FLOCKS is a new duo, formed by drone specialist WERNER DURAND and ULI HOHMANN. Musical landscapes that move between traditional as well as experimental sounds with influences from Krautrock and JON HASSEL's "fourth world" aesthetics.

WERNER DURAND has made himself a name with various projects with Dhrupad singerAMELIA CUNI, playing with URBAN SAX, ARNOLD DREYBLATT, HENNING CHRISTIANSEN, DAVID BEHRMAN, ELLEN FULLMAN, CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX, as the co-founder of THE 13th TRIBE, ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER and TONALIENS (with ROBIN AYWARD and HILARY JEFFERY) plus numerous solo albums, released on labels like Black Truffle, Unseen Worlds or Edition Telemark. Having studied saxophone as well as Indian / Persian flutes, the Berlin based DURAND is a highly reputated protagonist in the drone scene, famous for his self-built wind instruments like buzz-clarinets or his PVC neys & horns.

His partner in FLOCKS (and longtime personal friend) is ULI HOHMANN whose early encounters with music from Asia, India and Africa led to studies with the Ghanaian master drummer MUSTAPHA TETTEY ADDY and later Tombak and Daf with NEMAD DARMAN (Iran). HOHMANN played in a couple of projects that explored the language of classical Persian music, and started building his own stringed instruments (being an educated carpenter). In 2014 he joined DURAND and AMELIA CUNI for the album "Clearing", and 2018 DURAND and HOHMANN decided to continue as a duo: FLOCKS was born.

On their selftitled debut they shape drone-y soundscapes based on their self-built wind- & stringed instruments, Persian percussion and subtle electronics, drawing additional inspiration from Krautrock (listen to the irresistible, hypnotique groove of "Quicksand") as well as JON HASSEL's "fourth world" aesthetics, placing the duo nicely between tradition and experiment!

Credits:

Werner Durand:invented winds (ur-sax, buzz-clarinets, PVC neys & horns), tenor-sax, blown kalimba, mouth harp, drones

Uli Hohmann:invented strings(plugged, bowed&hammered),frame drums, kanjira, riq,electronics

Recorded at Abendland.studio Lengenfeld and Haveli Studio Berlin between 2017 & 2023

Mixed by Werner Durand & Uli Hohmann

Mastering and lacquer cut by Anne Taegert at D&M, Berlin

Cover painting by Sybille Wissmeyer

Layout by Serkan Sanli

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Remastered vinyl reissue of this 1990 BILL LASWELL / RICHARD HOROWITZproduction of local Gnawa musicians, recorded in the Medina of Marrakesh. Accordingto Allmusic.com "a must for fans of both African and Middle Eastern music" and votedone of the "10 essential Gnawa albums" by Songlines. The Gnawa are an ethnic minorityin today's Morocco, descendents of slaves from West Africawho were brought to Morocco in the 16th century and who (although they quickly converted toIslam) nevertheless brought with them remnants of their animistic practices.The Gnawa perform a complex ceremony (called lila or derdeba) that over the duration of severalhours recreates the genesis of the universe by the evocation of the seven main manifestationsof the divine, represented by seven colours. Those ceremonies, led by a master or "maleem",are still taking place today privately while Gnawa music in general has clearly been modernizingand thus become more profane, but witnessing a performance is still an astonishing experience. With the exception of a handful of recordings by PAUL BOWLES and PHILIP SCHUYLER (moreethnographic documents in a field recordings style), Gnawa music was barely heard outside ofMorocco before 1990 - one of the first westerners to come and record the music was BILLLASWELL, back then running his AXIOM label that portrayed a wide range of ethnic music andmusicians like THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA or MALEEM MAHMOUD GHANIA, toname just two. "Night Spirit Masters", recorded in the Medina of Marrakech, delivers soulfultracks of lead and group singers in call/ response mode, fired by sentirs, drums, hand clapping,and qrakechs, while others are drum features or sentir/ vocal pieces.Over 30 years after its initial release, this essential Gnawa album is finally available again -remastered and on 180gr audiophile vinyl! "Gnawa, bottom heavy trance music of North Africa. Repetitive bass lines, generated by thegimbri or sintir with metal clappers, hand drums and voice.Seven trances, seven colors, seven scents, Gnawa not only moves, it can remove."Bill Laswell Hell's Kitchen, NYC, May 2022

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Referring heavily on turkish poets and the tradition of a??ks (singer-poets and wanderingbards) these two albums represent unique and modern interpretations of turkish folk songsunmatched to this day. A matured artist with full conviction at the height of her powers!Back in the 60s Tülay German (*1935 in Istanbul, Turkey) shook the turkish music landscapewith several 7" records. Most notably her first 7" record "Burçak Tarlas?" (1964) is nowconsidered the cornerstone of what was to become the Anadolu Rock/ Pop movement andunderlines her rebellious nature and sense of justice.But due to the increasing repression Tülay German and her lifelong partner and intellectualimpetus Erdem Buri decided to leave Turkey a few years later. In fact, an impending prisonsentence for Erdem Buri for translating Hegel's "Dialectic and Science of Logic" andPlekhanov's "Fundamental Problems of Marxism" led the couple to emigrate to France.In France Tülay German signs a major contract with Philips resulting in many 7" releasessung in french under her french moniker Toula?. In the long run Tülay German doesn't feelquite comfortable with this major deal. And thus, despite the success and recognition she hadgained, she decides to quit the contract with Philips!Later on she signs to independent world-music label Arion to pursue her actual artistic goalsmore in line with her origin and temperament. Back to her mother tongue, Tülay Germanrecords above mentioned albums for Arion under full artistic freedom, the only full-lenghthsin her 20+ years career. Alongside with double-bass virtuoso and turkophil François Rabbath(*1931 in Aleppo, Syria) the albums consist of a??k traditionals and intonated poems mainlyby Naz?m Hikmet. Her passionate voice and the restrained arrangements of FrançoisRabbath turn these centuries old melodies and poems into glowing manifestos for love andjustice. The fruitful collaboration of these artists-in-exile adds significantly to the rich heritageof turkish folk music.The self-titled debut, which was awarded with the prestigious "Grand Prix du Disque" ofAcadémie Charles Cros in 1981, is now seeing a vinyl reissue after 40 years.Tülay German ended her musical career in 1987 and after the death of Erdem Buri in 1993she retired from public life completely, leading a quiet life in Paris where she still lives to thisday. In 2021 Tülay German was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the IstanbulFoundation for Culture and Arts, Turkey.

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We are glad to welcome talented producer Funktor with his debut EP "Emitter" for our 2nd release on Abstract Rhythm. His release contains 4 massive Electro tracks transforming electricity into machine funk heavy sound waves.

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Coming soon.

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Repress!

Blue Hour Music welcomes French artist Mathys Lenne for his debut EP as ‘The Scan’ - his go to alias for classic techno. Titled ‘Callgroove’ the record features four functional and highly seductive DJ tools aimed at darkly-lit dance floors. Each track is stripped to its essential layers, holding its own unique tension with hints of pre-pandemic club moments, lead by bold rhythmic groove manipulation, classic drum programming and immersive atmospherics.

Written & produced by Mathys Lenne
Mastered @ Team by João Rodrigues

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Fresh off his explosive Boiler Room performance in Liverpool, the dust is yet to settle from the electronic eruptions caused by GTOWN head-honcho and energy inducer, KETTAMA. Namely, the damage caused by his latest armoured artillery; ‘GTOWN004’, a radioactive EP with devastatingly euphoric consequences. ‘Samba Soccer 2001’ is the track that opens the door to ‘GTOWN004’, as we’re welcomed by an anonymous voice that insults the listener; a perfect introduction to a project that is wildly unapologetic in its character, and utterly ruthless in its delivery. Released as the first single from the ‘GTOWN004’ EP, ‘Samba Soccer 2001’ has already been greatly received by the GTOWN faithful, and sets the tone for what is arguably KETTAMA’s most complete, and anticipated project yet. The EP starts as it means to go on, as KETTAMA drops another bombshell with ‘Blitz Zuruck.’ With a euphoric soundscape which the producer partners with a punishing bassline, this track is deeply nostalgic, embodying a time-capsule in the thick of a modern rave-renaissance. Further elements of revamped rave-nostalgia are seen in ‘Slaap Lekker’, before we’re taken deep into the belly of the Galway beast with the atomic ‘GTOWN IN EFFEKT’, and finally killed off with the ‘Rock Da Cliffe Mix’ of ‘Blitz Zuruck.’ ‘GTOWN004’ features an ungodly blend of sounds, and in the process, creates an atmosphere that is both ecstatic enough for heaven, and sinister enough for hell. Purpose built for dance-floor destruction, KETTAMA’s infusion of stomach-churning bass, hypnagogic synthesisers, soulful vocals and contagious drum patterns result in an utterly pure, addictive sound. From Galway to Vienna, Liverpool to New York, the track will be road tested amongst an armoured artillery of records, with dance-floor devastation an inevitable outcome. With his name boldly imprinted on the lineups for the likes of AVA Festival in Belfast, CRSSD in Miami, 121 Festival in New Zealand and Terminal V Festival in Edinburgh, KETTAMA’s worldwide domination of sound-systems continues.

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Orphic Apparition follow up their inaugural release by RAFRAM, the collaborative project of Toronto's Raf Reza aka Raf Rizzla and UK acid house luminary Ramjac Corporation, with a new two-tracker from the transatlantic bass warriors. Where the RAFRAM 12" gifted us five variations on the same live jam cut from Grow Tottenham, here we have a spontaneous track written by Paul (Ramjac) on the A-side and a fully warped dancehall mix from Raf on the B. (short)

'Press 1 to Repeat' began as an on-the-spot demonstration of the musical self, a natural response to being asked 'What is it that you do?'. Within a few minutes Ramjac had his laptop out and was bashing out a quintessentially English sort of kitchen tabletop version of Kraftwerk - Numbers, the tongue in cheek automated voice on the other end of the line querying his account balance in tow. Proudly showing his friend Ryoko his improvisatory skills, a £10 hifi from a Japanese 2nd hand shop served as the portable monitors whilst the track waited to be brought back to his studio in London. The track is anchored by a bouncy, Irdial-reminiscent percussive workout which punches above its weight for its humble beginnings. Add the dubbed out synth pads and sort of electrical static FX in the background and everything syncs together in cosmic harmony. Hopefully Ryoko now gets the gist!

Raf Rizzla takes the stems and channels some inspiration from the Jamaican movie “Third World Cop” by turning the track on its head with a double-time baseline and half-time melody to craft a big dancehall version with a bit of a modern day On-U twist. Here Raf shows yet another side to his truly versatile production chops which have seen him release house, trance, breaks and downtempo cuts on a variety of Canadian labels prior to starting Orphic Apparition.

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»In Words« is the first solo album by the Danish musician, composer, and visual artist Alexander Tillegreen. The album represents a series of varied electronic music pieces while also carrying examples of ongoing work with psychoacoustic phenomena. Composed partly of material taken from his artistic practice as an installation artist and his ongoing interdisciplinary artistic research into psychoacoustic phenomena, Tillegreen investigates subjective sonic perception and the negotiation of language. Particularly, these investigations are done through the use of the phantom word illusion, originally discovered by music psychologist Diana Deutsch. Parts of the album were conceived when Tillegreen was the first artist ever in resident at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Triggering the brain’s tendency to interpret language-based auditory illusions as meaningful information and as words within the mind of the listener, Tillegreen’s unique sound works unfold like a kaleidoscope of phonetic mirrors which render possibilities to reflect upon the listener’s own psychological and culturally situated linguistic embeddedness. Gender-distorted voice perception, speech and language borders are all challenged and thematized throughout Tillegreen’s work. The listener’s head and bodily movement drastically affect the listening and the word interpretation. Their psychological subconsciousness, recent events, memories, and expectations as well as the listener’s motion in space all become co-creative and co- composing factors in a reactive and choreographic process of listening. The polyrhythmic seriality of spatialized syllabic structures is accompanied by elements of heavy bass drops, high-frequency tensions, undulating synth lines, and hypnotic effects. Some of the many compositional potentials of the phantom word illusions are exercised and unfolded in selected tracks throughout the album. The notion of language borders is approached from an entirely different and even more “anti-logocentric” perspective on the “eponymous” closing track »Assimilate (in Words)«, where the listener experiences the struggle and collapse of interpersonal communication through conversation. Other parts of the album represent more diverse approaches to abstract electronic music. »In Words« morphs soundscapes into glacial, spherical passages of ambient backdrops, while at other times emphasizes raw tectonic blocks of hyper-panning drones that erupt into high-velocity outlets of energetic, granular fields. Tillegreen is alternating between cyclical, minimalist, hypnotic approaches and complex, glitchy polyrhythmic melodic structures that shift and melt into evocative ambiences. The phantom words and the nature of Tillegreen’s musical visions progressively demand more of the listener’s attention and represent the artist’s ongoing artistic work and scientific research into psychoacoustics and language. While »In Words« is a highly conceptual album, the musical bandwidth is extensive.

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Gudu Records is proud to present remixes of Special Request and Novelist’s grime-meets-techno Summer anthem ‘Sliver’ - by two of club music’s modern-day heavyweights in KETTAMA and Tim Reaper. In Special Request’s words: “I chose Tim Reaper and KETTAMA because they are both 100% top-table practitioners of machine funk. They both delivered the goods in completely different ways and illuminate new paths with this song. Both mixes have been causing havoc in our sets and I can’t wait for people to hear them.” Both remixes are out now on all platforms, with a limited 12” release available to pre-order now. It continues a stand-out 2023 for Peggy Gou’s record label, which has already seen releases from Special Request & Novelist, Mogwaa, Matisa, Hiver, Matrefakt and DMX Krew, as well as the inaugural entry in Gudu & Friends - a new annual compilation series which introduced Salamanda, Closet Yi, Lady Blacktronika and more to the roster.

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Sweden’s Peder Mannerfelt returns to Voam with “The Benefits of Living in a Hole”, his third EP for the label.

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Zaratustra is a young French producer strongly inspired by indie dance, italo disco, EBM, new beat, acid and ethnic music. His style matured over the course of this year & we actually received this extraordinary "uprising" demo. This track symbolizes the perfect mix of rock, italo and EBM, for the older ones we will notice the incredible similarity in the voice with Ian Astbury singer of The Cult. A bit as if this fabulous group would have teleported to 2022 accompanied by a very modern production. It is once again STOLT who strikes the blow with one of his finest vocal performances. We called again on the brilliant Lauer for a rereading halfway between Suicide, Alan Vega & The cramps. This record is more than a statement, it's a miracle.

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