The 2022 edition of the Ombra Festival will start tomorrow in Barcelona, with a location change. The festival program was suppose to take place for the last time at UTOPÍA 126, but the new owners of the location canceled in September Ombra’s reservation. Probably this beautiful industrial relic will make space for something more modern and cost efficient construction.
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De Ambassade have dropped the ‘De’ and are now known as Ambassade. Optimo Music will be releasing their second album in 2023. Ahead of that is this glorious 2 track 12” featuring music that took our breath away when we first heard it. Both tracks are exclusive to this release.
The 2022 edition of the Ombra festival will take place from November 24 to 27 in Barcelona. Ombra is a project born from the hand of agency Ombra Agency and label Oraculo Records with the aim of creating a meeting place for lovers of analogue and avant-garde sounds that do not fit in the current cultural offer.
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On this third, consecutive 7” for Knekelhuis they showcase a slightly darker side, undoubtedly influenced by these current viral times. Still, shadows are always in need of light. These two anxious tunes are full of metal clanking, eerie synths and rolling basslines taking you straight into industrial territory, albeit with avant-pop leanings. De Ambassade will firmly hold their ground in the dead of night until the smoke clears and the agony of daylight returns.
Something was brooding in the furthest outskirts of Amsterdam. The isolated concrete suburbs of the western part of the city constituted the ideal dwelling place for the writing of De Ambassade’s debut album Duistre Kamers. Pascal Pinkert, accompanied by bass player Timothy Francis, searched for new horizons and managed to find them on this next chapter in the evolution of De Ambassade. Icy electronics display a love for NDW, ragas and raves. Beneath the surface lies a deeper Dutch language narrative celebrating free speech and thought, starkly in opposition with a world where alienation and solitude create ever more distance between all beings. After releasing two, by now classic 7” ep’s, a long player will shine brightly. The album release will feature a long awaited live performance with additional band member Mian.
Charlois welcomes back label inaugurator Dollkraut, this time in company with De Ambassade. The label grants permission for them to share this 10” and create their own world, so they can coexist and share stories about lost love, condolence and isolation. On the A-side they come together in a dark room anthem about sex, lust and worship. It oozes with cold, heart-stabbing melancholia, yet carries the artists idiosyncratic warm and crunchy sound. The flip side scratches open the wounds left by the first song and sees Dollkraut drop his soft touch. What follows is a hypnotic voodoo track, summoning dark spirits with unsettling synths, shamanic vocals and tribal Jewish harp.
‘Verloren’ is like a late night pink Dutch sky after a long day of heavy rain, a sign that a warm summer’s day is just ahead. It will make you sweat tonight. This long awaited follow up 7″, will be released in the same form as the first: a beautifully designed disco sleeve with cardboard artwork. The vinyl will feature perfect-not-perfect, melancholic yet very danceable tracks. The machines in here take you back to the 80’s, but sound very contemporary nevertheless.
In the grayness by concrete of the Amsterdam suburbs we find Pascal Pinkert (Dollkraut) working on his darker wave salvation, going by the moniker of De Ambassade. DIY in sound and design, the arrangement of De Ambassade catalogue blend perfectly on Knekelhuis Records. This debut EP forming an alliance between the past and the present deliver one take recordings, drowned in reverb, using preferably older recording methods. The result are poppy wave tracks that shiver your spine and let you chant along to lyrics from the dutch lowlands.
After their debut release by Xosar, the Belgian club night imprint ”Ensemble” returns with a 12” by ”de Ambassade”, a collective term for ambassadors Ben Sun, Xan Xoda, Raw Sketches and Sisterhood. Four strong house tracks.
The Hipodrome Of Music 