Category Archives: Uncategorized

Aidan Baker / Han-earl Park / Katharina Schmidt – Thoughts Of Trio (Cruel Nature Records)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

Thoughts of Trio was recorded live at Morphine Raum in Berlin, Germany on February 21, 2024 by Canadian guitarist Aidan Baker, Korean-American guitarist Han-earl Park, & German drummer/percussionist Katharina Schmidt. The group brings together their respective, disparate musical backgrounds to explore the intersections of ambient music, improvisational (free) jazz, and musique-concrète.
releases December 6, 2024

Recorded live at Morphine Raum in Berlin, Germany on February 21, 2024 by Rabih Beaini.

Aidan Baker (bass / guitar)
Han-earl Park (guitar)
Katharina Schmidt (drums)

aidanbakercollaborations.bandcamp.com
katharinaschmidt.bandcamp.com
hanearlpark.bandcamp.com

Limited edition CD available at emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thoughts-of-trio

Savage – Technomicon (Ohm Resistance)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

ALL TRACKS PREVIEWED HERE:
soundcloud.com/ohm-resistance/sets/savage-technomicon-previews

Savage returns with an 8 track of blistering, headshifting Technoid Drum n Bass. Raised on the old school technoid of Offkey, Kemal & Rob Data, Proket, the heaviness of Technical Itch and golden era Renegade Hardware, and influenced by Hardcore, Industrial, and Speedcore, Savage delivers 8 cuts of pure dancefloor hybrid Techno Drum n Bass. Collaborations with MC Fantom, Submerged, Section 63, Katharsys, and NecroFox make this album a special landmark in the history of Technoid Drum N Bass!

credits

released October 31, 2024

All Tracks Written, Produced and Arranged by Árpád Szrnka.
Except ‘This is your last word’ Written, Produced and Arranged By Árpád Szrnka And Gábor Csepai.
‘Technomicon’ Written, Produced and Arranged by Árpád Szrnka and Submerged.
‘Daemons’ Written, Produced and Arranged by Árpád Szrnka and Dave Edwards.
‘Underground’ Written, Produced and Arranged by Árpád Szrnka, Gábor Csepai and Peter Szidor.
‘Top Acid’ Written, Produced and Arranged by Árpád Szrnka and Hugo Figuera.

Mastered by Lynn Standafer
Executive Producer: Submerged

Thia Alli & Fabio Keiner – Oceans Within (Aural Films)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

The second collaboration between Thia (Sylvi) Alli, singer, composer, artist (Portland, Oregon) and ambient veteran Fabio Keiner (Vienna, Austria) – a soul seeking adventure crossing continents and oceans.
released November 8, 2024

Thia Alli – sylvialli1.bandcamp.com

Fabio Keiner – fabiokeiner.bandcamp.com

Aural Films is an online record label that releases high-quality soundtrack albums for movies that do not exist. We cover a wide range of music styles ranging from ambient to experimental to popular to soundtrack musics. Often on the same albums. You can find our complete catalog of releases online at AuralFilms.com

All tracks ©℗2024 Thia Alli & Fabio Keiner

Aural Films Catalog No. AF0436

SABIWA, Queimada, Nathan L. – Sons of _ (Phantom Limb)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

“Provides footholds like glimpses of truth, then snatches them away…Enjoy the experience of being dislodged.”
A Closer Listen

Rising Taiwanese sonic and visual experimentalist SABIWA teams up with Italian duo Queimada and Nathan L. for the release of strange and beguiling new EP Sons of _, marrying disembodied field recordings and processed orchestral instrumentation with coruscating noise and half-forgotten Taiwanese folklore.

“We wanted to achieve a unique sonic experience that gently pulls listeners into a calm, introspective realm of sound, visuals, and hidden stories,” write the trio. All based in mainland Europe, but bringing divergent and itinerant influences to the mix, SABIWA, Queimada, and Nathan L. each represent complementary elements to the deep and unpredictable elixir that makes up their collaborative debut Sons of _. The record is characterised by SABIWA’s heavily processed singing voice fluttering and glitching in strange, coded languages within a heavenly but deserted CGI cathedral rendered from crashed software. Italian brothers Marco and Lorenzo Colocci (Queimada and Nathan L. respectively) are both well versed musicians, exposed to classical schools as well as the outerspheres of experimental music. Their contribution to Sons of _ can be felt in its no-input thumps, its crawling of mechanical insects, its devastating waves of crushing noise. Together, the trio push at sonic realities and temporal structure to form an indecipherable messaging. “A rediscovery of a new self, unrecognisable from its former shape,” they offer.

Key moment “Nothing blue – 無憂無慮” feels culled from a dreamlike, alien mythology, fugged into disparate and divergent worlds as if the dust from a newly-collapsed Tower of Babel has still not settled. The track loops and swoons with raw distortion, James Bond fever dream strings, and SABIWA’s mystifying vocal experimentation before introducing a lolloping rhythm of church bells and crackling, staticky snare. Next, “What is true is not true -無明大夢” almost proceeds like a song. It has a recognisable rhythm – rare for Sons of _ – and a processed vocal loop maintains a riverine melodic flow. But throughout, its foundations splinter and shiver under the weight of malfunctioning modems screaming to escape. Later, “The Root of Unwilled Existence – 無自性” breaks apart under its own weight. Clouds of noxious gas swallow whole its harmonic voicing as mischievous transversal pixies haunt a psychedelic, reverberant inner chamber.

Cover photo by @yoteng087

released November 8, 2024

Cousin Silas & Glove Of Bones – New Runes (Extended Reissue) [The Cousin Silas Emporium]

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

New Runes, re-released with two extra tracks, one refigured by Cousin Silas, and the other by GOB.

Original Notes:
Looking at the files for this album, the first sketches appeared around September 2021. That makes it the longest gestation for a collaboration album with Cousin Silas (our sixth, the last in 2020). It’s also the greatest gap in putting out any new ideas since the GoB began.
In the past I’ve started out with a broadly clear narrative to work around. This didn’t start that way. I just had a circling nucleus of undirected rage that occasionally proposed titles and ideas.

The period from March 2020 to September 2021 delivered so much ‘content’ both over the internets and IRL. It was difficult to filter this down to reason. There’s an interview with David Bowie by Jeremy Paxman from 1999 where DB prophesises the impacts both positive & negative of the internet. Look it up (it’s worth noting that the planet has gone to hell since he passed. Studies need to be made).

It was perhaps not surprising that a global pandemic delivered the best of humanity on so many levels (charity, reason, science, benevolence, realisation of the value of workers, a tantalising look at how life could be better valued and lived) and also finally unboxed the absolute worst that had for numerous past decades been side-lined by truth & reason.

Puritanism, righteousness, division, corruption, an imagined ‘culture war’, embedded & extended privilege, a riled & enraged but ill-informed and manipulated electorate, an unimaginably wealthy tiny number of people, all took a deep breath and realised shouting at the marginalised, using punching down rhetoric and waving flags works and might delay their ultimate & deserved extinction.

Welcome to the New Dark Ages (yes, Pere Ubu got there first but I stand on the shoulders of these giants).

Dedicated to the ‘woke’, the SJWs, the non-conformists, the transgressives, the punks, the anarchists, XTR, the lefties & liberals. Every time these terms are used as slurs it means you’re winning.

New Runes is an arthritic index finger raised and ready.

Thank you to those who contributed to this auditory rant.

G.o.B. // October 2022

Originally released October 28, 2022

The Glove of Bones
Concepts, samples, apps, guitar noises & loops, production / construction / mastering, artwork & video.

1: Introrobus
For the warrior Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011)
“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence”

2: The Universal Hum 3:30am
This track includes a section of dialogue by Anton La Vey and a short section from his musical works.

3: I laughed at the Great God Pan
Cousin Silas: Guitars & synths
Title from a short story by Jack ‘King’ Kirby.

4: New Morning Star
Issy: Djembe
GoB: Anxiety Machine

5: Le Livre des Mensonges
Cousin Silas: Guitar
Antonella Porcelluzzi: Voice
Spoken text from ‘The Book of Lies’ by Alistair Crowley from the AEP project ‘Introducing Alistair Crowley’

6: Urban Nargual
Cousin Silas: Guitar and synths
Issy: Bass loops and solo
Greg Nieuwsma: Midi keys

7: Radio Rapture
Cousin Silas: Guitar and synths

8: The War on Saturnalia
Cousin Silas: Guitar and synths

9: Throwing Bones
Cousin Silas: Guitar and synths

credits

released November 8, 2024

VAAG – Twenty Two (Point Source Electronic Arts)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

Intricate synthesized percussion with layers of detailed harmonic elements provide a nuanced auditory experience; repeated listening rewards the audience with previously unheard sounds. More focused and composed than his prior work, the album is indicative of VAAG’s growth as an artist and the continual refinement of his craft.
released November 1, 2024

Written and Produced by VAAG

Mastered by Alex Stilts at Orbit Room Audio

Illustration by VAAG

Design by Mike Slansky

Point Source Electronic Arts

PSA038

Various Artists – Noise Forest (Cold Spring)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

A classic compilation that emanated out of Osaka, “Noise Forest” brings together a powerhouse of early 90’s Japanese noise stalwarts: MERZBOW, C.C.C.C., SOLMANIA, DISLOCATION, MONDE BRUITS, MASONNA, VIOLENT ONSEN GEISHA, and INCAPACITANTS.

The ultimate Japanoise collection, originally released in 1992 on the cult Les Disques Du Soleil label / record store on CD-only, and now impossible to find. Remastered and presented here on deluxe 2LP in matt-laminate gatefold sleeve (first time on vinyl) and new CD edition, all with new artwork.

A forest isn’t something normally associated with noise; it brings to mind silence and solitude. However, the ominous cover art here – and the artists within – bring to mind the notorious suicide forest Aokigahara. Despite all tracks falling into the Japanoise genre, the tracks are very diverse, yet every track is so distinct it could only be by that artist.

Notes on each track taken from Noisextra’s ‘Noise Forest’ special: www.noisextra.com/2024/01/10/various-artists-noise-forest

• CD in matt-laminate digipak.

• 2LP Black in matt-laminate gatefold sleeve.

• 2LP Forest Green in matt-laminate gatefold sleeve. Ltd 250 copies.

releases December 6, 2024

1. recorded at ZSF Produkt Studio, 11/07/91
2. recorded at Telecom Studio 06/07/91
3. recorded & mixed at works Fatagaga 07/91
4. edited by Dislocation 1991. Includes live recordings at Freebird (03/02/91) and Bubble (21/02/91). F.Kimura (guitars), K.Kiyokawa (performance), Y.Yanagawa (sax), T.Osaki (electronics)
7. recorded in 1989
8. T.Mikawa + F.Kosakai

Mastered by Martin Bowes
Layout by Abby Helasdottir

Anatoly Grinberg & Andreas Davids – Emergency Landing (Ant-Zen)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

EMERGENCY LANDING – a remix mini album & addendum to the album INSPIRED BY A TRAGEDY by anatoly grinberg (aka tokee) and andreas davids (mainly known from xotox).

remixes by room of wires, autoclav1.1, flint glass, loss, empusae, ah cama-sotz and spherical disrupted

released November 4, 2024

layout by stefan alt

this is ant-zen dig077

INSPIRED BY A TRAGEDY:
ant-zen.bandcamp.com/album/inspired-by-a-tragedy

Phelios – Obsidian Forest (Loki-Found)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description: With his latest release, Martin Stürtzer, the mastermind behind Phelios, continues to carve out a unique space in the dark ambient genre. He blends expansive soundscapes with slowly evolving tribal rhythms to create a truly immersive experience. Obsidian Forest captures the essence of deep, shadowy woods where ancient, unseen forces seem to dwell. The album feels like a ritualistic journey into nature’s darker realms, with each track evoking a vivid, sometimes haunting, landscape of sound.

Phelios’ trademark monumental melodies are omnipresent throughout the album, merging with somber, swelling drones that pull listeners into a dense sonic fog. As the album progresses, these melodies evolve like distant, otherworldly chants reverberating through the trees. The layering is intricate, and the atmosphere is thick, yet there’s always a sense of space—an invitation to explore these shadowy woods further.

The addition of tribal percussion is a defining feature of the album, grounding the otherwise ethereal soundscapes with a primal energy. These rhythms emerge slowly, almost as if they are the footsteps of an unseen figure moving deeper into the wilderness. Phelios seamlessly blends ancient and futuristic elements, balancing tension and tranquility to craft a meditative yet eerie soundscape.

Phelios’ latest work is both a sonic journey and an imaginative exploration of nature’s darker side — a plunge into the heart of deep woods, where every echo and shadow holds an untold story.

LOKI 75

Scanner – Columns (The Vinyl Factory)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Descriptions:

This digital release accompanies the very limited, hand-made vinyl production released on Vinyl Factory 2024. Available exclusively here:

thevinylfactory.com/product/columns-falling-columns/

* Two electronic soundtracks composed by Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner
* Music produced to accompany Ben Kelly installations commissioned by 180 Studios for the exhibition Future Shock (2022)
* Pressed on 180-gram white vinyl
* Gatefold sleeve printed International Orange (RAL2004) on Mirror board
* Hand signed and numbered by Ben Kelly and Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner
* Limited edition of 300 copies

Ben Kelly is one of the UK’s most influential designers. Kelly is best known for his interior design of the legendary nightclub, The Haçienda in Manchester. His practice has produced influential work for 180 Studios, Virgil Abloh, The Sex Pistols, The V&A, Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren and Factory Records.

The Vinyl Factory first collaborated with Kelly to commission and stage his installation RUIN, produced in collaboration with Virgil Abloh, at 180 Studios in 2017. 180 Studios subsequently staged Kelly’s Columns installation as part of the exhibition Future Shock (2022), the soundtrack to which, composed by electronic musician Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner, is released here.

An organic shaped die cut peephole is cut into the front of the sleeve as a homage to Marcel Duchamp’s final work Étant donnés (1946-1966) – a gateway to another world. The peephole reveals one of Ben’s orange columns and plinth with a gloss varnish on a black background. On removing the inner sleeve the statement: “CONCERNING THE BUILDING OF THESE COLUMNS WE HAVE NO CERTAIN NEWS” is revealed, printed on a Pigeon Blue background.

The rear of the inner sleeve contains a printed transcription of a conversation surreptitiously recorded via dictation, complete with mistakes and mishearing’s, between Kelly and Scanner. The transcription has produced a mashup version of the true conversation which has been printed in full. Across the two sides of the inner sides of the gatefold, a vertical full colour printed collage of columns, taken from the FALLING COLUMNS digital installation.

The rear of the sleeve contains a printed essay by Brian Dillon, beginning with a quote from Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia (1499). This essay was originally commissioned by Ben to accompany his COLUMNS installation in 2022. A Chocolate Grinder is printed on the silver mirror board on the rear of the gatefold above the VF logo.

Scanner’s work traverses the experimental terrain between sound, space, and image. His diverse body of work includes soundtracks for films, performances, radio, dance, theatre and site-specific intermedia installations. Committed to working with cutting edge practitioners he has collaborated with Carsten Nicolai, Wayne MacGregor, Laurie Anderson, Hussein Chalayan, and Mike Kelley.

released October 28, 2024

Music composed and performed by Robin Rimbaud / Scanner Commissioned by Ben Kelly / The Photo Kid and VF on the occasion of: COLUMNS for the exhibition ‘FUTURE SHOCK and FALLING COLUMNS digitally exhibited in the Atrium, both at 180 The Strand.

Released by The Vinyl Factory, 2024. VF392
Sleeve Design by Ben Kelly
Layout Artwork by BPD
Essay by Brian Dillon

Photos of vinyl by Feiyang Xue