Tresor Records celebrates the return of Spanish Manuel Anós aka Psyk on its catalogue, with his new album “A Moment Before”. This is Psyk’s first long player since his debut “Time Foundation”. The album is undoubtedly Psyk’s most advanced piece of work to date. It dialogs with practices in reduced forms of techno, as originated by artists like Robert Hood, through the recently re-released “Internal Empire” on Tresor.
‘Pale Desert’ is the first release of the Australian born, Berlin based producer Ryen March. The name resonates not only the dry outback of his hometown, but it also mirrors the soundscape of the tracks – being completely raw and sweaty at the same time. The five track strong EP has it’s core in the techno swamp but with the aesthetics of punk and EBM.
Mannequin Records starts a series of re-presses dedicated to the legendary Nocturnal Emissions, one of the best kept secrets of the industrial genre since the 1970s. Led by Nigel Ayers and Caroline K, the band was one of the first to use tape cutting, avant-garde art, and underground video works to create a stage experience that was being cultivated by like-minded artists like Throbbing Gristle, SPK and Cabaret Voltaire. Originally self released in 1988 on Earthly Delights, ‘Spiritflesh’ is a masterpiece and a major reference for the early drone/dark ambient minds.
Originally issued in 1984 by Electrecord, the only record label in communist-era Romania. Sub Rosa brings these two fantastic avant-garde electronic compositions back on vinyl in their Early Electronic Series. Octavian Nemescu was born in Pascani (Romania) in 1940. He studied composition with Mihail Jora at University of Music in Bucharest. As he was still a student, he imposed himself as part of avant-garde movement in Romanian compositional music. After 1965 he achieves works of the “open creation” type, of conceptual and environmental music. He involves himself after 1967 into the Romanian spectral trend. Starting with the work Concentric (1969), his creation has got archetypal vocation by cultivating an aesthetic of the essentializing. Gradeatia was composed in 1982. This piece was commissioned by the Electroacoustic Music Studio in Gent (Belgium) where it was elaborated. It was conceived as ambient music for Voronet Monastery (Moldavia), as an electronic-audio fresco paralleling the existing one, of mural-visual consistency. It happened in a historic moment when the communist regime in Romania demolished many churches. And this piece was conceived as a protest to these actions. Natural was composed in 1973 but finalzied in 1983. This music has a spectral aesthetic orientation and at the same time, processual and archetypal orientations.
Epic, brilliantly curated two hour collection of new and exclusive material celebrating iDEAL Recordings’ (1998-2018) 20th anniversary featuring JASSS, Stephen O’Malley, Jim O’Rourke (an epic 17 minute trance-enducer – honestly worthy of its own LP), Ectoplasm Girls, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Prurient, Puce Mary and many others…
Sone Urbia is a collection of improvisations recorded live during the period of 2011-15. A grainy meditative voyage into layers of field recordings, old sampled records, synthesizers, acoustic and non acoustic instruments. This album works as a mixtape separated in two sides, two journeys; two soundscapes.
Multi-instrumentalist, musician, photographer and co-founder of groups such as Oiseaux-Tempête, Le Réveil des Tropiques, FOUDRE!, The Rustle Of The Stars and FareWell Poetry, Frédéric D. Oberland takes, as the starting point for his sophomore solo album, a vertiginous dive into George Bataille’s ‘Inner Experience’ and the cave of Dante’s ‘Inferno’. A condensed version of a sound and visual installation created in the basement of the contemporary art space Labanque in Béthune1, ‘Labyrinth’ invites us to bare witness to the loss of landmarks and to feel an immersive sense of trance. The point of departure, the opening note, is the A, the lowest of the piano, from which we slide, almost imperceptibly, snapped up by a wave of sounds, rich in their instrumentation, sometimes rough (electric guitars, console feedbacks, bursts of transformed drums and saxophone screams crackling in their dissonance) and at other moments delicate (hushed and scattered chords of piano, mellotron and distant synths in whispering voices). Accompanied by the drumming and spatial mixing by Jules Wysocki, the six connected stages/chapters of this immersive journey embrace expanse. In a continuous game of call and response between the intimate and the vast, ‘Labyrinth’ plays with the dynamics, the silence and the musical genres (ambient, free- jazz, electronics, acousmatic), kneading and pulling the form and structure of the tracks in ever changing attempts towards transfiguring the chaos. More radical in continuity and more outlandish than his first album ‘Peregrinus Ubique’ – ‘stranger / traveller everywhere’ – (VoxxoV, 2015), the ‘Labyrinth’ of Frédéric D. Oberland recalls in these almost orgiastic collages, the work of ”editing” provided for his nomadic Oiseaux-Tempête albums (Sub Rosa, 2012-2017), yet here in a more introverted territory, weaving a cocoon whose ascending and cyclical pulsations intoxicate us, as if under hypnosis.
Mike Parker on Float Records with two originals he steals the show. Known for his iconic sound which is much imitated, never bettered. Just listen and enjoy both pieces of craftsmanship. On the flip side is Cirkle. With two successful releases on Float so far he now gets the chance to present himself on the magic black wax next to his personal hero Mike Parker.
The sound recordings for Jimi Tenor’s “Sähkö: The Movie” got lost in mid 90s. It was only last spring Warp Records returned all the demo tapes Jimi sent them in 90s. Happily the Sähkö soundtrack parts were on those tapes too. This is a compilation of soundtracks (both solo, as Ø, and alongside Ilpo Vaisanen and Sami Salo as Pan Sonic) made for Mika Vainio’s memorial in Oslo in September 2018. All the tracks are from the actual movie scenes.
Following the critically acclaimed debut album from Tensal, Soma presents a specially commissioned remix EP to compliment the album. A varied collection of artists are prominent on the release with new and established alike, each delivering their own take on Tensal’s originals. UK producer Pessimist opens the EP. His unique aesthetic of Jungle/Drum&Bass – come – Techno certainly makes its presence felt on the A-Side as he delivers a monster of a remix, soaked in dark, brooding textures and broken rhythms. Another UK techno export makes his debut on Soma as Shifted lends his remix skills to the package. Pulsating and propulsive, Shifted exudes pure energy with his version of Santolaya. Prolific French producer Umwelt closes out the EP with his interpretation of Belga. An old skool, electro affair Umwelt still retains a melancholic edge to the production.
Khotin returns to Pacific Rhythm with a much anticipated vinyl adaptation of his 2017 cassette only release ”New Tab”. 10 deeply personal tracks that build and breathe stretched across 2 lovingly mastered and heavily considered LPs. A wonderfully restorative listening experience for everyone out there on planet E that enjoys interesting audio.
Berlin’s Vase soundtracks a distant and hazy world to submerge yourself in with his Dorsal EP out through INDEX: Records. Dorsal is a genre bending output that combines the carefully layered sound of ambience with rhythmic ingenuity.
Spazio Disponibile hits release number 13 in style with a collaborative effort between label co-founder Donato Dozzy and longtime friends Retina.it. It is a typically experimental release that features five weird and wonderful tracks, seeing the label taking yet another dip into the more leftfield areas of electronic music.
‘Flowers From The Ashes’ is the latest multi-artist project to bear the acclaimed Stroboscopic Artefacts imprimatur. There is a sensibility of decadence and corroded grandeur etched within its four album sides, reminding us that historically ‘decadent’ times have nonetheless resulted in some of the boldest acts of individual and collective creativity. Like the ‘floral’ theme that has remained a consistent feature of S.A.’s graphic presentation, the music here equally presents fragility and intensity in a way that really drives home this visual metaphor for good, while still holding out the promise that similar creations will be seeded in the near future. Though many of the artists involved have set of residence outside of their native Italy, all contribute here to make a captivating portrait of a shared spirit and cultural memory. Tracks from Silvia Kastel, Andrea Belfi, Marco Shuttle, Ninos Du Brasil, Alessandro Adriani, Chevel, Lucy, Lory D, Caterina Barbieri and Neel.
Immersive listening music from Vakula, created in the hidden depths of the Ukraine. ‘Metaphors’ is slightly different from some of his (admittedly eclectic) full-length excursions, focused as it is on the gently unfurling, head-in-the-clouds world of ambient music. Of course, much of the music is still gently rhythmic – check for example, the pulsating arpeggio lines and tumbling kalimba melodies of the strangely foreboding “Proem”, or the spaced-out, keyboard demo rhumba rhythms underpinning languid opener “Smooth Movement” – but the vibe remains thoroughly horizontal throughout. While the standard is high throughout, we’re particularly enjoying the two versions of “Tale of Eternal Thought”, with the weightless bliss of the “Different Version” standing out.
ASC are a perfect fit for Silent Season, favouring as they do greyscale melodic content and a cerebral approach to mutant techno. “Cerulean” is a fine opening gambit on this 12″, all crooked kick patterns and micro bleeps calling out into nothing, while “Dimension 1010” maintains the austere approach with a slow swell of melancholic ambience over a meditative rhythm. “Enchanted” is no less restrained, but there’s a subtle shard of light in the murmuring pad that lingers in the background. That’s well and truly dealt with on the bleak beatdown “Molniya”, which pings bleakest techno into a black hole of sound, which is of course a wonderful thing to behold.
Silent Season tap up Antenes for a rare 12″, building on the sizable impact her last and only release on L.I.E.S. had back in 2015. Here we get three trips into dark, evocative techno territory as you would expect to find on Silent Season, leading in with the doom-laden march of “Dream Uncreates The Land”. “Take Me To The Birds (For A)” ditches the drums and heads straight into the most delicate and stirring of ambient pieces, while “Metra Train Chicago 1000x” makes use of field recordings and processed static to make for an even more immersive listening experience. This is a daring release that eschews the need for functionality to take the listener somewhere else entirely.
Maciej Banasik has been releasing plenty of music as MB as well as Docetism since 2012, but this release on Silent Season marks the first time the prolific artist’s music has been committed to wax. In true Silent Season style the mood is consistently haunting, leading in with the foggy pulse of “Dentario Enneaphyllidis – Fagetum I” before the second part of the piece heads off into pure swelling drone. “Querco – Pinetum I” is a different kind of droning techno that comes loaded with cinematic poise, but it makes for a natural partner to the A side. The second part of that piece drifts into calming field recordings of birds and shapeless synth swells of a truly majestic nature.
The Hipodrome Of Music 