Cordapiano and my strings, Jan Johansson-feeling... And with the beauty of the trumpet of James Hill

Grönklitt

We’re pleased to welcome back Toronto, Canada’s anthéne in the form of this collaborative album with UK cellist and composer Simon McCorry. Between them, they have released solo recordings on labels such as Home Normal, Archives, Past Inside The Present, Naviar and Fallen Moon. They’ve also both released on Polar Seas, a label helmed by Brad Deschamps, the man behind anthéne.

Both artists are comfortable collaborators, having worked alongside the likes of Ian Hawgood, Andrew Tasselmyer and Andrew Heath. It was in 2020 when their remote recording sessions translated into The Equation Of Time, combining and processing Brad’s guitar and Simon’s cello into a collage of droning textures. A concept sprang from their work together, during the unfolding pandemic and its resulting lockdowns, where time itself seemed to stand still, go backwards and go forwards, all at once. Add to this the the sheer geographical distance and time zones separating these artists, the often-explored artistic muse of time and space became the central theme.

The title ‘The Equation Of Time’ relates to the differences between the day of the earliest sun rise, the day of the latest sunset, the longest day. Each of these days are different, noted by the ancient Greeks and the Persians before them. The enormity of time and the ability for humans to occupy the same space as multiple predecessors is particularly fascinating when faced with something ancient, such as a cave painting, a forest or the ruins of a fallen civilisation. The track titles are aptly borrowed from parts of T.S. Eliot’s 4 Quartets, which also deals with the contemplation of time. You can surmise from these poems that ideally, one would focus only on the present, in order to make the most of each turn of the clock; the past cannot be altered and the future is unknown. Our memory can subconsciously serve us back our own recollection of past times, which can result in nostalgia, melancholy or both. Our minds can also influence our perception of the future, with feelings of either fear, excitement or both.

The Equation Of Time grapples at these themes and ideas without the intention of ever truly being able to define time. A wash of faded memories, unknowns and current thoughts stir into one-another; ambient music itself always seems so able to reflect and evoke a sense of wonder, at things far bigger than we can ever comprehend. 

Releases May 22, 2021

Written and Produced by Brad Deschamps and Simon McCorry
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Artwork by Tom Tebby
Packaging design by Tom Tebby

The Equation Of Time

wlr093 anthéne & simon mccorry - the equation of time

A new collection of work titled 'Sodium Light' from myself has just been released on Lee Norris's excellent NeoTantra label. The work was inspired by a series of night walks my daughter and I took towards the back end of 2019; pre all the states we find ourselves in at the moment. It's an impressionistic work of night-time cityscapes. Mastered by Fraser McGowan.

Sodium Light

Night #1

'Night #1' - Taken from the release 'Sodium Light' - [Neotantra, 2021]

EINATH is an intuitive and absorbing first-time collaboration between Mexico-based artists Alejandro Morse, Cian, and Eduardo Padilla. Longtime contemporaries familiar with each others’ work, the four tracks on the album amount to an active and considerate conversation: The musicians harness a private shared language of their creative relationship to generate a work of immediacy, bemusement, and prescience.  

In their own words the artists offered some insight into the making of EINATH: 

”Recorded one pale evening just before the outbreak, on top of a partially abandoned building at the edge of León, EINATH rises as a long, focused, and very lucky improvisational composition made without exchanging a single verbal cue, choosing a structure, or arriving at even the most basic understanding on how to go about things and what rules to follow. The results were then slightly edited, adding no overdubs, and presented with the original, organic flow of the live session.”  

Underneath layers of electric and acoustic guitar, modular synth, and digital processing, the resulting drone cultivates a thick, almost premonitory atmosphere—like low-hanging bruised-colored clouds before a heavy rain. All the while, as if to combat the stillness of the city below, underlying melodies steer these organic gestures into a cohesive, exploratory vehicle that descends increasingly deeper into itself. It seeks shelter, waiting, aware of the storm that is brewing. 

Despite EINATH’s in-the-moment composition, its underlying nature still retains the intention and energy shared between the artists, revealing how each of their individual practices connect without strategy to compose a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Einath

Alejandro Morse + Cian + Eduardo Padilla — Endless Keg

Maskin I

Whitelabrecs label owner Harry Towell is perhaps best renowned for his long-standing Spheruleus project, with a discography listing releases on Lost Tribe Sound, Home Normal, Time Released Sound, Hibernate and Eilean, as well as his collaborations alongside Sven Laux, Guy Gelem, Ekca Liena and more. Harry returns to his own label, following 2021’s ‘Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires’ and EPs ‘Absent Frames’ and ‘Inaugurate’, in this special collaborative album called ‘Petrologist’s Lens’.

January is a month we usually reserve for a compilation album, such as our Sleeplaboratory series. This year Harry decided to invite 12 artists who had contributed more than 2 releases on Whitelabrecs to submit a short sketch or sample, and then he developed these into the tracks that make up this album. As with some of his more recent work, this album is created under his own name, but with ‘& friends’ added to credit the label artists and good friends which he has worked alongside.

The title ‘Petrologist’s Lens’ nods to the concept of this body of work, which is rooted in the ancient geological history of the earth. Harry studied the land history of the areas where his collaborators reside, to help form a title for each piece. Tracks are named after particular fragments of rock or sediments, land regions or fossils for example, and the compositions were developed in a way which mimics the layering of these. The layers tell a story, giving clues of how they came to be. Sonically, filigree details and eroded tape textures ride waves of modern classical orchestration, ambient drones and electronics.

The packaging for this release features cover artwork by Soraya Kornblum, an art student in Adrian Lane’s class, submitted to Whitelabrecs as part of a school project. Each of the 200 editions include a 16 page booklet with words provided by Neil McRoberts, who transcribed his thoughts after listening to the music and reflecting on the concept. Physical copies are split into two runs; a standard gold disc version and a special marble print deluxe edition.

Credits:
Written and produced by Harry Towell
Additional production and inspiration provided by Adrian Lane, Andrew Heath, Blochemy, Edu Comelles, Glåsbird, Guy Gelem, James Edward Armstrong, Paweł Pruski, Phil Tomsett, Polaroid Notes, Simon McCorry, Sven Laux

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Art by Soraya Kornblum
Booklet Notes by Neil McRoberts
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

Petrologist's Lens

wlr127 Harry Towell & Friends - Petrologist's Lens

Sky Paint

This album focuses on a derelict and abandoned holiday resort at Laem Thian bay on the east coast of the island of Koh Tao in Thailand. The resort is situated in a small cove that is only accessible on foot via an overgrown path and a walk of several miles - a journey very few tourists bother to make. It is clear at first sight that the fading white building has been vacated for some time. The concrete structure opens out onto a small sandy beach that would have provided an idyllic holiday setting at one time. A number of palm-thatched holiday cottages with dilapidated roofs slide down the hillside. There are signs of vandalism; graffiti decorates the walls, the remains of camp fires, broken glass and other detritus litter the floors - but remnants of the previous occupants also remain. Children’s toys, kitchenware, hand written notes, menus, mattresses, a plastic telephone and four cassette tapes - rusty, caked in sand, weather damaged and corroded by the humid salty sea air. 

There is a haunting quality to the location that left a deep impression on me. The sense of isolation and abandonment it engendered was in stark contrast to the rest of the island, and indeed the rest of Thailand as I experienced it. This feeling stayed with me and in some way it permeated the rest of my stay in the country. It is that feeling that I wanted to convey through this work.
Mark Vernon.
------------------
Mark Vernon is a Glasgow-based artist whose work exists on the fringes of sound art, music and broadcasting. At the core of his practice lies a fascination with the intimacy of the radio voice, environmental sound, obsolete media and the re-appropriation of found recordings. He incorporates these diverse elements into radiophonic compositions for broadcast, fixed media and live performances. His solo and collaborative music projects have been published through labels including Kye, Staalplaat, Ultra Eczema, Entr’acte, 3Leaves, Staubgold and Gagarin Records, as well as a series of small CDR and LP editions on his own meagre resource imprint. Along with Barry Burns Mark produces the Radiophrenia 24 hour radio festival.

The Lost Resort - Mark Vernon - Ribbons of Rust out June 26

Broken echo, but why fix what is broken when it is beautiful?

Inre rum

MELOS is a reminiscence of the archaic roots of sound art - produced with analog modular systems. 
The individual recordings with a length of up to eleven minutes are shortened excerpts from potentially unlimited variations of sound and silence, driven by a generative modular concept.

Cover design by Thomas Breuer, 2020.

MELOS

Melos 1

Available on Bandcamp

GRFTPS005
@anthene - the slow wave
PRE-ORDER > limited edition cassette / digital - now on bandcamp
https://giraffetapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-slow-wave

video for "paper plates" - https://youtu.be/BcMMhRgBq0c

“Most of the sounds on this album
come from electric and bowed guitar,
with the exception of a few field recordings
and string samples here and there.
I've found myself spending a lot of time
building pieces from minimal guitar loops
and melodies during this pandemic,
it's been a very soothing process for me
during an otherwise stressful time.”

-- Bradley Sean Alexander Deschamps

#ambient #giraffetapes #GRFTPS006 #anthene

the slow wave

B1. Anthéne - paper plates [GRFTPS006]

Dragon’s Eye Recordings is a digital imprint based in Los Angeles and curated by artist and composer Yann Novak. Emphasizing the elevation of marginalized voices in experimental music, our catalog represents a range of sounds, processes, identities, and practices. Since 2005, we’ve published over 100 works of sound art and experimental music with a focus on ambient, field recording, drone, electroacoustic, and acousmatic music. As an independent label, we work to build community for our artists and listeners searching for somewhere to belong.

Alejandro Morse + Cian + Eduardo Padilla — Endless Keg

Dragons Eye Recordings

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