1
Agents Of Time - Drive Me Crazy
2
Agents Of Time - My Heart Is A Microchip
3
Agents Of Time - Under Control
4
Agents Of Time - Interstate 10
Italy’s AGENTS OF TIME have long been on the KOMPAKT radar. It started thanks to their exemplary releases on Correspondant and other labels such as Stem, Ellum plus last year’s collaboration with Mathew Jonson (from whom their name is inspired by). Michael Mayer had chance to play with them last summer at one of their Obscura parties and their friendship was cemented. Which leads us now to their five track KOMPAKT debut, entitled MUSIC MADE PARADISE. From our early days of releasing landmark tracks from JUSTUS KÖHNCKE, the label has never been shy of exploring the enigmatic fringes of disco in our own way. AGENTS OF TIME follow these footsteps but head into galactic territory with MUSIC MADE PARADISE. They continue their knack for bridging synth-wave with modern bass rhythms in a means which are purely designed for today’s dance floors. We’re proud to make their label debut with an incredible selection of music from this talented trio. French touch meets Italo chic on Drive Me Crazy. At first, My Heart is A Microchip comes across as a segue track, but opens into cascading synths and a predatory breakbeat to lead its own charge. Under Control is classy Moroder disco brought to the modern age. Aptly titled Interstate 10 is an EP highlight – the percussion lead is infectious and ready for prime time exploration.
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
More records from Agents Of Time
1
Agents Of Time - Universo
2
Agents Of Time - Fallin Feat. Audrey Janssens
3
Agents Of Time - Interstellar Cowboy
4
Agents Of Time - Pulses
5
Agents Of Time - Liquid Fantasy Feat. Vicky Who?
6
Agents Of Time - The World Is Dump
7
Agents Of Time - Ciao
8
Agents Of Time - Part Of Life
9
Agents Of Time - Poison Feat. Audrey Janssens
10
Agents Of Time - Blu
11
Agents Of Time - Vocal Ghost
12
Agents Of Time - Dream Vision (Orchestra Version)
13
Agents Of Time - Dinasty
Italian duo Agents Of Time have been incredibly busy over the past few years, from releasing a string of classic singles – including their recent single for Afterlife, “The Mirage”, which earned more than five million views on Instagram – to remixing The Weeknd’s “Take My Breath”, which appeared on his recent Dawn FM (Alternative World). But the biggest news is here now – their second album, Universo, is ready. Elevating their trademark melodic techno with an exquisite pop-ness, Universo has found its ideal home with Kompakt, following their Music Made Paradise 2020 debut EP for the label. It’s a meeting of minds that makes perfect sense.
Andrea Di Ceglie and Luigi Tutolo, the two members of Agents Of Time, used their time during the pandemic to work on Universo, an album loosely conceptualised around their ‘personal universo’, a manifestation of the world Di Ceglie and Tutolo built both within and around their studio. This accounts for the sparkle and brightness of Universo – it’s full of personality, vim and vigour, the duo experimenting with their music, exploring its furthest corners. If you come to Universo expecting just another album of melodic techno, get ready to be pleasantly surprised – there’s a whole lot more going on here, and it’s all equally compelling.
After a typically poetic opening gesture – the swirling, synaesthetic, self-titled intro track – expectations are immediately blindsided with the two-step pop of “Fallin’”, sung with gentle clarity by guest Audrey Janssens, a dream of a song that harks back to the glory days of early ‘00s UK garage. “Interstellar Cowboy” is a confident, lithe, disco-fied strut; the gentle minor-key piano of “Liquid Fantasy” spirals into a gorgeously melancholy techno-pop epic, Vicky Who?’s voice rich with yearning. Janssens also reappears on the electro-swirl of “Poison”; “Dream Vision” revisits their single “The Mirage”, soft with sweeping strings, loaded with drama; “Part Of Life” sashays into view with a schaffel-stomp.
This rich variety throws the more dancefloor-focused tracks, like “Ciao”, into even starker relief – they’re more decisive, streamlined, yet rich with detail, chugging, Moroder-esque bass meeting strobe-lit synths that fire melodies out into the firmament. Universo feels texturally dense, but it still breathes, its sounds so tactile you want to reach out and grab them, its tunes so seductive you can’t get them out of your head. Universo is a fiercely beautiful album, brave in its spirit, a perfectly poised meeting-point of pop melody and stylish, lush techno: Agents Of Time in excelsis.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Andrea Di Ceglie and Luigi Tutolo, the two members of Agents Of Time, used their time during the pandemic to work on Universo, an album loosely conceptualised around their ‘personal universo’, a manifestation of the world Di Ceglie and Tutolo built both within and around their studio. This accounts for the sparkle and brightness of Universo – it’s full of personality, vim and vigour, the duo experimenting with their music, exploring its furthest corners. If you come to Universo expecting just another album of melodic techno, get ready to be pleasantly surprised – there’s a whole lot more going on here, and it’s all equally compelling.
After a typically poetic opening gesture – the swirling, synaesthetic, self-titled intro track – expectations are immediately blindsided with the two-step pop of “Fallin’”, sung with gentle clarity by guest Audrey Janssens, a dream of a song that harks back to the glory days of early ‘00s UK garage. “Interstellar Cowboy” is a confident, lithe, disco-fied strut; the gentle minor-key piano of “Liquid Fantasy” spirals into a gorgeously melancholy techno-pop epic, Vicky Who?’s voice rich with yearning. Janssens also reappears on the electro-swirl of “Poison”; “Dream Vision” revisits their single “The Mirage”, soft with sweeping strings, loaded with drama; “Part Of Life” sashays into view with a schaffel-stomp.
This rich variety throws the more dancefloor-focused tracks, like “Ciao”, into even starker relief – they’re more decisive, streamlined, yet rich with detail, chugging, Moroder-esque bass meeting strobe-lit synths that fire melodies out into the firmament. Universo feels texturally dense, but it still breathes, its sounds so tactile you want to reach out and grab them, its tunes so seductive you can’t get them out of your head. Universo is a fiercely beautiful album, brave in its spirit, a perfectly poised meeting-point of pop melody and stylish, lush techno: Agents Of Time in excelsis.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
agents of time - No Title
2
agents of time - No Title
3
agents of time - No Title
Agents Of Time are proud to present ‘Ordinary Cosmic Dance’, the new EP on their own Obscura imprint. Over three tracks the Bari based trio brandish hypnotic, looping melodies in techno structures with subtle trance references. It arrives a year after the birth of the label, which has since issued music by Hiver, Amandra and The Hacker amongst others. ‘Cosmic Frequencies’ revolves around a syncopated synth line that swells its way through mesmeric percussion and entrancing pads. ‘Dance Impulse’ takes fragments of dub techno and remoulds them into a glitchy dancefloor workout. ‘Ordinary Chaos’ builds low end frequencies juxtaposed with a stripped back melodic lead and staccato bass.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
agents of time - Era
2
agents of time - Dungeon
3
agents of time - Rebellion
4
agents of time - Lower World
Italian based trio ‘Agents Of Time’ launch their brand new electronic-music record label 'Obscura'. The first release 'Day one' is showcasing the Agents’ style and personal touch with 4 new original tracks.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
More records from Kompakt
1
The Orb - God's Mirrorball
2
The Orb - Moon Scapes 2703 BC
3
The Orb - Lunar Caves
4
The Orb - Moondbuilding 2703 AD
Repress!
• The long-awaited new full-length from legendary electronic pioneers THE ORB with cover design from iconic graphic wizards THE DESIGNERS REPUBLIC • A fascinating sonic journey over four epic tracks, constantly switching between psychedelic flourishes and beat-driven focus
Veritable pioneers of electronic music, iconic act THE ORB returns to Kompakt with the new full-length MOONBUILDING 2703 AD - another major slice of psychedelic synth bliss, obscure loops and deep ambient textures tossed in swinging breakbeats and powerful basslines. Installing a forward momentum rather unusual for a genre-defying project like this, the latest effort from masterminds Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann follows their 2005 album success on Kompakt, the cheekily named "Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt" (KOMPAKT CD 45), as well as several contributions to our Speicher and Pop Ambient series - but more importantly, it finds the legendary duo at the peak of its creativity, ringing in another essential phase in what can only be called a ground-breaking career.
True to form, the new offering MOONBUILDING 2703 AD features a small track list, but turns each one of its four cuts into a mini epic in its own right. Opener GOD'S MIRRORBALL hits the ground floating, employing a handful of cozy statics to great effect before finally discharging into an intricate mosaic of atmospheric melodic sketches and gripping rhythms. With a hypnotic runtime of more than 14 minutes, it immediately establishes a blueprint for the other album tracks to follow, perfectly illustrating the vast extent of the artists' vision and their impressive skills in luring in listeners - welcome to THE ORB's sonic labyrinth, where nothing is what it seems and the unexpected waits just around the corner.
Likewise, follow-up track MOONSCAPES 2703 BC presents itself as a uniquely versatile affair sitting comfortably between ambient flourishes and beat-driven focus, holding as many twists and turns as a caper movie, but carefully grounding every single one of its cliffhangers in its impeccable flow. With a runtime of approximately 9 minutes, LUNAR CAVES is the shortest jam of the bunch - and also the most ethereal, keeping its rhythmic content to a bare, pulse-like minimum and opting for enticing, freewheeling synth textures instead. Album closer and title cut MOONBUILDING 2703 AD introduces a surprisingly jazzy vibe mingling rather well with the wealth of electronic tricks up its sleeve - even indulging in abrasive bass sweeps and a breathtaking multitude of different rhythm sections constantly switching places. It's a fitting closing act for a full-length as multifaceted as this, as idiosyncratic as possible and as muscling as needed.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
• The long-awaited new full-length from legendary electronic pioneers THE ORB with cover design from iconic graphic wizards THE DESIGNERS REPUBLIC • A fascinating sonic journey over four epic tracks, constantly switching between psychedelic flourishes and beat-driven focus
Veritable pioneers of electronic music, iconic act THE ORB returns to Kompakt with the new full-length MOONBUILDING 2703 AD - another major slice of psychedelic synth bliss, obscure loops and deep ambient textures tossed in swinging breakbeats and powerful basslines. Installing a forward momentum rather unusual for a genre-defying project like this, the latest effort from masterminds Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann follows their 2005 album success on Kompakt, the cheekily named "Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt" (KOMPAKT CD 45), as well as several contributions to our Speicher and Pop Ambient series - but more importantly, it finds the legendary duo at the peak of its creativity, ringing in another essential phase in what can only be called a ground-breaking career.
True to form, the new offering MOONBUILDING 2703 AD features a small track list, but turns each one of its four cuts into a mini epic in its own right. Opener GOD'S MIRRORBALL hits the ground floating, employing a handful of cozy statics to great effect before finally discharging into an intricate mosaic of atmospheric melodic sketches and gripping rhythms. With a hypnotic runtime of more than 14 minutes, it immediately establishes a blueprint for the other album tracks to follow, perfectly illustrating the vast extent of the artists' vision and their impressive skills in luring in listeners - welcome to THE ORB's sonic labyrinth, where nothing is what it seems and the unexpected waits just around the corner.
Likewise, follow-up track MOONSCAPES 2703 BC presents itself as a uniquely versatile affair sitting comfortably between ambient flourishes and beat-driven focus, holding as many twists and turns as a caper movie, but carefully grounding every single one of its cliffhangers in its impeccable flow. With a runtime of approximately 9 minutes, LUNAR CAVES is the shortest jam of the bunch - and also the most ethereal, keeping its rhythmic content to a bare, pulse-like minimum and opting for enticing, freewheeling synth textures instead. Album closer and title cut MOONBUILDING 2703 AD introduces a surprisingly jazzy vibe mingling rather well with the wealth of electronic tricks up its sleeve - even indulging in abrasive bass sweeps and a breathtaking multitude of different rhythm sections constantly switching places. It's a fitting closing act for a full-length as multifaceted as this, as idiosyncratic as possible and as muscling as needed.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
the orb - First, Consider The Lillys
2
the orb - Wireless MK2
3
the orb - Siren 33 (Orphee Mirror)
4
the orb - 4am Exhale (Chill Out, World!)
5
the orb - 5th Dimensions
6
the orb - Sex (Panoramic Sex Heal)
7
the orb - 7 Oaks
8
the orb - Just Because I Really Really Luv Ya
9
the orb - 9 elms over river eno (channel 9)
10
the orb - The 10 Sultans Of Rudyard (Moo Moo Mix)
Repress!
Being pioneers with a new album created in no more than 6 months, THE ORB are bound to be exposed to fan expectations running high, while quizzical questions about little fluffy clouds and the good old times take over. It's especially jarring as the duo of accomplished soundsmiths Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann has become known for its genre-bending curiosity and surprising sonic detours, exploring experimental soundscapes as well as club-friendly beats. The funny thing is, though, that whatever the context, you know a track from THE ORB when you hear it. Case in point: COW / CHILL OUT, WORLD!, their latest full-length offering - a masterful ambient album that branches out in many directions, but unmistakably sounds like THE ORB in either ear (and probably to your third ear, too).
"The idea was simply to make an ambient album", Dr Paterson explains, "we didn't look back and study earlier recordings, but wanted a more spontaneous approach, a focus on THE ORB today, our vibe in 2016." In contrast to their much-acclaimed previous full-length MOONBUILDING 2703 AD (KOMPAKT 330 CD 124) - which took years to prepare and finetune -, the new album was produced over the course of only five sessions in six months, directly following the like-minded ALPINE EP (KOMPAKT 339): "it got so spontaneous that a track like 9 ELMS OVER RIVER ENO (CHANNEL 9) consisted only of material collected at North Carolina's Moogfest in May – second-hand records from local stores, field recordings, live samples from gigs that we liked, and of course an excursion to the Eno River, which actually exists. This geographic intimacy and the spontaneity are among the top reasons why we love this album so much."
Herr Fehlmann sees the duo's relentless gigging schedule as a formative influence on the new album: "the countless performances we've played in the last years - probably up to 300 - have brought us closer as a musical unit. The spice of our concerts is improvisation - a fertile process that we’ve brought to the studio, where we operate with very simple rules of engagement (in this case "ambient") and go wherever the flow takes us." It's an approach that one might expect from traditional acoustic instrumentation, not necessarily an electronic set-up, but for THE ORB it works wonders: "we're quite happy and also a little bit proud that we've reached this level of unscripted levity with purely electronic means. We're finessing ourselves, sort of, always looking for the next sonic surprise that leaves us rubbing our eyes about how the heck we got there."
Once more, THE ORB's trademark playfulness is on full display on COW / CHILL OUT, WORLD!, and it doesn't limit itself to the multi-layered sampling and psychedelic sound composites that the duo has become known for - you'll find it in the album title as well. The simple invitation (or order?) to chill out (relax? Calm the eff down?) is converted into an acronym – and the cow that you might expect to find on a Pink Floyd cover or with iconic UK chill-out/dance pranksters The KLF. It's not so much an obscure trope coming full circle as a perfect example for THE ORB's multitimbral approach to sound and meaning - a compelling, immersive journey to diverse places and impressions. Each track title is a conceptual work in its own right, playing with multiple references, some of which remain highly personal and mysterious. But the greatest feat of THE ORB's latest outing might just be how all this semantic doodling never gets in the way of the actual listening, at all times directly relating the artists' sonic vitality and cheerful nosiness. Chill out world! and treat yourself to an outstanding new ambient experience from THE ORB.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Being pioneers with a new album created in no more than 6 months, THE ORB are bound to be exposed to fan expectations running high, while quizzical questions about little fluffy clouds and the good old times take over. It's especially jarring as the duo of accomplished soundsmiths Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann has become known for its genre-bending curiosity and surprising sonic detours, exploring experimental soundscapes as well as club-friendly beats. The funny thing is, though, that whatever the context, you know a track from THE ORB when you hear it. Case in point: COW / CHILL OUT, WORLD!, their latest full-length offering - a masterful ambient album that branches out in many directions, but unmistakably sounds like THE ORB in either ear (and probably to your third ear, too).
"The idea was simply to make an ambient album", Dr Paterson explains, "we didn't look back and study earlier recordings, but wanted a more spontaneous approach, a focus on THE ORB today, our vibe in 2016." In contrast to their much-acclaimed previous full-length MOONBUILDING 2703 AD (KOMPAKT 330 CD 124) - which took years to prepare and finetune -, the new album was produced over the course of only five sessions in six months, directly following the like-minded ALPINE EP (KOMPAKT 339): "it got so spontaneous that a track like 9 ELMS OVER RIVER ENO (CHANNEL 9) consisted only of material collected at North Carolina's Moogfest in May – second-hand records from local stores, field recordings, live samples from gigs that we liked, and of course an excursion to the Eno River, which actually exists. This geographic intimacy and the spontaneity are among the top reasons why we love this album so much."
Herr Fehlmann sees the duo's relentless gigging schedule as a formative influence on the new album: "the countless performances we've played in the last years - probably up to 300 - have brought us closer as a musical unit. The spice of our concerts is improvisation - a fertile process that we’ve brought to the studio, where we operate with very simple rules of engagement (in this case "ambient") and go wherever the flow takes us." It's an approach that one might expect from traditional acoustic instrumentation, not necessarily an electronic set-up, but for THE ORB it works wonders: "we're quite happy and also a little bit proud that we've reached this level of unscripted levity with purely electronic means. We're finessing ourselves, sort of, always looking for the next sonic surprise that leaves us rubbing our eyes about how the heck we got there."
Once more, THE ORB's trademark playfulness is on full display on COW / CHILL OUT, WORLD!, and it doesn't limit itself to the multi-layered sampling and psychedelic sound composites that the duo has become known for - you'll find it in the album title as well. The simple invitation (or order?) to chill out (relax? Calm the eff down?) is converted into an acronym – and the cow that you might expect to find on a Pink Floyd cover or with iconic UK chill-out/dance pranksters The KLF. It's not so much an obscure trope coming full circle as a perfect example for THE ORB's multitimbral approach to sound and meaning - a compelling, immersive journey to diverse places and impressions. Each track title is a conceptual work in its own right, playing with multiple references, some of which remain highly personal and mysterious. But the greatest feat of THE ORB's latest outing might just be how all this semantic doodling never gets in the way of the actual listening, at all times directly relating the artists' sonic vitality and cheerful nosiness. Chill out world! and treat yourself to an outstanding new ambient experience from THE ORB.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
The Orb - Komplikation
2
The Orb - Lunik TM
3
The Orb - Ripples
4
The Orb - Captain Korma
5
The Orb - Kan Kan
6
The Orb - Rolo
7
The Orb - Beatitude
8
The Orb - Cool Harbour
9
The Orb - Traumvogel
10
The Orb - Because / Before (Sibirische Musik)
11
The Orb - Tin Kan
12
The Orb - Kompagna (Zandic Mix)
13
The Orb - Falkenbrück
14
The Orb - Snowbow
Repress!
“Okie Dokie It´s The Orb On Kompakt“ is already the 13th album of one of Britian's most prized cult bands. We feel it's better that way, because the music of The Orb only has an intensive effect when taken in as a long playing full length. And it proves with this lovingly conjured collection of songs brought together like a collage. The first half of Okie Dokie showcase The Orb´s love for minimal Techno and Schaffel/Shuffle as it is so obviously present in the foreground, while the second half is only reserved to the classic Orb-ish ancestral domain. There are wonderful guest appearances by Schneider TM and Kompakt´s ambient-guru Ulf Lohmann. As many of you know, there is so much history about The Orb you could write a book. Since Jimmy Cauty and Alex Paterson, in the flush of euphoria invented Chill Out and Ambient House in the first summer of love 1988, an incredible amount of things have occurred. The following timeline should give you a rough idea. - Alex Paterson gives up his job as roadie for Killing Joke. - “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld” is not only the record with the longest title of the world, but it also marks the departure into the new sonic worlds of post-Rave Ambient. - While Cauty goes different ways with The KLF, The Orb re-form themselves and have a big hit with Little Fluffy Clouds in 1990. - The debut album “The Orb´s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld“ hits the Top 30 in England. - The Orb produce “Higher Than the Sun“ for Primal Scream. - The Orb perform “Blue Room“ as chess-playing aliens at Top Of The Pops. Everything goes. - “Blue Room“ clocking in at 39:58 minutes goes into music-history as the longest time for a chart single ever. - The Orb achieve great success in Glastonbury '92 + '93. - The Copenhagen double concert “to the sunrise and sunset” is eternalized on record: “Live 93“ - Previously a floating member of The Orb, Thomas Felmann becomes a fix member in 1997 - No joke: Robbie Williams takes part of The Orb for a short time. The collaboration “I started A Joke“ is released on a benefit compilation - After 2002 The Orb found with Kompakt a new ambient-loving partner and release a row of singles and play live, as the trimmed-down version as Le Petit Orb. And one more for the extra hush-hush: The Orbs first album “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain...” was actually a Kompakt release. You can check it out. Besides the actual label Wau! Mr. Modo you can read... Kompakt Discos. Ha!!
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
“Okie Dokie It´s The Orb On Kompakt“ is already the 13th album of one of Britian's most prized cult bands. We feel it's better that way, because the music of The Orb only has an intensive effect when taken in as a long playing full length. And it proves with this lovingly conjured collection of songs brought together like a collage. The first half of Okie Dokie showcase The Orb´s love for minimal Techno and Schaffel/Shuffle as it is so obviously present in the foreground, while the second half is only reserved to the classic Orb-ish ancestral domain. There are wonderful guest appearances by Schneider TM and Kompakt´s ambient-guru Ulf Lohmann. As many of you know, there is so much history about The Orb you could write a book. Since Jimmy Cauty and Alex Paterson, in the flush of euphoria invented Chill Out and Ambient House in the first summer of love 1988, an incredible amount of things have occurred. The following timeline should give you a rough idea. - Alex Paterson gives up his job as roadie for Killing Joke. - “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld” is not only the record with the longest title of the world, but it also marks the departure into the new sonic worlds of post-Rave Ambient. - While Cauty goes different ways with The KLF, The Orb re-form themselves and have a big hit with Little Fluffy Clouds in 1990. - The debut album “The Orb´s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld“ hits the Top 30 in England. - The Orb produce “Higher Than the Sun“ for Primal Scream. - The Orb perform “Blue Room“ as chess-playing aliens at Top Of The Pops. Everything goes. - “Blue Room“ clocking in at 39:58 minutes goes into music-history as the longest time for a chart single ever. - The Orb achieve great success in Glastonbury '92 + '93. - The Copenhagen double concert “to the sunrise and sunset” is eternalized on record: “Live 93“ - Previously a floating member of The Orb, Thomas Felmann becomes a fix member in 1997 - No joke: Robbie Williams takes part of The Orb for a short time. The collaboration “I started A Joke“ is released on a benefit compilation - After 2002 The Orb found with Kompakt a new ambient-loving partner and release a row of singles and play live, as the trimmed-down version as Le Petit Orb. And one more for the extra hush-hush: The Orbs first album “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain...” was actually a Kompakt release. You can check it out. Besides the actual label Wau! Mr. Modo you can read... Kompakt Discos. Ha!!
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
In recent years, the introductory texts for the Pop Ambient compilation series, which is released every year on Kompakt as the last release before the Christmas break, often began with the sentence "Every year again...".
“Every year again”, a quiet, almost unnoticed maxim of self-evidentness. Because this is already the 25th issue to be published this year.
25 years in increasingly fast-moving times in the even faster-moving music business is an eternity that doesn't just feel like it. It is all the more remarkable how I, as someone who is always restless and often driven by this fast pace himself, pleasantly almost haven’t realised how - in pop-ambient contexts - time does not pass (or passes differently) in the best sense.
When compiling the 25th edition I was asked, among other things, what it was like that I was still doing this and whether I had a favorite track. In the spirit of bringing all the tracks together I don't have a favorite track, or all of them. But I have a favorite part (moment) that I played. In this case it was a broad chord in a change of key at minute 2:55 in the piece Circles by Max Würden. A moment of majesty and familiarity that, at that moment, contains the entire Pop Ambient cosmos, that just works and doesn't explain anything - and I said: “...that's the reason why I'm still doing this.. .”
Pop Ambient is a statement without demands. Is promise without expectation. Is a path without a destination. Every year again.
Wolfgang Voigt, October 2024
And so to the facts:
01. Leandro Fresco / Thore Pfeiffer – Goldwasserfluss
The intercontinental collaboration between the two long-standing Pop Ambient artists Leandro Fresco from Argentina and Thore Pfeiffer from Mainz is a regular part of the series. They open this year's anniversary edition with the usual filigree.
02. Pass Into Silence – Mirage
The Japanese artist Tetsuo Sakae aka Pass into Silence returns to Kompakt 20 years after his legendary album “Calm Like A Millpond”. A master of tones that are as fine as they are stoic and crystal clear.
03. Tamarma & Sebastian Mullaert – Follow Me
For the first time, the well-known Swedish producer and DJ Sebastian Mullaert will be performing on Pop Ambient in cooperation with the Georgian sound artist Tamara Davitashvili. Their piece “Follow Me” fits confidently into the intimate, familiar sound cosmos.
04. Sono Kollektiv feat. Nathalie Brum – Periadriatische Naht
Sono Kollektiv is now a fixture on Pop Ambient, this time with Nathalie Brum. In particular, Luis Reich's characteristic flugelhorn always gives their sound that special jazzy touch.
05. Thore Pfeiffer – Phase Locked Loop 1
Thore Pfeiffer is a master of shimmering surfaces and hypnotically meandering loops.
06. Andrew Thomas feat. Julia Parr – Sunshine Night
An old friend from New Zealand is back with spherical sounds. Andrew Thomas, in collaboration with Julia Parr, sprinkles finely placed piano tones into distant soundscapes and even more distant voices.
07. Segensklang – Artifacts of Synthesis
We are pleased that Segensklang will be there again this year after his brilliant Pop Ambient debut last year. Deep and beautiful.
08. Ümit Han – Im Delirium
The Cologne producer Ümit Han is back for the third time. While he has so far explored the more emotional, soundscape aspects of the Pop Ambient universe, this year's piece "Im Delirium" rises to a pulsating mountain of sound with pearly, clear, effervescent sound crystals.
09. Würden & Schäfer – Analysis Of Variance II
In their track Analysis Of Variance II, Max Würden and Lukas Schäfer embed a finely placed beat impulse in a soft bed of modulating soundscapes and pleasant psychedelic spaceyness.
10. Max Würden– Circles
Max Würden once again shows his special feeling for one of the core statements of the Pop Ambient style spectrum. The abstract chord and soundscape movement between formal construction and emotional touchability, which seems like “pop music” under the microscope.
11. Blank Gloss – Jennifer’s Convertible
The Californian guitar-ambient duo takes us into their sublimely beautiful sound cosmos with their usual aplomb. Maximum condensed transparency. Lightness - heavy as gold.
12. Hendrik Meyer – Grün War Die Klamm
Another new addition is Hendrik Meyer. The versatile musician, also known for his MYR project distributed by Kompakt, leads us with a glistening, beautiful “wall of sound” determination into the eternity of a sunset that is only ended by the following track. Filmy Music.
13. Triola – Zum Renngraben
Jörg Burger aka Triola combines his typical “handmade” impulses and accents with a multi-dimensional, digital sound scenario in a pleasantly smoky, blurred stonewashed aesthetic.
14. Jens-Uwe Beyer – In Defense Of Symbolic Value 1
Jens-Uwe Beyer, a constant converter between ambient, art, techno and back again, closes Pop Ambient 2025 with a metallic, swinging, abstract sound sculpture with a baroque appearance. The track was created in the context of the exhibition “In Defense of Symbolic Value”, curated by Isabelle Graw at the Max Hetzler Gallery, April-June 2023.
As always, the indispensable final mastering by Jörg Burger ensures that everything is brought together and the sound is fine-tuned.
And like every year, the 25th edition is of course wrapped in an abstract, floral magic creation by Veronika Unland. Over the years, the grace of her imagery has increasingly merged with the musical aura to form an unmistakable magical symbiosis. In addition to the official vinyl and CD edition, there will be a limited edition of 100 pieces in transparent vinyl - including a hand-signed fine art print by Veronika Unland, available exclusively at Kompakt Mailorder.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
“Every year again”, a quiet, almost unnoticed maxim of self-evidentness. Because this is already the 25th issue to be published this year.
25 years in increasingly fast-moving times in the even faster-moving music business is an eternity that doesn't just feel like it. It is all the more remarkable how I, as someone who is always restless and often driven by this fast pace himself, pleasantly almost haven’t realised how - in pop-ambient contexts - time does not pass (or passes differently) in the best sense.
When compiling the 25th edition I was asked, among other things, what it was like that I was still doing this and whether I had a favorite track. In the spirit of bringing all the tracks together I don't have a favorite track, or all of them. But I have a favorite part (moment) that I played. In this case it was a broad chord in a change of key at minute 2:55 in the piece Circles by Max Würden. A moment of majesty and familiarity that, at that moment, contains the entire Pop Ambient cosmos, that just works and doesn't explain anything - and I said: “...that's the reason why I'm still doing this.. .”
Pop Ambient is a statement without demands. Is promise without expectation. Is a path without a destination. Every year again.
Wolfgang Voigt, October 2024
And so to the facts:
01. Leandro Fresco / Thore Pfeiffer – Goldwasserfluss
The intercontinental collaboration between the two long-standing Pop Ambient artists Leandro Fresco from Argentina and Thore Pfeiffer from Mainz is a regular part of the series. They open this year's anniversary edition with the usual filigree.
02. Pass Into Silence – Mirage
The Japanese artist Tetsuo Sakae aka Pass into Silence returns to Kompakt 20 years after his legendary album “Calm Like A Millpond”. A master of tones that are as fine as they are stoic and crystal clear.
03. Tamarma & Sebastian Mullaert – Follow Me
For the first time, the well-known Swedish producer and DJ Sebastian Mullaert will be performing on Pop Ambient in cooperation with the Georgian sound artist Tamara Davitashvili. Their piece “Follow Me” fits confidently into the intimate, familiar sound cosmos.
04. Sono Kollektiv feat. Nathalie Brum – Periadriatische Naht
Sono Kollektiv is now a fixture on Pop Ambient, this time with Nathalie Brum. In particular, Luis Reich's characteristic flugelhorn always gives their sound that special jazzy touch.
05. Thore Pfeiffer – Phase Locked Loop 1
Thore Pfeiffer is a master of shimmering surfaces and hypnotically meandering loops.
06. Andrew Thomas feat. Julia Parr – Sunshine Night
An old friend from New Zealand is back with spherical sounds. Andrew Thomas, in collaboration with Julia Parr, sprinkles finely placed piano tones into distant soundscapes and even more distant voices.
07. Segensklang – Artifacts of Synthesis
We are pleased that Segensklang will be there again this year after his brilliant Pop Ambient debut last year. Deep and beautiful.
08. Ümit Han – Im Delirium
The Cologne producer Ümit Han is back for the third time. While he has so far explored the more emotional, soundscape aspects of the Pop Ambient universe, this year's piece "Im Delirium" rises to a pulsating mountain of sound with pearly, clear, effervescent sound crystals.
09. Würden & Schäfer – Analysis Of Variance II
In their track Analysis Of Variance II, Max Würden and Lukas Schäfer embed a finely placed beat impulse in a soft bed of modulating soundscapes and pleasant psychedelic spaceyness.
10. Max Würden– Circles
Max Würden once again shows his special feeling for one of the core statements of the Pop Ambient style spectrum. The abstract chord and soundscape movement between formal construction and emotional touchability, which seems like “pop music” under the microscope.
11. Blank Gloss – Jennifer’s Convertible
The Californian guitar-ambient duo takes us into their sublimely beautiful sound cosmos with their usual aplomb. Maximum condensed transparency. Lightness - heavy as gold.
12. Hendrik Meyer – Grün War Die Klamm
Another new addition is Hendrik Meyer. The versatile musician, also known for his MYR project distributed by Kompakt, leads us with a glistening, beautiful “wall of sound” determination into the eternity of a sunset that is only ended by the following track. Filmy Music.
13. Triola – Zum Renngraben
Jörg Burger aka Triola combines his typical “handmade” impulses and accents with a multi-dimensional, digital sound scenario in a pleasantly smoky, blurred stonewashed aesthetic.
14. Jens-Uwe Beyer – In Defense Of Symbolic Value 1
Jens-Uwe Beyer, a constant converter between ambient, art, techno and back again, closes Pop Ambient 2025 with a metallic, swinging, abstract sound sculpture with a baroque appearance. The track was created in the context of the exhibition “In Defense of Symbolic Value”, curated by Isabelle Graw at the Max Hetzler Gallery, April-June 2023.
As always, the indispensable final mastering by Jörg Burger ensures that everything is brought together and the sound is fine-tuned.
And like every year, the 25th edition is of course wrapped in an abstract, floral magic creation by Veronika Unland. Over the years, the grace of her imagery has increasingly merged with the musical aura to form an unmistakable magical symbiosis. In addition to the official vinyl and CD edition, there will be a limited edition of 100 pieces in transparent vinyl - including a hand-signed fine art print by Veronika Unland, available exclusively at Kompakt Mailorder.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
Various Artists - Goldwasserfluss
2
Various Artists - Mirage
3
Various Artists - Follow Me
4
Various Artists - Periadriatische Naht
5
Various Artists - Sunshine Night
6
Various Artists - Artifacts of Synthese
7
Various Artists - Im Delirium
8
Various Artists - Circles
9
Various Artists - Jennifer’s Convertible
10
Various Artists - Grün War Die Klamm
11
Various Artists - Zum Renngraben
In recent years, the introductory texts for the Pop Ambient compilation series, which is released every year on Kompakt as the last release before the Christmas break, often began with the sentence "Every year again...".
“Every year again”, a quiet, almost unnoticed maxim of self-evidentness. Because this is already the 25th issue to be published this year.
25 years in increasingly fast-moving times in the even faster-moving music business is an eternity that doesn't just feel like it. It is all the more remarkable how I, as someone who is always restless and often driven by this fast pace himself, pleasantly almost haven’t realised how - in pop-ambient contexts - time does not pass (or passes differently) in the best sense.
When compiling the 25th edition I was asked, among other things, what it was like that I was still doing this and whether I had a favorite track. In the spirit of bringing all the tracks together I don't have a favorite track, or all of them. But I have a favorite part (moment) that I played. In this case it was a broad chord in a change of key at minute 2:55 in the piece Circles by Max Würden. A moment of majesty and familiarity that, at that moment, contains the entire Pop Ambient cosmos, that just works and doesn't explain anything - and I said: “...that's the reason why I'm still doing this.. .”
Pop Ambient is a statement without demands. Is promise without expectation. Is a path without a destination. Every year again.
Wolfgang Voigt, October 2024
And so to the facts:
01. Leandro Fresco / Thore Pfeiffer – Goldwasserfluss
The intercontinental collaboration between the two long-standing Pop Ambient artists Leandro Fresco from Argentina and Thore Pfeiffer from Mainz is a regular part of the series. They open this year's anniversary edition with the usual filigree.
02. Pass Into Silence – Mirage
The Japanese artist Tetsuo Sakae aka Pass into Silence returns to Kompakt 20 years after his legendary album “Calm Like A Millpond”. A master of tones that are as fine as they are stoic and crystal clear.
03. Tamarma & Sebastian Mullaert – Follow Me
For the first time, the well-known Swedish producer and DJ Sebastian Mullaert will be performing on Pop Ambient in cooperation with the Georgian sound artist Tamara Davitashvili. Their piece “Follow Me” fits confidently into the intimate, familiar sound cosmos.
04. Sono Kollektiv feat. Nathalie Brum – Periadriatische Naht
Sono Kollektiv is now a fixture on Pop Ambient, this time with Nathalie Brum. In particular, Luis Reich's characteristic flugelhorn always gives their sound that special jazzy touch.
05. Thore Pfeiffer – Phase Locked Loop 1
Thore Pfeiffer is a master of shimmering surfaces and hypnotically meandering loops.
06. Andrew Thomas feat. Julia Parr – Sunshine Night
An old friend from New Zealand is back with spherical sounds. Andrew Thomas, in collaboration with Julia Parr, sprinkles finely placed piano tones into distant soundscapes and even more distant voices.
07. Segensklang – Artifacts of Synthesis
We are pleased that Segensklang will be there again this year after his brilliant Pop Ambient debut last year. Deep and beautiful.
08. Ümit Han – Im Delirium
The Cologne producer Ümit Han is back for the third time. While he has so far explored the more emotional, soundscape aspects of the Pop Ambient universe, this year's piece "Im Delirium" rises to a pulsating mountain of sound with pearly, clear, effervescent sound crystals.
09. Würden & Schäfer – Analysis Of Variance II
In their track Analysis Of Variance II, Max Würden and Lukas Schäfer embed a finely placed beat impulse in a soft bed of modulating soundscapes and pleasant psychedelic spaceyness.
10. Max Würden– Circles
Max Würden once again shows his special feeling for one of the core statements of the Pop Ambient style spectrum. The abstract chord and soundscape movement between formal construction and emotional touchability, which seems like “pop music” under the microscope.
11. Blank Gloss – Jennifer’s Convertible
The Californian guitar-ambient duo takes us into their sublimely beautiful sound cosmos with their usual aplomb. Maximum condensed transparency. Lightness - heavy as gold.
12. Hendrik Meyer – Grün War Die Klamm
Another new addition is Hendrik Meyer. The versatile musician, also known for his MYR project distributed by Kompakt, leads us with a glistening, beautiful “wall of sound” determination into the eternity of a sunset that is only ended by the following track. Filmy Music.
13. Triola – Zum Renngraben
Jörg Burger aka Triola combines his typical “handmade” impulses and accents with a multi-dimensional, digital sound scenario in a pleasantly smoky, blurred stonewashed aesthetic.
14. Jens-Uwe Beyer – In Defense Of Symbolic Value 1
Jens-Uwe Beyer, a constant converter between ambient, art, techno and back again, closes Pop Ambient 2025 with a metallic, swinging, abstract sound sculpture with a baroque appearance. The track was created in the context of the exhibition “In Defense of Symbolic Value”, curated by Isabelle Graw at the Max Hetzler Gallery, April-June 2023.
As always, the indispensable final mastering by Jörg Burger ensures that everything is brought together and the sound is fine-tuned.
And like every year, the 25th edition is of course wrapped in an abstract, floral magic creation by Veronika Unland. Over the years, the grace of her imagery has increasingly merged with the musical aura to form an unmistakable magical symbiosis. In addition to the official vinyl and CD edition, there will be a limited edition of 100 pieces in transparent vinyl - including a hand-signed fine art print by Veronika Unland, available exclusively at Kompakt Mailorder.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
“Every year again”, a quiet, almost unnoticed maxim of self-evidentness. Because this is already the 25th issue to be published this year.
25 years in increasingly fast-moving times in the even faster-moving music business is an eternity that doesn't just feel like it. It is all the more remarkable how I, as someone who is always restless and often driven by this fast pace himself, pleasantly almost haven’t realised how - in pop-ambient contexts - time does not pass (or passes differently) in the best sense.
When compiling the 25th edition I was asked, among other things, what it was like that I was still doing this and whether I had a favorite track. In the spirit of bringing all the tracks together I don't have a favorite track, or all of them. But I have a favorite part (moment) that I played. In this case it was a broad chord in a change of key at minute 2:55 in the piece Circles by Max Würden. A moment of majesty and familiarity that, at that moment, contains the entire Pop Ambient cosmos, that just works and doesn't explain anything - and I said: “...that's the reason why I'm still doing this.. .”
Pop Ambient is a statement without demands. Is promise without expectation. Is a path without a destination. Every year again.
Wolfgang Voigt, October 2024
And so to the facts:
01. Leandro Fresco / Thore Pfeiffer – Goldwasserfluss
The intercontinental collaboration between the two long-standing Pop Ambient artists Leandro Fresco from Argentina and Thore Pfeiffer from Mainz is a regular part of the series. They open this year's anniversary edition with the usual filigree.
02. Pass Into Silence – Mirage
The Japanese artist Tetsuo Sakae aka Pass into Silence returns to Kompakt 20 years after his legendary album “Calm Like A Millpond”. A master of tones that are as fine as they are stoic and crystal clear.
03. Tamarma & Sebastian Mullaert – Follow Me
For the first time, the well-known Swedish producer and DJ Sebastian Mullaert will be performing on Pop Ambient in cooperation with the Georgian sound artist Tamara Davitashvili. Their piece “Follow Me” fits confidently into the intimate, familiar sound cosmos.
04. Sono Kollektiv feat. Nathalie Brum – Periadriatische Naht
Sono Kollektiv is now a fixture on Pop Ambient, this time with Nathalie Brum. In particular, Luis Reich's characteristic flugelhorn always gives their sound that special jazzy touch.
05. Thore Pfeiffer – Phase Locked Loop 1
Thore Pfeiffer is a master of shimmering surfaces and hypnotically meandering loops.
06. Andrew Thomas feat. Julia Parr – Sunshine Night
An old friend from New Zealand is back with spherical sounds. Andrew Thomas, in collaboration with Julia Parr, sprinkles finely placed piano tones into distant soundscapes and even more distant voices.
07. Segensklang – Artifacts of Synthesis
We are pleased that Segensklang will be there again this year after his brilliant Pop Ambient debut last year. Deep and beautiful.
08. Ümit Han – Im Delirium
The Cologne producer Ümit Han is back for the third time. While he has so far explored the more emotional, soundscape aspects of the Pop Ambient universe, this year's piece "Im Delirium" rises to a pulsating mountain of sound with pearly, clear, effervescent sound crystals.
09. Würden & Schäfer – Analysis Of Variance II
In their track Analysis Of Variance II, Max Würden and Lukas Schäfer embed a finely placed beat impulse in a soft bed of modulating soundscapes and pleasant psychedelic spaceyness.
10. Max Würden– Circles
Max Würden once again shows his special feeling for one of the core statements of the Pop Ambient style spectrum. The abstract chord and soundscape movement between formal construction and emotional touchability, which seems like “pop music” under the microscope.
11. Blank Gloss – Jennifer’s Convertible
The Californian guitar-ambient duo takes us into their sublimely beautiful sound cosmos with their usual aplomb. Maximum condensed transparency. Lightness - heavy as gold.
12. Hendrik Meyer – Grün War Die Klamm
Another new addition is Hendrik Meyer. The versatile musician, also known for his MYR project distributed by Kompakt, leads us with a glistening, beautiful “wall of sound” determination into the eternity of a sunset that is only ended by the following track. Filmy Music.
13. Triola – Zum Renngraben
Jörg Burger aka Triola combines his typical “handmade” impulses and accents with a multi-dimensional, digital sound scenario in a pleasantly smoky, blurred stonewashed aesthetic.
14. Jens-Uwe Beyer – In Defense Of Symbolic Value 1
Jens-Uwe Beyer, a constant converter between ambient, art, techno and back again, closes Pop Ambient 2025 with a metallic, swinging, abstract sound sculpture with a baroque appearance. The track was created in the context of the exhibition “In Defense of Symbolic Value”, curated by Isabelle Graw at the Max Hetzler Gallery, April-June 2023.
As always, the indispensable final mastering by Jörg Burger ensures that everything is brought together and the sound is fine-tuned.
And like every year, the 25th edition is of course wrapped in an abstract, floral magic creation by Veronika Unland. Over the years, the grace of her imagery has increasingly merged with the musical aura to form an unmistakable magical symbiosis. In addition to the official vinyl and CD edition, there will be a limited edition of 100 pieces in transparent vinyl - including a hand-signed fine art print by Veronika Unland, available exclusively at Kompakt Mailorder.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
Michael Mayer - The Problem
2
Michael Mayer - Vagus
3
Michael Mayer - Feuerstuhl
4
Michael Mayer - Kiss And Tell
5
Michael Mayer - Brainwave 2.0
6
Michael Mayer - Ardor
7
Michael Mayer - Sycophant
8
Michael Mayer - The Solution
9
Michael Mayer - Süsser Schlaf
Michael Mayer albums don’t come round too often, which is one of many reasons why his fourth collection, The Floor Is Lava, is a genuine event. It’s been eight years since his last one, the collaborative & released on !K7; its predecessors, Mantasy (2012) and Touch (2004), took their sweet time, too. It’s no real surprise, given the many hats Mayer wears – globetrotting DJ, revered remixer, inveterate collaborator, and boss of both Kompakt and Imara – that his solo productions are relatively sparing. But this also speaks to their quality: Mayer’s name on a record sleeve is a sign of quality, of music that’s both looking to the future and calling back to the past, that balances the imperatives of the dancefloor and the loungeroom, that’s as exploratory as it is functional.
On The Floor Is Lava, Mayer seems to be taking the temperature of both the music that surrounds him (past and present), and the ideas of the industry he works within. There’s that iconic album title, for a start. “The album’s mindset,” he says, reflecting on those four words together. For Mayer, it’s partly a critique of the way the industry boxes in both producer and listener, focuses them on genre, on market, on the next new thing: “Being a free minded spirit that transcends genres has become an uphill battle.” A battle worth fighting, though, and with The Floor Is Lava, the result is an album that’s varied, quixotic, idiosyncratic, charming, and deeply, addictively listenable.
Throughout, Mayer finds thrills in exploration and juxtaposition, allowing unexpected things to blossom and giving them their life, their platform, throwing the listener exciting curveballs: “It’s a DJ album by a DJ that’s easily bored.” Either easily bored, or endlessly curious, The Floor Is Lava is rich with ideas. It opens with “The Problem”, which looks back to look forward, embracing the rickety way early house productions threw samples together with gleeful abandon. Mayer mentions Pal Joey, and the scene around Rockers Hi-Fi and their Different Drummer imprint, as reference points, and you can hear that freewheeling spirit throughout.
It’s followed by “Vagus”, a slinky, sensual minimal house number that Mayer describes as his “musical catnip”. The flow of these two opening cuts defines the dynamic of The Floor Is Lava, defining the dialectical drive at its core: thesis and antithesis leads to synthesis, but with a welcome prickliness that means you’re always excited, always engaged. It’s also productive in the way it derives energy from rubbing genres and sounds against each other, in unexpected ways, for maximum musical frisson. There’s psychedelic techno on “Feuerstuhl”, more minimal techno with “Ardor” (Mayer mentions ‘Immer 1’ era 90s minimal as inspiration), slippery, Shepard-tone breakbeat through “Sycophant”, a lovely, lush vocal turn on the poppy “The Solution”.
The album closes with the melancholy “Süßer Schlaf”, where Mayer sets a poem by Goethe to one of his most haunted, moving pieces of music yet, in an abstract tribute to a lost friend. It’s one of the most affecting moments on The Floor Is Lava. There’s also an update on 2020’s wild Brainwave Technology EP, with the surrealist glitter-stomp of “Brainwave 2.0” (check out those handclaps!),where Mayer’s thinking about the socio-political precipice of the now: “I’m reading with great interest about this whole complex of how humanity is about to cross so many lines and the implications that the resulting financial and educational inequality will bring.”
That’s The Floor Is Lava: then and now, brainwaves and nerve structures, problems and solutions, genres on fire; the real, the unreal, and the surreal. An album for the easily bored and the endlessly curious. Mayer has the last word, telling us all you need to know about the album’s spirit: “Burning for the cause, being zealous, being addicted to the heat of the night, the exuberant powers of music.”
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
On The Floor Is Lava, Mayer seems to be taking the temperature of both the music that surrounds him (past and present), and the ideas of the industry he works within. There’s that iconic album title, for a start. “The album’s mindset,” he says, reflecting on those four words together. For Mayer, it’s partly a critique of the way the industry boxes in both producer and listener, focuses them on genre, on market, on the next new thing: “Being a free minded spirit that transcends genres has become an uphill battle.” A battle worth fighting, though, and with The Floor Is Lava, the result is an album that’s varied, quixotic, idiosyncratic, charming, and deeply, addictively listenable.
Throughout, Mayer finds thrills in exploration and juxtaposition, allowing unexpected things to blossom and giving them their life, their platform, throwing the listener exciting curveballs: “It’s a DJ album by a DJ that’s easily bored.” Either easily bored, or endlessly curious, The Floor Is Lava is rich with ideas. It opens with “The Problem”, which looks back to look forward, embracing the rickety way early house productions threw samples together with gleeful abandon. Mayer mentions Pal Joey, and the scene around Rockers Hi-Fi and their Different Drummer imprint, as reference points, and you can hear that freewheeling spirit throughout.
It’s followed by “Vagus”, a slinky, sensual minimal house number that Mayer describes as his “musical catnip”. The flow of these two opening cuts defines the dynamic of The Floor Is Lava, defining the dialectical drive at its core: thesis and antithesis leads to synthesis, but with a welcome prickliness that means you’re always excited, always engaged. It’s also productive in the way it derives energy from rubbing genres and sounds against each other, in unexpected ways, for maximum musical frisson. There’s psychedelic techno on “Feuerstuhl”, more minimal techno with “Ardor” (Mayer mentions ‘Immer 1’ era 90s minimal as inspiration), slippery, Shepard-tone breakbeat through “Sycophant”, a lovely, lush vocal turn on the poppy “The Solution”.
The album closes with the melancholy “Süßer Schlaf”, where Mayer sets a poem by Goethe to one of his most haunted, moving pieces of music yet, in an abstract tribute to a lost friend. It’s one of the most affecting moments on The Floor Is Lava. There’s also an update on 2020’s wild Brainwave Technology EP, with the surrealist glitter-stomp of “Brainwave 2.0” (check out those handclaps!),where Mayer’s thinking about the socio-political precipice of the now: “I’m reading with great interest about this whole complex of how humanity is about to cross so many lines and the implications that the resulting financial and educational inequality will bring.”
That’s The Floor Is Lava: then and now, brainwaves and nerve structures, problems and solutions, genres on fire; the real, the unreal, and the surreal. An album for the easily bored and the endlessly curious. Mayer has the last word, telling us all you need to know about the album’s spirit: “Burning for the cause, being zealous, being addicted to the heat of the night, the exuberant powers of music.”
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
9OASES - Streetpoet EP
2
9OASES - Streetpoet EP
3
9OASES - Streetpoet EP
They still exist, these stories: A fresh newcomer project from Cologne sends their first demo to just one address. An A&R, who has a medically certified autotune allergy, listens to the demo, hears an autotune track and signs the band anyway. ‘Streetpoet’ by Mourad Kehailia & Sebastian Fischer aka 9OASES is as unusual as the genesis of this record. It’s a wild hybrid of raving breakbeats, a chord hook that would have done Underworld proud in their heyday and the aforementioned autotune rap. It is magical. Axel Boman is a remixer who can make the magic even more magical. His 8-minute version of ‘Streetpoet’ establishes a long overdue new genre: trancehall! With ‘New Ballad’, 9OASES show us that they really mean business with their plans for world conquest. This is great techno pop with heart and mind. We are very excited to see what the guys from Cologne will do next.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
Justus Köhncke - Timecode (Maxi Version)
2
Justus Köhncke - The Answer Is Yes (Maxi Version)
20TH ANNIVERSARY RE-PRESS!
Köhncke rides again with another 12“ having 2 sides that couldn‘t be more different: the A-Side, „Timecode“, is a clock-ticking electronic disco tease promising a joyous release by building up tremendous expectations over its course of 8 minutes – and of course not delivering the final dance floor orgasm since the night has to continue in mutual happiness and expectations on the floor. But well, surely lots of „pre-cum“ spreaded...
The „flip“, „The Answer Is Yes“, displays Köhncke‘s love with The Beatles or Prefab Sprout and the likes, in a masterly programmed digital simulation of the „played“ sound of the likes (Köhncke cannot play any „real instruments“ except for a bit of Barré-Punk-Guitar). It‘s a love metaphor about 2 photons in „entanglement“, which is a proven very psychedelic effect in quantum physics. The photons are „entangled“ and „know“ each other‘s „spin“ in immediacy, thus not bent to the speed of light, even if they are 100000 light years from each other - a theory that even Einstein considered absurd when the pioneers of quantum physics came up with this in the 1930s. So Justus put his fascination with quantum physics into a pop love song metaphor – how much more do you want?
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Köhncke rides again with another 12“ having 2 sides that couldn‘t be more different: the A-Side, „Timecode“, is a clock-ticking electronic disco tease promising a joyous release by building up tremendous expectations over its course of 8 minutes – and of course not delivering the final dance floor orgasm since the night has to continue in mutual happiness and expectations on the floor. But well, surely lots of „pre-cum“ spreaded...
The „flip“, „The Answer Is Yes“, displays Köhncke‘s love with The Beatles or Prefab Sprout and the likes, in a masterly programmed digital simulation of the „played“ sound of the likes (Köhncke cannot play any „real instruments“ except for a bit of Barré-Punk-Guitar). It‘s a love metaphor about 2 photons in „entanglement“, which is a proven very psychedelic effect in quantum physics. The photons are „entangled“ and „know“ each other‘s „spin“ in immediacy, thus not bent to the speed of light, even if they are 100000 light years from each other - a theory that even Einstein considered absurd when the pioneers of quantum physics came up with this in the 1930s. So Justus put his fascination with quantum physics into a pop love song metaphor – how much more do you want?
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
Thomas Fehlmann - Alles, Immer
2
Thomas Fehlmann - Falling Into Your Eyes
3
Thomas Fehlmann - Wasser Im Fluss
4
Thomas Fehlmann - Schwerelos
5
Thomas Fehlmann - Speeding
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Thomas Fehlmann - In The Wind II
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Thomas Fehlmann - Soft Park
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Thomas Fehlmann - Permanent Touch
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Thomas Fehlmann - Von Oben
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Thomas Fehlmann - Fluss Im Wasser
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Thomas Fehlmann - Cityscape
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Thomas Fehlmann - Berliner Luftikus
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Thomas Fehlmann - Darkspark
14
Thomas Fehlmann - Im Überblick
15
Thomas Fehlmann - Scheiben
Thomas Fehlmann remains as one of the most endearing and respected artists on Kompakt. He has inspired generations of fans and musicians over the course of his 30+ year career. From his early days as part of the legendary band Palais Schaumburg, and the pioneering Detroit/Berlin act 3mb (With Juan Atkins and Moritz Von Oswald), to his longstanding membership with The Orb, combined with his contributions as a solo artist to esteemed imprints R&S, Plug Research and of course Kompakt, where we have proudly released two full length solo albums: Visions Of Blah (Kompakt CD 20/Kompakt 67) and Honigpumpe (Kompakt CD 59 / Kompakt 157), his musical works have been prolific, not to mention four singles and a full serving of tracks found on our Pop Ambient and Total collections. Now, after 3 years, Fehlmann returns with 'Gute Luft'…
'Gute Luft' is the result of months of work scoring the hit German TV film 24h Berlin - the longest documentary film in history which featured 80 camera teams following the lives of berliners over a 24 hour period. Obviously a huge challenge for Fehlmann, beyond the scope of the project and hours of music involved in a 24 hour film, there was dealing with the decision making process that went with working with such a large production team. As he shared scoring duties with another musician (separately), inevitably a lot of his music ended up not making the final cut. 'Gute Luft' is about re-tweaking and editing material from the countless hours of recording he had created. In a sense, 'Gute Luft' is Fehlmann's ideal soundtrack to the 24h Berlin documentary.
“while scoring the film and subsequently shaping it into a album, i found myself questioning what holds it all together in Berlin. I figured that 'Air', the good old 'Berliner Luft', is something that is guaranteed to touch everyone and everything in the city. Also with that Berlin is very green, the combination with the unavoidable city dirt makes for a distinctive blend which seems to infuse its vibrant scene unknowingly with a constructive drive. Besides that, 'Gute Luft' was also the title of a song from my old band Palais Schaumburg, of which I have very fond memories. Also (as he says with a wink) “Gut” is one word I have a profound relation to…”
Fans shall rejoice as Thomas Fehlmann doesn't feer far from his signature path of trailblazing the finer links of classic Detroit House and Techno with the submerged beauty of Berlin Dub. One will immediately recognize the classic scoring techniques Fehlmann brings to 'Gute Luft' - various themes and sounds resonate in various forms and versions throughout the tracks. As Thomas states, “There are also More Subtle Connections That Should Give An Overall Feel To The Score. I Also Brought In Elements From Tunes From My Previous Albums In recognition of the fact that I often feel that there would be so many more ways to explore and experiment with certain ideas than just on a single track”. Fehlmann clearly succeeds in synergizing the best of the past 20 years of Berlin's expansive history of electronic and dance music with 'Gute Luft'. A recreational album in every way in which he hopes will make you “Feel at peace with you and your environment, inspire you to lush, imaginative dinners, make babies, or just walk your own way with open eyes”. Well put Thomas!
This is a re-release of " Gute Luft " orginally released in 2010 on Kompakt.
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
'Gute Luft' is the result of months of work scoring the hit German TV film 24h Berlin - the longest documentary film in history which featured 80 camera teams following the lives of berliners over a 24 hour period. Obviously a huge challenge for Fehlmann, beyond the scope of the project and hours of music involved in a 24 hour film, there was dealing with the decision making process that went with working with such a large production team. As he shared scoring duties with another musician (separately), inevitably a lot of his music ended up not making the final cut. 'Gute Luft' is about re-tweaking and editing material from the countless hours of recording he had created. In a sense, 'Gute Luft' is Fehlmann's ideal soundtrack to the 24h Berlin documentary.
“while scoring the film and subsequently shaping it into a album, i found myself questioning what holds it all together in Berlin. I figured that 'Air', the good old 'Berliner Luft', is something that is guaranteed to touch everyone and everything in the city. Also with that Berlin is very green, the combination with the unavoidable city dirt makes for a distinctive blend which seems to infuse its vibrant scene unknowingly with a constructive drive. Besides that, 'Gute Luft' was also the title of a song from my old band Palais Schaumburg, of which I have very fond memories. Also (as he says with a wink) “Gut” is one word I have a profound relation to…”
Fans shall rejoice as Thomas Fehlmann doesn't feer far from his signature path of trailblazing the finer links of classic Detroit House and Techno with the submerged beauty of Berlin Dub. One will immediately recognize the classic scoring techniques Fehlmann brings to 'Gute Luft' - various themes and sounds resonate in various forms and versions throughout the tracks. As Thomas states, “There are also More Subtle Connections That Should Give An Overall Feel To The Score. I Also Brought In Elements From Tunes From My Previous Albums In recognition of the fact that I often feel that there would be so many more ways to explore and experiment with certain ideas than just on a single track”. Fehlmann clearly succeeds in synergizing the best of the past 20 years of Berlin's expansive history of electronic and dance music with 'Gute Luft'. A recreational album in every way in which he hopes will make you “Feel at peace with you and your environment, inspire you to lush, imaginative dinners, make babies, or just walk your own way with open eyes”. Well put Thomas!
This is a re-release of " Gute Luft " orginally released in 2010 on Kompakt.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
TEE MANGO - So In Love
2
Reinhard Voigt - Der, der mit dem Gummiball sang (Orange)
3
Jürgen Paape - Chee-Caruso
4
Rex The Dog - Laika
5
Michael Mayer - Urian
6
Jonathan Kaspar - Are You
7
Sascha Funke - The Heck
8
Argia - Love Keeps Your Running
9
Jörg Burger - Legacy Of Ashes
10
Wassermann - Die Goldene Zeit
Hello 24! Nice to have you here. 23 is so yesterday, so over the top, really. Well, we’ve been dancing the following dances recently. What about you?
What lasts a long time usually turns out well. Having admired TEE MANGO from afar for many years, our A&R Michael Mayer took heart and invited him to this year’s TOTAL. “So In Love” is in the best tradition of the KOMPAKT minimal funk of the early years. We are delighted to have this lovely Englishman on board!
REINHARD VOIGT has always placed great emphasis on loving animals. On the track with the unsurprising title “Der, der mit dem Gummiball sang (Orange)”, he lets whole hordes of different four-legged friends and poultry on the microphone. Hopefully the stench will dissipate from the studio.
When Rhenish cheerfulness meets holiday anticipation, the result is something like this Hawaiian shirt turned music called “Chee-Caruso” by JÜRGEN PAAPE. No animals were tortured for this piece either, even if it sounds like it.
We stay in the realm of fauna and turn our attention to London’s award-winning pedigree dog REX THE DOG. “Laika” is a heart-warming ode to the mongrel dog of the same name, who was the first living creature to make it from the streets of Moscow into space. She would have loved that bleep.
A little-known fact about MICHAEL MAYER is that he is one of the fastest crossword puzzle foxes on the left bank of the Rhine, always in relentless rivalry with Wolfgang Voigt, who thinks he is even faster. The big battle is yet to come. Uninvited guest with five letters? “Urian”.
As an integral part of the family, JONATHAN KASPAR is of course not to be missed. “Are You” celebrates the kind of early morning rapture that is commonplace at his new DJ venue, the brand new Cologne superclub FI. Everything is so colourful here.
SASCHA FUNKE takes a bow to one of the greats of German showbiz with the trippy electro smasher “The Heck”. Born – like DJ Koze and Barnt – in Flensburg, died in Berlin in 2018 and wore glasses. More will not be revealed.
More emotion, more love, more sing-along factor? Si, claro! ARGIA’s “Love Keeps You Running” masterfully combines groove and pop – a blend that sounds very familiar to us. She may be at home in Madrid, but there’s Cologne DNA in her somewhere. We’re sure of it.
Let’s meet the legends, the veterans! JÖRG BURGER is still in a psychedelic mood in 2024. That suits him, that’s where he needs to be, that’s where we want him to be. A parallel universe is conceivable in which such music is affectionately called Goa.
Before going to bed, the WASSERMANN reads us a fairy tale from the Arabian Nights. At the same time, we focus on a point between everything, but really everything, and absolute, stark naked nothingness. 3, 2, 1… Let go.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
What lasts a long time usually turns out well. Having admired TEE MANGO from afar for many years, our A&R Michael Mayer took heart and invited him to this year’s TOTAL. “So In Love” is in the best tradition of the KOMPAKT minimal funk of the early years. We are delighted to have this lovely Englishman on board!
REINHARD VOIGT has always placed great emphasis on loving animals. On the track with the unsurprising title “Der, der mit dem Gummiball sang (Orange)”, he lets whole hordes of different four-legged friends and poultry on the microphone. Hopefully the stench will dissipate from the studio.
When Rhenish cheerfulness meets holiday anticipation, the result is something like this Hawaiian shirt turned music called “Chee-Caruso” by JÜRGEN PAAPE. No animals were tortured for this piece either, even if it sounds like it.
We stay in the realm of fauna and turn our attention to London’s award-winning pedigree dog REX THE DOG. “Laika” is a heart-warming ode to the mongrel dog of the same name, who was the first living creature to make it from the streets of Moscow into space. She would have loved that bleep.
A little-known fact about MICHAEL MAYER is that he is one of the fastest crossword puzzle foxes on the left bank of the Rhine, always in relentless rivalry with Wolfgang Voigt, who thinks he is even faster. The big battle is yet to come. Uninvited guest with five letters? “Urian”.
As an integral part of the family, JONATHAN KASPAR is of course not to be missed. “Are You” celebrates the kind of early morning rapture that is commonplace at his new DJ venue, the brand new Cologne superclub FI. Everything is so colourful here.
SASCHA FUNKE takes a bow to one of the greats of German showbiz with the trippy electro smasher “The Heck”. Born – like DJ Koze and Barnt – in Flensburg, died in Berlin in 2018 and wore glasses. More will not be revealed.
More emotion, more love, more sing-along factor? Si, claro! ARGIA’s “Love Keeps You Running” masterfully combines groove and pop – a blend that sounds very familiar to us. She may be at home in Madrid, but there’s Cologne DNA in her somewhere. We’re sure of it.
Let’s meet the legends, the veterans! JÖRG BURGER is still in a psychedelic mood in 2024. That suits him, that’s where he needs to be, that’s where we want him to be. A parallel universe is conceivable in which such music is affectionately called Goa.
Before going to bed, the WASSERMANN reads us a fairy tale from the Arabian Nights. At the same time, we focus on a point between everything, but really everything, and absolute, stark naked nothingness. 3, 2, 1… Let go.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - GAS 1 (1996)
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GAS - GAS 2 (1996)
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GAS - GAS 3 (1996)
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GAS - GAS 4 (1996)
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GAS - GAS 5 (1996)
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GAS - GAS 6 (1996)
Kompakt is proud to announce, finally, a reissue of the first, self-titled GAS album. Originally released on electronica imprint Mille Plateaux back in 1996, it’s been unavailable in its original form ever since – the version of GAS included in 2008’s Nah Und Fern box featured several different tracks. Here, however, GAS is restored in all its glory, the debut full-length from Wolfgang Voigt’s most enigmatic, quixotic project.
There had, of course, been signs of what was to come. Back in 1995, Voigt essayed the first GAS release, a slender, yet remarkable four-track EP, Modern. Its centre label featured a reduced symbol – an overhead or lamp light, switched on, its glow radiating outwards in four bold black lines – a perfect representation of the tight, stylised ambient electronic pop contained on that 12”. A few curious compilation tracks were floating around, too, for Mille Plateaux’s Modulation & Transformation and Electric Ladyland series. If you were attentive enough, you could tell something was up.
But nothing quite prepared us for the languorous, effervescing loops and regular-like-clockwork beats that Voigt folded together on GAS. Its six long tracks, all untitled, neither begin nor end but hazily fade into earshot, vibrate majestically in your cochlea for fifteen-or-so minutes – some a bit shorter, some longer – and then meander away, reading the mise-en-scène for the next example of Voigt’s drift and dream logic to unfold. The material is referential in the most distant way, and you can sense only the most evanescent of ghostly presences, haunting these six compositions.
GAS feels, also, like a more pliable hint at what’s to come, as the GAS concept really solidified on its successor, 1997’s Zauberberg, and reach its apotheosis on Königsforst and Pop. Those three albums share a very similar palette – blurred, hazy samples, often of classical music, stacked and cross-thatched across a muted 4/4 thud. GAS, then, is an outlier of sorts: it’s more expansive in its remit, lighter in its mood, perhaps more fleet of foot. This, of course, is part of its charm.
In clearing space for Voigt, by preparing the terrain, GAS sits both at the edge of the forest, and at the verge of an expansive, wide-eyed future; one where GAS would become truly eternal.
Text by Jonathan Dale
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
There had, of course, been signs of what was to come. Back in 1995, Voigt essayed the first GAS release, a slender, yet remarkable four-track EP, Modern. Its centre label featured a reduced symbol – an overhead or lamp light, switched on, its glow radiating outwards in four bold black lines – a perfect representation of the tight, stylised ambient electronic pop contained on that 12”. A few curious compilation tracks were floating around, too, for Mille Plateaux’s Modulation & Transformation and Electric Ladyland series. If you were attentive enough, you could tell something was up.
But nothing quite prepared us for the languorous, effervescing loops and regular-like-clockwork beats that Voigt folded together on GAS. Its six long tracks, all untitled, neither begin nor end but hazily fade into earshot, vibrate majestically in your cochlea for fifteen-or-so minutes – some a bit shorter, some longer – and then meander away, reading the mise-en-scène for the next example of Voigt’s drift and dream logic to unfold. The material is referential in the most distant way, and you can sense only the most evanescent of ghostly presences, haunting these six compositions.
GAS feels, also, like a more pliable hint at what’s to come, as the GAS concept really solidified on its successor, 1997’s Zauberberg, and reach its apotheosis on Königsforst and Pop. Those three albums share a very similar palette – blurred, hazy samples, often of classical music, stacked and cross-thatched across a muted 4/4 thud. GAS, then, is an outlier of sorts: it’s more expansive in its remit, lighter in its mood, perhaps more fleet of foot. This, of course, is part of its charm.
In clearing space for Voigt, by preparing the terrain, GAS sits both at the edge of the forest, and at the verge of an expansive, wide-eyed future; one where GAS would become truly eternal.
Text by Jonathan Dale
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - Pop 1
2
GAS - Pop 2
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GAS - Pop 3
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GAS - Pop 4
5
GAS - Pop 5
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GAS - Pop 6
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GAS - Pop 7
Repress!
POP – the album that has become widely recognized as the defining moment in which Wolfgang Voigt brought us into a clearing of his deep, psychedelic forest. A landmark release in the GAS odyssey that drew international attention, POP was originally released in 2000 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint MILLE PLATEAUX. POP was heralded by Pitchfork at the time of release as being “an exercise in sonic texture… pure sonic velvet, the layered drone radiating a palpable warmth.”
POP has since been reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX” (now out of print) and finally now, POP is released on KOMPAKT – for the first time in its original artwork.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
POP – the album that has become widely recognized as the defining moment in which Wolfgang Voigt brought us into a clearing of his deep, psychedelic forest. A landmark release in the GAS odyssey that drew international attention, POP was originally released in 2000 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint MILLE PLATEAUX. POP was heralded by Pitchfork at the time of release as being “an exercise in sonic texture… pure sonic velvet, the layered drone radiating a palpable warmth.”
POP has since been reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX” (now out of print) and finally now, POP is released on KOMPAKT – for the first time in its original artwork.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - Zauberberg 1
2
GAS - Zauberberg 2
3
GAS - Zauberberg 3
4
GAS - Zauberberg 4
5
GAS - Zauberberg 5
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GAS - Zauberberg 6
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GAS - Zauberberg 7
Repress!
ZAUBERBERG – Wolfgang Voigt’s most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography – finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendour.
Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, ZAUBERBERG is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram vinyl in its original.
Though this narcotic symphony is not the first release under the GAS moniker, ZAUBERBERG is the first to disclose the true nature of Wolfgang Voigt’s unified sound and ideology as GAS. Layers of ominous intensity supported by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction, ZAUBERBERG is the definitive GAS album and a perfect starting point for those not familiar with his music.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
ZAUBERBERG – Wolfgang Voigt’s most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography – finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendour.
Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, ZAUBERBERG is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram vinyl in its original.
Though this narcotic symphony is not the first release under the GAS moniker, ZAUBERBERG is the first to disclose the true nature of Wolfgang Voigt’s unified sound and ideology as GAS. Layers of ominous intensity supported by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction, ZAUBERBERG is the definitive GAS album and a perfect starting point for those not familiar with his music.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - Der Lange Marsch 1
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 2
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 3
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 4
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 5
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 6
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 7
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 8
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 9
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 10
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GAS - Der Lange Marsch 11
Repress!
At the latest with the release of the albums "Zauberberg" and "Königsforst", in the mid-1990s, one associates GAS, Wolfgang Voigt's very own artistic cross-linking of the spirit of Romanticism and the forest as an artistic fantasy projection surface, with intoxicatingly blurred boundaries of post-ambient infatuation and the impenetrable thicket of abstract atonality. The distant, iconic straight bass drum marching through highly condensed, abstract sounds taken from classical music by the sampler or modulated accordingly, and the enraptured gaze through pop art glasses into the hypnotic thicket of an imaginary forest, manifested over the years this unique connection of audio and visual, which to understand fully, then as now, would be neither possible nor desirable.
Quite the opposite. The album GAS - DER LANGE MARSCH once again invites us to follow the deep sounding bass drum, to give in to its irresistible pull into a psychedelic world of 1000 promises. In the process, the journey leads us past stations of memories sounding from afar, from "Zauberberg" to "Königsforst" and "Pop", from "Oktember" to "Narkopop" and "Rausch", back and forth, now and forever.
Way. Destination. Loop. - Forest loop.
No beginning. No end.
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
At the latest with the release of the albums "Zauberberg" and "Königsforst", in the mid-1990s, one associates GAS, Wolfgang Voigt's very own artistic cross-linking of the spirit of Romanticism and the forest as an artistic fantasy projection surface, with intoxicatingly blurred boundaries of post-ambient infatuation and the impenetrable thicket of abstract atonality. The distant, iconic straight bass drum marching through highly condensed, abstract sounds taken from classical music by the sampler or modulated accordingly, and the enraptured gaze through pop art glasses into the hypnotic thicket of an imaginary forest, manifested over the years this unique connection of audio and visual, which to understand fully, then as now, would be neither possible nor desirable.
Quite the opposite. The album GAS - DER LANGE MARSCH once again invites us to follow the deep sounding bass drum, to give in to its irresistible pull into a psychedelic world of 1000 promises. In the process, the journey leads us past stations of memories sounding from afar, from "Zauberberg" to "Königsforst" and "Pop", from "Oktember" to "Narkopop" and "Rausch", back and forth, now and forever.
Way. Destination. Loop. - Forest loop.
No beginning. No end.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - Rausch 1
2
GAS - Rausch 2
3
GAS - Rausch 3
4
GAS - Rausch 4
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GAS - Rausch 5
6
GAS - Rausch 6
7
GAS - Rausch 7
Repress!
GAS – RAUSCH
Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there’s nothing / Once upon a time there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas / A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite
Wolfgang Voigt 2018
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
GAS – RAUSCH
Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there’s nothing / Once upon a time there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas / A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite
Wolfgang Voigt 2018
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - Narkopop 1
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GAS - Narkopop 2
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GAS - Narkopop 3
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GAS - Narkopop 4
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GAS - Narkopop 5
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GAS - Narkopop 6
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GAS - Narkopop 7
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GAS - Narkopop 8
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GAS - Narkopop 9
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GAS - Narkopop 10
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GAS - Narkopop 11
Repress!
3xLP+CD Artbook
In the body of work of Cologne artist Wolfgang Voigt – who, like few others, has informed, shaped and influenced the world of electronic music with countless different projects since the early 1990s -, GAS stands out in particular as a saturnine sound cosmos based on heavily condensed classic sequences. Even after nearly 20 years, the sound of GAS doesn’t seem to have lost any of its luster, as shown by the commanding success of Kompakt’s fall 2016 re-release of the essential back catalogue as a 10xLP/4xCD box set.
The overwhelming feedback from a loyal international fan community and worldwide media outlets attests once again to the sheer timelessness of GAS. Which is why it will feel like hardly a day has passed since the release of the last official album “Pop” nearly two decades ago, when Wolfgang Voigt resumes this specific creative path with the upcoming new full-length NARKOPOP.
Even in the here and now, the unmistakable vibe of GAS immediately hits home, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey with the very first sounds, drawing him or her into an impervious sonic thicket, down to the depths of rapture and reverie. From wafts of dense symphonic mist emerges a floating and whirling feeling of weightlessness, before the listener steps into an eerily beautiful forest of fantasy, pulled in by the allure of a narcotic bass drum.
While earlier GAS tracks were often based on the hypnotic effects of looping techniques, the 10 new pieces on NARKOPOP unfold their magic in a more entwined manner, sometimes with the sonic might of an entire philharmonic orchestra, sometimes as subtle and fragile as the most delicate branch of a tree with many. A main characteristic of Voigt’s oeuvre, the coalescence of seemingly contradictory stylistic aspects such as harmonious and atonal, concrete and abstract, light and heavy, near and far is also a decisive feature of NARKOPOP.
In accordance with the transgressive spirit of his collective work, Voigt carries the aesthetic conceptions of his music over to the realm of the visual. Based on his abstract forest pictures, the GAS artwork addresses Voigt’s artistic affinity to romanticism and the forest as a place of yearning. For the first time, a closer look at the cover of NARKOPOP reveals signs of architectural fragments which hint at another, maybe parallel world behind Voigt’s forest. Truth is the prettiest illusion.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
3xLP+CD Artbook
In the body of work of Cologne artist Wolfgang Voigt – who, like few others, has informed, shaped and influenced the world of electronic music with countless different projects since the early 1990s -, GAS stands out in particular as a saturnine sound cosmos based on heavily condensed classic sequences. Even after nearly 20 years, the sound of GAS doesn’t seem to have lost any of its luster, as shown by the commanding success of Kompakt’s fall 2016 re-release of the essential back catalogue as a 10xLP/4xCD box set.
The overwhelming feedback from a loyal international fan community and worldwide media outlets attests once again to the sheer timelessness of GAS. Which is why it will feel like hardly a day has passed since the release of the last official album “Pop” nearly two decades ago, when Wolfgang Voigt resumes this specific creative path with the upcoming new full-length NARKOPOP.
Even in the here and now, the unmistakable vibe of GAS immediately hits home, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey with the very first sounds, drawing him or her into an impervious sonic thicket, down to the depths of rapture and reverie. From wafts of dense symphonic mist emerges a floating and whirling feeling of weightlessness, before the listener steps into an eerily beautiful forest of fantasy, pulled in by the allure of a narcotic bass drum.
While earlier GAS tracks were often based on the hypnotic effects of looping techniques, the 10 new pieces on NARKOPOP unfold their magic in a more entwined manner, sometimes with the sonic might of an entire philharmonic orchestra, sometimes as subtle and fragile as the most delicate branch of a tree with many. A main characteristic of Voigt’s oeuvre, the coalescence of seemingly contradictory stylistic aspects such as harmonious and atonal, concrete and abstract, light and heavy, near and far is also a decisive feature of NARKOPOP.
In accordance with the transgressive spirit of his collective work, Voigt carries the aesthetic conceptions of his music over to the realm of the visual. Based on his abstract forest pictures, the GAS artwork addresses Voigt’s artistic affinity to romanticism and the forest as a place of yearning. For the first time, a closer look at the cover of NARKOPOP reveals signs of architectural fragments which hint at another, maybe parallel world behind Voigt’s forest. Truth is the prettiest illusion.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - Königsforst 1
2
GAS - Königsforst 2
3
GAS - Königsforst 3
4
GAS - Königsforst 4
5
GAS - Königsforst 5
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GAS - Königsforst 6
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GAS - Königsforst 7
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GAS - Königsforst 8
Repress!
KÖNIGSFORST – following the 1997 release of ZAUBERBERG (KOMPAKT 370.1), Wolfgang Voigt’s GAS project returned with KÖNIGSFORST, a full length that has stood the test of time as a template for introducing fundamentals of 90’s techno into the principles of contemporary electronic music.
Originally released in 1998 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, KÖNIGSFORST is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram 3LP vinyl in its original artwork.
KÖNIGSFORST brings glimmers of light into Voigt’s dark, magnificent forest. Melodic strings and brass are added to his signature layers of ominous intensity. The forest path is laid out by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
KÖNIGSFORST – following the 1997 release of ZAUBERBERG (KOMPAKT 370.1), Wolfgang Voigt’s GAS project returned with KÖNIGSFORST, a full length that has stood the test of time as a template for introducing fundamentals of 90’s techno into the principles of contemporary electronic music.
Originally released in 1998 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, KÖNIGSFORST is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram 3LP vinyl in its original artwork.
KÖNIGSFORST brings glimmers of light into Voigt’s dark, magnificent forest. Melodic strings and brass are added to his signature layers of ominous intensity. The forest path is laid out by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
GAS - Tal 90
2
GAS - Oktember
Repress!
OKTEMBER is the second EP release under Wolfgang Voigt’s mythical GAS project (it follows "Modern“ on Profan, 1995). The 2 compositions were originally released in 1999 on Mille Plateaux, and then reissued partially in 2016 on GAS “BOX”. OKTEMBER is finally released on Voigt's own label KOMPAKT, pressed on 180 gram vinyl in its original artwork.
This reissue features “Tal ‘90“ (instead of the original A side) – a predecessor to the GAS project originally recorded in 1990 under the alias TAL, it was released as a part of the Pop Ambient 2002 collection. With its sampled strings, horns and guitars, "Tal 90” soundtracks a more uplifting side to what is typically accustomed to being the sound of GAS. The title track “Oktember” is a dense, hypnotic affair that conjures a unique vision of dub techno that few have been able to replicate.
A monumental soundtrack to uncertain times.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
OKTEMBER is the second EP release under Wolfgang Voigt’s mythical GAS project (it follows "Modern“ on Profan, 1995). The 2 compositions were originally released in 1999 on Mille Plateaux, and then reissued partially in 2016 on GAS “BOX”. OKTEMBER is finally released on Voigt's own label KOMPAKT, pressed on 180 gram vinyl in its original artwork.
This reissue features “Tal ‘90“ (instead of the original A side) – a predecessor to the GAS project originally recorded in 1990 under the alias TAL, it was released as a part of the Pop Ambient 2002 collection. With its sampled strings, horns and guitars, "Tal 90” soundtracks a more uplifting side to what is typically accustomed to being the sound of GAS. The title track “Oktember” is a dense, hypnotic affair that conjures a unique vision of dub techno that few have been able to replicate.
A monumental soundtrack to uncertain times.
Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More