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CD
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MORR 169CD
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Antony Ryan and Robin Saville return with their ninth studio album as ISAN, Lamenting Machine. Three years in the making, Lamenting Machine is the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along -- all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music. Produced both in Denmark and the UK in their respective studios, each of the eight tracks symbolize a sea of blossoms carefully crafted and tended to, bringing color and hope to today's fragile and volatile world. And while there is definitely a lot worth lamenting about, ISAN's machine of the same name is an explorational celebration of their own musical past, once more bringing to the surface the project's essence of aural delight. Listening to ISAN requires time, but it is time well invested. While sounding exquisitely lighthearted from the outside, a closer inspection reveals a richly orchestrated and multi-layered musical riddle, mimicking a hedge maze of gargantuan scale and complexity, with each tone and each rhythmic pattern to be dissected, analyzed and understood individually in order to find the way out. ISAN's music has always had this quality, yet reflecting on their own past more consciously, the music on the new album redefines this approach in a more precise and gratifying way than ever before. While wholeheartedly shimmering and drenched in beauty, in order to fully appreciate the whole scale of ISAN, it is key to bravely engage with the underlying vagueness and fuzziness lingering in the tracks. Letting each piece of gear be true to itself, accepting its flaws as part of its unique personality, and turning these frailties into a starting point of inter-circuitry communication, ISAN has been at the forefront of humanizing technology and eliminating the dystopian men machine debate, clearing the table for a better future. This approach actually requires time in the studio as well: circuits need time to warm up, get to know each other, understand the energy flowing through the cables connecting them, figuring out what to do and what they really want. This process is not so much about giving up control, but rather to moderate a constant exchange of ideas.
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LP
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MORR 169LP
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LP version. Antony Ryan and Robin Saville return with their ninth studio album as ISAN, Lamenting Machine. Three years in the making, Lamenting Machine is the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along -- all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music. Produced both in Denmark and the UK in their respective studios, each of the eight tracks symbolize a sea of blossoms carefully crafted and tended to, bringing color and hope to today's fragile and volatile world. And while there is definitely a lot worth lamenting about, ISAN's machine of the same name is an explorational celebration of their own musical past, once more bringing to the surface the project's essence of aural delight. Listening to ISAN requires time, but it is time well invested. While sounding exquisitely lighthearted from the outside, a closer inspection reveals a richly orchestrated and multi-layered musical riddle, mimicking a hedge maze of gargantuan scale and complexity, with each tone and each rhythmic pattern to be dissected, analyzed and understood individually in order to find the way out. ISAN's music has always had this quality, yet reflecting on their own past more consciously, the music on the new album redefines this approach in a more precise and gratifying way than ever before. While wholeheartedly shimmering and drenched in beauty, in order to fully appreciate the whole scale of ISAN, it is key to bravely engage with the underlying vagueness and fuzziness lingering in the tracks. Letting each piece of gear be true to itself, accepting its flaws as part of its unique personality, and turning these frailties into a starting point of inter-circuitry communication, ISAN has been at the forefront of humanizing technology and eliminating the dystopian men machine debate, clearing the table for a better future. This approach actually requires time in the studio as well: circuits need time to warm up, get to know each other, understand the energy flowing through the cables connecting them, figuring out what to do and what they really want. This process is not so much about giving up control, but rather to moderate a constant exchange of ideas.
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CD
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MORR 148CD
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On their first album since 2010's Glow In The Dark Safari Set (MORR 099CD/LP), ISAN once more weave together electronic soundscapes, delicate rhythms and the occasional odd sound into a pulsating, ever-morphing whole. Glass Bird Movement is Antony Ryan and Robin Saville's eighth studio album since starting the project in the late '90s. Exchanging ideas between England and Denmark, ISAN have crafted an album which is reminiscent of heyday Boards Of Canada productions, the friendlier ventures of Aphex Twin or the most focused moments of Ulrich Schnauss, if you will. However, Glass Bird Movement (as subtle and impressive as their back catalog is) displays a strong signature. ISAN constantly move forwards without leaving their respective studios. And why should they - it's warm and dry in there and the kettle is always boiling. The title Glass Bird Movement is the product of a free associative process which reflects ISAN's creative methods and frames the eleven songs in a way that triggers the imagination. Communicating less about their music than rather with their music, Ryan and Saville together immerse themselves in complex structures without shutting out their audience. Instead, the friendly bouncing grooves of songs like "Napier Deltic", the washed out harmonies of the aptly titled "Risefallsleep" or the circular rhythms of the album's opener, "Cuckoo Down", have dream-like, inviting qualities to them. ISAN are particular about incorporating the element of chance, a sort of second-hand human touch, in their music. If it's a cheap keyboard that is only good for one note in one song alone or a tape loop cut by hand, anything can find its way into an ISAN song. Even though they take most of their inspiration from the machines they work with, they do not fetishize their gear - but play with it. Glass Bird Movement relies just as heavily on all those sonic idiosyncrasies as it does on the sophisticated rhythms and throbbing basses that form its foundation. One might call the music that ISAN make Intelligence Dance Music. However, be aware that there has reportedly only ever been one person seen dancing to it. Glass Bird Movement is likely best enjoyed where it is warm and dry, while the kettle is boiling. Artwork by Morr Music's in-house designer, Julia Guther.
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LP + 7"
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MORR 148LP
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LP version. Includes 7 inch and download code. On their first album since 2010's Glow In The Dark Safari Set (MORR 099CD/LP), ISAN once more weave together electronic soundscapes, delicate rhythms and the occasional odd sound into a pulsating, ever-morphing whole. Glass Bird Movement is Antony Ryan and Robin Saville's eighth studio album since starting the project in the late '90s. Exchanging ideas between England and Denmark, ISAN have crafted an album which is reminiscent of heyday Boards Of Canada productions, the friendlier ventures of Aphex Twin or the most focused moments of Ulrich Schnauss, if you will. However, Glass Bird Movement (as subtle and impressive as their back catalog is) displays a strong signature. ISAN constantly move forwards without leaving their respective studios. And why should they - it's warm and dry in there and the kettle is always boiling. The title Glass Bird Movement is the product of a free associative process which reflects ISAN's creative methods and frames the eleven songs in a way that triggers the imagination. Communicating less about their music than rather with their music, Ryan and Saville together immerse themselves in complex structures without shutting out their audience. Instead, the friendly bouncing grooves of songs like "Napier Deltic", the washed out harmonies of the aptly titled "Risefallsleep" or the circular rhythms of the album's opener, "Cuckoo Down", have dream-like, inviting qualities to them. ISAN are particular about incorporating the element of chance, a sort of second-hand human touch, in their music. If it's a cheap keyboard that is only good for one note in one song alone or a tape loop cut by hand, anything can find its way into an ISAN song. Even though they take most of their inspiration from the machines they work with, they do not fetishize their gear - but play with it. Glass Bird Movement relies just as heavily on all those sonic idiosyncrasies as it does on the sophisticated rhythms and throbbing basses that form its foundation. One might call the music that ISAN make Intelligence Dance Music. However, be aware that there has reportedly only ever been one person seen dancing to it. Glass Bird Movement is likely best enjoyed where it is warm and dry, while the kettle is boiling. Artwork by Morr Music's in-house designer, Julia Guther.
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2LP
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MORR 122LP
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CD
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MORR 122CD
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One explanation for the '90s-fascination with Casio, Korg, and other analog synthesizers is this: The first video-game generation was coming of age and were happy to hear that their dearly-loved Space Invaders soundtrack was suddenly popping up in electronic music. It takes slightly longer to explain why one record from that time -- Beautronics, the debut by UK synth-duo ISAN first released in 1998 -- has kept its appeal until today. Beautronics does not grab you immediately. You don't hum these tunes after a few listens; in fact, you might not even hum them after dozens of spins. It's not about humming -- it's about soft cushions and a cozy duvet made of sounds -- it's about aural sheets floating around like warm humidity during a hot bath. Occasionally, it's even about IDM, but in a very late-night kind of way. Antony Ryan and Robin Saville, the two English lads behind ISAN, are very open about their goals. They separate the longer tracks with short, often abstract pieces they called "tints." So it's as much about tonal color, as it is about melodies. The "tints" form an interesting contrast between ambient sounds and the more focused tunes. But even their most bass-dominated songs such as "Skeek" are not exactly four-to-the-floor. There's no more than one to the floor, while the rest is sailing somewhere above in a haze of beautiful sounds and melodies. The album's sleeve and title are straightforward about this: it's all about the human beauty in electronica. Beautronics produces sounds that radiate a warmth and naturalness that make them feel familiar upon first listen, and the 15 years since its initial release don't change a thing about this. That's why it's certain that Beautronics will win a new generation of listeners with this re-issue. Includes four previously-unreleased bonus tracks. Remastered and cut by Dubplates & Mastering.
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CD
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MORR 099CD
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Robin Saville and Antony Ryan, two English gentlemen who create music together under the nom de plume Isan, return with their sixth full-length album for their spiritual home of Morr Music. It's been a few years since Isan's previous outing, the delectable electronic esoterica of Plans Drawn In Pencil (MORR 068CD/LP), but the results, in time-honored Isan tradition, are certainly worth the wait. Opener, "Channel Ten," with its Autobahn-assured poise, appropriately prefigures a body of work that is Isan's finest to-date. Inspiration for this came from "emancipation" as Robin elaborates: "It was an attempt to jettison the weight of our back catalog and get back to the fun of making music. This entailed playing with ancient Casios, mangled tape loops and squidgy noises. Very hands-on. Most of the tracks on the album started life away from the laptop." This giddy sense of enjoyment suffuses the album -- from the glistening rush of "Merman Sound" which segues into the soft-focus sound-world of its own coda seamlessly to the cinematic, tech-y strut of "Grissette" or the calmly oscillating and cascading melodies of "Greencracked," which evoke images of a retro-futurist utopia. Isan have always excelled at fashioning a quietly awe-inspiring music and Glow... is no exception. Even the title suggests a sense of wide-eyed-wonder "We were playing with lots of ideas around fire, embers, bioluminescence and the title popped into my head one day. It seemed to sum up a lot of the things we like -- I like to imagine sitting in a darkened room looking at the gentle green glow of 1970s VU meters, then they all come to life and start crawling up the wall." says Antony. Such is the album's celestial, hot-wired circuit-board wizardry; Glow In The Dark Safari Set positively throbs, ebbs and flows with electronically refracted ideas and melodies -- a digital tone poem sitting somewhere betwixt the cozy experimentation of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the exotic sonic emissions of a top-secret Düsseldorf studio circa 1975.
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LP + 7"
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MORR 099LP
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LP version with bonus 7" and download coupon. Robin Saville and Antony Ryan, two English gentlemen who create music together under the nom de plume Isan, return with their sixth full-length album for their spiritual home of Morr Music. It's been a few years since Isan's previous outing, the delectable electronic esoterica of Plans Drawn In Pencil (MORR 068CD/LP), but the results, in time-honored Isan tradition, are certainly worth the wait. Opener, "Channel Ten," with its Autobahn-assured poise, appropriately prefigures a body of work that is Isan's finest to-date. Inspiration for this came from "emancipation" as Robin elaborates: "It was an attempt to jettison the weight of our back catalog and get back to the fun of making music. This entailed playing with ancient Casios, mangled tape loops and squidgy noises. Very hands-on. Most of the tracks on the album started life away from the laptop." This giddy sense of enjoyment suffuses the album -- from the glistening rush of "Merman Sound" which segues into the soft-focus sound-world of its own coda seamlessly to the cinematic, tech-y strut of "Grissette" or the calmly oscillating and cascading melodies of "Greencracked," which evoke images of a retro-futurist utopia. Isan have always excelled at fashioning a quietly awe-inspiring music and Glow... is no exception. Even the title suggests a sense of wide-eyed-wonder "We were playing with lots of ideas around fire, embers, bioluminescence and the title popped into my head one day. It seemed to sum up a lot of the things we like -- I like to imagine sitting in a darkened room looking at the gentle green glow of 1970s VU meters, then they all come to life and start crawling up the wall." says Antony. Such is the album's celestial, hot-wired circuit-board wizardry; Glow In The Dark Safari Set positively throbs, ebbs and flows with electronically refracted ideas and melodies -- a digital tone poem sitting somewhere betwixt the cozy experimentation of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the exotic sonic emissions of a top-secret Düsseldorf studio circa 1975.
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