From the album 'How To Leave Your Body'
Pre-order: https://bit.ly/3xMqgmG

How To Leave Your Body

Pre-order

Not Waving - Hold On feat. Marie Davidson [ELP060]

Maria Spivak follows her instantly sold-out debut album 'Μετά Το Ρέιβ' with this killer 30 minute addendum, a stunning set of slow-pulsing torch/pop songs that once again mine that brilliantly original sweetspot between Lena Platonos, Cocteau Twins and James Stinson’s Other People Place.

'Rare Backwards’ reaffirms the unusual, addictive nature of Spivak’s music, coloured with a nagging sense of déjà vu-like familiarity, with traces of midnight Detroit pads thru to ‘80s synth wave and trip hop all palpable and complementary to the depth of her forlorn Greek new age soul.  In somnambulant steps that barely touch the floor, the album’s song sequence elegantly drifts from wordless underwater ballads to devastating ‘60s pop in Club Silencio style channelling Lynch via Cindy Lee, seamlessly taking in ambient jungle à la Teresa Winter’s finest in her stride, along with dance music primed for glyding mediterranean terrace tiles, and star-gazing synth scenes for nocturnal beach missions. 

On the A-side, the simmering asymmetry is most striking on ’18:00', like a sunkissed counterpart to Cocteau Twins ‘Otterley’, but instead of grey industrial vistas we’re at golden hour, all melancholy and youthful possibility in the breezy summer air. 'Make It Make Sense’ follows and riffs on The Other People Place’s ‘Lifestyles Of The Casual’ with added amens and a vocal hook that makes us think of Masha Qrella’s overlooked, singular style. 'A Pause’ on the flipside, meantime, unspools like a delirious echo of Julee Cruise's 'Say Goodbye’, all romance, yearning and heartsick blues.

Of course it will all evince myriad feelings in others, but we’re completely taken by the late night allure and height-of-summer madness that makes Spivak's music so incredibly seductive, especially if you like your sonic signposts low lit, flickering and full of nostalgia. If you do - this one’s a total pearl.

Buy!

Spivak - 18:00 [E067]

Taken from ' An Afternoon Whine' LP/Digital out 15/07/2021 (ELP069, Ecstatic Recordings)

‘An Afternoon Whine’ is the first release for Ecstatic by claire rousay and mari maurice aka more eaze - it offers a highly personalised conception of ephemeral avant-pop by two of the US experimental scenes most insightful operators; collapsing ambient, electro-acoustic and gauzy guitar shimmers into a shared, lucid dreamworld.

Feeling like a milestone in both artist’s prolific catalogues, the album’s heady drift finds our collaborators recording in the same room for the first time, diffusing a palette of vocals, guitar, field recordings, piano and violin into a singular sort of etheric chamber pop. 

Beautifully frayed at the edges and with a sanguine melodic core, their music evolves and resolves from the nanoscopic through to a panoramic view across its five pieces, with melodic motifs and lowkey vocals that occur with uncannily natural logic and quiet wit. 

The results are Budd-like in their slow blooming elegance, but elusive as anything from the neo-ambient spheres of uon or Perila et al, and osmotically influenced by R&B and cloudrap as much as indie-pop proper.

‘An Afternoon Whine’ is best framed as a warts-n-all snapshot, poetically limning a sort of day in the life of rousay & Eaze, replete with the domestic rustles and ephemeral passages that have made the former’s work so spellbinding, and glinting with the kind of memory-jogging motifs that give body to more eaze’s explorations of  electro-acoustic sketches, identity, and perception. 

It’s hard to think of another duo who’ve smudged the borders so subtly and expressively between the flushing toilet and piano spritz of ‘Great Song’ and the heartfelt autotuned paean of ‘Smaller Pools,’ and with the ability to subliminally unstitch convention and reweave it in their own image, as with the lush tension and imperceptible room transitions of ‘Floor Pt. 3,’ or how ‘Songs For A Tuned Guitar’ reclaims the supernatural from the domestic with such poetic guile.

claire rousay + more eaze - smaller pools [ELP069]

Taken from 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night' LP/Download [ELP063]

Sublime debut of lilting sketches for guitar x synth by manc bosom buds Celestial, quietly resplendent in a classic vein of soft touch Balearic blues and kosmische hues that comes very highly recommended if you’re into anything from The Durutti Column to Vincent Gallo’s classic ‘When’ album or even the instrumental splendour of HTRK at their most diaphanous.

Bathed in moonlight, ’I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night’ is the gorgeous debut by childhood friends Celestial, arriving in the glistening wake of 2021 gems on the same label by Romance, Not Waving, Spivak, claire rousay & more eaze. Convecting a richly sanguine sound gleaned from a Sequential Circuits Sixtrak synth and Fender guitar with the results mottled to frail AGFA tape, it’s the modest and warm soul on display that speaks to a quieter side of the rainy city psyche, picking up a fine thread of etheric inspiration that leads back to The Durutti Column via Ry Cooder’s ‘Paris, Texas’ soundtrack and Iasos’ intoxicating new age, with a fragile, gauzy vision of instrumental songcraft ripe for getting lost in dappled fantasy.

Practically synaesthetic in their spatial sensitivity and psilocybic tactility, the six songs make a real virtue of reverb, echo and tender hiss that swaddles their lyrical phrasing with a cottony texture. Subtly but crucially favouring analogue enigma over digital clarity, their sound unspools with a kaleidoscopic, nostalgic quality surrendered in shimmering waves of bliss and back-of-the-eyes swirl between the hash haze of ‘Endless’ and northern gothic tone of ‘Lonely Weekend.’ Tape hiss resembles drizzle outside in the lowlit langour of ‘Hat Full of Rain’, and we can practically taste the petrichor in ‘The Perfumed Garden’, leading to ASMR levels of synth tingles with an unmistakeable northern melancholy of ‘At The Rivers Edge’, especially in its gloaming coda.

A reel low-key stunner.

Mastered by Alessio Natalizia

CELESTIAL - THE PERFUMED GARDEN [ELP063]

Taken from 'Fringe' LP/Download (E064, Ecstatic 03/09/2021)

A gorgeous swell of intimate soundscaping from Felisha Ledesma on this simmering stunner for Ecstatic, despatching two extended, richly absorbing pieces weft from everyday detritius; synths, strings, voicemail, found sounds - hitting a similar spot for us as Ulla’s diaristic 'inside means inside me’ but with a more defined play of sound-as-light that gently and memorably tugs at the earlobes and heartstrings. 

Exploring a music of presence and ultra subtle inference, ‘Fringe’ is the 2nd release by Ledesma, student of Berlin's estimable Universität der Künste, following from a debut for Enmossed x Psychic Liberation earlier this year. Using AMQR - a software synthesiser built by Ledesma together with Ess Mattisson - both pieces here shimmer with elusive timbres that occupy a realm that feels lost between worlds - neither electronic nor acoustic, but more a sort of observational sound that radiates togetherness and warmth. 

Operating at insightful levels of synaesthesia, Ledesma poetically turns ostensibly humdrum sources into clouds of smoke - emails, voicenotes, walking along the water, a poem attached to an email, walking alone in New York during lockdown, going for a swim at sunset in the desert - all turn into a smudge of memory. When ‘Beamsplitters’ opens with a tangible human presence - a voicemail from a friend - it startles with its earthly pull, eventually getting lost in a tangled spool of found sound leaving just a trace of iridescent, intimate reverie. 

On ‘Golden Mirror’ Felisha gently diffracts a lonesome guitar phrase into a humming thizz with a steeply uncanny ability to jog the memory in a similar way to how olfactory stimulus can conjure feelings of nostalgia. It’s a trick familiar from an emergent new realm of lower case composers creating something like submerged, small scale symphonies that work counter to notions of classical excess or anodyne ambient, instead focusing on microcosmic, highly peronalised sort of worldbuilding that’s impenetrable, yet somehow entirely open.

Felisha Ledesma - Golden Mirror [E064]

WALLS/ORAM - Sound Houses LP (Ecstatic/Kompakt)
Release Date: 5/5/14

WALLS collaborate with the private sound archive of legendary electronics pioneer / composer and BBC Radiophonic Workshop creator Daphne Oram


WALLS / ORAM - Extremely Long Corridor

London’s abundant waterways and parks provide an oneiric muse for Cucina Povera and Ben Vince’s resounding debut full-length collaboration, an engrossing suite of weightless sax, synth and disklavier-bedded, noirish nocturnes that land somewhere between Grouper and Terry Riley. 

Centred around Maria Rossi aka Cucina Povera’s muzzy vocal loops and the faintest melodic motifs, London-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Vince accompanies on saxophone, synth and piano, shrouding Rossi's vocals in swirls of dimly lit psychedelic smoke. As a newcomer to London, Rossi was "caught up in a sort of wondrous overwhelm” - a feeling that seeps through every movement of the almost hour long album. Working mostly at the Roundhouse, the pair find a musical confluence between Rossi's words - "fluid, dreamy, hazy ideations" - and Vince's shadowy renditions.

Vince's plasmic echoes and Rossi's aerial delivery form a poetic union, twisting and painting each sound in pearlescent shades. Rossi's folk roots shine through like cracks of dawn sunlight on 'Sumu Puistossa' ("fog in the park"), reverberating over organ and dream-zone sax; her words tip into muted surrealism thanks to the controlled chaos of Vince's bleak treatments. His grasp of jazz is transfixing: bending sax motifs like ghostly memories of music from another timeline, smudging them into the soundfield. It’s most effective on 'Siellä Näen Kaiken' ("there I see everything"), where sickly, dissonant notes flicker like an almost-extinguished candle alongside motorised furniture music courtesy of a Disklavier.

Born out of wonder, daydreaming innocence and creative discovery, 'There I See Everything ‘ is the sound of two exploratory collaborators swimming into each other's ideas. From the Terry Riley-esque transcendence of '∞' to the sacred incantation of long-form closer 'Pikku Muurahaiskeko' ("little anthill"), the pair expose a new layer of creativity with each turn, gradually zooming out from discreet, vulnerable beauty to encompass a gently orchestrated chaos of sustained, sublime tension.

Cucina Povera & Ben Vince - Sumu Puistossa

Taken from:
more eaze - the joker ELP074

mari maurice aka more eaze returns to Ecstatic with a tenderly gorgeous solo side after her standout claire rousay collaboration last year for the same label - a big recommendation if yr into Elysia Crampton, Mica Levi, MBV, Vegyn, Organ Tapes, Grouper, Dntel, Nozomu Matsumoto, Rainy Miller.

Nestling in the space between ambient, indie-/synth-, and what’s now termed hyper-pop, more eaze specialises in lower case songcraft that effortlessly gets under the skin. Featuring notable guest input by Spivak, Dialect, and Pam3, ‘The Joker’ is perhaps more eaze’s most significant long player, forming a filigree distillation of soft-touch, emo-core pop styles wreathed in fractal electronics and blessed by a gentle sensitivity that feels like micro-dosing with mates on a sunny day. 

’The Joker’ was inspired by more eaze’s experiences travelling extensively during 2021-22, absorbing and transmuting time spent meeting new people, seeing new places, and watching established relationships change. Like regular spar claire rousay, ‘The Joker’ finds micro-insights crystallised to odd-pop imperfection, merging ohrwurm hooks with field recordings and traces of electronica, R&B, reggaeton, and classic indie-rock chops to divine a personal truth that should resonate with lovers of low key ambient as much as hi-key poptimism.

Through nine subtly effected snapshots of daily life, mari somehow encapsulates the feeling of trying to endear yourself to someone new, the tactility of another’s touch, chuckling at misfired jokes. Beginning with fractured toytronics and autotune vox in ‘yours’, melodies spill over from the Dntel-like licks of ‘fall apart’, to the mutant shoegaze bliss of ‘vindictive’ (it properly sounds like an autotuned version of MBV’s ‘to here knows when’), plus E+E-via-Palmistry reggaeton of ‘hablar contagion', with Spivak lending featherlight vox to ‘a chat’, while ‘comedy’ dials up a sense of outsider irony with a wry shrug.

Liverpool-via-Brooklyn’s Dialect helps seal the deal with the burbling touch of ‘eyeliner’, a fittingly hypnagogic ending to a dreamlike album whose effect lingers like latent fractals of a therapeutic psilocybin session.

more eaze - fall apart

PYE CORNER AUDIO/NOT WAVING Intercepts split LP

Release date: 28.07.14


'Perfect Secrecy Forever' taken from 'Intercepts', a split album between Pye Corner Audio and Not Waving. 

Taking inspiration from the world of espionage, most specifically spy rings, both artists provide four tracks each, creating a thrilling musical call and response between these kindred producers.

Some of the world’s greatest espionage stories involve Spy Rings. From the Rosenbergs to the Cambridge Five and the Duquesne case, these are stories that haunt the annals of the covert world and remain shrouded in mystery and fascination to this day.

Clandestine spirits permeate these eight tracks of dreamlike industrial techno, impressionist synth burbles, fragmented post-modern ambient and cosmic sci-fi adventure.

First edition 500 battle-ship grey vinyl. 

PCA tracks composed by Martin Jenkins. 
Recorded and produced  by The Head Technician at Black Mill with assistance from Martin Jenkins.

NW tracks written, produced and recorded by Alessio Natalizia in London 2013-2014. 

PYE CORNER AUDIO (20:50)
1 Perfect Secrecy Forever 05:30
2 Twisted Wire Pair 05:33
3 Shared Secret Key 04:19
4 One Time Pad 05:28

NOT WAVING (20:02)
1 Protect The Revolution 08:26 
2 Two-Way Mirror 02:58
3 Enemies Of The People 04:28 
4 Like Shooting A Fish In A Barrel 04:10 

BUY SPECIAL EDITION!

Pye Corner Audio - Perfect Secrecy Forever

PYE CORNER AUDIO/NOT WAVING Intercepts split LP

Release date: 28.07.14

'Protect The Revolution' taken from 'Intercepts', a split album between Pye Corner Audio and Not Waving. 

Taking inspiration from the world of espionage, most specifically spy rings, both artists provide four tracks each, creating a thrilling musical call and response between these kindred producers.

Some of the world’s greatest espionage stories involve Spy Rings. From the Rosenbergs to the Cambridge Five and the Duquesne case, these are stories that haunt the annals of the covert world and remain shrouded in mystery and fascination to this day.

Clandestine spirits permeate these eight tracks of dreamlike industrial techno, impressionist synth burbles, fragmented post-modern ambient and cosmic sci-fi adventure.

PCA tracks composed by Martin Jenkins. 
Recorded and produced  by The Head Technician at Black Mill with assistance from Martin Jenkins.

NW tracks written, produced and recorded by Alessio Natalizia in London 2013-2014. 

PYE CORNER AUDIO (20:50)
1 Perfect Secrecy Forever 05:30
2 Twisted Wire Pair 05:33
3 Shared Secret Key 04:19
4 One Time Pad 05:28

NOT WAVING (20:02)
1 Protect The Revolution 08:26 
2 Two-Way Mirror 02:58
3 Enemies Of The People 04:28 
4 Like Shooting A Fish In A Barrel 04:10 

Not Waving - Protect The Revolution

After 2022’s In Every Dream Home a Heartache, Romance and Dean Hurley return with River of Dreams; continuing their prismatic dissection of the daytime soap genre with an examination into the dark corners of fantasy-based escapism. 

Over the last 60+ years, serialized melodramas have played a critical role in shaping the way we think about, consume, and are affected by media. The daytime televised soap opera has without a doubt laid the fundamental architecture for contemporary dopamine capitalists’ dreams of harvested, monetized attention…and River of Dreams explores the psychological effects on the mind of its viewers. Whereas In Every Dream Home a Heartache spotlighted the external omnipresence of daytime tv’s persistent broadcasts, River of Dreams examines the interior havoc and mental unbalance sewn by obsessive viewership. The same waters that harvest and transport our buoyant dreams often funnel into nightmarish, tumultuous oceans… 

Once again, broadcast television samples by way of vintage, bit-crunched YouTube codecs form the source material here…all artfully inlaid and mosaicked to form tear-stained compositions of troubled romance gone astray.

Romance & Dean Hurley - Eric Forrester

Ecstatic is thrilled to announce Foreign Body, the latest release from Barcelona-based Dania Shihab, who crafts dreamlike transmissions into the evocative concept of the 'foreign body' in the context of forced migration and cultural loss. 

A tapestry of sounds and emotions, this work is a product of Dania's exploration of her experiences as an Iraqi-born individual who grew up in Tasmania, Australia, an island where her native culture was completely absent. The profound sense of longing for a homeland that has never truly been experienced reverberates throughout, with each track poignantly capturing the complexities of feeling like a stranger in one's own body and society. 

Inspired by her work as an emergency doctor, the artist delves into the idea of removing foreign bodies, and sees forced migrants as 'foreign bodies' within their adopted societies. This release serves as a window into the emotional displacement of forced migrants and the struggle for cultural identity. 

Foreign Body was written and recorded at home in Barcelona, using a 4-track tape recorder, vocal looping techniques, modular synthesis, and collaged samples of Iraqi musicians and poets from the post-Gulf War era into an amorphous cloud of magnetic drones and soft hypnogogic vocal textures to entrance the listener. 

An emotive and evocative release, Foreign Body weaves together sounds and stories to explore a universal human experience. It is a testament to the sublime power of music to communicate emotion.

Dania - Foreign Body

Taken from Romance's debut album 'Fade Into You' (ELP076) out now on Ecstatic

Romance's debut album proper 'Fade Into You' is a mesmerizing journey through the emotions of love and heartbreak, with a masterful blend of symphonic textures and collaged samples into ethereal studies in sound. Loosely inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s acidic 1975 melodrama ’The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant’ an unforgiving dissection of the toxic relationship between a haughty fashion designer and a beautiful but icy ingenue, it’s a story where elegant surfaces hide tooth-and-claw instincts.

'Fade Into You' is a deeply textured and beguiling album that transports the listener to that world of faded glamour, desperate longing and narcissistic fantasy. The swelling orchestral arrangements, cathartic cadences and bejewelled sound collages create a sense of nostalgia cut with glazed neurosis while the swelling arrangements provide a lush and cinematic backdrop that perfectly soundtracks the wrenching intimacy and mysteries of love.

Following on the promise of 2022's iconic Celine Dion sampling 'Once Upon A Time’ and a brace of thrilling collabs with Lynch protege Dean Hurley and the mythological Old Testament ambient 'Eyes Of fade' collab album with Not Waving, 'Fade Into You’ provides a definitive and essential statement on the Romance sound.

27/04/2023

Romance - I Hear A Symphony

Ecstatic present the sublime second release from Mancunian duo Celestial, 'Listen To The Sky' offers a quiet fusion of Balearic blues and kosmische influences follows up their mesmerizing 2021 debut "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night"'. 

Evoking a rich sonic palette of evocative guitar instrumentals with echoes of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and Frippertronics , Celestial deftly forge their own gentle and uncluttered fusion of acoustic and electric guitar textures with immersive environmental synthetic washes. 

Opener 'Brother Sun, Sister Moon' pairs Celestial with fellow dreamer and labelmate Romance (who also provide additional production flourishes throughout the record) for a stunning piece of modern chamber music wreathed with strident electric guitar, piano, horns and electronics, oceans of hiss bathe 'To The Green Mountains' plagent synth bass and meditative Paris, Texas esque guitar figures while 'Four Temparaments' provides an uncharacteristically but welcome clangorous and urgent new age lament. 

'Listen To The Sky's sun-drenched soundscapes and ethereal productions unfold with a kaleidoscopic and nostalgic ennui tenderly captured on fragile AGFA tap providing a mesmeric deep listening experience that skews to the mythic and trancendental.

Celestial - Brother Sun, Sister Moon Feat. Romance

Limited edition 200 copies 12" w/ Screenprinted logo on new Ecstatic sister label Entropy Trax. Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.

Artist: Gavin Russom
Title: The Purge / Enthroned
Label: Entropy Trax
Release Date: 23rd June
Format: 12"
Cat.#: ET001

ENTROPY TRAX, is the new sister label to Kompakt's WALLS helmed ECSTATIC imprint. Expect limited edition hand artworked white-label 12"s from a variety of artists, focussed on experimental dance floor sounds.

The debut release comes from DFA's Gavin Russom (The Crystal Ark/Black Meteoric Star) with a titanic double-header that announces the first of a series of releases for the label. Recording under his own name for the first time since 2011's 'Night Sky', this material finds Russom creating visceral and hypnotic dance floor tracks.

Gavin Russom on 'The Purge':
"I think of this as a meditation on the transformative power of illness. Cathartic purging and even the use of drugs to replicate states of extreme illness is a part of many healing traditions interestingly enough. In fact, after titling the track, I read in Jonathon Miller Weisberger's fantastic new book 'Rainforest Medicine' that in the urban version of the Yage ceremony the plant concoction they use is called 'La Purga' - literally 'The Purge' in Spanish."

Gavin Russom on 'Enthroned':
"David Brown's book 'Santeria Enthroned' was sitting on my kitchen table as I worked on this track and the titled seemed to fit it well after finishing it. I wanted to evoke a complex image of empowered femininity in the track, much like the images of orishas like Ochun, Yemaya and Oya that Brown describes in his writing. I was creating a kind of praise poem in sounds that describe a distinctly female type of energy. 'Drops' are eschewed in favor of rushes and shifts. There's an aspect of connectedness, especially with the powers of nature such as the river, the ocean and the wind that I wanted to capture…"

Tracklisting:
A. The Purge 9.44
B. Enthroned 13.01

PRE-ORDER!

Gavin Russom - The Purge

Taken from 'The Place I've Been Missing' (ELP077)

Not Waving explores grief, gratitude, and new beginnings on "The Place I've Been Missing" 

Renowned Italian musician Alessio Natalizia, AKA Not Waving, reaches new heights with his latest album, "The Place I've Been Missing." This deeply personal and introspective collection of songs delves into themes of grief, the fragility of existence, and the profound process of learning to bid farewell. 

"The Place I've Been Missing" is a poignant journey, written and recorded by Natalizia, with captivating guest appearances from long time collaborator and friend Marie Davidson alongside Ecstatic label mates Spivak, more eaze, and Romance. 

Unrestrained by conventional notions, Not Waving's sound defies easy categorisation. From enigmatic electronic soundscapes to dissonant symphonies, from syncopated beats to soothing melodic interludes, these 10 fragmented compositions are a testament to Natalizia's creative fearlessness. 

Over the span of 10 years, Not Waving's music has undergone a restless evolution, defying easy categorization. The soundscapes within "The Place I've Been Missing" traverse genres, featuring elements of crepuscular synth-pop, slowed-down strings, baroque guitars, shot through with layers of harmonic noise and hazy ambiance. 

"The Place I've Been Missing" is an audacious endeavor, straddling the fragile line between chaos and harmony, listeners are transported to an ethereal dimension, delving deep into realms of introspection.

Not Waving - Fool

Taken from the album 'You Win Again' (ELP078) out on 14/07/2023

Cypriot synthesist and songwriter Maria Spivak, known for her captivating Bedroom pop and naive songwriting, is back with her highly anticipated album, "You Win Again." This transformative project beautifully encapsulates the process of embracing new chapters and moving forward while cherishing the tender moments that unfold along the way. Spivak skillfully navigates the delicate balance between surrendering to adversity and finding solace in life's absurdity. With humor, lightheartedness, and the support of cherished friends, she fearlessly confronts her inner shadows. Moreover, "You Win Again" explores the captivating power of vulnerability, revealing its remarkable potential to inspire and empower. 

Spivak's earlier works, including her 2020 debut album "Met'a To P'eib = Μετά Το Ρέιβ," resonated with brooding anxieties and infectious melodies, evoking a haunting sense of unease. Her pearlescent synth compositions conjured imagery of steam hissing from potholes or the resonating hum of a Drexciyan trident. In 2021's "Rare Backwards," Spivak blurred the lines between intimate introspection and the dancefloor, hinting at cryptic slacker indie ballads. With "You Win Again," Spivak exudes even greater confidence in her songwriting. These nine songs, with a concise runtime of 25 minutes, seamlessly blend washed-out indie vibes with ethereal synth work, alluding to concealed struggles beneath the surface. 

The mesmerizing opener, "Mid Week Ritual," envelops Spivak's sparse vocoder vocals with swells of static and warped synthesizers, weaving a captivating sonic tapestry. The dreamlike stride of "Golden Boy" finds its foundation in a thick, rubbery bass line, accompanied by layers of synth pads and caustic metallic drums reminiscent of Drexciyan tones. 

In "My Loneliness Is Healing Me," lazily strummed guitar intertwines effortlessly with Spivak's breathy and enchanting vocals, melding with atmospheric textures to create a poignant ballad that blurs the line between dreams and reality. 

Spivak's lyrics oscillate between the abstract and the poetic, spinning tales of love, loss, and transformation without fully disclosing their precise meaning. This enigmatic quality draws listeners into Spivak's world, provoking introspection and inviting personal interpretation. 

Throughout "You Win Again," Maria Spivak adeptly juxtaposes darkness with levity, allowing light to permeate even the most melancholic corners of her songs. The title track embodies this delicate balance, blending introspective musings with a playful and infectious melody. The interplay of buoyant synths and warm guitar strums creates a rhythmic dance, enticing listeners to sway along with Spivak's heartfelt lyrics and irresistible rhythm. 

"You Win Again" stands as a testament to Maria Spivak's artistic growth, showcasing her unwavering determination to confront discomfort, find strength in vulnerability, and embrace the unexpected joys that arise amidst life's ever-changing landscapes. Once again, Spivak proves her mastery as a captivating storyteller and sonic sorceress, leaving listeners longing for more.

Spivak - Golden Boy

Gavin Russom 
'Telemetry / The Beneficent, The Merciful' 
Entropy Trax 
1st December 2014 
Format: 12" 
Cat. #: ETX002

• Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering
• Limited to 300 copies
• Screen-printed paper sleeve

Gavin Russom returns to Ecstatic sister label Entropy Trax for the fledgling label's second release. Building on the brooding atmosphere of 'The Purge / Enthroned' with a pair of throbbing, synth-powered & acid-infused cuts, the 'Telemetry/The Benificent, The Merciful' 12" draws together sonic touchstones found in Russom's many projects - Black Metoric Star, The Crystal Ark, and his work with Delia Gonzalez - melding them into two singular productions that pump and drive like the sequenced machines that power them.

Gavin Russom on 'Telemetry': "This came out of some deep digging into the abilities of one of my self-designed analog processors. I was demonstrating to someone how a second layer of filtering can turn a simple 16 step sequence into an evolving line which seems to never quite repeat the same way, sequences that don't strictly repeat but rather seem to have a life of their own that expands as their more rudimentary parts lock into repetitive motion... I built a track around it by building up layers around the central sequence that grow in impact as the track unfolds."

"The title 'Telemetry' sums up a nice connection between the machine and the body, as often it is used to track or monitor living creatures from distance. It also functions like a metaphor for what happens in a club as a DJ or musician uses the technological medium to bridge the distance between his own inner rhythms and those of the others, at a distance on the dance floor. Or at least that's how it works for me."

Gavin Russom on 'The Beneficent, The Merciful': "Although I think of all music as prayer this may be one of the most overtly prayerful tracks I've ever made. The title comes from the asmāʾ allāh al-ḥusnā or 99 names of Allah and is a phrase that opens many Islamic prayers. My mother, although not Arabic nor Muslim, was raised in the Middle East, and I grew up in an atmosphere of much celebration of Arabic and Islamic culture through food, music, art and spirituality."

"This prompted me to study Islam and its traditions deeply for some time and I found them to be incredibly beautiful, deep and poetic. There is nothing overtly Islamic or Arabic about the music, except perhaps some unconscious inspiration from Islamic devotional music that I love. I chose the title to recognize the depth of spiritual devotion and love present in these traditions and how it has inspired me. Total devotion to the divine is what I seek in my own life, and what I seek to express through my music."

Tracklist: 
A. Telemetry 
B. The Beneficent, The Merciful

BUY!

Gavin Russom - Telemetry


Ecstatic offer a fascinating, often dizzying insight to the primitive industrial minimalism of Italian siblings, Giancarlo and Roberto Drago, a.k.a. The Tapes, via Selected Works 1982 - 1992 sourced from original tapes and pressed to vinyl for the first time ever. 

Following on from Ecstatic’s issue of “mail artist” Danielle Ciullini’s Domestic Exile Collected Works 82-86, this set surveys a blind-spot in most people’s knowledge of early ‘80s Italian underground music, framed against a backdrop of the Anni di Piombo, or Years of Lead - a period of domestic political turmoil between the late ‘60s and early ’80s - and the mushroom shadow of nuclear war. 

Like their international tape-scene allies, The Tapes reacted to this world thru a matrix of mono- synths, drum machines, microphones and 4-track recorders, mostly recording/experimenting ideas direct-to-tape in one take and making a virtue of their lo-fi set-up’s infidelities and imperfections - randomness and mistakes were embraced rather than discarded - whilst absorbing the counter-cultural influence of William Burroughs or Throbbing Gristle, and the sci-fi dystopia of J.G. Ballard and John Foxx. 

These 21 tracks, drawn from 10 different, limited tape releases, perfectly distill a wandering, weirdo spirit, ranging from the funereal swagger of Tanz Fabrik and the darkwave hip-thrust of The Day of Silence to freeform, motorik trajectories such as Time Out of Joint and singular enigmas like the Actress-esque bobble of The Wait and Falso Movimento B2’s weightless, hyaline spindles. 

Collected and compiled by Alessio Natalizia (aka Not Waving) and remastered by Matt Colton, Selected Works 1982 - 1992 represents a decade of modest but searching and instinctively grooving experimentation of the rarest, precious and compelling kind. 

As Giancarlo Drago explains: 
“The Tapes was an unplanned experience, an unplanned need to express myself Looking back 
on this music I wonder sometimes how I did it - the whole process from the concept to the completion. Everything I do now seems trivial and obvious and I just end up aborting the idea. And exactly for this reason I think that everything has its time, with a beginning and an end...”

ELP017
The Tapes 
Selected Works 1982 -1992
Ecstatic Recordings
2LP / Download

The Tapes - Tanz Fabrik [ELP017]

Not Waving - Populist EP [E026]

• Not Waving recoils back to his Ecstatic label after an ace LP + 12”s for Diagonal 
• Four tracks flirting with sleazy New Beat, nEuro EBM, Acid n0!se and deep-raved Italo
• Edition of 500 copies, initial 200 pressed up on coloured vinyl. Housed in fluoro green/hot red jacket
• Mastered and cut by Matt Colton @ Alchemy

Not Waving takes 2017 by the scruff with his Populist EP, consolidating the myriad stripes of his acclaimed Animals album in four peaktime hammers forged for darkrooms, basements and warehouses alike. 

If last year’s LP saw you thru from day-into-night, or vice-versa, this one is aimed squarely at the gurny hours of abandon in between, with ferocious acid lines and jabbing drums stripped down and strapped up to prompt reckless behaviour on the ‘floor.

Containing his first material written in the wake of Animals, the Populist EP is Alessio Natalizia a.k.a. Not Waving’s strongest dancefloor statement since the 1-sided Get Serious (2015) bullet. It finds him taking the opportunity to make straight-up bangers, rather than ‘songs’, which were thoroughly tried and tested over successive tours of the USA and countless shows in Europe too in the last 9 months.

Too Many Freaks is an anthem in waiting, harnessing a barely-hinged sense of chaos between its careening synth lead, acid squabble and velvet-clad kicks, before the dry-rutting jag and plaintive vox of Vibe Killer takes a dog-grip like This Heat meeting Tuning Circuits.

Top marks go to the check-your-stylus intro for Control Myself on the B-side, which holds its fizzy line into a fetid crevice of what sounds Russell Haswell ramping with Powell, whereas the crooked clampjaw groove of Ur Lucky Ur Still Alive pivots around a sample of a lone raver at Atonal, Berlin “who had no idea how she got there and what she did the night before”. A ruddy good night all-round, then?

Alessio Natalizia a.k.a. Not Waving co-owns the Ecstatic label alongside Sam Willis. Not Waving is widely regarded a connoisseur of Italian new wave and post-punk music - he compiled the Mutazione (Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988) set for Strut - and has issued a series of acclaimed, sought-after, playfully anachronistic twists on that sound since 2013.

Populist

NOT WAVING - TOO MANY FREAKS [E026]

White on White is an absorbingly dynamic, multi-layered album of improvisations by Primitive World made on the seminal PPG Wave synth, inspired by the work, life and theories of the great, if forgotten, British constructivist artist Marlow Moss (1889-1958): a radical, gender-bending British Jewish lesbian and innovator of non-figurative art who was a then-contemporary influence on Piet Mondrian, with whom she worked alongside from the late 1920s as part of the Abstraction-Creation artists association in Paris, until the Nazi’s forced her from mainland Europe back to England, where she settled in the far west of Cornwall.

White On White forms a follow-up of sorts to Willis’ Ascention [2015] tape, and perhaps more aptly, leads on from his and Natalizia’s reworks of Daphne Oram - arguably another overlooked, British female pioneer of her field - which are collected on their Walls album, Sound Houses [2014]. There’s little doubt that this is some of Willis’ strongest solo work, which can be attributed to the fecund inspiration of Moss's work, life and theories, as well as his access to a prized arsenal of rare vintage synths.

Titled after the Moss piece which adorns the LP’s front cover, White On White forms a welcome first introduction for many to Moss's “work, life and theories” thru a combination of visual representations - photographs of the artist and her work - with text by Lucy Howarth, curator of Moss's recent exhibitions at Museum Haus Konstruktiv exhibition (2017), the touring Tate display (2013-15), and of course the music itself, which seeks to describe Moss's mathematically sound geometries and evocative aesthetics thru its lattice of unique, free-floating timbres and spatialized rhythm patterns.

White On White is thus a direct result of the artist immersing himself in Moss's oeuvre, or what is left of it (most of her pre-WWII output was destroyed in the war), with results strongly reflective of the austere clarity and modernist structure of her works, from her syncopated line drawings modelled in the helixes of Double Lines, to the rotating perspectives of her 2D-into-3D metal sculpture manifest in the illusive, Peder Mannerfelt-like designs of Matrix of the Visible, whereas the closing 9 minutes of perilous abstraction recalling Wendy Carlos’ Clockwork Orange OST in Man Guessed at a Spiritual Meaning and Imposed a Moral System both literally and metaphorically serves a sort of unsentimentally elegiac, enigmatic lament for the artist’s neglected status, which even now prompts a scratch of the head by people who should be aware of her work.

Released by:
Ecstatic Recordings

Release date:
08 February 2018

PRIMITIVE WORLD - FRACTIONS OF THE ABSOLUTE [ELP033]

Taken from:

Jay Glass Dubs - Plegnic [E039] 
Out on vinyl and digital on Ecstatic Recordings
07/09/2018

Jay Glass Dubs sublimates Athenian distress and ennui into plasmic dub ether on ‘Plegnic’, his lushly evolved 1st collection of new material for Ecstatic, following from their acclaimed, 2LP ‘Dubs’ [2017] set of his earliest, hard-to-find tape releases. 

Deconstructing and rebuilding Jamaican dub with musique concrete production methods and a lingering air of inspiration from new age and Laïko, or Greek popular music, on ‘Plegnic’ Jay Glass Dubs fascinatingly evolves his sound with richer melodic and harmonic arrangements in a concerted effort to bridge and expand the nostalgic, esoteric and dancefloor dimensions of his unique sound world.

The key to the record lies in its title, ‘Plegnic’; an extinct word meaning “to strike like a hammer”, as well as its palpable sense of nostalgia. In this archaic context, JGD uses vintage machines and obsolete samples into junction with vocals from Yorgia Karidi - sound artist and coincidentally former beau of his childhood neighbour, and Andreas Kassapis one of his oldest friends, who provides the cover art - to conjure a strikingly new, mutated take on classic and well-trodden styles; metaphorically and anachronistically renewing their purpose while connoting his newfound dancefloor drive in the process.

Recording took place at his mother’s house in the Athens suburbs, with Fugazi’s ‘Steady Diet of Nothing’ on repeat. It was here that he dug out an old Juno, a Yamaha RX5 drum computer, and some “…crappier equipment” that provides the structural scaffold to his array of nostalgic, melancholic Laïka samples, which could be considered the ghost in the shell or the diffused soul of this superb five part crop.

On the A-side he sets out to spook with the desiccated, teetering steppers motion of ‘Temple Dub’ featuring heavily processed vox by Yorgia Karidi, but the heady nostalgia takes over with a sublime tactility in the vaulted chorales and endless reverb tails of ‘Umbro Dub’, and again in the aching sehnsucht of ‘Mouthless Dub’, where traces of Laïka’s bouzouki melodies most beautifully glimmer thru. 

However, the B-side is far more upfront and up-for-it, firstly putting his weight behind the cranky skank of ‘Dry Dub’ with its hexagonal drums and acidic bass squirm, then in the super squashed swagger of ‘Fearless Dub’, a near 10 minutes long pinnacle of his dancefloor output to date.

Ultimately Jay Glass Dubs’ music is riddled with the kind of nostalgia that can make an unfamiliar piece of music feel like an intense déjà entendu, like you’ve heard it before in a dream or some altered state. That’s a rare and precious thing.

JAY GLASS DUBS - TEMPLE DUB [E039]

Taken from Futuro (Music for the Waldorf Project) released on 2LP and download 01/02/19.

• Not Waving’s engrossing, highly original soundtrack to Sean Rogg’s world-renowned art/theatre project
• Ambient tonal works and abstractions written between 2013-2018
• Mastered and cut at D&M, Berlin.
• Limited edition vinyl with full colour insert featuring photographs by Lee Arucci
• RIYL Laurie Spiegel, Steve Roach, Brian Eno, Shuttle 358

’Futuro’ is Not Waving’s sublime synth/ambient soundtrack to one of the world’s most intense art/theatre experiences: Sean Rogg’s radical immersive artwork ‘The Waldorf Project’ - fusing choreography, spatial design, music and performance into a cohesive experience.

Drawn from more than 20 hours of material made for the project between 2013-2018, ‘Futuro’ finds Alessio Natalizia exploring a style of tonal and spatial minimalism that works as a fine palette cleanser from much of what you’ve heard from him in the past. 

While not a new solo album, per se, the long form, Eno-like results of ‘Futuro’ demonstrate the full wingspan of Not Waving’s obsessive knowledge and emotive feel for electronic composition, making it in some senses one of the more substantial and unusual releases in his catalogue to date.

Not Waving - Emotion 1.4 Decontamination [ELP040]

Iona Fortune - Tao of I Vol. 2

• Spellbinding second exploration of the I Ching hexagram by Iona Fortune
• Follow-up to first volume for Optimo Music - one of 2017’s albums of the year
• Mastered and cut by D&M. Pressed on yellow vinyl
• RIYL Coil, Laraaji, Jon Hassell, David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti

Iona Fortune crystallises and convects enchanting thoughts on the legendary I Ching in a keenly awaited 2nd volume of ’Tao of I’, following from her resoundingly acclaimed 2017 debut for Optimo Music. Lustrous synthetic subbass meets traditional Chinese strings with sublimely spirited and timeless effect

Issued by Ecstatic as the 2nd of 8 albums by Iona exploring hexagrams of the I Ching, or ‘The Book of Changes’ - a 2500 year old Chinese divination text referenced extensively in religion, art, philosophy, psychoanalysis, science and mathematics - ‘Tao of I Vol. 2’ sees the Glasgow-raised, Zurich-based artist refer to millennia of human experience thru an electro-acoustic prism of Synthi AKS, Guzheng and Gamelan, newly expanded with Erhu, Kim, Yanqin, Zhong and Bawu. The wider scope of her palette allows a greater detail of airy calligraphic expression to her multi-dimensional microcosmos, channelling a wondrous energy in a fluidly melodic narration of mystic ideas made musically tangible.

In eight parts Iona acts as conduit for extraordinary, invisible and arcane forces. Inspired by the I Ching’s fundamental principles, her music resonates with a visceral and cosmic conception of human essence, infusing minimalist frameworks with finely tempered but lush emotive cues that bring to life the I Ching’s conviction that, according to the Wilhelm translation, 1950 of Hex 16 豫 (yù) “music has the power to ease tension within the heart and to loosen the grip of obscure emotions.” Iona’s music most beautifully manifests this idea in concisely exacting forms and to contemplative ends, creating a slow, serene and harmonious music that coolly commands relaxed states of reception, best for mulling over life, and stuff.

At once as light as a fleeting thought but permanent as an organism passing on its code, the music conjures mindsets comparable to Coil at their uncanniest, the post-erotica 4th world sensations generated by Jon Hassell, or the dark energy expressed in David Lynch films and their soundtracks. Most crucially Iona achieves this through a synthesis of self-exploration and instrumental actualisation, employing an unusual composition strategy of inner cultivation and empathic performance to divine and realise a spellbinding, penetrative otherness.

Iona Fortune - Xiǎo chù 小畜 [ELP045]

Taken from Gavilán Rayna Russom - The Envoy LP/Download [ELP047]

• Solo debut album of pulsing, beat-less urges by NYC transdisciplary artist Gavilán Rayna Russom
• Includes guest appearance by industrial and downtown figures Cosey Fanni Tutti and Peter Zummo 
• Cut at D&M, Berlin

Transdisciplinary NYC artist Gavilán Rayna Russom beautifully comes into her own with a distinguished solo debut album statement including the voice of Cosey Fanni Tutti and brass arrangements by downtown legend Peter Zummo

After decades exploring her sonic personality in various projects inspired by her deep immersion in NYC’s club and avant-garde scenes, Rayna uses ‘The Envoy’ as a vessel to firm up and convey her personal conclusions on intersections of gender and electronic music. Enriched with complex human experience and key influence from sci-fi writer Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel ’The Left Hand of Darkness’ - a book that strongly resonated with her due to its descriptions of an alien race with multiple sexual characteristics - the album is intended to realign misconceptions of Russom’s prescient early work such as 2005’s ‘The Days of Mars’ LP for DFA, which arguably foreshadowed a rise of beat-less and more ambiguous urges that are now commonplace in contemporary dance music, yet were at the time lumped in with retro-fetishist trends. With ‘The Envoy’ Russom returns to a 2019 music scene that’s better prepared with the politics of an emerging new world, and thus readied for her ideas to take hold in the public consciousness.

Entwining Russom’s perspectives on gender, the occult, and spirituality, and how they relate to the body and music’s healing properties, ‘The Envoy’ clearly yet ambiguously expresses the artist’s concerns in nine interrelated parts. Practically devoid of percussion, but full of body-moving polyrhythmic pattern, the pieces spill out of the lines of any typically imposed “grid”. Within this loose context, porous to the chaos of noise, Russom smudges a blend of analogue and digital synths to connote an elusive sense of self, encouraging the listener to navigate the music’s curves and silhouettes by instinct. 

Employing the fluid potential of electronic music at its most fundamental in a way that loops right back to the glyding suspense of her prized early work, even literally incorporating elements of long form solo recordings made in the late ‘90s in the wake of Russom’s psych/noise band Soma.

Unanchored by kicks, yet pulsing in its own ways, the album flows with an underlying elegance from Cosey Fanni Tutti’s spellbinding recital of Russom’s text in ‘Kemmer’, set to an organic, orgiastic writhe of arps and stressed noise, and on thru the free-floating organ scape of ‘Envoy’, to acknowledge more grimly industrial impulses with ‘Strength out of the Dark’ and also a towering highlight of the album in ‘Discipline of Presence’, where Russom’s throbbing mass is hauntingly illuminated by plangent brass arrangement from Peter Zummo (key Arthur Russell collaborator). The 10 minute ‘Winter’ then wraps it all up under a titular reference to Ursula K Le Guin’s novel, placing Russom as a filament of solo piano-playing light within the cold expanse of NYC.

Gavilán Rayna Russom - Kemmer (w/ Cosey Fanni Tutti)[ELP047]

Taken from Primitive World - The Revolt of Aphrodite LP/Download [ELP048] - out 20/03/2020

• Crafty sci-fi minimalism and rude broken beats from Ecstatic co-owner Sam Willis (Primitive World)
• In/directly inspired by the “bawdy, acerbic”, forgotten ‘60s sci-fi novels of Lawrence Durrell
• Cut at D&M, Berlin. Cover painting by Daniel John Willis, Photo by Sam Willis, design by Alessio Natalizia
 
Ecstatic co-owner Sam Willis turns cues from forgotten English sci-fi author Lawrence Durell into bouts of taut, fractious, and probing funk on his sophomore LP, ‘The Revolt of Aphrodite’

Following a similar process that was applied to the visual cues of overlooked British constructivist Marlow Moss in his 2018 debut album ‘White On White’, and recent lysergic rescoring of Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’ (INCLUDE LINK HERE TO THE FMJ RELEASE ON THE SITE PERHAPS?) Sam Willis aka Primitive World employs a strategy of in/direct references to Durrell’s seminal ’60s sci-fi diptych ‘The Revolt of Aphrodite’ - comprising the novels ’Tunc’ and ‘Nunquam’ - in an absorbing reimagining of its scenes, rendered in a mix of glitching electronic shrapnel, craftily disrupted UK club rhythms, and stuttering gremlin vocaloids. 

The original books’ themes of “Nietzchean psycho-sexual satire”, and their acerbic, bawdy, densely allusive text, serve to push Primitive World toward more complex drum programming/editing and a finer spectrum of timbres in order to best transpose the stories into music. Set against a backdrop of the May 1968 general strike in Paris, the books address notions of multiplicity and contingency, and a preoccupation with structure and “cause and effect” that Primitive World reflects in the music’s mazy narration and his poetic embrace of literary/musical license. 

Where modern electronic music too often arrives at the same aesthetic conclusions inspired by iconic work from William Gibson or Asimov, then Durrell’s influence provides something very refreshing to the playful and absorbingly otherworldly nature of ‘The Revolt of Aphrodite’. Using the same palette as found on his ‘White On White LP’ - PPG Wave, Kurzweil K250, Emulator 4 and Lexicon 224 - Primitive World’s familiarity with the set-up leads to a finer manipulation of form throughout the album. Oscillating between the Alva Noto-esque minimalism of ‘All This Vulgar Data’, and the cubist UKFunky rhythms in ‘Iolanthe Dances’ or Dego-like broken beats in ‘Skins Plastered With White Lead’, to end up in the curdled electronic sensuality on ’The Foetus Of a Love Song’, Primitive World’s 2nd album offers deftly imaginative and playful solutions to the homogeneity of modern electronic music’s all-too-often blinkered dreams.

Primitive World - Ioanthe Dances [ELP048]

Taken from Maxwell Sterling - Laced With Rumour: Loud-Speaker of Truth
LP/Download [ELP050] 
Ecstatic Recordings, 24/04/2020

Weaving an intricately detailed tapestry of meditative, spiritual jazz and dream electronics, Maxwell Sterling’s astonishing second album ‘Laced With Rumour: Loud-Speaker Of Truth’ blooms in the gaps between Don Cherry, Talk Talk and Kara-Lis Coverdale, gently coaxing us into a trance- like reverie where the real and artificial morph into one pulsing organism.

Originating as a multi-channel installation commissioned by Nottingham Contemporary in 2018, the four extended pieces here were recorded at home in Morecambe Bay and then subsequently placed in a room alongside works by Moki Cherry (spouse of Don, mother of Neneh and Eagle-Eye Cherry), Penny Slinger, and a collection of static musical instruments the piece was intended to complement. As a follow-up to Sterling’s 2017 cult hit ‘Hollywood Medieval’ for The Death of Rave, ‘Laced With Rumour’ works with notably more fluid and gently psychoactive structuring that takes in seemingly disparate influences - from Roman mythology to Nottingham’s Lace industry - that results in a sprawling but intimate world of sound, characterised by aetheric arrangements that effectively elide the disciplines of spiritual jazz, chamber music, and art installation into something altogether new.

Much like Kara-Lis Coverdale’s converging interests in traditional vs hyper-modern, acoustic vs artificial and synthetic modes of sound, Sterling’s work here is fluid and unorthodox, but rooted in a deep understanding of convention which he proceeds to bend and re-shape at will. The album opens with a slowly contemplative and almost solemn drift between ‘Laced’, which features samples of Don Cherry weft into its tingling fray of electro-acoustic timbres, alongside the breezy chamber strokes of ‘With Rumour’, the hallucinogenic qualities of ‘Loud-Speaker’, and the darker revelation ‘Of Truth’, which concludes with a transition from mired murk to tones that channel Maxwell’s refined cinematic nous.

One of those albums that seems impossible to fully absorb in one sitting, listening to ‘Laced With Rumour...’ takes you from a swirl of brushed cymbals into harpsichord shimmers, passages of solo piano brushing up against the deepest subs - like a more bruised and flipped Sakamoto + Alva Noto collab, to Arthur Russell’s ‘World Of Echo’ slowly descending into synthesised madness. It’s a rich and stunning meditation for our time.

Maxwell Sterling - Laced [ELP050]

Taken from Fé/Vazio [ELP051] out 07/08/20

Properly mazy rhythmic psychedelia from Lisbon’s Serpente who comes back to Ecstatic Recordings pursuing the spirits of Alice Coltrane and Don Cherry via Fourth World gateways and the spiralling broken beat vortices of Anthony Shakir, following on from that killer LinnDrum tribute to Prince’s ‘Parade’ album last summer.

A direct reference to Dischord’s legendary Faith/Void split album, Fé/Vazio draws thrilling, jagged lines between the ground-breaking jazz fusions of the ‘60s-‘70s and the Afro-Futurist pinnacles of ’90 Detroit and UK-based techno and their offshoots; broken beat, jungle, and “IDM”. 

His style broadly collapses the psychedelia of his work as Ondness (Where To Now?, Holuzam, Sucata Tapes) into a more ravishing and arguably vital sound that frames a modern state of mind between dystopian paranoia and utopian freedom.

Like last year’s cultishly acclaimed Parada (Ecstatic Recordings, ELP044), 'Fé / Vazio' comes to restlessly fulfil a physical and spiritual need for this kind of music right now; it sidewinds into chaotic multiples of polymetric rhythms, hypnotic drone and curious folk hooks that somehow gel with a fractious, rhythmelodic coherence that rudely acknowledges all that came before it. 

Track to track Bruno recalls the kaotic harmonies of Derrick May as much as Anthony Shakir’s sleight drum edits in ‘Nível De Fumo’, and the Reinforced cosmic rolige of Colin Lindo (Alpha Omega/Nubian Mindz) or 4Hero - who were no strangers to the promise of spiritual jazz music and the Afro-Latin codes of Brazilian music - in ‘Em Sendo’, while the reticulated hot steppers ‘Visitação’ and ‘Escalpe’ seamlessly bind roots and futurism in a singular, headlong style and the scudding ‘90s techno/IDM tone of ‘Razia’ surely recalls the rhythmic ingenuity and modern blueness of early Autechre. 

It's a record that feels unlocked and cosmically free compared with so much rictus, floor-based music, but with a grit and colour that can’t be denied on (currently imaginary) dance floors.

Serpente - Rainhas [ELP051]

Taken from ROMANCE - YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS [E061] 

Fusing ambient with the winsome emotive nostalgia of Hollywood symphonic soundtracks, Romance cascades hypnogogic hooks through trance inducing polyrhythmic peaks. 

You Must Remember This is a psychotropic, time-smearing mixtape album of chopped & screwed romantic classical and new age ballads, drawing on themes of classical beauty, faded glamour and altered states. 

Straddling the Warholian line of high / low culture, Romance combines the sacred legato dreamtime of Edward Artemiev’s haunting soundtrack for Tarkovsky’s ’Stalker’ the sculptural repetition of Philip Glass with the syrupy emotional grandiosity of Whitney Houston or Celine Dion. Unspooling motifs from the forgotten annals of film history, collaged and suffused with decaying reverb and crystalline echoes YMRT conjures otherworldly atmosphere akin to fellow hauntologists GAS, Burial and The Caretaker.

Mastered by Alessio Natalizia. Artwork by Asel Tambay

Romance - You Must Remember This (excerpts)

Taken from Spivak - Μετά Το Ρέιβ LP/Digital (Ecstatic Recordings, 04/12/2020)

‘Μετά Το Ρέιβ’ is the original debut LP by Maria Spivak, a rawly expressive set of ambient synth- pop inspired by her Cypriot heritage, and channelling mystic vibes from Lena Platonos to Drexciya - very special stuff, indeed.

The latest addition to Ecstatic’s sprawling cabal, Spivak arrives fully formed with a quietly penetrative sound, layering her haunted but coolly melodic vocals and synth pads around bare- bones, DIY production that makes a virtue of “mistakes” and grit in-the-mix.

Lessons from ’80s post-punk to ambient-pop and trip hop inform Spivak’s music as much as her observations on Cypriot sociopolitics, culture, and nature. But the references are more suggestive than concrete, often imperceptibly woven into her songs with a fine sort of folk art filigree that feels timeless but directly effective within her field, recalling the low-key magick of everyone from Teresa Winter to HTRK, yet gauzily delivered from her own, enchanted perspective.

Spivak has worked towards this seemingly effortless style and conception of atmosphere for a decade, flowering from MA studies in Architecture in the UK, to develop her roots in Cyprus, where she draws on the energies of a small but active local scene, as well as the island’s agitated recent history, against a backdrop of myth-inspiring topography, that all help imbue her style of sound sculpture with a distinctive, quietly conflicted soul.

Her first bouquet of songs are intimate but prickly, ancient and futuristic creations, unfurling from primitive dream-pop in ‘Minus The motivational Speech’, to the nerve-tweaking chamber blooz of ‘Hardware Store Ballad’ with a deeply arresting, story-telling style that’s naturally brought to
life in the music; from the ephemeral sensuality of ‘Sec’, sounding like Lena Platonos meets The Other People Place, to the haunted dancehall swoon of ‘Enough Throwbacks’, thru her title song’s seething/soothing synth candescence, and the lo-fi Cosey-meets-BoC beauty‘Σχεδόν Σίγουρα (with H4S).’

Spivak - Πήγαινέ Μέ

Taken from Not Waving & Romance - Eyes Of Fate [E065, Ecstatic]
 
Not Waving combines with Romance on the free-floating grandeur of ‘Eyes Of Fate’ : nine tracks of mythological, Old Testament ambient.

The first new music from Not Waving since 2019 and the first pairing with label mate Romance 'Eyes Of Fate’ explores the fertile territory between secular and religious music that has long fascinated artists, allegories on the divine and existential bliss and terror in equal measure. 

From the curdled invocation of opener ‘I Bowed On My Knees’ to the enrapturing devotional of ‘While My Heart Still Beats’ to the final judgement of ‘Kneel For Mercy’, the album wrenches highly emotive textures utilising a blend of centuries-old chant styles and orchestration consisting of  chamber strings, tape loops and plangent processed sounds.

ECSTATIC

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