halina rice

A series of guest mixes, streaming here and featured on Dublin Digital Radio every month.
Also available at: www.eotrax.com/

Mix 16 comes from LA based Iranian-American artist Maral (@maral66). A beautifully eclectic mix featuring 'edits of Iranian dub, unreleased tunes and tracks I've been digging.'

Maral has spent the past half-decade quietly honing an approach that meshes the latest in club music contortions, a range of pulverized dub effects, and samples from her library of Iranian folk, pop and classical musics.

She has released music with Astral Plane Recordings and Leaving Records. Her most recent album is 'Push' (Leaving Records, 2020), a confident step forward from Maral’s club & mixtape work into a powerful collection of original songs.

As a DJ, she enjoys exploring music from around the world and showcasing the hidden gems from the past and present. Through her music and involvement in the scene, Maral seeks to both educate and have a positive impact on others.

She presents a regular show on LA's Dublab

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_ma_ral_/
Bandcamp: https://maral.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/maral66

EOTRAX MIX SERIES: #16 Maral

Taken from "Night Blindness" album, out December 3 on all digital platforms and in select shops.

“Thinking is dimmed when familiar forms of reality disappear. This is not a loss. Long periods of inner silence favour clearings, they let the light in, the flooding, the blinding…” (Etel Adnan)

Chantal Michelle - Night Blindness

This month's mix comes from the talented Sinemis, aka @sinebuyuka & @villettemusic, founder of London-based label Injazero Records. She brings us an eclectic set, full of experimental and ambient music by artists from Turkey.

Interview + Tracklist: subtempo.com/mixes/sinemis

Tracklist + Interview

Subtempo Mix 037 - Sinemis

From a unique curation of Siné Buyuka, who is behind the London based Injazero Records, comes a record of Iranian descent, featuring two Tehran-based musicians: Shahin Entezami aka Tegh and Adel Poursamadi. The former has previously appeared with his experimental, noise, and drone works on labels such as Opal Tapes, Hibernate, Dronarivm, Midira, Futuresequence, and Flaming Pines just to name a few; while the latter is an established violinist (including the making of the instrument) and an active member of numerous ensembles and orchestras. Together, they have created an incredible soundscape, merging the electronic with the acoustic, and a focus on Iranian traditional music. “The album attempts to speculate new definitions of certain feelings – anger, confusion, excitement – in a non-anthropocentric, futuristic world, where human beings must seek new tools and approaches in attempting to express themselves to post-human creatures.” With the darker and harsher territories of the sonic palette becoming the ground base of Ima, the album takes the listener into uncomfortable territories and thereby requires one simply to feel all those suppressed and subconscious emotions which have been felt by this land for all time. Today I am sharing with you the third track from the album, titled Ijād (ایجاد in Persian, which means “creation”), traversing some powerful and stirring territories between sensations not felt until now.

"What if one day in the distant future, human beings, living among new forms of strange species, encounter unknown types of feelings? Feelings that simply do not ignite any sort of nostalgia and do not have the same physical/mental effects as common feelings” Ijād ایجاد attempts to define a new particular type of feeling, a combination of hatred and anger, that could make individuals feel deeply delighted or truly excited."

Ijād

TRACK PREMIERE : Tegh & Adel Poursamadi - Ijād

Halina Rice - FX1

Halina Rice - Shale

Halina Rice - Third

Halina Rice - Hey

All tracks by Halina Rice.
Mastered by John Davis at Metropolis.
Cover artwork by Freny Antony.

“World of fragmentary beauty” Clash

“Uses creative sampling to craft evocative and melancholic soundscapes to beat-driven instrumentals” Magnetic

“Takes listeners through a VR inspired electronic journey of looping beats and a mesmerising spectrum of emotions.” Decoded

Halina Rice is a London-based electronic musician and AV artist renowned for her vivid and eclectic style, using multiple effects and sampling to create original and unique sounds. Uniting elements of ambient, experimental and dance music, her sound ranges from evocative and melancholic soundscapes to beat-driven tracks.

Releasing her debut album ‘REDUX’ in 2017 to critical acclaim, her music has been described as “sublime and infectious” by Electronic Sound magazine and as a “world of fragmentary beauty” by Clash, and on the 30th September, she is set to release her sophomore album ‘ELISION’, via Injazero Records, home to such artists as Heinali, KMRU and Hinako Omori.

‘ELISION’ takes its cue from abstract and actual worlds fusing together, a common theme in Rice’s music, with a vision of uniting music, art and technology. Ranging from experimental to IDM, the ten tracks across the album represent a breadth of styles and pace. Tracks fuse natural or analog sounds with unrealistic treatments “The idea is to evoke places that don't exist – like a surreal parallel world,” says Rice. Further tracks such as THIRD and HELIX draw influence from artists such as Rival Consoles and Max Cooper to create more dance-orientated compositions.

On ‘ELISION’, the album title track, Rice used audio tools to morph sounds together to help bring her sonic vision to life. The voice and synth are melded together, resulting in an other-worldy sonic experience, while the carefully crafted sounds of ‘HEY’, ‘HUNTER’ and ‘THIRD’ were initially concieved as part of a commission for the WITCiH digital festival, supporting Rice to explore innovation.

A key component of Rice’s work is the creation of immersive experiences and in 2020 she launched the NEW WORLDS project – where each release comprised both music and the creation of a virtual environment in which Rice performed live as a digital projection. She also works closely with partner L-Acoustics to deliver performances in spatial audio. “In one sense, immersive is a technical description of how I might present sound or projections, but from an emotive stance, it's more about the desire to create an experience for the audience which takes them outside of the day to day. I try to create tracks which evoke an emotion that translates to the listener.”

As a producer of electronic music working with an international team of visuals artists, Rice has consistently strived to create increasingly immersive AV environments in which to envelop her listeners, with her sold out live shows being described as “part rave, part art-happening.” She has performed at venues including Abbey Road Studios, Copeland Gallery, Sonica Arts Festival and Iklectik. Recently, Rice collaborated with Zaha Hadid Architects, creating a virtual reality installation. She is set to perform a series of live shows this autumn – details to be announced.

Elision

Halina Rice - Helix

Injazero is a forward-thinking boutique label straddling Instanbul and London via the impeccable mind of Siné Buyuka. And I’m not just saying that because she also released my album. The diverse and boundary-pushing output of the imprint includes music by Matt Emery, C. Diab, Heinali, KMRU, Hinako Omori, and most recently a collaboration between Tegh & Adel Poursamadi. So I’m always tuned into what Injazero is up to. And this time, I am more than pleased with their latest! Halina Rice is a London-based electronic musician and AV artist, with a debut, titled REDUX released back in 2017. It may have just slipped passed my ears, but it only takes one listen for them to prick up! This is modern electronic music at its finest. Deep rolling bass, sharp synthy stabs, and incredible atmospherics make up this cinematic journey into a mind expressed through ELISION – a fusion of the abstract and real worlds, combining synthetic with organic in music, art, and technology. “The idea is to evoke places that don’t exist – like a surreal parallel world,” says Rice about her sophomore release. “Fracture” is one of my favourite pieces, which is why I selected to premiere it for you here today – it encompasses the fragmentation of reality through jittery and elastic elements, which seem to come in like waves, to unsettle and heal. Further on the album, Rice explores sound through a range of styles, anywhere from experimental IDM to dancefloor hitters, with a nod to artists such as Rival Consoles, Max Cooper, and Jon Hopkins. And if any of these names tickle your fancy, you’ll be in love with Halina Rice.

Fracture

TRACK PREMIERE : Halina Rice - Fracture

Taken from Sinemis's LP Dua on Injazero Records, out November 4.

Pre-order: https://sinemis.bandcamp.com/album/dua
More: www.orbmag.com/music

@injazerorecords
@sinebuyuka

Listen more

Premiere: Sinemis - Elegy

Sine Buyuka has found a perfect remedy for a gloomy Monday. Fireplace videos, her dog and fresh ginger tea feature in the London-based Circassian-Turkish producer's R&R routine, but today it's soundtracked by her own soothing blend of ambient sonics from across the world.

Sine wears many different hats: she's a DJ, label owner of Injazero, ex-music journalist, radio host, Guildhall School of Music and Drama graduate and a producer, the latter of which she's now doing under the moniker Sinemis.

This new project recently came to life with the release of Dua, an album that came at a life-changing time for Sine. Last year she began feeling unwell, but at the time her symptoms weren't diagnosable and gradually they worsened, resulting in her being admitted to A&E whilst visiting her family in Turkey. She eventually had surgery and has been on the road to physical and emotional recovery this year, a period that has had a profound affect on her musical output.

Drawing inspiration from Sufi music - traditional ritualistic music that are used to accompany ancient sema ceremonies native to her home of Turkey - the compositions are meditative and gentle, brought into the contemporary sphere by electronic soundscapes, ambient atmospheres and field recordings. 

To celebrate the release of the record, she offers up a mix of ambient vibrations plucked from Turkey, the Middle East, North and East Africa and the West...

Sinemis: The 'Monday Is OK' Mix

Some things could be attributed to chance, while others result from human [in]action. Reality has a way of unfolding, but we also can shape it, if we only try. We can create distortion fields in this world, both negative and positive. I prefer to do it with music [and also with these words], feeling the pressure levels of air displaced through this space, seeing my actions evolve our community. The key is to channel it into the right things. The key is to mould this reality by lowering suffering and not creating more insanity spun out by imaginary thoughts. Turkish electronic musician Siné Buyuka expresses her frustration, aggrievement and grief for the loss and devastation of the 2022 Turkiye-Syria earthquake on her latest album, Farewell. Producing under her Sinemis moniker, the music captures the visceral emotional maelstrom through sound shaped by organic pads, pulsating bass, and prickly stabs from semi-modular synths. Buyuka's music is "at once a love letter to the beautiful land that she once called home and a scathing indictment of the governing powers that have so harmed its own people, culture, and freedom." The tension of this cinematic expression is held together by beatless rhythm and sweeping noise that would appeal to fans of Caterina Barbieri, Alessandro Cortini and Helene Vogelsinger. Siné, of course, is more than an artist - she is also the founder and curator of an Istanbul and London-based boutique label, Injazero Records, which put out a benefit compilation two years ago (March 2023) titled re-LEAF with all profits donated to the Ahbap NGO in Turkiye for their wide-range relief operation in an ethnically diverse area home to millions of immigrants and Syrian refugees.

TRACK PREMIERE : Sinemis - It's Not Fate, It's You

Farewell, the new album by Turkish producer Sinemis is an elegant and elegiac electronica-imbibed techno that mourns the loss and devastation of the 2022 Turkiye-Syria earthquake, out via Injazero Records on May 2nd.

Pre-order: https://sinemis.bandcamp.com/album/farewell
More: www.orbmag.com/music

@injazerorecords
@sinebuyuka

Premiere: Sinemis - Exit Democracy

An independent avant-ambient and experimental electronic label from London & Istanbul. Home to music from Hinako Omori, KMRU, Pétra, C. Diab, Steve Gibbs, Heinali, Matt Emery, Snowdrops, LTO, Tegh & Adel Poursamadi and Sinemis. 

We are unable to accept any demos at the moment, thank you for your understanding.

Halina Rice - Third

Injazero Records

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