4 tracks, 2 bangers: D.K. starts a new season in the Antinote league with a 12” 100% dedicated to the dancefloor. There’s a perfume of jungle (not the genre, the one from Donkey Kong Country, in case someone has still not made the connection between Nintendo’s #1 gorilla and the French producer) emanating from the whole record. The Parisian producer has also been taking a peep on some early 1990’s rave records (but who isn’t at the moment?), as demonstrated by the two first songs, Mystic Warrior and perhaps even more flagrantly Elements – with its emotional pads and sad mock Jon Hassel-like trumpets.
Worries In The Dance, and Earth People are more of a warm up business – so to speak, in the language of the club. D.K. takes a step back, BPM-wise, only to allow a deeper exploration of the surroundings – namely shamans with bamboo flutes circling around you, monks meditating under a cascade, others ringing a prayer bell – that have more to do with Age Of Empire or any 1990’s adventure game set in a fantasized Asia than anything that actually exists IRL (probably a distinctive signature of the French producer). Anyway, there’s a Bruce Lee sticker on the sleeve that says it all, in a much more concise way. More

With Distant Images, D.K.'s sound also took a step further into reality - the most attentive ears will hear seagulls on Distant Images while rain is softly falling on Leaving - and slightly departed from the digital universes that his previous records seemed to set in motion. From the most abstract songs - like the Steve Reich-ian Shaker Loops - to the most evocative ones, the five compositions on Distant Images are like stained glass, gently filtering natural light. It is therefore no coincidence if, of all the senses, the titles of the songs mostly refer to Sight: close your eyes while listening to the cinematographic Days Of Steam and visions of an industrious city might appearbefore you. The beauty that emanates from Distant Images is of a diaphanous kind and the record a collection of kaleidoscopic moments. More

No more pool parties, no more red-hot cars on the road to Miami; with his third release (and second album) on Antinote, Parisian producer D.K. gives his music a new direction. While his previous 12”, Love On Delivery (ATN016), was a perfect soundtrack to your endless nights spent on Outrun on Sega Genesis, Island Of Dreams will more likely incite you to turn on your old Mackintosh and play Myst again. With Evening Shadows, D.K. slowly unveils a very personal virtual landscape, letting us approach his island of dreams, while Ivory Forest already invites us to loose ourselves in a wood in which the babblings of synthetic birds can be heard. Play On is more of a beach affair, an invitation to rest on numeric sand in front of a digital sunset before a highly melancholic Journey To The Sun and an initiatory dive in a sea of pixels on Memories. The music on Island Of Dreams is not designed for the dancefloors and Raindrops is the only housy excursion of the record, but it resonates with so much intensity and energy that the song wakes you up from the dream you’ve fallen into. Finally, High On The Sea, the ethereal conclusion to the album, is not a goodbye song to D.K.’s island for it leaves in your mind a window open onto this synthetic world, to be entered again. More

DK is back on Antinote with a second record that exudes refinement and class a la DK, meaning: perfect pastel pads with sophisticated cowbells, tasteful toms, riviera playboy boogie bass lines and risqué drums. More

GTCM016 introduces D.K., a new artist to emerge from Paris' electronic underground. With an impressively accomplished sound for a debut release, this EP contains four original tracks and it's all killer, no filler house in the vein of Ron Trent, Moon B, PPU and Future Times. More

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Second Circle are delighted to announce a five track EP from Kaifeng born, Vancouver based musician Yu Su, titled ‘?????? / Roll With The Punches'
Recorded on the Coast Salish territory in Vancouver, three tracks on the EP grew out of a live set Yu Su began developing in 2018 for a series of performances. The record also features two collaborations; on the opening track “Little Birds, Moonbath” Michelle Helene Mackenzie appears on modular synth, with Vancouver locals Pender Street Steppers joining Yu Su for an improvised jam, appearing on guitar and synth across “Tipu’s Tiger”.
The title ‘?????? / Roll With The Punches' as Yu Su herself explains, “Is a metaphor translated from an old Chinese proverb, that roughly translates as ‘The Spring flows over plains and The Valley is born’. The proverb explains the origin of ‘The Valley’ and also speaks of a very Daoist abstraction in which the ‘Thousand Things’ are born and will eventually co-exist in the metaphysical system of ‘The Valley’.” More

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ISOR29 with a six track mini-album titled ‘Moon Phase Gardening’. ISOR29 is a new project from Columbian musician Tomas Garcia Station and follows on from his highly regarded 2020 debut release under the ‘Irie Nation’ moniker.

The title ‘Moon Phase Gardening’ (also referred to as Gardening by the Moon or Planting by the Moon) draws upon the idea that the lunar cycle affects plant growth. Just as the Moon’s gravitational pull creates the tides of the oceans, it also creates more moisture in the soil, which encourages growth.

Evolving out of forced time off, individual confrontation and the love for someone close, ‘Moon Phase Gardening’ was recorded in the living room of an old flat in Lisbon during the first lockdown. Using only a microphone, computer, Korg MS20, hang drum and a field recorder, ISOR29 channels Tomas’ musical vocabulary via electronics to reflect an immersive and self-reflective story bound to a uniquely powerful time and space. More

Second Circle return with a special one-off album of music by Belgian producer soFa, German musician Houschyar and the legendary Turkish drummer and percussionist Okay Temiz.

SC019 – Selale (LP) is the result of a string of sessions that began in Istanbul during 2018, when soFa spontaneously teamed up with friend Houschyar for a series of smoky jams in the young producer's 5th floor apartment. They would meet again a few months later, with a plan to finish the EP, and whilst having lunch, the two decided to pay a spontaneous visit to Okay Temiz, with whom soFa had worked previously.

Welcoming the pair in the percussion workshop (Atölye) where he spends most of his days, Temiz was excited by their demos and the three of them began to jam around the tracks, with Temiz utilizing a number of his own homebuilt instruments. The duo had now become a trio, it seems, and back in their home studio the jams would be edited and reworked; with Okay adding further overdubbing and contributions to the tracks.

Probably best known as a member of The Don Cherry Trio, for his own band Oriental Wind and for numerous collaborations with some of the best Jazz musicians in the world, Okay Temiz is considered to be one of the most innovative and outstanding musical figures in Turkey and beyond. A professional musician since 1955, Temiz's career began in Jazz and traditional Turkish music, but he became increasingly fascinated with the possibilities of electronic and self-built instruments, which he would experiment within different forms. During the late 70ties Temiz also developed a special love for Brazilian instruments such as the Berimbau and Cuica, both of which are omnipresent on this album.

In this latest collaboration, Okay Temiz weaves his percussive magic through six diverse psychedelic synthesizer and drum computer jams, alongside two exciting young producers. Selale is mixed by Dusseldorf studio wizard Gordon Pohl. More

The eighteenth release on Second Circle is the label's second exploration into an artists archival works; this time presenting a selection of four early tracks by theatre, film and music producer Can Oral under his Khan alias.

Can moved to Williamsburg, New York in the early 90's along with good friend and fellow musician Jimi Tenor. Born in Germany of Turkish-Finnish parents, he would frantically start buying equipment (such as a TR808, TB303 and Korg Polysix) from junk shops across New York, becoming greatly prolific in his recordings which he would work on throughout the night. During the daytime though, Can set up and ran the now defunct Temple Records, a seminal Soho record store, and later label, largely importing Techno and Acid from Europe. Though a small store, Temple Records would count musicians and DJs such as Björk, Tricky, Dee-Lite, Josh Wink and Joey Beltram among its regular customers. Also he would host many such guests to play live or DJ at his weekly Techno party “Killer” which was held at Save The Robots in New York’s East Village.

Can Oral's nightly studio sessions eventually led to an almost inexhaustible discography with over a dozen monikers each representing a different aspect of his productions. SC018 focuses then on his early electronic works as Khan.

Named after the color painted studio where the EP was produced between 1993-1996, 'Blue Box Sessions' is a collection of four analogue machine driven cuts, covering different tempos and ethos within electronic music. Initially live recorded to an old DAT recorder, and without any overdubs, SC018 is a lost and found artefact to Khan's unquestioned raw talent and timeless relevance. More

Second Circle returns with the follow up to Giuseppe Leonardi’s 2018 debut record ‘TBC’, with another singular EP from the young Austrian musician, titled ’MenteMente’. Recorded this year in Vienna, during the lockdown of the city, the title ‘MenteMente’ was derived from the Spanish word ‘Mente’ (meaning ‘Mind’) and refers to a meditative state developed during times of crisis, and the evolution this has brought to Giuseppe’s own musical process over the past months.

Reflecting an evolution in his musical output, the six tracks on ‘MenteMente’ incorporate a diverse mix of sounds and influences. The EP also includes collaborations with vocalist Fresh Princess, a young experimental dancer and vocalist from Ghana now based in Vienna. As well as spoken word from Georgian Art Theorist Lana Girkelidze who reads her favourite passages from Georgian poet Galaktion Tabidze’s poem ‘Qari qris’ - ????????? ??????-???? ????.

‘MenteMente’ will be accompanied by a series of digital visuals made by Carolina Rivera Arboleda, artist and student at the Vienna University of Applied Arts and a stop motion video installation by renowned Viennese street artist Olivier Hölzl. More

SC016 sees the re-issue of four tracks taken from a little known cassette only release ‘Diet Of Germs’ by British artist and friend Adam Oko. Originally released in 2015 on the now defunct Astro:Dynamics label the four tracks were recorded in Adam’s bedroom studio overlooking Clissold Park in Stoke Newington, London.

Now based in Tokyo but having spent most of his life living between London & Canterbury, as well as producing music and running a regular radio show on NTS radio, Adam also makes mixed media artwork and designs installations & interiors.

All instruments on ‘Diet Of Germs’ were performed by Adam himself except the solo on Suketo which was played by Raven Bush - Kate Bush’s nephew & was actually recorded in Kate’s old studio in South London. More

The fifteenth release on Second Circle sees the label’s first exploration into an artists archival works; this time bringing together a selection of four early tracks by the seminal English musician Richard H. Kirk under his Sandoz moniker.
As founding member and driving force of pioneering Industrial band Cabaret Voltaire, Richard H. Kirk began his solo project Sandoz in 1992, evolving out of and running in parallel to Cabaret Voltaire’s evolution in sound from innovators of Industrial and post punk electronics towards pioneering works within Techno and House.
Taking the name from Sandoz Laboraties, a pharmaceutical company best known for inventing LSD in 1938, Kirk’s somewhat lesser known solo project evolved out of Cabs’ fascination and own development of Acid House and Rave culture, whilst leaning more heavily on Jamaican Reggae and Dub influences.
Presenting a selection of four mind-bending tracks, originally released between 1992-1993 on his very own Sheffield-based Intone label, SC015 further reveals Richard H. Kirk’s unique and visionary voice within electronic music. More

Second Circle are thrilled to announce the latest release on the label comes from the Indonesian outfit Zatua with their debut release ‘Sin Existencia’. First formed by Dea Barandana, the seven track album was recorded in Jakarta and Bali over two years and grew out of improvised live shows with a band Dea put together.
Zatua first performed together in 2017 at the Goethe Institute in Jakarta as a last minute addition to the bill, having only a week to prepare and rehearse. The live show would consist of material based on simple melodic ideas and extended sections growing into live jams. Taking material from Dea Barandana’s solo compositions the ideas were then further developed and re-structured by Dea and band members Harsya Wahono, Adra Karim and Rafi Muhammad into finished pieces. Inviting further guest musicians to join on various tracks, the vocals were in fact largely improvised by Carmen Caballero Fernández and Sasha Sabrina - in French, Spanish and Asturian.
Using predominantly analogue equipment, ’Sin Extistencia’ is the final outcome of an extensive exploration into the unique sonic ranges and musical fascinations of the various members of the band. Taking influence from Indonesian psychedelic music from the 1970’s and 80’s the album presents a fascinating glimpse into contemporary Indonesian electronic music with a nod to it’s little known but rich past. More