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Lovingly curated and compiled by Zbigniew Karkowski’s frequent collaborator and friend Francisco Lopez, No Bullshit is an appropriately titled and presented tribute.  A data DVD containing over five hours of uncompressed audio from 67 well known (and not so well known) artists working with Karkowski’s source material, huge names from both the worlds of harsh noise and the avant garde (genres his work straddled well) appear to pay their tributes.
Representing the less academic noise side of the spectrum, Daniel Menche’s own penchant for extreme low frequencies work appropriately on "He was One and Many," but expanding the repertoire to include rough bowed strings and lots of variation in sound and mood, fitting in with his more recent, complex work.  GX Jupitter-Larsen's "Zbigniew Tribute" sounds consistent with his work as the Haters: a dull machinery roar echoes about a hollow space wonderfully.
Lopez was also able to coax some material out of the less prolific names in this genre, reinforcing the importance of Karkowski's enduring legacy and influence on dissonant music.  Eric Lanzillotta's "Recompression" is built mostly from deep, subsonic sine waves that change in pace, but stick to the rumbly side of the spectrum until the latter moments.  Scott Arford's "Untitled (ElectroStatics)" keeps mostly to mid-register sounds, but static heavy and lots of variation in texture and sound to make it a standout.  Damion Romero's "170358" focuses on the careful manipulation of feedback that he is known for, evolving from a idling hum into a distorted roar in a beautiful progression.
Representing the more academic world, Phill Niblock supplies "Bells & Timps," an understated composition of bell tones that results in one of the more quiet, and definitely melodic, compositions here (even though the song's duration is far shorter than his usual works).CM von Hausswolf’s "Still Through the Door" is a swarming, dense wall of digital insects that might not vary a significant amount, but works as a pensive, meditative accompaniment.  Francisco Lopez himself presents "Untitled #316 (for Zbigniew Karkowski)," a first half of deep rumbling and static fragments, seguing into a crystal storm of digital noise.
Some artists' contributions are collaborations with Karkowski, such as Masami Akita's as MAZK.  "Untitled Mix" stands out with its subsonic drum pulse and spacy, psychedelic synth noise, as something far more techno (and unique) than I expected.  John Duncan's "SHATTER" collaboration is all a mass of digital tinged loops, clattering about brilliantly.  "Zimny Poznan", with Robert Piotrowicz, is perhaps the most forceful and intense:  a wall of modular noise and low-end drone that refuses to relent, while constantly changing and evolving throughout.
Noise orchestra Zeitkratzer's composition, to me, symbolizes the spirit of this collection.  All boisterous noise and dissonance, it presents just the right amount of drama, reverence, and pure heavy sounds to culminate in a respectful, and fully appropriate goodbye.  Presented as the title would indicate, this simple monochromatic digipak is anything but ostentatious, and the lack of pretense and overwrought, grandiose posturing fits perfectly in with Karkowski's life and body of work.  Much like his work, the artists here let the music pay tribute, as I imagine he would have wanted it to be.
samples:
- MAZK - "Untitled Mix"
- Phill Niblock - "Drums & Timps"
- Zeitkratzer - "Zeitkratzer's Farewell to Zbigniew"
 
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John Fahey is to the solo acoustic guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric: the man whom all subsequent musicians had to listen to. Fahey made more than 40 albums between 1959 and his death in 2001, most of them featuring only his solo steel-string guitar. He fused elements of folk, blues, and experimental composition, taking familiar American sounds and recontextualizing them as something entirely new. Yet despite his stature as a groundbreaking visionary, Fahey’s intentions—as a man and as an artist—remain largely unexamined. Journalist Steve Lowenthal has spent years researching Fahe'’s life and music, talking with his producers, his friends, his peers, his wives, his business partners, and many others. He describes Fahey’s battles with stage fright, alcohol, and prescription pills; how he ended up homeless and mentally unbalanced; and how, despite his troubles, he managed to found a record label that won Grammys and remains critically revered. This portrait of a troubled and troubling man in a constant state of creative flux is not only a biography but also the compelling story of a great American outcast.
More information can be found here.
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Recorded in Madrid and Rome during 2013, this is the new album by the influential electronic duo ranked as industrial music pioneers. Ultraphoon is a leap ahead as for production and sound quality, with a stunning and brutal outcome, richly detailed nonetheless. Rhythms, noises and processed voices from different sources come together in hypnotic –bordering on trance– soundscapes along the lines of previous releases such as Pulsión (2009) and Desarrollos Geométricos (2011). Most of the meticulous mastering process has been carried out by Francisco López, internationally renowned as one of the top sound art and experimental music personalities, giving a new twist to the usual Esplendor Geométrico sound.
More information can be found here and here.
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Trouble is the brand new dispatch from the assorted output of Kevin Drumm and sits as one of the quietest in his entire catalogue. A single continuous 54-minute excursion into the netherworld of the audio spectrum, Trouble is neither ambient nor drone but a more complex investigation into the deep recesses of sound. One which discreetly works itself into the mind of a listener willing to invest in the path laid out in this extremely subtle, beautiful and exceptional release.
More information can be found here.
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Recorded with a multitude of collaborators in Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA, Quixotism presents the fruit of two years of work in the form of a single, LP-length piece in five parts. Ambarchi's work in recent years has evinced an increasing fascination with the possibilities of combining abstract sonic textures with rhythm and pulse, whether in his drumming with Keiji Haino, the subtly driving ride cymbals provided by drummer Joe Talia in their work together, or the motorik grooves of Sagittarian Domain (Editions Mego, 2012). Quixotism takes this aspect of Ambarchi's recent work to the next level: the entirety of this long-form work is built on a foundation of pulsing double-time electronic percussion provided by Thomas Brinkmann. Beginning as almost subliminal propulsion behind cavernous orchestral textures and John Tilbury’s delicate piano interjections, the percussive elements (elaborated on by Ambarchi and Matt Chamberlain) slowly inch into the foreground of the piece before suddenly breaking out into a polyrhythmic shuffle around the halfway mark, being joined by master Japanese tabla player U-zhaan for the piece’s final, beautiful, passages.
The pulse acts as thread leading the listener though a heterogeneous variety of acoustic spaces, from the concert hall in which the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra were recorded to the intimacy of Crys Cole's contact-mic textures. Ambarchi’s guitar itself ranges over this wide variety of acoustic spaces, from airless, clipped tones to swirling, reverberated fog. Within the complex web Ambarchi spins over the piece’s steadily pulsing foundation, elements approach and recede, appear and reappear, in a non-linear fashion, even as the piece plots an overall course from the grey, almost Nono-esque reverberated space of its opening section to the crisp foreground presence of Jim O’Rourke's synth and Evyind Kang’s strings in its final moments. Formally indebted to the side-long workouts of classic Cologne techno, the long-form works of composers such as Eliane Radigue, and the organic push and pull of improvised performance, Quixotism is constantly in motion, yet its transitions happen slowly and steadily, so that they are often nearly imperceptible, the diverse elements which make up the piece succeeding one another with the logic of a dream.
Anyone who follows Ambarchi's work knows that it has many facets: explorations of the outer limits of rock with Keiji Haino, psychoacoustic interference and sizzling harmonics in his solo performances, delicate improvisations with Keith Rowe or John Tilbury. To all these projects, Ambarchi brings his particular sensibility, patiently allowing sounds to develop on their own terms without forsaking their intrinsic physical and emotional power. Similarly, although Quixotism is shaped by its many contributors, the resulting sound world is unmistakably Ambarchi’s own. His most substantial solo release since Audience of One (Touch, 2012), Quixotism represents the summation of Ambarchi’s work over the last few years while also pointing to the future.
More information can be found here.
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Ashley Paul's Heat Source was recorded during a challenging year of transience between New York and London. During this year of impermanence Paul performed regularly and the effects of frequent performance and traveling can be heard in the intentionally pared back emptiness of Heat Source. making it an emotionally challenging and fascinatingly personal listening experience.
Heat Source finds Ashley Paul working using her brilliant ears to find a zen like balance between her voice and a sparse arrangement of staccato instrumentation leaving as much open space on one song as most people would create in a lifetime. This open space isn't empty, however, but it's up to you to fill in the meaning. Heat Source is an emotionally challenging and fascinatingly personal listening experience that creates a powerful pace.
Ashley Paul is a performer and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. She uses an array of instruments including saxophone, clarinet, voice, guitar, bells and percussion, mixing disparate elements to create a colorful palate of sound that works its way into her intuitive songs; free forming, introverted melodies. This blend manifests beautiful and simple musical forms against acoustic experimentation. Her solo albums have received high praise being chosen in Wire Magazine's "Top 18 Releases of 2013," Pitchfork "Best Experimental sounds of 2013", first on Byron Coley and Thurston Moore's "Tongue Top Ten" in Arthur Magazine and included on NPR's All Songs Considered "Best of 2010". She has been interviewed or featured in Wire Magazine, BOMB, Gonzo (circus), Dummy, The Quietus, Ad Hoc, Spex, The Sound Projector and Foxy Digitalis.
Ashley has performed or recorded with Phill Niblock, Rashad Becker, Nik Colk Void, Loren Connors, Aki Onda, C. Spencer Yeh, Anthony Coleman, Joe Maneri, Joe Morris, Seijiro Murayama, Greg Kelley, Bill Nace and Eli Keszler appearing on such labels as PAN, ESP-DISK' and Tzadik. She received a Masters of Music from New England.
Out October 27th.
More information will eventually be available here.
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One of the most intriguing artists on the Hospital Productions roster, Lussuria came to prominence with the release of three tapes as part of the American Babylon series in 2012 which were eventually compiled into a double vinyl edition last year. His opiated atmospheres brought together the ritualistic appeal of late '70s and early '80s Italian industrial music crossed with the claustrophobia of early material from The Cure and the decadent, voyeuristic compulsion of Pasolini flicks so enamoured by Coil.
Having been in the works through late 2013 and in post-production for several months since, Industriale Illuminato is in some respects the first release by Lussuria conceived as a standalone album, and is perhaps his most unique, unsettling body of work to date. Inspired by Deconstructionism and an overriding sense of anxiety, the album revolves around the dislocated narrative of album opener "Boneblack," a dense and evocative fade into shadowy realms inspired by composer Giacinto Scelsi and the enigmatic mind-tricks of Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad.
More information can be found here.
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Following up from the success of his emphatic PAN releases Dutch Tvashar Plumes and Diversions 1994-1996 in 2012, we are excited to announce ‘KOCH’ (pronounced "cotch"), the new album from London's Lee Gamble.
Sharing some stylistic affinity with his previous records, which excavated his deeply personal history with UK jungle and rave, and techno, this new work dives even deeper to reveal a singular and intimate musical vantage point, shifting to approaching music as projection, state, hallucination, an other place. In Koch, we experience an artist constructing a future after time spent deconstructing the past.
In the music we witness such dimensional abstraction, zooming between epic macro scenery and claustrophobically close detail, disorientation and absolute focus. Rhythms fuse together and phase apart, club tracks tunnel into an anxious wilderness, with themes and textures emerging as threads throughout the record, wormholing between each track.
There is a sense of the seen and the unseen, an honest tension between music as function (for this world) and as artistic exploration (for another world) as cracks in the surface appear to reveal the odd and alien minutiae within. Koch represents an intimate and revelatory new phase in Lee Gamble's practice. Producing tracks that can live and grow on their own in a club or personal listening environment, the artist's exploratory framework creates threads of consistency and tension between disparate spaces, locations, and mental states.
More information can be found here.
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The culmination of four years writing and editing, Anjou marks the first collaboration between Labradford's Robert Donne and Mark Nelson since the release of that group's fixed:context LP.
Combining modular synthesis, Max/MSP programming and live instrumentation, Anjou deftly weaves noise with gentle ambience and melody with texture.
Guitar, bass and Steven Hess' (Locrian, Fennesz, Pan American) live percussion give the eight pieces an immediacy and create a framework for the more abstract sounds of digital and analog synth programming.
The product of twenty-plus years of friendship, Anjou is refined and challenging.
An extension of the Labradford sound-world but no mere victory lap, Anjou represents Donne and Nelson stepping out and forward, their eyes firmly focusing on the future.
More information can be found here.
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The creatures who frolic in the Chemical Playschool have again escaped their test-tubes, and hell, this time they have gone too damn far...
Recorded from May through July 2014 at The Dolls' House, London and The Silver Studio in Nijmegen. Mastered by Ray.
Edward Ka-Spel, The Silverman, Erik Drost., Raymond Steeg...Cover Art by Anita Hammer.
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"I've known Nathan for many years and we've played shows and made records together, so I know his thing - hushed, reaching vocals weaving an often melancholic impression over sparse guitar and ambient backdrop. As the opening song ("Reinforced/Delicate") stumbles in, carrying that familiar weight, I thought I knew what was coming, but I was wrong. By the first two lines of "Into the Night", the second song, I had to sit down because if the rest of the record was going to be like this, I knew I wanted to be there with it. To my delight, it did not let up - every song a relentless epiphany, the ragged edge of emotional, even physical, abandon. Timeless songs like "My Favorite Drug is Sleep" and "I was Once a Handsome Man" careen into the more artful/obtuse textures even thru the sprawling electric tribute of "Ride on, Molina." This is what happens when someone with a truly unique vision sticks to their guns and proves it."
- Alan Sparhawk, Low
Out September 23rd. More information can be found here.
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