Smirne
Inspired by the philosophy of George Gurdjieff, whose mystic meditations surely linger in the magick of their work, Smirne was born as a open minded experimental project. Generated by the fusion of different realities, the line-up at the time of the debut is composed of Andrea Reali and Tiziano Doria, members of Lavorazioni Carni Rosse, together with Anna Vezzosi and Cesare Lopopolo, from the electro-acoustic duo Rosso Polare. A thin line between improvisation, electronic exploration and Aegean …
Vuelo Por Las Alturas De La Alhambra
* Edition of 400 * Vuelo por las Alturas de Alhambra was originally published in 1988 on Discos Esplendor Geométrico and it is a hidden gem in the catalogue of this influential Spanish label. The album unfolds a series of subtle and mesmerizing compositions inspired by the legacy of Al-Andalus, the muslim Spanish civilisation. Both a polymath and erudite musician, Jabir decided to pay homage to the marriage of spirituality and science present in that bygone era. For that aim, he relied on a vast…
Vanish
Vanish is Julia Reidy's yearning, fat debut for Editions Mego. Since 2019, Julia's bubbling 12-string guitar work -- sighing streams of crystal plucks drawn closer or echoing on -- has moored a tactile, ever-lusher sound. On "Guitar", the Australian, Berlin-based musician melts down sharp synths; electric fuzz and flex; uncanny found sounds; and autotuned voice and harmonica in a heady, overpowering potion. Reidy's music sweeps you up. It's restless, always traveling on. Lonesome tones into mach…
Etrusca 3D
Etrusca 3D is a new band that merges two current Audio and visual artists from the 21st Century, Francesco Cavaliere and Spencer Clark. The album is the first to be released by Spencer Clark's label Pacific City Discs, as a subsidiary and in collaboration with Discrepant.
Etrusca 3D is the juxtaposition of two imagineers friendship, as Francesco says, 'because I am Etruscan and you (Spencer) are 3D." There is a piece of the future of Etruscan civilization contained within this disc. It is with S…
Infinity Suite
In common parlance the term Infinity Suite refers to a luxury hotel apartment comprised of several adjoining rooms. But my usage of the term here invokes the notion of infinite realities as resonating through dream and memory. An interconnected suite of spaces populated with vivid sounds and images spanning across periods of one’s life. My experience here focuses on the Indian city of Varanasi, but this sense of reality drifting I found there could’ve taken place anywhere. I focused on Varanasi …
Italian Airs
When Simon Van Honacker (°1994, living in Ghent BE) approached me to do an intern with ECN he caught my intention with his plan to study Flemish Folklore, yet from a Deep Listening perspective. Imagine the sound of fanfares, people getting drunk during braderies (tr. street fairs), cover bands, the general buzzing atmosphere during reenactments, … All aligned as parts of an Organic Symphony for deep listening. I don’t consider pioneering, or the striving for the freshest new idea, as purely nece…
Insular Monographs
Two albums, slightly touched...
'Ke Ala Ke Kua': a flashback to july 2010, when I created this afterimage in the timespan of more or less one week. An afterimage of paying a visit to Joan Ocean’s hotspot, the Kealakekua Bay, and to islands of Hawai’i and Oahu. Miss Ocean wrote a few books about her hanging and having conversations with dolphins at Kealakekua, thus i couldn’t resist going over there and seeing what it’s all about.
'Canto Arquipélago': recorded under a volcano on a portable fourtr…
Customer's Copy
**12" pink-hued clear RTI vinyl pressing** Customer’s Copy is the debut LP of contorted cosmic jazz and eccentric minimal electronics by Exotic Sin. The duo of Naima Karlsson and Kenichi Iwasa first came together for a performance celebrating the art and music of Karlsson’s grandparents, Moki and Don Cherry, before continuing as an independent unit that still incorporates some of the Cherrys’ instruments as well as their synergetic integration of music with artistic practice.
Preferring the star…
Breaking the Surface
Two of Annea Lockwood's dramatic works dealing with issues of spiritual wholeness. Duende (1997), about shamanic transformation, is written with and performed by Thomas Buckner. Lockwood selected sounds which reminded her of certain vocal transformations heard in recordings of shamanic ceremonies. In such singing, changes in the voice mirror and also help to bring about changes in the singer's mind and awareness. Within an improvisational framework, Buckner explores the possibility of change of …
Bima Sakti
Ancient Indonesian tradition meets doom rock in profoundly Ur ways on Stephen O’Malley and Senyawa’s collaborative commission for choreographer Gisèle Vienne. Following a decade of creative bonds forged between theatre director and choreographer Gisèle Vienne and doom sayer Stephen O’Malley that spans multiple soundtracks (solo and with Peter Rehberg in KTL) and visual artworks, the pair travelled to Indonesia on a commission to explore the country’s rich culture in 2018. They immersed in a magi…
Minna Miteru
**2CD version** In collaboration with Markus Acher’s Alien Transistor label, Morr Music presents a collection of hard-to-find Japanese independent music, compiled by Saya, who plays with Ueno Takashi in the iconic duo Tenniscoats. They are part of a current music scene, which is little known outside of Japan. "Minna Miteru"“ focuses on that very scene: the featured bands and musicians share a certain idea of DIY, and are also connected through frequent collaborations and mutual appreciation.
Anthology of Contemporary Music From Indonesia
**200 copies** "For many centuries Indonesia, from the Malay Peninsula throughout the vast archipelago, has been subjected to successive foreign cultural invasions which have left their deep imprint on the indigenous way of life. Among the first was the Mongolian intrusion from central Asia. A later cultural wave came from India when Hindu merchants and immigrants introduced Hinduism and Buddhism into the islands. Subsequently, about the 13th century A.D. Islamic influences penetrated the archip…
Flues of Disappearing Sand
**90copies** When Dylan Henners debut EP A Reason for Living was released through Phantom Limb in February 2019, it became quite clear that there was more to discover than what the record made us listen to. Electronic Sound Magazine described it as “an ambient delight” and in September that same year he returned with his second EP Stormbird Brother in the Dusk, featuring the Trinidadian steel pan maestro Fimber Bravo. Besides his own work, Dylan Henner remixed other musicians such as Oliver Coat…
Cimora
Over the last decade multi instrumentalist Tomás Tello has been developing his own personal music style based around an exploration of the guitar and his intense personal investigation of traditional Peruvian music - in particular Andean culture which he grew up with. Now operating out of Tavira, Tomás has been functioning like a psychic musician, a well tuned antenna picking an unique sound universe where, among others, sounds of native instruments (quenas, drums, charangos) and experimental el…
The Tower of Mirrors
25 years ago, David Shea released a crafty piece of complex philosophical and narrative audio collage: The Tower of Mirrors. Composed and produced in New York City, during September-October 1995, it includes 24 tracks, and features guests such as David Morley on analog synthesizer programming, Dave Douglas on trumpet, Zeena Parkins on piano and prepared piano, and Jim Pugliese on percussions.This is what David Shea had to say about it in 1995: "In 1994, I wrote a work based on the Hsi-Yu Chi nov…
Kami
Since launching in middle 2000s, the dual imprint Sloowtapes / Slowax, founded and run by visual artist and musician, Bart De Paepe, has been proved to be among the more ambitious platforms for the wild and wonderful sounds emerging from the contemporary scenes of avant-garde and experimental music. Whether viewing individual releases, or the catalog as a total context, theirs is a world which pointedly defies easy definition and being nailed down. Slowax’s latest, Kami, a stunning collaboration…
Die Mauer
**500 copies** Die Mauer is a collection of previously unreleased music composed, performed and recorded by Michael Ranta in 1988/1989 for a ballet choreographed by Philippe Talard. CD is housed in a 6-panel fold out sleeve.
Strange Oasis
**150 copies** "In 1925, Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett disappeared in the indescribable jungles of Brazil during an expedition to find the lost city of Z. The city not only represented a sort of El Dorado, but also a state of consciousness in which the traveler and the jungle became a single being. Fawcett describes this ideal moment as the appearance of an inverted oasis; a deserted space in-between lush vegetation where one cannot longer distinguish one plant from the other, water from land o…
Fauna
Finally restocked: Tsembla's outstanding faux-gamelan and homemade ethnodelic fantasies from Finland’s Ikuisuus label "The cicadas rub their legs, singing as if sucking on inhalators, when past the great willows I see a dam resting deep in the shelter of the trees. The shadow of the dam, a dark cloak glowing green, spreads over the branches of the trees and far across the grass, transforming the yard beyond the road’s edge into an odd province ruled by frogs and mosquitoes that gradually slides …