Rörelsen Mellan Rummen
A decade has now gone by since Mattias Gustafsson released his first recording under the name of Altar of Flies. Since then, he has carved out his very own unique approach to experimental music, with an unmistakable artisic expression. The new Lp, "Rörelsen mellan rummen", is no exception to this claim. With an astonishing precision and sensibility for details, "Rörelsen mellan rummen" is definately one of his finest moments so far. We are invited to the inner corners of a musical univers…
Gegen Die Zeit
On September 11th, 2015 the audience of the stunning "Rotor" concert series witnessed the first live appearance of John Gürtler and Phillip Sollmann underneath a highway bridge in Offenbach, Germany. Hosted by International Music Institute Darmstadt alongside Institut für Klangforschung Offenbach and HfMDK Frankfurt, the newly formed duo performed an aural conversation on stage within the incredible architectural environment. A year later, an extract of these live recordings became part of …
Decadent Yet Depraved
Double LP version. Decadent Yet Depraved, the debut album by Belief Defect, finds shelter and complicity in Raster as a home and label. Familiar with the underground music scene and how its skeptical nature can also be an obstacle to overcome, Belief Defect abandon any claim or credit in an attempt to transcend the limits authorship imposes, avoid the boundaries, or expectations, earned or self-imposed, and find the clearest, most direct path to their music for themselves and the listener…
The Collection
From Nicola Ratti... "These recordings were made during a relatively long period of time, not continuously, over several months in my studio. Nothing was been planned in advance, not any idea of album or approach. Nevertheless I easily recognize myself in this material, moreover I recognize my working space itself. It's like taking a picture, or make a painting, of your personal room where all your stuff is well placed and, among them, their identities as sound sources and acoustic possib…
The Rules Of The Game: Original Studio Recordings (1978-1996)
Into the Light Records continue to shine light on the undiscovered heritage of Greek electronic music, highlighting the work of prolific Greek composer George Theodorakis on the label's third archival release. "The Rules of the Game" features mostly unreleased studio recordings Theodorakis made between 1978 and 1996, with the addition of selected material taken from his sought-after 'Margo' and 'Sima' LPs.. George Theodorakis is the son of legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. Unlike…
CZ-5000 Sounds & Sequences
"Tireless working to bring audio enjoyment to all corners of the world, globe trotting DJ hero, production genius and digger extraordinaire Young Marco is a bit of a gee. Especially when you consider he still finds time to curate the sublime stream of otherworldly, synthetic brilliance found on his Safe Trip imprint. Substituting cigarettes for sleep, the Dutchman travelled day and night to arrive at a secluded building in Kawasaki, Japan, where he found identical twins Satoshi and Makoto…
Break At Home
Mad grab of styles from “Athens’ Best Kept Secret”, 2 Katara - including a handful of wicked, mutant disco bits, and an epic, 17 minute piece of prog funk ‘Greek Lady’ that’s practically worth the admission alone for any cosmic nuts.. “‘Break at Home’ is the collected recordings of the mysterious group ‘2 Katara’ which was formed in Athens, Greece in 1978 by George Theodorakis (keyboards, percussion, vocals) with his close friend Dimitris Papangelidis (bass, guitars, percussion, vocals). T…
1 By 1
Music From Memory blindside again with an unprecedented survey of Geoffrey Landers’ home-baked avant-pop-funk and more experimental dabs of ambient jazz, abstract electronics. “Music From Memory's final compilation of 2017 sees the release of the double album “1 by 1”, which brings together the works of American experimental musician Geoffrey Landers. During a period spanning from 1979 to 1987, this Denver, Colorado based multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer and engineer, conce…
Reality From Childhood Remembered as a Dream
Superb unreleased 80s ambient cassettes remastered. Robert Scott Pearson's music can be seen as surrealist, impressionist, post-industrial, mystical or avant-garde, but it goes beyond categories. His work embraces software, philosophy, poetry, visual arts, and generative algorithmic creation in general. At an early age, he began to experiment in this field, and released his first music privately on cassette, being part of the 80s undergound industrial scene in Seattle. Post-industrial, fut…
Fluides
“Mécanique des fluides” (2014-15). “PianoHertz” (2012). “Consort for Convolved Violins” (2011). “Préludes suspendus III” (2009, 10). “Fractal C” (1983-84). Horacio Vaggione has been integrating computers to his approach to composition since the 1970s. His body of work includes electroacoustic pieces, mixed pieces, and instrumental music. Born in 1943 in Argentina, Vaggione has been residing in France since 1978. He studied piano with Ornella Ballestreri and composition at Universidad Nacio…
Petites étincelles
Manuella Blackburn is an electroacoustic music composer who specializes in acousmatic music creation. However, she also has composed for instruments and electronics, laptop ensemble improvisations, and music for dance. She studied music at The University of Manchester (England, UK), followed by a Masters in Electroacoustic Composition with David Berezan. She became a member of Manchester Theatre in Sound (MANTIS) in 2006 and completed a PhD at The University of Manchester with Ricardo Clim…
Levels
Recorded with a modest hardware setup in Geneva - one drum machine, a few synths, a sampler, plus effects - the ten miniatures on LEVELS’ debut S/T are nonetheless dense in atmosphere and mood, often immensely beautiful beyond their means. As suggested by the project’s name, each track has the feel of a new level on a video game; a new environment to explore, to feel around for new clues, and ultimately to conquer. Referencing classic anime, movie, and videogame scores, LEVELS’ willfully …
I
Hailing from Cologne, Mikrovolt is the nom de plume of music journalist and radio author Veit König. Recorded sporadically over the last six years, his first release I is the culmination of a hitherto undocumented musical journey. König has always made music for the last two decades, initially starting more pop-oriented before heading into a space disco direction, ultimately arriving at the retro-robotic synthesizer kraut of Mikrovolt’s I. Assembled in his DAW from a host of vintage organ,…
Illumina
“By restricting myself, I feel like I'm connecting with a larger arc of producers throughout time,” explains Leo Maymind. “People who were crammed into a corner of their bedroom with headphones on while the rest of the world was out gallivanting.” Following nearly a decade entrenched into the Brooklyn DIY scene, a move to Los Angeles signalled a change in approach for Maymind, limiting his gear to a small tabletop hardware setup, sometimes as little as a single drum machine and a rackmoun…
Transgression
Damon Carruesco departed his decade on bass with Chicago’s minimalist fringe rockers Disappears in 2015, deciding experimental music more his thing and opting to pursue the bold sound of TüTH. Aiming to search out his own limits, potential, and abilities as an artist, the atmospheric sounds on Transgression are Carruesco’s attempt to make atmospheric electronic music that exists outside of "the grid". Transgression draws from field recordings and hand-made sounds, taking key inspiration fr…
Hinosch EP
Electronic excursions from Düsseldorf/Osaka duo Hinosch (Koshiro Hino (YPY, Goat) and Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot, Schneider Kacirek). Four unruly studio tracks following the pair's collaborative live sets in Japan and Europe, pushing unsynced electronic instruments into knotted spaces of tape treatments. "Talent" offers swelling arpeggios that wobble over distant drums before playfully proceeding into the hiss and bliss of a pitched-down vocal drone, setting the tone for the EP to unf…
Tant pis 81-82
Best known as an electronic duo, Cham-pang became a fixture of the Montreal new wave scene in 1981 with the release of a two-song EP on YUL Records (“Tantum Ergo” b/w “Ne mourrez pas”). The session featured Men without Hats’ Allan McCarthy on electronics and Yvel Champagne on vocals, although the group also depended on contributions from Mario Spezza of Rational Youth and Pyer Desrochers. A multidisciplinary artist with a singular voice and an arresting presence, Champagne then joined force with…
Instantanes
Montreal stalwart Roger Tellier Craig (of Le Révélateur and Fly Pan Am) returns to Root Strata under his given name to offer a stunningly abstract pair of compositions indicating a severe departure from his earlier work. While Instantanés might at first evoke acousmatic and musique concrète traditions, the two side-long snapshots Roger presents feel far more spontaneous and rustic than those trappings might suggest, or as Luc Ferrari would say "a concrète music of the poor." A studied medi…
Ambientes hormonales
The new record label Urpa i musell, based in Barcelona and affiliated with the record store Discos Paradiso, begins its journey with the reissue of El sueño de Hyparco’s Ambientes hormonales, originally released in 1990 under the Spanish label Hyades Arts.
El sueño de Hyparco (Hyparco’s Dream) was a mutant electronic music project led by the multidisciplinary artist Antonio Dyaz (aka Klaus Böhlmann). It was active mainly between the mid-80s and mid-nineties. What began as a humble bedroom…
Flieg
Mental Experience present a reissue of Kozmonaut's Fleig, originally released in 1986. Ultra-rare DIY minimal/synth-pop/industrial/dark wave album. Kozmonaut was the personal project of a young and talented Canadian musician called Michael Gutierrez, who moved to San Francisco in the early '80s. Influenced by Kraftwerk, German culture, and electronic music, Michael recorded the Flieg album all by himself at his garage studio, using the pseudonym of Hans Schiller. 1000 copies were pressed on …