|
|
|
|
viewing 1 To 25 of 30 items
Next >>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1903LP
|
$23.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/27/2019
Remo Seeland's Hollow Body is a suspenseful exploration of the interaction between sound environments and individual perception. It was sparked by an intense physical experience the Swiss artist had during a residency in New York City. "The subway became a sort of 'atonal symphony' for me, provoking a full-body experience with the rattling of the overcrowded, airless trains," the Hallow Ground founder explains. "However, while the old subway is not exactly beloved by everyone, it also represented for me the melancholic meta-level of the moloch above it." The album, his first under his given name, makes this disparity audible over six tracks in which the visceral and the personal become at once abstract and universal. Based on field recordings from both urban and rural environments, Hollow Body aims to mirror another of Seeland's psycho-sonic encounters. "In the highlands of Iceland, I noticed my pulse lowering and my breathing decelerating," he says. "Just shortly after that, a single insect's buzzing seemed so loud to me that I became even more aware of the silence surrounding me." Silence, perception, order, and the curious dialectics of the outside world and the inner workings of the human psyche are the central questions of Hollow Body. Recorded in New York, Reykjavík, and Zurich, Hollow Body draws extensively on field recordings and sees Seeland collaborating with Hallow Ground-affiliated artists Norman Westberg (Swans, guitar on "Body Innovation" and "Hollow City") and Reinier van Houdt (Current 93, e-bowed guitar on "Hollow City" and Rhodes organ on "Pulse Points Green"), as well as the Swiss-based US-American musician Steve Fors (Deaf At Sea, trombone on "Second Coming"). The diversity of the source material is mirrored in the stylistic richness Seeland lays out with this LP. From the lush, bass-heavy drones of the opener "Body Innovation", to the downbeat-driven "Second Coming" and, finally, the haunting organ sounds of "Night Within", Hollow Body forms a holistic entity that integrates idiosyncratic compositions into a coherent narrative.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1902LP
|
9T Antiope have made a name for themselves in the vibrant experimental music scene of Iran over the past years. Now based in Paris, Sara Bigdeli Shamloo and Nima Aghiani are expanding their stylistic scope and team up with long-time friend Siavash Amini for their debut release on Hallow Ground. After 2017's Tar (HG 1703CD/LP) and Foras the year after 2018 (HG 1805LP), Harmistice is Amini's third LP for the Swiss-based label and his first in collaboration with other artists. Recorded in Paris and Tehran, the four tracks are the result of "all the long hours of speaking online, being kilometers away, it is a love child of those short times we actually got to be physically in one place." Vocalist and lyricist Shamloo enters a dialogue with Aghiani and Amini's sound art, which is from restrained but interlocks voice and noise with striking subtlety. Harmistice seamlessly blends the visceral with the sublime, the abstract with the oh-too-real. From the very first second of "Blue As In Bleeding", Harmistice evokes a sense of suspended terror. Shrill frequencies and aleatoric bursts of feedback give way to a hard-hitting bass drum until Shamloo's voice arises from the chaos with an uneasy clarity. It's the perfect opening for a record that is built upon stark contrasts like this one. Amini and Aghiani bring together synthetic sounds with acoustic instruments, creating a tangible tension on which Shamloo's sometimes sensitive, sometimes emotionally detached delivery thrives. "It's all based on a dream, a nightmare about war," she says in regards to her lyrics that move between poetic abstraction and first-person prose, blurring the lines between lived experience and sinister premonition. Harmistice takes inventory after the oneiric damage has been dealt in real life. As a whole, Harmistice is thus as ambiguous as its title suggests. As an all-too-lucid dream about unspeakable things that are being lent a voice it overwhelms the senses with an unheard-of volume. Drawn from the depths of the subconscious, Harmistice may just be the most challenging album in either 9T Antiope or Amini's discography. 180 gram white vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1901LP
|
Vegetal Negatives is a game of sonic mutations, mimicry, inversions, and association inspired by a text called "On pataphotograms", by the French writer René Daumal -- a quasi-metaphysical essay that toys with breaking the conceived separateness of natural forms through poetic imagination. Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a Swedish-born artist living and working in Turku, Finland. She has been an active part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years, performing with Ahti & Ahti and under the moniker Tsembla. Now arriving at her debut LP under her own name, Ahti explores a new formal language and sonic palette that ventures far from the path of her earlier work. The four electroacoustic compositions on the album combine and arrange field recordings, electronic feedback, Buchla and ARP synthesizers, bowl gong and harmonium, textures of detailed acoustic sound, and sustained tones with gentle microtonal beating into a precise musical narrative. She juxtaposes recordings of rooms and empty vessels, natural and artificial climates, spontaneous and staged events. Ahti draws upon Annea Lockwood's ideas about associative movements between sounds based on shared characteristics and sonic energy. The sounds hover between abstraction and the deeply familiar, moving into a realm of poetic metaphor where they are set in relation to each other, fleetingly mirroring or shadow-dancing. Acoustic environments mutate into synthetically derived shadow forms.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1806LP
|
Originally issued by Ascetic House as a small limited-run cassette release, PLYXY's Gloryland now be available on vinyl by Swiss imprint Hallow Ground. The nostalgia that informs Gloryland is PLYXY's longing for his cultural-geographic roots while feeling adrift in an alien environment. Born in Dnepropetrovsk, then the rocket-making capital of the USSR, Knopov immigrated to New York City as a child in 1989. In Gloryland, he dives deep into his uneasy childhood memories and their warped reflections. PLYXY marks the unreliability of his recollections by making it heard; the anthemic qualities of the five pieces are coated in an opaque layer of dream-like textures. From the elegiac opener, "It Will Be Beautiful", to the blaring rhythmic noise of "March of Youth", the greyscale picture painted by Gloryland becomes more and more refined below the surface. PLYXY's search for a past is, however, less a sentimental journey, and more a radical confrontation with the politics of memory and the materials that serve as mnemonic devices. Gloryland draws on field recordings from Knopov's adopted hometown New York and Soviet films as well as performances from his collection of analog and digital keyboards, with the results filtered and re-textured through the producer's modular synthesizer setup acting as the final editorial layer in the creative process. The result is lush and warm throughout, but also demure and distant.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1807LP
|
Reinier Van Houdt returns to Hallow Ground with an album based on the unfinished gothic tale Igitur, a collection of texts that eventually was abandoned by its author Stéphane Mallarmé in 1869. Connecting with Mallarmé's obsessions about chance and destiny, Igitur Carbon Copies is the fragmentation of all the roots that ran under its predecessor Paths Of The Errant Gaze (HG 1606LP, 2016) and brings these to a provisional close: guided by David Tibet's voice reading the reworked text we descend through spheres of deserted anthems, disembodied voices, Morse signals, crank calls, corroded tapes, radio statics, stones, while doing counting games. Here the acoustical spaces are manifold, blended or shifted in a heartbeat, where far and near, up and down are relative, where Riemann's god is pointless and angels are enjoying their space. Here perception is a vice that constantly hallucinates realities. Van Houdt has built himself an unusual repertoire that consistently resulted from personal quests; from composing with non-musical sources, from collaborations with composers & musicians, from research in archives or from unorthodox studies of classical music. He collaborated with artists like Francisco López, Maria de Alvear, Robert Ashley, Luc Ferrari, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Curran, John Cage, Christian Marclay, Walter Marchetti, Charlemagne Palestine, and joined the legendary outsider-collective Current 93 in 2012. 180 gram clear vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1801LP
|
Collaborative project of Algis Kizys, Norman Westberg, and Lynn Wright. Having previously released a limited-edition cassette tape in 2016 under the name of ALN, their self-titled album for Hallow Ground is to be considered the three-piece's definite studio debut as This Is Where. Recorded and mixed by Kizys, This Is Where delves even deeper into the psychedelic and at times cosmic drone sound previously to be heard in the New York City-based trio's live recordings. As a logical next step after what the Swans guitarist Westberg has presented on recent solo albums like The All Most Quiet for Hallow Ground (HG 1605CD/LP, 2016), it integrates three distinct musical visions into a whirling ocean of sound. This Is Where's sound is neither dominated by the thundering brutalism of Swans nor the gloomy doom pop of Wright's Bee And Flower. Instead Kizys, Westberg, and Wright use delay, reverb and effects to weave a pulsating web of sonic textures, moving effortlessly from dark depths to almost jubilant high notes. With Kizy's roaring bass guitar as a sonic backdrop, Westberg and Wright give rise to a musical dialogue marked by density and tension. Over the course of 40 minutes, This Is Where create a mesmerizing musical experience, divided into four discrete movements.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1805LP
|
After 2017's Tar', Foras is Iranian sound artist Siavash Amini's second album for the Hallow Ground and his sixth solo album in only six years. The four tracks see him returning to his singular approach that blends harsh electronic noise with lush granular synthesis and classical compositional techniques. Over the course of roughly 38 minutes, the album navigates between different and at times seemingly contradictory moods, thus mirroring its underlying concept. Foras explores how individual sorrow relates to and is triggered by space. Similar to what the late theorist Mark Fisher has dubbed the "eerie," the LP focuses on how landscapes and buildings connect to and transform the inside world and thus the psychological experience. May it be by passing through a space haunted by collective memories of loss or tragedy, or by means of interpersonal dialogue, or even a memory of such events in each individual's mind elaborates Amini on the starting points from which Foras dives further and further into the darkness. It is no surprise then that the incredibly lush soundscapes of'Foras evoke distance as much as depth.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1804LP
|
Distant Animals is the artistic output of Daniel Alexander Hignell, a researcher and sound, video, and performance artist from England. He has recorded, written, performed, and researched numerous socially-oriented sound works across Europe, often choosing to work with a diverse range of collaborators, including visual artists, choreographers, theologians, lawyers, and political activists. Drawing upon the works of La Monte Young, Morton Feldman, Eleh, and Mauricio Kagel, Lines employs a highly conceptual approach to its genre, incorporating the notion of the drone as both a compositional method, a spiritual approach, and a participatory tool for engaging its audience. The album contains a pack of four postcards, documenting a land-art intervention undertaken during the creation of the score. Included in each pack is an individually hand-stamped and numbered print, created by artist Layla Tully. 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1803LP
|
Kali Malone's sophomore LP Cast of Mind investigates the use of harmony as a force of psychological impact through the exclusive use of the Buchla 200 synthesizer in combination with acoustic woodwind and brass instruments. The record begins as a cascade of battle calls from the wind instruments that shift between triumphant and anguished howls. While the other pieces pull from the septimal harmonic framework of the title track, they extract a more confined palette to depict their sonic identities indicated by the song titles. "Bondage To Formula" weaves synthesis, trombone, and bass clarinet in a delicate pattern, conjuring an ambiguous assimilation of the acoustic and synthetic. Dominated by columns of sawtooth waveforms, "Arched In Hysteria" unravels as a sharp and sober harmony perched on the border of violence, ringing in paranoia amongst a foundation of low beating oscillators. The record concludes in the rapture of "Empty The Belief", swollen with undulating bassoon striving to intonate to the towering stability of machine-generated harmony. 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1707LP
|
For over two decades now, Martin Maischein has dedicated himself to all things adventurous on labels such as Editions Mego, Force Inc., or Position Chrome. In 2017, Maischein released Yogascum as a small-run cassette release on Hospital Productions under his Goner moniker. This re-release marks Yogascum's first time on vinyl. Having received a grant by the Musicboard Berlin, he developed an audio-visual show around the three tracks at the core of Yogascum, all of which feature instruments and sounds previously unheard in his work. Cellist Unter Lala weaves her signature screeches into the pulsating drones of "YS- 1" and "YS-3", zK member Mark Godwin on "YS-2" injects the subtle influence of a band whose records he has been working on as a mastering engineer, Coil. While the title of Yogascum is a tongue-in-cheek riff on one of Maischein's favorite pastimes, it can indeed be taken at face value: The newest of the three core pieces, "YS-1", is in fact meant to support a slow and focused breathing rhythm. Built around Unter Lala's evocative sustained notes, it harkens back to the cultural origins of drone music. While "YS-2" is based on an elegiac industrial rhythm, "YS-3" sees Unter Lala and Maischein opting for a more abrasive approach. "Endtitle", the credit music for the audio-visual show built around the three compositions, comes as a wake-up call. It also serves as a firm reminder that Maischein hasn't forgotten about his own roots in IDM-tinged electronica. 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1706LP
|
The material on Martina Lussi's Selected Ambient oscillates between electroacoustic composition, sound art, and live performance. The pieces are named after precious gemstones, all of which are traditionally ascribed with special powers. In using these names, the artist seems to refer to the esoteric roots of the genre invoked by the LP's title. The compositions, however, resist the genre's characteristically naïve re-enchantment of the world and distrust holistic esotericism's promise of healing and restoration. Instead, they are defined much more by an interest in affective uncertainties. The gemstones don't want to affect or influence -- they simply want to exist as witnesses of/to the ultimately incommensurable reality that lives beyond our own horizon. Lussi holds a Master of Arts in Contemporary Arts Practice. Lussi has performed work between the disciplines of sound art and music performance at places like LUFF (Lausanne Underground Film Festival) and the festival Oto Nove Swiss at London's Café Oto. 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
PIC. DISC + CD
|
|
HG 1705LP
|
Ivan Pavlov pays tribute to the late Sentrax founder and prolific musician John Everall, who passed away in September 2014. Sourced from analog material, the six tracks are an exercise in minimalism and subtlety singular even in Pavlov's impressive back catalog. Pavlov focuses on swirling arpeggios whose colorfulness is mirrored in Ruth Stofer's artwork. From the joyful, handclap-driven "2016", to the hectic gabber derivate "Overbeat", the Russian producer explores a minimalistic yet organic palette of synthesizer sounds that stylistically reach from the hymn-like poise of "Wavetrap" to the playful and warm vibes of "Alone (Minimal Selfie)". With a feature of Coil's John Balance on the CD-only bonus track "Hunger Remix", Pavlov adds yet another facet to this evocative marriage of sonic purity and emotional rawness. Over a throbbing rhythm, the late poet's dry intonation serves as an eerie coda to this tender tribute to lost friends. As a dialogue between this world and the other, CoH's digital manipulation and Everall's analog source material as well as stark minimalism and tonal richness, CoH Plays Everall captures two kindred spirits bidding each other farewell. Limited edition picture disc includes a CD.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1704LP
|
Trance-derived melodies, murky industrial grooves, and all-consuming harsh noise attacks from Dedekind Cut. Created in transit between New York, Seoul, and Berlin and recorded between the fall of 2016 and the winter of 2017. Over 23 minutes, the release shifts from densely layered textures to subtle piano notes and hard-hammering beats, seemingly mirroring the drastic changes of the times in which they were conceived. With the help of Dirch Heather (modular synths), Elysia Crampton (piano), Mica Levi (dubbed piano), Jesse Osborne-Lanthier (synths), as well as Dominick Fernow alias Prurient and Death Grips drummer Zach Hill on percussion, Fred Welton Warmsley III reminds his listeners that now is not the time to give up. Warmsley left behind a career as Joey Bada$$'s producer and his previous moniker Lee Bannon to pursue a more experimental musical approach as Dedekind Cut. It's a conceptual entity that draws on creative collaboration and aims at gathering unique artists under a single musical vision. Amidst the cacophony, a distinctive voice can be heard. The Expanding Domain might sound bleak and unforgiving at first, but it also communicates a hope as well as a desire to resist. After all, there is a reason that this record was created as a loop.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
HG 1703CD
|
Continuing his experiments combining elements of drone and modern classical music, Tehran based composer Siavash Amini's fourth solo album Tar explores the fragile tensions between an individual and a collective subconscious. Making its starting point the expression of these feelings in dreams and nightmares of each individual, Tar translates the images, feelings, and textures into sound. After a series of noisier and less melodic albums, Tar catches the active listener with a subtle tension created by oscillating sounds somewhere between discomfort and transcendence. Even if some parts of Tar are quite disturbing, the record never becomes simply dark. "Amini provides a satisfying mix of modern classical composition, ambient noise, granular synthesis and musique concrète with a hint of muscularity below its serene surface." --The Guardian
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1703LP
|
LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Continuing his experiments combining elements of drone and modern classical music, Tehran based composer Siavash Amini's fourth solo album Tar explores the fragile tensions between an individual and a collective subconscious. Making its starting point the expression of these feelings in dreams and nightmares of each individual, Tar translates the images, feelings, and textures into sound. After a series of noisier and less melodic albums, Tar catches the active listener with a subtle tension created by oscillating sounds somewhere between discomfort and transcendence. Even if some parts of Tar are quite disturbing, the record never becomes simply dark. "Amini provides a satisfying mix of modern classical composition, ambient noise, granular synthesis and musique concrète with a hint of muscularity below its serene surface." --The Guardian
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1702LP
|
The multi-channel sound work Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes is the result of Samuel Savenberg's two-week-long artist residency at Lucerne's Südpol in the summer of 2015. Originally available as a small-run cassette release through the Italian Haunter Records imprint (2015), Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes has been carefully mastered for a vinyl issue by Room40 founder Lawrence English. During his residency, Savenberg explored the sonic environment of Südpol, doing field recordings around the building or recording pianos and even another resident, an actor whose fragmented and distorted voice can be heard throughout the two parts that make up Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes. While this particular work does not necessarily explore a theoretical framework like Savenberg's previous releases under his S S S S moniker, it is not to be understood as an experimental piece, but rather an extension of his singular approach to electronic composition. Black and silver cover artwork; Comes as 180 gram vinyl.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
2LP
|
|
HG 1701LP
|
After more than ten years of making music with turntables, tapes, and loops, the Swiss based musician, artist, performer, and architect Christoph Hess started the project Strotter Inst. in 1998 to concentrate just on the manipulation of turntables, not using any records or sounds made by someone or something else. The anachronistic machineries have dual roles as objects and as instruments. The first live impact was as installations, then the sounds start to grab the listener's attention. The auditory level surpasses the visual one. Therefore, the optical comprehension of how the sound is generated plays an important role. Hardly using sounds from LPs - if used, they are cut or scotched - the main source of sound are the prepared pick-ups (i.e. sewing needles or strings instead of the diamond or the extended use of rubber bands). The treatment involves the unclean nature of the sounds as part of the music. Besides the work as a musician, Strotter Inst. creates sound objects and installations out of turntables. The abbreviation "Inst." can both mean "instrument" and "installation". Comes on white vinyl. "Absolutely fantastic stuff!" --Aquarius Records
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1607LP
|
Bad White Corpuscle is the work of Danny Hyde, producer and remixer of Coil, Nine Inch Nails, Psychic TV, Depeche Mode and many others. It was originally released on CD in 2014 by Old Europa Cafe. It follows the debut Electric Sewer Age album Moon's Milk In Final Phase (2012). Coil lovers know that Hyde was a kind of a secret member of the group, so it's not surprising that Bad White Corpuscle sounds kind of like a lost Coil album. "Redocine (Death Of The Corpuscle)" is a previously unreleased new track which doesn't appear on the CD version. It was specially arranged for this vinyl version. "Its seven tracks, a sequence of dank, futuristic environments, are essentially gliding, glacial synth suspensions, coolly decorated with suggestions of artificial intelligence (glitch computer voices, starship bleeps, analogue arps and warped tremolos) some of which seem like echoes from previous Coil releases bringing back fond memories of their original moon music." --Russell Cuzner, The Quietus.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1606LP
|
Reinier Van Houdt presents Paths Of The Errant Gaze. Reinier Van Houdt, as a classically trained pianist, has performed premieres of works by Robert Ashley, Charlemagne Palestine and many others. He has worked with composers such as John Cage and Luc Ferrari. Reinier Van Houdt plays in Current 93. "I've never heard a better mix of piano, electronics and amplification than during Van Houdt's program." --New York Times. "Reinier Van Houdt's performance was radical, extreme and without compromise. One of the most impressive examples I have witnessed of maximally mesmerizing an audience with ever more reduced materials." --Weser Kurier, Germany.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1603LP
|
With Dies Juvenalis, originally released on CD in 2007, Black Sun Productions have served up a captivating concept album. The album opens with a reflection on one's own perception "Percettive Riflessioni", which sets an unusually upbeat tone for the duo. Pierce and Massimo's heavily manipulated voices interweave with strings and oscillating beats. Over the course of ten minutes this refines the listener's perception, enabling the full beauty, drama and mysticism of the music to manifest itself when the title track "Dies Juvenalis" starts. Polyrhythmic percussion and layers of sampled flute sounds provoke an altered state of consciousness: a beatific, playful and melancholic energy evocative of one's adolescence. The album closes with "Veneration XXX", an ethereal homage to pleasure and lust.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1602LP
|
The musicians and performance artists Pierce and Massimo, aka Black Sun Productions, initially acquired recognition with their impressive performances at Coil live shows. Toilet Chant, which was released in 2004 as a limited CD, also includes John Balance's edited voice, which was recorded during the tour. Toilet Chant is disturbing in its own way. The beseeching and eerily howling sound-collage on the introductory title track causes one to freeze, after which "Anarcocks Rising", with its chirping beats, comes almost as a relief. The whole album boasts a rather oppressive and wintry mood and is characterized by experiences with death, drugs and sex. With haunting songs like "Spermatic Chord" or "Glüewürmlitanz", Black Sun Productions have managed to give their music an unmistakable touch. Toilet Chant is available on vinyl for the first time via Hallow Ground with completely new artwork by artist Ruth Stofer.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
HG 1605CD
|
Anyone who has experienced Swans live on one of their recent tours will know who Norman Westberg is: the almost stoic, tall man, who coaxes rhythmic sounds from his guitar with an incomparably minimalist power and elegance. The play on words in the title can be applied to Westberg's own musical work, because whereas Swans are hard to surpass in terms of brute force, the artist's solo work is much more subtle, and therefore also quieter. The resulting juxtaposition between the dense metropolis of New York, where The All Most Quiet was recorded, and the album's minimalistic strains, open up virtual spaces for attentive listeners. The opening, nearly twenty-minute title track begins with a lucid echo-like and extensive sound that seems to expand spatially and then contract again. At the same time the piece is evocative of lighting effects: mostly the music is slightly cool but rather bright. Individual beams break open or darken the mood. The consistent subtlety of the collages provokes the increased attention of the listener and every sonic shift is consciously perceived. The track "Sound 2" begins with atonal and slightly bumpy delays, which become increasingly confused and develop an unpleasant undertow. It is a kind of clamorous minimalism combined with an ability to conjure up sounds from a guitar that hardly sounds like guitar that makes Norman Westberg's music so unique.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1605LP
|
LP version. Anyone who has experienced Swans live on one of their recent tours will know who Norman Westberg is: the almost stoic, tall man, who coaxes rhythmic sounds from his guitar with an incomparably minimalist power and elegance. The play on words in the title can be applied to Westberg's own musical work, because whereas Swans are hard to surpass in terms of brute force, the artist's solo work is much more subtle, and therefore also quieter. The resulting juxtaposition between the dense metropolis of New York, where The All Most Quiet was recorded, and the album's minimalistic strains, open up virtual spaces for attentive listeners. The opening, nearly twenty-minute title track begins with a lucid echo-like and extensive sound that seems to expand spatially and then contract again. At the same time the piece is evocative of lighting effects: mostly the music is slightly cool but rather bright. Individual beams break open or darken the mood. The consistent subtlety of the collages provokes the increased attention of the listener and every sonic shift is consciously perceived. The track "Sound 2" begins with atonal and slightly bumpy delays, which become increasingly confused and develop an unpleasant undertow. It is a kind of clamorous minimalism combined with an ability to conjure up sounds from a guitar that hardly sounds like guitar that makes Norman Westberg's music so unique.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1601LP
|
Berlin electronic duo Driftmachine follow their 2014 debut, Nocturnes, with Eis Heauton, which takes its title from the Greek phrase "ta eis heauton," or, roughly, "a conversation with oneself." Accordingly, the album was constructed from self-generating patches, with Florian Zimmer (Saroos) and Andreas Gerth (Tied & Tickled Trio) providing technical parameters and letting their modular system talk in its own musical language. The self-generating patches recorded here can be understood as a transcript of those machine-produced monologues, and as artistic research. By evoking a ghostly presence of modular synthesis, the duo find traces of individuality inside their machines. Eis Heauton exhibits a strange and haunting musical cosmos, a quality that is always present in Driftmachine's live shows. Originally released on cassette by Umor Rex in 2015.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
HG 1505LP
|
2018 repress. "Colin Potter has been a central figure in the UK's DIY and post-industrial underground since the late '70s. His ICR label, founded in 1981, blurred the lines between post-punk experimentation, crude pop, Krautrock-inspired drone work and contemporary electronica, with releases by everyone from DIY legends The Instant Automatons through Chris & Cosey of Throbbing Gristle, experimental composer Trevor Wishart, drone soundists Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate and Bryn Jones's Muslimgauze. He has also been a key collaborator with both Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, working in the studio with both groups since the late '90s as well as serving as a member of Nurse With Wound's current live line-up. From the late '90s to the late '00s Potter's IC Studio, based in a Victorian Water Tower outside Preston, was a lightning rod for musicians working beneath the radar and a focal point for the nacsent UK drone scene" --David Keenan, Red Bull Music Academy Daily, March 31, 2015. Rank Sonata encloses sounds of organic techno, somnambulistic dub, and dream-ambient. The nearly-20-minute track "A Wider Pale of Shale" sounds absolutely timeless, with an interplay between ambient and beat-driven passages that could play all night long. With "You," Potter brilliantly weaves abstract sounds into an unexpected multi-layered dub track. The deep, slow reverb-rhythm of "Knit Where?" gives the record a touch of darkness and melancholy. Rank Sonata is a brilliant piece of music full of technical sophistication and innovation.
|
viewing 1 To 25 of 30 items
Next >>
|
|