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Acid bass, slow funk and cosmic energy make for a mind expanding trip in the Liquid Canoe.
Load up on edibles, make it a macro-dose and let the music lead the way.

Whether you’re hard at work on a Hamburg allotment, basking in the heat of a Balinese beach or enjoying the cool waters of the Salish Sea, remember that the same sky stretches over all of us.
And if you forget your finger for a minute and soak in the heavenly beauty instead, you might just catch the cosmic vibrations of Liquid Canoe, the latest members of the Growing Bin family.

A loose ensemble, Liquid Canoe is the brainchild of Wolfgang Matthes, a lost Angelino who’s swapped the rush and push of a mega city for the space of the Pacific Northwest - and listening to this eight track offering, you’ll realise that space is the place. Armed with an array of vintage synths and programmed rhythms, Wolfgang sketched out a slew of inter dimensional transmissions, inspired by the commune electronics and space rock of 70s Germany and inhabited by the spirit of the boogie. Inviting friends to drop by and lend their own instrumental skill, Wolfgang quickly turned Liquid Canoe into a true collaboration. Finalised in a converted stable on Galiano Island, the LP is a perfect marriage of the electronic and organic, shimmering arps and spheric synth bass intertwined with American primitive guitar, nuanced hand percussion and glassy chimes. As this mind expanding collection stretches out towards infinity, you’ll hear Floyd-ian funk, cosmic dub, tangerine daydreams and micro-dosed ambience, all imbued with the memories of New York lofts, Bay Area warehouses, skyscraping pines or the world wide web of fungi. Liquid Canoe taking you on an oarsome trip.

Along with Wolfgang Haffner, Jost Nickel is one of the very few top German tour and session drummers whose name also enjoys an excellent international reputation.
He succeeded as a drummer and musical director in the band of Mousse T and played with Sasha, Johannes Oerding, Marla Glen and SEEED, among others. Since 2006, Jost Nickel has been the drummer in Disko No.1, the band of German soul superstar Jan Delay. Involuntarily slowed down by the corona induced standstill of the cultural scene, Jost has used the time wisely and written and recorded his debut album ‘The Check In’, which has been eagerly awaited by many.
Besides the top German musicians Claus Fischer, Mark Smith (bass), Hanno Busch, Dirk Berger (guitar), Simon Oslender (keys), Lutz Krajenski (arrangements), and the colleagues of Disko No.1, international jazz stars like Jimmy Haslip (bass), Barry Finnerty
(guitar) and Jeff Lorber (keys) recorded the album.
Good things take time, as the saying goes, and Jost Nickel truly took his time writing and
realising his debut album. But the wait was worth it!

Thomas Dinger (1952-2002) war der jüngere Bruder von Klaus Dinger. Zusammen waren beide bei Neu! und La Düsseldorf aktiv. Entnervt von Streitigkeiten mit seinem dominanten Bruder, flüchtete Thomas Dinger im Jahr 1978 nach Südfrankreich - mitten während der Produktion zum zweiten La-Düsseldorf-Album "Viva". Dort entstand die Idee zu einem Soloalbum. Er wollte endlich mal was ganz Eigenes machen, etwas "Für mich". Gemeinsam mit dem Ex-Bandkollegen Hans Lampe als Co-Produzenten nahm er 1981 im bandeigenen Studio sechs Tracks des Albums auf: instrumentale, melancholische, elegische, von flächigen Synthesizer-Sounds dominierte Stücke, die eher an Musik von Wolfgang Riechmann oder Michael Rother erinnern als an den typischen La-Düsseldorf-Sound: Nur einmal ist der charakteristische 4/4-Dinger-Beat zu hören, zwei Stücke kommen sogar als Walzer daher.

After her stunning collaboration with Jim O’Rourke (Le Piano Englouti, BT055), Brunhild Ferrari returns to Black Truffle with Stürmische Ruhe, her first duo with Christoph Heemann. A legendary figure in underground music, Heemann has quietly produced a unique body of work since his beginnings with the absurdist cutups of H.N.A.S. in the mid-1980, including collaborations with Merzbow, Organum and Nurse With Wound, the eerie psychedelia of Mirror (with Andrew Chalk), In Camera (with Timo van Lujik) and Plastic Palace People (with Jim O’Rourke), and the precise cinema pour l’oreille constructions of his solo works. Created together in Ferrari’s Parisian studio (once shared with Luc) between 2011 and 2014, Stürmische Ruhe is a single half-hour piece that folds rain and storm recordings into a intricately woven fabric of haunted electronics, unexpected edits and disorienting processing. Banging with the jarring thump of a slamming door (an element that will reappear periodically throughout the piece as a kind of punctuation mark), it is immediately obvious that concrete sound is used here in a free, poetic way outside of the strict confines of documentary field recording. The wind captured by Ferrari’s microphone roars and whistles, accompanied by thick clusters of wavering tones whose unpredictable rises and falls in volumes are synchronised with the bumping and thudding of windows and doors. At some points the microphone sound melts into a wavering low-bit digital smear before fanning out into broad, atmospheric depths. The cinema for the ear constructed here suggests not linear narrative or documentary, but an organic flow of cross-fades, double-exposures and abrupt cuts, a free-associative dream in which wind and water take on mythical characteristics. Throughout the piece's second half, layers of synthetic floating tones and pinging upward glissandi negotiate a constantly shifting balance with wind-borne whispers and rustles, at times dropping to silence, at others rising up with elemental force. As Ferrari explains in her liner notes, Stürmische Ruhe is a meeting of ‘completely opposite sound worlds’ in which ‘almost-violence’ is joined with a ‘reconciling harmony’. Reaffirming the infinite possibilities of the musique concrète tradition while avoiding its academic tropes, Stürmische Ruhe is accompanied by tri-lingual liner notes from Brunhild Ferrari and arrives in a sleeve graced with the beautiful art informel paintings of her father, Wolfgang Meyer Tomin. Cut at 45rpm for maximum fidelity.

"Ihr brüllt von Liebe in engen Gewändern / Doch einer wie ich will die Welt noch verändern", singt Andreas Dorau im, zusammen mit Sven Regener verfassten, Hit "Kein Liebeslied". Statt von Liebe, wollte er lieber von anderen Dingen singen, von Wildschweinen ("Schwarze Furchen"), Prozessionen ("40 Frauen") und vom Hinterhaus, aus dem die Leute vorne rauskommen ("Hinterhaus"). Und so geschah es. Acht lange Jahre tüftelte der Maestro an der sogenannten "Wildschwein-Platte". Ihm zur Seite standen dabei Wolfgang Müller, Justus Köhncke, Carsten "Erobique" Meyer, Paul Kominek sowie Andreas und Dorau. So nämlich das Konzept des Albums, die Trennung von Andreas und Dorau. Auf dem Papier ein interessantes Konzept - hier der zarte Songs schreibende Künstler Andreas, dort das Partyanimal Dorau mit der fetten Bassdrum. "IbdEvuB" sollte ein Trennungsalbum der besonderen Art werden. Wie gesagt, auf dem Papier ganz gut, in der Praxis... na ja, ich sag nur "acht Jahre", aber acht Jahre nervenzerfetzende Tüftelei, die sich gelohnt haben. House, Softrock, Disco, Glampop, zusammengefügt zu einem schillernden Ganzen von Andreas und Dorau. Zum Teil in der Garage, zum Teil in den legendären Can-Studios in Weilerswist aufgenommen und produziert. Haben Andreas und Dorau mit "Ich bin der Eine von uns Beiden" die Welt verändert? Vermutlich nicht, aber sie haben ein großartiges, zeitloses, elektronisches Pop-Album erschaffen, welches sich lohnt wiederentdeckt zu werden. Ist doch auch was! Erschien erstmals 2005 auf Mute Enthält Klassiker wie "Kein Liebeslied", "40 Frauen" und "Im September" Endlich als re-mastertes Reissue wieder überall verfügbar

A unique talent with a remarkable voice, the German singer, composer
and lyricist Alma Naidu is an artist such as one rarely fnds, Jazzthing
magazine praised her "delicate, wonderfully clear voice with absolutely perfect intonation".

Renowned drummer and producer Wolfgang Haffner recognised her talent immediately; he discovered Alma for himself in 2019 and featured the Munich native on his album 'Kind of Tango'. "When I heard Alma for the first time at a jam session in early 2019, I was immediately inspired by her musicality and her way of performing on stage," says Haffner. " Alma is a very special talent with a strong
musical voice of her own."

With Alma now comes the promising debut on the Leopard Records label.
Recorded in Bonn during the pandemic (November 2020, March and April 2021) and produced by Haffner with guests Dominic Miller, Nils Landgren, Simon Oslender and others, this debut work of the 25-year old Naidu could just as well bear the title: A Star Is Born.

This album is the rarest of Soul Jazz’s Deutsche Elektronische Musik series!

Verena Zeiner und Wolfgang Schlögl lassen auf ihrem Album 'Magic Wall' das akustische Instrument in einen Dialog mit elektronischer Ästhetik treten.
'Magic Wall' ist das gemeinsame Album von Wolfgang Schlögl alias I-Wolf und der Pianistin und Komponistin Verena Zeiner. Zwischen instrumentaler Virtuosität und technologischem Ansatz entwickelt das Duo Zeiner I-Wolf eine zeitlose Musik, die Jazzreferenzen mit zeitgenössischen Klangstrukturen verbindet. Die Musikstücke des Albums fügen sich wie Szenen eines Films aneinander und erzeugen eine schwebend surreale Spannung.

"Second Skin" ist das zweite Album des Kölner Musikers Vomit Heat. Klang und Struktur dieses zehnteiligen Meisterwerks zeigen sich abstrakt betrachtet in einer überaus dichten Oberfläche, in dynamischen Rhythmen, in treibenden Bassläufen, flächigen Gitarren und Synthesizern, verbunden mit einer selbstsicheren und facettenreichen Stimme. Sie lassen eine Dichte erklingen, die Vomit Heat aus den zahllosen übereinanderliegenden Soundebenen erschaffen hat, die er in den letzten sechs Jahren aufnahm und immer wieder verwarf, bis er schließlich zu jener zweiten Haut gefunden hatte, die hier nun vorliegt. Die Produktion gelobt die teppichartigen, soghaften Soundflächen von My Bloody Valentine, der kluge und enthusiastisch auch an den Avantgarden geschulte Pop-Zugriff mahnt an Bradford Cox' Deerhunter, die Repetition zeigt sich inspiriert von Wolfgang Voigts frühem GAS.

re-release "Deutsche Wertarbeit" ist das einzige Soloalbum der Düsseldorfer Keyboarderin und Komponistin Dorothea Raukes und ein lang vergessenes Juwel deutscher elektronischer Musik. Raukes, Mitglied der Rockband Streetmark, versammelte darauf sechs Synthesizer-Kleinode - mal hypnotisch, mal hymnisch, mal kosmisch. Erschienen 1981 auf Sky Records führt das Album mit seinem markigen Titel in die Irre. Statt teutonischer Stampfmusik ertönen sechs wunderschöne Synthesizer-Kleinode, welche die sogenannte Düsseldorfer Schule (Kraftwerk etc.), die Berliner Schule (Tangerine Dream etc.) sowie Anleihen an die Musik von Jean Michel Jarre kunstvoll mit Klängen der beginnenden 80er-Jahre vereinen. Manchmal hypnotisch, manchmal zuckersüß-melancholisch, manchmal treibend, manchmal kosmisch. Auch das kalt anmutende Artwork will irgendwie nicht so recht passen zu der warmen, einfühlsamen Musik, die ein wenig an die von Raukes' Streetmark-Bandkollegen Wolfgang Riechmann erinnert, etwa auf dessen Soloalbum "Wunderbar".

Sdban Records will reissue several installments of the legendary library series 'A Special Radio ~ TV Record' on vinyl. These were originally released on Belgian imprint 'Selection Records' between 1975 and 1981. N°15 in the series was the Belgian milestone jazz album 'Solis Lacus' released in 1975.

Solis Lacus is the cult group around renowned Belgian pianist Michel Herr, a pioneer of electric jazz in the 70's in Europe. Michel Herr rose to international prominence after winning the first prize at the jazz festival in Loosdrecht, The Netherlands, in 1971. He accompanied many European and American jazz stars on foreign tours and ran the group Jazztrack with saxophone player Wolfgang Engstfeld in Germany. At the same time, he set up his own band Solis Lacus, which consisted of Belgian musicians who had all made a name for themselves on the national jazz scene of the 1960s including Richard Rousselet and Bruno Castelluci both from Placebo. Inspired by the reigning jazz-rock sound of the day, Herr expanded his musical vocabulary and started to play electronic keyboards. Solis Lacus recorded its only album in the course of 1974 and 1975, before the members of the group headed in their own direction.

Solis Lacus is considered the European counterpart to sound experimentations of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, or the best albums of the CTI label such as Freddie Hubbard. This is groundbreaking, experimental and funky jazz fusion!

It’s time for a new Reinhard Voigt EP on Kompakt? It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago since we last heard from him but then again, time is running! His latest release on Kompakt "Was wir spüren" (KOM 402) was released in May 2019. From there we encountered Reinhard's musical work mainly in the form of various digital reissues or in union with his brother Wolfgang together as Voigt & Voigt. Then in August of 2021, a glimmer of musical life from Reinhard reached his loyal fans in the form of a continuation of his RV ultra-minimalist concept series as "RV 05 / RV 06" via our KX imprint.

So that brings us to the present. Two new tracks that preach and spin on the classic Reinhard Voigt sound. Tracks that are as relentless as they are consistent to his signature stoic, radical, minimal techno. "Cha Cha Club" creaks and stomps along so mercilessly that they leave us impatient for the reopening of a dark, foggy club room and to have the bitter taste of gin and chemicals on our palates. Bass drum in, bass drum out - sometimes that's all it takes to be happy.

With "Die Frau, die nach Deutz ging" Reinhard discloses a small tale in the title...that this is the continuation of "Der Mann, der nie nach Deutz kam", a track from “Was wir spüren”. Elements recall Reinhard Voigt's SPEICHER tracks; sovereign, modern techno, monotonous in principle, but here and there interrupted and structured by unexpected signals and sounds in such a way that the track will also work on larger dance floors.

Eine reguläre, brandneue Reinhard Voigt 12inch? Das ist nicht nur gefühlt schon eine ganze Weile her. Time ist ja bekanntlich running. Seit “Was wir spüren” (KOM 402), erschienen im Mai 2019, begegnete uns Reinhards musikalisches Schaffen vor allem in Form diverser digitaler Wiederveröffentlichungen oder im Duett mit seinem Bruder Wolfgang als Voigt & Voigt. Im August letzten Jahres erreichte die treue Fangemeinde dann wenigstens ein kleines Lebenszeichen in Form der “RV 05 / RV 06”, der Fortsetzung seiner ultra-minimalistischen Konzeptreihe auf KX.

Nun also zwei neue Tracks, die so unerbittlich wie konsequent den klassischen Reinhard Voigt-Sound predigen und weiterspinnen – stoisch, radikal, minimal. “Cha Cha Club” knarzt und stampft dabei so gnadenlos voran, dass wir die Wiedereröffnung von geschlossenen Räumen voller Nebel und Dunkelheit und mit dem bitteren Geschmack von Gin und Chemikalien an unseren Gaumen kaum erwarten können. Bassdrum rein, Bassdrum raus, mehr braucht es manchmal nicht zum glücklich sein.

Mit “Die Frau, die nach Deutz ging” erzählt uns Reinhard zumindest im Titel die Fortsetzung von “Der Mann, der nie nach Deutz kam”, einem Track von “Was wir spüren”. Hier erinnert manches an Voigts SPEICHER-Tracks, souveräner, moderner Techno, vom Grundsatz her monoton, aber hier und da von unerwarteten Signalen und Tönen so unterbrochen und strukturiert, dass er auch auf größeren Tanzflächen funktioniert.

Reissue of violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's 1967 album 'Sunday Walk', originally
released on the SABA label (which later was renamed MPS), featuring an
all-star group that includes pianist Wolfgang Dauner, bassist NielsHenning Örsted-Pedersen and drummer Daniel Humair
Legendary drummer Kenny Clarke compared Jean- Luc Ponty to Dizzy Gillespie.
Fellow violinist Stuff Smith marvelled, "He plays violin like Coltrane plays
saxophone." Born in 1942, the French violinist transported jazz violin playing into
the world of modern jazz. On Frank Zappa's urging, Ponty moved to the States in
1973. Over the next years he toured with Zappa as well as the Mahavishnu
Orchestra. In 1975 he founded his own band and became one of the most
prominent figures of the jazz- fusion movement in the USA, selling millions of
albums that all reached the top of the U.S. charts.
On the 1967 'Sunday Walk' the band saunters through two blues, a waltz, and a
standard before reaching "Suite for Claudia", which begins at a blistering pace
with Ponty's saxophone- like "brilliance and fire" playing. It then settles into a
medium swing groove with Wolfgang Dauner's infectious piano play followed by a
smouldering Ponty. Daniel Humair's crisp drum solo segues into a heart- felt
waltz. After all, this was written for Ponty's wife. Ponty is here with a group of
Europe's finest at their youthful best. The way they play, it's all a walk in the park.
Beside Dauner and Humair, legendary bass player Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
completes Ponty's quartet.
"The re-issue of this album by MPS makes me extremely happy as I consider it to
be one of my best recordings from the 60s. " - Jean-Luc Ponty

Reissue of The Rolf Kühn Group's funky 1975 fusion album 'Total Space',
featuring Joachim Kühn, Philip Catherine, Gerd Dudek, Albert
Mangelsdorff and Daniel Humair
For a German jazz musician to find international recognition as a major player
has been and remains a rarity. Clarinettist Rolf Kühn belongs to this elite class.
No one sounds like him on the clarinet; warm, round and masterful, his tone
remains unmistakable no matter what style he may be playing at any given
moment. His play resonates with a maturity and wisdom gathered from a long
and rich life of musical experiences. At MPS, Rolf Kühn was allowed free rein to
choose the team for the recordings and so he decided to get Wolfgang
Hirschmann on board, one of the most interesting sound engineers in jazz at that
time. Having a free jazz background, Kühn breaks out in a new direction towards
jazz fusion with this album.
"My recordings for the MPS label always benefited from an atmosphere of artistic
freedom, something that I am still thankful for. MPS was the first German record
company that recorded solely jazz and was open for experiments and new fields
of music. For "Total Space" I was allowed to try out new things like having two
drummers, Daniel Humair and Kaspar Winding and to invite completely
freethinking players like Albert Mangelsdorff or Gerd Dudek to the recording." -
Rolf Kühn, 2019

Reinhold Weber, born in 1927, was known as a pioneer of electronic music. In his compositions, Weber placed a focus on twelve-tone music, he became increasingly fascinated in the field of computer music since the 1970s. He produced numerous works at the Studio for Electronic Music at the University of Karlsruhe.

Reinhold Weber was born in Gießen on July 18, 1927. He studied at Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf (including composition with Jürg Baur, piano with Max Martin Stein) and passed his exam in composition, theory, piano and ear training with distinction. He completed further masterclasses with Wolfgang Fortner, Hermann Heiss, Oliver Messiaen (composition), Kurt Thomas (choral conducting), Andor Foldes (piano) and Gerhard Nestler (electronic music). Reinhold Weber was a professor at the Baden Conservatory of Music in Karlsruhe and also worked in the Studio for Electronic Music of the University of Karlsruhe. His works have been performed in numerous concerts and were broadcasted by SDR, WDR, NDR, HR, SWF and Radio Bremen. Reinhold Weber died March 25, 2013.

Actor Kurt Müller-Graf was born in 1913. After visiting the Theater Academy of Baden in Karlsruhe, he appeared on stage at National Theaters of Karlsruhe, Kassel and Munich since 1935. During World War II he performed in about 10 feature films by Bavaria Film Munich. After 1945 he played at National Theaters in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and at Theaters in Nuremberg, Cologne, Munich, Mannheim, Baden-Baden and Burgtheater Vienna. Furthermore he had guest performances in Zurich, Basel, Salzburg and Heidelberg. Kurt Müller-Graf was touring and had broadcasts on radio and television shows at home and abroad. Kurt Müller-Graf died August 10, 2013.

Mammoth WVH is the debut, self-titled album of Mammoth WVH – the band created by Wolfgang Van Halen. This collection includes the chart topping and now Grammy nominated "Distance” as well as “Don’t Back Down,” “Epiphany,” “Mammoth” and more.

This stunning debut is one of hands down one of our highlights of the year and is still available on a lovely Black Ice Transluscent vinyl.

Wolf began to embrace his voice, inspired by everyone from his father, to bands like AC/DC, Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, and Jimmy Eat World. In addition to writing and singing every song on the self-title debut album, remarkably Wolfgang plays every instrument.

Mammoth WVH will be touring Europe extensively in 2022 supporting Scorpions in Germany and headlining shows in Paris, London or Zurich.

Mr. Käfer and Phlocalyst are adding their own chapter to the saga with their collaborative album Now / Again to be released via Melting Pot Music. The vibe of the 12 tracks is chill. The kicks, snares and basslines are crisp but relaxed. Wrapped up in warm melodic layers and led by the distinctive sound of Phlocalyst's trumpet. The Flemish producer grew up in Ghent and relocated to Munich where he plays in a classic orchestra - a rather uncommon day-job for a lofi producer with more than 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Mr. Käfer was born in Salzburg – the hometown of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Crack Ignaz – to an Austrian mother and an Algerian father. Today he lives in Cologne. In his music he fuses influences from boom-bap to jazz to traditional North-African music. The album artwork was created by Cologne-based artist Giza One.

Zwei Monate nach der Veröffentlichung von NEWMEN's drittem Album "Futur II" gibt es nun eine Night-Edition mit vier Remixen von Freunden und Weggefährten der "Krautpop"- Gang aus Frankfurt.

Die ursprüngliche Kollaboration "Futur I" mit Kraftwerks Ex-Roboter Wolfgang Flür wurde dabei von Italohouse-Ragazzo Fabrizio Mammarella gelasert. Cool? Always!

Running Back-Boss Gerd Janson hat "Cell" eine Frischzellenkur verpasst. Mit Synthspuren von International Feel’s Mark Barrott. Peak-Time-Nahrung für die Ausgehungerten!

Salon des Amateurs Bohème Detlef "Tolouse Low Trax" Weinrich hat eine Botschaft aus Paris geschickt und das gemacht, was er am besten kann: Genreverbiegender Postmodernismus, destilliert in einem einzigartigen Stück Musik, bei dem man sich fragt, wie lange es her ist, dass man derlei Neues gehört hat.

Und wer sich schon immer gefragt hat, wie der Prozess des Songwritings von "Futur II" funktionieren kann, findet in Martin Heimanns originaler Skizze von “Rational Landscapes” ein hervorragendes Beispiel. Jetzt mit poliertem Mix, denn die Urversion war für die Floors gemacht.

IMPORTANT NOTE: UNFORTUNATELY THE SIDES ARE REVERSED ON THE VINYL, I.E. THE A-SIDE IS THE B-SIDE AND VICE VERSA. WITH THE PURCHASE OF THE VINYL OR THE CD YOU WILL GET THE SINGLE MP3 FILES AS WELL AS A CONTINOUS MIX VIA E-MAIL.

With the cover artwork for Pop Ambient 2022, longtime KOMPAKT graphic artist Veronika Unland has once again outdone herself. Following the almost baroque, blood-red and jet-black, extremely physical sculptures of Pop Ambient 2021, which emerged from a dark, floral sea like bodies erect for dancing, the front of 2022 is adorned with a pastel-white form, intertwined, folded many times and crisscrossed with delicate shading, which seems to float on a pale pink background; soft, gentle waves woven from Venetian colors that leave the viewer puzzled: Is it a flower, a coral, a mollusk?

Again, the current edition of the tradition-steeped compilation series curated by Wolfgang Voigt is about the persistent and ever-necessary definition of beauty, of reduction, of electronic music of heavy lightness and light heaviness, of ambient's eternal promise of a state of physical and acoustic weightlessness and Pop's of redemption. And about the question why a never arbitrary combination of soundscape, drones, samples and loops, put together in a certain way, can create this feeling of warmth, depth and space, - something three-dimensional, where the imagination feels at home as a fish in the water or a bird in the sky. A key aesthetic stimulus that sends all the senses into a slow glide and drift, after which your synapses feel like they've been bathed in essential oil. Next to Soul, Ambient is probably the most effective musical healing plant of mankind.

Behind the aural test tubes, the who's who of Pop Ambient is once again at work, led for the first time by the highly trafficked Californian duo Blank Gloss, whose debut album "Melt" this year was certified by The Guardian as nothing less than "heartaching beauty". Yui Onodera's "Chrome" as well as "Kari", a cooperation of Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth, could also be imagined in the score of Denis Villeneuve's new film version of DUNE - however, colleague Hans Zimmer managed that quite well without the three. After such wonderful and stylish contributions by Reich & Würden, Triola and Thomas Fehlmann, the ear then lingers a bit longer on the ghostly "Weiht" by Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella, a track like a temple of sound, a deep electronic immersion in a Japanese onsen. In this sea of unnameable time you could sink forever, but with the tracks of Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer and Max Würden & Pepo Galán the journey slowly comes to an end.

Mit dem Cover-Artwork für Pop Ambient 2022 hat sich die langjährige KOMPAKT-Grafikerin Veronika Unland einmal mehr selbst übertroffen. Nach den geradezu barocken, in blutrot und tiefschwarz gehaltenen, äußerst physischen Formationen von Pop Ambient 2021, die wie zum Tanz aufgerichtete Körper aus einem dunklen, floralen Meer auftauchten, ziert die Vorderseite von 2022 eine pastell-weiße Skulptur, in sich verschlungen, vielfach gefaltet und von zarten Schattierungen durchzogen, die auf einem blass-rosa Hintergrund zu schweben scheint; weiche, sanfte Wellen aus venezianischen Farben gewebt, die dem Betrachter Rätsel aufgeben: Ist es eine Blüte, eine Koralle, eine Molluske?

Natürlich geht es auch in der aktuellen Ausgabe der traditionsreichen, von Wolfgang Voigt kuratierten Compilation-Reihe um die beharrliche und immer wieder notwendige Definition von Schönheit, von Reduktion, um elektronische Musik von schwerer Leichtigkeit und leichter Schwere, vom ewigen Versprechen des Ambient auf einen Zustand körperlicher und akustischer Schwerelosigkeit und dem von Pop auf Erlösung. Und um die Frage, warum eine nie beliebige Kombination aus Klangfläche, Drones, Samples und Loops, auf eine bestimmte Art zusammengefügt, dieses Gefühl von Wärme, Tiefe und Raum entstehen lassen kann, - etwas dreidimensionales, in dem die Fantasie sich so zuhause fühlt wie ein Fisch im Wasser oder ein Vogel in der Luft. Ein ästhetischer Schlüsselreiz, der alle Sinne in ein langsames Gleiten und Driften versetzt, wonach sich deine Synapsen wieder anfühlen, als habe man sie in ätherischem Öl gebadet. Neben Soul ist Ambient die wahrscheinlich wirksamste musikalische Heilpflanze der Menschheit.

Hinter den auralen Reagenzgläsern hantiert einmal mehr das Who-is-Who der kompaktschen Pop Ambient-Riege, erstmals angeführt vom hoch gehandelten kalifornischen Duo Blank Gloss, deren diesjähriges Debüt-Album “Melt” der englische Guardian nichts weniger als “herzergreifende Schönheit” bescheinigte. Yui Onodera’s “Chrome” sowie “Kari”, eine Kooperation von Markus Guentner und Joachim Spieth, könnte man sich auch gut im Score von Denis Villeneuve’s Neuverfilmung von DUNE vorstellen, - das hat der Kollege Hans Zimmer allerdings auch ohne die drei ganz gut hinbekommen. Nach so wundervollen wie stilsicheren Beiträgen von Reich & Würden, Triola und Thomas Fehlmann verharrt das Ohr dann etwas länger beim geisterhaften “Weiht” von Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella-Weiht, ein Track wie ein Tempel aus Klang, ein tiefes elektronisches Eintauchen in einen japanischen Onsen. In diesem Meer aus unnennbarer Zeit könnte man ewig versinken, doch mit den Tracks von Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer und Max Würden & Pepo Galán geht die Reise langsam zu Ende.

'Dieser neueste Soundtrack aus seiner Feder fühlt sich an wie ein längst überfälliges Wiedersehen mit einem verloren geglaubten Freund: Sofort erkennt man die bekannten Züge wieder, es umgarnt einen und zieht einen hinein in eine Welt, die unverwechselbar seine ist – die Welt von N.O.W. Immerhin kann man dieses Mal drei Dinge identifizieren, die zusammenkamen und dieses Album ganz klar prägen sollten: ein persönlicher Schicksalsschlag, ganz viel Zeit (ein Nebeneffekt der Pandemie) und Black Lives Matter. Inzwischen eher eine Art Bandleader, streckte er seine Fühler aus und knüpfte Kontakte mit jungen Talenten, deren Ansatz irgendwie zu N.O.W. zu passen schien. Bald war er mit Leuten wie Shabaka Hutchings, Haile Supreme, Mara TK und Sabrina Mahfouz in Kontakt. Auch Greentea Peng, OSHUN und Pip Millett fragte er an, erklärte ihnen die Stoßrichtung: Sie alle sagten zu und nutzten die im Titel angedeuteten Freiheiten und Freiräume auf ihre Art, lieferten ihre ganz eigene, vertonte Definition von Freiheit ab.' - Don Letts aka The Rebel Dread

Lofi-Schwergewichte Mr. Käfer & Phlocalyst ordnen die “metaphysics of a jazz thing” neu – um Gang Starrs Genre-definierenden Klassiker „Jazz Thing” aus dem Jahr 1990 zu zitieren. Obwohl die Fusion aus Hip-Hop und Jazz schon einen langen Weg beschritten hat, gibt es immer noch neue Routen zu entdecken und neue Geschichten zu erzählen. Mr. Käfer und Phlocalyst schreiben ihr eigenes Kapitel mit dem kollaborativen Album Now / Again, das über Melting Pot Music erscheint. Kicks, Snares und Basslines sind crispy, die 12 Tracks haben dennoch einen entspannten Vibe - verpackt in warme melodische Layer und getragen von Phlocalysts unverwechselbarem Trompeten-Sound.
Der flämische Produzent wuchs in Gent auf und lebt nun in München, wo er im klassischen Orchester spielt – ein ziemlich ungewöhnlicher Day-Job für einen Lofi-Produzenten mit mehr als zwei Millionen monatlichen Hörern auf Spotify. Mr. Käfer ist in Salzburg geboren – der Heimatstadt von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart und Crack Ignaz – als Sohn einer österreichischen Mutter und eines algerischen Vaters. Heute lebt er in Köln. In seiner Musik mischt er alles von Boom-Bap über Jazz hinzu traditioneller, nordafrikanischer Musik. Das Album-Artwork wurde von der Kölner Künstlerin Giza One gestaltet. Now / Again ist als Vinyl-LP und Digitalalbum erhältlich.

FUTUR II bietet eine einzigartige Perspektive zwischen Ausweglosigkeit und grenzenlosen Optionen. Hier entsteht ein Blick auf die Welt, in der wir zusammen mit NEWMEN gleichzeitig observieren und observiert werden. Eine serene Auffassung davon, dass alles zu spät gewesen sein könnte, ohne die Arroganz sowas mit Sicherheit behaupten zu können. Oder wie es im Song „Futur I“, eine Zusammenarbeit mit dem Ex-Kraftwerk-Robotor Wolfgang Flür, heißt: „There will be much to observe!“

Clear Vinyl

Post-punk/new wave hero Ann Margaret Hogan’s second album of solo piano and field recordings for Downwards is a box of subtle wonders, mastered by Veronica Vasicka and highly recommended if yr into Satie, Virginia Astley, Sarah Davachi.
A weight of history flows through Hogan’s keys with a stark intimacy, beautifully illuminated by naturally effortless, quietly grand songwriting. It’s a direct continuation of the landscaped themes
and atavism of 2020’s ‘Honeysuckle Burials’ and the ‘Reversing Into Tomorrow’ collaboration with Karl O’Connor, vividly capturing the slow passage of time in a way that has quite literally compelled
us to stop the relentless mind-grind for its 40 minute duration on more than one occasion.
After previous fixations on the iron age forts and burial mounds of the Clywdian Range in North Wales, Hogan transmutes the scenery of her more immediate locale, Oxton on The Wirral - from the cadence of its red sandstone landmark Thor’s Rock, to memories of its boating lake, for example - into a quiet yet ravishing suite inflected with traces of wildlife and industry recorded on long walks, all subsumed within a deep blue estuarial atmosphere silted by the strange reality of life in
the current era, echoing the surreal, sunny period when the album was conceived.
A generation on from her pivotal work with spar Marc Almond and likes of Deux Filles and Nick Cave, and forty generations since The Wirral hosted, as she says “a Norse parliament at Thingwall”,
Hogan weaves time and place into a reflective, funereal sort of parlour music, turning daily ambulations amid the gorse and under luminous skies into gorgeous, life affirming and intimate self expressions.
The eight pieces are mostly improvised and flow with a free, fleeting concision from the palpable warmth of ‘Forgotten Prelude’ and bluesy ache of ‘Fragile Elements’ to more funereal modes in ’Mesto’ and ‘Funeral Cargo’ suggestive of a Viking burial soundtrack. At its core, ‘Wolfswalzer’, a dedication to her one time collaborator and erstwhile Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür - is described by Hogan as “a simple waltz of coffee, food, friends and music”, and ‘Impromptu’ is the
album’s slowest, soaked in the feeling of atmospheric immanence that defines the album’s timeless appeal. It’s an unspeakably moving album, words really do it no justice.

Thomas Köner is one of the most influential modernist minimal composers. Alongside Wolfgang Voigt's "Gas" project, Köner has been centrally responsible for electronic music's fascination with depth and reduction. His signature sound is vast, seemingly endless, which at first seems homogenous and infinite, but once exposed to it, when our senses calibrate to the fine nuances of changes, we discover and immerse into abundance of textures, richness of modulations and almost infinite range of sonic titilations. Köner's work was inspired by his frequent travels in the Arctic, and listeners feel his music as a journey to mysterious worlds of the Arctic region. The experience of being exposed to the extreme cold, the hightening of our senses and ability to notice even the slightest changes in color, sound, light or density that creates this dangerously reductive environment, is like an immersion in the sonic world of this German artist, where masterfully crafted layers of sound open into colossal spaces, teeming with aural life, waiting to be discovered by those who venture into it. The titles of Köner's highly regarded albums from the 90's ever so often play with this affinity - Nunatak, Permafrost, Teimo - all reference to the world of the Artic region, just as his album Nuuk that points us to the capital of Greenland. Subdued and minimal at first glance, this album is brimming with low-end frequences, shadowy resonances and boreal ambience, but at the same time, constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, makes it very organic, human and almost comforting, like the tiny harbour existing in the sea of ice, it is named after.

With his ongoing commitment to like-minded archivist label Finders Keepers Records, industrial music pioneer Steven Stapleton further entrusts us to lift the veil and expose “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary and oft misinterpreted psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List.
Following the critically lauded first instalment and it’s exclusively French tracklisting both parties now combine their vinyl-vulturous penchants to bring you the next ‘Strain Crack & Break’ edition which consists of twelve lesser-known German records that played a hugely important part in the initial foundations of the list which began to unfold when Stapleton was just thirteen years old.
From the perspective of a schoolboy Amon Düül (ONE) victim, at the start of a journey that commenced before phrases like kosmische and the xeno-ignant Krautrock tag had become mag hack currency, this compendium is devoid of the tropes that united what many would accurately argue to be the greatest progressive pop bands in Europe
(namely CAN, Neu! and Kraftwerk) and rather shatters the ingredients across a ground zero landscape for both inquisitive fans and socially rehabbing musos to begin to assemble a unique self-styled identity. If Krautrock was the music that journalist told us lurked behind schlager (German pop) in the 1970s, then this record includes the music that skulked behind Krautrock and perhaps refused to polish its backhanded name belt.
Including lesser-known artists like the late Wolfgang Dauner, whose career proceeded and outlived the kosmische movement while consistently informing and outsmarting them whenever they got stuck in their metronomic ruts, or how about Fritz Müller, the man who
was to Kraftwerk what Stuart Sutcliffe was to The Beatles but had more in common with Yoko and quite rightly couldn’t give a stuff about the Fab Four’s Hamburg roots.
Elsewhere we have a plethora of German bands made for German audiences as they try and shed secondhand flower power Americanisms and feel the benefits of much harder drugs and the realisations of difficult second album budgets while Kommune 1
newsflashes wipe smiles from everybody’s faces and replace them with opioid chic or acid-sarcastic grins. Bonzo Cockettes show us their Big Muffs and drummers ask for extra mics while Conny Plank goes for parliamentary office and gives babies good firm handshakes for the camera.
‘Strain Crack & Break: Volume Two’ is the sound of Steve Stapleton’s sponge-like mind and the dividends of anyone who was brave enough to even peek inside those brick-thick gatefold covers never mind drop the needle.
Over forty years since Nurse With Wound’s first album was released, Finders Keepers Records and Steve Stapleton take connoisseurs of our kind of music back to the disused elevator shaft towards ground zero. Arriving at the same checkout from different departments, Finders Keepers and Nurse With Wound continue to sing from the same hymnal with this ongoing collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from Steve’s list, where many overzealous erds have faltered (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick).
After ‘Strain Crack & Break: Volume One’ merely scratched the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities, this second lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium drives a much deeper groove which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focusses exclusively on individual tracks of German origin - the country whose music forged the prototype of the NWW inventory in the form of his secondary school vinyl wantlist in the early 1970s, comprised of disassembled free jazz, unshowered stoner psych, hypnotic prog, deranged monk funk and fuzzed out Deutschmark bin bonzo beats.

“Jazzrausch Bigband is making jazz sexy again” -
Bayerischer Rundfunk
The ensemble’s ingenious mix of techno and big
band jazz has proved to be just as accessible to
people listening to the band from the comfort of
their seats in a concert hall as it has to those
sweating it out on the dancefloor.
Since 2015 Jazzrausch Bigband have been in
residence at Harry Klein in Munich, a club
renowned for its house and techno acts as well as
for its stunning live visuals; this cooperation
between a techno club and a big band is a truly
unique one.
DownBeat magazine singled out not just the
band’s “high-voltage performances” and “party
atmosphere” but also the amount of
experimentation going on.
LP pressed on 180g vinyl.

2x12" + DL Repress

NOTE: ALL FORMATS CONTAIN THE FULL VERSION OF "RAUSCH". THE ALBUM IS MEANT TO BE HEARD FROM BEGINNING TO END AS A WHOLE. IT HAS BEEN TRACK MARKED OR SEPARATED DUE TO FORMAT RESTRICTIONS

Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there's nothing / Once upon a time there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas / A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite

Wolfgang Voigt 2018

Rausch ohne Namen / Mein schöner Schein / Du bist die Sonne / Hier will ich sein / Rausch ohne Morgen / Wir brennen hier / Die Sterne funkeln / Im Flammenmeer / Hörner und Fanfaren / Fanfaren der Freude / Fanfaren der Angst / Den Wein den man mit Augen trinkt / Gießt Nachts der Mond in Wogen nieder / Vorsicht mit der Axt Eugene / Personal Jesus / Kein Anfang Kein Ende / Achtzehnter Oktember / Die Nacht bricht an / Der König kommt / Die Jagd beginnt / Freude schöner Götterfunken / Der lange Marsch durchs Unterholz / Glaub mir da ist nichts / Es war einmal ein Räuber / Der liebte einen Prinzen / Das ist lange her / Frühling Sommer Herbst und Gas / Es fährt ein Zug nach Nirgendwo / Pauken und Trompeten / Zukunft ohne Menschen / Warmer Schnee / Alles ist gut / Die Glocken läuten / Du bist nicht allein / Das Rauschen im Wald / Das Rauschen im Kopf / Leicht wie Nebel / Schwer wie Blei / Musik ergibt sich / Strömt wie Gas / Eine Lichtung / Schweres Gepäck / Einstand im Jenseits / Der Tod hat sieben Katzen / Weltkulturerbe Rausch / Endlich Unendlich

Wolfgang Voigt 2018

Ending the season on a breezy note, our new VA 'Boogie Angst, Edition Three' delivers the ideal wares for a buoyant last stretch to an otherwise trying year. Spanning a brightly hued kaleidoscope of pop-infused house and mellifluous boogie, Edition Three pushes forth a selection of our choicest grooves from the past year as well as a batch of unheard and exclusive gems to keep you in the warmest, most positive mindset for the winter to come. Through fifteen cuts covering a wide but cohesive spectrum of balmy sonics, the compilation once again offers a much spitting image of what the label's been up to in recent times.

HIGH HØØPS playful revamp of Secret Rendezvous' fresher-than-fresh RnB joint 'Back In The Day' sets the tone right away, followed closely by Moods & Two Another's lush coastal disco number 'Control' and Snacks & Eric Biddines neo-big band style house treat 'All Night' - a singular chunk of ballroom bop tinged with soulful blues tropes and Caribbean melodic accents, sure to have the dancers jiving without further ado.

Here comes Inkswel's synth-splattered mix of 8-bit pixelation and Run DMC-esque hip-hop 'Too Late' (ft. Stan Smith) and Saux's dream folk excursion 'You're Not Wrong'. A highlight of the package and mesmerizing piece of wistful, kosmische-laced disco, Kraak & Smaak 'Centro De Placer' ushers us in a realm of velveteen ingenuousness and sun-streaked utopianism, steering us away from the tar-scented gloom of soulless metropolises into an all engulfing prism of hope, love and grace.

Utrecht-based vibist Feiertag punches the clock with 'Encino Boogie' - a four minute-odd slab of buoyant funk sprinkled with laid-back house tropes and brass-heavy, loungey dub tonalities, perfect for drawing out the pleasure of dreamlike summer boogie sessions. Clear your mind and shuffle your feet to that solar-powered mix of fevered drums, slap bass and sensually aqueous groove.

Next, Kraak & Smaak's add their easily identifiable, almost Beck-ian spin to Jean Tonique's lysergic pop hit-en-puissance 'Too Bad' whilst Bondax lo-slung remix of Moods' sense-awakening soul tune 'Slow Down' (ft. Damon Trueitt) eases you into a place of inviting suavity.

Inkswel's funky robot chugger 'The People' (ft. Dave Aju) picks up the torch next, followed by Flevans, your go-to man for proper electroid floor traction. The UK-based producer has you covered with 'Everything I See' - a surefire, bass-driven roller inbound for severe club impact with its infectious mix of fiery riffs, mangled female vox slivers and racing groove. Next, Secret Rendezvous' sun-beamy ballad 'Your Love' takes us on a gently bouncy, romantic ride.

Last but not least, Vhyce's smooth hybrid of synth-strewn RnB and lo-velocity funk 'Lose Our Minds' (ft. Yves Paquet), David Harks' metronomic disco-pop anthem 'Twice' and Saux's sleek-textured synthpop exponent 'Night Is All There Is' round off the package on a typically smooth and vibrant sentimental touch.

For the wax heads out there, a limited 9-track vinyl sampler will be issued alongside the digital compilation, featuring some of the tracks on the album + a few alternative versions, and furthermore a vinyl exclusive of Kraak & Smaak's remix of Izo FitzRoy's 'When The Wires are Down', initially released only digitally via Jalapeño Records.








h 08 | Inkswel The People (Cody Currie Remix) feat Dave Aju
feat Wolfgang Valbrun

‘Hörtest-Edition IV - Visions of Jazz’ is a listening experience to be cherished. It offers a specially curated programme which can be compared across different media and in various formats. Enjoy an audiophile adventure in perfect sound quality: the 180gram LP, cut at half speed, has been subject to the most exacting demands during the pressing process, rendering the quality of a turntable audible. Compare the special features of vinyl with the strengths of a conventional audio CD, or alternatively feast your ears on the sound quality attainable in the hi-res world of 24-bit. For this listening experience, ACT has curated a selection from its current releases by renowned artists, all recorded and produced to the highest standards and with an uncompromising focus on sound quality.  Test… compare… but above all, enjoy the music. Under the motto ‘Visions of Jazz’, ‘Hörtest-Edition IV’ presents a multi-faceted kaleidoscope of current jazz.  This ‘Hörtest-Edition’ includes gatefold 180g LP, CD and 24Bit high resolution digital download files. Curated and compiled by Marco Ostrowski.

"Auf dem schwarzen Kanal" ist eine der herausstechendsten und gesuchtesten Veröffentlichungen in Conrad Schnitzlers umfangreichem Katalog. 1980 als einzige von Schnitzlers Platten bei einem Majorlabel veröffentlicht, war diese Maxi und insbesondere das Titelstück ein Flirt mit dem zeitgleich aufkommenden experimentellen New Wave und klang dennoch so eigenwillig wie keine andere Musik zu jener Zeit. Die zusammen mit Wolfgang Seidel entstandenen und in Peter Baumanns Berliner Paragon Studio aufgenommen vier Tracks sind ein bissiger, dissonante Mutant Disco Trip, der bis heute nichts von seiner Faszination eingebüßt hat. Bureau B freut sich dieses lange vergriffene Werk endlich wieder verfügbar zu machen!

Born in Paris, raised in Vienna, resident in Ibiza, saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann embodies the borderless, pan-continental energies of contemporary European jazz. Her music emerges from the lineage of European jazz that's absorbed the progressive music of Coltrane, Dolphy and Sanders. Today, she cites players such as Illinois Jacquet and Lester Young in the same breath as the masters of the avant-garde, and her playing marries the directness and eloquence of the older generation with the questing, spiritualised playing epitomised by Coltrane. The roster of musicians she has played with is long, and includes veteran European avant-gardists including Joachim and Rolf Kühn, Wolfgang Reisinger and Thomas Heidepriem, and she works tirelessly with contemporary groups and big bands across the continent.

Since her first recordings in the early 2000s, Grossmann has released a dozen albums as leader, featuring sounds ranging from hard-swinging modernist jams to free improvisation, expansive spiritual work to rhythm-focussed Afrocentrism. But at the centre of her work is a thread of pure and heartfelt spiritual music in the modal tradition defined by Coltrane and close collaborators like Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane. You can't play this music successfully if you don't mean it – like the music of her contemporary Nat Birchall, Grossmann's engagement with the Coltrane tradition is sincere and deep. Her music resonates within the tradition – more than just a style, it adds a new chapter to the story of modal and spiritual jazz in Europe.

This Jazzman set draws a selection from her 2016 album Natural Time ('Your Pace', 'Peace For All') and from 2017's Momentum ('Elevation', 'Chant' and 'Rising'). Featuring her regular quartet of Radomir Milojkovic (guitar) Uros Stamenkovic (drums) and Gina Schwarz (bass), the music on Elevation is pure sound, soul and spirit!

- LP only with thick tip on sleeve- Download card included inside

"Timeless and innovative... a musical genius" Mike Gates, UK Vibe

"A listening experience akin to transcendence" Andrew Jones, Down Beat

"Vibrant, passionate, exhilarating. A monument of spiritual jazz" Mark Sarazzy, Impro Jazz

"A journey that takes off like missile, passes through meditation, reaches nirvana and ends with thanksgiving" Elliot Simon, NYC jazz records

"Timelessly beautiful" Christian Bakonyi, Concerto

OKTEMBER is the second EP release under Wolfgang Voigt’s mythical GAS project. Originally released in 1999 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, OKTEMBER is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram LP vinyl in its original artwork. This reissue features the single “Tal ‘90“ – originally released as a part of the Pop Ambient 2002 collection.

This two-track long player starts with A-Side “Tal 90”. Sampled strings and guitars soundtrack a more uplifting side to what is typically accustomed to being the sound of GAS. The title track “Oktember” is a dense, hypnotic affair that conjures a unique vision of dub techno that few have been able to replicate.

A monumental soundtrack to uncertain times.

ERUPTION is an outburst of creaking energies, unconventional ideas, arhythmic thoughts, cacophonous images and musical phantasms. ERUPTION is also the name of the second album by Kluster, a band project of the musician and video artist Conrad Schnitzler, who died in 2011, together with his colleagues Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. ERUPTION was also the name of a two-day festival that took place in July 2018 at the Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg. For two days, artists and musicians from different generations and working in various fields met here, who were in one way or the other inspired by the comprehensive oeuvre Conrad Schnitzlers’, as well as by his free-spirited thoughts and actions. The result was a multi-faceted programme of concerts, performances, sound and video installations, which resulted in the release of these two special records on Pudel Produkte, the house-own label of the Golden Pudel Club. The single features a previously unreleased piece by Conrad Schnitzler & Ken Montgomery as well as a story told by Asmus Tietchens about his father and Schnitzler, who unwittingly crossed the Atlantic together on the steamboat Bornhofen in the late 1950s, one as an engineer, the other as a heater. The LP brings together the festival's invited artists, Schnitzler‘s contemporaries

such as Ken Montgomery, Wolfgang Seidel and Asmus Tietchens, as well as young artists who developed works especially for ERUPTION. Among them are Lena Willikens & Sarah Szczesny with fragments from their performance Phantom Con Ballet, the DJ Phuong-Dan who composed a musical collage from the poem About Rhythmus and rhythm studies by Schnitzler, a piece from the performance of Felix Kubin, who uses a light scanner and his modular synthesizer to convert graphic notation into sound, a theatrical sound piece by Carl & Sohn (also known as Les Trucs), the producer and DJ RVDS, who interacted with the piece Tanz im Regen by Conrad Schnitzler and many more. Initiated and curated by Nika Son, a musician and artist based in Hamburg

In der Pause' (During the Pause) was the title of the last track on the b-side of , the first album by Die Tödliche Doris. In der Pause' was pause music, as well as the announcement of the interval between their debut album, released in 1982, and the box format project 'Chöre und Soli' that followed in 1983. The original sounds of In der Pause' survived on a single audio tape dating from 1981.Now, about 35 years later, Chris Dreier and Wolfgang Müller have used the material recorded on the audio tape as the source for five new tracks of pause music. The material on the original audio tape has was reworked using Moog analogue effect modules and Ableton Live. It has been supplemented with archived announcement interludes from radio and television stations, including German stations WDR, NDR and HR, Radio Italy IBF and Radio Kamerun.Sprechpause' was recorded in 1981 — 1982 by Chris Dreier, Nikolaus Utermöhlen and Wolfgang Müller and reworked by Wolfgang Müller and Chris Dreier in 2017.

12"LP plus 7", ltd copies

ERUPTION is an outburst of creaking energies, unconventional ideas, arhythmic thoughts, cacophonous images and musical phantasms. ERUPTION is also the name of the second album by Kluster, a band project of the musician and video artist Conrad Schnitzler, who died in 2011, together with his colleagues Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. ERUPTION was also the name of a two-day festival that took place in July 2018 at the Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg. For two days, artists and musicians from different generations and working in various fields met here, who were in one way or the other inspired by the comprehensive oeuvre Conrad Schnitzlers’, as well as by his free-spirited thoughts and actions. The result was a multi-faceted programme of concerts, performances, sound and video installations, which resulted in the release of these two special records on Pudel Produkte, the house-own label of the Golden Pudel Club. The single features a previously unreleased piece by Conrad Schnitzler & Ken Montgomery as well as a story told by Asmus Tietchens about his father and Schnitzler, who unwittingly crossed the Atlantic together on the steamboat Bornhofen in the late 1950s, one as an engineer, the other as a heater. The LP brings together the festival's invited artists, Schnitzler‘s contemporaries

such as Ken Montgomery, Wolfgang Seidel and Asmus Tietchens, as well as young artists who developed works especially for ERUPTION. Among them are Lena Willikens & Sarah Szczesny with fragments from their performance Phantom Con Ballet, the DJ Phuong-Dan who composed a musical collage from the poem About Rhythmus and rhythm studies by Schnitzler, a piece from the performance of Felix Kubin, who uses a light scanner and his modular synthesizer to convert graphic notation into sound, a theatrical sound piece by Carl & Sohn (also known as Les Trucs), the producer and DJ RVDS, who interacted with the piece Tanz im Regen by Conrad Schnitzler and many more. Initiated and curated by Nika Son, a musician and artist based in Hamburg

20 years of Pop Ambient. Already? One didn’t notice. It’s an anniversary which comes quietly. An anniversary with quiet tones.
In the spirit of the special restraint of pop-elegance, it has no reason to drawn attention to itself with a big „Tam-Tam“. Or better: „Bum-Bum“. The bass drum stays outside. Nevertheless, in fast-paced, overstimulated times of moving forward, it’s a joyful occasion to look back.
What strikes most by putting or listening to 20 years of pop ambient in a row is the central theme that holds together the dense aesthetic concept like the pearls of a necklace.
Floral beauty for digital naturalists. Music like flowers, that don’t wilt. Timeless. Ageless. But with all of the conceptual unity and resolution, Pop Ambient would not be Kompakt without the break, the friction, the expansion of musical boundaries in between tradition and innovation, in between conspiracy and the openness of the discourse.
Aestheticism, escapism, acting in the spirit of „nevertheless“. Swans drifting by, clouds pass over, everything is floating and: „Boredom is a stylistic device“ (Andy Warhol).

Pop Ambient Music is medicine against illnesses, that you don’t even suffer from. It’s giving everything, demanding nothing.
Musical lotus leafs, off which the virtual wastewater of our time is rolling like the reality is dripping off the matrix.


In this sense, we’re happy about the pop-ambient anniversary greetings from new and old companions like Thore Pfeiffer, Max Würden, Yui Onodera, Jörg Burger, Thomas Fehlmann, Morgen Wurde, Leandro Fresco aswell as contributions from T.Raumschmiere, Andrew Thomas and, after a long break, from friends from early days like Joachim Spieth, Markus Guentner und Klimek.

Pop Ambient 2020 is released digital, as CD and of course as a chic double vinyl. Also included in the package: The whole distinctive cover-series as an art book of 44 pages. And for all of the old and young fans and collectors there is the Pop Ambient 2001 in a overhauled original version out on vinyl for the very first time.



Breath in. Breath out. Thank you.



Wolfgang Voigt, September 2019.

20 Jahre Pop Ambient. Schon? Hat man gar nicht gemerkt. Ein Jubiläum auf leisen Sohlen. Ein Jubiläum der leisen Töne. Und ganz im Sinne pop-eleganter Zurückhaltung, kein Grund, großes Tam-Tam zu machen. Oder besser gesagt: Bum-Bum. Denn die Bassdrum bleibt ja draußen. Dennoch freudiger Anlass genug, in reizüberfluteten, schnelllebigen Zeiten auf dem Weg nach vorne einen Blick zurück zu werfen. Wenn man 20 Jahre Pop Ambient Platten hintereinander legt / hört, sticht einem zunächst der sprichwörtliche rote Faden ins Auge und ins Ohr. Der Faden, der das dichte, ästhetische Konzept zusammenhält wie die Glieder einer Perlenkette. Florale Schönheit für digitale Naturalisten. Musik wie Blumen, die nicht welken. Zeitlos. Alterslos. Aber Pop Ambient wäre nicht Kompakt, wenn nicht bei aller konzeptionellen Ge- und Entschlossenheit, auch der Bruch, die Reibung, das Ausweiten musikalischer Genregrenzen zwischen Tradition und Innovation, zwischen Konspiration und Diskursoffenheit, inkludiert wäre. Ästhetizismus, Trotzdemismus, Eskapismus. Schwäne treiben, Wolken ziehen, alles fließt – und: »Langeweile ist ein Stilmittel« (Andy Warhol).

Pop Ambient Musik ist Medizin gegen Krankheiten, die man gar nicht hat. Gibt alles und verlangt nichts. Musikalische Lotusblätter, an denen das virtuelle Schmutzwasser der Zeit abperlt, wie die Realität an der Matrix.

In diesem Sinne freuen wir uns über pop-ambiente Jubiläumsgrüße von neuen und alten Weggefährten wie Thore Pfeiffer, Max Würden, Yui Onodera, Jörg Burger, Thomas Fehlmann, Morgen Wurde, Leandro Fresco sowie Beiträge von T.Raumschmiere, Andrew Thomas und nach langer Pause, von Freunden aus frühen Tagen wie Joachim Spieth, Markus Guentner und Klimek.

Pop Ambient 2020 erscheint Digital, als CD und natürlich als schickes Doppelvinyl. Mit im Paket: Die gesamte unverwechselbaren Cover-Serie als 20-seitiges Kunstbuch. Und für alle neuen und alten Fans und Sammler, erscheint zeitgleich Pop Ambient 2001 erstmalig auch auf Vinyl, in generalüberholter Originalversion. Das Ganze gibt es zudem im schicken Jubiläumsschuber in limitierter Auflage und farbigem Vinyl, exklusiv erhältlich nur auf kompakt.fm …

Einatmen. Ausatmen. Danke.

Wolfgang Voigt, September 2019

Kraak & Smaak's 6th studio album - 'Pleasure Centre' is the culmination of two years hard work since their critically acclaimed 'Juicy Fruit' LP and their first Kraak & Smaak LP released on their own label – Boogie Angst. As expected it's a glorious record packed with future classics, flitting between funky dancefloor focused jams and more relaxed downtempo affairs.

The album has a definite US West Coast vibe to it and sees them fuse classic 70's and 80's yacht rock, dream pop, and indie influences in with their signature electronic funk sound. And this result is no mere accident or emulation… Working on the demos in their own studio before travelling to LA for a month last year to meet and work with featured artists, they stayed in Echo Park and recorded in local studios and sometimes even in the homes or backyards garages of their collaborators.

Hand- picking the best of the local talent: dance diva - Gavin Turek, indie upstarts - The Palms and dream pop dealer – Satchmode all contribute their talents to the cause.

The Dutchmen have earned a deserved reputation in particular for the A&R side of the industry, with both the discovery and collaboration of new rising acts high on their agenda. Previous successes include working with Parcels, Alxndr London (championed by Annie Mac) Eric Biddines (6Music playlisted) and Cleopold (signed to Nick Murphy fka Chet Faker's own label). And they continue to uncover hidden gems outside of LA on this record too...

Moon Boots collaborator – Nic Hanson, Jalapeno Records' gospel/soul powerhouse - Izo FitzRoy and soul man Wolfgang Valbrun (Ephemerals/Kungs), New Zealand's imugi and previous collaborator and soul songstress - Sanguita are accompanied by regular members of the Kraak & Smaak live band - IVAR and Berenice Van Leer across 15 fantastic new tracks.

'Pleasure Centre' is everything you'd want in an album and everything we've come to expect from these dance stalwarts – innovative, relevant, and modern tracks with great production and exciting guest features that are guaranteed to fire up your own pleasure centre!











k 11 Sweet Time (feat. Izo FitzRoy) clip

The idea of this records came out of a book called The Metamorphosis of Plants, written by Goethe in the 18th century. I was also triggered by a greek friend, who explained me the etymology of the world ""metamorphosis"", that is such an interesting greek concept.
""I cannot tell you how readable the book of nature is becoming for me: my long efforts at deciphering, letter by letter, have helped me; now all of a sudden it is having effect, and my quiet joy is inexpressive."" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Charlotte von Stein, 1786