Cryptic Lexis
Recorded in late 2021 and early 2022, Cryptic Lexis features two long-form pieces connected by field recordings made in The Shetland Islands in 2019. The wind through a gate on a Bressay hillside is mixed with cascading guitars and minimal electronic percussion on "Confetti for the Flames" and recordings of Bains Beach form the backdrop of "Out on the Coast the Spirits Are". Paris based artist Graziella Torrigiani contributes words and voice to the latter, her text a direct response to the instr…
MPU103
*In process of stocking* The Zenker Brothers's Munich-based Illian Tape label is one of the architects of the contemporary underground. After making breakbeats cool again, the label continues to branch out in various directions. This time out it is MPU101 who links up his machines, turns them on and lets them cook up a series of grainy, lo-fi and downbeat soundscapes. Some have gently suggestive rhythms, others float through space and all of them come laden with a certain sense of melancholy. Im…
Immunotherapy
*300 copies limited edition* A deeply confounding trip into the sublime from master of contextual dream-weaving Nozomu Matsumoto on perhaps his most heart-piercingly beautiful work to date, including a 13 minute choral section that might just be the most stunning piece of pseudo-classical/liturgical alchemy we’ve heard all year.
Leading on from his ’Remain Calm’ album to accompany visual components by regular collaborator Nile Koetting, ‘Immunotherapy’ offers therapeutic solace through a persona…
Never Cursed ( ஒேபா சபகபடதிைல)
*In process of stocking* ’Never Cursed ( ஒேபா சபகபடதிைல)’ is an unpredictable introduction to skins’ ethereal, drifting meditations. A onetime producer for Metro Zu and Goth Money, his early, collage-style productions are here mixed with a palette of piano, organ, violin, guitar and washed-out effects. The flux of styles reflects a life in transit from his parents’ home in Jaffna, Sri Lanka to Toronto, CA, where the instrumental parts were recorded at St. James Cathedral, and ultimately to Londo…
Abisso Del Passato 1
'Be Maledetto Now! (a pairing of Be Invisible Now! and Maledetto/Nihil is Me) adopt the unusual practice of issuing an album as separate parts, the first, Abisso del Passato pt. 1, on 180 gram vinyl and the second, Abisso del Passato pt. 2, on CD. Generating the releases' hour of material using analogue synthesizers, effects, and treated guitar (after three years spent jamming and recording), the outfit takes its inspiration from Philip K. Dick (The Man in the High Castle , Do Androids Dream of …
Cascades
Cascades was recorded over a three-day studio session in Turin during the winter months, which is reflected in the musical narrative, as the eleven tracks flow gently like an icy river, filled with a mixture of hazy melancholy, uncanny dream-states and euphoria.Various recording techniques and instrumentation was utilised, including the Lyra-8 organismic analogue synthesiser, which takes principles from living organisms to produce sounds resembling a conversation between nature and technology. T…
ABoneCroneDrone
“The artistry of ABoneCroneDrone is in the attention to detail. The album is beautifully performed, mixed and compiled with intelligence and strong sense of structure. It makes good use of a listener’s valuable time while issuing a challenge to hear in a fresh way.” John L. Walters.
Saturae
*In process of stocking* Second Sleep presents an 8xtape box collection by Elisha Morningstar, a project by Francesco Tignola (Joy de vivre, Drug Age).Elisha Morningstar produces abstract sound pieces through manipulation of different kind of sources. Tape loops, concrete parts, harsh noise .. if the elements of this release have been widely developed in a myriad of outputs, what makes this one unique is the way in which these elements are used to tell a story, has in fact a unique approach and …
Random and emblematic: The sound of space
"It’s a pleasure to bring together, on this album, musicians with whom we feel a very special connection, namely Felicia Atkinson, Büşra Kayıkçı, Carmen Villain, Kuniyuki Takahashi, Pavel Milyakov, KMRU, Ana Quiroga, Abul Mogard and Pedro Vian. All of them have been very generous in their willingness to participate in an artistic experiment: to build bridges between architecture and music.Each of these artists chose a space and translated it into a piece of music, and the result is a sonic kalei…
Killer Road (A Tribute To Nico)
A shimmering ambient tone, an electronic underlay to the lulling chatter of crickets, makes way for the unmistakable voice of Patti Smith, quietly intoning, ominously, “The killer road is waiting for you / like a finger, pointing in the night.”
Behind the music and concept of Killer Road is international trio Soundwalk Collective – Stephan Crasneanscki, Simone Merli, and Kamran Sadeghi – who, alongside Patti Smith's daughter, Jesse Paris, conceived an immersive exploration of the tragic death o…
Body Traffic
* 300 copies limited edition * Jon K and Elle Andrews’ MAL imprint returns with an LP from one of the London experimental underground's best kept secrets, Rory Salter aka Malvern Brume. His music is rare, eccentric and mysterious - somewhere between Coil's bleak ritual magick and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's most experimental, minimal fringes. Malvern Brume operates just beneath the radar, occasionally turning up at Café OTO lineups and on a smattering of releases for Low Company, Alter, Infan…
Like Floating Leaves
*200 hand-numbered copies limited edition* Wil Bolton is a London-based artist whose work uses synthesizers, guitars, acoustic instruments and effects to create warm and emotive melodies, fragmented and submerged among beds of droning ambient textures and environmental sounds. Wil has released albums on labels including Home Normal, Hidden Vibes, Krysalisound, Audiobulb, Hibernate, Eilean Rec, Dronarivm and Sound In Silence. He has also shown his sound and video works in exhibitions at ICA, Inch…
Like Floating Leaves
*300 hand-numbered copies limited edition* Wil Bolton is a London-based artist whose work uses synthesizers, guitars, acoustic instruments and effects to create warm and emotive melodies, fragmented and submerged among beds of droning ambient textures and environmental sounds. Wil has released albums on labels including Home Normal, Hidden Vibes, Krysalisound, Audiobulb, Hibernate, Eilean Rec, Dronarivm and Sound In Silence. He has also shown his sound and video works in exhibitions at ICA, Inch…
Clarté Déserte
*300 copies limited edition* New 10 track studio album by Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk, recorded 2020-2021 at Impression Lointaine and Kulta Saha.
"Forth unobserved I wentIn darkness and security,By the secret ladder, in disguise,In secret, seen of none,Oh night more lovely than the dawn!Lost to all things and myself,And, amid the lillies forgotten,Threw all my cares away"
Aurinkopari
Aurinkopari plays with polarities as it seeks to find something celestial in the mundane. The brightest sound of the album is captured in the darkest night of the year. Sine waves, scaled according to old wartime engineers, are performing as a magic flute. A hydrophone detects other-worldly sounds of a drowning compost and a ceremonial Javanese gendèr is recorded in a bunker… While the processes of recording the album were often playfully esoteric, I think the music itself is warmly heartfelt.
Musik Ohne Ende
"In the 1970s, serious music lovers had a reel-to-reel tape deck. My father certainly loved music and had one to tape classical music off the radio. I recorded my first musical experiments with this machine, fascinated as I was by slowing down the speed so my pieces last longer. Later on, I had some more experience, and my father turned to playing CDs, so the reel-to-reel machine has used a lot less, and I was allowed to drag it upstairs, and I borrowed one from the likewise serious Phillips emp…
I - Kamermuziek
Biggest Tip! "Muziekkamer is a minimalwave project by Martin Keuning and Cees van de Oever, based in Leiden, the Netherlands, in the 1980s. The first album, 'I' (aka Kamermuziek), is a self-healing calm unified by hushed-toned electric guitars and faint synths, while the second album is a more experimental and pop minimalist/electronic sound, similar to Kubus Kassettes' work. The guitar harmonics are hazy. The long, dreamy parts, with a vague layers of guitar harmonics, is one of the best ambien…
Aeonium
Tarotplane's new tape on Constellation Tatsu comes after many years of research and correspondence. They find him seeking to recreate the unique sound of the late great legend that is Manuel Gottsching. As such, his Aeonium album is a truly psychedelic treasure that fuses some magical moments from Krautrock as well as plenty of new and innovative sounds in between. It has twinkling cosmic melodies and sleek synth lines that are in constant flux. This one comes with great cover art in the form of…
Music From The Temple Of Light
Peter Culshaw was described by Malcolm Mclaren as “the Indiana Jones of World Music” and has tracked down music from the Amazon to Siberia and lived with Pygmies in Central Africa and dervishes in Istanbul. Culshaw interviewed many of the greats including Fela Kuti, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Caetano Veloso and Ibrahim Ferrer. His book Clandestino, now published in ten languages, was a biography/ travelogue on the road with Manu Chao. The result of decades of research is this, his first solo album. …
air near silence
Tip! Truly intrigued as a kid by the weird sounds his DIY electronica building kit could make, Mich L. (aka Mich Leemans of Paper Hats and curator of AB Salon) never stopped his quest for more beauty in hidden frequencies and harmonics of modular synths and old tape recorders. His search into the deep mysterious sound spectrum unexpectedly made a surprising u-turn after a seizure of increasing tinnitus and enduring nausea. The concept of listening, as stated by Pauline Oliveiros as 'the involunt…