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Tonight we present quite a big update to our mailorder catalogue in all kinds of experimental music. Less known but really interesting releases from the French label OPN Records, delicate sound art and wild electro-acoustics from the US imprints 23five and Helen Scarsdale Agency, Italian soundscapes from Silentes. Russian (post)-industrial from kultFRONT and Operator Produkzion / YAOP and much more!
Hail to all of us!
M.M.
26.06.2014
I. Reviews
Some reviews of our releases:
Uhushuhu "Long Songs Pleasant For Hearing" CD:
II. Forthcoming Events
28.06.2014 - dREmA
OGNI VIDENIY, KSHATRIY, LUNAR ABYSS, UHUSHUHU
St. Petersburg, "Zanza". More info...
03.07.2014
FIRE+ICE, ANDREW KING, KNOTWORK
Moscow, "Dom". More info...
III. New items in mailorder catalogue
CDs & CD-Rs
Annen Berg -- "Riddles Of The Worm EP" -- CD-R -- €5
2008 FinalMuzik, FMSS07, (ltd. 150)
Annen Berg is a Pagan-Pop project from Portland, Oregon, combining the sound of 60's harmony groups, European NeoFolk, and lyrics inspired by an occult and romantic earth. "Brian Wilson meets Syd Barrett": Sunny, 60's style folk rock a la the Byrds and the Mamas and Papas, combined with an Occult and Pagan romanticism. [CDBaby.com] Digipak, ltd. 150 copies.
[bandcamp]
Becuzzi, Gianluca -- "(B)Haunted" -- CD -- €10
2014 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1362
Following his collaborations with Fabio Orsi and Luigi Turra published in 2012-2013, it’s time for another Gianluca Becuzzi solo album on Silentes. This electronic / electro-acoustic composer and sound-artist boast an enviable curriculum: active since the first half of the ‘80s as founder of the historic Darkwave / Industrial project Limbo, since 1999 his artistic production is characterized by a strong experimental imprint and by a clear tendency toward abstract aesthetic forms and micro/macro noises/sounds. Among his other recent artistic production - in addition to what he has published under his own name - we should at least remember his projects Kinetix, Noise Trade Company and Grey History, and his many collaborations in duo with the already mentioned Fabio Orsi. “(B)Haunted” collects materials recorded in 2010-2011 that were previously released on cassette/CD-R in two extremely limited editions, entitled “Haunted” and “B”, respectively by Cerebro Morto in Portugal and Silentes Tapestry in Italy. Although composed for two different projects, the eight numbers on the album show some cohesiveness as the listener is treated with a tracklist that cleverly interchanges the tracks from both of them instead than offering the two complete works separately. Most of the music on “(B)Haunted” has an Industrial feel and seems to originate from live sessions that were enriched with electronic sounds and treatments at a later date. During the listening we confront ourselves with various sounds of a metallic nature and indistinct percussions, found sounds and gear, mechanisms and bells, scraped material and drones. Everything contributes to the creation of a soundscape that is always fascinating and arouse a lot of curiosity and attention on the evolution and direction that the music will take. Coming in a beautiful black’n’white artwork that aptly describes the industriousness of the author and the continuous musical metamorphosis herein contained, this is a very interesting album that will please fans of the old Industrial school and those devoted to sound-art and experimentation. [press-release]
Becuzzi, Gianluca & Fabio Orsi -- "Dust Tears And Clouds" -- 2 CD -- €10
2013 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1359
Following the previous albums released, among others, by Last Visible Dog and Digitalis, "Dust Tears and Clouds" is the fifth full-lenght work born from the collaboration between Gianluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi. Becuzzi is an electronic / electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the first half of the ’80s. Founder of the historic Darkwave / Industrial project Limbo, since 1999 his artistic production is characterized by a strong experimental imprint and by a clear tendency toward abstract aesthetic forms and micro/macro noises/sounds. Among his recent artistic production - in addition to what he has published under his own name - we should at least mention his projects Kinetix, Noise Trade Company and Grey History. On the other side, Orsi sits among the most interesting names of the European electronic and experimental scene. Following his early output on A Silent Place and Smallvoices, his music works have been published by many other labels worldwide, including Porter Records, Boring Machines and, of course, Silentes. His talent has become an estabilished reality thanks to his abilities in finding a nice balance between experimentation and melody. “Dust Tears and Clouds” combines two CDs in a single release. The first disc, entitled “Dust Tears and Skinny Legs Poets”, was recorded in 2007 and remained unreleased until now. It contains eight highly evocative tracks that feature American Folk samples recorded by Alan Lomax mixed with guitars and electronics. This work can be seen as the ideal follow-up to the acclaimed “Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines”. The second disc collects the three long tracks previously released by Foxglove back in 2007 as a 3x3” MiniCD-Rs extremely limited edition, with the welcome addition of an unreleased fourth track. Here Becuzzi and Orsi offers two solo efforts and two collaborative numbers; the voices and samples that graced the first disc are absent and the musicians create denser experimental plots soaked with field recordings, synthesizers and effects. Overall, the two Italian artists showcase a broad range of solutions and, once again, they create a rich work whose repeated listening will reveal more and more details. [press-release]
Bischoff, John -- "Aperture" -- CD -- €10
2003 23five, 23five 006
John Bischoff has been composing music with computers and electronics since the mid 70s, and has always focused his compositions towards malleable forms that best suit live performances. Within this context, Bischoff seeks to position the construction of sound far beyond the common perception of synthetic music as a mere simulation of the intrinsic sounds of traditional instruments. Instead, Bischoff qualifies his work as the realization of a "reflective intention," where he determines sonic structure not only through the predetermined elements which go into a piece, but also through the active process of listening to the music as it happens and responding accordingly. In describing his initial attraction towards computer technologies, Bischoff states, "Here was a single device that could contain a seemingly infinite range of pieces or configurations of elements and that could be interacted with in real-time." During the '70s when programming involved crude systems of binary code, Bischoff’s vision of the possibilities for computer-based composition fused to performative agency seemed implausible; yet in hindsight, his artistic imperatives were incredibly prescient of contemporary tools such as the nearly omnipotent audio synthesis language Max/MSP, which has been at the core of Bischoff's recent work... An aptly named set of compositions, Aperture opens the possibility for multiple readings through a series of diverse techniques ranging from additive synthesis to FM synthesis to sampled-based processes. Each of the pieces within the album was recorded in real-time with no overdubs. Aperture introduces itself with clusters of samples that sprawl with the deliberate pacing of Morton Feldman’s later periods, yet Bischoff renders what might be recognizable citations of a piano or percussion as pointillist condensations of digitized pixels and precise plastic details. During the ensuing pieces, Bischoff unleashes coarse streams of electrons which flange and pulse within the caustic firestorm of divergent timestretching, giving the impression that Bischoff is quite literally tearing the fabric of sound. Bischoff also presents a collaboration with Kenneth Atchley in complementing the oversaturated physical noise of Atchley's water fountain sculptures with short digital articulations that ride on the top of Atchley's dense texture. [label info]
Catlin, Tim -- "Radio Ghosts" -- CD -- €10
2007 23five, 23five 011, (ltd. 500)
The name Tim Catlin may not be terribly well known amongst the avant-guitarist circles; but his recorded output clearly stands amongst the best that Glenn Branca, Keith Rowe, and Jim O’Rourke have mustered from their six strings hard wired into the histories of electroacoustics, minimalism, and post-punk experimentation. Based out of Melbourne, Catlin is a guitarist who incessantly tinkers with the mechanics of his instrument, envisioning it as alternately as a mimetic sculptural object and a pure sound generator. Through his experiments with alternative tunings, atypical string gauges, and Rube Goldberg contraptions of interconnected motors, speakers, and radios, he seeks out the rasping textures of strings vibrating against each other, the acoustic phase patterns of two microtonally tuned strings, and the electrical purity of circuits feeding back upon themselves, essentially creating a polyglot drone symphony cast in smoldering monochrome... Radio Ghosts arrives nearly five years after his debut album Slow Twitch and showcases Catlin’s unassuming expertise with the finer aspects of the mechanically prepared guitar. For all of its dynamic frequencies and crosshatched vibrations, Radio Ghosts is devoid of Marshall stacks, Sunn amps, and stomp boxes, as Catlin captures the acoustic phenomenon of the guitar’s transient vibrations and steers clear of any tricked out sonic demolition. Instead, Radio Ghosts focuses upon the minutiae of the guitar: wood, strings, and amplifier. Through his refined, tabletop guitar techniques, Catlin prefers to set his guitar in motion, allowing the process dictate the course of action with minor edits and sleights of hand from the composer himself. Catlin’s drone guitar work is simultaneously capable of expressionistic illusions (e.g. cicada choruses, industrial grind, uncanny ephemera from the radio waves, etc.) and a sonic transcendence of pure sonic introspection. Given that the final piece on Radio Ghosts replaces the guitar with a crash cymbal that Catlin agitates through similar processes, Catlin’s work shows that Organum does not have exclusivity on the bowed cymbal for creating epic, tactile sound fields. [press-release]
Coelacanth -- "The Glass Sponge" -- CD -- €10
2003 23five, 23five 004
Authored by the Coelacanth duo of Loren Chasse and Jim Haynes, The Glass Sponge takes an abstracted yet empathetic view of its allegorical subject. Throughout The Glass Sponge, Coelacanth sets textural flutters, squeaks, and scrabblings in motion. These brittle events punctuate the boundless excursions of minimalism brought to life through elegaic bell tones, ghostly feedback, and tuning fork resonance, all spiralling together into translucent drones. Despite the obvious submariner references for this album, it may be a surprise that very little water spilled into the recording of The Glass Sponge. Loren Chasse is also heavily involved in the much acclaimed collective Jewelled Antler, where the multiple personalities of Thuja, The Blithe Sons, The Franciscan Hobbies, The Famous Boating Party, Child Readers, and Of speak in the tongues of pastorally psychedelic improvisations. Jim Haynes is an artist describing his craft in the former with the pithy statement, “I rust things.” He might also be known for his writings from The Wire. [label info]
Consumer Electronics -- "Teenage Nuremburg" -- CD -- €10
1995 Pure
Solo Power Electronics project of Philip Best from Whitehouse. Archive recordings from 1982-1983. Generally sounds like his main project. Sleeve. [YAOP]
Crop Circles -- "s/t" -- CD -- €10
2013 OPN Records, OPNCD0022, (ltd. 500)
Debut collaboration between Shoi Extrasystole (Collectif HAK) & Nicolas Dick (Kill The Thrill). 50 minutes mixing experimental sounds, ambient parts & spoken words. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Daina Dieva -- "Leaving The Garden" -- CD -- €11
2011 Section XIII COMA, [SXIIICD004], (ltd. 287)
Poetic Dark Ambient from a Lithuanian musician now living in Lichtenstein. Mild nighttime music with female ethereal vocals. Slim-DVD case, full-colour print, 8-page booklet with lyrics. [YAOP]
Dark Ages -- "Twilight Of Europe" -- CD -- €10
2005/2010 Inferna Profundus Records, IPR011 / Primitive Reaction, (ltd. 1000)
Dark ambient from Ukraine. Second edition on CD in digipak.
[youtube]
Dark Ages -- "A Chronicle of the Plague" -- CD -- €10
2006/2012 Elegy Records, ER36
DARK AGE's second album continues offering us minimalist Dark Ambient from the main member of DRUDKH and HATE FOREST, this time more melodic than before, and inspired on the horrors of the Middle Ages. Between the fall of the Western Roman emprie in A.D. 476 and the fall of Constantinople (capital of the Eastern Roman empire) in 1453, Europe was ravaged by plagues and superstition. Greek was largely forgotten, and with it much of the learned texts of antiquity. 'A Chronicle of the Plague' is a musical tale of the terror of 1349, which depopulated entire villages and decimated Europe's human population; the disease was not understood at the time, and therefore it was assumed to have been the wrathful punishment from the Judaeochristian Deity. Alas, prayers were of no avail... [press-release] Second edition with remastered sound and 8-page booklet.
Fluxus -- "Mental Illness" -- CD -- €10
2013 OPN, OPNCD0023 / Unknown Pleasures Records
FLUXUS - "mental illness" collaboration work between Pedro Penas Robles aka HIV+ and MAURI featuring Arturo Lanz from legendary industrial pioneers ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO and guest vocals by Vera from BLACK EGG. As the gloomy asylum depicted on the front cover, “Mental Illness” is haunted by eleven experimental tracks mixing minimal beats, cold music, white noise, abstract vocals by Pedro, Arturo Lanz and Vera. CD is housed in a three panels digisleeve with high quality artwork with selective brilliant varnish laquer. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Fragment. -- "Home" -- CD -- €10
2011 OPN, OPNCD0016, (ltd. 500)
Drone Metal. Fragment is Thierry Arnal, a Frenchman with a penchant for slow, long, simple arrangements inspired by Low and Jesu. Home is a lush couple of songs that take in elements of drone and shoegaze with a keen but subtle emphasis on melody, or rather a sense of melodics. Like Jesu’s Silver EP, Home juxtaposes slowly building layers of extremely down-tuned guitars with atmospheric electronic instruments and loops to create huge, swirling soundscapes that need to heard loud... [Tom McKibbin, The Sleeping Shaman]
[bandcamp]
Fragment. -- "Temporary Enlightenment" -- CD -- €10
2013 OPN, OPNCD0020, (ltd. 500)
Fragment is the brainchild of Thierry Arnal, a musician/composer based in Lyon, France, one-man-project born in 2006 who has just digitally released his brand new album Temporary Enlightenment, a quite remarkable record which I'm sure will please all fans of Jesu, Nadja and Godflesh. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Frozen Ocean -- "Weighing Form" -- CD-R -- €8
2014 Operator Produkzion, OPERPRODUKT110, (ltd. 48)
New full-length by Frozen Ocean filled with virtuoso Drone Noise Ambient with deep volumetric sound, dedicated to the gravimetric method of quantitative analysis in chemistry. The edition is made as very limited according to author's request, so it's already a rarity. Black and white cover + insert. [label info]
G*Park -- "Sub" -- 2 CD -- €14
2013 23five, 23five 018, (ltd. 500)
The most enigmatic of the Schimpfluch-Gruppe, Marc Zeier is the man behind G*Park; and here, he presents his first major album since the acclaimed 2008 album of cryptic electro-acoustics entitled Reuters. Many years in the making, Sub is a sprawling masterpiece of modern day musique concrete, reflecting the early pioneers' use of razor cut tape with a grandiose revelation of an existential horror. Zeier describes this album as the manifestation of amorphous conditions that lead to (or interfere with) representational forms or states of being. His examples of the shifting patterns from clouds of blackbirds or the clinging masses from algae blooms are rudimentary entry points for his rhizomatic, chimerical work... For every malignant drone and turgid thrumming, Zeier will puncture his fluttering, frozen methane surfaces with jagged incisions, pneumatic hammerings, and decompressed gasps. This fragmented punctuation is a signature to the G*Park aesthetic, used highly effectively in mapping his clinical situations turned septic. The titles to the tracks on Sub address the physical attributes of the source material that went into each track, with some decidedly specific ("Swine", "Wasp", "Stone") and others nebulously abstract ("Purge", "Glow", "Pulse"). For Zeier, the exact nature of the sound object is informed more by a shadowy deconstruction than by a direct representation, thrust into an absurd existence as an abomination, a violation, a monster... Sub locates itself near the psychological minefields of Luc Ferrari, Steven Stapleton's prediliction for windows, and the cruel x-ray visions from fellow Swiss aktionists Sudden Infant & Dave Phillips. [press-release]
Garet, Richard -- "Areal" -- CD -- €10
2012 23five, 23five 016, (ltd. 500)
In working with sound, video, and installation, Richard Garet has made an artform of interference. In previous work, he's employed photosensors to control a particular audio signal through the erratic nature of a violently pulsing abstract film. He's flooded a performance space with fog to disperse multi-channel video work into an ephemeral yet sculptural mass, accompanied by an equally diffused sound design. And here on AreaI, Garet continues his ongoing research with electromagnetic disturbances through radio... Garet treats the radio process of transmission and reception as a routing system for the audio signal, all the while deliberately agitating and distressing the nodes that direct the course of that signal. For example, an electrical motor might be situated near a radio's antenna disrupting its ability to properly receive a transmission that Garet is broadcasting from nearby. Through the controlled use of electro-acoustic techniques (some rough and volatile, some refined and delicate), he organizes the signal distortion, the crackling static, and the ever-present tendencies for feedback into swarms of chiming resonance, electrically sourced harmonics, tactile bricolage, and impressionist din. As much as Garet's process pushes the interaction of sound and electricity to the brink of self-immolation, Areal balances his crunched textures with extended passages of radiant blooms of blurry noise and drone, finding common ground between the glassine density from Rhys Chatham and the splintered excursions of Kevin Drumm. [press-release]
Gendreau, Michael -- "55 Pas De La Ligne Au Nє3" -- CD -- €10
2002 23five, 23five 002
Composer and sound researcher Michael Gendreau posits that his lengthy, if understated career in the amorphous arena of the underground noise culture purposefully avoids the attachments to any stylistic concerns in music: "I don't think it is possible to identify an illogical aesthetic goal, and reach it by logical deterministic means." Such has been the case for his solo work as well as his collaboration with Suzanne Dycus in Crawling With Tarts. In both instances, Gendreau's compositional techniques center on the actualization of conceptual agendas through the repression of the recognizability of any particular tool, medium, or instrument. It is an important distinction to make between repression and disguising, as Gendreau and Crawling With Tarts have been quite forthcoming in what instrumentations and mediums they have decided upon, sometimes emerging as surreal anti-pop, ‘operas’ culled from antique 78s, or microsymphanies constructed from 9-volt motors... Gendreau has constructed his most recent work, 55 Pas De La Ligne Au Nє3, entirely on several turntables, a very common tool within Gendreau’s catalogue. Immediately upon listening to this album, it will become apparent that any associations to fellow Bay Area wax wizards as Mixmaster Mike or Q-Bert should be tossed out the window. This album doesn’t even have many similarities to such avant-turntablists as Janek Schaefer or Philip Jeck. Rather, Gendreau actively seeks out the rarely considered sonic spaces within the confines of the record player itself. This micro-space is alive with the muffled whirrings of motors quietly spiraling in place and the delicate precision of belts and gears designed to make as little noise as possible. Gendreau amplifies such spaces through the use of accelerometers—technical devices used detect very minute vibrations with a far greater sensitivity than the more commonly used piezo-electric contact microphones. When Gendreau inevitably drops the needle on the record, the whole cavity of the turntable resonates with those vibrations inscribed within the vinyl. For this album, Gendreau relies upon run-out grooves and the hissing crackle of antique vinyl with only the tiniest of references to any appropriated sounds or cultural ready-mades, which appear as merely as quiet upsurge of incomprehensible voices. Compositionally speaking, Gendreau is at his best on 55 Pas De La Ligne Au Nє3, as the album constantly shifts through subtle passages that incrementally increase up to a crescendo of nervous squeals and squalid whistles from his overworked turntable. [press-release]
The Grey Wolves -- "Blood And Sand" -- CD -- €12
2002 Cold Spring, CSR42CD, (ltd. 1000)
Originally released as a cassette a decade ago (with SHOCK CITY), the original tapes have been radically remixed by the band, then digitally mastered to bring out the extreme sound of the UK’s premiere Industrial unit. Do not expect simple noise – this album contains extreme electronics, mixed with dark ambient rumblings, the sound of armoured helicopters and military transmissions. It was originally issued as a comment of the Gulf War, then raging in the early 1990s. Released a decade later in this remixed format – the timing is appropriate as the US once more attacks the Middle East. [press-release]
Grunt -- "World Draped In A Camouflage" -- CD -- €10
2012 Freak Animal Records, fa-cd-070
Since "Petturien Rooli" CD (2009) there has not been much else than re-issues, live materials and few compilation tracks by Grunt. It certainly have not meant anything else than preparation for the new full length assault. 10 tracks abuse diverse approaches: from tape manipulation, crushing loops, classical instruments, deep tones, concrete sounds. Dry sonic elements stripped to be bone as well as multi-layers complex compositions. Grunt pours in loads of different sound elements, different sound qualities and experimentation, yet from other end of meatgrinder emerges the solid mix of ugly power electronics in form of "World Draped In A Camouflage". CD with 12 pages booklet including all lyrics and artwork. [press-release]
[youtube]
Kahn, Jason -- "Vanishing Point" -- CD -- €10
2009 23five, 23five 015, (ltd. 500)
The American sound-artist Jason Kahn is an exacting technician when it comes to the principles of noise. However, his application of noise in composition is not that of Merzbow or Masonna, with teethgnashing explosions of distortion, feedback, and volume; rather, Kahn's psychoacoustic techniques employ the specific frequencies of white, pink, brown, and blue noise in works that reflect the ideals of minimalism. These are sounds that regularly occur through the constant vibration of machinery; and Kahn is more than happy to appropriate such events through field recording. He also generates complementary noises through systems that involve the rattling architecture of a drum kit or through his trusted analog synthesizer... Vanishing Point is a 47 minute composition, which Kahn has dedicated to his daughter who died shortly before Kahn began working on this piece in 2007. For all of the phenomenological studies and stoic mesmerism attributed to much of his catalogue, Vanishing Point is a subtle and hypnotic elegy for rattling metals, timbral vibration, gossamer static, hissing field recordings, and those aforementioned colored noises. Soon into the piece, Kahn introduces a flickered ghost of melody whose luminous tones manifest ever so slightly against his contrails of noise. The upper register hiss and statics of these layered noises slowly drop in pitch and frequency over the duration of the piece, revealing subharmonic rumblings and an oceanic current that tugs at the agitated textures of Kahn’s surface noises. This glacial, minimalist shift renders Vanishing Point elegant and meditative... In Kahn’s own words, "At first I thought of the title in reference to Louise's passing, that point where she vanished from our lives, but on further reflection I came to see the compostion as dealing with other vanishing points. I address the idea of one’s sense of time vanishing, being immersed in sound and entering a place of timelessness. There is also the idea of boundaries between electronic and acoustic sound vanishing, as in this piece I draw on both sources. And finally, in the sense of aural perspective extending to the point where we imagine it ending, as the compostion stretches on towards its vista, slowly vanishing." [press-release]
Lambwool -- "A Sky Through The Wall" -- 2 CD -- €14
2012 OPN Records, OPNCD0019
This double CD set contains the new album of this French dark ambient project on the first CD and a collection of rarities on the second CD.
[bandcamp]
Lambwool -- "Vanish" -- CD EP -- €7
2014 OPN Records, OPNCD0026, (ltd. 300)
LAMBWOOL is a French project producing dark ambient music with five albums released on French record labels Divine Comedy Rec and OPN including the highly acclaimed double album "A Sky through the wall” released in 2012. His music draws inspiration from his personal life as well as the world surrounding him and is an invitation to an introspective journey. Mixing rich and desolate soundscapes with beautifully composed melodies, LAMBWOOL paints a dreary atmosphere with distinctive colour and tone. Available now as a 4 tracks EP limited edition to 300 copies housed in a 7” cover. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Lambwool & Nicholas Dick -- "Post" -- CD -- €10
2014 OPN Records, OPNCD0025, (ltd. 300)
Lambwool is a one man project conducted by Cyril Laurent, with Dead Can Dance, Tangerine Dream, Labradford, and “Heaven Deconstruction” by The Young Gods as main influences. In 2005, his first album “Fading Landscapes” (featuring a photo book by Peter BENGTSEN) is released on Divine Comedy Records. In 2008 the second album has been released on DC Records, called “...And the angel is gone”. Lambwool released three recordings in collaboration with OPN: “Shi” in 2008 (in collaboration with Babylone Chaos & Le Diktat), “Mono” in 2009 and the double CD “A sky through the wall” in 2012... Nicolas Dick is a former member of Kill the Thrill; since 1989 he officiates on guitar, vocals and programming. The group recorded four albums and toured all over Europe. Alongside his work in Kill the Thrill, Nicolas began an improvisation and writing on sound texture work since 1995. After many collaborations (with Jim'O Rourke or Thierry from Fragment.) and an album released in 2009 (A beautiful day), Nicolas Dick participates in Rosemary K's Diaries. Nicolas worked together with Thierry A. on Fragment.’s album “Home” (OPN 2011) and released an album with Shoi Extrasystole called CROP CIRCLES. Now they join their forces to release on OPN - a brandnew recording called Post. [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Laporte, Jean-Francois -- "Soundmatters" -- CD -- €10
2007 23five, 23five 009
The compositions of French-Canadian sound artist Jean-Franзois Laporte have rarely emerged beyond of the context of international electro-acoustic competitions and festivals. His only widely distributed piece has been Mantra, which Metamkine published in 1997 through their Cinйma pour l’oreille series. This exceptional work of acoustic minimalism drew considerable notoriety thanks in part to a public misidentification that Laporte sourced the composition on the resonant frequencies of a Zamboni, the ice-resurfacing vehicle used exclusively in ice rinks. With its luminous sounds gracefully shifting between the gentle mechanized purr and excited metal vibration, we can easily forgive those who wanted to assign authorship to an eccentric machine. Yet, Laporte reports that the source to Mantra is an air compressor, albeit one that resides in an ice rink. With the original publication of Mantra long out of print, 23five Incorporated is delighted to present Soundmatters, an anthology of Jean-Franзois Laporte compositions including the aforementioned 25-minute masterpiece Mantra... The four accompanying compositions on Soundmatters all share the unique sensibility found on Mantra which balances formal precision and intuitive expressionism, resulting in a series of visceral compositions that build upon the traditions of minimalism, graphical composition, and phonography. Here on Soundmatters, Laporte reveals his colossal talents for experiential composition through deftly processed recordings of tumultuous windstorms that would make Chris Watson proud, spiralling drones that he’s polished to a Haflerian sheen, the majestic bellowing of sustained horns in the empty cargo hull of a decommissioned ship, and of course the metallic growl of his immaculate Mantra. Given the numerous parallels to Xenakis' smoldering electroacoustics and Tony Conrad's delirious harmonics, Laporte’s work demands the attention as an under recognized genius in the realm of avant-garde composition. [press-release]
Lopez, Francisco -- "Live In San Francisco" -- CD -- €10
2005 23five, 23five 007
Over the years, the sound-arts organization 23five Incorporated has sponsored numerous Lуpez performances in and around San Francisco; and it is only fitting that 23five should publish this document of live recordings from San Francisco, with one track culled from the infamous Hexaphonic show at The Lab in August 2000, and the other from an intimate performance at 3feetofftheground in July 2001. The spectral timbres and ominous somatic fluctuations of those performances inspired some audience members to gush: “It was just amazing how he layered the tracks together into massive lump of sonic force. Totally different from what can be heard on many of his releases which tend to be minimal and silent. I was craving for more. Lopez rocks!” Live in San Francisco comes with a blindfold to enhance the phenomonological experience of Lуpez's dramatic composition. [label info]
Lopez, Francisco & Valentina Lacmanovic -- "With/In" -- CD -- €10
2013 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1360
Francisco Lopez is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. For more than thirty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion. He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with field recordings, workshops and sound installations in over sixty countries of the five continents. His extensive catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with over 150 international artists) has been released by more than 300 record labels worldwide. He has been awarded four times with honorary mentions at the competition of Ars Electronica Festival and is the recipient of the Qwartz Award 2010 for best sound anthology... Since 1999 Valentina Lacmanovic has researched dances from different cultures through their ritual, folk, classic, and contemporary aspects. From 2001 onwards, her work has been focused on the creation of dance-theater and multimedia performances where Eastern and Western worlds meet. She has worked intensively on creating performances inspired by dances of trance and collaborates with artists from various disciplines. Profound research into dances of trance and ritual versus performing spaces since 2003 gave new direction to her work as an art director and performer. Her investigations into whirling dance led to insights into its origins and practice extending beyond Sufi meditation that supply an inexhaustible source of artistic inspiration and contemporary creativity, ultimately resulting in the project Shedervish, which marked an important change in her artistic development... “With/In” features one long track created by Francisco Lopez with original sound matter recorded from body, clothes and immediate surrounding space during ritual whirling by Valentina Lacmanovic. As subtle as the almost invisible image that appears on the back cover, this work translate the dancer’s breath and movements into music. One of the most interesting concepts in Lopez later works and surely one of the best entries in his ever-growing discography. [press-release]
Macronympha -- "Baroque" -- CD -- €10
1996/2009 Industrial Recollections, IR-MACRO-02
Industrial Recollections is proud to present re-issues of infamous USA harsh noise unit Macronympha! Baroque tape, originally ltd 100 copies, is such a masterpiece it was many years ago intended to CD on SFCR/Armed And Loaded, but never happened. Best companion for those who worship "Amplified Humans", perhaps even stronger! Sound from master tapes. With black/white artwork in jewelbox, reprinting original covers. [press-release]
Mortar -- "Emperor's Return" -- CD -- €10
1998 Fuoco Records, Fuoco004, (ltd. 500)
Low-fi dark ambient. A venomous mixture of rumbling drones and frightening melodies. For best results, play loudly on the worst audio equipment you can find.. [label info]
[mp3] [mp3]
MSBR & Blazen Y Sharp -- "Mass For Dead Insects" -- CD -- €10
1998 Gender-Less Kibbutz, GLK 09 / MSBR Records, MR19
Recorded between 9.96 & 7.97 in Tokyo, Rome, Nashville.
Nicole 12 -- "Playground / Lolita Love" -- CD -- €12
2004/2008 Freak Animal Records, Freak-CD-017
Among the most offensive Freak Animal releases. Re-press of the debut album and Lo1ita Love tape/cdr on same disc. Packaging closer to original edition, but now black & white with lyrics printed on cover. Warning: subject matter could be offensive for some listeners. [label info]
[youtube]
Noisewerrrrk -- "Misantrophy Is A Virtue" -- CD-R -- €7
2007 Antimoderne Tontrager, AmT 001
"Misanthropy is a virtue" marks the first release on Antimoderne Tonträger. All material has been recorded in late 2006 and completely remixed and remastered in August 2007. 30+ minutes of straight harshnoise, no vocals this time. 4 songs of abstract and dense noise, hollow monuments of sound. Take it as an act of pure nihilism or dive into the sound and discover the truth that is buried in the noise on your own. The cd-r has a white face and black recordable side. It comes in a handmade 2-layer card-box with b/w artwork and a b/w photocopied insert. [label info]
[mp3]
Omit -- "Interceptor" -- 2 CD -- €14
2008 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 012, (ltd. 600)
Omit is the nom de plume for Clinton Williams, an electronic musician who has been quietly toiling in New Zealand for a good portion of the past two decades. His work has appeared alongside such luminaries of the NZ free noise community as Birchville Cat Motel, The Dead C, Flies Inside The Sun, Dean Roberts, Surface Of The Earth, etc.; however, Omit’s home-spun constructs widely detour from the sculpted grit and mottled distortion found in the work of his countrymen and -women. In listening to his masterful Quad (a 3CD opus released in 1998 through Corpus Hermeticum), one gets the very palpable sense of an artist in a contentious argument with his own unwieldy mousetrap of tape-loops, modular electronics, effects pedals, drum machines, and the creaking sounds of his house. That internal debate with himself through his machine exudes an existential melancholy, which could be applied to any number of grander metaphors of the dependency of electronics, cybernetics, and technology upon mankind... Interceptor is the result of an experiment whereby Williams worked with a portable studio away from his longtime home of Blenheim. He possessed two suitcases of drum machines, effects, and analog synths; and, Williams recalls being "pissed off with myself wasting time recording this stuff when I was trying to find a job." His frustrations stripped away much of the grandiose sweeps of ambience and shadow, leaving behind a life-support system grid of overlapping, phase-shifted blip and click. An undertow of hypnotic tonalities pulls those rhythms towards a crepuscular gloom. Williams has always been at odds with his own work, yet his self-doubt continues to deliver magnificent albums which thrive in a symbiotic struggle with mechanical disintegration. Interceptor conjures the best offered by Mika Vainio, Klaus Schulze, and the Throbbing Gristle tracks authored by Chris Carter. Always the pessimist, Williams grumbles, "In many ways, it’s a document of my failure to do the most simplest things in life." If only all of our failures could be this brilliant. [press-release]
Orsi, Fabio -- "Qui Vicino" -- CD + book -- €15
2014 13, sps1404, (ltd. 250)
Born in the province of Taranto, in southern Italy, after many years spent in Naples and now based in Berlin, Fabio Orsi sits among the most interesting names of the European electronic and experimental scene. Following his early output on A Silent Place and Smallvoices, his music works have been published by many other labels worldwide, including Last visible Dog, Porter Records, Boring Machines and Silentes. His talent has become an estabilished reality thanks to his abilities in finding a nice balance between experimentation and melody, sounding intimate and abstract at the same time, using drones of a concrete and electronic nature, acoustic instruments, field recordings, synthesizers and computer treatments for his compositions. In addition to his solo work, we would also like to mention his many collaborations with Italian saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Valerio Cosi and Gianluca Becuzzi a.k.a. Kinetix, and ex-Limbo, that projected their visions into a different perspective... "Qui vicino" does not contain any note or credit, just a touching dedication from which we deduce the intimate nature of the composition. Ideally divided into two parts of roughly equal duration, the track offers a dark evolving guitar drone that slowly take shape and then dissolve to recreate itself in a more placid and radiant way... "Qui vicino" is released in a limited edition of 250 copies that comes with 16-pages A4 booklet containing stunning pictures taken by Orsi himself. [press-release]
Painting Petals On Planet Ghost -- "Transparent Winter" -- CD -- €10
2012 Seven Solar Metals, Season Two
Painting Petals On Planet Ghost is the project formed in 2004 by the brothers Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, better known as My Cat Is An Alien, along with Ramona Ponzini, after years of synergistic interaction. The idea behind the project is to combine the most lyrical and melodic MCIAA sounds with the peculiar research carried on by Ramona and focused on the use of ancient Japanese poetry as a privileged source of texts to be set to music. PPOPG is therefore a project that reflects an escape to the most delicate and poetic inner self, an intimate digging that leads to pure catharsis: the musicality that arise from the Japanese language in the form of poetry is its sublime means. "Transparent Winter" is PPOPG’s fourth full-length CD, it includes two long tracks previously released with a different mix on vinyl as a limited edition by Blackest Rainbow in 2011; more than thirty unpublished minutes of music recorded during the same sessions - and also a ghost track – were added, for a total of over eighty ecstatic minutes. A mantric gait of ambient atmospheres that interweave introspectively, ghostly reflections on the edge of dream and ancestral memories where emotions re-emerge in an evanescent dimension. Meditations that take shape in a scene full of inevitable dismay that arises in a melancholic sequence of oniric turmoil. [press-release]
Po.No.(i)Za -- "Let's Strike Common Sense With A Collage 2" -- 2 CD-R + MC box -- €12
2014 YAOP, YAOP 069, (ltd. 8)
The new album by Po.No.(i)Za with a title speaking for itself. The release contains analogue copy of the album on a 90-minute cassette, 2 CDRs with digital version and photo galleries, and three artistically decorated cardboard discs in a steel box from a film reel. Each copy has a unique artwork. [label info]
Prostate -- "RIP VIP" -- CD -- €10
2013 Phage Tapes, PT:207
This is Prostates debut album, which took three years to get to a point they were happy with. Prostate is a Minneapolis industrial band with heavy synth beats, distorted vocals and two live drummers. Think Skinny Puppy with Test Department metal and junk drumming. Prostate has been playing tons of shows locally and recently played a fest with Youth Code. This album was inspired by the life & death of Frederick Kobrick 1981-2011. Mentor, guide & life-partner. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Prurient -- "Cocaine Death" -- CD -- €10
2008 Hospital Productions, HOS-232
Dominick Fernow returns to his own Hospital Productions label reissuing and compiling three of his finest cassette releases, throwing a further two unreleased tracks into the bargain. Perhaps as a result of being drawn from multiple sources Cocaine Death feels like a more developed, more fully formed album than most Prurient full-lengths, dabbling with noisy contact mic textures, those trademarked screamed vocals and a surprisingly articulate line in caustic drone tones. Although the customary high frequency feedback howls are absent on this album, you'll find a lot more depth in crumbling decay-scapes like 'Garden Of Tranquility' than you might have heard from tinnitus-inducing prior releases. There's still no shortage of harshness running through Cocaine Death but in 'Eve Of Adam' and 'Historically, Women Use Poison To Kill' there's a more musical (though I use the term loosely) element buried beneath the surface. The latter track in particular is notable for an ominous synthesizer riff that serves as an introduction - repeating a motif over and over until it gets swallowed up under a landslide of rapidly accumulating sonic dirt. [Boomkat]
[youtube]
Putrefier -- "Beyond Scathing" -- CD -- €10
1986/2012 Industrial Recollections
In 1986 Birthbiter label's first release was debut tape of Putrefier. 4 tracks of intense electronics, which would mix together spirit of UK power electronics, noise and experimental industrial. This extremely rare recording is finally presented on CD format, offering great sound and artwork scanned from original covers. [label info]
Putrefier -- "Cog Dominance" -- CD -- €10
1987/2012 Industrial Recollections
In 1987 infamous UK label Broken Flag released second full length tape of Putrefier. 5 tracks of intense electronics, which would mix together spirit of UK power electronics, noise and experimental industrial. This extremely rare recording is finally presented on CD format, offering great sound and artwork scanned from original covers. [label info]
Raven's Bane -- "Misery Preserved" -- CD -- €11
2004 Baphomet Records, BAPH 122
Bleak lifeless Black Ambient for the fans of Profane Grace and electronic projects of Les Legions Noires. [YAOP]
Red Sector A -- "Transients" -- CD -- €10
2014 Silentes, 201432/cd
Andrea Bellucci’s “Red Sector A” is probably one of Italy’s best kept secrets, and for sure the project of an author who has always preferred quality over quantity. In 1995, after hitting the European dance charts with a few successful 12" releases, he signed to Minus Habens, the hystorical Italian label. Between 1995 and 2012 he released with them four albums of evolute electronic music, merging deep atmospheres and Techno rhythms, microsounds and Ambient-Dub, big beats and Drum’n’Bass, installing his refined aesthetics on assimilated codes. During the years Bellucci also dedicated himself to Dark-Ambient under the Subterranean Source guise, whose two CD albums were released in the U.S. by Relapse via their Desolation House imprint. He also had the merit to bring Alio Die’s music to a wider “Non-Ambient” audience with Son-Dha, a remix project centered on selected tracks culled from the Italian ambient master’s early releases. “Transients” is Red Sector A’s fifth full-length work and also the first one released by Silentes. The path traced by Bellucci in twenty years of activity is perfectly fulfilled in an album characterized, as always, by complex rhythmic textures. The quality of the music produced is remarkable, the sound is clear and well defined with the album working quite well as a whole without any single weak track. The list of guest-artists who have contributed to the greatness of this work is simply impressive and includes the following: Andrew Lagowski, Teho Teardo, Retina.it, Dean Dennis (ex Clock-DVA), Giorgio Ricci (Templezone), Eraldo Bernocchi of Sigillum S fame, and Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo of Larsen. Since we enjoyed every bit of this release it’s quite hard to pick up any favourite: the analogic waves of “Luv – 426” (with Lagowski), the cold sequences of “The Depht of Balance” (featuring Dean Dennis) and the Dub-infected “Think – L” (with Eraldo Bernocchi) are just a few examples. A total winner that will appeal to fans of labels like Minus Habens, Warp, Rephlex, etc. [press-release]
Rope -- "Techouva" -- CD -- €10
2011 OPN Records, OPNCD0017
Rope is a French electronic collaboration between Jessica Weisz (ErockaerB) and Thomas Papay (Le Diktat). The project melts together dark and minimalist electronica with visual art, video and photography. The debut album from Rope is inspired by the sound of projects such as Plastikman, Pan Sonic, Vromb and Orphx. Digipak. [Cold Spring]
[bandcamp]
Sal Solaris -- "Zwielicht" -- CD -- €10
2011/2014 kultFRONT, KF-XVI / 7Hz Records, 7HZ 06 D, (ltd. 100)
Zwielicht - a collection of sketches for "Tenebrae", a collaboration album of Majdanek Waltz & Sal Solaris dedicated to a German poet Paul Celan. "Tenebrae" was released in spring 2011 and became a result of consequential rework of the material. The initial recordings of Majdanek Waltz were interpreted by Sal Solaris, and then again brought to a common denominator. From our point of view, a stop on a road sometimes is worth the final goal. We found the intermediate resulf of Sal Solaris work so original that we decided to release it on a separate disc in the end of 2011. We think these sketches for "Tenebrae" not only have a completeness of form, but they also give the listener an opportunity to feel what illusiveness means - an idea, so important for the 21st century. [press-release] Second edition - 100 copies in 4-panel digipak.
[bandcamp]
Schafer, Helmut -- "Thought Provoking III" -- CD -- €10
2012 23five, 23five 017, (ltd. 500)
Thought Provoking III is the final document from the electro-acoustic composer Helmut Schäfer who died in 2007. The Austrian artist spoke of his work as "characterized by the use of very intense and direct musical language which powerfully describes his personal experience and reflections on society structures, the blindness of modern and informed masses and everyday functionalism in between civilization." That intensity of expression manifested itself through performances and collaborations that took Schäfer around the globe, including presentations at Documenta X and ARS Electronica both in 1997. For all of his tireless work, Schäfer's recording output is relatively small, focusing mostly on his collaborative work with noted musical extremist Zbigniew Karkowski... Schäfer posited Thought Provoking as a radical shift from his brutalist electronic engineering to a spatialized, open-ended composition based on the muffled tones from an ad hoc instrument he built from salvaged church organ pipes and hair dryers. The first presentation of this work took place in his home town of Graz, Austria in 2003; the second was a collaboration with violinist Elisabeth Gmeiner in Vienna two years later; and the third & final performance occurred in 2006 with percussionist Will Guthrie and Gmiener at the St. Andre Church where he first presented it in Graz. After Schäfer's death, Guthrie reconstituted the rehearsal takes from that performance for this recording of Thought Provoking III, attempting to re-imagine the controlled energy of those sessions with Schäfer's aesthetic framework at the forefront. The bellowing hums from Schäfer's organ pipe and hair dryer contraction ebb and flow amidst intermittent percussive flourishes, subtle gong overtones, sustained violin trills, and fizzling electronic mark-making. On the second track of this disc, long-time friend Zbigniew Karkowski presents a smoldering electro-acoustic remix of Thought Provoking III as a fitting tribute to Schäfer. [press-release]
Shedding -- "What God Doesn't Bless, You Won't Love; What You Don't Love, The Child Won't Know" -- CD -- €10
2006 Hometapes, HT015
Connor Bell, aka Shedding, is fairly straightforward in acknowledging his admiration for Eric Dolphy, and his soundscapes, consisting of field recordings, bird sounds, and some acoustic and electronic instruments, often recall Dolphy's experimental jazz. That influence is particularly noticeable here in the second track, the 14-minute "W," which features drumming and bass playing. The nearly 20-minute "YDK," on the other hand, is more of an ambient piece of manipulated outdoor sound. [allmusic.com]
[mp3] [bandcamp]
Shoemaker, Matt -- "Erosion Of The Analogous Eye" -- CD -- €10
2009 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 015, (ltd. 300)
The studio of Matt Shoemaker is alive with electricity. Impossibly complex wirings channel signal in and out of analog synth modules, an array of curious aluminums boxes with unmarked knobs, slinkies strung from ceiling to floor creating a set of giant spring reverb units, accelerometers attached to consumer electronic errata, and even a few conventional tools like guitar stomp boxes and a bruised computer. For all of the convoluted engineering that goes into Shoemaker's equipment, the resulting mesmerism in sound appears effortless and strangely organic... Shoemaker has enjoyed a semi-obscure career through his polymath activities that bridge such electronic experiments with a choice library of globe-trotted field recordings and a broad knowledge of avant-garde cinema. For Erosion of the Analogous Eye, Shoemaker waves his hands about his laboratory to construct an ever-evolving album for mutant dronemuzik. His electrical seas of synthetic bristling undulate with placid regularity, only to find Shoemaker contorting these brain-melting psychedelics into cancerous, atonal bellows. Out of his allotropic shifts, one can find swells of irradiated static transform into the graceful chime of temple bells; and electrical phase patterns slip into deep forest murmurings dotted with narcoleptic birds calls. On one hand, this album is prescient of the revival for progressive electronics currently underway in the flood of US post-noise projects; it's easy to triangulate this between Emeralds and Heldon. But on the other hand, Erosion of the Analogous Eye is the continuation of where Shoemaker had begun with his early work on Trente Oiseaux with its grotesques exaggerations of field recording into this beguiling piece of art... The artwork on Erosion of the Analogous Eye features unique hand-dyed abstractions mounted onto letterpressed paper. This has warranted a very small pressing of 300 copies. [press-release]
Sigma Octantis -- "Disseminations" -- CD -- €10
2012 OPN Records, OPNCD0018, (ltd. 500)
The third and final chapter of a project initially conceived as a trilogy (Part 1: "Invocations"; Part 2: "Dislocations"). "Disseminations" finds Sigma Octantis perfectly combining massive Dark Ambient, minimal electro and atmospheric Post-Rock. Influenced by Haus Arafna, Morthond, Megaptera, Paul Roland, Blue Oyster Cult and more. Ltd x 500 copies in a 6-panel digipak. [Cold Spring]
[bandcamp]
Sky Burial -- "There I Saw The Grey Wolf Gaping" -- CD -- €10
2012 Small Doses, dose115 / First Light, FL01
"There I Saw The Grey Wolf Gaping" marks a return to the shorter compostions which comprised Mike Page's (Fire In The Head) first few releases as Sky Burial. These tracks reflect the width and breadth of sounds which inspire Sky Burial’s brand of sonic eclecticism, from kosmische / krautrock, music concrete, and early industrial to shoegaze, ambient/drone, and avant-garde composers. Athough inspired by diverse genres, Sky Burial has created a cohesive sound of its own, often citing esoteric and mythological subject matter as a muse. This album features guest artists Danny Hyde (Coil), Jarboe, Anni Hogan (Marc and The Mambas / Willing Sinners), Johann Eiriksson (Gjoll, Reptilicus), Bridget Wishart (Hawkwind), Troum, Xiphoid Dementia and piper Craig McFarlane. This is the first Sky Burial album to make use of vocals and vocal intonations on several tracks. Ltd x 500 copies packaged in Arigato packs with an 8-panel poster. [Cold Spring]
[youtube]
Sky Burial -- "Threnody For Collapsing Suns" -- CD -- €10
2011 Small Doses, dose99 / Phage Tapes, PT:151, (ltd. 500)
Sky Burial (aka Michael Page of Fire in the Head) has been exploring the dark ambient side of industrial music since 2006, evolving into a unique and steadfast in the genre. "Threnody For Collapsing Suns" is a triptych clocking in at over 50 minutes - thoughtfully composed; incorporating deep drones, shimmering synth work, and lamenting melodic lines. The disparate layers come together to form a surprisingly organic, well-crafted narrative. Threnody continues Sky Burial’s journey into the nebulous dusk of “Kosmische Musik”, and forms part of a loose trilogy with the preceding Kiehtan and forthcoming Aegri Somnia. [Cold Spring]
Spiracle -- "Ananta" -- 2 CD -- €14
2009 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 017, (ltd. 300)
Hitoshi Kojo (aks Spiracle) professes to have some difficulties in falling asleep. When sleep comes to him, it can often arrive at dawn, when the colors of the sun begin to break through the darkness of night and when some are just rising after their own good night's sleep. Ananta is a twin set of compositions that urge the listener toward a dreamless sleep-state, while reflecting the glowing warmth of a blossoming sunrise. In constructing the two variations of Ananta, Kojo began with finely tuned drones extracted from a Dilruba and a Sarangi, and applied a process of merging sympathetic field recordings and other tonal interferences alongside those instrumental sounds. The resulting pieces are elliptically static drone compositions that brightly shimmer with hues of gold, crimson, and aquamarine... One of the two variations of Ananta was published back in 2006 as a micro-edition CDR through Mystery Sea. In composing the Mystery Sea version, Kojo purposefully eschewed the representational sounds of the "Night Ocean Drones" espoused by the label, opting for these aforementioned concepts. On this piece of tiny churning textures streaming along a linear path, Kojo's piece nearly achieves infinity, which happens to be the translation from Sanskrit of "ananta." While other works from Kojo enjoy the darkly elegant arches found in select recordings from Organum and Lawrence English, the Mystery Sea Version of Ananta fits more of the tradition of the Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada, and Charlemagne Palestine in constructing pieces which require endurance, lest you succumb to Kojo's audio hypnosis. The Strato Version of Ananta is a previously unreleased composition, that bends and undulates around a fundamental drone, all the while still maintaining the sun-flecked glints magnified in the Mystery Sea version. [press-release]
Stillife -- "Remembrance & Memories" -- 2 CD -- €12
2007 Twilight Records, TW 1.30
Argentinian reissue of the 2nd full-length album "Remembrance" together with an international collaboration remix project "Memories" as a double-CD. Clear jewel-case, new artwork with 12-page booklet and exclusive bonus tracks. [from the band]
Taint / Grunt -- "Schoolyard Bruises" -- CD -- €10
2003/2011 Antihumanism Records / Industrial Recollections
Highly anticipated re-issue of 2003 vinyl release. Bands presenting their most aggressive and fierce elements of loud and noisy power electronics fueled with rough noise. CD version includes long bonus track from 3"CDR what was included with first 41 copies of LP. [label info]
[youtube]
Tarab -- "I'm Lost" -- CD -- €10
2014 23five, 23five 019
A schizoid-concrete opus of environmental sounds heightened, stimulated, decontextualized, and teased into a psychic puzzle of industrialized and post-industrialized detritus, I'm Lost marks another milestone in the ever impressive catalogue from Australian sound-artist Eamon Sprod, who adopts the moniker Tarab for his endeavors. The title is one that explodes with a multitude of meaning. There's the geographical frustration in losing one's way as the surrounding landmarks fail to match with whatever technology may be in use (e.g. a sextant, a compass, an iPhone, a torn map, one's poor memory of a childhood neighborhood, etc.). There's the psychological implications of being lost from the existential narratives that we have scripted for ourselves due to broken relationships, failed jobs, dead relatives, natural disasters, the hand of God, etc. In addition to these possibilities, Sprod proposes that the notion of "lost" could also be an inversion of the idea of the "found object" or the "found sound," instead becoming the "lost object" or the "lost sound." Sprod's semantic wordplay is hardly a conceptual gimmick, as he fully immerses himself in the confusional framework while maintaining a consummate technical prowess over his field recordings. The compositional approach is rhizomatic, with dead-ends, wrong turns, and reprisals of these same dead-ends and wrong turns, offering a blackhumor sneer at the stubbornness of humanity's inability to learn from our mistakes (e.g. pollution, blight, poverty, disease, etc). Within the album's harsh edits and disjointed collages, Sprod renders sound with dysphoric associations through his vacant drift, crumbled gravel, scalding plasma-tube frequencies, and putrid factory noise. I'm Lost achieves the same psychological gravity as heard in the works of Sudden Infant, P16.D4, and John Duncan with an even greater sense of dislocation from those pioneers of radical tape splicing. [press-release]
Telefantastico -- "Death Poems" -- CD -- €10
2014 OPN Records, OPNCD0024, (ltd. 300)
"It's the world of ambient meeting down at the industrial lot and as such it sounds very much like something from 1990 - thereabouts. Lots of reverb here too, to generate that extra added atmospheric feel to the music. A most enjoyable release I thought, mostly because it sounded so retro like." [Vital Weekly] "This is a very interesting dark ambient/industrial ambient-type collection that is quite experimental but works well as a coherent whole. More minimal than a lot of dark stuff, usually one or two sounds are the focus, such as the bass synth and metallic sounds. There is some variety here which crosses over into beatier ambient with some chiming percussive sounds. Each title and piece does accurately reflect the state of mind it’s meant to express quite well, as in “Anger”, with it’s dissonant, angular sounds." [Make you own taste]
[bandcamp]
Troum -- "Dreaming Muzak" -- CD -- €10
1998/2014 Zoharum, ZOHAR 074-2, (ltd. 350)
"Dreaming Muzak" is the first full-length material od TROUM duo originally released on tape in 1998 and later re-released on a limited CDR (100 copies only) in 2005. This edition is the first one on a regular CD. The material was thoroughly remastered by Lukasz Miernik (who is also responsible for the sound of the previous MAEROR TRI reissues on Zoharum). "Dreaming Muzak" is composed of 2 drone ambient compositions so characteristic for the TROUM style. They were created as a muzak tuning our brainwaves into the proper dreaming stadium. The following prerequisites have been accompanying the duo for many years, hence they have become their credo executed on many excellent records and gigs. It is "Dreaming Muzak" that constitutes an excellent introduction to the adventures with TROUM and their music. The cover design is based on the artwork of Wiktor Jackowski. This edition is released in a 3-panel digipak stroctly limited to 350
copies. [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Uncodified / Wertham -- "Vindicta I" -- CD -- €10
2013 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 176
“Vindicta”, is the first chapter of a trilogy focusing on grim/tragic aspects of Sardinian culture, recorded by UNCODIFIED (feat. Corrado Altieri of Candor Chasma, Monosonik), and WERTHAM (feat. Marco Deplano of Caligula031 and Foresta di Ferro) in 2013. Based on true stories, 8 tracks of uncompromising power electronics, composed mostly by abrasive high/mid frequencies with a strongly analog feel, harsh explosions, pulsating structures, full frontal angry vocals, extensive use of on-theme samples and a couple of more atmospheric/industrial tracks, in an attempt to blend the two projects’ sounds to create a soundtrack for the everlasting blood feuds between families. Vindicta tries to capture stills of a dying culture where family was sacred, the knife was considered a man’s best friend, and blood called for blood. [label info]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3] [mp3]
Under The Snow -- "The Other Room" -- CD -- €10
2012 Silentes, cd 201231, (ltd. 300)
Seven “rooms” described through the visual essentiality of sober and linear photographic images in black and white, and through sonorities just as essential based on whispered and discrete synthesis, often bordering on silence, violated by occasional harshness, chimes of plucked strings, hissings, cracklings, electrical tensions, gurgles and digital creaks... An intimate and introspective path, through long and deserted corridors, entering spacious and bright rooms surrounded by white large walls, walking on reflective polished floors, cold and aseptic just like the sounds that Gianluca Favaron and Stefano Gentile chose to ideally fill with vibrations their spaces and architectural forms... A limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies in cartonsleeve. Each copy contains a different slide. [press-release]
[youtube]
Unknown -- "Equinox" -- CD-R -- €7
self-released
Unknown - an old project of Dmitriy Shilov (Neznamo, Magickal Things, Peal Grim). Archive material from 1996, the album was recorded during the day of vernal equinox. Analogue synthesizer and reversed playback technique. Slow humming ambient. Author's edition in completely handmade sleeve.
Vanhala, Jaakko -- "Feral Earth" -- CD -- €10
2011/2012 Freak Animal Records, FREAK-CD-066
Freak Animal is proud to present debut CD of Jaakko Vanhala, who previously worked under name Zoat-Aon. Feral Earth presents the finest of the metal object noise made in world today. It approaches the sound from perspective of skillful craftmanship, high density of detail and perfection of sonic balance. Use of physicality and large metal objects ensures the finest inspiring sounds, yet Vanhala evades all the failures of contemporary music and firmly keeps his feet in lines of noise. Despite of all metal junk recordings Freak Animal has published during recent years, Vanhala is able to offer yet another angle. These masterworks are beyond vast majority of caveman antics within noise, only competed by such cult classics like early The New Blockaders albums. [press-release]
[youtube]
V/A -- "Thalamus IV" -- CD -- €10
2014 kultFRONT, KF-XXI, (ltd. 100)
MARUUN / MORTART / HORDA MORDA / TSARAAS / SAL SOLARIS. In summer 2007 five Russian experimental musical projects gathered in St. Petersburg to give a start to the "final quinquennium", figuratively speaking, following the Maya calendar which predicted "the great transition of humankind" in 2012. The THALAMUS IV album compiled after the same-name festival has become one of the soundtracks to the end of many things and phenomena which seemed to be important at that moment. Music of the finish line, sounds of something that "always becomes closer", like cold wind in November becoming more tangible and sharp. After several years since that strange flare in the night between June and July, now everyone can check how close was that sonic forecast to the appearing reality... The album is also released as a limited edition CD. Material version has all compositions forged into a single sound stream. Mastering & some technical secrets - Sergey Uak-Kib (kshatriy.pro). Artwork - kultFRONT with support by Oleg "cmart" Paschenko (holesk.in | www.conclave.ru).
[bandcamp]
Vinyl
Closing The Eternity -- "Northern Lights Ambience" -- 7" -- €17
2006 Drone Records, DR-78, (ltd. 300)
“CLOSING THE ETERNITY is a siberian “cosmic drone”-project from Ekaterinburg, with only few released CD-Rs so far it gained already kind of cult-status for lovers of bleak drone-minimalism. The first vinyl-release shows CTI using original ‘northern lights soundings’ together with synths, implementing very cosmic soundwaves with electronic whirs & sinus-tones and small raspy craters inside. There’s a drift into objectlessness and dissolution in these sounds, and urgo into non-existence or transformation into a higher existence-form? This is the perfect soundtrack to the ‘red dawn of the north’! Filed under: Aurora Borealis-Drones. DARK BLUE VINYL, BLACK COVERS; EACH COVER COMES WITH HANDMADE / LASER-CUT CTI - METAL-LOGO / KEY STICKED ON IT!! [press-release]
Dijkstra, Raymond -- "Schijnheilige Vissen" -- LP (lathe cut) -- €33
2007 Le Souffleur, (ltd. 50)
"For the superficial listener (for whom this is certainly not produced) what Dijkstra does may sound the same. Like say a guitarist he uses his instrument: on Das Schöne a table played with glass and an echo unit. A reduction that is in various way. Before he used an organ too, more electronics. Thats one difference. But here he also plays with silence. He plays for maybe twenty second shrieking sounds, fed through echo and then there is silence, in which nothing happens. Sometimes these silences are longer than the actual music. It leaves the listener in nothing less but a state of confusion. To the annoyed, who think: is this it? Is the record over? But to the more careful listeners, he builds great tension - the strongest line between silence and sound. The other new LP is more along the lines of the previous ones, the glass sounds, organ/harmonium and echo unit at work. There are strong similarities between all of these works, but its the smaller details that these works do differ from each other. Schijnheilige Vissen seems to be using the element of silence and also a bit more distortion, but that might very well be the King pressing at work. Dijkstra builds a consistent piece work - an oeuvre as you will. A highly personal world of sound." [FdW, Vital Weekly] "These highly interesting handmade polycarbon pressings have an each individually different, deteriorated quality, which is a perfect fit to the music." [Le Souffleur]. Peter King lathe-cut LP from Dijkstra, oversized foldover jacket, signed and numbered edition of 50.
Psychic TV Three -- "Greyhounds Of The Future" -- 7" -- €9
2014 Angry Love Productions, OTTT28 REDUX, (ltd. 500)
A 45 rpm 7" released specially for Russian tour in May-June 2014. Two tracks in best traditions of powerful psychedelic rock with a convincing sermon from Genesis P-Orridge. Coloured vinyl, each copy is different.
[youtube]
Saison De Rouille -- "Caduta Dei Gravi" -- LP -- €14
2012 OPN Records, OPN LP03 / Heart & Crossbone, HCB 043 / Kaosthetik Konspiration, KSTKOL 003 / Ocinatas Industries, OCIN018 / Cold Void Emanations, VOID15 / Le Crepuscule Du Soir, LCDS027/2, (ltd. 300)
Saison De Rouille (Season of Rust) was created in 2011, born from the meeting of Karl S. (Danishmendt) and D. Sebastyen (Opium Dream Estate). The project combines the best industrial elements from Swans, Godflesh and early Young Gods: heavy percussion, gravelly vocals, harsh as the land they are talking about, creeping guitars, and melancholic violins. The musicians have created strong and evocative music, the violin slithers like rays of pale light in a claustrophobic universe. In essence, SdR is a collaborative project and polymorphic. For the debut, Flo L. (Danishmendt), Benoit C. (Xnoybis), PH (piaytche.com) and Christian K (Valborg) participated. The project title and the title, "Caduta dei Gravi" (The Falling Bodies), summarize the universe of the first cycle composed and recorded between September 2011 and March 2012. Ltd x 300 hand-numbered copies in a fold out sleeve with A2 full colour poster. [Cold Spring]
[bandcamp]
Ushersan & HIV+ -- "Black Monolith EP" -- 12" -- €14
2012 OPN Records, OPN EP04, (ltd. 100)
NORMA LOY’s old fan since the mid 80s, Pedro Peсas Robles aka HIV + could not help crossing the road of Anton Usher Shield at a given time... From this encounter four tracks as well as cover of "I remember" from the legendary band SUICIDE (New-York duo loved by both characters since their younger years) saw the light on the "Black Monolith EP" released in France on OPN Records. An amazing project, that offers original compositions based on sounds and analogical or industrial electro rhythms strewed with the voices of HIV+, Ushersan or Vera... A sometimes vindictive haunted music, with a particular view on the madness of our world and on the human relations, often undermined by the emotional, spiritual and social disorientation from our times. On this album (strictly limited to 100 numbered copies) you will find dazzling tracks materialized, all apart from glaring influences, except maybe those of LSD and post punk electronic sounds. The whole album has been mastered by Normotone, and will please as well fans of Suicide as those of TIMOTHY LEARY, CLOCK DVA, SKINNY PUPPY, TRISOMIE 21, HAUS ARAFNA, THROBBING GRISTLE, ALDOUS HUXLEY, FACTORY FLOOR... and necessarily NORMA LOY. [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Cassettes
>o< -- "Yollinen" -- MC -- €8
2014 self-released, (ltd. 3)
The creation of bandcamp page for YAOP label we decided to celebrate with the release of this album which is impossible to upload to bandcam because of technical reasons (the track is too long). Reissue of the archive live performance without audience, typical St, Petersburg's sound, metal constructions, flute, radionoise and screams. Nighttime catacomb raw sound. Only 3 copies on black cassettes in black vinyl cases. [from the authors]
Dead World -- "The Machine" -- MC -- €7
1993 Release Entertainment, RR 6049-4
Industrial metal band formed in the US by former Relapse Records art director Jonathan Canady.
[youtube]
Dreved -- "Reborn, dead and born again" -- MC -- €7
2002 Oprich, Oprich 005
Raw Black Metal band of Nikolay Kalmykov (HLADNA) and friends.
Dreved & Land Beyond The Forest -- "Fearcross" -- MC -- €7
2000 Oprich, Oprich 007
Dreved - black metal band of Nikolay Kalmykov (HLADNA) and friends. LBTF - undergrond St. Petersburg black metal. Raw rusty sound.
Incapacitants -- "Recycled" -- MC -- €7
RRRecords
Lord Black -- "Under Mortiis" -- MC -- €7
2001 Oprich, Oprich 003
Reissue of one of the very first recordings by Nikolay Kalmykov (HLADNA) made in 1996-1997 under the moniker of Lord Black. Gothic Ambient / Dungeon Synth inspired by Mortiis, performed in a lo-fi technique on a child synth. [YAOP]
Prenie Zhivota i Smerti -- "s/t" -- MC -- €7
2000 Oprich, Oprich 002
60 minutes of gusli sound without any technical interventions. In the end of the recording - a symbolical tale about Life and Death. Magic. [Strely Peruna]
Stillife -- "Raining December" -- MC -- €5
2000 Stillife, STIL01
The debute album of one of the most acclaimed Russian darkwave bands. [YAOP]
Streiber -- "Operation Snow White" -- MC -- €8
2013 Unseen Force, FORCE_X, (ltd. 39)
Power. Corruption. Lies. Feet to the rising and setting may run, they always beat on the same small stone. The first in two new tapes from this fledgling wmass act. Streiber is a exploration of the strange & unexplainable. Comes in pamphlet style cover sealed in poly bag. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Video
Orsi, Fabio & Valentina Besegher -- "Hunt Me Tender" -- DVD -- €10
2012 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1151
"I put a hand over roots and leafs of trees and threaded my stare in between the openings of nature, I found you and felt the beauty slipping between my fingers, why did you ask me to go? Why did you leave me alone?" "Hunt Me Tender" is an audiovideo project by Fabio Orsi and Valentina Besegher. The work explores with super8 and sound recordings the slow steady flow of the events, lights and shadows in everyone's life as well as a "crystallization of life", a kind of captivity of the soul into an embalmed body. The super8 films have been taken from the family archive of the musician Fabio Orsi and edited by the visual artist Valentina Besegher, who shooted the original movies of the embalmed animals in their natural habitat, the plants and the woods. Fabio Orsi uses field recording, instruments and environmental drones. [press-release]
[vimeo]
Frea market
Bardoseneticcube - Rain In June - 7" - NM - €10,90Fin De Siecle - Nine Barns - LP - M/VG - €6,50
Hogan, Anni - Mountain - CD/DVD - VG+/NM - €6,50
Laibach - Across The Universe - CD EP - NM - €10,90
Lambwool - Mono - LP - M/VG - €6,50
Linija Mass - Proletkult (promo) - CDR - M/VG - €9,80
Nimoy - The Spark - 7" - VG - €13,0
Nocturmal Emissions - Imaginary Time - 10" - NM - €6,50
Oda Relicta - Ukrainian Insurgent Army - CD - M/VG+ - €6,50
V/A - Electronic Toys (A Retrospective Of 70's Synthesizer Music) (Cecil Canterburn, Rex Brown Company & Wersi-Electric-String-Orchestra, Dave Vorhaus, Dave Richmond, Ron Geesin, Claude Larson & His Computer Controlled Oscillators, Gerhard Trede, Eric Peters, Ted Atking / Alain Feanch, Roland Hovac, Heinz Funk, Brian Benett, Steve Gray, Mladen Franko) - CD - VG - €9,80
Don't forget to check the full list of rare & used items with all details, it's here.
Other
Metropolis -- t-shirt -- €16
UFA
Black t-shirt with a print based on a well-known movie by Fritz Lang. Size S. Image.
Psychic TV -- patch -- €5
Embroidered patch with a "psychick cross", 5 x 7 cm.
IV. Back in stock
Antikatechon -- "Privilegium Martyrii" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1038
Thick and spectral dark ambient, full of soft and flowing pads stratifications, involved in deep and penetrating low frequences coils, lightened by delicate and touching melodic inserts, broken by echoes of reverbering mettallic noises, clanging chains, circular mechanical movements, waves of unaudible hisses, distant and suffering human voices... Great first issue CD for the Antikatechon project, involving the Davide Del Col's eclectic personality, unique mind of the Ornament project, and key man of more recent collaborative project like Echran and Molnija Aura. [label info]
[youtube]
Babylone Chaos -- "Flying Bodies Under The Clouds" -- CD -- €10
2010 OPN Records, OPNCD0014, (ltd. 500)
Brand new release mixing dark soundscapes, concrete sounds and weird voices!!! A really amazing new piece of music from this French one-man project (Botchan Karisen). Babylone Chaos has long been an avid proponent of chaotic, oppressing climates and deals in suffocation and saturation. Artwork by MineUchi, with images by Yoshihiro Oimatsu. Mastering by Ruelgo (Le Syndicat). Ltd x 500 copies ina 6-panel digipak. [Cold Spring]
[bandcamp]
Babylone Chaos / Lambwool / Le Diktat -- "Shi" -- CD -- €10
2008 OPN Records, OPN CD08
The object you are holding in your hands is special in many respects. The product of a collaboration between three artists with a divergent, and indeed sometimes opposed, approach of music, this work plainly demonstrates how their musical universes ultimately complement each other along three axes – noise, rhythm and melody... The melodies are provided by Lambwool. A talented musician adept at creating musical landscapes fraught with melancholy, he colours the record with layers of keyboards and acoustic instruments samples that conjure up the crystalline, meditative melodies he has become renowned for... Babylone Chaos has long been an avid proponent of chaotic, oppressing climates and deals in suffocation and saturation. The nefarious vapours of his distorted, out-of-joint universe bring a great measure of entropy to this opus... Le Diktat is the only duo involved in this three party collaboration. Le Diktat brings the rhythm to the table. Break-core loops, drum n’bass rhythm patterns, trip-hop, electro and rock elements coupled with scratches create the most unexpected stylistic fusions, even on the most haunting instrumental tracks of this album. The result is a surprising collision between acoustic purity and punishing industrial beats, but a remarkably daring demonstration... Jembes, flutes, scratches, harp, piano, samples; intense episodes or long, meditative soundscapes; sometimes quiet, sometimes heavy with saturation, this work of contrasts displays a thousand faces, takes a thousand forms which will not fail attract any and all who would take a musical journey in unchartered territories. The soundtrack to the End Times! [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Becuzzi, Gianluca & Turra, Luigi -- "In Winter" -- CD -- €10
2012 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1257
One more new Gianluca Becuzzi release on Silentes, this time in collaboration with Luigi Turra. Composer of musique concrete and graphic designer whose main interest is the musical balance between silence and the tactile perception of sound, Turra’s works were published by labels such as and/OAR, Unfathomless, Non Visual Objects, SmallVoices and many others. A lot has already been written about Becuzzi, here we would just like to remember his historic Darkwave / Industrial project Limbo, his more recent Kinetix and Noise Trade Company incarnations, and the long collaboration he carried on with Fabio Orsi. "In Winter" was recorded between 2008 and 2010, with Becuzzi mostly taking care of field recordings and programming, and Turra giving his own contribution playing acoustic guitar and piano. Light as the snowflakes that entitle them, these nine compositions offer dreamy atmospheres that rely on minimal structures and evoke visions of lonely and lazily wintry landscapes. Music for the heart and the mind, delicate representations of quiet moods translated into harmonic sequences that combine environmental synthesis with influences of a refined sophistication. [press-release]
[youtube]
Bianchi, Maurizio -- "Aeternum Aevum" -- CD -- €10
2012 Peripheral Records, PR013, (ltd. 250)
Peripheral Records is proud to announce it's thirteenth release with, 'Maurizio Bianchi's - Aeternum Aevum' CD. Two long beautifully understated tracks, that show a more pastoral side to the great Italian master of Industrial. Slow whirling pieces of Ambience dedicated to the late Konrad Schnitzler. The CD is limited to 250 copies within a DigiPak. The sleeve is adnorned inside and out with Abstract paintings by Hayat Saidi. [label info]
[mp3]
Bianchi, Maurizio -- "Pharmelodies" -- CD -- €10
2012 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1254, (ltd. 300)
A colossal and epic post-ambient symphony in three movements, where echoes of string instruments, deep drones of indecipherable origin, layered synthetic waves, slowed-down and distorted dark sonic masses challenge time with a para-immobility in constant turmoil, in an unpredictable, progressive and sometimes cyclic combination of statuesque sonic forms whose physiognomy is often known and familiar, while at the same time elusive, disturbing, arcane and mysterious... Another highest and unmissable chapter in the immense, infinite sound material forged by the greatest and immortal alchemist of Italian non-musical experimental scene. A limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies in cartonsleeve. [press-release]
[youtube]
Bianchi, Maurizio / Peter Andersson - Henrik Nordvargr Björkk - Jarl -- "S.F.A.G. / S.F.A.G. De-Composed" -- 2 CD -- €12
2010 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 134
ANTE-FACTS: After the disintegrative period of my production (from “Symphony for a Genocide” to “Das Testament”), the purchase of a misanthropic echo-machine and the consequent decay of the electric-analogue machinery, my efforts was redirected to a pre-recording sound sublimation, so I started to re-compose the electronic metastasis of early times, filtering through dehumanizing effects of the echo-machine, keeping attention particularly to the explanatory process of my ancestral subjectivism. FACTS: The modulatory shaking of S.F.A.G is the oxygenating prelude to the irradiating bionic music later developed through levigating works such as “Endometrio” and “Carcinosi” and represents a milestone in my pre-apocalyptic production which later will culminate into the horrid of “Armaghedon”. The exegesis of this work reflects a strong attachment to smooth and round effects of the roughness of the frantic early days, but with a constant preference for the symbiosis between well preordered sound masses and not well defined radio broadcasts, like nebulae drifting in a space in trembling condensation. POST-FACTS: The interest of Gary Mundy of the British “Broken Flag” label (who later would have released the esoteric "The Plain Truth") gave me the incentive to make him listen to the demo tape which was of his liking so that in January 1983 he decided to publish the album as a tape with the title "SFAG 1981" (the year relates to the link with the date of the beginning of my vinyl production). In the early 90's Tegal Records was releasing a non-authorised "truncated" version on CD, but this new version of OEC maintains the integrity of the entire work and was completely digitally remastered by Peter Andersson (Raison D’etre). [Maurizio Bianchi] The original album is accompanied by a second CD with 3 de-compositions using extracts of the original S.F.A.G. recordings done by 3 well known Nordic industrial artists: Peter Andersson (Raison D'Etre), Henrik Nordvargr Björkk (MZ.412), Erik Jarl (IRM). The whole is coming in a nice vintage packaging reminding to the first Industrial/Vinyl era: Gatefold cover as the old vinyl covers but CD sized and vinyl-look CD's. [label info]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3] [mp3]
Brandkommando -- "Nasz Ukochany Kraj" -- CD-R -- €7
2006 Beast Of Prey, bop 3.5, (ltd. 200)
Power harsh noise. New album of BRANDKOMMANDO "Nasz Ukochany Kraj" - 50 minutes of dewastation, extreme view of political situation and world around. No mercy, sharply and directly. Unconventional issue: Package made from white plastic folded in three pieces to 150 x 150 mm format, professionally made cdr. [label info]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3]
Cisfinitum -- "Landschaft" -- CD -- €10
2000/2012 Old Captain, OCCD05, (ltd. 300)
Cisfinitum is a post-industrial project from Moscow, Russia. It was started in the late 1990s by a composer and musician Eugene Voronovsky and has drawn significant attention as one of the most uncommon and distinctive on the experimental scene. The project’s trademark is an emotional sound that trespasses the boundaries of drone ambient and noise, using classical instruments and unconventional sounds, processed with analog and digital technologies. “Cisfinitum” is the sound of eternity and the music is ‘metaphysical ambient’”. ‘Landschaft’ is an epic work of deeply emotional / dramatic drones, which successfully combines electro-acoustic sources with a wide arsenal of Soviet analog effect processors. Originally released by Insofar Vapour Bulk / Grief Recordings labels, this absolute ambient classic is now available as a CD. Authentic recording of the original demo cd-r of 2000. A true artifact to conserve for the generations to come. Edition of 300 copies in 4 panel Digipak. [press-release]
[youtube]
Currents Of Death -- "Cretodoh!" -- CD -- €8
2012 Provoloka, PRVLK-0005, (ltd. 500)
Possibly first power electronics project on exUSSR scene. First records was made at 91/92 in Novokuznetsk,Russia. Raw and angry synth,pulses, distorted vocal - five tracks of true classic power electronic! Also,there is additional bonus on disc - videoclip by Vadim Koshkin and Natalia Popikova, especially made for festival Exotica in 1993. [label info]
[youtube]
Deison & K.K. Null -- "Into" -- CD -- €10
2009 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 0931
Penetrating “Hi-tech” music, always on the border between sound, silence and noise… Splinters of sonic fragments, buzzings, electronic hisses, pulsations, hypnotic loops, ambient textures, sudden rays of light… A kaleidoscope of syntethic sounds and digital glitches, in a universe dominated by binary codes, that evolves through the cold-hearted control of sophisticated algorhythmic mutations programmed by human entities that already reached a level beyond the borders of our earthly knowledge… [label info]
[youtube]
Echran -- "s/t" -- CD -- €10
2005 Ebria Records, Bronto - 006 / Small Voices, SVR05017
Looks like Italian scene is ahead the whole planet in terms of experimental electronic music. Echran is relatively new project formed by Davide Del Col (Ornament) and Fabio Volpi (Otolab). Davide plays analogue Korg synth and Fabio uses laptop and his voice. The music is very minimal in structure - in fact, each track is smoothly developing pulsating waves over which Fabio's calm voice is declaiming texts in Italian. But the frequency selection and the quality of sound material will make each minimal/analogue electronics lover rapturously squeak in ecstasy, because everything sounds incredibly tasty.
Fin De Siecle -- "Patagonie" -- CD -- €10
2006 OPN, OPN CD05, (ltd. 500)
"Patagonie" is subdivided into 15 tracks chapters and develops like a film soundtrack, suggesting to the listener's imagination scenes, places and images through its minimal, sometimes disturbing music. Classical instruments, like flute, violin, accordion and violin, combine with piano, noises, samples, distant ghostly voices and other effects, achieving results close to certain ambient music, experimental cinema scores and cold wave. (...) The general atmosphere evoked by Fin De Siecle's music is oppressing and gloomy, making the listener think of old, dusty and dim-lighted houses, or abandoned warehouses full of old knick-knacks and broken toys. Not exactly like the peaceful and exotic shores of Patagonia." [Filth Forge]
[bandcamp]
Gelsomina -- "Pythogenetics: Collection" -- CD -- €10
2009 Turgid Animal, TA285
Since the early 2000's, up until the UK tour in the summer of 2008, Gelsomina has been the musical outlet of Finnish Harsh Noise fiend, Pekka PT. A brutal mix of junk metal abuse and pedal worship, sometimes resulting in total unflinching chaos and other times resulting in a more structured industrial noise masterwork. Having released dozen's of tapes, cd's and vinyl it was never going to be an easy task to wittle it all down to CD length but through the critical eyes of the man himself, Pekka has managed to pull together 74 minutes of what he considers the best of his Gelsomina, and I couldn't agree more. Featuring a full colour tray card and 4 page booklet with liner notes by Mikko Aspa (Grunt/Freak Animal Records) and Pasi Markkula (Bizarre Uproar/Filth and Violence). Essential Harsh Noise document by a now defunct but legendary project. But it's not all bad; Watch out, Sick Seed is on the rise! [press-release]
Ghosts Of Breslau -- "And Should the Spring Come..." -- CD -- €10
2007 Twilight Records, TW 1.35, (ltd. 555)
After the big success of the oficial release of "Peste" album (we sold 500 copies in no more than 3 weeks) now a new piece of food of martial industrial ambient fans!!. "And Should The Spring Come..." - long awaited second album by Ghosts Of Breslau. Thirteen brand new tracks, more than 54 minutes of amazing, haunted sounds, inspired by old songs and poems from Polish resistance movement from World War II. This is a tribute to brave men and women who kept on fighting even when all hope seemed to be lost. You will not forget this album after listen it, cinematic, deep, dark and full of evocative moments. [press-release]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3]
Gnaw Their Tongues -- "Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus" -- CD -- €10
2011 Crucial Blast, CBR93
Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus. Roughly translated, with blood and whip, we worship the dark. This is the latest collection of atrocities from Gnaw Their Tongues, an eight song investigation into the rites and rituals that emerge from the copper-scented frenzy of the serial killer, the obsessive acts of death worship enacted by those that live on the edge of abyss, the limits of experience sought by black cults. The sound is, as always, immensely heavy, with fractured drums and tunderous tympani skins reverberating within a maelstrom of seething black doom, screeching classical strings, horns, piano, and some of the most vomitous vocals imagineable. However, Per Flagellum Sanguemque is marked by the most frenetic percussive attack that we have heard from Gnaw Their Tongues, with volleys of chaotic drumming, fractured blasts, and maniacally complex patterns that sometimes seem to border on free-jazz drumming... [label info]
[bandcamp]
Hati -- "Zero Coma Zero / Recycled Magick Emissions" -- CD -- €10
2005/2013 Zoharum, ZOHAR 050-2, (ltd. 350)
The album was originally released on Nefryt on a CDR limited to 250 copies. Now it sees the light of the day again, with new cover, new master and additional tracks from "Recycled Magick Emissions" MCDR (released on Nefryt sister label-Malachit.) Despite the years, the material gathered here is still sparkling with untamed energy of acoustic sounds. The musicians built their own sonic constructions and used exotic instruments in an intriguing way. "Zero Coma Zero" is a study of dying, death and rebirth-the objects used on the recording were either archaic ethnic instruments or they were found in the junkyard. Both releases gathered here (plus the Drone 7" single) were groundbreaking in the history of HATI. "Zero Coma Zero" album established the project's position on the music scene. [press-release]
[youtube]
Hirsute Pursuit -- "Tighten That Muscle Ring" -- CD -- €10
2012 Cold Spring, CSR158CD
Music that smells like a man! “I play Hirsute Pursuit at all of my DJ gigs” (Peter Christopherson) “Tighten That Muscle Ring” features collaborators such as Bryin Dall of Thee Majesty, Boyd Rice of NON and Sleazy of Coil / Throbbing Gristle. The music is real. The sex is real. Created by Harley Phoenix and his musical partner, Bryin Dall, this is Gay Sex Music that offers no apologies. Enticing rhythms combined with raw sex and a commanding, deep, resonate voice, Harley has transformed explicit instructions for serving his pleasure into a musical orgy that hits the gay community where it plays, the dance floor and the bedroom. Sleazy dance beats pound along at tempos that encourage carnal exploration, while sounds of ecstasy cannot be ignored... Without any publicity or releases, Hirsute Pursuit has had over 140,000 plays on Myspace in less than a year! Drawing fans from all musical genres, including House, Country, Rock, Hip Hop, etc. Primarily attracting a gay audience, recent fans also include female dominatrixes, middle-class housewives and straight guys (as is evidenced in the video, Boys Keep Swinging featuring Boyd Rice and James Pope, both straight). The raw sensuality has now crossed over into the heterosexual domain. This is music you can fuck to, as well as bump and grind. Comes in a 6-panel digisleeve. [press release]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3] [youtube]
HIV+ / Babylone Chaos -- "split" -- picture 10" -- €10
2008 OPN Records, OPN EP02 / Divine Comedy Records, DCR 999 / BKO Media, BKOMEP 01
Following their previous collaboration under the name of Univers Carceral with Divine Comedy records, HIV+ & Babylone Chaos, two well known musical projects within the French industrial scene, join once again their talents to give birth to this new 10”ep picture disc. Both the visual and the music show the maturity of the french underground industrial scene, which has constantly drawn out through the years the picture of a dark vision made of rough and incisive sounds. This sonic object released through OPN records in collaboration w. BKO media & Divine Comedy Records has to be considered as the final testament from HIV+. For their final release under this moniker, Pedro & HIV+ give us 3 tracks to be considered as an electronic & industrial manifesto, covering in an amazing way the “Warm leatherette” track from The Normal. For their part, Babylone Chaos, after their ‘Les machines e'carlates’ album, have composed 2 epic and tortuous tracks bringing the listener in an introspective journey between old school noise and concrete music. [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Hladna -- "s/t" -- CD-R -- €15
2004 Abgurd Sudivision, AB-07, (ltd. 51)
A collection of digitized early recordings from St.Petersburg's project Hladna, made with the help of Bardoseneticcube and some other musicians. Absolutely insane garage mix of metal frenzy, synthesizer gurglings, iron percussion, whistle of tone-generator and sinister screams.
Hladna -- "1996" -- CD-R -- €8
2006 Hladna
On this CDR you can find very early recording done in 1996-1997, "proto-Hladna", so to say, known to friends as "Lord Black". Absolutely minimalistic atmospheric compositions played on a simple synthesizer, not even a hint at horrible noise Hladna makes these days. More likely this is a recording in vein of post-metallic Burzum, but even more minimalistic and strangely more atmospheric. Beautiful rough handmade package.
Hladna -- "2004" -- CD-R -- €15
2006 self-released, (ltd. 6)
This disk contains the audio-part of the untitled album of 2004 (plus live mp3 recordings in CD-extra part). This ultra-limited issue done by the author in 6 copies specially for the festival "Sumerechnaya Zona: Enter" held in the city of Ryazan' on Jan. 5, 2006. As usual with Hladna - rough handmade cardboard cover with stencilled paintings.
Hladna -- "Gromoglasnoe DA! jertvam himicheskoy ataki" -- CD-R -- €27
2003 8th Moon Art, 8M-28, (ltd. 98)
Live recording from the show we organized in St. Petersburg, 20 May 2003. Mad robotic harsh noise / power electronics, played on broken
drum-machine and a piece of iron. Artwork fits the music - rough rubber stringed envelope with a picture of the author/performer. Disc contains 4 videoclips of Hladna's side-project - Xerox 667.
Hladna -- "Music of Empty Rooms" -- 3"CD-R -- €27
2001 self-released, (ltd. 68)
Cosmic-cold ultra-minimalistic electronic ambient. Absolute detachment. Handmade cover with a piece of mirror.
Human Greed -- "Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star" -- CD -- €10
2008 Lumberton Trading Company, LUMB011
The third album by Edinburgh's finest exponents of often haunting, yet always touching, ebb and flow. Includes very special guest appearances by Julia Kent (Antony and the Johnsons, Blind Cave Salamander), Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Blind Cave Salamander, Larsen), David Tibet (Current 93) and Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex). Gathering together material quite possibly amounting to their most accomplished yet, 'Black Hill...' is akin to being caught in the trail of a shooting star heading to the very place where dreams, fears, hopes and an overwhelming sense of helpless abandonment teeter over the periphery of yet another rather enticing void. At once beautiful, melancholic, slightly bruised and foreboding, the music here never fails to captivate. Also features fantastic exclusive artwork from Deryk Thomas (otherwise known for work adorning certain sleeves by Swans and Angels Of Light) and Alan McGowan. [press-release]
Keli -- "Zero" -- CD -- €10
2010 OPN Records, OPNCD0013
Yukiko Fukushima is a japanese artist, who experienced her talent in many ways such as photography, or music. Her main musical inspiration comes from classical music, especialy Bach's piano works she's studying endlessly. Yukiko's first musical creations consisted in piano improvisations. Since 2008 she has been working on a more personnal projet called Zero. Her unarmed inspiration is an unique ambiant and colorful musical piece build around her classical influence and her oriental soul. Zero is an endless work, like its numerical symbol, a musical laboratory, an infinite experience. [press-release]
[bandcamp]
KMFDM -- "Sturm & Drang Tour 2002" -- DVD -- €7
2003 Metropolis, MET 280
Last year, after a short stint as MDFMK, KMDFM released "ATTAK" to the delight of fans, critics, and skeptics alike. The aggro-electro messiahs had returned, and what better way to celebrate than with their grueling Sturm & Drang North American Tour. Thirty-one shows in thirty-four days, KMFDM's attack rained down on North America further fueled by countless sold out shows and all of it was caught on tape. To commemorate the successful return on KMFDM, Metropolis Records is pleased to announce the first KMFDM live DVD! "Sturm & Drang Tour 2002 DVD" was recorded live at four stops on the Sturm & Drang North American Tour and was compiled by Sascha K. himself. As KMFDM describe it, "the ultra-heavy beat is going strong, if it feels this good then it can't be wrong." [press-release]
KMFDM -- "WWIII Tour 2003" -- DVD -- €7
2004 Sanctuary Records
KMFDM WWIII Tour 2003 is a 20th Anniversary celebration of KMFDM’s prolific career and their 2003 World War III tour. It features live performances of 13 tracks from various venues, including the fan favorite "Juke Joint Jezebel" performed in industrial music fan friendly Chicago while on their 2003 tour in support of their blistering anti-war album WWIII. The DVD is chock full of extras that include intermission clips of disarming moments backstage, individual interviews with all of the band members and crew; bonus music videos for "Stars And Stripes", "Skurk", and "Ultra", even whale watching in Washington state’s Puget Sound with the band! Meticulously mastered, it brings the power of their live show directly to your living room. They've even responded to fan criticism with their previous DVD Sturm & Drang by improving the navigation on this live DVD to make this the best DVD they have relased thus far. [Wa -- Conner, Authorsden.com]
Macronympha -- "Recycled Music" -- MC -- €7
1995 RRRecords
Mantra, Michael & De La Casa, Charlz -- "Cerulean Transmission" -- CD -- €10
2006 Silentes, cd 200616
A precious sonic masterwork, documenting the extraordinary collaboration between Michael Mantra and Charlz De La Casa. A cd of suspended time and space... 'classical' static music. Two long tracks flow like sonic lava, weaving together lush background washes, and evocative field recordings. Dark electric sounds, beautiful drones, inner-Earth rumbling, human voices, concrete noises, ship engines, sirens, sounds of the sea, bubbles, wind, chants, and wildlife sounds merge in an indefinable (and never before experienced) way... an absolutely unmissable work. [label info]
[youtube]
Materia Aurora -- "Post Night Sequences" -- CD -- €10
2009 OPN Records, OPNCD0011 / BKO Media, BKOMCD01, (ltd. 500)
First release in CD format from this french project mixing cold ambient music with drones & acoustic sounds. The music is cold as ice as well as deeply organic. The cd is housed in DVD digipack file with full icy colour artwork. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Mortiis -- "Soul In A Hole" -- DVD -- €7
2005 Earache, MOSH 298 DVD
First-ever DVD from Mortiis, containing a live set recorded in London (Hackney The Ocean, 24.09.2004), plus promotional videos, an interview in London and the making of "The Grudge" video. Release comes in standard DVD case with 8-pages booklet.
MZ.412 -- "Infernal Affairs" -- CD -- €10
2006 Cold Meat Industry, cmi161
After 7 years of hard work MZ.412 finally deliver their swan-song "Infernal Affairs".
After the prelude "Domine Rex Inferum" this is the ultimate new album of MZ.412, nothing but pure bombastic evil manifested in explicit sounds; and it is terrifyingly beautiful! As always, based on the dark arts, the sound is classic MZ.412 taken to the extreme and beyond. Whatever dark fetishism you're into, it's all here; from abysmal ambient parts, heavy pounding industrial dance hits, to grand orchestral maneuvers. The Swedish Legion returns to dominate the scene once again, with an album that clearly defines what true black industrial music is all about.... After inventing the style that degenerated an entire genre in the early 90's, they show once again that they are here to lead the way for future generations.... Yes, you may think you've heard it before - but never ever this powerful! No, we're not here to convince you - We're telling you! MZ.412 are the original home for members of many wellknown projects in the electronic scene. The CD comes in an extremely dark and very MZ-stylished embossed 6-panel digipak. Release date: 6.6.6. [label info]
[mp3] [mp3]
Neznamo -- "Zavet" -- CD-R -- €8
2010 Vetvei, V10, (ltd. 111)
This is the last part of Neznamo's 'MY' trilogy. 'Zavet' finishes this song devoted to the Tradition. First two parts, 'Seme>Zemlya' and 'Utrata' were published by Moonsun Productions. Themes of 'Zavet' - the Fall of Tradition, Defeat of Spirit, and their future Revival. Eternal Primary Myth of Death and Rebirth appears here as sounds and echoes. This release presents majestic Drone Ambient canvas weaved of drones and noises created with wind, string and percussion instruments and field recordings. Decorative design presented as full-color six-panel envelope. [press-release]
Nilsen, BJ & Stilluppsteypa -- "Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna" -- CD -- €10
2006 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 008, (ltd. 1000)
In Scandinavia, it's not uncommon to hear of someone's mother, grandfather, uncle, or plumber who drank him-or-herself to death at an early age; and the Swedish drone artist BJ Nilsen has felt the alcoholic pangs which may foreshadow his own demise. In recent years, Nilsen has turned to his Icelandic neighbors Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson (collectively known as Stilluppsteypa) in existential sympathy over the problems of their collective lust for alcohol. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna marks the second collaborative document of abject minimalism that these three have composed; and like its predecessor Vikinga Brennivin, this album is spiked with drunken thought. Any alcohol induced euphoria has been tempered by perturbing blackouts, moments of cruelty, and an all-consuming nihilism. Beyond their shared Scandinavian heritage, their expressionist urge for the frigid drone, and their penchant for drink, BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa intend this recording as an open ended experience, wandering through their sound without the burden of any exegetical text that may get in the way... Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna resolves itself as a grim kaleidoscope, where the bleakness of the wintry Scandinavian landscape and the langour of a drunken escapade constantly mutate through the highly refined sensibility of dronescaping. Sonar pings announce the beginning of this album, with its echoes returning as an amorphous fog and locating little but a gloomy pall upon the event horizon. Clattering electronics scurry across the barren sounds like death-watch beetles upon the tundra; and creaking doors offer something much more foreboding than what Pierre Henry envisioned for musique concrete. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna adheres to the psychological dis-quiet through sound design that Alan Splet provided for Eraserhead or that Nurse With Wound achieved on Salt Marie Celeste. Yet for all of their tendencies for brooding and desolation, BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa retain a compulsion for a glacial beauty through their intoxicated visions of the sublime. [label info]
Nilsen, BJ & Stilluppsteypa -- "Passing Out" -- CD -- €10
2008 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 013, (ltd. 1000)
The Nordic sound artists BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa have authored the last component to a trilogy of isolationist compositions for barren field recordings and lumbering electric drones, thematically linked in the psychotropic effects of alcohol. In doing so, they have issued a brief statement in defense of their research: "It's been four years and three studies, Passing Out being the final. Even in its most general, colloquial usage, Passing Out indicates the occurrence of a state that is incompatible with active behavior. It is possible that the individual could experience both consciousness and unconsciousness at the same time while encountering Passing Out."... Yes, Passing Out is a crepuscular recording, with the flickering of twilight further dimmed by the distant Arctic sun in wintertime and the blackened numbness of too much drink. With one singular track that spans 60 minutes, a nearly constant thrum and rumble of monochromatic low frequencies casts a grim pall upon the precisely dialed-in modulations and vibrations. Spectral guitars, maudlin tunes from haunted radios, angrily growling voices, and field recordings of wind-whipped snow and ice bury themselves deep amidst these subharmonic drones. All of these tease at the edge of perception, sculpting the narrative of the drone into a vehicle for unhinged expressionism of varying degrees of horror, melancholy, beauty, and oblivion. [label info]
Nilsen, BJ & Stilluppsteypa -- "Vikinga Brennivin" -- CD -- €10
2005 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 004, (ltd. 700)
In their poetically abject celebration of brennivin (a special Icelandic liquor), Stilluppsteypa (comprised of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson) accepted the invitation from Swedish composer BJ Nilsen to collaborate upon an album related to alcohol and its mind-numbing effects. Nilsen has been working in various constellations of experimental music, best known for his recordings as Hazard published through Touch and Ash International. Focusing the perception of natural sounds through a reconstruction of time and space, Nilsen has rendered the commonplace sounds of wind, rain, and snow as stealthfully seductive and quietly menacing drifts of frozen sound. Their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a Scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. Lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that Nilsen, Sigmarsson, and Thorsson brought to Vikinga Brennivin is impeccable, as the extended soundfields breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. Frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, Vikinga Brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece. [label info]
Orsi, Fabio -- "The New Year Is Over" -- 3 CD -- €15
2012 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1255, (ltd. 300)
Nine long and extraordinary tracks collected in a triple CD, among fluctuating ambient atmospheres, hypnotic rhythmic progressions, circular and motionless stasis, acid psychedelic escapes, evocative electronic reflections... Slow suites of "classic" ambient music suspended and dilated, soft and wrapping sonorities alternated with evocative and dramatic crescendos, through progressive sounds layerings, drones, pulses, distant echoes of human voices and subliminal perceptions of ethnical vibrations... A long and absorbing journey through distant sounds and universes, a timeless music without boundaries... Limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies. [press-release]
[youtube]
Pogon' / Hladna -- "Travyenakon'" -- CD-R -- €11
2009 Hladna
3 tracks from Pogon' and 4 from Hladna. 2 of 3 Pogon' tracks present ritual dark ambient / noise with recordings of manta singing, a la brutal Svasti-Ayanam; another track is an experiment with electronic sounds. Hladna - raw electronic drone/noise with an allusion to Russian traditional folklore. Instead of the cover a piece of wooden board is used, you can hang it on a wall as a decoration.
Spoonbender 1.1.1 -- "Stereo Telepathy Academy" -- CD -- €10
2006 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 006, (ltd. 333)
At the beginning of the first 'transmission' of Stereo Telepathy Academy on November 3rd, 2004 - a performance where the group supported Genesis P-Orridge's PTV3 - 1.1.1's Dustin Donaldson announced that "tonight's Spoonbender 1.1.1 show is governed by chance operations and the 'third mind' technique. Spoken text was taken from one film, overlayed onto images from another film, and the score was composed while viewing a third (and secret) film source. The synchronistic results appear to be intentional." Such was the strategy of Duchamp's pieces nearly a century ago; but Spoonbender 1.1.1's collision of artforms also employs the technique found in the William S. Burroughs / Brion Gyson classic The Third Mind. As the images of David Cronenberg's rarely seen film Crimes Of The Future flickered, Spoonbender 1.1.1 radiated an inverted telekinetic minimalism of undulating tones supporting the third piece of the puzzle: spoken text from Cronenberg's Stereo, a faux-documentary detailing a surgical procedure for the advancement of telepathic communication. The result: a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz / Dark Side Of The Moon' for the mimetic engineering mindset... The same principles and elements apply for Stereo Telepathy Academy, the group's long-awaited debut studio recording. [label info]
Umpio -- "Opium Electronix Vol.III" -- CD-R -- €7
2013 Nekorekords, NEKO-24
One long drone track with minimal yet quite rich & evolving textures and waves obtained from sounds of taped seismic subharmonics, broken motherboards, refrigerator and a computer program. Finnish quality.
Vedunkoloverti / Babayoga -- "Lesnoy Sobor / Zelye" -- 2 CD-R -- €12
2009 Hladna
Vedunkoloverti - another new project by Nikolay Kalmykov, previously known for HLADNA. Forest recordings, pipe and soft ringing of the bells are mixed with powerful crunches sounding like breaking branches. Silent electronic drones, then suddenly a monk sings, and his voice is refracted by effects which create strange warped dimension where listener stays until the end of the disc... Babayoga - a new side project of Hladna vivdly shows the change of musical view of the author after his move from St. Petersburg to deeply remote Vepsians village Yarogora. The first track is almost 40-min. long field, or more precisely forest recording with minimal instrumental presence. Sunny tranquillity, singing birds, light rustles and rattles with just a few moments interrupted by deeply reverberated noisy overloads. Despite the soothing quality, it's still possible to feel some brutality, primitivity of sound, so peculiar to Hladna, and in the end of the track it shows up in a short intense fragment made from author's one year old daughter voice. On the 2nd track the recording of dripping serves as a background, against which unfold cold electronic noisy soundscapes... 2 CDRs packed in linen sack.
Waldron, M.S. / Steven Stapleton / Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson / Jim Haynes / R. K. Faulhaber -- "The Sleeping Moustache" -- CD -- €10
2006 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 007, (ltd. 1700)
M.S. Waldron may be best known for his work as irr. app. (ext.), an unwieldy moniker that begets uncanny, hallucinatory sound. Steven Stapleton is the genius behind Nurse With Wound, the consistently unpredictable project that scrambles musical obsessions for krautrock, surrealism, and avant-garde composition into a brash quest for expressionism through experimentation. Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson hails from the Icelandic electro-absurdist duo Stilluppsteypa, which continues to investigate the finer points of drunken minimalism. Jim Haynes prefers to merely state that he rusts things. R.K. Faulhaber is something of a mysterious figure, looming around Mr. Waldron's irr. app. (ext.) recordings and performances while keeping his own work a hermetic secret... Each with a peculiar understanding of the audio arts, these five artists came to the proverbial table and thought it a good idea to collaborate. Given the predilection for the surreal and the sidereal that each of these five employ in their many audio and visual projects, those agendas oozed from the recordings that became known as The Sleeping Moustache... An epiphany of controlled disorder, a convulsion of beauty, a cascade of thought from delirious minds, The Sleeping Moustache is an exquisite manifestation of sound poetry scattered into a tortuous collage mired in an oblique melancholy. Magnetic tones extracted from the ether, mechanical sounds smeared into a lugubrious growls, horns trumpeting straight out of John's Book of Revelation, ululations sliced into information overload that Schwitters himself would be proud of. The Sleeping Moustache presents a psychically instable landscape, where dreams and nightmares wreak havoc upon the drudgery of daily life. The closest audible territory for The Sleeping Moustache might be the psychoactive constructions of Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie, although the characters in this drama happened upon an entirely different map of that terrain. [label info]
Xiphoid Dementia -- "Might Is Blight" -- CD -- €10
2009 Existence Establishment, EE10, (ltd. 500)
Xiphoid Dementia is Egan Budd's noise project based in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Budd has been active in the noise underground since about 2002 and creates a powerful sort of ambient-noise music. His latest release is a numbered, limited edition CD titled "Might Is Blight" and therein begins a bleak journey through the possible end times of life as we know it, the ruination of Earth, and the death of illusion. This noise artist has in his artistic grasp the means of creating sound structures that are metaphors for such ideas even though to find those places requires certain lengths to be gone to... What Budd has accomplished here is impressive, not too many noise artists are attempting something so ambitious, a hybrid style of composing that incorporates modern classical avant garde, droning electronic noise and atmospheric ambience to create a strong, cinematic music... From the orchestral title track opener to the lilting, tossing, aptly titled 'Your City Crumbles' to the profoundly disturbing final composition, 'None Shall Inherit The Earth', every one of these soundscapes moves in fascinating ways, morphing from powerful Penderecki-style string sections that teeter on the brink of collapse, then break down giving way to noisier electronics, heavy (metallic) droning, or screeching, anguished vocals, each sound texture seemingly always moving in a constant state of flux... [Phillip Klingler, Heathen Harvest]
Yen Pox -- "Blood Music" -- 2 CD -- €14
1995/2010 Malignant Records, TumorCD41
15 years after it’s original release, and out of print for almost as long, Yen Pox’ Blood Music has finally been re-issued. Regarded by many as a benchmark recording within the realm of dark ambient music, this deluxe 2CD edition contains a completely re-mastered and remixed version of Blood Music plus a previously unreleased track on disc 1, as well as the first cassette and various compilation and 7” releases on disc 2. Combined, the discs offer well over two hours of colossal, mind bending atmospherics of the highest order, the sounds radiating outwards into a sprawling horizon of sulfur dark skies, then descending into a relentless maelstrom of shifting textures, treacherous reverberations, and endless, sinister drift... Packaged in a luxurious 8 panel DVDdigipak, with completely new design by Andre Coelho (Sektor 304), this is the perfect marriage of both music and packaging, and will further solidify Blood Music’s status as one of the all time classic dark ambient releases. [press-release]
Z'EV -- "The Deep Path" -- CD -- €10
2011 Seven Solar Metals, Season One
A monumental album featuring three impressive tracks in which Z'EV (mythical avant-garde experimental artist, percussion master and world wide performer), collects and exhibits brave and incredible sonic solutions, mixing and alternating enormous, deep and sometimes exploding and devastating sound masses based on low frequencies, to noisy metallic sounds, gongs and cymbal stratification... all oriented in temporary resounding "tunnels", where sonic elements are mixed through suggestive cyclic echoes and reverberations, infinite pauses, joining and integrating to other sonic tracks, for an important and unique listening experience. An unmissable masterpiece! [label info]
[youtube]
Zevodvozogon' -- "s/t" -- CD-R -- €15
2006 Hladna
Early project where Nikolay Nikolayevich from Hladna took part. Primarily acoustic recordings - ritual drumming, demonic shouts and voices, sounds of fire and singing birds, atmosphere of madness and solitude in frozen forest. Beautiful rough handmade package.
Zewizz, John -- "2012" -- CD -- €10
2010 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 130
JOHN ZEWIZZ releases hiz first solo CD stepping out ov the SLEEPCHAMBER shadows after almost 30 years! Thru the eras ov Sexmagick, Fetish, Electronic Goth, The Barbitchuettes, Women Of The SS, and at least 6 other stages ov his own unique esoteric styles ov musick: “2012” starts out at the title track. A dance kick poly rhythm styled piece that abstractly question us if 2012 will be the end ov daze. Strangely, you will find the chorus hauntingly hard to evict. “IMMORTALITY" slinks along like an electric styled 'Gang Of Four' track with strangle stayed guitar leads and heavy bass beats. “BLACKSTRAP CORSET” iz a great fetish fun-house piece complete with clown house laughter, school teacher commands and a great heavy low pounding beat – The chorus is clever and sleazy... “INSOMNIA” iz a long piece that contains a steady bass pulse laced in all sorts ov exotik stereo electronix. With a theme ov suggested bestiality and no sleep the track iz nightmare like and bizarre, but still very interesting. Jaguar growls included. “OBSESSION” iz a whispered fetish command vocal styled strap beat track. The overlaid electornix are ghostly and unique. Az what haz made SLEEPCHAMBER so original exists here. Obviously Mr. Zewizz iz the main ingredient in the SLEEPCHAMBER formula. “SPY VS SPY” iz a trip in a dimensional layer ov dark and eerie rhythms that flow thru your veins az whispered vocals again penetrate the subconscious in a virus like degree. “HELLS ANGELS” iz a poly rhythm driven track with a heavy beat kick & Harley's racing through out. “EECIFORP?” iz proficiency backwards. Again the most abstract track on the CD suggesting 2012 being the end ov time. Ending the CD is a 12 1/2 minute dance re-mix ov the title track “2012”. But after the first 5 minutes it scratches into a surreal vocal style ov the opening track. [press-release]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3]
V/A -- "Influence" -- CD -- €5
2006 Shadowplay Records, SPR 031
Every fall, the air becomes transparent and humid, and because of that everything around seems to be trembling and floating, and each one of us, somewhere afar, can feel that sound. The sound that makes us want to run away from ourselves and then come back. That's the sound of the haunting voices of the fading nature, whispering to us that it is fading, slowly and nobly, and calling us to follow after her, coating us with thousands of haunting voices. And all those sounds dissolve within us, they resound in us, and with all our being we begin to feel the INFLUENCE of nature's autumnal sorrow and boredom over itself... Romantic darkwave and ethereal have become very popular among domestic underground audience practically from the moment of it's foundation. And it is difficult to say why. May be thanks to the romantic, tragic and the beauty of the music that are very appreciated by Russians and may be thanks to the disposition of the people who formed such style to the experiments and unavailability to understanding of their music:. But we could say with the assurance that being such popular this style of the music is elite in some way... At the very beginning of the genre foundation almost all bands had it's own face and style. But in the course of time there were more and more imitators and it's find really difficult to find something that could draw attention... This compilation includes the most interesting to our opinion representatives of these genres on the modern scene. Among them are the bands that have been at the origin and very young projects: Ataraxia (It), Chirleison (It), Corde Oblique (It), Daemonia Nymphe (Gr), Dandelion Wine (Aus), Donis (Lt), Endraum (Ger), Ethodius (US), Jack or Jive (Jp), Lacklustre Mirror (Ru), Moon Far Away (Ru), The Moon & the Night Spirit (Hu), Seventh Harmonic (UK), Tempus Fugit (Fr). [press-release]
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