New Arrivals
Io
"Io” is the result of a process that started in 2022 during the composition of the music for Bertolt Brecht's play ”Life of Galileo”, directed by Carolina Frände, at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. In Galileo's search for the unseen, he points his telescope to the sky, expanding human perception and our understanding of the world. Here, the electromagnetic fields of the theatre stage are recorded using a sort of anti-radio, an artisanal pocket electromagnetic detector, in line with the …
Open Window
*300 copies limited edition* That true beauty lies in the essentiality and meticulous combination of a few elements is sometimes not just a cliché. The delicate blend of Roland CR-78, acoustic guitar and dissonant organs that intertwine in Open Windows is a vivid demonstration of this. It is these few elements, now distant and hinted at and now close and deafening, that paint the backdrop of melancholic nostalgia where laconic whispers move the listener within the paintings that bear the sonic s…
Earth, Our Planet?
“Earth, Our Planet?”: A call for environmental awareness. This time, Pedro Vian - the founder of Modern Obscure Music - presents his fourth solo album (following his 2020 release, "Ibillorca"). Due for release in spring 2024, "Earth, Our Planet?" promises to immerse us in a moving odyssey, crossing the boundaries of musical genres to provoke an urgent meditation on the protection of our planet. On this occasion Vian has composed the album influenced by the myth of the eternal return, the composi…
Trollpietra
For some time now, a strange music has been resonating in HDK's headquarters; a music where dungeon-synth, house and techno rave meet in a blasphemous yet juicy cocktail... The caves of the Trollpietra are a sordid and unhealthy place, inhabited by creatures of the night and strange homeless spirits. Trollpietra caves were once the laboratory of a mad herbalist who distilled magical potions which he sold in the county black market. Before dying, the mad herbalist hid his most incredible and dang…
Live at I.U.C.C. 4/27/80 (2CD)
**333 copies, one-time pressing** Volume 11. 2 disc set documenting the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - April 27, 1980. This is the eleventh and final concert that Tom Albach recorded at Immanuel United Church of Christ. Easily ranking as one of our favorite performances of the series, its also destined to be considered one of the greatest Arkestra live recordings, brimming with intense energy and culminating in the 1-2 punch of a blazing “Lelan…
Live at IUCC 11/25/79 (2CD)
** 333 copies, one-time pressing ** 2CD SET in gatefold slipcase 2 disc set documenting the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in concert at the Immanuel United Church of Christ - November 25, 1979. This is the eighth in a series of eleven concerts recorded at the church. This month sees the Arkestra stretching out and reaching blissful heights… the 30+ minute long version of “Carnival” is worth the price of admission alone, but the same could be said for the monumental “Nation Rising” or the deep ta…
Moonbuilding - Back to School 2023
Cor. Issue Four. There’s some parenting wisdom that says after you’ve had three children you might as well have a few more as it makes no odds. Four to six is the sweet spot, apparently. Less stress they say. So here’s to our fourth. Check back in on those stress levels when we get to six. Mags, not kids. Do we need to remind you that Moonbuilding is brought to you by former Electronic Sound commissioning editor Neil Mason and published by Colin Morrison’s Castles In Space label? Or is that the…
Insula Dulcamara
Paul Klee’s Naturstudium (1923) recalibrated the dialogue between art-making and the natural world. By peering closely at nature, Klee’s project was one of a magical de-mystification, seemingly a contradiction in terms until you realize that by looking clearly and dispassionately (the studium part of Naturstudium), he brought us full circle to wonder and awe. Spanish percussionist Luis Tabuenca also peers inward at his world—here the universe of percussion sounds—inviting us to a microscopic lis…
Inner Cop Avoidance
An anonymous ICA fan writes in a reddit post, that if you layer these two voices on top of each other and play KP’s voice backwards the band members will speak in unison saying, “we mean there are footsteps while we stand still”. This was suggested a short time after the band played their first concert back in 2022. A few weeks later in another chat someone suggests how the ICA acronym could be understood as a counterabreviation of CIA, “… a music to infiltrate a secret police force?”… Then a ce…
Extinct
Cold Spring is proud to present a unique collaboration between Industrial Breakbeat pioneers Meat Beat Mamifesto (Jack Dangers) and the undisputed king of Japanese noise, Merzbow (Masami Akita).
FasFari
Tip! *150 copies limited release* Xing presents the new LP FasFari by Alessandro Bosetti, thirteenth release of the XONG collection - artist records. The release is on white vinyl, in a limited and numbered edition of 150 copies, together with a print run of 20 collector's editions. Each of these are accompanied with a graphic and text table, designed and hand drawn by the artist with phonetic alphabet, that transcribe the memories of his encounter with each 'voice donor’.
FasFari is composed of…
Penny OST
*100 copies limited edition* Penny is a feature documentary directed by Maya Hardinge. It follows the life of Penny from a teenager living in Uckfield (UK) to Germany and overland by truck in the 1970’s through Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and full circle years later back to her home town. The soundtrack, like the film, is a collage, composed of sounds and events depicting Penny’s journey. While the recently released cassette on woodfordhalse foregrounds Penny’s voice by incorporating generou…
Obsidian
The first release of 2024 is in! After their well-received debut duo album Puncture Cycle (released five years ago on A New Wave Of Jazz - this album you find here), British key improviser Benedict Taylor (viola) and Dirk Serries (archtop guitar) are back with a new duo album. An album they recorded at the fantastic Oude Klooster chapel in Brecht (Belgium) on August 11th, 2023. Full-on interaction, fast-paced dialogue while still listening and corresponding in depth with the sublime acoustics …
Amor
*300 copies limited edition* "When asked about the title of her new record, “Amor”, Limpe bluntly responded, “because it’s everything”. Being a Beatles fan from the very beginning, she’s well aware that “all you need is love”, but there’s more to her sentiment than a corny pun. On the one hand, she’s more than half a decade into her musical career, and describes the relationship towards her instruments in terms of an ongoing and deepening love affair. “Be it my piano, my viola or my percussion i…
Strega Beata
'Strega Beata’ is the 3rd full-length album from Sam An’s dark electronic, genre-bridging solo project under the semi-notorious moniker Lana Del Rabies. After a brief hiatus, this record is her first full-length release since the gothic, industrial noise of 2018's Shadow World, ‘Strega Beata’, which loosely translates to "Blessed Witch," is an apocalyptic myth told through dense, textural compositions pulling from the vast corners of dark genre music. The title's meaning is appropriate for the e…
Nonage
“Growing up has always been a solitary journey, marked by forward-looking anticipation, anxiety, unripe potential, aspirations, and closures.”
Colliding Bubbles
Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) is a composition for string quartet and harmonica quartet, meaning that Quatuor Bozzini is playing string instruments while playing harmonicas. "The title refers to different kinds of bubbly matter which are set to collide within the composition, leading to different ruptures and possible release of surface tension. The collision of bubbles unfolds partly in relation to sound, where small fluctuations appear in the encounters between harmonicas and…
Dialogues and Shadows
Among its many qualities, music relies on a special force: transcendence. When we listen, we are placed in a different reality, where sound is a vehicle for a much higher meaning. Naturally, not all music is capable of such a thing. But a few musicians clearly stand above as special – as soon as we hear them, we know that their music flows, floats and transcends. Dialogues and Shadows, the second recording by the duo of Gonçalo Almeida and Pierre Bastien emanates a distinct and intriguing sound …
Ultra-Minimal
*300 copies limited release, handmade textile sleeve w/ printed inner* Sylvain Chauveau has been releasing quiet and minimal compositions on various labels for more than two decades. ultra-minimal marks his debut for Sonic Pieces and takes the minimal approach even further, centring on reduction and limitation.
The album was recorded live at Café Oto, London in March 2022 - one of Sylvain’s rare solo concerts and the first time he performed publicly with only acoustic instruments; no machines, n…
Respite
Written and recorded by Sonja Tofik in Stockholm and Paris 2023 Visual by Viktor Fordell
. Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci at EnissLab, Rome. With 'Respire', Stockholm's Sonja Tofik presents a collection of works that cluster around themes of disunion and contemplation. In two halves, tiers of synthetic materials are layered into sullen reveries with organic components and concrète treatments, and as the obscurity of their genesis reaches a crescendo, these delicate and foreboding compositions fin…