enmf [flexi] + enmd [digital] + enmb [lp] series

magma

"The CD is scratched.” A saying from the early millennium, it describes the phenomenon of skipping music on a damaged CD, the locked, repetitive groove. For nearly a decade, Fossilized Wilderness has been experimenting with a peculiar modification to CDJ equipment, birthed by long hours sorting through promotional CDs sent to a radio station. In embracing choppiness, a body of abrasive but bright ambient work has been constructed from the refuse of musical commodification.

The CD skip is both rhythm and tone on this LP, but if you expect the monotonous motions of a concept album, don’t: The moods here are just as granular. The six tracks shift from digital euphoria to shoegazing sentimentalism, a balanced mix of terror, plaintiveness, and joy, an impressive feat considering that the scratch of a CD produces potent nostalgia as well as Pavlovian irritation for many—a drive to eject the thing and fix the problem.

For those not growing up with it, the scratched CD is a relic phenomenon, something that happened with an artifact format. But just because it’s an artifact doesn’t mean it’s obsolete. On this LP, Fossilized Wilderness uses a sonic palette of subtly-shifting broken loops to create something new: delirious spectres rising from an ocean of plastic.

---

Fossilized Wilderness is Ryan Martin, a pillar of the North Carolina underground music and arts scene. His most active artistic alias is Secret Boyfriend, with numerous cassette, vinyl, and CD releases on labels such as Blackest Ever Black and his own long-running DIY-informed imprint, Hot Releases. 

releases April 5, 2021

mastered :: Nathan Taylor

Fossilized Wilderness - 4 (ENMB07)

𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺,
𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 — 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘳
𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴.
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.

- Kristen Soller, April 2022

“In the back of the throat there is a subterranean river that holds you, humming towards the cave’s end. This end is a liminal mirror reflecting the contours of your voice. The mirror shows how —when brought to certain aquatic depths— unheard of limbs and wondrous branches are prone to sprout from your voice. Blind sibyls, your voice’s branches climb towards the surface, in search of light and warmth. After the great drought, your voice’s limbs persevere. They stand naked, pulsating in the purple that lies underneath grey. Your voice’s limbs erect themselves as monuments to air, kin among the deafening night. The water level is now only tall enough to keep your voice’s core below. Your voice, fed by the swamp, cradled by duckweed, wrapped in horse tail, has become a secret organ. Your voice palpitates and releases twin echoes that undulate, to smoke’s rhythm, in the afterglow. Intricately connected by labyrinth to soil and moon, through the water lilies’ roots, your voice weaves an underweb that flickers like the eye of a flame. Your voice sediments the entwined veils of miracle and prayer.”

- Marta Núñez Pouzols, October 2023

---

taupe set xl is the devotional sound project of Kristen Soller, a Miami-based artist and hypnotist of the Philippine diaspora. Kristen illuminates the subterranean and oneiric landscapes of imagination, spirit, and memory — giving voice to the personal and ancestral stories of grief and desire that emerge in the process.

All music by Kristen Soller
Audio finalized by Glyn Maier
Cover photo by Jenn Huynh
Design by Joe Bastardo

All proceeds to:
Love the Everglades Movement (www.lovetheeverglades.org)
Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Palestine (https://uawc-pal.org)

swamp prayer

taupe set xl - dissolving forms (ENMB-15)

𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺,

𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 — 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘳

𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴.

𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.

- Kristen Soller, April 2022


“In the back of the throat there is a subterranean river that holds you, humming towards the cave’s end. This end is a liminal mirror reflecting the contours of your voice. The mirror shows how —when brought to certain aquatic depths— unheard of limbs and wondrous branches are prone to sprout from your voice. Blind sibyls, your voice’s branches climb towards the surface, in search of light and warmth. After the great drought, your voice’s limbs persevere. They stand naked, pulsating in the purple that lies underneath grey. Your voice’s limbs erect themselves as monuments to air, kin among the deafening night. The water level is now only tall enough to keep your voice’s core below. Your voice, fed by the swamp, cradled by duckweed, wrapped in horse tail, has become a secret organ. Your voice palpitates and releases twin echoes that undulate, to smoke’s rhythm, in the afterglow. Intricately connected by labyrinth to soil and moon, through the water lilies’ roots, your voice weaves an underweb that flickers like the eye of a flame. Your voice sediments the entwined veils of miracle and prayer.”

- Marta Núñez Pouzols, October 2023All music by Kristen Soller

Audio finalized by Glyn Maier
Cover photo by Jenn Huynh
Design by Joe Bastardo

All proceeds to:
Love the Everglades Movement (https://www.lovetheeverglades.org/)
Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Palestine (https://uawc-pal.org/)

Premiere: taupe set xl - Iridescence [enmossed]

“[....]
This record highlights the Secret Boyfriend that obscures didacticism by highlighting output that opens up for more challenging catharsis and emotive signal processing. It provides an entry to the materialism of a cultural field full of ecstatic complexity and beautiful inconsistency. In these muted moments Secret Boyfriend has given us over his career we have an argument for evolving languages that further challenge our notions of what is supposed to happen and how it is supposed to be presented. In his more song oriented expansiveness, we can punctuate the ability to think in new modalities. Listening to these recordings reminds me of the polarity of sitting in the record store as a kid and understanding that His Name Is Alive is on 4AD and (gasp!) timeSTEREO. This trite early impression that nothing is really as different as our imaginations might want them to be, and that we can do whatever we want mostly within the creative realms we work through is an important filter to look through Secret Boyfriend as a project and a vessel. If we can achieve abandon and vulnerability through our artistic endeavors, then we have a sound model for, 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲, new potentialities. If that’s too much projection, or just complete liberal bullshit, I am fine with that. Secret Boyfriend's oeuvre at best offers us moments of reprieve to ponder these complexities, or at least a moment to zone out on a drive through North Carolina Highway 54.

You have one pocket of life that you must do whatever you want to inside of. Secret Boyfriend does it affectionately, in a variety of forms, and always with deep sentimentality. These recordings are a wonderful set of songs to begin further investigation from. Thank you Ryan for allowing as many avenues as possible to continue a broad cultural exchange and conversation that intersect and refract while being the kind of artist that is brave enough to not phone in the effort.”

- excerpt of essay by Nick Klein, May 2024

Casio, guitars, bass, percussion, no-input mixer, synth, tapes, and voice by Ryan A Martin, recorded at Meadows of Dan & Cathedral II
Audio finalized by Glyn Maier
Artwork by Ryan A Martin

Listener's Guide

Secret Boyfriend - Treil (ENMB-16)

I.

𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘴𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘴 is the collaborative duo of makers doris dana and domingo castillo flores. Respectively the two have fostered practices that have sprawled out through various approaches and, whether in the lanes of the musical or the contemporary arts, the phenomenology of the social and inclusive prevails. On 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵, this motif continues through the psychedelia of its eight time-defying recordings, welcoming the listener into an open temporal architecture of the stereo field as a signifier of environment. It is worth noting that the group began collaborating in Miami, Florida with longer form improvisations recorded to a stereo cassette deck. In these recordings, the paved geographical sprawl and oceanic view permeated the approach to amassing long swaths of sound material. Listening back on that work at the time of this writing, each track feels as though one is walking into an active space, arriving to an event already in full swing and finding your place inside of it. On 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵 (this album) something different occurs. The space and events are built around you as you move through the record.

.... [please see https://enmossed.bandcamp.com/album/ultrafest for full description]

- Nick Klein, February 10, 2025

all songs recorded and arranged between Miami and New York by doris dana and domingo castillo flores in 2023
audio finalized by Glyn Maier
artwork by Dominique Saiegh
short story by Natalia Zuluaga
design by Joe Bastardo
silkscreening by Mark Rice
all proceeds to Palestine Children's Relief Fund

ultrafest

bad lsd trips - aventura sonidera (ENMB-17)

bad lsd trips - ultrafest (ENMB-17)
Excerpts below from the extended album description by Nick Klein, written February 10, 2025.

I. 

𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘴𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘴 is the collaborative duo of makers doris dana and domingo castillo flores. Respectively the two have fostered practices that have sprawled out through various approaches and, whether in the lanes of the musical or the contemporary arts, the phenomenology of the social and inclusive prevails. On 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵, this motif continues through the psychedelia of its eight time-defying recordings, welcoming the listener into an open temporal architecture of the stereo field as a signifier of environment. It is worth noting that the group began collaborating in Miami, Florida with longer form improvisations recorded to a stereo cassette deck. In these recordings, the paved geographical sprawl and oceanic view permeated the approach to amassing long swaths of sound material. Listening back on that work at the time of this writing, each track feels as though one is walking into an active space, arriving to an event already in full swing and finding your place inside of it. On 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵 (this album) something different occurs. The space and events are built around you as you move through the record.

IV.

𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵 mirrors the balance of the temporal interiority and exteriority of the previously referenced chemical compounds when applied to the body for recreational psychedelic experiences. The jubilation of the slack jawed festival attendee, the gallop of the horse upon the earthen ground, the stagnation of humidity on the body, the sprawl of unkempt concrete through Florida cities, the aroma of bleach in a bar bathroom. On this album, the band illustrates the territories when you almost have your grounding; the moment when you are on the pivot between the real and the intoxicated, or even the really intoxicated. These spaces are the softening and hardening of light on your eyes, they are the gripping of a porcelain sink between moments staring in the bathroom mirror.

In an era where so much tremendous creative energy is put into a softer, safer space through ambient music to respond (negligently) or (worse?) take shelter from the hellish global condition of late capitalism; 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘴𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘴 takes your hand into the murkier moments of reflection awarded to the listener in the genre. The resolution is not carved out for you, and what truly sits suspended in the ambiance of the now is an unfiltered view of where the world has come to through centuries of civilization. It’s a brutal landscape with an ill-determined end result. Where other practitioners of the sonic gesture of ambient are sheltering within a glistening plasticene blanket of clicks and rustlings with low pass filters of melancholic chord structures, this album burrows itself comfortably in the formless chaos of true psychedelia and reminds me 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 is truly what our unfortunate ambiance is today. The album reflects joy and terror, and it longs and leans towards finding something in the midst of sonic exploration. Passivity nullified, ambient beyond indulgence and evasion.

releases February 25, 2025

all songs recorded and arranged between Miami and New York by doris dana and domingo castillo flores in 2023
audio finalized by Glyn Maier for PLEN Audio
artwork by Dominique Saiegh
short story by Natalia Zuluaga
design by Joe Bastardo
silkscreening by Mark Rice

https://soundcloud.com/enmossed
https://soundcloud.com/dorisdana
https://soundcloud.com/nick-klein


Digi still available

Premiere: bad lsd trips - steaming mescaline (extended mix) [enmossed]

Elvin Brandhi - Shelf Life (EP)*OUT NOW*

Format: Digital, Cassette
Cat.No: CANVAS003

*

“
Sickness unto death in an age of commodified well-being: approaching death from the point of view of an actualised virtual eternity. The commodification of daily life and the self, preclude the possibility of reincarnation, we do not identify ourselves as a cycle, a movement, an expression of life itself but as a single product that exists in and for itself.
 
The supermarket social network obliterates the surface of material hybridising, detaining all movement to self enclosed unit reductions, excommunicating mutation. Encapsulated in a fixed identity, packaged and promoted, immune to the infection of outsiders. The social contract of a pre-sealed self, branded with calculated sell by date, sentenced to a shelf life of inter-passive exchange.  
 
Shelf Life compiles this synthetic axis, upon which we bide out time smiling.  
Interrupt user: authorise disk-root conflict[ 
”

Elvin Brandhi is welcomed to the index of C.A.N.V.A.S. releases as the first solo release of 2019 and the third commission since the conversion from events series to label in 2018. As a performance nomad whose very practice is simultaneously about engagement with place and a lack of geographic singularity - there could not be a more fitting accomplice to C.A.N.V.A.S.’ effort as a self-publishing artist group to build a collaborative community despite increasing dispersion. This is the solo project of Welsh artist Freya Edmondes - otherwise known for her role as vocalist in father/daughter duo Yeah You - in which performances mesh a collage of electronic sounds with a disruptive stream of improvised vocals. These tracks are as close to studio versions as this fundamentally live practice gets - roaming recordings, sample blasts, club contortions and the ever present voice alchemically infused. In 25’46” of sound, Elvin’s bio-technological monster appears like a Cronenberg body horror - mouths appearing where they shouldn’t - or a living, breathing post-digital Beckett character narrating their own club induced self-destruction. Yet the future shock is fresh - Shelf Life is as fun to listen to as it is completely disarming.

soundcloud.com/elvin-brandhi-1

Mastered by Ali Najafi
Digital Artwork by Firas Shehadeh
Tape Design by AALTAR
In Collaboration with Olan Monk

www.c-a-n-v-a-s.com

Shelf Life

Buy DL/CASSETTE

Elvin Brandhi - IMBRED WAILE / OCDC

Nuova Musica Ostinata

Non mi è piaciuto

buy the 2018 vinyl edition: https://boomkat.com/products/time-exercises

"Unexpectedly, the closing "Exercise 5" betrays some rare hints of conventional musicality, as cosmic synth drones glimmer and streak across dark skies as the ruined earth shudders, smolders, and collapses beneath.  It is a fitting end to a truly disturbing album, as it feels like I am getting one last glance from space at the final paroxysm of a world where hell has opened up to drag the living into its fiery depths." - Brainwashed

Cam Deas - Exercise 5 [RAVE022]

Since its inception in 2019, the Porto based Eastern Nurseries label has released a string of noteworthy titles, yet the first two outings by Canadian Rifles, the solo moniker of label founder Rui P. Andrade, remain defining pillars in the labels discography.

These first two releases, Canadian Rifles ‘Eastern Nurseries’ album and the follow up single ‘Of Course I Still Love You / Geranium’ sprawl with acute emotive clangour and venerable opulence, their soundscapes conjuring visions of windswept cities, blemished technology and inherent tenderness. 

Now these works have been carefully reassembled on one expanded reissue, remastered by Daniele Antezza of Dadub mastering and featuring two new remixes by Dino Spiluttini and Burning Pyre.

https://soundcloud.com/canadian-rifles
https://soundcloud.com/dino-spiluttini
https://soundcloud.com/vaagner

Premiere: Canadian Rifles - All My Life I've Been A Star (Dino Spiluttini Remix) [Vaknar]

§ focused on contemporary sound and growth
✔ hand-constructed out of recycled materials as possible
♥ all proceeds to positive endeavors