Electronic / Minimal

**100 copies** John Macedo is a sound artist and performer from London. He has incorporated everything from acoustic instruments and environmental sound to analogue and computer synthesis into recorded works, live performances, film, and sound installations. He has a pluralistic approach which explores and reveals the hidden potential in all sounds, environments and technologies, often in intimate, immersive and intuitive ways. He has performed around the UK and Europe and has collaborated live …

**75 copies** "Concrete" sounds and sequences recorded with delay / looper pedals, then built around more layers / details mostly with cassette loops and sampler. The aim was to create the space which is quite simple and elemental but dense, intensive and organic. Some may found reference points to Zoviet France, Nocturnal Emissions and other early '80s industrial bands. All sounds by Stuart Chalmers and Edward Sol, spring 2018. "Many of the artists covered by Vital Weekly know each other and ma…

WRWTFWW Records is very happy to announce the release of Irish ambient / minimalist producer Gareth Quinn Redmond’s Laistigh den Ghleo, a companion album to Satoshi Ashikawa’s Still Way (Wave Notation 2). The album, available on vinyl and digipack CD for the first time, comes with liner notes by Midori Takada and Gareth Quinn Redmond. "Conceptually derived from the work of Japanese minimalist composer Satoshi Ashikawa, I have composed an album which hopes to engage, enrich and reflect the listen…

Restocked, reduced price. WRWTFWW Records is honored to announce the much anticipated reissue of Satoshi Ashikawa’s undeniable classic of Japanese environmental / ambient / minimalism, Still Way (Wave Notation 2). The album, available on vinyl (first time since 1982) and digipack CD (with one bonus track), comes with a cover artwork by Hiroshi Yoshimura and liner notes by Midori Takada, Satoshi Ashikawa himself, and Irish producer Gareth Quinn Redmond (whose Still Way-inspired album Laistigh den…

Restocked, reduced price. WRWTFWW Records present an expanded reissue of one of the most fascinating Japanese ambient / environmental albums ever made, Nova by Yutaka Hirose, originally released in 1986. The expanded reissue includes the album known as Soundscape 2: Nova, sourced from its original masters, as well as four never-released-before recordings over 50 minutes. Initially released in 1986 as part of the Soundscape series. Commissioned by Misawa Home Corporation for use in their prefabri…

Costa Monteiro's fifth solo accordion album, and the one in which he deliberately reverses his earlier recording strategy. Where previous works placed microphones almost inside the instrument to foreground materiality, structure and deconstruction, Not Knowing instead treats the accordion as an object in space, with the architecture of the recording room becoming essential to the work. The result blurs the limits of identification, holding the instrument's identity in productive uncertainty.

"This cassette contains different versions of a kind of static music consisting of humming sound formations. Various parts are combined in constantly different ways and activated or paused at a slowly changing pace. The three versions have different tempos with different characters ensuing. Simple looped motifs repeating themselves form the basis. Some of these are capable of modifying the pitch of each other. I have acted as a musician playing the computer sequencer by changing tempo, allowing …

Pauline Oliveros and Guy Klucevsek's Sounding / Way was originally released on cassette in 1986 and has been out of print ever since. This LP was cut by John Golden and pressed at RTI in order to achieve a quiet, dynamic pressing. The Sounding / Way concept was simple: each artist would write a piece for two accordions and then they would perform them together. Thus, side A contains Guy Klucevsek's Tremolo No. 6 performed by Guy Klucevsek and Pauline Oliveros. Side B contains Pauline's compositi…

We live in a musical era defined by historical reappraisal - a noble moment which has rescued a near countless number of incredible albums from lingering neglect and loss. As wonderful and exciting as this is, it has come with an unexpected, but increasingly acknowledged consequence. With so many eyes on what was, we risk allowing history to repeat, subjecting today’s artists to the same forms neglect which plagued the past. It’s becoming increasingly rare to encounter record labels which entire…

**1000 copies** Blast First Petite's PsychoPomp for M.T.V., a 260-page, full-color, hardback book - a PsychoPomp is a "guide of souls", whose purpose is to escort deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Includes a broad range of artistic contributions (text, photographic and visual remembrances) from Mika Vainio's artist friends and collaborators, an updated and exhaustive Mika discography, Jennifer Lucy Allen's unedited transcript for her "Invisible Jukebox" with Vainio in The Wire (2013) -…

**300 copies** Continental is the new full-length solo record by Milan-based multi-instrumentalist Nicola Ratti, following recent releases on Where to Now? and Room40. Conceived of by Ratti as a "series of big rooms or places to get lost in, full of small details and characterized each by a single flavor or perfume", it is a surprising and vibrant collection of music. Working with a palette of spare, expertly deployed percussive synthesis techniques, Ratti's work here is both labyrinthine and co…

René Huthwelker’s solo performances emphasize minimalistic repetitions that are created foremost by analogue-synthetic spheres. "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" is Huthwelker‘s solo debut in which he presents an insightful exploration of polyrhythmic networks, based primarly on the analogue synthesis of the Buchla system.

**213 copies** III, as the title clearly implies, is the third album by Ihan (Yan Arexis, member of Coume Ouarnède, Stille Volk and Cober Ord). After the first Ihan album released on Mille Plateaux back in 2000, with this project Arexis continues to explore minimal electronics, rhythmical archaism and mineral textures. This is the fifth volume in the «Synesthetic Alchemy» serie curated by 213 Records and comes with a silkscreened insert.

**450 copies** Rotorelief presents a reissue of Alésia Cosmos' Aéroproducts, originally released in 1985, with bonus material. In the '80s, Alésia Cosmos was one of those pioneering groups that invented a handful of things: uprooted electro, pop-shifted funk. With some synths, rhythm boxes, magnetic tapes, crazy guitars and hallucinated voices, they rocked the underground for four years, with two albums, playing live in France and Europe. The dazzling epic of the magic combo has become legendary…

Infinity is the new release by Melbourne-based Leo James, and the second Patience production. Leo scratches a longstanding itch and delivers two sidelong excursions that inhabit a similar sonic space but spin off in opposite directions on the continuum. Desert Nightflower hums with vitality in a seemingly lifeless landscape. Impressionistically tracing the lifecycle of a flower’s bloom in the desert night – from the searing afternoon sun through dusk’s chill, the midnight blossoming and symbioti…

Chen Yi aimed for a collective approach of art. As an isolated group of humans/numbers operating directly from a secret place in Chelmsford (UK), they developped a personnal and "bizarre" utilisation of guitars, machines, voices, distortion, giving as result an unconventional regroupment of compositions amongst a lot of lost or unreleased recordings. This is likely what got John Peel interested which brought to an inexplicable contract with CBS. Due to their raw and alternative 'self-made' music…

**250 copies** Selected Works is a 2xLP compilation highlighting the definitive material of the cassette releases of Juma, a project led by hyper-prolific Hiroshima artist K. Yoshimatsu that existed from 1981-1982. Yoshimatsu released six cassettes with his Juma project (as well as 20+ under his own name) on the legendary cult industrial/experimental label DD. Records run by prophetic artist T. Kamada. While attending Yamaguchi University in 1978, Yoshimatsu was introduced by classmate and futur…

The penumbra diffuses mysterious textures and a melancholic hypnotic atmosphere conductive to introspection. Another absolutely gorgeous recording from Timo van Luijk

With ‘Chords’, the Stockholm-based musician and composer Ellen Arkbro returns to Subtext, following her acclaimed debut album ‘For Organ and Brass’. This new longplayer sees Arkbro adopt a more minimalist approach, focusing on the immediate qualities of sound and elegantly expanding the tonal capacities of acoustic instruments using precise, subtle synthesis. Composed of a carefully selected combination of tones, ‘Chords’ stretches, extends and obscures the timbral character of the instruments i…

**300 copies** Il Grande Silenzio is a project by Japanese artists Atsuo Ogawa and Minoru Sato. On 'Dry Lake' they offer two minimal compositions that feature banjo, field recordings and electronics.

** 300 copies ** Back in 2017 the unassuming Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Josiah Steinbrick released his first collection of solo pieces and we’ve been listening to it compulsively since then. Given that its initial release was only in North America, both on cassette with Leaving Records and in an extremely limited vinyl self-release via Banana Editions, we felt that this meticulously crafted, essential work righteously deserved to get a proper spin in Europe too! "Meetin…

Second half of a two-part album by Mens and Kouw, recorded live in studio in December 2014 and following directly from the first volume. The two long-form pieces extend the duo's pursuit of precisely tuned analogue synthesis: deep, warm drone fields that gradually disclose, to patient listening, a rich substructure of resonances, artefacts and slowly shifting collages of texture. Material that resists time as event-based articulation and proposes it instead as immersive sonic sculpture.

Sora’s celestial 2003 Japanese electronica LP Re.Sort released on vinyl for the first time. Conceived by Sora aka Takeshi Kurosawa, Re.sort is a miracle of Japanese electronica. Widely unknown but very necessary. Fragments and textures playfully flirt with each other, bossa nova and jazz records float in the air, an old phonograph sits by the sea. Leftfield that feels like a home away, where joyful nothings are everything. Sweet minimalism and micro melodies. Kyoto composer and producer learned …

2018 release ** "An adaptation from "Sileen", a composition commissioned by Musica For The Festival Oortreders at Neerpelt, Belgium, 2016 performed with 50 members of a local music school; "Sileen II" was realized with only Gareth Davis on bass clarinet plus sounds from Machinefabriek, recorded in the same pitch and tempo as "Sileen', then slowed to half its speed and one octave lower. Stunning!"

*175 copies on Orange vinyl.* I've known Fabio Orsi for almost fifteen years now, artistically and humanly. Since the days of "Osci" his first album released by SmallVoices, my label at that time, up to some essential records published by A Silent Place, another label that I managed, in a period that seems almost unrepeatable. Each of his work, whether in music or photography, is always a certainty for me, but lately also a surprise; in fact Fabio Orsi has learned to surprise himself and surpris…

Temporary Super Offer! Finders Keepers' newly minted Cacophonic sub-label triumphs with a remastered rarity by pioneering Belgian composer, Karel Goeyvaerts. 'Pour Que Les Fruits Mürissent Cet Été' is one of the earliest realisations by the former boss of the IPEM society (Belgium's Institute for Psychoacoustic and Electronic Music - make sure to check their recent compilation on Metaphon) and originally appeared in 1977 on the collectable Alpha Brussels imprint. It revolves around three extende…

Dark Entries is proud to present the first ever vinyl issue of Jon Krocker’s debut album ‘Monolog’ originally released on cassette in 1983. Jon is from Winnipeg, Canada and got his start as half of the synth noise duo Dialog. In 1981-82, while studying for a BA in Film Studies, he would go to the studio and practice. No writing or patch memories, composing on the fly. His set up consisted of a Minimoog, Oberheim Two Voice, Roland RS-202, Roland Space Echo, EML 400, Roland DR 55, Roland System 10…

Subliminal Sounds present the first ever vinyl release Kano's Runes, originally released in 1986. A unique, dark and sparse, tribal, minimal synth, drone, trance, new age recording from the mysterious Kano. Previously only issued as an obscure cassette back in 1986 which is now much sought after. Runes is much darker and brooding compared to its new age peers of the era. Drums, metallophone, synths, and more leads you on a deep inwards trip via damp, cold and foggy caves to the ancients. Runes a…

Pionneering production from the Düsseldorf mid 80s electronic underground world. Transferred for the first ever time from the original cassette to vinyl and CD. Konrad Kraft (Detlef Funder) is one of the still overlooked producers of Düsseldorfs fertile electronic music scene. Arctica was originally released on Cassette on Funder's imprint SDV Tonträger in 1987 in a handmade edition of about 50 copies only. Reduced to its essential musical elements, Arctica certainly contains some of the most un…

Instant Music is the trio of Bernd Schöll (Bass, Vocals, Rhythm), Mike Hauer (Guitar, Synth, Percussion) and Marion Siekmann (Vocals) from Munich, Germany. They formed in 1980 after meeting through mutual friends attending the local art and graphic design school. The trio were dissatisfied with their surrounding musical environment. Inspired by the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, and Giorgio Moroder, they set out to create their own brand of Neue Deutsche Welle fusing Dada, disco and Krautrock.Ov…

2018 release ** "“score” or inspiration for this CD was a solo concert of Burkhard Stangl at the Reheat festival at Kleylehof in 2014. The theme of the performance was the song Bésame Mucho by the Mexican composer Consuelo Velázquez.  Chesterfield then took the recording and recomposed it, and composed new pieces mixing everything with old and new recordings, home recordings, accidental recordings, live performances ... all Chesterfield from 2013 till now... a Chesterfield diary of songs, of noi…

The first chapter of Onderstroom digging into the history of Dutch minimal synth and wave. Who needs a big, expensive recording studio with all those fancy high-tech machines that only make your weary head spin when you can do it all by yourself at home in your (teenage) bedroom? Way back in the early eighties all you really needed was an idea, quite a bit of guts and some rudimentary equipment. You could basically do whatever you wanted. The means were limited, yet the sky was unbounded. …

Onderstroom present a vinyl edition of Martial Canterel's Sister Age, originally released on cassette in 2004. Essential recordings by the minimal synth master of the present. With the staccato surge and somber vocalizing of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, the distorted synthetic soundscapes of Dirk Ivens's eeriest work, and the industrial strength of The Young Gods, Martial Canterel's earliest outings are a bleak intellectual exercise in the dark and danceable. His music creates a cold atmo…

Onderstroom present a vinyl edition of Martial Canterel's Drilling Backwards, originally released on cassette in 2006. Essential recordings by the minimal synth master of the present. With the staccato surge and somber vocalizing of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, the distorted synthetic soundscapes of Dirk Ivens's eeriest work, and the industrial strength of The Young Gods, Martial Canterel's earliest outings are a bleak intellectual exercise in the dark and danceable. His music create…

“Freq” is a 1985 album by from the Hawkwind member, famed poet, author and lyricist Robert Calvert. Recorded in 1984 at the Computer Music Studio in London during the UK miners’ strike, “Freq” is a concept album which puts as its point of departure the social and political issues faced by the country at the time. From the opening piece “Ned Lud,” dedicated to the proletarian heroes of the 19th century, to the “Talks” tracks recorded directly on the striking site, the rising of the machine-orient…

This is the first in a series of various compilations to come with a focus on the 80’s japanese Minimal/Synth/Wave and electronica. While Japan is very known for the Japanese Noise (almost as Germany is known for NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) or 70’s Kraut (Progressive).Electronic Music this aspect of the 80’s Japanese Music Culture still seems to be less explored and exposed to the interested listeners. In the early 80’s you had several outstanding labels such as Vanity releasing great artist…

On the 2nd of two entrancing Beast volumes, modular maverick Koen Holtkamp (Mountains) further distinguishes his new, rhythmelodic velocity in four studio-based iterations, making a subtle contrast with the live performances of Volume 1, and beautifully exemplifying the distance travelled from his earlier works released by Type, Thrill Jockey and Umor Rex since the late ‘00s.  Hemming the finest line between the ‘Process Music’ approach of ‘70s minimal/maximalists Jon Gibson and Steve Reich, and…

Pre-Echo Press present Beast, a new project and moniker from acclaimed sound/visual artist, Koen Holtkamp (Mountains). A somewhat radical departure from Holtkamp's previous working modes -- where sound has typically been treated as an edifice to be sculpted -- the works here are far more concerned with the generative possibilities of rhythm. The pieces on Beast developed out of Holtkamp's creation in 2016 of an audio-visual performance that centers on the physical properties of light via 3…

Lucas Trouble is a French multi-disciplinary musician who has released over 300 records in the past thirty years under a variety of guises including The Gitanes, Jerking Idols, The Mystic Riders From Spectral South, Temple Gates, and Vietnam Veterans. His earliest recorded work dates to 1978, and his close friendship with Philippe Fichot of Die Form, which began in the early to mid 1970s, is audible throughout the minimal synth recordings collected here: the influence of early Ptose and Die Form…

2017 repress. With a sonic portfolio that boasts commissions for the Xenon classic pinball machine, the sounds for the Meco Star Wars theme, the Atari TV commercials and the electronic sound effects in the original Stepford Wives film (amongst many others) the mutant electronic music CV of Suzanne Ciani is proof that in a 1970s commercial world of boys toys, monopolized by a male-dominated media industry, a woman's touch was the essential secret ingredient to successful sonic seduction. A classi…