ENLIGHTENMENT mindfulness meditation music & sound therapy

from 'HYMNEN UND HELDEN' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den387
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/sanktotten  


Alongside with the release of the new album “Tote Winkel”, Sankt Otten will be delighting us with another limited vinyl bonus release. “Hymnen und Helden” (hymns and heroes) is a collection of cover versions created over the last few years. As the album title suggests, it pays homage to self-proclaimed musical hymns and heroes from the seventies and eighties.


HYMNEN UND HELDEN – track by track:

A well-known Moog sequence leads us on the way into the cover album. Giorgio Moroders 1977 disco classic “I feel love” has been tackled here. Sankt Ottens instrumental interpretation starts out familiar, but ends in a slightly disturbing disharmony of mellotron and ebow guitar.

The instrumental version of the melancholy Wipers anthem from 1983 starts with a rather unusually fast 808 beat for Sankt Otten. The 80s electronic echoes suit the punk rock earworm “Doom Towen” surprisingly well.

Without Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, more unusual electronic music would hardly have been conceivable in Germany in the early 1980s. “Alles ist gut” tribute to this band and singer Gabi Delgado-Lopez, who passed away in 2020 and with whom they shared the festival stage in 2015. Gabi‘s lyrics are rendered by text- to-speech software with the voice of an unknown Claudia.

“Wishing (If I had a photograph of you)” was made famous in 1982 by A Flock of Seagulls. This record was regularly played on Stephan Ottens turntable back then. Reason enough to remember this with “Sehnen (Hät- te Ich von dir eine Fotografie)”. The recordings for this album were made in 2007 and have been updated and completed in the last year. Carsten Sandkämper, who was also featured on Sankt Ottens debut album “Eine kleine Traurigkeit”, contributed the vocals and lyrics.

The Swiss band Grauzone became famous with the NDW hit “Eisbär”. Instead of this title, they took on the B-side of this single with “Ich liebe sie”. A synthpop love song full of innocence, stylishly sung by Carsten San- kämper and refined with Kraftwerk-like choral sounds and an herbaceous motorik beat.

The band has enjoyed a personal friendship with Harald Grosskopf since their collaboration in 2013 on the album “Messias Maschine”. With “So weit, so gut”, they take on his little hit from the album “Synthesist”, which is one of the gems of the synthesizer albums of the eighties.

“Kriegsmaschinen, fahrt zur Hölle” is an anti-war song from 1974 by Günter Schickert, the Berlin master of the echo guitar. Unfortunately, the lyrics are still relevant. Oliver Klemm contributes the delay guitars and Stephan Otten puts the lyrics through a vocoder. Sankt Otten compress the 17-minute original to just under 5 minutes and move it musically from the 70s to the 80s.

Sankt Otten’s adaptation of David Bowies “Heroes” is equipped with warm Juno 106 sounds, ebow guitar and synthesizer pads. The German “Helden” version, known from the movie Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, is sung in a touching way by Carsten Sandkämper.


New York-based Rafael Anton Irisarri was responsible for mastering of the record. As part of the series with graphic covers, this die-cut artwork was also created by Mexican designer Daniel Castrejon. The one time only vinyl pressing, limited to 350 copies, comes in a beautifully designed die-cut cover and colored vinyl. The Osnabrück duo Sankt Otten, founded in 1999, have been releasing on Denovali since 2009. The band has dedicated itself to the holy trinity of Krautrock, Ambient and contemporary Electronics.

Sankt Otten - Doom Town

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Big Empty Country (Edit)

In Front Of You

What We Are

Play On

'Unstable' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den397
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/dictaphone

Dictaphone are back with their 6th full length called "Unstable". In the 25th year of the project Brussels born composer and mastermind Oliver Doerell is surrounded again by a lot of musicians & friends. Roger Döring is there, his clarinet and saxophone play has always been a trademark sound of the band - also Alexander Stolze's ghostly violins. The dark atmosphere and experimental sound of the new album is a reference to the 80s belgian art music scene, which Doerell had the luck to experience in his formative years. Minimal jazz meets musique concrete meets a postpunk mind. On this new album “Unstable“ more voices and vocals than usual can be heard - especially Helga Raimondi (who already sang on the last album “Goats and Distortions 5") . As a collage artist she is also responsible for the visual side of Dictaphone - she designed the cover artwork and the visuals for the live shows.

The Brussels-Berlin-Teheran connection: Other guests on "Unstable" are the voices of Kaveh Ghaemi and Ashkan Afsharian, who Doerell met during a modern ballet production by Modjgan Hashemian (2008). The trumpet of Shahab Anousha can be heard in the track “La fin“ - Oliver Doerell and Shahab Anousha also share the spoken words Project “Noufān”. For nearly 20 years Oliver Doerell is linked to the Iranian Diaspora in Berlin and the Dictaphone track “Rattle” from the classic album “ Poems from a rooftop “ (2012) has been a hit in Teherans underground scene since the beginning. Furthermore the title track “Unstable“ is a homage to Ian Curtis of Joy Division. The words of this piece are based on the setlist of Joy Divisions last show.

Dictaphone played more than two hundred shows all over the world (including festivals Mutek, Transmediale, Unsound , Benicassim and many others). Their music can be heard in countless films, tv series and theatre pieces - (“the responder“ (BBC) , “the love he knows” (Ali Mohammad) , “Don´t move“ (Modjgan Hashemian) , Ring (Felix Ruckert) among others.


Dictaphone - Desplendor

Lament

Tracklisting
01. Safe Mind - Brick Store (https://safemind.bandcamp.com/track/brick-store)
02. Patience - White Of An Eye (https://soundcloud.com/nightschool/patience-white-of-an-eye-lssn056)
03. Amarcord - Friends Edit (https://soundcloud.com/ritmofatale/amarcord-friends-they-come-go)
04. Kittin & The Hacker - Purist Edit (https://misskittin.bandcamp.com/track/purist)
05. Lauer - Friends (feat. Dena) (https://lauer.bandcamp.com/track/friends-w-dena)
06. Aidan Noell - Sharevari (feat. Nancy Whang) Edit (https://aidannoell.bandcamp.com/track/sharevari)
07. Sacred Skin - Born In Fire (https://soundcloud.com/sacredskin-music/born-in-fire)
08. TR/ST - All At Once  (https://soundcloud.com/trst-sc/all-at-once)
09. Cold Cave - Siren Song Edit (https://coldcave.bandcamp.com/track/siren-song)
10. Casket Cassette - Broken Tomorrow Edit (https://soundcloud.com/casket-cassette/broken-tomorrow)
11. Crazy Lovers (Ms. Boan + INHALT ArpStars Remix) Benzin187 Re Edit
12. Gorillaz feat. Beck - The Valley of The Pagans (https://soundcloud.com/gorillaz/the-valley-of-the-pagans-feat)
13. Curses - Elegant Death Benzin187 Re Edit (https://soundcloud.com/cursesforever/elegant-death)
14. Patience - Living Things Don't Last Edit (https://patienceworld.bandcamp.com/track/living-things-dont-last)
15. ACTORS - Obsession (https://soundcloud.com/actors-music/obsession)
16. Dragon Inn 3 - Murder In The Third (https://soundcloud.com/dragoninn3-music/murder-in-the-third)
17. Sacred Skin - Waiting (https://soundcloud.com/sacredskin-music/waiting)
18. Dragon Inn 3 - I'll Be Right Over (https://soundcloud.com/dragoninn3-music/ill-be-right-over)
19. Sex Kino - Don't Look Back Edit (https://soundcloud.com/the-ransom-note/premiere-sex-kino-dont-look-back-hearec)
20. Juno Francis - Let It Go (https://junofrancis.bandcamp.com/track/let-it-go)
21.  Nation of Language - In Your Head Edit (https://soundcloud.com/nationoflanguage/in-your-head)

Benzin187 - The Trip Mixtape

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Acoustic Amethyst in E

The new album 'Healing Is A Miracle', released 10 July on Ninja Tune: https://julianna.lnk.to/healingSo

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