MUSIC

Nicole Lachartre: “Mundus” 3LP box – Metaphon 012 - 2023 Hardboard linen LP box with silkscreened titles, 12 page booklet with track info and text by Vincent de Roguin and Mark Harwood, notes by Lachartre and a rare portrait photo from 1969. Edition of 200 copies Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop First ever release of French composer, musicologist and writer Nicole Lachartre (1934-1991). This 3LP set comprises most of her electronic music and musique concrète compositions recorded in the 60’s and 70’s, all previously unreleased. Lachartre had a classical formation, studied with a.o. Darius Milhaud, Iannis Xenakis and Michel Philippot. Her broad formation and interest as well as her profound commitment and singular vision created a solitary voice even within the field of electronic music and musique concrète, strangely enough unheard till this day. Her first tape composition from 1968 was recorded in Pierre Henry’s Apsome studio and most of her other electronic and electro-acoustic compositions included in this box set were recorded at the IPEM in Ghent.

Originally released in 2016 as a tour-only cassette, 'Origo' is the first recorded evidence of Timo Van Luijk (Elodie) and Bart De Paepe's Ilta Hämärä project, a heady, hallucinogenic psych-drone jammer that's been bumped up with an extra cut from the same era. Ilta Hämärä is the outlet for Van Luijk and De Paepe's smokiest, dankest material - sessions that thrum at their own pace, tickling the pineal in the process. If you can remember Brooklyn's Religious Knives, or Kiwi skronkers Pumice, you'll have a good idea of where Ilta Hämärä are headed. The opening side's 'Ilma' pits organs against blunted drums and swirling pads, before we lurch into the atmospheric 'Vesi', a soupy zoner that's carried by lysergic axe tweaks and gurgling synths. On the second side, the mood continues with the grim, green-hued 'Vesi', but it's the previously unheard 'Eetreni' that has us most captivated. While it was recorded around the same time, it's markedly different gear, a long-form, mostly beatless Alice in Wonderland thriller that sounds as if it was pruned from a long-lost Czech or Hungarian new wave movie. Flutes and dulled oscillations wind around each other in the first stretch, but when the drums begin to surface they attack like a death rattle from another reality, spplintering out into serrated, saw wave noise and ritualistic crashes...

During the mid-‘70s, Switzerland had embraced punk within its cities, informing the subsequent post-punk era of the 1980s as music splintered into freeform musical strands across the whole of the country. It was to become one of the most innovative periods in Switzerland’s modern day music history. “It was like a wild laboratory for all forms of new and strange sounds, rackets and compositional experiments,” explains writer Lurker Grand, “accompanied and inspired by cutting- edge developments in electronic musical instruments. A broad, innovative scene developed and the four different language and cultural regions of Switzerland were no longer perceived to be an obstacle. There was a curiosity for the foreign and the strange. Conflicts for freedom and free spaces took place and this was reflected in the music.” It was unfiltered creativity and this free, non-commercial approach is a common denominator for the songs on this compilation. Many artists operated in their own universe; hardly any of the acts on this album actually met each other at the time. Only Liliput from Zürich achieved notable fame, building on the success of their previous incarnation as Kleenex.

WAAN represents the musical marriage of seasoned saxophonist Bart Wirtz and keyboard wiz Emiel van Rijthoven. "Echo Echo", the album"s title reflects the relationship between WAAN"s two members. They are the echo of each other"s echo - a symbiotic and never ending musical relationship and far more complex than just being a dance music influenced jazz album.

Hania Rani announces her new album, Ghosts, bringing her songwriting and beautiful vocals to the fore and featuring special guests Patrick Watson, Ólafur Arnalds and Duncan Bellamy (Portico Quartet). Ghosts is the sound of an ever-evolving artist and, just as the album’s title suggests she passes repeatedly and gracefully between musical worlds: as composer, singer, songwriter, and producer. This album builds on Rani’s earlier successes Esja and Home with an expanded yet still minimal setup of piano, keyboards, synths (most importantly her Prophet) and features more of her mysterious, bewitching voice. Its spirit is warm, beckoning one into an ambitious double album that unfolds at an exquisite pace, informed by her revelatory, exploratory live performances. Ghosts is also an album of collaborations as Rani is joined by Patrick Watson, who breathes unearthly life into the ethereal ‘Dancing with Ghosts’. ‘Whispering House’is written and recorded with her friend, Ólafur Arnalds and casts a peaceful, ineluctable spell; and Portico Quartet’s Duncan Bellamy contributes vital loops to ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ and ‘Thin Line’. Rani’s lyrics are partially inspired by a two-month residency in a small studio in Switzerland’s mountains, where Rani was working on the soundtrack On Giacometti for a documentary about the renowned Swiss artist. “Where I stayed was once an old sanatorium in an area which used to be very popular, but now there are huge abandoned hotels where the locals say ghosts live. I mean, it's kind of a local belief system – these ghosts even have names! – but once you're deep into nature or some abandoned place, your imagination starts working on a different level.” “The edge of life and death,” Rani summarises, “and what actually happens in between: this was what really interested me. Even singing the word ‘death’ was quite a shock. It’s such a weird word to say out loud, and people are afraid of it, which I found extremely interesting. Most of the songs probably still talk about love and things like that, but Ghosts is more me thinking about having to face some kind of end.”

Phonox Nights is the last album completed by Andrew Weatherall with Nina Walsh at her Facility 4 studio before the much-missed DJ producer passed away in February 2020. Introducing the set's exquisitely crafted electronic diamonds with a bubbling starburst of 21st century acid house, the title track's deep sweeping majesty is graced by ethereal synth lines from Weatherall himself, joining the percolating squelch of Walsh's Roland TB-303 in a heady blend of melancholic reflection and pulsing dancefloor wallop. Like a raft of other recordings the duo made through this time, Phonox Nights carries a spiritual and musical connection with Nina's late partner Erick Legrand, whose fathomless hard-drive archive she plundered with Andrew to the extent he can qualify as W.R.F.'s invisible third member. Legrand's presence shines brightest underpinning the translucent weightless flight of "Church Of Burnt Offerings", his rolling drums from the archive originally earmarked for a Barbican event that sadly never happened.

継続的な研究と探求の道を歩む、実験的な音響作品を出版するためのプラットフォームであるというロンドンの新興レーベル〈Titrate〉からは、同地の実験的ダンス・ミュージック・プロデューサー/レコードコレクターであるHenrique Matiasによるソロ・プロジェクトHemsによる2022年度デビュー・アルバム『Chaotic Affair』がアナログ・リリース。実験的なトーンを軸にしながらも、全体的に瞑想的な雰囲気を持つこの一枚では、リスナーを聴覚的没入へと誘う豊かなテクスチャーが含まれた先鋭的な電子音響/エクスペリメンタル・ディープ・テクノをたっぷりと堪能できます。

Andrew Chalk is known for his work on the legendary project Mirror (1999-2004) with Christoph Heemann, and is a master of building drones from England. The long-awaited first LP reissue of the 2019 cassette album "Paradise Lost", which contains two long songs of about 20 minutes, from Faraway Press.

More than any other of Ranta's releases this album shows his multiple roots and ideas as a composer, percussionist and concrete/electronic musician, building a seamless bridge between Eastern and Western avantgarde. Ranta is one of those rare composers able to organically melt his wide artistic span into a singular but yet diverse universe morphing his rich vocabulary as a percussionist with the Oriental esoteric tradition, the psychedelic underground and the realm of electronic minimalism.

"As a discarded record collection of notorious Cafe Extase crossed their path, Left Bank constructed their own warped version of club music. The era was acid-jazz, p-funk and rare groove, the records covered in thick layers of mold and dust. Recorded a few streets from where the action once took place, Kelder Extase forms a musical resurrection of a basement that has disappeared."

After his first album on BLESSYOU "Turquoise", Mogwaa aka Seungyoung Lee from Seoul is back with another stellar contribution this time re-visiting his earlier days of musical appreciation in Reggae music. This album is another entirely instrumental work with 8 tracks, effortlessly displaying his confidence in the studio when it comes to dreamy dubbed out ambient sounds intertwined with heavy digi/stepper and even dancehall influences. A refreshing treat to the ear when it comes to contemporary productions as Mogwaa approaches the Jamaican genre with a refined aesthetic of his own. From Korea with much craft and dedication for the music, a pleasure to have him back. Mastered at Manmade mastering.

Double-LP version. The musical vortexes of Caterina Barbieri rewire time and space. Listening to the Italian composer and modular synth virtuoso has felt like traveling at light-speed and slow-motion all at once since 2017's breakthrough Patterns Of Consciousness. 2019's acclaimed Ecstatic Computation pushed even further with the lead single "Fantas". Far beyond any new age trope or modern synth trend, her music stands alone in its ecstatic intensity and cataclysmic emotional impact. Marking the debut album on her new label light-years, Barbieri now delivers her most profound work yet -- a journey through inner-space as vast as a universe and as intimate as a heartbeat. Spirit Exit is Caterina Barbieri's time machine, primarily composed with a modular synth rig she thinks of more like a mechanical fortune teller. Whereas previous releases were constructed on lengthy tours, capturing only snapshots of continually evolving works, Spirit Exit represents the producer's first album fully written and recorded in her home studio amidst Milan's two-month pandemic lockdown in 2020. It was during this extended isolation she found inspiration from female philosophers, mystics and poets spread across time, but united in their strength at cultivating vast internal worlds. St. Teresa D'Avila's foundational 16th century mystical text The Interior Castle, philosopher Rosi Braidotti's posthuman theories and the metaphysical poetry of Emily Dickinson act as thematic anchors throughout Spirit Exit. Spirit Exit crystallizes Barbieri's densely layered, blindingly bright synth arrangements while introducing stunning new elements that feel as if they've always belonged. Strings and guitar flawlessly thread into the composer's web of modular patches, while her revelatory singing voice often cuts right through them. Melodies remain Barbieri's great passion and obsession and on Spirit Exit they grow as large as planets before cracking into atoms. The sweeping "At Your Gamut" perfects the producer's dramatic, slow-burning openers, but in her first ever use of sampling, it later gets crushed, accelerated and unrecognizably transformed into the ghostly hook surging through "Terminal Clock". As the album closes on "The Landscape Listens" -- a song that approaches death with all the gentle grace of Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)".

he unbelievably prolific Haruomi Hosono is one of the major architects of modern Japanese pop music. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music and boundless curiosity for new sounds, Hosono is the auteur of his own idiosyncratic musical world, putting his unmistakable stamp on hundreds of recordings as an artist, session player, songwriter, and producer. Born and raised in central Tokyo, his adolescent obsession with American pop culture informed his early forays into country music, which he would revisit later in his career. Hosono made his professional debut in 1969 as a member of Apryl Fool, whose heavy psychedelia was somewhat at odds with his influences, which leaned towards the rootsy sounds of Moby Grape and Buffalo Springfield. The latter was one of the main inspirations for his next group, Happy End, whose unique blend of West Coast sounds with Japanese lyrics proved to be highly influential over the course of three albums. After the band’s amicable break up in 1973, Hosono began his solo career with Hosono House, an intimate slice of Japanese Americana recorded inside a rented house with recording gear squeezed into its tiny bedroom. Hosono’s solo career would take many twists and turns from this point forward, with forays into exotica, electronic, ambient, and techno, culminating in the massive success of techno pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). Released in September 1978, a mere two months before YMO’s debut, Cochin Moon is a clear precursor to the groundbreaking synth and sequencer-dominated sounds that would come to define the iconic trio. Credited to Hosono and Pop Art legend Tadanori Yokoo (who created the cover art), Cochin Moon is a fictional soundtrack to a journey into unknown worlds, inspired by Hosono and Yokoo’s trip to India. Initially the album was to be a kind of ethnographic musical document, using found sounds and field recordings made by Hosono himself. Instead, after Yokoo introduced Hosono to the sounds of Kraftwerk and krautrock during the trip, Cochin Moon became something much stranger. Created almost entirely on synthesizers and sequencers with the help of future YMO collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hideki Matsutake, the music on the album is the perfect encapsulation of Hosono’s concept of “sightseeing music,” transporting the listener to an exotic place that may or may not exist. This highly sought-after album sees its first-ever official release outside of Japan. Admired by artists ranging from Van Dyke Parks to Mac DeMarco, Hosono continues to forge ahead as he heads into his fifth decade as a musician. With the re-release of his key albums for the first time outside of Japan, his genius will be discovered by a whole new generation of fans around the world.

DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis, could be credited with bringing newfound introspection to the gloating sounds of hip-hop. Condensed with urban oscillations and scatological beats, 1996's Endtroducing shudders with eclectic samples and aural montages that reach beyond the constraints of hip-hop style. Enhancing the mix with fundamentals of rock, soul, funk, ambient, and jazz, the modern fusions fail to go unnoticed, even by the casual listener. While most of the tracks are compiled by layering samples from vinyl treasures found in used-record bins, the production quality of the mosaic is unmatched. Darkened melodies carry throughout the album with its eye on the end of the tunnel. The narration samples come from numerous sources and keep the listener involved and waiting for resolution. With a message as fragmentary as an overheard conversation, Endtroducing conveys no apparent conclusion, but begs the mind, body, and soul for some rewind.

Charlemagne Palestine's newest record pairs two energetic works for carillon bells. On side A, a new piece recorded at his studio in Belgium - a high-ceiling, stuffed animal paradise he calls Charleworld - among friends and divinities. On the flip side, Blank Forms Editions' very first and long out-of-print release appears on vinyl for the first time: a cathartic street recording of his 2018 musical eulogy for his late friend Tony Conrad, performed on the bells of St. Thomas Episcopal Church where the two first met. Two mesmerizing "klanggdedangggebannggg" sessions in the Quasimodo of 53rd Street's unmistakable improvisatory style.

music and design by buttechno vocals and graphics by Triš © Psy X records, Berlin, 2023

Diva of the diode’ Suzanne Ciani pairs up with Jonathan Fitoussi on ‘Golden Apples Of The Sun’, a whirring homage to W.B. Yeats and celebration of the timeless beauty of Buchla, Moog and EMS synthesisers. Recorded largely in Bolinas, California overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the waveforms of the modular synths share the hypnotic ebb and flow of the water, coaxing the listener into a buoyant trance. The term ‘Golden Apples Of The Sun’ is taken from Yeats’ poem ‘The Song Of Wandering Aengus’, which Ciani recites in full on the title track, turning his dreamlike imagery into almost extraterrestrial yearning

ZZK Records presents Mito y Comadre’s Guajirando, a journey into the reinvention of traditional Venezuelan music For years the ancestral riches of the folklore, culture and traditions of the indigenous peoples of Latin America have withstood the passing of time and the different impositions and trends of an increasingly globalized world that seems intent on pushing them into oblivion. Their fight to stay true to their roots and preserve their legacy means there is more and more interest in sharing these treasures with the world. Guajirando comes from this interest in finding recognition in our roots. This is the debut record from Mito y Comadre, the Venezuelan synth-pop and electronic roots group who with these nine previously unreleased songs take us on a journey through the sights and sounds of their country. The fusion of electronic sounds pays homage to a rarely explored music, one that is profoundly rooted in the territory, creating a dialogue between native percussions and rhythms such as the quitiplás, the malembe and the quichimba of Barlovento, the macizón and perra of the Caribbean coast, the calypso of the heartland, the flauta guajira and the gaita oriental, among other instruments. Backed by machines, electronic elements and the production of Grammy winner Christian Castagno (Bomba Estéreo, Systema Solar, Iggy Pop, Arcade Fire), they seek to bring visibility to these traditional rhythms with contemporary tendencies, creating a visionary fusion that places them on the scene as one of the most promising proponents of experimental Venezuelan music today.

The Medicine Singers groundbreaking debut LP on Stone Tapes, produced by Yonatan Gat, embodies decades of musical genres influenced by Native American music, offering what Pitchfork called a "vivid new context for the sound of the powwow drum, highlighting the debt that rock music owes to Native American music." This monumental album connects experimental music and traditional powwow in previously unheard ways, acting as a guided tour de force, taking listeners through the many different musical styles with roots (still being discovered) in Native American music. From psychedelic punk to spiritual jazz, from minimalism to electronic music. Their live show is the stuff of legend – the Medicine Singers set up, often in-the-round with the audience encircling the band, and go into a trance-inducing set where the walls between band and spectator, as well as between psychedelic rock and shamanic chants, are blurred. Or in the words of Canada’s Exclaim Magazine “the border between audience and performer had all but been dissolved by the sheer power of music. By letting the audience in on the action, [Medicine Singers] evoked a type of bodily experience that transcended mere observation.” Bridging multiple dimensions of sound, on their debut LP Medicine Singers expanded into a remarkable supergroup that also includes ambient music pioneer Laraaji, Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica of Swans, “No Wave” icon and former DNA drummer Ikue Mori, trumpet player jaimie branch and guitarist/producer Yonatan Gat. Half a decade after the spur-of-the-moment story of how the musicians first met and unraveled their sound on an unsuspecting audience during SXSW 2017 when Gat saw Eastern Medicine Singers play on the street and invited the band to spontaneously join his show – the collaboration between the musicians reaches a climax with this breathtaking debut album as Medicine Singers, helping pave the way to this year’s rising wave of Native contributions to experimental music – shining a spotlight on guest vocalists representing indigenous nations from outside of the Northeastern Woodland tribal area. “Where else can you get all these different native people singing together on an album?” Jamieson asked. “On this album you have east, west, north and south all coming together. That’s why we say it’s medicine.” iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 472px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3001077196/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless>Medicine Singers by Medicine Singers

The poetry of the human voice encounters the magic of contemporary electronic musical technology. Heart, mind and spirit, conveyed by the word, are augmented and altered, enhanced and embraced, by electronic sound. “Air from Air” is a collaboration between Japanese vocalist/producer Dove and American electronic duo Georgia. This singular partnership is a collection of audio poems in which words breathed by Dove are modified and expanded, cradled and celebrated, syllable by syllable and phrase by phrase. Georgia thoughtfully highlight Dove’s voice, transforming breath and air through the ether of circuitry, dismantling meaning, yet paradoxically revealing new meaning, both verbal and musical. Part of the magic here is that Japanese-speaking listeners will find clouds and constellations of meaning in these atmospheres, while those who do not understand Dove’s native language will nevertheless find pure pleasure in these same atmospheres. While some listeners may perceive it as a brand new extension of the attempts of contemporary music pioneers to explore the possibilities of human voice sound in sound art and electronic music, “Air from Air” will be rather a foray into the unexplored territory of new music, yet difficult to be named, extended into modern bass music and other fields. Available on LP and DL. Vinyl edition disc is made of environmentally friendly new material BioVinyl. Cover art by Sakura Kondo.

C.G. Roxane (Jake Orrall) 's new cassette album from London's The Trilogy Tapes.

C.G. Roxane (Jake Orrall) 's new cassette album from London's The Trilogy Tapes.

Aaron Anderson & Chris Hontos with Leonard King, William Statler, Chris Farstad and Eric Timothy Carlson. Mastered by Jack Callahan.

Ominira's owner Kassem Mosse a.k.a. DJ Residue's casette album released from The Trilogy Tapes. Features over 20 minutes drone ambient/experimental soundscape of surrealism.