F&E – Forschung & Entwicklung I [NULLPUNKT0000006]

If you’re in the mood for some industrial-strength dancefloor experiments and lo-fi workouts saturated with noise, this collaboration from old studio buddies Felix Krone and Yu Aseada AKA Ena should hit the spot. It’s an altogether more foreboding and paranoid beast than their previous joint excursion, hence the new “F&E” alias. After offering up a decidedly dystopian ambient intro, the duo slowly cranks up the pressure via the industrial dub techno/electro fusion of “Thesis” and the crackling lo-fi techno crustiness of “Premis I”. “Premis II” offers a more percussive and rolling take on the same murky blueprint, while “Conclusion” is a suitably hypnotic chunk of dub techno.

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F&E – Forschung & Entwicklung I [NULLPUNKT0000006]

ENA – Bridge [FIELD027]

Dutch label Field Records is back with another special album project, this time from Japanese producer ENA aka Yu Asaeda. Bridge is an introspective soundtrack for a documentary also called Bridge – out this Spring – which is about the Dejima bridge, a reconstructed symbol of the Dutch-Japanese trading history in Nagasaki, Japan. The album finds the producer stepping outside of his usual remit of dark ambient and experimental music, and instead comprises ten shorter tracks that touch on abstract and rhythmic sounds that define the essence of Japanese culture. Although he has worked with the director before, this is ENA’s first Original Sound Track and finds him freely inspired by the movie and heading in exciting and unknown directions. Hugely atmospheric throughout, there is hypnotic repetition of sounds, strange audio design and a mixture of melancholic moods with more dreamy synths. Sometimes gloopy rhythms gently ripple beneath soothing harmonies and at others times a micro-rhythm appears through the constantly shifting and evolving found sound loops. It’s a compelling and unusual album that seamlessly mixes human emotions with a mechanical sense of industry.

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ENA – Bridge [FIELD027]