Coral Sea
Noise is coming from every direction. Backseat tvs flicker, and shuffling sounds fill the spectrum. Light glimmers from the windows, and only a few of us look out. I'm consumed by everything (else) and it all seems overwhelming. I'm outraged by the extending evils, their smiles filling my consciousness. It's not good enough to be a bystander. I won't make those mistakes. I will try. But what, do you give? Below, there are tiny islands passing by. They appear for minutes, and disappear. So will t…
Malaria
Inspired by the journals, letters, and photographs of James Jenkins, 1942-1943 from Luzon, Philippines. Writing letters in the rain under the canvas, listening to records played from the center of the mosquito nets, or from the veranda overlooking the city lights. It may not have been in the same places.. Under the waterfall, ignoring their calls, receiving a Dear John Letter, or being iced on your anniversary. It may have been at different times, but we felt the same..
Whether from the jumpdoor…
Being Below
Being Below is a mini-album of short songs created with digital and analogue instruments, recorded in 2020. Written with a structure that reflects shifting states, overlooking the past and future as a split pathway with the present endlessly fluctuating between. The pangs of rumination. An exercise in loop-less writing.
"Staring out, tense. Looking down isn’t so different than looking up, but it passes by faster. Contentment at the accomplishment that I'm here, and the fear that what I’ve always…
Wood Land
Wood Land is a story of a nameless worker caught in the mundanity of placid bureaucracy. Wood Land is a story of buried towers and subtle rebellion. Wood Land is a story of unsubtle rebellion and totalitarian overthrow. Wood Land is a story of deep space awakening and astronaut spiders. Wood Land is a story of return and reconciliation. Wood Land is a story. Scored by Joseph Minadeo and written by Curt Brown with imagery by both. Sonically, 'Wood Land' was an extension of Joseph Minadeo's first …
(An) Exterior
Mini-lp gatefold sleeve courtesy of Stoughton Printing. It will also feature an extensive booklet featuring the artwork of Bertin. Edition of 200 copies. Frans De Waard. When he is not writing reviews for the long-running Vital Weekly column he helms, records an incredible amount of music under many different monikers. Each one has a personality. The name Quest (not to be confused with QST) is De Waard's ambient outlet. Vintage synths, wet ware, hiss, harmonics. The history of Quest goes back to…
Vacuola
Coming in from Spain only recently is "Vacuola", the latest album effort created by long standing - we're talking a debut cassette tape album under his real name in 1990 here... - electronic music composer Javier Hernando in collaboration with Angel Lalinde. Released via Wet Dreams Records the hand-numbered twelve tracks and roughly 42 minutes spanning album starts off on an immediately threatening and most of all hostile tip with earth shaking bass movements creeping up from gargantuan subsurfa…
Interstitial Spaces
Interstitial Spaces (F90111) is the follow-up to Fabio Perletta’s 2013 CD Field: Atom(s) Entropy. With this new work Perletta investigates the physical phenomenon of the “Interstitial Space” which is the point in a crystal lattice where the perfection of the atomic structure is broken or suspended resulting in open spaces for unexpected resonances.
After his investigations of entropy with Field: Atom(s) Entropy, here the underlying inspiration is anomalies within atomic structure such as vacuums…
Journey Test
'Journey Test' is composer and pianist Tristan Eckerson's first album under the moniker of Purple Decades, his new ambient project. While his past work has focused largely on solo piano, Purple Decades is an exploration into soundscapes, electronic textures, and hypnotic musical environments. While many tracks on the album still feature piano or keyboards in some form, the compositional approach is accompanied by extensive work with reverb, foley, and orchestral electronic arrangements, and some…
Nacreous Clouds
“Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), also known as “Nacreous Clouds”, are found in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15,000–25,000 metres (50,000–80,000 ft). Due to their high altitude and the curvature of the surface of the Earth, these clouds will receive sunlight from below the horizon and reflect it to the ground, shining brightly well before dawn or after dusk. PSCs form at very low temperatures, below −78 °C. These temperatures can occur in the lower stratosphere in polar winter…
Tempelhof
“Touring is a strange experience. There are disappointments and surprises. The audience you expected wasn’t there, but those shows usually end up being the best. I didn’t expect I’d see these cities. Frankfurt in the rain, or falling asleep in the back of a car in Basel, waiting for a show to start. You wake up and you’re in a different place, or already moving on to the next before you can experience the place.
All the tapes I dubbed for the tour I left in the first hotel, and did the rest on t…
Inside The Head Of Gods
*300 copies limited edition* "Inside the head of gods" is an EP of music made to accompany the paintings of Taichi Kondo for his exhibition "What’s my name?" at Finale Art File in Manila, Philippines, April 6 – April 30, 2016. "When I first saw his paintings, they gave me a very clear sound of music. I had many ideas, and there were many elements of each of his paintings to represent through music. When I began creating the music, I made many different kinds of tracks with different lengths, str…
Callisto
*300 copies limited edition* edition Have you ever looked up into the sky at night, and it seemed that you could see beyond the stars? How many times have you looked up, but how few do you actually remember? I remember two times:
The sky seemed to roll, the stars flickering in the humidity of the late-August evening. It makes your throat feel dry and your body strained. Staring up, “We can’t see stars like this at home”, we said to each other. Lying on the concrete slab behind the garage, and at…
Akagi
"In the fall of 2012, I was asked to create music for a live yoga event at Yougenji temple in Northern Tokyo. The performance was centered on the yoga instructor with the musician playing to the back of the audience, so that music served more as a live soundtrack for the event. For this I created a new piece of music using two reel-to-reel tape machines, and two tape loops of keyboards with similar time structures, but each with different, overlapping chords. They played simultaneously, crossing…
Alcoves
“I’m spending the days cataloging books and filling the shelves of the new library. In the early afternoons, the new library employees come in and we learn about their system, and how to work it. It’s a 4km walk out of the edge of town, along the hills and red dirt roads with broken palms back to our house. I’ll listen to the radio, or the wind as I walk. When I get back you’re on the phone with family, and our child is outside the window playing in the sand nearby. When she comes back in to joi…
In The End You'll Just Disappear
Created for an installation to be played on 3 speakers in a triangular shape facing the center of a room. Each speaker played a continuous loop of a low end cut (speaker 1), a mid end cut (speaker 2), and a high end cut (speaker 3). From the center of the room, they should be perfectly mixed, yet evolve due to small differences in start times.
Music For A Cosmic Garden
CD edition Recorded during the heights of the pandemic and completed in February 2021, the majestic 8-track ethereal/botanical soundscape created by Kokubo and Esperti is available as a limited edition double LP, a digipack CD, as well as in digital format.
Takashi Kokubo, environmental music figure, celebrated sound designer, and founder of Studio Ion, has released over 20 albums, including the genre-defining and highly sought-after Ion Series. He's also played a major role in the sonic identi…
Balcony Sunset / Sonnenaufgang 4:46 Uhr
The first collaboration between Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters, “Underrated Silence” has been one of Bureau B’s most successful releases so far. Ulrich Schnauss (famous for his three solo albums as well as for his remix work) teamed up with Mark Peters (bass player, guitarist and singer of the British band Engineers) to create a bacchanalian instrumental combination of ambient, electronica and shoegaze sounds. “Balcony Sunset” is a track from this session that was not released on the album.
Kurt …
Cryptic Lexis
Recorded in late 2021 and early 2022, Cryptic Lexis features two long-form pieces connected by field recordings made in The Shetland Islands in 2019. The wind through a gate on a Bressay hillside is mixed with cascading guitars and minimal electronic percussion on "Confetti for the Flames" and recordings of Bains Beach form the backdrop of "Out on the Coast the Spirits Are". Paris based artist Graziella Torrigiani contributes words and voice to the latter, her text a direct response to the instr…
MPU103
*In process of stocking* The Zenker Brothers's Munich-based Illian Tape label is one of the architects of the contemporary underground. After making breakbeats cool again, the label continues to branch out in various directions. This time out it is MPU101 who links up his machines, turns them on and lets them cook up a series of grainy, lo-fi and downbeat soundscapes. Some have gently suggestive rhythms, others float through space and all of them come laden with a certain sense of melancholy. Im…
Immunotherapy
*300 copies limited edition* A deeply confounding trip into the sublime from master of contextual dream-weaving Nozomu Matsumoto on perhaps his most heart-piercingly beautiful work to date, including a 13 minute choral section that might just be the most stunning piece of pseudo-classical/liturgical alchemy we’ve heard all year.
Leading on from his ’Remain Calm’ album to accompany visual components by regular collaborator Nile Koetting, ‘Immunotherapy’ offers therapeutic solace through a persona…