O Yuki Conjugate – Into Dark Water [ERC080]

November 17, 2019November 15, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, andrew hulme, emotional rescue, emotional response recordings, experimental, final image, o yuki conjugate, re-release, reissue, roger horberryLeave a comment

Emotional Rescue reissue ‘Into Dark Water’, the second album from UK post-industrial ambient pioneers O Yuki Conjugate (OYC).
The willfully obscure OYC formed in Nottingham in 1982 and have had a sporadic career on the outskirts of musical culture ever since. Initially associated with the early 80s post-industrial scene OYC quietly forged their own brand of ambient music at a time when it was distinctly unfashionable to do so. ‘Into Dark Water’ was recorded in 1986 over four days in an eight-track garage studio in Nottingham. Produced and engineered by John Kaukis, the result was a blend of flutes, percussion, electronics and loops that focused their sound and became for many the definitive OYC album. Originally released in 1987 on the Leeds-based Final Image label, ‘Into Dark Water’ quickly sold out and has been highly sought after ever since. The re-issue, featuring a lovingly recreated sleeve, makes a vinyl version of this classic available again for the first time in over 30 years.

Giraffe – Desert Haze [MARIONETTE012]

November 9, 2019October 7, 2022 hipodromealbum, ambient, charly schöppner, experimental, giraffe, jurgen hall, marionette, sascha demandLeave a comment

Experimental trio Giraffe crystalize time on ‘Desert Haze’, their new LP on Marionette. Giraffe is the musical project of Sascha Demand (guitar), Jürgen Hall (keys), and Charly Schöppner (percussion). They have quite diverse musical backgrounds, though morphing into Giraffe they tower into one single composer. Their music is a critical statement, not in a political sense but rather an artistic one. Being mindful about what it means to create and how to position themselves as artists nowadays (without the constant hassle of being en vogue and short-lived trends) shaped their rather rare and stoic artistic stance. It is refreshingly honest to see their expression develop so naturally. On Desert Haze, they’ve created a vibrant and minimalistic tribal sound that feels inspired by the Saharan traditional music of the Tuareg, Jazz, and German psychedelic krautrock.

Retina.it – The Last Day Of Pompeii [MDGEM02.1/MDGEM02.2]

November 9, 2019February 7, 2020 hipodromeambient, drone, electro, experimental, hefty records, lino monaco, midgar records, nicola buono, retina.itLeave a comment

‘The Last Day Of Pompeii’ is a compilation of hidden gems by Retina.it -most of them released via Chicago’s Hefty Records in early 2000- and few unreleased coming as a double EP. The records will have inserts presenting 2 halves of Karl Brullov painting from 1830 (that gives the name to the project). On the backside of the insert there will be anecdotes and pictures from the archives. Midgar want to pay tribute to the Pompeian duo, whose life has been entirely dedicated to music. The project ‘The Last Day Of Pompeii’ talks about their origins, early history and relationship with Hefty Records.

Solitary Dancer – Rites Of Passage [PPLP01]

November 3, 2019February 19, 2020 hipodromealbum, ambient, experimental, private possessions, solitary dancer, synth waveLeave a comment

‘Rites Of Passage’ traditionally refer to rituals distinguishing movements from one period of life to the next. Solitary Dancer’s debut LP evokes a retrospective of these experiences, organized into four acts: coming into being, detachment, liminality, and re-incorporation of the self. This narrative calls for a self-exploration of moral corruption, loss of innocence, social rebellion, and societal disillusionment.

Ruins – Marea / Tide: Sound & Image Research Volume One [MFM043]

October 27, 2019October 22, 2020 hipodromealbum, alessandro pizzin, ambient, exerimental, music from memory, piergiuseppe ciranna, re-release, reissue, ruins, synth waveLeave a comment

Music From Memory’s latest release is a reissue of the lost Art record ‘Marea / Tide’ from Italian Wave duo Alessandro Pizzin and Piergiuseppe Ciranna also know as ‘Ruins’. Made to accompany and as a response to the works of painter ‘Luigi Viola’ the record was released limited to a run of 600 with original artworks by the painter included in the first 200 copies. A number of special showcases were performed at various galleries by the duo alongside Viola’s work, with records being available solely at those events. Due to poor management and disagreements with the label who produced the record, 300 copies were held for many years in storage and then in fact later even destroyed, the record disappearing almost without a trace. Finally now available again and with a bonus 7” including four beautiful unreleased tracks, the release is printed in colors true to the original work of Luigi Viola with insert.

Suzanne Ciani – Dekmantel Podcast 250

October 13, 2019September 10, 2020 hipodromeambient, dekmantel records, electronics, experimental, podcast, suzanne cianiLeave a comment

Massimo Carozzi – Night Shift [YER036]

October 13, 2019October 11, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, experimental, massimo carozzi, yerevan tapesLeave a comment

Massimo Carozzi is a sound recordist, sound designer and musician based in Bologna, Italy. Since 1994 he has looked into relations between sound and image, sound and script, sound and literature, sound and space. Massimo Carozzi has created sound design for theatre, documentaries, short films, installations. As a musician he collaborated both in studio and on stage with various musicians and sound artists such as Andrea Belfi, Stefano Pilia, Margareth Kammerer, Valerio Tricoli, Claudio Rocchetti, Luciano Maggiore, Sinistri, 3/4HadBeenEliminated, Starfuckers. In September 2000 he founded the group ZimmerFrei whose artistic practice ranges from video art to documentary films, sound and environmental installations, as well as photography, performances, workshops and public art projects

Steve Moore – Untitled [LIES134]

September 14, 2019February 28, 2020 hipodromeambient, experimental, l.i.e.s., long island electrical systems, steve mooreLeave a comment

NYC Synth master Steve Moore makes a welcome return to L.I.E.S. with his first EP on the label since 2012. Through these four tracks Moore creates a world with simplistic stripped down beauty, often using one synth and a drum machine to effectively construct alternate realities, as heard on the opener Broken Kills. This continues on the b-side opener Eigengrau, while Future 86 and Future 99 take a more dramatic komische influenced soaring arpeggiated approach.

John Di Stefano – For The Moment [CC003]

August 17, 2019December 17, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, concentric circles, experimental, john di stefanoLeave a comment

Concentric Circles presents ”For the Moment”, which features tracks from some of Di Stefano’s early cassette releases, as well as a number of unheard explorations of Indian polyrhythms from the early 90s. Di Stefano’s prescient and unique work will appeal to fans of Cybe, Joel Graham, UnknownmiX, Zru Vogue, and provides a fascinating view of the 80s US electronic underground. American-born, Japan-based composer John Di Stefano self-released a number of cassettes as part of the 80s DIY underground on his own imprint Oktron Produktions, including Klang’s Drift, a collaboration with Joel Graham. Living in San Francisco, Di Stefano had access to multiple University electronic music studios, where he had an impressive array of synthesizers at his fingertips, including both Buchla and Serge modular systems. Combining his knowledge of modular synthesis with a background in percussion, his early releases were a uniquely human approach to electroacoustic music, with flourishes of post punk in the mix. Di Stefano developed an interest in world music, studying Indian music theory and tabla, and after an extended trip to Indonesia in the mid 80s, he was particularly drawn to Javanese gamelan music. Future recordings would forever be indebted to the sounds he heard during those travels.

Lost Souls Of Saturn – Lost Souls Of Saturn [RS1909]

August 4, 2019August 2, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, drone, experimental, lost souls of saturn, phil moffa, r&s records, seth troxlerLeave a comment

R&S present the eponymous, debut, full length album transmission from Lost Souls Of Saturn, an epic in scope, time and space, multidimensional mind trip. This ambient house masterpiece combines flavours gathered from across the galaxy, stewing them up into a delicious primordial soup. Old sci-fi soundtracks, acid, free jazz, avant garde, musique concrete, world music and more all whirl around an underground-dance-music axis. Primarily Lost Souls Of Saturn are Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa, plus further opaque participants congregating to combine music, imagery, and storytelling into an inextricably linked whole, all wrapped-up in a philosophy of their own making.

Mister Water Wet – Bought The Farm [OUEST095]

August 4, 2019August 2, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, experimental, jazz, mister water wet, west mineral ltd.Leave a comment

Huerco S’ West Mineral Ltd. return in 2019 to mine a rich seam of ambient jazz sampledelia by Mister Water Wet; a Puerto Rican artist with a gift for conveying in-between, gently altered states of mind and the logic of the natural world.‘Bought The Farm’ yields an elementally cool and breezy spirit guided by a first thought, best thought intuition through 55 minutes of crackly, hand-built music riddled with ephemeral soul. In terms of texture and structure, it’s a sound maybe best compared with Jan Jelinek at his most frayed and slompy, or even a pastoral inversion of Kelman Duran’s rugged chop ’n paste arrangements, essentially rendering a distinctive style that hovers between heavy-lidded, Afro-Latinate jazz, sampled indigenous instrumentation, and strains of gently bucolic, ambient introspection.

TV Victor – Back To The Moon [LFI015]

August 4, 2019August 2, 2019 hipodromeambient, experimental, lullabies for insomniacs, tv victorLeave a comment

TV Victor was one of the first artists of Tresor Records where he became legendary with several of his ambient and trance productions including Trance Garden 1-3 and Trancecology Chapter 1. In 1989, he launched his first solo project: Moondance – The Magic Sound of the Moon, where he lay foundations for later explorations with experimental sounds fused with pop elements and anticipated an ambient excursion to be had in the future. In the following decades TV Victor created impressive solo works that traversed between ambient and trance. Contrary to common mainstream tendencies he created a very unique interpretation of both genres. In recent years Victor has concentrated on creating experimental and abstract sonic spaces for escaping reality, spaces that live through the imagination of the listener. 30 years after the release of Moondance and 50 years after the first landing, Lullabies For Insomniacs revisit TV Victor’s musical roots with ‘Back To The Moon’.

Ron Morelli – Man Walks The Earth [CM007]

July 21, 2019July 19, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, collapsing market, ron morelliLeave a comment

L.I.E.S. Records founder Ron Morelli departs the club to investigate atavistic ambient themes in his
4th solo LP and debut for the Paris-based Collapsing Market. Morelli mostly mutes his drum track channels and allows his sounds to freely float in imagined air. In the process he crisply reveals a latent, introspective side to his music that’s been missing or occluded by noise in his clutch of grubby sores issued by Hospital Productions since 2013 – back when he changed his address from Brooklyn, NYC to the heart of the Parisian electronic music scene. As such the 8 bony diffusions of ‘Man Walks The Earth’ mark distance traveled from the gobs of 2013’s ‘Spit’, documenting a change of mindset from grizzled
and paranoid to a more soberly contemplative and drily poetic expression of self. Composed during 2015-2018, the 8 liminal zones of ‘Man Walks the Earth’ see Morelli switch out immediacy and brashness for a more considered longview of electronic music.

LVRIN – Aperitif de la Mort 009

July 14, 2019September 10, 2020 hipodromeambient, aperitif de la mort, electronics, experimental, jenya lavrinov, lvrin, podcast, post punk, synth waveLeave a comment

RA.683 Phuong Dan

July 7, 2019July 5, 2019 hipodromeambient, experimental, interview, phuong-dan, podcast, resident advisorLeave a comment

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Dimitris Petsetakis – On Shores [ITL011]

June 16, 2019June 13, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, dimitris petsetakis, experimental, into the light recordsLeave a comment

Into The Light Records has worked with the Greek composer Dimitris Petsetakis to compile a follow-up album that takes an even deeper dive into his archive of previously unreleased material. Like its predecessor, “On Shores” draws on music recorded in the 1980s and early ’90s. It contains just two previous released tracks, the humid ‘Clearance (Part 2)’ and poignant ‘On Endless Shores’, both of which first featured on Petsetakis’s cult 1991 album Missing Links. “On Shores” offers another unparalleled insight into the picturesque and atmospheric soundscapes created in the Piraeus-based composer’s basement studio using a mixture of electronic and acoustic instruments, a wide range of global influences and a keen interest in both minimalism and new age ambience. Listeners will encounter a range of stunningly beautiful and beguiling compositions, from the creepy, slow-burn exoticism of ‘Pythia’s Dance’ and rhythmic, otherworldly escapism of ‘Violated Asylum’, to the gentle bliss of ‘Like a Knife’ and sun-bright joy of ‘Nearxi (Minimal Marimba Edit)’.

Jason Letkiewicz – The Reflecting Pool [ITLINTL03]

June 2, 2019May 31, 2019 hipodromealbum, ambient, electro, experimental, into the light records, jason letkiewiczLeave a comment

Over the last decade, we’ve come accustomed to Jason Letkiewicz releasing material under a dizzying array of aliases, each utilized to explore a different side of his multi-faceted musical persona. Now, some 14 years after he made his recording debut, Letkiewicz has joined forces with Into The Light Records to release his first album under his real name. ‘The Reflecting Pool’ sees Letkiewicz exploring the uncomplicated and uncluttered in the pursuit of pure aural beauty. The album is stripped back, quiet, melodious is drawing more on Letkiewicz’s love of crystalline ambient, slow burn synthesizer soundscapes, early ’80s library music and the kind of obscure electronic new age music. The set’s 12 tracks gently ebb and flow, with Letkiewicz making great use of dusty old drum machines, effects units and a range of vintage analogue and digital synthesizers. With ‘The Reflecting Pool’, Letkiewicz has provided us with a much-needed dose of stress-free musical escapism, at the same time offering hope that in these troubling times, love may still save the day.

Rhythmic Theory – Mechanised Dreaming [CRLP14]

June 2, 2019July 8, 2020 hipodromealbum, ambient, creme organization, drone, experimental, rhythmic theoryLeave a comment

Bristol based Rhythmic Theory, known for working the dark and mysterious edges of bass heavy techno and drum & bass, returns to Creme Organization. After his first work for the label in 2017 he now brings a fulsome nine track mini-LP ‘Mechanised Dreaming’, exploring the dark corners of ambient and synth based intrigue. Atmospheric sound design is at the fore here, with cinematic soundscapes crafted from broad synth smears and plenty of subtle little motifs. The music paints pictures of a metropolis during the dead of night, or a former industrial factory reduced to a hall of echoes and shadows. There is subtle tension built from sustained chords and plenty of suggestion of weird lifeforms in the icy ticks and scuttling footsteps of thew a-side. Side b is less dark and dank, with slightly brighter synths and wider horizons all explored. This is a truly immersive and emotive listen that always keeps you absorbed.

Kassel Jaeger – Le Lisse Et Le Strié [LTNC017]

June 2, 2019May 31, 2019 hipodromeambient, drone, experimental, françois j. bonnet, kassel jaeger, latency recordingsLeave a comment

Le Lisse et le Strié is a new work by french composer François J. Bonnet, released under his project name Kassel Jaeger. Based in Paris, Bonnet is the Director of INA GRM. He is also a writer and theoretician. Le Lisse et le Strié has been conceived as an exploration of the two antagonist concepts of “smooth” and “striated”, applied to the realm of electroacoustic sounds. If the “smooth” is linked to “nomos” as an open space of organic distribution, the “striated”, on the contrary, is associated to “logos”, as an enclosed space defined by a grid. Elaborating a dialogue between these aspects, Kassel Jaeger draws here an intermediary space where pulsations become textures and layers, and where rhythmic elements are found in the qualities and bodies of sounds instead of being functionnalised, pre-determined sound objects, abstracted and frozen onto a temporal grid. The concept of “striated” is made audible only through the sonic landscape it inhabits, like the stripes of the camouflage fur of wild animals only exist as such in the woods and long grass, disappearing into a potentially uselessness in a desert plain.

Avina Vishnu – Transforma [WEME313.19]

May 12, 2019May 9, 2019 hipodromeaina, album, ambient, avina vishnu, detroit, experimental, heinrich mueller, weme records, weme313Leave a comment

Advanced soundscapes from Avina Vishnu which is a project by Heinrich Mueller aka Gerald Donald and Aina. Their release Transforma is a conceptual project that is focusing on a unification between the natural world and the artificial space of electronic music. It attempts to immerse the listener within a three dimensional sound environment that is exploring the natural physics of music and yet create a contrast between these two worlds.