MUSIC

Darbuka, gongs, berimbaus, kalimbas, pandeiro, riqq, doholla, bendirs, udu,… These are just some of the instruments that make up the sound universe of Hands in Motion. This percussion trio brings together musicians Simon Leleux (Fabrizio Cassol / I Silenti, Refugees for Refugees), Robbe Kieckens (Lamekan Ensemble, Myrdinn De Cauter), Falk Schrauwen (Compro Oro, Echoes of Zoo) who create a sound universe that does not knows any limits. From Senegal to Eastern Europe, from Brazil to India, from the classical conservatory to nomadic people, it is nourished by all their influences that Hands in Motion juggles with the codes of tradition to create a new space of expression, resolutely current and innovative. Minimalist sound layers, captivating grooves, acoustic trance, their music is organic, contrasting, deep and subtle at the same time. They alternately create melodies and textures that might as well make you think of Philip Glass, Mammal Hands or Why the Eye ?. The atmospheres they create invite movement and sharing.

Tags: Experimental, Electronic, Electroacoustic, Free, Improv, ambient, psychedelic, South Indian, Devotional Seljuk Rustum is a Kochi (Cochin) based arts practitioner originally from Kannur, Kerala. He is a painter, musician, curator, producer, recording engineer and the founder and current Creative Director of performance space, Forplay Society. As a musician he plays alto saxophone, guitar, percussion and synthesizer with several bands and an expanding collective of like minded artists. Being a self-taught musician, his sound work is an extension of his visual work and his music is a mixture of joyful noise and simple naive melodies. Seljuk has performed and recorded with artists such as Otomo Yoshihide, Senyawa, Hada Benedito Mateo, Eiko Ishibashi, Mitsuaki Matsumoto, Pisitakun, Yuen Chee Wai, Dharma, DJ Sniff, Maximilian Glass, Duncan Bruce, Hilary Jeffery and Hayden Chisholm. He has also worked with many theatre practitioners & performance artists in India making music for theatre as well as curating shows & workshops with actors and performers from around India. The recordings on Cardboard Castles were made at Seljuk's studio in Kochi between 2016 and 2021 and were mostly instant compositions and single take recordings created in collaboration with a number of fellow travellers who've passed through the studio. At the inception of the album's creation Seljuk sought to reflect on what freedom means and what the musical limitations of this are, and how his involvement as a free improviser might project fixed ideas onto a listener. He wanted to use an improvisational approach that focussed on presenting ideas with a beauty inherent in their sound, coalescing these into song form. Cardboard Castles is the resulting album and application of these concepts. We at Hive Mind feel privileged to have worked with Seljuk to bring you these deeply personal and highly idiosyncratic works which really do defy easy description. Ranging from strange and wonky electronic improvisations, gentle acoustic instrumentals such as the lush opener with the input of the Cochin String Orchestra, through experiments in traditional Indian song, this album will keep you guessing. Everything appears touched with a mischievous sense of playfulness that's maybe reflected in the face of the grinning camel that adorns the sleeve. We're sure you'll agree there's plenty to delight the listener on this strange dream of an album, Seljuk's first to receive a physical release. The CD version comes in a gatefold card digisleeve in an edition of 250 copies

Starting at a very young age, Katrina Krimsky developed her musical self along a pathway of strong classical, pianistic training. Highlights of her playing on the classical side include her wonderful recording of Samuel Barber’s monumental Sonata for Piano, Op. 26, (Transonic Records 3008, 1975), a composition that is a virtual dictionary of early and mid-Twentieth Century composition techniques, first performed by Vladimir Horowitz in 1949 and 1950. Another example is her equally wonderful recording of A próle do bébé (The Baby’s Family) by Heitor Villa-Lobos, (1750 Arch Records, S-1789, 1982). After studying at the Eastman School of Music, Krimsky toured with the Ars Nova Trio and soon found herself becoming immersed in the European contemporary classical scene and with composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luc Ferrari, and many others. The later 1960s brought collaborative performances and recordings with gradual-process innovators, like Terry Riley and La Monte Young, and beyond that, great jazz musicians like Woody Shaw and others. Her musical world was opening even wider. Still, in all this, her advanced technical and interpretive skills were always evident, and her sense of lyricism in all music, quite profound. 1980 was a turning point for Katrina Krimsky. It was the year in which she burst out from the restrictions of her established career in classical and contemporary traditions into free expression through improvisation. Her individual style began to reflect a wide range of sources: jazz, non-Euro-American music, the new minimalism, and more experimental forms. In 1980, she was invited to do a workshop and give a concert at the legendary Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY. (CMS was founded originally in 1971 by Karl Berger and developed in its Woodstock home by Karl with Ingrid Sertso starting in 1973.) Katrina traveled from where she was living in Zürich at the time and found an open environment at CMS in which to create anew. The tracks we hear on 1980 were all recorded live in a concert at the CMS in June of that year. What emerged was an original musical style that has remained since then continuously recognizable as Krimsky.

Look around you. In recent years ambient music has changed and encountering Jon Hassell's fourth world design has become easy. Most of the time there’s no feeling, no narrative, a nothingness of ideas through layers and layers of pastiche and boring bedroom music. This is not bashing. Just a reminder that sometimes the information trap delays an understanding of how good music really is. “Cavalcante” is the new release by funcionário (born Pedro Tavares). You’ll find Jon Hassell in these eleven pieces. And yes, sometimes you’ll think about ambient music. Most of the time you’ll wonder about what is really happening. And why it's only now you’re hearing about this twenty-something musician from Setúbal, Portugal. A little bit more than one minute into “En Garde!”, the opening track, one feels challenged by the idea that everything that was listened up to that moment was a false start. The piece abruptly stops, flips some digital sound, and restarts in a whole new direction. As this happens it becomes obvious we are in for a treat. Those two, three seconds create a sensation that everything happens in a moment that introduces you to funcionário's craft: delicate complex sounds infatuated with the idea of movement and the never-ending notion that there’s no dividers in the fourth world. Music can go beyond that. As it moves forward – “Verde”, “Sierra” or “Publicidade Arco e Flecha” -, the album (his fourth) morphs around variations or perceptions of ambient / electronic / experimental music. And as the language evolves, it hints on how funcionário keeps stretching the boundaries of digital music as he wishes to advance to a more analog setup. In a way, he confronts foundational ideas while having breakthroughs and realizing he is at a top level. Justifiably ambitious, bright and discreetly edgy. We dare to say: monumental.

Collaborators since 2020 who have also made music with AIR Krew, Russian producer Piper Spray and multimedia artist Lena Tsibizova present their first album-length work in ‘Leaving Memory’. Compelling freak zone music encompassing ambient, outsider pop, dub and industrial elements and weaving them into a coherent sonic patchwork.

"The phenomenon of the sound and music created here is very mysterious. These pieces of music, created without any intention of being published, reached my ears without warning. Of course, this happened because I have lived a life devoted to a certain kind of music, but there is a chance I would never have listened to them in my life. But, they came to me. Now they play over and over in my listening space - blending into the air that surrounds me. Vibrating. It is as if they had always been there from a long time ago." Chee Shimizu (Organic Music, Japan)

We write to you with the conclusions of our investigation into the synthesized audio transmissions picked up by the deep space telescope at regular intervals since 1986. The source was traced to two brothers in Kawasaki, Japan, who identified themselves as Satoshi and Makoto. When we raided the building, they were huddled around a synthesizer manufactured by the Casio Corporation, model number CZ-5000. 

In their archives we discovered a wealth of colourful and ear-pleasing material created entirely using this music-making device in the early 1990s. We asked them to provide copies so that we could make these compositions available to the public for the first time. They handed us a compact disc that bore the handwritten code “ST006”.

Scientific Bulletin From The Safe Trip Institute, Amsterdam. 

Our latest communication to colleagues concerns an audio artefact – library reference code ST019 – provided by our esteemed Japanese brothers Satoshi and Makoto. They unearthed it from their own archive of musical experimentations and laboratory tests, which have been ongoing since the 1990s. They have shared it so that the process of peer reviewing can begin in earnest. 

We have undertaken thorough testing in the Safe Trip Laboratory and offer the following observations: 

Colleagues in Japan provided us with sample product of the following audio artefact – file number ST015 – believing that it may be relevant to the Safe Trip Institute’s ongoing research in this area of study. After rigorous testing and analysis, we would like to offer the following observations: 
  
• By running each of the 10 pieces of music that make up the artefact through the Past Fire Particle Analyzer, we have ascertained that every single note, chord and aural element was created using the CZ-5000, an electronic instriment built by Japan’s Casio Corporation. 

• One of our researchers discovered that if you assign a Pantone colour code to each different musical note featured on the artefact, all bar 734 of the 1,867 “spot” colours are present. By gathering these together on one screen, she discovered that most of the “musical colours” employed by Satoshi & Makoto were shades of purple, orange, red, green, yellow and pink. 

• In laboratory tests, listeners were instinctively drawn to the following percussion-free compositions: ‘Crawl Up (ST019-02)’, a combination of vibrant melodies and rumbling sub-bass; ‘Updraft (ST019-08)’, which one listener claimed helped him see through time; and ‘Kass (ST019-09)’, a musical voyage through neural pathways that should interest colleagues within the world of phrenology. 

• Test subjects also responded positively to a number of other artefacts, with one insisting that ‘Corendor (ST019-03)’ induced intense feelings of joy thanks to its use of vibrant melodies and “shuffling beats”. We draw no conclusions from this comment but think it worthy of further discussion. 

We invite colleagues the world over to analyse and test this audio further in order to increase our understanding of Mr Satoshi and Mr Makoto’s archive aural artefacts. We eagerly await your correspondence. 

Concocted in a share house in the South of Brisbane in the mid-80s, a small collective of well-acquainted musicians including Jon Anderson, Rainer Guth, Gary McFeat & Rod Owen gathered to compose film soundtracks, music for pictures, therefore ‘Picture Music’. To this end, a ‘spec’ tape of Picture Music recordings would be produced to give to potential clients and or sold to local stores. A distinct album comprising a collection of ambient, minimal-jazz and experimental music. If there is a red thread running through the Picture Music album, it is its "late night" ambience. The wrath of the sub-tropical summer heat of Brisbane is not kind on electronic equipment, which would crash regularly by day. So, all recording was done in the relative cool of the late evening, in a room only dimly lit by lamp and candle. The Picture Music collective would make music and party all through the night, departing around sunrise. They would sleep through the heat of the day, only to return in the evening for more of the same. This 2021 reissue of their self-titled 1987 cassette, was taken from the original master tapes and remains an evocative representation of the music that resulted from the late-night, dimly-lit, atmospheric-enabled environment, that sparked the creativity of a group of like-minded friends in a tiny corner of Brisbane. Dedicated to the memory Rainer Guth.

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.!

PAN is pleased to announce the debut release from Lifted, an ongoing collaborative project initiated by Matt Papich (AKA Co La) and Beautiful Swimmers’ Max D.

Drawing on studio sessions recorded in their respective hometowns of Baltimore and Washington DC, the album sees the pair break free from the constrictions of the grid and exercise their versatility through improvised fusion. Working outside the framework that underlies their solo output, the eight tracks on offer showcase experiments in freeform techno, hyaline electronics, and ambient, with the duo reaching out to Motion Graphics, 1432 R co-founder Dawit Eklund, and Jeremy Hyman for additional synthesis, drumset and percussion.

The album also exhibits solo performances from Gigi Masin and Jordan GCZ (Juju & Jordash), who submitted overdubs from their bases in Venice and Amsterdam.

The album is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, pressed on 140g LP. It features photography by Traianos Pakioufakis and artwork by Bill Kouligas.

 

Play

One of our all-time favourite artists and extended Circus Company member The Mole returns to the label for a proper presentation of his album The River Widens. Originally a limited, cassette-only release via fellow Canadian Eddie C’s Red Motorbike, we are proud to offer this album in its full glory for the first time on all formats. Never one to shy away from synth deep dives, or raw sample flip collaging, this collection of 21 works checks all the boxes. Ambient trippers to straight up neck-snapping instrumental beats. Not forgetting tastes of the more uptempo, highly-assured and hypnotic dance floor feels the world has come to love The Mole for. Moments of casual chillin are interspersed with effortless, emotive angles, some evoking the charm of his Little Sunshine release for us in 2017. X-pert Profat opens the set with sly statements that give way to relaxed and subtle keys over gentle, midtempo rhythms. Things switch up nicely into easy, Northwest Coast boogie-meets-beatdown feels in Break for Ma, followed by a solid array of almost Jaylib-schooled boom bap twists, like the aptly-titled Drums 2002 and Jo Barker. Ambient cuts like AR day and New Family offer a refreshing tap of the brakes, setting the scene for the gorgeous, Jarre-esque Weak Stranger. We also get treated to Repepepater’s nod to Detroit house, urban-mode Balearic feels on They Work for Mr. O, and sneak attack lo-fi future funk in the form of Ufos Over Egypt, with Montreal co-pilot Cristobal on a wild shisha-lit vox narrative, earlier versions of which have blessed many of our label comrades’ DJ sets, from Dave Aju to Vincent Lemieux. The River Widens expands beautifully on the breadth of unique musical directions The Mole is capable of taking us in, now spread across fresh 2x12” vinyl and available digitally for the first time, along with another limited editio

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

Before I’m gone I’d like to see us turn the corner and give up being spoilers of the land . . . In 1975 Wallace ‘Wally’ Smith Broecker published a paper that popularised the term ‘global warming’ and against a backdrop of change and environmental uncertainty, a musical concept album was commissioned. ‘Wilderness America / A Celebration of the Land’ - is a musical exploration of our place within the cycle of living things. All compositions were specially commissioned for the album and blended with natural sounds recorded in the wild – lending the entire project a conceptual air that still feels fresh today. The journey begins with the sun rising in the atmospheric haze of 'Dawn' - a track composed by new-age innovator Iasos. Gospel singer Walter Hawkins soon drops in with the soulful but ever so funky 'Metropolis' backed by a heavy array of session musicians with Patrick Gleeson, Ed Bogas and Tom Salisbury all adding their own misty magic to the album. David Riordan is the sorcerer conjuring up many of the compositions and also takes vocal duties on the evocative 'Mountain' and the climatic 'Before I'm Gone'. ‘Wilderness America / A Celebration of the Land’ was born when environmentalist Emily DeSpain Polk assembled a group of California residents to participate in a groundbreaking conservationist project. Christening the group SWAP (Small Wilderness Area Preservation) Emily needed funds and began a project to produce a promotional nature based music album. To acquire the financial backing Emily would need to source a musician of some calibre. Contacting Cliff Branch from ‘Warehouse Sound Co.’ she was told the man she was looking for was David Riordan. David Riordan had been around the music business for several years, first with The Yankee Dollar, then Sugarloaf and then Sweet Pain, he saw huge success with the single 'Green Eyed Lady'. David had worked on Cliff Branch’s 'Warehouse Sound Co. & Friends' albums and then released his solo album, 'Medicine Wheel'. But bored of touring he made the move to more concept-driven albums. First with ‘Christmas in San Francisco’ and then, in quick succession, 'Wilderness America, A Celebration Of The Land'. Riordan, along with Peter Scott, a music producer friend in San Francisco, began piecing together an idea for the album. They brought in Ed Bogas to do string arrangements and Tom Salisbury to conduct. David had also asked his friend Patrick Gleeson if he knew of any R&B/Gospel singers in the Bay Area, and they soon added gospel singer Walter Hawkins into the mix. Other than the track ‘Metropolis’, which was recorded in LA, the rest of ‘Wilderness America, A Celebration Of The Land’ was recorded and mixed by Richard Beggs at the San Francisco studio of Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was filming ‘Apocalypse Now’ at the same time – so in between studio sessions, the musicians were able to view the seemingly never-ending film rushes arriving from the Philippines. Eventually, the record produced by David Riordan and Peter Scott drifted onto the radar of vinyl obsessives and selectors as several of its key tracks began popping up on mixtapes and sales lists. It wasn’t long before this privately pressed, art-funded masterpiece became something of a holy grail for collectors. At long last, a re-issue of this masterpiece is now available on EBALUNGA!!! Records. Paul Hillery - May 2022 Paul is a heathen, conceivably, but not, I hope, an unenlightened one, who’s handpicked compilation albums have been released on the labels BBE and RE:WARM - he is also the curator at Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours

‘My intention with this music was to create an alchemy of the studio, to bring together impossible sounds, global voices and stories, obscure ethnographic narratives, new and ancient technologies, human and non-human species...’ - David Toop We are proud to launch our new library series with an incredible 12-track selection of music from David Toop. By compiling our favourite pieces from the albums originally released on Virgin, Pink Noir (1996) and Spirit World (1997), we have distilled the essence of this fruitful period into a new form: Pink Spirit, Noir World. Following the release of his debut solo album Screen Ceremonies (1995), David turned to a more expansive palate to record his next two LPs. Enlisting the help of a whole host of friends and collaborators who joined him in the Mark Angelo Studios, including the likes of Max Eastley, Toshinori Kondo, Musa Kalamula and Jon Hassell, the two albums share an unabashed openness to new sonic possibilities. Few recordings convey such a spirit of optimism; from a time when creation could be as free, unconstrained and ambitious. These albums are remarkable in both their harnessing of new recording technologies, and their weaving together a melting-pot of genres and influences that traverse the globe across centuries of musical tradition into something distinctly novel. They also document an almost visual memory, conjuring images both vivid and dream-like. Phantoms flit in and out of focus throughout their musical dialogues - perhaps the very same ones which were haunting Toop throughout the ‘wildly contradictory mixture of emotional harshness and ecstatic inspiration’ he found his life to be at the time. It’s the first time this music has been available on vinyl and to it’s new lease of life, all the tracks on this compilation have been remastered by sound designer/engineer Dave Hunt. This stunning compilation is housed in a gatefold sleeve and contains an exclusive piece written by David, reflecting on how he came to record these incredible songs.

Carlos Niño & Friends, who are familiar with our store as a signboard act of , which is a major sacred place of the LA underground presided over by Matthewdavid. A compilation of sound sources from previously analog-released works, compiled into a cassette, to create a best-of cassette-like work. The title "Assortment for Susan's" is dedicated to their dear friend and collaborator Justin Hansin. A total of 4 tracks of ultra-high-quality new age and contemporary jazz, including sound sources with the participation of gorgeous people such as Laraaji and Ariel Karma! Limited to 200 copies.

Part of a series of three new archival releases from Ndeya that showcase Jon Hassell and group in the late 1980s exploring a radical tangent on his Fourth World sensibility.

Further Fictions is a double CD anthology of the music on the vinyl editions, with a disc devoted to each album in hardbound book style
packaging, and an extensive booklet containing sleevenotes and archival images.

The first disc ‘The Living City’ documents a performance at the Winter Garden in New York City on 17 September 1989, mixed live by Brian Eno. The second disc ‘Psychogeography’ sees Jon taking a Teo Macero style scalpel to the original session tapes of the 'City: Works Of Fiction' album and coming up with a situationist inspired alternate version of the City album. Beguilingly different takes and the raw excitement of early demos are skillfully sequenced to concoct a different dimension of sounds from the original release.

Comes with 32 page booklet featuring extensive liner notes and photos.

After a long break, we're happy to present another masterpiece in The Fact Of Being collection. A long-awaited reissue of the legendary ambient/new-age album "Reflections" by Laura Allan with Paul Horn. The album was recorded in 1980 and marked by the participation of twice Grammy Awarded jazz legend flutist Paul Horn. The meeting of Laura and Paul was a true miracle that brought amazing fruit. Since 80th "Reflections" captivate the minds of spiritual ambient music fans all over the world. Magical sounds of flute, endless melodies of zither, Laura's heavenly voice lighted by meditative bells and synthesizers. A simple recipe but with great talents and unique results. Laura's reflections lead a listener to deep meditation, harmony, and to the eternal palace of inner peace. We hope you'll share with us the pleasure of listening to the record and the world become a bit more peaceful place for everyone. This is the first reissue on the vinyl since 1984 when the album was repressed the last time. After 38 years the record became collectors' dream and now it's available again as it should be. Moreover, as always, we love CDs and it's available as a limited DigiCD version. The record was mastered by Grammy-nominated Jessica Thompson which guarantees extra ordinal sound experience. Yes, a lot of Grammy here... Laura passed away on May 19, 2008, after a half-year battle with cancer. She was just 56. Enjoy Laura's art that makes her alive. Below you'll find memories by Steven Halpern: LAURA ALLAN ( 1952 -2008) was a gifted singer and songwriter who was a legend in the San Francisco Bay area in the early 1970s. REFLECTIONS is her beloved album, and features her original songs, one of which includes a collaboration with Paul Horn on “Passages”. Her voice and zither take center stage on “As I Am”, “ Waterfall” and “Nicasio”. Other artists, including Dallas Smith on Lyricon wind synthesizer, add to the mix. It is my honor and privilege to bring her music back into the world. I met Laura after her performance at a new age conference in 1975 held on campus at Sonoma State College. Her magical aura of angelic voice, luminous blonde hair, and energetic strumming or meditative Celtic harp-inspired zither, captured your attention instantly. My first LP had just been pressed, and this was my first public presentation. Nevertheless, my instincts were right on. Even though I had only one album and no track record yet, I invited Laura to record her album on my label. It was too early for both of us. Several years later, she signed with another local label, Unity Records. After Laura regained the rights to REFLECTIONS, she contacted me in the mid-1980s to see if I were still interested. Of course I was! She licensed the album to my indie label. I then re-released the LP and cassette on the Hear & Now imprint, (a division of Halpern Sounds) which was my main label name at the time. Our deal was actually a two album deal, and I would record and produce the album combining her voice and zither and my arrangements. Alas, that album was never completed." "In an unlikely collaboration between folk singer Laura Allan and New Age pioneer Paul Horn, Reflections capture two artists in perfect harmony of their talents. Allan, in addition to being an incredibly gifted songwriter, was something of a string instrument prodigy and made instruments for other Laurel Canyon heroes including Joni Mitchell and David Crosby. Her zither playing and vocals here match perfectly with the New Age aesthetic set by Horn and the sounds are beautiful and organic, characteristic of the early more experimental days of the New Age genre before it would later be marred by “easy listening.” Highly recommended for fans of Lauraaji, Alice Coltrane, David Casper, and Light In The Attic’s “I Am the Center” compilation." – Phil Cho

Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. Sometimes it leads, like when the club-friendly grooves of 2014’s Hello World immersed him in the heart of Vancouver’s underground dance scene, and sometimes it follows, like 2018’s Beautiful You, a downtempo salve for DJ fatigue. His melodic sensibility and playful ear for atmosphere remain the rippling core of the project’s fingerprint; whether beat-driven or ambient, a foggy smear or a dusted and pristine print, a Khotin track has a distinct and instantly recognizable swirl. During and after the 2020 release of Finds You Well, his second LP on Ghostly International, Khotin-Foote settled back into a slower vibe in his hometown of Edmonton. Even before the pandemic, his pivots to softer production, and away from DJing, left him with fewer opportunities in Vancouver and club bookings overall, and as a self-identifying introvert, he was fine with that. But the change of pace did open space for Khotin-Foote to grapple with concepts of adulthood and career. At his lowest, he almost walked off this musical path altogether; instead, he doubled down on the craft — the tone, pacing, and dynamism of new material — arriving at a definitive full-length. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin’s dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he’s never sounded better doing it. The album title borrows from the “release spirit” mechanic in the video game World of Warcraft. When players die, they are prompted to release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their corpses and come back to life. Khotin sees it as a worthy metaphor for the impending change his return home presented and the resulting process of purging artistic expectations to find his creative self again. On this go-around, he is freer, more playful, and more intentional within his palette of warped synth, breakbeats, and piano sounds — including the classic Casio SK-1 presets he’s used since the start — mingling with wistful samples, field recordings, and other abstract snippets. For the first time, he enlisted Nik Kozub to do the mix and assist with sequencing. Khotin-Foote has long worked with the Edmonton-based musician and engineer in the mastering phase, as well as their days co-running the label Normals Welcome, and this time was able to involve his ears earlier given their newfound proximity. “I think it’s my best sounding record to date.” We begin on “HV Road” or Happy Valley Road, where Khotin-Foote spent time during a family vacation in British Columbia’s Okanagan Lake. His plans to record crickets at night are quickly foiled by his younger siblings; the cute exchange orients the listener to a core memory of sorts, setting the tone of universally understood warmth and wonder that has defined some of Khotin’s most transportive tracks. Hazy percussion takes hold, and we are swept further into the wisp of “Lovely,” a grooving, melodic standout built on the interplay between the beat and human voice-like hums. Khotin knows this zone well; equally suited for a reverie or a club warm-up. The bubbling atmosphere and absurdity of “3 pz” offer a cosmic/comic interlude and also speak to reflections on his family’s move to Canada two generations ago, and the audio tutorials they used to learn English. “I can only imagine my grandparents repeating some of the bizarre phrases.” “Fountain, Growth” finds Khotin in collaboration with Montreal’s Tess Roby (Dawn to Dawn) for the project’s first-ever vocal track. Roby’s soft cadence echoes atop spiraling air pockets of rhythmic production, lending a breezy, almost shoegaze pop feel. Throughout the single and the album, wind gusts between the compositional layers, akin to the roaming spirits of its namesake, curving around the birdsong of “Life Mask” and seamlessly reaching “Unlimited <3.” The latter bumps in slow motion; disembodied whirrs from his Casio collide with 808 drums and sub-bass for a vibe that teeters on trap and instrumental hip-hop. Release Spirit rests in a dream sequence. Oscillating synth lines dance around the heartbeat of “Techno Creep,” a hyperactive REM state before the digitized ambient sprawl of “My Same Size.” In the final pass, Khotin imagines transcontinental travel from the glow of his screen. He recorded “Sound Gathering Trip” to soundtrack a genre of YouTube videos he’s taken to that follows train routes through Europe and Japan. The scene is serene and moving; piano keys warble as static-filled sound design shimmers off the rails, from cityscapes to the countryside, an introspective ride through a world beyond his bedroom. It doubles as an apt parting image for Khotin’s project as a whole: dreaming big but happiest when riffing on the details, shaping environments from the inside out. Over the last decade, he has stretched from his core in Edmonton, leaving a trace in Vancouver and beyond; but when all signs point home, he loops back to see it all from a different vantage, revitalized, refined, and free.

"While experimenting with microtonal electronics for a piece I was writing for Zinc & Copper, which would eventually be titled Pons, I came across a process-based technique that I was quite keen on. Although I wouldn't use this technique on the Zinc & Copper piece, I would later implement said process to make up some of the electronics on Omniscient Voices. During this time I carried out dozens and dozens of instances of this process and recorded them all. Varolii Patterns is composed of a small collection of these recorded takes, ones I felt were stand-alone pieces on their own and that worked well together as a whole."

Invisible City Editions continues our 10 year anniversary in adventurous sounds. We are thrilled to announce the re-release of Rico Toto’s 1993 CD recording Fwa Épi Sajès. Mind melting synthesizers and drum machines fuse with ancient Guadeloupe Gwo-ka rhythms in this musical endeavour Rico Toto describes as “Electro-ka.” The improvised live instruments of the Moundjahka ensemble meld with electronic abstraction to create a psychedelic, immersive digital diaspora dream state. With nods to Jon Hassell's atmospheric soundscapes, YMO and Baldelli / TBC Cosmic mixtapes, this selection of songs encompasses an entire spectrum of moods and sounds. The A side begins with fourth-world tropical percussions, opening with sounds of nature in “Jungle Meditation” and leading into the downtempo summer synthpop jam “Yadadé.” The B side takes a darker turn, starting off with the deep chugging rhythms of “Rawal Pindi” and continuing even deeper with synth sounds and haunting vocals that culminates into the dreamy meditative final track, “Golgotha.” Limited vinyl repress in collaboration with Rico Toto. Artwork by Floating Bstrd.

One of our all-time favourite artists and extended Circus Company member The Mole returns to the label for a proper presentation of his album The River Widens. Originally a limited, cassette-only release via fellow Canadian Eddie C’s Red Motorbike, we are proud to offer this album in its full glory for the first time on all formats. Never one to shy away from synth deep dives, or raw sample flip collaging, this collection of 21 works checks all the boxes. Ambient trippers to straight up neck-snapping instrumental beats. Not forgetting tastes of the more uptempo, highly-assured and hypnotic dance floor feels the world has come to love The Mole for. Moments of casual chillin are interspersed with effortless, emotive angles, some evoking the charm of his Little Sunshine release for us in 2017. X-pert Profat opens the set with sly statements that give way to relaxed and subtle keys over gentle, midtempo rhythms. Things switch up nicely into easy, Northwest Coast boogie-meets-beatdown feels in Break for Ma, followed by a solid array of almost Jaylib-schooled boom bap twists, like the aptly-titled Drums 2002 and Jo Barker. Ambient cuts like AR day and New Family offer a refreshing tap of the brakes, setting the scene for the gorgeous, Jarre-esque Weak Stranger. We also get treated to Repepepater’s nod to Detroit house, urban-mode Balearic feels on They Work for Mr. O, and sneak attack lo-fi future funk in the form of Ufos Over Egypt, with Montreal co-pilot Cristobal on a wild shisha-lit vox narrative, earlier versions of which have blessed many of our label comrades’ DJ sets, from Dave Aju to Vincent Lemieux. The River Widens expands beautifully on the breadth of unique musical directions The Mole is capable of taking us in, now spread across fresh 2x12” vinyl and available digitally for the first time, along with another limited editio

On 1986's Celestial Realms (originally released
on cassette only), Laraaji conjures his typically vivid
soundworld of shimmering electric zither, while Goldman
inhabits that world with pulsing guitar and droning synthesizer.

Celestial Realms provides a blissful 46-minute ambient
voyage.

Gavin Bryars was born in Yorkshire, England in 1943. His first musical forays were as a jazz bassist working in the early 1960s with improvisors Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. Bryars later worked with composers John Cage and Cornelius Cardew, founded the Portsmouth Sinfonia and collaborated with Brian Eno on his famed Obscure imprint. The Sinking of the Titanic, Bryars' first major composition, was inspired by the tragic event of the British passenger liner's cross-Atlantic maiden voyage. Bryars eloquently reconstructs the passengers' experience – at once forlorn and eerily calming – through assemblages of understated strings and indeterminate elements. A core principle of the piece is that the ship's band continued to play as the vessel went down. One of the most sublime works in the modern classical canon, Titanic remains Bryars' magnum opus. Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, the album's second sidelong track, is based on a tape loop of a London street singer captured in the early 1970s. Featuring Derek Bailey, Michael Nyman and John White, Bryars' composition gradually builds around the cripplingly poignant voice until its emotional force is almost too much to bear. It's no surprise that Jesus' Blood is known as Tom Waits' all-time favorite piece of music. Produced by Brian Eno in 1975 as the inaugural release on Obscure, The Sinking of the Titanic draws the listener in to a majestic world. While these exquisite, hymn-like recordings have not changed in nearly 50 years, their deeply personal nature and the audience's attention to their subtlety have only strengthened over time.