cold

qwqwqwqwa - shadow (ft. sop.io)

PLIB-031 KEVIN DRUMM & JOACHIM NORDWALL -  OLD PAIN
RELEASES FEBRUARY 1, 2025

Kevin Drumm & Joachim Nordwall have, respectively, spent collective decades carving out new pathways in the realms of electroacoustic, drone, ambient, noise, and improvised experimental music. Their variably multiplied ripple effect across the sonorous waters of disruptive sound cultures are indellibly marked by the touch of these two artists. Neither being strangers to intensive collaborations, the two stalwarts of meditative sonic practice convene to offer Psychic Liberation the eight song album Old Pain. At just under an hour, the pair shine in a complementary fashion across perfectly constructed chapters pulling from their signature tool kits of atmospheric field recordings, tape loops, and pensive oscillations. Cautiously sharing space, the album is at times as brooding as it is transcendent. 

Old Pain is an album nearly two decades in the making. Beginning in 2006, Drumm and Nordwall endeavored to record together in Chicago, a session ultimately abandoned purportedly due to the influence of “Listening to Finnish Black Metal and drinking good brews”. In 2007, Drumm released the cassette Purge on Nordwalls iconic label IDEAL Recordings. Later ,in 2013, Purge was reissued on CD for IDEAL and a subsequent performance together in New York City found the two still in each other's orbit. Later, Kevin would make an appearance in collaboration with Nordwall on his Communication Is The Key Album for Entr’acte in 2019. Whereas previous in-person sessions faltered, Old Pain was the result of the two artists working in their respective winter-heavy geographies of Chicago and Gothenburg, trading files until completion.

Today, Drumm and Nordwall are totems of an era of true advancement in tonal despair. Drumm’s output has been that of mythology, creating some of the most singular works in the canon of experimental music. Nordwall, an equally notable peer as maker, has maintained the global standards and operations of challenging art through his IDEAL Recordings project while performing in solo and collaborative contexts globally. Between the two, it would be a near impossible task to find an iteration of any peer or generation following not touched by the massive cultural imprint they’ve cemented. Finally, with Old Pain, we have a document of two masters of their form able to stretch their legs and pronounce a cohesive gesture of sonic material that will stand to long linger below the surface of comfort.


PLIB-031 KEVIN DRUMM & JOACHIM NORDWALL - 2

Hüma Utku returns to Editions Mego with her new album. 'Dracones’. The title Dracones makes reference to the mediaeval latin term "Hic sunt dracones" (Here be dragons), marking the unexplored, dangerous places on world maps, expressing the fear of chaos, the unexpected and the unknown.

This new work by the Istanbul sound artist is a sonic journal of an expedition into uncharted territory, one which occupies self and domesticity. Inspired by Utku’s experience of matrescence, Dracones explores the themes of familial demonology, metamorphosis and homecoming as well as human relationship to the experience of love woven layers of euphoria, alienation and consumption.

Musically, Dracones traverses a wide array of sonic tools whereby industrial sounds are imbedded with certain psychological angles, this is an album where, all matter meshes into a sly snapshot of the human experience with a tension and release exposure occurring frequently with dark corners opening up to bright layers of electronic experimentation.

The haunting opening track ‘A World Between Worlds’ tackles pregnancy, of which Utku was experiencing when making this record. The emotional, physical, spiritual and mental experience of this journey is all documented here.. This track features the ‘Lyraei’, an electromagnetic string instrument and modern interpretation of the ancient lyre, that was built and played by Mihalis Shammas. ‘Comfort of The Shadows’ moves from within to without, what was once hidden is now exposed. Utku’s ability to conjure the visual in the sonic is at the forefront as howling electronics give a distinct impression of movement. ‘A Familial Curse’ presents a desire to break the cycle of generational trauma with a creeping sense of dread that rolls into an industrial rhythm prior to landing in a beautiful place represented with shimmering guitar tones. ‘Here be Dragons’ is a rich and dark evocation, a spooked surrender to the themes of the record whereby Utku’s wildly distorted voice beckons all manner of phantasmagoria over cello and recordings of her ultrasound. ‘Care in Consume’ engages in further sonic exploration as a means of conjuring ‘matriphagy’, with its unique psychic energy coursing through electronic veins. ‘A House within a House’ could also be read as a body within a body as the pulse of ultrasound audio rattle amongst a cage of thudding rhythms and swirling electronics, one also ending in optimism as an exquisite melody is born from the prior fire. The striking journey ends with the more soothing ‘Ayaz’a’, a track embracing love and all the hardships that a period of fundamental metamorphosis brings, this is a heartfelt dedication to her son and concludes an album draped in life, experience, joy and pain.

Dracones is a deeply visual journey through inner and outer worlds, a space where symbolic evocation is supreme and passive listening is not an option.

All tracks composed,performed and recorded by Hüma Utku  
Buchla 100, vocals, cello, electric guitar performed by Hüma Utku  
‘’A World Between Worlds’’ features the ‘Lyraei’ built, played and recorded by Mihalis Shammas  
Buchla 100 recorded in EMS Stockholm 2022-2023

Mixed by Enyang Urbiks  
Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC  
Cover Artwork by Marco Ciceri  
Design by Tina Frank

Dracones

Hüma Utku 'Comfort Of The Shadows' (EMEGO318)

CPU128

Stellar Awakening

KAGAMI Smile - Illogical Dream Sequence - from "Parallel Floating" [FAM138]

Berlin-based drummer and producer Max von der Goltz presents his new 5-track tape-recorded ambient EP 'From a Distance' on the label.

The project translates everyday moments and habits into simplified, yet powerful compositions of analogue synthesisers and piano recordings.

Artwork by Ronja-Elina Kappl
Written, produced & mixed by Max von der Goltz
Mastered by Ioannis Nafpliotis

From a Distance

Max von der Goltz - 2pm

51: Music Lovers Anonymous

MLA:
Garland - Kristiansand
miniheartsbeatingtimedexplosion - reverie,,charm
Theodore & Natalia - Reaching You
Rogergoon - About Two Days
pontiac streator & ben bondy - all worth it w u there (feat. light)
Lucien Balconi - ANGY
Los Thuthanakas - Q’iwanakax-Q’iwsanakax Utjxiwa
music lovers anonymous - unreleased
music lovers anonymous - unreleased
bod [包家巷] - axial prayer crucible + Phoebe Isobel + Drogas + Losty
Everwonder2 (Perfume x Foo Fighters) - inter alia
love life all the time - illustrated guide for walking
cdight - practice-3
Luna Lalich - Suddenly
J - She was a friend to me ‘live’
Los Thuthanakas - Parrandita “Sariri Tunupa”
Theodore & Natalia - Reaching You

deskulling:
Axine M - Bored Giant Engine Sputter
Seta Loto - Complete Walkthrough [Ghosttown]
Infant - mildew
Kate Miller - Fenced Fringes
Mika Oki - loveàfaire
Lucien Balconi - Cuore Spezzato
derit - thumbleweed
Forever United - Wherever You Will Go
BROOD, whatever51, xato - ESCAPE
0rChead420 - www.instagram.comorchead420 
serpuline - Oak.huT.In.forezT.Trail ᨒ
Áron Lőrinczi - Lullaby II
16:9 ratio - Krujë, Albania
swan durh - soft love
still life
addison rae - headphones on (deskulling edit)
5NONE5 - 2 souls
Elazy - psa
Dead Lincoln - new illusions


51: Music Lovers Anonymous

2023-12_dread-pulse_175BPM_03m24s_CC.WIP

Machina (Eros)

TheQualityOfMercyIsNotStrained

Artist collective and record label, focusing on abstract art and experimental music

https://www.fallenmetropolis.com/

Snapshots from a possible future...

music@fallenmetropolis.com

KAGAMI Smile - Illogical Dream Sequence - from "Parallel Floating" [FAM138]

Fallen Metropolis