Death And Spring
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…
M.T.V. 15.05.1963 ~ 12.04.2017
**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) -…
Continental
**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…
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
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.
III
**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.
Aéroproducts
**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
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…
The 1978-1983
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…
Selected Works
**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…
Quiet Ends
The penumbra diffuses mysterious textures and a melancholic hypnotic atmosphere conductive to introspection. Another absolutely gorgeous recording from Timo van Luijk
Chords
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…
Dry Lake
**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.
Meeting of Waters
** 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…
Re.Sort
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 …
Sterminato Piano
*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…
Pour Que Les Fruits Murissent Cet Ete
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…
Runes
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…
Arctica
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…
Dutch Wave: A History of Minimal Synth & Wave in The Netherlands
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. …
Sister Age
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…