Nordvargr – Resignation IV (Cyclic Law)

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Label Description: Nordvargr Announces the Release of Resignation 4, the Fourth Installment in the Resignation Series

Swedish dark ambient and experimental artist Nordvargr (Henrik Nordvargr Björkk) is set to release the highly anticipated Resignation 4, continuing his sonic journey through rhythmic, atmospheric, and melancholic soundscapes. Building on the foundation laid by the Resignation trilogy, Resignation 4 expands the project’s signature blend of techno-inspired beats, dark ambient textures, and hypnotic soundscapes.

A Continuation of Sonic Exploration

Resignation 4 picks up where the acclaimed 2022 Resignation box set left off, offering a deeper dive into Nordvargr’s evolving sound. The album maintains one foot firmly in the techno scene, while also embracing moments of eerie calm and reflective melancholy. It is an album where rhythmic pulses and deep atmospherics converge, presenting a sound that is at once mesmerizing and abrasive, pushing the boundaries of electronic music.

This latest chapter sees Nordvargr taking his unique grasp of genre fusion even further, blending ambient melancholia with hard-edged, rhythmic elements. Fans of both experimental electronics and the fringes of techno will find Resignation 4 to be a captivating continuation of his visionary work.

Origins and Evolution of the Resignation Series

The Resignation project began in 2008 as an exploration of rhythmic, repetitive music paired with dark ambient soundscapes. It was born from a collaboration between Nordvargr and Nils Ekholm, merging techno-inspired beats with samples from old 78 RPM records. The first album in the series was described as “techno, if invented in the late 1800s,” drawing inspiration from the ill-fated 1897 North Pole expedition by S.A. Andrée.

Over the years, the project has grown, with each album taking a distinct direction—ranging from dubby techno atmospheres to harsher, noisier electronic soundscapes—culminating in the haunting, cinematic experience that is Resignation 4. Along the way, the project has evolved from its early experimental roots into a genre-defying force, standing at the crossroads of ambient, techno, and industrial music.

A Look Back at the Trilogy

The Resignation trilogy was re-released in 2022 as a deluxe box set, remastered with unique and exclusive material, including previously unheard demo recordings and bonus tracks. This set offered listeners a complete exploration of the project’s evolution, from the early rhythmic ambient experiments to the harder, more distorted sounds of later volumes. Note that the quickly sold out 3CD has now been repressed.

Tracks like Totem Visitations, originally composed for a Polish film soundtrack, showcased Nordvargr’s ability to craft immersive sonic environments that complement the darker edges of film and narrative.

Looking Forward: Resignation 4

With Resignation 4, Nordvargr continues to refine his signature style, exploring new territories of sound and emotion. This album promises to be a highlight of his prolific career, offering a bold and dynamic listening experience for fans of experimental and rhythmic electronic music.

Release Formats and Artwork

The album will be available in multiple formats:

•Vinyl: Edition of 300 copies. 100 Special Edition on marbled brown & Black vinyl and 200 copies on black vinyl. Printed Innersleeve and matte lamination. 9 Tracks. Running Time 39:57 EAN: 3770033798171

•CD: Edition of 300 copies in 4 panel Digipak, matte lamination. 9 Tracks. Running Time 39:57 EAN: 770033798164

The stunning album artwork and photography are created by Sandrine Pelletier, capturing the stark, otherworldly aesthetic of the Resignation series.

Resignation 4 continues Nordvargr’s exploration of the balance between beauty and brutality, inviting listeners to immerse themselves in a world where atmospheric depth meets rhythmic intensity.

Scanner – The Magician’s Hat Vol.4 Studio 2024 (Self-Released)

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Label Description:

Volume 4 of my series, The Magician’s Hat, this time, offers an insight into my studio work from 2024.

Like many other creative people, there’s a significant amount of work that is never experienced, so thought I’d take this opportunity to share a few pieces sitting on the studio hard drive in 2024.

None of them are finished works as such, mere ideas with a sonic playground for experimentation. They range from works exploring different techniques, synthesisers(sic), guitar pedals and software.

Perhaps some of them might be reworked into something else, but for the moment enjoy this little voyeuristic view through the window of the studio.

Asher Levitas – Above The Pale Green (Waxing Crescent Records)

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Label Description:

Above The Pale Green, takes its name from a line in Colophon to Songs Of The Groves, a poem by Victor Neuburg. It’s vivid description of a return to nature, frames this collection of field recording collages, ambient soundscapes and outsider pop songs. File somewhere in between Hiroshi Yoshimura and Daniel Johnston.
released June 14, 2024

Written and Produced by Asher Levitas
Mastered by exm
Artwork by Megmayo

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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)

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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)

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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