Dystopia Synths

ERSATZ EMOTIONS

Dying To Tell You

Strange Times

Come What May (Can't Complain)

Illustration by Finnian McKenna
Photography by Inigo Bake

Come True

'Look Around You'

[inaudible harmonised cries through the wall]

I never got to see myself amount to 
Like an evergreen tree who’s felled for bad news
I remember these streets I dwelt, now sand dunes

Look around 
It’s about to
Look around you 

And touch the ground 
for you have found 
that we can turn this all ‘round

Without a doubt, living in 
what you thought was without 

The living power of a thought 
can turn a world upside down 

I’ve long not felt that four letter word 
(H-O-M-E)
It’ll follow me around 
(H-O-M-E)
I’m leaving Hackney for a while 

I never got the chance to give my life to you
And even in my heart there lives a path to you
So maybe these winds’ll pass and I’ll meet you again

Look around 
It’s about to
Look around 
Do we have to
Look around you

The living power of a thought can turn a world upside down 

La La-La
La La-La
La La La-La-La

La La-La
La La-La
La La La-La-La

“He sees the world spinning ‘round”

La La-La
La La-La
La La La-La-La

La La-La
La La-La
La La La-La-La

...

Dedicated to Maurice Axelrad

Look Around You

It All Falls Apart

New Dawn Fades (feat. Tiny Vipers)

endless flight cd 17/endless flight79 2lp
cover by stefan marx
distributed by kompakt

info

did he ever really leave berlin? yes: sascha funke was regularly in cologne. but then nowhere else. sure, as a dj and live artist he travelled around the world. but as a producer he always remained true to his peer labels bpitch control and kompakt with some minor exceptions. 

so far, so good. but now, just after the german that started his early attempts as a producer together with paul kalkbrenner dropped some new feverish spaced out solo eps on imprints like multi culti and tiga’s turbo recordings label, the berlin born producer, dj and football fever victim releases his new, third solo album “lotos land” on tokyo’s finest platform for diverse musical adventures endless flight. 

a step out of the usual environment, not only in terms of the address. funke embraces fresh sound territories without forgetting his past. with already two solo albums on ellen allien’s bpitch control label under his wings and the longplayer “unknown”, that he tuned in with julienne dessagne (aka fantastic twins) under the alias saschienne in 2012 for kompakt, on the shelf, he knows what it means to write and dramatize an album. 

all tracks on “lotos land” are well selected. together they built a bewitching story arc. with some singing help from the scottish crooner david wilson, voice of the glasgow based melancholic dance sensation junto club and the tel aviv born musician autarkic, exotic but yet perfect to sing along melodies partly enthral the listeners, too. 

and even if sascha funke is part of the club culture since the nineties: his musical memory and sensibility goes way back before the early techno and house eruptions. for his new works, that all had been produced in berlin during the year 2016, he removed the dogma of functionality and shifted into a riskier, more open terrain, that does not offer club sensations mainly.

 “i think i would not have made such a diverse album without the time with saschienne. before saschienne i mainly worked sample-based and produced exclusively at the computer. by working with julienne as saschienne i discovered my love for the instrument. 

"playing" with the different synths is for me the greatest progress and ultimately also the best possible form of expression for my music.” he confesses. 

for his new tracks he used several kind of gear – from a korg arp odyssey to a dave smith prophet 8, moog voyager, solina string keyboard or a yamaha pacifica guitar. stylistically his new orchestra lead him to a mesmerizing meltdown of trance, techno, synth-wave, post-punk and ambient particles. 

“the use of all the synths allows you to work more emotional” funke explains and points his finger to the emotional landscape of “lotos land” that delivers enchanted atmospheres, sensible stomping grounds, funky twisted spheres and tragically hip psychedelic zones. 

at large there is an unmistakable strong uk influence. be it new wave, pop or early dance and techno stuff. sometimes the bass rolls like in a the cure song, then dreamy synth sceneries arise to stick in the mind. 

the cover artwork comes from mule musiq and endless flight hamburg based home illustrator stefan marx. it features a marx styled interpretation of 1901 illustration by the british painter william edward frank britten, that was made to the poem “the lotos-eaters”, written by the poet alfred tennyson. 

the picture as well as the poem, after which funke also named his album, tells much about the record. where the drawing, the words and the music come together, everyone has to find for themselves. only one thing can be said: sascha funke traveled far for his new music to reach an altered state. and nothing else should happen to those, who surrender to his latest music.

d1 im feiern und feuer feat autarkic

EARTHNAVAL/MORRIGAN

YOUNEVERDIED

Homeowner

WESTERN HARMONY

I beg your pardon, can't you see
We're safe at last, don't wanna leave
So take the half who'd rather see the last of Western Harmony

We wait for love from overseas
Pray that France don't wanna beef
Well chain your larders cos embargo gonna make it hard to eat

Raise a glass to Majesty
Last chance to eat our aperitifs
Traitors bargained with our freedom and the Western Harmony

So paint your master as he please
And name the artist as deceased 
Take my arm as we defeat the greedy bastards, dance with me!

photo by Naj Li

Western Harmony

FKA twigs ft. Lucinda Chua & Sakeema Crook - Cellophane (live)
Mariah Carey - Can’t Let Go
Gaika - SANGRE
Nicholas Britell - Encomium
Jaco Pistorius - Portrait of Tracy
Stevie Wonder - As
Jean Michelle Jarr - Oxygene pt 4
Chaka Khan - Ain’t Nobody
[Paris Taxi]
[Iannis Xemakis - Kottos]
Koreless - 4D
[Olivier Messiaen - Quartet for the end of time]
[Vogue freestyle at The Freehand]
Wetware - Fuck Them All
Oneohtrix Point Never - We’ll Take It (live)
[Frankie’s solo]
sega bodega - kisses 2 my phone
Lucinda Chua - Anime Theme / voice note
Sergei Rachmaninoff - etudes tableaux op. 39 no 2
Serpentwithfeet - Flickering (live)

FKA Tour Mix

A Guide for Beginners: The Voice of Silver / a Guide for Finishers: a Hair of Gold

The First Five Minutes After Violent Death

Erotikon

Heartbomb

∞NO DUALITY∞

NDE ENTERPRISES
TRANSGRESSION\\\
IINFIINITEPROPHETT
DJ ANGELWISH 2020DELUXE
≠

ēā℞☥♄❂ñã▽△⑊

::morrigan::

dm4ndeaccounts


Boomkat:
"‘Earth Naval / Morrigan’ holds among the most impressive debut albums of this year. Mapping fluidly diverse, amorphous terrain at the horizon of rhythm-driven electronics, ambient-pop, folk and noise abstraction, London-based artist Cy An has divined a contemporary strain of psychedelia that distinctly prods the pineal. While their memorably skeletal, free-floating debut 12” was sorely underrated, in a just world this album should receive due attention from discerning bods.

Coming to life with goosepimple-inducing choral pads and curdled Reese bass in ‘ENTRYVIA(R)’, the album unfurls with the controlled, writhing sensuality of a contemporary dancer such as Cy An’s famous collaborator, Twigs. Moving thru weightless noise in ‘FINALFLIGHT(M)’ to the shuddering space station convulsions in ‘HOLLOWINSIDES(T)’, the album comes on waves of pineal revelation and contemplation to expresses a genuine, dilated wonder thru a detailed aesthetic and subtle emotive cues.

‘ONLYFATE(R)’ sees them vault into vast Berlin skool ambient only to come down with genteel, cinematic keys that billow across ‘NOWKNOWING(H)’, all priming the listener for the stunning sacrificial prostration of ‘YOURGOD(N)’ and subsequent runs between early electronics and new age arps locked to brittle trap in ‘OTHERSIDE’, with spellbinding Slint-meets-Cocteaus strums on ‘ISYOU(V)’ and the almost medieval mesh of chord drones and acoustic strums of ‘ALLAWAITS(N)’ leading into the fractal rhythmelodic resolution of ‘HIDDEN(L)’, and the album’ masterfully elegiac finale ‘YOUNEVERDIED.’ 

From the coolly diffracted flow of its construction to the obfuscated yet penetrative nature of its emotive tact, ‘Earth Naval / Morrigan’ is very necessary listening for lovers of romantic, modern electronic music of all stripes. Do not sleep on it!"

YOUNEVERDIED

CY AN

Related tracks