Full of dreamy textures and languid melodies, XOOMIN is a soundtrack for drifting off into the abyss, but in the hands of Alloy Sea (a.k.a. Mor Elian), that journey feels downright playful. Although the Berlin-based producer is best known for her dancefloor-focused creations, 2020’s Petrichor (a 50-minute composition that officially debuted the Alloy Sea project) showcased an unexpected talent for abstract soundscapes and arrhythmic jitters, hinting at ambient techno but ultimately offering something much more adventurous.

XOOMIN—an album that was specifically written for Paralaxe Editions after label founder Dania Shihab reached out to Elian about working together on a new Alloy Sea release—ventures into similarly ethereal waters as Petrichor, but it’s also brighter and more colorful than its predecessor, its gleaming FM synth improvisations flanked by scuttling rhythmic bursts and the occasional wonky bassline, not to mention celestial snippets of Elian’s own voice. It’s not pop, but it’s not quite ambient either, floating instead in a nebulous (and sneakily fun) zone that borrows from new age, IDM and the weirder corners of bass music.  

______

Music by Mor Elian.
Mixed by Rhyw.
Mastered by Rupert Clervaux.
Design by Oficina de disseny.
Printed at L'automatica.
Text by Shawn Reynaldo.

Alloy Sea - You stepped outside

Released on May 1st 2022!

Egil Kalman is a Swedish musician/composer primarily playing modular synthesizer and double bass. ”Kingdom of Bells Egil Kalman plays the Synthi 100” is his debut record as a solo artist. 

The record was made during a residency at the Contemporary Music Research Center (KSYME) in Athens in 2019. All the tracks were captured straight from the Synthi 100 as stereo recordings and contain no overdubs. The music showcases both the powerful and raw sound of this rare instrument as well as Kalman’s expansive interests as a musician and composer.  

Mind altering just tuned drones with melodies that echoes traditional Scandinavian folk music flow into abstract soundscapes reminiscent of early electronic music pioneers, but still holds a fresh sound and vibe. Deep synth music from the North! 

Egil Kalman’s playing as a syntheist and double bass player can previously be heard in duos with Zoi Efstathiou and Fredrik Rasten as well as in groups such as Miman, Marthe Lea Band and Alasdair Roberts & Völvur.  

His music aims to dissolve the brittle barriers separating traditional Scandinavian folk- and contemporary electroacoustic music via minimalist compositional techniques and soulful improvisations. Utilizing just intonation tunings, hypnotic forms, synthesized sound mimicking the acoustic and vice versa, his music explores qualities intrinsic to traditional Scandinavian folk music in ways where the musical foundation is felt rather than explicitly heard. Kalman can previously be heard in duos with Zoi Efstathiou and Fredrik Rasten as well as in groups such as Miman, Marthe Lea Band and Alasdair Roberts & Völvur.  

The record was mastered by Rashad Becker and the artwork is made by Allon Kaye.

EGIL KALMAN - CLOUDLESS DAYBREAK (from iDEAL213 LP)

https://www.nts.live/shows/jon-k-presents-peking-spring/episodes/jon-k-presents-peking-spring-10th-may-2022

Peking Spring w/ Jon K &FOQL - 100522

Experimental pop sister duo Waterbaby run through their favourite selections, and share their unreleased and forthcoming material.

https://www.nts.live/shows/early-bird-show-spirit-blue/episodes/early-bird-show-spirit-blue-12th-october-2022

The Early Bird Show w Waterbaby 121022

Deluded way in woodlands
Thousands of oaks - grow hushed
Dangling
Fog gobbles stubborn barricades
Empty caves rumble through gaps

Breathing flesh
Burnt banyan

Remember again, who's dreaming?
Who served the night with closed eyes?

Where the waters seethe, traced the echoes running along the ridge. Grown into mounds - speck of dust, above and beneath, bent in their tensile way.

'Perspective' resembles graying daze for the tense lows, that holds subdued gentleness. Belfast based musician - Verge has brought his exalted grandeur to aural fluency in the vein of gauzy, filmy rumbles.

Perspective

Verge - Standing Water

Nik Colk Void is well established with her work - using modular systems, voice and guitar - as one half of Factory Floor, one third of Carter Tutti Void (alongside Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti) and with the late Peter Rehberg as NPVR, but perhaps surprisingly, 'Bucked Up Space' is her first solo album release. 

Void explains, “When Peter Rehberg initially asked me to produce a record for Editions Mego, I didn't feel quite ready and asked if we could make a record together instead. Collaboration is so ingrained into what I do, I only felt ready to make this album after working through ideas live, using the audience in place of the collaborator.”

Bucked Up Space combines Void’s love of improvisation with the driving force of beat-driven music absorbed from performing in galleries, residencies and clubs across the UK and Europe. She goes on to say, “You find out more about yourself when you explain your ideas to others, and that’s how I felt the live performance worked for me.”

The process steadily teased out a language and Void employed a variety of tactics in the recording process including a methodical approach of collecting data at her home studio in a manner not dissimilar to keeping a diary. Her microscopic focus on raw instrumental noise, layered and reformulated, resulted in a sound catalogue that Void divided into groups for their tone, density and texture. 

These initial pieces were taken to a studio in Margate to put them into a more cohesive compositional context. Something that pragmatically started as cold and detached was given warmth, unity and emotion in the studio. Via improvised repetition co-existing alongside organised production, Void conjures new sonic muscle with tracks such as ‘Interruption Is Good’ and ‘FlatTime’. Initial recordings are rendered into sequences initiating the organic rhythms, triggering awkward jerks of high hats and percussion, or used to activate the margins of post effects detectable in the tracks like ‘Demna’, ‘Big Breather’ and ‘Oversized’.

Void explains: “It was important to me that the simplicity in the work disguised a lot of complexity, I want this work to be absorbed instinctively.” 

The sleeve image, a still from We Are City by Brazilian artist Maria de Lima, was chosen to illustrate Bucked Up Space, which Void describes as “a distorted reality,  the space that lives at start of an idea, then floats in public view, before returning to inform my understanding of the idea. Once the idea is out in the world, it moves and morphs into something else entirely.”

Written, performed and produced by Nik Void, the album was engineered by James Greenwood, mastered by Rashad Becker and tracks 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9 were mixed by Marta Salogni.

Bucked up Space is the result of the ideas and resulting sounds of free exploration morphing into a personal structured album that fearlessly moulds patience, listening and restraint. It’s a sharp focussed work embracing collective action through the lens of the self. All this, and also one of the best abstract dance records you will hear in some time!

Bucked Up Space

Interruption Is Good

Nik Colk Void 'Interruption Is Good' (EMEGO 295)

Klara Lewis returns to Editions Mego with a surprising live set recorded in 2018. Expanding her exploratory vision into haunted realms of unheimlich sound, Live in Montreal consists of a single piece with three distinct discernible sections. 

The set opens with a crude rhythm churning away under a choral loop from which a diverse array of rhythm and noise appear and disappear. Despite it's foreboding tone this sequence still retains a foot in the club, as damaged as that may be.

A state of permanent collapse is a thread throughout. In this opening sequence an array of strange sonic elements introduce themselves, rise to the fore, threaten the fundamental discourse only to recede on the brink of destroying the work itself.  

It’s this fascinating construct, this perpetual threat to the music itself that makes the listening experience so captivating. Midway the storm subsides laying bare a more static emotional framework rendered unrecognisable prior. Electronic phantoms swirl in a more gentle fashion as ghostly voices come to the fold looping into an uneasy landscape shifting into a blurry utopian finale. 

Finding itself between decay and hope, Live in Montreal 2018 is another stunning addition to the consistently solid output from Klara Lewis.

Live in Montreal 2018

Klara Lewis 'Live In Montreal 2018' [excerpt] (EMEGO306)

Tape available now via Imprec.com

Duane Pitre's Varolii Patterns was made with an eight-voice synthesizer, tuned in Just Intonation. These consonant pieces explore shifting polyrhythms that slip in and out of rhythmic focus and "Common Rhythmic Pulses" that carry over as the pattern evolves within a piece.

Artist statement:

"While experimenting with microtonal electronics for a piece I was writing for Zinc & Copper, which would eventually be titled Pons, I came across a process-based technique that I was quite keen on. Although I wouldn't use this technique on the Zinc & Copper piece, I would later implement said process to make up some of the electronics on Omniscient Voices. During this time I carried out dozens and dozens of instances of this process and recorded them all. Varolii Patterns is composed of a small collection of these recorded takes, ones I felt were stand-alone pieces on their own and that worked well together as a whole."

Duane Pitre - Varolii Patterns 10-1 - Tape Available Now

https://neznanirecords.bandcamp.com/album/nzn002

Unknown Artist - Low Impulse [NZN002]

01 Pre-txt

A remix of two fantastic tracks by 808TSIE, Energetic until the end

808TSIE& Ost-Klang: Sleepless Nights

Independent record company based in Vienna.
For Spectrum Spools go here: https://soundcloud.com/spectrumspools

Nik Colk Void 'Interruption Is Good' (EMEGO 295)

Editions Mego

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