Nicolas Balmer – Leben LP [STRD-XXVIII]

Nicolas releases his album “Leben” on Zürich based Subject To Restrictions Discs. While moving between New Wave, Kraut and Electronics, his intuition for ambient oozes from each composition, fast-paced or slow. As Nicolas Balmer lays bare his most intimate sources of inspiration with Leben. He holds nothing back. The album is shaped by a sense of optimistic melancholy: restless and contradictory, yet full of hope. The music is not about arriving, but about the journey: loss and finding oneself; despair, love, guilt and forgiveness. This is an album that does not seek to explain life, but rather embraces it in all its contradictions.

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Nicolas Balmer – Leben LP [STRD-XXVIII]

Gūsū – Inhabiting Me [STRDXXVII]

Gūsū is a transcultural music project born from the confluence of two distinct artistic voices: Xueyan Chen and Nicolas Balmer. Together, they create a complex dialogue of sound that bridges the ancient and the modern, exploring the liminal spaces between tradition and experimentation. Gūsū returns with a second release, “Inhabiting Me” is their second release.

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Gūsū – Inhabiting Me [STRDXXVII]

2024 Best Tracks part 9 (of 10)

We start presenting our favorite tracks from 2024. More or less in a chronological order we present here the ninth set of tracks.

Continue reading “2024 Best Tracks part 9 (of 10)” →
2024 Best Tracks part 9 (of 10)

Nicolas Balmer – Nein Nein [LXRC51]

Nicolas Balmer hails from Zürich and he is an integral part of the underground alternative music scene there since forever. This record was entirely written, produced and recorded by Nicolas at Zimmerlistrasse in Zürich, between the 21st and 29th of December 2023. A time where everything that could have happen just happened. He poured all that pain and drive into this. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Nicolas Balmer – Nein Nein [LXRC51]

Konstant – Unb​ä​ndige Kinder [STRD-XIX]

Subject To Restrictions Discs and Default Mode Records are joining forces to release “Unbändige Kinder”, the debut album by Angelo Repetto and Nicolas Balmer, under the alias Konstant. Both have been active in the Zurich scene for a long time and have come together to create their own language. “Unbändige Kinder” blossoms from the burdens of days gone by and describes their world in a phase of change and new beginnings. They define their own musical form by constantly looking ahead, driven by New Wave, Kraut and Post Punk. The album is characterised by rawness, bluntness and the syllables from the heart.

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Konstant – Unb​ä​ndige Kinder [STRD-XIX]