New Arrivals
L' Usine À L' Etranger
**100 copies limited edition. In process of stocking** 'This release sees De Fabriek working with Ausland, also known as Roberto Auser (also known as Derk Reneman), whom I had not heard before. Judging by the labels who release his work (Viewlexx, Enfant Terrible, Charlois etc.) is someone with a background in more techno-based music. Not that this shows on this release. The seventy-four minutes are filled with four long pieces and one short opening shot. As said, the music has very little to do…
Muster Point
US sax player Stanley J. Zappa and Finnish drummer Simo Laihonen come together on the new album "Muster Point" on We Jazz Records. The two students of Milford Graves add bassist Ville Rauhala on a couple of tracks to make a bold and adventurous album captured both live and in the studio while Zappa was touring in Finland with the Black Motor musicians. This is a set full of fire and thunder, but also features some more meditative spiritual jazz. RIYL: Milford Graves, ESP-Disk', spiritual jazz
"…
Drought
We Jazz Records presents the debut album of AINON, a Helsinki-based ensemble founded by cellist-composer Aino Juutilainen, released 4 September. On "Drought", the four-piece plays music influenced by jazz, contemporary music and classical music, all morphed together into a highly inspired musical vision. The music of AINON might be best described as "spiritual avantgarde jazz", with original compositions and the individual voices of the four players both playing an integral part in the music. In…
Vairagya
*In process of stocking* Mario Lino Stancati’s second album for the Unexplained Sounds Group. His first album, “Cross The Desert,” was released in 2020. An innovator of sound textures, Stancati is a multifaceted musician. Explore the dark minimalism of “Vairagya,” along with bright openings and rhythmic progressions. Like faces of a prism, the refraction of the musician's intimate universe slowly leads us into the artist's subconscious, the den of aesthetic isolation, a poetic expression through…
Listen
Gothenburg trio Dark Horse present their new album "Listen", released by We Jazz Records. The band, comprising of John Holmström (piano), Alfred Lorinius (bass) and Mårten Magnefors (drums) recorded their second album in a remote cabin by the ocean in Norway, owned by Holmström's family. The natural sound of the album owes a lot to the relaxed surroundings and the result is some high degree of improvised music turning into collective composition as the music unfolds. The album recording took pl…
Shirley Mastic
**100 copies** "I wrote and recorded these songs over a decade ago. Listening back, I chuckle at the fact that I may actually say the word ‘die’ or ‘death’ in every single song. Considering how metaphorically I attempted to write these lyrics, those two words very literally represent what I was dealing with. Within a four year span I lost one of my best friends to cancer and my dad to a heart attack. As a person in my 20’s that span of time felt like an eternity but in hindsight I can see now th…
Drone Islands - Stellar
*200 copies limited edition* Third volume of the series Drone Islands, "Drone Islands - Stellar" continues Eighth Tower Records' deep explorations into the realm of "drone music". The volume mainly focuses on drones inspired by astronomical events, and were originated through various musical approaches, from the well established synthesizer sounds and onto orchestral arrangements sounding like drones; furthermore, it showcases many young and talented musicians involved in the latest "drone dream…
The Body Of Horror. Music Inspired By The Cinema Of David Cronenberg
Eighth Tower Records is proud to release a compilation of music inspired to the cinema of the Canadian legendary director David Cronenberg. More than a cult filmmaker, a true legend of the contemporary cinema, Cronenberg inspired an unimaginable number of artists all over the world and in every field of the artistic expressions. Cronenberg’s signature is a mix of graphic sex and violence broadly known as “body horror.” His early works exploited special effects to provoke audiences with bugs and …
almenrauschen
These five albums by Klaus Janek appear to have been originally released in 2018, but were bundled together under the title almenrauschen in 2019 in nice colour-coded sleeves designed by Stephanie Roderer – I’ll refer to this aspect at the head of each review section – in an edition of 300 units. The name “almenrauschen” derives from the aural sensation perceiving a non intentional sound world and transforming it to musical sense-making.
This bundle includes the following albums on vinyl:
- Casp…
Caspar
This habit some experimental musicians have of applying forced context or stories to what is essentially pure improvised music does sometimes perplex me. Here Janek references Kaspar Hauser with the title and in the sleeve notes. He also states the intention “…to de- and reformulate the idea of beauty”. When referencing the case of Kaspar Hauser, I assume Janek sees himself as “…set free…” from traditional technique, and aims, on this disc at least, to “…redefine by discover[y] and recover the p…
Three Seasons
'This disc commences with “Prolog / Autumn / Winter Part 1” which are relatively unadorned solo contrabass improvisations from 2003, inspired by the poem Lettera Amorosa by René Char. Although the work apparently “…follows an emotional path a man lives through a loss…” which is intriguing, the main emotions this music is conveying to me are morbid self-analysis, ennui and fatigue. So far so good. Nonetheless, Janek insists upon the piece “…awakening from impotence, sensing awareness and rediscov…
Infinite Bang
'Janek’s “source of inspiration” was apparently Stanislaw Lem’s novel Solaris and Janek’s own social observations in Prospect Park in New York City “…where I was living during the main research period for this work”. I’m not familiar with Lem’s novel, but if you’re expecting echoes or resonances from the soundtracks of either the Tarkovsky film or the George Clooney remake, I’m afraid you may be disappointed.
On side A we find “Infinite Bang Part 1”, which is more solo contrabass and electronics…
Prospecting
'The first track on side A is “Violeros Revisitados”, which is a fight between the sounds made by Brazilian traditional musicians and the UHER Report 400 tape machine the sounds were recorded on. This source material was recorded by Gunther Kipfmüller in Northeast Brazil in the 1970s. Kipfmüller’s daughter, Milena , processes the raw material while Janek adds his contrabass and electronics to the mixture. Brazil born, Milena is also Berlin-based and works as”… a freelance soundartist, dramaturgu…
Reciprocum
Magenta. Road at night. Its probably worth quoting from the sleeve-notes so you get an idea of what the intention is on this disc: “The album consists of music chosen from a pool of recordings made over a time span of 10 years and according to its expression composed ‘together’. All of the music was created through a practice of combining the compositional and performative act. The album making process consists of two levels: the music created in the past functions as material and is put into fo…
Two Extended Pieces for Four Pianos
Building on the back of their stunning release of Ensemble 0’s rendering of "Femenine" issued earlier this year, Sub Rosa returns with "Two Extended Pieces for Four Pianos", featuring brand new recording of two seminal works composed by Julius Eastman between 1970 and 1980 - "Evil N*gger" (1979) and "Crazy N*gger" (1980) - realised by Nicolas Horvath, Melaine Dalibert, Stephane Ginsburgh, and Wilhem Latchoumia.
Palace Zones
*75 copies limited edition* Palace Zones is an epic statement from veteran weirdo music unit Sex Funeral. The long form double album constitutes an exquisite corpse: an incidental yet coherent sonic narrative traversing naïve wonder to cosmic dread and then beyond. Matthew Crowe and Bob Bucko, Jr. evoke cinematic visions; both in gleaming HD widescreen and straight to crackling VHS. A perfect soundtrack for reading paperback sci-fi in the woods, at the end of the world.
Medjugorje
*50 copies limited edition* "I have always felt that God has been leading me, in that I'm only an instrument. Who am I without Him, anyway? I rely on prayer and fasting to help me live according to His will, and to help me fulfill my role as a messenger." - Mirjana Dragicevic, Medjugorje visionary
Mirror Thru Haze
*75 copies limited edition* Orb Tapes presents Mirror Thru Haze by Andrew Kirschner.
Panopticon
*50 copies limited edition* "Fourteen days, two full weeks after he had trapped himself in a cave that others could barely enter, Floyd Collins had died. And what was the rest of the country left with? A gaping fascination with what lies beneath us, a fixation with the blackness. Congress regulated the area around Collins' cave, in part to try to regulate the stream of wannabe explorers plunging into their own underground worlds. You might have heard of what resulted: Mammoth Cave National Park.…
Animal
*75 copies limited edition* Since the 1990s, Nathan Berlinguette has been performing and releasing a prolific range of experimental music. Throughout the years, he has shared the stage with bands such as The Haters, Scott Arford, John Wiese, Geronimo, Locrian and Pharmakon. Some of Berlinguette's projects include 5/5/2000 along with Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation) as well as 3 different projects with his ongoing musical accomplice Ryan Unks, which includes their latest effort - a new band insp…