Nelson & Gilles

Zdeněk Liška - The Cremator (Spalovač Mrtvol)
FKR060-B
10" vinyl/Digital
Released 30th September 2013

Galvanising our ongoing commitment to the lost music of the Czech New Wave cinema movement from the late 1960s and 1970s, Finders Keepers Records follow up our series of previously unreleased music to Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, Daisies, Saxana and The Little Mermaid with a short series of soundtracks for films by the country’s master of the macabre and the nation’s first point of call for freakish fairytales and hallucinogenic horror, Mr. Juraj Herz.

As another late entry to the unparalleled creative cinematic unison known in Europe as “the Czech film miracle”, Juraj Herz's 1969 feature film The Cremator was one of a clutch of certified cinematic literary adaptations that used the apolitical subjects of fantasy and surrealist horror to evade the com- munist censors’ abortive measures; dodging the overzealous cutting and burning process which poetically echoed the films own macabre and fantastical screenplay. Unifying a cast and crew of some of the Czech New Wave's leading lights, Herz’s macabre depiction of Ladislav Fuks' fictional account of a local crematorium boss whose hallucinogenic burning obsession with the afterlife is ignited by the Tibetan Book Of The Dead and intensifying manipu- lative Nazi propaganda is undeniably one of the greatest underexposed European horror films of all time.
Drawing similarities with other stark monochrome thrillers such as Roman Polanski's Repulsion, Herz’s comparatively untravelled classic also boasts a beguiling score and theme tune that remains one of the most memorable and spine-chilling melodic soundtracks by the country’s finest experimental soundtrack composer Zdeněk Liška (Malá Mořská Víla) providing the movement with one of its best loved signature scores. Featuring an ongoing partnership with studio conductor František Belfín (Daisies) and soprano singer Vlasta Soumarová Mlejnková (Marketa Lazarová), Liška puts his radical concrète and resampling techniques (see Ikarie XB1) to one side in favour of celestial choral and orchestral arrangements; menacing giallo-esque tension and recurring rhythmical motifs of Eastern bells and chimes illustrating Rudolf Hrušínský's Kopfrkingl character’s demise into murderous infatuation and the momentary cameo shots of the hallucinogenic death figure played by Helena Anýzová (Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders/Daisies).

From a country and era when isolated soundtrack music remained commercially unreleased Finders Keepers Records are proud to rescue, remaster and reincarnate this intense and timeless score by one of Europe's finest composers taking a rare excursion into horror territory as part of a filmography of more than 200 formerly unpressed film scores.

Zdeněk Liška - Spalovač Mrtvol

Bruno Nicolai
Marquis De Sade
FKR069LP (vinyl only)

De Sade 70? La Isla De La Muerte? Decameron Francese? Wildkatzen? Philosophy In The Boudoir? Les Inassouvies? Eugenie And The Story Of Her Journey Into Perversion?... De Sade, De Sade.. The film so odd they named it fifteen times!

Represented here on this special commemorative format you will find some of the finest fruits from an infamous fertile creative relationship between two of the most dedicated and productive bastions of the 1960/70s Eurotica genre - Spanish born director Jess Franco (Vampyros Lesbos) and Bruno Nicolai (The Good The Bad And The Ugly/All The Colours Of The Dark). Thrown into a long-running partnership following a rare/lost 1969 Italian/Spanish co-production with the emblematic title Sex Charade (which also marked the debut collaboration between Franco and actress Soledad Miranda), the unison of shocking image and rocking sound provided an inspirational exchange of new experimental and uninhabited avenues for both of these workaholic European artists. In the late 60s, as the rise of Italian horror directors, such as a young Dario Argento, test- ed the boundaries of censorship and common decency, the Giallo comic book adaptation movies had began to open new channels for established symphonic composers such as Ennio Morricone, who was able to exercise his off-menu interests in the free jazz (exemplified by his non-soundtrack work with Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) as budget restrictions were exchanged for creative freedom thus creating an important niche in European cinema which came to typify the burgeoning movement. The boom in the Horrotica/exploitation industry that rapidly sprawled across central Europe to Germany and Spain virtually overnight made extensive work for a long line of established Italian composers such as Alessandroni, Sorgini, Piccioni, Nicolai, and Cipriani - all of whom spread their spaghetti western roots (often under multiple pseudonyms) and took tight hold of the sonic aesthetic of European thriller cinema. While working in the organised ranks of production houses and library labels Like Deneb, CAM, Octopus, Beat and Liuto, the syndication of Italian music in Spanish horror cinema became synonymous. 

When Jess Franco began to work on Italian co-productions he forged a consistent relationship with conductor and arranger Bruno Nicolai, who had already worked very closely with Morricone on some of his greatest feature films while remaining tightly committed to arthouse cinema such as Pasolini’s Theorem and Pontecorvo’s The Battle Of Algiers. As a one-time professional jazz musician himself, Franco always had a good ear for emotive music, an integral facet that has ulti- mately given wider wings to his films and longevity for future generations of film/music enthusiasts. Where many directors would employ musical supervisors or license library recordings, Franco would often synchronise his own compositions alongside tracks from LPs that he sourced in record shops on his travels, as typified by the economic use of the German Sexadelic and Vampire Sound Incorporated LPs by Sigi Scwhab and Manfred Huber (which became the soundtrack for a film trilogy starting with Vampyros Lesbos in 1970) or the Blue Phantom LP as used on his film Sinner in 1975. 

What originally began as a one-off relationship of convenience for the production company became a fruitful and habitual unison of choice and Nicolai would spend much of the early 70s balancing his time as a conductor for Morricone with repeat commissions for two notable horror directors - Sergio Martino in Italy and Franco in Spain. Forming a faithful relationship similar to that of Argento/Goblin and Fellini/Rota, the Franco/Nicolai partnership is arguably best illustrated on the soundtrack to this version of De Sade, presented here for the first time with a sharper focus on the free avant garde elements and the previously unpressed heavier psychedelic music that was prevalent and integral to Franco’s tastes. Including titles such as Drug Party, this set of full-length instrumental songs (as opposed to short cues) benefit from the extra collaborative energies of Italian studio luminaries Edda Dell’Orso (breathy onomatopoeic vocals) and Alessandro Allesandroni (sitar), striking comparisons with the aforementioned work under The Pawnshop moniker or the music from the Sergio Martino film All The Colours Of The Dark which enhance the displaced hallucinogenic and inebriated subtext of the film’s exploitative and counter cultural tenuous source of inspiration.

www.finderskeepersrecords.com

Bruno Nicolai - De Sade 70/Circle (edit)

An Atomic Remix for our dear friend Le Silence
Atomic Institute is the EDM project of Zeropage

beatport

Le Silence - Gravity EP (Atomic Mix Demo Master)

2nd Jam from this saturday night at the Atomic Institute

Edotronic (Quick and Dirty Mix)

Disposable Music Series Subscription
DIM006-010

It has taken over four very active years for the people behind the Finders Keepers label family to finally return to what we still consider to be one of our favourite vinyl projects. The ongoing Disposable Music library subscription series is a series which pools some of the best emotive, comprehensive, previously unavailable instrumental music from the unmarked archives of experimental artists within the expanding Finders Keepers family and presents it as a series of limited uniformed archival vinyl discs. Like all the most influential library music labels on the 60s, 70s and 80s the music from DiM is sourced, compiled and produced catering to the requirements of the film, television and radio industries but as the interest in thematic instrumental 'picture music' seep deeper into the record collector psyche these limited multi-purpose discs are naturally recommended for whichever creative application you see fit. Each disc combines two full musical programmes sourced from both vintage archives and new exclusive recordings by contemporary artists specially paired to compliment the individual musical sensibilities and mutual affection.

This time Disposable Music are proud to bring you metronomic jazz made for the Swiss cheese information board; wind synth music designed for planetariums; possessed pastoral mechanical folklore sounds; primitive electric organ sci-fi music; Spaghetti Western themes for Scandinavian fashion shows; drum machine music for household appliances; unused Polish detective theme tunes; Gallic dreamscapes for graveyard dates; mouthorgan music for mutants; Eastern street music field studies, and a selection of commercially unreleased tracks that have been recycled from French and American horror soundtracks, short-run TV ads, one-off radio programmes and educational science programmes. Having learned, enjoyed and expanded since the first run of DiM we are very excited to unleash this custom collection to your ever expanding music tastes.

Exclusively housed in uniformed die-cut sleeves designed by Finnish pattern designer Paola Suhonen of Ivana Helsinki with the optional inclusion of a limited edition tote bag for subscription participants.  Subscribers will receive the first two releases with the tote bag and a new instalment of the series each month until the end of the year.

Disposable Music Series Subscription (Volumes 6-10) (Sampler)

Otto Luenig & Vladmir Ussachevsky
Tape Recorder Music
7CACKLP

One of the very earliest and most important examples of electronic tape music to be pressed on to vinyl (alongside the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française musique concrète compilations in France and Jim Fassett’s comedic Strange To Your Ears novelty record) this privately pressed 1955 LP was released on a one-off label owned by businessman Gene Bruck to document a custom made performance at the New York Museum Of Modern Art back in 1952.  This facsimile edition of this important LP archives remastered versions of the first recorded unison of Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky and a partnership that founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center at Columbia University in 1959, which would later count Ilhan Mimaroglu, Wendy Carlos, Dariush Dolat Shahi and Alice Shields as its graduates.

The October 28th 1952 performance showcased the debut of the seminal Fantasy In Space based on resampled flute recordings which were manipulated on magnetic tape to create an otherworldly melodic composition, stylistically begging comparison with the early recording of Kraftwerk (made some twenty years later) and bringing a palatable and tuneful alternative to the stark avant garde experiments of their French counterparts.  The mechanical construction of the track was even "performed" on prime time American television to celebrate this groundbreaking approach to modern music.  Alongside four other tracks the full programme comprises further experiments with manipulated recordings of bells and woodwind instruments subjected to mechanical "augmentation, diminution and retrograding" to create pieces that "cannot be played with conventional instruments."  In the following years labels like Folkways and Desto would also plunder this important session as a milestone in electronic music.

For the purpose of this release Cacophonic have also included the seldom heard 14 minute track A Poem In Cycles And Bells For Tape Recorder And Orchestra which was recorded using the same techniques with the Royal Danish Radio Orchestra in 1956 and released via the Composers Recordings Inc. label founded by Otto himself in 1954 (employing Vladimir in an advisory capacity) and operated for forty-nine years - releasing records by Harry Partch, Alwin Nikolais, John Cage and Alice Shields.  Also included on this edition is an expansion of the rare 10" original artwork by legendary graphic designer Ronald Clyne, an early example of his work made before he became in-house designer for Folkways Records rivaling the likes of Blue Note's Reid Miles for some of America’s most iconic record sleeves.

Otto Luenig & Vladmir Ussachevsky - Sonic Contours

Graham Massey
Hollingsville
DIM007 - B

It has taken over four very active years for the people behind the Finders Keepers label family to finally return to what we still consider to be one of our favourite vinyl projects. The ongoing Disposable Music library subscription series is a series which pools some of the best emotive, comprehensive, previously unavailable instrumental music from the unmarked archives of experimental artists within the expanding Finders Keepers family and presents it as a series of limited uniformed archival vinyl discs. Like all the most influential library music labels on the 60s, 70s and 80s the music from DiM is sourced, compiled and produced catering to the requirements of the film, television and radio industries but as the interest in thematic instrumental 'picture music' seep deeper into the record collector psyche these limited multi-purpose discs are naturally recommended for whichever creative application you see fit. Each disc combines two full musical programmes sourced from both vintage archives and new exclusive recordings by contemporary artists specially paired to compliment the individual musical sensibilities and mutual affection.

This time Disposable Music are proud to bring you metronomic jazz made for the Swiss cheese information board; wind synth music designed for planetariums; possessed pastoral mechanical folklore sounds; primitive electric organ sci-fi music; Spaghetti Western themes for Scandinavian fashion shows; drum machine music for household appliances; unused Polish detective theme tunes; Gallic dreamscapes for graveyard dates; mouthorgan music for mutants; Eastern street music field studies, and a selection of commercially unreleased tracks that have been recycled from French and American horror soundtracks, short-run TV ads, one-off radio programmes and educational science programmes. Having learned, enjoyed and expanded since the first run of DiM we are very excited to unleash this custom collection to your ever expanding music tastes.

It’s clear that each recording of the latest volume of Disposable Music stands up on its own merit as well as complimenting the previously released volume. Like any library series there is no ideal place to start but at www.finderskeepersrecords.com we'd like to offer a limited number of subscription places to secure the next five records before they are distributed via our usual networks. With unlimited entry to the archives belonging to names like Ciani, Spoerri, Rollin, Epple, Korzynski and Massey, Disposable Music have taken the best in unadulterated, underexposed and unattached mood music and given these homeless compositions a place, purpose and time to thrive.

The music found on Graham Massey’s Hollingsville record was originally created for a twelve-part radio series on Resonance 104.4 FM . The series, Hollingsville, was conceived and presented by writer Ken Hollings and would focus each week on a different aspect of man's historical relationship with technology.  Informal discussions with a series of specially invited guests were accompanied by custom-built theme tunes by Massey, His approach was intentionally leaning toward the Bakelite and hot valve nostalgia of a some forgotten Expo or World’s Fair.

The resulting Hollingsville soundtrack exercises Massey’s authentic knowledge of original analogue machines in their rawest form and triumphantly draws comparisons with the likes of Henk Badings, Oscar Sala and Kid Balton from the pre-synth era of electric keyboards and tape manipulation. Enlisting the talents of long-running collaborator, opera singer Seaming To, Massey dons his seldom-used Massonix moniker and produces some of his best conceptual music yet which, by design, promises to withstand the tests of time and technological trend.

Graham Massey - Raybestos

Music from New Zealand sounds like Dub and Reggae? Well, that’s not totally wrong. At least there are a lot of bands on the Kiwi Islands dropping laid back vibes und doing it the smooth way. But there was also a huge Indie and Rock scene with bands like Split Enz, The Chills and the outshining label Flying Nun Records. Not to mention the exciting Fusion scene and those Psychedelic bands from The Sixties. You see, there is a lot to discover. So have fun with Edition Nr. 17 which shows an impression of how NZ can sound: Listen to Lord Echo, Fat Freddys Drop and the Black seeds, just to name a few . And Welcome Gunnar! He is UV Funk’s first time co-host, that will join Philipp also in future editions from time time.

UV Funk is a radio show which is broadcasted every third Friday from 9:30 pm to 11:00 pm on Dresden based community radio station coloRadio. Radio listeners in Dresden can tune in to the program on 98,3 or 99,4 MHz. Any other listeners can recall it here. The show is hosted by Philipp Demankowski and for the first time Gunnar. It’s all about stories, interviews and tracks out of the world of Cosmic Electronic Music. And watch out! This time it’s in German. More Infos: www.uncannyvalley.de/category/radio/

There are slight sound skipping issues on the show every now and then due to the recording system at coloRadio. Sorry for that! 

This show was aired on 15th November 2013.

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UV Funk 017: New Zealand Special with Gunnar

Gilles pays tribute to the late, great, Nelson Mandela with this extended mix from his earlier tribute on BBC 6 Music. 1 hour of carefully curated songs of hope, freedom and future. 

Playlist 

1   - Simphiwe Dana - Zundiqondisise
2   - Dollar Brand - Ishmael
3   - Sathima Bea Benjamine - Music
4   - Hugh Masakela - What Is Wrong With Groovin
5   - Harmonius Serenade Choir - Lyo
6   - Gil Scott Heron - Johannesburg
7   - Letta Mbullu - Mahlalela   
8   - Protest Meeting - Amandla
9   - Hugh Masakela - Stimela
10 - Miles Davis - Big Time
11 - Miriam Makeba - Soweto Blues 
12 - Maze featuring Frankie Beverley - Mandela 
13 - Abdullah Ibrahim - Did You Hear That Sound?
14 - Vusi Mahlasela - Kuzobenani Na?
15 - John Wizards - Jabu Ley


Gilles Peterson's Nelson Mandela Tribute Mix

i dont have the trade rights of accapela and i make it for fun !

Nelson & Gilles

muddy mike