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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Tracklisting
A1 Aural Imbalance - Better Day
A2 Aural Imbalance - Scratch The Surface
B1 Aural Imbalance - Different Times
B2 Aural Imbalance - Spiral

Sales Note
ASC & Dan Azimuth AKA DJ Levi (Okbron, Repertoire, Spotlight) are proud to present their new collaborative project, Curvature.

Curvature will showcase a similar style to ASC's own pioneering label Spatial, which focuses on music inspired by the golden era of atmospheric drum & bass / jungle from the mid 90's. Curvature will shine a light on emerging talent in this space, as well as featuring established artists such as Spatial's own Aural Imbalance - who kicks the label off with Galactic Transmission.

Galactic Transmission features four diverse tracks from the genre stalwart, previously showcased on Dan Azimuth's own Atmoteka mix and the Atmospheals podcast, as well as ASC's 'Spatial Show' on Blast Radio, and will be instantly recognisable to listeners of those shows - finally released for fans to enjoy on Curvature's maiden voyage.

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Size XL

Underground Resistance 'Workers' T-Shirt
Tan with Orange print on Gildan Ultra Cotton Shirt

Available in X-Small, Small, Medium, Large and X-Large


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After two years of silence, Downbeat comes back with an old friend of the label. The responsible for that fantastic “Foregrounds and Backgrounds” ep, DaRand Land releases a new vinyl on the label from Madrid and he is fit as a fiddle. This underground music hero presens 4 synthetic deep house tracks with all those elements that are already an original brand: Hypnotic vibes with warm and smooth synth lines, silky pads and dubby basslines, This whisper from the lake EP will be immediately loved by the label followers because is exactly what the label is. Atmospheric and erotic midtempo house that represents perfectly the sound of Downbeat.

Mastered by Jose Rico

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Limited Edition 140g Black Vinyl LP, Full-color Jacket & Poly-lined inner sleeve, with original photography and artwork by Grant Aaron and Gabriel Benzur


For nearly 40 years, English producer Mark Van Hoen has been making challenging music that eludes easy categorization under his own name, as Locust, and in the groups Autocreation, Scala, and Drøne. While his output has skirted around the fringes of IDM, techno, trip-hop, ambient, drone, and electropop, it has mutated these genres' elements in distinctive ways, revealing a mind always questing for unprecedented sounds.

This is Mark Van Hoen’s ninth album as Locust, and an instant classic.

Drifting, hanging, holding. Hoping, seeking, searching. And then finding.

Mark Van Hoen's ninth album as Locust is a cosmic whisper, a tender touch, where candid songwriting commingles with the afterimage of trip-hop and jungle. Across eight tracks, spectral melodies dance between languid breakbeats, and a formless murmur drifts through the ether, seeking a common thread.

Layered in strata, "The First Cause" reveals itself anew with each listen. Delicate tones share space with bass weight. Drums crunch, and rhythms cascade. Voices loop and intone, bodiless. What at first seems melancholy, you may later find reoriented—toward promise.

We seek solace in each other, and we seek solace in sound. Kinship isn't easy to come by. When a record offers its kind embrace to us as this one does, without reservation, we should take heed.

Written, performed and produced by Mark Van Hoen
© Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd
2023 Mark Van Hoen under exclusive license to Mysteries of the Deep
markvanhoen.com

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Photography by Grant Aaron
Design by Gabriel Benzur
Words by Chris Zaldua

Pressed by: AFG Record Manufacturing

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Field Records proudly presents the first complete vinyl edition of Monolake’s seminal excursion into experimental dub techno, Hongkong. Originally released on the now-classic Chain Reaction label in 1997, this collection of early singles by Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles has gone on to become a vital listening experience in its own right - a genre classic alongside the other groundbreaking works from the likes of Porter Ricks and Vladislav Delay.

The tracks which make up Hongkong were made while Henke and Behles studied computer science and immersed themselves in Berlin’s techno scene. Their early forays into computer-based music production were enabled by the use of the Max/MSP programming environment, forming a backdrop to the landmark work they would undertake in developing the Ableton Live DAW. Henke and Behles travelled to Hong Kong in 1996 to attend the annual International Computer Music Conference, and while there recorded extensive field recordings. These recordings became the glue that pieced together their collaborative tracks into a fluid listening experience for a CD-compilation at Chain Reaction’s request.

While absolutely rooted in the embryonic sound of European dub techno, Monolake’s early work possesses a back room, headphone-ready demeanour which lends itself to the album listening experience. In the cascade of rhythms created by precision engineered delays and subliminal, expansive spatial world building occurring throughout Hongkong, the stage is set for a full and thorough immersion. Before the Monolake sound progressed into a more pointillist form of computer music as Henke’s solo project, Hongkong presented a gritty, grainy sonic still tied in some way to the traditional methods of techno production, even as the artists’ ideas were sending the sequencing and arranging in exciting new directions.

Remastered and presented for the first time as a complete double 12” package, this is the definitive edition of an essential work in the evolution of experimental techno. As Henke himself explains, “twenty-five years later, this record still holds immense value to me in many ways.”

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Super limited brokntoys release from FR Fels.
50 copies only

Co-founder of art space and label Ortloff, FR Fels debuts on BT with Planet Fear
The Leipzig based producer presents five tense, melodic electro tracks drenched in reverb.
Mastered by Alden Tyrell.

Numbered edition of 50 copies, white labels with an A4 insert.

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Next up on this new hand-stamped series, incognito DJ Marathon takes us into uncharted territory with a trippy techno cut that will go the distance. On the flip side, Ebende returns with another dubbed out groove on the dreamy yet crystal clear Aniara frequency.

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Midland returns after 4 years with his first solo record “Drift Into The Algorithm” taken from his forthcoming EP “You Never Take Me Dancing.” Following on from 2019’s “Alchemy of Circumstance” the EP consists of four tracks that represent the next chapter in his studio process.

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The Full Circle Released imprint is here. Finally - some might say - as these Parisian Masterminds stoke their engines with a faster grade of fuel. Always in keeping with trend, these well-versed contemporary historians have delivered something fit for the peak of the moment, a progressive A side that surely crosses over; with a break in the beat, surges of euphoria and darker moments that harken back to the hard trance we knew, this number fills the Full Circle brief and more! The B side is a true dub, nestled in at just the right tempo, it sails on through with plenty of heavenly space about it, balanced with subtle percussion and just a pinch of sonic wonk. Those starting to panic about the speed of it all can of course just hit the 33 dial for some 1/2 speed love, it’s Full Circle after all.

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We have a truly hero of classic house music, for the 10th FRL Classic Edition instalment. Mr. Kerri Chandler returns with this classic from 1994. All four tracks feature the trademark Chandler bassline, jazzed-out trippy chords, and chopped up vocals. Pure deepness musicality with an oldschool twist



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