★Sub Rosa
Phosphorescent Dreams
**LP version on marbled vinyl** Available for the first time outside Japan, and on LP and CD, Phosphorescent Dreams is another epic album of symphonic schizophrenic avant-rock from Univers Zero, originally released in 2014 -- only on CD -- on the Japanese label Arcàngelo. Phosphorescent Dreams presents at the same time, in the same track, even on a single moment, the complex musical schemes and ways of Univers Zero, ranging from maximalism to minimalism, classical avant-garde with a 2020 vibe in…
From Somewhere Invisible
**Limited edition LP on marbled vinyl, includes printed inner sleeve and poster.** Edited and mixed between Montreal and Paris, From Somewhere Invisible summons the fever of experimentation and the powerful sound of the game coming together in the service of a luxuriant and psychedelic drift. Synthetic brass meets hammered rhythms, string electrics with cracked electronics, saxophone cries and laughter at a pulsing and seminal bass. Created in 2012 by multi-instrumentalists Frédéric D. Oberland …
Instrumental
Swiss electro-acoustic artist Israel Quellet's fifth opus, Instrumental, is a new work focused on the Church organ. Complex and mysterious, secular and modern - it makes for another challenging listen. Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1972, Israel Quellet worked in the psychiatric field for several years. At 16, he discovers on his own some different soundworlds, such as Miles Davis's electric era, Sun Ra, Dub, German cosmic music, Magma, Zappa and many more. In 1997, he stepped into the action a…
Cloud Atlas/Vertical Study
Cloud Atlas is a collection of ten short pieces composed by Toshi Ichiyanagi between 1985 to 1999. Vertical Study gathers rare pieces composed by Claude Ledoux. Both are performed by Japanese pianist Kaoru Tashiro. "Kaoru
produces serene, yet rich sound texture; the fluctuation of beat and
the perspective of the motif are ingenious. I hope many more people will
taste this joy of finding a grain of gold with your own eyes and ears,
from her commercialism-unrelated, sincere and an experimental…
Talking About The Weather
Talking About The Weather: Teacher and student. Past and present. Two drummers. Two men. Two fathers. Friends. A conversation. A dialogue of the drums. Following up on a drum/percussion duo Eric Thielemans and Billy Hart did in the Summer of 2016 at the Jazz Middelheim festival, these two drummers decided to dedicate time to continue and deepen their versatile dialogues on and around the drums. The meeting and recording of Talking About The Weather took place on January 7-9, 2018 at "Figure 8 Re…
Just Like a River
Edition of 400 copie, on marbled vinyl. Yannick Franck (Orphan Swords, RAUM) presents his new project: Mt Gemini. A deconstruction of ska, rocksteady, and skinhead reggae from the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Rather a passionate deconstruction of a genre than compositions or remixes per se, this incantatory tribute favors abstraction using loops, distortion, compression, variations of speed and height, and effects (delay, reverb, chorus). Recorded in different states of altered consciousness, Mt Gemini…
An Anthology of Greek Experimental Electronic Music
An Anthology of Greek Experimental Electronic Music 1966-2016 aspires to map the heterogenous landscape of Greek experimental electronic music in all its contextual, sociopolitical, geographical and aesthetic disparity. With a single exception: it zeroes in on post-80s music. It comprises works of very different kinds by composers of all sorts of backgrounds that, still, can be thought of, as both "Greeks" and "experimentalists". Experimental electronic music is generally expected to be highly v…
Yom Kippur 1973
The record you are holding in your hands is a previously unheard masterpiece of Israeli multimedia artist Ami Shavit. As a professor of both philosophy and art and established kinetic artist in the 1970s Shavit was fascinated with new and interactive technologies. While mostly focusing on visual art and mixed-media installations, a trip to New York in 1972 introduced him to synthesizers and triggered his curiosity to do some explorations into the world of music or "sound" as he preferred to call…
Chamber Electronic Music
Sub Rosa presents Gilles Gobert's Electronic Chamber Music. Musical genre: trans, hybrid, crossbred, mongrel, whoreson, mixed, unclean, intricated, blended, interracial, bastard, harmonized, bouillabaisse, pandemonium, disorder, bewilderment, muddled, disarrayed, tangled, distraction, shambled, discorded, abashed, fuzzy, foggy, plaything, rejoicing, orgasmic, thoughtlessness, salad, undisciplined, inordinate, coded, slanged, talk, privacy, nearness, disobedient, unruly, confidante, imperfect, ta…
Se (in) de bos
Se (in) de bos is a slow-paced 60 minute piece performed by Vvolk and composed by Stijn Cools. While getting deeper in the sound of Vvolk, the perception of time fades. It is astonishing how improvised music can create such a timeless, and calming experience for the listener. This is the third album in the Book Of Air series, as part of the Granvat platform curated by the brothers Stijn and Bert Cools. As in the first Book Of Air album Fieldtone (SR 412LP, 2015) and the second, Vvolk (SR 413CD/L…
4 Geomungo Sanjo Vol II
New compositions for ancient Korean instrument: the Geomungo. Follow-up to Baudouin de Jaer's highly-acclaimed Compositions for Geomungo and Gayageum (SR 373CD, 2012). Baudouin de Jaer tells... his large hands stir the air, drawing soft and assured lines, they connect distant planets and micro-particles in a space that does not exist yet. There is the encounter with the Geomungo. a traditional Korean instrument, the geomungo is an ancient table zither, an improbable association of wood and tense…
H1KhH2WM (Du Seuil), a Five-letter Sufi Word
The third chapter in the Sufi Word's series. Jean-Luc Fafchamps
on the release: "The Sufi Letters is a vast project of 28 compositions
(for the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet) undertaken in 2000 and still
ongoing. I am drawing inspiration from the symbolic charts found in
Sufi mysticism. Each Letter is a sonic meditation on the frontiers of
conscience and the paradoxes of time. Today's word, 'Du seuil' ('From
the threshold'), is the third word to be released by Sub Rosa. It is a
journe…
Animal Wrath
Phil Maggi is a composer, a vocalist and a film maker from Belgium. Known as the lead singer of heavy-rock combo Ultraphallus, Phil Maggi develops an extensive body of work as a solo musician for several years. This new album Animal Wrath is a combination of his different forms of music, from ambient-drone, electro-acoustic, sampling and field recordings to free-jazz. Phil Maggi has invited a few generous collaborators (Oren Bloedow, Maja Jantar, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh,Tom Malmendier, Gabriel Séve…
Echoes of Harmony - Early Music Reworked
All pieces of the Renaissance Repertoire come from Cancionero de Colombina (around 1470) or Cancionero de Palacio (around 1510). Both sources are well known for their typical Spanish repertoire of this period. Electronic music artist Sylvain Chauveau did new versions of several tracks and added also some drones to the program. Daniel Manhart did the compilation and the additional sound design and mixing. All pieces on this CD are hardly ever performed or recorded -- a fine, sensitive, inter…
Digital Dance 002
After the album Total Erasement (SR 366LP, 2014), that includes the more "professional" studio recordings of Digital Dance, Digital Dance 002 is the re-release of their last cassette tape, originally released in 1981, reflecting another side of their work and the beginnings of what was to come. Stéphan Barbery of Digital Dance on the release: As the first single of Digital Dance, "Radioactivity/Computer Rock" (1979), was far from convincing for us, we created our own label, Digital Records, and …
Hiera picra Hellébores (Collection 2011-2016) 2Cd
Christophe Guiraud uses old instruments such as the Hotteterre flute, the viola da gamba or the viola bass, combining them with electronics. Born in Toulouse (south of France) mid-seventies, he lives between Brussels and Paris. His early works come from alternative rock, free jazz and harsh noise (Tellemake, 2 records on Angström Records). His more recent pieces mixed the beauty of the polyphonies of Ars Nova (XIVè century) and noise. This nonesuch hybridation creates a music easily recognizable…
Wound Burner
Wound_Burner is an audio project based on field recordings which took place in various locations in New York, USA, Gotland, Sweden, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and the Greek countryside. The project consists of three main parts, and moves along high frequency slow-motion sentimental delirios to heavy bass ambient soundscapes, periodically colored by the voice of the soprano Irini Kyriakidou. Some of the sounds were constructed by using exclusively digital and electronic media. Wound_Burner demo…
Ji Ameeto
Babils are an atypical Brussels underground band, mixing rock, new wave, psych, kraut, experimental, and repetitive music. Ji Ameeto is the fourth album from Babils. From the duet formed in the late '90s by Gabriel Séverin and Michel Duyck, opening out over the years, the five current members of Babils meet monthly at the Central Laboratory to improvise freely, without any restraint. All the sessions are recorded and archived. The very first album by Babils, The Joint Between, made of a sele…
Vvolk
Book of air is a series of bundled compositions. This is the second chapter performed by 'Vvolk'. Opposed to the first quintet release 'Book of Air - Fieldtone' (SRV412 2LP), the music out of the 'Vvolk' series is played by a group of 18 improvisers with roots in jazz and classical music. The group investigates performing and improvising music, in close relation to present time; what are the possibilities in playing music, when changes in this music pass by unnoticed? How do we as musicians rela…
Gentle Electronics
In the pieces featured on this record, I have chosen simple electronic means - the kind that are commonplace, accessible, cheap, and easy to use - and I put them to work in a mostly-theatrical way: a situation of representation, one that is unique, new, and creative, where the focus lies in esthetics and poetics instead of in technological prowess. An imagination of otherness, where you don't know anymore whether the other is the soundworld produced out of time in the 'black box' of electronics …