Salutations

Arcoíris

Deaf Center - White Lake

Closer fragments.

FREE DOWNLOAD:
https://smoothapparition.bandcamp.com/track/remembered

Remembered

Talk To The Sea

The Word Love (Original Mix)

Clouds

Broken Clouds

Impossible Island

Despite his status as a key figure in the history of Japanese ambient music, Hiroshi Yoshimura's music remains tragically under-known outside of his home country. Empire of Signs – a new imprint co-helmed by Maxwell August Croy and Spencer Doran – is proud to reissue Yoshimura's debut Music for Nine Postcards for the first time outside Japan in collaboration with Hiroshi's widow Yoko Yoshimura, with more fully licensed reissues of Hiroshi's work to follow in the future.

Working initially as a conceptual artist, the musical side of Yoshimura's artistic practice came to prominence in the post-Fluxus scene of late 1970s Tokyo alongside Akio Suzuki and Takehisa Kosugi, taking many subsequent turns within Japan’s bubble economy afterward. His sound works took on many forms - commissioned fashion runway scores, soundtracking perfume, soundscapes for pre-fab houses, train station sound design - all existing not as side work but as logical extensions of his philosophy of sound. His work strived for serenity as an ideal, and this approach can be felt strongly on Music for Nine Postcards.

Home recorded on a minimal setup of keyboard and Fender Rhodes, Music for Nine Postcards was Yoshimura’s first concrete collection of music, initially a demo recording given to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art to be played within the building's architecture. This was not mere background music in the prior Japanese “BGM” sense of the word, but “environmental” music, the literal translation of the Japanese term kankyō ongaku [環境音楽] given to Brian Eno’s “ambient” music when it arrived in late 70's Japan. Yoshimura, along with his musical co-traveler Satoshi Ashikawa, searched for a new dialog between sound and space, a new way of listening: sound not as an absolute, but as something that interlocks with a physical environment and shifts the listener’s experience within it. Erik Satie's furniture music, R. Murray Schafer's concept of the soundscape and Eno’s ambience all greatly informed their work,  but the specific form of tranquil stasis presented on releases like Nine Postcards is still difficult to place within a specific tradition, remaining elusive and idiosyncratic despite the economy of it's construction. This record offers the perfect introduction to Hiroshi's unique and beautiful worldview: it's one that can be listened to - and lived in - endlessly.

Music for Nine Post Cards

Hiroshi Yoshimura (吉村弘) - "Dance PM" from Music for Nine Post Cards (EOS01) OUT 11/17/2017

Tracing Back the Radiance

Berlin based cellist and composer Anne Müller shares a second piece, 'Drifting Circles', ahead of her long awaited debut solo album 'Heliopause'.

'Heliopause' follows several Erased Tapes releases featuring Anne, including her celebrated collaboration with Nils Frahm titled 7fingers, appearances on Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm’s Collaborative Works, Nils Frahm’s All Melody and his acclaimed soundtrack for the film Victoria, Lubomyr Melnyk’s Fallen Trees, as well as the two bespoke solo pieces Walzer für Robert and Bel Tono for the label’s 5th and 10th anniversary box sets. In fact, a glance at Müller’s Discogs boasts credits on over 60 releases since she began recording in 2007.

Classically trained at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts under the renowned cellist and conductor Michael Sanderling, Anne Müller performed as a cellist in many of Berlin’s symphonies for some time before choosing a different path with her music and focussing on novel approaches to classical instrumentation. A profound believer in the power of artistic collaboration, Anne’s skilled cello playing and instinctive composition became extremely sought after.

Following her work with Nils Frahm, an enduring partnership with singer-songwriter-composer Agnes Obel ensued, touring for five years together and featuring on two albums (Philharmonics and Aventine) and most recently, working with multi-instrumentalist Markus Sieber (aka Aukai) on his 2019 album Reminiscence. In between all this, Müller also co-founded the progressive live project Solo Collective along with violinist/singer Alex Stolze and pianist/conceptual artist Sebastian Reynolds, releasing Solo Collective Part One in 2017.

A solo record in every sense of the word, Müller wrote, recorded, arranged and produced Heliopause. The album is named after the boundary where the sun’s wind ceases to have influence. It is ultimately, the border of our solar system. The name struck a chord with Müller since the two voyagers sent on an exploratory mission 42 years ago, recently crossed the Heliopause, entering into interstellar space and losing power from our own sun. Müller recognised herself in this moment, not only approaching the same age, but also breaking new ground; having relied on collaborating with so many other stars and now venturing into the unknown with her first solo statement; “Heliopause marks the end of a long journey but also the start of voyages to explore strange new worlds”

Both as the closing title track and album as a whole, Heliopause crosses these physical and invisible borders throughout, sending the cello as a typically classical instrument to exciting new and uncharted territory.

· pre-order 'Heliopause' on LP/CD/DL:  idol.lnk.to/Heliopause

Heliopause

Drifting Circles

Buy LP/CD/DL

Anne Müller - Drifting Circles

Listen/Order: https://invisiblecities.lnk.to/vortex

'Total Perspective Vortex' from AWVFTS's forthcoming album 'Invisible Cities'.

Out on Feb. 26th.

‘Invisible Cities’: Physical Release info:
+ Black & clear vinyl
+ Limited-edition cassette tape
+ CD
+ Orange vinyl - Excl. to indie shops (Order through @roughtrade to get a signed postcard)
+ Dinked edition - Deep purple vinyl (SOLD OUT)

Invisible Cities OST

Total Perspective Vortex

Tracing Back the Radiance

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma