I composed "Tour De Pyrénées” after a trip through them in 2012. The tour lasted five days and nights and I saw some unbelievable, beautiful ‘lost places’. The music represents the ups and downs of driving the car through the mountain pass, the voices of the people, and the landscape. 

Bjorn Rohde - Tour De Pyrénées

▁▄࿐₊˚.▇╗.•●. open plane .●•.▂࿐₊˚.▇

from 'Evighetsblomma': https://purl.bandcamp.com/album/evighetsblomma

'uncovered some 
glimmering remnants of a past life 
in a long forgotten part of 
my garden of sounds 
didn't want to bury them and 
forget them forever 
so dusted them off 
to let them tell their fragmented tales 
of dreams long gone 
indefinable longing 
and wonder'

Music by Ludvig Cimbrelius 

Art by Magda Kozuba ∣ www.instagram.com/magda_kozuba/

Evighetsblomma

Like it never was {cut}

from 'Calibrate' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den311
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/ricardodonoso

“Quicksilver frequencies, gravelly formants and shimmering, mirage-like washes of tone. Sometimes his sounds feel like signals picked up by a radio telescope, or pure electricity poured through a sieve” Pitchfork

“He displays a resistance towards the boundaries of genre, taking experimental, techno and noise templates and blending them with different range of sounds, delivering some of the most wonderfully eccentric and evocative music in recent memory” Dummy  

“Transcendently dark permutations” The Ransom Note

“A genre-defying electronic explorer” Exclaim

On November 30th Denovali records presents ‘Calibrate’ – the new album by respected underground figure, composer and producer Ricardo Donoso. As has now come to be expected from the questing musician, once again he has endeavoured to do things differently, pushing beyond any comfort-zone parameters. 

‘Calibrate’ proffers the highest of fidelity, with blockbuster sci fi levels of production value and bombast. Donoso channels sonic spirits across fluro pointillism, futuristic industrial tribalism and more serene moments of synthetic reflection.

Having never courted accessibility, Donoso remains as unbending as ever in his approach and unwavering in commitment to his craft. Calibrate takes Donoso’s polymetric abuse and sound design to all new extremes. Conflicting rhythms and swathes of electronic debris move in tandem, to create pieces that expand and contract in on themselves.

A journey through Calibrate is an exercise in instability and failure; its aggressiveness serves as a warning against the urge to seek safety on common ground, and its entire approach seems to display a hostility towards the increasingly homogenized nature of new electronic music. 

The first in a two-part series, ‘Calibrate’ seeks to explore not only the literal connotations of instrument accuracy, gauging and tuning, as represented by the constant flux of machinery and computer noise, but also explores calibration as an adjustment; to take external factors into account, or to allow comparison with other data. With ‘Calibrate’ Donoso continues to question what music is, and what it expects of him. 
Ricardo Donoso is a composer, percussionist and electronic musician from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil who currently resides in Boston. After having studied composition at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, he has participated in a slew of projects over the years, from holding down the drum chair in avant-metal visionaries Ehnahre, to scoring for recent documentary features such as Greg Barker’s ‘Homegrown: The Counter Terror Dilemma’ (HBO pictures 2016) and the Grand Prize short film winner in Brazilian cinema ‘Casimiro Effect’. Donoso has since collaborated with film makers and video artists on commissions worldwide, creating immersive environments and performances. 
As a solo recording artist, Donoso has released music on esteemed labels such as Denovali, Digitalis, Further Records and Hospital Productions, and continues to tour throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. He is most concerned with building and manipulating an immersive sound world that blurs the line between light and dark, hope and despair, past and future. Under a chain of progressive rhythms, cinematic textures and elegant melodicism, Donoso’s work pushes through with piercing strength, manipulating a sonic wave through space with nothing but mind-blowing intensity.

Calibrate

Ricardo Donoso - A Vigorous Unfolding

Rhucle / Fade In (Snippets)

A Warmer Welcome// a digital benefit in support of syrian refugee welfare // 110 Tracks // DL - 2016
https://www.discogs.com/Various-A-Warmer-Welcome/release/8140284

:Zoviet*France: - The White Sea

When ACL first started producing mixes, I knew that I didn't just want to invite artists and labels. We've always imagined ACL as a part of a broader community. As such I've often invited mixes from amateurs, from listeners and fellow critics. This mix is one of those.

Philippe Requena is a music lover who lives near Paris, and has been producing mixes casually for some time now, just putting them out once he's gathered enough tracks and samples. We will be featuring more of his mixes in the near future.

Water Be My Road Now

Philippe Requena presents 'Water Be My Road Now' [mix]

Louis XIV's Demons

Tropic of Coldness is an Italian-US duo both based in Brussels, Belgium. David Gutman and Giovanni La Placa have been recording together since 2011 and have released through labels such as Cathedral Transmissions, Organic Industries, Shimmering Moods, Glacial Movements and Krysalisound. Their live performances have taken them across the Belgian cities as well as London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Frankfurt, and a couple of venues in The Netherlands.

Their new album ‘Human Kindness’ has been inspired by the current social and political framework, in particular the rise and mainstreaming of far-right political movements with their disheartening racism, authoritarianism, intolerance, bigotry and science-denialism, just to name a few of their contributions to the regression of mankind.

It is also dedicated to all the people who, everywhere in the world, are trying to peacefully resist and oppose the deterioration of our societies by being kind, empathic and helpful towards their fellow human beings.

In this sense, each song title is the outcome of a reflection on one of the above mentioned issues or has been inspired by a particular event. The sounds are slow and evolving as a long process of fully improvised guitar patterns are finely tuned into cathartic drones.

These pieces are landscapes that tread the finest lines: between hope and despair, fragility and strength. In between these lines are each one of us and the choices we make.
credits
released October 4, 2020

Recorded and mixed in Brussels by Tropic of Coldness between September 2018 and December 2019.
Mastered by Alessandro Rorato in December 2019.
Artwork by Tropic of Coldness
Packaging design by Harry Towell

Human Kindness

wlr082 Tropic of Coldness - Human Kindness

from 'Karma' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den345
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/mansur

MANSUR is the newly initiated project by Jason Kohnen (ex-The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble) joined by Dimitry El-Demerdashi (ex-Phurpa) and introducing Martina Hórvath on vocals. The sound of MANSUR navigates between the waters of musical fantasy and reality - it morphs and blends traditional instrumentation with modern day electronica.

Horváth, El-Demerdashi and Köhnen return to their otherworldly worldbuilding with their debut album ‘Karma’ on Denovali. MANSUR leads the listener into mystical and magical unknowns, that lie far past the realms of material perception.

As astronomer Carl Saga once wrote “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known”.  Universal lessons of life, brought by teachings and teachers of ages. Unimaginary worlds in all our capacities of being created.  MANSUR is the transformational vessel guiding you to these non-physical realms. The realms you seek are already there, its up to you to find them.

Karma

Mansur - Memento Mori

Bardo Pond guitarists revive Vapour Theories
First new album in 15 years ‘Celestial Scuzz’
Out 26th February 2021

Pre-order: https://fire-records.lnk.to/VapourTheoriesCS 

• New album from brothers John and Michael Gibbons, the guitarists from psychedelic drone legends, Bardo Pond.

• Released on limited edition gold vinyl.

Bardo Pond guitarists, brothers John and Michael Gibbons revive their long-term sonic sparring side project Vapour Theories for a genre-shattering new release ‘Celestial Scuzz’.
 
Six years after a split LP with Loren Connors, and 15 years after ‘Joint Chiefs’ the duo have assembled a brand new Vapour Theories album that sees their symbiotic union travel deeper, shaping and re-shaping itself as the harmonious power struggle unravels…
 
Michael: “The balance of power definitely shifts. When the record is put together it is equal parts from me and my brother. The collaboration is complete and represents both sides of our taking the lead on material.”
 
‘Celestial Scuzz’ is a monumental sound piece created from hours of jam sessions and crafted into a cohesive mind-blowing trip. Featuring their take on Brian Eno’s ‘The Big Ship’ (‘Another Green World’, 1975), the album has a heavy ambience like Eno locked in a dark room with SunnO))))) rehearsing next door.
 
“When we play together there’s a kind of connection to vibrations for us. When it happens, we become vehicles for some unknown forces that work through us to create the music. A kind of spiritual. Most of the time it leaves us stunned; the more stunned we are the better the jam.”
 
While Bardo Pond’s trajectory takes them deep into rock music’s ever-imploding sound, the brothers Gibbons surf a more ethereal and eclectic plain; from a heady and consuming space, a “sanctuary; balm for the soul.”

 
Released on limited edition gold vinyl, ‘Celestial Scuzz’ is available on 26th February on Fire Records.

Vapour Theories - Breaking Down(The Portals Of Hell)

"Daringly different and dazzlingly diverse" Rough Trade

TROPICAL FUCK STORM / DERADOORIAN / THE LEMONHEADS / EARTH / LUCKY BREAK / HAYLIE DAVIS / WHITNEY K / BLACK LIPS / MONDE UFO / PICTISH TRAIL / GRAHAM REYNOLDS / VANISHING TWIN / JANE WEAVER / DECISIVE PINK / MARINA ALLEN / RVG / BAS JAN / MARTA DEL GRANDI / ISLET / ELLA RAPHAEL / FATEN KANAAN / LUCY GOOCH / HATER / RATS ON RAFTS / JOSEPHINE FOSTER / DEATH AND VANILLA / ROYAL TRUX / KRISTIN HERSH / THROWING MUSES / THE CHILLS / HALF JAPANESE / SEBADOH / THE DREAM SYNDICATE / AMBER ARCADES

Vapour Theories - Breaking Down(The Portals Of Hell)

FIRE RECORDS