Niklas

JAG LÄGGER KYSSAR I HENNES HATT

VI SKA LEVA ALLA DAGAR TILLS DEN DAG VI SKA DÖ

UTAN DIG

GENOM SPRICKORNA

from 'Nomad Frequencies' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den237
available in September on all formats at [http://denovali.com/johnlemke]

An ardent moulder of sound, John Lemke began carving out a very unique music blend on his debut album 'People Do' (2013) and its follow up EP 'Walizka' (2014). Informed by his work as a sound designer & composer for documentary films and his natural inclination towards fusing rhythm with rich textures and emotive melodies, he set out on a musical path that had been long in the making and is ever evolving.

The quest for unusual, inspiring sound sources has always been at the heart of John's process, however the genesis of his second album 'Nomad Frequencies' was rooted in much more inadvertent circumstances. In the summer of 2014, forced to indefinitely evacuate his Glasgow flat and studio due to structural damage from one hour to the next, with nothing more than a laptop and a bag of clothes, John embarked on a six month odyssey of soul searching, couch surfing and spending an extended period of time in his old hometown of Berlin for the first time in years - it was to be an odyssey that would help ferment and distill the ideas of his second album on which work had just begun. 

A year of particular global turmoil and upheaval, combined with John's personal, albeit very minor, 'displacement', caused a lot of questioning, frustration and anger, which somehow found its way onto the new material: a more confrontational, at times aggressive sound, paired on the other hand with a yearning for harmony, balance and space. Other influences came less from the world of music, but rather in visual form, through the densely textural art of Anselm Kiefer and the political, yet poetic musings of film maker Adam Curtis.

Intent on refining his sound toward a more minimal, bolder style, John set out to limit his sonic palate to a handful of carefully chosen elements. At the centre of this new direction remains the muted piano already introduced on his debut, but in a much more purified and raw form. This organic base is adorned by the warm fuzzing and wavering of analogue synthesisers, tape echoes, meditative tuning forks, field recordings from John's 'exile' period and percussion based on his rigid approach to sampling, which started developing on 'Walizka'. The guiding principle of his orthodox style of recording and sampling is to only use home-made sounds by utilising his own field recordings, applying contact microphones or hydrophones to objects and instruments, running them through different kinds of speakers and re-recording the sounds to arrive at a 'lived in' quality, often misunderstood as plainly 'lo-fi'. Touches of viola and woodwinds parts (Kim Moore of WOLF and Andrew Baker respectively) provide melody fragments and subtle details throughout the journey.

With John's healthy disregard for genre boundaries, the array of influences on 'Nomad Frequencies' is vast, but never over-powering. From the meditative tuning fork that starts proceedings on 'Of Elsewhere', the dub echoes to the hints of minimalism, free jazz explosions to the Lynchian atmospherics, all elements serve nothing more than the album's narrative journey between friction and harmony, best appreciated in its entirety. A rhythmic backbone collides with rich ambience and melody, often infectious and jarring at the same time, forging a soulful whole which most likely only reveals its true self after multiple spins.

Nomad Frequencies

John Lemke - The Unwinding

'Invitation To The Voyage' is the first single from Julia Kent's new album Asperities released October 30, 2015.

Pre-order Asperities and get a free download of 'Invitation to the Voyage' here: https://juliakent.bandcamp.com/album/asperities

Video by Carmen Jimenez: https://youtu.be/LEHKx5wjh3o

http://juliakent.com
http://theleaflabel.com/juliakent
https://www.facebook.com/juliakent.music
https://twitter.com/juliakent

Asperities

Invitation to the Voyage

Open your mind! 
https://soundcloud.com/or-vaknin-1


Psychedelic Contact

Brainwave Entertainment
Binaural Meditation Music Mix 
Crystal Productions - good for more focus, power, relaxation
Brainwave entrainment

Binaural Meditation Music Mix - Crystal Productions - good for more focus, power, relaxation

SAGA | vocals by Daw Yi Yi Thant

PALOMITA | original by Joe Cuba

NOWORDS | vocals by Don pedro Guerra Gonzales

SUELTO | Clarinet by Henrik Braun

THE ENGLISCH PLAY | vocals by William S. Burroughs

KARA TAL | co written & produced by Acid Pauli

MALDIDI | vocals by Don Agustin Rivas

WEIDASONIC | remix for Robosonic & Laura Weida | Stil vor Talent

KEEP IT WARM | co written by Chris Schwarzwälder, Vocals & Lyrics by Jo Ke

ARABIC 

WOODS 

HEISS | co written by Chris Schwarzwälder

MONGOLIA | remix for Napkka & Victor & Aphrodite

SLEEP ON MY FEEDS | co written & produced by Nico Stojan

TRANSAL 

TANGA | co written by Guenther Lause

ABRE | URSL 013 (128kbit)

FIESTA | vocals by Don Agustin Rivas

CURADAI | Drums by Rui Faustino 

INDOSUN 

HOW STRANGE | Keys by Holger Hecler, Vocals by Jo Ke

ANTARASH | co written & produced by Chris Schwarzwälder, Vocals by Iannnis Ritter

CHOOSE | co produced by Chris Schwarzwälder, Vocals by Mz Sundayluv, Handpan by BeatuniQue

CARAT | piano by Chilly Gonzales  | URSL 013 (128kbit)

DIRTY PEOPLE | remix for Lake Powel, co produced by Acid Pauli, unreleased Version

I DREAM | remix for Console

LITTLE BIRDS | original by Kings of Convenience

GOLF 

L&H | co written by Behr

INDER 

BEAM OF LIGHT

SLEEPSONG | URSL 013 (128kbit)

CANDELA | remix for Miki Gonzales 

YOU CRY | vocals & sitar by Salar Aghili & Mohamed Iqbal



All Tracks written, produced & mixed by NU

NU

Niklas Blank