New Promotions And Tours. Click For Infos.
ANDREW LILES – In My Father’s House are Many Mansions CD Fourth Dimension
FRIEDL/VORFELD – Pech CD room40
GRABOWSKI/BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC/ECK RIPPIE + RAPOSO – Product CD Crónica
JOHN HEGRE & MAJA RATKJE – Ballads CD Dekorder
KYLER – Pur Cosy Tales CD Planet Mu
RF – Views of Distant Towns CD PLOP
RONNIE SUNDIN – The Amateur Hermetic CD Komplott
THE GASMAN – This One’s For You CD Planet Mu
THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE – s/t CD Planet Mu
UNIFORM – Protocol CD Planet Mu
V.A. – FRANKFURTER AHNUNG CD/Book Sonic Arts Network
V.A. – INCIDENTAL AMPLIFICATIONS CD room40
VIRUS SYNDICATE – The Work Related Illness 3LP/CD Planet Mu
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ANDREW LILES – In My Father’s House are Many Mansions
CD Fourth Dimension FDCD68
http://www.adverse-effect.com
Andrew Liles: Prolific Brighton based soundsculptor has, during recent years,
gained a considerable amount of attention not only for his increasingly
finely-honed craft but also due to his (in some cases, still pending)
collaborations with Nurse With Wound, Darren Tate, Karl Blake, Current 93’s
David Late Tibet, Danielle Dax and others. As such, the logic behind this
release seems to progress naturally from a clear willingness to explore or
exchange ideas with other artists equally inclined to cut their own paths
through music’s more interesting corners. If worlds can sometimes collide where
art attempts to assume new sonic shapes, then those featured here are amongst
the few who inhabit them…
Andrew Liles remixed/re-organised by NURSE WITH WOUND / COLIN POTTER / PAUL
BRADLEY / AARON MOORE (VOLCANO THE BEAR) / JONATHAN COLECLOUGH / RUSE / BAND OF
PAIN / BASS COMMUNION / AUTO MANIPULATOR / IRR. APP (EXT) / DARREN TATE / THE
HAFLER TRIO / UNSONG / VIDNA OBMANA / FREIBAND
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FRIEDL / VORFELD – Pech
CD room40 RM414
http://www.room40.org
Pech is the latest duo recording from inside pianist REINHOLD FRIEDL and
avant-percussionist MICHAEL VORFELD. Over the past five years, this pair of
German musicians have created some of the most engaging and imaginative
electro-acoustic music, exploring the potentials of subtle performance
techniques and refined compositional approaches.
On Pech: the duo seek to uncover the hidden and masked character of their
instruments – the piano is altered via various preparations andunconventional
ways of bringing the strings to vibration, whilst the percussiontransgresses
beyond the rhythmic into a humming textural mass. The result of these two
musical workstations meeting is simply breathtaking and reveals arange of
provocative and commanding qualities from these traditional instrumental
set-ups.
As pianist and composer, Friedl has released countless group and solo
recordings. He heads up the new music ensemble zeitkratzer and he hasworked with
musicians and composers such as Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Helmut Oehring,
Nicolas Collins, Lou Reed, Merzbow a.k.a. Masami Akita, Radu Malfatti, Bernhard
Guenter, Mario Bertoncini (nuova consonanza) and many other.
Michael Vorfeld plays percussion and self designed stringed instruments and
works in the field of experimental music, improvised music and sound art. Much
of his work is concerned with the realisation of electro-acoustic soundpieces.
Beside solo activities he is a member of various ensembles andcollaborates with
artists from different art forms.
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JOHN HEGRE & MAJA RATKJE – Ballads
CD Dekorder 015
http://www.dekorder.com
“Ballads” ist the first collaborative album by two key figures of the Norwegian
noise, improv, experimental, whatever-you-call-it music scene. Anyone expecting
a rackety wall of distorted feedback guitars and voices will be gently surprised
though by the sparse and intimate sketches to be found on this wonderful record.
Songs are stripped down to their raw bones using only the most essential
elements to reveal the soul behind every single sound. Superfluous effects seem
to be completely absent, creating an open space for miniscule details, always
ready to implode into noisier tracks such as “Private Matter”. The album
culminates in “Hammock Moods”, a quietly mesmerizing epic finale with Maja
Ratkje humming a beautiful melody over Hegre’s gorgeous near-psychedelic guitar
playing. Let’s all hope for a sequel to this album!
Maja Ratkje is a member of Spunk (Rune Grammofon) and noise duo Fe-Mail. Her
solo album “Voice” (produced in collaboration with Jazzkammer) got an Award of
Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica in 2003. In 2001 she was the first composer
ever to receive the Arne Nordheim distinction award. She has collaborated with
Jaap Blonk, Ikue Mori, Otomo Yoshihide, Wolf Eyes, Matmos, Lasse Marhaug, Jason
Forrest, Kim Hiortoy, Ulver and many others.
John Hegre is a member of Jazzkammer / Jazkamer (Smalltown Supersound), Kaptein
Kaliber, Golden Serenades, New Boiling Near The Fjords (with members of Alog)
and others. His first solo 3″CD came out on Dekorder in 2003. Jazkamer will
release their aptly titled new album “Metal Music Machine” in spring 2006 and
Hegre is working on an as yet untitled solo album for Dekorder.
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KYLER – Pur Cosy Tales
CD Planet Mu ZIQ126
http://www.planet-mu.com
Kyler is an alias of HENRY COLLINS aka SHITMAT. As Kyler he creates moods and
atmospheres using samples and found sounds to evoke feelings of childhood,
warmth, wonder and memory. A concept album about the Norfolk village that Henry
grew up in.
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PAWEL GRABOWSKI / THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC / JAMES ECK RIPPIE + PAULO RAPOSO –
Product
CD Crónica 023
http://www.cronicaelectronica.org
Elegantly packed with Casey B. Reas’ superb artwork arrives the sixth
installment in the Crónica’s Product series. This split opens with a long
haunting piece from Pawel Grabowski, it settles with some ghostlike pieces with
even a medieval feeling from The Beautiful Schizophonic and reaches its closure
with Natureza Morta, a stunning piece teaming up Paulo Raposo and James Eck
Rippie.
PAWEL GRABOWSKI was born in Poland in 1977 and lives in Ireland. Composer, he
runs the netlabel “Silence Is Not Empty”. “…to me my songs are like poems on
the gravestones, broken and torn by the slimy stones of memories. A scoffery
cold wind’s hands wander over my body…”
THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC
Lost somewhere between post-romantic drones and gothic literature, Jorge Mantas
is the creative mind behind The Beautiful Schizophonic. He started this project
in August 2003, using essentially a laptop, a minidisc and some esoteric
software to process an array of carefully chosen sounds, in order to achieve a
sort of multileveled cinema for the ears. Headphone romanticism for the modern
loners or a listening to the world soundscape with poetic hearing?
After all, maybe this is not music, only a place
Natureza Morta, by Paulo Raposo & James Eck Rippie is a piece for turntables and
electronica.
PAULO RAPOSO is a sound and media artist based in Lisbon, Portugal. Born in
1967, after studies of philosophy and cinema in Lisbon, he has been working in
the medium of live electronic and computer sound, performing, recording and
exhibiting works in northern and southern europe and the United States.His work
explores the inter-relationships and displacements between digital process and
architectural spaces, using computer and custom-built software to create
abstract and delicate soundscapes.
JAMES ECK RIPPIE is a visual/sound artist originally from Nashville, TN and
currently resides in Houston, TX. He works primarily as a turntablist with a
focus on creating abstract sound from classical music records while utilizing
altered needles, turntable feedback, effect pedals, damaged records, etc. While
decomposing the original sound source, Rippie’s intentions are to understand the
transcending possibilities of sound as well as test the capabilities of the
turntable as an instrument. Rippie has appeared on the SIRR (Portugal), Cronica
(Portugal), and Elevator Bath records labels.
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RF – Views of Distant Towns
CD PLOP PLIP-3016
http://www.inpartmaint.com/plop
RF is the musical moniker of RYAN FRANCESCONI (b.1974 San Francisco), a
multi-instrumentalist, media artist, and programmer in California. In his music,
Francesconi blends organic instrumentation (voice, guitars, strings, horns,
field recordings) with subtle glitchwork and his own software. The result is an
intricate lattice where each sound, be it from a plucked string or a click of
the mouse, is carefully and thoughtfully placed. He also runs his own Odd Shaped
Case label and a prestigious music software company Spongefork where he is the
lead developer and art director.
Ryan Francesconi says: Three narrative themes weave through this CD. The first
are references to Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami’s
writing is how I became interested in Japan initially, and I love this book.
When Toru is about to go down into the well for the first time, just as he is
climbing over the back wall, he recalls when he ran away from home as a child.
The title of this chapter is “Views of Distant Towns”. It has to do with the
fundamental loneliness and isolation of being somewhere far from home-but even
more than that, the longing for `something` as well as the inevitable loss that
occurs from longing anything. People often travel to foreign places as a way to
get outside themselves and see with a fresh eye what is around them and what is
IN them. Another important image from the book is when Toru sits on the bench
near Shinjuku station and watches the faces of people go by. He does this for
days on end. The idea of crowds, faceless people, as if people are simply
reduced to their shadow-another theme that runs through Murakami literature.
I feel a strong affinity with the character Toru. I like the image of the point
of view being in stasis but faceless activity around it. When Toru sits on a
bench in stillness, the world rushes by while he empties his mind by simply
staring at passersby, staying still within the frenetic rush that people get
caught in. Like sitting on a rock in the middle of a river. It seemed to be
Toru’s way of escape but also a way to accept what had happened to him. There is
an incredible amount of Presence in that scene.
My own narrative of the past six months has also influenced the music on this
CD. In many ways, my own situation was similar to Toru’s, drawing me closer to
the story and personal reflection. Although the lyrics on the CD at times
reference Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird, they are ultimately my words about my story.
The third narrative is my trip to Japan in September to tour with Plop. I knew
before I went that the inspiration for “Views of Distant Towns” would come from
being there. The CD has many field recording sounds of Japan, as well as my
feelings during that time, which are expressed particularly in the last four
tracks.
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RONNIE SUNDIN – The Amateur Hermetic
CD Komplott escudre07
http://www.komplott.com
The Amateur Hermetic is an album about a nomadic lifestyle of moving to a new
flat every second year, about feeding children and getting lost in occult
references and religious doubts, about growing a beard. Isolation. The
Philosopher’s Stone.
It is also about recording the sound of your own voice and transforming it into
music, to take a part of yourself and shape it into something unrecognisable and
alien to yourself. The lack of sleep. Fire, Wind, Water, Earth. The black
monolith. To let go of reality and slip into the dream.
It is also about people who tried to transform things, themselves and explore
the inner secrets of nature through the use of alchemy. Angels. Queens.
Peasants. Persian bread with peanut butter and lingonberry jam.
It was conceived in springtime, in moonlight, with drunks howling in the dark
outside the window – forever lost, still searching for that missing purpose,
that inner light, that furnace of life, love, wealth and rejuvenation.
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THE GASMAN – This One’s For You
CD Planet Mu ZIQ138
http://www.planet-mu.com
The fourth full length (Following on from ‘Multiplex’ on Canada’s Sublight
label.) from Portsmouth’s The Gasman is his most consistant work to date.
CHRISTOPHER REEVES creates clusters of organ-like chords, echoed through reverb
chambers and plonked aloft wavering grooves that sound like enclosed insects
slowly being poked and prodded by machinery to extract their unusual sounds.
It’s genuinely refreshing audio for the ears.
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THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE – s/t
CD Planet Mu ZIQ141
http://www.planet-mu.com
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble’s form of mutant jazz, slithers and slides…
delicately painful. Each song a little story of heartache, hope and
perseverance, seemlessly fusing analogue and digital. These are soundtracks to
non-existing movies, inspired by the worlds of The Quay Brothers, Hieronymus
Bosch, Picasso, Goya, Murnau and Lang.
JASON KOHNEN and GIDEON KIERS started The Kilimanjao Darkjazz Ensemble around
the turn of the century, creating new soundtracks to existing silent movies such
as Murnau’s “Nosferatu” and Lang’s “Metropolis”. Both graduated of the School of
Arts and majoring in audiovisuals and multimedia, the audio/visual concept
developed into creating ‘visual’ music supported by existing film fragments to
intensify the audio. The Quay Brothers became a big inspiration for their debut
album, their surreal world combined many weird and wonderful aspects to
strengthen TKDE’s sound. HILARY JEFFREY on trombone joined in 2004, having
performed with artists such as Nick Bullen and Patrick Pulsinger, also mastering
trombone improvisation. NINA HITZ on cello and ED LOMAN on guitar and CHARLOTTE
CEGARRA on vocal improvs form the TKDE live quintet or sextet, with Kiers
providing drums, sequencing and visuals and Kohnen the bass, synths and
sequencing.
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UNIFORM – Protocol
CD Planet Mu ZIQ144
http://www.planet-mu.com
Uniform is WAJID YASEEN of Mute Industrial electronics act 2ND GEN. His second
Uniform album “Protocol” is 12 tracks of electronic fragmented fury and beauty
and the rantings of a weird and wondrous list of collaborators including LYDIA
LUNCH, ALAN VEGA from Suicide, TERRY EDWARDS, DÄLEK and more, with sleeve art by
Franko B.
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V.A. – FRANKFURTER AHNUNG
CD/BOOK Sonic Arts Network
http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org
BEN WATSON – Critic in his won lunchtime (opinions currently too crisp and
mirthinducing for the actually-existing music press) – has complied a CD of
music which actually matters. Asked to explain himself, he shot back: “My
finelypressed gang of musical irritants – a.k.a. the Esemplasm – take issue with
the Neo-Kantian precepts underlying cultural conditioning today. Frankfurter
Ahnung actively inkles that the oh-so-knowing circuits of defusion and confusion
which degalvinise the frog-leg salad of the contemporary farce are not the
limitless gambits of Sir Brain End. Historical materialism will rise again to
embalm you in your sleep, running sores of festooned market system!”
Ben Watson was born in 1956. In 1968, he discovered social revolution and
Finnegans Wake. In 1977, he studied punk rock with poet J.H. Prynne. Today, he
broadcasts Late Lunch With Out To Lunch on Resonance 104.4 FM. His
publications include Frank Zappa: the Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play; Art,
Class & Cleavage; and Derek Bailey & the Story of Free Improvisation.
The CD contains music by LOL COXHILL, DEREK BAILEY, WINIFRED ATWELL, EVIL DICK
AND THE BANNED MEMBERS, T.H.F. DRENCHING and KENNY PROCESS TEAM plus a
cornucopia of image and text spawned for the mind of Mr Watson himself.
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V.A. – INCIDENTAL AMPLIFICATIONS
CD room40 EDRM405
http://www.room40.org
For most of us, our every waking moment (and even those where we are
unconscious) is surrounded by sound. From the obnoxiously pitched alarmtone that
raises us from slumber to the muted sounds of night-time traffic that merge with
natural nocturnal transmissions; there is always sound.
As a society we have increasingly sought to augment and indeed control the
environments around us. All manner of tools have been utilised in this ongoing
war against the unfamiliar, the unexpected and the “undesirable”. As well as a
variety of visuals cues, sound is progressively used to colour our surroundings
with a variety of aural hues.
The Twentieth Century brought with it an unparalleled use of artificial sound in
the form of George Squier’s Muzak – a creation designed to enhance (and perhaps
determine) amongst other things our “urban/social/shopping” experience. For
decades, no mall or place of substantial commerce was complete without the
dulcet tones of Muzak. To many it would seem that there is a world of difference
between the bleating high frequency sounds of an Indian marketplace and multiple
channels of mid-tempo instrumental music filling our shopping malls; however the
ability for sound to draw and focus our attention is universal and well
documented.
But what of the remaining sounds? The incidental sounds that Muzak tries (and
often fails) to mask. It’s within these sound fields that curators Lawrence
English and Lloyd Barrett sought to collect artists who were working with and
celebrating these incidental aspects of our sound world.
Tracks by CHRIS WATSON, DOMENICO SCIAJNO, LE GRAND JEU, CAMILLA HANNAN, TERRE
THAEMLITZ, JOE MUSGROVE, BRANDON LABELLE, AARON XIMM, DZO, M.RÖSNER, DANIEL
BLINKHORN, MATHIEU RUHLMANN, BLAKE STICKLAND, THEMBI SODDELL
This CD edition documents Incidental Amplifications, a spatial sound
installation installed in a variety of urban shopping areas and malls across
Brisbane/Australia in July and August 2005.
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VIRUS SYNDICATE – The Work Related Illness
3LP/CD Planet Mu ZIQ120
http://www.planet-mu.com
Re-release of Virus Syndicate’s genre-defining 2005 Manchester grime album –
featuring 4 new tracks* – the new MTV/Radio 1 played single ‘Ready To Learn’,
‘Major List MCs’ (featuring Roll Deep’s Trim, Fallacy and Neckle crew’s Jammer
and Ears), and 2 new exclusives: ‘Gun Talk’ and ‘Catch 22’. Also features the
MTV base played single ‘Slow Down’ – * cd format only
Virus Syndicate are DJ/producer M.R.K.1 (formerly Mark One) and MCs Goldfinger,
JSD and Nika D – Manchester’s foremost grime crew, represeting the North-West UK
scene in their inimitable style. Virus are an integral part of the UK Grime
scene having played numerous Sidewinder raves and countless shows on Rinse FM
and Manchester’s Unity as well as radio support from Cameo, Semtex, Mary Anne
Hobbs & Ras Kwame.
Their debut album ‘The Work Related Illness’ is everything you could ask for – a
cartoon gangsta movie of an album with a beginning, middle and end – all the
tracks link into each other in a narrative and the entire album tells a story in
the life of the Virus Syndicate!
The MC’s delivery and M.R.K.1’s fantastic production may be straight from the
Grime scene, but the content reveals a far wider influence – from both UK and
stateside hip hop’s lyricism. Songs about crack addiction: ‘Now her good looks
are fading, too many drugs so her face is changing, so skinny see her cheekbones
shaking when she wakes up in the morning craving…’ (‘Nadine’), and songs about
karma, shotting drugs, and even robbing the bank… ‘For the task at hand I need
a quick ride, picked up the beemer: 325, got a pawn on the way – it was JSD,
“Yo, let’s meet ‘em outside Lloyds TSB…” (‘Taxman’).
We see this album’s heritage in a long line of Mancunian acts – from Ruthless
Rap Assasins and Krispy 3 to Happy Mondays’ gang-like mentality and A Guy Called
Gerald’s ravey stripped down production. They also let their northern accents
and coloquialisms proudly sit centre stage.
Full of humour, the Virus Syndicate don’t just boringly diss other MCs (although
they do that as well.) They also poke fun at themsleves on tracks such as
‘Girls’, in which they come on in full mysogynist glory only to end up
acquiesing to the girls at the end of the track, or in ‘Wasted’ in which they
tell a tale of …getting wasted. The avaricious finale of ‘Get Money’ and
‘Taxman’ has to be heard to be believed – it’s neck hair time… for us it’s the
grime album of last year AND this year… the best grime album so far, period.
Even my girlfriend enjoyed it and she thinks grime MCs are mostly idiots.
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LIVE DATES
25th anniversary of the conception of TOUCH
11/03 SE – Göteborg, iDeal, label spotlight
13/04 CZ – Prague, Archa Theatre w/ Fennesz and Philip Jeck
05/05 UK – London, Cut and Splice, ICA, label spotlight w/ Philip Jeck
07/05 BE – Brussels, Les Nuits Botaniques, Spire live at St. Michael’s Cathedral
12/05 UK – Leeds, Fus festival, Spire live at Town Hall
13/05 UK – Newcastle, Spire live at Jesmond Church
24/06 NL – Amsterdam, Holland Festival, Spire live at Oude Kerk
B. FLEISCHMANN [morr music]
03/04 BE – Brugge, Cactus
04/04 FR – Nancy, Austazique
06/04 FR – Paris, Mains d’Oeuvre
07/04 FR – Roche sur Yon, Fuzzyon
08/04 FR – Pau, Festival Amplitude
11/04 FR – Rouen, Hangar 23
12/04 FR – Lille/Turcoing, Le Grand Mix
MOHA! [Rune Grammofon] 26/04 DE – Berlin, Ausland, N-Event
THE KONKI DUET [Active Suspension] 03/03 SG – M1 Singapore Fringe Festival
ZEITKRATZER [X-tract]
28/03 ES – Madrid + Merzbow, Zbigniew Karkowski
20/04 AT – Donaufestival Krems + Keiji Haino
22/04 AT – Donaufestival Krems
20/05 FR – Marseille
Dense Promotion
Reichenberger Str. 147
10999 Berlin
Phone +49 30 616 529 60
Fax +49 30 616 529 46
ed@dense.de
http://www.dense.de
