. Their karmic reward was profit. According to Vítor Rua, Off Off was the only album fully payed by the duo and the only one that really payed off. Not an easy accomplishment for a double LP housed in a large (also double-sided) screenprint with complicated cuts and folds. The artwork was conceived by António Palolo, a friend and multidisciplinary artist. It was based on a collage of heavily saturated and xeroxed polaroids framed in shocking pink and green. Palolo was considered the third member of Telectu, regularly producing slides, video and other visual support for their shows. The inspiration for the type of cover came from GRM’s Gramme series.

Off Off is divided in four distinct sides, each one corresponding to a “theme” or “function” related to Telectu’s manifold artistic interests and interactions. The titles are also gateways to influences and a small portion of Portuguese cultural life:

- Side 1 / “Diagonale” is dedicated to Egídio Álvaro, art critic and gallery director (he opened Diagonale in Paris). Performance art was arguably his main artistic concern over the years, so the music on this side is suggested for use by one or more performers in live or playback situations. The three tracks segue into each other, linked by a synth arpeggio much in the same way as Telectu’s previous “Belzebu” álbum (1983);

- Side 2 / “Anarké” is dedicated to the composer Filipe Pires, one of Jorge Lima Barreto’s recurring invocations when asked about worthwhile contemporary music in Portugal. It is subtitled “concert music”, proposing «a new form of listening». Three tracks also, and these are separated by “clap interludes”, which basically consisted in the following: JLB and VR each had a pair of headphones on, and they clapped their hands according to the rhythm of the music each one was listening. Both musicians were interacting with a different Steve Reich piece: Vítor with “Music for Mallet Instruments”, Jorge with “Six Pianos”. The result is disjointed clapping, an awkwardly deliberate celebration of their own music. Telectu applauded themselves.

- Side 3 / “Cornucópia” is subtitled “music for theatre” and dedicated to Luís Miguel Cintra and Luís Lima Barreto (JLB’s brother), both connected to the Cornucópia theatre company. The side consists of several short pieces previously used as interludes in the Cornucópia staging of “Mariana Espera Casamento” (1983). Field recordings, mood pieces, ambience and a numeric poem (“Soneto Soma 14x”, by E.M. de Melo e Castro) read by João Perry, a quite well-known stage actor. His voice is treated with a flanger effect;

- Side 4 / “Palolo” is “video music”. It’s a one-take mix recorded from cassette sources (Telectu studio experiences) and done live while watching António Palolo’s Om film (1978) projected on the living room wall. It’s a deep, immersive, quasi-mystical 20-minute piece perfectly suiting the meditative, abstract, fluid images created by Palolo by mixing paint and water inside a bathtub. One imagines the Cosmos, hardly suspecting the technique. The film is 90 minutes long, so the music on the LP is of course edited.

The six titles on sides 1 and 2 evoke demons, all of them with conflicting symbolism, since it varies from culture to culture, religion to religion. No explanation is given and Vítor Rua has no idea where this imagery comes from. During virtually the whole stretch of the 1980s, Jorge was the one in charge of titles and concepts, and Vítor didn’t bother too much even reading the liner notes :) In any case, when you synchronize the listening experience with the imagery, a powerful impression emerges, a feeling of being in the presence of these entities while placing yourself inside the sonic narrative.

Off Off is undoubtedly a seminal album in the history of electronic music, as much Heldon as Fripp & Eno, jazz and American minimalism, cosmic out-thereness, mantric miniatures. Telectu at the height of their powers, still very early on, delivering an album-manifesto advocating intermedia art and the fierce independence of Portuguese musicians «from the scum of capitalist music industry monopolies. It’s a path to follow, albeit one that requires enduring hardships and retaliation from music industry gangsters.» Despite a few journalists deemed «capable of being free», the media are «enslaved by the dominant and fascist imbecility of the speculators of light music.» Off Off is addressed to those journalists «and to an audience angry at the cultural misery imposed upon us ..., certain that this music will open new horizons of musical pleasure in the conception of Portuguese avant-garde music, and in the open consciousness of us all. OFF OFF repeats Freedom.»

Those two words are a direct lift from Alberto Arbasino’s 1968 book Off Off, the basis of which is a critical analysis of Theodor Adorno’s and Dwight MacDonald’s ideas concerning the stratification of culture in different levels (high, mid and low) and the pervasiveness of mass culture in the form of a culture industry. In very simplistic terms, and that is precisely the point that inspired Jorge, Arbasino argued that it was possible and desirable to effect a revolution from below, cultivating alternative circuits completely cut-off from what he termed the in-in reality. Telectu’s record was a deliberate demonstration that it could be done, displaying Freedom in the face of all the gatekeepers and other human obstacles.

Pioneering Ghanaian musician King Ayisobareturns September 4, 2026 with his forthcoming seventh album Pure Confusion, recorded and produced by On-U-Sound’s Adrian Sherwood.

Ayisoba is one of Ghana’s most distinctive musical voices. The world’s foremost player of the kologo - a homemade two-string lute fashioned from a calabash and covered in goatskin - he delivers fiercely political and socially observant songs using three different voices, including the voice of his grandfather that possessed him as a child. Sherwood meanwhile is the pioneering British producer and founder of On-U Sound whose hugely influential career has connected dub, post-punk, industrial, hip hop and experimental music through collaborations with artists including Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mark Stewart, Horace Andy, Sinéad O’Connor, Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode.

Ayisoba and Sherwood first collaborated during a BBC Radio 3 Late Junction session at Maida Vale in 2017, organised by Ayisoba’s long-time collaborator Arnold de Boer/Zea of The Ex. The pair immediately connected, and during the pandemic, when Adrian’s long-time African Head Charge collaborator Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah was in Ghana looking for musicians to collaborate with Sherwood suggested Ayisoba, who eventually featured on two tracks on African Head Charge’s 2023 album A Trip To Bolgatanga (Bolgantanga is the region Ayisoba is from). Ayisoba then returned to the UK in late 2024 and travelled to Sherwood’s Ramsgate studio where the pair laid down the songs that would become Pure Confusion: “All the songs were already in my head,” says Ayisoba. “This album is all recorded live, over one afternoon. Adrian only plays live, and I like that. And he works hard - he doesn’t sleep. I woke up in the night and he was still working.”

“In my role producing it, I just let it roll to make a good vibe,” says Sherwood. “We recorded it completely live, did some programming and processing on some tracks, using dub techniques live on the mixing desk and adding some slick touches. We wanted the colours on the album to swing off what Ayisoba was doing, so we invited some friends to participate. Doug Wimbish (Sugar Hill Gang) arrived from America and lent his services playing bass on a couple of tracks; the wonderful Ivan Hussey (Celloman) played bass, keyboards and cello - cello is not really featured on African recordings so we thought it would be really cool to try it. I'd been working with Alex White (Fat White Family/Primal Scream) on my album (The Collapse of Everything) and so he added sax to a few tracks and I brought Alan Glenn down especially - Alan was in Little Axe but also Nine Below Zero and played in the Yardbirds – to add some mouth organ; Mark Bandola added a bit of flavour with his Juno, Ayisoba’s long-time Ghanian collaborator Ayuune Sule added some percussion and vocals and Matt Smith did some programming.”

“King Ayisoba is quite amazing, so unique,” Sherwood continues. “He’s got his own handmade instrument and three different voices - when you’re listening you think it’s three different people. He’s a breath of fresh air, full of love for the music which he wants to share with everybody. Some tracks we kept very straight and others we experimented with - adding dubby psychedelic little touches to trip you out a bit. The added production we did at On-U has given it a shine while still keeping it vibrant, live and spontaneous. I’m really proud of this record”.

On Pure Confusion, Ayisoba documents the anxieties, contradictions and changing social realities of contemporary Ghana. “Land is a problem for everyone,” says Ayisoba of the opening track “Property”. “If you don’t build on your land they will take it away. Plenty corruption in Ghana, plenty confusion. They sell the land to two, three, four people and then everybody fights.”

Elsewhere Ayisoba explores illness, spirituality and social stigma on “Bemba”, warning against hiding sickness out of shame or fear of “bad juju”: “People hide their sickness and the sickness kills them.” “Tewigiloge” reflects on cultural difference and open-mindedness encountered through world travel: “We will tour the whole world and we will see many things we may not like or understand… your eyes will see, but don’t talk - you have to be open-minded.”

Spirituality runs deeply throughout the album. Ayisoba’s grandfather was a respected spiritual healer whose presence the musician says still guides him today. “The grandparents’ spirits are the ones you can contact,” he explains of the spiritual chant “Nkaase”. “This song talks about the forefathers.” The closing track “Leeda-Mampanga (It’s Not My Strength)” acts as a statement of humility and gratitude: “You have to be humble, even if you have talent. God gives you the power.”

For more than two decades, King Ayisoba has been one of Africa’s most distinctive musical innovators, transforming northern Ghanaian kologo traditions into a bold contemporary sound rooted in hypnotic rhythms, social commentary and spiritual intensity. Since the breakthrough success of 2006’s Modern Ghanaians, Ayisoba has built an international following through acclaimed albums, relentless touring and collaborations with artists including Lee “Scratch” Perry, Orlando Julius and African Head Charge. Performances at Roskilde, WOMAD, Le Guess Who? and the Barbican have further cemented his reputation as a singular live performer and cultural force.

"Psicofásicos" by The Silver Pumpkins is a unique document: an EP that is virtually impossible to find in its original edition, offering an essential glimpse into Bolivia's thrilling 1960s rock scene-raw, wild, and unlike almost anything else. Beyond the ubiquitous covers of Cream and Jimi Hendrix recorded by countless South American bands, this EP features the far less common 'Pushing Too Hard' by The Seeds and, most notably, the dark, powerful 'You're Gonna Miss Me' by the 13th Floor Elevators. Bolivia boasts an extraordinary musical legacy of raw, garage-driven '60s sounds. Alongside Peru, it was one of the South American countries where the greatest number of recordings in this style were released-captured with limited resources but overflowing with spontaneity, energy, and attitude. The difficulty of obtaining the records that were shaping the latest Anglo-American rock trends of the 1960s in many Spanish-speaking Latin American countries led to a proliferation of local bands covering their musical heroes. Well-known artists such as Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Iron Butterfly were reinterpreted by countless groups, making these songs available to local audiences without having to rely on imported records reaching their countries. By doing so, these bands helped spread the cutting-edge rock music already making waves elsewhere in the world. What makes this release particularly unusual is that the band chose to cover second-tier cult acts rather than the obvious classics-groups that only briefly cracked the U.S. Top 50 in the late '60s, such as The Seeds and 13th Floor Elevators. Originally released on the Bolivian Psicofásico label, this exceptionally rare EP pairs The Seeds' garage anthem 'Pushing Too Hard' with the ferocious, immortal 'You're Gonna Miss Me' by Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators. The raw power of the original songs is pushed even further here by the rudimentary recording techniques and the limited instrumental skills of the very young members of The Silver Pumpkins. The result is a one-of-a-kind document-virtually impossible to find in its original pressing-that helps complete the picture of Bolivia's fascinating '60s rock scene. First-ever reissue.