・Thank you for your beautiful music ♪😊

This year, piano and coffee turns five, and to celebrate, we are releasing our first compilation: Realismo Mágico — a conceptual project featuring unconventional works by new and old friends we have made along the way.

Inspired by magical realism, an artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy, this special release presents unheard material by twelve exceptional musicians — from experimental sound artist Martyna Basta to award-winning film composer Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, and from poly-instrumental duo Brueder Selke to prolific pianist and producer John Hayes.

Each artist has contributed with a new track that invites the listeners to submerge into their very own musical universes, which, at the same time, have been re-shaped by their interpretation of magical realism. We start off on our journey with the delicate nostalgia of Tim Linghaus, passing through Jakob Lindhagen and Vargkvint’s modern take on the story of a Norse mythological creature, followed by the harmonic ambiguity in Simeon Walker’s pleasingly strong dialogue between felted piano and drums. Later on, John Hayes shares with us a chaotic composition born out of samples from an old clock in his parents’ garage and saturated voices, which precedes Lucy Claire’s processed hydrophone recordings of seaweeds and starfishes in Australian waters. Ondes Martenot, pump organ, zither, analogue synthesizers, vocal processing, musical saw, and bowed gongs are some of the unusual elements to be found on this eclectic yet coherently unified record.

Realismo Mágico has been conceptually crafted and musically curated by Peruvian composer Sergio Díaz De Rojas, and beautifully depicted by illustrator Jordan Amy Lee and graphic designer Celia Fernández González.

Brueder Selke - Lotos

All Wounds is the final lead track from Anne Garner's upcoming album Dear Unknown, It follows singles Alma and Dust Devil, both of which have already enjoyed BBC and worldwide radio airplay. All Wounds is an emotionally intense torch-song, a bitter-sweet love-letter to survival and healing, and a quintessential example of Anne's honest and inspirational vocal and lyrical stance.

https://slowcraft.bandcamp.com/album/dear-unknown
linktr.ee/slowcraft
annegarner.com
slowcraft.info

Dear Unknown

All Wounds

from 'Symmetrie und Wahnsinn' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den370
available on all formats at https://denovali.com/sanktotten/

After the 2020 album "Lieder Für Geometrische Stunden", Sankt Otten finally make us happy again with a new release at the beginning of 2022. "Symmetrie Und Wahnsinn" (Symmetry and madness) fits here skillfully, both creatively and musically, in an album series with geometric context.

The album starts unusually buoyant with "Hymne Der Melancholischen Programmierer" (Hymn for sentimental programmers). A Kraut-Pop pearl, which could go on forever with its Motorik swing and with its catchy melody the track doesn't come across as melancholic as the song title predicts. You have to listen twice to not succumb to the illusion that it was composed in Düsseldorf at the end of the seventies. Here (and on the track "Sei Symmetrisch Zu Mir"), Sankt Otten were supported in the studio by drummer friend DIRK PELLMANN.

The drum machine in rumbling funky mode. "Die Glücklichen Unglücklichen", the secret hit of the album? They bend the beat into geometric shapes, let the bass play in circles and cover the song with ghostly choirs. The echo of a spinett-like sound overlays the sound, spitting out a deceptively cuddly dream world.

The 10 minute long "Die Ordnung Des Lärms" could be called an Ambient-Kraut symphony without hesitation. An enormous swelling to ecstasy, a guitar sings distantly in the background. Silence. Synthetic strings pave the way and are supported by choirs. A crackle that suggests a rhythm until it is taken over by a drum computer in the main part of the track. Bombastic mountains of synthesizers pile up and yet a catchy melody finds its way through this mishmash of hypnotic electronics. Fourth movement - Kosmische-choirs in suspension over a bass synth and an Ebow guitar. Is this already Prog-Rock? The question doesn't arise, in the end everything merges into reverb.

"Luftspiegelung Der Sentimentalitäten" begins cautiously with a gentle sequence and a discreet kick drum. The mini-Moog sounds like a guitar. Anyway. A surface floats by and returns, layers and shapes build up. At last, everything melts into perfect harmony with a plaintive-sounding synth. This track was composed as a stripped back reprise of the first track from the last album "Sentimentale Sequenzen".

A hypnotic Motorik-beat of an 808 that encourages head nodding and could almost be danceable. True to style with warm analog 80s electronic sounds and a loose echo guitar. This is "Angekommen In Der letzten Reihe". Man and machine hand in hand as a homogeneous musical unit and the connection of tradition and vision.

Sankt Otten like images of infinity. In the religious sense of meditative mantras, or also in the mathematical sense of an elongated curve that eventually returns to its starting point. "Bis Das Helle Licht Uns Holt" goes exactly in this direction with its classical use of sequencers and a sound carpet of choirs. Sound worlds that, through a clever repetitiveness, barely noticeably guard the constant changes in the compositional mesh like a secret and only reveal what is to be discovered by listening closely and letting it be seen. Such a thing is probably called Berlin School?

The Osnabrück duo Sankt Otten, founded in 1999, has been releasing on Denovali since 2009. With their now 12th album they give us again a gem of timeless instrumental music. The holy trinity of Krautrock, Ambient and contemporary Electronics, but always stylistically confident and unmistakable Sankt Otten.

For the mastering New York based RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI could be won. Also with the cover layout again good taste is proven. As part two of a cover series, this extraordinary die-cut cover artwork was again created by designer DANIEL CASTREJÓN. The vinyl version comes in a die-cut cover (in a limited transparent edition), the CD in an elegant cardboard slipcase.

Symmetrie und Wahnsinn

Luftspiegelung der Sentimentalitäten

Sankt Otten - Luftspiegelung der Sentimentalitäten

A version of the Tears for Fears classic "Mad World" combined with the breathtaking "Can You Hear the Music" from the movie Oppenheimer.

In 1945 Oppenheimer cracked open the Atomic Bomb Pandoras Box. It would just be a matter of time before we would find ourselves living in a M.A.D World.

Background for what might otherwise be odd things to combine: I was 13 when Mad World came out (been a huge TFF fan ever since). It was also around that age I was introduced to the terrifying acronym M.A.D (Mutually Assured Destruction). We were taught about M.A.D in school and I remember it causing me considerable anxiety for a while. It’s not at all clear to me what the benefits are to teaching a kid that age about M.A.D.  

That anxiety passed within a couple years, but it feels like it could sneak back into my psyche if I let it given the times. Over the years I’ve learned to try not waste mental energy on things that are entirely out of your control. Redirect it instead.

M. A. D. World

Glad to enjoy the Piano Day 2016 celebration.

I made this little piece of modern classical music for Nils Frahm's PIANO DAY 2016 playlist, which will be  announced on March 28, 2016.

On Youtube: 
https://youtu.be/pRmd70EF_nY
More details: 
http://www.pianoday.org/
https://www.facebook.com/pianodayofficial/


Enjoy your listening
http://sinoptikmusic.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/SinoptikMusic

On Youtube

Sinoptik Music - Wings (Piano Day 2016)

Touch Dissolves is the result of a dialog between the artist Yusuf Sevinçli and the composer Aaron Martin initiated by IIKKI, between January 2018 and May 2018:

https://iikki.bandcamp.com/album/touch-dissolves

Falling from the Feet of Sunlit Bodies

Shortly after releasing his highly acclaimed ‘The Benoît Pioulard Listening Matter’(Kranky), Pioulard left on tour to Europe in order to promote the album. This tour took him to several distinctive places ranging from urban Brussels to rural France and the mystic capital city of Iceland, Reykjavik.

Once returned to Seattle, these new impressions and memories formed the inspiration to make ‘Slow spark, soft spoke’. Not surprisingly, the album continues in the same vein as his tour cd ‘Lignin Poise’ - which was repressed on vinyl by Beacon Sound - and is characterized by slowly moving lo-fi ambient textures. The album reveals Pioulards most melancholic side and once again shows his capabilities to bring beautiful sonic narratives with only a few instrumental layers.

‘Slow spark, soft spoke’ was initially released on tape on Dauw but sold out quickly during pre-order. After having received only sublime reviews and tons of request to re-issue the album, we now decided to give it a well deserved vinyl repress.

 “'Never, just as you wanted' is a timeless odyssey of complete transcendence with gradual bliss of guitar tones – and meticulously crafted sounds – that somehow map the ocean swell of human emotions – of the innermost kind – embedded deep within us all." (Fractured Air)

For this vinyl edition, Pioulard decided to add 2 totally new tracks in addition to the 4 initial ones. These new tracks are presented as the single 'Athanasy, 1993' which will be released and announced with the vinyl pre-order on October 4th. All together, the initial EP and the new single form a consistent full length which adds to his impressive and ever growing catalogue.

‘Slow spark, soft spoke’ will be released on October 26th on a limited  vinyl edition (200 heavyweight clear vinyl) and digitally. The tape comes with original hand-printed artwork by Femke Strijbol and will be accompanied by a unique polaroid taken by Benoît Pioulard (limited to 50 only).

Athanasy, 1993

from 'Calibrate' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den311
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/ricardodonoso

“Quicksilver frequencies, gravelly formants and shimmering, mirage-like washes of tone. Sometimes his sounds feel like signals picked up by a radio telescope, or pure electricity poured through a sieve” Pitchfork

“He displays a resistance towards the boundaries of genre, taking experimental, techno and noise templates and blending them with different range of sounds, delivering some of the most wonderfully eccentric and evocative music in recent memory” Dummy  

“Transcendently dark permutations” The Ransom Note

“A genre-defying electronic explorer” Exclaim

On November 30th Denovali records presents ‘Calibrate’ – the new album by respected underground figure, composer and producer Ricardo Donoso. As has now come to be expected from the questing musician, once again he has endeavoured to do things differently, pushing beyond any comfort-zone parameters. 

‘Calibrate’ proffers the highest of fidelity, with blockbuster sci fi levels of production value and bombast. Donoso channels sonic spirits across fluro pointillism, futuristic industrial tribalism and more serene moments of synthetic reflection.

Having never courted accessibility, Donoso remains as unbending as ever in his approach and unwavering in commitment to his craft. Calibrate takes Donoso’s polymetric abuse and sound design to all new extremes. Conflicting rhythms and swathes of electronic debris move in tandem, to create pieces that expand and contract in on themselves.

A journey through Calibrate is an exercise in instability and failure; its aggressiveness serves as a warning against the urge to seek safety on common ground, and its entire approach seems to display a hostility towards the increasingly homogenized nature of new electronic music. 

The first in a two-part series, ‘Calibrate’ seeks to explore not only the literal connotations of instrument accuracy, gauging and tuning, as represented by the constant flux of machinery and computer noise, but also explores calibration as an adjustment; to take external factors into account, or to allow comparison with other data. With ‘Calibrate’ Donoso continues to question what music is, and what it expects of him. 
Ricardo Donoso is a composer, percussionist and electronic musician from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil who currently resides in Boston. After having studied composition at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, he has participated in a slew of projects over the years, from holding down the drum chair in avant-metal visionaries Ehnahre, to scoring for recent documentary features such as Greg Barker’s ‘Homegrown: The Counter Terror Dilemma’ (HBO pictures 2016) and the Grand Prize short film winner in Brazilian cinema ‘Casimiro Effect’. Donoso has since collaborated with film makers and video artists on commissions worldwide, creating immersive environments and performances. 
As a solo recording artist, Donoso has released music on esteemed labels such as Denovali, Digitalis, Further Records and Hospital Productions, and continues to tour throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. He is most concerned with building and manipulating an immersive sound world that blurs the line between light and dark, hope and despair, past and future. Under a chain of progressive rhythms, cinematic textures and elegant melodicism, Donoso’s work pushes through with piercing strength, manipulating a sonic wave through space with nothing but mind-blowing intensity.

Calibrate

Ricardo Donoso - In Search of Lost Time

Four years ago, the California based musician r beny came on the radar with numerous videos on youtube and instagram in which he explored the world of tape and sound synthesis. You could easily see his music growing and pretty soon he came to the fore as a master in modular synthesis. 

This culminated in several solo releases and live shows (e.g. with Bing & Ruth, Suzanne Ciani). Herein, r beny, clearly showed his capacities to combine detailed and fragile melodies with subtle textures in order to create sonic narratives with a highly emotional character.
 
“Echo's Verse” forms no exception on that regard and continues along the same melancholic lines of his previous work. However, whereas the initial albums were much more centred around feelings of loneliness, isolation and solitude, the new album clearly moves away from a sole focus on sad and distressing emotions. “Echo's Verse” touches the other side of the spectrum as it is about emotional connections, bonds and not feeling alone in the universe.

“Echo's Verse” will be out on May 15th on heavyweight clear vinyl* and comes with original handprinted artwork by Femke Strijbol. In addition to the regular version, there will also be a special edition (30 copies) including a unique 1-minute tape loop alongside the record.

www.dauw.bandcamp.com

if i

~ LAAPS 003 ~ [SEQ.01 - LP03]

artists : Offthesky & The Humble Bee
album : We Were the Hum of Dreams
duration : 44.28 mn
 date : April 27th, 2020

edition :
-  vinyl : limited to 250 copies / colored vinyl / hand numbered 
- cd : limited to 200 copies / hand numbered + handcrafted, sealed

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pre-order : April 06th, 2020 / official release : April 27th, 2020

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Craig Tattersall - Piano, guitar, harmonium, bass, textures, tape loop
Jason Corder - Vibes, violin, percussion, effects, arrangement
Rin Howell - Voice, lyrics
Cody Yantis - Sax

Made from Fall 2019-Winter 2020. England-Denver.

Mastered by Jason Corder
Artwork by Federica Jeanne De Luca
Design by Sprflxgrfzm

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Links :
https://laaps-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/laaps.records
https://noise.offthesky.com/
https://www.leavings.co.uk/

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℗ & © 2 0 2 0 - L A A P S - L A A P S 0 0 3

Offthesky & The Humble Bee - Fallen Fruit To Navigate By

Maps and Diagrams - Kalia

"It's heartening to discover that music of such uncommon beauty is still being created in a world so fraught with hopelessness and despair."
Ron Schepper, textura

"Her music has a special charm to it. It’s magic. Her lyrics are a form of poetry... it’s a heady potion that will leave you dazed."
James Catchpole, Fluid Radio

"This is shamelessly romantic music, and also unmistakably English
in nature... as reassuring as a new-found love."
Peter Van Cooten, Ambientblog

"Go and buy Anne's music everyone!"
Guy Garvey, Elbow

Anne Garner's lyrical work is inspired by curiosity and a sense of wonder, a hunger to explore and explain the emotional inner life. The magic lies in the ambiguity, in the unanswered question and the breath between notes. It's in poetry and harmony that Anne finds her safe space, in enveloping and beguiling moods, a place from which to speak the unspoken.

All Wounds

Anne Garner

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