★Stroom
Music Compilation: 12 Dances
As Stroom approaches 30 releases, a number of distinct strands have emerged from its impeccable tastes, and TRJJ’s Music Compilation: 12 Dances slots neatly into their most precious vein of slow, zoned, and loner obscurities somewhere between the minimal, rhythm-driven slink of Pablo’s Eye, the bedsit blues of Vanderschrick, and the other-place ambience of their Cybe collection. Far as we can tell, TRjj stems from TRIIMusik, “a loose group based in Germany since 1998”. It is practiced collective…
Le Personnage Principal est un Peuple Isolé
Benjamin Lew was an enlightened amateur, in the noble and almost Renaissance-like sense of the word: he dabbled with equal grace in photography, writing, visual arts ... and worked part-time as a cocktail mixer in a tropical bar which was one of the favourite watering holes of Brussels’ thriving artistic community of the early ‘80s. Tuxedomoon had just moved to Brussels, and Steven Brown was among the many musicians, designers & artists who patronized the bar. Benjamin had a secret passion: he w…
A Place of Solace
Cinematically-scoped synth music with an intimate personality; the debut from Jachym Vandenbeele aka Aponogeton for Stroom. RIYL Heldon, Klaus Schulze, Eduard Artemiev scores for Tarkovsky. This album is the result of some musings on what drives us in life and how we come to terms with our place in the world. I wrote it around the time I was finishing my philosophy degree. I had also come to a point where I wanted to make music that was more personal, emotional and conceptual than before.We are …
Happiness Is Within Sight
A spellbinding ode to love lost, and possibly to be gained, from Belgium’s Annelies Monseré, one of the few contemporary artists to release new recordings amid Stroom’s classic reissue schedule - although you’d hardly tell from the timeless, ghostly quality of her signing and gothic backdrops. Described by Ziggy Devriendt’s (a.k.a. DJ Nosedrip) label as “…a record about a parting of ways. It is dedicated to the one who has been left behind and the one who left” the latest LP from Annelies is unm…
Chosen Songs
Limited edition of 800 Yet another dreamy peach from STROOM 〰, ‘Chosen Songs’ collects an unmissable introduction to the shadowy poetry and music of 48 Cameras; a long-running, mutable ensemble helmed by Belgium’s Jean-Marie Mathoul (✝ 04/07/2018)Spanning 8 pieces, each recorded in one take between 2002-2013, ‘Chosen Songs’ notably features guest input from Michael Gira (Swans) and Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) among many others. However, the centre of attention is Jean-Marie Mathoul (1952-2018), who…
Jan Zonder Vrees
The firstborn baby is the soundtrack to the 1984 Flemish cult classic movie 'Jan Zonder Vrees', by infamous composer Alain Pierre. ‘Jan Zonder Vrees' was the first animated feature film, directed by Jef Cassiers and commissioned by the public broadcasting company BRT. It tells the tale of Jan, a simple yet extremely strong farmer boy who has to battle evil whilst fleeing from his native town of Antwerp. Although Cassiers was on a very small budget, his movie is full of references to Old Masters …