Melodica’s head Chris Coco launches “My Summer Mixtape 2014”,his second annual selection of Balearic music for the summer season from artists on his Melodica label.
The compilation covers a broad range of genres, from Dub and Electronica, to Leftfield and Bass Music, from Drum N Bass to Nu Disco and puts together some of the label’s best artists and few Chris' good friends into this uplifting Balearic journey.
As a little taster Chris gave us this mega chilled track to give away.

Chris Coco - Heavy Mellow (Jon Hopkins Mix)[FREE D/L]

Stream & pre-order the album: https://idol-io.ffm.to/byrdsong

Today Shards announce their new album Byrd Song, inspired by Renaissance composer William Byrd, due April 19 on Erased Tapes. The album consists of eight reimagined works by Shards and their de facto leader Kieran Brunt, featuring the already released Facta est deserta and Amen, amen, amen… With today’s announcement, the vocal group shares the deeply emotional Agnus Dei.

“Agnus Dei is a meditation on a tiny fragment – the opening five notes of the Agnus Dei from Byrd's Mass for Five Voices - which builds into a song that is emotionally raw and impulsive. It's the first time I've recorded a song in one take, singing and playing the Prophet synth at the same time; as a result the rhythm is quite volatile and the processed vocal part florid and improvisatory” — Kieran Brunt

To mark the 400th anniversary of the death of the English composer in 2023, the broadcaster Elizabeth Alker commissioned a series of recordings and reworks of Byrd for a radio special on her BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified show. Kieran Brunt, who was in the midst of writing the new Shards album, contributed Facta est deserta, taking fragments from an original piece, adding autotune and distorted synths, painting a picture of a distant, broken landscape.

After finishing the commission, Brunt found himself distracted and followed his curiosity and delved deeper into Byrd’s compositions, which have long played as an inspiration for him as a composer. Expanding further on this, Brunt says “I’ve been singing Byrd’s music since I was at school, and sang a lot while studying and singing in my college chapel choir, which I did daily for three years. His music has endured for centuries because of its beauty, complexity and intense emotion“.

William Byrd was a devout Catholic in a Protestant England, much of his work was composed illegally at the time and performed in secret. “There’s a real sense of every note and word of text having extreme significance,” he adds.

Having the opportunity to bring new life to Byrd’s music through his own renditions and with the use of electronics, Brunt says “it has been so enjoyable to return to his music and reconnect with it with the tools I now use for my own compositions. I hope that by reimagining it with new timbres and the precision of effects like autotune I can illuminate certain details and shed a new light on its intricacies”.

Shards’ Byrd Song will be released on April 19 via Erased Tapes.

Byrd Song

Agnus Dei

Shards - Agnus Dei

For today’s program I’ve invited Orla Wren, an artist from North England releasing music on Flau, Facture, Home Normal, and most recently Oak Editions, to share with you his favorite pieces, which happen to be from film. It’s a beautiful chronicle, with its own special plot and emotional journey: 

"For this mix I collected many fragments of music, dialogue and foley sounds which were taken directly from the films themselves and which I then arranged variously and carefully placed to construct some possible narrative. I always feel drawn to the most intimate moments within a film, most often I find it’s where the music and story hold the most emotion and poignancy. This mix is made with love and respect for the film makers, actors and the musicians, thank you for the beautiful moments." - Orla Wren 

Orla Wren - Filmscores Two

This morning, I am blissfully spending my time in the company of Swedish composer and pianist Matti Bye, who first appeared on these pages back in 2017 with a video that I premiered titled Melt. Having scored more than a few films and being awarded Sweden’s prestigious Guldbaggen for Best Original Music for Faro, Bye knows exactly how to paint deep atmospheres full of mystery and awe. Listening to his latest album for my beloved Denovali, I am transported into a shadowy speakeasy full of jazzy notes and curling smoke. I find myself comfortably sitting in a corner, sipping on Glenfarclas while Matti plays the piano, just for me. Capri Clouds is the third album in the trilogy, which began with Bethanien (2020) and This Forgotten Land (2020), and until this one drops later in the spring of this year, you may want to start your journey there. All showcase somewhat nostalgic, slightly haunting and serene imagery, barely jazzy, neo-classic, and lo-fi. Today, I am premiering the title track for you, which I hope you enjoy… rain, birds, a bit of chit-chat and all…

"These songs go straight to the heart and to the senses, and create images in your head. Stories from your own memory bank, as well as new visions – music to lean into, meditatively and hopefully longing. But there is also an undertone of something dark and desolate."

Capri Clouds

TRACK PREMIERE : Matti Bye - Capri Clouds

2. track of my upcoming debut "Window Gazer" to be released 18th of september via Hellbig Music



Afloat

Taken from nonkeen’s album ‘the gamble’ released 05/02/16
pre-order from iTunes - smarturl.it/TheGamble
pre-order Bandcamp - bit.ly/1kliFFr

For further details, please check www.nonkeen.com

re:turn!

A piece to represent the perception of the acceleration of time as we get older

Summer

21 to 21

Jim Perkins - 21 To 21

A remix of 'Haystacks' from Terminal Nostalgia by Dmitry Avgrafov.

Haystacks (Dmitry Evgrafov Remix)

Site Specific

Point of Departure [Full Length]

Two By Four is Piano Interrupted first full length record, compiling the work of three years of collaboration between laptop / electronician Franz Kirmann and pianist and composer Tom Hodge. 


You Don't Love Me Yet

"I think I am the same as an artist and as a person. Music is my way of communication and I see the art, the music as a whole thing, with no borders, divisions, or even genres." - https://soundcloud.com/haniarani

Hania Rani is a pianist, composer and musician who splits her life between Warsaw, where she makes her home, and Berlin where she studied and often works. She has written for strings, piano, voice and electronics and has collaborated with the likes of Christian Löffler, Dobrawa Czocher and Hior Chronik, and released an album with her Polish group tęskno last year. She has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in Europe - from the National Philharmony in Warsaw, to Funkhaus in Berlin, to The Roundhouse in London (where she made her debut at the Gondwana 10thanniversary festival last October) and at festivals such as Open'er, Scope Festival and Eurosonic. Her compositions for solo piano were born out of a fascination with the piano as an instrument, and her desire to interpret its sound and harmonic possibilities in their entirety and in her own way.

'Esja' is her debut solo album and for Rani it is her first, real, personal statement as an artist. "No hiding behind the "collaborations" or "projects" anymore. For the very first time, finally - just me, as I am".

Recorded at Rani's apartment in Warsaw (the piano room has a beautiful reverb and the space has become part art studio and part sound laboratory for Rani) and at her friend Bergur Þórisson'sstudio in Reykjavik, Esja is a series of beautiful melodic vignettes. Sensual, sensitive, rhythmic, atmospheric, free but harmonious, beguiling and hypnotic, collectively they project a sense of unlimited space and time.

Esja

Hawaii Oslo

Hania Rani - Hawaii Oslo (Piano Day 2019)

Founded by sonic architect and explorer Robert Raths aka ghostworker in 2007, Erased Tapes is a truly independent record label that has disrupted the industry and rejuvenated the musical landscape. The London-based label has consistently nurtured genre-defying artists from all around the world without losing its avant-garde ethos.

2015 saw BBC 6 Music radio presenter Mary Anne Hobbs stage an Erased Tapes evening featuring Nils Frahm and A Winged Victory For The Sullen at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the prestigious BBC Prom. It was the fastest selling ticket of the entire season. Shortly after Erased Tapes was awarded Best Small Label 2015 at the AIM Awards.

On February 5th 2017 Erased Tapes opened the doors to its new East London home, marking the 10th anniversary by introducing fans and the public to the new Erased Tapes Sound Gallery.

“Ten years of one of the most important record labels of the last few years“ — Gilles Peterson

"Over the last decade, Robert Raths’ label Erased Tapes has developed a sonic profile perfectly in step with the growing taste for quiet, meditative works on the cusp of ambient and chamber music" — The Independent

“The heart-string-tugging London label that floats gently between 20th century composition and ambient music” — Rolling Stone

Shards - Agnus Dei

Erased Tapes

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