RECORD STORE DAY JUNE 12TH 2021 EXCLUSIVE

Suzanne Ciani
Xenon
FKSP020

Greg Kmiec’s Xenon pinball machine was released in 1980 and marked a significant milestone in pinball technology and design. The expansion of microchip technology would provide new opportunities for sound designer and synth pioneer Suzanne Ciani, allowing for basic oscillator control and a wider scope for sampling capacity which could facilitate the higher frequencies of a female human voice and entirely reshape the concept of the machine in the process. By using state of the art Synclavier synthesiser technology and an invaluable experience in film scoring and record production Suzanne would devise a complete minimal music score for the machine, then dissect the piece into separate fragments that would be triggered throughout the game play adding an extra creative dimension in player inter-activity (potentially turning the participant into their own musical arranger). By incorporating her own infamous voice box (which had been the focus of a seminal David Letterman Show feature) Suzanne’s combination of a harmoniser and a vocoder also provided the first-ever female identity to a pinball machine which in conjunction with the games ergonomic design and Paul Faris’ figurative graphics (echoing the aesthetic of Rene Laloux and Roland Topor’s La Planète Sauvage) Xenon was able to add a degree of subconscious sensuality to its performance, a feature previously unchartered in arcade development.

This disc presents the full extent of Suzanne Ciani’s groundbreaking musical effects for Xenon, in their isolated form, for the first time ever heard outside of the confines of the machine which recently earned the composer her own induction to the Pinball Expo Hall Of Fame.

LIMITED EDITION 1000 COPIES ON BLUE VINYL

Xenon

Xenon (Long Effects)

Suzanne Ciani - Xenon (Long Effects)

from KR093:  MimiCof - Distant Symphony
LP / tape / DL out on june 10th 2022

Distant Symphony

MIMICOF - Distant Symphony I (excerpt)

Shebang

Golden Apples of the Sun

Spirit Rock

Oceanium

The Senja Recordings

Strandby

Bjorvika

Bergsbotn I

Gnosis

Vulnerary

A decade since his first productions as part of Pendle Coven, Miles Whittaker delivers his debut album proper for Modern Love. The intervening time has seen him forge a formidable reputation alongside Sean Canty as Demdike Stare, and with Andy Stott as Millie & Andrea, beside his operations in the hardware field as Suum Cuique, solo excursions as MLZ and shadowy involvement in the HATE project - all the while building upon his in-demand skills as a DJ of twenty odd years experience, accumulating and absorbing far flung knowledge of hardcore UK jungle, Chicago house, Motor City Soul, the obscure UK techno of labels like Radioactive Lamb and Irdial, Italian concrète, Synthwave and contemporary noise. Which brings us to 'Faint Hearted', the Burnley-bred, Berlin-based maestro's debut solo opus; eight entirely analogue constructions riding the wave from wormhole hardcore clatter ('Lebensform') to body-compressing subbass undulations ('Irreligious'), trekking through frayed techno minimalism ('Status Narcissism') to mind-drift ambient ('Sense Data') and what sounds like a Demdike Stare track constructed on a worksite ('Rejoice'). But if you ask us, the best bits occur right at the end, with the ominous bass, funereal strings and obliterated noise of 'Archaic Thought Pattern 1' or the field recording clangour of 'Queuing', and certainly the majestically gratifying yet subtly dystopian 9 minute closer 'Loran Dreams'. As an individual sonic statement, it's an evocative exposition of Miles’ love of electronic music in all its shapes, harnessing his fidgety production style into one expansive, restless set of tracks.

Loran Dreams

Strandby

Biosphere

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