★Hands In The Dark
Ghost Tropic
Ghost Tropic is first and foremost the name of the third feature from acclaimed Belgian writer-director Bas Devos. The film tells the story of Khadija, a middle-aged cleaner who has no other option but to walk home through Brussels on a cold night after falling asleep on the last train. The journey is a reflection on motherhood and expectations, pride and unknown struggles, stories of the ghostly magic of a lonely night in a big city, of the kindness of strangers and the hurt felt seeing the vul…
Dream Character
**300 only, this is stunning** Matt Jencik is back on Hands in the Dark with his new album, 'Dream Character', the follow up to his first solo record 'Weird Times' back in 2017. Whilst all the songs on his debut album were created using the same sampling method on the same instrument, this time the Chicago artist’s approach is slightly different. Using a combination of 4 track cassette, digital recording & sampling, he added live improvisations and a wider selection of instruments including gui…
Death And Spring
We live in a musical era defined by historical reappraisal - a noble moment which has rescued a near countless number of incredible albums from lingering neglect and loss. As wonderful and exciting as this is, it has come with an unexpected, but increasingly acknowledged consequence. With so many eyes on what was, we risk allowing history to repeat, subjecting today’s artists to the same forms neglect which plagued the past. It’s becoming increasingly rare to encounter record labels which entire…
Meeting of Waters
** 300 copies ** Back in 2017 the unassuming Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Josiah Steinbrick released his first collection of solo pieces and we’ve been listening to it compulsively since then. Given that its initial release was only in North America, both on cassette with Leaving Records and in an extremely limited vinyl self-release via Banana Editions, we felt that this meticulously crafted, essential work righteously deserved to get a proper spin in Europe too! "Meetin…
How Deep Is Our Love?
** 525 copies ** Paul Régimbeau, aka Mondkopf, joins the Hands in the Dark ranks with a new album, "How Deep Is Our Love?". For more than a decade now the prolific Parisian producer hasn’t ceased to surprise us with his compositions, constantly treading new ground with artistic bravery and curiosity. At times extreme, at other times méditative and always complex, his music is never easy-access. In recent years his work has taken a clear turn towards a more ambient, intimate, less abrasive style.…
Présence Absence
Présence Absente is Saåad's third release with Hands in the Dark, after Orbs & Channels back in 2013 and Deep/Float the following year. Based on the French duo’s 2017 live setup and improvised sets, this new album is the quintessence of their music: raw, deep, murky, fascinating. The band's sound and experimental songwriting have matured over the course of their albums, and with this new offering we feel that they have truly blossomed both in form and in content.Their brand of experimental drone…
A Skeleton
Hailing from Suuns, Canadian Ben Shemie offers up his first solo work, ‘A Skeleton’ - an experimental pop album of cold synthetic sounds with touches of psychedelia. Based on his live, itinerant experiments, the whole album was recorded in a single take with no overdub. Shemie has left traces of the atmosphere of each recording space, adding an element of chaos and unpredictability alongside his masterful/dexterous manipulation of the equipment.The voices and instruments sound as if they were dr…
Alpestres
We are pleased to welcome Parisian Matthias Puech into the HITD fold with his album ‘Alpestres’. A researcher by day, he transforms into a nocturnal narrator of sound travel by night, with his new album taking us on a mythical, magical hike up to the inaccessible heights of the Alps. Puech creates a vast collection of untouched electronica landscapes with modular synthesisers built by his own fair hands. With his various devices, he emulates the sounds of nature and gives sonic form to feelings,…
Instead Of Rain I Bring A Hat
Instead of rain I bring a hat is a long-distance collaboration between the UK’s Aaron Moore (Volcano The Bear, Gospel Of Mars, duo with Alan Courtis) and Norwegian Erik K Skodvin (Svarte Greiner, Deaf Center, B/B/S). It developed gently, taking its full form over the space of nearly 6 years.The project began with e-mail exchanges of fragmented sounds and ideas – on the piano, cello, drums, harp, vocals, homemade and electronic instruments. Their experimental correspondence eventually blossomed a…
Plays Paradise Artificial
Another year on the HITD calendar, another stunning new solo release with Brian Case Plays Paradise Artificial. This third album somehow manages to compile and condense the best bits of its predecessors, and the magnificent viridian, glacial universe developed by Case since the beginning of his solo ventures is brought to the forefront.The Chicago artist centres his elusive, dehumanised compositions around two simple, minimal elements. Using just vocals and synths, he has created a simultaneousl…
Only The Sun Is Full Of Gold
Cankun is back on Hands In The Dark (LP) and Not Not Fun (cassette) with Only The Sun Is Full Of Gold, his 3rd full length album follow-up to the brilliant and unanimously acclaimed 2013's Culture of Pink. This time, Frenchman Vincent Caylet is inviting us to a two part journey: Side A sets Cankun's new tempo, taking the listener to darker spheres compared to his previous works, moving from a tropical beach to the middle of a dense, uncanny and unpredictable jungle, where the sun never reaches. …
Polygome
In process of restock, last copies around. Edition of 300. Bridging the worlds of Modern Classical composition, musique concrète, electronic and electroacoustic music, organic jazz and minimalism while fitting comfortably in none, for more than a decade Piotr Kurek has remained a slow and elusive fixture in our sonic landscape, creating an entirely singular, almost lawless world of his own. After a series of records made in collaboration with others, and solo efforts under different monikers, th…
Diagonals
**Edition of 300, sold-out at source** Hailing from Paris, Jonathan Fitoussi has been exploring contemporary minimalist musical forms for almost a decade. His recent solo works have been described as a “fusion of electronic and acoustic sounds with melodic textures, colours and emotions in a cinematographic aesthetic style”, all of which is fuelled by his passion for recording, for analogue studio technology and for rare instruments. He’s also audio restoration engineer at Institut National de l…
Sur Les Autres Mondes
Egyptology is a Parisian duo is made up of Stéphane Laporte (Domotic) and Olivier Lamm, two musicians who have been active since the late 90’s in the French post-electronica/avant scene. Sur Les Autres Mondes finds its title and a fitting visual inspiration in a publication by French astronomer Lucien Rudaux (1937, Larousse) in which he imagined the landscapes of other planets in our solar system through scientific descriptions. Partly composed for a performance at the prestigious Louvre m…
Memory In Vivo Exposure
Memory In Vivo Exposure presents maverick percussionist Valentina Magaletti (Raime, UUUU) and her bandmate Tom Relleen at their most dextrous in four pieces ranging from a superb meld of Afro-Reichian phrasing and location recordings in the 2-part title cut, thru to busted post-punk knocks on The Inexorable Sadness of Pencils, and back to rhythmelodic hypnotism with Il Fiume Di Ferro. “London band Tomaga are back with their fourth release under the Hands in the Dark banner: Memory in Vivo Expos…
Body Consonance
Body Consonance is the follow up to Precipice, Byron Westbrook’s critically acclaimed debut LP from 2015 (Root Strata).Taking a turn towards greater immediacy, this new album is far from “ambient” with ecstatic abstract rhythm as its anchor. An artist who also operates in visual contexts, Westbrook utilizes binaural qualities of the stereo listening format to sculpt three-dimensional sounds in perpetual motion, producing works that are both pointillistic and psychedelic. Body Consonance is …
Spirit Design
Only a year after his debut solo album with Hands in the Dark, Brian Case is back this August with Spirit Design. The record consists of ten new experimental tracks of concrete dub and electronic wizardry. This sophomore solo record is drastically different from the Chicagoan’s first opus, Tense Nature. Case has added vocals and more beats to his compositions, putting together an album that promises and lends itself to a loud, moving live experience. Although in ways it is more experimenta…
New Age Sewage
The Brown brothers emerge from the depths of California with a new collection of oozing drone centred on ‘heavy visions of negative west coast mythology.’Darkness is never far away from a Robedoor session, and their first album in four years finds Alex and Britt Brown dealing with ‘multiple seismic life events.’ Naturally this results in quite a powerful listen, Robedoor’s sludge even denser and mired in more pain and crepuscular mysticism. The brothers craftily let the gloom seep in slowly over…
The Shape Of The Dance
The London-based duo Tomaga are back with a new record. The Shape of the Dance is their second full length album, a follow-up to Futura Grotesk, which was released in 2014 with Hands in the Dark. The instrumental, experimental tracks compiled on this new opus evoke something which feels closer to the band’s impressive live performances than their previous recordings. The spiralling polyrhythmic percussion, performed with a range of materials, the vibraphone, the frenetic bass, the organ and o…
Tense Nature
Brian Case (Disappears, Bambi Kino Duo…) is releasing his debut solo album, Tense Nature, which sees him focus his work on space, minimalism and repetition. The songs are all built around the idea of tape loops or lock grooves, working with snippets and phrases of sound. Brian sampled guitar or small drum loops before cutting them randomly. The sequences and their imperfect nature were then reworked into a sort of momentum, built using Case’s own perception of the new fragments.
The result…