Immersively sensual, diaristic entries by cult US ambient avatar Ulla (aka Ulla Straus), the first release on Experiences Ltd. For solitary reflection or post-party couch slump with friends, Ulla’s first mononymous release is a gorgeous record that mellows and balances any physical or mental space it comes into contact with.
Ben Bondy blesses Special Guest DJ’s Experiences Ltd with a near-fathomless solo debut of sensual, low key electronics and intimate nocturnes. ’Sibling’ sees Bondy return to a seductively gauzy midground sound that over the course of 15 tracks lulls and lists with a minimalist patience, allowing forms to emerge and evaporate in constantly shifty transitions and weathered plays of light according to an immersive eco-logic. Those liminal traces of sound and influence are almost imperceptible, pulling you into a protective amniotic sound-world thats evocative and comforting.
Debut by Ireen Amnes. “In The Land of Silence” is the first full length album by experimental artist Ireen Amnes. The founder of the London based collective Under My Feet debuts on Sonic Groove with an immaterial journey contemplating suffering, liberation, the importance of affection and unity. This ambient album reveals a hidden connection between these human emotions. From anger and rejection, to love and unity, the sounds explored by the artist represent a recent journey within. Recollections of distant memories are expressed with nostalgic sounds; by contrast, darker tracks are symbolic of those moments when it is more dif ficult to accept reality for what it is. Ireen expresses in this album that there wouldn’t be any joy without suffering.
Soviet Space Research Institute (SSRI) is a musical scheme led by Vladimiros Peilivanidis under the moniker Heinz Kammler. Similar to other HK by-products such as ITPDWIP (Instant Teleportation Process Detected While In Progress), SSRI is influenced by early Soviet and Western electronix of the likes of Detroit, Bristol, Munich, and St. Petersburg. ARPA Spatial Industries is a fictional exotic tech R&D firm operating from 2036. The SSR Institute is exploring the cosmic endeavours of ARPA S.I. as presented through a series of public commercials.
Sprouting from a rich humus of Latin and African polyrhythms, Ghost Horse creates a fusion of free jazz, hip hop, blues & loop music. The result is fascinating but quietly menacing, pulsing & breathing with the visceral force of nature reclaiming abandoned structures.
Manos Brujas is a project by Julian Vasquez, a Colombian artist who draws his inspiration from the lost tribes and shamanism. With his first album Sangre de Oro on our Pinkman Digi Lab series, Manos tells about a legend of a magic totem hidden far in the jungle and a tribe man’s quest to find it, driven by his desire to gain shamanic power. Replete with ritual-like drum beats, rumbling melodies and echoes of animal chatter, the sonic narrative of the album follows the tribe man’s journey, dragging the listener from the remote depths of the jungle to the psychedelic realms of dreams and rituals, until the man realises that the real power was within him. The album is a cinematic and intricate trip made to alters minds.
Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (Tombak) & Burnt Friedman (electronics, synth.) release their second EP “YEK 2”. Equipped with one drum only and laser-pattern–electronics, Mortazavi and Friedman produce delicate, yet archaic, trance–inducing, transnational dance music with… hints of dust and grain… They move hands and faders according to odd cyclical rhythms with incredible accuracy. The extreme dynamic range and rhythmic congruency of drum and electronics merge both, Mortazavi`s and Friedman’s repertoire entirely.
UNDERMEDVETENHETEN is a simple, science fantasy game for 1-12 players, with a focus on atmosphere, storytelling and player cooperation – perfect for newcomers to live action role playing. It takes 2 minutes to set up, lasts around 30 minutes, and no two games are ever the same. Players take on the roles of humans aboard a vessel on an endless journey into the depths of space. They are not lost, but all hope is, as they hurtle stricken into the void. Your only access to the universe outside is through the ship’s altruistic artificial intelligence, Mima. As immersive chapter cards are revealed one by one, players must interact with Mima in order to shed light on the universe around them, indulge in fantasies of worlds past, or attempt to right the ship’s blighted trajectory. Can you make sense of the abyss? UNDERMEDVETENHETEN comes complete with a soundtrack composed by John B McKenna.
DYL+ DB1 successfully fuses experimental D&B, half-step and techno tropes. Here they re-establish their occasional studio partnership with a first collaborative full-length. It’s a pleasingly atmospheric and imaginative affair, with the pair offering up tracks that variously mix and match elements of unearthly ambient, off-kilter drum and bass, broken techno, murky post-dubstep rhythms, experimental electronica, the metallic clonk of industrial and the hazy hypnotism of dub techno. Musically it’s hard to pin down due to the wide variety of interestingly programmed rhythms, though the album’s uniformly paranoid sense of impending darkness, coupled with occasional glimpses of musical positivity, ensures a coherent aural vision.
Regis lets his rhythmic noise opus out into the world, a bruising and hauntingly absorbing album – his first since 2001 – dispatched on his pivotal label; Downwards. On a masterful twenty-year followup to ‘Penetration’, Karl O’Connor yields a definitive solo LP that distills his passions for sonic brutalism and bastardised Chicago tracks with syncopated UK swagger and reverberating warehouse ballistics. Its lip-bitingly gripping effect is testament to a resounding reputation as one of Industrial music’s most influential producers, and sees the artist bring his own influences – from Test Department to Jeff Mills – into line with his potent palette of narcotised tones. Recorded in Berlin with Einstürzende Neubauten’s producer/engineer Boris Wilsdorf, the album’s supple, spartan, and rhythmic gymnastics notably benefit from acres of icy room to roll around and lash out. Snagged around muscular bassline revs, and caressed with keys and vocals by postpunk catalyst Annie Hogan (whose recent turn for Downwards was a total revelation), the 9 tracks portray Regis at his leanest and most mesmerising, which is all the more impressive coming from an artist who’s deliberately held his line through club music’s mutations for more than 30 years.
PHXS07 comes from the Athenian experimentalist Bill Anagnos. It is the final outcome of several projects and performances held in 2019. Throughout long periods of almost complete isolation and loneliness and with a basic amount of audio equipment those 11 tracks are mainly fragments of manually managed and arranged in house performances using two analog synthesisers, a turntable, a loop station and a cheap sampler. Obvious is the influence of Kraut rock and retro wave due to the severe use of synthesisers and locked grooves.
After a long break of around seven years, Drivecom the Spanish label based on advanced electro conducted by Boris Divider is back again to the scene delivering a minimal concept (as stated on its first roots) but with avantgarde elements to keep a vibe on the contemporary edge. This is the first episode of a new project under the name of “Generative Operations”. A project born from a new vision and workflow at the B. Divider’s studio. From the technical side, the use of massive modular synthesis and generative sequencing make the tracks to be different each time are being played, so here you have a unique recording of a certain moment as if it was and imprint of an instant. Also the minimalistic percussion tries to be slowly developed in an electro rhythm structure. In the other hand all the tracks have a cinematic vibe, it seems as they were composed thinking about to fit in any hi-tec sci-fi thriller movie. Granular sythesis pads, background noises, experimental compression routines help to fullfill the vision. At the moment of this info three volumes are being planned to be released in this year 2020.
Brokntoys presents “Cold Light, Low Tide” a free digital compilation of tracks from affiliated artists, featuring Black Propaganda, Obergman, K100 Signal, Trance Remix, Annechoic, Non Punire and XY0815.
Weird shapes emerge from the darkness, illuminated only by muted street lamps and neon signs. The CPR album sifts through the shadows of night life decadence, influenced dimly lit romantic and mysteries that lurk on the streets in the early hours of the morning. CPR is a collaboration of a mysterious Berlin duo of lovers, Alexandra Ismalone and Tobias Lisius. Together they conjure a sound that paradoxically traverses darkness and brightness – diving into the depht of the unconsciousness leading to a hypnotic, transportive and psychedelic state done within a dark, intriguing and mysterious way.
‘Objet Melodie’ is a combination of real instruments, synthesizers, drum machines and samples, involving genres from different countries of the world. It’s like being on a surreal oasis, where music is eclectic but also meditative or just for a dance. Interconnecting with the whole planet, imagining or living in different countries and trying to relate with diverse cultures and experimentation. Lorenzo-Giulio Morresi combined real instruments like Roland TR-707, Roland JUNO-60, a Gibson Memphis guitar, marimbas and steel drums with percussions samples taken from his personal record collection. The other musicians involved are Stefano Ubaldini who plays the intro in ‘Rituel’ with an amazing hand-made guitar called ‘Slitar’, inspired from an Indian Sitar made with a broken metal window he picked up in a London backyard. Fabio Mina is playing flutes on several tracks, like the Hulusi from China and the Nose Flute from Hawaiian islands. Giuseppe Diamanti plays tenor sax outros. ‘Objet melodie’ is inspired by sounds, technologies and traditions from planet earth, with the hope of staying interconnected as much as we can.
Joao Pais Filipe (drums) and Burnt Friedman (electronics) ultimately hypnotize their audience by activating cosmic mechanics. Both refer to it as ‘automatic music’, yet their focus is on playing and exploring rare rhythmic modes; in Friedman’s terms: ”We organize pressure mediation according to mother nature.” Friedman & Pais left behind the consensus–artificial–paradise of cultural musical idioms, developing an immersive, archaic next level–dance music, deeply rooted in natural laws of motion. Yet informed by the works of Jaki Liebezeit – one of the most influential drummers of all time – Friedman & Pais pursue a different path. On side two the listener is confronted with two more recent, unreleased ”Secret Rhythms”– contributions.
The Hipodrome Of Music 