ambient
Madteo – Noi No [SAHKO027]
Madteo serves up his debut album on the Finnish imprint Sahko. With a deep love of hip-hop, boogie and beatdown running through his veins, the NYC-based Italian has never been a conventional house producer, and sure enough, he’s made a thoroughly unconventional album. But Noi No doesn’t jump from one style to another so much as suavely weave a path between styles, creating its own eccentric sonic language the process; what’s more, it’s brilliantly cold and dissolute, as if Madteo has really absorbed the rarefied Scandinavian chill of his new label.
Sigha – Living With Ghosts [HFLP009]
Sigha a.k.a James Shaw confidently returns to Hotflush with his heavily anticipated debut LP, ‘Living WIth Ghosts’. For this offering he presents twelve impressive techno and ambient productions and fuses his love of classic UK techno with the contemporary sound that currently pulses through Berlin’s Berghain. Since his 2009 debut on the label, Sigha has organically shifted further and further into the straight 4/4 realm of techno, embracing the subterranean, darker soundscapes of his new production homebase, Berlin. However, hiding under all that bass, one can still hear the whisper of many long forgotten shoegaze numbers. Years of playing guitar in London bands defined Sigha’s musical start and gave him an ear for the emotive. He was able to merge both worlds after quite literally stumbling across techno by chance, igniting his love of electronic music.
Suzanne Ciani – Seven Waves [015EGGSLP]
Suzanne Ciani is a composer, recording artist, and pioneer in the field of electronic music. She is best loved for her fifteen albums of original music that feature her performances in a broad array of expressions: solo piano, piano with orchestra, piano with jazz ensemble and pure electronic. No matter the medium, Ciani’s music communicates the special intimacy, passion, and sensitivity that have become her trademark and prompted fans to buy over a million of her albums. The Seven Waves is Suzanne’s first album. She started recording it in 1979, finished it in 1981, and released it in Japan in 1982 on Atlantic Recordings.
Seawash – Pantomime EP [DSR-E1]
Following on from the success of Delsin’s new house series, the Dutch label are branching out again with a new sideline in electronica. The first release comes from Venetian producer Seawash and comprises 6 tracks of dense and fuggy, otherworldly sounds. ‘Pantomime’ opens the EP awash with ethereal yet underwater sounding synths, light and dark contrast with rough and smooth and the effect is one of pure electronic escapism. ‘Revolution’ shows a lighter side to Seawash and comes over like a mature adult lullaby with harmonic bells dangle above scraping, skeletal percussion. ‘Free Alternatives’ closes out the first side with a stripped and downbeat air: lazy snares cut out a rhythm as more blissful harmonics drift by like feathery clouds. On the flip ‘Close (Vox)’ shimmers like reflections on a lake as an r&b vocal drifts between sun-kissed guitar licks. Slow and sexy without being overly saccharine, it’s more than lush. ‘Emeralds’ is initially more industrial and sounds like machines in torment before Seawash’s surely trademark watery smears dissipate the tension and transport you to a deep sea world once again. Closer ‘Little John’ stutters and skips along with only the slightest hint of a ticking hi hat immersed in oceans of aqueous echo and delay. Traces of garage lurk within, but like the EP overall, it’s a truly unique listening experience.
Dial 81 – Luminous Stasis [M1-SESN103]
M1-Sessions is back with their third installment – “Luminous Stasis” by Dial 81. This EP is a journey through dance, ambient, and down tempo music. The storyline style track selection by DIAL.81 includes heavy instrumentals and atmospheric ambient. The 7 song E.P. features the divine vocal presence of Paul Randolph, unreleased reworks of Szymanski’s “Alley Cat” (retitled: “Any Time” + “Emit Yna”) and A Setting Sun’s “Sun Hammer Pounding” previous released digitally on Mood Gadget.
Mika Vainio – FE3O4 – Magnetite [TO86]
This is his 5th album for Touch. FE3O4 – Magnetite was recorded in Berlin between 2011 and 2012. In contrast to the dark vistas of his most recent releases, FE3O4 – Magnetite oscillates between the two poles of silence and noise. Using his signature sources which range from radio signals to sine wave generators, Mika Vainio creates a unique emotional journey that moves from the serene to the unsettling, always challenging the listener’s comfort zone.
Dino Sabatini – Shaman’s Path [PRGCD002]
Dino Sabatini is not just a Prologue artist having the first 12” release in our catalogue, he is also one of the most authentic Prologue artists who is responsible for providing the well known Prologue sound aesthetic. Dino´s productions always deliver exactly our vision of music; deep, hypnotic, atmospheric and mind-driven. It’s no surprise that we are more than proud to announce the third Prologue album this year, which comes from our high respected mate from Berlin. The album is called “Shaman’s Paths” and it is more than just an album for all of us. Dino´s Shaman’s Paths is his personal interpretation of the sounds of Africa, which provides since decades the basis of trance in order to loose your mind in sounds and drum arrangements and it is his personal interpretation of the Prologue sound aesthetic. The Album is planned for October 2012 and will be distributed over “WordandSound”. One part will be a CD mixed with all tracks, which simply is the Shaman’s Paths to follow. Further we will also have one 12” Vinyl which will contain the most club oriented hypnotic tracks from the Album and a complete digital album with all separate tracks. Dino is now available for bookings and his album tour.
Dial 81 – Detropia: The Original Score [UHF001]
The award winning documentary, Detropia, is a cinematic tapestry that chronicles the lives of several Detroiters trying to survive and make sense of what is happening to their city. Detroit producer Dial.81 has composed an exquisite soundtrack to the film. It has been singled out by many as moody, special and epic. Vinyl LP comes in full color jacket and download card for entire album plus an additional three bonus tracks.
Edanticonf – Forest Echo EP [SSV003]
Ambient and Dub Techno dramas from Hamburg’s Edoardo Zerbinati. ‘Forest Echo’ is his debut album and scopes deep, rolling, atmospheric Techno scenery summoning the mystical aura of mid-late ’90s electronica. This 12” sampler of the full length, 10-track CD album, includes also a remix by Adbullah Rashim.
VC-118A – International Airlines [LDR011]
Lunar Disko Records presents its first LP from Dutch artist VC-118A. ‘International Airlines’ is based on a retro-futuristic concept of aircrafts, drawing inspiration from this idea throughout to create an ethereal sculpture of sounds. VC-118A aka Samuel van Dijk guides the listener through a network of light and emotions via seven intense and atmospheric electro/techno tracks that will leave you floating deep within inner space. Constructed in the north of Holland, ‘International Airlines’ explores the artists concept of aircrafts through emotive soundscapes, brooding over an array of analytic drum programming. Each track levitates the listener to another atmosphere – never attached to geographical locations or time. Gravitating from beginning to end, ‘International Airlines’ displays the artists focus on his subject – an air flight through different colours of sound.
Silent Harbour – Silent Harbour [ECHOCORDCD012]
Dutchman Boris Bunnik already crafts deeper house and techno than most. Forever keen to experiment and push the boundaries, though, the man best known as Conforce has recently started a new moniker, Silent Harbour. To explain the roots of the project it’s best to go right inside the mind of Bunnik, where he himself has been lost recently, exploring notions of isolation, deep-sea submersion, aquatic environments and all the abstract ambiance such places entail. Silent Harbour is about exploring the deep unknown, about slowing tempos without losing focus on details, about sound tracking the everyday movie that plays out at the bottom of the deepest darkest oceans of which we know so little. Listening the ten tracks that make up the debut album on Echocord and the concept shines through immediately: right from the opening sound you’re lowered below the sea’s surface as all sorts of little sonic plankton float by. Sunrays occasionally beam down from above; sometimes you’re in warm water, other times it’s colder, but always is there a gentle lull back and forth like the most soothing deep-sea swell. Somehow Bunik even manages to soundtrack what seem like underwater wrecks… rusting metal, tinkling glass and swarms of predatory fish looking for a feed. There are even sections which speak of danger and peril, as if a storm is brewing miles above or as if a shark is on his way… on the other hand, though, there are also passages alive with a Spring-like optimism, where coral grows, aquatic plants flower and new ocean life is born. So evocative is this album you’ll hardly notice that it has very few beats, instead you’re mind is busy painting the pictures to go with the sounds.
Coughy – Coughy [LCL012] FREE DOWNLOAD
The concept of Coughy was to be an exact opposite of clinging to one particular sound or a tedious rehearsal of prior established songs. Improvisation, spontaneity, obscure cultural influences and a complete and reciprocal trust were to be the principles of this project, and a strong live visual input provided by the visual artist Color Nurse (Irina Stanciulescu). The result, often unpredictable even to the protagonists, associates freely drones and rhythms, noise and harmony, digital and analog, atmospheric and psychedelic, pop and experiment.
VA – The Expression Of Emotions In Man And Animals EP [ELER002]
Electronique.it Records with “The Expression Of Emotions In Man And Animals Ep”, the second part of a trilogy on vinyl dedicated to Charles Darwin studies. In this chapter it is presented the relation between listening to various genres of electronic music and the emotional expressions arising from that. This release includes three traks by Plant 43, Valmass and Yard.
DeepChord Presents Echospace – Silent World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [ECHOSPACELP313-LP-2]
First new album from the Echospace duo since the critically acclaimed ‘Liumin’ double album on Manchester’s beloved Modern Love imprint. The sonic structure of this album was the basis for what later became ”Liumin” released on Modern Love but this exploration is something all together different, left untreated and unprocessed from its original 1/2” tape to preserve the natural organic state of the recording. The LP is a soundtrack to Silent World, an independent film produced by Rod Modell that will come out on DVD sometime after the album.
VA – Electric Voice Compilation [EV034]
Electric Voice Records presents a collection of 18 pop-rock post-punk tracks. With contribution by Innergaze, The KVB, Soft Metals, HTRK, Jeff & Jane Hudson, Horrid Red and others.
Tanz Ohne Musik – Hidden Songs
“Hidden songs” stands as a collection of previously unreleased electronic ambient/drone tracks, composed and recorded between 2011 and 2012. After a long period of fragmented construction and deconstruction, they have finally found their unifying frame and achieved physical form through this EP.
VA – The Power of Movement in Plants EP [ELER001]
Italy’s webzine Electronique.it has decided to enjoy the joys and sorrows of being a record label and prepares its first release featuring three artists. “Soils” by Commodity Place is an ordinary ambient piece and “Is This For Real?” by passEnger keeps tranquil mood while adding some casual beats. Last track, Cosmic Metal Mother – “The Unreleased Techno Mixes Series (comunicazione uno)”, which is destined to move the feet and flirts with Detroit and Belgium anno 1992.
Pye Corner Audio – Black Mill Tapes Volume 3: All Pathways Open [PCA003]
Right then, our Head Technician has sworn that he will have the next instalment of Black Mills Tapes ready for us by the end of January. Volume 3: All Pathways Open comprises a further twelve tracks lovingly transferred from those now fabled 1/4″ and cassette tapes. The Advisory Circle kindly lent a hand and retransferred ‘Electronic Rhythm Number Eighteen’ for which we are very grateful. Our Head Technician tells us this particular segment had been giving him a fair bit of trouble, so the help was appreciated.
Vatican Shadow – Kneel Before Religious Icons [TYPE105]
Dominick Fernow might be best known for his industrial incantations under the Prurient moniker, but in recent months his attention has shifted towards a different outlet. Fernow’s interest in electronic music (from the clamorous grind of Muslimgauze to the recently defunct Sandwell District imprint) has been well documented, and it comes to a frothy head with his Vatican Shadow project. Revolving around themes gleaned from Iraq war propaganda and yellowing stacks of newspaper clippings, the tracks on ‘Kneel Before Religious Icons’ are a perfect representation of Fernow’s modus operandi. Behind a wall of tape hiss, drum machine rhythms beat out memories of early Ministry and AFX while sickly FM synthesizer pads crawl and heave into the abyss. Like much of Fernow’s output prior to this, the emphasis is on society’s darker crevices, but Vatican Shadow is steeped in an alarming mystery and sulfuric smoke that is sure to surprise recent converts.
The Hipodrome Of Music 