vital022
2022 élan vital recordings 

Manja Ristic / Toni Dimitrov - Dystopian 001

1. Manja Ristic - Nothing Has To Happen, Fortress Europe
2. Toni Dimitrov - Against Civilization

🏴 'Dystopian 001' is split release between the sound artists Manja Ristić and Toni Dimitrov, and it is part of the new 'Dystopian series', showcasing a more abstract, darker, obscure and politically infused side of the sound of élan vital artist roster. Inspired by everyday life in the last several years living in realized dystopian visions and darkest predictions, the sound on this series will be the soundtrack for our daily dystopian reality. We are all aware that the future of our civilization is not bright, but that doesn't mean we are not living in an exciting epoch.

🏳️ Part one brings two longer pieces, presenting the dark side of the mystical long form experimentations by the Serbian violin and field recordings diva Manja Ristić and the latest field recordings experiments of the sound art naturalist Toni Dimitrov. Through this joint release the artists are trying to explore the potential for change of the society, resulting in a mature, expressive and complex album. 

Composed and arranged by Manja Ristić & Toni Dimitrov 
Mastering LaPlant Studio Belgrade
Cover drawings by Dorian Dimitrov
Design by Toni Dimitrov

Release date 27th March 2022
 https://elanvital.bandcamp.com/album/dystopian-001

Manja Ristic - Nothing Has To Happen, Fortress Europe (excerpt)

creme 4 creme v2 the cremening

Rarities

Trance sketch

crossing

The second release of POSITIVLAND by Mancunian artist:

Faff
@ffaf

PSTVLND 002 - 04/01/2024
positivland.bandcamp.com/

Limited ≈200 copies in Black vinyl, 180g.
Very Limited 26 hand-numbered copies, Splatter vinyl 180g
* Release Limited Edition 25/01/2024

****************************************
Note from the artist:


Faff’s Scrapbook.ep

This record is a collection of tracks I made from the start of 2019 to the end of 2021. They all exist completely independent of each other. My intention while working on music during this time was to create a time capsule/memory album for me to remind myself of my moments with. I had a lot of different experiences and substantially changed during this time. The early tracks were made by a completely different person than the person typing this. Of the 6 tracks on this EP, only one of them was made with the knowledge that it would be put together with the others and released as one cohesive article.

I wanted to make music again after abandoning it for 3 years. One of these tracks marks the turning point where a projected pipe dream of determined mastery was cracked through by what the speaker cone did when piano roll blocks were placed intuitively for the first time. 

In this .ep, I present:

THE CONCEPT

In its disjointedness, this music has presented itself to me as a scrapbook. It is rough around the edges, vague in its sentiment, and has more of an emotional than abstract association. While brainstorming for visual ideas to package these tracks in, I spat a bunch of words into a GAN and the words might be useful for you to get a sense of the general themes:  “synthesizer drum machine back catalogue emotional syneasthesia-inducing dance music” “vibrant energy synthesiser music record” “faffing about analogue synth music maker colour-changing light experiment” “bedroom studio acid bass sentimental rave artisan” “braindance analogue synthesiser data catalogue metaphysical music” “psychedelic synthesiser contemplation heartfelt breakbeat lullabies” “reaction diffusion rephlex records melancholic analogue music journal” “cerebral rave chromatic anthem dirge synth memories” “tr-808 analogue rave cerebral music energy ritual”

There is a dualistic nature to this EP, as it is a highly organised arrangement of totally disparate tracks. They are all (except one) built inside a DAW, but largely featuring live performance recordings of analogue hardware. The recordings are then processed after the fact. Layers on layers of humanity and machine, analogue and digital, specificity and ambiguity. All of the tracks are also subjectively experienceable pieces of music, but they sit in an objective folder structure on my laptop. Each one also was ignited by a unique occasion, but absorbs new meanings and connotations as time flows through and around them. These polarised paradoxes are key to the idea of this EP. Even to have a concept EP assembled from standalone tracks without any uniting concept is an example of the intertwining of opposites. Visuals associated are DAW architecture, poorly managed cables in thrown-together bedroom studio, piles of photographs printed out, computer folder structure, MIDI information in piano roll/automation envelopes, synthesiser encoders and pots.

Buy it:)!!

Special thanks and love go to Weefween, Robert and Chloe 

********************************************************************

credits
release January 4, 2024

Written, composed and produced in Manchester, UK, by Faff.
Mastered in Groningen, the Netherlands, by Johanz Westerman at Balyhoo Studio Mastering.
Designed in Manchester, UK, by Faff + Weefween + Positivland.
Distributed from Sardinia, Italy, by Desslab.

www.desslab.net
www.positiv.land

Faff - Voicenote (Snippet)

Rory Bowens heads The Slip one Monday a month, squeezing an hour of hazy dub off-shoots, pupil-dilating shoegaze and uncanny dream music.
 
https://www.nts.live/shows/theslip/episodes/theslip-29th-january-2024

The Slip 290124

Yumi Iwaki - Smoketree

Charmaine Lee is a NY-based vocalist from Sydney, Australia. Her music is predominantly improvised, favoring a uniquely personal approach to vocal expression concerned with spontaneity, playfulness, and risk-taking. Beyond extended vocal technique, Lee uses amplification, feedback, and microphones to augment and distort the voice.

Charmaine's mix spans across her recorded vocal works from the past 8 years, including previously unreleased and upcoming material of duos with Aaron Dilloway, Ikue Mori, and Conrad Tao. Luke Lund opens with a collage of voice-centric sounds, forthcoming works and sketches that maltreat neural speech recognition models and their false negatives, positives and hallucinations. The episode ends with Charmaine's previous and forthcoming material undergoing Luke's same spectro-dub treatment.

Born out of a pursuit to redefine and reclaim what it means to be a musician and vocalist, Lee's approach is rooted in her experiences navigating the sometimes restrictive world of institutionalized jazz education. While Lee values the technical skills she gained from her formal education, she believes technical prowess should not be fetishized, but used to access something more intuitive and authentic. Rejecting the notion of the voice as a mere communicative linguistic tool, Lee uses hers as a means of exploring complex human emotions and experiences that elude syntax.

From incorporating hi-fi and lo tech equipment to exploring the intersection of human and nonhuman sound, Lee constantly seeks to push the possibilities of her craft. At the same time, she eschews the temptation to exploit extended techniques for novelty's sake. Instead she remains determined to sound out lines between semiology and morphology; abstraction and genuine expression; the links beyond linguistic walls; and connecting on a profound, visceral level.

Tracklist : https://lyl.live/episode/spectral-shock-6

Spectral Shock w/ Luke Lund presents Charmaine Lee (06/03/24)

Contemporary British AV artist, collagist, and NTS host Mark Leckey takes to the airwaves to play oddities from his collection. Everything from doo-wop to gabber.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/mark-leckey/episodes/mark-leckey-19th-march-2024

MARK LECKEY w/ Kinn 190324

Debut of the now classic duo of Corsano & McPhee, recorded at Les Instants Chavirés. “With a career now spanning over 40 years and more than 100 recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible — and in fact, a critically important pairing — in the world of creative improvised music. Since recording The Hated Music with Paul Flaherty in 2000, Chris Corsano has been hyper-active in far-reaching corners of the free improvised world. Under A Double Moon, recorded live in Paris during a spring 2010 tour of Europe, is their first album together (and, given how phenomenally simpatico a partnership they’ve forged, we hope it’s not the last).”

“Both Corsano and McPhee share an autodidactic approach to jazz, using anything from thriftstore miscellany to customised electronics to explain the white heat of their creativity. Both have almost unquantifiable discographies that extend well beyond the confines of ‘jazz’; McPhee studied Deep Listening techniques with Pauline Oliveros and Corsano has sparred with everyone from Jim O’Rourke to Björk. Both have lived in Europe, enjoying the hospitality extended to innumerable US free jazz expats that had eluded them in their native terrain. Most impressively, both are lavishly gifted musicians. If McPhee’s 1969 album, Underground Railroad, represented a watershed in high velocity, second generation free blowing, then Corsano’s debut with Paul Flaherty, The Hated Music, saw the drummer pick up the baton, skewer a bouncing ball with it and rub it against a cymbal until it sang like a sea lion. Suffice to say Under A Double Moon goes beyond the scorched-earth Fire Music you might expect. The two long tracks that comprise side one, “Dark Matter: Parts 1 And 2”, shows Corsano at his most flexible as he switches from gamelan-inflected tuned percussion to subtle brushwork to omnivorous hard bop, providing a multiplicity of textures for McPhee’s assorted reeds. McPhee is dominant in the mix, which can obscure the sheer multi-dimensionality of Corsano’s drumming, but both players leave ample room for the other to solo. In fact, both use silence like a weapon – loading the pauses with dramatic intent before unleashing another blizzard of ideas. “For Giuseppe Logan” is an exuberant tribute to the underrated ESP-Disk alto player and is probably the most melodically engaging piece, while album closer “In Lieu Of Flowers” is a beautifully ponderous, starspangled soprano workout that shows yet another dimension to their repertoire. This is an intricately detailed set by two titanic players, spanning two generations. The fire ain’t out yet, baby.” – Alex Neilson, The Wire

Under A Double Moon

Roaratorio 22 - Joe McPhee & Chris Corsano "For Giuseppi Logan"

From Volume & Void. Released on Superpang,  September 18, 2020
https://superpang.bandcamp.com/album/volume-void

Composed through experimental scheduling algorithms that explore the duality of immediate, direct events with gradual and evolving processes.

System and sounds created during the summer of 2020 in Scheveningen, The Hague.

Design: Joe Gilmore

Volume & Void

As you can imagine we are under huge pressure at the moment and are working flat out to ensure Cafe OTO survives this. The impact of this situation is extremely acute for small venues like ours and we need all the support we can get to pull through. Please donate what you can, if you can. Thank you. 

Cafe OTO opened in April 2008 with the aim of providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream. It comprises one large cafe/performance space open during the day serving food and drink with an evening programme of live music almost seven nights a week. 

OTOROKU is part of OTOProjects - a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) that has been set up to manage the programme at Café Oto. Any profits from OTOROKU are put back into supporting what we do and will help us to continue programming the best musicians and performers from all over the world.

www.cafeoto.co.uk

Roaratorio 22 - Joe McPhee & Chris Corsano "For Giuseppi Logan"

cafeOTO

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