mmmorning..nice way to wake up - thank you Black Merlin

to remember

Celebrated for producing the weirdest minimal concoctions around, Carina Lohmeyer, the female sound engineer hiding behind the aesthetic moniker Souki, celebrated her initial breakthrough in 2009 when her first releases got picked up by no other than Marco Carola. Since then, Souki, hailing from the South of Germany and relocated to Berlin, has moved countless partygoers with her fearless one-channel mixing approach which she swears by as it results in maximum club pressure. Truly enough, her exclusive live set oozes sweaty outbreaks of muscle flexing combined with airy female vocals recorded live with flatmates and befriended artists. A special one indeed.

Souki/Live/Podcast/Meoko033

Black Merlin, or George Thompson to his Mum, first came to our attention with his outstanding Brunswick Drive 12" on Commander Weatherall's Bird Scarer label last year. Since then, we've kept a keen eye on his movements and his unique form of 80's inspired, cinematic and analogue heavy aesthetic has earned him further releases on the excellent World Unknown imprint and Mike Simonetti's New Jersey. Look out for an as yet untitled release on London's LN-CC. We are pleased to welcome him into the Clandestino fold.

soundcloud.com/black-merlin

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Clandestino 016 - Black Merlin

This is a 4:22 edit of the 12:08 track from the 1984 album with the same title.

My brother and I visited Klaus Schulze, staying at his home studio in Germany, in the wizard's workshop in the woods in winter. The walls were lined with patch-cabled analog synths. It was kind of magical trying to draw out from him our favorite kinds of Klaus spaces.  

Back in NYC (where we were both living at the time) I wrote the TSB parts over a long spacey track called "Communiqué". I was kind of shocked that it had those parts in it, waiting to be found! Then in a NYC studio Mike and Will Lee locked in the groove, Hiram Bullock added a smooth chord part, and I played all the guitar melodies and overlaid the Wurly piano and some synth counter-melodies.

I'll always remember sitting right next to Will Lee while he laid down that groove with Mike, and the intensity of their concentration. It was deep, like a force field!

A while later, back in San Francisco at Stephen Hill's Hearts of Space studio, we rearranged TSB, cutting up the tape and moving the sections around. (no ProTools then!) Mike recently created this edit. 
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/transfer-station-blue/id194910880

Michael Shrieve - Transfer Station Blue (edit)

Beautiful, complex ambient, performed live at our fundraiser for Salon Des Amateurs. Recorded on May 20th, just before the release of Passive Aggressive, his collaborative album with Suzanne Kraft. Check out the RA Review here: https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/20642

RA Live: 20.05.17 - Jonny Nash, Salon Des Amateurs, Dusseldorf

In contrast to his quiet demeanour, Jonny 5's musical exploits are bold, unconventional and brimming with playful eccentricities. While occasionally indulging a fondness for dub, this mix follows in a similar vein to the Blindsign shows on I-F's Intergalactic FM. As expected, there's no shortage of strange and evocative music as Jonny masterfully traverses genres. Preferring to remain in the moment, beat-matching was sacrificed for selection, covering many bases over the 75 minute duration. Of course there are the Neue Deutsche Welle, post-punk and cosmic sounds we've grown accustomed to, with Jonny throwing in a couple of edits he's still working on for good measure.

@blindsign

If-Only Podcast #15: Jonny 5

The Field Work Tumblr feed is a miscellany of outlandish visuals, most recently taking a satirical turn, posting GIFs of Donald Trump and Bill Gates and videos of London stock brokers and an aggressively confident motivational speaker titled "Stop Selling Start Closing". Occurring monthly, their NTS show is equally offbeat – scroll through the archived recordings and you'll see the South London-based foursome have a taste for the peculiar, incorporating genres like spoken word, ambient and kosmische into their broadcasts. Regularly tuning in to see what the FW gang have in store, it was only a matter of time before we got them on board for a mix.

If-Only Podcast #16: Field Work

Khaliphonic’s eighth release is an absolutely unique seven track full length LP of beautifully focused outer dubwise excursions by some of our favorite artists.  “Sounds From The Well: Collection 1” hauls in a net of captivating left-of-center sound system music rooted in or in some way influenced by the music of the Mediterranean or the Maghreb, the Near East or North Africa.  An immersive journey from start to finish, this is one for the headphones as well as the sound system.   

Gulls & XJ mangle gasbah flute-heavy rai vibes for a journey into trance-inducing Algerian funk. 

Dubmonger & LXC build a sparkling, crunching, head-nodding beast that marries boom bap and Arabesque keyboard meanderings.  

Sonza’s abstract chamber jazz builds from ambient abstraction to a mesmerizing, plaintive, percussion heavy masterwork of Anatolian dub vibes.

Alter Echo & E3 indulge their love of psychedelic dubwise with a riddim indebted to the reggada of Morocco,   that sounds like nothing if not a night journey through a desert by moonlight.

The increasingly elusive El Mahdy Jr graces us with a gorgeous track of rhythmic complexity and emotional weight. 

The album is bookended by two early, unreleased string quartet & percussion recordings by the legendary Badawi, lush and ominous, recently transferred from their 20th Century tape masters.

Available worldwide mid-August.  Limited to 500 copies, vinyl LP only, no digital, no repress.  Art & design by Polygon Press.  Mastered by Lewis at Stardelta.

A1 - Badawi: No Prisoners
A2 - Gulls & XJ: Medjool 
A3 - Dubmonger & LXC: 101 Delaytionz
A4 - Sonza: Untitled

B1 - Alter Echo & E3 - Rif Mountains Dub
B2 - El Mahdy Jr - Love At Last Sight
B3 - Badawi: Kanun

"Sounds From The Well" Khaliphonic 08 Various Artists LP vinyl rip sampler

One of two remixes of Pierre Bastien and Eddie Ladoire's Phantom Dance #0 for the garden. Thanks to Gilb'r. Released on @versatile-records December 2017.

Pierre Bastien Et Eddie Ladoire - Phantom Dance #0 (Oceanic Garden Version)

Download

Don't Be Afraid Takeover - Cassie Clarke - Saturday 10th March 2018

Red Light Radio 03-31-2018

Pre-Order

Anna Homler & Steve Moshier – Deliquium In C

Field Work VI with 
Land of Light (LIVE) 
Black Merlin (DJ)
Friday 5th April 
The Grosvenor, 17 Sidney Road, SW9 0TP
Doors: 22:00
£5 EARLY ADV  

Field Work is journeying deep into the fog with a special double feature on Friday 5th April. LAND OF LIGHT (Live) and BLACK MERLIN will be playing mesmeric and psychedelic music for body and soul.

LAND OF LIGHT (London-based duo Kyle Martin & Jonny Nash) put out one of our favourite records of last year on ESP Institute (Cos/Mes etc) and will be playing a rare live dance floor set with a whole load of analogue and digital hardware. This is going to be a truly beautiful trip, dream-logic dance music that's as natural as breathing. Ambient in the truest sense; Land of Light can transform a room and set a mood like few others. We're so excited to see them play. 

BLACK MERLIN (aka George Thompson) is the soundtrack to late night cable TV watching where Videodrome is the only signal. His first 12” 'Brunswick Drive’ (on Andrew Weatherall's Bird Scarer) was a statement of intent; a mid-paced, atmospheric groove that builds and destroys. Field Work will be treated to an extended DJ set summoned from the dark corners of body music, including a whole arsenal of dubplates from the BM vaults themselves. Wild sounds for wild scenes- just check out this exclusive mix. Look out for forthcoming releases on Mike Simonetti’s New Jersey label and World Unknown.

As always, we'll be in the backroom of the Grosvenor (17 Sidney Road, Stockwell tube). No messing around - just smoke, lazers, and a room full of people going crazy to good music. Oh and cheap drinks too. See you there x

LIMITED £5 ADV TICKETS are available online: http://www.wegottickets.com/sct/5HEbvFUvQj

In person at the Grosvenor: http://www.thegrosvenorsw9.co.uk/

Pickup from Camberwell/Brixton/Streatham by emailing mailto:fieldworklondon@gmail.com 

FW x



Black Merlin (Field Work Mix)

All vinyls in this mix are made for 45rpm and played at 33rpm.
you know the deal!




SPEED ADJUSTMENT

Field Work monthly on NTS: www.nts.live/shows/fieldwork
GIFwork and more on insta: @FieldWorkLondon 
and http://fieldworklondon.tumblr.com/

Black Merlin (Field Work Mix)

FieldWorkLondon

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