ALEXANDER TUCKER - Third Mouth LP/CD Thrill Jockey ANTHONY PATERAS - Errors of the Human Body OST 2LP/CD Editions Mego BEN VIDA - esstends-esstends-esstends LP PAN FELIX KUBIN - TXRF 2LP/CD It's HARD COMING LOVE - Hard Coming Love LP Spezialmaterial ILILTA! - New Ethiopian Dance Music 12"/CDEP Terp ITAL - Hive Mind 2LP/CD Planet Mu JIM O'ROURKE - OLD NEWS #7 2LP Editions Mego JOHN FOXX AND THE MATHS - The Shape of Things CD Metamatic Records KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN - Generators LP Editions Mego LUBOMYR MELNYK - The Voice of Trees CD Hinterzimmer MARCUS FISCHER - Collected Dust CD Tench MIKHAIL - Xenofonia CD Sub Rosa MIKHAIL KARIKIS & URIEL ORLOW - Sounds from Beneath DVD Sub Rosa NHK'KOYXEN - Dance Classics Vol.I LP PAN OREN AMBARCHI - Audience of One CD Touch PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE, MESELE ASMAMAW, MATS GUSTAFSSON - Baro 101 CD Terp PENDULUM NISUM - Pendulum Nisum LP Hinterzimmer ROBERT TURMAN - Flux 2LP Spectrum Spools TEHO TEARDO - Music, Film. Music. CD Specula TETRAS - Pareidolia 2LP Flingco Sound System THE BOATS - Ballads of the Research Department CD 12k URAL UMBO - Delusion of Hope LP Utech XAVIER CHARLES & TERRIE EX - Addis CD Terp >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top ALEXANDER TUCKER - Third Mouth LP/CD Thrill Jockey thrill297 www.thrilljockey.com British avant pop artist Alexander Tucker releases his much anticipated new album, Third Mouth, on Thrill Jockey in 2012. This album builds on the strengths revealed by his landmark debut for the label, Dorwytch released in April 2011, culminating in his finest work to date. Using songs written over a 12 month period he achieves his own inimitable blend of psych rock and ambient pop using a variety of studio crafted effects, rudimentary beats, guitar and bass, as well as synth and cello drones. He pushes himself even further however as he breaks new ground on the electronics only track "Rh" and heads further out into the deeper reaches of space with the sci-fi influenced cosmic meditation "Andromeon" as well as experimenting with more progressive song structures like those in "The Glass Axe". Tucker's sound has developed over the years since his first self-titled solo album, which featured acoustic finger-picking, experimental electronics and was released on Jackie O Motherfucker's U-Sound Archives label. He went on to combine compositional song structures, drones, layered vocals and improvisations on his 2005 album Old Fog released on ATP Recordings. This collection of spectral moods, eerie landscapes and fragile emotions was followed by Furrowed Brow (2006) and Portal (2008), where the songs and melodies became more pronounced, whilst infecting the tracks with underlying drone currents, traditional finger-picking, doom riffs and David Crosby inspired harmonies. There was a shift in direction away from improvisation and toward scored pop music for Dorwytch (2011) with its nods to Brian Eno's Another Green World, while still retaining the organic drones of Cluster and Lichens. But it is as if all of his fearless experimentation has finally come together on Third Mouth, an album that has both equal spiritual and psychedelic resonance for Tucker. He explains: "Third Mouth is a little bit like therapy for me. It's about the fact that when I was younger my mum would say she could speak in tongues because spirits were talking through her which used to freak me out. It is also about the idea of having a third mouth instead of a third eye. It was the idea of a voice coming through a person, as if they were a conduit from another world beyond this one." Tucker, who has a reputation for seeking out the most interesting people to collaborate with, signed up Karl Brummer to play saxophone on "Amon Hen" but also turned to old friends to appear on the album. He says: "Frances Morgan is singing on Third Mouth. She played violin with me as part of the Decomposed Orchestra. I've known her for years. Recently we both played this Cambridge psych festival and I saw her singing and I thought, 'Ah yeah, I love her singing. Her voice is so pure and clear.' Daniel O'Sullivan is someone I have known for years as well, since he was about 17 or 18. Something has happened with my music over the last few years that has led to me collaborate with him more. My music takes a leap forward when I work with Dan. He's very open and he's not afraid to be quite cheesy or baroque or over the top. He loves really outrageous proggy stuff like Magma. He's not afraid to try stuff out where other people are so uptight and more worried about what other people will say." In addition to being a solo artist Tucker continues to collaborate with Daniel Beban in their tape loop project Imbogodom - the pair will release their second Thrill Jockey album And They Turned Not When They Went early in 2012. His other bands include Grumbling Fur with members of Guapo and Circle and past collaborative projects include duets with Stephen O'Malley on his Ginnungagap side project and the larger Decomposed Orchestra. Tucker is also a visual artist, creating artwork for all of his album covers and side projects, including ongoing paintings drawings, and comic artwork. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top ANTHONY PATERAS - Errors of the Human Body OST 2LP/CD Editions Mego eMEGO140 www.editionsmego.com www.anthonypateras.com Music performed by: Anthony Pateras: Piano/Prepared Piano/Organs/Electronics Anna McMichael: Violin Erkki Veltheim: Viola Judith Hamann: Cello Brock Imison: Basson Liam Kinson: Clarinet Andrew Young: Horn Speak Percussion featuring Eugene Ughetti & Matthias Schack-Arnott Elizabeth Welsh: Additional Strings All music composed by Anthony Pateras All music recorded and mixed by Lachlan Carrick at Sing Sing Studios, Melbourne Except XIJ, constructed at Gold Tony Love's Audio Hell, Coburg, with Drums performed by Max Kohane and recorded by Casey Rice Errors of the Human Body is a feature film shot at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany. Written and directed by Eron Sheean, it stars Michael Eklund, Karoline Herfurth, Tómas Lemarquis and Rik Mayall, with music by Editions Mego stalwart Anthony Pateras. In the early 2000's Sheean met Pateras in Melbourne, and they have worked together ever since, Pateras scoring 3 of Sheean's short films which have all been screened a numerous festivals worldwide. Errors of the Human Body OST is the musical results of their first feature-length collaboration. Instrumentation includes strings, winds, brass and a broad arsenal of percussion performed by Melbourne's magnificent Speak Percussion. Pateras' distinct  keyboards and electronics permeate throughout, evoking the film's key themes of isolation, scientific intrigue, ambiguous ethics and hallucinatory metamorphosis. This album covers a lot of ground, incorporating elements of alien synthesis, lush textures, odd, layered rhythms and wild production. There is even a club track with tape-delayed string orchestra, contrabassoon and cowbell. No one can decide whether they like it. Quite possibly being the only record this year incorporating ARP2600 and thumb piano, it features Pateras' electronic language with contemporary experiments with orchestration, glued together with a determination to test the edges of the film music medium. Vinyl edition contains liner notes by Anthony Pateras. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top BEN VIDA - esstends-esstends-esstends LP/DL PAN 23 www.pan-act.com benvida.blogspot.com Five pieces for Computer Controlled Modular Synthesizer and Digital Signal Processing. Composed and recorded from February 2010 - April 2011 in Brooklyn, New York. esstends-esstends-esstends is a collection of spatial compositions in which audio focal points shift between external and internal emanation sources. The intent with this work is to escape the stereo image and create an activated listening space of expanded spatialization. Using just intoned pitch combinations to produce difference tones and harmonic distortions, sound materials are created that emanate from both the playback speakers and inner ear of the listener. By engaging the listener's sense of aural perception and sound localization in relationship to compositional structure, these pieces act to reframe the listening experience and encourage an engagement with, not only the form and aesthetic of the music, but the sonic space a recorded piece of music projects. Higher amplitude will help to reveal. Ben Vida is a composer, improviser and sound artist who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Ben led the group Town and Country and experimented with world musique concrète under the name Bird Show. In collaboration with Keith Fullerton Whitman and Greg Davis he explores cross control voltage integrated improvisation and real time automatic group composition. Ben has worked with artists Hisham Bharoocha (duo as Soft Circle), Siebren Versteeg, Doug Aitken, Nadia Hironaka and Mathew Suib. He has played in ensembles led by Tony Conrad, Rhys Chattam, and Werner Dafeldecker. As an improviser he has performed with Milo Fine, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Chad Taylor, Kevin Drumm, Yamatsuka Eye and C. Spencer Yeh among many others. He has released over twenty records on such labels as Thrill Jockey, Drag City, PAN, Amish, Bottrop-Boy, Hapna and Kranky. In 2011 Ben was Composer in Residency at Diapason Space, NYC and at EMS Studios, Stockholm and was awarded a Swedish Arts Committee Travel Grant, ISSUE Project Room Emerging Artists Commission and Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona "Composing with Process" Exclusive Works Commission. As both a solo artist and in collaboration Ben has presented his work in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea and Japan. The Lp is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D+M, in a limited edition of 500 copies, pressed on 140g vinyl and comes in a poly-lined inner sleeve. It is packaged in a pro-press color jacket which itself is housed in a silk screened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top FELIX KUBIN - TXRF 2LP/CD It's 008 Release date: February 13 www.it.is.itsits.it www.felixkubin.com Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF)* is a method used to analyze the surfaces of materials by firing extremely flat X-rays. Subsequently, the physicist Joachim Knoth (1941-2004) developed a patent for precise measurement of defects in semiconductor chips. In 10 sequenced based electronic miniatures, Felix Kubin, who presently consists of dangerous uninsulated powerlines, conducts the TXRF through an acoustical test arrangement. The experiment consists solely of a synthesizer, filter and sequencer. Full-bodied consecutive organisms arise out of which kaleidescopic irridescent blossoms sprout. At times they appear as acoustic by-products of high energy discharges on an X-ray picture and sometimes as quiescent fluorescent images. Who knows when the experiment will come to an end? Will X-rays break at irregularities? Will transparent ears crawl over fixtures and make laboratory benches corrode? In view of the entire event's musical beauty, all these questions are completely unimportant. FELIX KUBIN is one of electronic music's most dynamic and versatile personalities. A lovechild of the home recording era, his various experiments and epithets include radio playwright, composer of futurist and dadatronic experimental pop as well as chamber orchestra music, filmmaker, incendiary performer, record label owner, lecturer and curator. He has made artwork in all sorts of fields since the 1980s, after studying media art at the ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Enschede, Netherlands and illustration/animation at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. Kubin's music is saturated with enthusiasm for disharmonic pop, industrial noise, and 20th-century avant-garde music. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top HARD COMING LOVE - Hard Coming Love LP Spezialmaterial Records SM037LP008 Release date: February 18 www.spezialmaterial.ch www.vimeo.com/32314010 From the cellars of the Aussersihl corner of Zurich booms a heavy, grinding sound, a deep torrent of pulsating energy. When the six men play, each plays every instrument in support of a psychedelic, hypnotic, wobbling wall of sound. When crowd and band sweat in unison, everybody knows: Love never comes easy. Love comes hard. It's a HARD COMING LOVE. HARD COMING LOVE drip with their passion for the roots of rock'n'roll. They reach back to the shores of the Mississippi, the backyards of Detroit or the light flooded streets of the Bay Area cities. The band seems at ease with both the sound studios in Dusseldorf as well as the sooty backalleys of Liverpool. FOR FANS OF: PSYCHIC ILLS, THE BLACK ANGELS, SPACEMEN 3, VIETNAM The self-titled debut is a monolithic piece of work - massive, epic and urgent. Feedbacks set the atmosphere, vast expanses of music are rolled out electronically and guitars build towering walls of sound. And suddenly they sound as if they were far, far away. A bulky bass and cleverly placed percussion complete the irresistible blend. HARD COMING LOVE combine punky snottiness with the experimental edge of Krautrock. Harmony addicted Westcoast-Sound meets deeply heartfelt blues of the South. In the mix, they catch their Flow and are at peace with themselves and the world. "ROCK'N'ROLL WITH HARD COMING LOVE" is the Mantra. The album is like thunder in the skies of a rotten city: commanding humility and silence. The pumping steam engine called HARD COMING LOVE has been built over three years in various dimly lit rehearsal rooms - and now it's running smoothly. Not even having played live that much, the band is a Zurich institution. With the straightforward instrumentation of drum, synth, bass, guitar and voice played multiple and crosswise HARD COMING LOVE is on top form. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top ILILTA! - New Ethiopian Dance Music 12"/CDEP Terp Records AS-18 www.terprecords.nl Vocals: Tirudel Zenebe (Gue), Tesfaye Taye (Selame) Krar / backingvocals: Mesele Asmamaw Guitar / baritoneguitar: Andy Moor Beats / bass synth: Arnold de Boer Kobero: Misale Legesse (Selame) Initiated by Mesele Asmamaw. Recorded in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, May 2009 in Mesele's Studio, Olympia and produced, mixed and mastered Januari 2011, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands by Arnold de Boer and Andy Moor. Most people are familiar with the Ethiopian music of the "golden seventies". The great CD-series of "Ethiopiques" focuses on this remarkable period of truly amazing and rich music. The era of the big brass bands came to an end in the period of the "Derg", the military government in Ethiopia from 1975 till 1991. After that, the scene seemed confused. Many great musicians were forced into exile or passed away. The horns mostly disappeared and were replaced by cheap keyboards everywhere. Awful bombastic overproduced "plastic" pop-productions flooded the market. Synthesisers, vocoders, drummachines and hasty productions that all sound alike. But in the last few years something new is emerging. Young producers have started combining traditional rhythms and strong dance beat production. The result is very original, uplifting and very danceable music. The gurage, wollo, gondar, konso and other traditional rhythms work wonders for this new dance music. And the Ethiopian youth loves it. It can be heard not only in the hip areas like Bole, but all over Addis and other Ethiopian urban areas. Blasting from restaurants, taxis, coffeeplaces, grocerystores and Addis' giant market, the Mercato. Last year we released the Ililta CD, a compilation of this new Ethiopian dance music, recorded with a new generation of singers over the last decade. A cross-selection of the production work of Mesele Asmamaw and some of his close colleges. This new 12" was recorded during one of The Ex's musical exchange projects in Ethiopia and mixed in Amsterdam by the two members of The Ex. An exciting new chapter in this series! Play loud! - Terrie Ex. May 2011 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top ITAL - Hive Mind 2LP/CD Planet Mu Records ZIQ312 Release Date: February 13 www.planet.mu jazner.wordpress.com/tag/daniel-martin-mccormick If you've heard DANIEL MARTIN-McCORMICK's name recently, it would probably have been either in association with his disco/punk/echo band 'Mi Ami', or as 'Sex Worker' on the Not Not Fun label, or finally as 'Ital' on NNF's sister label 100% Silk, recording quite different sounding house music to this album. Raised in Washington DC, Daniel has a history in the city's hardcore scene, he was in the Dischord records signed 'Black Eyes', but was also making dance inspired tracks at the same period, but coming from a very different angle from your average guy with a copy of Logic and a working knowledge of dance music's history. Daniel's music is a stranger thing. Working best at high volume, it uses house's easy going 4/4 structure as a kind of camouflage for more out-there sonic explorations; subverting expectations, seeking out the links between the space and the sound-bending of dub & industrial's unsettling sonics with the grooves of classic house and the effects and black holes of minimal at it's weirdest. The album has a sculptured feel; sounds twist in space, feeling almost three dimensional and melodies pitch-shift in an unsettling way; voices dissolve in and out of these frameworks and the whole album has a unique, haunted feel; nothing is ever allowed to settle totally comfortably, everything vibrates. 'Hive Mind's' titles also hint at such themes as how culture insinuates itself on you and the meaning of pleasure, it's ironies and forms, drawing in creeping fears of the internet age. Opener 'Doesn't Matter (If You Love Him)' sounds a bit like Tackhead if they had made house music, using a flickering and confidently repeated phrase over a lumbering drum and bassline, introducing swirling and bombing synths into the mix - once the secret comes out. 'Floridian Void's' strange marrying of treated voices and swelling, pitch-bent chords and effects draws the listener into its strange atmosphere; it's an ambient house track of sorts, but the ambience here is a swirling, confusing, watery vortex rather than being fuzzy and new age. 'Privacy Settings' builds creepy wolf howls over a slow bassline and cold faraway banging drums, estranged from their usual disco setting. Next, 'Israel' picks things up again, with weird, pitch-shifting edited bells over dubby toms, all the while cold chords rushing in and out over this unsettling backing track. The closer 'Final Wave' restores the album back to something resembling normality, with a disco-like swing that recalls Moodymann's beat down productions but slid through brutal dub-like FXs that bring out a shade of strangeness in an otherwise happy groove. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top JIM O'ROURKE - OLD NEWS #7 2LP Editions Mego OLD NEWS #7 Release date: February 21 www.editionsmego.com Sides One & Two recorded 96-97 Steamroom, Chicago Side Three recorded live in Nagoya at Tokuzo April,2011. Thanks to Carlos Giffoni Side Four recorded 93-94. Originally released on These Records. Thanks to Andrew & Howard Jacques More archival works from Jim O'Rourke seeing the light of day. 'Welcome To The Django' is 2 sided mid 90s excursion of O'Roukes û rst exeperiments with a Serrge modular system. 'Natural Born Killers' is a recent live jam recorded in Nagoya. 'Tacere Fas' is legendary early 90s piece û nally available again. Orginally appearing on the compilation. 'Unentitled' (THESE 011CD), released by These Records in 1994. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top JOHN FOXX AND THE MATHS - The Shape Of Things CD Metamatic Records META29CD Release date: March 23 www.metamatic.com www.johnfoxxandthemaths.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3PpbIEdKwY PAUL DALEY (LEFTFIELD): "John Foxx was an idea for vocals I had for the second Leftfield album but this never happened. I've always respected and liked his approach and attitude - the quietman from another dimension bending sounds from the 23rd century underneath cinematic sci-fi future vocals while keeping his distance from the brashness of pop culture and celebrity. Afrika Bambaataa is a big fan too." JUNIOR BOYS: "I have never felt that there was a music that reached into my unconscious quite like John Foxx's" CLINT MANSELL (COMPOSER OF BLACK SWAN, THE WRESTLER AND MOON SOUNDTRACKS): "John's music, both with Ultravox and solo, is built for the Internet. It's technology manipulated by man. Man & machine in perfect harmony! Consistent quality output. The new album Interplay is a great record. Vibrant." PHIL OAKEY (THE HUMAN LEAGUE): "John Foxx's Metamatic is one of the few essential albums of the movement I call the Alienated Synthesists. And I like his newer material a lot." John Foxx And The Maths will release their second album, The Shape Of Things on 19 March, following shows in Brighton (UK) and Belgium. The Shape Of Things is a collaboration between Foxx and electronic composer and synthesizer collector, BENGE (Ben Edwards). The latter is best known for his 2008 album Twenty Systems, which was described by Brian Eno as a "brilliant contribution to the archeology of electronic music." The follow-up to their critically acclaimed Interplay album (2011), was recorded and mixed at Benge's studio in London. Like Interplay, it's the sound of analogue synthesizers and drum machines - and on one track feedbacking guitars played by Foxx himself. There's a raw, experimental edge to much of the material on the new album, which is linked together by a series of instrumentals. Although not overtly autobiographical, the tone of the songs is a lot more reflective and emotional than their previous work. Many of the lyrics explore feelings of loss over opportunities and lovers missed - possible futures that remain unlived. The electronic music created out of machines built 30 or 40 years ago creates an atmospheric, rough-edged accompaniment for this set of feelings and atmospheres. It's both analogue and forward-looking; echoes from the past but also still futuristic - a strange push and pull that mirrors the words perfectly. The album also includes two collaborations as bonus tracks, with noir-techno artist MATTHEW DEAR on 'Talk' (Beneath Your Dreams) and Moog mistress TARA BUSCH for the closer 'Where You End And I Begin'. For the new shows Foxx and Benge will be joined on stage by two performers who are also solo musicians in their own right - Serafina Steer (Keyboards, Bass) and Hannah Peel (Keyboards, Violin). John Foxx formed Ultravox in the 70s and has worked with a wide range of artists including Brian Eno, Xeno & Oaklander, The Soft Moon, Krautrock producer Conny Plank, Paul Daley from Leftfield, Cocteau Twins guitarist, Robin Guthrie and I, Robot director Alex Proyas. GARY NUMAN: "I was a big fan of John Foxx when he was in Ultravox in the late 70s. Ultravox were like the blueprint for what I was trying to do in the early years and John Foxx was my hero. I thought he was a fantastic, enigmatic front man. I really loved what he did. To see him still going strong today, and putting out great music is good to see. John was a true pioneer and seems as passionate today as he was then about his music. I have a huge amount of respect for him." VINCENT GALLO (ACTOR): "I connected so deeply with early Ultravox, everything changed for me. There's Lennon and Dylan, but John Foxx is my favourite lyricist of all-time." ALEX PROYAS, DIRECTOR OF THE MOVIES - I, ROBOT, THE CROW AND DARK CITY: "I think apart from his incredibly cinematic lyrics, John's music has always conjured entire movies in my head when I listen to it. I think it's his mastery of atmosphere that has stayed with me through the years. If I could only make a movie as textured and evocative as John's music I would be a happy man." JIM KERR (SIMPLE MINDS): "People are discovering John Foxx now in 2011 because ultimately he is far too good to be ignored." KLAXONS: "John Foxx's Metamatic is an amazing, visionary album." JOHN TAYLOR (DURAN DURAN): "John Foxx? Class cannot be erased." XENO & OAKLANDER: "I love the unexpected violence of Foxx's 'Burning Car'. Very urban, contemporary and apocalyptic. Metamatic is so fundamental as an influence on so much - from synthpop, New Romantic, industrial dance, EBM, et al - its consequences are far reaching and still being felt." GAZELLE TWIN: "I love his track 'Never Let Me Go' from 2006. It's a mirage of maternal comfort in a toxic world." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN - Generators LP Editions Mego DeMEGO 024 Release date: February 21 www.editionsmego.com www.keithfullertonwhitman.com 1.1. Issue Generator (for Eliane Radigue (17:34) 2.1. High Zero Generator (17:34) Over the course of a year, Keith Fullerton Whitman performed a piece of live electronic music a few dozen times entitled "Generator." The debut was given in San Francisco at Root Strata's "On Land" festival at Cafe Du Nord on September 19th, 2009 & over the months that followed stagings took place in venues ranging from flooded basements to festival stages in Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Easthampton, Iowa City, Jamaica Plain, Northampton, Raleigh, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Somerville, & Washington D.C. This LP covers the final two performances of the piece over two consecutive evenings ; the opening solo set from the final night of "High Zero" festival in Baltimore at the Theater Project, September 26th, 2010, then the performance during the "For Eliane" night of the "Propensity of Sound" festival dedicated to Eliane Radigue's work at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, September 27th, 2010. These recordings show the piece in two different iterations, taking two different trajectories entirely. They're considered as the definitive versions of the piece. Composed for, and realized with a scalable selection of digital & analogue modular synthesis equipment, "Generator" was at attempt to wrest a viable performance-based music out what had until then been a solitary set of sound-design tools. The piece grew out of a frustration with the limitlessness of computer-based real-time synthesis & algorithmic / generative systems vs. their utter failure as performance solutions. It hinges heavily on the ideology of the "Playthroughs" system (in that the subtle tuning inconsistencies of a physical instrument - the electric guitar - could be amplified & multiplied) through the use of multiple layerings of different topologies of oscillator, yielding an unstable array of modal canons that drift in & out of "tune," causing all manner of inter-voice beating & assorted psycho-acoustic effects. Keith Fullerton Whitman is a musician based in Cambridge, MA, USA. Previous releases include "Generator" (Root Strata #62, 2010), "Live Generators (1)" (Protracted View #041, 2010), "Live Generators (1.5)" (Agents of Chaos #7028, 2010) & "Chicago Generators" (Hyperdelic #7 , 2010) & >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top LUBOMYR MELNYK - The Voice of Trees: Continuous Music for 2 Pianos and 3 Tubas CD Hinterzimmer Records HINT12 www.hinterzimmer-records.com www.lubomyr.com Lubomyr Melnyk (*1948) is a Canadian composer and pianist of Ukrainian origins. During the 1970's he began developing his own unique language for the piano - called Continuous Music - and with it, a stupendous physical and mental technique that is totally unprecedented in the history of the piano. Melnyk, without regard for fame or fortune, has steadfastly devoted his life to the pursuit of pianistic love and excellence, only releasing a few pieces (piano solo or in combination with strings or horns) on vinyl and later on CD-Rs in very small runs. Lubomyr Melnyk, while finding the contemporary classical music of the time to be far too based on the spectacle, began creating his Continuous Music by rapidly projecting pure chordal sounds (sometime broken) through time, by maintaining a continuous and unbroken stream of tones that build a chain of patterned links, seamless and effervescent, usually with the pedal sustained non-stop. Melnyk has shown a remarkable, almost religious devotion to the piano, always striving to discover new horizons in the physical process of playing the instrument. And as a result, he has carried the art of the piano to unknown and uncharted territories where the mental and physical activities of the piano blend into a meditative and metaphysical dimension. Melnyk was undoubtedly inspired by the music of Terry Riley and Steve Reich, who had, in turn, been inspired by the Gamelan music of Bali as many of the Minimalists were. Although his music is generally classified as Minimalism, Melnyk strongly refuses that term preferring to call his music Maximalism, much like Charlemagne Palestine, since the player has to generate so many notes to create these fourth dimensions of sound. In his earlier works, Melnyk did devote much of his attention to the overtones which the piano generates, but in developing his Continouous Music he has become more and more involved with the melodic potential of this music. The Voice Of Trees was recorded in 1983 but never officially released (only as CD-R on demand). It is a 64 minute composition including Lubomyr Melnyk on piano and Melvyn Poore (who became a member of the European ensemble Zeitkratzer many years later) on tuba, both instruments played in real-time and over backing tracks. Melnyk composed The Voice Of Trees for Kilina Cremona, the choreographer and dancer, whom he had met during his years in Paris. Cremona was a fond enthusiast for the work of Merce Cunningham, and Melnyk, who was fond of John Cage's work, naturally came together with this vibrant dancer whose honesty and devotion to art were to inspire him and remain a solid foundation in his own efforts in music. Together, Melnyk and Cremona collaborated in three large productions, involving the Kilina Cremona Dance Company and the composer-pianist. Melnyk performed both piano parts of this difficult Continuous Music composition. The first part was recorded on tape, together with Melvyn Poore's first tuba part. Then a second, unaligned tuba part was recorded onto another tape. Both tapes were then played, with Melnyk and Poore performing the third piano/tuba part live on stage with the dancers. The Voice of Trees is a work of true and intense beauty. It is a lost masterpiece, as many of Melnyk's pieces are, that need not hide in the shadow of the Reich/Glass/Riley axis but come to light in the history of twentieth-century composition. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top MARCUS FISCHER - Collected Dust CD Tench TCH05 www.tenchrec.com www.mapmap.ch Marcus Fischer is a musician and multimedia artist currently based in Portland, Oregon. Field recordings, chance, and DIY instruments, coupled with acoustic instrumentation and visual art, define what has become his minimal signature. His uncanny ability to sculpt delicate beauty from the simplest of sound elements results in compositions that are both intimate and expansive. From January 2009 through January 2010, Marcus kept a blog called Dust Breeding to document the results of his goal to complete one creative project a day for 365 days. These projects included photographs, field recordings, design, illustration, sewing, videos, DIY electronics experiments and music. He reached his goal of one full year of daily entries and has continued to add entries over the last few years, though less frequently. Each piece on Collected Dust first appeared in its original form on Dust Breeding. After being selected for this collection by M. Ostermeier, each piece was updated and refined further by Marcus. The patient, relflective, and peaceful style found on Collected Dust's seven tracks inhabits a space somewhere near that of his debut CD for 12k, Monocoastal, which landed on many best-of-2010 lists, and his recent In a Place of Such Graceful Shapes collaboration with Taylor Deupree, who mastered this recording. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top MIKHAIL - Xenofonia CD Sub Rosa SR338 www.subrosa.net www.mikhailmusic.com www.vimeo.com/30791006 Following the first world-wide release of his music on a remix album by Björk in 2005, Greek-born and London-based Mikhail Karikis has been drawing an independent path as a performer, musician and a politically engaged visual artist. Coined by critics a 'sonic alchemist' (Le Monde), Mikhail released his debut album Orphica (2007), followed by his interdisciplinary Qwartz-award nominated Morphica (2009); he has exhibited at the 54th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art and the Barbican, performed at Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Tate, collaborated with international visual artists and dance companies, and remixed for various labels including G.Prokofiev's Nonclassical. Working across different art forms, Mikhail searches for new modes of expression and his third album Xenofonia released by Sub Rosa is no exception. The sound universe of Xenofonia has operatic dimensions and continues Mikhail's exploration of the musical fault-line between middle-eastern and western sound. Commenting on his intentions behind the album, Mikhail explains that "until a century ago, all Greek music was folk music with irregular scales and no polyphony. Greece's lengthy enslavement meant that Western musical and cultural developments of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras left the country virtually untouched. I wanted Xenofonia to be about finding a contemporary Greek voice which wakes up to the 'alien' sounds of European instruments; a voice which is at times angry, and split between the West and the East, the past and the present". Citing Rembetika, Xenakis and J. P. Rameau's dramatic works as inspirations, on this album Mikhail's vocals are coloured by his Anatolian heritage and meet electronica, avant-garde and baroque music. Xenofonia combines choir, harpsichord, percussion, glitch and environmental recordings. Migrating bird-calls and human voices play a central role heard a cappella or accompanied. Singing often ventures beyond the limits of language. The formidable choral force of ex-miners Snowdown Colliery Male Voice Choir, the intimate voice of Matthias Grübel from German duo Phonºnoir, British vocal trio Juice Vocal Ensemble, and background vocals by Elaine Mitchener and Jade Pybus are heard in Mikhail's compositions alongside his wide vocal range of operatic falsetto, bass-baritone, raw shrieks and growls. In Xenofonia twelve songs are grouped under an album-title that refers to a "strange voice". Following the haunted cries emerging out of the howling wind on the opening track Ghosts, the fiery techno-folk Cerberus addresses a chthonic three-headed monster; the deconstructed symphonic Friends depicts an estranged relationship; Deserter is a glitchy and choral take on the traditional zeimbekiko dance, and reflects on Mikhail's feelings on his migration and adoption of a new language ['lost on foreign shores, with a wound in my mouth, I desert you split-tongued']. In Future, alienation from the present is imagined with cataclysmic noise and the confession: 'we still miss the future we once had'. The windswept phrase ['where can I find my soul?'] on track six is answered in Sounds from Beneath with a descend to a subterranean coalmine; this is one of Mikhail's most visceral choral pieces, which employs the voices of elderly coalminers to sing the sounds of a working colliery. Streptocock follows with an angry response to the unwanted closeness of illness as a lover who offers 'rotten affection'; Lullographer maps the sensations between wakefulness and sleep, and Orpheas is dedicated to the legendary singer who travelled to the underworld. Following this metaphorical sound-journey, the penultimate Technoprayer reflects on our becoming strangers to ourselves by abusing technology, and urges for 'warm-hearted generosity'; the album closes with Fos (= light). Xenofonia is the last of several outcomes of a 3-year interdisciplinary project exploring the theme of the "stranger". This endeavour has produced Mikhail's experimental opera XENON (toured in 2010), a homonymous art film created with director David Bickerstaff (2011), a promo video Lullographer directed by Flat-e and the audiovisual installation Sounds from Beneath created with artist Uriel Orlow, accompanied by a Sub Rosa publication with a DVD and a collection of essays. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top MIKHAIL KARIKIS & URIEL ORLOW - Sounds from Beneath DVD Sub Rosa & Future Perfect SR314 www.subrosa.net www.mikhailmusic.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJEcA3rUOnM 32 x A5 pages, DVD 7min, 4 essays, 11 colour images Published alongside Xenofonia, the new album by Mikhail Karikis, the publication Sounds from Beneath focuses on a sound work which features on the album, and for which Mikhail Karikis invited a coal miners' choir to recall and vocalise the subterranean sounds of a working coal mine. Created in collaboration with artist Uriel Orlow, a video depicts a desolate colliery in South East England brought back to life through song. The sunken mine transforms into an amphitheatre resonating sounds of underground explosions, mechanical clangs cutting the coal-face, wailing alarms and shovels scratching the earth, all sung by Snowdown Colliery Male Voice Choir grouping in formations reminiscent of the picket lines of the miners' strikes. Sounds from Beneath extends Karikis's exploration of the sculptural and political dimensions of voices and their relation to professional identity, and connects with Orlow's interest in landscape as an activator of memory and history. The book includes three essays by distinguished cultural theorist Prof. Steven Connor, contemporary art curator Katerina Gregos, film theorist Lucy Reynolds, with a foreword by curator Sue Jones. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top NHK'KOYXEN - Dance Classics Vol.I LP/DL PAN 24 www.pan-act.com koyxen.blogspot.com Prolific producer KOUHEI MATSUNAGA's Dance Classics Vol.I LP documents his more dance oriented material, as seen from his sets with Sensational and also his other minimal techno project NHK. Not feeling tied down to one genre, Matsunaga nestles in the PAN roster, and however that isn't to say that he is dance per se as witnessed from his recent collaborations with Conrad Schnitzler. The album focuses more on bass/base electronics, music for the dancefloor and/or altered state reflection. Having composed pieces for WDR based on Henry Chopin, Kouhei is equally at ease jamming with Sensational, whilst simultaneously executing a obsessively numerical sequence of dance pieces that borders on Hanne Darboven-like compulsivity. Born in Osaka, Kouhei Matsunaga is a musician and an illustrator. He started drawing during childhood under the influence of his grandfather. He grew up listening to hardcore-techno and hip hop, studied architecture and has been mainly making music since 1992. Under many different aliases (NHK, NHKyx, Internet Magic, Koyxen) he has has released numerous albums on labels such as Skam Records, Wordsound, Raster Noton and his first ever album Upside Down on Mille Plateaux in 1998. He has also collaborated with artists like Merzbow, Jungle Brothers' Sensational, Autechre's Sean Booth, Mika Vainio, Conrad Schnitzler, Anti Pop Consorium's High Priest, Rudolf Eb.er, Puppetmastaz crew, Asmus Tietchens, Ralf 'RLW' Wehowsky and so on. His own label Flying Swimming was founded in 2002 with main purpose to publish and curate events of experimental contemporary music and art. The Lp is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D+M, in a limited edition of 500 copies, pressed on 140g vinyl and comes in a poly-lined inner sleeve. It is packaged in a pro-press color jacket which itself is housed in a silk screened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top OREN AMBARCHI - Audience of One CD Touch # TO:83 Release date: February 2012 www.touchmusic.org.uk www.orenambarchi.com Artwork & photography: Jon Wozencroft Mastered by Francois Tetaz at Moose, Melbourne On Audience of One, Oren Ambarchi, presents a four-part suite which moves from throbbing minimalism to expansive song-craft to ecstatic free-rock. While his previous solo albums for Touch have exhibited a clear progression towards augmenting and embellishing his signature bass-heavy guitar tones with fragile acoustic instrumentation, Audience of One, while also existing in clear continuity with his previous recordings, opens the next chapter in his catalogue of solo works. Remarkable in its confidence and breadth, but also in the sensuous immediacy of its details, this is the first time a single record has come close to encapsulating Ambarchi's musical personality in its full range and singularity; as, among other guises in addition to the guitar based solo-works he is best known for, electro-acoustic improviser with Keith Rowe, explorer of the outer limits of rock with Sunn O))) and Keiji Haino, and, in the epic yet faithful Ace Frehley cover which closes the record, classic rock enthusiast. The album features a multitude of different collaborators, who, far from appearing in incidental roles, are integral to the pieces on which they perform: on the opening "Salt", Ambarchi paints a hypnotic, chiming backdrop for Paul Duncan's (Warm Ghost) vocals, and Joe Talia's virtuoso drumming and driving cymbals are at the core of the epic "Knots", in which Ambarchi, alongside a chamber arrangement by Eyvind Kang, weaves a net of frequencies and textures with the organic push and pull of a 70s psych jam, the bass response of a doom metal ritual and the psycho-acoustic precision of an Alvin Lucier composition. Where on his previous records, Ambarchi's signature guitar tone was the ever-present bedrock over which other elements of the arrangements sounded, at moments on Audience of One it even disappears entirely, as on the beautiful "Passage", which, recalling the 70's Italian minimalism of Roberto Cacciapaglia and Giusto Pio, is composed of overlapping tones from Hammond organ and wine glasses, Jessika Kenney's voice, various acoustic instruments, and the delicate amplified textures of Canadian sound-artist Crys Cole. Rather than being provided by any particular sound, the unified experience of listening to Audience of One stems simply from the unique, patient sensibility Ambarchi has developed over twenty years of abstracting musical forms into their barest forms, while somehow always managing to leave their emotive power intact. [Francis Plagne] >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE, MESELE ASMAMAW, MATS GUSTAFSSON - B A R O 101 CD Terp Records IS-19 www.terprecords.nl The Ex has been going to Ethiopia for quite a while. The first tour, with Han Bennink, in the north, was in 2002. The next one, in the south, during 2004. Everywhere we went we experienced a big demand for "new" music. While most people from outside still seem to think that Ethiopia is only about pro-blems and misery, young Ethiopian musicians are hungry for information. Through all the new and improvised music festivals we play, The Ex has connection with many adventurous musicians. So we started a series of projects in Ethiopia. With break-core pop duo Zea in May 2008, followed by Silent Block from France (Tables full of self-made instruments, experimental electronica and much more), in May 2009. And then two projects with "Saxophone". Not only did we bring Friso Heidinga from the saxophone repairshop "Amsterdam Winds", who fixed dozens of instruments, but also great players like Ken Vandermark, Ab Baars, Mats Gustafsson, who performed in combination with The Ex members and Norwegian free jazz drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. And all cooperated with many ama-zing Ethiopian musicians and dancers. Like Getatchew Mekuria, Melaku Belay, Indriss Hassen, Misale Legesse and krar-player Mesele Asmamaw. (Who we knew before from the Mohammed Jimmy Mohammed Trio.) The evening before the latest project was about to leave Addis, Mesele, Paal and Mats wanted to record. After a week full of sensational cooperation and excitement, they had something to say. In room 101 of the Baro Hotel, our home, Arnold and Andy put down some microphones and an hour later it was ready. "Unheard music". A krar, a baritone-sax and drums. Free improvising. Recorded February 27, 2010. In room 101 of the Baro Hotel, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. During the "Free the Jazz" Saxophone project of The Ex. Recorded by Andy Moor and Arnold de Boer. Mixed & mastered by Andy. Design & layout by Emma Fischer. Photos: Andy, Emma and Arnold. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top PENDULUM NISUM - Pendulum Nisum LP/DL Hinterzimmer Records HINT13 www.hinterzimmer-records.com Pendulum Nisum are RETO MÄDER (Ural Umbo, Sum Of R, RM74) and MIKE REBER (Herpes Ö DeLuxe) from Bern, Switzerland. The 8 pieces on their debut album are built on majestic organic drones and hypnotic, sinister melodies - a complex structured sound built from horns, organ, piano, analogue synthesizers, shades of guitar sounds, voices, found objects, electro-acoustic processes, and, most of all, an unusual strong presence of field recordings. The powerful but warm and gloomy sound, based on acoustic instruments and electronic sound treatment clashes in a challenging way with the carefully selected natural sounds (thunderstorms, rain, city noises) chosen from the huge sound databank that Reber has collected within the last decade. Reto Mäder works solo as RM74 and in the groups Ural Umbo (with Steven Hess from Chicago) and Sum Of R. In 2006 he collaborated with Ralf Wehowsky/RLW for the Crouton release Pirouetten. He produced albums for Rhys Chatham (The Bern Project, 2009) and for Herpes Ö DeLuxe (Kielholen, 2007). Since 2006 Reto Mäder has run the label Hinterzimmer Records together with Roger Ziegler. Mike Reber is member of the band Herpes Ö DeLuxe. Since 1995 they have worked in a musical field between atmospheric noise, electronica bruitiste, sombre soundscapes and harsh drones. Hinterzimmer Records released their two last proper albums Kielholen and Ember. Reber also used to work as performance artist during the 80ies and 90ies and has acted in several theatre pieces. The cover artwork is based on pictures from well known Swiss photographer Reto Camenisch. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top ROBERT TURMAN - Flux 2LP Spectrum Spools SP010 Release date: February 14 www.spectrumspools.com Flux is the 1981 debut solo outing of Robert Turman, an American multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer. Until recently, Turman was perhaps best known for his contributions to the ballistic NON project with Boyd Rice, as well as other obscured U.S. industrial acts such as Z.O. Voider. In the summer of 1981 Turman decided he would take a drastic turn from the noisy/electronic/industrial work of his compatriots, and began work on what is now the classic Flux cassette. Flux was originally self-released in extremely limited numbers. Weary of the noisescapes of old, he set out to create long-form minimalism utilizing kalimba, piano, "Mini-Pops Jr." drum machine, and tape loops to create a complex bed of interweaving micro-stasis'. The results of these new experiments were as beautiful as they were perplexing. A curious dusty fidelity carries these classic tracks across four sides of vinyl, including all of the original Flux content. These compositions glow with a sprawling, slow motion haze that's light years ahead of its time. Flux reveals wide spectrums of sound from melancholic kalimba and percussion patterns to slowed down, syrupy Exotica. Turman had complex ideas in his mind yet only the simple technologies of the day were at hand. Hear the click of the stopping and starting Tascam 3340 open-reel tape machine as one hand presses the "record" and "play" buttons and the other plays piano phrases. While there are similarities in style to Classical Minimalism, Turman's sound and vision is his own and is exclusive to his limited discography. Released in a limited edition 2xLP set. Lovingly remastered and cut from the original C-60 cassette master. Original cassette artwork and scans provided by Aaron Dilloway. Spectrum Spools released in association with Editions Mego >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top TEHO TEARDO - Music, Film. Music. 2LP/CD Specula 002 www.tehoteardo.com/specularecords The album Music, Film. Music. released as cd and double LP on Specula Records is a selective compilation of Teho Teardo's recent work in film music which has won him several major awards and much critical acclaim. The record includes incidental music from the international hit and cannes jury prize winner Il Divo for which he also won the Ennio Morricone prize at the Italia film festival. Ennio Morricone himself presented the prize to Teho and the Il Divo soundtrack went on to win the David di Donatello prize, the most important award in Italian film music. Teho's method of working takes in much more than a film's imagery. Teho starts work immediately after reading the film's script and by doing this creates music that has a life of its own creating compositions that work as music in their own right. Music, Film. Music. is an album which apart from being 'music for films' also conjures up worlds outside those created by Teho for the cinema. His scoring mixes traditional forms with modern instrumentation, novel ideas and studio trickery and he has a special ability to create tension from the combination of strings and electronics. This retrospective also contains "A Quiet Life", a wonderful song that Teho wrote and produced with Blixa Bargeld from Einsturzende Neubauten. This song is the best way to introduce the collaboration between these two musicians who are already working together on a collaborative album. Ennio Morricone had this to say about the album: "Teho Teardo searches for originality through difficult forms, using repetition, an economy of materials and a personal minimalism; in short, through a continuous 'passacaglia' he searches for solutions that can fit both his needs and those of the film he writes music for. Experience tells me that sooner or later, those who seek will find and in the passages between searching and finding there are important moments, moments such as the ones we can hear on this beautiful album." Teho's sound designer world is apparent in the speaker distortions, drones and jittery electronic rhythms he adds to the deceptively simple string arrangements that turn many of the tracks from this record into modern classics, this material is so pointed and precise it could win over anyone. This album is a record of the extraordinary early work of an important new name in the world of music and film music. The man with the Morricone approval! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top TETRAS - Pareidolia  2LP/DL Flingco Sound System FSS0017 www.flingcosound.com tetras.jasonkahn.net Jason Kahn: drums Jeroen Visser: organ, electronics Christian Weber: contrabass Recorded February 2011 by Jeroen Visser at F.ishing B.akery L.abs, Zurich. Mixed by Jason Kahn and Christian Weber. Mastered by Jeroen Visser at Central Dubs Vinyl Mastering, Bern. Album artwork by Jason Kahn. In late 2009 Jason Kahn approached Jeroen Visser about starting a project together. After a few months of playing they decided to invite Christian Weber into the group, who Jason knew from previous bands. In early 2010 the group began meeting regularly in Jeroen's studio to develop their sound. Pareidolia documents these sessions. Tetras take a long-form approach to their music, with live sets approaching one hour or more. The gradual structural development of their pieces blurs the sense of time passing, moving through various fields of improvisation which owe as much to rock (This Heat, Can), as they do to jazz (Sun Ra, electric-era Miles Davis), minimal music (Steve Reich) or drone (Phil Niblock). Aside from their collaborative approach to the music, Tetras also work collectively in all aspects of the production involving a recording. On Pareidolia each member of the group had a hand in either mixing the initial tracks or mastering them for the final vinyl cut before pressing. Having Pareidolia released as a double LP reflects the group's preference for a certain analog sound and a way of listening to music not common in today's world of playlists and compressed sound files. In the context of these recordings, the title Pareidolia refers to the idea of hearing through the music, to find the many shifting layers of form and interplay slowly manifesting themselves over the duration of the pieces. JASON KAHN began playing music in Los Angeles during the early 1980's, initially releasing records on the SST label. During the 1990's he lived in Berlin, playing drums and percussion in many projects of improvised and electronic music. Since 2000 he has been living in Zurich. Getting his start in the 1980's Amsterdam Ultra scene, JEROEN VISSER has worked extensively as sound engineer with The Ex, Tom Cora and many more. He played with The Pale Nudes during the 1990's, and currently tours with ./morFrom/. and Trio Kazanchis, with Ethiopian singer and krar player Mesele Asmamaw. Swiss bassist CHRISTIAN WEBER is involved in numerous projects, ranging from jazz and free improvisation to contemporary chamber music. He has collaborated with a wide spectrum of musicians, ranging from John Butcher to Otomo Yoshihide. Pareidolia is being released in an edition of 500 double LPs, in silk-screened covers designed by Jason Kahn. As with all FSS LPs, a download code is included. A digital version of the album is also available for sale as a download. Tetras will tour New Zealand and Australia in Jan. 2012 and Belgrade in May 2012. There will also be concerts in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Holland through the fall of 2012. "A surprising trio, blurring their own tracks (and thus ours), and plunging into a sort of ghostly groove, repetitive and deliberately blurred at the edges and Reichian - their improvisations based on parts-flow-forms to an extended duration." - Modisti.com "Tetras complement and reverse the roles: the bass plays with minimalist groove patterns, soundscapes are created from an acoustic drum, the organ goes beyond all the clichés as part of the rhythm section." - Kunstraum Walcheturm >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top THE BOATS - Ballads of the Research Department CD 12k 1068 www.12k.com The Boats are a duo consisting of CRAIG TATTERSALL (ex-Hood, The Remote Viewer, and owner of the Cotton Goods label) and ANDREW HARGREAVES (Tape Loop Orchestra) as well a rotating roster of guest musicians and vocalists. While Ballads of the Research Department is their 12k debut, it follows up a string of critically acclaimed and genre favorites such as Sleepy Insect Music (Flau/Home Normal, 2010), Words are Something (Home Normal, 2009), and limited editions released on their own Our Small Ideas imprint. With The Boats, 12k, who continues to move away from the "electronic" tag, further plays the line between experimental electro-acoustic sounds and structured music creating an intoxicating hybrid of instrumentation, vocals, electronics, piano and drums. With Ballads of The Research Department The Boats explore a duality created by the traditional "ballad" and the modern notion of science and research. In their words: "We wanted to present the ballad in a new form employing sounds as well as words to tell our stories. These stories are not as lyrical as the ballad form of the past and are open to the listener's interpretation. These are ballads of our time that are aware of the past. They are investigations into the uncertainty of our time, love, woe and hope." They work in these grey areas by combining elements of various musical styles - ambient, pop, classical, experimental - creating overlaps, gaps and layers, nudging the boundaries in the most sincere and natural of ways. The Boats' music is warm, rich and complex but never over-complicated. They rarely rely on any sort of studio trickery instead opting to use the most honest tools to get the sounds they want - be it proper recordings of acoustic instruments or recording to analogue tape. This doesn't, however, override a passion for experimentation as they are happy to throw away the rules in favor of the aesthetics of error. On Ballads... The Boats are joined by long-time collaborator Danny Norbury who supplies cello throughout the four extended songs on the album. From Flau Records, Japanese vocalist Cuushe drapes her soft voice over the gentle "The Ballad of Indecision" accompanying its warmly pulsed beat, hazy textures, strings and synthetic blinking. On "The Ballad of Failure" (featured on 12k's latest Sampler CD), perhaps the album's most structured and stand-out piece, Chris Stewart's voice alongside the acoustic drums and harmonies flirt with a mixture of shoegaze and ambient music, encapsulating the album's enveloping and dreamy atmosphere perfectly. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top URAL UMBO - Delusion of Hope LP Utech Records URLP070 www.utechrecords.com www.uralumbo.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgOP_JLF-7A With an eldritch terror that could just as easily be from another dimension as the darkest ocean comes the latest release from Ural Umbo, Delusion of Hope. Feedback and melody barely escape from the murky crevices, tinged with a sense of grinding tension. Sharp, acidic percussion slices through the blackness with violent urgency, while electronic blasts and organic drones entwine and ensnare. Some dim instinctive memory vaguely resurrects a shadowy scene wherein black drums roar madly, and monstrous beings squat loathsomely in inexplicable rituals rooted in the black dawn of the universe. Ural Umbo are RETO MÄDER and STEVEN HESS. Recorded 2011 in Bern, Switzerland and Chicago, USA. Guest musician parts by Matt Thompson. Recorded 2011 in London, UK. Mixed and mastered by Reto Mäder at Hinterzimmer, Bern. Vinylcut by Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Service USA. Limited to 300 copies on clear vinyl. Comes with CD version of the album. Photography by Alexander Binder. Video "Self Fulfilling Prophecy" by Ural Umbo and B & B Production. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top XAVIER CHARLES & TERRIE EX - Addis CD Terp Records IS-17 www.terprecords.nl Seven duo improvisations recorded in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia in room 103 at Baro Hotel (Piazza) and Bateau Ivre (Kazanchis). The Ex has a yearly project in which they invite different adventurous musicians to Ethiopia, to do concerts, workshops and various collaborations with local musicians. On earlier trips, in 2002 and 2004 we noticed that there was a big demand for "new" music. Young Ethiopian musicians were telling us that apparently most people from outside Ethiopia still thought that the main issue in Ethiopia were problems of poverty and hunger. But infact there is a poverty of information and a big hunger for it!! From all the new and improvised music-festivals we have played, we have connections with many musicians. In may 2009 we went with Silent Block from France who perform with tables full of self-made instruments and experimental electronica. Xavier Charles is one of the members. He is also an incredible clarinet improviser. Suddenly we found ourselves playing in a room in the Baro Hotel and outside in the garden of the Bateau Ivre bar. An adventure. "Addis" means "new". That's how it felt. - Terrie Ex, Wormer 2010 Recorded in Addis Abeba, May 5 & 7 2009 by Jeroen Visser (Fishing Bakery Labs). Mixed by Xavier, finalized by Xavier and Terrie. Mastered by Marc Doutremont. Design and layout by Emma Fischer. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> top We are not responsible for the contents of external internet sites