Gracebudd
Subliminal, a Galakthorrö project next to Haus Arafna, and just as ominous and secretive as its better-known label colleagues, offers analogue sound collages which perfectly bridge the gap between power electronics, noise and ambient. Very structured sounds are distorted, blurred and merged with echo effects, screams and voice samples; are endowed with throbbing rhythms quite similar to organic beats and pulsations; and incessantly are covered by a flow of hissing, induced noises which build up …
Live in Paris
Live In Paris is a live album by Psychic TV. The album was recorded live at Elysee, Monmarte, Paris June 08, 1986.
Live At The Waterworks Berlin
Founder of the Steel Cello Ensemble (1970s) featuring various players over the years. The music was produced on steel instruments like the Bow Chime or the Steel Cello that were built by Rutman himself. Among the musicians he collaborated with were Rudi Moser (drummer of Die Haut and Einstürzende Neubauten), Matthias Bauer and Carsten Tiedemann. This is a recording of a concert by Robert Rutman and his steel cello's recorded at a Berlin Art Gallery. If you are unfamiliar with the Steel Cello Ens…
Svatba
With voice, violin and percussion, this duo produces music with a thrilling intensity, suspense and drama. The musical basis is a mixture of the duo's interpretation of slovakian and romanian folk music, jazz and classical. They play with a freshness and enthusiasm that leaves the listener breathless.
The Four Cassettes Of The Apocalypse
Longtime stalwarts of the cassette underground (70 cassette-only releases and over 300 compilation appearances!) finally do a CD. This outstanding collection of soundscapes draws on collage, ambient-industrial and process techniques, as well as the construction and demolition of an in-studio environment.
Sound Pressure Level
The name Mazk is formed by the initials of the two participants in this project: Masami Akita (better known as Merzbow) and Zbigniew Karkowski. Not surprisingly given the history of the two musicians, the general scope of this recording is throbbing industrial noise, with overlays of drones and explosions of static. "Visible," the first track, sets up a churning mechanical rhythm not unlike what one might encounter in an infernal factory and adds layers of sounds that one is free to interpret as…
Zamia Lehmanni (Songs Of Byzantine Flowers)
Everything else SPK did was either industrial grind or fluffy dance-pop. Zamia Lehmanni lies along the axis of Graeme Revell's other solo projects (see below) and is gorgeous throughout. Its cover is red, gold, and black and the liner notes quote decadent poets in the original French along with a description of copper-colored blossoms from "Against Nature." by J. K Huysmans. You can see the dew on the leaves in a garden enclosed by mold-covered stone walls. The music is urgent gamelan with sampl…
L' Instruction Oratorio
Frederic Rzewski is an American composer, now resident in Belgium, of mostly chamber, vocal and piano works that have been performed throughout the world; he is also active as a pianist. Prof. Rzewski studied music privately with Charles Mackey in Springfield as a child and studied composition with Walter Piston and Roger Sessions, counterpoint with Randall Thompson and orchestration with Claudio Spies at Harvard University from 1954-58. He studied composition with Milton Babbitt and the music o…
Helix Parasites
"HELIX PARASITES": built on the idea of genetic modification via new channels, this is probably our most diversified and composite work so far. With a strong trend for rhythms and subliminal pipes, it has at the same time some of the most outlandish moments in digital psychedelia, where tons of events seem to happen in parallel. This is the voice of the incisive nucleus of newly born cells, extracted from the dreams of an artificial intelligence still to be conceived: lines of atomic maps draw t…
Theater Works
Roedelius (who is one-half of the legendary German electronic band Cluster) has had a solo career for many many years. Alas, his solo work tends to be less electronic and more keyboard easy listening fare. "Theatre Works" is a departure from that trend, with modern classical overtones and a modulated sense of drama. But the real surprise here lies with two of the tracks which are unreleased performances by Harmonia and Brian Eno--truth! Astute audiophile historians will recall the two remarkable…
Five Manifestoes
Meanwhile hard to find collaboration release. Swirling und grinding sounds in spooky layers. A rather dark and moving release.
DBL_FDBK
Asmus Tietchens and Arcane Device’s debut, ‘DBL.FDBK’, does not fit easily into one genre. If you want to hear real Ambient, get this record now! This is the most melodic ambitious and satisfying track in DBL.FDBK. It’s also one of those rare songs that touchingly comfort the listener. T4-M1-4 is a pleasing, and full of overall coherence that goes beyond other creations. I was truly moved when I heard T5-M2-1. T6-M2-2 - My least favorite song on this album. T13-M3-4 is possibly the best song Asm…
Hotel Hotel
Idiosyncratic French musical provocateur's finest moments and laden with ace contributions from an international cast of oddballs including Pierre Bastien and Clive Bell, the provisional constructs Berrocal and co. jerry-rig around the free floating music signifiers that comprise Berrocal's aesthetic M.O. are slippery, beautiful things, riding across the seams of art song, meditative orientalia, drunken free jazz bleat, dark electropop, hazy jazz reverbed into Hassell-esque fourth-worldisms and …
L’âme de l’objet
With L’âme de l’objet, percussionist Michel F Côté reached his artistic maturity, delivering his best achievement, at least with his project Bruire. For this third album, Bruire has really become a band, as the same group of musicians appear on every track: Jean Derome (sax, small instruments, flutes), Claude Fradette (guitars), Serge Boisvert (trumpet), Martin Tétreault (turntables) and Côté (drums, live electronics). Another change is the fact that the musical approach is now rooted in jazz in…
Polka Dots & Laser Beams
Guy Klucevsek plays music by Steve Elson, Tom Cora, Guy Klucevsek, Joseph Kasinskas, Anthony Coleman, Daniel Goode, Nicolas Collins, Guy De Bievre, Robin Holcomb, Duke Ellington, Peter Garland, William Duckworth, Bobby Previte, Carl Finch.
?Who Stole The Polka?
?Who Stole the Polka? is the second volume of pieces that accordionist Guy Klucevsek commissioned from composers ranging widely over the contemporary new music scene in the mid-'80s. For pure wicked fun, it probably exceeds its companion, Polka Dots and Laser Beams, and contains several absolute classics of the admittedly obscure genre. "The VCR Polka" by singer/composer David Garland is utterly hilarious and bewitchingly catchy, with lines like, "On my VCR/Black and white looks so seductive/Lik…
Iva Bittovà j.h.
Iva Bittová has been the guest of many artists all over the world, but this compilation mostly explores her work with her Czech compatriots, including Ida Kelarová, Pavel Fajt and Pluto, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Krajinka and Vladimír Godár, as well as some film and theater music and one unique Gregorian chant experiment made expressly for this release. It's a wild range of emotions, techniques and sounds.
Variety of Moods
This eleven-song debut EP shows the promise that Hans Joachim Roedelius has. This album has some very good songs like Muy Encantado and Bons Jours. Hans Joachim Roedelius’s debut, ‘Variety Of Moods’, does not fit easily into one genre. Unappreciated gift to Ambient Song Bons Jours is actually a funny song. A great put together song. Mattgold is the song that really did it for me. Music and lyrics of Der Mann Aus Lodz creates, for me, fertile ground for daydreaming. Albumblatt is one of those son…
Hot Stuff
German percussionist and Guru Guru founding member Mani Neumeier on drums, percussion, tapes, trombone, vocals, steel drum, Gamelan & radio. Swiss improviser Luigi Archetti on guitars, bass, tapes & mandolin. Totally flipped out rock/improv hybrid that is quite effective.
infrantumi
Starfuckers are an Italian collective...they create self-described 'concrete rock' that is at times so severely disconnected and minimal that the listener must mentally piece together the fragments. Imagine a place where This Heat and Oval meet.