BUREAU B - Forced Exposure

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/1/2020

"Rudolf Langer (formerly of Tyndall) and Peter Preuß teamed up to create Lapre as a vehicle for their adventures in sonic experimentation. They set about capturing their nocturnal rehearsal room sessions on tape, Langer on synthesizer and Preuß on guitar. With the exception of a solitary single and a few extremely limited cassette runs, Lapre released no further material during their active phase. It was not until 2018 that their works became accessible to a wider audience, when Bureau B released the Auferstehung retrospective (BB 302CD/LP), drawing on tracks from 1983 to 1984. Banzai, the second collection of Lapre recordings, follows up by concentrating on their creative output from the years 1985 to 1987. The eponymous centerpiece of the album, 'Banzai I', first appeared on a 1987 sampler issued by Pirol -- its inclusion on Berliner Elektroniknacht caused quite a stir amongst connoisseurs, with the disc changing hands as a sough-after rarity. Here, the track is accompanied by five previously undiscovered gems from the Lapre archives. Banzai documents the duo's impressive latter phase, moving on from their earlier cosmic collages into an altogether more playful state of mind. Light streams through synthesizer compositions suspended in reverie, driven forwards by rugged drum machine beats as Peter Preuß weaves shimmering guitars into the mix. The needle on the dial sweeps from abstract rapture to exuberant pop in an instant. A well-kept secret at the time of its inception, this music was barely audible beyond the borders of Berlin's underground scene. It thus gives us great pleasure to give these tracks the attention they ultimately deserve, more than 30 years later." --Daniel Jahn, January 2020

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/1/2020

LP version. "Rudolf Langer (formerly of Tyndall) and Peter Preuß teamed up to create Lapre as a vehicle for their adventures in sonic experimentation. They set about capturing their nocturnal rehearsal room sessions on tape, Langer on synthesizer and Preuß on guitar. With the exception of a solitary single and a few extremely limited cassette runs, Lapre released no further material during their active phase. It was not until 2018 that their works became accessible to a wider audience, when Bureau B released the Auferstehung retrospective (BB 302CD/LP), drawing on tracks from 1983 to 1984. Banzai, the second collection of Lapre recordings, follows up by concentrating on their creative output from the years 1985 to 1987. The eponymous centerpiece of the album, 'Banzai I', first appeared on a 1987 sampler issued by Pirol -- its inclusion on Berliner Elektroniknacht caused quite a stir amongst connoisseurs, with the disc changing hands as a sough-after rarity. Here, the track is accompanied by five previously undiscovered gems from the Lapre archives. Banzai documents the duo's impressive latter phase, moving on from their earlier cosmic collages into an altogether more playful state of mind. Light streams through synthesizer compositions suspended in reverie, driven forwards by rugged drum machine beats as Peter Preuß weaves shimmering guitars into the mix. The needle on the dial sweeps from abstract rapture to exuberant pop in an instant. A well-kept secret at the time of its inception, this music was barely audible beyond the borders of Berlin's underground scene. It thus gives us great pleasure to give these tracks the attention they ultimately deserve, more than 30 years later." --Daniel Jahn, January 2020

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/17/2020

Dreamings by Elephant Château has infected quite a few music diggers. And Veith Stauffer already wrote in 1998 on Offshore Drilling, "One of the most underrated albums in the history of experimental rock music in Switzerland." After a 30-year delay, the productions of Elephant Château are now available again. With the title Dreamings & Offshore Drilling - Pearls And Turtles" Bureau B combine the 12" maxi released in 1985 and the CD/LP Offshore Drilling released in 1990. The recordings show the work of Elephant Château in a variety of different formations with various guest musicians, recorded between 1982 and 1989. Well-sounding film music ("Le Fin"), free jazz experiments ("J'aime Rien") and ambient electronics ("Nebellied") up to the showpiece "Wir Fangen Mit Der Arbeit Anfangen", a German monolog spoken by the American artist Marlene McCarthy, accompanied by a sensual crackling sound backdrop. Elephant Château emerged from this collaboration with Marlene McCarthy, as a loose formation for a performative publication of texts. The core consisting of Max Spielmann (guitar, keyboard), Johannes Vetsch (bass, vocals, keyboard) and until 1986, Christian Schaffner (guitar, vocals, percussion) continued working afterwards. With Franziska Strebel (drums, percussion), it became something like a band, with the claim to record credible intellectual rock music. They exploited the sound spectrum of the '80s, from analog synthesizers and rhythm machines to samplers and digital effects units without technoid coldness, but full of emotion, melancholy and unacademic joy of experimentation. Analog songs like "We Start With Work" and "J'aime Rien" stand besides rhythm and sequencer tracks like "Dreamings" or "Fog Song", which often brought the available technology to its knees. Veit Stauffer's description of Offshore Drilling's songs probably remains unsurpassed even today: "'She Had Hair' was immediately covered by Sky Bird, 'Semmelweiss' tells the tragic story of the discoverer of childbed fever 100 years ago and sounds like a This Heat outtake, 'Strange Days' turns the Doors title into a charmingly underexposed hymn, 'J'aime Rien' sounds like the meeting of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago with Catalogue and The Government. 'La Fin' on the other hand is reminiscent of the credits of a German TV crime thriller. 'Not All The Day' celebrates pure Can magic, the climax of the record with real Damo Suzuki groove and strong lyrics, 'Wir Fangen Mit Arbeit An' sets the crazy everyday lyrics of a German-speaking American to music." Features Marlene McCarthy, Franziska Strebel, Christian Schaffner, Baschi Baumgartner, Christoph Gallio, Cornelia Melian, and others.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/17/2020

LP version. Die Wilde Jagd is the music project of producer and songwriter Sebastian Lee Philipp. With the aid of his coproducer Ralf Beck and various guest musicians, he created a self-titled debut album in 2015 (BB 203CD/LP) and a highly-praised follow-up disc, Uhrwald Orange, in 2018 (BB 290CD/LP). The band's third album, Haut, is now set for release on Bureau B. Die Wilde Jagd regularly tour throughout Europe and beyond as a live duo comprising Sebastian Lee Philipp on guitar, electronics and vocals and Ran Levari on drums.

"Ich war's" sagt die Eule. ("It was I", said the owl.) "Ich war's" sagt der Wind. ("It was I", said the wind.) "Ich war's" sagt der Räuber. ("It was I", said the robber.) "Ich war's" sagt der Prinz. ("It was I", said the prince.)

These are the words which lead us into Die Wilde Jagd's latest journey. Ethereal voices, low murmurs and distant noises from a world slowly emerging from slumbers meet the listener in an intermediate dimension of memory and premonition, from whence Uhrwald Orange, the previous album, came in 2018. A birth into a different world begins with the first track, "Empfang", a constant departure which progresses into hypnotic rhythm before ultimately flowing into "Himmelfahrten". The first Die Wilde Jagd duet with guest vocalist Nina Siegler blossoms into a ritualistic canon celebrating memory and togetherness, the urge to leave one's own body versus the trepidation at setting out on the imminent journey. A sense of "I don't want to go on my own" anticipates the song's final section which announces the inevitable farewell. "Gondel" is a pulsating, repetitive mantra to mark the crossing to the other side. From the distant, faint knocking discernible at the outset of the album, the gateway to the other world is now well and truly being hammered upon as its door finally opens in "Sankt Damin". Fear mixes with Kriegeslust, a resolute desire to experience this new existence. And so the album ends as it began in a state of rapture. Sebastian Lee Philipp wrote, produced and recorded Haut in the band's own studio at the Rockhaus in Berlin. Artwork comes courtesy of Brazilian multidisciplinary artist Caroline Barrueco, whose prismatic illustrations impressively encapsulate Die Wilde Jagd's sonic voyages. Haut is a consistent, forceful listening experience in every sense, defying standard formats as it challenges and astounds the listener. Can you feel the colourful gifts?

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/17/2020

Die Wilde Jagd is the music project of producer and songwriter Sebastian Lee Philipp. With the aid of his coproducer Ralf Beck and various guest musicians, he created a self-titled debut album in 2015 (BB 203CD/LP) and a highly-praised follow-up disc, Uhrwald Orange, in 2018 (BB 290CD/LP). The band's third album, Haut, is now set for release on Bureau B. Die Wilde Jagd regularly tour throughout Europe and beyond as a live duo comprising Sebastian Lee Philipp on guitar, electronics and vocals and Ran Levari on drums.

"Ich war's" sagt die Eule. ("It was I", said the owl.) "Ich war's" sagt der Wind. ("It was I", said the wind.) "Ich war's" sagt der Räuber. ("It was I", said the robber.) "Ich war's" sagt der Prinz. ("It was I", said the prince.)

These are the words which lead us into Die Wilde Jagd's latest journey. Ethereal voices, low murmurs and distant noises from a world slowly emerging from slumbers meet the listener in an intermediate dimension of memory and premonition, from whence Uhrwald Orange, the previous album, came in 2018. A birth into a different world begins with the first track, "Empfang", a constant departure which progresses into hypnotic rhythm before ultimately flowing into "Himmelfahrten". The first Die Wilde Jagd duet with guest vocalist Nina Siegler blossoms into a ritualistic canon celebrating memory and togetherness, the urge to leave one's own body versus the trepidation at setting out on the imminent journey. A sense of "I don't want to go on my own" anticipates the song's final section which announces the inevitable farewell. "Gondel" is a pulsating, repetitive mantra to mark the crossing to the other side. From the distant, faint knocking discernible at the outset of the album, the gateway to the other world is now well and truly being hammered upon as its door finally opens in "Sankt Damin". Fear mixes with Kriegeslust, a resolute desire to experience this new existence. And so the album ends as it began in a state of rapture. Sebastian Lee Philipp wrote, produced and recorded Haut in the band's own studio at the Rockhaus in Berlin. Artwork comes courtesy of Brazilian multidisciplinary artist Caroline Barrueco, whose prismatic illustrations impressively encapsulate Die Wilde Jagd's sonic voyages. Haut is a consistent, forceful listening experience in every sense, defying standard formats as it challenges and astounds the listener. Can you feel the colourful gifts?

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/17/2020

LP version. Dreamings by Elephant Château has infected quite a few music diggers. And Veith Stauffer already wrote in 1998 on Offshore Drilling, "One of the most underrated albums in the history of experimental rock music in Switzerland." After a 30-year delay, the productions of Elephant Château are now available again. With the title Dreamings & Offshore Drilling - Pearls And Turtles" Bureau B combine the 12" maxi released in 1985 and the CD/LP Offshore Drilling released in 1990. The recordings show the work of Elephant Château in a variety of different formations with various guest musicians, recorded between 1982 and 1989. Well-sounding film music ("Le Fin"), free jazz experiments ("J'aime Rien") and ambient electronics ("Nebellied") up to the showpiece "Wir Fangen Mit Der Arbeit Anfangen", a German monolog spoken by the American artist Marlene McCarthy, accompanied by a sensual crackling sound backdrop. Elephant Château emerged from this collaboration with Marlene McCarthy, as a loose formation for a performative publication of texts. The core consisting of Max Spielmann (guitar, keyboard), Johannes Vetsch (bass, vocals, keyboard) and until 1986, Christian Schaffner (guitar, vocals, percussion) continued working afterwards. With Franziska Strebel (drums, percussion), it became something like a band, with the claim to record credible intellectual rock music. They exploited the sound spectrum of the '80s, from analog synthesizers and rhythm machines to samplers and digital effects units without technoid coldness, but full of emotion, melancholy and unacademic joy of experimentation. Analog songs like "We Start With Work" and "J'aime Rien" stand besides rhythm and sequencer tracks like "Dreamings" or "Fog Song", which often brought the available technology to its knees. Veit Stauffer's description of Offshore Drilling's songs probably remains unsurpassed even today: "'She Had Hair' was immediately covered by Sky Bird, 'Semmelweiss' tells the tragic story of the discoverer of childbed fever 100 years ago and sounds like a This Heat outtake, 'Strange Days' turns the Doors title into a charmingly underexposed hymn, 'J'aime Rien' sounds like the meeting of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago with Catalogue and The Government. 'La Fin' on the other hand is reminiscent of the credits of a German TV crime thriller. 'Not All The Day' celebrates pure Can magic, the climax of the record with real Damo Suzuki groove and strong lyrics, 'Wir Fangen Mit Arbeit An' sets the crazy everyday lyrics of a German-speaking American to music." Features Marlene McCarthy, Franziska Strebel, Christian Schaffner, Baschi Baumgartner, Christoph Gallio, Cornelia Melian, and others.

$17.00 IN STOCK

The first part of Hans-Joachim Roedelius's Selbstportrait (Self-Portrait) series was originally released under the title Sanfte Musik on Sky Records in 1979. Now, some forty years later, a new instalment has arrived in the form of an album entitled Wahre Liebe. One of the initiators of the Berlin Zodiak Free Arts Lab in 1967, Roedelius went on to co-found Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, unleashing a new and free form of music which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be considered a milestone in the historical context of kosmische musik and krautrock. In the late 1970s, Roedelius began to increase his activities as a solo artist, building up an extensive and multifaceted body of work over the ensuing decades. Across this timeline, the Self-Portrait albums represent an intensely personal and noteworthy corpus in their own right. Over the past ten years, the Hamburg-based label Bureau B has reissued numerous Hans-Joachim Roedelius albums, both solo and collaborative efforts, introducing him to a new generation of potential devotees. In 2014, label founder Gunther Buskies approached Roedelius to suggest that he record a new instalment for the Self-Portrait series, using the same instruments which dominated his productions in the late 1970s: a Farfisa organ, drum machine, tape-delay and a Rhodes. Together with Onnen and Wolf Bock, the album Wahre Liebe (True Love) was created. Roedelius explains the process: "The Wahre Liebe album was commissioned by Gunther Buskies, who wanted to know if the elderly Roedelius, armed with vintage tools, was capable of 'beaming back' to his youthful years, reaching into the sonic past of the Self-Portrait series to deliver similarly persuasive results. What better proof could there be that true love, age-old love never dies..." Sure enough, this album successfully and seamlessly connects with its antecedents. Miniatures, improvisations, atmospheric images, and dreamlike introspections of an individualist are articulated in that innate Roedelius language which is at once brittle and as light as a whisper, a pastel ribbon weaving its way softly through the full range of sonic topographies. Hans-Joachim Roedelius is pleased with the outcome: "Roedelius has been granted the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with his own self in order to achieve that of which he is ultimately capable, namely his calling: to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, to create authentic art, be it music or words, or anything and everything else which fascinates him."

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. The first part of Hans-Joachim Roedelius's Selbstportrait (Self-Portrait) series was originally released under the title Sanfte Musik on Sky Records in 1979. Now, some forty years later, a new instalment has arrived in the form of an album entitled Wahre Liebe. One of the initiators of the Berlin Zodiak Free Arts Lab in 1967, Roedelius went on to co-found Kluster/Cluster and Harmonia, unleashing a new and free form of music which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be considered a milestone in the historical context of kosmische musik and krautrock. In the late 1970s, Roedelius began to increase his activities as a solo artist, building up an extensive and multifaceted body of work over the ensuing decades. Across this timeline, the Self-Portrait albums represent an intensely personal and noteworthy corpus in their own right. Over the past ten years, the Hamburg-based label Bureau B has reissued numerous Hans-Joachim Roedelius albums, both solo and collaborative efforts, introducing him to a new generation of potential devotees. In 2014, label founder Gunther Buskies approached Roedelius to suggest that he record a new instalment for the Self-Portrait series, using the same instruments which dominated his productions in the late 1970s: a Farfisa organ, drum machine, tape-delay and a Rhodes. Together with Onnen and Wolf Bock, the album Wahre Liebe (True Love) was created. Roedelius explains the process: "The Wahre Liebe album was commissioned by Gunther Buskies, who wanted to know if the elderly Roedelius, armed with vintage tools, was capable of 'beaming back' to his youthful years, reaching into the sonic past of the Self-Portrait series to deliver similarly persuasive results. What better proof could there be that true love, age-old love never dies..." Sure enough, this album successfully and seamlessly connects with its antecedents. Miniatures, improvisations, atmospheric images, and dreamlike introspections of an individualist are articulated in that innate Roedelius language which is at once brittle and as light as a whisper, a pastel ribbon weaving its way softly through the full range of sonic topographies. Hans-Joachim Roedelius is pleased with the outcome: "Roedelius has been granted the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with his own self in order to achieve that of which he is ultimately capable, namely his calling: to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, to create authentic art, be it music or words, or anything and everything else which fascinates him."

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. During the legendary Forst years, Roedelius had a private workspace with a Farfisa organ, a Revox-A77 tape machine, an echo device and a synthesizer which he borrowed from the Cluster studio next door now and again. Here he experimented, practiced, allowed his imagination to flow, at any hour of the day or night, whenever he was not in the studio with Dieter Moebius and/or Michael Rother at work on new Cluster or Harmonia material. Roedelius always let the tape run, in order to analyze the ideas thus captured more effectively on repeated listening. For the first time ever, this Roedelius audio sketchbook had been digitalized and available to the public in 2014 on a limited three-LP box set called Roedelius Tape Archive 1973-1978. The recordings offer a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes. Since the box set has been sold out for a long time, Bureau B decided to release the essence of those three LPs on a one-disc compilation: Roedelius Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978.

$17.00 IN STOCK

During the legendary Forst years, Roedelius had a private workspace with a Farfisa organ, a Revox-A77 tape machine, an echo device and a synthesizer which he borrowed from the Cluster studio next door now and again. Here he experimented, practiced, allowed his imagination to flow, at any hour of the day or night, whenever he was not in the studio with Dieter Moebius and/or Michael Rother at work on new Cluster or Harmonia material. Roedelius always let the tape run, in order to analyze the ideas thus captured more effectively on repeated listening. For the first time ever, this Roedelius audio sketchbook had been digitalized and available to the public in 2014 on a limited three-LP box set called Roedelius Tape Archive 1973-1978. The recordings offer a deep insight into the creative process of his music. Fleeting notes, slivers of ideas, so to speak, moments of inspiration. Finger exercises, experiments in harmony, studies in rhythm are also preserved on these magnetic tapes. Since the box set has been sold out for a long time, Bureau B decided to release the essence of those three LPs on a one-disc compilation: Roedelius Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Frieder Butzmann and Thomas Kapielski's War Pur War was originally released in 1987 on Zensor and is here reissued by Bureau B. Composer, radio dramatist and performance artist Butzmann began exploring experimental music in the late 1960s. One of the pioneers of German industrial music and a member of the Geniale Dilettanten movement, Butzmann has collaborated with artists such as Genesis P-Orridge, Blixa Bargeld, and Santrra Oxyd, as well as releasing numerous solo works. Butzmann joined forces with author and artist Kapielski in the early 1980s. Most of their compositions are minimalist tracks interspersed with everyday noises and fragments of speech, as can be heard on War Pur War. This utterly unique work is an idiosyncratic mix of eccentric electro-pop and bizarre sonic collages and has gone on to become a sought-after collector's item. Remastered, includes new artwork, two bonus tracks, unpublished photos and liner notes by Butzmann.

"War Pur War was created in my small studio at 11-13 Erkelenzdamm, on the same floor as the Institut Unzeit, where the Freunde Guter Musik were also based. The record gathers together an incredibly diverse assortment of short pieces with different backstories. When we had finished recording, Thomas Kapielski and I headed for Hamburg with the two ¼- inch tapes to master the A and B sides of the LP. The engineer was a really friendly guy. He spotted a phase shift between the channels and I'm eternally grateful to him for correcting it! He wasn't quite so meticulous when it came to calibrating volume levels for the record. The three of us -- Kapielski, the engineer, and I -- had a lot of laughs together, but our man didn't take the music particularly seriously and perhaps lacked a little bit of focus. Distribution difficulties meant that only a few copies of the disc made it into the shops when it was released in 1987, ultimately increasing its collectability as a rare item. The album illuminates the spectrum of differing, even contradictory Butzmann/Kapielski productions, whilst also marking the conclusion of a short epoch which began with punk, post-punk, the Zensor record shop and Genialen Dilletanten in Berlin. It continued through a period of "high cultural relations" before ending in the late 1980s which, by no means coincidentally, is when the duo broke up." --Frieder Butzmann, November 2019

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Frieder Butzmann and Thomas Kapielski's War Pur War was originally released in 1987 on Zensor and is here reissued by Bureau B. Composer, radio dramatist and performance artist Butzmann began exploring experimental music in the late 1960s. One of the pioneers of German industrial music and a member of the Geniale Dilettanten movement, Butzmann has collaborated with artists such as Genesis P-Orridge, Blixa Bargeld, and Santrra Oxyd, as well as releasing numerous solo works. Butzmann joined forces with author and artist Kapielski in the early 1980s. Most of their compositions are minimalist tracks interspersed with everyday noises and fragments of speech, as can be heard on War Pur War. This utterly unique work is an idiosyncratic mix of eccentric electro-pop and bizarre sonic collages and has gone on to become a sought-after collector's item. Remastered, includes new artwork, two bonus tracks, unpublished photos and liner notes by Butzmann.

"War Pur War was created in my small studio at 11-13 Erkelenzdamm, on the same floor as the Institut Unzeit, where the Freunde Guter Musik were also based. The record gathers together an incredibly diverse assortment of short pieces with different backstories. When we had finished recording, Thomas Kapielski and I headed for Hamburg with the two ¼- inch tapes to master the A and B sides of the LP. The engineer was a really friendly guy. He spotted a phase shift between the channels and I'm eternally grateful to him for correcting it! He wasn't quite so meticulous when it came to calibrating volume levels for the record. The three of us -- Kapielski, the engineer, and I -- had a lot of laughs together, but our man didn't take the music particularly seriously and perhaps lacked a little bit of focus. Distribution difficulties meant that only a few copies of the disc made it into the shops when it was released in 1987, ultimately increasing its collectability as a rare item. The album illuminates the spectrum of differing, even contradictory Butzmann/Kapielski productions, whilst also marking the conclusion of a short epoch which began with punk, post-punk, the Zensor record shop and Genialen Dilletanten in Berlin. It continued through a period of "high cultural relations" before ending in the late 1980s which, by no means coincidentally, is when the duo broke up." --Frieder Butzmann, November 2019

$20.00 IN STOCK

Finnish composer and multi-instrumentalist Jimi Tenor has joined forces with Bureau B to release NY, Hel, Barca, a retrospective compilation spanning the years 1994-2001. The release features early works and selected tracks from his first six albums, long since deleted. Having disbanded Jimi Tenor And His Shamans, the artist embarked on a solo career in the early 1990s, recording his debut work Sähkömies on rudimentary equipment in a small New York apartment. The album was released in 1994 on the Finnish imprint Sähkö, who also issued Tenor's sophomore work Europa a year later, expanding on the ideas articulated on the first disc. In spite of the experimental nature and free form of these early recordings, Tenor's instinctive grasp of pop appeal, his spontaneity and whimsical sense of humor are clearly in evidence. On the back of a game-changing performance at the Love Parade in Berlin, Jimi Tenor scored his first hit with "Take Me Baby", entering the charts and signing a deal with the seminal electronic label Warp Records. The three Warp albums --Intervision (1997), Organism (1999), and Out Of Nowhere (2000) -- were touchstones in the electronic club music scene of the period. Effortlessly blending jazz, synthesizer sounds, Afrobeat, and drum machine dubs, Jimi Tenor created a distinctive sound which he himself rewired and renewed. Not that his compositions were overly academic, on the contrary -- they often resembled free-flowing, sporadic sketches, with an infectiously irrepressible touch of the absurd. The 20 tracks on NY, Hel, Barca document key stages of Jimi Tenor's remarkable creative path, underlining the prolific and varied nature of his artistic output. Then as now, he shines like a satellite hovering over the European pop landscape. "Backbone Of The Night" features Riga Symphony Orchestra.

$29.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Finnish composer and multi-instrumentalist Jimi Tenor has joined forces with Bureau B to release NY, Hel, Barca, a retrospective compilation spanning the years 1994-2001. The release features early works and selected tracks from his first six albums, long since deleted. Having disbanded Jimi Tenor And His Shamans, the artist embarked on a solo career in the early 1990s, recording his debut work Sähkömies on rudimentary equipment in a small New York apartment. The album was released in 1994 on the Finnish imprint Sähkö, who also issued Tenor's sophomore work Europa a year later, expanding on the ideas articulated on the first disc. In spite of the experimental nature and free form of these early recordings, Tenor's instinctive grasp of pop appeal, his spontaneity and whimsical sense of humor are clearly in evidence. On the back of a game-changing performance at the Love Parade in Berlin, Jimi Tenor scored his first hit with "Take Me Baby", entering the charts and signing a deal with the seminal electronic label Warp Records. The three Warp albums --Intervision (1997), Organism (1999), and Out Of Nowhere (2000) -- were touchstones in the electronic club music scene of the period. Effortlessly blending jazz, synthesizer sounds, Afrobeat, and drum machine dubs, Jimi Tenor created a distinctive sound which he himself rewired and renewed. Not that his compositions were overly academic, on the contrary -- they often resembled free-flowing, sporadic sketches, with an infectiously irrepressible touch of the absurd. The 20 tracks on NY, Hel, Barca document key stages of Jimi Tenor's remarkable creative path, underlining the prolific and varied nature of his artistic output. Then as now, he shines like a satellite hovering over the European pop landscape. "Backbone Of The Night" features Riga Symphony Orchestra.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's 6 - Interface, originally released in 1977. A brilliant moment occurs right at the end of Heldon's sixth album, Interface. The album's final song, its side-long title track, builds up slowly into a roaring tornado of fiercely mutating drum patterns, effervescent synth work, and guitar licks that wail into the atmosphere like an abandoned astronaut. Then, after nearly 19 minutes of highly futuristic avant-garde space rock, this ultramodern music fades out and is replaced by a concluding few seconds of traditional blues-rock guitar. "We were finishing the track, the tape was rolling, and I started to play a normal boogie or whatever," remembers Heldon leader Richard Pinhas. "I think it was a good idea to keep it. It just came naturally, at the end." This event acts as a reminder of just how far rock n' roll had been transformed since its earliest incarnations. This blueprint had been jolted and nudged down all kinds of unexpected avenues after players like Chuck Berry and Bill Haley first found fame. The genre had branched out into every manner of mutated form. It had given rise to misshapen clones and had shifted into unrecognizable shapes, like a beautiful alien creature from one of the science fiction tales that were fondly admired by so many experimental rock musicians, Pinhas included. Heldon, surely, represented one of rock n' roll's most distant relatives; an innovative fusion of avant-garde rock sounds and synthesizer pulsations. At the same time, Interface's unexpected ending also tells us that such music, however improvisatory or fused with electronic elements, will forever have its roots in those early rock n' roll records that are responsible for so many varieties of aural exploration. Thanks to the increased presence of drummer François Auger and synth/Moog man Patrick Gauthier, Pinhas's project had solidified into a harder and heavier unit. Around the time of the album's release, the musician and composer Jean-Philippe Goude told Pinhas that because of its merging of synthesizer sounds with "real" instrumentation. Despite its often warm and near-funky feel, Interface has been cited as an influence on key industrial and noise musicians including Wolf Eyes and Merzbow.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's seventh and final album of the 1970s Stand By, originally released in 1979. After the release of Stand By, Richard Pinhas focused on solo LPs before quitting music for around a decade. "It was the end of the tale," he explains. "We decided to split for many reasons. The main one was that one or two of the other musicians wanted to stop. They were session musicians, mainly. At one point they said they didn't have so much time to give. And it was a time when a lot of bands who had become reluctantly successful decided to split . . . Split at the top, not waiting to go down." Heldon certainly went out on a high. Stand By's mood remains urgent and gripping throughout, fashioned via immense synthesizer sounds, a plethora of interweaving drum patterns, spiraling guitar chops, and lurching riffs. It's been likened to krautrock, yet Pinhas never paid attention to the German scene. There are other similarities to parallel innovations that John Carpenter was making in the field of sci-fi/horror soundtracks. The hazmat-suit-wearing figure on Stand By's cover could have starred in such a movie. The album's unearthly vocals were provided by Klaus Blasquiz of Magma. Some progressive musicians of the '70s felt threatened by the rise of punk -- Not Pinhas. As producer, he worked with French punk acts like Asphalt Jungle. No, Pinhas was more troubled by wider world developments. These miseries played their own part in Heldon's demise. "We recorded Stand By in '78, going into '79. Politics had all shifted to the right with your Maggie Thatcher and, in America, that very bad actor. They started the bullshit of neoliberalism that we have to live with now, everywhere. We're going to be in a very fascistic world within twenty years. Not even that long. The initiation of this change came with Reagan and Maggie. It started in the '80s." Stand By was recorded at Studio Davout, the Parisian home to recordings by everyone from Karlheinz Stockhausen to Johnny Hallyday. That, too, has fallen victim to brutal economics. It was demolished in 2018. "They destroyed the main historical studio in France to put up a supermarket!" says Pinhas. "It was a place where a lot of things happened. Musicians were working all night long. It could've been a museum for music."

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale, originally released in 1976. Heldon's Richard Pinhas has never been shy of pinpointing his influences while, at the same time, making music that is noticeably distinct from any of his designated sources. He has, for instance, made it clear that a significant font of inspiration was Robert Fripp's guitar style and melding of rock music with cutting-edge electronics (especially in collaboration with Brian Eno). Indeed, Heldon's fifth album, Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale, was named after a live bootleg of a King Crimson concert. Pinhas first met Fripp in 1974, and the pair became friends and have remained in contact ever since. Pinhas was even offered a deal with E.G. Records, the company that oversaw King Crimson alongside other successful groups like Roxy Music and ELP. "That was a dream," says Pinhas. "But when you are 22, you are in a hurry. They asked me to wait one or two years before joining the team. I couldn't wait two years!" Instead, Pinhas launched his own label, Disjuncta, which he later sold to purchase the Moog synthesizer that would make a huge difference to Heldon's sound. Heldon's output also drew from radical science fiction (Philip K. Dick, Norman Spinrad, etc.) as well as philosophy: the sleeve features a quote from Pierre Klossowski's Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle (1969). Heldon never represented a mere facsimile of Pinhas's musical touchstones: King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, or Frank Zappa. Heldon was always its own beast and by 1976 it was thriving and roaring like never before. More work was being completed in a proper studio, the Moog helped strengthen the sound and direction, and Pinhas's rotating cast of collaborators was solidifying into something resembling a regular lineup, with François Auger on drums and Patrick Gauthier on synthesizers. The result was a darker, heavier, and more intense sound. The LP opens with the prog-gone-skronk onslaught of "Marie Virginie C", sounding rather like Robert Fripp being sliced into bloody chunks in Thurston Moore's basement. Auger is the star of "Elephanta", in all its Moog-assisted polyrhythmic glory. On side two, "MVC II" offers six minutes of sinister dystopian squelch rock. It's followed by "Toward The Red Line", an epic piece conceivably serving to connect the dots between Hawkwind's most freeform passages and the Detroit techno innovations of the coming decade.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Some will know Felix Kubin as the Janus-faced poltergeist of retrofuture electronic dance music. To others, he is an award-winning radio dramatist, an arranger of complex orchestral and big band compositions. Contemporary experimental musicians see him as the personification of pop desire. For producers of pop and club music, meanwhile, he is a tree trunk, spanning the deep gorge between them and high culture. One thing they can all agree on: when Kubin shows up, concrete and plastic melt. Born in 1980, Hubert Zemler enrolled at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in his home town of Warsaw in 1999. His classical training encompassed jazz, contemporary music, and improvisation, positioning the drummer, percussionist and composer as a congenial counterweight to Kubin's ludicrous electronica. The debut album from this German-Polish duo CEL is a test laboratory for rhythmic cadences and electrostatic discharges. Under the expert guidance of Hamburg producer Tobias Levin, they have created seven self-contained instrumentals enriched by vibraphone, xylophone, and African percussion. Zemler's stripped down mechanics and Kubin's erratic electronics dovetail superbly. A sense of concentrated restlessness pervades the album -- in the greater stream of things, some tracks come close to bursting their banks whilst others scale the loftiest heights of insanity. And yet, every movement, every tone fits perfectly. There is method to the madness, an exercise in systematic excess. A disconcerting electronic pulse traces a filtered path through "Ping Korridor". In the space of something over ten minutes the atmosphere shifts from oppressiveness to openness. Indeed, unexpected twists lurk in many of the tracks, ensnaring the listener's undivided attention. On the contrary, it's full speed ahead with eyes wide open, deeper and deeper into the affair. Ghostly synths shimmer through "Lichtton", punctuated by minimalist drums. No wave skeletons dance to the jagged rhythms of "Elektrybałt". "Funkenkammer" is an acid monster dedicated to shredding your nerves. "Jimmy Carter" sends shockwaves across the dancefloor, causing bodies and objects to collide. You may ask: "how is such a thing humanly possible? How can something so angular, so intrinsically Teutonic, groove so wildly?" This album sees Felix Kubin push his sound generators to the outer limits of the frequency spectrum. Hubert Zemler delivers wonderfully forceful, machine-like beats and dark sonic collages. An album that sounds as if it has always existed as a source of inspiration to generations of musicians. A timeless classic.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Some will know Felix Kubin as the Janus-faced poltergeist of retrofuture electronic dance music. To others, he is an award-winning radio dramatist, an arranger of complex orchestral and big band compositions. Contemporary experimental musicians see him as the personification of pop desire. For producers of pop and club music, meanwhile, he is a tree trunk, spanning the deep gorge between them and high culture. One thing they can all agree on: when Kubin shows up, concrete and plastic melt. Born in 1980, Hubert Zemler enrolled at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in his home town of Warsaw in 1999. His classical training encompassed jazz, contemporary music, and improvisation, positioning the drummer, percussionist and composer as a congenial counterweight to Kubin's ludicrous electronica. The debut album from this German-Polish duo CEL is a test laboratory for rhythmic cadences and electrostatic discharges. Under the expert guidance of Hamburg producer Tobias Levin, they have created seven self-contained instrumentals enriched by vibraphone, xylophone, and African percussion. Zemler's stripped down mechanics and Kubin's erratic electronics dovetail superbly. A sense of concentrated restlessness pervades the album -- in the greater stream of things, some tracks come close to bursting their banks whilst others scale the loftiest heights of insanity. And yet, every movement, every tone fits perfectly. There is method to the madness, an exercise in systematic excess. A disconcerting electronic pulse traces a filtered path through "Ping Korridor". In the space of something over ten minutes the atmosphere shifts from oppressiveness to openness. Indeed, unexpected twists lurk in many of the tracks, ensnaring the listener's undivided attention. On the contrary, it's full speed ahead with eyes wide open, deeper and deeper into the affair. Ghostly synths shimmer through "Lichtton", punctuated by minimalist drums. No wave skeletons dance to the jagged rhythms of "Elektrybałt". "Funkenkammer" is an acid monster dedicated to shredding your nerves. "Jimmy Carter" sends shockwaves across the dancefloor, causing bodies and objects to collide. You may ask: "how is such a thing humanly possible? How can something so angular, so intrinsically Teutonic, groove so wildly?" This album sees Felix Kubin push his sound generators to the outer limits of the frequency spectrum. Hubert Zemler delivers wonderfully forceful, machine-like beats and dark sonic collages. An album that sounds as if it has always existed as a source of inspiration to generations of musicians. A timeless classic.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Sammlung (BB 236CD/LP, 2017) compiled by Stefan Schneider first introduced a selection of previously little-known exponents of 1980s Duesseldorf electronic tape music. A further remarkable example of the Duesseldorf underground tape output, 1986's Singende Drahte originally circulated in a minuscule edition among aficionados only is now finally available as a CD and vinyl re-edition. Deux Baleines Blanches was the name of Stefan Schneider's avant-pop-project who concurrently with his studies of photography at Duesseldorf's Kunstakademie had begun his musical explorations in the early 1980s, which also led him to cofound the bands Kreidler (1994) and To Rococo Rot (1995). Singende Drahte showcases some of his early work in the field. The somewhat sketchy and abstract character of these 14 tracks, "Draehte" (wires) is slightly reminiscent of the esthetics of contemporary labels like Les Disques du Crépuscule or early 4AD, yet they sound surprisingly modern even 30 years after they were first released.

"The music on this album has originally been recorded in an attempt to recreate an electric drone emanating from an overhead electric power line which I had noticed by chance on a humid day in May 1986 whilst on a bicycle tour across the rural outskirts of Düsseldorf. The surprising discovery of this static yet tender hum which filled the air was a completely overwhelming listening experience . . . The very next day I borrowed a recording device from a friend (it was a Sony Walkman if memory serves) and went back to the same spot right underneath the huge wires of the power line, eagerly anticipating the chance to record this particular hum, my future favorite album onto cassette tape. Yet weirdly, on this day the hum was nowhere to be heard . . . Back at home I took my guitar and my amp and tried to imitate what I could not record in the field. The more effort I put into these attempts the worse it got, however I was convinced . . . A couple of weeks later, however, I listened back to these sketches and was surprised that there was something quite uniquely intriguing within these recorded fragments. You simply had to disregard the original intention -- to imitate the sound of an electric hum. I chose to liberate myself from the constraints of the experiment and subsequently recorded my sketches on a 4-track cassette. The nished cassette was released in November 1986 in an edition of maybe 15 copies." --Stefan Schneider, October 2019

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Sammlung (BB 236CD/LP, 2017) compiled by Stefan Schneider first introduced a selection of previously little-known exponents of 1980s Duesseldorf electronic tape music. A further remarkable example of the Duesseldorf underground tape output, 1986's Singende Drahte originally circulated in a minuscule edition among aficionados only is now finally available as a CD and vinyl re-edition. Deux Baleines Blanches was the name of Stefan Schneider's avant-pop-project who concurrently with his studies of photography at Duesseldorf's Kunstakademie had begun his musical explorations in the early 1980s, which also led him to cofound the bands Kreidler (1994) and To Rococo Rot (1995). Singende Drahte showcases some of his early work in the field. The somewhat sketchy and abstract character of these 14 tracks, "Draehte" (wires) is slightly reminiscent of the esthetics of contemporary labels like Les Disques du Crépuscule or early 4AD, yet they sound surprisingly modern even 30 years after they were first released.

"The music on this album has originally been recorded in an attempt to recreate an electric drone emanating from an overhead electric power line which I had noticed by chance on a humid day in May 1986 whilst on a bicycle tour across the rural outskirts of Düsseldorf. The surprising discovery of this static yet tender hum which filled the air was a completely overwhelming listening experience . . . The very next day I borrowed a recording device from a friend (it was a Sony Walkman if memory serves) and went back to the same spot right underneath the huge wires of the power line, eagerly anticipating the chance to record this particular hum, my future favorite album onto cassette tape. Yet weirdly, on this day the hum was nowhere to be heard . . . Back at home I took my guitar and my amp and tried to imitate what I could not record in the field. The more effort I put into these attempts the worse it got, however I was convinced . . . A couple of weeks later, however, I listened back to these sketches and was surprised that there was something quite uniquely intriguing within these recorded fragments. You simply had to disregard the original intention -- to imitate the sound of an electric hum. I chose to liberate myself from the constraints of the experiment and subsequently recorded my sketches on a 4-track cassette. The nished cassette was released in November 1986 in an edition of maybe 15 copies." --Stefan Schneider, October 2019

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's 6 - Interface, originally released in 1977. A brilliant moment occurs right at the end of Heldon's sixth album, Interface. The album's final song, its side-long title track, builds up slowly into a roaring tornado of fiercely mutating drum patterns, effervescent synth work, and guitar licks that wail into the atmosphere like an abandoned astronaut. Then, after nearly 19 minutes of highly futuristic avant-garde space rock, this ultramodern music fades out and is replaced by a concluding few seconds of traditional blues-rock guitar. "We were finishing the track, the tape was rolling, and I started to play a normal boogie or whatever," remembers Heldon leader Richard Pinhas. "I think it was a good idea to keep it. It just came naturally, at the end." This event acts as a reminder of just how far rock n' roll had been transformed since its earliest incarnations. This blueprint had been jolted and nudged down all kinds of unexpected avenues after players like Chuck Berry and Bill Haley first found fame. The genre had branched out into every manner of mutated form. It had given rise to misshapen clones and had shifted into unrecognizable shapes, like a beautiful alien creature from one of the science fiction tales that were fondly admired by so many experimental rock musicians, Pinhas included. Heldon, surely, represented one of rock n' roll's most distant relatives; an innovative fusion of avant-garde rock sounds and synthesizer pulsations. At the same time, Interface's unexpected ending also tells us that such music, however improvisatory or fused with electronic elements, will forever have its roots in those early rock n' roll records that are responsible for so many varieties of aural exploration. Thanks to the increased presence of drummer François Auger and synth/Moog man Patrick Gauthier, Pinhas's project had solidified into a harder and heavier unit. Around the time of the album's release, the musician and composer Jean-Philippe Goude told Pinhas that because of its merging of synthesizer sounds with "real" instrumentation. Despite its often warm and near-funky feel, Interface has been cited as an influence on key industrial and noise musicians including Wolf Eyes and Merzbow.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's seventh and final album of the 1970s Stand By, originally released in 1979. After the release of Stand By, Richard Pinhas focused on solo LPs before quitting music for around a decade. "It was the end of the tale," he explains. "We decided to split for many reasons. The main one was that one or two of the other musicians wanted to stop. They were session musicians, mainly. At one point they said they didn't have so much time to give. And it was a time when a lot of bands who had become reluctantly successful decided to split . . . Split at the top, not waiting to go down." Heldon certainly went out on a high. Stand By's mood remains urgent and gripping throughout, fashioned via immense synthesizer sounds, a plethora of interweaving drum patterns, spiraling guitar chops, and lurching riffs. It's been likened to krautrock, yet Pinhas never paid attention to the German scene. There are other similarities to parallel innovations that John Carpenter was making in the field of sci-fi/horror soundtracks. The hazmat-suit-wearing figure on Stand By's cover could have starred in such a movie. The album's unearthly vocals were provided by Klaus Blasquiz of Magma. Some progressive musicians of the '70s felt threatened by the rise of punk -- Not Pinhas. As producer, he worked with French punk acts like Asphalt Jungle. No, Pinhas was more troubled by wider world developments. These miseries played their own part in Heldon's demise. "We recorded Stand By in '78, going into '79. Politics had all shifted to the right with your Maggie Thatcher and, in America, that very bad actor. They started the bullshit of neoliberalism that we have to live with now, everywhere. We're going to be in a very fascistic world within twenty years. Not even that long. The initiation of this change came with Reagan and Maggie. It started in the '80s." Stand By was recorded at Studio Davout, the Parisian home to recordings by everyone from Karlheinz Stockhausen to Johnny Hallyday. That, too, has fallen victim to brutal economics. It was demolished in 2018. "They destroyed the main historical studio in France to put up a supermarket!" says Pinhas. "It was a place where a lot of things happened. Musicians were working all night long. It could've been a museum for music."

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Heldon's Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale, originally released in 1976. Heldon's Richard Pinhas has never been shy of pinpointing his influences while, at the same time, making music that is noticeably distinct from any of his designated sources. He has, for instance, made it clear that a significant font of inspiration was Robert Fripp's guitar style and melding of rock music with cutting-edge electronics (especially in collaboration with Brian Eno). Indeed, Heldon's fifth album, Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale, was named after a live bootleg of a King Crimson concert. Pinhas first met Fripp in 1974, and the pair became friends and have remained in contact ever since. Pinhas was even offered a deal with E.G. Records, the company that oversaw King Crimson alongside other successful groups like Roxy Music and ELP. "That was a dream," says Pinhas. "But when you are 22, you are in a hurry. They asked me to wait one or two years before joining the team. I couldn't wait two years!" Instead, Pinhas launched his own label, Disjuncta, which he later sold to purchase the Moog synthesizer that would make a huge difference to Heldon's sound. Heldon's output also drew from radical science fiction (Philip K. Dick, Norman Spinrad, etc.) as well as philosophy: the sleeve features a quote from Pierre Klossowski's Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle (1969). Heldon never represented a mere facsimile of Pinhas's musical touchstones: King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, or Frank Zappa. Heldon was always its own beast and by 1976 it was thriving and roaring like never before. More work was being completed in a proper studio, the Moog helped strengthen the sound and direction, and Pinhas's rotating cast of collaborators was solidifying into something resembling a regular lineup, with François Auger on drums and Patrick Gauthier on synthesizers. The result was a darker, heavier, and more intense sound. The LP opens with the prog-gone-skronk onslaught of "Marie Virginie C", sounding rather like Robert Fripp being sliced into bloody chunks in Thurston Moore's basement. Auger is the star of "Elephanta", in all its Moog-assisted polyrhythmic glory. On side two, "MVC II" offers six minutes of sinister dystopian squelch rock. It's followed by "Toward The Red Line", an epic piece conceivably serving to connect the dots between Hawkwind's most freeform passages and the Detroit techno innovations of the coming decade.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B present a reissue of Notorische Reflexe's self-titled release, originally released in 1985 on Rebel Records. Mark Reeder on Notorische Reflexe: "I honestly can't remember the first time I saw Notorische Reflexe perform, but I imagine it was probably at some mad avant-garde experimental event in SO36 or Tempodrom, or somewhere, because those days have become a hazy, crazy mixture of drunken, drug-fueled fragments of memories that have become barricaded in the back of my mind. One thing I do remember, is that their performances were always packed with wild and experimental artistic creativity. They were always extremely entertaining to watch, mixing self-made movies and music at a time when it was not the norm . . . Yet, the Notorische Reflexe were not just a band in the traditional sense, they were a collective of artists, each with a unique talent of their own, which they pooled together to create an experimental experience with every performance. You didn't go to a Notorische Reflexe gig to listen to a collection of their greatest hits, you went to a Notorische Reflexe gig to be enlightened and always, challenged. The '80s were a time of creative liberation . . . It was as if they almost expected you to be weird and the weirder you were, the better and without doubt, Notorische Reflexe certainly fitted that bill. I loved watching them live. They were fun and funny. I sometimes got the impression they were trying to force a square peg into a round hole, like mixing disco with dirge, but that was the whole point of their unconventional presentation. They caused you to consider and query. Each performance was a one-off event never to be repeated. The movies mashed with the music, always in a bizarre setting, with piles of electronic junk as their stage scenery, which became their signature. Ok, the Notorische Reflexe might not be as well-known as Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Tödliche Doris, or Malaria!, but they were as equally important in creating what has meanwhile become known as the Berliner Geniale Dillitanten scene, because it was all the other bands like Notorische Reflexe (or my own band Die Unbekannten), who participated in this experiment, and who were an essential part of the pyramid of bands that supported the main feature and helped to create the Berliner Krankheit."