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somnolence*

Svitlana Nianio — Transilvania Smile, 1994

Release title: Transilvania Smile, 1994
Release subtitle: Original Soundtrack For The Dance-Theatre Performance
Release artist: Svitlana Nianio
Release date: 2023-08-04
Label: Shukai
Catalog: Shukai 8
Formats: 12” LP / Digital
File under: Folk, Classical

Linear notes:
Svitlana Okhrimenko (artist name: Svitlana Nianio) is a Ukrainian artist, musician, and signer. She is one of the most prominent representatives of the independent music scene of Kyiv in the late 1980s — early 90s. She has repeatedly recorded and performed in collaboration with other musicians and bands, such as Oleksandr Yurchenko, Sugar White Death (Cukor Bila Smert’), Ivanov Down, GeeNerve & Taran, and Blemish. Svitlana still performs and publishes new recordings today.
“Transilvania Smile” is one of the first solo works recorded in 1994. During this time, Svitlana repeatedly visited Germany, where she had the experience of playing in parks and on the streets, gathering contacts of the local art scene. Her cooperation with the international choreographic group Pentamonia, based in Cologne and consisting of several girls who performed in theaters, took part in various performances, and were engaged in music. They met in the 1990s during joint performances with "Sugar-White Death." After that, they corresponded, and the idea of doing something together arose. Svitlana attended several of their performances, which inspired her to write music for a new project, and the band members helped to realize their creative ideas. Later, they started rehearsing together.
The name “Transilvania Smile” was invented by the project participants, and it symbolized the mold on the mirror and the reflection of a smiling vampire. However, shortly before the premiere, they changed it to “Firefox”, as the participants actively used flashlights and the play of light and shadows in the scenography.
The premiere occurred in the local Urania theater, previously a gallery. Isabel Bartensein directed the choreography, and Svitlana played, sang, and improvised. She said it was an excellent experience for her and the band. Besides Cologne, they also performed in Aachen.
Later, Michael Springer offered Svitlana to record this material in his "Phanton" studio. They had already worked together and recorded music for their project (Svitlana Okhrimenko / Phanton). Michael was also interested in the Ukrainian independent scene and participated in the creation of several compilations that featured bands from Kyiv and Kharkiv. Svetlana played the piano and harmonium in the studio and also sang. After the recording, the material was never released in its entirety. Two compositions appeared on the cassette compilation “Shovaisia” (Hide) in 1995, some episodes were re-recorded for the “Kytytsi” album in 1999, but for a long time, the full version of this recording remained practically unknown to listeners and was kept in Svitlana's and Michael’s archives.
This album is one of the most personal and insightful works of Svitlana Nianio from the 90s, which you can now get to know in its original form and sound.
Tracklist:
Side A (45RPM)
Episode III
Side B (33RPM)
Episode I
Episode II
Episode III
Episode IV
Episode V
Episode VI
Episode VII


Credits:
Original Soundtrack for the Dance-Theatre Performance “Transilvania Smile” by Svitlana Nianio
Recorded in phantonstudio, Cologne, 1994—1995
Mastered by Michael Springer (phantonstudio)
Shukai team: Dmytro Nikolaienko, Dmytro Prutkin and Sasha Tsapenko
Liner notes by Vlad Yakovlev
Graphic design by (DN)
Svitlana’s stage photo by Christiane Bowinkelmann
Pentamonia Dance Group photos by Olav Faustmann
Special thanks to Michael Springer (phantonstudio) and Guido Erfen

Shukai 8
www.shukai.org
© ℗ Shukai / Svitlana Nianio
2023

Transilvania Smile

Episode III

Svitlana Nianio - Episode III (Transilvania Smile, 1994)

hit the buy link for a free download over on bandcamp
~
>>you need to move on
>i know
>i'm just not sure i want to
>>...neither am i
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thank you for your support
~
photo from: http://bit.ly/1QgXPj6

when we said goodbye for the last time

Light snowfall

Dose Curves

Ephemeris Data

An experiment in ambience using field recordings I collected while wandering around my countryside abode. My neighbour has also been wandering around our patch taking gorgeous photographs so its a real pleasure share this personal reflection of a chilled Galloway existence. 

Photograph by Louise Howarth

Nidra

Humbleness I

I Watched You Bleed With My Hands Bound

Movement II

Pre-order Fallen Trees on LP/CD/DL: http://radi.al/MelnykFallenTrees

Continuous Music pioneer and literal force of nature Lubomyr Melnyk releases his new album 'Fallen Trees' on December 7th. Known as ‘the prophet of the piano’ due to his lifelong devotion to his instrument, the new album coincides with Melnyk's 70th birthday. 

Cascades of notes, canyons and rivers of sound: there’s something about Lubomyr Melnyk's music that channels the natural world at its most awe-inspiring. In Fallen Trees the connection with the environment continues, taking its cue from a long rail journey Melnyk made through Europe. Glancing out of the window as the train passed through a dark forest, he was struck by the sight of trees that had recently been felled. “They were glorious,” he says. “Even though they’d been killed, they weren’t dead. There was something sorrowful there, but also hopeful.” That sense of sadness touched by optimism infuses the album, too: rarely has Melnyk made music so shot through with melancholy and regret, but which sounds so rapt, even radiant.

The five-part, 20-minute Fallen Trees is one of the most ambitious and demanding pieces he has ever created. Though the music is – as ever – Melnyk’s own, Fallen Trees once again features a number of Erased Tapes artists. Japanese vocal artist Hatis Noit, whose first EP Illogical Dance came out to much acclaim earlier this year, lends ethereal vocals, floating mysteriously above the surface of Melnyk’s eddying piano lines before diving far beneath. Other contributors include Berlin-based cellist Anne Müller, a sometime collaborator with Nils Frahm, and American singer David Allred, the most recent addition to the label family. “More than any of the albums that I’ve done, it’s a real collaboration,” Melnyk insists, emphasising how much he owes to his producer, Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths.

It is true to say that there is nothing quite like Melnyk’s work: a unique musical pioneer, he has defiantly carved his own path. “I don’t say to people I’m a composer,” he declares. “I don’t know what I am.”

Melnyk composes, as he plays, at the piano, feeling out lines and individual rhythmic cells that bubble, undulate and gradually expand into vast, interlinked frameworks. Asked to describe what it’s like to live inside his music, he says “my whole body is transformed as I play, it honestly feels like that. My fingers feel like the winds of the world; it feels like you’re physically transcending dimensions.”

Despite the autumnal hint in its title, there’s little suggestion of Melnyk slowing down. Having received critical acclaim and co-headlining the prestigious Royal Festival Hall as part of the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary celebrations, after many years his audience is now both global and growing. The composer is finally gaining a momentum in his career that matches the vibrant, highly active energy of his playing.

Fallen Trees

Son of Parasol

Buy LP/CD/DL

Lubomyr Melnyk - Son of Parasol

Lubomyr Melnyk shares a new piece Barcarolle, taken from his forthcoming new album Fallen Trees out on December 7th, coinciding with his 70th birthday.

Originally composed for the National Ballet of Canada production of The Dreamers Ever Leave You, a modern ballet piece from the Choreographer Robert Binet, Barcarolle glides along like its traditional meaning; that of a folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers on the water.

Lubomyr explains; "It offers a sort of tree ballet atmosphere, reminding us that trees move in different dimensions to us. So this music is a reminder of trees and how happy they are in their dancing, albeit they dance heavily and with a certain sombreness. It is a sad Barcarolle since the tree is reminiscing. Barcarolle is not really a dance, but a song of water, waves and boats. A barge on the waves of time. The title is of course from the classical music domain and this piece, of all the works in the album, is the most classical in character. People must never forget the beautiful and wonderful world of Classical Music."

Cascades of notes, canyons and rivers of sound: there’s something about Lubomyr Melnyk's music that channels the natural world at its most awe-inspiring. In Fallen Trees the connection with the environment continues, taking its cue from a long rail journey Melnyk made through Europe. Glancing out of the window as the train passed through a dark forest, he was struck by the sight of trees that had recently been felled. “They were glorious,” he says. “Even though they’d been killed, they weren’t dead. There was something sorrowful there, but also hopeful.” That sense of sadness touched by optimism infuses the album, too: rarely has Melnyk made music so shot through with melancholy and regret, but which sounds so rapt, even radiant.

The five-part, 20-minute Fallen Trees is one of the most ambitious and demanding pieces he has ever created. Though the music is – as ever – Melnyk’s own, Fallen Trees once again features a number of Erased Tapes artists. Japanese vocal artist Hatis Noit, whose first EP Illogical Dance came out to much acclaim earlier this year, lends ethereal vocals, floating mysteriously above the surface of Melnyk’s eddying piano lines before diving far beneath. Other contributors include Berlin-based cellist Anne Müller, a sometime collaborator with Nils Frahm, and American singer David Allred, the most recent addition to the label family. 

Despite the autumnal hint in its title, there’s little suggestion of Melnyk slowing down. Having received critical acclaim and co-headlining the prestigious Royal Festival Hall as part of the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary celebrations, after many years his audience is now both global and growing. The composer is finally gaining a momentum in his career that matches the vibrant, highly active energy of his playing.

Erased Tapes presents Lubomyr's 70th birthday concert at London's EartH on January 24, with very special guests Peter Broderick and Hatis Noit, plus support from Anne Muller.

Pre-order Fallen Trees LP/CD/DL: https://www.erasedtapes.com/release/eratp116-lubomyr-melnyk-fallen-trees

Barcarolle

Lubomyr Melnyk - Barcarolle

from 'Collection' [3xCD|4xLP BOX|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den287
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/dictaphone

The first 4 Dictaphone releases now available as a very limited Boxset with a wonderful new timeless design. The vinyl edition is also available as limited single LPs.

Already formed in the late nineties in Berlin, Dictaphone was born by Brussels-bred multi-instrumentalist Oliver Doerell. In 2000 Oliver Doerell found a partner in Berlin's Roger Döring, who shares Doerell's love for the Brussels-based music of the eighties. In the following years the duo and several guest musicians (e.g. Stephan Wöhrmann (SWOD) , Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) & more) released the critically highly acclaimed "m.= addiction" (2002), the "Nacht" EP (2004) and "Vertigo II" (2006) via the City Centres Offices label of Thaddeus Herrmann and Shlom Sviri (Boomkat, Modern Love). In 2009 the violin player Alex Stolze joined the band. During their two decades of existence Dictaphone played shows in more than 20 countries with festival appearances at Mutek, Transmediale, Unsound, Benicassim & more. Their latest release "Poems from a rooftop" from 2012 came as a very limited edition through the Berlin-based boutique label Sonic Pieces. In 2017 the band released the long awaited third album "APR 70" on denovali. The label now also offers a reissue of the trio's past repertoire.

Dictaphone never make music for the sake of it, they always want to create something which was missing before. And they did.

Praise for Dictaphone:

"minimalistic and subliminal elegancy" (ARTE)

"timeless, unusual & beautiful" (Colin Newman)

"Dictaphones gives warmth to the concept, your thoughts a body and atmosphere to the music" (Spex)

"This is the music to fall in love with over many evenings, each subsequent rotation capturing another moment of time to be recalled in the future. Highly recommended" (Headphone Commute)

"When played from a rooftop, this music may be as quiet as a poem, but it carries the power of a manifesto." (A Closer Listen)

Poems From a Rooftop

Dictaphone - The Conversation

'A Thought For Home' is a short work for strings and synth. This time I wanted to keep things short and simple. It was inspired by memories and thoughts of home, hence the title.

website: https://www.markmcnameemusic.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8CLmS9kS9J9F0OheRD_2GQ
Copyright (c) 2019 Mark McNamee
(feel free to reshare)

A Thought For Home

Composer based in the UK

Website: https://www.markmcnameemusic.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8CLmS9kS9J9F0OheRD_2GQ

A Thought For Home

MarkMcNameeComposer