Last track of the album 'Land'. You can buy the album at bandcamp: https://geluidenfabriek.bandcamp.com/album/land

Descend into the caverns of your soul to finally find peace and tranquility there.

Instruments used on this album: E-bow guitar, Acoustic piano, Analog synth (Soma Lyra 8), FM-synth (Korg Volca FM), Weeldophone, Field recording.

Land

Onderstroming

from "Invisible Island" LP
sonic pieces, 2020
https://midorihirano.bandcamp.com/album/invisible-island

Invisible Island

Ocean's Disconnect

MIXED SIGNALS II represents the next chapter of Fax and Braulio Lam’s collaboration, which started with their first EP in 2020. Across four tracks, they navigate creative exploration, and wander among the textures, colors, and sizes that sound can possess. 
  
Much like its predecessor MIXED SIGNALS, the sequel EP delivers a meditative ambient swirl, dedicated to finding balance while still moving. And yet, if the first album was to be considered grounded and earthy, MIXED SIGNALS II is determined to challenge gravity—it creates spacious cinematic landscapes that stretch out and up.  

The four tracks are distinctive in their progression: The airy subtleties of the field recordings in ”Fragmented” take off and open up into an expanse of drone, with echoes of feedback further off in the distance. “Porta” twinkles in a dark sky; it wavers slightly in a liminal space of gradual transformation. In “Visions”, there is a hypnotic revelation, with an underlying heartbeat that gently draws one into its ascent. Finishing with the title track, “Mixed Signals II” is a docking; it rotates as it revolves, slowly considering what lies beyond its own orbit. 

This meditative soundtrack is like a hazy black and white image, captured by a telescope or transmitted by a satellite, hinting at what lies far beyond our own limits of perception. The arrangement of acoustic instruments and electric guitars layer with field recordings and synthesizers to create a hypnotic reflection on sound—how it reaches out in the space around it, how it rises, how it looks, and how it feels.  

MIXED SIGNALS II was recorded between Tijuana and Mexicali, in Mexico by musicians Braulio Lam and Ruben Tamayo (a.k.a. Fax). Together, the artists built upon their first collaboration to pass beyond the horizon of instrumental music.

Mixed Signals II

Fax + Braulio Lam —  Visions

Pre-order now available: https://handstitched.bandcamp.com/album/upward-eyes-kindred

Handstitched* is thrilled to announce the next installment of the split-artist series, Ian Hawgood and Fields We Found feature alongside each other for an outing of outstanding musical composure and tranquility. 

Ian's music needs little introduction, with many releases and collaborations under his belt on numerous well-known labels - to say he's prolific is pretty close to the mark. Ian also curates the wonderful Home Normal label, here in the UK. "upward eyes" is seriene, slow-moving and hauntingly subtle, prolonged space fills the moments we frequently overlook and leaves time for reflection during a quiet time spent in an open space. We are honoured to have his debut EP "upward eyes" featuring on Handstitched*. 

Fields We Found has just released his outstanding album "Distance" on the lovely Seil Records, which has been on constant rotation here at Handstitched* over the past month - and the new EP "kindred" is equally as moving, graceful and bewitching. The equilibrium and expression within "kindred" is harmonious - and at the same time, quietly sonorous.

Fields We Found and Ian Hawgood are both welcomed to Handstitched* with many thanks and admiration for their respective musical works as part of the split-artist series, it's great to have them visiting Handstitched* for this special release.

Limited to 50 copies. Released on mini CD-r and sage green cassette with hand-made packaging, tape O-cards and unique designs for each CD package. [HS45/45T]. 

Released August 12.

Ian Hawgood / Fields We Found - upward eyes/kindred [HS45/T S4mpl3r]

It's time that I check in with Denovali once again. This independent German label really knows how to curate its releases that span a variety of genres, ranging from ambient to experimental, drone to jazz, and contemporary classical. Regardless of the style, the quality of the output is always top-notch, and since 2006, I've managed to highlight many of their albums. Whether it's Blueneck, Dictaphone, Subheim, Hidden Orchestra, Bersarin Quartett or the beloved The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble [and too many others to name!], somehow Denovali just seems to hit all the right notes. If for some reason, you are new to this imprint, I highly recommend you spend a lot of time digging through the catalogue, and please, don't forget the earlier releases! So when I get a promo from this label, I always take my time to listen through. [Note to artists and composers: whether you love it or hate it - this is the value that a "label" can really add to your music - in this case, they literally put their stamp of approval on the release, and that alone is worth my attention.] Contemporary Noise Ensemble is new to my ears, but from the first track, I am instantly mesmerized by their fresh and upbeat take on funky jazz that falls somewhere between Ninja Tune's earlier Skalpel, Jaga Jazzist, Xploding Plastix, and even a bit of Propellerheads. If those artist names mean anything to you, then you know what you're in for with An Excellent Spiritual Serviceman. And now, the track premiere!

As mentioned above, the project is new to me, but as I dig deeper, I find out that one of the members is none other than Jakub Kapsa, who appeared on these pages under his Kuba Kapsa moniker a few years ago with Supersonic Moth. Here, a previously extended arrangement of brass instruments is replaced with sprawling synths and electric bass. Meanwhile, Bartosz Kapsa [and, you’ve guessed it, they are brothers!] is absolutely killing it on the jazzy drums! Reduced from the sextet to a duo, the newly formed ensemble delivers a cohesive, fun and powerful shot in the arm of the elemental funk through the fusion of instruments and genres. And it gets my head bopping here!

The album takes you on a journey through jazz, space rock, funk and electronic music with a destination in the form of a rock song which is as well the title song of the album. The Contemporary Noise Ensemble still impresses with maturity and class.

An Excellent Spiritual Serviceman

Easy Time

TRACK PREMIERE : Contemporary Noise Ensemble - Easy Time

Soon: MM Works - Fieldworks

https://slowtonecollages.bandcamp.com

MM Works creates instrumental, cinematic music in a cross-genre exploring jazz, classical and post rock elements. Compositionally the Copenhagen-based duo roams in a delicate balance of structure and freeplay, avant-garde and modern composition.

'Fieldworks' was recorded in April and September 2022. It is a free-flowing experiment centered around guitarloops being reamped and manipulated through analog guitar effects. While there's no particular countable rhythm, the free jazz-like drumming pulsates underneath the loops that are topped by guitar improvisations, loose melodies, and broader flute arrangements. 

Mathias Lystbaek (This Floating World): Guitars, flutes, glockenspiel, loops, electronics & sound processing.
Mads Lassen: Drums.

Credits
Music: MM Works
Recording, sound processing & mix: Mathias Lystbaek / This Floating World
Artwork: Rene Steen Sørensen
Mastered by Andrea Porcu

MM Works - Winter Waltz (Slow Tone Collages)

Nobuo Uematsu - Tifa's Theme FF7 PS1 OST (synth remake)

In the Lens, Solo Andata’s fourth full-length album, was born from recordings found in the interstices of decades-old hard drives, lost email threads from disused accounts, and forgotten samples recorded on cassette dictaphones. These fragments were combined and re-worked with newer elements to create an album very much in the spirit of the band’s debut Fyris Swan (Hefty Records, 2006), an album touched by both folk and jazz and swathed in a dusty, narcotic haze.
Solo Andata’s Kane Ikin and Paul Fiocco have always pushed aside the digital studio in favor of a more haphazard and hands-on workshop vibe to their productions. They prefer near-broken acoustic instruments, cheap microphones and, as can be witnessed by their live performances, tend to turn anything they can get their hands on into a beautiful sound-making object.

While there is a raw and guileless nature to the duo’s sound it is precisely this that makes their music so powerful amidst the over-produced cliches of much modern music. The beauty of their work is how simple instruments and objects can be physically manipulated into creating such rich, layered sound. Dark, swaying, almost-looped melodies from piano, woodwinds and horns wrap themselves in smoky obscurity around remnants of percussion and warm beds of noise and the world around us.

In The Lens is very much a late-night record, reflected in the rain-soaked cover imagery, dripping with half-forgotten memories. Jittery yet calming, rhythmic, yet unhurried, it leads you down its dark corridors to a soft resting space. Ikin and Fiocco have created a new story around the chemistry of their creations that were taking place during the early days of their musical explorations.

In The Lens

Separate Lovers

Artist: Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek
Album Title: Schaum
Format: 12" LP/CD/DL
Label#: Faitiche13/Faitiche13cd 
Release Date: September 9th 2016

Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek: Schaum

Faitiche is very pleased to announce the release of a new album by Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek (faitiche13). Since their debut (Bird, Lake, Objects, faitiche03, 2010) they have played improvised concerts around the world. Japanese vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita prepares his instrument with various percussion elements as well as metal objects and toys, while Jan Jelinek layers loops made using small-scale electronic devices. Schaum (German for froth, foam) is the duo’s second album.
The river, forcing its way through veins between the outposts of the forest, was a great heart. Placidly as it flowed, gently as its descent beat against its vague banks, it brought and gathered sustenance for the busily mediating humus that swelled sunwards in the strangest cell configurations, trees, plants, animals. The silence all round was uncanny and stuck on the ear. Spasmodic squelches, a gurgling in the muddy hollows of the bank beneath overhanging shagginess, the slurping of ominous cavities, that shot out now and again between the long-spun threads of time, like something detonating, testified to the steady monotony of the process. From the forest itself came a crackling rhythm. There the mighty Pan could still be heard to rumble.
from the novel Tropics by Robert Müller (translated by N. Grindell)

Dear Masayoshi Fujita,
Many thanks for the audio files. Your additional vibraphone recordings go wonderfully with the material we have already. Preparing the vibraphone with more percussion instruments was the right decision. Combined with my tightly woven synthesizer and sample loops, the result is a fragmented sense of space. I have taken the liberty of manipulating certain recordings. One might now say that our joint recordings are both a basis for further processing and new pieces in their own right.
While listening through our improvisations, I noticed a tendency towards atmospheric sounds. I am almost tempted to call them tropical. This has strengthened my resolve to work with dense background textures – among others, I’m using material produced in connection with my radio pieces Kennen Sie Otahiti? (Do you know Otahiti? SWR2, 2012) and Dialoge zur Anthropologie (Dialogs on Anthropology, SWR2, 2013): artificial field recordings, jungle and rain forest settings that do not hide their staged, fictional character. They are synthetic and speculative. As you know, I have long been obsessed with the tropics. This obsession involves a mental image of a specific quality of landscape: deliriously extravagant unstructuredness, hostile to life but also excessively productive. I am fascinated by the idea of installing clear minimalist forms amid such luxuriant tropical growth. Perhaps my image of the city of Brasilia is a good example: the utopia of elegant and ascetic modernism, surrounded by rampant vegetation. Lianas and concrete: that’s exactly how our music should be!
Corresponding to this, I would like to expand our liner notes to include a quotation from Robert Müller’s novel Tropics – an expressionist travelogue published in Germany in 1915. It goes without saying that this work cannot be wholeheartedly embraced: its imperialistic fantasies of omnipotence and its “master race” posturing, characteristic of that time and place, are, of course, intolerable. Please excuse my casually dismissing this, but it is not what I am interested in here. Tropics is fascinating as a nervous jungle phantasm that openly indulges in exoticism at the same time as deconstructing it. In this way, the main character’s adventure becomes a journey into the subjective. It resembles a feverish inner delirium, exposing exoticism as a simulated, utopian perspective. What it boils down to is insubstantial, nothing but foam and froth.
With best regards, Jan Jelinek, Berlin 2016

Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek: Vague, yet

Released by sonic pieces on September 30, 2016
sonicpieces.com/sonicpieces024.html

to buy a LP, write an E-mail to info{at}midorihirano.com
(CDs are sold out)

MInor Planet

By The Window

"Echo Echo Echo" taken from the new Ouvala album...

Ouvala "Multiperspectivity" is now available for pre-order...

handstitched.bandcamp.com/album/multiperspectivity

Ouvala are Ian Hawgood and Tim Diagram, their first album "Psychology Of Colour" was released on Fluid Audio in 2016.

Ouvala "Multiperspectivity" is the most-recent handiwork and features nine collaborative pieces, thrown back and forth several times. It is a characteristic of sound, short stories and mystical adventures where both musical perspectives are projected to the listener.

All songs written, recorded & mixed by Ian Hawgood and Tim Diagram 2016-2018 on location in Japan, Poland and the UK.

Design and packaging, assembled by Handstitched* 
Limited to 70 copies. [HS27]. 
Copyright 2018 Handstitched*

Thanks for listening!

Ouvala - Echo Echo Echo

Official Midori Hirano SoundCloud Page.
MimiCof SC account @mimicof

Bookings: Mo Loschelder @media-loca | mo[at]media-loca.com
Label @sonic-pieces @daisart-press @alientransistor @dauwlabel

Publishing & Licensing @erasedtapesmusic

General Inquiries: info[at]midorihirano.com

Ocean's Disconnect

Midori Hirano

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