All That We See or Seem
*Limited edition of 300 copies.* “Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” This quote from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe sums up the lamenting, primal work that is "All That We See or Seem"; a project conceived between Finland, England and Brazil. The self-titled album consists of two long-form pieces of droning mysticism hailing from the trio of Gruth (concept, production, electronics), Ellen Southern (vocals, field recordings, percussion) and Johanna Puuperä (violin, modular synthes…
Say Goodbye to the Wind
Italian concréte maestro Valerio Tricoli outdoes himself with his Shelter Press debut, a masterclass in personalised, allegorical storytelling that transcends genre, piercing the membranes between electro-acoustic, modern composition, baroque chamber music and kosmiche psychedelia. It’s essential listening for deep listeners into Robert Ashley, Graham Lambkin, crys cole, Bernard Parmegiani. Tricoli has long inhabited a low-key but unique space within the experimental landscape; his run of PAN r…
It Changes
*2022 stock.* It Changes is a new album by Ailie Ormston and Tim Fraser. It incorporates samples of collaborative session material, automated MIDI instrumentation, and adhoc field recordings. Music from this album was first presented in 2019 as a larger audio-visual work which debuted at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow as part of Counterflows festival. The recordings were then completed in 2020 during the first lockdown using voice notes, and by running a 7.5m headphone cable between…
Babylon
*2022 stock* Great dark ambient sounds from this Spanish composer at his 3rd full album. Texts are singed, as Babylon suggests, in many different languages. Features collaborations by : Francesco Banchini (of Gor and Ataraxia), Marie and Gerno (Pilori)
Timewaves
*2022 stock. Limited of 300 copies.* Timewaves presents moments of history in a flow of eternity. Each moment may or may not be clearly connected with each other. But when examining the past, does not every moment intertwine with some other moments, and suddenly everything is connected with everything in strange and unclear ways.
In Timewaves it is clear that those moments presented on the album are bound to civilisation. Is it our civilisation, or someone elses, or just a dream? We don't know. …
Music For Film And Exhibition II
*2022 stock.* Like baking a sweet cake or cooking an indian dish you need good ingredients and spices to get the right mouthfeel and the splendid flavor of your desire. 'Music for Film and Exhibition II' is just like that: a levelled declitre of Raison D'être, a brimful tablespoon of Atomine Elektrine, a couple of teaspoons of Necrophorus and a little bit of this and little bit of that, mixed into a perfect blend of many tastes. Peter Andersson, well-known from projects like Raison d'être, Strat…
It's Nothing, But Still
*In process of stocking* Steve Fors offers deeply physical music on his Hallow Ground debut »It's nothing, but still.« Having already established himself as a composer of visceral drone and noise pieces in various Chicago- and New York-based underground projects, Fors’s first release under his given name is even more dense and evocative than his earlier work. A concept album on the subject of breath, the Siavash Amini-produced record sees the now Swiss-based composer blend field recordings with …
For The Unknown
*2022 stock. Limited edition of 500 handmade screen-printed sleeves.* A lovely slab from Catalan folk/neo classical singer/songwriter Iñigo Ugarteburu showcasing his deft acoustic playing and spellbinding arrangement alongside a ten piece ensemble. Moving on from the subtle joys of his 'Back&Forth' LP for Talo in 2012, 'For The Unknown' hems close to Chicago's improvising avant garde with an expanded palette of field recordings, piano, modular synth, brass, bicycles, and 20-string Steel Bass by …
Epitaph (Live At Roadburn Redux 2021)
*Limited edition of 300 copies. 3 sided 2LP in gatefold sleeve.* Long time Roadburners will be familiar with Dirk Serries – he has performed at the festival under various guises a number of times. Having already hosted him with Fear Falls Burning, Microphonics, Year of No Light, Yodok III and Scatterwound already, we were due to welcome him back in 2020 with Kodian Trio. Fate had other ideas… but in with a creative spirit that never stops wandering and a thirst for experimenting, we knew that Di…
King Of The World
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Formerly a musician, cinematographer and lighting designer with The Residents and a student of "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Philip Perkins issued this astounding release on his own Fun Music label in 1983.
Perkins often worked in topographical realms, crafting environment-enriching soundscapes, albeit on a micro level. Taking cues from minimalism, environmental field recordings and home-baked ceremonial mantras, King Of The World is a meditation on the lives of thre…
Nothing Left Behind
*200 copies limited edition* Tomotsugu Nakamura is a musician and graphic designer residing in Tokyo, Japan. His primary artistic practice is to compose music with some fragments of minimal acoustic and electronic tones and some field recordings. In Concert, he has played with various genre of musicians and his works have been released by Kaico, Audiobulb Records, and more recently by the recent label LAAPS. ’’Nothing Left Behind’’ is his second release on LAAPS after his well acclaimed album "L…
The Wetland Remixes
*In process of stocking.* Son of Chi returns to Astral Industries, alongside Spanish artist Clara Brea, for the collaborative release of AI-29. A product of fate, chance experiments, but most of all, sensitive artistry - ’The Wetland Remixes’ exists as a confluence of two kindred musical spirits, a wayfaring epic that draws together a rich archive of ecological field recordings, live instrumentation and higher inspirations. Ahead of Hanyo’s concert at ‘Avalovara listening club’ (Madrid) at the e…
Rings Of Water
These two contrasting pieces explore the age-old human quest to comprehend the transformative powers of life. The overlapping disciplines of anthropology, philosophy, the culture of memory, cognitive psychology, and environmental studies, are conceptually layered to extend the idea of formative traits of sound and to deepen the notion of listening to historically dense spaces.
Limits
*200 copies limited edition* Andrew Tasselmyer is a musician from Baltimore, MD currently living in Philadelphia, PA. He utilizes samplers, field recordings, and lo-fi recording techniques to make textured and tactile sounds. In addition to his solo catalog on labels such as Seil Records, Eilean Recs, Constellation Tatsu, Home Normal, and more, he is a member of Hotel Neon, Gray Acres, and Mordançage.
The Sacrifice
Tip! In 2020, a year shaped by stringent COVID-19 restrictions, many of us paused for thought about our collective futures. For First Light Records, this reflection, plus the support of Sound and Music's Composer-Curator programme, led to the development of Unbuilt Sound, a new series of commissions centred around acoustic ecology; the relationship between listener and environment. The first iteration of the Unbuilt Sound series sees Flora Yin-Wong retreat to an isolated cabin outside Machynllet…
Making Eye Contact With Solitude
*70 copies limited edition glitter gold cassette* Polish artist Martyna Basta presents Making Eye Contact With Solitude, a suite of intimate, diaristic ambient pieces assembled over the past several months. Created using almost exclusively field recordings and her voice (alongside violin, zither and harpsichord), this collection meditates on domesticity, loneliness, repetitiveness, stubborn patterns of isolated minds and the sonic mysteries all around us. There’s a real gentleness to these spont…
All Auspices
*2022 stock. 40 copies limited release* "In the Spring of 2021 we were finally able to travel outside of 5km from home. To take much needed breaks from being in the city, my colleague and I would drive to the seaside, choosing a new beach, a new town each trip as we were both foreigners in a new city, observers to the landscape. Walking and listening, we would take in the fresh air, the smell of saltwater, the call of gulls, and the drone of the ocean. The field recordings on this album are fro…
Spectral
Madeleine Cocolas’s Spectral is a reimagining of the familiar. It is an attentiveness to the inciden-tal, and a reaching out towards the unheard. Taking these acoustic microcosms as a source of focus, she unpacks these transient flickers and memories, and repositions them; exploding them outward and shifting perspective. Spectral, celebrates the shadows of melody and the after-thoughts of rhythm. It breaths with a sense of calculated intensity that reflects on Cocolas’s focus throughout the proc…
Too Ne
Yui Onodera’s work is patient. He invites a sense of dwelling with his pieces, an encouragement to pause and to allow sound to swell up around you. On Too Ne, he charts out a very specific sonic exploration. Across these five works he creates a lilting passage of sound, a liouidous flow that confirms the adage of Ambient music existing as constant, but never solid. Too Ne also invites a sensing of the self, in that the works ask us to examine our own memories as a way to unlocking a deeper reson…
Him, Fast Sleeping, Soon He Found in Labyrinth of Many a Round, Self-rolled (Tape)
'It is to the detriment of our understanding of musicality that we mostly measure it by the capacity to produce, and much less by the capacity to receive some sort of acoustic information or event. The virtuosity of listening, of understanding the sonic situation and its potential, is, however, that which defines one's capacity to interact – with other musicians, with the audience, and with the environment. This could also be taken to mean that an ethical act is implied in the situation of liste…