LP

2. GENRE/S: Electronic / Trip Hop / Breaks


3. TRACKLISTS:

1 - Time To Hold Better
2 - This Time Last Year
3 - We Keep Us Safe
4 - Melancholy Sabotage
5 - Measures
6 - We Don't Owe
7 - Breaking Points
8 - Eviction

The new album from Lebanese-American musician Solpara, Melancholy Sabotage, marks his full length debut and return to Nicolas Jaar's Other People label. While it was recorded over Covid lockdowns, Jaar had been talking about wanting to back a Solpara full-length since he put out Swing. The album came to life while Solpara was living alone in a Brooklyn loft, collecting unemployment checks and viewing ample free time as the artist residency he'd dreamed of; he'd previously been forced to make music in odd windows between numerous jobs and the unmerciful pace of city life. Free from obligations, he would wake up early to take Arabic lessons online, read Tracey Thorn's autobiography, and skateboard the deserted streets, then come home and design sounds until he had a track that felt like it needed to be released. While this easy going lifestyle was peaceful in many ways, Solpara found more complex inspiration in the emotion that stemmed from participation in Black Lives Matter protests and the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, which rocked all of his extended family members in Lebanon.

Melancholy Sabotage explores the theme of sabotaging melancholy. Echoing sounds from the post-punk, trip-hop, and ambient genres, it is about sabotaging the cycle of melancholy and looking at this process without ignoring the sources that put it into motion. It may be compared to a rattling breaking free from retention, reaching states of dreamy euphoria while simultaneously acknowledging the sources of retention, viewed from above. The sources can be personal, political, or socio-economic. They are to be apprehended post-melancholy, after the sabotaging of the initial cycle of melancholy. In other words, it is about transcending melancholy and understanding where it came from with some distance. It may be beautiful and healthy to feel for a while, but how may one sabotage this cycle when it becomes paralyzing? Ultimately, this album is about feeling melancholy but also resisting it and naming the sources that initiated it.

"Time To Hold Better" points to neglect on both personal and group levels. "This Time Last Year" is a personal time capsule. "We Keep Us Safe" is about solidarity, autonomy, and care witnessed within protest groups. "Melancholy Sabotage" is a sonic exploration of the album concept illustrating anger and sadness, but finally, resistance and liberation from these feelings. "Measures" is a more fluid exploration of the latter after the initial storm has passed. "We Don't Owe" points to bigger bodies inflicting harm on populations that we owe nothing to. "Breaking Points" harkens the times that we may lose focus while pushing to transcend melancholy. "Eviction" is about being pushed out of a space unwillingly while simultaneously being forced to move forward.

Melancholy Sabotage pulls from a range of genres, uniting electronic sounds under the same post-punky glow. It pulls from complex, heavy themes including damage and injustice, presenting Solpara's most moving body of work to date. It highlights the poignance that has always been at the heart of his fluid sound, which caters to dancefloors and avant-garde spaces in equal measure. Working with a mix of dissonant guitars, distorted drum machines, and distant, reverb-washed vocals, Melancholy Sabotage is Solpara's uneasiest outing to date. The record pinpoints the duality at the heart of Solpara's sound, which is as plaintive as it is searing.



5. VITAL SALES POINTS:

Solpara launched the label and event series Booma Collective with Oren Ratowsky and Valentin Stip - a lowkey institution in the international techno circuit.

His 2015 EP, Swing, marked both a sonic and professional turning point. It split the difference between noisy techno and spacey ambience, capturing the essence of a young artist settling into a singular lane. Issued by Nicolas Jaar's esteemed Other People label, it solidified Solpara's place as an inimitable up-and-comer. "Nicolas and I met in high school, played in a band together, and have been exchanging music ever since," he says. In part thanks to Jaar's powerful co-sign, subsequent Solpara releases landed on imprints such as Quiet Time Tapes and Bruta?.

Solpara fuses elements of post-punk, ambient, house, and dub techno. While plenty of his cuts would fit within the context of an energizing DJ set, many are arrhythmic and avant-garde. When asked about his influences, Solpara cites artists ranging from Laurel Halo to Laurie Spiegel to Massive Attack to Denis Mpunga to Lily Tchiumba. His eclectic tastes were nurtured while studying film and philosophy in college, with German expressionism, Tarkovsky, and Chris Marker's La Jetee allowing him to realize the atmosphere he had been searching for. This curiosity was further encouraged by Booma Collective members and his roommate Jurg Haller, who went on to found the label Forbidden Planet Records. Later, after Solpara returned to his New York City hometown, he worked as a buyer for the now-shuttered record store Halcyon. In that job, he listened to copious amounts of music every day. His deep knowledge of culture has had a strong impact on a sound that is simultaneously fluid and commanding.


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Cassette

GENRE/S: Alternative / Electronic / Soundscapes

TRACKLISTS:

1. Antena magne?tica captando campos electromagneticos I
2. Antena magne?tica captando campos electromagne?ticos II
3. Micro?fono de contacto captando vibracio?n del puente Llacole?n
4. Micro?fono de contacto captando la interaccio?n entre el viento y un a?rbol
5. Micro?fono de contacto en elementos vibrantes
6. Micro?fonos de contacto captando granizos
7. Micro?fonos de contacto en autobu?s
8. Hidro?fono bajo el fondo del mar
9. Vibraciones de materiales Geofon II
10. Vibraciones de materiales Geofon I
11. Vibraciones de materiales Geofon III
12. En la direccio?n del viento
13. Ronroneo de selai
14. Rai?l
15. Efectos sonoros en la naturaleza


SHORT INFO:

Valentina Villarroel is a sound artist and phonographer who explores the intricate dynamics within various Southern ecosystems. Her work revolves around the profound potential of acoustic ecology, particularly in the face of encroaching real estate development on natural spaces. She also delves into the consequences of sound pollution on numerous species, contributing to their decline or disappearance. In recent years, her focus has extended to urban soundscapes and significant sonic events, such as the October 18th protest in Chile. With a solid background in bioacoustics applied to both human and animal well-being, Valentina assumes the role of co-director at AOIR Sound Laboratory. There, she spearheads an interdisciplinary initiative that centers sound as its core element. This includes the creation of the sonic cartography portal aoir.cl, as well as the development of handmade electronic devices like the Bowerbankii and the creation of various experimental microphones.

VITAL SALES POINTS:

Available only on limited cassette
More

2LP with Printed PVC Sleeve

GENRE/S: Alternative / Electronic

TRACKLISTS:

LP1:
A1 / 1. Ale Hop - Head Transplant
A2 / 2. Daniela Huerta - Tza Tun Tzat
A3 / 3. Debashis Sinha - For the waters ever taste the heavens up parts I-V

B1 / 4. Hexorcismos - ¿Acaso de veras se vive con raíz en la Tierra?
B2 / 5. Hexorcismos & El Irreal Veintiuno - Interferencias
B3 / 6. Jessika Khazrik - Gebera

LP2:
C1/ 7. Khyam Allami - Mix v6
C2 / 8. Kloxii Li - Anhaga
C3 / 9. KMRU - hidden options
C4 / 10. MAF - What's heard once entered (Nommo)

D1 / 11. Portrait XO - MUTUALISM_151122
D2 / 12. Simina Oprescu - Granularities
D3 / 13. Visions of Lizard - Barranca del muerto



SHORT INFO:

For the last seven years, sound artist, technologist, and electronic musician Moisés Horta Valenzuela (aka Hexorcismos) has been studying artificial intelligence and generative art, wondering how these new technologies might be augmented into his musical process. Born in Tijuana and currently based in Berlin, Hexorcismos has long attempted to break down the permeable borders between musical styles and expressions, using the spaces in between to reinforce his politics and worldview. And on 'MUTALISMX - becoming sonic network', he expands his vision, inviting artists from across the globe to collaborate on work that questions the biases inherent in AI models, offering a collective alternative that could serve as a blueprint for further research.

The majority of AI art at this stage works with "big data", taking ideas from the cultural canon and muddying them with our contemporary reality. But if we accept that mass culture is always politically biased, always swaying towards historical prejudices, then there must be a counter-narrative. Hexorcismos began to develop a bottom-up approach, using "small data" to interrogate his idiosyncratic approach to art; he built a tool called SEMILLA.AI based on neural audio synthesis that could not only mimic his sonic fingerprint but transform it into another. So when he offered the synth to his network of collaborators, he gave them the option of either using only their data or sharing the signatures of each other artist involved in the project, blurring their identities into a mutual voice.

The result is a compilation that unspools with the coherence and fluidity of a single-artist album or adventurous DJ mix, genreless and boundless but unified by a singular message. Hunanese-American artist Kloxii Li for example takes rugged percussion and tense, industrial ambience, smudging her soundscape into a swirling gust of ghostly dissonance. Hexorcismos himself contributes two compositions: the lengthy, hypnotic 'Acaso de veras se vive con raíz en la Tierra', an AI-powered scramble of his pointed tribal guarachero experiments; and 'Interferencias', a collaboration with Mexican club veteran Bryan Dálvez, aka El Irreal Veintiuno that drives intense dancefloor rhythms into a dense haze of frozen drones and radio static. Elsewhere, Berlin-based Lebanese artist and writer Jessika Khazrik dissolves her voice into a mesh of obscured rhythms and dissociated whirrs, blending the organic with the artificial but retaining an overpowering sense of humanity.

Some artists were drawn to the nebulous aspects of the technology, searching for truth in a soup of different sounds, while others, such as KMRU, used Hexorcismos's synthesizer the examine their output. On 'hidden options', the Kenyan sound artist fed his immense catalog into the neural net, bringing out his mannerisms and tendencies in the process. Each track is singular but myriad, prompting both mutual respect and a sonic becoming, a feedback process between the artist and the tool, the individual and the collective. Data sets are made by people, and by engaging directly with musicians, Hexorcismos suggests a new way of utilizing a technology demonized and glorified without careful examination. Each artist owns their AI model, and alongside the album Hexorcismos will release SEMILLA.AI to the public (with custom-made models to start the process), allowing anyone to access this revolutionary technology.

Even the album's artwork reflects the political message, conceptualized by Chilean duo hypereikon, who used AI processes to develop a visual reflection of the technology and its possibilities. Operating outside of academia and capitalist enterprises, MUTUALISMX proposes an alternative future - one without borders that's not beholden to the Western canon, where independent labor can be prioritized and celebrated, and where creativity can truly flourish.
More

LP, Artwork with Obi Tag, Vinyl made of BioVinyl

2. GENRE/S: Alternative / Electronic

3. TRACKLISTS:

A
1. Intiha - 3:50
2. Nazar Se - 4:14
3. Muddat - 6:30
4. Raat Bhar - 2:58

B
5. Dard - 7:30
6. Chiragh - 5:46
7. Lagta Nahi - 2:10
8. Dono Jahan - 3:32


4. SHORT INFO:

Singer, songwriter and author Ali Sethi had been entranced by Jaar's music long before they began collaborating. He'd absorbed the sounds over a number of years, listening casually and taking in their subtleties in bars and rooftop parties across Lahore and London. "It felt familiar to me, that sense of adventure you have when you hear his music, like a tale that teases you and plays with your expectations as it unfolds," says Sethi. "In that sense it resembled the leisurely improvised ghazals and qawwalis I grew up hearing in Pakistan." So when the two were finally introduced by Indian visual artist Somnath Bhatt, a regular Jaar collaborator who also handled the album's artwork, Sethi was well prepared. He began to sketch out voice notes using loops snipped from Jaar's acclaimed 2020 album 'Telas', improvising vocalizations and seductive Urdu poems over Jaar's weightless, time-bending productions. Jaar was astonished by the result; "It was what 'Telas' had been missing," he explains.

Improvisation has been important to the Chilean artist for many years. Before he had even started making electronic music, Jaar jammed on accordion with friends on the street in New York City. It's at the core of his practice, "a moment in time," in his own words. 'Intiha', the opening track on the album, is the first they finished together, and positions Sethi's evocative phrases over Jaar's faded, metallic percussion. It's a perfect proof of concept, re- imagining the world of 'Telas' and augmenting it with a sense of ancestral melancholy and giddy euphoria that's truly transformational.
Sethi is best known globally for his attempts to revive the ghazal, an ancient poetic form that was taken by Sufi mystics from the Arab world to Persia and throughout the Indian subcontinent, where it captivated the royal court. It's been unfashionable in the last few decades, a mannered style associated with decadence, and Sethi offers it a new lease of life through his playfully revisionist covers and renditions. (His most popular single 'Pasoori' is a global phenomenon, one of the most Googled songs of 2022, with hundreds of millions of listeners tuning into its timeless message of forbidden love.) Sethi updates the ghazal form by using his years of training in raga music, lifting metaphors that reflect his journey as an out-of- place queer kid in Pakistan who became a US citizen and now lives in New York City.


5. VITAL SALES POINTS:

Critically acclaimed musician Nicolas Jaar collaborates with Pakistani artist Ali Sethi for a reworking of his original album Telas

Ali Sethi song "Pasoori" was the most googled song in 2022. It has over a billion streams across his profiles


More

160 Pages Book (Boodk/Auduio Combination sold as "Merch Item"), containing 13 QR codes to download 13 songs.

Aho Ssan debuts on Other People with second solo album and book 'Rhizomes' featuring Nicolás Jaar, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid, clipping., Blackhaine and more

2. GENRE/S: Electronic / Alternative



3. TRACKLIST:

1. Ouverture feat Nyokabi Kariuki
2. Rhizome I Feat Josefa Ntjam
3. Cold Summer Part I Feat Blackhaine
4. Le Tremblement Feat Nicolás Jaar & Resina
5. Memoria Feat R?n C?p ?uôi & Richie Culver
6. Till The Sun Down Feat clipping. & Resina
7. Rhizome II Feat Lafawndah
8. Hero Once Been Feat 9 Antiope
9. Tetsuo I feat James Ginzburg
10. Tetsuo II
11. Away feat Exzald S & Valentina Magaletti
12. Rhizome IV Feat Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid & Mondkopf
13. Fermeture Nyokabi Kariuki




4. SHORT INFO:

Aho Ssan debuts on Other People with second solo album and book 'Rhizomes' featuring Nicolás Jaar, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid, clipping., Blackhaine and more

Paris based composer Aho Ssan, the artist moniker of Niamké Désiré, presents his new full-length 'Rhizomes' on the Other People label following his debut LP 'Simulacrum' (2020) and collaborative record 'Limen' (2022) with fellow musician KMRU.

'Rhizomes' draws inspiration from a concept coined and developed between Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri. The idea of an ever evolving structural model, constantly in motion and spreading out in all directions at once. It has no beginning and no end, but always remains in a middle, through which it grows and overflows.

"The root thought is the one that kills everything around itself while the rhizome is the root that stretches out to meet other roots," Désiré explains considering the works of French writer Édouard Glissant who addresses questions of identity, crossbreeding of cultures and its evolution.

Much like the name it borrows, Aho Ssan's 'Rhizomes' is a multimedia project that embarks on a myriad of disparate, unique musical and artistic partnerships. This piece adapts this concept to explore the influence of sound materials on creation, the appropriation of a sound object, and the collaborative nature of a composition that responds to modernity.

"Rhizome represents an underground stem system that fosters connections between various organisms and allows them to flourish collectively. It's an album that celebrates collaboration and brings together a diverse group of talented artists," Désiré continues.

Aho Ssan collaborated with a comprehensive cast of artists to create a musical rhizome including Nyokabi Kariuki, Josefa Ntjam, Blackhaine, Nicolás Jaar, Resina, R?n C?p ?uôi, Richie Culver, clipping., Lafawndah, 9T Antiope, James Ginzburg, Exzald S, Valentina Magaletti, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid and Mondkopf. Cooperation and community are at the root of this project and the lens through which all the compositions can be understood through.

Aho Ssan will present 'Rhizomes' AV show together with visual artist Sevi Iko Dømochevsky at Berlin Atonal 2023. 'Rhizomes' received a Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2023 Digital Music


5. VITAL SALES POINTS:

In conjunction with the album, 'Rhizomes' comes complete with a set of illustrations by Kim Grano in a book release. The drawings become a hybrid language, each an emotional response to the musical half. The book contains an extended version of the album with 3 additional songs and 2 longer versions of the album songs. It also includes a sample pack by Aho Ssan and a collection of solo tracks by Elliot Blaise, KMRU, Lamin Fofana, Brodinski & Se?bastien Forrester, Valence Drake, 9T Antiope, Exzald S and Valentina Magaletti. The extended version package is only accessible through the QR codes in the book.

More

LP [Limited Edition Vinyl]
GENRE/S: Alternative / Electronic / Noise

TRACKLISTS:

1. At The Opposite Pole of Architectural Virtue
2. In One Corner The Male Relatives
3. Serene Company
4. Tiles of The Façade
5. Chafing Dish
6. Such Gardens There Are
7. Capping Verse
8. Overdose Ferocious
9. Patience Of A Traitor
10. Bareekullah Picnic
11. In Thrall

SHORT INFO:

Tehran-born, NY based brothers Mohammad and Mehdi collaborate with Ian McDonnell, a.k.a. Eomac on a new record entitled "Patience of a Traitor". Inspired by the traditional bath houses in their native Tehran, the brothers say: "This record speaks to preserving the things that are timeless, through revisiting the past. The traditional Persian bath house - its architecture, the role it played in keeping, building community, the bathing rituals - served as our ultimate symbol. Now we drink from one cup, and fill the jar with the other."

More

LP [Limited Edition Vinyl]

GENRE/S: Alternative / Electronic / Ambient

TRACKLIST:

1. Addio
2. Felicitazioni
3. Piccolo e Cattivo
4. Mio Signore
5. Tranquillo
6. Oboe Vento e Rumore
7. Ti Saluto Parte 2
8. Contacto
9. Casa di Emma
10. Ti Saluto Parte 1

SHORT INFO:

Dienne's 'Addio' is a 32 minute study on loss and mourning. Following the death of her grandmother due to covid, and unable to say a proper goodbye due to travel restrictions, Dienne set out to give her "Addio" through musical form. She lets objects fall, leaves windows open, and lets the wind dust off the shelves. This is the sound of everyday mourning, a taste instead of an event. A lingering, broken and patient work of undeniable beauty.

Credits:
Artwork by Africanus Okokon and Maziyar Pahlevan.
Mastering by Gert Van Hoof.

Bio:
Dienne is a Belgian composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. She builds songs and soundscapes portraying images & stories that play behind her eyes. Starting with the oboe as a child, before adding the piano and flute to her repertoire, she later produced soundtracks for theater and dance performances. Her debut 'Addio' will be released on 'Other People'.

More

LTD 2LP [Includes Art Prints by Zofia Kulik]

Compiled on vinyl for the first time

GENRE/S: Library / Ambient

TRACKLISTS:

1. Krzysztof Knittel: Lapis (1985)
2. Bohdan Mazurek: Canti (1973)
3. Magdalena Dàugosz: Yes and No (1990)
4. Barbara Zawadzka - Greya - III (1991)
5. Barbara Zawadzka Greya - IV (1990)
6. Barbara Zawadzka Greya - II (1987)
7. Rudnik - Epitaph of Stones (1984)
8. Boguslaw Shaeffer - Symphony. Elec…e (perf. by Wolfram) (1964-66) - I
9. Boguslaw Shaeffer - Symphony. Elec… (perf. by Wolfram) (1964-66) - II
10. Boguslaw Shaeffer - Symphony. Elec…(perf. by Wolfram) (1964-66) - III
11. Boguslaw Shaeffer - Symphony. Elec… (perf. by Wolfram) (1964-66) - IV


SHORT INFO:

Would It Sound Just As Bad If You Played It Backwards?"

A Collection of Sounds from the Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia (1959-2001)
Art by Zofia Kulik



"Would it sound just as bad if you played it backwards?" assembles a collection of audio experi-ments created at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES) from 1959 to the beginning of the century. These exceptional works are presented alongside images from the Polish artist Zofia Kulik, whose career reached its apogee between the late 1960s and early 70s. While PRES and Kulik remain touchstones in the recent history of the Polish avant-garde, presenting them togeth-er in one release may not have seemed like an obvious choice. There are, of course, some histori-cal intersections-the most notable being a shared interest in Polish artist and architect Oskar Hansen's Open Form theory. Open Form promoted a modular theory of architecture that became a tool adapted by its users and inhabitants. Hansen's ideas influenced Kulik's early works and also manifested in the PRES's iconic "black room," a music studio designed by Hansen, himself, which was equipped with moveable sound panels that absorbed or reflected sounds to promote a greater, creative freedom from its users. And yet, as it usually goes, the most obvious connections are usually the most deceitful. Whereas Kulik initially followed Open Form, she later turned away from it. And as for the black room-it mostly worked in theory but not in practice. What is it then that makes the two work together?

Within the realm of art history, Kulik's work is often divided into two periods: her early, artistic endeavours connected to Open Form, and the KwieKulik collaboration (with Przemys?av Kwiek), followed by her later turn towards a closed form, characterised by a departure from pro-cessual art in favour of material works of art. Yet these terms don't necessarily bring out the es-sence of Kulik's works. The artist explained that Hansen's Open Form was important for how it opened his students to perceive their environments in a different way. Reminiscing about those times, she states, "I wanted to catch the moment when the object I was looking at was real. I de-cided that as a static item it can never be real-it's possible only in the process of looking at it. That translates to the object being recorded and presented in certain sequences [...] there's the astonishment at the materiality of objects, colours, transformations."

Kulik's works chosen for this release are taken from two projects, Lady Halina and Cones (1968-71) and Excursion with White Screen. Route: Cemetery, The Palace of Culture, which were in-cluded in Kulik's diploma at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The projects consisted of slide projections presented on three screens, with specific temporal se-quencing. Lady Halina and Cones presents a woman's body, its forms, geometrical figures, and shapes undergoing a process of transformation. About Excursion with White Screen, Kulik says "this white sheet was supposed to signify an empty screen in different spatial situations in the city. I thought that I would later project a slide onto that screen, imposing another image after-wards, like a collage, but suddenly that screen became a material object instead of an abstract, pure idea of a potential image within an image. It became an object in itself and I began to notice that the screen sometimes wrinkles in the cemetery, and sometimes moves with the wind." A myriad of new meanings and references arise in the twenty-first century from Kulik's sequenced films. From the perspective of a young woman, Lady Halina and Scones poses questions about the objectification of women, the boundaries of their agency, and the recognition of their subjec-tivity within the patriarchal world in which their bodies often functioned as objects of control. In Excursion with White Screen the symbolism of a white sheet placed against a background image of a cemetery or the Palace of Culture questions the role of these religio-political monuments, the white screen acting as an empty, and potentially alternative, space between them.

The music chosen for "Would it sound just as bad if you played it backwards?" spans most of the history of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, including tracks as early as W?odzimi-erz Koto?ski's "Concrete etude, Study for One Cymbal Stroke," and ending chronologically with Wolfram's rendition of Bogus?aw Schaeffer's "Symphony. Electronic Music." Just as with Kulik's works, the contemporaneity of the music presented is astonishing. The album opens and closes with Krzysztof Knittel's 1980s compositions, "Lapis" and "Poko," and perfectly encapsu-late his descriptions of his experiences in the studio: "We acted without any initial plans or elec-tronic scores, there were no goals to be achieved, no creative method defined in advance. We used our aesthetic and technological knowledge freely, the shapes of tracks emerged during our shared work in the studio."

The album also includes "Mictlan I" (1987) and "Yes and No," (1990) two stunning works by Magdalena D?ugosz, who studied composition with Krystyna Moszuma?ska-Nazar and music theory with Józef Patkowski. Since 1979 she has been teaching in the Electroacoustic Music Stu-dio at the Academy of Music in Kraków.

Also featured is the avant-garde composer El?bieta Sikora, Knittel's fellow member from the KEW Composers' Group, with her stark pieces "Letters to M" and "View from the Window," (1971), and Barbara Zawadzka, whose "Greya" (1988) is meant to evoke different sequencings of the colour grey. In this piece, particularly, it's hard not to appreciate the similarity to Kulik's notion of sequencing and transformation of objects.

Bernadetta Matuszczak's "Libera me" (1991) is an example of a somewhat different creative ex-perience. In a radio interview conducted by Marek Zwyrzykowski in 1992, the composer stated that she wasn't intending to discover any "extraordinary electronic effects"; instead, she focused on the piece's "expressive layer." With the help of Tadeusz Sudnik from PRES, she incorporated into "Libera Me" the characteristic melody from the Polish version of the Orthodox hymn "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal" and then combined it with sounds of explosions and instru-mental recordings, a veiled response to the US's interventions during the Gulf War.

Eugeniusz Rudnik, the composer and sound engineer whose name is among those most strongly associated with PRES, contributes with his "Epitaph for Stones," (1984) a dedication to Jerzy Popie?uszko, the Polish Roman Catholic priest associated with the Solidarity trade union and an-ti-communist movement who was murdered by the Security Service. Bohdan Mazurek, who took over the reins of the studio from Rudnik in 1962 is also included with his piece "Canti" (1973).

As mentioned above, the album also includes W?odzimierz Koto?ski's seminal "Concrete etude, Study for One Cymbal Stroke," a piece sourced from the single stroke of a mid-sized Turkish cymbal; it is often considered to be an important starting point for the development of experi-mental music in Poland. And, finally, the album features two performances of Bogus?aw Schaeffer's "Symphony. Electronic Music," the first by Bohdan Mazurek which remains very close to the composer's score, and a contemporary version by Wolfram, which takes much more creative liberties.

In a text about his seminal work, Schaeffer stated that he "decided to include the factor of inter-pretation in a work that was greatly precise by nature" underlining the importance of shifting el-ements: "the development of music lies in individual elements shifting in the hierarchy of their functions." Indeed, an interest in shifting hierarchies seems present in Kulik's powerful images and most of the sound pieces contained in this release. When the Polish Radio appointed Eu-geniusz Rudnik to present PRES's technical capabilities to a conservative delegation of Soviet composers, he was met with a bitter reply: "Would it sound just as bad, if you played it back-wards?" asked the rigid composers. Rudnick's answer was to create "Skalary," (1966) a multi-version piece which could be played from start to finish and from finish to start, at different speeds, as well as with altered left and right channel distribution. This modular openness calls to mind the empty sheet in Kulik's images. Whatever the context, its static emptiness creates space for a different reality than that which those in power had in mind. This brings us back to Kulik's thoughts on her experiences as a student in the late 60s, a pivotal time in which she determined the process of looking and listening was central to reality itself, thereby shattering the rigidity of traditional forms and religio-political power: "I decided that as a static item, an object can never be real-it's possible only in the process of looking at it."




More

LTD 2LP [Includes Art Prints by Zofia Kulik]

Compiled on vinyl for the first time

GENRE/S: Library / Ambient

TRACKLISTS:

1. Wlodzimierz Kotonski - Study for One Cymbal Stroke (1951)
2. Symphony. Electronic music, part I (performed by Bohdan Mazurek) (1966)
3. Elzbieta Sikora - Letters to M. (1980)
4. Bernadetta Matuszczak - Libera me (1991)
5. Elzbieta Sikora - View from the Window (1978)
6. Magdalena Dlugosz - Mictlan I (1987)
7. Barbara Zawadzka - Greya part V (1991)
8. Krzysztof Knittel - Poko (1986)



SHORT INFO:

Would It Sound Just As Bad If You Played It Backwards?"

A Collection of Sounds from the Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia (1959-2001)
Art by Zofia Kulik



"Would it sound just as bad if you played it backwards?" assembles a collection of audio experi-ments created at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES) from 1959 to the beginning of the century. These exceptional works are presented alongside images from the Polish artist Zofia Kulik, whose career reached its apogee between the late 1960s and early 70s. While PRES and Kulik remain touchstones in the recent history of the Polish avant-garde, presenting them togeth-er in one release may not have seemed like an obvious choice. There are, of course, some histori-cal intersections-the most notable being a shared interest in Polish artist and architect Oskar Hansen's Open Form theory. Open Form promoted a modular theory of architecture that became a tool adapted by its users and inhabitants. Hansen's ideas influenced Kulik's early works and also manifested in the PRES's iconic "black room," a music studio designed by Hansen, himself, which was equipped with moveable sound panels that absorbed or reflected sounds to promote a greater, creative freedom from its users. And yet, as it usually goes, the most obvious connections are usually the most deceitful. Whereas Kulik initially followed Open Form, she later turned away from it. And as for the black room-it mostly worked in theory but not in practice. What is it then that makes the two work together?

Within the realm of art history, Kulik's work is often divided into two periods: her early, artistic endeavours connected to Open Form, and the KwieKulik collaboration (with Przemys?av Kwiek), followed by her later turn towards a closed form, characterised by a departure from pro-cessual art in favour of material works of art. Yet these terms don't necessarily bring out the es-sence of Kulik's works. The artist explained that Hansen's Open Form was important for how it opened his students to perceive their environments in a different way. Reminiscing about those times, she states, "I wanted to catch the moment when the object I was looking at was real. I de-cided that as a static item it can never be real-it's possible only in the process of looking at it. That translates to the object being recorded and presented in certain sequences [...] there's the astonishment at the materiality of objects, colours, transformations."

Kulik's works chosen for this release are taken from two projects, Lady Halina and Cones (1968-71) and Excursion with White Screen. Route: Cemetery, The Palace of Culture, which were in-cluded in Kulik's diploma at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The projects consisted of slide projections presented on three screens, with specific temporal se-quencing. Lady Halina and Cones presents a woman's body, its forms, geometrical figures, and shapes undergoing a process of transformation. About Excursion with White Screen, Kulik says "this white sheet was supposed to signify an empty screen in different spatial situations in the city. I thought that I would later project a slide onto that screen, imposing another image after-wards, like a collage, but suddenly that screen became a material object instead of an abstract, pure idea of a potential image within an image. It became an object in itself and I began to notice that the screen sometimes wrinkles in the cemetery, and sometimes moves with the wind." A myriad of new meanings and references arise in the twenty-first century from Kulik's sequenced films. From the perspective of a young woman, Lady Halina and Scones poses questions about the objectification of women, the boundaries of their agency, and the recognition of their subjec-tivity within the patriarchal world in which their bodies often functioned as objects of control. In Excursion with White Screen the symbolism of a white sheet placed against a background image of a cemetery or the Palace of Culture questions the role of these religio-political monuments, the white screen acting as an empty, and potentially alternative, space between them.

The music chosen for "Would it sound just as bad if you played it backwards?" spans most of the history of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, including tracks as early as W?odzimi-erz Koto?ski's "Concrete etude, Study for One Cymbal Stroke," and ending chronologically with Wolfram's rendition of Bogus?aw Schaeffer's "Symphony. Electronic Music." Just as with Kulik's works, the contemporaneity of the music presented is astonishing. The album opens and closes with Krzysztof Knittel's 1980s compositions, "Lapis" and "Poko," and perfectly encapsu-late his descriptions of his experiences in the studio: "We acted without any initial plans or elec-tronic scores, there were no goals to be achieved, no creative method defined in advance. We used our aesthetic and technological knowledge freely, the shapes of tracks emerged during our shared work in the studio."

The album also includes "Mictlan I" (1987) and "Yes and No," (1990) two stunning works by Magdalena D?ugosz, who studied composition with Krystyna Moszuma?ska-Nazar and music theory with Józef Patkowski. Since 1979 she has been teaching in the Electroacoustic Music Stu-dio at the Academy of Music in Kraków.

Also featured is the avant-garde composer El?bieta Sikora, Knittel's fellow member from the KEW Composers' Group, with her stark pieces "Letters to M" and "View from the Window," (1971), and Barbara Zawadzka, whose "Greya" (1988) is meant to evoke different sequencings of the colour grey. In this piece, particularly, it's hard not to appreciate the similarity to Kulik's notion of sequencing and transformation of objects.

Bernadetta Matuszczak's "Libera me" (1991) is an example of a somewhat different creative ex-perience. In a radio interview conducted by Marek Zwyrzykowski in 1992, the composer stated that she wasn't intending to discover any "extraordinary electronic effects"; instead, she focused on the piece's "expressive layer." With the help of Tadeusz Sudnik from PRES, she incorporated into "Libera Me" the characteristic melody from the Polish version of the Orthodox hymn "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal" and then combined it with sounds of explosions and instru-mental recordings, a veiled response to the US's interventions during the Gulf War.

Eugeniusz Rudnik, the composer and sound engineer whose name is among those most strongly associated with PRES, contributes with his "Epitaph for Stones," (1984) a dedication to Jerzy Popie?uszko, the Polish Roman Catholic priest associated with the Solidarity trade union and an-ti-communist movement who was murdered by the Security Service. Bohdan Mazurek, who took over the reins of the studio from Rudnik in 1962 is also included with his piece "Canti" (1973).

As mentioned above, the album also includes W?odzimierz Koto?ski's seminal "Concrete etude, Study for One Cymbal Stroke," a piece sourced from the single stroke of a mid-sized Turkish cymbal; it is often considered to be an important starting point for the development of experi-mental music in Poland. And, finally, the album features two performances of Bogus?aw Schaeffer's "Symphony. Electronic Music," the first by Bohdan Mazurek which remains very close to the composer's score, and a contemporary version by Wolfram, which takes much more creative liberties.

In a text about his seminal work, Schaeffer stated that he "decided to include the factor of inter-pretation in a work that was greatly precise by nature" underlining the importance of shifting el-ements: "the development of music lies in individual elements shifting in the hierarchy of their functions." Indeed, an interest in shifting hierarchies seems present in Kulik's powerful images and most of the sound pieces contained in this release. When the Polish Radio appointed Eu-geniusz Rudnik to present PRES's technical capabilities to a conservative delegation of Soviet composers, he was met with a bitter reply: "Would it sound just as bad, if you played it back-wards?" asked the rigid composers. Rudnick's answer was to create "Skalary," (1966) a multi-version piece which could be played from start to finish and from finish to start, at different speeds, as well as with altered left and right channel distribution. This modular openness calls to mind the empty sheet in Kulik's images. Whatever the context, its static emptiness creates space for a different reality than that which those in power had in mind. This brings us back to Kulik's thoughts on her experiences as a student in the late 60s, a pivotal time in which she determined the process of looking and listening was central to reality itself, thereby shattering the rigidity of traditional forms and religio-political power: "I decided that as a static item, an object can never be real-it's possible only in the process of looking at it."
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LP

CENIZAS WAS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY NICOLAS JAAR BETWEEN 2017-2019. MASTERING BY RASHAD BECKER ART BY MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN
MIXING BY NICOLAS JAAR AND PATRICK HIGGINS
* In 2019, Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar mixed some of the record in Higgins' Future- Past studios in Hudson NY and Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan. Additional mixing was done in Figure8 Studios in Brooklyn by Nicola?s.


8/10 Resident Advisor - Cenizas is an LP of significant gravitas from an artist with among the largest and most engaged followings in electronic music

8.0 Pitchfork - Given all the technical ground Cenizas covers, Jarr is an impressively meticulous guide. Every pluck, ping, buzz, scratch, and whistle is intentional, a bump in the tunnel as you slide down the rabbit hole

9/10 Loud & Quiet - Jaar's music has always been deeply preoccupied with atmosphere, and Cenizas is a deeply atmospheric album. It sounds like a void. As you listen, you feel like you could fall into it and never find your way out. In that way, these 54 minutes feel like a sequel to Jaar's first hit, Space is Only Noise, set 5,000 years in the future. He told us then. He's showing us now.


NICOLAS JAAR BIOGRAPHY

NICOLAS JAAR is a Chilean sound maker born in 1990. He is known in the club world for his various dance 12?? EPs and remixes he put out from 2008 to 2011. Since his first full length (SPACE IS ONLY NOISE, 2011), he has embarked in multiple divergent path.
For the last 7 years, he has released a large volume of recordings through his label OTHER PEOPLE (including music by LYDIA LUNCH, WILLIAM BASINSKI, PATRICK HIGGINS, DJ SLUGO, LUCRETIA DALT, PIERRE BASTIEN & TOMAGA, VTGNIKE and others).
In 2015, Nicolas scored DHEEPAN by director JACQUES AUDIARD (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2015).
In 2016, Jaar launched THE NETWORK, a web of 111 fictional radio stations done in collaboration with artists JENA MYUNG and MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN. A batch of these mixes was aired on NTS radio and is archived here: (https://bit.ly/35PwrHu). In 2017, THE NETWORK became a book, published by PRINTED MATTER In NY.
In the spring of 2019, Jaar was commissioned for a 9 hour improvisation in the OUDE KERK CHURCH in Amsterdam which he performed alongside two organists and a dozen surround speakers pointed at the ceiling of the church.
Nicola?s is currently curating a residency for sound artists in the West Bank that takes place in a 130 year-old converted food storage shack in Bethlehem (within the DAR YUSUF NASRI JACIR FOR ART AND RESEARCH)
Residents so far include composer SEBASTIAN JATZ RAWICZ and researcher and artist ROLANDO HERNANDEZ.
In the fall of 2019, he presented INCOMPREHENSIBLE SUN, a sound and light installation in a 200-meter-long ex-military shooting range in Zaandam (The Netherlands) and RETAINING THE ENERGY, BUT LOSING THE IMAGE alongside artist VINCENT DE BELLEVAL which consisted of 10 large rotating parabolic reflectors that capture and emit hyper-focalized surround sound.
For the first SHARJAH ARCHITECTURE TRIENNALE (curated by ADRIAN LAHOUD IN 2019) Nicola?s performed a piece for 16 buried speakers in the desert near the MLEIHA ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTRE.
Nicola?s has collaborated with artist LYDIA OURAHMANE (MUSIC FOR TWO SEAS, Stromboli), FKA TWIGS (MAGDALENE), and PATRICK HIGGINS under the name AEAEA. He is also a current member of improvisational ensemble ¡MIE?RCOLES! alongside dancer and choreographer STEPHANIE JANAINA, founding member of research collective SHOCK FOREST GROUP, and half of the band DARKSIDE

Tracklist:

1 Vanish
2 Menysid
3 Cenizas
4 Agosto
5 Gocce
6 Mud
7 Vacíar
8 Sunder
9 Hello, Chain
10 Rubble
11 Garden
12 Xerox
13 Faith Made of Silk

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- 2LP is mastered for Exceptional Sound

LTD Edition includes : 2LP + Book + OCard + Clear PVC Sleeve

CENIZAS WAS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY NICOLAS JAAR BETWEEN 2017-2019. MASTERING BY RASHAD BECKER ART BY MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN
MIXING BY NICOLAS JAAR AND PATRICK HIGGINS
* In 2019, Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar mixed some of the record in Higgins' Future- Past studios in Hudson NY and Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan. Additional mixing was done in Figure8 Studios in Brooklyn by Nicola?s.


8/10 Resident Advisor - Cenizas is an LP of significant gravitas from an artist with among the largest and most engaged followings in electronic music

8.0 Pitchfork - Given all the technical ground Cenizas covers, Jarr is an impressively meticulous guide. Every pluck, ping, buzz, scratch, and whistle is intentional, a bump in the tunnel as you slide down the rabbit hole

9/10 Loud & Quiet - Jaar's music has always been deeply preoccupied with atmosphere, and Cenizas is a deeply atmospheric album. It sounds like a void. As you listen, you feel like you could fall into it and never find your way out. In that way, these 54 minutes feel like a sequel to Jaar's first hit, Space is Only Noise, set 5,000 years in the future. He told us then. He's showing us now.


NICOLAS JAAR BIOGRAPHY

NICOLAS JAAR is a Chilean sound maker born in 1990. He is known in the club world for his various dance 12?? EPs and remixes he put out from 2008 to 2011. Since his first full length (SPACE IS ONLY NOISE, 2011), he has embarked in multiple divergent path.
For the last 7 years, he has released a large volume of recordings through his label OTHER PEOPLE (including music by LYDIA LUNCH, WILLIAM BASINSKI, PATRICK HIGGINS, DJ SLUGO, LUCRETIA DALT, PIERRE BASTIEN & TOMAGA, VTGNIKE and others).
In 2015, Nicolas scored DHEEPAN by director JACQUES AUDIARD (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2015).
In 2016, Jaar launched THE NETWORK, a web of 111 fictional radio stations done in collaboration with artists JENA MYUNG and MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN. A batch of these mixes was aired on NTS radio and is archived here: (https://bit.ly/35PwrHu). In 2017, THE NETWORK became a book, published by PRINTED MATTER In NY.
In the spring of 2019, Jaar was commissioned for a 9 hour improvisation in the OUDE KERK CHURCH in Amsterdam which he performed alongside two organists and a dozen surround speakers pointed at the ceiling of the church.
Nicola?s is currently curating a residency for sound artists in the West Bank that takes place in a 130 year-old converted food storage shack in Bethlehem (within the DAR YUSUF NASRI JACIR FOR ART AND RESEARCH)
Residents so far include composer SEBASTIAN JATZ RAWICZ and researcher and artist ROLANDO HERNANDEZ.
In the fall of 2019, he presented INCOMPREHENSIBLE SUN, a sound and light installation in a 200-meter-long ex-military shooting range in Zaandam (The Netherlands) and RETAINING THE ENERGY, BUT LOSING THE IMAGE alongside artist VINCENT DE BELLEVAL which consisted of 10 large rotating parabolic reflectors that capture and emit hyper-focalized surround sound.
For the first SHARJAH ARCHITECTURE TRIENNALE (curated by ADRIAN LAHOUD IN 2019) Nicola?s performed a piece for 16 buried speakers in the desert near the MLEIHA ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTRE.
Nicola?s has collaborated with artist LYDIA OURAHMANE (MUSIC FOR TWO SEAS, Stromboli), FKA TWIGS (MAGDALENE), and PATRICK HIGGINS under the name AEAEA. He is also a current member of improvisational ensemble ¡MIE?RCOLES! alongside dancer and choreographer STEPHANIE JANAINA, founding member of research collective SHOCK FOREST GROUP, and half of the band DARKSIDE

Tracklist:

1 Vanish
2 Menysid
3 Cenizas
4 Agosto
5 Gocce
6 Mud
7 Vacíar
8 Sunder
9 Hello, Chain
10 Rubble
11 Garden
12 Xerox
13 Faith Made of Silk

More

LTD CD : CD + Book + Clear PVC Sleeve

CENIZAS WAS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY NICOLAS JAAR BETWEEN 2017-2019. MASTERING BY RASHAD BECKER ART BY MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN
MIXING BY NICOLAS JAAR AND PATRICK HIGGINS
* In 2019, Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar mixed some of the record in Higgins' Future- Past studios in Hudson NY and Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan. Additional mixing was done in Figure8 Studios in Brooklyn by Nicola?s.


8/10 Resident Advisor - Cenizas is an LP of significant gravitas from an artist with among the largest and most engaged followings in electronic music

8.0 Pitchfork - Given all the technical ground Cenizas covers, Jarr is an impressively meticulous guide. Every pluck, ping, buzz, scratch, and whistle is intentional, a bump in the tunnel as you slide down the rabbit hole

9/10 Loud & Quiet - Jaar's music has always been deeply preoccupied with atmosphere, and Cenizas is a deeply atmospheric album. It sounds like a void. As you listen, you feel like you could fall into it and never find your way out. In that way, these 54 minutes feel like a sequel to Jaar's first hit, Space is Only Noise, set 5,000 years in the future. He told us then. He's showing us now.


NICOLAS JAAR BIOGRAPHY

NICOLAS JAAR is a Chilean sound maker born in 1990. He is known in the club world for his various dance 12?? EPs and remixes he put out from 2008 to 2011. Since his first full length (SPACE IS ONLY NOISE, 2011), he has embarked in multiple divergent path.
For the last 7 years, he has released a large volume of recordings through his label OTHER PEOPLE (including music by LYDIA LUNCH, WILLIAM BASINSKI, PATRICK HIGGINS, DJ SLUGO, LUCRETIA DALT, PIERRE BASTIEN & TOMAGA, VTGNIKE and others).
In 2015, Nicolas scored DHEEPAN by director JACQUES AUDIARD (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2015).
In 2016, Jaar launched THE NETWORK, a web of 111 fictional radio stations done in collaboration with artists JENA MYUNG and MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN. A batch of these mixes was aired on NTS radio and is archived here: (https://bit.ly/35PwrHu). In 2017, THE NETWORK became a book, published by PRINTED MATTER In NY.
In the spring of 2019, Jaar was commissioned for a 9 hour improvisation in the OUDE KERK CHURCH in Amsterdam which he performed alongside two organists and a dozen surround speakers pointed at the ceiling of the church.
Nicola?s is currently curating a residency for sound artists in the West Bank that takes place in a 130 year-old converted food storage shack in Bethlehem (within the DAR YUSUF NASRI JACIR FOR ART AND RESEARCH)
Residents so far include composer SEBASTIAN JATZ RAWICZ and researcher and artist ROLANDO HERNANDEZ.
In the fall of 2019, he presented INCOMPREHENSIBLE SUN, a sound and light installation in a 200-meter-long ex-military shooting range in Zaandam (The Netherlands) and RETAINING THE ENERGY, BUT LOSING THE IMAGE alongside artist VINCENT DE BELLEVAL which consisted of 10 large rotating parabolic reflectors that capture and emit hyper-focalized surround sound.
For the first SHARJAH ARCHITECTURE TRIENNALE (curated by ADRIAN LAHOUD IN 2019) Nicola?s performed a piece for 16 buried speakers in the desert near the MLEIHA ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTRE.
Nicola?s has collaborated with artist LYDIA OURAHMANE (MUSIC FOR TWO SEAS, Stromboli), FKA TWIGS (MAGDALENE), and PATRICK HIGGINS under the name AEAEA. He is also a current member of improvisational ensemble ¡MIE?RCOLES! alongside dancer and choreographer STEPHANIE JANAINA, founding member of research collective SHOCK FOREST GROUP, and half of the band DARKSIDE

Tracklist:

1 Vanish
2 Menysid
3 Cenizas
4 Agosto
5 Gocce
6 Mud
7 Vacíar
8 Sunder
9 Hello, Chain
10 Rubble
11 Garden
12 Xerox
13 Faith Made of Silk

More

CD Version

CENIZAS WAS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY NICOLAS JAAR BETWEEN 2017-2019. MASTERING BY RASHAD BECKER ART BY MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN
MIXING BY NICOLAS JAAR AND PATRICK HIGGINS
* In 2019, Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar mixed some of the record in Higgins' Future- Past studios in Hudson NY and Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan. Additional mixing was done in Figure8 Studios in Brooklyn by Nicola?s.


8/10 Resident Advisor - Cenizas is an LP of significant gravitas from an artist with among the largest and most engaged followings in electronic music

8.0 Pitchfork - Given all the technical ground Cenizas covers, Jarr is an impressively meticulous guide. Every pluck, ping, buzz, scratch, and whistle is intentional, a bump in the tunnel as you slide down the rabbit hole

9/10 Loud & Quiet - Jaar's music has always been deeply preoccupied with atmosphere, and Cenizas is a deeply atmospheric album. It sounds like a void. As you listen, you feel like you could fall into it and never find your way out. In that way, these 54 minutes feel like a sequel to Jaar's first hit, Space is Only Noise, set 5,000 years in the future. He told us then. He's showing us now.


NICOLAS JAAR BIOGRAPHY

NICOLAS JAAR is a Chilean sound maker born in 1990. He is known in the club world for his various dance 12?? EPs and remixes he put out from 2008 to 2011. Since his first full length (SPACE IS ONLY NOISE, 2011), he has embarked in multiple divergent path.
For the last 7 years, he has released a large volume of recordings through his label OTHER PEOPLE (including music by LYDIA LUNCH, WILLIAM BASINSKI, PATRICK HIGGINS, DJ SLUGO, LUCRETIA DALT, PIERRE BASTIEN & TOMAGA, VTGNIKE and others).
In 2015, Nicolas scored DHEEPAN by director JACQUES AUDIARD (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2015).
In 2016, Jaar launched THE NETWORK, a web of 111 fictional radio stations done in collaboration with artists JENA MYUNG and MAZIYAR PAHLEVAN. A batch of these mixes was aired on NTS radio and is archived here: (https://bit.ly/35PwrHu). In 2017, THE NETWORK became a book, published by PRINTED MATTER In NY.
In the spring of 2019, Jaar was commissioned for a 9 hour improvisation in the OUDE KERK CHURCH in Amsterdam which he performed alongside two organists and a dozen surround speakers pointed at the ceiling of the church.
Nicola?s is currently curating a residency for sound artists in the West Bank that takes place in a 130 year-old converted food storage shack in Bethlehem (within the DAR YUSUF NASRI JACIR FOR ART AND RESEARCH)
Residents so far include composer SEBASTIAN JATZ RAWICZ and researcher and artist ROLANDO HERNANDEZ.
In the fall of 2019, he presented INCOMPREHENSIBLE SUN, a sound and light installation in a 200-meter-long ex-military shooting range in Zaandam (The Netherlands) and RETAINING THE ENERGY, BUT LOSING THE IMAGE alongside artist VINCENT DE BELLEVAL which consisted of 10 large rotating parabolic reflectors that capture and emit hyper-focalized surround sound.
For the first SHARJAH ARCHITECTURE TRIENNALE (curated by ADRIAN LAHOUD IN 2019) Nicola?s performed a piece for 16 buried speakers in the desert near the MLEIHA ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTRE.
Nicola?s has collaborated with artist LYDIA OURAHMANE (MUSIC FOR TWO SEAS, Stromboli), FKA TWIGS (MAGDALENE), and PATRICK HIGGINS under the name AEAEA. He is also a current member of improvisational ensemble ¡MIE?RCOLES! alongside dancer and choreographer STEPHANIE JANAINA, founding member of research collective SHOCK FOREST GROUP, and half of the band DARKSIDE

Tracklist:

1 Vanish
2 Menysid
3 Cenizas
4 Agosto
5 Gocce
6 Mud
7 Vacíar
8 Sunder
9 Hello, Chain
10 Rubble
11 Garden
12 Xerox
13 Faith Made of Silk

More

AAL 3LP '2017-2019' on Other People featuring Lydia Lunch.
F = vinyl-only edit

Tracklist 3LP

A1. Fantasy
A2. If Loving You Is Wrong
B. With An Addict
C1. If You Can't Do It Good, Do It Hard feat. Lydia Lunch
C2. Alarm
C3. Deeeeeeefers
D. Faith
E1. Penny
E2. You (Forever)
F. Vinyl-Only Edit More

AAL Single 12" on Other People featuring Lydia Lunch and FKA twigs.

Tracklist EP


A Illusions Of Shameless Abundance
Featuring – Lydia Lunch

B Alucinao
Feat. Estado Unido & FKA twigs
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LP

“Bandiera Di Carta” represents the ongoing collaboration between instrument builder and composer Pierre Bastien and the
London based experimental duo Tomaga (Valentina Magaletti and Tom Relleen).
Bastien has been called a “mad musical scientist with a celebrity following” by The Guardian (UK) having collaborated with the
likes of filmmaker Pierrick Sorin, fashion designer Issey Miyake, singer and composer Robert Wyatt as well as Aphex Twin,
who released three of his albums on his label Rephlex.
Tomaga have made more than a dozen records since forming in 2014, pursuing a path of fearless experimentation and sonic
brinksmanship that has won them fans and plaudits from far and wide, including Thurston Moore, with whom they collaborated
on the CAN Project with Malcolm Mooney, Deb Goodge and others in 2017, as well as Wire, Silver Apples and Stereolab, with
whom they toured extensively in summer 2019.
The artistic collaboration between Pierre and Tomaga began with two commissions: from Fructose Festival in Dunkirk and the
revered underground festival Supersonic in Birmingham UK. Recording initially at a studio in the industrial port of Dunkirk, the
uneasy bond between borders and states seems to have been a theoretical motor to the collaborative sessions, as well as the
bleak landscape of the seaport frontier. This inspiration found further manifestation in the cover image for ‘Bandiera Di Carta’.
Resembling a white paper flag, it is, in fact, a photograph of Bastien’s paper and air sound machine installed on stage at
Teatro Carignano in Turin as part of the trio’s performance there. This charged, ambivalent image of a blank flag evokes the
transcendence of the national, a prescient visual motif that meditates on the contemporary uncertainty around notions of
national identity and borders but perhaps also a ‘carte blanche’ for the artists involved, in which they can deviate from the
confines of their usual practice into new and strange territories.
For each piece, Bastien’s unique sonic style: by turns his kinetic mechanoid motors, capriciously arrhythmic pipes, or the
peculiar susurrus of paper, creates a world in which Tomaga introduce their musical palette. Magaletti’s percussion anchors
these sometimes chaotic forces into beguiling syncopations, with Relleen’s synthesizer and organ work creating harmonic
counterpoints and interruptive provocations, to which Bastien responds with lyrical turns on prepared trumpet, rubber band, tin
foil and bass ocarina.
The results are curiously evocative of free jazz by the likes of Sun Ra or Art Ensemble of Chicago paired with the percussive
sound worlds of artists like Francis Bebey or Muslimgauze along with unique and sometimes bizarrely exotic tonal landscapes
of composers like Catherine Christer Hennix, Carl Stone, or Egisto Macchi. All three musicians seem to find space to bloom in
ways that are markedly different from their individual work and the resulting album is a strikingly original and powerfully bold
affirmation of what can happen when venturing beyond the normal in pursuit of the other.All tracks written & produced by Tomaga (Tom Relleen & Valentina Magaletti) & Pierre Bastien.
Mixed and mastered by Rashad Becker.


Tracklist

A1 Senza
A2 Pipes Of Dunkirk
A3 andiera Di Carta
A4 The Meeting
B1 Machines With Ideas
B2 Paper Ritual
B3 Doldrum
B4 Circles In The Ruins

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