Full of dreamy textures and languid melodies, XOOMIN is a soundtrack for drifting off into the abyss, but in the hands of Alloy Sea (a.k.a. Mor Elian), that journey feels downright playful. Although the Berlin-based producer is best known for her dancefloor-focused creations, 2020’s Petrichor (a 50-minute composition that officially debuted the Alloy Sea project) showcased an unexpected talent for abstract soundscapes and arrhythmic jitters, hinting at ambient techno but ultimately offering something much more adventurous.

XOOMIN—an album that was specifically written for Paralaxe Editions after label founder Dania Shihab reached out to Elian about working together on a new Alloy Sea release—ventures into similarly ethereal waters as Petrichor, but it’s also brighter and more colorful than its predecessor, its gleaming FM synth improvisations flanked by scuttling rhythmic bursts and the occasional wonky bassline, not to mention celestial snippets of Elian’s own voice. It’s not pop, but it’s not quite ambient either, floating instead in a nebulous (and sneakily fun) zone that borrows from new age, IDM and the weirder corners of bass music.  

______

Music by Mor Elian.
Mixed by Rhyw.
Mastered by Rupert Clervaux.
Design by Oficina de disseny.
Printed at L'automatica.
Text by Shawn Reynaldo.

Alloy Sea - You stepped outside

Freedom

Nina Garcia : guitare électrique
Arnaud Rivière : électrophone réparé et table de mixage préparée

Mastering : James Plotkin
Visuel et Design : Hélène Marian 
Enregistrement et mixage : Étienne Foyer 
Éditions Gravats, 2025

------------------------------------------

Autoreverse brings together Arnaud Rivière (prepared turntable - we should say damaged or destroyed), a kingpin of the French noise underground as a programmer at Instants Chavirés and Sonic Protest, team player with Otomo Yoshihide, Erik M, and a hundred others, ; and Nina Garcia (guitar & feedback), recently recruited by Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label after giving the whole of the Paris region a taste for noise guitar solos with her Mariachi project ("Guitar, pedal. That's all’, as his Discogs puts it. What he doesn't say is that it's EVERYTHING - a world, a cosmos in itself) – culminating in a self-titled album and instant classic (Mariachi, No Lagos, 2018), and various collaborations (Maria Bertel, Mamiedaragon). 

Their music, already been featured in two live cassettes, stems from assiduous concert practice. Autotunes is something like the duo's core in fission. They throw themselves into improvisation with little patience for detours : the position is clean-cut hardcore – less over-the-top clatter and more about finding the cutting edge, with an insistence on fine-tuning the limits of the instruments, attacking the raw and the gritty with maximum precision: the result is an irradiating flow of rare metals and certified toxins.

In one of the record's many climaxes, bleeps extruded from who knows where battle with the strumming of white-hot guitar strings. But there's a whole host of distinct techniques and sonorities at work here: seamless attacks, amplified scrap metal, just-caught feedbacks, provoked chances, melodies that invite themselves in but don't stay for dinner, rhythmic sketches and glimpsed zones of beauty, built-up and cracked materials, expected and unexpected counterpoints. The intensities vary from start to finish: howling, eruptive bursts of harsh noise microswitchs, shapeless feedback whining and growling, but also more meditative harmonics and resonances.

This is reinforced by the didactic and generous structure of the record, which first methodically exposes the takes played in the studio through ‘horizontal’ sequencing (A1), before repeating the same material ‘vertically’ in a meticulous work of hollowing out and elisions. Autotunes manifests a distinctive ability to maintain an astonishing dynamic in the depths of the post-industrial cavern left by Throbbing Gristle (‘Slug Bait’ period), Maurizio Bianchi and all. 

With Autoreverse, it's no longer time to marvel at our various abilities and tactics, but to tighten the mesh. In the way it coolly reviews the possibilities, in its peaceful radicalism, in its attitude of less noise, more impact, this record helps us to conceive what a comrade called once ‘an ethic of our violence’.

Autoreverse - A1. HI-SPEED DUB indicator

Heith - The Scrollkeeper (PAN 147S2)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 147S2
Release Date: 15 April 2025
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/TheScrollkeeper

Heith shares 'The Scrollkeeper', the second single from the upcoming album 'Escape Lounge', out via PAN on April 25th, 2025 - accompanied by a new music video.

Written and produced by Heith and Leonardo Rubboli
Drums by Jacopo Battaglia
Harmonica and Synthesizer by Leonardo Rubboli
Mixed at TWS
Mastered by Amir Shoat
Artwork by Heith and Nicola Tirabasso

Heith - The Scrollkeeper (PAN 147S2)

Nick Malkin hosts Post-Geography, featuring ambient and atmospheric selections, live from the NTS studio in L.A.
 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/post-geography/episodes/post-geography-18th-april-2025

Post-Geography 180425

Carte blanche aux artistes sonores, compositrices et musiciennes multi-instrumentistes Ruta et Swann Texier à l'occasion du 32e épisode d'Afraa, l'émission mensuelle de Sébastien Forrester sur Rinse France.

Sébastien Forrester Afraa avec Ruta & Swann Texier - 28 Avril 2025

Tune into Coby Sey's show on a Monday afternoon for a masterful selection of his own tunes alongside favourites and influences. Sedated hip-hop, drone, ambience and other glacial and sludge sounds. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/coby-sey/episodes/coby-sey-28th-april-2025

Coby Sey w/ Sébastien Forrester 280425

alr1ght

Egress VII

cmxihiii [unused]

Hamza - Bac +12 feat. Koba LaD (Afraamix)

Percussionnist, composer, sound chaser

@shape-platform 23-24
Afraa 🏴 monthly show on @rinse_france

Booking (France): 
valentin@limitrophe-production.fr

Releases on Superpang, @prmsss, @hitd-3, @paradoxeclub, @not-not-fun-1, @atelierciseaux

Drums, both live & studio, for @cobysey, Alpha Maid, @ahossan, @lafawndah, @apollonoirisnoir, @jorrdan-xx, @toroazor, HSRS, @francoisatlas, etc

Hamza - Bac +12 feat. Koba LaD (Afraamix)

Sébastien Forrester

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