[engl] "Frank Bretschneider was active in the subcultural environment of Karl-Marx-Stadt. In the early 1980s, he published the independent graphics edition “A Drei”, then went on to set the tone with cult formation AG Geige. Under the alias A. F. Moebius, Bretschneider’s “Eine Auswahl” (“A selection”) was a distillate of creative periods from 1985 to ’87. The B-side “Eine Auswahl” complemented the “Alle Aufnahmen” (“All recordings”) tape by Heinz & Franz, a project that would close the circuit of acoustics and electronics. “Eine Auswahl” was based on work with the KORG M-20; Bretschneider also worked with tape loops. Material used included fragments, musical phrases, AMIGA radio play records or randomly targeted radio snippets. The split tape by Heinz & Franz and A. F. Moebius was released in 1988 on Bretschneider’s underground label klangFarBe in an edition of about 50 copies. Between 1985 and ’89, eight tape productions appeared on klangFarBe."

[engl] After Dinner’s Paradise of Replica is a concise nugget of tomfoolery that occupies a whimsical no man’s land between art pop, Japanese folk music and full-assed Art Zoydian avant proggery. Gentle, arcane and covertly sweeping, it typifies that friendly strain of experimentalism that Eastern music seems so predisposed towards and which curious minds find such great delight in. Assembled by the enigmatic chanteuse and composer known simply as Haco, After Dinner was less a band and more of a loose art collective that utilized a plurality of different musical disciplines stapled together through free improvisation sessions. And some of this does come through on Paradise of Replica—the record is a scrapbook of bells, strings and koto humming under Haco’s ethereal vocals, and the effect, while perfectly tuneful, does come off more as a musical project than a conventional album. But Paradise of Replica is far from an impenetrable scholastic endeavor—in fact, there’s something of an Elephant 6-like quality in its ability to warp conventions while still coming off more or less like pop music. Counter to the ramshackle hostility of much improvised music, After Dinner’s choices are melodious and feel deliberately sequenced. Even crescendos don’t tend to rise above a murmur, and there are even apparent hooks on tracks like “A Walnut” and “Ironclad Mermaid.” Ultimately, there’s not much to be said about Paradise of Replica that can elucidate more than actually hearing it will be able to. Proggy, playful and lush, it’s a brief glimpse into something in the vicinity of genius, and just outside the realm of commercial music. It’s a quietly bold project that shows a softer side of the avant-garde, and makes a perfect companion to Stereolab and Magma at once.

[engl] Spooky, meditative soundscapes inspired by the desolate volcanic environment of Lanzarote (Canary Islands), created using Minimoog, Polymoog, vocal loops and field recordings. Originally recorded in Germany in 1978 by Spanish painter / sound artist Ildefonso Aguilar, only a selection of the original recordings were released a few years later on a very rare limited edition cassette and LP. Now, for the first time ever, “Erosión” is reissued on 2LP featuring the complete recordings, as Ildefonso conceived it at the time. “Canary Islander Ildefonso Aguilar is best known for his paintings and surreal photography of the desolate volcanic wastelands of his homeland. He was also organiser of concerts at the Jameos del Agua in Lanzarote, a regular event which has featured the likes of Michael Brook, Roedelius, Steve Roach, and numerous other luminaries of ambient and atmospheric music. But, for his own music Ildefonso has never gained the mass recognition he really deserves. “Erosión”, recorded in 1978, is certainly one of the most fascinating of synth albums I've heard. And, it's remarkable really, if you consider all the technological advances that have happened since, what with digital synthesizers and samplers, that this music created entirely on analogue synthesizers still sounds so fresh and original. Okay, I know in the past that I compared Ildefonso's use of melody to more atmospheric Neuronium, and the mood of the music to early Klaus Schulze, Conrad Schnitzler, and Edgar Froese circa AQUA, but in retrospect it's really a forerunner to the acclaimed spacious works of Michael Stearns and Steve Roach (I could also quote Kevin O'Neill here, as to the use of ambiguous melody and texture), but besides all that “Erosión” has a style all of its own. As if the sonic description of mist swept rocky plains, rumblings from beneath the earth, the eerie power of nature looming. Beautiful yet strange, unnerving yet calming. Even more so, at 1¼ hours, “Erosión” reveals itself as a grand conceived suite, as themes recur in an almost ghostly fashion, as tension builds upon tension, and threatens to explode, which it never quite does! Extraordinary all the way through.” - Alan Freeman (Audion Magazine)

[engl] Strange connections -- Bilbao meets Japan via Berlin on a record that will put you in a constant state of WTF. ASMR rock? Post-internet punk? A political manifesto in times of generalized madness? After his acclaimed 2017 destructo-punk single on Munster Records, Al Karpenter now delivers his mature, complex debut LP on the world's premier record label for adults, New York City's Ever / Never. Al Karpenter is an elusive figure. On this record, he comes off like "Che" Guevara fronting Suicide in the year 2020: In halting, quivering tones, he warns us not to fall asleep, even as he slips into a dream state; he reminds us that we must not give up hope even in these times of collective self-destruction; then he shakes our very core with an agonizing scream. There is no resignation, no giving-up, and no mourning for a lost future in his work. Instead, Al Karpenter pits the burning energy of the present moment against older underground musical forms, playing things "wrong" as a technique for exposing the fundamental wrongness of consensus reality. His record is a puzzle, a conundrum, at once conflictive and erotic, violent and beautiful. Yellow Green Red's Matt Korvette described Al's debut single as ”Very deconstructed and cuckoo, as if one of Fushitsusha’s psychic jams was condensed into a couple minutes of indigestion" -- a perceptive appraisal, seeing as Al is now joined by time-bending drummer and percussionist Seijiro Murayama, whose early credits include Fushitsusha’s Double Live. Further strange connections include key players from Bilbao's exploratory music scene -- drummer Joxean Rivas of Bilbao's demolition unit Killerkume, experimentalists María Seco and Mattin -- alongside the legendary Chie Mukai, of Japan's Ché- SHIZU and the seminal East Bionic Symphonia school of improvised music. Tying it all together everything are the lucid sexophone and electronics of Lucio Capece. If it is no longer possible to dream of a just and equitable future, Al Karpenter's answer is to shout desperate truths, to disrupt the notion that "weird" music is the province of the connoisseur, the specialist. For Al Karpenter, the ugliest racket and the most sensual textures are instruments for change. He transforms his angst, fragility, and sense of powerlessness into a force for destroying(-)destructive Nonsense. Al Karpenter's love-cry, his healing force, is violent and fragmented and paradoxically smooth. Things are not right, he insists, and we will not make music that pretends they are. -e/n

[engl] On their third album, Al Karpenter merges its singular vision with a host of collaborators. After finally becoming a band in 2022 with Marta Sainz and Enrique Zaccagnini from Santander joining Al Karpenter and Mattin, and in synchronicity with a recent CIA Debutante team-up, this group rises to the challenge of expanding its parameters. As Al Karpenter’s resident theoretician Mattin explains, “The last record was a result of the pandemic, introverted, isolated and with a blues energy. Instead, “The Forthcoming” is the outcome of the possibilities of making music and touring again. We had such an amazing time on tour with Sunik Kim, Dominic Coles and Triple Negative that at the end of our concert at Cafe Oto, we all played together.” Whether delving into manic plunderphonics with Sunik Kim on “A Brand New Brontophobia” [an intense fear of extremely loud, natural noises in the environment - dict. ed.] or accessing the hidden burrows that tunnel beneath polite society with anarchic rock-folk deconstructionists Triple Negative on the title track, Al Karpenter is revolving around its own matrix. “Poison Sun” throws the New York-based Coles into the mix and you feel as if you are seesawing between competing parties, attempting to soak up their atmospheres during each pass through. Mattin again: “The feeling of exuberance, chaos and fragmentation is confronted with the pleasures of collective music making. This record is outwards, cathartic, full on and complex. Against algorithmic fascism and Tiktok attention span, The Forthcoming attempts at a sonic liberation front through its genre screwing approach. This record is of today.” It’s about time—The Forthcoming is here, for ever more.

[engl] A collaboration between the Spanish Cabalists, Al Karpenter & French Rosicruanists, CIA Debutante, was not specifically foretold in the Fama Fraternitatis, but read between the lines, friend. That is where the truth lurks. The bilious Marxist splatter of the former, coursing alongside the dystopian surrealism of the latter, is a nefarious seance gambit born in the ether. Many voices are heard-fractious, cryptic, suffused, fading one into the other, the results often as hazy as the most bewitching pastis. Don't look now, but all the tables are levitating. Is that a spirit trumpet in the distance? Am I hearing the channeled moans of a ghost, or did someone miss last call (so eerily similar in their discontent)? The plachette is moving so fast across the ouija board, it's making a blabber-mouth out of my fingers. I had no idea anyone spilled this much verbiage in the afterlife. The crackle & whoosh of electronics fill the air. A cape is not required, but considering these Mandrake-like shenanigans, it couldn’t hurt. But then I am the one being charmed. Al Karpenter/CIA Debutante are the beguilers. Trance-medium discourse never sounded so preposterously spot on. File alongside fabled, like minded alliances such as; Ash Ra Temple & Timothy Leary, ‘Seven Up’, Brigitte & The Hansen Experience, ‘Frau Hansen Am Bass’, the Shadow Ring, ‘Lighthouse’.

[engl] ‘The music of this record was stimulated by the theory and practice of biofeedback. It is aimed to create a calm, relaxed and meditative mood associated with alpha brain waves.’ Part outsider electronic album; part physiological experiment; part work of art; this is not your average new age record. You won’t find any cosmic or spiritual connotations between the unsupposing and briefly annotated gatefold covers. This is an accidental new age record. It wasn’t designed to invoke images of far away landscapes or induce meditative states; rather it is the end result of a personally developed meditative technique called Alpha Mood. The brainchild of a reclusive Israeli multimedia artist with a fascination in philosophy, technology and sound by the name of Ami Shavit, In Alpha Mood is the result of a personal and artistic exploration to both overcome a personal trauma and push the boundaries of a fledgling physiological understanding whilst utilising the burgeoning domestic synthesizer technology of the late 60s and early 70s. With an enviable private collection of synthesisrs first started in 1972 during his travels to the US just as they first arrived in music stores and shipped home to Tel Aviv, the professor of both philosophy and art and established kinetic artist was fascinated with art that involved technology. In particular being able to give something mechanical an emotive angle. His early works primarily involved motorised mobiles (he actually installed one in Tel Aviv’s first discoteuque). Seeking to combine his love of electronic music acts like Tangerine Dream and Philip Glass and this new synthesiser technology with his fascination for the relatively new technique of biofeedback - a process in which technology is used to relay information about the body’s functions enabling a change in physiological activity in order to manipulate them. Combined with his understanding of alpha brainwaves (primarily attributed to a function of the brain that deals with relaxation), Ami embarked on an experiment with what he coined Alpha Mood – a state in which the brain is working in relaxation and in which he used music as a means of helping induce his own meditative state. With practically no formal musical training and working in complete isolation of the Tel Aviv music scene - with the exception of allowing cult prog nearly men Zingale and a handful of close friends to use his private studio - over the next two years he recorded hours and hours of experimental improvised music, or “sounds” as he prefers to call it. Conscripted into the army evacuating battlefield casualties during the Yom Kippur War following the surprise invasion of the Israeli-occupied territories on the West Bank in 1973, Ami struggled to come to terms with his experiences during the short conflict and lost interest in his work until he came across a collection of field recordings made during the war and he had an epiphany. By adding sounds and battlefield sound bites to the recordings he could articulate his experiences in a sort of cathartic process and was able to put them behind him. Harnessing this newfound confidence he continued in his work until a longtime friend, agent and owner of a small local record shop called Mango (a Tel Aviv institution at the time) suggested he press some of his recordings on vinyl so that he could sell them through his store. Rather than cull disparate excepts from his expansive tape archive of home recordings, Ami begin work on what would become the culmination of his years of experimentation and the centerpiece of his work with Alpha Mood. Recorded in Ami’s studio during a handful of sessions and with no post-production, the six-track album was mastered at Triton Studios (who’s previous list of clients included Arik Einstein and Tamouz) and pressed by Hed Arzi (one of Israel’s oldest and largest labels/pressing plants) on his own Amis Records imprint with finished copies delivered to Mango three months later. Only 500 copies of a planned limited edition run of 5000 were initially pressed and with no publicity surrounding the release it was sold to discerning record buyers with little or no understanding of the record or its maker outside of his status as a prominent visual artist. Not long after receiving delivery of these first copies Mango was forced to close its doors permanently and the remaining 4500 copies of the run were never pressed. Apart from a handful of Alpha Mood exhibitions in Israel those 500 copies and six remaining master tapes (including that of In Alpha Mood - the rest having been lost, given to friends or simply thrown away) are the only remaining artefacts of Ami’s Alpha Mood experiments.

[engl] Originally released in 1975, “Música Eletrônica” is considered the first electro-acoustic / electronic album made in Brazil. It features tracks recorded between 1962 and 1970 by avant-garde / electronic music pioneer Jorge Antunes. Early electronic oscillations, white noise, feedback, loops, tape manipulation, treated vocals and proto-minimalism / sampling / glitches Mandatory to anyone into Pierre Henry, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Schaeffer, Ralph Lundsten, Louis & Bebe Baron, Ihlan Mimaroglu, Morton Subotnick, Stockhausen… Born in 1942 in Rio de Janeiro, Jorge Antunes is one of the earliest composers of electro-acoustic music in Brazil. During the early 60s, he built his own components for making electronic music: theremin, sawtooth oscillator, a spring-reverb device, a frequency filter… The works included on “Música Eletrônica” were recorded at Antunes’ home studio and at the Electronic Music Laboratory of the Institute Torcuato Di Tella, in Buenos Aires, Argentine. We can find early pieces like “Valsa Sideral” (1962), on which Antunes uses artificial echo and reverberation by feedback between the recording heads to create the first Brazilian work consisting only of electronic tones. “Auto-retrato sobre paisaje porteño” (1969 / 1970) is an amazing piece of early turntablism on which Antunes “samples” an old tango vinyl record found at a flea market, using it as a loop and for sound effects / manipulation, adding a different, “electronic dance” version to it, mixed with electronic sound effects and cut voice manipulation / sound poetry. It sounds years ahead of its time and it’s a precursor to the dance / downtempo music from the following decades. The version included here, features the audio collage which Antunes created to criticize the military regimes from Brazil and Argentine and which wasn’t used on the original LP to avoid any problems with censorship. “Cinta Cita” (1969) was the first piece recorded by Antunes at a professional studio. Pure electronic sounds and pulsating rhythms using filtered noise and synthetic sounds created by additive synthesis. “Contrapunctus versus contrapunctus” (1962) was created using tape splicing, micro-assemblies and tape manipulation. "Historia de un Pueblo por Nacer or Carta Abierta a Vassili Vassilikos y a todos los Pesimistas” (1970) with its sinoidal sounds and low frequencies was inspired by the plot of the novel and film ‘Z’ by Vassili Vassilikos. In the original audio of this work, Antunes used a quotation from the International Communist anthem. To avoid problems, he cut that passage for inclusion on the original LP. But you’ll find here the uncensored, original version. In 1970 Antunes had done research at the Institute of Sonology at the University of Utrecht with a specialization in Computer Music (working with the Electrologia X-8 computer). During the 70s at different occasions he had worked under guidance of Pierre Schaeffer and Iannis Xenakis amongst others. Mr. Antunes is presently Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the University of Brasilia and President of the Brazilian Society for Electroacoustic Music.

[engl] Electronic Musical Impressions of the Occult. The great late Mort Garson (1924 – 2008) is a hotshot of electronic music’s pioneer days with his groundbreaking occult works such as LUCIFER – Black mass in 1971 and THE ZODIAC – Cosmic sounds in 1967 among others. A different side of his creativity used to be his 1976 PLANTASIA project which was classic inspired album of moog compositions to be played for growing plants. The previous year he offered us this hypnotizing album that takes you onto a weird trip to an even weirder sound world. Metallic sounding drum loops add a proto industrial feel to the swirling waves of colorful synthesizer melodies which draw influences from jazz and exotica music of the 50s and 60s as well as mysterious detective movie soundtracks and pulsating psychedelic rock. There are moments of free form electronic oscillations with layers of synthetic whistling and buzzing shifted upon each other next to passages with a hot blooded groove that interfuse your soul and make you drift away on a gently flowing river of sound. This album can be recommended to all lovers of the more experimental 1970s electronics and definitely compete with all these fine German musical collectives such as CLUSTER, TANGERINE DREAM or whatever act Klaus Schulze was involved with but also to freaks who love the progressive soundtrack art of the Italian horror movies of the same time by GOBLIN and other masters. ATARAXIA – The unexplained is a fascinating album that even shows these pulsating synthesized rhythms later to appear with many dance productions. Another pioneer work of a true artist who loved the challenge to cross borders and explore new territories of sound.

[engl] From the same vibrant cinematic landscape of 70s studio supergroups as Goblin, The Pawnshop, The Group and The Braen’s Machine comes The Magnetic System – the Italian incognito dream team comprised of Milano prog keyboardist Vince Tempera and Cinevox sibling Franco Bixio and launched the career of Video Nasty maestro Fabio Frizzi. Bridging the void between Giallo jazz bass driven prog and the arrival of home studios and synthesisers, the omnipresent film music of The Magnetic System marked a sea change in Italian genre film music, promoting melodic electronics to the forefront of Italian pop culture and pre-empting the first murmurs of Italo disco and synth-pop. Sharing session musicians, studios and release schedules with many of the aforementioned luminaries, Bixio, Frizzi and Tempera’s magnetic powers continue to attract musicians and aficionados of discerning sight and sound.

[engl] Formed in 1978, Bomis Prendin is a collective of experimental "noisicians" from Washington DC, pioneers within the DIY, Industrial, cassette culture and experimental electronics scene. Using cassette recorders, mutated musical toys, electric guitars, bass, rewired circuitry, analog pedal effects & cheap keyboards, they recorded and released in the late 70s a couple of astounding flexi–discs (Test and Phantom Limb) which led to them being included on the infamous Nurse With Wound list. "Clear Memory" was originally released in 1984 only on cassette (50 copies) and it’s an incredible example of DIY mutant psychedelic pop and homemade electronic weirdness which sounds years ahead of its time. Here’s the first ever reissue.

[engl] As an artist whose name has become mutually synonymous with the instrument he plays Bruce Ditmas is a very unique heavy musician from one of those special tightknit communities that tried (and almost succeeded) to change the facade of progressive pop music and jazz via musical technology. Raised in Miami (an unknown incubator for future synthesists) Bruce carved the image of a teen prodigy playing jazz drums at the most exclusive Miami Beach hotels. After being whisked off to New York by none other that July Garland he became immersed in free music, recording compositions by Annette Peacock and Carla Bley before setting up house with vocal artist Joan La Barbara (later Mrs. Morton Subotnick) in 1975, who, via her own label, encouraged Bruce to pursue his very specific experiments in heavy electronic rhythms. This LP is compiled from the solo Moog Drum compositions from his only two albums both released in 1977 using a Mini-Moog (donated by Gil “Hendrix” Evans), an Arp 2600 and a wide range of treated percussive instruments that littered this enfant terrible’s bedroom floor throughout the 1970s. A later pillar of the Enja and ECM community, Bruces later work in TV, film, sound sculpture and free music still renders truly unique recording to this very day. Meet your new favourite drummer, and the best Moog Drum record in your whole collection.

[engl]  Comprising two of the most complete bodies of work from innova- tive Swiss electronic jazz pioneer Bruno Spoerri this combined archival release delves into a deep vault of commercial and exper- imental film music revealing the vibrant versatility of the compos- er in collaboration with two important Swiss directors. Mastered from original studio tapes this compendium comprises an expand- ed range of instruments and studio techniques placing the artist on either side of his comfort zone parameters. Utilising vocals in both a treated/experimental form as well as in a formal song based capacity this release instantly reveals two new sides to Spoerri’s personality. The two soundtracks also reveal the natu- ral progression of Bruno's interaction between live bands and jazz musicians working alongside industrial field recordings and con- crète tape experiments (previously exemplified in his work for forklift truck manufacturer Lansing Bagnall). Spoerri's broad palette of electronic instruments is widely utilised within these recordings revealing Bruno's home studio as one of the early exponents of the Lyricon wind synth and various modular synthe- sisers developed and re-customised as part of a wider creative relationship with the creators of Buchla and Arp instruments. Both programmes span a decade of commercial work for Swiss and German advertising companies furnishing a unique Swiss culture of tangible vinyl giveaway records which punctuates the artists varied discography alongside a list that includes collabora- tions with musicians from German Krautrock band Can, legendary progressive jazz/electronic musicians like Klaus Weiss and Joel Vandroogenbroeck, as well as physical visual artists like Betha Sarasin. Presenting the entire previously unreleased score to Kurt Aeschbacher's experimental film Lilith and a remastered ver- sion of the rare vinyl soundtrack to Rolf Lyssy's comedy Teddy Bär (including an newly excavated non-LP track) this release goes beyond the typical realms of commercial film composition includ- ing full-length cues and fully realised electronic tracks which stand up both within and outside of the context of the original, seldom seen celluloid achievements. Enjoy at best with an open mind with eyes open or closed for a wider perspective on this one man music machine.

[engl] Originally released only on cassette in 1983, "Dogs’ Ears Are Stupid" by Chicago trio Care of the Cow is a fascinating blend of psychedelic folk, minimal electronics and post–punk weirdness. Acid fuzz guitar, incredible vocal harmonies, drum machines, analogue synths... One of Chicago’s best kept secrets, Care of the Cow’s history goes back to 1974. A trio formed by Victor Sanders, X Baczewska and Sher Doruff, they had a very unique and eclectic sound, experimental yet very melodic, mixing psychedelic folk–rock with art–rock and DIY / post–punk. Their influences were very diverse: Beatles, Fripp, Eno, Joni Mitchell, Carla Bley, Pauline Oliveros, Eric Dolphy... Care of the Cow debuted in 1975 with a 10" followed by their first LP album in 1981. By 1983, the band was adding drum machines and synths to their sound, highlighted by Victor’s amazing guitar playing and X & Sher’s perfectly blended vocal harmonies, resulting in "Dogs’ Ears Are Stupid", the second Care of the Cow album, released only as a tiny cassette edition in 1983.

[engl] Tiptoeing in, stealth-like, CIA Debutante’s Music For Small Rooms 12” on Ever/Never Records tempts the listener with secrets and their inevitable spilling out into the open. Over the course of several releases, the France-based duo has shown a real gift for delving into the particulars of paranoia, seeding their songs with threats disguised as hooks. On its perfectly succinct new EP, CIA Debutante refines this method, as each of the six tracks plays like dystopian theme songs for closed-circuit television dramas. From the gradually increasing disquiet of “Nuclear Holiday” to the full-on terror of “The Face” (“There’s a blank spot/where the face should be”), CIA Debutante are well-versed in navigating the eternal eddies of existential doubt. With molten electronics accompanying a resigned vocal, “Sinkhole” really does feel like the planet is opening up beneath you, but perhaps you don’t mind as much as you’d have expected. “Faulty Appliances” is a kitchen sink nightmare and even elicits a couple chuckles as it wraps up the leftovers. If you find yourself routinely menaced by everyday objects, then you are primed and ready for the sounds that CIA Debutante pipes into Music For Small Rooms.

[engl] CLARA MONDSHINE is a musical project of the late radio director, journalist and composer Walter Bachauer who for example used to work for RIAS Berlin in the 70s and 80s. Mr. Bachauer has also been involved as musician in Projects with electronic artist Peter Michael Hamel and kraut rock act BETWEEN back in the 70s. With CLARA MONDSHINE he was able to score three albums before his untimely passing in 1989 of which “Luna Africana” is the first from 1981 and it fits exactly into that era when the sluggish grinding of the early epic “cosmic music” had finally completely vanished and a new peppy drive could be felt with the spacious soundscapes of electronic music. Still rather low-fi with primitive machine grooves and swirling waves of analogue synthesizers to which some hypnotic drones were tastefully added, this music has learned a lot from the grand masters of the 70s and especially the so called “motorik” style of krautish electronics with rather simple melodic patterns and a very rhythmical approach with all those layers of pulses and drones piled upon repetitive structures to gain an effect on you as the listener which sets you into a state of trance. This music is quite imaginative and picturesque and the trip it will take you on leads you through a dark galaxy where only the starlight guides your vessel. Quite a typical example for the later krautish electronics and certainly a must have for fans of ENO / HARMONIA collaborations, CLUSTER “Zuckerzeit” and other similar “motorik” electronic albums. It also has a KRAFTWERK feel just without the vocals of course. Now this long hidden secret gem is unveiled for your stellar listening pleasure. But beware for some of you might get lost in the depth of outer space.

[engl] A new LP collection of incredible performances by the virtuosa of theremin, Clara Rockmore, accompanied by her sister Nadia Reisenberg on piano. Recorded in 1975 and never before released on vinyl, this compendium features stellar performances of compositions by Bach, Chopin, Schubert, Gershwin and more, and even features a cello ensemble on a few songs! Some of the finest examples of Clara Rockmore’s unrivaled art - rich with bittersweet moments of air, electricity, human grace and emotional composition all merging into some new thing that is transcendent of time and genre. 160 gram vinyl comes in old school tip-on jacket and includes an 8-page booklet of interviews, photos, and insights with Clara Rockmore, Nadia Reisenberg, Robert Moog, and more.

[engl] Official reissue of the 1977 album of Clara Rockmore’s stunning theremin performances of various classical compositions, accompanied by her sister Nadia Reisenberg on piano. Includes gorgeous interpretations of pieces by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Ravel and more. An all time classic classical album, finally back in print. Rockmore was a violin child prodigy with training at the Imperial Conservatory in St. Petersberg. A refugee of the Russian Revolution, she arrived in New York with her family in 1921, and soon after met Professor Lev Sergeyevich Termen, inventor of the remarkable theremin, one of the first electronic instruments in existence. Rockmore stunned crowds by playing music both highly technical and emotionally intense, all without ever touching her instrument. Her work represented the cutting edge of electronic music, inspiring a generation of innovators (including Bob Moog, who co-produced this record). On her custom built theremin, Rockmore channeled deep human emotion through an electronic device for the first time.

[engl] John McEntire, founder and current member of TORTOISE and THE SEA & CAKE, compiled his favourite tracks by the legendary German ambient music and krautrock pioneers CLUSTER.

[engl] Conrad Schnitzler liked to embark on daily excursions through the sonic diversity of his synthesizers. Finding exceptional sounds with great regularity, he preserved them for use in combination with each other in subsequent live performances. He thus amassed a vast sound archive of his discoveries over time. When the m=minimal label in Berlin reissued two Conrad Schnitzler albums at the outset of the 2010 decade, label honcho Jens Stru?ver was granted access to this audio library. Stru?ver came up with the idea of con-structing new compositions, not remixes, from the archived material. On completion of the first Con-Struct album, he decided to develop the concept into a series, with different electronic musicians invited into Schnitzler’s unique world of sound.

[engl] Midnight Climax Operation represents Cyanide Tooth’s continued research into paranoid states of existence and chance methods of sound-sculpting. Side one of Midnight Climax Operation is a patchwork of intriguing and unnerving sonic explorations. Cyanide Tooth utilizes tape manipulation and other lo-tech methods that recall a time before ProTools and infinite plug-in options. “Heartburn” throws all the cards on the table, encompassing sarcastic tape abuse, skipping CDs, old-school guitar noise and breakout hip-hop beats. “Headline/Heartline” takes a day trip to the death factory as torrents of noise coalesce around an urgent narration that plays out as if Biting Tongues was jamming with Throbbing Gristle. “American Cherry Burst” is pure, righteous scree intent on revealing false truths, while “Press The Mesh” comes on like early Coil captured in a late-night basement session. The side concludes with the frenetic beats of “Techno Animus” and the creeping dread of “Shadow Enforcers,” which recalls Ike Yard and Cabaret Voltaire. On side two, Cyanide Tooth hijacks the listener’s brainstem for an LSD-fueled investigation into chance operations. Performed live with no edits, “Operation Midnight Climax” is a feat of turntablism and juxtaposition, yielding a sonic narrative that picks up steam as it hurtles towards the outer regions. WWNWWD? Somewhere, Steve Stapleton is nodding approvingly. With Midnight Climax Operation, Cyanide Tooth delivers a dangerous package -- handle with care. -e/n