Reime
*Limited to 300 copies* "How can one explain the lasting popularity of the bass clarinet in musical circles from Vienna to Brussels? Perhaps because its frequency range articulates an alternative to conventions of popular music, where "bass" is reserved primarily for rhythmic impulses and the very foundation of the music. Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer's playing can by no means be reduced to just this, rather, it scutinizes the entire sound universe: she can do rhythm and drone, not…
San Francisco Moog: 1968-72
San Francisco Moog documents for the first time a critical missing link in the history of electronic music. In 1968, a young singer named Doug McKechnie got hold of one the very first Moog Modular Series III synthesizers ever made—serial number 004—and began experimenting with it. Soon, he was hauling its many components around the Bay Area, performing improvised concerts for audiences whose minds had been opened by psychedelia but whose ears were often unfamiliar with electronic sounds. Working…
Frantz
First time vinyl issue of this 1997 Mego classic. General Magic, the duo of Ramon Bauer and Andi Pieper, who, alongside Pita, first pioneered the classic Mego sound on the Fridge Trax 12” in 1995. The following year proved to be formulative when Mego released Frantz alongside a slew of game changing releases from Farmers Manuel, Pita and Fennesz. Originally released as MEGO 010 Frantz presented a thrilling digression from what was in vogue in music at the time. This was the advent of portable co…
Douzième Journée: Le Verbe, La Parure, L'Amour
Originally released in Japan on the Belgian Crammed Discs label and subsequently re-issued on Made to Measure, Douzieme Journee treads that odd ground combining ambient music with roots in Eno and various so-called world musics, here concentrating on those found in Northern Africa and the Mid-East. This confluence seems to have been in the air at the time as witness similar efforts from Hector Zazou and the Penguin Café Orchestra. Lew and ex- Tuxedomoon member Brown, ably assisted by label mains…
Mr. Manager (Expanded Edition)
Following the acclaimed 2017 vinyl reissue of the Noir et Blanc album, we’re excited to present a special edition of Zazou Bikaye’s second record, Mr. Manager, which only ever came out on vinyl, in 1985. This edition comprises nine additional tracks, including six previously-unreleased recordings, and three which were only included on limited-edition singles. Stemming from the encounter between Congolese vocalist/composer Bony Bikaye, French musician/producer Hector Zazou and modular synth wizar…
Redrawn Figures 2
Fifteen artists revisit the tracks and the cover art of Aksak Maboul's latest album 'Figures'! Ranging from simple remixes to reconstructions and cover versions, these 18 tracks are released on two separate, limited-edition vinyl LPs, as well as on two digital albums. In order to extend the fun (and the metaphor in the title), Aksak Maboul have asked the contributors to also revisit Véronique Vincent’s painting which adorned the front cover of the album *. The participants include experimental …
Redrawn Figures 1
Fifteen artists revisit the tracks and the cover art of Aksak Maboul's latest album 'Figures'! Ranging from simple remixes to reconstructions and cover versions, these 18 tracks are released on two separate, limited-edition vinyl LPs, as well as on two digital albums. In order to extend the fun (and the metaphor in the title), Aksak Maboul have asked the contributors to also revisit Véronique Vincent’s painting which adorned the front cover of the album *. The participants include experimental …
Days Off
**Edition of 200 copies, 4-page insert of photos** Alex Twomey’s Days Off, the second full length album under his own name, pronounces his evolving compositional approach. Following The Entertainer (Recital, 2019), this new album features a more intimate ensemble of piano, strings, bass, and guitar. Written between 2019 and 2021, the arrangements resemble pop-structured songs within the margins of sedate orchestral music. Twomey’s use of electric guitar is also unique; more as a blurred harmoni…
Across Distances
Incidental Music presents "Across Distances", a new tape edition from Ambienti Coassiali featuring two previously unreleased "Room" pieces from the original "Vol. 1" sessions alongside four new tracks - two of which are available only on cassette. "Across Distances" marks the first release of Incidental Music's "Reflections" series, examining compositions across the passage of time and space. Though the pieces featured on "Across Distances" were recorded over thirty years apart, they feature t…
Catch Up with What Party +
The first full-length vinyl outing from Berlin-based musician and visual artist David Roeder. The LP features original and re-worked tracks from his previous self-released tapes as well as new material.
A gateway to the work of this shape-shifting artist whose Pessoan approach presents us with 23 tracks ranging from ensemble pieces, bedroom pop, field recordings, improvisations and electronics. Disparate elements unified by a layered, textural and DIY approach to sound. Indeed, the whole is some…
Struktura Revisited
Polish composer Olga Wojciechowska and veteran electronic producer Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner, combine on A Strangely Isolated Place to revisit a beloved Strië album - Olga’s more electronic and experimental alias.With previous releases on Serein and Time Released Sound as Strië, Olga Wojciechowska’s ‘Struktura’ was released in 2015 to a limited audience due to its physical-only format. As Olga’s work becomes increasingly more coveted, through her more recent releases on A Strangely Isolated Plac…
Feast On My Body
"It’s not my normal Sunday morning post-liturgy music, but there is a gloriously horrendous feel to it, marking in some way, a societal collapse we all seem to be witnessing worldwide." - Music You Need To Hear
Flutter & Scrape
"Flutter & Scrape" is a walking performance for prepared piano, aleatorically prepared room & objects, sine & square wave oscillators, tapes, voice, EMF signal, & time-based electronics. Performed by Sontag Shogun in 2018 in the studio at Machines With Magnets, recorded by Seth Manchester. Electronics & processing done in Montreal & Brooklyn in 2019.
Unhinged
Bob Bellerue's “Unhinged" is 85 minutes of physically heavy yet delicately executed amplified piano noise drone. Taken from two festival performances in 2017, the recordings capture the multidimensional articulation of the speaker systems used on and around the strings of a grand piano. Pickups and microphones are variously fed to small medium and large speakers to make feedback, which is combined to create cross-modulations that are petulant and unstable. Quiet groaning drones build to massive …
Zone 7
Overview 'On Zone 7 New York artist Christina Giannone creates sound worlds that act as portals to the interiority of our lived experiences. These portals appear like shimmering nebula, distant but compelling, calling our attention and sparking us to reach out towards them. Through a series of drifting passages her record maps out a possible trajectory into the recesses of our often under explored subconscious. This is not a didactic music, rather it is invitational and maintains a constant flow…
Oionos
Notes from Steve Roden on Oionos
:'Oionos was created for the exhibition The Grand Promenade, in Athens, Greece.
The exhibition took place in various archaeological and historical sites in central Athens, creating a situation for contemporary site specific works to be in dialogue with their historical surroundings.
While it was not originally offered as a possible site, I pleaded with the curator to allow me to work with architect Dimitris Pikionis’s Church of St. Dimitris Loumbardiardis, abo…
Oceans Of Milk And Treacle
From Mike Cooper ‘This is a soundtrack for an otherwise silent film. The title of the album, and of course the film, is borrowed from my late friend Fred Hardy’s book The Religious Culture of India - Power, Love and Wisdom, considered to be one of the most important books on the subject. In this book Fred wrote...“In 1835 the historian Macaulay investigated whether there was anything in the traditional Indian systems of learning and education that could be used in the training of native personne…
For Leolanda
Melbourne based percussionist and composer Maria Moles charts out an electro-acoustic familial history with 'For Leolanda’. Drawing on family roots in The Philippines, she extrapolates rhythm and timbre from the diverse musics of that country and interweaves them with percussion, synthesizer and singing bowls. Her sonic meditations are open and generous, and they chart out the shape and pulse of memory; both real and imagined. Each piece tests for the relationships between frequency and harmony,…
Electronic Resistance
*500 copies limited edition* Since the late 1970s, Nigel Ayers (b. 1957, UK) has cut a bracing, subversive path through the contemporary underground, bridging DIY industrial enthusiasms with multimedia experimentation to form a singular body of work. Co-founder of the groups The Pump and Nocturnal Emissions (along with brother Daniel Ayers and then-partner Caroline Kaye), Ayers has been a contributor to and proponent of industrial music’s high-water marks, his Sterile Records imprint disseminati…
Live Electronic Music
"Jeff Carney's sophomore effort for audioFile (1989) could not have been criticized were it to have remained in similar territory as the electronic wall of sound he had created on Imperfect Space Journeys. Instead, he created a more sparse, evolving tapestry of analog timbres. Using an exclusively vintage analog arsenal and recording live without overdubbing, Carney pushed forward with new ideas and uniquely developing sweeps of filter madness. The side-long 'Questions (Unanswered)' is immensely…