INSANIA – Reverberations (Aural Films)

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Label Description:

Aural Films goes back to our roots for the “This Music Plants Trees” artists project. Featuring full length albums by artists who have composed music just for the trees.

INSANIA plants a suite of marvelous compositions that take us on a journey though sonic forests.

Our forests are disappearing. You can personally make a difference supporting this music. Every sale plants trees with the Plant a Billion Trees project. Simply enter the suggested amount, or more, to help restore the Earth’s forests with the power of sound.

Forests not only provide clean air and water, but they also hold vast amounts of carbon dioxide and act as a cooling system for the Earth; they stabilize the global climate and fight warming. When nearly half of the trees have been removed from the planet by humans. The home to 80% of the Earth’s land-based plants and animals. We must recognize that forests are essential to the livelihood of all people around the world.

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released August 17, 2024

Welcome to the world of INSANIA (aka Ryo Utasato). INSANIA music is a merging of experimental dark ambient cinematic, glitch and noise. It is at times hypnotic and at times soul wrenching, but it will always leave you wanting more. More at insania.bandcamp.com

The Plant a Billion Trees campaign is a large-scale restoration initiative launched by The Nature Conservancy in 2008. Our first project was to restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, and now we have expanded to include forest projects all across the world! By planting trees and helping forests regrow where they have been severely degraded, we’re helping to reduce the impacts of climate change, slow biodiversity loss, ensure clean water and air for everyone, and provide full, healthy forests for future generations. Read more about the project at www.plantabillion.org

Aural Films is an online record label (netlabel) 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

Aural Films Catalog No. AF0424

The Implicit Order – Musique Concrete 1994-2024 (Wholeness Recordings)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

A collection of concrete compositions and location recordings from the past 30 years of my archive. The recordings are presented in the way in which they were composed and recorded. Meaning they can vary in volume and fidelity. Most of the composed concrete pieces were mixed on a 4-track tape machine with delay and distortion from a rack mount processer(sic). No DAW effects or compression was applied to these raw tracks. The DAW was only used to transfer these recordings to the digital domain.
NOTE: MC = Musique Concrete piece. LR = location recording.

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released August 14, 2024

The Implicit Order: tape recorder, digital recorder, mixer.
This is a Wholeness Recordings release: WHOLE0324

An Update & Other Sundry Reminders

Posted by John Lithium on

Hello all. John Lithium here. Now that the blog has been active for a while, it is time to go over a few things regarding the frequency/format/etc of the blog:

I. Above all else, these posts are NOT reviews and we will not be doing reviews for the foreseeable future. While I have done music reviews in the past, I am not writing them at present, for a variety of reasons, but mainly due to the other projects I am currently engaged in to varying degrees.

II. This blog mainly focuses on newer releases, in full-length and EP formats. We do not currently post singles, and will rarely post compilations (the latter I promote elsewhere when able). When possible, we will try to feature older albums. We try to post a batch of posts once a month, but can be more frequent depending on the time of year. Finally, we typically do not accept unsolicited suggestions from the bands themselves.

III. We try out best to be accurate regarding label information etc, with labels being labeled as “Self-Released” if the label name is not immediately evident. However, we understand that this is not always the case. Therefore, if that is incorrect, or if you see anything else that is wrong, let us know and we will get it fixed.

IV. At some point we will be updating the theme of the blog. Unfortunately, the theme which is used by Argali Records and the main John Lithium site is no longer available, so we are looking into finding something similar for this site.

Believe that covers everything, thank you all for the support.

h{EE}l -Value Ape (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

So, True Story. I Grew up in the suburbs of Chicago – There were a lot of great things about being in the midwest, one of which was the breakfast culture. Anyhow, we lived about 45 minutes away from a small diner, what I think most people would relate to as being a ‘ Greasy Spoon ‘ – While the food wasn’t all that great I remember always having a blast. Something about the regulars shooting the shit & the combination of cheap meat & sugar stickiness to everything delighted my pre-pubescent senses. Except, However, for one thing – A Minor detail to be sure but one that at the time terrified me & sill gives me pause

There was a small balcony above this eatery establishment, a widow’s peak or some such, a small nook in the roof just above the main entrance – This a place I always sort of thought of as having a main floor. And in this nook, keeping watch over the busy main road & not that far from the airport ( I Often wondered, as an adult, what the appeal of this place was for my father. We had plenty of places much closer that surely had equally bad food. But I digress ) Anyhow, in this nook there was a life sized ” Ape ” ( Obviously a cheap costume on a dress form ) It was waving in a cross between a cordial getting and a nazi salute. But the thing I found unnerving about it was that it was never explained, no – It was never even mentioned really. I went through a period of time where I would try my hardest not even to look at the cursed thing but it was an effort doomed to failure – I Always had to sneak a peak at those garish rubber lips, those outsized & fumbling giant rubber hands – As is the custom in ape costumes of the cheap & tawdry variety, this one also had very pronounced nipples & a vague suggestion of being pregnant.

Anyhow, Life went on I eventually got old enough to where I didn’t have to go to the diner any more. But I never forgot that ape. I Don’t think I ever will. I Wonder where it ended up

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released August 10, 2024

Album Title VALUE APE Attributed to a concept by the cartoonist Daniel Clowes ( The genius behind EIGHTBALL & Ghost World – Check them out )

This album created using the sounds of

CP McDill / KR Seward / Jo Bled / Executive Producer Prick Wolf / {AN} EeL

Text / Image : {AN} EeL

Anna von Hausswolff – All Thoughts Fly (Southern Lord)

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Label Description:

Sacro Bosco (“Sacred Grove”) is the starting point for Anna von Hausswolff’s new album All Thoughts Fly, incoming on Southern Lord on 25th September. Here in solo instrumental mode, the entire record consists of just one instrument, the pipe organ, and represents absolute liberation of the imagination. All Thoughts Fly radiates a melancholic beauty, and is distinguished by fluid transitions of contrasting elements; calmness and drama, harmony and dissonance, much like the place that inspires the music.

Sacro Bosco is a garden, based in the centre of Italy, containing grotesque mythological sculptures and buildings overgrown with vegetation, situated in a wooded valley beneath the castle of Orsini. Created during the 16th Century, Sacro Bosco was commissioned by Pier Francesco Orsini, some say to try and cope with his grief following the death of his wife Guilia Farnese, others speculate the purpose was to create art.

About the album Anna explains “there’s a sadness and wilderness that inspired me to write this album, also a timelessness. I believe that this park has survived not only due to its beauty but also because of the iconography, it has been liberated from predictable ideas and ideals. The people who built this park truly set their minds and…  more

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released September 25, 2020

All songs written & played by Anna von Hausswolff
Organ sound design by Filip Leyman and Anna von Hausswolff
Produced and mixed by Anna von Hausswolff & Filip Leyman
Mastered by Hans Olsson at Svenska Grammofonstudion
Recorded in Örgryte New Church, in Gothenburg January 2020.
Organ recorded with mobile equipment from Svenska Grammofonstudion
Cover photo & inner sleeve photo by Gianluca Grasselli
Layout & design by Tina Damgaard

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