1
Viola Klein - Whodat's Confidence Mix
2
Viola Klein - Rely On The Ke Of A Flat
3
Viola Klein - Kassem Mosse's Snooze Mix
4
Viola Klein - Snooze Seashore Korg X5D Mix
5
Viola Klein - Snooze Oiseaux De La Nuit Mix
6
Viola Klein - Nidia's Love In Life Mix
7
Viola Klein - Sabar Ensemble Diop & 808 - We Another Part Mix 1
8
Viola Klein - Picci Bis Bi Ci Dakar
9
Viola Klein - Sabar Ensemble Diop & 808 - We Another Part Mix 2
On the record New Chapter, sound from all directions of the sky is transformed as it flows through the bodies of the musicians. The source material is Viola Klein’s solo record Confidant and the collaboration with the Sabar Ensemble Diop from Saint Louis, titled We. Whodat in Detroit, Kassem Mosse in Leipzig, Nídia in Lisbon, and Viola Klein in Cologne and Dakar reshape the places where Deep House, Leftfield, Kuduro, and Mbalax originated and/or continue to thrive: the USA, Germany, Portugal, and Senegal.
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 Viola Klein
1
Viola Klein - Boldness
2
Viola Klein - Snooze
3
Viola Klein - Love In Life
„The record tells of oases of trust.“ (Viola Klein)
Viola Klein’s records are supremely earthy and astrally inclined. In her DJ sets, she navigates with harmonies through a music selection that combines experimental house from the US Midwest, West African polyrhythms, and music in the tradition of Can from Cologne. Klein was invited to shape the sound of a club night alongside Kampire and Nídia. She has collaborated with Unity Fellowship Church New York, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Ndongo Samba Sylla, the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center in Detroit, Julion De’Angelo, and Whodat. For her own party series, originally called Bring Your Ass and later No Adoration, No Humiliation, she invited artists such as Aaron Carl, K15, and Kyle Hall when he was just 18 years old.
Her latest solo release, Confidant, offers a fresh approach to deepness.
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
Viola Klein’s records are supremely earthy and astrally inclined. In her DJ sets, she navigates with harmonies through a music selection that combines experimental house from the US Midwest, West African polyrhythms, and music in the tradition of Can from Cologne. Klein was invited to shape the sound of a club night alongside Kampire and Nídia. She has collaborated with Unity Fellowship Church New York, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Ndongo Samba Sylla, the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center in Detroit, Julion De’Angelo, and Whodat. For her own party series, originally called Bring Your Ass and later No Adoration, No Humiliation, she invited artists such as Aaron Carl, K15, and Kyle Hall when he was just 18 years old.
Her latest solo release, Confidant, offers a fresh approach to deepness.
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 Meakusma
1
Mei Honeycomb (Jordan Czamanski & Jeff H - Squeaky Eye Syndrome
2
Mei Honeycomb (Jordan Czamanski & Jeff H - Duct Tape Blues
3
Mei Honeycomb (Jordan Czamanski & Jeff H - At Peace
4
Mei Honeycomb (Jordan Czamanski & Jeff H - Painted Desert Pastel Live In Zaandam With Ilya Ziblat Shay
5
Mei Honeycomb (Jordan Czamanski & Jeff H - Drone
Clairvoyant Dimensions is the first album by Mei Honeycomb, a new duo of Jordan Czamanski, renowned as a member of the acclaimed Juju & Jordash and the Magic Mountain High project, with solo work released as Jordan GCZ, and legendary saxophonist Jeff Hollie, known mostly for his work with Frank Zappa and Ike Willis. An explorative ambient album, Clairvoyant Dimensions is an exercise in distance and contemplation, and the exhilarating feeling of insight, however fleeting, like staring at the midnight flicker of an old VCR. Czamanski's music has a trademark tenderness and soft-spokenness, an ability to maximize minimalist musical elements and bring them to an open-ended conclusion. Jeff Hollie provides interpretative sax lines on all tracks, slipping into the scene like a shadow, silent and unexpected, touching upon emotional registers almost explicit, yet confounding.
As musical signifiers keep turning around themselves, they set up a mood of euphoria, one that suggests understanding. Never explicitly spaced-out, there is continuous reference to cosmoses both inward and far away. Ambient music in modern form. Jordan Czamanski uses his experience in producing off-the-charts club music to come up with five tracks that at times are standstills, and at times dwell in forward momentum. Jeff Hollie provides both comprehension and beautiful confusion. As grainy images switch into focus, Clairvoyant Dimensions is a beautiful and contemplative trip that suggests its own reality in delicate ways. One of the five tracks, the gorgeous live-recorded Painted Desert Pastel, features composer, performer, and researcher Ilya Ziblat Shay on double bass and electronics.
Screen-printed cover designed by Johan Kauth.
Mastering by Rashad Becker
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
As musical signifiers keep turning around themselves, they set up a mood of euphoria, one that suggests understanding. Never explicitly spaced-out, there is continuous reference to cosmoses both inward and far away. Ambient music in modern form. Jordan Czamanski uses his experience in producing off-the-charts club music to come up with five tracks that at times are standstills, and at times dwell in forward momentum. Jeff Hollie provides both comprehension and beautiful confusion. As grainy images switch into focus, Clairvoyant Dimensions is a beautiful and contemplative trip that suggests its own reality in delicate ways. One of the five tracks, the gorgeous live-recorded Painted Desert Pastel, features composer, performer, and researcher Ilya Ziblat Shay on double bass and electronics.
Screen-printed cover designed by Johan Kauth.
Mastering by Rashad Becker
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
Rave At Your Fictional Borders - Spoonbill
2
Rave At Your Fictional Borders - Limosa
3
Rave At Your Fictional Borders - Falco
4
Rave At Your Fictional Borders - Warblers
5
Rave At Your Fictional Borders - Spatula
6
Rave At Your Fictional Borders - Shrike
7
Rave At Your Fictional Borders - Calliope
Rave At Your Fictional Borders is not beyond borders. The band simply denies any notion thereof. Driven by a sense of community, it defines human existence as one bio-organism with planet Earth. Now comprising members Dave De Rose, Marius Mathiszik, and Salim Akki, this incarnation of Rave At Your Fictional Borders first released the 'Entanglement' and 'Utopia' tracks in March 2025. Analogue Nomadism is the project's first album release. Recorded in Morocco and then co-produced and mixed by Dan Nicholls, it is an album of dizzying, trance-inducing scope. Rave music stripped of all external signifiers. Repetition, noise, krautrock, avant-garde sensibilities. This is a search for a groove that both connects and interlocks. The soul of improvisation and exploration runs through all seven pieces on Analogue Nomadism. Genres are referenced and transcended. The open-ended is perpetually embraced.
It is neither night nor day, but there is a half-light all the time. What used to be disconcerting is now not alien anymore. The sky boasts a faint light. Certain shapes are laid out, but get changed through communal ritual. Analogue Nomadism is the music of a feeling of community. It builds and breaks down. It is accepting of the psychedelic standards of the groove. Transportative and vertiginous. Endless.
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
It is neither night nor day, but there is a half-light all the time. What used to be disconcerting is now not alien anymore. The sky boasts a faint light. Certain shapes are laid out, but get changed through communal ritual. Analogue Nomadism is the music of a feeling of community. It builds and breaks down. It is accepting of the psychedelic standards of the groove. Transportative and vertiginous. Endless.
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
Grace & Raffaella - John Is Not There
2
Grace & Raffaella - It's A Strange World
3
Grace & Raffaella - My Animal Thinking
4
Grace & Raffaella - Candy Culture
5
Grace & Raffaella - Microscopic Touch
6
Grace & Raffaella - What A Beautiful Dress
7
Grace & Raffaella - Walking Around With K.A
8
Grace & Raffaella - Gaby's Coat
Grace & Raffaella is the first collaborative release by ML and Vittoria Totale. Over nine tracks, the album strikes a deceptively minimalist tone, taking in a ton of musical as well as literary references. An elegy on a journey back to the present, with all the hushed intensity of an informed fever dream, Grace & Raffaella has a magic-realist feel. Its vocal parts serve as loopy self-fulfilling prophecies. Cut off from the sun, the gorge grows darker. Using an electroacoustic sense of spacing, as well as abstracted current-day club influences, with scraps of background noise fading in and out, this album's use and treatment of a snippet-like narrative is its core aesthetic. A digital gleam drenches the spoken bits into instances of subtle surrealism. Like a kitchen sink drama stripped of all deadweight. We are on the edge of relinquishing all control here. Rip up your diary and let go of the language of the old ones. Grace & Raffaella is a seductive slice of modern hyper-pop that defines its own intentions over and over again.
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
Lutto Lento - Go Eat Worms
2
Lutto Lento - 2568 With Antonina Nowacka Childrens Choir
3
Lutto Lento - Suburban Pagans With Enhancement
4
Lutto Lento - Go Eat Worms (Mobbs Version)
5
Lutto Lento - Bones And Trumpets
"I have two new records, just full of smells. "
from Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith
Lutto Lento's new 2568 E.P. is an album in 7-inch single form. Lutto, real name Lubomir Grzelak, has for years been one of the most acclaimed sonic storytellers around. His first outing on Meakusma is another trip beyond the constraints of musical logic, interweaving elements from industrial music, early avant-garde influences, post-club tendencies, and more, conjuring up a mini-album of huge scope.
Not unlike The Residents, 2568 E.P. touches upon stories from the deep, with an absurdist touch that is at the same time forgiving and inviting. It has a hauntological feel to it, but contradicts it at the same time. It is purring and cold, whispering and layered. Beatific and up close. There is a space ship in the swimming pool, but the cocktail party goes on, kind of. On the edge of industrial music, with a choir thrown in for good measure. On the fringes of club music. Toss the wire-sphere into the air and pay the price for space. Fake composure and dive in.
Lutto Lento is Lubomir Grzelak, a sound artist, composer, music producer, and DJ. Known for his idiosyncratic productions and eclectic sets that break barriers between genres, he has steadily built a reputation for adventurous electronic music that resists easy categorization. Beyond records, he composes for theatre, film, and contemporary dance, weaving diverse influences into a distinctive sonic language.
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
from Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith
Lutto Lento's new 2568 E.P. is an album in 7-inch single form. Lutto, real name Lubomir Grzelak, has for years been one of the most acclaimed sonic storytellers around. His first outing on Meakusma is another trip beyond the constraints of musical logic, interweaving elements from industrial music, early avant-garde influences, post-club tendencies, and more, conjuring up a mini-album of huge scope.
Not unlike The Residents, 2568 E.P. touches upon stories from the deep, with an absurdist touch that is at the same time forgiving and inviting. It has a hauntological feel to it, but contradicts it at the same time. It is purring and cold, whispering and layered. Beatific and up close. There is a space ship in the swimming pool, but the cocktail party goes on, kind of. On the edge of industrial music, with a choir thrown in for good measure. On the fringes of club music. Toss the wire-sphere into the air and pay the price for space. Fake composure and dive in.
Lutto Lento is Lubomir Grzelak, a sound artist, composer, music producer, and DJ. Known for his idiosyncratic productions and eclectic sets that break barriers between genres, he has steadily built a reputation for adventurous electronic music that resists easy categorization. Beyond records, he composes for theatre, film, and contemporary dance, weaving diverse influences into a distinctive sonic language.
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
Tennota & Rosa Anschütz - The Legacy
2
Tennota & Rosa Anschütz - Trading
3
Tennota & Rosa Anschütz - Persistence
4
Tennota & Rosa Anschütz - Nobody Sees
5
Tennota & Rosa Anschütz - Bleiche
6
Tennota & Rosa Anschütz - Rust Light
Tornamented Walls is the first result of a collaboration that began in 2022. The album is a freeze-frame of emergence: personal preparations prior and minor aside, the album was live and improvised. Rosa Anschütz sings, speaks, plays harmonium, and utilizes a looper as an instrument in itself. Her symbolic prose is at the heart of the music, emotionally direct yet haunted by a translucent potential of meaning. In lockstep with the voice, Tennota dissolve the dense rhythmic complexity of their recent work into a creeping mantra, the material interrogated until the patina of the sound is the music itself.
Tornamented Walls floats on top of a wave of slow-motion techno influences, a deepened ambient and experimental perspective, and a feel of subtle and subdued lyricism not strictly limited to its vocal parts. It is a record of darkly ambient and abstracted techno pop, listening music to be played loud. More disenchanted than dark, it is confrontational through its fearless incorporation of a widely varying set of different states of mind.
Tennota are Tom Wheatley & Grundik Kasyansky. Since 2019, they have been reimagining the relationship between physical and digital worlds through music, using gut strings, sine waves, tree sap, and feedback, and flexing them over contemporary technologies into an elemental suspension. Not futuristic, but rather an alternative present.
Rosa Anschütz is an artist and musician whose sound-based practice is framed by sculpture, installation, and scenography. Her meditative and sometimes haunting compositions combine the dark ambiance of post-punk and cold wave with ethereal polyphony, synth-driven melodies, and spoken word.
??nnota & Rosa Anschütz will be touring in April, stopping over in Eupen on April 18th for a concert night at the Galerie vorn und oben. Further on the bill that night will be Tristwch Y Fenywod.
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
Tornamented Walls floats on top of a wave of slow-motion techno influences, a deepened ambient and experimental perspective, and a feel of subtle and subdued lyricism not strictly limited to its vocal parts. It is a record of darkly ambient and abstracted techno pop, listening music to be played loud. More disenchanted than dark, it is confrontational through its fearless incorporation of a widely varying set of different states of mind.
Tennota are Tom Wheatley & Grundik Kasyansky. Since 2019, they have been reimagining the relationship between physical and digital worlds through music, using gut strings, sine waves, tree sap, and feedback, and flexing them over contemporary technologies into an elemental suspension. Not futuristic, but rather an alternative present.
Rosa Anschütz is an artist and musician whose sound-based practice is framed by sculpture, installation, and scenography. Her meditative and sometimes haunting compositions combine the dark ambiance of post-punk and cold wave with ethereal polyphony, synth-driven melodies, and spoken word.
??nnota & Rosa Anschütz will be touring in April, stopping over in Eupen on April 18th for a concert night at the Galerie vorn und oben. Further on the bill that night will be Tristwch Y Fenywod.
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
Viola Klein - Boldness
2
Viola Klein - Snooze
3
Viola Klein - Love In Life
„The record tells of oases of trust.“ (Viola Klein)
Viola Klein’s records are supremely earthy and astrally inclined. In her DJ sets, she navigates with harmonies through a music selection that combines experimental house from the US Midwest, West African polyrhythms, and music in the tradition of Can from Cologne. Klein was invited to shape the sound of a club night alongside Kampire and Nídia. She has collaborated with Unity Fellowship Church New York, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Ndongo Samba Sylla, the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center in Detroit, Julion De’Angelo, and Whodat. For her own party series, originally called Bring Your Ass and later No Adoration, No Humiliation, she invited artists such as Aaron Carl, K15, and Kyle Hall when he was just 18 years old.
Her latest solo release, Confidant, offers a fresh approach to deepness.
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
Viola Klein’s records are supremely earthy and astrally inclined. In her DJ sets, she navigates with harmonies through a music selection that combines experimental house from the US Midwest, West African polyrhythms, and music in the tradition of Can from Cologne. Klein was invited to shape the sound of a club night alongside Kampire and Nídia. She has collaborated with Unity Fellowship Church New York, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Ndongo Samba Sylla, the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center in Detroit, Julion De’Angelo, and Whodat. For her own party series, originally called Bring Your Ass and later No Adoration, No Humiliation, she invited artists such as Aaron Carl, K15, and Kyle Hall when he was just 18 years old.
Her latest solo release, Confidant, offers a fresh approach to deepness.
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
Pieter Kock - Ko Blij Nie Sta
2
Pieter Kock - Bright Bars From The Stars
3
Pieter Kock - Facial Recognition
4
Pieter Kock - Stingray Man
5
Pieter Kock - Giving In A Box Office
6
Pieter Kock - Love Life Something Special
7
Pieter Kock - This Bamboo Is Poisoned
LP + CD + Booklet
Producer Pieter Kock, active also as a DJ under his DJ Peacock guise, is known for being one of the people behind the legendary O Tannenbaum bar and club, a haven of sorts in Berlin nightlife for years, and the newly opened second O Tannenbaum called Schankwirtschafft O Tannenbaum. He has released some of his own music on labels such as Musikii, RIO, Full Body Massage, Fantasy Fiction Records, Moonwalk X, and Invisible Inc, and has extensively collaborated with people and projects such as Meeuw and De Fabriek.
His new Bright Bars From The Stars album on Meakusma is a dizzying amalgam of moods and influences. From ghostly and contemplative tracks to spaced-out and dubbed-out dark dancefloor psychedelia infused with melodics, phrasing, and percussive patterns reminiscent of pop and avant-garde alike, Bright Bars From The Stars features a full album on vinyl, with an extra CD included. Kock is a versatile chronicler of the night, capturing the beauty, loneliness, and endless possibilities of wide avenues pining for neon lights, futuristic descents into past moods and modes, and all.
14 tracks in total, Bright Bars From The Stars is a cosmic, at times gentle, at times confrontational affair that brims with ideas and influences. Combining sounds, rhythms, melodies, and textures from a wide variety of sources and meanings, Pieter Kock brings all of his influences together, intent on finding new paths of thinking and feeling. His pictures printed in the CD booklet give some kind of indication of his artistic process, without ever wanting to push things in any kind of direction. Cocktail bars of a dystopian future, unite! Bright Bars From The Stars is the soundtrack to a very encompassing and transformative night out.
All compositions by Pieter Kock except Bright Bars From The Stars by Pieter Kock and Dominik Peacho Noé
Mastering & Cut by Rashad Becker
Art by Pieter Kock and Meeuw
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
Producer Pieter Kock, active also as a DJ under his DJ Peacock guise, is known for being one of the people behind the legendary O Tannenbaum bar and club, a haven of sorts in Berlin nightlife for years, and the newly opened second O Tannenbaum called Schankwirtschafft O Tannenbaum. He has released some of his own music on labels such as Musikii, RIO, Full Body Massage, Fantasy Fiction Records, Moonwalk X, and Invisible Inc, and has extensively collaborated with people and projects such as Meeuw and De Fabriek.
His new Bright Bars From The Stars album on Meakusma is a dizzying amalgam of moods and influences. From ghostly and contemplative tracks to spaced-out and dubbed-out dark dancefloor psychedelia infused with melodics, phrasing, and percussive patterns reminiscent of pop and avant-garde alike, Bright Bars From The Stars features a full album on vinyl, with an extra CD included. Kock is a versatile chronicler of the night, capturing the beauty, loneliness, and endless possibilities of wide avenues pining for neon lights, futuristic descents into past moods and modes, and all.
14 tracks in total, Bright Bars From The Stars is a cosmic, at times gentle, at times confrontational affair that brims with ideas and influences. Combining sounds, rhythms, melodies, and textures from a wide variety of sources and meanings, Pieter Kock brings all of his influences together, intent on finding new paths of thinking and feeling. His pictures printed in the CD booklet give some kind of indication of his artistic process, without ever wanting to push things in any kind of direction. Cocktail bars of a dystopian future, unite! Bright Bars From The Stars is the soundtrack to a very encompassing and transformative night out.
All compositions by Pieter Kock except Bright Bars From The Stars by Pieter Kock and Dominik Peacho Noé
Mastering & Cut by Rashad Becker
Art by Pieter Kock and Meeuw
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
Manuel Troller - Halcyon Future I
2
Manuel Troller - DNA
3
Manuel Troller - Halcyon Future II - I
4
Manuel Troller - Halcyon Future II - II
A bit more than half a decade on from his widely acclaimed debut Vanishing Points from 2018, Swiss guitarist, composer, and improv musician Manuel Troller releases his new record Halcyon Future. A rhythmically dense and ambiguous, yet joyful ride for unstable times, a plea for warmth and hopeful resistance.
Troller’s mode of incorporating, zooming in, and expanding on small elements from improvised sessions creates a multilayered work of driving rhythms and abstract, vibrating textures. Opening with Halcyon Future I’s distinctive open pulse, this first piece guides us through subtle harmonic shifts that are almost unrecognizable as they take place over extended time, overlapping and creating a sense of ambiguity until the piece reaches an almost optimistic level with Mario Hänni’s unexpected introduction of driving acoustic drums. Relentlessly and with increasing excitement, heavy electronic 80s bass drums and an armada of layered hi-hats push them on, leading to the all-incorporating melodic finale.
The two long pieces Halcyon Future I and Halcyon Future II focus on forward momentum. In between them stands DNA, a purposely directionless contemplation on emotion as such. It is raw, naked, and confrontational, with a tender and subtly changing chord progression creating intimacy and proximity, abstraction and warmth, like a beautifully vibrant hologram for the listener to walk around in.
The B-side with its 20-minute Halcyon Future II features playful futuristic guitars, enhancing and challenging the stereo image that Troller is already well-known for. As it’s given time to develop and take root, the ever-varying guitar interactions densify and the staccato patterns jump out of the speakers with joy, creating excitement and building momentum. Compared to Side A, things turn to a slightly more complex rhythmical, melodic, and harmonic feel here. There are easy references, such as Manuel Göttsching’s E2-E4 or Pat Metheny performing Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, but Troller goes a different and very much more concrete way. Although the piece has been recorded in various places and through a long process of overdubbing, there is an astonishingly strong live feel to it, from beginning to the end, from the slow rise to the full spectrum and the almost krautrock-like finale. Improvisers Hans Koch on soprano saxophone and Michael Flury on heavily fuzzed trombone join in, while Troller and Mario Hänni on many guitars, bass, drum machines, and acoustic drums provide a joyous driving entity, not giving up until it all breaks down again. There is overkill and brute force, though never without depth and a vision of future.
In the musical scope of Halcyon Future, there is no need for an absolute definition of things. A continuously changing interpretation of repetitive and variable elements fading in and out of focus tells a story of an excited sense of acceptance. Feelings of transcendence stem from Troller’s layering of constantly shifting rhythmic structures with unforeseen improvised harmonic changes. Drum machine parts overlayed with acoustic drums shift between musical modes, anchoring the album on the verge of a jazz-influenced, motorik, post-ECM balearic plateau. Abstract textural elements gently swirl around and behind all that is rhythm, providing a submissive counterpoint. As with much of Troller’s work, Halcyon Future is an album that unfolds slowly, revealing more of its richness, detail, and subtle beauty at each listen.
Halcyon Future is a joint release by three:four records and meakusma.
credits
produced by Manuel Troller
published by three:four records and meakusma
Manuel Troller: guitars, bass, percussion & drum programming
with:
Mario Hänni: acoustic drums and percussion on Halcyon Future I & II
Hans Koch: soprano saxophone on Halcyon Future II
Michael Flury: fuzzed trombone on Halcyon Future II
Recorded during 2021 & 2022 at Suburban Sound, Winterthur by Manuel Egger, additional recordings at Feldbergstrasse in Basel & various places by Manuel Troller.
Mixed December 2022 and January 2023 at Suburban Sound, Winterthur by Manuel Egger and Manuel Troller.
DNA's additional mixing by Leo Abrahams
Mastered by Rashad Becker
Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker
Desing by Mathis Pfäffli, font: Dinamo Typefaces.
Realized with the kind support of Fuka Fonds Stadt Luzern, Fachausschuss Musik Kanton Basel-Stadt und Basel Landschaft
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
Troller’s mode of incorporating, zooming in, and expanding on small elements from improvised sessions creates a multilayered work of driving rhythms and abstract, vibrating textures. Opening with Halcyon Future I’s distinctive open pulse, this first piece guides us through subtle harmonic shifts that are almost unrecognizable as they take place over extended time, overlapping and creating a sense of ambiguity until the piece reaches an almost optimistic level with Mario Hänni’s unexpected introduction of driving acoustic drums. Relentlessly and with increasing excitement, heavy electronic 80s bass drums and an armada of layered hi-hats push them on, leading to the all-incorporating melodic finale.
The two long pieces Halcyon Future I and Halcyon Future II focus on forward momentum. In between them stands DNA, a purposely directionless contemplation on emotion as such. It is raw, naked, and confrontational, with a tender and subtly changing chord progression creating intimacy and proximity, abstraction and warmth, like a beautifully vibrant hologram for the listener to walk around in.
The B-side with its 20-minute Halcyon Future II features playful futuristic guitars, enhancing and challenging the stereo image that Troller is already well-known for. As it’s given time to develop and take root, the ever-varying guitar interactions densify and the staccato patterns jump out of the speakers with joy, creating excitement and building momentum. Compared to Side A, things turn to a slightly more complex rhythmical, melodic, and harmonic feel here. There are easy references, such as Manuel Göttsching’s E2-E4 or Pat Metheny performing Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, but Troller goes a different and very much more concrete way. Although the piece has been recorded in various places and through a long process of overdubbing, there is an astonishingly strong live feel to it, from beginning to the end, from the slow rise to the full spectrum and the almost krautrock-like finale. Improvisers Hans Koch on soprano saxophone and Michael Flury on heavily fuzzed trombone join in, while Troller and Mario Hänni on many guitars, bass, drum machines, and acoustic drums provide a joyous driving entity, not giving up until it all breaks down again. There is overkill and brute force, though never without depth and a vision of future.
In the musical scope of Halcyon Future, there is no need for an absolute definition of things. A continuously changing interpretation of repetitive and variable elements fading in and out of focus tells a story of an excited sense of acceptance. Feelings of transcendence stem from Troller’s layering of constantly shifting rhythmic structures with unforeseen improvised harmonic changes. Drum machine parts overlayed with acoustic drums shift between musical modes, anchoring the album on the verge of a jazz-influenced, motorik, post-ECM balearic plateau. Abstract textural elements gently swirl around and behind all that is rhythm, providing a submissive counterpoint. As with much of Troller’s work, Halcyon Future is an album that unfolds slowly, revealing more of its richness, detail, and subtle beauty at each listen.
Halcyon Future is a joint release by three:four records and meakusma.
credits
produced by Manuel Troller
published by three:four records and meakusma
Manuel Troller: guitars, bass, percussion & drum programming
with:
Mario Hänni: acoustic drums and percussion on Halcyon Future I & II
Hans Koch: soprano saxophone on Halcyon Future II
Michael Flury: fuzzed trombone on Halcyon Future II
Recorded during 2021 & 2022 at Suburban Sound, Winterthur by Manuel Egger, additional recordings at Feldbergstrasse in Basel & various places by Manuel Troller.
Mixed December 2022 and January 2023 at Suburban Sound, Winterthur by Manuel Egger and Manuel Troller.
DNA's additional mixing by Leo Abrahams
Mastered by Rashad Becker
Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker
Desing by Mathis Pfäffli, font: Dinamo Typefaces.
Realized with the kind support of Fuka Fonds Stadt Luzern, Fachausschuss Musik Kanton Basel-Stadt und Basel Landschaft
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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1
Sam Gendel Ugné Uma - S_M
2
Sam Gendel Ugné Uma - T_M
3
Sam Gendel Ugné Uma - N_M
4
Sam Gendel Ugné Uma - U_M
5
Sam Gendel Ugné Uma - R_M
6
Sam Gendel Ugné Uma - A_M
Between improv, pop and r&b abstractions, and contemplative balearics, Sam Gendel and Ugné Uma “Tam tikri objektai erdveje” subtly meanders through a fragile and forward cosmos both inward and out.
Sam Gendel and Ugne Uma’s Tam Tikri Objektai Erdveje album sketches a layered, melismatic and intertextual view on what both performers define as a lightness of being. Ugne Uma’s musical stance is influenced by experimental poetry and Lithuania’s 20th century underground music scene - jazz and folk, resulting from the liberation of the country’s independence movements. Sam Gendel, from Los Angeles, is a saxophonist and producer, proficient on more instruments than the saxophone alone, whose recorded work both solo and collaborative has brought him acclaim as a vital new voice in modern jazz and beyond.
Tam Tikri Objektai Erdveje is Lithuanian and translates as Some Particular Objects in Space. The six tracks on the album stand for every letter of the word Saturn. They sketch out a sound palette both fragile and full of forward momentum. With hints of improv, sampling their own recorded work and sounds of a childhood’s Yamaha Portasound PSS-290 synth into abstractions of pop and r&b, some of these tracks reach an almost balearic feel, the more contemplative end of it. With lyrics delving into cosmic phenomena, Tam Tikri Objektai Erdveje is an album about space, whether cosmic or inward or the one in between. It easily surpasses the sum of its influences and the materials and tactics used to produce it.
A1 ttoe - S_M (0’46)
A2 ttoe - T_M (3’02)
A3 ttoe - N_M (3’55)
B1 ttoe - U_M (4’00)
B2 ttoe - R_M (4’30)
B3 ttoe - A_M (2’38)
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Sam Gendel and Ugne Uma’s Tam Tikri Objektai Erdveje album sketches a layered, melismatic and intertextual view on what both performers define as a lightness of being. Ugne Uma’s musical stance is influenced by experimental poetry and Lithuania’s 20th century underground music scene - jazz and folk, resulting from the liberation of the country’s independence movements. Sam Gendel, from Los Angeles, is a saxophonist and producer, proficient on more instruments than the saxophone alone, whose recorded work both solo and collaborative has brought him acclaim as a vital new voice in modern jazz and beyond.
Tam Tikri Objektai Erdveje is Lithuanian and translates as Some Particular Objects in Space. The six tracks on the album stand for every letter of the word Saturn. They sketch out a sound palette both fragile and full of forward momentum. With hints of improv, sampling their own recorded work and sounds of a childhood’s Yamaha Portasound PSS-290 synth into abstractions of pop and r&b, some of these tracks reach an almost balearic feel, the more contemplative end of it. With lyrics delving into cosmic phenomena, Tam Tikri Objektai Erdveje is an album about space, whether cosmic or inward or the one in between. It easily surpasses the sum of its influences and the materials and tactics used to produce it.
A1 ttoe - S_M (0’46)
A2 ttoe - T_M (3’02)
A3 ttoe - N_M (3’55)
B1 ttoe - U_M (4’00)
B2 ttoe - R_M (4’30)
B3 ttoe - A_M (2’38)
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Germany
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1
Various - Kaa Ye Oyai Don T Be In A Hurry (Mark Ernestus remix)
2
Various - Rekpete (Jimi Tenor rework)
3
Various - Y Yei Baa Gbe Wo (Gavsborg remix)
4
Various - Sacha Todd S Simplex Meets Hedzoleh (Waltraud Blischke remix)
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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1
Butterfred - Cut 1
2
Butterfred - Cut 3
3
Butterfred - Cut 2
4
Butterfred - Cut 5
5
Butterfred - Cut 6
6
Butterfred - Cut 4
Butterfred has been releasing his atmospheric hiphop, grime, dub and ambient-driven hybrids on his own Butterfred Productions label since 2017. His is a committed update of a breakbeat perspective through moody and hazy ambiences that touch upon neo-noir and the logic of rhythm within. For his first outing on Meakusma, he provides six short, yet wide-ranging tracks with a lot of forward momentum. Voice samples and ambientish scapes give all tracks direction, deceptively downtempo beats are at times driving, at times phased-out into the background. There is a definite mystique to Butterfred's work as it purposely leaves threads unresolved. The focus is on space, a spatial perspective that infuses his music with concrete references to his influences, be it hiphop, dub or even triphop. His sense of space is often very private, yet makes for a kaleidoscopic view, unafraid to be extensive. Butterfred has a very subdued online presence. This EP is his first music to also be released digitally. His work speaks for itself and does so in fragmented jolts of imagination and reduction.
Design: Meeuw
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Germany
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Design: Meeuw
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1
Philipp Matalla - In Blank
2
Philipp Matalla - Same
3
Philipp Matalla - Willi
4
Philipp Matalla - Lunch
5
Philipp Matalla - Clip Bars
6
Philipp Matalla - Cream
7
Philipp Matalla - Plus
8
Philipp Matalla - Caps
9
Philipp Matalla - Clip Alt
10
Philipp Matalla - North
11
Philipp Matalla - Tarko
12
Philipp Matalla - Theme
13
Philipp Matalla - Out Alarm
Modern Power electronics...TIP!!
Philipp Matalla lives and works in the triangle of Halle, Leipzig and Berlin, in Germany. He has previously released music on labels such as Optimo Music, KANN and Kashual Plastik. His new album on Meakusma delves into some of the themes that have so far defined his work, this time increasing the tension between moments of musical harshness and flickers of introspection, ease and downright beauty. Matalla aims not for perfection, instead deploying the listener's sense of imagination. His work toys with the notion of abstraction in electronic music, often going as far cutting short melodic and other ideas, making for a confrontational stance unafraid of leaving his material in a state of difficult to define rawness, based on versatile ingredients equally rooted in rural and urban territory. Stakes is a gorgeous and gorgeously far out album, integrating elements of psychedelic rock and dub, blending in melodic ideas that are at times abstracted, at times soothing. It is pastoral music for the digital age, where raw bursts of noise and energy dislocate and set the record straight. There is even a croonerish feel to some of its tracks, croonerish from a distorted future that is. Stakes is an experience in eclecticism and musical logic. It dissolves structures and ideas and turns musically recognisable elements on their head.
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Philipp Matalla lives and works in the triangle of Halle, Leipzig and Berlin, in Germany. He has previously released music on labels such as Optimo Music, KANN and Kashual Plastik. His new album on Meakusma delves into some of the themes that have so far defined his work, this time increasing the tension between moments of musical harshness and flickers of introspection, ease and downright beauty. Matalla aims not for perfection, instead deploying the listener's sense of imagination. His work toys with the notion of abstraction in electronic music, often going as far cutting short melodic and other ideas, making for a confrontational stance unafraid of leaving his material in a state of difficult to define rawness, based on versatile ingredients equally rooted in rural and urban territory. Stakes is a gorgeous and gorgeously far out album, integrating elements of psychedelic rock and dub, blending in melodic ideas that are at times abstracted, at times soothing. It is pastoral music for the digital age, where raw bursts of noise and energy dislocate and set the record straight. There is even a croonerish feel to some of its tracks, croonerish from a distorted future that is. Stakes is an experience in eclecticism and musical logic. It dissolves structures and ideas and turns musically recognisable elements on their head.
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
EC Band - EC Band 1
2
EC Band - Wanneer De Velden Fluiten
3
EC Band - EC Band 3
4
EC Band - EC Band 4
Comes with a fold out A2 sized poster and download card.
The EC Band is a collaboration between American Brussels-based painter, former grindcore singer and musician Luke Calzonetti and Belgian visual artist, performer and percussionist Stijn Wybouw. Their first EC Band outing sees them conjure up four transcendent tracks driven by improvisation. The instruments used and the way the EC Band naturally and fluidly edit their musical output, make for flickers of musical mirages, infusing everything with a sense of space and abstraction. On the edge of what is recognisable emotion and perspective, Calzonetti and Wybouw are soft-spoken yet confrontational. Their music marries the mundane with a stance of understanding and the profound. As musical information fades in and out of focus and a sense of belonging resists clear grasp, The EC Band touches upon the ethereal, with abstract focus.
Design by Meeuw
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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The EC Band is a collaboration between American Brussels-based painter, former grindcore singer and musician Luke Calzonetti and Belgian visual artist, performer and percussionist Stijn Wybouw. Their first EC Band outing sees them conjure up four transcendent tracks driven by improvisation. The instruments used and the way the EC Band naturally and fluidly edit their musical output, make for flickers of musical mirages, infusing everything with a sense of space and abstraction. On the edge of what is recognisable emotion and perspective, Calzonetti and Wybouw are soft-spoken yet confrontational. Their music marries the mundane with a stance of understanding and the profound. As musical information fades in and out of focus and a sense of belonging resists clear grasp, The EC Band touches upon the ethereal, with abstract focus.
Design by Meeuw
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Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
1
Michiel De Malsche - Wind Waker
2
Michiel De Malsche - Mourning Silence
3
Michiel De Malsche - Beatrix S Death March
4
Michiel De Malsche - Compulsary Discomfort
5
Michiel De Malsche - Daddy's Breakfast
6
Michiel De Malsche - Mother's Downhill
7
Michiel De Malsche - Awakenings
8
Michiel De Malsche - Mating Season
9
Michiel De Malsche - Sunday Church Day
10
Michiel De Malsche - Smoking Chair
11
Michiel De Malsche - Retaliation
12
Michiel De Malsche - Physical Death
The Discomfort Of Evening is the incredible and original soundtrack by prolific Belgian composer Michiel de Malsche to 2020 International Booker Prize winner The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld. Visceral and virtuosic, Rijneveld's novel follows Jas, a girl growing up in a devout Christian family that runs a Dutch dairy farm, whose brother dies in an accident after she wishes he would die instead of her rabbit. Lost in grief, her family falls apart as she becomes consumed by increasingly dangerous fantasies.
Michiel de Malsche has captured the atmosphere and spirit of Rijneveld's book perfectly, moving through moments of confrontation and introspection, sinking into spirals of despair, stasis and subtle hope and change. Brooding ambient basslines, driven by droning murmurs, are offset with melismatic electro-acoustic pieces that embody the novel's haunting and dissonant world, whilst also incorporating manipulated field recordings such as animal sounds and a church service, allowing for a full manifestation of Jas’s world in a completely new way.
De Malsche achieves this by rallying an unusual combination of acoustic instruments (16 in total) played by top-of-their-field musicians, creating a truly unique sound world and tonal palette, including an Ondes Martenot, a 7-stringed Chinese instrument called a guqin, a marimba, a string 6-tet, a toy piano and a bass flute.
De Malsche always confronts all emotional levels of his source material head-on, making his soundtrack into much more than just a fever dream. It is a precise description of, and accompaniment to, a devastatingly impactful book.
Michiel De Malsche is a Belgian composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound designer. He studied classical composition at the conservatories of Rotterdam and Ghent. His music has been performed all over the world and he has composed and produced dozens of soundtracks for contemporary dance, theatre, movies and documentaries.
Besides his work as a contemporary classical composer, he is active as a studio musician and producer in the world of electronic music.
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
Michiel de Malsche has captured the atmosphere and spirit of Rijneveld's book perfectly, moving through moments of confrontation and introspection, sinking into spirals of despair, stasis and subtle hope and change. Brooding ambient basslines, driven by droning murmurs, are offset with melismatic electro-acoustic pieces that embody the novel's haunting and dissonant world, whilst also incorporating manipulated field recordings such as animal sounds and a church service, allowing for a full manifestation of Jas’s world in a completely new way.
De Malsche achieves this by rallying an unusual combination of acoustic instruments (16 in total) played by top-of-their-field musicians, creating a truly unique sound world and tonal palette, including an Ondes Martenot, a 7-stringed Chinese instrument called a guqin, a marimba, a string 6-tet, a toy piano and a bass flute.
De Malsche always confronts all emotional levels of his source material head-on, making his soundtrack into much more than just a fever dream. It is a precise description of, and accompaniment to, a devastatingly impactful book.
Michiel De Malsche is a Belgian composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound designer. He studied classical composition at the conservatories of Rotterdam and Ghent. His music has been performed all over the world and he has composed and produced dozens of soundtracks for contemporary dance, theatre, movies and documentaries.
Besides his work as a contemporary classical composer, he is active as a studio musician and producer in the world of electronic music.
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Liebigstrasse 2-20
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1
the Idealist - A Lion Eats Its Tail
2
the Idealist - Sliding Between Light And Shadow
3
the Idealist - Actionist Dub
4
the Idealist - The Revelation
5
the Idealist - Church Of The Deep Zone
6
the Idealist - Slow Dub
The Idealist is one of the many projects of Joachim Nordwall who has a long history in Swedish experimental music running the quintessential iDEAL Recordings record label since 1998, as a member of the psych-drone duo Alvars Orkester, avant punk rock trio Kid Commando and ritual drone rock group The Skull Defekts and through his many solo recordings and collaborations with people such as John Duncan, Aaron Dilloway, Mika Vainio, Mats Gustafsson, Leif Elggren, Gabi Losoncy, Mark Wastell and Christine Abdelour.
As The Idealist, he has been delving into an amalgam of experimental techno, dub and industrial music since 2006. His new A Lion Is A Lion And Not A Lamb continues this perspective unabatedly, conjuring up six tracks that shimmer with an almost psychotropic intensity, sometimes including acidic touches, dwelling in a confrontational minimalist musical stance where repetition, bursts of gorgeous noise and dubbed out skeletal rhythms make for wayward yet driving grooves at home on the dance floor and a set of headphones alike. The Idealist looks for engagement within rhythm, in its almost purest form.
Design by Meeuw
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As The Idealist, he has been delving into an amalgam of experimental techno, dub and industrial music since 2006. His new A Lion Is A Lion And Not A Lamb continues this perspective unabatedly, conjuring up six tracks that shimmer with an almost psychotropic intensity, sometimes including acidic touches, dwelling in a confrontational minimalist musical stance where repetition, bursts of gorgeous noise and dubbed out skeletal rhythms make for wayward yet driving grooves at home on the dance floor and a set of headphones alike. The Idealist looks for engagement within rhythm, in its almost purest form.
Design by Meeuw
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1
Lord Tang - Clip Clop
2
Lord Tang - Mountains And Streams
3
Lord Tang - Stamps
4
Lord Tang - Mountains And Streams (Zonedog Dolbytape Mix)
5
Lord Tang - Clip Clop (Weird Dust Clipped Mix)
Prolonged and Sustained sees Lord Tang, real name Dominic Cramp, descend further into his characteristic dub-fused, kaleidoscopic and surreal sound universe. Three deceptively laidback tracks and two remixes conjure up an E.P. rife with contrast and juxtaposition. Cramp is influenced by soundtracks, vintage science fiction, dirty electronics, modular electronic sound, and much more, and within these tracks, all of those influences make total sense. Gritty rhythms and patches and dislocated and almost broken-down melodies push each other in and out of focus. Effects are used to shift attention and to obliterate said effects at the same time. Lord Tang's songs appear and dissipate, they exist and within their short time span lies a conflicting, dub-driven macrocosm that touches upon the dance floor as much as on the avant-garde.
Zonedog, aka Disrupt, gives a more cinematic and at the same time tribal feel to Mountains and Streams. His remix lends the track a linearity it did not have before. It also makes the inherent beauty of the track more outspoken, adding a layer of emotion that feels balanced and daring. Weird Dust reworks Clip Clop into a slow motion, almost house track. His remix takes a subdued stance, blurring the track's original elements into a filtered-down tribute to a lounge dance floor, buzzing with pink champagne.
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Zonedog, aka Disrupt, gives a more cinematic and at the same time tribal feel to Mountains and Streams. His remix lends the track a linearity it did not have before. It also makes the inherent beauty of the track more outspoken, adding a layer of emotion that feels balanced and daring. Weird Dust reworks Clip Clop into a slow motion, almost house track. His remix takes a subdued stance, blurring the track's original elements into a filtered-down tribute to a lounge dance floor, buzzing with pink champagne.
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1
Pretty Sneaky - A1
2
Pretty Sneaky - A2
3
Pretty Sneaky - B1
4
Pretty Sneaky - B2
this is Pretty Sneaky .... BIG TIP!
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1
Don't DJ X NWAQ - The Tiger
2
Don't DJ X NWAQ - Green Wolf
3
Don't DJ X NWAQ - Central Bern
4
Don't DJ X NWAQ - No Burn
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Don't DJ X NWAQ - Vanessa
6
Don't DJ X NWAQ - Rabbits
7
Don't DJ X NWAQ - White Lies
8
Don't DJ X NWAQ - White Lies
Repress!
"A mesmerizing descent into the artistic perspectives of two singular artists active in off-kilter club music !
Some of the eight tracks on this record were recorded live at the festival while others were recorded during the residency. All dwell in distorted and eccentric bliss and play around with rhythmic arrhythmic and post-rhythmic tension. There is happiness in dystopia although the subtle yet intense layering in the music hints at undercurrents that are far from bright. The joyousness of this record lies in the notable excitement Don't DJ and NWAQ experience fusing their modi operandi coming up with a music that shines and distorts. As massive blocks of sound alternate with subtler disorienting parts repetitive vocals create an air of disparate acceptance. It uses club music's template and pushes on. With the kind support of Ostbelgien."
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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"A mesmerizing descent into the artistic perspectives of two singular artists active in off-kilter club music !
Some of the eight tracks on this record were recorded live at the festival while others were recorded during the residency. All dwell in distorted and eccentric bliss and play around with rhythmic arrhythmic and post-rhythmic tension. There is happiness in dystopia although the subtle yet intense layering in the music hints at undercurrents that are far from bright. The joyousness of this record lies in the notable excitement Don't DJ and NWAQ experience fusing their modi operandi coming up with a music that shines and distorts. As massive blocks of sound alternate with subtler disorienting parts repetitive vocals create an air of disparate acceptance. It uses club music's template and pushes on. With the kind support of Ostbelgien."
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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Continuing his inspired path into fractalised micro-dub-techno, John Howes lands his Paperclip Minimiser project amongst kindred spirits on Blank Mind. Crooked rhythms and tender machine hums hang in crisply defined virtual space — a gallery of science and soul that follows a natural lineage from the breakthrough years of the clicks n' cuts era by way of UK bass permutations.
Operating out of the UK's North West, Howes has been incubating a singular sound through his ongoing development of intuitive production and performance tools under the Cong Burn banner. The sometime record label and software stamp has a long-standing friendship with Blank Mind—the affinity is easy to hear in their shared exploration of modernist broken techno. Having just released a second album under his Paperclip Minimiser alias for similarly spirited West Coast US lodestar Peak Oil, Topology Transform extends the project's sound world with three tracks carved from the same period of studio orienteering. Free of the constraints of the LP format, these three tracks open up broader possibilities from Howes' customised systems, navigating the outer edges of the Paperclip paradox.
The A side opens on a 150BPM cascade of crunchy percussion and pin-prick ripples, driven by twitchy kinesis while maintaining a light-footed dexterity. If the first track finds its locomotion through double-time intensity, the second track celebrates the space that opens up around half-time pacing — two sides of the same tempo that radiate distinct energies. Conversely, the B side stretches out into an extended ambient repose. The consistency between this beatless excursion and the more propulsive A side speaks to the clarity of Howes' craft—a shimmering, blue-hued pool of advanced sonic treatment from a producer in command of a truly personal studio practice.
Mastered at Manmade by Marine Benabou
Design by Sam Purcell
Press release by Oli Warwick
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Operating out of the UK's North West, Howes has been incubating a singular sound through his ongoing development of intuitive production and performance tools under the Cong Burn banner. The sometime record label and software stamp has a long-standing friendship with Blank Mind—the affinity is easy to hear in their shared exploration of modernist broken techno. Having just released a second album under his Paperclip Minimiser alias for similarly spirited West Coast US lodestar Peak Oil, Topology Transform extends the project's sound world with three tracks carved from the same period of studio orienteering. Free of the constraints of the LP format, these three tracks open up broader possibilities from Howes' customised systems, navigating the outer edges of the Paperclip paradox.
The A side opens on a 150BPM cascade of crunchy percussion and pin-prick ripples, driven by twitchy kinesis while maintaining a light-footed dexterity. If the first track finds its locomotion through double-time intensity, the second track celebrates the space that opens up around half-time pacing — two sides of the same tempo that radiate distinct energies. Conversely, the B side stretches out into an extended ambient repose. The consistency between this beatless excursion and the more propulsive A side speaks to the clarity of Howes' craft—a shimmering, blue-hued pool of advanced sonic treatment from a producer in command of a truly personal studio practice.
Mastered at Manmade by Marine Benabou
Design by Sam Purcell
Press release by Oli Warwick
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
Sound Synthesis - Radical Meditation
2
Sound Synthesis - Embracing Change
3
Sound Synthesis - Psychological Force
4
Sound Synthesis - Emozzjoni
Sound Synthesis. Four tracks. Analogue systems. Acid motion over faded structures. Electro pressure. Broken sequences. Direct impact. Internal drift. Signals extend beyond function -- suspended, displaced. Rhythmic force / latent space. No narrative. No ornament. Transmission.
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
Isaac Carter - Disconnected
2
Isaac Carter - Bad Girl
3
Isaac Carter - What We Do
4
Isaac Carter - Loopy
Tipped by many as a true DJ’s DJ, London’s Isaac Carter has a sound that sits between heritage and reinterpretation. Drawing from the iconic hubs of Chicago and Detroit, his productions reframe classic influences with a contemporary UK perspective, prioritising groove, swing, and a stripped, functional edge.
At the heart of his work, Carter has developed his Ochi imprint, where his deeper material has circulated within a select circle of DJs, with love from names such as Ben UFO, Raresh, and Joy Orbison. A controlled outlet for ideas shaped specifically for club use, that approach also carries over into his sets, playing at the likes of DC10, Glastonbury, and Love International.
Fresh from his appearance for the London favourites at FUSE’s annual Open Air showcase, Enzo Siragusa now welcomes him to the label for the first time as he brings a collection of cuts that journey into varying corners of the house sphere.
The ‘Disconnected’ EP brings five tracks built around direct function and contrast. ‘Disconnected’ opens with rolling low-end pressure and slinking drums, loaded with swing, setting a clear rhythmic foundation for the project. ‘Bad Girl’ shifts into a more playful space, led by vocal fragments, hazy chords and dubby tones. On the B-side, ‘What We Do’ leans into crisp repetition sitting beneath shifting, trippy movement, followed by ‘Loopy’, which strips things back into a reduced late-night percussive trip.
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
At the heart of his work, Carter has developed his Ochi imprint, where his deeper material has circulated within a select circle of DJs, with love from names such as Ben UFO, Raresh, and Joy Orbison. A controlled outlet for ideas shaped specifically for club use, that approach also carries over into his sets, playing at the likes of DC10, Glastonbury, and Love International.
Fresh from his appearance for the London favourites at FUSE’s annual Open Air showcase, Enzo Siragusa now welcomes him to the label for the first time as he brings a collection of cuts that journey into varying corners of the house sphere.
The ‘Disconnected’ EP brings five tracks built around direct function and contrast. ‘Disconnected’ opens with rolling low-end pressure and slinking drums, loaded with swing, setting a clear rhythmic foundation for the project. ‘Bad Girl’ shifts into a more playful space, led by vocal fragments, hazy chords and dubby tones. On the B-side, ‘What We Do’ leans into crisp repetition sitting beneath shifting, trippy movement, followed by ‘Loopy’, which strips things back into a reduced late-night percussive trip.
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
Shannen SP x HENNYBELIT - Mzansi Bass
2
DJ Lag - NOPS
3
State OFFF - Alarma
4
LYZZA x Boniface - Favelas
5
Jay Music - Midnight Session
6
Deep Narratives - Ghetto Gong
7
Audio Addicts - Stjwetla Revisit
This one means a lot to us. A project we’ve been working on for a couple of years. One where we hand over the curatorial keys of the label to very specific artists in whom we have absolute trust and who have an almost academic knowledge of a specific rhythm or a specific region where our eyes and sensitivity cannot reach. In order to amplify powerful voices from the global south, where the true underground is happening today, and that move away from the traditional axis of New York, London, Berlin. We present to you: Mzansi Bass curated by Shannen SP.
A project meant to explore the space between 3-step, Gqom, the dark sides of Amapiano, and mutations of Pritori rap deeply rooted in Black African rave music from the local scenes of Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Eastern Cape, and their global mutations from Brazil and the Netherlands. The project is anchored around the legacy act of DJ Lag and new comers of South African bass whose music has broken international barriers with pure-emotionally-rich dance music. The release works as both a celebration of the roots and the future offering it projects. As Shannen puts it, it's electronic music with a futuristic feel, both raw but minimal, trance-inducing and deeply physical, built in a very particular geographic space for the whole world to enjoy.
Indulge into this special soundscapes crafted by their own inhabitants. Expect a couple each year from now on.
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
A project meant to explore the space between 3-step, Gqom, the dark sides of Amapiano, and mutations of Pritori rap deeply rooted in Black African rave music from the local scenes of Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Eastern Cape, and their global mutations from Brazil and the Netherlands. The project is anchored around the legacy act of DJ Lag and new comers of South African bass whose music has broken international barriers with pure-emotionally-rich dance music. The release works as both a celebration of the roots and the future offering it projects. As Shannen puts it, it's electronic music with a futuristic feel, both raw but minimal, trance-inducing and deeply physical, built in a very particular geographic space for the whole world to enjoy.
Indulge into this special soundscapes crafted by their own inhabitants. Expect a couple each year from now on.
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
Alden Tyrell & Detroit In Effect - Let Me C U Electro Vocal
2
Alden Tyrell & Detroit In Effect - Let Me C U Electro Vocoder
3
Alden Tyrell & Detroit In Effect - Mission Complete
4
Alden Tyrell & Detroit In Effect - Let Me C U Techno Vocal
5
Alden Tyrell & Detroit In Effect - Let Me C U Techno Instrumental
Repress!
Detroit meets the West Coast! DJ Maaco (Detroit in Effect) and Alden Tyrell commanding you to get on the dance floor. Resistance is futile against the Grays..
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
Detroit meets the West Coast! DJ Maaco (Detroit in Effect) and Alden Tyrell commanding you to get on the dance floor. Resistance is futile against the Grays..
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
Label:NOTON
Cat-No:N-068-2
Release-Date:18.09.2026
Genre:Electronic, Electronica
Configuration:2LP Excl
Label:NOTON
Cat-No:N-068-2
Release-Date:18.09.2026
Genre:Electronic, Electronica
Configuration:2LP Excl
1
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - A_01_12_conversation_01
2
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - A_02_12_conversation_02
3
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - A_03_12_conversation_03
4
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - B_04_12_conversation_04
5
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - B_05_12_conversation_05
6
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - C_06_12_conversation_06
7
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - C_07_12_conversation_07
8
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - C_08_12_conversation_08
9
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_09_12_conversation_09_part1
10
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_10_12_conversation_09_part2
11
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_11_12_conversation_09_part3
12
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_12_12_conversation_09_part4
13
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_13_12_conversation_09_part5
14
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_14_12_conversation_10
15
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_15_12_conversation_11
16
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - D_16_12_conversation_12
2LP | 2 × 12 Inch ‘Black’ Vinyl, 33.3 rpm, Tip-on Cover, Special Varnish
Available in the following Territories: Wordwide minus Japan & Korea
NOTON is pleased to announce12 Conversations, a collaborative album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto to be released on 18 September 2026.
The partnership between the legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and the German artist Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) has produced some of the most distinctive and enduring works in contemporary electroacoustic music. Beginning with Vrioon in 2002, the artists spent more than two decades fusing and expanding their disciplines, with Sakamoto's evocative, sustain-drenched piano compositions finding their counterpart in Nicolai's skilful and sensitive electronic detailing.
Each successive project further deepened their artistic dialogue: from the five studio albums of the V.I.R.U.S. series (Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_ with Ensemble Modern, and Summvs), to their score for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant; Glass (2017), a wholly improvised performance inside Philip Johnson's iconic Connecticut landmark, in which the pair fixed contact microphones to the glass walls, playing the architecture itself as an instrument; and Two (2019), a document of their live performance at the Sydney Opera House.
Across these works, their distinct approaches achieved a rare synthesis, a brilliantly sustained dialogue between piano and electronics, Sakamoto's warmth and melodic finesse meeting Nicolai's abstract electronic formalism to invoke a mesmeric quietude as deeply satisfying in its melodic resolutions as in the merger of its filmic romanticism and meditative subtlety.
12 Conversations brings together musical exchanges recorded in November and December 2022. Rooted in the same creative period that gave rise to Sakamoto's final solo album 12, these recordings were not originally intended as a standalone release. It was only after the completion of 12 that Sakamoto and Nicolai decided to present these exchanges as a work in their own right.
The album reflects the vitality and curiosity that defined more than two decades of shared inspiration: fluid, exploratory, and forward-looking. Created with openness and trust, it captures a creative process in constant transformation - sounds expanding, altering, and evolving through attentive listening.
Conceived as the continuation of an artistic dialogue extending beyond the physical, 12 Conversations honours Sakamoto's wish that these encounters should exist beyond the archive, offering an enduring testament to one of contemporary music's most revered collaborations.
Carsten Nicolai writes:
"A heavy breath can be heard in the recordings. Yet this work is not about remembrance but continuation, vitality, curiosity, and the spirit of experimentation that shaped an artistic relationship over decades.
The twelve pieces we exchanged in November and December 2022 possess extraordinary density: sounds expanded, altered, recontextualized. Initially, every intervention felt almost inappropriate. Yet this was part of our openness and trust: adding, shifting and radically yet softly transforming.
Even in these final exchanges, plans for future projects continued to take shape, mindful of finite yet firmly believing in the power of new ideas. We chose the name Conversations, which has become a space of memory and vision, where past, present and future intertwine.
For a long time, releasing this music seemed impossible. The loss felt too sudden, and the emotional connection too profound. As time passed, it became clear that these twelve musical encounters should have life outside the archive. To honor Ryuichi's wish, these pieces are now being released as the continuation of a dialogue that extends beyond the physical."
The first single, Conversation 3, will be released on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. The second single, Conversation 6, will be be released on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.
12 Conversations will be available worldwide on vinyl, CD and digitally. A Japanese edition will be available on Ryuichi Sakamoto's commons.
Tracklist
1. Conversation 1
2. Conversation 2
3. Conversation 3
4. Conversation 4
5.Conversation 5
6. Conversation 6
7. Conversation 7
8. Conversation 8
9. Conversation 9 Part I
10. Conversation 9 Part II
11. Conversation 9 Part III
12. Conversation 9 Part IV
13. Conversation 9 Part V
14. Conversation 10
15. Conversation 11
16. Conversation 12
Album art designed by Carsten Nicolai & Nibo.
Mastered by: Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering, Berlin (2026)
Voice on Track 07: Emma Maeda
Texts: Rainer Maria Rilke, Primal Sound
Press release text: Maria Orciuoli
Special thanks: Norika Sora, Alec Fellman, Sherry Kennedy, Erin Gleeson
© & P: 2026 NOTON. Archiv für Ton und Nichtton. All rights reserved.
Tracklisting
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 1
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 1
Playtime: 00:06:50
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600003
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 2
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 2
Playtime: 00:05:42
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600004
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 3
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 3
Playtime: 00:05:53
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600005
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 4
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 4
Playtime: 00:08:56
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600006
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 5
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 5
Playtime: 00:06:26
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600007
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 6
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 6
Playtime: 00:07:26
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600008
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 7
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 7
Playtime: 00:10:31
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600009
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 8
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 8
Playtime: 00:03:20
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600010
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 9
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part I
Playtime: 00:01:12
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600011
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 10
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part II
Playtime: 00:03:27
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600012
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 11
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part III
Playtime: 00:00:51
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600013
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 12
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part IV
Playtime: 00:02:15
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600014
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 13
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part V
Playtime: 00:00:39
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600015
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 14
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 10
Playtime: 00:03:01
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600016
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 15
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 11
Playtime: 00:04:35
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600017
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 16
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 12
Playtime: 00:02:41
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600018
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
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
Available in the following Territories: Wordwide minus Japan & Korea
NOTON is pleased to announce12 Conversations, a collaborative album by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto to be released on 18 September 2026.
The partnership between the legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and the German artist Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) has produced some of the most distinctive and enduring works in contemporary electroacoustic music. Beginning with Vrioon in 2002, the artists spent more than two decades fusing and expanding their disciplines, with Sakamoto's evocative, sustain-drenched piano compositions finding their counterpart in Nicolai's skilful and sensitive electronic detailing.
Each successive project further deepened their artistic dialogue: from the five studio albums of the V.I.R.U.S. series (Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_ with Ensemble Modern, and Summvs), to their score for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant; Glass (2017), a wholly improvised performance inside Philip Johnson's iconic Connecticut landmark, in which the pair fixed contact microphones to the glass walls, playing the architecture itself as an instrument; and Two (2019), a document of their live performance at the Sydney Opera House.
Across these works, their distinct approaches achieved a rare synthesis, a brilliantly sustained dialogue between piano and electronics, Sakamoto's warmth and melodic finesse meeting Nicolai's abstract electronic formalism to invoke a mesmeric quietude as deeply satisfying in its melodic resolutions as in the merger of its filmic romanticism and meditative subtlety.
12 Conversations brings together musical exchanges recorded in November and December 2022. Rooted in the same creative period that gave rise to Sakamoto's final solo album 12, these recordings were not originally intended as a standalone release. It was only after the completion of 12 that Sakamoto and Nicolai decided to present these exchanges as a work in their own right.
The album reflects the vitality and curiosity that defined more than two decades of shared inspiration: fluid, exploratory, and forward-looking. Created with openness and trust, it captures a creative process in constant transformation - sounds expanding, altering, and evolving through attentive listening.
Conceived as the continuation of an artistic dialogue extending beyond the physical, 12 Conversations honours Sakamoto's wish that these encounters should exist beyond the archive, offering an enduring testament to one of contemporary music's most revered collaborations.
Carsten Nicolai writes:
"A heavy breath can be heard in the recordings. Yet this work is not about remembrance but continuation, vitality, curiosity, and the spirit of experimentation that shaped an artistic relationship over decades.
The twelve pieces we exchanged in November and December 2022 possess extraordinary density: sounds expanded, altered, recontextualized. Initially, every intervention felt almost inappropriate. Yet this was part of our openness and trust: adding, shifting and radically yet softly transforming.
Even in these final exchanges, plans for future projects continued to take shape, mindful of finite yet firmly believing in the power of new ideas. We chose the name Conversations, which has become a space of memory and vision, where past, present and future intertwine.
For a long time, releasing this music seemed impossible. The loss felt too sudden, and the emotional connection too profound. As time passed, it became clear that these twelve musical encounters should have life outside the archive. To honor Ryuichi's wish, these pieces are now being released as the continuation of a dialogue that extends beyond the physical."
The first single, Conversation 3, will be released on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. The second single, Conversation 6, will be be released on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.
12 Conversations will be available worldwide on vinyl, CD and digitally. A Japanese edition will be available on Ryuichi Sakamoto's commons.
Tracklist
1. Conversation 1
2. Conversation 2
3. Conversation 3
4. Conversation 4
5.Conversation 5
6. Conversation 6
7. Conversation 7
8. Conversation 8
9. Conversation 9 Part I
10. Conversation 9 Part II
11. Conversation 9 Part III
12. Conversation 9 Part IV
13. Conversation 9 Part V
14. Conversation 10
15. Conversation 11
16. Conversation 12
Album art designed by Carsten Nicolai & Nibo.
Mastered by: Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering, Berlin (2026)
Voice on Track 07: Emma Maeda
Texts: Rainer Maria Rilke, Primal Sound
Press release text: Maria Orciuoli
Special thanks: Norika Sora, Alec Fellman, Sherry Kennedy, Erin Gleeson
© & P: 2026 NOTON. Archiv für Ton und Nichtton. All rights reserved.
Tracklisting
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 1
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 1
Playtime: 00:06:50
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600003
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 2
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 2
Playtime: 00:05:42
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600004
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 3
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 3
Playtime: 00:05:53
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600005
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 4
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 4
Playtime: 00:08:56
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600006
(P):
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 5
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 5
Playtime: 00:06:26
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600007
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 6
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 6
Playtime: 00:07:26
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600008
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 7
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 7
Playtime: 00:10:31
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600009
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 8
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 8
Playtime: 00:03:20
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600010
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 9
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part I
Playtime: 00:01:12
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600011
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 10
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part II
Playtime: 00:03:27
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600012
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 11
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part III
Playtime: 00:00:51
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600013
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 12
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part IV
Playtime: 00:02:15
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600014
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 13
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 9 Part V
Playtime: 00:00:39
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600015
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 14
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 10
Playtime: 00:03:01
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600016
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 15
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 11
Playtime: 00:04:35
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600017
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
Medium: // Side: // Track: 16
Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto
Title: Conversation 12
Playtime: 00:02:41
Explicit Lyrics: No
ISRC: DE1N62600018
(P):
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
---------------------------------------------------------
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
K' Alexi Shelby - House Music de Chicago
2
Voltaire - Some House
3
Finder - Team Dream
4
The Lost Souldancer - Magnolia
5
Squal G - Crackle
6
Electric Rescue - Internet Was an Illusion
The next vinyl release on Laurent Garnier's COD3 QR is accompanied by a digital release dropping concurrently, with each format featuring a different track by K' Alexi Shelby, Voltaire, Finder, The Lost Souldancer, Squal G and Electric Rescue – it's double trouble or nothing!
K' Alexi Shelby is a prominent figure in electronic music with a career spanning decades. The cultivation of his massive music catalogue has overflowed into albums and the three labels he heads. It's also led to legendary collaborations with artists like The Pet Shop Boys, Robert Owens, Kenny Dixon, Roy Davis Jr., Joe Smooth, Steve Silke Hurley, Tyree Cooper, Ron Trent, Glenn Underground, Larry Heard, DJ Pierre, Carl Craig, Felix da Housecat, Marshall Jefferson and more. He makes a welcome return to COD3 QR with the jazzy house of opening track, "House Music de Chicago".
Voltaire has built his career through passion and a perfectionist approach to music, creating a richly emotional eclecticism, with inspiration from the pioneers of Detroit to the glorious electro decades of the 2000s and 2010s. Today he's a COD3 QR regular and released his debut album, "Echoes" on the label last year. He leans into the realms of house with a deep techy edge, for new track "Some House".
Finder is the alias of Radial (Jeroen Liebregts), originally from The Netherlands but today residing in Spain. He started mixing records around '98 and in 2002 teamed up with Bas Mooy to started the now legendary label, Audio Assault. He's also released on Token, Perc Trax, Mote-Evolver, Numb, Drumcode, Planet Rhythm, Mord, Will & Ink and MDR, alongside his label, Radial Records. As Finder he goes in a new direction with "Team Dream".
Benny Rodrigues a.k.a. ROD's other moniker, The Lost Souldancer has already seen him drop "No More Voices" and "Life and Death" for the label. In his own words, Benny says: "The Lost Souldancer is about coping with the loss of what once was. Finding comfort in the invisible rather than what can be seen. Disconnect to connect in order to be loved rather than liked." He returns with another emotional journey on "Magnolia".
Producer and manager of Slates Records, Squal G is a French artist who has been passionate about electronic music since the '90s. Initially a DJ, he soon turned to machines and computers. This enabled him to progress with his production and remixes. He never tries to stick to a single style, which, depending on his inspiration, can lead him to be more or less hard, while remaining in the spirit of techno. A popular COD3 QR regular, he's back with the intense techno of "Crackle".
French producer, DJ and live artist, Electric Rescue is world renowned. His productions have been signed on labels like Cocoon, Virgo, Arts, F Communications, COD3 QR, Soma, Sci + Tec, Boys Noize and his own Skrypto¨m. Ahead of his forthcoming artist album (to be released on COD3 QR in October) he closes the vinyl with the electro-tech and wonderfully wonky machine funk of "Internet Was an Illusion".
Tracklist
A1. K' Alexi Shelby – "House Music de Chicago"
A2. Voltaire – "Some House"
A3. Finder – "Team Dream"
B1. The Lost Souldancer – "Magnolia"
B2. Squal G – "Crackle"
B3. Electric Rescue – "Internet Was an Illusion"
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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More
K' Alexi Shelby is a prominent figure in electronic music with a career spanning decades. The cultivation of his massive music catalogue has overflowed into albums and the three labels he heads. It's also led to legendary collaborations with artists like The Pet Shop Boys, Robert Owens, Kenny Dixon, Roy Davis Jr., Joe Smooth, Steve Silke Hurley, Tyree Cooper, Ron Trent, Glenn Underground, Larry Heard, DJ Pierre, Carl Craig, Felix da Housecat, Marshall Jefferson and more. He makes a welcome return to COD3 QR with the jazzy house of opening track, "House Music de Chicago".
Voltaire has built his career through passion and a perfectionist approach to music, creating a richly emotional eclecticism, with inspiration from the pioneers of Detroit to the glorious electro decades of the 2000s and 2010s. Today he's a COD3 QR regular and released his debut album, "Echoes" on the label last year. He leans into the realms of house with a deep techy edge, for new track "Some House".
Finder is the alias of Radial (Jeroen Liebregts), originally from The Netherlands but today residing in Spain. He started mixing records around '98 and in 2002 teamed up with Bas Mooy to started the now legendary label, Audio Assault. He's also released on Token, Perc Trax, Mote-Evolver, Numb, Drumcode, Planet Rhythm, Mord, Will & Ink and MDR, alongside his label, Radial Records. As Finder he goes in a new direction with "Team Dream".
Benny Rodrigues a.k.a. ROD's other moniker, The Lost Souldancer has already seen him drop "No More Voices" and "Life and Death" for the label. In his own words, Benny says: "The Lost Souldancer is about coping with the loss of what once was. Finding comfort in the invisible rather than what can be seen. Disconnect to connect in order to be loved rather than liked." He returns with another emotional journey on "Magnolia".
Producer and manager of Slates Records, Squal G is a French artist who has been passionate about electronic music since the '90s. Initially a DJ, he soon turned to machines and computers. This enabled him to progress with his production and remixes. He never tries to stick to a single style, which, depending on his inspiration, can lead him to be more or less hard, while remaining in the spirit of techno. A popular COD3 QR regular, he's back with the intense techno of "Crackle".
French producer, DJ and live artist, Electric Rescue is world renowned. His productions have been signed on labels like Cocoon, Virgo, Arts, F Communications, COD3 QR, Soma, Sci + Tec, Boys Noize and his own Skrypto¨m. Ahead of his forthcoming artist album (to be released on COD3 QR in October) he closes the vinyl with the electro-tech and wonderfully wonky machine funk of "Internet Was an Illusion".
Tracklist
A1. K' Alexi Shelby – "House Music de Chicago"
A2. Voltaire – "Some House"
A3. Finder – "Team Dream"
B1. The Lost Souldancer – "Magnolia"
B2. Squal G – "Crackle"
B3. Electric Rescue – "Internet Was an 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
Aphex Twin - Polynomial-C
2
Aphex Twin - Tamphex (Headphuq Mix)
3
Aphex Twin - Phlange Phace
4
Aphex Twin - Dodeccaheedron
Aphex Twin’s ‘Xylem Tube’ EP arrived in the summer of 1992 on R&S Records, coming hot off the heels of his landmark ‘Digeridoo’ release, and an audacious follow up from the then 21-year-old Richard D. James. Out of print for nearly two decades, this long-awaited vinyl reissue restores one of the pivotal early works in his catalogue.
Where ‘Digeridoo’ pushed the endurance of the rave floor to its limits, the ‘Xylem Tube’ EP stretched the Aphex Twin sound into new dimensions with ‘Polynomial-C’ becoming an enduring classic with its spiralling arpeggios, shattering breakbeats and alien melodics. Tracks like ‘Phlange Phace’ and ‘Tamphex (Hedphuq Mix)’ pushed distortion, humour and rhythm into uncharted territory, while ‘Dodeccaheedron’ acts as a bold signifier of James’ radical ideas of how dance music can sound, with its ominous and brooding synth work over a cacophony of eerie, broken beats.
Three decades later, the EP stands not only as a key chapter in the Aphex canon, but also as a statement of intent from an artist set on reshaping electronic music’s DNA. Now faithfully reissued on vinyl for the first time since a 2006 pressing, this edition returns one of the most in-demand Aphex R&S titles to circulation after nearly twenty years out of print.
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
Where ‘Digeridoo’ pushed the endurance of the rave floor to its limits, the ‘Xylem Tube’ EP stretched the Aphex Twin sound into new dimensions with ‘Polynomial-C’ becoming an enduring classic with its spiralling arpeggios, shattering breakbeats and alien melodics. Tracks like ‘Phlange Phace’ and ‘Tamphex (Hedphuq Mix)’ pushed distortion, humour and rhythm into uncharted territory, while ‘Dodeccaheedron’ acts as a bold signifier of James’ radical ideas of how dance music can sound, with its ominous and brooding synth work over a cacophony of eerie, broken beats.
Three decades later, the EP stands not only as a key chapter in the Aphex canon, but also as a statement of intent from an artist set on reshaping electronic music’s DNA. Now faithfully reissued on vinyl for the first time since a 2006 pressing, this edition returns one of the most in-demand Aphex R&S titles to circulation after nearly twenty years out of print.
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
Evelyne / Masao - Ich Weiß Nicht Mehr
2
Evelyne / Masao - Watashino Shonen
3
Evelyne / Masao - Paradis Perdu
4
Evelyne / Masao - Sakuramochi
5
Evelyne / Masao - Le Soleil Se Leve
6
Evelyne / Masao - La Jungle En Folie
7
Evelyne / Masao - Au Clair De La Lune
8
Evelyne / Masao - Singin In The Rain
9
Evelyne / Masao - Bird Island
10
Evelyne / Masao - Alien Go Home
11
Evelyne / Masao - Tu Te Fous De Moi
12
Evelyne / Masao - Time Out
13
Evelyne / Masao - Drole Doiseau
14
Evelyne / Masao - Time To Party
15
Evelyne / Masao - Tabac
16
Evelyne / Masao - Tale Of A Lizard
17
Evelyne / Masao - Moonman
Evelyne/Masao bring TESTPATTERN to Dark Entries for the label’s first foray into vintage Japanese electronics. Masao Hiruma and Fumio Ichimura’s project Testpattern is known for their release Apres-Midi, a cult slab of synthpop perfection released by Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono’s legendary Yen Records in 1982. While Hiruma and Ichimura parted ways following Apres-Midi, Hiruma’s musical endeavors would continue after meeting French/American model and vocalist Evelyne Bennu in 1984 at a café bar where she would sit and write poetry. Their collaborative efforts as Evelyne/Masao were fruitful, and the duo first performed together in June 1984 on a television program called TOKYO ROCK TV. The album TESTPATTERN comprises seventeen songs recorded in Hiruma’s home studio, which have never been released previously. The Evelyne/Masao duo continues building on the soundworld of Apres-Midi: lush, sophisticated electronics with intricate yet minimalist production. Tracks like “Sakuramochi” and “Bird Island” bear influence from Hosono most clearly, their soaring melodies revealing a subtly ironic redeployment of East Asian musical tropes. But TESTPATTERN is more than homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra. “Tabac” and “Le Soleil Se Leve” display oddball sensibilities closer to Sky Records icons Asmus Tietchens or Cluster. Elsewhere, the project shows affinity for the punkier ethos of continental DIY electronics, like on the quirky “Alien Go Home” and a positively skewed cover of “Singin’ in the Rain.” Bennu’s vocals provide a common thread through these explorations, as she alternates deftly between New Wave deadpan and unhinged chanson singer—check her waxing maximally Francophone on “Au Clair de Lune,” based on an 18th century French song. TESTPATTERN will be available on both double LP as well as CD, and includes a fold-out poster with liner notes with lyrics. This album is dedicated to Masao Hiruma, who passed away in 2011.
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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
1
µ-Ziq - Majadahonda at Dawn
2
µ-Ziq - Clari 1
3
µ-Ziq - Billowy
4
µ-Ziq - Galletas
5
µ-Ziq - Floatation
6
µ-Ziq - Pulsar
7
µ-Ziq - Radox
8
µ-Ziq - Houzz 14
9
µ-Ziq - Tente
10
µ-Ziq - Holmbush
11
µ-Ziq - The Next Room
12
µ-Ziq - Clari 2
13
µ-Ziq - Majadahonda at Dusk
14
µ-Ziq - Yemas
15
µ-Ziq - Escorial
Two years after he first appeared on Balmat with 1977, Mike Paradinas returns with 1979. The sense of continuity between the two records is clear, and not just from their titles. Both capture the Planet Mu head venturing into the wilderness, seeking something—half-formed memories, thoughts caught in midair—in some of the most abstract, searching music he has released.
Just like 1977, 1979 surveys a synth-heavy array of ethereal soundscapes, ominous crevasses, and strange, psychedelic fugues. Like its predecessor, the new album’s atmospheric cast sets it apart from much of the work Paradinas has released as µ-Ziq on Planet Mu. It’s not strictly an ambient record, but it’s close, as close as this famously mutable artist ever comes to inhabiting a particular genre.
Paradinas’ inspiration for the record began on visits to the Spanish cities of Ávila and Majadahona, where his family hails from. That might account for the sense that there are spirits flitting through this music, presences you can intuit if not quite grasp. But 1979 is also a record to meet on your own terms, and to find your own meanings in.
It’s a stunning record, every track a world unto itself: the mysterious contours of “Majadahonda at Dawn”; the playful melodic fillips of “Clari”; the airy melancholy of “Galletas”; the full-scale breakbeat abandon (yes, you read that right) of “Houzz 14,” the rarest of dancefloor detours for Balmat. There are echoes of classic braindance and isolationist ambient and golden-age IDM; there are easter eggs and recurring themes and hidden symmetries. Every time we listen, we discover something new. Despite what the title might suggest, it’s less a trip back in time than a portal to another universe, a destination for(to?) which only Mike Paradinas knows the exact coordinates. – Philip Sherburne, Balmat
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
Just like 1977, 1979 surveys a synth-heavy array of ethereal soundscapes, ominous crevasses, and strange, psychedelic fugues. Like its predecessor, the new album’s atmospheric cast sets it apart from much of the work Paradinas has released as µ-Ziq on Planet Mu. It’s not strictly an ambient record, but it’s close, as close as this famously mutable artist ever comes to inhabiting a particular genre.
Paradinas’ inspiration for the record began on visits to the Spanish cities of Ávila and Majadahona, where his family hails from. That might account for the sense that there are spirits flitting through this music, presences you can intuit if not quite grasp. But 1979 is also a record to meet on your own terms, and to find your own meanings in.
It’s a stunning record, every track a world unto itself: the mysterious contours of “Majadahonda at Dawn”; the playful melodic fillips of “Clari”; the airy melancholy of “Galletas”; the full-scale breakbeat abandon (yes, you read that right) of “Houzz 14,” the rarest of dancefloor detours for Balmat. There are echoes of classic braindance and isolationist ambient and golden-age IDM; there are easter eggs and recurring themes and hidden symmetries. Every time we listen, we discover something new. Despite what the title might suggest, it’s less a trip back in time than a portal to another universe, a destination for(to?) which only Mike Paradinas knows the exact coordinates. – Philip Sherburne, Balmat
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
B.B.E - Seven Days And One Week
2
B.B.E - Hypnose
purple translucent vinyl.
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
Robot 84 - ‘Pleasuredome’ Ron’s Tribute Mix
2
Robot 84 - Fight the Power (Robot84 Jazztastic Edit)
3
Robot 84 - Brotha (Robot84 Edit)
4
Robot 84 - Robot84 vs King Supreme (Back to the Disco Edit)
This 4-track EP showcases Robot84’s eclectic and diverse taste in editing, as well as his unique skill in finding those somewhat forgotten underground nuggets and expertly reimagining them. From the classic ’80s sound of FGTH to jazz-infused reworks of Public Enemy and Angie Stone, and the disco fuel of The Supremes, Robot Edits Vol. 1 sets the tone for a series made with serious selectors in mind.
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