Fragmented_DRFT

NPVR is the avant garde duo made up of the late Peter Rehberg and Nik Void. Editions Mego is proud to present their second and final release. No this is not some kind of Beatles synthetic AI that raises the dead reconstructed recordings but rather a new album made by the humans and their machines. 

The initial meeting of Rehberg and Void was in London in 2016 and despite or due to their mutual awkwardness found solace and compatibility in the fact that they both had a similar electronic modular set up, along with matching cases to transport all. The idea to collaborate was an obvious and organic process as a means to connect their individual gear together and observe the outcome. The fruits of these initial experiments, recorded in London, resulted in the playful experimentation of their acclaimed 2017 release 33 33 (eMego 251).

Now in 2024 Editions Mego presents the logically titled follow up, 33 34. These sessions were recorded six months after the initial recordings at Peter’s home in Vienna. This was planned out as a mirror city release to the original London recordings. With Peter having access to his full studio set up this time around we encounter a rich audio landscape which organically folds together a variety of musical genres blurring any distinction between these forms so the resulting music hovers as a new cloud of sound. Any musical form, be it industrial, electro-acoustic, ambient, drone and techno all coexist and melt into the other as the ensuing result unveils a hypnotic swarm of divergent sounds (music). When active there were no lines or contexts with NPVR, either between sound or genre within these recordings or live where NPVR were at home playing at a techno club one night and an avant garde venue the next.

The initial session of these recordings was edited by Rehberg and sent to Void to further develop.
Over time the final versions were agreed on and then shelved as other outside projects took over. The awkwardness had been surmounted and the two had become close friends. NPVR performed at a range of venues such as Tresor, Sutton House, Corsica, Blitz, Paris GRM #Focus2, LEV Festival and Rigas Skanumezs Festival. Following Rehberg’s untimely passing Void had difficulty listening back to the sessions but eventually thought it fit to complete and release this album, of which even the artwork (like 33 33, an image from Zurich photographer, Georg Gatsas) had been decided upon prior to Rehberg parting ways. 

There is an unmistakable joy to these recordings. One encounters an enthralling exploration of their chosen machines which conveys the excitement of what can be randomly conjured when people speak through such devices. There is no grand statement or argument here, just the sheer thrill of creation and the recorded results of random encounters. The art of collaboration was always a mainstay of Rehberg’s practice from the advent of the MEGO adventure. Rehberg & Bauer was an initial collaboration with former business partner Ramon Bauer. Even at this stage one can hear a relaxed sense of delight in the sheer discovery of sound.

A mix made for the Wire magazine following the release of 33 33 hints at the freedom that comes with endless urge for exploration and discovery. Abstract tracks from Z'EV. Jérôme Noetinger and Jung An Tagen are included alongside British stalwarts The Fall and New Order. There were no lines between pop / academic / underground or mainstream in Rehberg’s world. All of it sat at the same table. It is just matter in the atmosphere, like the diverse exploration found in these recordings that comprise 33 34.

33 34

Raw to the Core

NPVR 'Raw to the Core' (EMEGO312)

A potentially surprising release on Editions Mego. Another planned prior to the untimely passing of Peter Rehberg in 2021. 

Melvin Gibbs is the renowned bass player and producer from Brooklyn who’s vast resume includes playing with Sonny Sharrock, John Zorn, The Rollins Band, Dead Prez, Caetano Veloso and Femi Kuti amongst others. A solid resume, no doubt, but what is Gibbs doing on Editions Mego? 

Behind the scenes, those who know Gibbs knew that amongst all this he was also tinkering away at another form of music, one which skirts around the border between music and sound design. The Wave is the first release that reveals this side of Gibbs’ creative output to those outside his inner circle.

The driving force for this output is Gibbs’ multi-decade friendship with acclaimed  American video artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa. Over the course of time Gibbs and Jafa have had many conversations about music and the connection between film and music. Jafa’s desire to make film that worked the way Black (as in Black/African-American/ Afro-diasporic peoples) music worked inspired Gibbs to study the filmmakers Serge Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov and incorporate their philosophies and tactics when recording his own music. The two discussed sound design which directly informed Gibbs’ choice of music making tools and led to him acquiring Symbolic Systems Kyma software and hardware, incorporating this as a composition tool and sound design and component in his work. These conversations bore concrete fruit through Gibbs’ work for TNEG, the film studio Jafa ran with filmmakers Malik Sayeed and Elissa Blount Moorhead. Gibbs created the soundtrack for their very first project, the short film “Deshotten 1.0” (2009 - directed by Jafa and Sayeed) as well as their Martin Luther King-inspired meditation on Black life “Dreams Are Colder Than Death” (2013, directed by Jafa)  

The bass-forward music, or ‘sonics’ as Gibbs calls it, emerged from an alternative mode of contemplation, a mode that he sees as closer to the mindset of a rootworker, an African-American herbal doctor who cures psychic ailments using means derived from African spiritual practice, entering a forest to find the right plants for a suffering client than a mediator attempting to invoke mindfulness. Gibbs says this practice yields results that suggest an aural form of creation akin to coagulation, a formal movement that gives the sense that a flow of sounds can emit something bearing resemblance to solidifying objects. 

In 2020 Jafa asked Gibbs to work on the soundtrack for a work in progress called “The Wave''. When they got together to work on the soundtrack, Jafa played Gibbs a selection of sounds that included random moments of (probably unwanted) feedback on 70's Miles Davis records, Pop Smoke's Brooklyn drill, the music of Bernard Gunter and Darmstadt-style compositions made with test equipment. Those sounds, filtered through years of conversation with Jafa about Black creativity and the possible evolution of Black music, formed the sonic vocabulary of “The Wave”. 

Over time the sonics evolved and “The Wave” became the piece Jafa calls "AGHDRA". This soundtrack incorporates and expands upon the sonics composed for “The Wave”. Gibbs mentions although the work with Jafa has always skirted these lines of evolution, this side of his vocabulary has been generally neglected, until now, due to his current jazz musician/jazz festival-centric focus and radar. 

The result of this parallel exploration is a deep excursion into a nuanced sound world. The rich tapestry of textures allows one's mind to explore and project within this bed of curious investigation of sound. The bristling, itching, restless, clicking, diving nature of the electronic sound world presented by Gibbs, is abstract and unearthly on the surface but closer listening (which it demands) reveals a very human quality to these austere shapes.

Anamibia Sessions 1: The Wave

Ibo Code

Melvin Gibbs 'Ibo Code' (EMEGO291)

A2 track 'Feel of Reality' out of forthcoming 10" by Amerza 

A collection of interrupted dreams and castaway dance tracks to guide you further through the thin veneer of our existence. Pressing play will land you in the depths of Amerza’s seesawing DVD musique concrete edits, followed by the EP’s troubadour hit single. Switch sides for ultra bass-driven experience, beaming acid over this here beat.

‘It’s just a feel of reality’ - 1995

releases February 6, 2024 

Music by Amerza 
Mastering by Anders Peterson 
Artwork & Photography by Orlando Rodriguez 

OUT009 
all rights reserved ©

Amerza - Feel Of Reality

SIMINA OPRESCU, Sound of Matter, LP
Hallow Ground
Vinyl / digital, catalogue nr. HG2402, EAN: 0602343041803

Tracklist:
1. Sound of Matter I (16:16)
2. Sound of Matter II (19:19)

Credits:
Composed, mixed, and written in Berlin, December 2022 – February 2023 by Simina Oprescu
Mastering by Lawrence English
Master cut by Andreas Lupo Lubich
Artwork by Laurin Huber
Essay by Simina Oprescu

Sound of Matter

Simina Oprescu - Sound of Matter II (excerpt) (HG2402)

https://soundcloud.com/malinbobo

https://www.retreatradio.net/malin-bobo

Malin Bobo #36 (11/02/24)

Deconstructed electronics for Book Launch Event. 

"Musique du Diable III" presents a selection of flyers linked to the Free Party culture, drawn from Mö's collection, a Turn-Tablist, Artist-Activist. Self-published by Acacia books in 2023. 

Thanks Alice in Flames 

https://multipolarmusic.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/multipolar.music/

Multipolar liveset: Booklaunch 'Musique du  Diable' at Leipzig Antibar

@geierausstahl

Archetype - The Ick
Vinyl/Streaming/Digital
- 27.03.24 -

The Ick — a sense of sanity amidst the storm of information. This album by Archetype is an abstract scream for something quite fragile — a polarizing society, disruptive isolation, and the fading collective experience. Utilizing dramatic vocals, industrial trip-hop, and post-punk-leaning electronics, Archetype marks the new moniker by the ever-versatile Viennese Rotterdammer, Leonard Prochazka. Following his manifold of concept-driven, instinctive musical output, Archetype's "The Ick" releases in 2024, following "Strapazen und Genesung" as Geier Aus Stahl on Knekelhuis in 2022.

Archetype - Minute After Minute

in Passing tides 01 ~ slyn ~ (Voices Radio)

Kiosk Radio is an online community radio streaming 24/7 from a wooden shack in the heart of Brussels’ historic “Parc Royal”. 
More info and music: https://kioskradio.com

7MER aka Faïza & Lostsoundbytes @ Kiosk Radio 20.04.2024

@stacksofvoices

Stacks ‘Want’ album out May 15th 2024

Music and lyrics by Jan Matthé & Sis Matthé
Written and recorded in St. Lauri, Antwerp
Mixed by Stacks and Yves De Mey
Mastered by Wouter Brandenburg in Amsterdam
All rights reserved ℗ + ©️ Knekelhuis 2024

Want

Stacks - Run Away

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

NPVR 'Raw to the Core' (EMEGO312)

Editions Mego

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