New Arrivals
Seven stars
Fennesz's first solo release since Black Sea (2008) is a 4 track 10 vinyl, with a CD version soon available. Using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers, Fennesz continues to engage and entrance us in equal measure. 'Liminal', 'July', 'Shift', 'Seven Stars' (with Steven Hess on drums). Fennesz writes: Seven Stars was recorded in Vienna in January 2011. I recorded and mixed the album within 3 weeks. Liminal and July were existing pieces which I have reworked. (I wrote an early ve…
Alienology: Selected Works 1998-2008
Stunning collection of works from 1998 to 2008, MY CAT IS AN ALIEN's first decade of adventure in outer space and modern music. All ultra-rare and long-out-of-print material from space brothers Maurizio and Roberto Opalio finally available for the first time in digital format, including a previously unreleased gem entitled 'Where The Lines Go To Sleep' (2004).Starting from MY CAT IS AN ALIEN's 1999 first milestone 'Landscapes Of An Electric City' (originally spread throughout the world by Thurst…
Dort Ist Der Weg
Latest from these blackened doomdrone soundscapers, once again demonstrating that these guys definitely don't let any sort of genre classification define what they do, cuz what they do here is let their krautrock freak flag fly, whipping up a gorgeous chunk of hazy, rhythmic psychedelia, a reinterpretation of a classic Popol Vuh jam (from 1976), which does indeed channel the same sort of brooding, blissy mesmer, a dreamy, dark dirge, hypnotic and hazy, spidery guitar melodies over simple …
Noise vs. Subversive Computing
Noise Vs Subversive Computing' is a collaborative project that concerns sound suggestions relating to the realm of more experimental ambient-noise, and is both sophisticated and imaginative. There are not only electronic musicians joining this effort but also radical activists, computer hackers and programming code theoreticians. The heterogeneous contributions are collected on USB flash memory and carefully divided in two folders. In the first there are only…
Aigéan
Lemur presents their latest position in the quest for a new improvised chamber music: Acoustic sound-oriented music from four highly original players. ”Aigéan” is Lemur’s awaited follow-up of the acclaimed debut ”IIIIIIII” from two years ago. Continuing their work to develop an improvised chamber music with an emphasis on sonic experimentation and ensemble character, the ensemble delivers a darker and more fragile album. More open to explore the particulars in each piece, the ensemble see…
All Things Are From Him, Through Him And In Him
Brethren Of The Free Spirit combines the considerable 12-string guitar talents of James Blackshaw with the lute skills of Dutch instrumentalist Josef Van Wissem. Those of you who picked up the excellent Blackshaw-curated Garden Of Forking Paths compilation on Important a couple of weeks back will already be familiar with Van Wissem's abilities, dexterously coaxing his baroque instrument into the modern age. The two musicians compliment each other beautifully - there's no treading on toes here, b…
III
III is as immediate as a truck with failed brakes crashing through your living room wall. The third and final installment of a trilogy entitled Ceremony, its opening moments rage and wail, with distorted guitars pulling out in front of the drums like hellhounds that have slipped their master's leash. But this isn't a mono-dimensional freak-out. Smith paces himself, pulling back into brooding drones and pensive picking before lashing out once more. As befits a journey that's taken three di…
Lux Payllettes
Turntablist and concrète composer eRikm is one of the more readily recognisable names contributing to the revelatory Entr'acte label, and his disc Lux Payllettes is a typically excellent work. Stretching out over a thirty-minute-plus duration, the Marseille-based composer cuts and layers a huge variety of sounds cultivated from the sonic idioms of Western cinema. A bracing and immersive collage of fractured soundtracks, dislocated foley work and strange re-combinations, Lux Payllettes comes high…
Delusion Of Hope
With an eldritch terror that could just as easily be from another dimension as the darkest ocean comes the latest release from Ural Umbo, Delusion of Hope. Feedback and melody barely escape from the murky crevices, tinged with a sense of grinding tension. Sharp, acidic percussion slices through the blackness with violent urgency, while electronic blasts and organic drones entwine and ensnare. Some dim instinctive memory vaguely resurrects a shadowy scene wherein black drums roar madly, and monst…
Tapes 81-89
A sumptuous 5-CD box-set covering the entire discography of the cult Absolute Body Control band. Influenced by bands from the German and UK electronic scene, Dirk Ivens (synths & voice) formed the band early 1980, and was joined by Mark de Jonghe (synths) and Veerle de Schepper (backing vocals). After a first track on a compilation and a first 7" single (Is there an exit?), Mark leaves the band and Eric van Wonterghem (who was in fact a spectator at the first ABC concert), filled in the gap…
Crossbow
Prurient (aka noise musician Dominick Fernow) has become one of the most well-known and influential names in the noise field. Anti-technology and anti-electricity. An unconventional use of banging objects together to create music; playing with live wire, pennies, frying pans, toolboxes, scrap metal, and used shotgun shells are an example of some of his instruments he has used before. On this new material sounds and voice gradually emerge, in a distant and threatening outhouse.
Suhina
Brilliant new recordings by the prolific cosmopolitan (currently residing in Berlin) Michael Northam. Suhina is a notion for the sound of the wind moving through the trees. Instead of doing field recordings of wind Michael Northam tried to capture this feeling & the essence of this process through instrumental recordings from Indonesian flute & keyboard. Nature phenomena seen as the true manifestation of the Unknown. Stunning full colour artwork by Indian artist Rohini Devasher. White vinyl, edi…
Mysterier
7" vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. Today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost for a time of musical authenticity and a "healthy" popular culture. Two tracks from Biosphere originally recorded for Hågogaland Teater, Tromsø, Norway in 2006 and remastered in 2011. Part of the Touch Sevens series, cut by Jason at Transition. Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft.
Echoes In The Wonderland
As the album title could say, this is a way to the "wonderland" (also called as "the other side" - many names have been used during the history of humankind), which shouldn't be mixed with the adventure's of the famous Alice - though it might give some idea about what is going to happen, but that's just the start of it all - the start of nothing else but listener's mind. What are the "echoes" then? They are something which is coming from beyond to here where we stay - so the album is a link betw…
Radio Imitat
The piece “Radio-Imitat (Radio Imitation)” by the German artists and musicians collective Insitut fuer Feinmotorik was produced in 2009 for the monthly radio show “Radio Arthur” on Radio LoRa. In addition to its reconstruction of advertising, music and jingles, imaginative room is also made available for talk and discussion. A facsimile of radio is thus painstakingly manufactured, as if by someone who for cared very much less for sense and signification than they did for the weird flow of sound …
Music For How Mata Hari Lost Her Head And Found Her Body
Julian Lynch and filmmaker Amy Ruhl first collaborated on Lynch's Seed video from his proper debut album (Orange You Glad) on Olde English Spelling Bee. Around this time, Ruhl was beginning work on her first film, an animated, allegorical biography of the courtesan, dancer & spy, Mata Hari. Spurred from talks about a using gamelan to score the film, Ruhl asked Lynch to contribute songs to the film & he delivered five new instrumentals. Drawing on both Indonesian music and his own bedro…
IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage
A 5.1 Surround DVD (Dolby Digital + DTS, "audio only") + Ambisonic UHJ vinyl LP (an LP that can play surround when playing through an ambisonic encoder. It can also be played on a regular stereo). Following an invitation from Autechre to support them on their 2010 European "Overstepper" tour (30 concerts, 15 countries), UK experimental multidisciplinary artist Russell Haswell filled a Pelicase with a contact mic, crystal mic, electronics w/light sensors, fx pedals, SOS whistle, various m…
Sporing Promenade
Our first album "Sporing Promenade" was mostly produced in Canada during our stay in the second half part of 2007. While strolling in the vast forest, we made a lot of recordings in the environmental sound by handy instruments, such as kalimba, flute, pitch pipe, also various objects such as nuts, stones that we found on the way, as well as our voice. Then we made 'spontaneous compositions' with instruments such as viola, zither, melodica and effect pedals at home, along with the impression…
A.C.V.I. Tapes
Lovely early MB archival material recorded and issued as private editions between May and August 1980. Limited numbered edition of 211 copies in professional box, with a 12 pages booklet with reproductions of original tapes covers, a note and new collages by M.B. Destroyed time capsules. Ancient loops of faded music become an hypnotic wall of infectious sounds. If you are willling enough you could get lost in this world made of cold and dreamy distant memories.
Rn-Rhythm-Variation
LAST COPIES...Incredible 25-minute percussion and bass variations from Japanese uber-producer Aoki Takamasa, new on Raster Noton!* Hugely respected percussive technician Aoki Takamasa has released a stream of rhythmic electronic expressions on labels like Fat Cat and Progressive Form since 2001. This is his first set of productions for the Raster Noton imprint, released as part of their 'Unun' series, after previous installments from Grischa Lichtenberg and NHK. 'RN-Rhythm-Variations' explores b…