There is a legend in Burma stating that swarms of male dragonflies gather to join in choruses of high-pitched tones to court their mates. The ones that don't succeed in mating eventually scream so loud that their chests explode and they drop dead to the ground. These recordings are a tribute to this legend. Droning cicadas, dragonflies, and other insects display their charm as masters of the high frequency airwaves, recorded live and unprocessed by Tucker Martine in the lush settings of L…
Duane Pitre's new album, Bridges, features two pieces taken from a suite of analogous compositions by the same name, and was composed by Pitre in 2012. The two pieces that comprise the album are meant to work together in sequence as a composite work; or they can be isolated and listened to on their own. The title derives its name from the original concept for this work, which was to bring together aspects of traditional Eastern music (such as compositional form and tuning) with Western musical t…
comes in an old-style tip-on gatefold jacket with 8” x 10” insert and MP3 download coupon. In recent years, Higgs has released a number of solo outings that can only be described as the ultimate in isolation, worlds away from the hypnotic, communal rock of his band, Lungfish. Higgs follows up the 2007 album/book release Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot with his new double album Say God. Say God is an album of gospel songs and poems as presently received by this Daniel Higgs. Recorded with the help and…
Lovely compilation selected by Xiu (Oksana Rodionova) consisting of contemporary minimal electronic and deviant-techno artists based in Milan, Italy. Here's the label's mission statement as you could say: "The musical aesthetism defended by the label admits connections with post-modern qualities and challenges conventions for an innovative musical conversation between analogue instrumentation and technologies." The label will host various types of electronic music always seen throught a dark and…
Active Recovering Music (ARM) is a slide whistle ensemble led by sax player Masahiko Okura. All of the members play the slide whistle. Okura debuted ARM in concert with a five-member formation in 2008. He's since continued the group's activity (though their live performances are infrequent) with changing numbers of players. This is the recording of a performance by ARM--this time with eight members--which took place at Ftarri, Tokyo, in February 2013. Each of the three pieces was composed by Oku…
If you’ve heard of Felix Kubin before, you’ll likely think you have some idea of how ‘Echohaus’ is going to sound. Well forget what you know, you’re wrong – Kubin’s well-worn Sci-Fi pop stylings are entirely erased on ‘Echohaus’ as he rebuilds people’s preconceptions from the ground up. He may have just scored a long-deserved Wire cover, but Kubin is not content to simply rest on his laurels, and although ‘Echohaus’, a collaboration with contemporary chamber group Ensemble Integrales, migh…
'Temple' is the final installment in Jan Jelinek's series of four vinyl compilations that bring together the wide variety of his music: commissioned works, live recordings, collaborations with other musicians as well as unreleased material from the last five years. Temple stems from a collaboration with French-Canadian choreographer Sylvain Émard. Temple is a re-worked excerpt of the music for the dance piece Fragments – Volume I and is a 10 minute drone work that builds from nothing more than a…
This recording documents a sound-performance curated by Franck Ancel in homage to Varese’s « Poeme Electronique ». This musical milestone was commissioned for the Philips Pavilion created by Le Corbusier and Xenakis on the occasion of Expo’58, the Brussels World’s Fair that was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958. Le Corbusier envisioned an “art total’’ utopia involving space, music and images all at once. As soon as he was hired by the dutch company, he announced his intent to create an « ele…
"Group ONGAKU, founded mainly by students at Tokyo National University of Fine Art & Music, was the 1st collective musical improvisation group. The group began their activities in 1958, & from the naming of the group in 1960 onward continued until somewhere around 1962. They attempted to create acoustics corresponding to actual time & space by means of collective improvisation. Although methodically different, the music that they pursued incidentally shared common directions with contemporaries …
"1st time ever that two of the most legendary figures from the Turkish jazz scene (Okay & Ertunc) play/rec. together, so really an historic event ! classic pn trio + some more ethnic/otherworldly moments. special front cover artwork by Huseyin, who's an acclaimed painter (he designed also the old Intex front covers...), especially in his own country."Label press
Three open improvisations recorded in concert at Kunstencentrum Belgie Hasselt, Belgium in 2010 by sub-groups from the Electrocacoustic Ensemble, plus an extended performance by the whole ensemble: Richard Barrett, Peter van Bergen, Lawrence Casserley, Peter Evans, Agusti Fernandez, Barry Guy, Ishikawa Ko, Paul Lytton, Paul Obermayer, Evan Parker, Walter Prati, Ned Rothenberg, Joel Ryan, Marco Vecchi.
**Re-press on vinyl, now with download code redeemable from the label** OPN's 'Zones Without People' was released in 2009 on a highly limited vinyl run for Arbor. All seven tracks featured in his Wire chart-topping 'Rifts' compilation, predating his mindblowing 'Returnal' album (surely one of the best of 2010) and displaying its prodigiously gifted creator amidst some of his most affective synthscapes. From the outset we could consider this to be classic material, as the miniature 'Computer Visi…
LOVE is a harmonious partnership between two dissimilar characters.LOVE (for two percussionists) was composed in 2004 by Kunsu Shim and recorded in 2012 by Nick Hennies (drums) and Greg Stuart (sustained sounds).
Kunsu Shim was born as the son of re-migrants from Japan on September 15, 1958 in Busan, South Korea. The ocean provided the adolescent Shim with the experience of spatial openness and expanse. This notion can be seen later as the basis of his production. He twice won the first pr…
Terrie of The Ex collaborated with numerous people over the years to get inspiration from and absorbing all elements of all music, but continuing to being raw and unpolished. In meetings with the Norwegian hard-hitting avant-garde drummer, Paal Nilssen-Love, two souls of similar attitude meet, although from very different background. Being a jazz drummer, Nilssen-Love holds his sticks well in the improvised area of music, much more than the average jazz musicians do today.
This CD is hard …
Multi-faceted composer and performer Ashley Paul releases her new lp 'line the clouds', on brooklyn's rel records. a hyper-intuitive record, where off-kilter instrumentation meets beautifully crafted melodies to convey the very essence of 'musicality', 'Line the clouds' contains 44.18 minutes of sonic paradoxes and dichotomies. Stirring up a zephyr of twelve blissfully cacophonous sounds - singular moments of an indivisible whole the focus is on guitar, voice and saxophone, but Ashley also em…
The second album of the Phantom Band is quite different to the predecessor. The line-up features the spoken word performer Sheldon Ancel on the microphone instead of bass player Rosko Gee. Whilst the debut album revealed many Caribbean or African influences and a generally positive frame of mind, "Freedom of Speech" is a somewhat darker avant-garde rock manifesto, interspersed with individual dub or reggae pieces. All they have in common are Jaki Liebezeit's inimitable monotone polyrhythm…
Though cut into seven tracks, it is really one 44-minute piece, the first long-form recording I've done in some time, a bit of a sizzler'. 100 copies handmade
Definitive collection of Ohio lo-fi pioneer's 1974-1992 material. A mash of home-recorded punk, pop & psychedelia. "Man, i hate it when someone's entire career seems to have passed me by, especially when it's someone as crazy as lo-fi pioneer and mad ranty man Mike Rep. I know fuck all about this guy but he sounds like a genius. I guess he may have come to prominence for his production work with Guided By Voices, Strapping Fieldhands and Times New Viking but this guys been kicking it since …
The Smegma & Blood Stereo collab LP "Guff Vout Mulch" on Nashazphonehas finally landed. Old fashioned postal collab finished up in 2009, sweet printed colour sleeves and bonkers liner notes by the noise soulman John Olson.Good old fashioned Trans-Atlantic postal collaboration LP between Smegma and Blood Stereo, recorded in Brighton, Pasadena and Portland. The whole shebang was finished in 2009, but Cairo's Nashazphone label didn't think you dinks were ready for it then, now they reckon yo…
In October 2012, the Tamashek community lost one of its most luminous voices when Koudede's life was cut short by a car crash during his trip home to Niger from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Koudede was a leading light among the myriad musical groups that have recently proliferated in Niger and Mali to voice the Tuareg struggle against exploitation and to exalt their proud but waning nomadic heritage. His outstanding reputation and corpus of songs garnered the respect of his contemporaries, and his…
Tape-warped phantom band Rangers finally unleash the lush, soaring, expansive prog-pop opus we always knew was floating inside the fretboard (and imagination) of multi-instrumentalist mystery maestro Joe Knight. The north Dallas-raised, San Fran-residing head Ranger grew up taking classical guitar lessons from a dude who claimed to have 'toured with the Dead,' and some of that brain-wonked jam agenda obviously seeped into the young Knight, who began recording his own loose, lo-fi jangle s…
600 copies. Second volume of Aaron Dilloway's recordings of the Nath Family of snake charmers of Haryana, India recorded in Kathmandu in 2005.ÊThis second volumes recordings are a bit more raw, originating from video and cassette recordings as opposed to the first volume's hi-fi digital recordings (don't worry..they sound JUST as disorienting!) and containing a duo track as well as the full 4 piece. Originally released as a cassette in 2005, now on vinyl in an edition of 600 copies. House…
Field recordings of a volcano by Geir Jenssen, better known as Biosphere. Stromboli is an active volcano off the north coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean. The volcano has erupted many times, and is constantly active with minor eruptions, often visible from many points on the island and from the surrounding sea, giving rise to the island's nickname Lighthouse of the Mediterranean. The last major eruption was on April 13, 2009.Recorded at Stromboli's crater edge (924 m) on July 19th 2012…
It's been a little while since we've last heard from Oakland-based sound artist Marielle Jakobsons in a solo capacity, but that's certainly not to say she hasn't been busy. Last year saw full-length outings by her two duo projects, Date Palms and Myrmyr, and already in 2012 works with Bay Area drone ensemble Portraits and trio recordings with Helena Espvall and Agnes Szelag have been released. Her last major solo outing (under the nom-de-plume Darwinsbitch) came in form of the dark, comple…
Conrad Schnitzler is considered to be the keyfigure of electronic Avantgarde Music in Europe. Schnitzler was member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster and Con Many years ahead of his time, CON was revolutionary in many aspects, He predated Industrial Music, sounded like Kraftwerk and DAF before they did and makes music today at the age of 71. Some rare early works in re-edited versions by Mooner aka Zombie nation. The track ''Electroklang'' is featured as a loop only!! Amazing electronic music…
**Transparent Vinyl - Individually numbered edition of 300 copies** Vatican Shadow and Lakker provide remix reinforcement for the killer debut from Berlin's Tommy Four Seven and Alain from One Million Mangos Mastering as These Hidden Hands. Their original 'Ivy' is heavily informed by the romantic dystopia of mid-late '90s IDM and D&B's grander gestures, gazing out on drizzly grey north European synth skies whilst the reduced tech-step torque ticks and prods like a not-so-dystant cousin o…
The hidden meanings are those that are at the origin of things. In an interview to Blow Up magazine in 2010, Venetian sound artist Enrico Coniglio, commenting on his aesthetic approach to the soundscape (it is the result of the aggregation of clusters of elements that have reason for existence in relation to their own specific function), marked off the traces for a path that some time later would take him to collaborate with the photographer and field recordist Giovanni Lami, from Ravenna, in …
Michael Wintsch, piano, synthesizer. Christian Weber, bass. Christian Wolfarth, drums. Ten years ago Michel Witsch (piano, synthesizer), Christian Weber (bass) and Christian Wolfarth (drums) met - 3 musicians who have not only shaped the European scene of improvisation in the most different formations but who also catch an ear with the maybe most relevant aspect in music whatsoever: SOUND. Wintsch, Weber and Wolfrath make music with a breathtaking mental vigor. The long time working band has…
Very special vinyl edition cut at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, includes a bonus track and a hidden locked groove, together with new artwork. limited copies!* The sister of office favourite Peter Broderick, Heather Woods Broderick steps into the limelight with this hugely impressive solo debut. On 'From The Ground', Heather is ably assisted by her multi-talented sibling, who records, produces and contributes various instrumental elements to the songs. These two are regular collaborato…
K11 is a project of Italian sound artist Pietro Riparbelli and lives within the world of radio signals, transcommunication and other invisible phenomena, to create a dimension where the main sound sources are signals from shortwave radio receivers. Another temple to the Great Beast 666 has been composed from said sound sources recorded during an Instrumental Transcommunication Action realized within the Temple of Diana in Cefalù, Sicily. The temple is famously known for its association wi…
"Marissa Nadler's Kickstarter funded self-titled self-release. Brian McTear produced the album, which Nadler says is the 'most honest, natural record' of her career." "You'll want this music to never end...best severe and complex emotions that we've possibly never recognized in this or previous lives." -- LA Weekly
Restocked, reduced price 'winter family are the brooklyn based duo of ruth rosenthal and xavier klaine. alt.vinyl is proud to release this double vinyl ltd edition edition (300 copies only) of their latest intensely atmospheric work. artwork by franz vesolt, layout by fabien lehalle. audio mastering by patrick klem. review: a rare and unique audio worldview expressed by the singular approach of brooklyn based duo ruth rosenthal (spoken words) and xavier klaine (harmonium, organ etc..). fro…
Olaf Schirm alias Symboter is a berlin-born electronic artist and musician. In the late 70s he lived in Munich. At that time he got Inspired by early Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk and other international computer music avantgarde artists. He used commercial synthesizers imported from Japan and his gigantic custom-built Symboter Modular System.
As technician of Gershon Kingsley ("Popcorn", "I feel love" sequence) he was able to use his Moog Modular System in many of his own songs andf…
Former Emeralds member Mark McGuire has planned a new album following his 2011 albumGet Lost. Along the Waythrough Dead Oceans. On Along The Way, McGuire writes in the liner notes: "€œThis story is an odyssey through the vast, unknown regions of the mind€¦the endless unfolding of psychological landscapes, leading to perpetual discoveries and expansions, in a genuinely emergent and infinite world of worlds. Further he writes “[the new album] is not a critique, it is not inst…
Ricardo Donoso completes his latest trance mission for Digitalis with 'One Verse Sharpens Another'. Four tracks of serpentine arpeggios, rolling bass pulses and stealthy, soaring synth chords simulate cybersex in anti-G, from the X-Files atmospheres and alien seduction of 'The Redeemer', to the piloerect triggers and tense pizzicato strings of 'Open Drawer, Full Of Masks' on the A-side and over to the sublime, supple bass roll and gentle ambient caress of 'Child Primitive' or the mind-wea…
Instability between sound and silence, between stagnation and air pressure; or else digital phantoms, remanences of what has not occurred - and the live electronics that sculpt this matter. Instruments increased to excess or, to the contrary, reduced to the flimsiest breath, distorted and exploited by themselves as much as by the teeming immobility of the dancer, body to hear. A slowness always in imbalance with abrupt accelerations, a stasis filled with electricity, a wall of sound.
I had heard so much about the machine created by Daniel Aspuru that my curiosity turned to desire. The transductor eolico is not an easy item to move around and as there were no concerts on the horizon I decided to follow my intuition and invite Steven, Daniel and Manrico to spend some time in La Perrera, located in my house in Oaxaca, Mexico in order to experiment with the TE and eventually produce material for a record.During this ten day residence La Perrera was transformed into a recording s…
Long unavailable 12" single with the spaghetti-Whitehouse sound of violence by The Sodality. 50 discs of the original 1989 release (of some 500 copies) were found without the original sleeve and were re-packaged as '25th Anniversary edition' in occasion of The Sodality's concert in Rome at the beginning of 2014. The new cover is made of two xeroxed drawings by Bruno Richard pasted on the innersleeve, housed in transparent plastic sleeve. Edition of 50.
Compiled by Chris Menist, Qat, Coffee & Qambus: raw 45s from Yemen features vintage oud and vocal music inspired by the qat-chewing, coffee-sipping, qambus-playing culture of Yemen. Although part of the classical Arabic musical tradition, the music of Yemen takes its rhythmic lead as much from the East African coast (a mere 20 miles across the Red Sea) as the surrounding Arab Peninsula.Little has been written about the music and culture of one of the world's oldest civilizations, and each 45rpm …
Includes digital download voucher redeemable from the label** Judging from his prolific output, L.A. dude M. Geddes Gengras must have a heavy carbon footprint. But we'll let him off 'cause he makes exceedingly good music. After techno odysseys as Personable, psych-dub trips with Sun Araw and The Congos, and duties in Robedoor, Pocahaunted and LA Vampires, he flies under his birth name for 'Test Leads', perhaps his purest and most honest revelation to date; two sprawling sides of throbbin…