Stephan Mathieu

Recently, the electroacoustic composer, performer, and installation artist, Stephan Mathieu, has been keeping us mesmerized with a sprawling array of archival material, issued and reissued by his own Schwebung imprint. In 2018 alone, he brought out the double CD, Trace (Recordings Of Entropic Systems 1998—2018), the expansive 12 CD box, Radiance, and the 8 CD, Folio - each overflowing with incredible sounds and proof of how visionary and prolific his last 20 or so years have been. Now, midway through 2019, he returns with a deluxe, expanded reissued of one of his most beloved works - Radioland, originally released by Die Schachtel in 2008, and now reemerging on Schwebung, complete with an additional 50 minute work. Whether new to your ears or an old favourite, the wonders within this newly remastered and expanded edition are not to be missed.

With a practice built around the sounds of early instruments, environmental recordings, and obsolete media, each re-constructed and transferred though intricate experimental process, Stephan Mathieu has been an unmissable force in the landscape of advanced contemporary music since the 1990s. Both through is solo efforts and his collaborations with Kassel Jaeger, Akira Rabelais, Ekkehard Ehlers, Janek Schaefer, Taylor Deupree, David Sylvian, Fennesz, and others, he has carved a deep path through sound.

His 5th full length, originally released in 2008, Radioland has remained one of Mathieu’s most highly regarded works, at the time topping the year end lists for The Wire, Boomkat, and Dusted, and still cited today. Exclusively based on realtime processed shortwave radio signals, received, transformed and recorded on various locations over the course of 2005 and 2006, Radioland is a total immersion into a vast sonic landscape of rippling ambience, texture, and intersecting tonality, careful constructed in ways that take the ear on an imagistic journey within. Bristling with tight tension -  its humanity and organic elements colliding with otherworldly electronic process, this electroacoustic music is all about.

This new edition comes complete with brand new second CD, capturing a previously unpublished 50-minute live recording of a performance during 2005 at Lampo, Chicago, further expanding our understanding of the work and ideas Mathieu was unfurling during this crucial and rich moment in his career. Issued by Schwebung in an edition of 200 copies, with 6-panel sleeve in Pantone Black with spot gloss details, based on the album’s original design. Wonderful and absolutely essential. This is one to get!