Gabriel Saloman – Riots Don't Just Happen IGR01

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Requiem (for Violin and Magnetic Tape) IGR02

Limited 10" available from 10th March 2014.

Jan St. Werner – Split Animal Sculpture (Edit) IGR03

Tuhka, like its titular cinder or ash symbolises new beginnings, fertile ground and creativity after a long lapse. In the same vein, the tracks on this edition were created after a long fallow period. 

Tuhka was created out of archival snippets and new vocal loops created on the sunny top floor of Merlijnstraat in early 2022. Late lockdown there was spent writing on the balcony and walking or playing in nearby parks. This creative but relaxed time is embodied in the feeling on ’Tuhka,’ a release wrapping itself around the core of two long-form tracks:

Kärpässieni is a soft, pensive number, with an archival cheap synth track and a chopped-up mystery field recording mingling with a simple subdued vocal loop. There is a titular reference to amanita mushrooms, a fungi encompassing the mystery and the melancholy bitterness present in the track. The feeling is akin to a frosty morning spent on a walk to the Mercatorplein library and feeling your toes start numbing.

Varisevalehti means ’shudderingleaf’ and it consists of an airy, optimistic voice loop that progresses and winds around the length of the track. Alongside it, at times you can hear tape-manipulated samples from a ’learn Italian’ record I used to own. The feeling is more of a wander around Westerpark when the blossoms have started come loose and fly around in the air, forming soft pink deposits in the corners of streets. 

Thanks to Haron Aumaj for enduring support and for the copious quantities of Banjaan borani.

Tuhka

Cucina Povera - Kärpässieni (excerpt)

Cucina Povera - Varisevalehti (excerpt)

Infinite Greyscale is delighted to present a new long-form composition by Holly Herndon. Body Sound was composed by Herndon, in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Cuauhtemoc Peranda, and performed at Stanford University CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics).
 
Peranda’s body acts like a voice, guiding the listener through this complex yet visceral piece. Herndon restructured the sounds of the dancer’s body to make an arrangement that is simultaneously rhythmic, fragmented, and incredibly physical. In real time, she spatialized the sound-body using ambisonics in a field of 8 speakers, while Peranda performed the original choreography, creating an uncanny duet of physical and virtual bodies. Body Sound is all about the dancer making contact with the ground; a dragged heels squeaks, his rolling torso sends tumbling shockwaves through the speakers, and each stomp of a foot is a blast of sub-bass. Herndon builds on this source material, taking time to bend the sounds into an abstract sculptural form, only to pause again and reveal the dancer’s sonorous breath.
 
A great sense of optimism resonates through Body Sound. This is the sound of a living, breathing body in space, and a powerfully expressive document of experimental sound art. 



Single sided 10”, pressed on light blue vinyl with screen-printed b-side. Numbered edition of 300.  
Handmade artwork by Paul McDevitt and Cornelius Quabeck. Screenprint by Ulrich Schmidt-Novak. 
Includes numbered insert, photograph, and download code.
Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.

Holly Herndon – Body Sound IGR04

Infinite Greyscale is delighted to present a new long-form composition by Stara Rzeka. The Polish village of Stara Rzeka and its surrounding countryside were devastated by a huge tornado on the 14th of July 2012. Stara Rzeka is where musician Kuba Ziołek, who adopted the name as one of several artistic projects, spends his summers, and the morning following the storm Ziołek was present to witness the aftermath. 
 
This self-titled piece opens to the crackle of electricity in the air and a distinct impression of menace. The distortion softens, but never truly fades, as it gives way to song; a graceful and melancholy ode to what nature has been divested of in the storm. Eventually this human presence, like the tornado, departs to leave the composition sounding like the land itself; wounded but brimming with life, buzzing and psychedelic. 

The fact that the artist, music, and location all exist under one heading suggests that these elements are interdependent and inseparable. This is music as elegiac at it is sanguine, at perpetual as it is fixed in time, and here Stara Rzeka is all of those things.



Single sided 10”, pressed on dark green vinyl with screen-printed b-side. Numbered edition of 300.  
Handmade artwork by Paul McDevitt and Cornelius Quabeck. Screenprint by Ulrich Schmidt-Novak. 
Includes numbered insert, photograph, and download code.
Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.


Stara Rzeka – Stara Rzeka IGR05

Infinite Greyscale is delighted to present a new long-form composition by Anduin. Since 2008, Jonathan Lee has been releasing beguiling and dusky cinematic music to great acclaim. Last Days of Montrose House is a deeply impressionistic work that’s constantly changing scene and perspective. Like entering a long abandoned building, it suggests both physical space and the unknown. 

The sound of a projector rolls to a foreboding rumble that invites the listener into a smoky, wide screen vision. Eventide drones give way to shuddering beats that emerge from shadowy depths. Distant sounds, both familiar and unrecognizable, pierce through layers of static. And just when it seems there’s no more air left in the room, the piece moves into another chapter – no single element ever outstaying its welcome. 

Last Days of Montrose House is both a complex narrative and an immersive environment. Comes with download code, including remixes by Stephen Vitiello, Radere, Borne, Chester Hawkins, .thejass., Elian, and Tag Cloud, totaling 47 minutes of bonus material.

Single sided 10”, pressed on silver vinyl with screen-printed B-side. Numbered edition of 300.  

Handmade artwork by Paul McDevitt and Cornelius Quabeck. 
Screenprint by Ulrich Schmidt-Novak. 
Includes numbered insert, photograph, and download code.
Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.
Remixes mastered by Bryan Walthall at Sound of Music, Richmond.


Anduin – Last Days of Montrose House IGR06

Wanne 4, by renowned German artist and musician Markus Oehlen, is composed of a variety of percussive sounds with a focus on digital guitars. An homage to the sound of The Feelies early recordings, the track slowly works its way through a basic guitar riff of three chords accompanied by steel-drums and a steady bass drum beat giving it an air of a summer breeze until the guitar sounds gain more distortion. Occasionally broken up by disruptive by drum fills possibly performed by a stoned robot the song slowly morphs into a guitar-strumming finale with a clarinet solo of sorts.

Wanne 4 is a beautiful piece of woozy instrumental techno, a surf-dub summer tune for people who prefer Palma to Ibiza and Jessy Lanza to Katy Perry.

Besides having worked as a painter exhibiting internationally for almost 40 years and being a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Markus Oehlen is known as one of the pioneers of German punk music (as the original drummer of Dusseldorf Punks Charley‘s Girls and Mittagspause) as well as being a previous member of The Red Krayola. His 1985 release Beer Is Enough has been called one of the first sampling records. Oehlen continued to release electronic music under the moniker Don Hobby and as Van Oehlen (with brother Albert Oehlen). Wanne 4 (IGR08) marks his first physical release since Rock & Roll Is Here To Die, 2003 on Blue Chopsticks (BC10).

Markus Oehlen – Wanne 4 IGR08

The Beacon Sound Choir is a project instigated by multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick. Recorded at Beacon Sound, a record shop and label in Portland, Oregon, Sunday Morning Drones is a work of improvised vocal drone in two parts.

Comprising over 30 singers, Sunday Morning Drones explores the oscillating harmonics of the choir as individual voices coalesce into that of a group. Through an assembly of voices joined in song, the two tracks here resonate with notions of collaboration and community. While of course there is a devotional aspect to the music and its title, it has less to do with the divine and more with a profound and moving group experience. 

"We never sang any songs written by other people… mostly we worked with ideas from people within the group. A lot of people contributed ideas for songs, and sometimes we would make stuff up on the spot all together. We’d meet at 10am, drink coffee and chat for a bit, and then when we were ready we’d all stand in a circle and begin. We always started with a few vocal warm-ups, and then we’d do a drone together. These drones were my favorite part of the choir, and a big part of why I kept the choir going. Someone would start singing a note (usually me), then everyone would join in on that same note, then we’d all start branching off to different notes, and eventually we’d come back to the same note and end together. I think we all felt this was a really beautiful, incredibly therapeutic exercise, and often when we finished, we’d all just stand there in silence for what felt like ages… no one wanted to be the first one to utter a word after such an experience."
Peter Broderick, 2015


The Beacon Sound Choir – Sunday Morning Drones (drone 1) IGR09

Lichter is the first piece in a new series of electroacoustic dub compositions by Mouse on Mars. It is a massive, lurching, up-tempo percussive epic – a long-haul runaway train that keeps switching tracks without ever losing sight of its destination. Like much of Mouse on Mars’ output, Lichter deftly traverses a varied sonic landscape, encompassing elements of jazz, dub, krautrock juke and psychedelia. 

Lichter incorporates trigger robots built by Sonic Robots’ Moritz Simon Geist and features Andi Toma & Jan St. Werner’s long time collaborator Dodo NKishi on percussion. The basic layers were produced with a feedback software called smrph, and were edited, arranged and used as a foundation for various live and studio improvisations. The 13min track, Lichter, is a concentration of these various layers. Lichter is also a highly visual piece, and performed live it employs a bespoke network of light-bulbs triggered by data derived from the sounds and pulses of the composition.

Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner have been recording and playing live as Mouse on Mars since 1993, and have released over a dozen albums. In 2014 the duo celebrated their 21st birthday with a curated festival at Berlin’s HAU theatres, and an accompanying compilation which showcased the band’s numerous collaborations. 

*This is an edited version of Lichter. The vinyl version is 13 min*


Lichter

Mouse on Mars – Lichter (excerpt) IGR10

Light the Currents is the second release by Glasgow’s Sound of Yell, following their 2014 LP Brocken Spectre on Chemikal Underground. Composed by Stevie Jones, and performed together with Vikki Morton and Georgie McGeown, Light the Currents is a bright and buoyant acoustic arrangement in two parts; the first written for a special performance at an exhibition of artwork by Katy Dove at Dundee Contemporary Arts in October 2016, the second written afterwards as a response to Dove’s animations and paintings, as well as the experience of playing there. Stevie Jones is one of the great music collaborators of Scotland involving himself with variety of projects between theater and Scottish folk music and Jazz, all to the benefit of his own project. Sound of Yell have a musical dexterity and lightness of touch that seem distinctly Glasgow. These two gorgeous compositions are the perfect summer soundtrack.

IGR11

Light the Currents

Sound of Yell – Light the Currents (part 1) IGR11

Micromanic is a colossal slab of percussive energy composed and performed by Berlin based Matti Gajek. Micromanic begins with tentative steps, which soon morph into a chattering electronic birdsong before giving way to an assertive, hammering bassline. The structure eventually crumbles into discordant noise and echoes, eventually giving way to something gentler and almost bucolic. Gajek weaves a complex and varied narrative with absolute technical aplomb, resulting in an experimental and hypnotic recast of Krautrock. Gajek is signed to Monkeytown Records and recently toured with Chris Clark. He is also a member of the freshly formed New Composers Collective (NCC) together with Andi Toma, Jan St. Werner and Michael Rauter.

IGR12

Micromanic

Gajek – Micromanic (excerpt) IGR12

Infinite Greyscale is pleased to release Damn Luei Lit  a new 10“ recording by Andi Toma, also known as one half of electronic music pioneers Mouse on Mars.  Following on from the band’s percussive masterclass, Lichter (also on Infinite Greyscale) and their ambitious 2018 album Dimensional People (Thrill Jockey), Damn Luei Lit sees Toma going it alone in an exploration of off-kilter rhythms and extraterrestrial sounds. From an opening of bird song an inorganic structure is assembled; and with the stage constructed, the performance begins. What follows is a deep and engrossing exploration of an alien ethnography. Within a frame of hypnotic rhythms Toma traverses sounds and rituals to reveal field recordings from another planet.

Damn Lieu Lit

1 March 2019

Andi Toma – Damn Luei Lit (excerpt)

Infinite Greyscale is delighted to present 10 new recordings by Alasdair Roberts. Alternating between unaccompanied songs and instrumental tracks, Roberts presents traditional compositions at their most raw and affecting. 

The Tunes

I am indebted to my piping friend Donald Lindsay for The Blythsome Bridal, The Braes of Tulliemet and The Smith’s a Gallant Fireman, while Chief O’Neill’s Favourite and The Flowers of Edinburgh were learnt from my fiddling friend Neil McDermott. The Blythsome Bridal is used as the melody to a comic lyric called ‘Fy Let Us A’ To The Bridal’ first published in 1706.  The Braes of Tulliemet lie near the Perthshire town of Pitlochry.  The Smith’s a Gallant Fireman is also known as ‘Carrick’s Rant’. Chief O’Neill was Francis O’Neill (1848-1936), who was born in County Cork, emigrated to the USA as a young man and eventually became chief of the Chicago Police from 1901 to 1905. The Flowers of Edinburgh was first published in James Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion around 1760.  The guitars are fretted in the following positions as the tunes appear on the record: II, II, V, VII and V.

The Songs

My family stayed in a haunted house in the village of Balquhidder for a very short while in the early 1980s after moving from Germany to Scotland.  However, I only took to singing The Braes of Balquhidder very recently after hearing a recording of it sung by the late Tim Lyons. The Seasons was learnt from the singing of the late Aberdeen singer Lizzie Higgins, daughter of Jeannie Robertson.  Edinburgh-based Ulsterman Cathal McConnell knows many fine songs, most of which are collected in his book/CD set I Have Travelled This Country.  I learnt this version of The Curragh of Kildare from that source.  The late Sheila Stewart of Rattray, near Blairgowrie, is the source of my version of False, False.  I would be unable to attribute my singing of Roberts Burns’ The Silver Tassie to a single source, owing to its general popularity in Scotland. I am forever indebted to all the fine singers and musicians mentioned above, and to many others unmentioned, for passing on songs and tunes to me over the years.

Alasdair Roberts
London, June 2020

Infinite Greyscale

Popular tracks