from 'People Do' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
available on all formats at www.denovali.com/johnlemke

Denovali Records is proud to announce the release of John Lemke's debut album in July 2013. As an appetizer we offer the 'Walizka' EP as a digital only release, it contains only tracks not available on the album. We also offer the song 'Traveller', which is also not contained on the album, and a remix by Emperor Echo as a free download.

PEOPLE DO [CD|LP|DIGITAL]

John Lemke is a Glasgow based composer & sound designer, originally from Berlin. Working across a great variety of media he explores music and all things sonic through collaborations, live performance, film sound design and especially his work as a documentary composer for the BBC and Channel 4.

Motivated by fusing elements of his more emotive film composition approach with rhythm and space, John creates a distinctive sound blend on his debut solo album, where percussive, prepared piano collides with abstracted guitar landscapes & disembodied vocal textures to form a danceable, electro-acoustic whole. 

Inside the creaking hollows of an attic treasure begins the uncompromising journey of People Do. Eager to devise a more dance oriented sound on his first full length release with Denovali, and contrasting his more ambient, often orchestral film work, John first found inspiration in the idiosyncratic sound world of his grandmother's piano. With a shimmering past in the silent film era of 1920's Berlin, its very fabric was full of anecdotes. But sampling every string and surface, preparing it with kitchen utensils, let alone playing the instrument itself was only the starting point of the intricately woven narrative of People Do.

With a process including techniques of musique concrète, sound design concepts such as worldising (playing back and re-recording sound through a room) and the use of homemade field recordings from all around Europe, the album is filled with depth and a true sense of voyage. This is also reflected in the various locations the record was conceived and recorded in, ranging from Berlin to Bristol, Helsinki to rural Spain and Glasgow, with guest contributions on viola from Kim Moore (Ex-Zoey Van Goey) and Felipe Sumina (saxophone), only for it to be mastered at Durton Studio by Nils Frahm.

John's dedication to ignoring genre boundaries makes for an album impossible yet needless to categorise, echoing its wide ranging influences, but ultimately existing entirely on its own terms.

For fans of Four Tet, Boards Of Canada, The Notwist, Hauschka, Pole, Aphex Twin, Lali Puna

People Do

John Lemke - Illuminations

from 'Minotaurus' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den360
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/mansur

MANSUR is the newly initiated project by Jason Kohnen (ex-The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble) joined by Dimitry El-Demerdashi (ex-Phurpa) and introducing Martina Horváth on vocals. The sound of MANSUR navigates between the waters of musical fantasy and reality - it morphs and blends traditional instrumentation with modern day electronica.

After the debut record "Temple" and the debut full length "Karma" Minotaurus is Mansur’s first live improv recording. A musical homage to the mythos of the Minotaur. The minotaur as a mirror of self reflection - the fear of confronting one’s inner ugliness. MANSUR takes you on a sonic journey through subterranean labyrinths, evoking spirits from past echoes of Minoa.

Jason Köhnen: Bass / Electronics
Dimitry El Demerdashi: Oud
Martina Horváth: Vocals

Minotaurus

Mansur - Ariadne

from 'S/t' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den157
available on all formats at http://www.denovali.com/thealvaretensemble

The Alvaret Ensemble

The Alvaret Ensemble - Ond

The Alvaret Ensemble - Eac

from 'The Faded Orbit' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den363
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/saffronkeira

Siavash Amini is a composer from Tehran, Iran. He Has worked with labels like Room40, Hallow Ground, Opal Tapes and Umor Rex for the better half of the past ten years. He has performed at festivals like CTM & MUTEK and many other well known international events. Apart from it Siavash is a co-founder of the “SET experimental art events” and “SETfest” in Tehran, Iran. His work ranges from fragile ambient pieces and brittle IDM (incorporating his distinctive style of atmospheric guitar playing) to noisy drones and bleak modern classical pieces. His compositions have been inspired by films such as Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror as well as novels by Dostoyesvky and poems by T.S. Eliot.

Saffronkeira is the Sardinian sound researcher Eugenio Caria being active in the electronic music scene since almost two decades. His most recent work - a cooperation with the Italian jazz trumpet legend Paolo Fresu - earned a lot of praise from the international music press for the pure timelessness of the album.

"Upon hearing a small snippet of sound an image is conjured, not a memory but not unfamiliar. A shell of a memory, thousand events superimposed on each other. While trying to extract points of a narrative to ease the discomfort of this recollection, I try to separate and unfold the image and with it the points of the spectrum which make up the sound, a shell of a narrative. Here is an album based upon an almost entirely imagined/ synthesized happening upon hearing a snippet of sound. It sounded like of a whole story that never happened but yet I felt myself  amongst it’s participants, a sound triggering a false memory. Each sound in Eugenio’s collection of sounds and ideas guided me a to a point in the narrative and it’s construction. He had handed me a portals of some kind to a few scenes of the whole narrative. This is the soundtrack for that false memory from all the perspectives I can think of."

The Faded Orbit

Saffronkeira + Siavash Amini - A Lambent Assembly

from 'In Memoriam' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den349
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/thelovecraftsextet

Jason Köhnen (Mansur / The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble / The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation) returns to his experimentations within the realms of Darkjazz.

The Lovecraft Sextet is his new creative outlet regarding further explorations into cinematic jazz orientated compositions.

'In Memoriam' is a debut inspired by death, release and rebirth. Jason Köhnen has chosen to incorporate funereal aspects of classical, operatic and Gregorian music for this debut release.

The music is also linked to his first short-story which was written to accentuate the music (and vice-versa) and will be part of the 'In Memoriam' release.

In Memoriam

The Lovecraft Sextet - Funebre Macabre [Vocalis]

from 'Progress Trap' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den362
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/ricardodonoso

Ten years after the transcendent syncopated debut ‘Progress Chance’, Ricardo Donoso returns with a pulsing retrospect of rhythmic determination and wide-eyed wonder with ‘Progress Trap’, his new album for Denovali. As is customary with Donoso, the moods on these electronic miniatures vary from piece to piece; some somber, brooding, and laden with mystery, others starry-eyed, tinged with sci-fi, and hungry for adventure.

Connections are finally forged between Donoso’s early hardware synthesizer arpeggiation experiments, his darker and more abstract work with an emphasis on synthetic textures, pulsation, and sound design and the more recent extreme full throttle electronic mayhem and prog inspired technical opuses found in the Calibrate/Re_Calibrate/Content era. 

Progress Trap is as harmonious as its predecessor allowing dissonance to subtly seep in, providing mere hints at the undercurrent of threat hidden beneath the music's smooth surface. If ‘Progress Chance’ was naive and innocent, ‘Progress Trap’ is mature and calculated. Perhaps some of the optimism has extinguished, but there is a stalking exhilaration which threads through the entire album, taking on merely different shades between sides – as with most of Donoso’s work something verging on a deep longing always lingers heavily as an aftertaste. There's a lot to digest on Progress Trap, as with Donoso’s entire canon, but as always, the effort is repaid.

Progress Trap

Ricardo Donoso - Master and Emissary

from 'The Last Garden' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den366
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/birdsofpassage

After 3 years, New Zealand based Alicia Merz breaks her silence with her 5th Birds of Passage album ‘The Last Garden’. Alicia doesn’t share much with the public, except through her music, and so this album offers a rare glimpse into her secret world. Lose yourself in a universe of minimalist soundscapes, reinvented shoegaze, and the words of a poet who all too well knows the cold loneliness of the dark, but can find the breathless beauty in it also.

"Birds of Passage is humble and heartbroken. Her warm words are crimson berries that bear fruit in the cold depths of winter, hanging over crooked, bare branches where nothing else survives. Her dove-like vocals soar, but her introverted lyrics blossom with the fondness of love." (Fluid Radio)

"Alicia presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating journey through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation… The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark world. It’s as if we are listening to the sound of winter itself; an audio exposure to the unforgiving elements of winter." (Headphone Commute)

The Last Garden

Birds of Passage - The Creed

from 'The Unified Field' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den182
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/pianointerrupted]

The Unified Field

Buy @ Denovali

Piano Interrupted - Emoticon

from 'Odham's Standard' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den191
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/origamibiro]

Origamibiro is a collaborative project consisting of three core members: musician, soundtrack composer and producer Tom Hill, visual artist and filmmaker The Joy Of Box, and multi-instrumentalist Andy Tytherleigh. Originally started as a solo project for Tom, Origamibiro has since evolved into an audio-visual collective, producing studio music, art objects, interactive installations and hauntingly original live audio-visual performances. Origamibiro like to create work with an array of unorthodox processes and contraptions, found objects, video feeds and multi instrumentalism. Their unique live performances involve treated books, typewriters, found celluloid, paper, eerie wildlife recordings, home movies, sellotape and bespoke visual contraptions. All of these things had been added, adapted, even destroyed as a way to generate images and audio that could evoke a feeling, a response, an understanding or perhaps a question from audiences.

2014 sees the re-release of Origamibiro's entire back catalogue - the albums ‘Cracked Mirrors and Stopped Clocks’, ‘Shakkei’ and ‘Shakkei Remixed’ - through Denovali and also the release of their fourth studio album 'Odham's Standard'. Discussions concerning tone and theme took place much earlier in the writing process this time around and unbeknown to each other, both Tom and Jim were taking an interest in more supernatural aspects of audio and video material generation. Jim had begun to research into spirit photography, where images of deceased spirits are apparently imprinted onto photographic plates through the presence of a medium. Looking for an audio equivalent, Tom began looking into EVP or electronic voice phenomenon whereby hidden voices from deceased spirits appear to present themselves in audio recordings. What is fascinating about this process is not how legitimate the phenomenon actually is but how dependant it is on the decision or need of the viewer or listener to believe it is significant or even personal.

Interestingly, there have been many attempts over the years to debunk or disprove the validity of spirit photography and yet for every court case there are also a number of witnesses willing to passionately testify that not only is the phenomenon real but that it applied directly to them. Arthur Conan Doyle was the creator of the most famous detective in the world and, conversely, a staunch defendant of the validity of spirit photography. In his infamous treatise 'The Case For Spirit Photography' he is both naive and strangely prescient: “Victorian science would have left the world hard and clean and bare, like a landscape in the moon. (however) There is nothing scientifically impossible, so far as I can see, in some people seeing things that are invisible to others. One or two consequences are obvious, the experiences of children will be taken more seriously. Cameras will be forthcoming. These folk who appear to be our neighbours, with only some small difference of vibration to separate us, will become familiar.”


Odham's Standard

Origamibiro - Butterfly Jar

from 'Walizka' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den201
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/johnlemke]

Working across a variety of media John Lemke explores all things sonic through live performance, sound design and his work as a documentary film composer. The Walizka EP is his latest solo release on Denovali Records.

Three items in a suitcase, a clarinet, a looper and a microphone - is how it all started. 

A free improvisation with friend & collaborator Łukasz Bernacki (on clarinet) sparked John’s desire to bring his compositional and production approach back down to the most basic elements. Creating simple, yet distinctive rhythms only through tapping contact microphones run into noisy guitar amps became the base for the EP’s three tracks, consequently inspiring its live, lo-fi feel. Written and recorded between John’s native Berlin and his adopted home of Glasgow, Walizka (Polish for ‘suitcase’) somehow absorbs the defining atmospheres of both cities in its core.

Previously released digitally as a teaser for John’s debut album, the Walizka EP actually presents newer material, progressing the electro-acoustic nature of ‘People Do’ towards more dub drenched territories. Refining John’s blend of prepared piano and field recordings with hand crafted beats and swampy bass lines, this deeply moody and danceable release bends genres with refreshing ease.

The EP is furthermore enhanced by a second half of remixes by fellow Denovali artists Piano Interrupted, SaffronKeira and Petrels and the ever elusive Everyday Dust. Far from conventional remixes, these pieces fall more in the category of re-imaginations, complementing the EP’s first, more rhythm anchored half with a coherent ambient counterpart.

Written, performed, recorded & produced by John Lemke in 2013
Mastered by Alex Gámez at Störung Studio
Artwork by Łukasz Bernacki

Walizka

John Lemke - Walizka (Piano Interrupted Remix)

from 'Acoustic' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den202
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/theeyeoftime]

THE EYE OF TIME is the Solo-Project of French musician Marc Euvrie. Euvrie’s musical development is deeply connected with the French DIY punk and hardcore scene, though he has been classically trained as well. He used to play in several bands before he began to translate his personal reflection of our complex world into music, which initiated The Eye of Time. A self titled debut record, released in Spring 2012, evolved firstly.

For his debut Marc Euvrie’s critical writing exposed a dark look on the present, past and future: Linked to machines and samples, revealing an unnatural direction of the human being’s existence. His upcoming release ACOUSTIC is a consequent change of focus. Looking for the motor, the personal needs to survive, he found himself experimenting with only Cello and Piano. Apparently these classical instruments turned out to be a relevant strong signal to go back to the roots with something more natural and simple to start from. Though both records seem to go in opposite directions in terms of sound and concept, a strong underlying layer stays inevitable: The Eye of Time’s compositions imply a call to fight for the things we love.

ACOUSTIC might be understood as a counterbalance to The Eye of Time’s debut. Where the previous record disclosed the coldness of our time, destructing everything that is meant to be our deep nature and presenting the despair of our situation, Acoustic embarks on a little glimpse of hope: Finding some strength to keep fighting for the nature of things and their vital qualities. Marc Euvrie composed six songs for six different locations and points in time, reaching way back to ancient centuries as well as taking a glance into our near future of a yet unknown place. A very personal travel through time and space, between the beauty of nature (Cisjordania, Norway) and the need of hope, which allows humans to dream (Spain, Poland). Marc Euvries own feelings and thoughts about his life evoke mostly in the last two tracks, where he found a form to intensify what keeps him alive.

Acoustic

Preorder / Buy

The Eye of Time - Treblinka, Poland, 2 August 1943

from 'The Unified Field Reconstructed' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records ·  den226
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/pianointerrupted]

Piano Interrupted, the anglo / french duo formed by Tom Hodge and Franz Kirmann is a musical entity in continuous reinvention, their music constantly evolving and transforming from concert to concert, record to record. Studio compositions are deconstructed for live shows, becoming brand new pieces, which in turn serve as a basis for future new compositions, like a never-ending “mise en abyme”
It was just a question of time then before the pair turned to other producers to ask them to rework their music. Concentrating exclusively on material from their last LP “The Unified Field”, Piano Interrupted invited a handful of artists and producers from Denovali Records' roster including Hidden Orchestra, Floex, Origamibiro, John Lemke, Saffronkeira and Second Moon Of Winter to reinvent some of their compositions. Oscillating between dub, techno, abstract hip hop, ambient and post-classical, each interpretation offers a completely fresh approach to the work, sometimes barely recognisable, and sheds new light on the infinite directions that Piano Interrupted's intricate compositions can be taken.
“The Unified Field Reconstructed” is a reminder of the possibilities and a promise of more exquisite exploration in the duo's 3rd album, scheduled for later this year, based on recordings taking place in Senegal (where Franz spent his childhood) in February 2015.


The Unifield Field Reconstructed

Piano Interrupted - Cross Hands (Hidden Orchestra Remix)

from 'Flesh' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den228
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/ahkosmos]

AH! KOSMOS is the moniker of Istanbul-based producer and instrumentalist Başak Günak. Her debut EP called FLESH has been released in her native country via Turkish label Müzik Hayvanı back in 2013. Along the release of her first full length BASTARDS in April 2015, Denovali Records will provide a re-issue FLESH, available for the first time on a world-wide scale and on the vinyl format.

Echoing and bouncing off the surfaces, the nuanced metallic droplets of synth-triggered sound interacts with moody sustained cluttering down-tempo beats and unholy choral voices over the trio of ambience on this three-track EP FLESH. From the mysterious catacombs and imagined otherworldly terrains of Istanbul, oozes the enlightened cosmic union of analog and electronic.

Supporting the likes of DARKSIDE, James Holden, Kiasmos, Two Door Cinema Club, Emika, Daddy G (Massive Attack) in her hometown Istanbul, AH! KOSMOS  performed at remarkable festivals as Rock’n Coke, Babylon Soundgarden, Venice Electro Festival, Budapest Punkurica Festival, Piknik Elektronik in Brussels, Tokyo Electronic Music of Arts Festival and CitySonic Festival in Mons.
Başak Günak has also composed and created sound design for contemporary dance and plays, short-flms and site-specifc performances / installations in several art spaces including Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Prague Signal Festival, 18th and 19th Istanbul International Theater Festival (IKSV), ARENA Theater Festival Nürnberg and Venice ElectroFestival. Recently, she has been invited to the highly coveted Red Bull Music Academy 2014 Tokyo as a participant.

Flesh

Ah! Kosmos - Melting Into Rise

from 'Machine To Machine' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den235
available in July on all formats at [http://denovali.com/ricardodonoso]

Following on from early 2015’s exercise in dissonant formalism “Sarava Exu”, “Machine to Machine”, Donoso’s newest full length work sees a return to a more melodic sound. “Machine to Machine”, continues to bridge the gap between Donoso’s more rhythmic and melodic work alongside his more experimental, loose and dissonant side yet still maintaining his unique signature feel; “WTF”-polymetric rhythms, elegant cinematics and spine chilling tension. Recorded over the last two years in between visual commissions and more through-composed heady works such as “Sarava Exu” and “A Song for Echo”, “Machine to Machine” represents Donoso’s return to the songbook format for the first time since 2012. 

Influenced by the work of Edward Bernays, Gustave Le Bon and Ernest Dichter - wherein past efforts have seen Donoso looking inwards, “Machine to Machine” has him looking outward - incorporating subliminal advertising techniques such as backmasking, ZMET and steganography, “Machine to Machine” is a meditation on priming with and without awareness and a treatise on the psychophysics of our contemporary age. 
“Machine to Machine”’s collection of songs are Donoso’s most versatile yet, incorporating all major elements from his discography into a unified album. There is something for everyone on “Machine to Machine”, and that is well the point, a vast range of emotion eliciting stimuli for your consumption.
 
RICARDO DONOSO is a composer, percussionist and electronic musician from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil who currently resides in Boston. After having studied composition at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory he has participated in a slew of projects over the years, most notably playing drums for avant-death metal unit Ehnahre and being one half of the ever morphing electronic duo Perispirit. Ricardo's musical vocabulary draws as much from contemporary composition, drone, to techno and noise.


Machine to Machine

Ricardo Donoso - Dance of Attunement

from 'Nomad Frequencies' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den237
available in September on all formats at [http://denovali.com/johnlemke]

An ardent moulder of sound, John Lemke began carving out a very unique music blend on his debut album 'People Do' (2013) and its follow up EP 'Walizka' (2014). Informed by his work as a sound designer & composer for documentary films and his natural inclination towards fusing rhythm with rich textures and emotive melodies, he set out on a musical path that had been long in the making and is ever evolving.

The quest for unusual, inspiring sound sources has always been at the heart of John's process, however the genesis of his second album 'Nomad Frequencies' was rooted in much more inadvertent circumstances. In the summer of 2014, forced to indefinitely evacuate his Glasgow flat and studio due to structural damage from one hour to the next, with nothing more than a laptop and a bag of clothes, John embarked on a six month odyssey of soul searching, couch surfing and spending an extended period of time in his old hometown of Berlin for the first time in years - it was to be an odyssey that would help ferment and distill the ideas of his second album on which work had just begun. 

A year of particular global turmoil and upheaval, combined with John's personal, albeit very minor, 'displacement', caused a lot of questioning, frustration and anger, which somehow found its way onto the new material: a more confrontational, at times aggressive sound, paired on the other hand with a yearning for harmony, balance and space. Other influences came less from the world of music, but rather in visual form, through the densely textural art of Anselm Kiefer and the political, yet poetic musings of film maker Adam Curtis.

Intent on refining his sound toward a more minimal, bolder style, John set out to limit his sonic palate to a handful of carefully chosen elements. At the centre of this new direction remains the muted piano already introduced on his debut, but in a much more purified and raw form. This organic base is adorned by the warm fuzzing and wavering of analogue synthesisers, tape echoes, meditative tuning forks, field recordings from John's 'exile' period and percussion based on his rigid approach to sampling, which started developing on 'Walizka'. The guiding principle of his orthodox style of recording and sampling is to only use home-made sounds by utilising his own field recordings, applying contact microphones or hydrophones to objects and instruments, running them through different kinds of speakers and re-recording the sounds to arrive at a 'lived in' quality, often misunderstood as plainly 'lo-fi'. Touches of viola and woodwinds parts (Kim Moore of WOLF and Andrew Baker respectively) provide melody fragments and subtle details throughout the journey.

With John's healthy disregard for genre boundaries, the array of influences on 'Nomad Frequencies' is vast, but never over-powering. From the meditative tuning fork that starts proceedings on 'Of Elsewhere', the dub echoes to the hints of minimalism, free jazz explosions to the Lynchian atmospherics, all elements serve nothing more than the album's narrative journey between friction and harmony, best appreciated in its entirety. A rhythmic backbone collides with rich ambience and melody, often infectious and jarring at the same time, forging a soulful whole which most likely only reveals its true self after multiple spins.

Nomad Frequencies

John Lemke - The Unwinding

from 'Nomad Frequencies' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den237
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/johnlemke]

An ardent moulder of sound, John Lemke began carving out a very unique music blend on his debut album 'People Do' (2013) and its follow up EP 'Walizka' (2014). Informed by his work as a sound designer & composer for documentary films and his natural inclination towards fusing rhythm with rich textures and emotive melodies, he set out on a musical path that had been long in the making and is ever evolving.

The quest for unusual, inspiring sound sources has always been at the heart of John's process, however the genesis of his second album 'Nomad Frequencies' was rooted in much more inadvertent circumstances. In the summer of 2014, forced to indefinitely evacuate his Glasgow flat and studio due to structural damage from one hour to the next, with nothing more than a laptop and a bag of clothes, John embarked on a six month odyssey of soul searching, couch surfing and spending an extended period of time in his old hometown of Berlin for the first time in years - it was to be an odyssey that would help ferment and distill the ideas of his second album on which work had just begun. 

A year of particular global turmoil and upheaval, combined with John's personal, albeit very minor, 'displacement', caused a lot of questioning, frustration and anger, which somehow found its way onto the new material: a more confrontational, at times aggressive sound, paired on the other hand with a yearning for harmony, balance and space. Other influences came less from the world of music, but rather in visual form, through the densely textural art of Anselm Kiefer and the political, yet poetic musings of film maker Adam Curtis.

Intent on refining his sound toward a more minimal, bolder style, John set out to limit his sonic palate to a handful of carefully chosen elements. At the centre of this new direction remains the muted piano already introduced on his debut, but in a much more purified and raw form. This organic base is adorned by the warm fuzzing and wavering of analogue synthesisers, tape echoes, meditative tuning forks, field recordings from John's 'exile' period and percussion based on his rigid approach to sampling, which started developing on 'Walizka'. The guiding principle of his orthodox style of recording and sampling is to only use home-made sounds by utilising his own field recordings, applying contact microphones or hydrophones to objects and instruments, running them through different kinds of speakers and re-recording the sounds to arrive at a 'lived in' quality, often misunderstood as plainly 'lo-fi'. Touches of viola and woodwinds parts (Kim Moore of WOLF and Andrew Baker respectively) provide melody fragments and subtle details throughout the journey.

With John's healthy disregard for genre boundaries, the array of influences on 'Nomad Frequencies' is vast, but never over-powering. From the meditative tuning fork that starts proceedings on 'Of Elsewhere', the dub echoes to the hints of minimalism, free jazz explosions to the Lynchian atmospherics, all elements serve nothing more than the album's narrative journey between friction and harmony, best appreciated in its entirety. A rhythmic backbone collides with rich ambience and melody, often infectious and jarring at the same time, forging a soulful whole which most likely only reveals its true self after multiple spins.

John Lemke - Vessel

from 'III' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den246
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/bersarinquartett]

Melancholia. Longing. It is difficult to speak about these moods or states of the mind without invoking stereotypes. In ancient medicine, melancholia was considered to be one of the four temperaments, matching the four humours. In fact, melancholia, meaning "black bile" in Ancient Greek, was thought to be caused by an excess of this very body substance. By contrast, in more modern interpretations, literates and Freudians relate many variations of longing to the one primordial longing, the desire to return to one's mother's womb. In this context, the womb is considered to be the place of absolute comfort and cosiness, of total bliss. Thus it should not be surprising that to many of us melancholia is a mood which we like to invoke and to maintain, we like to envelop ourselves in it like in a warm blanket. Our brain and our sensory systems appear to be made for perceiving and emotionally responding to music in a very immediate fashion. Consequently music is the obvious drug for all of us melancholia-addicts. However, there is a thin line between melancholia and sadness, and music which is meant to be melancholic too often crosses this line by far. Only very few artists succeed in avoiding this crossing, and in creating music which is melancholia in its most pure form. It is safe to say that BERSARIN QUARTETT - the electronic music project of Thomas Bücker - is one of them.

After his successfull selftitled debut in 2008 and the sophomore "II" in 2012 - album of the month in many magazines and in numerous "Best of the year" lists - Bücker returns with his third BERSARIN QUARTETT album "III", due for release 6.11.2015 on Denovali Records. Much like his two predecessors, III is a pure paradox. It is the creation of a perfectionist, an adamant control freak. Every element, be it a note, an ambience layer, a string arrangement, a field recording, a baseline, a vocal (Clara Hill on Track 11) or a beat, is meticulously modified and then assigned its place in Bücker's vast but still minimalistic arrangements. Thus, superficially Bücker's pieces seem to radiate a certain mechanical bleakness. However, there is a unique reduced warmth and liveliness emerging from these stainless compositions and transcending them. This transcendence is precisely the point where Bücker ironically looses control over his creations. In contrast to the first two BERSARIN QUARTETT albums, III offers a few darker shades and succeeds even further in narrowing down the arrangements to the absolute essentials without loosing the characteristic grandeur of Bücker's sound. Whereas BERSARIN QUARTETT's debut was merely a description of melancholia in its most pure form, III maybe even goes as far a defining what melancholia really is. It is the only emotion in the vast spectrum of human states of mind which one can bear forever. 

Bersarin Quartett - Sanft verblassen die Geschichten

from 'Scandinavia' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den245
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/multicastdynamics]

Samuel van Dijk is an electronic music producer, sound designer and media artist from the Netherlands, having released electronic music under a variety of projects, namely, Mohlao and VC-118A. With his current project Multicast Dynamics he creates ever-evolving sound textures culminating in intriguing soundscapes while preserving a tranquil cinematic atmosphere. Drawing inspiration from nature, technology, film and fiction, his music productions, live sets and audiovisual work presents a carefully arranged, recorded and processed body of work, using a vast amount of layered sound textures, field recordings and live improvisation. In May 2015, Denovali Records released the first two albums of a four part series by Multicast Dynamics, conceptually linked by our undeniable connection with nature and its wide range of landscapes, colors and movement. Now the third album called SCANDINAVIA follows in October 2015??.  The album series moves from an evolutionary to a cosmological scale: Starting from dry land filled with light and streams, to the constantly changing surfaces of the oceans, into a frozen and murky underwater world, finally up to the arrival in an interstellar space and the cosmos. With this concept Multicast Dynamics explores organic and aqueous worlds in a dreamlike and spiritual appearance.

SCANDINAVIA is the third installment in the four part series. Assembled during the coldest season, it’s an album full of contemplative electronic recordings, created by the use of granular synthesis, obscure delay units and rudimentary looping techniques on magnetic tape. Recorded with a longsighted outlook, SCANDINAVIA features washes of subdued tones and textures as well as melancholic and warm sounding pulses of noise - all characterized by distinctive aquatic features. Steadily flowing, but slowly awakening the album draws frozen remote landscapes ranging from dark, cold and desolated to melting, warm and hope.
SCANDINAVIA opens with a bleak arctic environment in deep hibernation, where echoes of glacial bursts cut the silence. An undulating mass of viscous ambience sends out blurred out signals through the storm. In this inhospitable surrounding of frost and ice slow changes appear. The form of the landscapes alters and the cold air no longer hinders the breathing. Slowly meltwater seeps out underneath thick layers of ice, slowly building up in momentum and space. Layers of hypnotic atmospheres with barely perceptible undercurrents, brooding pulses of bass and tonal patterns lead to the core of the sonic landscape. Gently radiant layers of light and soil emerge and aquatic echoes expose new paths. The water is harnessed. Preparations for a long journey have begun.

Scandinavia

Multicast Dynamics - Scandinavia

from 'Symmetry'
Denovali Records · den227
available on 3xCD | 4xLP | DIGITAL formats at [http://denovali.com/rd]

Limited collectors edition containing the albums:
Progress Chance
Assimilating The Shadow
As Iron Sharpens Iron, One Verse Sharpens Another

Ricardo Donoso has composed a new paradigm of ambient music, in which concrete textures and digital synthesis expand on an abstract world in constant movement & mutation. Under a chain of progressive rhythm’s, cinematic textures and elegant melodicism, Donoso’s work pushes through with piercing strength, manipulating a sonic wave through space with nothing but pulse and mind blowing intensity.
Although Donoso’s work has coalesced into a much broader and dynamic beast, his early work continues to be a source of inspiration. ‘Symmetry’ now compiles Donoso’s first three albums, lovingly referred to as the “Digitalis Trilogy” which includes Progress Chance, Assimilating the Shadow and As Iron Sharpens Iron, One Verse Sharpens Another in a deluxe 4LP boxset & 3CD edition.
A truly entrancing journey of polyrhythmic counterpoint, the ‘Symmetry’ collection takes in influence from minimalist composers such as Reich & Riley, early techno and trance, and lush and deeply harmonic ambient music. It’s possible to look at the ‘Symmetry’ trilogy as a blueprint to Donoso’s later work in both its musical scope & thematic grandeur. Amidst all of its wide eyed, dreamlike states there is always a rumbling of subtle violence piercing just underneath the surface creating a truly immersive experience.

Progress Chance

Ricardo Donoso - Morning Criminal

Assimilating the Shadow

Ricardo Donoso - Renunciation

from 'Landscapes of the Unfinished' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den251
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/pianointerrupted]

Recorded partly in Senegal with local musicians playing traditional instruments, "Landscapes Of The Unfinished" is Piano Interrupted's 3rd album for German experimental label Denovali.

This album sees pianist Tom Hodge and “electronician” Franz Kirmann explore a more introspective approach to their sound. The sonorities and recordings the pair brought back from West Africa are deconstructed, mangled and texturised, turned into a pointillist landscape until only a faint and distant souvenir remains.

These beds of pulsating soundscapes and earthy textures serve as base for Hodge’s delicate piano phrases and intricate compositions, interlaced with long-time collaborator Tim Fairhall's fluid double bass playing.

Harsher territories are also visited during the 9 tracks that compose the LP; fuzzy Senegalese radio voices and the distant memory of African percussion collide with distorted bass and buzzing drones or screaming textures battle with screeching double bass sounds and tortured piano strings.

The overall tone of the album reflects the duo’s desire to musically translate the experience of the Dakar trip (where Franz Kirmann grew up), but also to break away from the first two albums' intricate programming and editing and instead go towards a writing and recording experience directly inspired by their live experience. Hodge’s clarinet, an important facet of the Piano Interrupted live show, is captured on record for the first time. 

This surge towards documenting a moment, leaving a trace or examining something concrete is further reflected in the choice of titles (all named after the musicians who took part in the recordings) and also the design, which is for the first time a photograph. Taken by filmmaker Cath Elliott, who travelled with the pair to Dakar to document the process, the album artwork captures one of the numerous half-built structures, infinite and abandoned, surrounding the studio in the suburbs of Dakar, and provides both an unfinished urban landscape and yet when viewed as a single moment in time, one of many compellingly complete landscapes of the unfinished.

Landscapes of the Unfinished

Piano Interrupted - Vieux

'Vantdraught 4' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den256
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/kubakapsa]

Kuba Kapsa is a Polish pianist and composer being the leader of the avant-jazz combo Contemporary Noise Sextet (2006-2014). Beyond that he is a renowned composer for film and theater plays. His latest venture is the first of a sophisticated series of projects of modern classical music bearing the common title "Vantdraught".

The first part of the "Vantdraught" series was called "Vantdraught 10 · Vol. 1" and featured ten classical instruments - 4 violins, 2 violas, cello, vibraphone, marimba and piano. The now appearing second part is "Vantdraught 4", a quartet album written for violin, clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone and piano. The minimalistic style of Vantdraught 10 is preserved although the music is less repetitive and much more intimate. Instinct and intuition is the main force behind the writing process, usually avoiding typical chord progressions and the classical cadential technique. In contrast to "Vantdraught 10 · Vol. 1", the rhythm domain is also less important, thus allowing the melody and harmony to come to the fore. The pieces of "Vantdraught 4" are mainly tonal music but Kapsa also makes use of atonal and polytonal harmonies which requires the listener to put more effort into listening to these parts. The unusual set of instruments is what makes this quartet album unique and fresh sounding. "Vantdraught 4" is certainly linked to classical and minimal music in general but one can find other influences such as jazz and "new music".

Much like its predecessor, "Vantdraught 4" features an astonishing artwork based on "The Reluctant Conscript" by the seminal artist duo Kahn & Selesnick.


Vantdraught 4

Kuba Kapsa Ensemble - Vantdraught 4 No. 5

from 'Turmalinturm' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den268
available on all format at [http://denovali.com/foghdepot]

Fogh Depot continues its quest for the fifth element, experimenting at the confluence of jazz, modern classical, and electronic music. Two years after their first S/T release, the Moscow-based trio presents a new album - Turmalinturm.

Like the previous recording, this is a unique blend of ostensibly incompatible elements. A traditional academic approach fuses with lo-fi spontaneity. The raw and vivid texture of the bass springs forward from a modular sterility. At times the mixture is explosive. No wonder the studio where the album was created burned down a month after it was completed.

This album imparts a new, architectural dimension to Fogh Depot's music. A fortress named 'Turmalinturm' rises from a solid foundation of jazz, neoclassical minimalism, and experimental electronica. But the sophistication of the fortress' towers makes one suspect that each had its own architect. 'Quicksilver Spoon' is virtually flawless in geometric form. 'Who The Last Says No' is so fragile and delicate that it is a miracle it does not collapse. 'Oscar' is perhaps the most complex and substantial tower of the ensemble. 'Alice, Bob & Cypher' has a secret of its own in the old vaulted underground crypt. One of the structures is topped with a Gorgoneion, a stone head of Medusa. Another houses a bell tower borrowed straight from Rachmaninoff's Suite No. 1.

Tourmaline is a stone that appears to change its color depending on the angle of view. Turmalinturm's listeners get to choose how to approach the fortress. Some will discover the same pensive melancholy sounds that Fogh Depot started with. Others will find lighter, brighter, occasionally even euphoric motifs.

Turmalinturm

Fogh Depot - Quicksilver Spoon

from 'The Outpost' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den273
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/blueneck]

Hailing from North Somerset in the UK, Blueneck have been at forefront of the European underground music scene since forming in 2000. They’ve released five critically-acclaimed albums, toured extensively with acts like Cult of Luna and Mono and featured in series of high profile European festivals including a triumphant midnight set at Glastonbury 2014. The band have also soundtracked a number of independent films and had their work featured on NBC, HBO and SyFy channels.

Typically obsessive, fastidious and reclusive in their approach to recording (Blueneck’s last album, 2014’s epic KING NINE, was almost 4 years in the making) the band’s forthcoming long-player THE OUTPOST was written and recorded over an uncharacteristically short 18 months.

This shortened gestation period was not the only respect in which THE OUTPOST is markedly different to Blueneck’s previous recording experience and output (2006’s SCARS OF THE MIDWEST, 2009’s THE FALLEN HOST, 2011’s REPETITIONS, 2012’s vocal-free soundtrack album EPILOGUE, 2014’s KING NINE). Originally planned as a wholly separate touring electronica side-project for singer-songwriter Duncan Attwood and guitarist Rich Sadler, the duo began to find the prospect of deploying the full Blueneck sonic arsenal - along with the skills of long-term producer collaborator Matt Sampson and bass-player Ben Paget - all too irresistible. Once the decision had been made to fold the side-project back under the Blueneck banner, the fact that home recordings were already well-advanced made for a refreshingly fluid, fast (for Blueneck) and - dare we say - fun final 12 months of studio time.

The resulting LP retains the melodic songcraft of Blueneck’s best work, as well as Attwood’s inimitable seductive, haunting vocals. However THE OUTPOST eschews the southern-gothic sepia of KING NINE in exchange for a maxed-out colour contrast of electronic beats, vibrant vintage synths and guitars that are by turns ballsy, soaring and delicately intricate.

From the pulsing Archive-esque Prog whiplash of ‘From Beyond’ to the plaintive Sparklehorse meets Boards of Canada electro-pop of ‘Ghosts’ (Blueneck’s most accessible moment to date); and from the windswept Earth-esque Americana of ‘The White Ship’ to the Talk Talk covering John Carpenter expanse of ‘Hive’; Blueneck have created one of their most passionate, propulsive and progressive recordings to date.

As with KING NINE, Blueneck are employing the artistry of acclaimed artist and filmmaker Lasse Hoile (who previously worked with Anathema, Porcupine Tree and Opeth). Lasse’s album art - along with forthcoming music videos - feature a neon-tinted Lovecraftian 80’s menace in a small town American heartland, reminiscent of Netflix show ‘Stranger Things’, recent indie-horror movie ‘It Follows’ and John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy.

Praise for Blueneck:

“Stunning” – Rock Sound
“Fantastic… An intoxicating all-consuming experience” – Classic Rock: Prog
“Beautiful… Creepy” - Vice
“Melds heavy alt-rock with gentle Amnesiac-era Radiohead fragility in impressive style” – Metal Hammer
“One of England's best kept secrets” – The Digital Fix

The Outpost

Blueneck - Ghosts

from 'Electric Stutter' [CD|2xLP|Digital]
Denovali Records · den281
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/orsonhentschel]

Almost one year after his debut LP Feed The Tape, Orson Hentschel enters new musical terrain wearing old shoes. His second LP Electric Stutter, which is almost 55 minutes long, is only loosely connected to his debut. Whereas Feed The Tape was strongly shaped by Classical Minimal Music, Hentschel now incorporates influences of Trip-Hop and Electronic Pop Music. Since his childhood, he considers artists like Massive Attack, Portishead and Björk as some of his most important sources of inspiration. The influence of this kind of popular music is clearly audible. Hentschel’s new tracks are shorter, more shaped and reduced in the density of their sound material. Pattern-oriented repetitions, which where in the focus of Feed The Tape, now fulfil the function of sophisticated sub-components of the overall composition and are subordinate to the melodic forms or merge with them. Also the amount of sample-based material has decreased in order to create space for synthetically produced sounds with melodic character. Electric Stutter is more complex and more detailed than Feed The Tape. At the same time the reduced density of sound material and the higher amount of melodies form a kind of music that is more easily accessible.

Whereas the Düsseldorf-based composer started off with classical piano, he by now concentrates on electronic and experimental music and film compositions. Even though Hentschel has experienced a classical education, his composition techniques are anything but traditional. His creative starting point is rarely rooted in musical ideas, but consists of finding appropriate sound material. His sources are diverse: sounds and samples like soundtracks, film sounds, music albums or internet findings encounter polyphonic vocal-music from the 14th century and composition techniques of Minimal Music such as Steve Reich. In his compositions Hentschel draws a cross-section through the history of music and its genres in order to form his own musical expression. Considering his studies of music science in Düsseldorf and previously in Vienna and Dresden, his musical time-jumps appear less surprising.    

Describing Orson Hentschel only as a composer of contemporary music does not do him justice. In his self-conception as an audio-visual artist he creates his own live show, combining lights, visuals and fog to a stunning atmosphere, which cannot be eluded. Supported by live-drummer Lukas Baumgart, Hentschel delivers a sound, whose energy is physically palpable and electrifies the audience. A live-show generating an intense experience, going to the limit and erasing any sense of time. Orson Hentschel moves perceptions not merely through sheer volume, but with driving repetitions and extensive tension.

Electric Stutter

Orson Hentschel - Fade In, Fade Out

from 'APR 70' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den288
available on all formats at [http://denovali.com/dictaphone]

Finally a sign of life and a new full length of the German cult trio after five years of silence. Already formed in the late nineties in Berlin, Dictaphone was born by Brussels-bred multi-instrumentalist Oliver Doerell. In 2000 Oliver Doerell found a partner in Berlin's Roger Döring, who shares Doerell's love for the Brussels-based music of the eighties. In the following years the duo and several guest musicians (e.g. Stephan Wöhrmann (SWOD) , Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) & more) released the critically highly acclaimed "m.= addiction" (2002), the "Nacht" EP (2004) and "Vertigo II" (2006) via the City Centres Offices label of Thaddeus Herrmann and Shlom Sviri (Boomkat, Modern Love). In 2009 the violin player Alex Stolze joined the band. During their two decades of existence Dictaphone played shows in more than 20 countries with festival appearances at Mutek, Transmediale, Unsound, Benicassim & more. Their latest release "Poems from a rooftop" from 2012 came as a very limited edition through the Berlin-based boutique label Sonic Pieces. The new album "APR 70" is the first Denovali release of Dictaphone. The label will also reissue the past repertoire of the trio.

The new album features the three Dictaphone core members Oliver Doerell (electronics, bass, guitar), Roger Döring (saxophone, clarinet) and Alex Stolze (violins) and has been composed and produced over the course of three years. While the vibraphone and the more easily distinguishable guitar among other things gave a certain presence to the tracks on the previous album "Poems from a rooftop", "APR 70" leaves the listener with a much more muffled impression. It feels as if each of the uncountable layers of which the intricate arrangements are made has just the right amount of contrast to be visible, but there are only very few moments where one of the elements noticeably dominates the others. The cool jazz bits, analogue flourishes, hypnotic rhythms and refined electronics feed a dark serpent-like creature meandering in ever-changing morphologies through shapeless landscapes. "APR 70" is the perfect cocoon for the hazy days and the serene nights. A new incarnation, maybe even definition, of purity.

Dictaphone never make music for the sake of it, they always want to create something which was missing before. And they did.


Praise for Dictaphone:

"minimalistic and subliminal elegancy" (ARTE)

"timeless, unusual & beautiful" (Colin Newman)

"Dictaphones gives warmth to the concept, your thoughts a body and atmosphere to the music" (Spex)

"This is the music to fall in love with over many evenings, each subsequent rotation capturing another moment of time to be recalled in the future. Highly recommended" (Headphone Commute)

"When played from a rooftop, this music may be as quiet as a poem, but it carries the power of a manifesto." (A Closer Listen)

APR 70

Dictaphone - 105.4

from 'Facades' [CD|10''|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den290
available on all formats at [http://www.denovali.com/orsonhentschel]

Only six months after his sophomore album, which has showcased a "tense repetition of short phrases, often building big, dramatic pieces starting with a single stuck-in-the-machine sound" (Decoder) and an "analogue cyber trip-hop of an impressive depth of focus as an acoustic furniture for an apocalypse lounge" (Groove), Hentschel returns with a two-piece EP showcasing yet another aspect of his musical spectrum. While the first two albums featured only instrumental tracks, "Facades" are the first two pieces in which Orson Hentschel works with text as a main musical element for his composition, although he approaches vocals from a rather particular perspective.

For Hentschel, the spoken word is always music and thus not different than any other instrumental input or sound layer. Consequently, he is only interested in the sound of the spoken words on Facades, but not in any content they convey. The idea for Facades was born at a time when Hentschel was struggling with a writer's block for several days in a row. He realised that just writing about nothing was the only honest way for him to express himself through text as a medium. After doing some research on the subject he found John Cage's "Lecture on nothing" which has appeared in the book "Silence" (1961). This encouraged him to work out his idea and he wrote a German text which then Danhee Joe, an accidental acquaintance of his, translated into Korean and spoke with her warm voice. Thus Orson Hentschel used the text in the same way as he uses any sound material - it is transformed into something else, it is being alienated. The spoken words are embedded in repetitive and minimal-minded electronic sound layers which even penetrate primordial technoid territories. However, sticking to his trademark long arcs of suspense, the listener has to wait until the last two minutes of the second track for the first, cathartic beat.

Facades

Orson Hentschel - Facade I

Compiled and mixed by Bersarin Quartett (first hour) & Nadia Struiwigh (second hour)


Tracklist Bersarin Quartett (first hour):

NILS FRAHM - harm hymn
BURIAL - endorphin
W - 在扭曲的水中受损的灵魂
STEFAN WESOŁOWSKI - prelude
BJOERK - arisen my senses (lanark artefax remix)
INON ZUR - rebuild, renew (fallout 4-soundtrack)
CHARLESTHEFIRST - beacon
DJRUM - blue violet
GHOST WARRIOR - double vision
PHIL FRANCE - jackal
CATERINA BARBIERI - unreleased (live-recording, helsinki)
SKEE MASK - rev8617
HAWK. - 88glam - 12 (hawk. edit)
CLAUDE SPEEED - no kings
GEWALT - guter junge, böser junge (ensslin research rmx)
CHRIS READ & PUGS ATOMZ FEAT. WES RESTLESS - drum roll
ANDREA - track xl
KLLO - candid


Tracklist - Nadia Struiwigh (second hour):

Aphex Twin - #3 (Original Mix)
Digital Rain - Night Passion (Original Mix)
Rabbit - Fossilized Universe (Original Mix)
Clubroot - Dry Cured (Original Mix)
Hydrangea - Beyond The Invisible (Original Mix)
Answer Code Request - Calm Down (Original Mix)
Tzusing - O.D.D. Metapop Remixes (FMProducer Remix)
b2 - love goes on and on (Original Mix)
Lowfish - Knives (Original Mix)
Blac Kolor - Wide Element (Original Mix)
Alfredo Mazzilli - Njord (Original Mix)
Biome - YOOF (Original Mix)

05.01.2019 · Denovali NTS Radio Special

from 'Glam Tear Stain' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den322
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/davidnorland

David Norland is an Emmy-nominated English composer living and working in Los Angeles. Most recently he composed the score to the current HBO film “My Dinner With Herve” (HBO 2018) starring Peter Dinklage and Jamie Dornan.

His work with Emmy-winning director Sacha Gervasi includes the award-winning documentary "Anvil! The Story Of Anvil", (which won the IDA Best Feature award, an Emmy award, the Indie Spirit Best Doc award, and numerous other best doc awards around the world) as well as the score for “November Criminals” (Sony 2017) starring Chloe Moretz and Ansel Elgort. David Norland was also the music supervisor for the movie "Hitchcock" featuring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren & Scarlett Johansson.

Since 2010 he has composed much of the music for US broadcasting giant ABC’s primetime news documentaries. His work for ABC is broadcast in the US and around the world on a daily basis.

Having been a chorister from an early age, singing daily in Westminster Abbey, and a boy treble in The Elizabethan Consort of Voices, a touring choral group of the time, he also composes choral music. His electronic band Solar Twins was signed by Madonna to Maverick Records, and rode high on the US dance charts, and his record writing, production and mixing work with Jamaican legends Sly and Robbie has been nominated for a Grammy.

"Glam Tear Stain" is the first real solo full length of David Norland. It combines electronic influences, elements of his film scoring work and more intimate, minimalistic piano and string arrangements.

"The music I want to make has changed over time - from imitation baroque pieces as an 11 year old chorister, through guitar pop with my first teenage bands, experimental sonic works with my first rudimentary recording equipment in my early 20s, through electronics, drum and bass, and reggae, leading finally to piano, choral, and string music informed by my film scoring work.”

"Glam Tear Stain" is simple melodic and tonal music for for piano and strings, filtered through the electronic, spatial, and experimental lens of Norland's earlier musical endeavors - and on a personal level was made over a time of profound sadness, change, and acceptance. It’s more unapologetically emotional than other music in the broad neoclassical field, and often stranger, too, drawing from influences as diverse as Future Sound Of London and 16th century English choral music.

"Glam Tear Stain" is the first album of a series of further solo works that David Norland will be releasing via Denovali over the next years.

Glam Tear Stain

David Norland - Agate Or Barium

from 'ΠΟΛΙΣ' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den344
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/subheim

Subheim adds a new chapter to his catalog of shadowy raves with ΠΟΛΙΣ - the fourth long player, arriving in October 2020 on Denovali Records. Pronounced "Polis," the Greek word for "city," ΠΟΛΙΣ doesn't so much evoke the rapid cadences of life in a modern metropolis as it does the unspoken tension between longing to escape and being trapped in some kind of concrete stasis - living together with millions of souls in an expansive emptiness.
 
Subheim uses ΠΟΛΙΣ as a vehicle to depart from traditional songwriting structures, crafting each track as a piece of a larger sonic collage. Songs come out of nowhere, abruptly come to end before they even get a chance to start or introduce new motifs and surprise reprises long after we expect the next track to cue up. These stutter-start forms reflect the four years it took for the record to take shape: a series of failed musical experiments, indecision, balancing an unstoppable creative drive with the unavoidable emotional ebb and flow of life.
 
Though this is clearly Subheim working at a new level, listeners will recognize the sound of ΠΟΛΙΣ instantly as his, with both hints of the IDM/electronica of Approach era and the unmistaken human element that is present in all his work. The natural, off-grid time feel of the record is effortlessly augmented with field recordings and found sounds, this time around with the addition of more grit and power, and with heavier use of analog synthesizers.
 
Despite the album being born out of a feeling of alienation from one's surroundings, it's impossible to ignore the sense of hope that runs through this LP. In ΠΟΛΙΣ, we hear an arrival at a deeper understanding of oneself, an inner peace amidst the decay and a cautious optimism that comes from someone who just happens to feel most at home in darkness.

Subheim - ΠΟΛΙΣ

Subheim - Old Blade

from 'Where We Were' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
available from May 2013 on all formats at [http://denovali.com/greghaines]

ON TOUR

21.04.2013 London (uk) - Denovali Swingfest

08.05.13 Eindhoven (nl) - Muziekgebouw
10.05.13 Groningen (nl) - De Oosterpoort
11.05.13 Amsterdam (nl) - Paradiso
12.05.13 Trier (ger) - Synagoge Schweich
13.05.13 Paris (fr) - Café de la Danse

17.05.13 Münster (ger) - Black Box
18.05.13 Utrecht (nl) - Le Guess Who Festival May Day
19.05.13 Essen (ger) - Welterbe Zollverein
20.05.13 Brussel (bel) - Ancienne Belgique Club
21.05.13 Hamburg (ger) - Nachtasyl
22.05.13 Bielefeld (ger) - Nummer Zu Platz
23.05.13 Hannover (ger) - Feinkost Lampe
24.05.13 München (ger) - Einstein
25.05.13 Geneva (ch) - La Graviere
26.05.13 Varano Borghi (it) - La Sauna Recording Studio
28.05.13 Bratislava (slovakia) - Atelier Babylon
29.05.13 Budapest (hun) - Akvárium Klub
30.05.13 Prag (cz) - Palac Akropolis
01.06.13 Gdansk (pl) - Club Zak
02.06.13 Warsaw (pl) - Cafe Kulturalna



Denovali Records is happy to announce the release of Greg Haines' new album WHERE WE WERE on cd, double vinyl and digital, as well as the release of 2006-2012, a collection of Greg's first three albums Slumber Tides, Until The Point of Hushed Support and Digressions as triple cd and 5 x vinyl collector's box in May 2013.


WHERE WE WERE [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]

“WHERE WE WERE”, the new album from GREG HAINES, may come as a surprise upon first listen. The cascading strings that played such an important role in his prior work have disappeared, and in there place are intricate layers of tape-worn synthesizers. Any recordings of piano have been transformed and affected until their sound is at times barely recognizable. Moments of quiet, slowmoving textures can still be found, but they are nestled between upbeat, rhythmically-driven tracks that at times could even be considered for deployment on open-minded dancefloors. Although taking a year to complete, the nature of this record is born in its spontaneity and impulsiveness. The acoustic instruments such as piano, vibraphone and other percussion that found there way on to the album were not the result of months of composing - rather they were entirely improvised and often left completely unedited and raw. At first the idea was these rough tracks, full of noises and hiss, would later be re-recorded, but as the process drew on, it became clear that these kind of loose, half-thought moments were what defined the album - often “out-oftime” or “out-of-tune”, but always adding another dimension to the hazy, analog world of sound. This hand-crafted approach led to almost everything being constructed in the old-fashioned way; not with mouse-clicks, but with two hands moving dials and everything running to an aged tape machine.

This album is the result of one person sitting alone in a room and creating something entirely personal, without the frustrations of organising large-scale sessions for other players or the laborious work of preparing scores. In fact, the few scored moments that were written were later disregarded, with a whole string session with PETER BRODERICK ending up on the cutting-room floor (sorry, Peter!), along with endless hours of other material. What is left is the condensed diary of a year of exploring old tape delays, analog synths and percussion - some of which played by percussionist/composer SYTZE PRUIKSMA (a member, along with Haines, of THE ALVARET ENSEMBLE, whose debut album was released in December 2012 by Denovali Records), and some of which played and recorded in a midnight daze at Haines' studio in Berlin. Working in this way led to a whole host of other long-term influences feeding into the music that had never found an outlet before. The experiments in dub conducted by the likes of KING TUBBY or LEE PERRY and continued by the likes of RHYTHM & SOUND had a profound effect, as did the iconic work of TONY ALLEN and other African composers. The spaced-out soundscapes found on early TANGERINE DREAM and KLAUS SCHULTZE had always had a subtle influence on Greg's work, but now armed with an arsenal of dusty studio toys, those sounds became warmer, richer and more prominent.

The influences evoked here may at first appear at odds with Greg's previous work, but an affinity between the dense poly-rhythms of Africa and beyond have long been an influence for contemporary composers such as STEVE REICH, and their reach and importance on western music is undeniable. But now the lines have been blurred, and its impossible to say where one “style” or influence stops and another begins – something that was perhaps the only concept for this record. The symphonic synth crescendo of “So it Goes” would not have the same impact if it were not following the head-nodding drive of “Something Happened”. The delicate arpeggios of “Wake Mania Without End II” only exaggerate the unrelenting, rhythmical explosion of “Habenero”, and without starting with the intimate piano of “The Intruder”, the album's cavernous ending wouldn't feel so otherworldly. Its all in there or at least whats left of it after the hiss, the dirt and the degradation of the tape machine destroyed it, reworked it, and spat it back out fullyformed.

Mixed and mastered together with NILS FRAHM at his Durton Studio, Berlin.

Where We Were

Greg Haines - Habenero

from 'Miscellany' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den348
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/origamibiro

After an almost 6 year hiatus, and the break up of the audio-visual trio it had evolved into, Origamibiro returns with Miscellany, a body of work amassed during the years since the release of 2014’s Odham’s Standard.

Though the group never officially disbanded, a number of life-changing events meant it simply became impossible to continue together. As such, the project organically reverted back to the solo pursuits of composer Tom Hill. Fellow multi-instrumentalist Andy Tytherleigh, however, remains a strong collaborator.

Miscellany comprises a varied mixture of work, ranging from electroacoustic to orchestral chamber music. Drawing upon much of the found-sound style for which Origamibiro became known, the DIY approach to sampling and composing continues to play a central role in the process.

Exploration into the tangible nature of everyday objects and textures - both in and outside of the home - is a theme relished in much of Origamibiro’s work. Forest brambles and plastic toy Easter eggs are examined in surgical detail alongside the debris of demolished piano parts, to be repurposed into whatever sonic potential they offer up.

However, new additions to the instrumental palette - viola da gamba, piano, zither, singing bowl, glockenspiel, drum machines and gongs - contribute to an even broader timbre.

Miscellany will be released on Denovali, March 2021.

Miscellany

Origamibiro - Cascade

from 'Daear' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den350
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/lto

Based in Bristol, LTO first made waves as part of mysterious electronic collective Old Apparatus. As a solo producer, LTO has since attracted attention with three albums.

LTO's ambition to create ever more ambiguous and far-reaching sonic environments, whilst retaining something of the familiar and physical, have led him to take inspiration from imagined landscapes of the folklore of his Welsh ancestry and of the planet Mars. Both images of enchanted forests battling enraged giants from the underworld and unimaginably hostile planetary events guide this work of great magnitude.

In 'Daear', LTO explores an expansive sound pallet of swelling synths and noise, ambiguous string instruments, thunderous percussion, unearthly voices and his signature sound the piano, mostly processed beyond recognition. The result is a mysterious and deeply textured journey that could be set in both the distant past and uncertain future, on this planet or beyond.

Praise about LTO:

“haunting and comforting in equal measure. 4/5" – MOJO

“like memory preserved in nostalgic aspic” – The Independent

“a beautiful collection that stands tall alongside the work of his contemporaries” – XLR8R

“Blurring the lines between the organic and machine-made... Takes nebulous sounds and crashes them with the clatter of machine rhythms… Brilliant.”  - Hyponik

“An adventurous blend of hues grey and dark...Staggeringly rich.”  - FACT

"Another great album by a real talent hugely deserving of even more attention. Remarkable. 9/10"  - God is in the TV

Daear

LTO - Noachia

from 'The Composite Moods Collection Vol.2: Point Blank Range' [2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den356
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/dalhous

Dalhous end the 5-year silence with the long awaited follow up to 2016's House Number 44, presenting the second volume of The Composite Moods Collection. "Point Blank Range" reinterprets the established narrative with an inverse look at the proceedings. Taking the “point of view of the disease", the perspective is now turned inside out, revealing an alternate account from the eyes of the photographed subject of House Number 44. If Vol.1 was a documented presentation of another person's condition, Vol.2 takes the listener behind the facade.

From the outset, the album offers a narratively uncooperative stance, weaving together layers of anxiety and painful specificity that often overtly manifests the psychotic protagonist's stormy interior state. A clearly subjective assault, which is made evident right from opening track 'Transceivers' through to the imploding nature of 'Intramuscular Administration’, to the vulnerable, psychedelic mania of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'. Continuing to work within the framework of a soundtrack-like structure, Dalhous ramps things up to provide the aural equivalent of sound and picture, manifesting an almost quasi-visual experience.

The entire record can be listened to as a continuous piece, each track seamlessly linked together as though part of an interconnecting nervous system. Where House Number 44 offered airy, widescreen soundscapes of detached detail, Point Blank Range presents an altogether different form. Creating airtight vacuums of agitated twitching feeling, tracks are pulled to the forefront of the stereo field, continually mutating their densely painted neurochemical hallucinations with a breadth of sound previously unheard on previous releases.

Listeners will be able to decipher nods to long standing soundtrack influences from composers such as Fabio Frizzi, with his use of strikingly bold and haunting melodies, to Tangerine Dream’s distinctively foggy atmospheres of The Keep. There are moments that evoke the nihilistic drones of Brian Gascoigne’s soundtrack to Phase IV, and the more horrific passages of metal clanging ambience from the likes of Chu Ishikawa with his scores for Shinya Tsukamoto.

After their former record label Blackest Ever Black disbanded, Dalhous found themselves out on a limb. It took 5 years to find a new home with Denovali. Given the unusually extended period between records, Dalhous had the time to dive deeper into the material, rendering a level of experimentation previously unavailable to them. Over 4 hours of material was created, a total of 1TB of data. Countless revisions to the track listing ensued with some of the unused material being reutilised in the making of the final chapter in the trilogy to form a direct companion piece.

The Composite Moods Collection Vol.2: Point Blank Range arrives in Spring 2021 on double-vinyl and digital formats.

The Composite Moods Collection Vol.2: Point Blank Range

Dalhous - Open As A Glade Unfolding

from 'Goats & Distortions 5' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den361
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/dictaphone

The belgian-german band Dictaphone around mastermind Oliver Doerell returns with their fifth album named "goats & distortions 5".

After their last highly acclaimed album "APR70" Oliver Doerell is surrounded again by his longterm bandmembers Roger Döring (clarinet & saxophone) & Alex Stolze (violins). In the last 3 years they dived even deeper in their "morbid instruments" concept. An old tape machine, which Doerell found in a hidden room in his house in Berlin served as soundsource, ghostly sounds could be heard and the machine died soon after being sampled. For the first time Roger Döring played a bass clarinet on this album and after the recordings lost it in the subway on his way home…

They improved their skills to use rustle as a instrument and are supported by the voice of Helga Raimondi in the track "your reign is over". The result is an ungraspable, ghostly, spooky album consisting of ten different journeys into the experimental sound world of these unique compositions.

The history of Dictaphone: In 2000 Oliver Doerell found a partner in Berlin's Roger Döring, who shares Doerell's love for the Brussels-based music of the eighties. In the following years the duo and several guest musicians (e.g. Stephan Wöhrmann (SWOD) , Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) released the critically highly acclaimed "m.= addiction" (2002), the "Nacht" EP (2004) and "Vertigo II" (2006) via the City Centres Offices label of Thaddeus Herrmann and Shlom Sviri (Boomkat, Modern Love). In 2009 the violin player Alex Stolze joined the band. During their two decades of existence Dictaphone played shows in more than 20 countries with festival appearances at Mutek, Transmediale, Unsound, Benicassim & more. Their latest releases were the praised "Poems from a rooftop" (Sonic Pieces) from 2012 and the "goats & distortions 5" predecessor  "APR 70" in 2017 on Denovali. Denovali also reissued the past repertoire of the trio in 2017. Oliver Doerell composed for more than 30 pieces of Modern Ballet and BBC documentaries.

Praise for Dictaphone:

"minimalistic and subliminal elegancy" (ARTE)

"timeless, unusual & beautiful" (Colin Newman)

"Dictaphones gives warmth to the concept, your thoughts a body and atmosphere to the music" (Spex)

"This is the music to fall in love with over many evenings, each subsequent rotation capturing another moment of time to be recalled in the future. Highly recommended" (Headphone Commute)

"When played from a rooftop, this music may be as quiet as a poem, but it carries the power of a manifesto." (A Closer Listen)

Denovali

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