MUSIC

Of all the things that can and should and will be said of Sam Wilkes’ & Jacob Mann’s Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann, let’s begin at the beginning and acknowledge that it is an aptly named record indeed. An ideal collaborative effort (which is to say, greater than the sum of its parts), here we have two longtime friends, two luminaries of the New Weird Los Angeles — the experimental, genre-encompassing underground—who have, at last, devoted a full-length record to their signature musical admixture. Since their meeting as USC music students (Wilkes studied bass, and Mann, jazz/piano), the two have, with a kind of ceaseless abandon, chased the music to the ends the earth — oftentimes quite literally; travel is a recurrent theme in Compositions’ track titles (Pre-board, Soft Landing, and Around the Horn), and the record’s second track, Jakarta, was sketched out in a hotel room in the city of the same name, where Wilkes and Mann were performing at a jazz festival in 2019. Having initially bonded over a mutual and abiding appreciation for the Soulquarians, the two have spent over a decade playing and traveling, together and separately, their styles coevolving all the while. Across its thirteen tracks, Compositions captures the relaxed creative flow of two consummate musicians. Most of the record’s sessions (“four-to-five-day summits” in an apartment studio, occasioned by “blasts of inspiration”) began with casual improvisation, and, indeed, roughly half of the final material was composed in this manner: Wilkes and Mann squaring off, a Yamaha DX7 facing a Roland Juno 106, alternating leads, two co-pilots with no set course. And though the songs are polished to a shine, there are artifacts of the intimacy of these sessions. Yes It Is concludes with a snippet of just-intelligible studio chatter: “…A flat minor, then A major.” A figuring-it-out-as-we-go moment that briefly renders explicit the warmth, friendship, and creative freedom that is the album’s heart. The duo has quipped that Compositions is Mann’s most “serious” project, while simultaneously being Wilkes’ most “light-hearted” — somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there are certainly two distinct sensibilities at play across Compositions. Their aesthetics collide, coalesce, and diverge, often in a single song. Then the process starts anew. The album begins with the whimsical (exuberant, even!) glitched-out Cricket Club and ends on a note of quiet contentment with Wichita Wilkes, an Earth, Wind, and Fire x shoegaze fever dream. That Compositions coheres as well as it does is a testament to Wilkes’ and Mann’s shared vernacular. Both have expressed a tendency to communicate their musical ideas linguistically, posing questions like “what would the woodwinds be doing here?” Though only the two musicians are credited, the ensemble conjured by their combined imaginary feels infinite.

There it is...!!! This is one of the best of the year, it's amazing, really. Six tracks and 48 minutes of superb ambient synthesizer raga! New York-based Arushi Jain is an Indian-born, US-based composer, modular synthesizer player, vocalist, technician, and engineer. Focusing on reinterpreting his roots in Indian classical music through the lens of electronic music, she continues in the spirit of electronic music legends such as Suzanne Ciani and Terry Riley, while personally exploring her own musical heritage and upbringing, reconstructing ancient sounds within a contemporary framework. This album is intended to be listened to during the sunset hours, thereby inviting the listener into the depths of their own being. This album is similar to the ethereal and devotional appeal of labelmate Ana Roxanne, but is more cosmic and cosmic in nature. It's heavenly meditation music. As you would expect from Leaving, they bring in great people after such strong names as Sam Gendel and Green-House. I can't take my eyes off the vibrant LA scene any longer. Her music is also a celebration of Indian culture, and for this occasion, she is asking for donations on her bandcamp release page. Limited to 300 copies.

“Things fade into obscurity when a populace has no interest” - Meitei / 冥丁

Meitei considers himself an old soul, often preoccupied with the customs and rituals of the past. Recently Meitei lost his beloved 99-year-old grandmother, a woman who he considered to be one of the last remaining people to have experience and understanding of traditional Japanese ambience. His music and art is driven by a desire to cast light on an era and aesthetic that he believes is drifting out of the collective Japanese consciousness with each passing generation, what he calls "the lost Japanese mood". He chose to dedicate Komachi to his late Grandmother.

“I want to revive the soul of Japan that still sleeps in the darkness” - Meitei / 冥丁

Haunting and delicate, distant and timeless, Komachi is awash with white noise, complex field recordings and the hypnotic sounds of flowing water. Though confidently contemporary, like a bucolic J-Dilla, Komachi’s lineage can be traced back to the floating worlds of Ukiyo-e and Gagaku via the prism of 80s Japanese ambient pioneers, and 90s pastoral sample-based artists such as Susumu Yokota and Nobukazu Takemura.

Composed as individual sonic dioramas, each of the twelve tracks have been crafted to not only evoke feelings of nostalgia but to also explore the dichotomy of ancient and new in modern Japanese society. This pervasive narrative runs throughout, calling to mind the work of authors Yasunari Kawabata and Natsume Soseki, as well as the films of Yasujirō Ozu and Hayao Miyazaki, artists similarly fascinated by the reflective tranquillity that permeated traditional Japanese domestic life.

The limited vinyl release, produced in collaboration with label and distributor Séance Centre, includes a super limited special edition complete with beautiful twelve-page booklet featuring a number of prints in the Ukiyo-e style, a traditional style of woodblock print that dates back to 17th century Japan. The images were chosen by Meitei to showcase the old style Japanese sentiments that form a core inspiration to his musical output. 
 

Lucrecia Dalt channels sensory echoes of growing up in Colombia on her new album ¡Ay!, where the sound and syncopation of tropical music encounter adventurous impulse, lush instrumentation, and metaphysical sci-fi meditations in an exclamation of liminal delight. In sound and spirit, ¡Ay! is a heliacal exploration of native place and environmental tuning, where Dalt reverses the spell of temporal containment. Through the spiraling tendencies of time and topography, Lucrecia has arrived where she began. CD edition includes lyrics and an essay by Miguel Prado in Spanish and English.

Eeeeeesh, Shinichi Atobe’s sixth album for DDS, another deployment of effortless and entirely inimitable club classics that connect the dots between effervescent dub house, deep techno and swirling beatdown, selected and compiled from a package of new productions sent from Japan with nothing but cryptic track titles for guidance. Love of Plastic - we talking aesthetic here pal? bit like comme de garçons' genius, subversive amplification of synthetics in perfume? Something like Mark Fell’s assertion that “House music is best when it does not aim to copy ‘real’ music”? Impossible to tell - and honestly part of the thrill is in not really fully grasping Atobe’s praxis. What we can say is that with every album there’s a shift - sometimes barely perceptible - in spirit and focus. On this one everything’s gone a bit heavier - bit deeper - once again refracted through Rashad Becker’s mastering prism. You really could be listening to music recorded decades, years or a few weeks ago - we’ll probably never know. But with the simplicity comes a kind of impenetrable code too. That fleeting diva vocal sample 4 minutes into 'Love of plastic 6’ - what’s it doing there? why does it work so well? Perhaps the reason Shinichi’s music resonates with so many is the impregnable sense of optimism buried in his DNA - there’s a breeze of warm air that takes over whenever his music is played, a promise of better days, blue skies, tingling skin, sultry evenings - all that hammy stuff. But also, entirely undeniable. Play this one and tell us you don’t feel it? Spring’s almost in the air.

Síntomas de techno : Ondas electrónicas subterráneas desde Perú (1985​-​1991) Symptoms of techno: Underground electronic waves from Peru (1985-1991) This compilation presents for the first time various underground techno groups and projects that emerged in Lima in the mid-1980s. Projects such as Disidentes, Paisaje Electrónico, T de Cobre, Meine Katze Und Ich, El Sueño de Alí, Cuerpos del Deseo, Círculo Interior, Ensamble and Reacción were responsible for introducing styles such as techno-pop, EBM, industrial and minimal synth in Peru. Coinciding with the explosion of punk in Lima and the appearance of the so-called Rock Subterráneo [underground rock], these techno groups shared the same DIY spirit, performing in many punk concerts and even creating their own fanzines, and, above all, opening a space for other types of sonic experiences. Meine Katze Und Ich, El Sueño de Alí and Paisaje Electrónico were also the parallel projects of the members of Narcosis, the iconic punk band, one of the founders of Rock Subterráneo. Disidentes and T de Cobre brought extreme sounds to local electronics: viscerality, mechanical rhythms and the use of Casiotones or synthesizers, which resulted in an atypical sound that, in turn, portrayed a critical time in Peru, and which has made them an unavoidable reference for any historical account of techno and industrial music in Latin America. The title of this compilation is inspired by the name of a concert held in Lima in 1991, considered to be the first techno concert to have taken place in Peru. Even though not all intervening groups were doing techno at that time, they did share the fact that they all used keyboards. Four of them, however (Cuerpos del Deseo, Ensamble, Círculo Interior and Reacción), were in fact affiliated to an electronic sound (techno-pop, EBM). The concert was a sign of the diversification of musical styles in Lima's alternative scene, and in particular of the emergence of a micro scene, for which the concert Síntomas de techno [Symptoms of Techno] represented an important step towards the development of a local culture of electronic music during the 90s. Many of the recordings included here are extracted from demos with limited circulation, practically impossible to find. Other tracks are unpublished pieces which come from the private archives of the artists themselves. The compilation has been made by Luis Alvarado and is part of the Essential Sounds Collection, with which Buh Records is making available a vast archive of avant-garde Peruvian music. This compilation is published in vinyl format in a limited edition of 300 copies, with extensive information and visual documentation. Mastered by Alberto Cendra. Art by René Sánchez. Cover photography by Rogelio Martell. This project was awarded with funding from the Economic Stimuli program of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Jesse Peterson is the heart and constant thread of the musical project Turn On The Sunlight. 'You Belong' is the fifth in an ongoing series of records that Peterson has made with a community of his close friends and collaborators, including his beloved wife, Mia Doi Todd, bright Orange laughter luminary Laraaji, experimental and folkloric visionary Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, and his frequent partner in rhyme, percussionist and producer Carlos Niño. The sound here is a perfect mixture of folk, ambient, spiritual jazz and peaceful open space improvisational flow. 'You Belong' was made in the Glendale, California, Home Studio of Peterson and Todd during 2021 and 2022. "The sudden shift in expectations and trajectory that I and many people have experienced in the past couple of years allowed me to access certain feelings and memories from the more distant past that might have been less accessible before, which probably accounts for my sudden urge to reach out to Cavana," recounts Peterson of the album's main featured collaborator Cavana Lee. "Making the album was a helpful way of working through these thoughts and feelings because of the high level of expression that the participating musicians brought to it, like I was being led by their example. ‘You Belong’ is the most collaborative of all the Turn On The Sunlight records," Peterson continues, "in that almost every song features different musicians. It grew out of a variety of collaborations in our home studio and incorporates friends recording themselves in other locations throughout the world, so it felt like the circle was growing as the album grew, which was a nice feeling. Cavana's singing is a new element and it was exciting to hear how her voice brought out the heart of the music." At the center of the 4 key pieces that weave this album together is a truly unique symbiosis between Peterson and Cavana Lee (who met in boarding school in 1992). Lee (the daughter of magical jazz, avant-garde singer Jeanne Lee and multi-instrumentalist, composer, band leader, independent record label pioneer Gunter Hampel) remembers what it was like when she heard from Peterson out of the blue about whether she was open to writing and recording to several of his new pieces. "We were in the middle of the pandemic," recalls Lee, who lives in Berlin, "and the music industry had stopped where it was. As a singer, I suddenly had no access to public venues… I had just given up my singing space because that was forbidden in Germany at that time. Just then Jesse reached out and asked if I was interested… I was very slow in recording because I had very low digital skills at the time… I am quite an analog person. I remember the reaction I had when I heard the piece we now call “You Belong", with Laraaji. It was so full of life’s facets and in touch with Nature, I felt inspired to dedicate my voice in this song to the natural spirit of the Universe (at least how I perceive it). Also inspired by the space journeys of Sun Ra and my own father's improvised compositions, I imagine that this is what the wind, the sun, any of the elements that travel through space and the ethers would say to human beings right now. A message full of Love and Connection at a time where things felt really disconnected and disjointed. I needed this message for myself, I suppose. That’s how that track developed," Lee reflects, "it brought me there." 'You Belong' finds Peterson as the catalyst for and caretaker of advanced togetherness where an array of adventurous musicians and creative artists are featured atop and intertwined with his swirling foundations and welcoming arrangements. In addition to everyone mentioned above, “You Belong” has contributions from gyil master SK Kakraba, saxophonist Randal Fisher, trumpeter Sean Okaguchi, guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento, keyboardist Surya Botofasina, experimentalist Sam Gendel, bassist Ricardo Dias Gomes, bass clarinetist Pablo Calogero, flautist Aisha Mars, pianist Jamael Dean, drummers Andres Renteria and Efa Etoroma Jr., and his close friends from New York, Mike Wexler and Koen Holtkamp. Produced and mixed by Jesse Peterson,'You Belong' is remarkable and diverse, a cohesive album that sings of Universal Family, Caring, Being, and openness. Lee reveals, “‘You Belong’ is a Love declaration from Nature to us. It is a salve. It is a reminder of what we have forgotten. That forgetfulness is causing collective pain. ‘You Belong’ is an invitation to remember." Peterson concurs, “‘You Belong’ affirms that we can all be our whole beings and are all part of the whole of being. Music is a force that moves through us all, and that feeling can be transmitted through our expression, whether we're consciously aware of it or not, we all belong… we are all involved…”

Atoris is the live electronic trio of H.Takahashi, Kohei Oyamada and Yudai Osawa from Tokyo. The group began as the duo of Takahashi (owner of Kankyō Records) and graphic designer Osawa who knew each other from their experimental ambient quartet UNKNOWN ME. Soon after, their mutual friend Oyamada was added to round out the trio and record their self-titled debut, released in 2020 on JJ Funhouse in Belgium. For their sophomore followup, “Sea & Forest”, the group focused their bubbling, organic sound on imaginary ocean vistas and woodland creatures to inform their abstract landscapes - subtly drifting between sunrise on the plateau and dusk in the marsh. The two sidelongs contain understated rhythmic elements of dance awash in otherworldly electronic shimmer. They consistently evolve in a minimalistic way; with ideas and fragments ever-changing across their twenty minutes resulting in a unique ambient dynamism that’s both melodically beautiful and reliably captivating.

Loris S. Sarid is an ambient composer and artist born in Rome but now resides in Glasgow. His previous release, "Music for Tomato Plants", was a quiet exploration of kalimba, glockenspiel and plucky synths. On his debut LP, "Seabed-Sunbath", Loris submerges into aquatic terrain with an expanded palette of virtual pianos, soft horns, kalimba, strings, synthesized voices, textural field recordings and a wide array of soothing electronic tones. On “Oats with Sarah” and “Lobster Island”, he also incorporates live performance with collaborators on cello and voice. Many try to use computers to write human sounding compositions but Loris works in the inverse, emulating computer generated songs via his personal touch. The final results are mesmerizing, peaceful, distinctive and varied. "Seabed-Sunbath" is the sound of contemporary electronics bubbling underwater, flowing between ecosystems and settling into a quiet oceanic basin.

British musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ cktrl returns with the release of his new EP ‘yield’. Born from a desire to change the narrative around contemporary Black British music, the boundary-pushing musician aims with this project to prioritise the art of bonafide musicianship. A stark departure from cktrl’s previous work, ‘Yield’ is a celestial and palpably more inward body of work that harkens back to the pre-electric age of modal jazz while simultaneously pulling in elements from the disciplines of classical and baroque music. Speaking on the project’s sonic identity, cktrl says: “I want to be able to show that you can make things from scratch again that have that feeling and beauty without having to sample an old record. Even though that’s an art-form within itself, I want to show raw orchestration and instrumentation can be the sole source” The origins of the title came from a period where cktrl was looking to find solace in himself after an introspective period of grief and heartbreak. As an intentionally instrumental project with minimal vocals, cktrl wants prospective listeners to see these new songs as guided meditations where they can wholly insert themselves in it. Eliciting and reaping whatever feelings come to the fore. Speaking on what ‘Yield’ means to him as a concept, cktrl explains: “Some people who I've asked to define the word ‘yield’ have looked at it from a harvest point of view, whereas others have seen it as something to submit to, to render, like you're giving up yourself. I see it as a barometer for how you feel - no matter if you're at your lowest or your highest vibration, you still need to show up for yourself. You still have to be present. It’s about getting the best from yourself no matter where you are in life” The new project is the follow up to last year’s ‘Zero’ which featured collaborations with esteemed contemporaries like the GRAMMY-nominated Mereba and anaiis. Upon the project’s release, it was met with a plethora of critical acclaim from highly regarded publications and platform such as British Vogue, Dazed, CRACK Magazine, Resident Advisor, NOTION, Harper's Bazaar and ES Magazine for its sprawling and experimental scope, spanning avant-garde jazz, classical music, alternative R&B and electronica. Moulded by a unique blend of his West Indian heritage, years of classical training in both the clarinet and saxophone, cktrl strives to do what hasn’t been done before. His approach to creation is decidedly wide-ranging and broad. In fact, where sonic descriptions might fail to encompass the breadth of cktrl’s scope, three words surface when he unpacks his musical aims: freedom, range and feeling. Elsewhere, throughout his career, cktrl has been recognised and heralded by fashion and film VIPs as he firmly embeds himself within the black cultural renaissance emerging here in Britain. Acquiring a global network of creatives that include the late Virgil Abloh, Bianca Saunders, Tremaine Emory, Saul Nash, Maximilian Davis, Ahluwalia, Stephen Isaac Wilson, Sean Frank, Campbell Addy, Ib Kamara and Jenn Nkiru who secured him a cameo in Beyoncé’s ground-breaking film ‘Black Is King’.

The first Huerco S. album in 6 years, glyding into new territory with a pool of glassy synths, padded subs and cascading arpeggios, pretty much unlike anything Brian Leeds has made under any alias. "His sound palette has broadened to absorb and refine trap’s un-smeared geometrics and drill’s taught rhythms amongst the gaseous bodies and soul-piercing ambience that has garnered such acclaim; Where those previous veins were rooted in the pre-Columbian civilizations of his native Kansas, Plonk reflects the mournful sodium glow of cities at night, street corners that light up with painful moments of clarity you wish would disappear."

DJ Python's first solo record since the release of the critically-acclaimed album Mas Amable. it's too nice to just have your thoughts float in the space of your head endlessly forever and you don't have to decide which you focus on unless you want to i got a stone to skip 6 times across the water on the river i grew up by now i like to get the heaviest rocks and the lightest ones and drop them in the river to see which sink most beautifully I have no interest in saying the right thing anymore just the true thing --- DJ Python on collaborating with UFO Parfums and Candle Object: "we all appreciate each other’s work and thought it would be nice to do something together :) both candle Object and ufo Parfums are involved in music and inspired by music. Dj Python is inspired by candles and perfumes. To light a candle spray your wrist or put on a record . Same thing yo (~,’"

A series of solemnly transcendent long form works by the ever prolific Kevin Drumm, ranging from pieces dedicated to Peter Rehberg & Joe Camarillo, to remedial drones and sublime harmonic balms, all produced between a time period of 12 months. PRESS: Ineffably stunning long-form drift/drone works from Kevin Drumm, created over a year-long period and existing in the same frozen realm as his classic "Imperial Distortion" / "Imperial Horizon" sides. Highly immersive work recommended if you’ve enjoyed material by Stephan Mathieu, Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Andrew Chalk. Drumm is a prolific musician, no doubt, but that shouldn't give you any reason to miss one of his finest - and most moving - releases in years. "120121" hits a somber note, memorialising Drumm's friends Peter Rehberg and Joe Camarillo, the Chicago drummer who died in January last year. But as much as it hovers around a pensive mood, there's no shortage of hope coursing through the album's six extended compositions. The sound shimmers and sways as if piped down from the heavens, striking a chord that links liturgical music with the stretched, minimalist experimentations of Eliane Radigue or Drumm's occasional collaborator Phill Niblock. 'Far Off From Difference’ starts things off with a cluster of sustained tones that throb and drift barely perceptibly. Listen closely, however, and you’ll find a world of microtonal, almost orchestral flourishes in miniature, reminding us of Stephan Mathieu's angelic "Radioland”. 'MayorOfPosen' is the album's lengthy centrepiece, using a 20-minute runtime to expand on a single, sustained organ note, bobbing listlessly in an ocean of harmonics and blurred textures. 'Grey Screen' is almost as generous, but sidesteps sacred sounds in favour of more minimal oscillations that suggest harmony through unsettling dissonance. The most unexpected track is 'C', taking a saturated tape drone and extending it over 10 minutes, lifting it towards the sky. In a landscape that's filled with nameless drone and ambient recordings more concerned with replication than exploration, it's nourishing to hear an artist like Drumm digging thru the recesses to keep up a level of quality that's genuinely startling to witness this many years into his career. -Boomkat

For piano and tape: Lerkenfeldt explores minimalist structures with stillness and intensity. Her imaginative process is poetic and precise; distilling new registers in the field of consciousness through electroacoustic composition, like a torchlight in the dark. Alongside classical instrumentation, she augments abandoned technologies into new hybrid forms through handcraft, digitisation and experimental digital processing. Flickering piano, tape systems and their spatialised distortions unfold in repetitive motifs on With Water Up To Her Knees. In Before They Were Clouds, multi-layered acoustic refractions speculate on atmospheric systems. With Water Up To Her Knees is produced by Shelter Press in small series cassette single edition and digital with a limited pullout poster and poem by the artist. The work has its world premiere at eminent electronic arts centre The Substation, Melbourne on 24-25 November 2022, with an audio visual performance in collaboration with filmmaker Tristan Jalleh. Written and recorded on unceded Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung country, Summer 2022. “I love the sound of mechanical failure, when the sophisticated machine collapses into itself.”

The first Huerco S. album in 6 years, glyding into new territory with a pool of glassy synths, padded subs and cascading arpeggios, pretty much unlike anything Brian Leeds has made under any alias. "His sound palette has broadened to absorb and refine trap’s un-smeared geometrics and drill’s taught rhythms amongst the gaseous bodies and soul-piercing ambience that has garnered such acclaim; Where those previous veins were rooted in the pre-Columbian civilizations of his native Kansas, Plonk reflects the mournful sodium glow of cities at night, street corners that light up with painful moments of clarity you wish would disappear."

"I’ve started to work on this album before I knew it. During June 2018 I was in Japan for a month to release my previous album "Cairn" as well as my first solo exhibition of drawings in Tokyo. Everyday on my way to the gallery I passed in front of the same building, its name kept haunting me : Rogue Hill. Back then I was digging for cheap 80’s Japanese CD’s (Balearic, New Age, Ambient,...) in second hand stores. Most of them set the tone of this album and the direction I wanted to follow. I feel there’s a direct connection between these original sources and the sound I pursue by their meditative aspect. Most of the demo songs were done before my daughter’s birth on August 2019 and were finalized since then. Many of the titles refer to this main event and relate to how it changed my position in life : being a link through time by becoming a father."

Mythology dissolves. Last vanishing points on the wide horizon. Barely visible. So where we stand now? Here or anywhere? Is it the global feeling yet, or a local one already? Are you having vivid fun when dreaming? Or all your nightmares became the lucid dreams? You do not remember? „MYTH0L0GY” - RSS B0Y 1 first solo album proper. After travelling the world for the decade with RSS B0YS , RSS B0Y 1 decided to go parallel path of the solo creations. He did not abandoned the band, actually not at all, as he is the only one surviving founder member of notorious „duo”, but B0Y 1 just needed to work in the new directions, much outside the „techno” vision-diminishing frame. Training in the new ways of making music, using brand new instruments, trying to think outside the box outside the all boxes. But probably most of all by inviting GUESTS from the various parts of the World, finally he feels enough freedom to make refreshed, next step. And mythology from the title is one of these effects coming out from the many meetings with the people - what we all have in common, who is our mutual friend, if anything, if anyone? Definitely it’s too early for the answers, but questions are told and floating in the air now already anyway. From famous Iranian „mythical” poem written years ago by Siavash Kasra’i here in recitation by Arash Bolouri (you can know him from recordings and concerts with master Sote) to points of view on a living in the present day post-pandemic Tokyo coming from emerging Japanese rapper Judicious Broski. From Polish winds and twists coming from the likes Wacław Zimpel (beside his succesfull solo career he is working closely with Shackleton and James Holden for example) or Adam Witkowski (Nagrobki!), to Malaysian traditional song performed in the highly unusual way by Marianne Mun; or the ancient Italian reminiscences flying from Damiano Notarpasquale. And even the cover-art made on the Indonesian Jawa island by talented Nawaawel - RSS B0Y 1 together with this community of guests they are producing unique amalgamate of vibrating thrills, memories and thoughts. Sometimes abrasive and glitchy, in other moments just beautiful and soothing. Maybe it all happens because sometimes it is enough just to stop for a while and do something in a different way. Looks like times are good for making things in better and deeper way. Saying more - times are demanding this. Good that RSS B0Y 1 want to join this way. Definite answers will never come. Feel absolutely free to find yours. Share them with the World.

On December 11, 1980 Eliane Radigue performed live on KPFA. Her full performance is included here, remastered, on two compact discs. Upon hearing these performances for the first time in many years Radigue declared them to be the best versions she'd ever heard. Included are full in-studio performances of Chry-ptus and the world premiere of parts one and three of Tryptych.

"This album was made in the span of 1 year, through much struggle and pain I was able to synthesize the best in me into this album and game. A cold but gentle embrace, a deep look into one's self." - Astrophysics

"This album was made in the span of 1 year, through much struggle and pain I was able to synthesize the best in me into this album and game. A cold but gentle embrace, a deep look into one's self." - Astrophysics

In January 2021, Eelco Topper (Felbm) went into hermit mode by way of a two-week residency at Buitenplaats Doornburgh, a former monastery on the outskirts of his hometown of Utrecht, Netherlands. He had already intended to use only natural elements for inspiration, such as naturally-occurring textures and patterns, and the earthiness of acoustic instruments like singing bowls and a range of wooden percussion. On arrival, the contemplative architecture of the building and the peace of the surrounding landscapes energized Topper so much that these initial ideas blossomed into nearly 50 minutes of intimate 4-track cassette recordings. Following the residency, Topper collaborated with a cast of local guest musicians on flute, saxophone and cello, infusing the original rhythmic foundation of percussion and acoustic guitar with a lush melodic backdrop.
 The resulting new release – simply titled ‘Elements of Nature’ - marries the fluttering melodies and lo-fi cassette sound of earlier Felbm releases with a new conceptual approach and more varied sonic toolkit. Here, Topper successfully preserves the joyful naïveté of the Tapes series while exploring sweeping new ground, resulting in a decisive step forward for Felbm as a composer, producer and artist. ‘Elements of Nature’ was first released in November 2021 on limited edition cassette, accompanied by a riso-printed book of artwork. 
Illustrated once more by long-time collaborator Joost Stokhof, the artwork assembles Stokhof’s ink drawings together with the analogue photographs that inspired them, taken by Felbm during his residency.!

For our 50th cassette release, we're very happy to welcome in Shakali (aka Simo Hakalisto) born in Finland, though now residing in the Czech Republic. "Aurinkopari plays a lot with polarities as it seeks to find something celestial in the mundane. The brightest sound of the album was captured in the darkest night of the year. Sine waves, scaled according to old wartime engineers, ended up sounding like a magic flute. A hydrophone detected other-worldly sounds of a drowning compost and a ceremonial Javanese gendèr was recorded in a bunker… While the processes of recording the album were often playfully esoteric, the music itself is warmly heartfelt." - Shakali Encompassing global and local music traditions and pre-Midi times, this album feels very organic, playful and warmly connected to a natural, higher consciousness state of being....We couldn't ask for a better way to celebrate our 50th cassette release. Written & Produced by Simo Hakalisto Mastered by Amir Shoat

blueblue is the latest full-length from multi-instrumentalist and all-around vibe wizard, Sam Gendel. The record, out October 14 via Leaving Records, is a concise, tightly wound song suite whose 14 tracks each correspond to a pattern within sashiko, a traditional style of Japanese embroidery. This conceit remains playfully ambiguous — to what extent, if at all, is Kagome (籠目, woven bamboo) meant to evoke the pattern of the same name, for example? But there is an intuitive sense, throughout blueblue, that Gendel has, in this instance, narrowed his focus. To say that blueblue feels richly textural might be a little on-the-nose, thematically, but alas…it does. There is an intimacy, a humility, and a strength at play here that typifies the work of a master craftsman. Only an artist could make it sound so effortless. A Los Angeleno by way of Central CA, Gendel is by now an institution. Across a dizzying slate of solo releases and collaborations, he has amassed a reputation for not only virtuosic musicianship (primarily as a saxophonist, though the songs that would become blueblue were all initially composed on guitar), but also for his mercurial and prolific output — a corpus of work, which, while obviously indebted to jazz and hip hop (and the farther flung, experimental corners of both) is, in a word, unpindownable. In this regard, Leaving Records, with its cri-de-cœur of “All Genre,” is a natural home for Gendel. The bulk of blueblue was recorded in isolation in a makeshift studio built in a cabin floating atop a tributary of Oregon’s Columbia River. Having sketched out a set of guitar melodies, Gendel recorded the album in five-or-so weeks, during which time he became well-acquainted with the river’s tidal rise and fall. This organic rhythm, which daily lifted the house to meet the horizon, later setting it down gently upon the riverbed, permeates the record. There are pops and groans and artifacts, and, in Tate-jima (縦縞, vertical stripes)—one of blueblue’s more plaintive tracks—even the faint lapping of water. Equally essential to the feel of blueblue is Craig Weinrib’s kit work. Gendel and Weinrib collaborated long-distance during Gendel’s time in Oregon, with Gendel sending Weinrib half-finished songs, and giving him carte-blanche to record percussion. The end result is a relaxed, confident exchange between two clearly simpatico musicians, particularly evident in Weinrib’s gorgeously attentive brush technique. blueblue is a conceptually sound, mesmerizing, evocative, and sonically idiosyncratic LP. In keeping with its name, blueblue functions as Gendel’s color study, conveying, through repetition and deviation, his devotion to a certain mood — unnamable, but certainly noirish, nostalgic, quasi-psychedelic, and existing in some permanent twilight. Real ones know, and for those who don’t yet, blueblue is an accessible and intoxicating entry-point into Gendel's ever-expanding catalog.

In 2018 experimental festival Organ Reframed commissioned Éliane Radigue to write her first work for organ, 'Occam Ocean XXV'. Radigue worked closely with organist Frédéric Blondy at the Église Saint Merry in Paris before transferring the piece to Union Chapel for its premiere at Organ Reframed on 13 October 2018. The recording on this compact disc was made at a private session at Union Chapel on 8 January 2020. 'Occam XXV' inaugurates the very special record series of works exclusively commissioned by Organ Reframed, the organ-only, one of a kind experimental music festival, carefully curated by Scottish composer/performer and London's Union Chapel organ music director Claire M Singer. Paris-born Éliane Radigue is one of the most innovative and influential living composers of all time. After working under Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry in the late 1950's/early 60's she mainly worked with tape before developing a deep relationship with modular synthesis in the early 1970's. Over the next three decades she pushed her own conceptions of musicality forward developing a deep relationship with her ARP 2500. Through endless exploration and drawing on her personal journey as a practicing Buddhist she created an entirely new landscape of experimental sound. In the early 2000's she made an extraordinary shift into writing predominantly for acoustic instruments. 'Occam XXV' is the latest chapter of Radigue's broader series of works Occam Ocean which she has been composing in the last decade. Carefully selected by Radigue she has closely collaborated with various extremely experienced yet sensitive instrumentalists. For Occam XXV Radigue collaborated with pianist, organist, composer, improviser, artistic director of the Orchestra of New Musical Creation, Experimentation and Improvisation (ONCEIM) Frédéric Blondy, which is their second collaboration in the Occam Ocean series. 'Occam XXV' premiered in 2018, and was later recorded privately in 2020 at London's Organ Reframed headquarters Union Chapel. "We live in a universe filled with waves. Not only between the Earth and the Sun but all the way down to the tiniest microwaves and inside it is the minuscule band that lies between the 60 Hz and the 12,000 to 15,000 Hz that our ears turn into sound. There are many wavelengths in the ocean too and we also come into contact with it physically, mentally and spiritually. That explains the title of this body of work which is called Occam Ocean.The main aim of this work is to focus on how the partials are dealt with. Whether they come in the form of micro beats, pulsations, harmonics, subharmonics – which are extremely rare but have a transcendent beauty – bass pulsations – the highly intangible aspect of sound. That's what makes it so rich. When Luciano Pavarotti gave free rein to the full force of his voice the conductor stopped beating time and you could hear the richness in its entirety. Music in written form, or however it is relayed, ultimately remains abstract. It's the performer, the person playing it who brings it to life. So the person playing the instrument must come first. I've always thought of performers and their instruments as one. They form a dual personality. No two performers, playing the same instrument, have the same relationship with that instrument – the same intimate relationship. This is where the process of making the work personal begins. The purely personal task of deciding on the theme or image that we're going to work from. Obviously, because this is Occam Ocean, the theme is always related to water. It could be a little stream, a fountain, the distant ocean, rivers. Out of the fifty or so musicians I've worked with no two themes have been the same. Each musician's theme is completely unique and completely personal. The music does the talking. This is one of those art forms that manages to express the many things that words aren't able to. Even at an early stage, all those ideas need to have been brought together." - Éliane Radigue