Shadow's Praise
*200 copies limited edition* Akhira Sano was born in 1992 in Niigata, Japan. Artist. Focusing on the imperfections and irregularities of form and sound, he creates, observes, records, and extends them secondarily through drawing, graphics, installation, videography, and music composition. His major works include "Penetrating, For Filtration" (Important Records, 2019), "Particle Dialogue - Observation and Recording" (The Trilogy Tapes, Inc. 2022), and major solo exhibitions include "Perspectives …
438Hz As It Is, As You Are
*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition (hand-numbered).* Since 2008, "438Hz As It Is, As You Are" is "only" the third solo release from Tomoyoshi Date. The last one dates from 2011. Less is more. In parallel, from 2013 to 2021, he has recorded some releases in collaborations with Toshimaru Nakamura, Ken Ikeda, Stijn Hüwels, Asuna and Federico Durand. "This record was recorded on Diapason's upright piano made in the 1950s at the house of his maternal grandmother's sister (*). The piano has moved…
Clearing
In addition to the unique musical proposals and the large body of work that they have developed separately, Amelia Cuni and Werner Durand have been performing together as a duo as well as in collaborations (Tonaliens, Born of Six) for more than 20 years. Fusing her Indian Raga singing in the Dhrupad style with his minimalist and experimental approach, they have expanded the reach of their soundworlds as well as proposed new paths for contemporary music.In this occasion, Uli Hohmann joins them in…
Nessun Legame con la Polvere
"This release borrows its title ‘Nessun Legame con la Polvere’ (No Attachment To Dust) from a Zen story as well as from a small wooden box, namely one of ten sculptures of my project ‘I Fiori Non Vedono Mai I Propri Semi’ (Flowers Don't Ever See Their Own Seeds). This artwork was exhibited in 2020 at Pollinaria’s forest, Italy as part of Aequusol Autumnus MMXX. The exhibition had no sound. It is now clear that life, the matter we are made of, and the objects we use every day cannot be considered…
II (feat. Yoshiko Ohara & Mick Barr)
Further explorations into the dark past by Tholos Gateway. After the their first Aegean trip documented in their debut album, the trio formed by Colin Marston, Àlex Reviriego and Vasco Trilla returns with the second volume of the Tholos Gateway saga. The dark and ominous atmosphere of the previous album is still here, soaking the ritualistic bells, savage bass drones and dreamy synths in a mysterious fog.This time they count with the collaboration of Yoshiko Ohara (Bloody Panda) and Mick Barr (K…
How To Unravel
How To Unravel is about how we might fall apart, and how we find the ways to come back together again. The first half follows all of the paths that lead in circles, the tangled yarn that never finds the end. But it holds on. It’s stronger than you think. The second half is how we untangle and get made whole. Some of the recordings were done live at Half Moon Studios in Toronto, while others were done remotely and shared, then crafted carefully to find their ways together. The album brings togeth…
Circle Drum Music
"Occasionally ideas present themselves in ways that no one can expect. This recording from Australia’s Eugene Carchesio and the UK’s Adam Betts is one such unexpected presentation. A couple of years ago, Eugene passed me a collection of recordings that he explained were in the orbit of his now legendary Circle Music series. The recordings, in Eugene’s particular manner, maintained an intensely rhythmic quality rooted in a deep and unwavering sense of minimalism. Eugene has a way of making a tiny…
Château Mordécoly
Tip! *200 copies limited edition* Debut full length release from the UK/Italian duo of Ecka Mordecai and Valerio Tricoli, working together as Mordecoli. Individually these two travellers have carved out a path of ghostly musique concrete (Tricoli) and textural cello wandering (Mordecai). Alter is proud to present the album Château Mordécoly, a result of two musicians (and friends) coming together to explore the middle ground of their individual investigations. The results of a red wine induced r…
Atlas
Atlas, the latest album from renowned electronic artist Laurel Halo, is a suite of sensual ambient jazz collages, designed to take the listener on a roadtrip through the subconscious. Blending both synthetic ambient textures and acoustic instrumentation, the album is a series of endlessly listenable maps, rife with hidden detail. “Belleville” - the first single on Atlas - is a disarming piano ballad, recorded in one take during the spring of 2021. It's embellished with undertows of processed vib…
Font de la Vera Pau
Pedro Vian and Raül Refree unveil their highly anticipated collaborative debut album: "Font de la Vera Pau." Two creative minds from the Barcelona avant-garde music scene, Raül Refree and Pedro Vian, have merged to give birth to their first joint album.This eagerly awaited project promises to challenge boundaries and bring forth the genius and artistic vision that characterize both artists. While their first collaboration already stirred passions at the 2021 Sonar Festival, it is now that Vian a…
Serendipity
*300 copies limited edition (hand-numbered).* Tomáš Knoflíček is a musician, sound organizer, and curator based in the Czech Republic. His activities are mainly related to post-everything quartet Gurun Gurun (Home Normal, Buh records), in which he collaborated with a number of mainly Japanese musicians (e.g. Haco, Asuna, Aus, Cuushe, Moskitoo). Since 2004 he has been working at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music University of Ostrava, where he focuses mainly on interdisciplinarity in art, especi…
Thousand Bells
Yui Onodera and Takashi Kokubo are two visionary artists hailing from Japan, known for theirexceptional ability to create captivating and immersive sonic experiences. The compositionsseamlessly blend Yui Onodera's minimalist sensibilities with Takashi Kokubo's mastery oftraditional Japanese instrumentation, creating a sonic tapestry that transports listeners to arealm of serenity and introspection.
Grammy-nominated Takashi Kokubo is a veteran musician, composer, and sound designerwho has played …
Meditations for Synthesiser + Mbira Nyunga Nyunga
Earthtones is the musical identity of Serge Bandura, an electronic artist, former jazz musician, meditation teacher and ritualist based in LA. Kevin Nathaniel channels sound as a universal healing force through traditional African instruments and is a former student of legendary master musicians such as Ephat Mujuru and Chief Bey K. Sending files back and forth during the pandemic, the two artists deepened a musical friendship and began a dialog between the Mbira Nyunga Nyunga, the Kalimba and a…
Oostwestkruisbest
Between 2009 and 2013 Kim recorded a bunch of music; in the old tramtransfer at the Kinkerstraat in Amsterdam (now de Foodhallen), in Berlin living in a biodynamic living community in Lichtenberg & in an apartment on the Hoofdweg in Amsterdam, that doubled as a grow-house. The title ‘Oostwestkruisbest’ is a combination of the sayings ‘oost west thuis best’ and ‘ieder huisje heeft zijn kruistje’. The first translates as ‘home sweet home’, where the second means every home has its own troubles.
‘I…
Fort Da
Peaking late, rising slowly and crashing gently, in other words dialing in the perfect extra sensorial experience. Giulio Stermieri’s first solo outing ‘Fort Da’ is a nuanced ultra hypnotic work of art, six movements that blend ascetic minimalism, polyrhythmic trance and ecstatic tension with surprising detours into primitive techno and abstract jazz. Based in the smalltown of Saliceto Buzzalino, Giulio Stermieri is a pianist and composer, founder of the collective Impulse Response (with Laura A…
Turchesi Miracolosi
*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* The Pond: voice based music. Collaboration between vocalist Elisabetta Lanfredini and electroacoustic composer/performer Nicolas Wiese. An unfolding narrative, continuous, elusive. A flaring up and fading, a door opening and closing, ears left to listen through the keyhole. Flashbacks of old traditions, the sound of a language that does not exist. Literary figures materialise in sound before disappearing just as quickly – none of them ever becoming the ce…
Whisperings
*2023 stock. 100 copies limited release* Kei Watanabe (Sri Lanka/Japan) performs ghostly mystifying and electrifying improvisations of found instruments, shuffling loops and odd occurrences. A minimal combination of voice, bells, stringed instruments and electric hums. This first album is a collection of tracks composed between 2017 and 2021 in Colombo and Berlin. While recording Kei's sessions in Berlin, we tried to keep her way of working and recording as close as possible from her original st…
Vers Le Fourré...
*2023 stock. 100 copies limited edition* After improvising for several years together in Germany, Marie Takahashi and Cedrik Fermont decided to record their first studio album. Free improvised music for viola, gongs and cymbals, mainly. Marie Takahashi, a Modern and Baroque violist, composer and improviser was born in Sapporo, Japan, in 1985. Having a classical and early music background she builds vivid contrasts of minimal/abstract and expressive sounds. She has worked with many international …
Body Of Immanence
*100 copies limited edition* Intense electroacoustic music pieces, whispering voices, screams, heavy electronics, subtle and well crafted melodies, delicate distortions, this could be the soundtrack of your nightmares or your favourite film score. Whether you enjoy academic electroacoustic music, dark ambient, ambient industrial and so-called experimental music, this album might well please your ears.
Ni Zheng is a sound artist and composer of electroacoustic music and musique concrete. She cre…
Thonis
*100 copies limited edition* This album is named after the ancient port city Thonis-Heracleion, which was only recently found in 1999 sunken beneath the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria. The album was created through the process of attempting to retrieve something intangible that had been lost, and was inspired by the desire to reconnect with an alternative existence.
Special thanks to Sophia Zhang, Mauricio Pauly, Stefan Maier, Sabrina Schroeder, Arne Eigenfeldt, and Meredith Bates for all you…