★Soleilmoon
Sufiq
Those keeping a running count will know that Sufiq brings the Muslimgauze CD catalog into the triple digits. This mini-album is especially significant, as it extends the extraordinary productivity of Muslimgauze auteur Bryn Jones beyond his untimely passing. New Muslimgauze titles have emerged since, but each was scheduled prior to Jones’ death in January of 1999. Active to the end, Jones left behind a store of finished masters. Sufiq sees the first release of material from this impressiv…
Dna le draw d kee
DNA Le Draw D Kee is an anagram for "Edward and Elke," as in Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots and his former wife Elke Skelter. The two were asked to contribute a piece to the ambient release for the Korm Plastics series. Ka-Spel explains that "the term 'ambient' had become synonymous with any floating landscape which oozed out of a set of speakers at the time. The estimable Brian Eno was of course the man who first coined the term 'ambient music' years before to describe records wh…
Club Years
Johanna Went is a pioneering performance artist who began performing as
part of a street theater troupe that traveled America and Europe in the
1970s. Following her years on the road, she settled in L.A. in the late
'70s and began transforming her street theater performances into what
would become her signature style. Using found props and hand-sewn
costumes, she developed a wild stage act that included live musical
backing from legendary performers such as Z'ev and KK Barret of the
Screa…
Gulf Between Us
Muslimgauze are easily the most prolific electronics outfit on the experimental underground scene. And while they release CDs in bunches, Muslimgauze's output never sinks below absolutely brilliant. The basic formula is relatively simple: lift some Arabic street music, sample it, loop it, attach a small explosive, and detonate. The result: an incredibly rich pastiche of wind-blown, dubbed-out trance music that is at once edgy but calm, aggressive but soothing. "Gulf" is a peaceful, laconic 20-mi…
Glossalalia
Slowly pulsating drones, chirping electronics, distant radio static. Ambient or minimal? To answer the question, it might help to go back a couple of millennia to the Epicurians. Today their name mostly evokes indulgence in fleshly pleasures but that only one form of their thinking; the other sought to deny the body excess experiences. Though the difference isn’t always audible, ambient tries to envelop a listener in pleasant fluffiness while minimalism wants to remove any nonessentials to focus…
Digilogue
Digilogue was originally issued in 1996 as a limited edition clear vinyl LP. It was followed two years later in 1998 by a CD containing three bonus tracks. The CD has been out-of-print for more than a year. As of today, it's the only Zoviet France release in circulation worldwide. The rest of their catalog is out-of-print! The music recorded for Digilogue examines the subtle and shifting nuances that contrast the digital and analog worlds. Zoviet France have always professed their fascination wi…
scorpion wind
Originally released in 1996 as Scorpion Wind's Heaven Sent CD/LP this album has long been considered the 'lost' classic collaboration between Death In June's neo-folk pioneer Douglas P. and industrial music's renegade innovator Boyd Rice. Recorded in Australia prior to the pair starring in the cult film Pearls Before Swine, it is a unique, melodic and richly orchestrated ode to modern living, modern loving -- and modern hating. Joined by percussionist John Murphy (ex-SPK, The Associates, Current…
the Religious Experience
VERY LAST COPIES AROUND Stasis and stability are nowhere to be found here. Instead, an ever-changing dialogue between structure and chaos shifts from one performer to the next, never resting long before launching again into shuddering flight. Accoustic instruments and vocals form a familiar reference point, but studio treatments take the music into psychedelic and cinematic realms. In their words, “Improvisation is a way to experiment without thinking. When our improvisations ‘work’, the music j…
Theology
"The CD "Theology" contains the source recordings used for the LP "The Religious Experience", and is limited to 450 copies. The two albums and their music should be considered as mirror opposites. Where theology is a completely artificial system of belief, a religious experience is the immediate experience of the thing itself. Likewise, the music on "Theology" is complex and elaborate, while "The Religious Experience" is much simpler, going directly to the heart of the material compri…