Taken from 'Fringe' LP/Download (E064, Ecstatic 03/09/2021)

A gorgeous swell of intimate soundscaping from Felisha Ledesma on this simmering stunner for Ecstatic, despatching two extended, richly absorbing pieces weft from everyday detritius; synths, strings, voicemail, found sounds - hitting a similar spot for us as Ulla’s diaristic 'inside means inside me’ but with a more defined play of sound-as-light that gently and memorably tugs at the earlobes and heartstrings. 

Exploring a music of presence and ultra subtle inference, ‘Fringe’ is the 2nd release by Ledesma, student of Berlin's estimable Universität der Künste, following from a debut for Enmossed x Psychic Liberation earlier this year. Using AMQR - a software synthesiser built by Ledesma together with Ess Mattisson - both pieces here shimmer with elusive timbres that occupy a realm that feels lost between worlds - neither electronic nor acoustic, but more a sort of observational sound that radiates togetherness and warmth. 

Operating at insightful levels of synaesthesia, Ledesma poetically turns ostensibly humdrum sources into clouds of smoke - emails, voicenotes, walking along the water, a poem attached to an email, walking alone in New York during lockdown, going for a swim at sunset in the desert - all turn into a smudge of memory. When ‘Beamsplitters’ opens with a tangible human presence - a voicemail from a friend - it startles with its earthly pull, eventually getting lost in a tangled spool of found sound leaving just a trace of iridescent, intimate reverie. 

On ‘Golden Mirror’ Felisha gently diffracts a lonesome guitar phrase into a humming thizz with a steeply uncanny ability to jog the memory in a similar way to how olfactory stimulus can conjure feelings of nostalgia. It’s a trick familiar from an emergent new realm of lower case composers creating something like submerged, small scale symphonies that work counter to notions of classical excess or anodyne ambient, instead focusing on microcosmic, highly peronalised sort of worldbuilding that’s impenetrable, yet somehow entirely open.

Felisha Ledesma - Golden Mirror [E064]

Taken from forthcoming album 'Only Love From Now On' - out 25th Feb via Smalltown Supersound. 
Pre-order here: 
https://carmenvillain.bandcamp.com/album/only-love-from-now-on

Written and produced by Carmen Villain.
Mastered by Beau Thomas.

Subtle Bodies

DADRAS - Yuppie Scum
Off of RUBAIYAT I, out now on @humanpitch

Buy, listen, support here:
http://smarturl.it/hpc03-digi

© 2015 Human Pitch // www.humanpitch.fm

Buy on iTunes

DADRAS – Yuppie Scum

Outside

from the Hospital Productions record  "Risveglio", out July 27 2015.

BUY ALL FORMATS

02 La Sveglia

The opening of this track evokes the sound of a shepherd playing on his pipe. But he is not only playing for the sheep. He is calling forth the arrival of a great celestial event. Yummy texture and groove.

Leaked

VINYL, DIGITAL, CD: http://bit.ly/N45-NOTON-SHOP

N-45 - ALVA NOTO - UNIEQAV
RELEASE DATE: MARCH 16TH, 2018

The Uni series began when Alva Noto was booked to play live at the club UNIT in Tokyo, and had to adapt his sound accordingly for that environment.

‘UNIEQAV’ follows-on from and develops the concept of Alva Noto’s ‘Unitxt’ and ‘Univrs’ albums, and completes the third part in the trilogy, whereby each record is both unique and part of the bigger picture. This is also mirrored in the artwork for each release, which when combined form a triptych spelling ‘Uni’.

Described by Carsten as “sonically representing an underwater dive”, the gleaming ‘UNIEQAV’ brings as usual an inherent artistic, conceptual and scientific depth. Mathematics, data, unit systems, grids, rhythms, codes, text, language, spoken word, DNA, science technology and nature are all utilised, for both inspiration and execution.  

As with the last two Uni releases, the French sound poet Anne-James Chaton collaborates here, on ‘Uni Dna’. Where on previous records Chaton first provided a vocal track to which Nicolai composed, this time the duo flipped it; the poet wrote for an existing track, adding his unique vocal approach to recite amino acids that constitute the DNA molecule.

Regarding Carsten’s interest in 3D sound design and building sonic spaces, ‘UNIEQAV’ transports the listener to a modern, spacious and zen-like place for meditative movement. But conversely the album works equally well in a dark club - as for every glistening digital spark and simple, emotive melody - there’s a stealthy bassline, frenetic drum pattern and colossal low-end thump.

@alvanoto

http://noton.info/

UNIEQAV

Alva Noto - Uni Blue

Premiered by @resident-advisor 
https://www.residentadvisor.net/tracks/893826

"I made this track from samples of a piano board I recorded in EMS Stockholm with LAIR while we were working on our project. And some microphone hiss for the beats. I have been making purely percussive tracks recently for my upcoming album, so for this track I wanted to have an emotive melodic element as well. The title refers to the difficulty it seems as a human to live as you truly want, as opposed to how you think you should." - @eomac

Eomac - Don't Fear Your Own Heart

Andrea Taeggi—Zimní Král (12" vinyl LP)

The music on this record was made using a vast array of rare analog machines Andrea had the chance to work on at the Willem-Twee synthesis studio in Holland (built with the iconic Studio di Fonologia RAI as a blueprint). Most of the percussive sounds come from an Analog Computer, which has been rarely used only as a music instrument (its main purpose was flight simulation). In fact, during the Cold War times it was also used as measurement tool by civil engineers and even by the army. 
To my knowledge, very few artists have given a new context to the such device, which I have found absolutely unique-sounding and gave me enough inspiration to compose a whole new album focused on it. 

At present, no one has ever officially released music recorded at the Willem-Twee synthesis studio.

The music on this record further explores cyclical, minimal and hypnotic concoctions – a particular  investigation focused on unusual rhythms that Andrea had already started on his well-received ‘Mama Matrix Most Mysterious’, released on Type in 2015. Think walls of subfrequencies, snappy rollercoasters of the mind, labyrinths in hyperspace & snakes eating their own tails.

Zimní Král means “Winter King” in Czech and was the epithet given to Frederick V Elector Palatine (king of Bohemia), the last of a legacy to actively support alchemy as a means of studying reality, the self and their inter-reflections.

All music by Andrea Taeggi
https://andreataeggi.wordpress.com

Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M Berlin

Forthcoming on SM-LL Sept 1st, 2018
http://www.sm-ll.com

Dinergy (SM-LL, Sept 1st)

Bendik Giske - Up

Taken from the album Caterina Barbieri - Fantas Variations released as 2LP and Digital

Fantas Variations

Bendik Giske 'Fantas for Saxophone and Voice' (EMEGO 279)

NOTON – founded by Carsten Nicolai as a small imprint in 1994 – began its activities in 1996 with the release of noto’s “spin”. a collaboration with RasterMusic began the same year, and by 1999 the two labels had merged into Raster-Noton. In 2017, NOTON will start working independently again by releasing Alva Noto’s entire back catalogue, and the label is currently planning releases for the future too. Ongoing projects and collaborations include: Noto, Alva Noto, Opto (Thomas Knak + Alva Noto), cyclo.  (Ryoji Ikeda + Alva Noto), ANBB: Alva Noto + Blixa Bargeld, Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto, Anne-James Chaton + Alva Noto + Andy Moore, ø + Noto.