With “Kuopio”, Raster-Noton releases the second full length album by Vladislav Delay aka Sasu Ripatti. The record features eight new songs which allow the listener to dive into Delay’s cosmos of deep and likewise organic sounds. Subtle yet complex electronic manipulations are used, resulting in a high degree of variation within every single track and a nearly imperceptible intensification of their density. Progressive and energetic rhythms play an important role as already indicated in his recent release “Espoo” (r-n141), the EP which forms a bridge between his former album “Vantaa” (r-n136) and “Kuopio”, best illustrated by the track “Kulkee”, meaning ‘to move forward’. “Kuopio” clearly represents a further attempt to depict the finnish landscape as well as its isolated charm, which is also obvious from its design and conceptional approach by referring to the city of Kuopio.
Anti- Records – 87210-1 Vinyl, EP, 45 RPM, Colored CD 24 Jul 2012 indie, dream pop Beautiful, soothing, healing... Just like a gentle sinking into a deep green ocean. The single track 'Drift Dive' has become one of my favs from this year.
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John Roberts - "Paper Frames" EP
(Dial)
Dial – dialrec 64 Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM July 2012 downtempo, deep/tech house, experimental Refreshing experimental-ish house tunes from one of the most important and interesting producers on Dial recs. Really looking forward to his next LP.
***
GRIT - "As I Look to the Sky from the Surface of the Water" EP
(Meanwhile)
Meanwhile – mean022
2 × Vinyl, 12", Album
14 May 2012
dub techno, ambient
Floating, deep and atmospheric Dub Techno. Nothing new, nothing revolutionary, but who cares authenticity when you got real aural pleasure? Truly enjoyable record.
Dark, mysterious bass-laden sounds this time with more ambitious experimental feel. Maybe the most interesting and challenging release by Old Apparatus so far.
Rod Modell and Steven Hitchell present their first Echospace album since Modern Love's 'Liumin' issue in 2010. The material on 'Silent World' formed the basis for that Modern Love release, but here is revealed unadorned, left untreated and unprocessed from its original 1/2" tape to preserve the sublime organic integrity of the recordings. The triple vinyl features seven tracks ranging from rolling House to stepping Dubs and beatless pools of tranquility while the CD plays through 71 minutes of the 'Official Motion Picture Soundtrack
From the liner notes: Sonic Theory: “Silence is where enlightenment exists. Doing nothing, thinking nothing, resisting nothing, we are expressing pure self to self. It is in solitude that we are able to understand our own enlightenment. Only in silence, we can acknowledge and release modules of our consciousness that lead to unhappiness. In these mystical quiet-zones, we become whole. Transformation is possible only in the sacred realm of silence. Atmospheric elements composed with snapshots of normally unheard sonic worlds. Captured with hydrophones, piezo-electric transducers, wind harps, and binaural dummy-head microphones, these phonographs were further accentuated with proprietary processing to reveal even deeper layers, then blended with care to retain the full mystical element of the source recordings.”
Kontra-Musik – KM025 Vinyl, 12" EP Jul 2012 deep house, tech house Soulful, less-is-more deep house for summer nights. Sexy and clever beats. IMO, this duo is producing some of the finest and more elegant house tunes nowadays.
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SpectraSoul - "Delay No More" (Shogun Audio)
23 July 2012 Shogun Audio 2 × Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM / CD, Album drum n bass, downtempo, bass music Intereresting, uk-style dark, downtempo and deeply 90's influenced d'n'b plus current bass music touch. Great production and classy feel. Highly recommended.
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Dusk + Blackdown +* (Burial) - "High Road" EP
(Keysound Recordings)
Keysound Recordings – LDN032 Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, 33 ⅓ RPM uk garage, bass music UK garage duo team-up with Burial to create an irresistible, deeply nocturnal EP filled with Bevan's unique trademark.
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Acid Pauli - "mst"
(Clown & Sunset)
Clown And Sunset – CS 009 Vinyl, LP, Album deep house, experimental, minimal
Nicolas Jaar-style experimental slow house with sophisticated and refreshing arrengements. One of the finest Clown & Sunset releases so far.
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Vladislav Delay - "Espoo" EP
(Raster Noton)
Raster-Noton – R-N141
Vinyl, 12" EP, 45 RPM 21 June experimental, techno, minimal
Raw, industrial-esque and abstract loops from one of my favorite producers ever. Broken and constantly changing beats, organic submerged bass and an intriguing obscure atmosphere.
Release/catalogue number: to085cd Release date: Jun 7, 2012 ambient, dark ambient, minimal, drone Thomas Koner has reaffirmed his stature in the experimental music world during the past two years, mostly due to the string of reissues from his early solo career and the 1996 debut album from the duo Porter Ricks. These recent editions came via Type, but for his first new album since 2009's "La Barca" Koner finds an even more appropriate home: Touch Music, the purveyor of all things oblique and subtle in forward-thinking sound.
"Novaya Zemlya" is the most minimal album in ages for the label as Koner focuses the album's three extended tracks on a variety of low-level hums and obscured field recordings that are crushed into fine bits of dust. The album's quiet, barren soundscapes hint at vast worlds as seen through a keyhole, providing mystery and intrigue rather than explicit detail and description. Traces of barely identifiable sounds occasionally waft through the atmospheres – cracks of thunder appear on the first track while the last holds distant piano notes – but Koner's focus lies in abstract restraint, just as it always has.
-Ryan Potts, Experimedia
Novaya Zemlya (lit. "New Land"), also known in Dutch as "Nova Zembla" and in Norwegian as "Gåselandet" (lit. the "Goose Land"), is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe, lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island. The artwork, by Jon Wozencroft, includes an essay by Thierry Charollais, "Thomas Köner's Novaya Zemlya: towards a metaphysical geography"... Of course we find the unique Köneresque glowing drones that we know from his previous works. But we will also be touched by an unrevealed, barely perceptible sense of melody and harmony that Köner has gradually developed since Kaamos (1998) and Nuuk (2004).
"Thomas Köner (b. 1965) is a pioneering multimedia artist whose main interest lies in combining visual and auditory experiences. Over his long, much celebrated career, he has worked between installation works, sound art, minimal soundscapes, and as one-half of Porter Ricks. He attended music college in Dortmund and studied electronic music at the CEM-Studio in Arnhem. Until 1994, he worked in the film industry as editor and sound engineer. Thomas has extended his concept of time and sound color to images, resulting in video installations, photography and net art. His point of departure was composition of sound in which aspects of a performance and visual language were gradually integrated. At first in the collaboration with film artist Jürgen Reble and the live performance Alchemie (1992). Following this, he started to compose film soundtracks and music to accompany historic silent films for the Louvre Museum and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, who called him a major innovator in the contemporary music scene, as well as noted his collaborative practice which has led to his working with musicians, filmmakers and visual artists on installations and sound performances, and to his creation of six video works produced in two cycles, starting in 2003. Mastered by Denis Blackham.
CD jewel case - 28pp full colour - 15 tracks - 50 mins approx ambient, atmospheric, drone
This CD is the soundtrack to the film AUN, directed by Edgar Honetschläger. With stills from the film in the full colour 28 page booklet, the artwork is designed by Philip Marshall. You can see a clip here.
Intention:
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ tells the story of mankind’s quest for the future, his desire to create the tomorrow, his fear of and loathing for the apocalypse. It spins the Faustian theme twice and lays bare open the inexhaustible Judea/Christian believe in progress, which by the 21st century has taken over the entire world and has succeeded in maneuvering the globe into a situation that can’t be solved by means of economics and science anymore. Enlightenment’s merits have taken the West’s ability to sense what is not to be seen, what is only to be felt. Believes are so much more than religion, than monotheistic concepts. Souls and spirits exist not only in film. Denial and neglect of eternal laws lead to extinction – of the individual and the entire human race. AUN invents rituals as well as mythologies and worships the creator of it all – nature – by playfully laying out its dichotomy with human culture. The film equals mankind’s beauty with nature by announcing that ‘everything mankind creates in nature’. Sadly the hubris ends and gives the audience the chance to heartily weep for the world.
Director's Statement:
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ follows the strings of thoughts the late Claude Lévi-Strauss revealed in his anthropological essays throughout the 20th century, as well as those of Japan’s unique Shintoism who’s millions of gods inhibit and preserve nature. The film focuses on the dichotomy man/nature and envisions a future world where life will be nothing but sensual. It contains references to Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, Italian anthropologist Fosco Maraini and the Japanese writer Yoko Tawada.
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ is a 100 min., 35mm feature drama written/directed by the Austrian artist/filmmaker Edgar Honetschläger. It is a Austrian/Japanese co-production realized by Edoko Institute Vienna and Ribo Ltd. Tokyo in cooperation with KGP Vienna. AUN was supported by the Austrian Film Institute, the Vienna Film Fund, the ORF (Austrian TV), the province of Upper Austria, the City of Tokyo, Tochigi Province, Shizuoka province, Yamanashi province.
For AUN film distribution contact filmdelights.com distribution. With thanks to Edoko Institute, Vienna and Ribo Ltd., Tokyo
Honest Jon's Records 2 × Vinyl, LP / CD, Album Jun 2012 experimental, dub, free jazz, techno
Fetch es el tercer álbum de estudio de la tripleta comandada por el señor Moritz Von Oswald (pez gordo del techno dub de Berlin y conocido por sus legendarios proyectos Basic Channel, Maurizio y Rhythm & Sound) y acompañado de Sasu Ripatti (el prolífico productor experimental y dancero tras los pseudónimos Vladislav Delay y Luomo) y Max Loderbauer ( alias Sun Electric y reciente compañero de Ricardo Villalobos en su notable disco Re:ECM). En sus anteriores trabajos, el trío sorprendió con un lenguaje musical practicamente inédito y de exquisito sabor. Una elegante mixtura de ambientaciones atmosféricas, percusiones quebradas e irregulares y pequeñas dosis de ruido y efectos maquinales, todo en una estructura libre e improvisada, influenciada en una forma futurista de free jazz.
En Fetch, la fórmula se expande a rincones inexplorados, resultando su trabajo más ambicioso e interesante a la fecha. Los cuatro extensos cortes que componen el LP se mueven entre una profunda rítmica dub de percusiones hipnóticas, olas de melodías analógicas y paisajes abstractos, además de ocasionales pinceladas al Detoit techno de los noventa, inyectado de una refrescante y visionaria producción contemporánea. Un deleite auditivo que encuentra sus bases en la historia musical de sus integrantes, ya que la repetición y el ímpetu experimental son una constante en el trabajo de Von Oswald y de Ripatti como Vladislav Delay, además de la exploración inagotable del Dub como ritmo esencial y adhitivo de fino groove.
Al trabajo de los tres ilustres, se adicionan las colaboraciones de Marc Muellbauer en el bajo y Tobias Freund, encargado de los efectos, además de una post-producción donde se incluyeron los vientos de Jonas Schoen (flauta, clarinete, saxofón) y al trompetista Sebastian Studnitzky. El pretencioso combo de instrumentistas elabora finalmente una rica paleta de sonidos pertenecientes a la contemporaneidad: no es electrónica, no es jazz, sino un matrimonio libre y desestructurado donde el fluir incesante del ritmo se balancea con estilo entre el estoicismo y la euforia, entre el caos y la calma. Música cinética y misteriosa que mira hacia el futuro, expandiendo los límites de la creación y la interpretación.
Well, it's nearly winter here in the southern hemisphere. The mood is slow-motioned and the sounds I'm into are cold, dark and textured beautiful atmospheres. I took my time to choose some new and older tunes that I think it represents the wintry spirit (from ambient-ish techno and deep dubby stuff to experimentalisms and lushful dreamy songs). These are the rhythms and ambiences of current days here in my place. Hope you enjoy.
Here's a good chance to hear how the next Vladislav Delay album ("Kuopio") after the forthcoming "Espoo" EP might sound like. Recorded April 14th 2012 at the prestigious Bimhuis venue in Amsterdam as part of the Viral Radio 5 Year Anniversary. The set consists of almost only unreleased work-in-progress material for the forthcoming album. A broken mixer added some nice extra challenge for trying out all that new material in a live setting for the first time ever.
Crosstalk – CROSS06LP Format: 4 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mixed Color / CD, Album Released: 24 Jan 2012 dub techno, experimental, ambient, dub
Unreleased tracks and versions from Echospace masters Rod Modell (Deepchord, cv313) and Stephen Hitchell (cv313, Soultek, Intrusion, Variant) celebrating the label's first 5 years. Intoxicating, blissful Dub Techno and submerged ambiences for deep diving as just Echospace can do. Enjoy.
Tracklist:
A1 Deepchord - 01-06 (cv313 Rework I) (6:15)
A2 Deepchord - 01-06 (cv313 Rework II) (5:18)
B1 Deepchord - Electromagnetic Dowsing (cv313 Live Rewire) (9:05)
B2 Variant - A Silent Storm (cv313 Reprise) (8:20)
C1 cv313 - Infinit-1 (Intrusion's Lost Dub) (5:23)
C2 cv313 - Altering Illusion (8:48)
D1 cv313 - Above Clouds (10:02)
D2 cv313 - Hypnosphere (5:28)
E Echospace - Spatialdimension (Intrusion Dub) (10:35)
F Echospace - Spatialdimension (Intrusions Narcotic Intake) (13:15)
Fluxion serves his 2nd album on Echocord, his fourth since those classic Chain Reaction sets in 1999-2000. With 'Traces' he continues to subtly plane the contours of Dub Techno into ever more fluid, spectral shapes and spaces, building on the legacy of Berlin's CR and BC cornerstones with an individual sense of soul and effortless, frictionless motion. Most notably there's an unreleased vocal appearance from Dennis Brown here on the Rhythm & Sound styled 'No Man Is An Island', providing a lighter counterpoint to the heavyweight Techno throbs of 'Eruption' or the tribal House gait of 'Motion 3' and the tunnelling 4/4 dub 'Memba', but overall the album is neatly balanced between those hydraulic basslines and moments of blissful serenity like the magical 'Stations' or the plunging, plangent chords of 'Burst Mode'. It's this refined compositional virtue and vision of his style within a style which makes Fluxion a preserve of Dub Techno connoisseurs.
Mark Ernestus presents: Jeri-Jeri with Mbene Diatta Seck
"Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh"
Label: Ndagga – ND-01
Format: Vinyl, 12"
Released: 25 Jan 2012
african roots, senegalese, dub, folk
Extra nice Ernestus specials, seeing the Basic Channel co-founder tackling Senegalese Mbalax in masterful form. After dubbing Congolese drumming on the outstanding 'Masikulu Dub', revising Shangaan Electro, and diffusing the secret rhythms of Burnt Freidman & Jaki Liebezeit, Mark Ernestus has left the Techno genre for dust and set up the Ndagga label to really indulge his twin passions for African polyrhythms and dub. Working with Mbalax musician Bakane Seck and singer Mbene Diatta Seck, he offers two of his most "swingeingly" pendulous, body-owning productions to date. The original 'Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh' is defined by fluid, rapidly intricate percussion and a yearning vocal spiced with limber bass and sparingly dubbed by a learned hand. Flipside though, Herr Ernestus really comes into his own, inciting the rhythm to dance hotfooted, darting syncopation hinging on a tidy bass tuck and punctuated with deftest guitar and vocal fragments. By the time of his triplet breakdown your body's reprogrammed to an irresistible, exotic slink that'll leave you wanting for more.
Since emerging in 2003, UK man Claro Intelecto has pursued the deeper side of techno, and now makes his Delsin debut with a 3 track EP entitled Second Blood, which precedes the release of his full length album on the same label in march 2012.
With a discography which includes a number of 12”s, EPs and full lengths on labels like Boomkat's own Modern Love as well as Ai Records and others, Manchester man Mark Stewart is known for dropping bomb after bomb, with these new efforts being no different.
First up, the title track 'Second Blood' is a lazy, scuffed and romantic sounding deep dub cut that lurches from one beat to the next with a lazy smile and soft eyes. Plenty of echo and reverb have it drifting off into the distance as warm pads and rising strings add subtle tension.
Another lazy roller but this time with brighter melodic flashes, next effort 'Heart' is just as lateral, dubwise and soothing as the title track, melting your mind into a dreamy state of hypnosis before b2 'Voyeurism' lifts you out of your trance with a firmer kick drum, more cutting claps and groove that bounces a little more than it rolls. Some taught acid notes appear eventually, rounding off a cerebral, dead of night EP made as much for home listening as it is gentle Sunday afternoon comedowns. Essential stuff.
Here are the first three albums that haunted me in the beginning of this year, which has been an especially slow-motioned and contemplative time. So, the sounds are subtle, atmospheric and gently close to darkness.
The comeback of lovely husband/wife duo Windy & Carl, a new amazing album by The Boats and the last uncanny journey by the always surprising Leyland Kirby's The Caretaker project... Enjoy.
-Gabriel
Windy & Carl - "We Will Always Be"
The first new recordings from Windy and Carl in more than three years. Cited as "A leading light of the Michigan space-rock scene" by Allmusic, the minimalist group formed in 1993 around the core husband-and-wife duo of guitarist Carl Hultgren and bassist/singer Windy Weber. (Most of the band's pieces feature no vocals, however).
The band was prolific from the outset up to 2001, whereupon they took a hiatus of a few years. The music of Windy & Carl borrows heavily from the sounds of 1980s era bands on 4AD Records, specifically that of Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins and various other dream pop and shoegazer acts. Unlike noteworthy prior drone/ambient artists (such as Cluster, Brian Eno, Popol Vuh, et al.), Windy and Carl's drones are primarily derived from guitar, particularly via usage of delay effects, reverb effects, and E-Bow, rather than synthesizers. Another noteworthy aspect of W.andC's sound is the absence of drums.
"The Boats are a duo consisting of Craig Tattersall (ex-Hood, The Remote Viewer, and owner of the Cotton Goods label) and Andrew Hargreaves (Tape Loop Orchestra) as well a rotating roster of guest musicians and vocalists. With the Boats, 12k, who continues to move away from the 'electronic' tag, further plays the line between experimental electro-acoustic sounds and structured music creating an intoxicating hybrid of instrumentation, vocals, electronics, piano and drums.
They work in these grey areas by combining elements of various musical styles--ambient, pop, classical, and experimental --creating overlaps, gaps and layers, nudging the boundaries in the most sincere and natural of ways. The Boats' music is warm, rich and complex but never over-complicated. They rarely rely on any sort of studio trickery instead opting to use the most honest tools to get the sounds they want-- be it proper recordings of acoustic instruments or recording to analogue tape. This doesn't, however, override a passion for experimentation as they are happy to throw away the rules in favor of the aesthetics of error."
James Leyland Kirby returns in 2012 with his long-in-the-making soundtrack to Grant Gee's film about W.G. Sebald. Patience (After Sebald) is a multi-layered film essay on landscape, art, history, life and loss by the acclaimed documentary film-maker Grant Gee. It is an exploration of the work and influence of German writer W.G. Sebald (1944-2001), told via a long walk through coastal East Anglia tracking his most famous book The Rings Of Saturn (1995). The book mixes history, travelogue, memoir, meditation, fiction and images to explore the personal, public and often overlooked histories of Suffolk.
In 2009, Grant approached The Caretaker to work on a soundtrack for this work and he sourced out-of-copyright Franz Schubert works from 1927 including the famous work "Winterreise." The soundtrack has been pieced together using snippets and fragments of this source material. The album artwork features another specially-commissioned painting by Ivan Seal, and will be available as a limited edition vinyl pressing and, later on, a digipak CD. Mastered and cut at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering. Limited edition of 700 copies.
