Anne Imhof, Eliza Douglas, Billy Bultheel - SEX
Label: PAN
Cat.No. PAN 116
Format: LP / DL
Release Date: 3 September 2021
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/SEX

‘SEX’ is the latest record from acclaimed contemporary artists Anne Imhof, Eliza Douglas and composer Billy Bultheel. It was composed during the development of Imhof’s art exhibition of the same name, previously exhibited at Tate Modern, London, The Art Institute of Chicago and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea.

Music is core to Imhof’s work. It functions not only as a soundtrack to perform to, but rather that music itself, and the act of performing music, becomes a work of visual merit by its very nature. Imhof’s performance work, in collaboration with Douglas, is often described as visually being a futuristic, nihilist take on pop culture citing metal and grunge aesthetics while making connections to thematics of classical painting. The concert itself becomes a visual language in Imhof’s performative work which sits evenly placed with her painting and sculpture.

Imhof, Douglas and Bultheel adapted the songs from how they appeared in the exhibition ‘SEX’, with the result being a compelling record that can act as an imaginative accompaniment to the ‘SEX’ performances, as well as stand alone as a progressive collection of contemporary compositions.
‘SEX’ references punk, industrial and grunge, while boldly juxtaposing these forms with music of the classical and baroque period. ‘SEX’s compositions combine classical formals and orchestration with vocals that are rooted in subcultural traditions, thus beautifully overdrawing and overwriting these classical forms with the composer's own. Harpsichord and oboe are combined with distorted electric guitar, or exuberant string ensembles with heavy industrial drums.

The amalgamation of genres contained in the album was also integral to the choreography of the ‘SEX’ performance, where waltzes and tangos were contrasted with stage diving, slam dancing and moshpits. What resulted was a surreal ballroom, loaded with desire and aggression. In the same vein, the record fearlessly shapeshifts, blending genres and styles to evoke an impressive array of moods. The voices and instruments crush like operatic electric waves throughout wide rages, laughing, shouting, coming close and being far. Oscillating between fragility and flamboyance, Douglas and Imhof’s versatile voices reinvent themselves from one song to the next, while singing songs of love and hate.
The final song on ‘SEX’ ends with a lyric from the band LOW, “All you Pretty People, you’re all gonna die”. This ambiguous moment, a prophecy sung in Douglas’ vibrating baritone voice, rattles the listener despite the mundane truth of the statement. This complexity is reflected in the album itself, allowing for an unusual multiplicity of emotions and interpretations with impressive depth and dynamism.
The record’s release coincides with the final performance of ‘SEX’ at Castello di Rivoli in Turin in September 2021 and the opening of Imhof’s Carte Blanche exhibition ‘Nature Mortes’ currently on view at Palais de Tokyo, Paris through October 2021.

The album is mixed & engineered by Ville Haimala and mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring design by ZAK Group and photography by Nadine Fraczkowski.

Anne Imhof, Eliza Douglas, Billy Bultheel - Moshpit II (PAN 116)

How Strange Are Bodies? by Teresa Winter from the tape 'Oh Tina No Tina' on Reckno

Teresa Winter -  How Strange Are Bodies

https://soundcloud.com/dz33d

https://soundcloud.com/trustthevoice

Tears of comfort (Daikeli, DZ3D, Tröst)

Felicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
Limpid as the Solitudes
Out on Nov. 9, 2018 on Shelter Press
SP101 — LP / DL

Preorder: https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/limpid-as-the-solitudes

Distribution: Boomkat EU / UK / ROW
Distribution: Forced Exposure USA

Limpid as the Solitudes

INDEFATIGABLE PURPLE

FELICIA ATKINSON & JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA 'INDEFATIGABLE PURPLE' (SP101)

Colin Self - "Emblem"

Taken from the album, Siblings, out on RVNG Intl. November 2, 2018

https://smarturl.it/rvngnl42

©2018 RVNG Intl. // www.igetrvng.com

Siblings (RVNGNL42 - 320 - Promo)

Colin Self - Emblem

Various Artists "All The Same Dream Remixes"
Posh Isolation 218
2019

Kyo - To All My Future Lovers (oqbqbo remix)

HELM - Chemical Flowers
Format: LP / CD / Digital
Cat.No: PAN 99
Release Date: 17 May 2019
Purchase: bit.ly/2Uxqs9z / bit.ly/2UpJ0bA

Luke Younger returns to PAN with an eight-track album of his most direct work to date. Composed alone at NO studio in the Essex countryside, to start an album with a piece called ‘Capital Crisis (New City Loop)’ seems an intentional misnomer. Long, sustained periods in the rural studio setting see Younger working with an array of fragmented, disassociated sound sources to build upon 2015’s Olympic Mess. It shares a similarly inclined vision of the urban environment, but here Chemical Flowers makes reference to paradoxical notions of authenticity and creative practice by way of questioning the structures around us. Collages are assembled and dismantled, temporal and spatial boundaries fluctuate and movement is an overarching theme.

Surrealist drowned world atmospheres sculpted far enough away from the source of inspiration leave plenty of room for ambiguity. The nocturnal nature of the recording process is self-evident, and pieces like ‘Leave Them All Behind’ tap into a deep psychedelic undercurrent. Confused narratives, emotions and aleatory hallucinations ebb and flow throughout. ‘I Knew You Would Respond’ evokes murky soundtrack terrain with eerie repetitive strings and ambient respite, disrupted periodically by brief bursts of granular noise. It’s one of the records most unnerving moments, possibly as it’s one of the most recognisably human.

The album navigates dense passages with recurring signifiers. Hollow percussion, modulating delay and curious field recordings come and go, maintaining a perpetual state of flux where nothing stays the same for long. The drowned world theatricals return on the swamp-like ‘Lizard in Fear’ whilst string rhythms creep in on the penultimate track to incite momentary electroacoustic harmony. Floating synthesis slowly washes over and the title track unfolds - five minutes of reverb-laced portamento, visions of decay and Editions EG influenced
world-building. Movement is key.

Chemical Flowers features string parts arranged and recorded by JG Thirlwell (Foetus / Manorexia / Xordox). Additional cello played by Lucinda Chua and saxophone by Karl D’Silva. The album is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by Johannes Schnatmann & Bill Kouligas.

http://p-a-n.org

Chemical Flowers 

HELM - Body Rushes (PAN 99)

Thrilled to present the new single 'I Believe In You' taken from the fantastic new album from OCA. Their first for Métron Records, ‘Aging’ will be available on limited edition ’sandwich’ cassette and digital from November 20th. 

Following the success of their debut ‘Preset Music’ (as featured in Kelela’s recent aquaphoria mix) the Berlin based duo return with Aging, a 10 track album focusing on the emotions of specific life events, both the mundane and the profound. 

You can watch the Sam Lublicz directed music video for the new track ‘I Believe In You’ below
https://youtu.be/aLAml4pUjeg

The Heart of Things

Loke Rahbek