AI Discography

Taken from Mystic AM's LP Cardamom & Laudanum on Astral Industries, out July 15.

More: www.orbmag.com/music

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Cardamom & Laudanum 

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Premiere: Mystic AM - Once Upon a Time in Yazd

Release date: 15/07/22

If you would like to review this release, please email info@astralindustries.co.uk

2x12” 180g gatefold vinyl//mastered by Noel Summerville//original artwork by Theo Ellsworth.

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Emerging from a thick spiralling haze, is the debut album from Mystic AM - a new project from Rod Modell and label founder Ario Farahani. Conceived as an immersive fictional soundtrack piece, the release tells the story of a traveller, some centuries ago, and the rather intense metaphysical experience he unexpectedly stumbles into whilst taking shelter on a hot desert night at Zein-o-Din Caravanserai, near Yazd in Persia. Dusk envelopes the vast barren landscape as the protagonist enters the ribat, treasures of woven silks, ornaments and exotic spices glint under the flickering oil lamps, swirls of perfumed vapour dance mesmerisingly in the darkness. As the music unfolds the events of the passing day quickly melt away, and the unsuspecting traveller is plunged into an otherworldly dimension. 

Utilising an extensive collection of old Iranian records as source material, the album is an intoxicating mise-en-scéne of whispering melodies, undulating rhythms, and atmospheric sound details. An active buyer of old Iranian music, Ario began extracting and editing samples from the records acquired during frequent trips to Iran over recent years - during which the mood and flavour of the project began to crystallise. Once handed over to Rod for further processing and arrangement, the album took its final shape - an endless tapestry of sights, sounds, and memories that fade mysteriously into the night’s reverie. Textures seep into one another in washes of colour, and hallmarks of classical Persian sounds filter through - the slow stroll of the daf, scintillating runs of santoor, and solitary lines drifting out of the kamancheh. Bridging the realms of the real and the imaginary, the collaboration signals the first contribution to Mystic AM’s enigmatic concept.

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Caravanserai / Den of Thieves

Release date: 19/08/22

If you would like to review this release, please email info@astralindustries.co.uk

2x12” 180g gatefold vinyl//mastered by Noel Summerville//original artwork by Theo Ellsworth.

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AI-31 sees the debut release from a new collaboration between Samuel van Dijk (Netherlands) and Rasmus Hedlund (Finland). Both key proponents to the scene in Northern Europe, they come together with mutual understanding and a common vision to sound. Dialog acts as a conversational exchange that sees the interplay of dynamic frequencies, evocative imagery and contemporary sonic art. Spread across four sides, the album as a whole exists as a kind of metaphysical process, eternally growing and contracting — change is the only constant, marked by a continuous progression of sound and space.  

Expansive, deep, and at moments arresting, Dialog unfolds with sweeping soundscapes and shimmers with tactile sonic details. A chasmic rift of scintillating drone structures, each layer exposes a series of ever-deeper shades. In a play of dynamic dualities, the pair harnesses both earthly materials as well as access to more ethereal dimensions in the music. Side A begins with sub-terrestrial ruptures, gestating in a process of constant elemental changes. Rattling hits sputter amongst a state of nascent chaos, yet continues to be maintained in self-regulating stasis. Side B sets a more introspective tone, whispering with ghostly artefacts and bubbling synth lines, before building into a driving energy of layered field recordings and mechanistic timbres. The essence of form continues to be contested, until it subsides into momentary calm on side C. A cleansing period of soft drones float into the space and the pace slows, washing away remnants of past. The journey continues with side D’s conclusion - a solemn contour that reaches its internal extent, to then finally return to its source.

Side D

Side C

Side B

Taken from Dialog's self-titled LP on Astral Industries, out August 19.

More: www.orbmag.com/music

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@rasmus-hedlund
@mohlao
@dialog-sound

Dialog

Premiere: Dialog - Side A

Full stream of Son of Chi & Arthur Flink's "Part One," taken from their upcoming EP The Fifth World Recordings on Astral Industries, out October 21.

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@astralindustries

The Fifth World Recordings

Premiere: Son of Chi & Arthur Flink - Part One

Son Of Chi & Arthur Flink - Part Two
The Fifth World Recordings [AI-32 / Astral Industries]

Produced by Hanyo van Oosterom & Arthur Flink
Mastered by Noel Summerville
Artwork by Theo Ellsworth
Released by Astral Industries from London, UK
Release Date : October 21st. 2022
Format - Vinyl & Digital

AI-32 signals the arrival of ‘The Fifth World Recordings’, by Son of Chi (Hanyo van Oosterom) and long-term collaborator Arthur Flink. A tribute to the late Jon Hassell, who passed away in 2021, the album connects a deep running thread that goes back to the source of Chi project. Carrying on from where Hassell left off, the album takes inspiration and references from his Fourth World music concept and the ancient Hopi tradition of Native America. Illuminating the subliminal space of the arising Fifth World, Son of Chi pays respects to an inimitable force in contemporary music.

Hassell’s ‘Dream Theory in Malaya’ forms a touchstone to Hanyo van Oosterom’s musical journey, which soundtracked long, deep and reflective periods living in the cave of the Kallikatsou (Patmos, Greece) back in the early 80s. This period resulted in Hanyo’s track as Chi - ‘Hopi’ - in 1984. Hanyo met Hassell shortly after in 1987 at his “The Surgeon in the Nightsky” concert in Rotterdam - it wasn’t until twenty years later that Hanyo invited him for two magic nights of “Instant Composing Sessions” with the Numoonlab Orchestra (with a host of other artists) at the LantarenVenster, the very same stage where Hassell had performed in 1987 and also where Chi did their first live performance.

Dreamful, mysterious, prophetic, the Fifth World Recordings features the quiet yet elaborate sound of Chi awash with rich instrumentation, field recordings, and old stories by the firelight. Sketches were created with drones, loops, and soundscapes, with which Arthur Flink (also a member of the Numoonlab Orchestra) jammed on trumpet. Channelling Hassell’s idiosyncratic style, floating melodies and lyrical improvisations are parsed into the mix, where Hanyo has processed and manipulated the recordings, also referencing Hassell’s exotic scales and unique harmonics.

Additionally, the wah Bamboo flute at the closing piece is an homage to the works of Chi co-founder Jacobus Derwort (1952-2019). For this piece Hanyo used his first bamboo flute he made at the cave of the Kallikatsou in 1984. Arthur Flink answers in counterpoint with the wah trumpet, almost like the intuitive communication of the nightbirds... 

Son Of Chi (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
https://www.facebook.com/hanyovanoosterom
https://www.facebook.com/chifactory

Arthur Flink (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
https://www.facebook.com/arthur.flink

Astral Industries
https://soundcloud.com/astralindustries
https://www.facebook.com/astralindustries
https://www.instagram.com/astralindustries
https://astralindustries.bandcamp.com

Oslated.
http://www.oslated.com
https://soundcloud.com/oslated
https://oslated.bandcamp.com
https://formaviva.com/oslated

Part Two

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Son Of Chi & Arthur Flink - Part Two [Astral Industries]

Release date: 27/01/23

If you would like to review this release, please email info@astralindustries.co.uk

180g vinyl//mastered by Noel Summerville//original artwork by Theo Ellsworth.

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Berlin based sound artist Sa Pa delivers AI-33, titled ‘Atmospheric Fragments’. Originally intended as a soundtrack to accompany ten short experimental films as part of a physical exhibition in 2020 curated by Manon Bernard, Atmospheric Fragments was alternatively premiered online as a digital showroom - with its music performed and recorded both live and independently in 2021. 

Atmospheric Fragments was conceived as a collaborative audio-visual project, positing the viewer inside a sonic boom of introspective parenthesis and offering a place for internal dialogues under the circumstances of a largely unknown and rapidly changing modern world. 

Sa Pa’s work presents a fresh sonic reinterpretation of urban landscapes, skylines and modern environments, procuring from its source material a whole new kaleidoscopic world of its own. The record consists of two mixes - ‘Studio’ and ‘Live’ - which demonstrate a deep explorational study of our everyday surroundings, plunging the listener into a realm of heightened sense experience and microscopic detail. Where the ‘Studio’ mix embodies the precision and management of the studio workspace and is more ambient in nature, such intricacies are exchanged for a larger, livelier sound stage and alternative sonic material in the ‘Live’ mix. 

A nebulous ocean of shifting spaces and effervescent textures, Sa Pa augments and modulates field recordings into a fluid and ever-evolving narrative. Seen through a viewfinder of deep and immersive observation, new transients, momentary artefacts and poetry in motion begin to reveal itself. In a world caught in momentary stasis, Atmospheric Fragments is a forensic inquiry into our perceptive environment, with its augmented lens placing us on the cusp of the ungraspable.

Live Mix

Taken from Sa Pa's Atmospheric Fragments LP on Astral Industries, out January 27.

Pre-order: https://astralindustries.bandcamp.com/album/ai-33-atmospheric-fragments
More: www.orbmag.com/music

@astralindustries

Atmospheric Fragments

Premiere: Sa Pa - Studio Mix

Release date: 01/09/23

If you would like to review this release, please email info@astralindustries.co.uk

180g vinyl//original artwork by Theo Ellsworth.

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AI-34 arrives from Toki Fuko. Known previously for his contributions of deep and hypnotic techno, he presents on Astral Industries further development of his sound in this long-form work. A two-part sojourn into vibrant organic soundscapes and liminal sonic archaeologies, ‘Spirit Medicine’ is an ethereal yet human-centric venture into the realms of consciousness.

Soft chimes mark the opening, making way for expansive pads and the emergence of a bristling jungle panorama. Solitary flute melodies call out to the valley, riding over a bed of drones and earthy rhythms. Later juxtaposed with broadcasted voice samples, the natural fabric ruptures with exposed layers spilling through, only to fade back into the ether. Perhaps a memory, or the momentary glimpse of a parallel reality… Part Two adopts an equally atmospheric flavour, substituting fauna and flora for deconstructed, psycho-somatic mysteria. Overall darker in tone, broken beats combine with avant garde adornments, underpinned by a subtle existential narrative. Wading through a wilderness of eerie remembrances, their starkness is counterbalanced with a peaceful return - a form of clarity and reconciliation that the listener is offered in the final act.

Spirit Medicine (mastered)

Release date: 01/09/23

If you would like to review this release, please email info@astralindustries.co.uk

180g vinyl//original artwork by Theo Ellsworth.

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A year on since the collaborative Mystic AM project in 2022, Rod Modell returns solo to Astral Industries with AI-35. The album - entitled ‘Ghost Lights’ - comes as a gatefold 2x vinyl LP, showcasing the latest epoch of Modell’s signature soundscapes. Spread across four parts, ‘Ghost Lights’ draws out a wide, cinematic sound - with long arching contours, rippling textures and cavernous sound design.

Woven with layer upon layer of hidden fragments and supernal transmissions, each chapter takes the listener successively deeper into the twilight zone. Harking to dramatic off-world topographies and interstellar spaces, the work glistens with opulent sound treatment and monumental grandeur. Dense pulsations move with oceanic force, marked by washes of celestial light and subterranean drones. Exercising another side to Rod Modell's typically atmospheric productions, this album comes with an ambitious framework and a more assertive sound. Featuring some of Modell’s most epic storytelling to date, ‘Ghost Lights’ delivers a powerful immersive experience.

Ghost Lights

Taken from Rod Modell's Ghost Lights LP on Astral Industries, out September 1.

Pre-order: https://astralindustries.bandcamp.com/album/ai-35-ghost-lights
More: www.orbmag.com/music

@astralindustries

Premiere: Rod Modell - Side A

Full stream of Toki Fuko's "Part One," taken from Spirit Medicine LP on Astral Industries, out September 1.

Pre-order: https://astralindustries.bandcamp.com/album/ai-34-spirit-medicine
More: www.orbmag.com/music

@astralindustries
@tokifuko

Spirit Medicine

Premiere: Toki Fuko - Part One

Release date: 26/01/24

If you would like to review this release, please email info@astralindustries.co.uk

2 x 180g gatefold vinyl//mastered by Noel Summerville//original artwork by Theo Ellsworth.

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AI-36 comes from Ear to Ear - the debut collaboration between label regular Samuel van Dijk (Multicast Dynamics) and Ukrainian artist Yevgen Chebotarenko. Taken from a series of live recording sessions, the album explores in four parts a markedly darker realm of soundscape music. A cornucopia of abstract morphing scenes and heady synesthesia, the album brims with rich sonic detail and evocative gestures. Deftly blending organic sound textures with an experimental austerity, ‘Live Recordings’ displays potent and accomplished storytelling.

The album opens to a grey overcast vista, a natural landscape that slowly melts into a descending chasmic dysphoria. The mood transitions to a drone-based piece on the B-side, characterised by a more psychologically suspenseful framework and exotic blend of sound design. The atmosphere lightens, yet equally pensive as side C takes on a more elemental form, invoking water and its array of microbial and metabolic ecosystems. Brief cathartic moments in the final section pave the way for deeper wayfaring on the D-side. Stray signals and unknowable artefacts skitter across a vast subaqueous domain, a fathomless womb of potentialities that ebbs into eternity.

Live Recordings D

Live Recordings C

Live Recordings B

Live Recordings A

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Bookings and all label enquiries: info@astralindustries.co.uk

Please, no demos.

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Artists: Deepchord, Wolfgang Voigt, The Chi Factory, Heavenly Music Corporation, Waveform Transmission, Sonmi451, Atom™, J.Derwort, Shorelights, Multicast Dynamics, LF58, The Abyss Within Us, Monolake, The Humble Bee, Son of Chi, Lucid Dreams, Mystic AM, Dialog, Sa Pa, Toki Fuko, Rod Modell, Ear to Ear, Pianeti Sintetici, Marco Shuttle.

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AI-01: Deepchord - Lanterns
AI-02: Wolfgang Voigt presents Rückverzauberung live in London
AI-03: Chi - The Original Recordings
AI-04: Wolfgang Voigt & Deepchord - Colours of Time, re-interpreted
AI-05: Chi Factory - The Bamboo Recordings
AI-06: Heavenly Music Corporation - Lunar Phase
AI-07: Chi Factory - The Kallikatsou Recordings
AI-08: Waveform Transmission - V 2.0-2.9
AI-09: Chi Factory - Red Lantern at the Kallikatsou
AI-10: Deepchord - Immersions
AI-11: Heavenly Music Corporation - In a Garden of Eden
AI-12: Chi Factory - The Mantra Recordings
AI-13: Sonmi451 - Nachtmuziek
AI-14: Dots - Dots
AI-15: J.Derwort - Bamboo Music
AI-16: Shorelights - Bioluminescence
AI-17: Multicast Dynamics - Ancient Circuits
AI-18: Chi Factory - Travel in Peace
AI-19: LF58 - Alterazione
AI-20: Waveform Transmission - V 3.0-3.9
AI-21: The Abyss Within Us - Life in a Circle
AI-22: Wolfgang Voigt presents Rückverzauberung Exhibition
AI-23: Monolake - Gobi. The Vinyl Edit 2021
AI-24: The Humble Bee - A Miscellany for the Quiet Hours
AI-25: Son of Chi & Radboud Mens - The Transition Recordings
AI-26: Multicast Dynamics & Sid Hille - Metamorphosis
AI-27: LF58 Live at Brancaleone
AI-28: Lucid Dreams
AI-29: Son of Chi & Clara Brea - The Wetland Remixes
AI-30: Mystic AM - Cardamom & Laudanum
AI-31: Dialog - Dialog
AI-32: Son of Chi & Arthur Flink - The Fifth World Recordings
AI-33: Sa Pa - Atmospheric Fragments
AI-34: Toki Fuko - Spirit Medicine
AI-35: Rod Modell - Ghost Lights
AI-36: Ear to Ear - Live Recordings
AI-37: Pianeti Sintetici - Space Opera
AI-38: LF58 - Radials
AI-39: Marco Shuttle - Sonidos y Modulaciones de la Selva
AI-40: ???

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