MUSIC

New soundscapes inspired by the architecture of V&A Dundee, the first ever dedicated design museum in Scotland. Midori Takada Legendary Japanese Ambient pioneer Takada was specially commissioned by MSCTY and one of UK's leading art institutions, V&A Dundee, to create a soundtrack to the museum itself. Sympathetic to the architect Kengo Kuma's use of natural materials in the landmark building's construction, Takada bases the compositions around huge wood marimbas, creating atmospheric, hypnotic beauty inspired directly by Kuma's organic vision. This album contains the complete works, constituting 3 connected compositions. Midori Takada plays a special live show at Kings Place, London in September, the month of the album's physical release. Her recently reissued 1983 work 'Through the Looking Glass' was hailed as "mesmerising" and an "ambient minimalist masterpiece" by Pitchfork who awarded it their best reissue of 2017. SHHE SHHE is the alias of Scottish-Portuguese artist, musician and producer, Su Shaw. Her work is influenced by environment and ecology, exploring themes of identity and connection at the intersection between sound, space and liminal states. SHHE's eponymous debut album was released by One Little Independent Records and was shortlisted for Scottish Album of the Year 2020. This new album features an exclusive 45 minute composition specially commissioned by MSCTY and V&A Dundee, which is located in her town. Based on the sounds of the water around V&A Dundee, with the music reacting to the movement of the pools and the tides, the piece is inspired by the rugged exterior of the museum architecture and its location by the River Tay.

His name may not be instantly familiar, but Hideki Matsutake has had a huge influence over Electronic music. Starting his career as the assistant of Japanese Electronic Music master Isao Tomita in the early 70s, he went on to work with Ryuichi Sakamoto before joining Yellow Magic Orchestra as the group's keyboard programmer and unofficial fourth member. In 1981 he started his own Logic System project recording "Venus" that year in Los Angeles with Don Grusin, Nathan East and Michael Boddicker, brilliantly mixing Synth Funk, Ambient and Boogie with a touch of Smooth Jazz predating Vaporwave by 30 years. Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue this visionary album, which comes remastered from the original tapes and features Pater Sato stunning artwork.

Distributed in 1984 by Sound Process Design, a company founded by Satoshi Ashikawa, a pioneer of environmental music in Japan, the entire body of work that has remained shrouded in mystery to this day is finally revealed. A thoughtful response to the works of great artists such as Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, John Cage, Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Haruomi Hosono, and King Crimson in the early 1980s. The album features seven tracks, three from the original LP, a reprise of the album's key piece "Nocturne," and a previously unreleased recording and chamber music arrangement version of the sequel "Nocturne II.

Dripping sound...rippling into the womb and beyond. Yutaka Hirose "Nostalgia" world premiere LP release! The compilation of Japanbeat is here! Yutaka Hirose created the masterpiece ambient work "Nova," which was discovered and reevaluated from overseas. Nostalghia", a work that records the "drops" of sensitivity and sound that spring from within, free of all restrictions, has finally been released as the world's first sound source! The sound space of another dimension from the ambient/environmental music that abounds in the market blends into the everyday world in your wireless phone environment, and even expands horizontally into the space in a speaker environment? We Japanese will be the next ones to experience the sensibility of Japambient. NOVA", a piece from the environmental music series "Soundscape" planned by the Sound Design Office of the Misawa Home Research Institute in 1986, was re-evaluated overseas and released on CD in 2019 with bonus tracks by a Swiss label. Yutaka Hirose became a big topic of conversation. After the production of "NOVA", Yutaka Hirose faced with his own sound and recorded in his home studio, and released it in a limited 2-CD analog format with additional tracks different from the CD version!

Satoshi (Satoshi & Makoto) releases his first solo album - A collection of archival works and new compositions. Like his previous releases with Makoto, this album is performed mainly on the much revered Casio CZ-5000 synthesiser. Features include: Benedek (PPU, L.I.E.S. Second Circle) on on guitar, Makoto and Kuniyuki Takahashi (Percussion & Mixes).

Six years after Chamber Music, the partnership between the two men, nourished by their years of pilgrimage worldwide, resonates louder than ever on Musique de nuit.

Kora - Ballaké Sissoko

Cello - Vincent Segal

Babani Kone - Lead vocal on Diabaro

Phonographic samples with electric guitar, resonator guitar, organ and piano. Committed January 2021-August 2022 in Skylight, Kentucky. Mixed, mastered and otherwise improved by Chuck Johnson at Cirrus Oxide, Oakland, California. Source recordings: IX: From “Mutter's Kaver,” Mayer Kanewsky (as M. Gutmann), Columbia E1737, recorded February 1914. X: From “Foiu Verdi,” Dnu. H. Bloom, Grafton 9121 (off Emerson 13158), recorded September 1920. XI: From “National Hora (part 1),” Abe Schwartz and daughter (Sylvia Schwartz), Columbia E4745, recorded May 1920. XII: From “A Brief Fin 1916,” Jacob Silbert, Columbia E5145, recorded c. 1916. XIII: From “Lom Ich Frier Alten Derbei,” Ludwig Satz, Victor V-9003, recorded December 1928. XIV: From “Mazel Tov,” Abe Ellstein Orchestra, Victor V-9070, recorded February 1940. Thanks to Joan and Talya.

The fourth release in Blank Forms Editions’s initiative to chart the ever-expanding musical practice of Catherine Christer Hennix, Solo for Tamburium captures the composer’s most recent major work. Hennix plays an instrument of her own creation, a keyboard interface controlling a suite of eighty-eight recordings of precision-tuned tambura, creating a sweeping and continuous flow of rich harmonic interplay. This piece, documented in Berlin at MaerzMusik 2017, carefully draws upon the fundamental perceptual effects of sound, forming an exacting and cathartic electronic drone. Densely-layered timbral textures and continuous overtone collisions create a maze-like sonic landscape, thrusting the listener into what Hennix calls divine equilibrium or a distinctionless state of being. Since the late 1960s, Hennix has created a massive and innovative body of work spanning minimal music, computer programming, poetry, sculpture, and light art—pushing the technical and conceptual boundaries of these media toward singular ends. She was part of the downtown music school in New York and has worked extensively with some of its key figures, including Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. In the ’70s, Hennix studied the nature and use of harmonic sound as a disciple of Pandit Pran Nath, a master of the Kirana tradition of classical Hindustani music. The exceptionally designed tamburas of Pran Nath were central to her intensive investigations, as was the devotional practice of carefully tuning and sounding the instruments in a continuous and even flow—both have guided her work with sound ever since. In 1976, at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, Hennix presented a pair of groundbreaking works that came to define her ensuing practice. With the Deontic Miracle—a group composed of Hennix, her brother Peter, and the Swedish percussionist Hans Isgren—she performed a series of modal compositions for Renaissance oboes, sheng, and harmonic feedback distortion. On this same occasion she premiered an equally significant body of solo work for keyboard, including the only public presentation of The Electric Harpsichord (1976), a piece that marks the beginning of Hennix’s characteristic style of playing, where dense sonic textures gradually emerge from the multilayered interplay of harmonic construction and dissolution. Solo for Tamburium represents a pointed revisitation of her endeavor to map the non-gravitational harmonics of modal musics—among them raga, maqam, and the blues—onto a tuned keyboard. Since the debut of this piece in 2017 she has continued to develop the work, reshaping and presenting it in a variety of contexts, including at Blank Forms in New York and the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection in Paris in 2022. For Hennix, to approach modality as a dynamic process is ultimately a contemplative practice. Through it, embodied attunement to harmonic vibration gives rise to epistemically transformative states, opening new ways of knowing and being.

Recorded as a live jam it's similar to The KLF’s Chill Out fused with Yokota’s unmistakable sound palette and Castle’s gift for storytelling. Initially CD only. Originally released in 95’ via CD on the seminal U.S ambient label, Silent, Numinous Island is the result of live jam sessions between Yokota and Castle. Several original tracks were recorded to DAT tape and then mixed to create a long form audio travelogue to an otherworldly destination. The result is something similar to the KLF’s Chill Out paired with Yokota’s unmistakable sound palette and Castle’s gift for storytelling. The vinyl edition has been faithfully edited by David Fogarty for uninterrupted hi–fidelity vinyl playback, maintaining the original track sequencing and energy of the CD version.

Music From Memory is pleased to present the new LP by Krefeld-born, Berlin-based artist Philipp Otterbach entitled 'The Dahlem Diaries'. Recorded in a little-visited corner of the German capital, 'The Dahlem Diaries' is a convergence of ideas, sketches and tracks, both old and new, most of which were produced between 2020-2022. Whilst eerie atmospheres, electronics and drums have played a pivotal role in Philipp’s earlier releases, his latest is a rather more introspective affair, in which the guitar takes a leading role. A role Otterbach uses to quietly bring light and hope to his music. Speaking about his writing process, Philipp explains that, based around his original compositions, “Friends were nice enough to contribute additional parts on their instruments which I then reworked, put together and re-contextualized. The recordings encapsulate a very specific moment in time, one that would have sounded perhaps very different the day before or after.” Combined with a strong use of effects and field recordings, 'The Dahlem Diaries' feels somewhat like a scene or fragment from a story, in which the narrative remains undefined. It is a playful album that is something of a blurred underwater adventure, sounding as bright as it is hazy, even psychedelic at times, yet with an almost melancholic positivity. In Philipp’s own words: “It could be an album about friendship and being at one with myself, whilst at the same time bringing a certain seriousness to my music, but not necessarily to myself; there is also a playful humour hidden in there. ” MFM063 will appear in LP and digital format, comes with artwork by David McFarline, and is expected to release July 23rd. Purchases via the official Music From Memory Bandcamp page include two exclusive digital only bonus tracks.

Since 2014, Brighter Days has been a part of the rich tapestry of Amsterdam nightlife – a semi-regular party promoting positivity and inclusiveness run by resident DJs Kamma and Masalo. On the back of the platform provided by the party, the duo has notched up a string of memorable club and festival appearances, a regular Brighter Days show on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM, and a memorable Boiler Room set streamed live from Dekmantel Festival. Now Kamma and Masalo have taken the next step and curated a Brighter Days compilation for Rush Hour, a collection that does a terrific job in offering up slept-on and unreleased gems – including a clutch of their own tried-and-tested re-edits – while also accurately representing the sound, style and ethos of the event that inspired it. Like Kamma and Masalo’s event, which invariably takes place in intimate dancing spaces in Amsterdam, the Brighter Days compilation offers up an open-minded, club-friendly soundtrack that joins the dots between crate-digging obscurities from the recent and distant past, fresh cuts, ‘secret weapons’ and previously unreleased music from young, local producers who have become regular faces on Brighter Days dancefloors. Across nine tracks, Kamma and Masalo deliver an enticing blend of tactile and colourful house, disco, basement-ready throb-jobs, inspired dancefloor dubs and righteous boogie jams, some of which are appearing on vinyl for the very first time (see Haroumi Hosono and Yasuhiko’s ‘Turquois’, an exceedingly rare, CD-only chunk of deep, throbbing tribal house intoxication). There are highlights everywhere you look, from the piano-house rush of the ‘Subterranean Mix Edit’ of S’Xpress’s overlooked 1990 single ‘Nothing To Lose’ and the South African Kwaito-boogie brilliance of Cisco The Champ’s ‘Move On’, to the Italo-disco excellence of Hugh Bullen’s ‘Alisand’, and Mr Fingers’ jacking 1988 remix of ‘We’re Gonna Work It Out’ by fellow Chicagoan house producers North/Clybourn. Kamma and Masalo’s remixing and re-editing skills are put in the spotlight, too. There’s the edit of Discotheque’s 1982 Dutch-Belgian disco classic ‘For Your Love’ and a previously unreleased ‘dub’ edit of French-Cameroonian artist Anyzette’s 1984 gem ‘Baladoun’, a low-slung slice of drum machine-rich body music that blurs the boundaries between Italo-disco, Afro-boogie and proto-techno. Completing the package are two cuts that demonstrate the duo’s love of showcasing tracks by young and little-known Dutch producers. Peffa’s ‘Routine’, an immersive and emotive treat that blends elements of deep house and Detroit techno, is just one of numerous unreleased tracks by the producer that Kamma and Masalo has been showcasing in their sets in recent years, while Desmon – whose ‘Submerge’ is a woozy, off-beat deep house treat – has been a regular on Brighter Days dancefloors since the start. It’s a fitting nod to what makes Brighter days special: a close-knit community of dancers and inspired, lesser-known music old and new.

Los Angeles-based saxophonist Sam Gendel ends 2023 with a remarkable run of releases, this time in collaboration with Ugnė Uma to bring us the mind-boggling Tam tikri objektai erdvėje (Lithuanian for Some Particular Objects in Space). Each track on the album is simply titled as a letter from the word "Saturn", and is conceptually cosmic, touching on both inner and outer space. Through improvisation they conjure a genuinely alien soundworld from strange musical instruments, sampling their own music and electronics. Incredibly far-out hybrid forms echo the peculiar mutant images on the cover art. Sam Gendel and Ugnė Uma's Tam Tikri Objektai Erdvėje album sketches a layered, melismatic and intertextual view on what both performers define as a lightness of being. Ugnė Uma's musical stance is influenced by experimental poetry and Lithuania's 20th century underground music scene - jazz and folk, resulting from the liberation of the country's independence movements. Sam Gendel, from Los Angeles, is a saxophonist and producer, proficient on more instruments than the saxophone alone, whose recorded work both solo and collaborative has brought him acclaim as a vital new voice in modern jazz and beyond. Tam Tikri Objektai Erdvėje is Lithuanian and translates as Some Particular Objects in Space. The six tracks on the album stand for every letter of the word Saturn. They sketch out a sound palette both fragile and full of forward momentum. With hints of improv, sampling their own recorded work and sounds of a childhood's Yamaha Portasound PSS-290 synth into abstractions of pop and r&b, some of these tracks reach an almost balearic feel, the more contemplative end of it. With lyrics delving into cosmic phenomena, Tam Tikri Objektai Erdvėje is an album about space, whether cosmic or inward or the one in between. It easily surpasses the sum of its influences and the materials and tactics used to produce it.

In 2021 Nijs and Smolders started a series of free improvisations. Each came from a different background (see bio’s) and wanted to explore musical horizons that they were not used to. As a next step they decided to record an album of composed tracks. The experimental platform shifted from long improv sessions to composition and structure, with the work of Delaere as a source of inspiration. The material of his work, the unevenness, the detail of pigments clashing, superimposing on the canvas served as a metaphor and inspiration for sonic canvases that they constructed. The result has become a record full of surprises. Rhythm, drone, dynamics, timbre, notes, tones, all have been thrown in the tumble dryer and during the process many times led the two musicians towards an outcome they couldn’t have possibly foreseen. But here we are. Our own experience is that the music works best when it’s played loud. Crank up the level of your amp and dive into these 35 minutes of colorful sounds.

Moritz von Oswald's latest solo album is his most startling, time-bending material since the Basic Channel days, a collaboration with a 16-voice choir that refracts techno and choral music into dizzying psychedelic traces, exploiting mind-altering xenharmonic synth tones, Ligeti-like operatic phrases and abyssal kicks with a veteran's cunning. We've been knocked sideways by this one - trans-dimensional afters music at its absolute best. We realise that there's been a lot of electronic music released recently saddled with these buzzwords. Choirs, unusual tunings, deconstructions of early music - elements almost mandatory for artists eyeing the lucrative Euro festival circuit. But to our mind that's what makes von Oswald's latest all the more astonishing. He's stepped in with an album that's so definitive, it reminds us just how foundational and game-changing his early material was, and how less can so often amount to more. Opening track 'Silencio' is a dazzling proof of concept that winds lilting, oddly-tuned synth tones around the barest percussion. There are no vocals on this one, instead the traces of early Detroit techno hang heavy around its frayed edges. Working like a scientist with the stereo field, von Oswald introduces familiar elements into the mix in unexpected places. Wormy,cascading synth tones are met by driving whirrs, and the kickdrum sounds so submerged that it's almost an illusion. When he does introduce noisier sounds, they color the track like drybrushed highlights, and he saves the best until the final moments, energising the mood with monumental Millsian stabs that reference the past without retreading churned mud. It sets us up for the album's biggest tonal shift, when Oswald presents the choir on 'Luminoso'. He's worked extensively with ensembles in the last few years, his own - the constantly-shifting Moritz von Oswald Trio - the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Kyrgyz ensemble Ordo Sakhna, and the experience has furnished him with the ability to treat the choir with just the right amount of reverence and distance. Here, the Berlin singers' voices swirl into ghosted tones, nestling beneath a layer of mixing desk noise that feels like von Oswald's little wink to the camera, an acknowledgement of past glories. Moritz also provides a more abstracted rework of the track (along with three other versions of the choral compositions) that deepens the narrative. Losing the vocals completely, this take references the original's framework while adding impalpable, off-grid beats and cottony, rumbling textures that pirouette between the speakers. The synths and voices meet somewhere in the middle on 'Infinito', and von Oswald's remix shuttles them further into outer space, fogging them into spectral impressions and building a lithe rhythm over the top that hiccups and stutters with poise and momentum. 'Colpo' is even more impressive, offsetting the suggestive chorals with mechanical oscillations and thunderous sub bass tones. Like the earliest Detroit experiments, it's material that positions electronic music as a way to speculate about the past's relationship with the future. Von Oswald has formulated a minimalist masterpiece that interrogates not just technology, but the conceptual technologies of cultural invention. It's a highly rewarding, engrossing listen, certain to become a classic for the most adventurous after-hours listeners.

A 96 Minute Mix of all unreleased music by 21 contemporary artists. Featuring Molinaro, Carlos Niño & Friends, K15, Greg Beato, Legowelt, Afrikan Sciences, Hieroglyphic Being, Julion De’Angelo, 2000Black and many more. A journey through sounds, spheres, moods and dynamics dedicated to the unity and empowerment of the independent artists. Mixed, Cassette only, NO DIGITAL 'Love this sound' is where we find comfort in our favourite songs. Yet so much more can be enjoyed once one takes the journey of music exploration. This is something that does not come natural to most, but fortunately, Sassy J puts in the long hours to curate many musical trips. Expeditions in the boundless world sonically connected by years of music evolution, or the immediate arrival as though linked by sonic wormholes. A lust for musical growth fuels Sassy's quest for the identical but opposite, similar yet contrasting, energised and chilled sound that all fit perfectly together. Sassy J's eclectic selection taps into the sub conscience emotions music can reach. Is it meant to guide, provoke thought, bring happiness or ponder on misfortune whatever it does it all happens here at Patchwork. The popular echo chamber preaches to its own choir, whilst freedom of sound forces one to question if they will ever really know all what music can possibly be.

Terekke drifts gracefully onto Music From Memory with a long player of looping ambient pad pressure...BIG TIP!'The recording of Improvisational Loops began in 2012 during yoga classes at Body Actualized Center in NYC. In the spirit of past ’New Age’ or Minimal music, it aims to open up a space within the room giving the listener a chance to explore inward or outward. It was recorded using a digital synthesizer, reverb, and looper." Terekke, January 2018'

Gurum Triads is a transatlantic guitar & drum duet album that explores multiple techniques (none of which involve playing guitar). London musician Dane Law uses a Max/MSP contraption of his own invention, which allows him to improvise in real time using samples of his acoustic guitar. Wisconsin-based producer/drummer Chants contributed cassette tapes of his drums & percussion to this process, and then took the resulting recordings and added additional layers of live drumming and self-sampled beats. The focus was never on the process itself but on the feeling and interplay of tactile textures, and on memories of shared post-rock touchstones. Recorded between January 2022 - February 2023.

Príncipe zoom out from dancefloor immediacy to dreamiest zones with XEXA's outstanding debut of world-building wanderlust, oscillating between bloozy ambient intimacy to lilting rhythmelodies and widescreen modern classical tipped if yr into Vox Populi, Emeka Ogboh, Laurel Halo, Rafael Toral, Arthur Russell, and David Toop. A reminder to never second guess Lisbon’s brilliant Príncipe, ‘Vibrações de Prata’ (’Silver Vibrations’) showcases the sparkling imagination of new signee XEXA. Her striking debut began life as part of her studies at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where she developed a compositional style of organic electro-acoustics woven into impressionistic storytelling, deploying original instrumental performance and nuanced sound design at the service of immersive, poetic aural environments.

The manc undergrowth continues to sprout new nodes on this killer double album - production by Michael J. Blood, vocals and songs by Samizdat, a real dense cloud of tunes on a tip somewhere between classic Theo Parrish mixes - heavy on the EQ - and Darren J. Cunningham’s Thriller edits, with a mumbled, punk swagger all its own. Like all MJB gear; sleep on it, weep on it. Honeyed and screwed, this one carries thru a long tradition of spiky, anti-establishment expression, augmented by MJB’s genius production and Samizdat's blunted - almost slurred - vocal delivery; mystical, itchy and red-eyed. The duo embody a deviant aesthetic, but guide you thru their narcotic vapours with ease. Like some screwed Ugly Edit, it’s all slow, clipped and hazed to fuck, pitched, and extended, all abrupt endings and no-starts, just over an hour of the special stuff. Yeah these two weave in and out of each other like nothing else. “I seek to fold into Blood’s productions as I believe in the collaborative idea of euphoria, like being touched by each other’s inflections. We try to celebrate and to re-appropriate the notion of what it is to be artistic outside of a “creative industry”. The sam part of the word means “self.” The whole samizdat—translates as: “We publish ourselves”—that is, not the state, but we, the people.“ Aye. Whatever DIY means, surely this is it.

At Week-End Fest 2021, the enthusiastic audience got the best impression: In Suzanne Ciani‘s „Improvisation On Four Sequences“, the whole history of electronic music is present, the awakening of the American musical avant-garde at the end of the 1960s, which eventually led to the clubs of L.A. and New York. We can hear in Ciani‘s improvisations everything that has made up the development of electronic music since 1970, but above all the dialogue between artist and machine, which simply ends when the concert is over. Laconicism, precision, sound sensitivity and the weight of a tradition that Ciani was instrumental in founding come together: spectacular precisely because it is so unexciting.

Two visionary maestros, Pierre Bastien and Michel Banabila, unite in their first collaborative album, Baba Soirée. The veterans of electronic music bring their unique expertise to the table, resulting in a captivating fusion of experimental styles. Bastien’s mechanical loops and fantastic instrumental setups merge seamlessly with Banabila's sound design and impeccable skills of sampling collages. It's not a dance party, nor is it an avant-garde intervention. It's a soirée: a cultivated evening of sonic alchemy hosted by these two charismatic gentlemen. Pierre Bastien is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with a background in French literature. He has spent decades crafting an idiosyncratic world of experimental sound with his self-built mechanical orchestra Mecanium. It was most notably showcased in audiovisual releases on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label. Bastien's creations are a mesmerizing combination of traditional instruments (he has a vast collection) and mechanical automatons. The violin in the track Rotomotor, for example, is physically played by one of his machines. In Baba Soirée, Bastien also plays a prepared cornet (Slow Dance, Banbas Aura), infusing the recordings with a breathy, dreamy dimension. Michel Banabila, a sound artist, composer and producer, possesses an eclectic musical repertoire that defies genres. His blend of minimal electronica, tribal ambient, and neo-classical influences has earned him a prominent place in the world of experimental music, and an impressive discography (Knekelhuis, Bureau B, Séance Centre, a.o.). Banabila serves as the creative sampling editor for Baba Soirée, expertly weaving together the recordings to craft an evocative sonic tapestry. The two share a curiosity for traditional instruments from various cultures. The instruments used in the recordings are shown in the cover artwork. A mutual admiration for each other's work paved the way for this fruitful artistic partnership of the Rotterdam-based artists: Collaborating on a single as a fundraiser for Yemen in 2022 set the stage for the creation of Baba Soirée. For Pierre Bastien, Dada, Fluxus and International Situationism have played a significant role in shaping his artistic vision. The title Baba Soirée is an homage to Kurt Schwitters and Theo van Doesburg's "Kleine Dada Soirée" collaboration which took place exactly a century ago. There's an unmistakable stoicism and an anarchic not-giving-a-f*** attitude in these recordings by Bastien & Banabila, which resonates in the light of this Dada reference.

Alleviated Records is proud to present a special re-issue of the Alien project. Larry Heard's productions always hinted at deepest outer space, but Alien was his first actual science-fiction record. It's almost as polished as the most mainstream dance production, but just as sublime as any Detroit producer. Heard's house roots often show themselves, while the chords and shimmering production make this an album almost on par with Heard's mid-'80s peak. The project was a recording & sound-development experiment that was mostly constructed around a Korg O1/W workstation keyboard.

“A sultry haze of shimmering ambient electronics and sparkling, effects-heavy guitar. Just what the ambient doctor ordered." - Electronic Sound

"Consumed in its entirety Late Spring is a soothing breeze, teleporting you directly to a grassy field in the sunshine – as transfixing as any record released thus far in 2021." - The Vinyl Factory

"The record sounds exactly like what you would expect with a name like Late Spring; it is a meditative, hypnotic look at the human condition and its emotional spectrum, as it attempts to grasp undefinable." - Far Out Magazine

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Japanese musician Chihei Hatakeyama is set to release his new album ‘Late Spring’ on 9th April 2021. An album of a humble nature, ‘Late Spring’ gently unfolds as a shared journeying experience through a series of rich and outstanding encounters.

An extract from the liner notes by Nick Luscombe:

"For an artist who typically works quickly, Hatakeyama considers Late Spring to be one of the more time-intensive records of his career – he started working on it in 2018, and completed it towards the end of 2020. For Late Spring, Hatakeyama re-examined his approach to musical performance, using a new amplifier and microphone set-up to playback and record his guitar and synthesisers. From the cathedral organ-like opener Breaking Dawn with its sub-aqua resonances, to the subtle drift of the closing track Twilight Sea, this record is a masterpiece of dense and beatific melodies. Drawn from evolving synthesised sounds and shimmering slow motion guitars, it combines these with occasional sonic elements that are best described as evoking computer code running through the veins of the machines like artificial blood."

Chihei Hatakeyama is a sound artist, mastering engineer, and record label founder who was born in 1978 and lives in Tokyo. He has performed for years under his given name and also as one half of the electroacoustic duo Opitope alongside Tomoyoshi Date. From his first full-length album ‘Minima Moralia’ (“Excellent” 8.1 Pitchfork) in 2006, through the subsequent 70+ albums that followed, Hatakeyama has created a mighty canon of work. His catalogue is spread across a number of highly-regarded labels, including Kranky, Room40 and his own White Paddy Mountain imprint. His release rate is unquestionably impressive, but what is even more striking is the continual high quality of each alluring album.

A popular cassette work that has been evaluated among core listeners at our shop, is now available in a limited edition of 300 copies! A very mysterious work released in 2021 from the underground label in London, UK, whose details are completely unknown, and there is a lot of information trouble. "Untitled tape - Untitled work" is a must-see work that boasts a cult-like popularity, whose cassette version was out of print instantly even in the second press. It reminds me of the US underground noise/drones from the late 2000s to the early 2010s, when Kosmische madness swirled around Emeralds. Komische Ambient/Drone Music. Limited pressing with numbering.