The Depth of Rain
"My first day in China after two years away, I noticed a strange round object on the table - not only in appearance, but because it emitted musical notes, and my girlfriend literally doesn't listen to music. Ever. Further inquiry revealed it was a handmade version of a steel tongue drum, made by her uncle for her niece, in the hopes that she would not only learn about music, but learn to love it. Neither of those came to pass. But what remained was an object whose sounds I couldn't stop listenin…
Demain Des L'Aube
Barely a week seems to go by without us hearing from zake, the US ambient producer who is hugely prolific and also unwaveringly creative with each new project. For this latest in a long line of many essential albums on his own Past Inside The Present label he links with From Overseas for the sublime sounds of Demain Des L'aube. This is a 160-gram audiophile vinyl version that sinks you deep into his widescreen and sweeping crepuscular synth work. It is delicate and spare but hugely impactful and…
Unlikely Places
The ambient husband-and-wife duo is an effective formula, one which here reawakens in the form of Awakened Souls. James Bernard and Cynthia Hall Bernard join forces for the making of Unlikely Places, a mini-album of Californian swells, field-recorded wonderments and guitar-drenched accompaniments - ultimately a washed-out ode to the creative possibility in all things. Centring on the idea that inspiration can be found anywhere, this is an album of relentless, gazy, waterfally gushings, from the …
Cadere
Past Inside The Present is at it again, and by 'it' we mean both releasing great music and also doing so on unusual formats. This new single 'Cadere' is taken from Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea's forthcoming long-player, which will arrive in the Spring of next year, and it comes on a rather unusual glass-mastered 3" mini-CD which includes a download link and code. It's a lush and widescreen ambient single detailed with subtly uplifting chords coated in lo-fi hiss and hum. Also included is a…
Test Pressing IV
*300 copies limited edition* The fourth episode of the Test Pressing series compilations includes tracks from such artists as Memotone, Giuseppe Ielasi, Andrew Pekler, Roméo Poirier, Nikolaienko, Felix Kubin, Jake Muir, Felicity Mangan, Star Searchers, and Tarotplane. The first episode was released in 2012 as a debut Muscut record named so and intended to become a label trial, a test of the audience to check whether the world needs one more label with the following episodes in 2018 (Test Pressi…
Sounds Of The Sea
Joanna Brouk’s most ambitious recording, Sounds of the Sea is a concept album full of mystery and eroticism. An immersive world populated by pulses, swells, drones and voices, Sounds of The Sea taking us on Hindustani-tinged journey with shimmering lines executed on synths, threaded by Joanna’s vocal drones, while Celestial Lake weaves imagistic expanses from slowly evolving melodies, culminating as immersive and meditative world of its own. A conch shell bookends this journey into the deep, go…
Revision
Revision, Mario Lino Stancati's third release with Unexplained Sounds Group, unveils a captivating series of recordings spanning the years 2017 to 2021. While some of these tracks have graced podcasts and digital compilations, they have never before been available on CD. This extensive body of work illuminates the electronic and concrete music facets of Stancati's artistic journey, complemented by daring explorations into field recordings, vocal anomalies and electronic innovations. “Revision” w…
Inland Delta
Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen, a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his works on ambient techno and arctic themed pieces, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His 1997 album Substrata was voted by the users of the Hyperreal website in 2001 as the best all-time classic ambient album. Inland Delta contains nine new musical pieces recorded from 2022 to 2023, featuring mainly im…
For the Lives Once Lived
Several years ago Gary Mundy of Ramleh/Broken Flag (and far more besides) declared to me that he wished to do one new Kleistwahr album every year until he's no longer able to do them. Fourth Dimension Records has subsequently fulfilled a promise to honour this plan as much as possible and is managing to keep up so far. How Gary manages to keep pulling new ideas out of the proverbial hat at this rate is anybody's guess, but the latest album, 'For the Lives Once Lived', illustrates very clearly th…
The World Was Turning Before
*200 copies limited edition* Bill Seaman, Tim Diagram and Stephen Spera talked about making music together during the composing of the Architectures of Light album which Tim released on his Handstitched imprint. Over the course of a few months this evolved into the new LAAPS album — "The World Was Turning Before" which focuses on a balance of sound making and collecting processes explored individually as well as between the three. The network of images of sonic imagination started forming into m…
Hide Behind The Silence EP 4
Vladislav Delay presents the fourth EP in his "Hide Behind The Silence" series with five 10" releases coming throughout 2023. Intuitive and raw music, momentary and reflective, released on Ripatti's own label "Rajaton".
Stillness is a myth. Consider concepts such as ”still water”, or ”still air” for that matter. Go to a restaurant, ask them for a glass of still water, hold it against the light and see where we’re at. Even though the water itself has been captured and imprisoned in the glass, it …
Hidden Beauty
*100 copies limited edition* Sign Libra’s third album Hidden Beauty is an intimate voyage through feminine nature, guided by the arts of subtext, musical collage, and mysterious allusions. Enigmatic and mischievous, Sign Libra’s signature blend of evocative composition with lyricless, ethereal vocalizing is offered here with a new feeling of presence and closeness. Hidden Beauty is a chance not only to be heard but seen and felt: to release the invisible and bring fragility to the surface.
Closures
*100 copies limited edition* The opposite of closure is opening. The album Closures fractionally links back to Konspekt by mapping the condition of perception and feeling after the closure (of a certain) phase of life. Even though we’re talking about a concrete phase – the most painful loss so far – the pieces don’t revolve around it at all. What is taking place in the pieces is everything after June 2023.
– “a lively joy (from life)”– “perceiving the environment”– “the world is a beautiful plac…
Kurayami
*200 copies limited edition* After to have worked as a saxophonist for several years, Akira Uchida, in 2007 learned piano tuning under Mr. Satoshi Yoshida. Planning and holding "Sound workshop" which is to introduce how to interact with various sounds from the viewpoint of sound turning. In 2015 while he was learning from Mr. Masahiro Adachi, Akira Uchida started to create a Clavichord (keyboard instrument), invented in the 14th century.
For "Kurayami" he has collaborated with Tono Tamami (Sho…
Angel Tape
Islaja presents her new album ”Angel Tape”, the first release on the new Helsinki-based label Other Power. Drawing inspiration from childhood epiphanies while listening to an alleged recording of angels singing, Islaja has crafted an album that stands out as a major work in her expansive and celebrated catalogue, which includes previous releases on labels such as Ecstatic Peace!, Fonal and Svart. Islaja, aka Finnish artist Merja Kokkonen, describes her new album as a “counterwork” to her most re…
Homemade Inspirations
7FO, an electronic musician/producer based in Osaka, has released numerous works on renowned labels such as Rvng Intl., Métron Records, and EM Records. In 2022, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, 7FO brought forth the album "蘭 - 茫天" through Conatala.
Now, we have the new cassette album "Homemade Inspirations," which can be considered the most intimate collection of tracks in 7FO's career. This album compiles recordings originally created in 2015 without the intention of release.
Using electric guit…
Diagenesis
*300 copies limited edition (hand-numbered).* Russell Burden (Being) is a sound and visual artist living on the south coast of the UK. His practice develops work that explores qualities of ambient perception, most often through the lens of hydrological, geological or biological processes. He has delivered gallery exhibits in various mediums including live cymatic feed, and dark space installation. Russell was also a member of The Humble Bee & Players and last year as artist in residence for a si…
Feral Lands & Forbidden Cities
Recorded in Brussels in 2019, Feral Lands and Forbidden Cities is Timelash's second delivery of a 4 album projected series. In their debut, A Morphology of Wonders (Aguirre Records, 2021), the duet formed by Embassador Dulgoon (Nonlocal Society, Archimboldos) and Corum (Psychic Sounds) revealed a unique musical journey that unfolds and expands like a cluster of organic matters and mechanical dialogues lit by iridescent fluorescences. Timelash's musical proposal is firmly rooted in retrofuturism,…
Radar Keroxen Vol.4
Yearly compilation album Radar by Keroxen returns with its fourth volume in the ongoing series of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands.
It Could Have Been A Beautiful
*300 copies limited edition* "I’ve released various materials over the years under other names, Aiko has been materialized in 2022 through self-published music and with IIKKI it's the first official release that I am very proud of. Despite this, Aiko has been publishing in other forms since 2020, but always within the sphere of ambient music." "This album was born as a long-lasting sound continuum. It was then cut, stitched together and reassembled to give shape and restore unity from the fragme…