Second single from the new Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas munk album, "Eight Fragments Of An Illusion" - out on April 23rd!

Order from: azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk: "Faint Lights In The Distance"

From the Manual album "Confluence", released in October 2008. Buy the CD here: http://manual.bandcamp.com/album/confluence

Download available from www.darla.com, iTunes, Amazon and many more Places.

Manual - "Oracle Night"

From the Manual album "Confluence", released in October 2008. Buy CD or download directly from Darla Records: 
http://darla.com/index.php?fuseaction=item_cat.ecom_superitem_detail&item_cat_id=52



Manual - "Sanctuary"

Agape out NOW! Available on green/white vinyl and digital download from: azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Info: 

"On Agape, pioneers of slow-evolving minimal drone, zakè (a.k.a. Zach Frizzel) and City of Dawn (a.k.a. Damien Duque) transform unadorned inputs into beautiful complexity. The drone duo, based in Texas and Indiana respectively, is known for their carefully crafted textures, avoiding sudden shifts or abrasive sororities. Their focus offer up the steady ebb and flow of sound, cultivating a profound sense of meditative stasis and explorations of high-fidelity sound. 

These six extended pieces are organic and minimalist in nature, but has an ethereal, mirage-like quality to them. Somber, yet incredibly uplifting. Agape is the kind of ambient record that refuses to be reduced to mere background music – the harmonic foundation and the details of the soundscapes are too compelling for that. Frizzell and Duque manage to expand rather simple sonic ingredients into weightless ambient perfection."

zakè & City of Dawn - "Wanderlust"

Zakè & City of Dawn - "Agape" out now on Azure Vista Records

Limited edition coloured LP and download. Get it here: https://azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

"On Agape, pioneers of slow-evolving minimal drone, zakè (a.k.a. Zach Frizzel) and City of Dawn (a.k.a. Damien Duque) transform unadorned inputs into beautiful complexity. The drone duo, based in Texas and Indiana respectively, is known for their carefully crafted textures, avoiding sudden shifts or abrasive sororities. Their focus offer up the steady ebb and flow of sound, cultivating a profound sense of meditative stasis and explorations of high-fidelity sound. 

These six extended pieces are organic and minimalist in nature, but has an ethereal, mirage-like quality to them. Somber, yet incredibly uplifting. Agape is the kind of ambient record that refuses to be reduced to mere background music – the harmonic foundation and the details of the soundscapes are too compelling for that. Frizzell and Duque manage to evolve rather simple sonic ingredients into weightless ambient perfection."

Zakè & City Of Dawn - "Once Forgotten"

From the album: Manual with Jess Kahr: "The North Shore", released ten years ago on Darla Records.

www.darla.com

Manual - "1986"

Title track from the new album out on Azure Vista Records on August 11th! CD and limited edition vinyl shipping now from: azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Info:

American ambient masters zakè (a.k.a. Zach Frizzell) and City of Dawn (a.k.a. Damien Duque) return with a mesmerizing follow up to last year's "Agape". The music the two create together reflects the expansive landscapes of their native Texas and Indiana. Slowly unfolding melodies that seem to rise like the sun from a Texas horizon, and drones that resonate like leaves in an endless Indiana woodland. It's a sound that's both beautiful and slightly haunting – a sound that encompasses the listener and demands attention. This is music to get lost in.

Zach and Damien can both be considered veterans of ambient drone by now, and the five composition on Ash present a rarefied ”complex simplicity”. With few means they manage to create sonic and compositional depth, on par with classics of the genre from the likes of William Basinski, Brian Eno and Stars of the Lid.

The CD version of ”Ash” includes the previous album ”Agape”, which hasn't been previously released on CD.

zakè & City of Dawn: "Ash"

From the 2010 album Drowned in Light released on CD/LP/DL on Darla (US) and Make Mine Music (EU).

Get it from manual.bandcamp.com/album/drowned-in-light or www.darla.com


Manual - "Afterimages"

From the forthcoming 2CD compilation of remixes, rarities and unreleased tracks entitled "Memory and Matter", coming out on October 7 on Darla Records. The album can now be preordered here: www.manual.bandcamp.com

Or directly from Darla: 
darla.com/index.php?fuseaction…il&item_cat_id=43244

"Memory and Matter comprises selected remixes and rarities from the past seven years, nine of them previously unreleased and many of them only issued only on hard to find EPs or as Japanese release bonus tracks. Far from being merely a collection of every single oddity, these tracks were carefully selected into a consistent whole that maintains the same high standard of proper Manual albums. This two-disc compilation is also a labor of love.

Like it's predecessor, Lost Days, Open Skies and Streaming Tides, released in 2007, disc one demonstrates Jonas Munk aka Manual's expertise in creating elegantly layered, shoegazey pop, while disc two focuses on minimalist, slow-moving pieces created mostly from processed guitars. The latter adds an excellent postscript to Confluence - an album that has gained near-classic status in ambient/drone circles since it's release in 2008.

Munk's way of remixing other artists usually involves a complete reconstruction of the original piece, rearranging heavily and adding loads of fresh layers of sound to it, which is obvious when listening to his haunting and atmospheric reworkings of Blue Foundation's ballad ”Dressed in Black” or Mice Parade singer Caroline's ”Sleep”, or the Robin Guthrie produced Annie Barker track ”Cruel”. For Manual fans it's a treat to hear Munk's lush signature sound paired up with (often female) vocals. Disc 1 closes with the 17 minute Manual original ”Camellia”, the most new age-indebted piece in the Manual oeuvre, originally created for a digital-only compilation on Attack9. The track's placid sense of drift and delicately weaved harmonies makes it a standout in Munk's entire body of work.

Disc 2 is darker, more ambiguous in tone, with ”Three Parts” as the center piece – an enigmatic composition originally created for Ghostly International's ambient/drone compilation SMM: Context in 2011. Other notable selections includes ”Fields”, a meditative collaboration with Jason Kolb from Auburn Lull, and ”Memento”, a somber piece that exhibits Munk's flair for intensive guitar manipulation."


Manual: "Farther Away"

Caroline: "Sleep" (Manual Remix)

From the forthcoming 2CD compilation of remixes, rarities and unreleased tracks entitled "Memory and Matter", coming out on October 7 on Darla Records. The album can now be preordered here: www.manual.bandcamp.com

Or directly from Darla: 
darla.com/index.php?fuseaction…il&item_cat_id=43244


Blue Foundation: "Dressed in Black" (Manual Remix)

Collection of previews from the forthcoming solo LP on El Paraiso Records, coming out March 2nd. It's a "vinyl only" release, limited to 500 copies on transparent orange vinyl, inlcudes download card and artprint.

Order here: http://www.elparaisorecords.com/releases/jonas-munk-absorb-fabric-cascade-lp

Or get the super cheap, super kosmische bundle that includes the Pan reprint + two artprints here: http://www.elparaisorecords.com/product/jonas-munk-lp-bundle-preorder

--------------------------------------------------------------

Info:

Second solo LP from Causa Sui guitar player/producer Jonas Munk. These three long pieces aren't defined by Munks signature guitar-approach, but is rather a musical vision of vintage synthesizers, organs, piano and analog electronics elegantly weaved together to create extensive formations of pure sound. The harmonic simplicity and unrestricted dedication to sonic balance and texture is something of a first in Munk's body of work. This is pattern music, characterized by slow builds and subtle, but refined, transformations, where gradual tectonic shifts and tiny harmonic gestures generate vivid emotional responses. Instead of imposing any direct intention or meaning, it's an album that can create a mental environment for the listener to expand and open up into. 

Music like this is perceived as incredibly simple and free flowing, but, as is the case with the biological world, reveals textural minutiae and interweaved intricacy once studied close-up. Every tiny detail serves the bigger picture. It's music that's practically vibrating with possibility. 

File next to: Terry Riley, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Brian Eno, Popol Vuh. 


Or

Jonas Munk: "Absorb Fabric Cascade Album Preview"

Jonas Munk: "Mirror Phase" out on October 25th!

EU preorder: jonasmunk.bandcamp.com/album/mirror-phase

US preorder: www.pitp.us/collections/azure-vista-records

Vinyl LP limited to 300 copies total. Comes with obi-strip, download card and pvc lined inner-sleeve. CD includes Munk's previous full-length "Altered Light", which has never been released on a physical format until now.

Album info:

”Mirror Phase” concludes a trilogy of minimal ambient albums in Munk's own name. These eight compositions, based on guitar and synthesizer loops, marks a return to the warmer sounds Munk is often associated with. Sonic structures that slowly and gradually evolves and changes, like cloud formations in the sky. The title track, ”Mirror Phase”, is Munk's most expansive drone opus so far. It's a carefully arranged piece where sounds that oscillates with the same interval, but at different phases, are continuously added, hence creating shifting patterns throughout the track's nearly 18 minute duration.

Elsewhere, in ”Transition”, multi-layered guitars creates the sonic equivalent of waves gently splashing on the shore. ”At a Distance” creates a haunting, and hypnotic, soundscape by using slightly out-of-tune analog synthesizers, summoning the transcendent krautrock of Popol Vuh. And ”Rise”, as well as the closing track, ”Return to Nowhere”, recalls the glistening sounds of his Manual releases. ”Mirror Phase” might just be Munk's ambient oeuvre reaching its zenith.

Jonas Munk: "Return To Nowhere"

First track from the new record coming out March 2nd, 2015. It's a vinyl-only release (limited to 500 copies) consisting of three long drone-pieces created from analog synths, piano, organs and fuzzzzzz. Get the LP here: http://www.elparaisorecords.com/releases/jonas-munk-absorb-fabric-cascade-lp

Or the bundle with the Pan reissue here: http://www.elparaisorecords.com/product/jonas-munk-lp-bundle-preorder

--------------------------------------------------------------
Info:

Second solo LP from Causa Sui guitar player/producer Jonas Munk. These three long pieces aren't defined by Munks signature guitar-approach, but is rather a musical vision of vintage synthesizers, organs, piano and analog electronics elegantly weaved together to create extensive formations of pure sound. The harmonic simplicity and unrestricted dedication to sonic balance and texture is something of a first in Munk's body of work. This is pattern music, characterized by slow builds and subtle, but refined, transformations, where gradual tectonic shifts and tiny harmonic gestures generate vivid emotional responses. Instead of imposing any direct intention or meaning, it's an album that can create a mental environment for the listener to expand and open up into.

Music like this is perceived as incredibly simple and free flowing, but, as is the case with the biological world, reveals textural minutiae and interweaved intricacy once studied close-up. Every tiny detail serves the bigger picture. It's music that's practically vibrating with possibility.

File next to: Terry Riley, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Brian Eno, Popol Vuh.


Jonas Munk: "Absorb"

Manual: "Summer Of Freedom"

Manual: "Tourmaline"

Manual: "Azure Vista"

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk: "Passage" out now on CD/LP (via Azure Vista Records) and digital (via Pedigree Cuts)!

Order here: www.azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Info:

Following the release of ‘No Further Ahead Than Today’ last November Ulrich Schnauss (now a member of Tangerine Dream) wastes little time in bringing us the long awaited sequel to his 2011 eponymous collaboration with Jonas Munk.

There's a prismatic, multi-dimensional quality to these 11 tracks, most likely stemming from the fact that these two producers have each worked with a wide range of styles and musicians throughout their 15+ year careers: Ulrich cut his teeth as a drum and bass producer in Berlin, before releasing a string of highly influential neo-shoegaze records on labels such as Domino and City Centre Offices. Since moving to London in 2006 he's been a member of the bands Engineers and Longview, remixed many artists (from Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys to Mojave 3) and since 2013, been a member of legendary band Tangerine Dream.

While Jonas initially became known to the electronica community via his Manual albums on Morr Music and Darla Records, he also has a career as a noted producer on the European psych scene, as well as working on film soundtracks and experimental minimalism.

Fans of the first album’s euphoric and blissful moments will find much to love here, but also themes that gradually unfurl into crisp, symphonic soundscapes. The album is perfectly titled - it certainly has the feel of a journey but not in a literal sense. It feels like an ‘emotional passage’ or one that plays out via a series of dreams.

Opener ‘Amaris’ has many of the Schnauss hallmarks that we’ve come to enjoy from his many shoegaze collaborations and Munk is the perfect foil for this side to his oeuvre - the track chimes and sways beautifully before one of his trademark melodies hits and leaves you breathless. Munk introduces a more progressive aspect to the release than previously heard by the pair on 'genau wie damals', which recalls several 70’s guitar based giants, though in 2016 this is somehow a natural diversion for a record bearing Ulrich’s name.
Mst’ is certainly one for those yearning for the open armed rush of the first album will surely embrace - 80’s guitars and electro drums set the scene for some of the most gorgeous sequencing and melodic synth work on the album. In truth though, there’s no shortage of highlights. The retro futurism of ‘Spellbreaker’ is awesomely addictive and modest standout ‘Caffeine blues’ combines tasteful guitar strokes with a standard of Berlin school sequencing that surely only a member of one of the scene’s key exponents could summon.

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk: "Ao Hinode"

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk: "MST"

From the new Billow Observatory album "II: Plains/Patterns" out now! 

Get it from www.azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Billow Observatory: "Vex"

From the latest Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk collaboration, entitled "Passage", out now on Azure Vista Records!

Get it from: www.azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Passage

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk: "Anywhere But Here"

From Manual's "Confluence" album released on Darla Records in 2010

Manual - "Last Light"

First track off the new Billow Observatory album, "III: Chroma/Contour", on CD/LP/digital on February 8th! Preorder from: https://azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com/merch

Info:

"III: Chroma/Contour is the third album from Billow Observatory, the collaborative project of Danish producer Jonas Munk (Manual, Ulrich Schnauss collaborator and more) and Michigan native Jason Kolb (Auburn Lull). The album's nine tracks eschew the pulse and rhythm that defined the duo's previous effort (II: Plains/Patterns) in favor of sparse melodic possibilities and a more abstract palette of sounds. Chroma/Contour suggests looking both 20 years forward and twenty years back, while forgetting the present altogether. 

Much of the album plays out as a study in minimalism: the texture and colour of each sound is being explored in miniscule detail, with enough space in the soundfield to allow each sonic constituent to breathe fully. There's a conceptual dimension to several tracks on the album, with guitars, analog synths and voices being mangled by samplers, computer software and a broken dictaphone into pure abstraction. But simultaneously there's a melodic undercurrent, revealing a deeply emotional aspect of the music. Tracks such as Color In The Six, Iris and Soft Logic convey a melancholic sense of awe, a profoundly calming glimpse of the sublime."

Billow Observatory: "Iris"

Second track off the new Billow Observatory album, entitled "III: Chroma/Contour", out on Azure Vista Records on February 8th! Preorder from: azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Album info:

III: Chroma/Contour is the third album from Billow Observatory, the collaborative project of Danish producer Jonas Munk (Manual, Ulrich Schnauss collaborator and more) and Michigan native Jason Kolb (Auburn Lull). The album's nine tracks eschew the pulse and rhythm that defined the duo's previous effort (II: Plains/Patterns) in favor of sparse melodic possibilities and a more abstract palette of sounds. Chroma/Contour suggests looking both 20 years forward and twenty years back, while forgetting the present altogether. Much of the album plays out as a study in minimalism: the texture and colour of each sound is being explored in miniscule detail, with enough space in the soundfield to allow each sonic constituent to breathe fully. There's a conceptual dimension to several tracks on the album, with guitars, analog synths and voices being mangled by samplers, computer software and a broken dictaphone into pure abstraction. But simultaneously there's a melodic undercurrent, revealing a deeply emotional aspect of the music. Tracks such as Color In The Six, Iris and Soft Logic convey a melancholic sense of awe, a profoundly calming glimpse of the sublime. 

As with the best ambient music, the power of these nine pieces lies in their open-endedness and suggestive potential. Rather than imposing on the listener and presenting a flawless, fullyformed aural landscape, the music creates an evocative space for the listener to explore and expand in.

Billow Observatory: "Bright Lands Rising"

Billow Observatory - III: Chroma/Contour, out NOW!

azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Billow Observatory: "Color In The Six"

First single off the new Jonas Munk solo album, out on Azure Vista Records early 2020! More to be revealed in January.

Happy Holidays!

Jonas Munk: "Resonance"

Jonas Munk: "Minimum Resistance" will be out on Azure Vista Records February 21st! Preorder here: https://jonasmunk.bandcamp.com/album/minimum-resistance

"Minimum Resistance is Jonas Munk's most abstract and minimalist album to date. Ten ambient pieces based on guitars – often processed into soft, slow billows of sound. There's a rare aesthetic clarity in these pieces, allowing each sonic component to breathe and resonate. Here Munk works with a restrained sonic palette and it's an album which demands patience from the listener. Yet, in its bold simplicity, it carries enough emotional weight to be deeply rewarding."

Jonas Munk: "Sabi"

Opening track from the self-titled collaboration album released on Pedigree Cuts in 2011.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ulrich-schnauss-jonas-munk/id445412902

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk - "Weightless memories"

From Searching for Bill - original soundtrack, which will be released on Darla Records on March 12 on CD/Download. The album can already now be purchased as immediate digital download exclusively from www.darla.com before the official release date: http://darla.com/index.php?fuseaction=item_cat.ecom_superitem_detail&item_cat_id=41733

Preorder CD here: http://darla.com/index.php?fuseaction=item_cat.ecom_superitem_detail&item_cat_id=41731

Info:

Searching For Bill is the debut film by Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen. The film delves into the meaning of life for those living on the edge of modern American society by taking a documental trip through America where reality and fiction sway in a sensual pas de deux down mythological highways. It is a tantalizing and impressionistic depiction of America and Americans as seen with a northern European sensibility. From the overgrown and tattered streets of Detroit through to the off-the-grid desert settlement of Slab City in the Colorado Desert, the film's journey through the underbelly of America allows a fascinating glimpse into the lives of America's have-nots. It's a subtle and sensitive film, as much about hope and beauty as it is about decay.

 With his experience in ambient music (as Manual, Billow observatory) as well as being a seasoned producer of psychedelic rock and folk-rock (Causa Sui, Sun River and others) Danish producer Jonas Munk was an obvious choice for the composing the soundtrack, and he sets the perfect backdrop for this journey through America by blending analog synthesizer drones with twangy guitars and his signature atmosphere. These 13 tracks can best be described as "Ambient Americana". Heavily inspired by the American rural ambient music from the last two decades (think Labradford, Windy & Carl, Landing and Auburn Lull) as well as motoric krautrock and more traditional folk-rock sounds, this album feels like a journey through cities and shifting landscapes. It channels the beauty and wonder of America as seen through the eyes of a Dane but like the film itself it has strong undercurrents of darkness.

Jonas Munk "Driving through the Country"

Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea: "Liberamente" out on Azure Vista Records on October 16! Available on CD/LP/download. Preorder from azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

Info:

"Second album from American trio Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea, consisting of zakè, Marc Ertel and Damien Duque. Together they're creating soft-textured and slowly unfolding sonic landscapes, somewhere between guitar-oriented drone music and modern classical. Liberamente is the kind of album that demands attention and patience from the listener, yet it's ultimately a very rewarding one. 

Stylistically Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea sums up several decades of American soundscape and drone music, taking threads from Windy & Carl, Auburn Lull, and Stars of the Lid then weaves them into a contemporary, and sonically adventurous whole. On the surface it suggests simplicity, but dig deeper and the seven pieces on Liberamente reveals a rare compositional dexterity. This is minimalism at its finest."

Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea: "Liberamente"

New Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk single out now. Available on Bandcamp, official video on Youtube. Get it here: azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com

"First new music from Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk in four years. "Asteroid 2467" is the first single off the forthcoming collaborative full length (their third), coming out in spring 2021. "Asteroid 2467 (single version)" is an edited version of an album track, whereas "Afterglow" is exclusive to this release.

Ambient and introspective in nature, but with a kinetic, polyrhythmic energy pushing it forward. There's a floating quality to Ulrich's synthesizer washes and Munk's guitar patterns, yet the two tracks are anchored by pulse and compositional direction. The duo brings their individual strengths to the table, yet the music transcends any of their previous work conceptually. There are echoes of blissed-out new age music and kosmische from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as traces of shoegaze-era abstraction and leftfield electronica. But ultimately there's no off-the-rack category that fits it. It exists in its own rarefied space."

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk: Asteroid 2467 (single Version)

Azure Vista Records is an independently owned and operated label based in Odense, Denmark with a strong focus on blissed-out electronic sounds!

Azure Vista Records

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