As we gear up for the release of Kate Wax's vocally-exhilarating new album 'Dust Collision' in November 2011, we offer the dancefloor a sneak preview of the delights to come via a pair of decidedly epic 12” re-edits care of our in-house remixer extraordinaire James Holden. 

The twelve-track album big bang of determined self-producing Swiss autocrat Kate Wax's dark electronic musical universe was mixed in sensitive harmony with new friend James Holden in his London studio, following which James seized upon the parts stashed on his hard drive to string two of the most club-friendly album cuts out into the dancefloor-optimised vinyl-only hedonistic symphonies you see before you.

33BCE vinyl tracklist:
a1: kate wax – echoes &amp; the light (holden 12” edit)
b1: kate wax – holy beast (holden's woolly beast edit)

Pre-order vinyl from Phonica: http://www.phonicarecords.com/product/view/101292
Download the Holden edit of 'Holy Beast' from Pitchfork: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/12443-holy-beast-holden-woolly-beast-edit/



33BCE: B1 - Kate Wax - Holy Beast (Holden's Woolly Beast Edit)

Luke Abbott - Brazil (Live on Tape)

Fresh from the six person strong spiritual jazz band extravaganza of 2017’s warmly received album The Animal Spirits, synth wizard James Holden offers up yet another addition to his archive: an album of solo synth work written to accompany the critically-acclaimed documentary A Cambodian Spring, which following international film festival success, a programme of UK-wide screenings and a near worldwide slot on MUBI is currently available to buy on DVD, Blu-Ray, download and stream. Standing in contrast to Holden’s recent impulse towards live collaboration (which as well as his newly-expanded touring band The Animal Spirits has also encompassed collaborations with Moroccan Maalems Mahmoud and Houssam Guinia and tabla player Camilo Tirado), the UK electronic stalwart’s first film soundtrack is a solo studio affair, drawing on his favourite go-to analogue instruments to showcase the many sides of his diverse musical leanings throughout fourteen tracks of pulsing melancholy, foreboding drone and even the occasional burst of beatless trance.

The starting point for the soundtrack was the emotive ‘Self-Playing Schmaltz’, the closing track of Holden’s 2013 album The Inheritors, which documentary director Chris Kelly had used in an early rough cut to soundtrack what would eventually become the shocking and dramatic denouement of the whole film. Holden’s haunting, decaying synth lines seemed to line up perfectly with the fraught images of a community in breakdown, and it was this serendipity that prompted Kelly to invite Holden to work on a whole new original soundtrack for the rest of the film. The signature Prophet 600 sound palette which dominated The Inheritors also features heavily here, supplemented by a cranky old Hammond organ which was inadvertently sacrificed to the cause when the ominous rumbles coaxed out during the three-part ‘Disintegration Drone’ turned out to be the sound of the aged machine’s internal speaker cone tearing itself to bits (thus neatly mirroring the on-screen disintegration of Cambodian society during the post-election Cambodian Spring uprising). But the musical highlight here is undoubtedly the soaring, uplifting arpeggios of the ‘Solidarity Theme’, where trance functions as the international musical language of solidarity to accompany the moment that land rights campaigners Srey Pov and Tep Vanny are freed from prison, a rare glimpse of hope set against what is an otherwise rather sombre narrative as we watch the forces of international development inexorably destroy the homes and community of the Boeung Kak lakeside area in Phnomh Penh.

Holden’s first foray into the world of film soundtrack is certainly powerful and arresting when viewed in context, set against the striking collection of images assembled by A Cambodian Spring director Chris Kelly to produce a number of genuinely emotive moments, both tragic and uplifting. But as a stand alone album release it also has much to offer, with cleansing, contemplative drone and euphoric melodies alike. When viewed chronologically, Holden’s desire to engage with a broad spectrum of electronic music may mean that his back catalogue can occasionally appear somewhat schizophrenic, but in the case of A Cambodian Spring the epic documentary format and the wide-ranging human emotions on display here provide the perfect format for Holden to showcase the full breadth of his musical tastes.

The ‘A Cambodian Spring OST’ vinyl release also includes sleeve notes by Imaginary Cities author Darran Anderson. 

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t12Am6DM18

Film website: https://acambodianspring.com/

A Cambodian Spring OST

Srey Pov's Theme (End Credits) - James Holden

Disintegration Drone III (Death Rattle) - James Holden

Disintegration Drone II (Torn Cone) - James Holden

Reprise - James Holden

Monk's Theme Part III (Exit) - James Holden

Solidarity Theme (Release) - James Holden

Disintegration Drone I - James Holden

The Villagers - James Holden

Solidarity Theme (Villagers) - James Holden

Downturn Medley - James Holden

In tribute to the 'Holkham Drones' title of Luke Abbott's recent debut album, we will be transforming Room 2 of our next Border Commune night at London's Corsica Studios (24th September) into a cosy alternative space dedicated to a series of live performances around the theme of Drone, named 'The Holkham Drone Zone'.

Although originally advertised, Luke Abbott himself won't actually be able to attend this special evening of drone thanks to a double booking. But by way of apology he is giving away 'Forgive and Remember', a special improvised lone-home-drone for your home listening delectation, accompanied by the following explanation:

"Although Border Community have dedicated a whole room to the Drone-theme of the title of my album, thanks to a double-booking and contrary to earlier advertisements I won't actually be able to attend the drone-evening. To make up for it, I have recorded this home-drone session, and I strongly advise you to check out the other live performances from my brothers in drone Wesley Matsell, James Holden, Dan Tombs, Perc and An'Unexpectacle which will still be going ahead in my absence..."

Border Commune @ Corsica Studios, London : 24th September
Tickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/92718

Room 1:
James Holden
Perc
Margot

Room 2:
'The Holkham Drone Zone' : Improvisations in the key of drone with your host DJ Wesley Matsell
Featuring:
James Holden
An'Unexpectacle Drone Zone
Perc
'Telechromatic Distortion' by Dan Tombs
Wesley Matsell

Luke abbott - forgive and remember

3) Pillar:
"Another morning recording, this time in Wells-next-the-Sea harbour. There is a whole world of detail in this recording, the slack water, the distant sound of moored fishing boats, and lots of different birds including a tern which if you listen very carefully you can hear catching its breakfast."

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

On the auspicious occasion of the release of his mystical seventh artist album, technological force-of-nature Leafcutter John teams up with fellow stalwarts of idiosyncratic electronica Border Community to gift unto the world the small-yet-perfectly-formed joyously utopian artefact Yes! Come Parade With Us. Weaving field recordings from the Norfolk coastline together with layers of lyrical modular synth, these seven bright-eyed folk anthems sing with positivity and a sense of place, and feel right at home amongst the British label’s unparalleled ever-pastoral and often organic electronic legacy.

During the summer of 2017 exiled Yorkshireman Leafcutter John returned to his one-time home of Norfolk (having graduated in Painting from Norwich’s School of Art and Design back in 1998) and set out on foot along the sixty mile section of Norfolk Coast Path which runs from Hunstanton to Overstrand, trusty audio recording device in his pocket. “And very soon the physical act of walking began to make me think about music,” he explains. “My footsteps dictated the tempo and imagined melodies accompanied me as I slowly moved along the increasingly wild and magical stretch of coastline. Stresses of the city were replaced by the fall and rise of the North Sea and endless salt flats. Sounds from the environment filtered in and I would stop often to record what I was hearing around me.”

Back home in London, the hours of amassed field recordings would form the backbone and inspiration for a whole album worth of outpourings from John’s six-years-in-the-making modular synth. From the evocative sound of sea birds on Pillar and Stepper Motor to the colourful conversation from a country pub in This Way Out, the apposite selection of samples which made the final edit provide the perfect jumping-off point for John’s synths to soar with abandon, at times uplifting, frenetic, haunting, hypnotic or meditative, but always atmospheric and with unstoppable propulsion.

“Above all else, I wanted the album to exude a sense of constant forward motion but at a very human scale,” says John. Thus drummer friends Tom Skinner (Hello Skinny) and Sebastian Rochford (long-time collaborator in the twice Mercury Prize-nominated band Polar Bear) were roped in to lend their suitably clattering human momentum, on Doing The Beeston Bump and Dunes respectively. Working in tempos to match his walking speed throughout - “whether trudging along a rainy shingle beach or running up wildflowering clifftop paths” - Yes! Come Parade With Us is perfect traveling music, and once unleashed upon the world is sure to provide the soundtrack to plenty more journeys to come.

Beginning his own musical journey back in 1999 on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu Records and with a widely-varied twenty year career in electronic music already under his belt, the release of his masterful seventh album sees Leafcutter John on career-defining form. An intensely personal project, John has also hand-drawn the labyrinthine album art and animated his own suitably exuberant rainbow-hued video to accompany the boundless enthusiasm of restorative title track Yes! Come Parade With Us. The resultant album gem is both assuredly successful in his stated aim of capturing “both the rugged beauty of the environment and the positivity I felt walking through it” and incredibly infectious, with a harmonious utopian outlook which cannot help but rub off on the listener.

Yes! Come Parade With Us

Leafcutter John - Pillar

1) Doing The Beeston Bump:
"The record opens with my partner and I walking on the pebble beach at Cley-Next-The-Sea. The sound get softer as we get onto the dunes so characteristic of Norfolk coast. Tom Skinner (Hello Skinny, Sons of Kemet) plays the drums."

Watch John's video for 'Doing The Beeston Bump' here (filmed on location in Norfolk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eah0zZQPR5U

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

On the auspicious occasion of the release of his mystical seventh artist album, technological force-of-nature Leafcutter John teams up with fellow stalwarts of idiosyncratic electronica Border Community to gift unto the world the small-yet-perfectly-formed joyously utopian artefact Yes! Come Parade With Us. Weaving field recordings from the Norfolk coastline together with layers of lyrical modular synth, these seven bright-eyed folk anthems sing with positivity and a sense of place, and feel right at home amongst the British label’s unparalleled ever-pastoral and often organic electronic legacy.

During the summer of 2017 exiled Yorkshireman Leafcutter John returned to his one-time home of Norfolk (having graduated in Painting from Norwich’s School of Art and Design back in 1998) and set out on foot along the sixty mile section of Norfolk Coast Path which runs from Hunstanton to Overstrand, trusty audio recording device in his pocket. “And very soon the physical act of walking began to make me think about music,” he explains. “My footsteps dictated the tempo and imagined melodies accompanied me as I slowly moved along the increasingly wild and magical stretch of coastline. Stresses of the city were replaced by the fall and rise of the North Sea and endless salt flats. Sounds from the environment filtered in and I would stop often to record what I was hearing around me.”

Back home in London, the hours of amassed field recordings would form the backbone and inspiration for a whole album worth of outpourings from John’s six-years-in-the-making modular synth. From the evocative sound of sea birds on Pillar and Stepper Motor to the colourful conversation from a country pub in This Way Out, the apposite selection of samples which made the final edit provide the perfect jumping-off point for John’s synths to soar with abandon, at times uplifting, frenetic, haunting, hypnotic or meditative, but always atmospheric and with unstoppable propulsion.

“Above all else, I wanted the album to exude a sense of constant forward motion but at a very human scale,” says John. Thus drummer friends Tom Skinner (Hello Skinny) and Sebastian Rochford (long-time collaborator in the twice Mercury Prize nominated band Polar Bear) were roped in to lend their suitably clattering human momentum, on Doing The Beeston Bump and Dunes respectively. Working in tempos to match his walking speed throughout - “whether trudging along a rainy shingle beach or running up wildflowering clifftop paths” - Yes! Come Parade With Us is perfect traveling music, and once unleashed upon the world is sure to provide the soundtrack to plenty more journeys to come.

Beginning his own musical journey back in 1999 on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu Records and with a widely-varied twenty year career in electronic music already under his belt, the release of his masterful seventh album sees Leafcutter John on career-defining form. An intensely personal project, John has also hand-drawn the labyrinthine album art and animated his own suitably exuberant rainbow-hued video to accompany the boundless enthusiasm of restorative title track Yes! Come Parade With Us. The resultant album gem is both assuredly successful in his stated aim of capturing “both the rugged beauty of the environment and the positivity I felt walking through it” and incredibly infectious, with a harmonious utopian outlook which cannot help but rub off on the listener.

Leafcutter John - Doing the Beeston Bump

2) Yes! Come Parade With Us
"I remember leaning right off the slipway in Sheringham to record the waves that I used in this track. I had to get really close to the surface of the water to be able to hear the pebbles moving around. It was early in the morning and the sound was so alive that It made me want to make some very positive and uplifting music."

Watch John's hand-animated video here>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaCOvylhxks&

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

On the auspicious occasion of the release of his mystical seventh artist album, technological force-of-nature Leafcutter John teams up with fellow stalwarts of idiosyncratic electronica Border Community to gift unto the world the small-yet-perfectly-formed joyously utopian artefact Yes! Come Parade With Us. Weaving field recordings from the Norfolk coastline together with layers of lyrical modular synth, these seven bright-eyed folk anthems sing with positivity and a sense of place, and feel right at home amongst the British label’s unparalleled ever-pastoral and often-organic electronic legacy.

During the summer of 2017 exiled Yorkshireman Leafcutter John returned to his one-time home of Norfolk (having graduated in Painting from Norwich’s School of Art and Design back in 1998) and set out on foot along the sixty mile section of Norfolk Coast Path which runs from Hunstanton to Overstrand, trusty audio recording device in his pocket. “And very soon the physical act of walking began to make me think about music,” he explains. “My footsteps dictated the tempo and imagined melodies accompanied me as I slowly moved along the increasingly wild and magical stretch of coastline. Stresses of the city were replaced by the fall and rise of the North Sea and endless salt flats. Sounds from the environment filtered in and I would stop often to record what I was hearing around me.”

Back home in London, the hours of amassed field recordings would form the backbone and inspiration for a whole album worth of outpourings from John’s six-years-in-the-making modular synth. From the evocative sound of sea birds on Pillar and Stepper Motor to the colourful conversation from a country pub in This Way Out, the apposite selection of samples which made the final edit provide the perfect jumping-off point for John’s synths to soar with abandon, at times uplifting, frenetic, haunting, hypnotic or meditative, but always atmospheric and with unstoppable propulsion.

“Above all else, I wanted the album to exude a sense of constant forward motion but at a very human scale,” says John. Thus drummer friends Tom Skinner (Hello Skinny) and Sebastian Rochford (long-time collaborator in the twice Mercury Prize-nominated band Polar Bear) were roped in to lend their suitably clattering human momentum, on Doing The Beeston Bump and Dunes respectively. Working in tempos to match his walking speed throughout - “whether trudging along a rainy shingle beach or running up wildflowering clifftop paths” - Yes! Come Parade With Us is perfect traveling music, and once unleashed upon the world is sure to provide the soundtrack to plenty more journeys to come. 

Beginning his own musical journey back in 1999 on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu Records and with a widely-varied twenty year career in electronic music already under his belt, the release of his masterful seventh album sees Leafcutter John on career-defining form. An intensely personal project, John has also hand-drawn the labyrinthine album art and animated his own suitably exuberant rainbow-hued video to accompany the boundless enthusiasm of restorative title track Yes! Come Parade With Us. The resultant album gem is both assuredly successful in his stated aim of capturing “both the rugged beauty of the environment and the positivity I felt walking through it” and incredibly infectious, with a harmonious utopian outlook which cannot help but rub off on the listener.

Leafcutter John - Yes! Come Parade With Us

Synth wizard James Holden teams up with Polish clarinet guru Waclaw Zimpel for a four track EP of deliciously krauty improvisations, recorded over four days back in the summer of 2018.

Finding himself at a loose end in London in between UK live shows, Zimpel (and on 'Tuesday' and 'Wednesday' his longtime collaborator guitarist Jakub Ziolek) decided to put the downtime to good use, joining Holden in his London studio for a series of musical experiments, with the goal of completing one track per day.

An in-the-moment lyrical conversation between alto clarinet and modular synth, judiciously supplemented by guitar, organ, voice and assorted percussion glued together as atmospheric tapey overdubs, 'Long Weekend' is a meeting of two like-minded masters of their instrument, whose  disparate musical journeys now converge in a shared love of all things hypnotic and trancey.

Long Weekend EP

Holden & Zimpel - Tuesday (feat. Jakub Ziolek)

To book Holden & Zimpel, please speak to Naomi at Earth Agency: https://earth-agency.com/

Our resident synth wizard James Holden’s collaborative streak continues apace as he teams up with celebrated Polish clarinet guru Waclaw Zimpel for a four track EP of deliciously krauty in-the-moment improvisations, recorded over four days in Holden’s London studio back in the summer of 2018. The richly textured 'Long Weekend EP' pits Holden’s handmade modular synth rig against Zimpel’s multifariously expressive alto clarinet, judiciously supplemented by organ, voice, assorted percussion and (on 'Tuesday' & 'Wednesday') the Balearic-tinged guitar playing of Zimpel’s long-time collaborator Jakub Ziolek, making for an immersive and transcendent lost weekend of deep listening.

Finding himself at a loose end in London one July weekend in between UK live shows, Zimpel put the downtime to good use and joined Holden in his Sacred Walls studio to undertake a series of musical experiments, with the goal of completing one track per day. Over the course of the weekend, built up in sequential tape-layered live overdubs, first the lush hypnotic undulating noodles of 'Saturday' would emerge from the ether, followed by the rushy enveloping expanses of the stridently emotional 'Sunday' (Holden’s own personal favourite from the EP) – a productive two days indeed.

Holden & Zimpel - Sunday

Holden & Zimpel - Saturday

06) Earthship - Luke Abbott

Luke Abbott has today announced his first solo record in six years Translate will be released on 20 November via Border Community. Along with the announcement he has shared 'Kagen Sound', the album's richly-textured opener - menacingly driving but punctuated with endearing flourishes, it's an assured and impossible to ignore return.

Speaking of the track Abbott says: "Kagen Sound is one of the simpler tracks on the record, it's based around the Korg Monopoly, which is one of my favourite sounding synths. The track is named after an American puzzle box maker, he makes the most incredibly intricate wooden puzzle boxes. I've been interested in puzzle boxes since I saw Hellraiser when I was about 11 years old, maybe I shouldn't have seen that film so young. To me the track feels like a a huge opening in the earth, like a cosmic doorway, which is why it's the opening track on the album."

In the time since his last solo record, Luke Abbott has had to re-forge his
relationship with making music alone. His solo work has always been deeply
entwined with his sense of self and during a tumultuous time in his personal life that needed to be re-evaluated, and so did the music along with it. The result is Translate, a record that sees Abbott with a renewed sense of purpose. Written, recorded and produced by Abbott - Translate is a strikingly direct body of work that retains a great depth and fullness. At times dark and ominous, others bright and welcoming, this is Abbott’s sound fully realised and never so sure of itself.

Abbott’s solo artist recording career may have recently taken something of a back seat, but his explorative six year sabbatical has clearly been put to good use, with plenty of mix and remix work, a new more dancefloor-directed alias Earlham Mystics and a productive new sideline in film, with two solo soundtracks to his name to date: fellow Norfolk native Guy Myhill’s The Goob (winner of Best Music at the 2014 Stockholm Film Festival and eventually released as 2015’s Music For A Flat Landscape album) and Jessica Hynes’ The Fight (released under the title Music From The Edge of an Island in 2019). But most pivotal of all was the 2016 formation of the experimental jazz trio Szun Waves together with Jack Wylie of Portico Quartet (saxophone) and Laurence Pike of PVT (drums), with two Abbott produced
and mixed fully-improvised albums to show for it so far (and number
three in the pipeline), and jazz and electronic critics united in their acclaim. (“The result is that rarest of things: an improvised album that sounds so perfect, you’d think it was all planned,” said The Line Of Best Fit of 2018’s New Hymn to Freedom.)

Translate

01) Kagen Sound - Luke Abbott

02) Our Scene - Luke Abbott

03) Flux - Luke Abbott

LUKE ABBOTT SHARES NEW TRACK 'AMES WINDOW'

NEW ALBUM TRANSLATE OUT 20 NOVEMBER VIA BORDER COMMUNITY

"This is memorable music for exceptional times"
4/5 Mojo 'Electronic Album of the Month'

"Meditative, vital and expertly crafted"
8/10 Loud and Quiet

"A big, satisfyingly holistic record modelled with great finesse"
8/10 Uncut

Luke Abbott's has today shared 'Ames Window', a new track from his first solo record in six years Translate, which will be released on 20 November via Border Community. Remaining just within Luke's control, the track tumbles and whirls with a playful freedom, showcasing a different side to the record from the rich and purposeful 'Kagen Sound' or the steely-eyed focus of 'Earthship''s intergalactic journey.

Speaking of the track, Abbott says:
"'Ames Window' is an indulgent improvised modular synth track. It reminded me of the Ames window optical illusion because it has this spinning, disorientating quality. I like music that is very freeform, and this track is like a wild and amorphous cloud that’s constantly turning itself inside out."

In the time since his last solo record, Luke Abbott has had to re-forge his relationship with making music alone. His solo work has always been deeply entwined with his sense of self and during a tumultuous time in his personal life that needed to be reevaluated, and so did the music along with it.

Recorded at James Holden's Sacred Walls studio complex at various intervals
throughout summer 2019, the result is Translate, a record that sees Abbott with a renewed sense of purpose. Written, recorded and produced by Abbott (with Holden on board as "engineer and spiritual guide") - Translate is a strikingly direct body of work that retains a great depth and fullness. At times dark and ominous, others bright and welcoming, this is Abbott’s sound fully realised and never so sure of itself.

04) Ames Window - Luke Abbott

05) Roses - Luke Abbott

07) Living Dust - Luke Abbott

08) River Flow - Luke Abbott

09) Feed Me Shapes - Luke Abbott

10) Luna - Luke Abbott

11) August Prism - Luke Abbott

London-based record label. Occasional home to: Leafcutter John / James Holden / Luke Abbott / RocketNumberNine / Wesley Matsell / Nathan Fake / Kate Wax / Fairmont / Margot / Avus / The MFA / Ricardo Tobar / Misstress Barbara / Petter / Lazy Fat People / Extrawelt / Dextro.

Worldwide distribution by [PIAS] UK.

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