Stroboscopic Artefacts is proud to present the debut album of Malaysian born Bangkok based artist Wanton Witch.

Born in an isolated community of Borneo Island in 1993 Wanton Witch is a DJ and producer with a hyper-sensitive connection and approach to sound through performance. Coming of age in the relative isolation of island life, it wasn’t until relocating to Bangkok that she was able to access the different communities of musical genres that she would later travel between. With an early taste for trap and hip hop, she began working in the deconstructed club and techno scene where she found her musical voice, beginning her DJ career in 2018. Wanton is also a cofounder and original member of Queer underground creative collective ‘Non Non Non’ that has become a Bangkok nightlife staple.

Being an “outsider” musician and producer with no formal training, it was the fortuitous crossing of paths online that has sparked the creative collaboration between Wanton and label owner and creative director Lucy. Last year Stroboscopic Artefacts celebrated ten years established between experimental and dance floor spectres and this is the first record the label is releasing after one year break, marking the launch of a new chapter for the imprint. It is with releases like the eponymous debut album from Wanton Witch and the support given to emerging artists like her that the imprint continues to forge pathways within the industry.

Featuring 11 tracks, these recordings are the first body of work from the Bangkok producer, and include many different snapshots of electronic music genres from IDM and experimental to hardcore and rave, using caustic electronics to deconstruct traditional track conventions. This collection of cuts read more as a complete soundscape, like listening to a live set. The phrenetic jump from genre to genre, the mixing of diverse sound textures and landscapes reflect Wanton Witch’s own experience navigating a hostile world as a Queer trans woman in Malaysia. The intense energy with which each track is cut together reminds the listener of the nostalgia of mixtapes and a time in life when identity is being constructed.

Wanton Witch has created an album which feels like a reflection of the aggregation that already exists within musical internet sub-cultures and communities. A place where many diverse and contrasting sound palettes, textures, and structures can fit together to create a new different, Queer way of seeing the world.

Following up on Wanton’s LP, label head Lucy will also present an actual full length album named ‘Lucy Plays Wanton Witch’ featuring re-interpretations of the original material in a whole new body of work. This upcoming follow up release will not represent a mere remix edition, but a recreation from scratch and the rebirth of “one into another” so to say. Expect the quintessential Lucy treatment.

All tracks written & produced by Wanton Witch
SALP009 – All rights reserved
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2021

Wanton Witch

Preorder

A1. Wanton Witch - Daddy's Girl [SALP009]

Wanton Witch - "Wanton Witch" [SALP009]

After a remix for Dadub on Stroboscopic’s Preternity release, Rrose checks in with a full solo release through Monad XVI. This is a record half machine, half beast, at times empathetic but continuously emphatic.
Opener ‘Onceless’ is a nine-minute coalescence of the aural narrative of Apocalypse Now. Running throughout is an incessant buzzing, more helicopter and plane than the label’s favourite bees. From this mechanical source emerges an eerie tribal drumming, slowly bringing the dissonance to a chilling conclusion.
‘The Stare’ begins as optimistically as ‘Onceless’ seemed pessimistic: a beautiful bass drum induces a whirring repeat. This repeat, however, begins to suffocate, absorbing the drum in a slide towards more mechanical disorientation. Paranoid hi-hat and insistent low ends are then introduced to close.
‘Kneeling’ is an amalgam of hi-end loops, the master sampler for a 1980s ‘computer sound’ film stock. The tone is brought back from the electronic precipice by a more verdant perspective in the middle minutes, but this cannot prevent the electronic whirring from passing into final track ‘Wet Silk Will’.
‘WSW’ has a greater jut than its predecessors, breathing and striding in a human form. Yet while it pursues this more human resolve, it certainly retains the EP’s signature pursuit of determined, electronic force.

Rrose 'Monad XVI' [SAM016]

Serendipities surround the collaboration between Berlin’s Stroboscopic Artefacts label founder Lucy and their most recent record with Malaysian Bangkok based emerging artist Wanton Witch, who as newcomer to the scene has received great acclaim with her debut LP becoming one of the best albums of 2021 on Resident Advisor and album of the day on Bandcamp. The release culminates in the reimagining of WW album as seen and felt through the lens of Lucy. This is a follow up full-length album by Lucy not approached as a usual remixes record, but instead a fully fleshed out new body of work with the WW material being an integral part of Lucy’s sonic palette.

Despite the label hiatus during the first year of lockdowns, the isolation of the pandemic helped create a fertile ground for a back and forth between Wanton Witch and Lucy’s own distinct sound palettes to collide. With the normal every day pressures of touring lifted and enlightened by WW’s sonic world, Lucy has seen this as a positive opportunity to manifest new pathways of connectivity and process a phase of personal growth. Not simply about the breaking of gender lines, but also about the blurring of creative boundaries, especially when making music.

Lucy’s original patronage of Wanton Witch and her relatively fresh and new voice in the electronic music scene can be seen as a contribution to this idea of dismantling industry norms. In more than a decade of SA operations this is a reset moment for the label’s mission focusing on empowering new talent, refreshing and growing with them, presenting a dynamic two-way process between the label as a whole and the individual artists output.

Lucy’s personal revolution has coincided with Wanton Witch’s own discovery of her musical voice and their paths have created a synchronicity. This osmosis of thought and feeling, even through massive distances, can be so real and tangible. Lucy’s new album is a testament to the power of connective tissue in collaboration. It is this catalyst of realisation that has allowed the creative work to flourish under the toughest of pandemic conditions.

All tracks written & produced by Lucy AKA Luca Mortellaro
using solely material from the debut album of Wanton Witch (SALP009)
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro (OA)
Lucy Press Shot by Spyros Rennt
Cat No. SALP010 – All rights reserved
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2022
https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/

Lucy Plays Wanton Witch

Pre-order

Lucy - Wanton Witch 6 (Resentment)[SALP010]

Serendipities surround the collaboration between Berlin’s Stroboscopic Artefacts label founder Lucy and their most recent record with Malaysian Bangkok based emerging artist Wanton Witch, who as a newcomer to the scene has received great acclaim with her debut LP becoming one of the best albums of 2021 on Resident Advisor and album of the day on Bandcamp. The release culminates in the reimagining of WW album as seen and felt through the lens of Lucy. This is a follow up full-length album by Lucy not approached as a usual remixes record, but instead a fully fleshed out new body of work with the WW material being an integral part of Lucy’s sonic palette.

Despite the label hiatus during the first year of lockdowns, the isolation of the pandemic helped create a fertile ground for a back and forth between Wanton Witch and Lucy’s own distinct sound palettes to collide. With the normal every day pressures of touring lifted and enlightened by WW’s sonic world, Lucy has seen this as a positive opportunity to manifest new pathways of connectivity and process a phase of personal growth. Not simply about the breaking of gender lines, but also about the blurring of creative boundaries, especially when making music.

Lucy’s original patronage of Wanton Witch and her relatively fresh and new voice in the electronic music scene can be seen as a contribution to this idea of dismantling industry norms. In more than a decade of SA operations this is a reset moment for the label’s mission focusing on empowering new talent, refreshing and growing with them, presenting a dynamic two-way process between the label as a whole and the individual artists output.

Lucy’s personal revolution has coincided with Wanton Witch’s own discovery of her musical voice and their paths have created a synchronicity. This osmosis of thought and feeling, even through massive distances, can be so real and tangible. Lucy’s new album is a testament to the power of connective tissue in collaboration. It is this catalyst of realisation that has allowed the creative work to flourish under the toughest of pandemic conditions.

All tracks written & produced by Lucy AKA Luca Mortellaro
using solely material from the debut album of Wanton Witch (SALP009)
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro (OA)
Lucy Press Shot by Spyros Rennt
Cat No. SALP010 – All rights reserved
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2022

Lucy Plays Wanton Witch [SALP010]

Single from the upcoming album "Edge Of Non Compliance"

Back in 2009, Italian DJ and producer Luca Mortellaro - better known simply as Lucy - established the Stroboscopic Artefacts label. And over the last 14 years, the imprint has nurtured a reputation for its line-blurring electronic abstraction and dancefloor experimentation, releasing influential material by artists like Speedy J, Kangding Ray, Donato Dozzy, Paula Temple, Rrose, Ben Klock, Wanton Witch, and of course Lucy themselves. Naturally following the label's ten year threshold, the pandemic pause and Mortellaro's subsequent artistic re-evaluation, OTHER FACTS emerges as a fresh entity, fully unplugged from Stroboscopic Artefacts' dancefloor mainframe, with its gaze pointed on widescreen cinematic sound design and audio-visual art.

To inaugurate the label comes the sophomore album from masked, anonymous artist Roots In Heaven, following their acclaimed 2017 opus "Petites Madeleines". That debut took its conceptual cues from Proust's seven-volume masterpiece "À la recherche du temps perdu", and while "Edge of Non Compliance" has no such literary focus, it's no less layered or philosophically rigorous. In fact it's the ideal vehicle to launch OTHER FACTS: an album that's rich, suggestive and delicately textured, that proposes a visual accompaniment without overstating its motivation.

Edge Of Non Compliance

Roots In Heaven - Feed Your Head

SA Website

Zeitgeber (Lucy & Speedy J) 7h set @ Trouw, 07.12.2013

Single from the upcoming album "A Circle In Stone" by Roots In Heaven.

Oliver Ho has long been motivated by the vast potential of multimedia art. Back in the early 2000s, the veteran producer established the Exist imprint to help light a path from the dancefloor towards the gallery or the theater. There was only one release - a compilation that featured artists such as Mick Harris and James Ruskin - but it left a loose thread that Ho has been biding his time to pull ever since. On "A Circle In Stone", Ho reboots the Veil moniker, following 2004's "Transform" with a cinematic montage of precise sound design, abstract electronics and manicured classical instrumentation. It's a far cry from his beloved industrial techno productions or the rugged EBM scrapes of the acclaimed Broken English Club project, training its focus on Ho's inner world and elucidating a few of the inspirations that have undergirded his musical identity since the very beginning.

"A Circle In Stone" is music that's tangled wholly with the subconscious forces that underpin our every thought: dreams, hallucinations, gods, monsters and the vast open sea of imagination.

A Cirle In Stone

Veil - Embryo

Stroboscopic Artefacts celebrate five years in business with a series of special anniversary releases, featuring selected artists from the SA story-so-far who have strongly shaped the label's identity.
In 'Drowned By Sight', Rrose sets the tone for the record with a deep and twisting take on club techno. A thick, low-end groove rolls out at unhurried pace, and widescreen, hissing synths fill the high-end. The track's brilliance lies in its tense, narrative arrangement: a five-minute, detailed climb followed by euphoric release as the drums fade away.
Perc's 'Tri-City' is a more direct assault on the dancefloor. The kicks pump like pistons, held together by weighty sub bass, cymbals and claps. The defining feature, though, is the haunting piano keys that emerge in the breakdown. Set against the harsh textures Perc is known for, the keys sound especially vivid and transcend the track beyond standard peak-time fare.
Flip the record to find Pfirter's exceptional 'Atman'. This track comes from the more reserved end of Pfirter's discography, deriving its impact from titanic sound design rather than brute muscle. The concise range of elements interact both tonally and rhymically to create a masterful piece of music that's fit to move both body and mind.
Irish duo Lakker provide the closing track, 'Pier'. In typical style, they re-imagine classic IDM influences into something totally unique, where mangled vocals sit amongst eerie atmospheres and drones. Skipping along way above traditional techno tempo, 'Pier' is the most experimental offering on this record, and represents a key part of the Stroboscopic sound.
'V - Five Years Of Artefacts - Chapter One' provides a well-rounded snapshot of what Lucy's label has explored since its conception. These are four deeply physical, dancefloor cuts, but ones that prioritise the importance of challenging norms and creating something new - a testament to the strength of the SA roster.


Rrose, Perc, Pfirter, Lakker ‘V – Five Years Of Artefacts – Chapter One’ [SA5YEARS01]

This latest installment in the Stroboscopic saga once again calls upon the talents of two label veterans; both having released EPs on the label while also contributing to its five-year retrospective series. This new split release shared between Kangding Ray and Rrose is a fitting partnership: after all, both individuals are known for advancing the progress of rhythmic electronic music while drawing from creative influences and movements that weren’t typically associated with the ‘techno’ lineage until these producers made such links possible.
Kangding Ray’s side, “Ardent,” is a gripping and propulsive piece formed in the same spirit as the songs from his latest full-length, Cory Arcane. Dramatic and cinematic from beginning to end, it makes the listener and/or dancer feel like a highly alert martial artist slicing and kicking through a host of liquid-metallic adversaries, with disciplined synth bass and rich melodic swells as defensive weapons. Slick and accessible without ever being conventional, “Ardent” convincingly collages stuttering and minced sequences together with steady percolation and smooth, brassy undertones - three different sonic ‘states of matter’ that unify to make Kangding Ray’s musical
imagination into an almost tactile thing.
The entity known as Rrose, meanwhile, presents a track here that reaffirms that artist’s expert skill at crafting perfectly symmetrical and mesmerizing musical palindromes (a skill that can be seen on other standout Stroboscopic Artefacts tracks like “The Stare,” and also on Rrose’s interpretation of James Tenney’s classic palindrome “Koan [Having Never Written A Note For Percussion]).” The track in question, “Swallows,” is appropriately named, impressing upon listeners like the sonic equivalent of a massive searchlight which, once it lands upon its target, swallows or vacuums up the listener’s conscious attention. This elegantly arching set of multiplying and disintegrating waveforms rewards those with the courage to return its insistent gaze and to “play at maximum” volume to reveal the wealth of detail concealed within its deceptive minimalism.
With its scientific exactness and sheer originality, this split is an essential listen not just for fans of either artist, but also for any seeker after new perceptual revelations.

Kangding Ray / Rrose 'Ardent / Swallows' [SA027]

One of the most exciting new movements in modern music involves electronic producers venturing into sonic realms of fear and uncertainty. Though these artists’ unforgiving style places plenty of demands on their listeners, it is devoid of cheap shock value and predictable moralizing, and is capable of finding and creating romance in a grayscale world of Brutalist architecture and all-pervasive automation. While typically associated with the artist rosters of labels like Downwards, Blackest Ever Black and Modern Love, Stroboscopic Artefacts has played just as strong a role in shaping this aesthetic. So it’s only fitting that the next Monad issue from Stroboscopic Artefacts would come from the German duo of Eric Goldstein and Konstanze Bathseba Zippora, - better known as OAKE - whose previous efforts on Regis’ Downwards label have established them as one of the most unique products of their genre.
Like OAKE’s previous work, their new Monad EP immediately establishes a tight hold on the listener’s consciousness with its rigorous balance of ethereal vocal seduction and concussive rhythm, making one feel thrust into a world where the forces of techno-science and magic are involved in a constant reciprocal conversation. The opening track ‘L’esclandre’ while just a harbinger of things to come, is still as intense on its own as anything else in the electronic music realm, ritualistically laying a foundation of heavy kick drums and metallic lashes that seem aimed at key pressure points of the body. The following track ‘Jardin d’évasion’, bringing spoken vocals and haunted sung melodies into the caustic mix, allows the listener to soar over the aforementioned Brutalist landscape while still somehow feeling the full weight of it - a dark musical gem whose vocal repetition of “keeping...awake” elegantly completes a feeling of post-industrial yearning and restlessness.
‘Hélicorde’ returns OAKE to a more stripped-down, rhythmically dominant format; in the process offering a track that seems to have been by some kind of hybrid machine-wolves rather than by humans enhanced with studio technology. The feeling of being ‘on the hunt’ is captured here with great panache, but doesn’t leave the ears so exhausted that they won’t be able to enjoy the breathtaking finale ‘Paysage dépaysé’. Initially powered along by hammering kicks and grinding ambience, a siren voice appears which leads the instrumentation through a number of increasingly intense permutations on the main theme. Immense, yawning dirge tones and dissonant strings combine with the already established presence of pneumatic drill percussion to make a timeless meditation on lost grandeur.

OAKE 'Monad XXIV' [SAM024]

HYPER OPAL MANTIS

The tension between the natural and artificial, the body and mind, are central themes in electronic music in general, and Techno in particular, as the means of creation, focused around technology and interactions with machines, contrast with the emotional response to sound, the mystical ritual of collective dancing, and the ethos of liberation and tolerance embedded in the culture it produced.

We’re navigating a world of engineered pleasures, big data monitoring of movements and consumption habits, and falsely objective representations of reality, further blurred by a reduced attention span and several opaque layers of cultural interpretation and political manipulation.

Manichean simplifications are used to create hate and fear in order to achieve domination and impose limits on freedom, and the irrational belief in endless growth, increasingly disconnected from nature, led to massive environmental destructions and waves of unprecedented extinctions of species.

Our primal sensuous perception, vastly more abstract, emotional and sensual, make us feel the world as an ambiguous realm we are part of, but not in control of ; a complex network of interacting forces and enigmatic patterns, a matrix of overlapping desires. Rebuilding our bonds with nature, Reconnecting with our senses, and spreading love in the process becomes an essential act of resistance.

Hyper Opal Mantis is a triptych on 3 states of desire, and the first long player of Kangding Ray for Stroboscopic Artefacts.
HYPER is the primal, sensual lust, OPAL is the emotional catharsis, a blissful desire for love. MANTIS, like the insect it refers to, is the destructive, fatal attraction.

HYPER OPAL MANTIS

B2 - Kangding Ray - EPSILON [SALP005/SACD008]

Stroboscopic Artefacts rip into autumn with a masterful split vinyl. SA006 sees Jonas Kopp taking to the A-side with the punishingly good “Alkitran” and the flip side picks up where the Monad Series left off with Markus Suckut’s “Vary”. “Alkitran” writhes hissing and spitting into existence. Snares lash across the opening, to be replaced by subaqueous grumbles and whirling from above. The title “Alkitran” begs no translation; the track’s sticky, black palette and viscous textures effortlessly communicate the notion of tar. Markus Suckut’s “Vary” takes the opposite tact; his dark tones are built amid structures that are suffused with light and dappled with the grindingly ecstatic. This is superbly elegant techno that has refused to sacrifice any of its hardness in order to achieve elegance. The digital release contains two tools extracted by label owner Lucy. Striped down, but simultaneously turned up, he takes the tracks in a distinctly IDM direction.

SA006 was craftily mastered by Artefacts Mastering, Berlin.

Words: Clare Molloy

Jonas Kopp / Markus Suckut – 'Alkitran' / 'Vary' [SA006]

HYPER OPAL MANTIS

The tension between the natural and artificial, the body and mind, are central themes in electronic music in general, and Techno in particular.
The means of creation, focused around technology and interactions with machines, contrast with the emotional response to sound, the mystical ritual of collective dancing, and the ethos of liberation and tolerance embedded in the culture it has produced.

We’re navigating a world of engineered pleasures, big data monitoring of movements and consumption habits, and representations of reality that falsely claim objectivity, further blurred by reduced attention spans and several opaque layers of cultural interpretation and political manipulation.

Manichean simplifications are used to create hate and fear in order to achieve domination and impose limits on freedom. Meanwhile, the irrational belief in endless growth – increasingly disconnected from nature – has led to massive environmental destruction and an unprecedented wave of species extinction.

Our original primal perception – vastly more abstract, emotional and sensual – makes us feel the world as an ambiguous realm we are part of, but not in control of. We exist in a complex network of interacting forces and enigmatic patterns; a matrix of overlapping desires. Reconnecting with this sensory perception and through it spreading love becomes an essential act of resistance.

Hyper Opal Mantis is a triptych on 3 states of desire, and the first long player of Kangding Ray for Stroboscopic Artefacts.
HYPER is the primal, sensual lust; OPAL is the emotional catharsis, a blissful desire for love; MANTIS, like the insect it refers to, is the destructive, fatal attraction.

All tracks (w)&(p) by David Letellier.
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA].
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2017.
Cat. No SALP005/SACD008 – all rights reserved.
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com
info@stroboscopicartefacts.com

Kangding Ray 'HYPER OPAL MANTIS' [SALP005/SACD008]

Buy: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/untitled-sa030/

Lady Starlight is known for an outstanding resume of musical and performance activities that have included an opening spot on Lady Gaga’s massive “ArtRave” tour and live collaboration with Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator. A musical educator / tastemaker and a unique artist in her own right, her comfortability in her own skin allows her to employ DJ tools, audio hardware and her own body in live exhibitions and collaborations. Her intimate knowledge of techno (particularly the raw and uncompromising variety designed by the likes of Jeff Mills, Mike Banks, Joey Beltram and her collaborative partners Surgeon and Regis) has taken her to the studio, where she now provides Stroboscopic Artefacts with a 4-track contribution to this ongoing legacy of ecstasy.

For those who are still skeptical about the liberating abilities of electronic dance music, this new entry in SA’s respected catalog will serve as a potent reminder of why this essential style has continued to evolve and thrive while transient gimmicks crumble around it. Lady Starlight’s expert control of sound extremes (something she has clearly picked up during her personal education in diverse musical genres) colors each of the four EP tracks with infectious enthusiasm. Like some of the best techno music in that vein, the four tracks on display here are hard-hitting and authoritative, with moments of tension release that have the precision of an atomic clock. At the same time, though, these cuts are full of smoothly subtle transitions, and their overall heaviness and density actually helps the spirit and imagination to soar freely.

Beginning immediately with the relentless cycling beat and echoing synth stabs of “E12”, the atmosphere and psychic energy of a peak hour rave is never far away: listeners may see intense coherent beams of light flaring all around regardless of where they find themselves. This aesthetic carries over into “E3.2,” another take on similar themes but with progressively more hypnotic simplicty and beneficial pressure. “E2.2” is built on a less rough-edged, shinier set of bouncing and panning synth hits, which achieve maximum mesmerizing potential when they begin to play forwards and backwards while slightly out of phase with each other. As ever, the body-massaging bass and whip-crack accents of the percussion section swell and expand into every corner of the sound space. Just when it seems like things might cool off, a little, though, Lady Starlight unleashes full-spectrum audio warfare with “F8,” a seamless interlocking of industrial clang and 16th-note percussion hits with the basic elements used for the previous three tracks. If listeners’ pulse hasn’t picked up by the time this impressive finale commences in earnest, it may be time to call for emergency services.

All tracks written and produced by Lady Starlight.
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2017
Cat. No. SA030 – All rights reserved.
http://stroboscopicartefacts.com

Lady Starlight - 'Untitled' [SA030]

Alessandro Adriani - Enter The Fire
A1. He Who Harnesses The Souls
Release date: December 8th 2017
12" / Digital

It was probably only a matter of time until eclectic producer and Mannequin label founder Alessandro Adriani would join up with Stroboscopic Artefacts, since both are heavily invested in taking electronic music listeners outside of their comfort zone and into a world of unpredictable outcomes. Adriani’s debut EP for the label, Enter the Fire, is the first evidence of a new mutation in the Stroboscopic DNA, as can be seen by a shift in Ignazio Mortellaro’s design work for the label (it is in keeping with the previous horticultural theme of the records, but now features directly scanned objects - in this case a single leaf features on the cover). 

Adriani’s work has appeared at a time when, even as electronic music continues to expand into all kinds of new territories, many still associate its signature sounds (analog synthesis, quantized percussion etc.) exclusively with the time in which they first began to make a significant cultural impact. Fortunately, innovators like Adriani ignore this belief that sounds must remain harnessed to a specific point in human history: his attitude towards music making is that the changing circumstances of our environments always have the potential to put a fresh spin on the sounds associated with a previous time and place. In other words, he does not cater to any conceptions of “retro” or dreams of future past. His curriculum vitae as a producer, event organizer, and label owner all comes back to this ethos of getting beyond the “museum exhibit” mentality to music and keeping it vital in the here and now.

The music on Enter the Fire will not disappoint fans of the hard-edged, aerodynamic style that Adriani has perfected over the years: his skillful distillation of the most impactful elements from genres like EBM, acid, darkwave and industrial is on display the moment that the needle lands upon the grooves of the opening track “He Who Harnesses The Souls”. The track’s cycling sense of urgency builds as one hectic sequence is screened on top of the other, with the topmost layer providing a gorgeous melodic sheen to it all. This is followed up with “Rituals (707 EBM Version)” a tense martial stomp designed around a classically effective sequence of 16th notes and brusing kick drum. As these elements intensify the feeling of inhuman discipline through a series of flanging and filtering techniques, chilly phantom noises hint at a state of profound mental and physical exhaustion. 

The B-side shows that music with sheer bionic strength it isn’t the only card Adriani has to play, either within his repertoire as a whole or on this single slab of vinyl. It kicks off with a (relatively speaking!) more contemplative version of “Rituals,” a deviously designed mirage of shifting audio sands in which many different elements (i.e. some hesitant guitar figures, wordless vocalizations) come into view but remain tantalizingly out of reach. The program’s conclusion, “Astronomy”, evokes something more like the cultivated patience of a private investigator on a stakeout (one who is, of course, equipped with all necessary means of technological surveillance). Continuous high-frequency tones, magnified sections of surface noise, and a multitude of other encoded signals all descend on the listener and like a sort of dub music for the ‘peak information’ age.

Enter The Fire

A1 - Alessandro Adriani - He Who Harnesses The Souls [SA031]

Taken from Stroboscopic Artefacts' first compilation, Flowers From The Ashes: Contemporary Italian Electronic Music, out April 13th, 2018 on 2x12" / CD / Digital.

Order: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/flowers-from-the-ashes-salp006-sacd009/



Flowers From The Ashes is the latest multi-artist project to bear the acclaimed Stroboscopic Artefacts imprimatur. There is a sensibility of decadence and corroded grandeur etched within its four album sides, reminding us that historically “decadent” times have nonetheless resulted in some of the boldest acts of individual and collective creativity. Like the "floral" theme that has remained a consistent feature of S.A.’s graphic presentation, the music here equally presents fragility and intensity in a way that really drives home this visual metaphor for good, while still holding out the promise that similar creations will be seeded in the near future.

Though many of the artists involved have set of residence outside of their native Italy, all contribute here to make a captivating portrait of a shared spirit and cultural memory. The album opens with 'Errori', deceptively fragile sonic ornaments crafted and suspended in space by Blackest Ever Black artist Silvia Kastel. This is followed closely by the mellifluous, warming glow of percussionist Andrea Belfi’s 'Spitting & Skytouching', and then by the resolute electric bass patterns and luminous fog of 'Lux et Sonus', from Eeri label head Marco Shuttle. Hospital Productions alumnus Ninos du Brasil open the B-side with a similarly dense, amorphous construction built from tribalistic chants and rhythmic patterns, to be followed by Mannequin label boss Alessandro Adriani’s 'You Will Not Be There For The End', showcasing his distinctive take on the "paranoiac breakdance" aesthetic of classic EBM. S.A. veteran Chevel rounds out the first record in the program by interlacing several percolating synth lines together into a richly conversational piece.

The journey continues with 'Starving The Mind', an undulating mini-epic from S.A. founder Lucy that is animated by his signature balance of seductiveness and concentration. The bright, biting acid synth tones of 'PRV-HH3-X', by Lory D, then takes a sharp right turn into an invisible metropolis ruled by reflective high fashion and hidden intrigue. The imposing architecture of 'Virgo Rebellion', designed by modular synth futurist Caterina Barbieri, acts as an excellent companion piece, and sets up the closing '4G' from Spazio Disponibile co-founder Neel - a crepuscular serenade that accurately sums up much of the foregoing activity.


All tracks (w)&(p) by Silvia Kastel, Andrea Belfi, Marco Shuttle, Ninos Du Brasil, Alessandro Adriani, Chevel, Lucy, Lory D, Caterina Barbieri & Neel.
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA].
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2018.
Cat. No SALP006 / SACD009 - all rights reserved.
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com
info@stroboscopicartefacts.com

Order

D1 - Caterina Barbieri - Virgo Rebellion [SALP006/SACD009]

Taken from Stroboscopic Artefacts' first compilation, Flowers From The Ashes: Contemporary Italian Electronic Music, out April 13th, 2018 on 2x12" / CD / Digital.

Order: stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/flowers…006-sacd009/

Flowers From The Ashes is the latest multi-artist project to bear the acclaimed Stroboscopic Artefacts imprimatur. There is a sensibility of decadence and corroded grandeur etched within its four album sides, reminding us that historically “decadent” times have nonetheless resulted in some of the boldest acts of individual and collective creativity. Like the "floral" theme that has remained a consistent feature of S.A.’s graphic presentation, the music here equally presents fragility and intensity in a way that really drives home this visual metaphor for good, while still holding out the promise that similar creations will be seeded in the near future.

Though many of the artists involved have set of residence outside of their native Italy, all contribute here to make a captivating portrait of a shared spirit and cultural memory. The album opens with 'Errori', deceptively fragile sonic ornaments crafted and suspended in space by Blackest Ever Black artist Silvia Kastel. This is followed closely by the mellifluous, warming glow of percussionist Andrea Belfi’s 'Spitting & Skytouching', and then by the resolute electric bass patterns and luminous fog of 'Lux et Sonus', from Eeri label head Marco Shuttle. Hospital Productions alumnus Ninos du Brasil open the B-side with a similarly dense, amorphous construction built from tribalistic chants and rhythmic patterns, to be followed by Mannequin label boss Alessandro Adriani’s 'You Will Not Be There For The End', showcasing his distinctive take on the "paranoiac breakdance" aesthetic of classic EBM. S.A. veteran Chevel rounds out the first record in the program by interlacing several percolating synth lines together into a richly conversational piece.

The journey continues with 'Starving The Mind', an undulating mini-epic from S.A. founder Lucy that is animated by his signature balance of seductiveness and concentration. The bright, biting acid synth tones of 'PRV-HH3-X', by Lory D, then takes a sharp right turn into an invisible metropolis ruled by reflective high fashion and hidden intrigue. The imposing architecture of 'Virgo Rebellion', designed by modular synth futurist Caterina Barbieri, acts as an excellent companion piece, and sets up the closing '4G' from Spazio Disponibile co-founder Neel - a crepuscular serenade that accurately sums up much of the foregoing activity.

All tracks (w)&(p) by Silvia Kastel, Andrea Belfi, Marco Shuttle, Ninos Du Brasil, Alessandro Adriani, Chevel, Lucy, Lory D, Caterina Barbieri & Neel.
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA].
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2018.
Cat. No SALP006 / SACD009 - all rights reserved.
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com
info@stroboscopicartefacts.com

Flowers From The Ashes: Contemporary Italian Electronic Music

C1 - Lucy - Starving The Mind [SALP006/SACD009]

Serena Butler returns to the fore with an EP for Stroboscopic Artefacts. “We Want Neither Clean Hands Nor Beautiful Souls” is a four track recording of Butler’s personal juncture with the Queerverse and his engagement in queer politics, an elaboration on the alternate freedoms and minimal politics of alienation introduced with her 2016 release on Eerie. By bringing her mission of inclusion and diversity to Lucy’s Berlin based imprint S>H/E has found a kindred spirit in the pursuit of, what SA describes as, “an incessant accretion of new ideas and new formal elements that must transcend any self-limiting expectations of genres or cliques”. This release embodies the shared revere that Butler and SA have for the subversive power of techno; or, as Butler says, “the explicit, organized effort to repurpose technologies for progressive gender political ends”.

The EP’s path begins with the opener “If Nature Is Unjust, Change Nature”, a shadowy crescendo of whispered rhythms and minimal-synth leitmotivs from alt-clones of Rrose and Second Woman grafted memories. “Globular Hymen” is the club supernova of the lot; an interstellar blizzard of layered arpeggios, which hit like the wrath of a pantheon of angry goddesses. “Science is not an expression but a suspension of gender” lays on the feel of afterlife, a dubbed-out lullaby between lo-fi drums and subtle interference patterns of noise. This is the sound of Butler getting between you and your ears; reminding you to step back from certainty and imperative judgments. Last but not least, “And with sexism came disparity” unleashes a vocal swarm of declaration and rebellion. Despite the straight-forward title, this is a true Demdikesterian mutant-techno stepper, with neither clean words nor a beautiful soul.

All tracks (w)&(p) by 
Federico Cataldo u / Serena Butler ♀ 
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA].
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2018
Cat. No SA033 – all rights reserved.
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com
info@stroboscopicartefacts.com

B2 - Serena Butler - And With Fire Came Disparity [SA033]

Lucy and Rrose, now coming together as The Lotus Eaters, have established themselves separately as techno artists who are just as comfortable operating in the uncharted area of experimental music. Running their own labels (Stroboscopic Artefacts and Eaux, respectively), they have gained a cult following, both influencing and challenging the direction of techno.

Their first collaboration took the form of mutual remixes. Lucy remixed Rrose, taking on his modern classic “Waterfall” while Rrose remixed Dadub for Stroboscopic Artefacts, and shortly thereafter contributed an extended EP as part of SA’s Monad series.

Eventually, the idea of working together became inevitable. Several intense sessions in Lucy’s Berlin studio followed, using mainly analog hardware. These sessions gave birth to a new project, starting with two EPs signed Lucy and Rrose, called “The Lotus Eaters” (SA) and “The Lotus Eaters II” (Eaux). With the “Desatura” album, the first release signed under the project name The Lotus Eaters, their common work is refined further, also becoming a live act which will debut at ADE (Amsterdam) 2018.

With “Desatura,” Lucy and Rrose explore themes of physical density, emptiness, and space, creating sonic objects which can be rotated and viewed from multiple perspectives. Eschewing the typical instrumentation of techno, the duo use synthesized sound and feedback as fundamental sources to generate both textural and percussive elements. A sense of tension and weight emerge from sources that cannot be easily pinpointed. The resulting album forms a complex narrative from a paradoxically simple and restrained set of sound sources. A mysterious and profound accomplishment.

all tracks (w)&(p) by Lucy (Luca Mortellaro) & Rrose (Seth Horvitz)
mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro
(p)&(c) Stroboscopic Artefacts 2018
Cat. No SALP007 / SACD010 – all rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com
info@stroboscopicartefacts.com

Desatura

A1 - Lotus Eater (Lucy and Rrose) - Anchor [SALP007/SACD010]

Preorder: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/desatura-salp007-sacd010/

Lucy and Rrose, now coming together as The Lotus Eaters, have established themselves separately as techno artists who are just as comfortable operating in the uncharted area of experimental music. Running their own labels (Stroboscopic Artefacts and Eaux, respectively), they have gained a cult following, both influencing and challenging the direction of techno.

Their first collaboration took the form of mutual remixes. Lucy remixed Rrose, taking on his modern classic “Waterfall” while Rrose remixed Dadub for Stroboscopic Artefacts, and shortly thereafter contributed an extended EP as part of SA’s Monad series.

Eventually, the idea of working together became inevitable. Several intense sessions in Lucy’s Berlin studio followed, using mainly analog hardware. These sessions gave birth to a new project, starting with two EPs signed Lucy and Rrose, called “The Lotus Eaters” (SA) and “The Lotus Eaters II” (Eaux). With the “Desatura” album, the first release signed under the project name The Lotus Eaters, their common work is refined further, also becoming a live act which will debut at ADE (Amsterdam) 2018.

With “Desatura,” Lucy and Rrose explore themes of physical density, emptiness, and space, creating sonic objects which can be rotated and viewed from multiple perspectives. Eschewing the typical instrumentation of techno, the duo use synthesized sound and feedback as fundamental sources to generate both textural and percussive elements. A sense of tension and weight emerge from sources that cannot be easily pinpointed. The resulting album forms a complex narrative from a paradoxically simple and restrained set of sound sources. A mysterious and profound accomplishment.


all tracks (w)&(p) by Lucy (Luca Mortellaro) & Rrose (Seth Horvitz)
mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro
(p)&(c) Stroboscopic Artefacts 2018
Cat. No SALP007 / SACD010 – all rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com
info@stroboscopicartefacts.com

Lotus Eater (Lucy and Rrose) - "Desatura" [SALP007/SACD010]

Stroboscopic Artefacts returns with another strong addition to its Totem series, a unique set of releases pressed on transparent 10” vinyl, capturing the essence and effusiveness of multidimensionality of club culture. Bridging the gap between the worlds of sound and material objects, Totem is a series that aims to meld the artistic resonance of each forthcoming release into an emblematic representation of the sounds that are to be presented, clearly within the grooves seen and heard on the 10”. Stepping up for the third release in the series is Berlin legend Efdemin — bringing a three-track journey that is unequivocally enduring and flexible for journeys on-and-off the dancefloor.

While each track shares the same title, the textures and traits are different — with the A1, “Circles” setting things up with pertinent percussion and staccato synth lines; as Efdemin sways towards another side with “Left” — a heady, hedonistic thumper with exuberant melodic bursts; followed by a therapeutic sequel with “Right” — closing out the release with a melange of spacious efficacy, something the Berlin-based producer has been known for throughout his near-two-decade career. Between releasing for the likes of Ostgut Ton, Curle, Dial, and his own imprint Naïf; Efdemin takes on the challenge of Totem’s conceptual subjugation and subverts it with his emotionally honest take on a stimulating and subdural sonic experience within three parts. Narratively dense and expertly-paced, the Totem series carries on with another outer-worldly insertion to its catalog. 

All tracks (w)&(p) by Phillip Sollmann
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2018
Cat. No SATOTEM003 – all rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com
info@stroboscopicartefacts.com

A1 - Efdemin - Wrong Movements (Circles) [SATOTEM003]

Six years on since his latest appearance on the label’s main series, Stroboscopic Artefacts boss Luca Mortellaro, aka Lucy, returns with ‘Dyscamupia’ – an introspective, multisensory techno triptych revolving around the core sequence of Albert Camus’ classic existentialist novel, ‘The Stranger’. Also known as the ‘killing of an arab’, this pivotal moment in Camus’ seminal book – which also inspired The Cure their song ‘Killing An Arab’ back in the day, is here evoked through three variedly intense, deep and hypnotic techno variations – flexing from 120 to 130, onto 140 BPM – each of them translating a particular step in the author’s minute, focal-shifting depiction of the unknown man’s murder on the beach.   

Embodying Meursault for a minute, Jason Snell lends his voice to the narrator and his inner demons, casting a strange, ominous spell on the club and its crowd. Willing to explore and dig up further into the textural wealth and crucial warmth of organic sounds and synthetic treatments, Lucy made wise use of the binaural microphones technology during the vocals recording process, greatly enhancing the immersive force of his compositions to create thoughtful, dystopic narrative bubbles that stand in their own right.

The first number, ‘ Dyscamupia (Forward)’, happens before and right until the actual killing – hence time flowing at a metronomic, heartbeat-like tempo; the second cut ‘Dyscamupia (Pause)’ takes place right after the nameless man’s death, when the narrator enters a kind of existential ‘pause’ and a whole new flow of consciousness begins; the third sequence, ‘Dyscamupia (Backward)’, plumbs the depths of the action itself as played backwards, like an equally hazed-out and dizzying reminiscence of the sad encounter’s mechanism. Don’t let its seemingly conceptual framework fool you though, like most of his past output ‘Dyscamupia’ also aims to bring dancefloors to a steady simmer, whilst maintaining Lucy’s ascending momentum towards an all-round genre-busting, thought-provoking apex.

 

All tracks (w) & (p) by Lucy AKA Luca Mortellaro
Voice on all tracks by Jason Snell
words by Albert Camus’ “ The Stranger”
mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
Ⓟ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2019
Cat. No. SA034 – all rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

A - Lucy - Dyscamupia (Forward) [SA034]

Order: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/dyscamupia/

Six years on since his latest appearance on the label’s main series, Stroboscopic Artefacts boss Luca Mortellaro, aka Lucy, returns with ‘Dyscamupia’ – an introspective, multisensory techno triptych revolving around the core sequence of Albert Camus’ classic existentialist novel, ‘The Stranger’. Also known as the ‘killing of an arab’, this pivotal moment in Camus’ seminal book – which also inspired The Cure their song ‘Killing An Arab’ back in the day, is here evoked through three variedly intense, deep and hypnotic techno variations – flexing from 120 to 130, onto 140 BPM – each of them translating a particular step in the author’s minute, focal-shifting depiction of the unknown man’s murder on the beach.   

Embodying Meursault for a minute, Jason Snell lends his voice to the narrator and his inner demons, casting a strange, ominous spell on the club and its crowd. Willing to explore and dig up further into the textural wealth and crucial warmth of organic sounds and synthetic treatments, Lucy made wise use of the binaural microphones technology during the vocals recording process, greatly enhancing the immersive force of his compositions to create thoughtful, dystopic narrative bubbles that stand in their own right.

The first number, ‘ Dyscamupia (Forward)’, happens before and right until the actual killing – hence time flowing at a metronomic, heartbeat-like tempo; the second cut ‘Dyscamupia (Pause)’ takes place right after the nameless man’s death, when the narrator enters a kind of existential ‘pause’ and a whole new flow of consciousness begins; the third sequence, ‘Dyscamupia (Backward)’, plumbs the depths of the action itself as played backwards, like an equally hazed-out and dizzying reminiscence of the sad encounter’s mechanism. Don’t let its seemingly conceptual framework fool you though, like most of his past output ‘Dyscamupia’ also aims to bring dancefloors to a steady simmer, whilst maintaining Lucy’s ascending momentum towards an all-round genre-busting, thought-provoking apex.

 

All tracks (w) & (p) by Lucy AKA Luca Mortellaro
Voice on all tracks by Jason Snell
words by Albert Camus’ “ The Stranger”
mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
Ⓟ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2019
Cat. No. SA034 – all rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

Lucy - "Dyscamupia" [SA034]

Order: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/the-light-touch-satotem004/

Caustic, dense and centred around complex but exquisitely executed percussive motifs and driven, rising sequences - many would argue an alliance between Shifted’s heady, monochrome recordings and Lucy’s beloved Stroboscopic Artefacts label is long overdue. The music draws on much of the British producer’s previous work, assembled carefully using a characteristic sonic palette - but as ever, Brewer finds fresh space between sounds - showing off a tentatively more extroverted side to his work. 

Title track The Light Touch is perhaps one of Shifted’s more idiosyncratic pieces. Instantly recognisable with it’s heavily granular finish and subtle shifts in delay and reverb composition, the track is rich with groove and moves relentlessly across it’s five minute run time. 

Seel showcases the artist’s talent for building tension with minimal elements - built around a single warping lead, noise tracks drift in and out of the mix to generate effective builds and subtle releases. EP closer, Mixen, riffs on it’s predecessor’s approach but strips back the percussive elements further and ups the ante with searing drone signals rising up above the lead sequence driving the track.

As ever, Brewer’s musical output looks to the heart of the genre - remaining true to purist sensibilities that favour economy of sonic components and studio prowess over unnecessary fanfare, but all the while forging new ground & refining a genuinely personal aesthetic. A powerful debut on a label in fine form that represents some of the best of the British artist’s work.

all tracks (w) & (p) by Guy Brewer
mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
(p)&(c) Stroboscopic Artefacts 2019
Cat. No. SATOTEM004 – all rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

The Light Touch

A - Shifted - The Light Touch [SATOTEM004]

Order: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/manifesto-satotem005/

Firmly entrenched in techno’s haziest alcoves, every new record from Denise Rabe is as punishingly hypnotic an experience as it aims to penetrate the deepest laid of your cerebral zones. Having plied her trade on Arts’ sub-division Arts Collective before moving on to establish her own dedicated label, Rabe, in 2017, the Berlin-based DJ and producer steps up with her much anticipated debut platter for Stroboscopic Artefacts, as she takes the helm for the fifth sortie of the Totem series. True to her love for all things droney and psychoactive, this time Rabe has us descending into rugged, hostile sonic terrains with just a headlamp and the thick mantle of darkness for closest companions. Ahead’s a demented safari across nightmare-prone visions and thunderstruck vistas.

Hosing off the loud, churning 909 kicks and passive-aggressive machine talk straightaway, ‘Manifesto’ sets the tone for the warehouse-sized hammering to come. Evil-minded swashes of hyper-delayed percs and criss-crossing chimes lash out in successive waves, further subjugating the dancers as bars fly by. Back to floor-ready dynamics, the adrenaline booster B-side opener ‘Don’t Leave’ is a truly mind-bending tip. Primed for unrelenting peak time action with its angry buzzard-like drones, pacey 4/4 swing and refined palette of eerie circuit noises and click-y minimalism, this one’s a high-impact steamroller, sure to get maximum response when things start getting muscular. A more spacious and atmospheric number, ‘Clouds’ caps it off and heads for quieter high-altitude spheres as the dubbed-out drums beat an off-kilter, leftfield friendly pulse and ominous synth stabs and pads envelop the listener in entrancing textural folds and interplays.

all tracks (w) & (p) by Denise Rabe
mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
(p)&(c) Stroboscopic Artefacts 2019
Cat. No. SATOTEM005 – all rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

Denise Rabe - "Manifesto" [SATOTEM005]

Stroboscopic Artefacts releases ‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’, a 13-track album curated by Lucy, the nom de techno of Luca Mortellaro. It celebrates ten years of his label by boldly confirming its raison d’être: a continual redefinition of modern techno.

‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’ is a various artists album in which the label’s key artists respond to its tenth anniversary with fresh compositions. Artists with divergent perspectives and MOs are equally at home expressing themselves. These tracks’ timbres, tempos and moods differ greatly yet—somewhat improbably—they seem together, ideologically unified.

The album will be later complemented by a special remixes EP, with four new reworks of pivotal back catalogue material from the label (Donato Dozzy, Caterina Barbieri, Xhin and Klock). And from fall 2019, Lucy and an incredible cast of Stroboscopic Artefacts artists will begin an extended club tour to mark the anniversary.

On ‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’, Mortellaro features solo as Lucy, in collaboration with Rrose as Lotus Eater and together with Speedy J as Zeitgeber. (Rrose also appears alone with “The Myth of Purity.”) Shifted, Efdemin, L.B. Dub Corp (Luke Slater), James Ruskin, Denise Rabe, Adriana Lopez, Chevel, Alessandro Adriani and Serena Butler each feature, representing a group of singular artists whose relationships with the label range from years to months—Stroboscopic Artefacts’ past, present and future must exist simultaneously.

Back in September 2009, Lucy released “Why Don’t You Change / Dub Man Walking,” the first record from Stroboscopic Artefacts, which began a discography that, ten years later, is almost unparalleled in its ambition and vision. Put simply, Mortellaro wanted to create something that didn’t exist. Stroboscopic Artefacts would be respectful of, and indebted to, the great techno and electronic music artists of the past but would develop new paths forward for the label and the genre. The label refused to perpetuate the established dichotomies of electronic music—between the dance floor and home listening, between club music and experimental music, between the past and the future. It took risks knowing it wouldn’t always work. But within a year or so of the label’s inception, it was obvious Stroboscopic Artefacts’ approach had captured imaginations far beyond its Berlin base, showing us that the boundaries of techno are often constructs of limited imagination. The label pursued constantly evolving methods of releasing music. It created concept-driven series like Monad, Stellate and Totem, establishing frameworks that would give freedom in limitation. Standout albums by Lucy, Xhin, Dadub, Zeitgeber, Chevel, Kangding Ray, Lotus Eater and Alessandro Adriani were deeply considered longform presentations.

With this new album, remix EP and tour, now is the moment for Stroboscopic Artefacts to look fondly at its past while drawing breath, reenergised, and hinting at new chapters.

Mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2019
Cat. No. SA10YEARSLP – All rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

X - Ten Years Of Artefacts

C2. Lucy - The Goat God [SA10YEARSLP]

Stroboscopic Artefacts releases ‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’, a 13-track album curated by Lucy, the nom de techno of Luca Mortellaro. It celebrates ten years of his label by boldly confirming its raison d’être: a continual redefinition of modern techno.

‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’ is a various artists album in which the label’s key artists respond to its tenth anniversary with fresh compositions. Artists with divergent perspectives and MOs are equally at home expressing themselves. These tracks’ timbres, tempos and moods differ greatly yet—somewhat improbably—they seem together, ideologically unified.

On ‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’, Mortellaro features solo as Lucy, in collaboration with Rrose as Lotus Eater and together with Speedy J as Zeitgeber. (Rrose also appears alone with “The Myth of Purity.”) Shifted, Efdemin, L.B. Dub Corp (Luke Slater), James Ruskin, Denise Rabe, Adriana Lopez, Chevel, Alessandro Adriani and Serena Butler each feature, representing a group of singular artists whose relationships with the label range from years to months—Stroboscopic Artefacts’ past, present and future must exist simultaneously.

Back in September 2009, Lucy released “Why Don’t You Change / Dub Man Walking,” the first record from Stroboscopic Artefacts, which began a discography that, ten years later, is almost unparalleled in its ambition and vision. Put simply, Mortellaro wanted to create something that didn’t exist. Stroboscopic Artefacts would be respectful of, and indebted to, the great techno and electronic music artists of the past but would develop new paths forward for the label and the genre. The label refused to perpetuate the established dichotomies of electronic music—between the dance floor and home listening, between club music and experimental music, between the past and the future. It took risks knowing it wouldn’t always work. But within a year or so of the label’s inception, it was obvious Stroboscopic Artefacts’ approach had captured imaginations far beyond its Berlin base, showing us that the boundaries of techno are often constructs of limited imagination. The label pursued constantly evolving methods of releasing music. It created concept-driven series like Monad, Stellate and Totem, establishing frameworks that would give freedom in limitation. Standout albums by Lucy, Xhin, Dadub, Zeitgeber, Chevel, Kangding Ray, Lotus Eater and Alessandro Adriani were deeply considered longform presentations.

With this new album and tour, now is the moment for Stroboscopic Artefacts to look fondly at its past while drawing breath, reenergised, and hinting at new chapters.

‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’ tour dates:

12.10.2019 Elysia, Basel (Efdemin, Lucy, Serena Butler)
25.10.2019 999, Warsaw (Denise Rabe, Oake, Zeitgeber)
02.11.2019 Pal, Hamburg (Alessandro Adriani, Lucy, Shifted)
09.11.2019 Village Underground, London (Lotus Eater, Lucy, Rrose, Shifted)
15.11.2019 Hall, Tallin ( Denise Rabe, Lucy, Rrose)
16.11.2019 Mondo, Madrid (Kangding Ray, Lucy)
22.11.2019 Ankali, Prague (Lucy, Rrose, Silvia Kastel)
29.11.2019 Stereo, Montreal (Alessandro Adriani, Lucy)
06.12.2019 Warehouse, Chicago (Denise Rabe, Lucy)
07.12.2019 Analog, New York (Alessandro Adriani, Denise Rabe, Lady Starlight, Lucy)
19.12.2019 Funkhaus / Monom, Berlin (Lineup TBA)
18.01.2020 De School, Amsterdam (Lotus Eater, Lucy, Rrose)
24.01.2020 Kablys, Vilnius (Chevel, Lucy, Rrose)
22.02.2020 Cabaret Aléatoire, Marseille (Efdemin, Lucy, Serena Butler)

Various Artists - "X - Ten Years Of Artefacts" [SA10YEARSLP]

With the ‘Lucy Reworks’ EP, label head Lucy, nom de techno of Luca Mortellaro, revisits four pivotal tracks from his label’s peerless catalogue. In their original form, these tracks from Donato Dozzy, Caterina Barbieri, Lucy & Klock and Xhin each represent significant and deeply personal moments for Mortellaro in Stroboscopic Artefacts’ history. And like the recent ‘Ten Years Of Artefacts’ album and the currently ongoing tour, this EP is a chance for Mortellaro to look back fondly at the label’s past while closely considering its present and its future.

The release of Donato Dozzy’s “Sotto Ma Sotto” in 2014 was in retrospect the moment at which Mortellaro’s curatorial vision broadened to include artists from outside of the immediate early collective of Lucy, Xhin, Dadub, et al. As an icon of Italian electronic music, Dozzy was perhaps an ideal figure to fulfill such a role. His hedonistic yet sharp-eyed “Sotto Ma Sotto” is recast by Mortellaro as a twilit techno roller, as the orginal’s fevered tempo is reduced to a sinister creep.

In remixing Caterina Barbieri, another beloved Italian artist, Mortellaro highlights the breaking of the barrier between experimental and club music that Stroboscopic Artefacts has always sought. His remix of “Virgo Rebellion”, which was released last year on the ‘Flowers From The Ashes’ compilation of contemporary Italian electronic music, retains the adventurous spirit of Barbieri’s gorgeous synth-driven original but frames it in a dramatic new dance floor context.   

The choice of “War Lullaby” is both a reflection on Mortellaro’s friendship and creative partnership with Ben Klock, and the closing of a chapter: the period in which the label’s focus moved past what had come to be perceived by the outside world as the sound of Berlin techno. The original might be considered a Stroboscopic Artefacts anthem, a track of such scale a remix could be risky. But Lucy responds to the project by matching the intensity of the original while subtly redirecting its synthetic expressions.

It would have been almost inconceivable to create a project such as this and not include Xhin. The visionary Singaporean was the first artist signed to the label, and Mortellaro doesn’t pass up the chance to journey back to 2009 and the label’s second release, the EP that gained it an international audience. You can sense the energy he draws from Xhin’s original, as he weaves a deadly synth line through the original’s laser-focussed groove.       

Over the years, it’s been vital for Mortellaro to maintain a more backgrounded presence with Stroboscopic Artefacts, allowing the music and artists to develop without his involvement appearing too closely in the frame. This EP, however, is a chance for him to boldly toast some of the label’s standout music, as Stroboscopic Artefacts marks ten years of challenging contemporary techno’s conventions.

All remixes by Luca Mortellaro AKA Lucy
A1 written & produced by Donato Dozzy
A2 written & produced by Caterina Barbieri
B1 written & produced by Luca Mortellaro AKA Lucy & Ben Klock
B2 written & produced by Xhin
Mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2020
Cat. No. SA10YEARSEP – All rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

A2. Caterina Barbieri - Virgo Rebellion (Lucy Remix)[SA10YEARSEP]

With the ‘Lucy Reworks’ EP, label head Lucy, nom de techno of Luca Mortellaro, revisits four pivotal tracks from his label’s peerless catalogue. In their original form, these tracks from Donato Dozzy, Caterina Barbieri, Lucy & Klock and Xhin each represent significant and deeply personal moments for Mortellaro in Stroboscopic Artefacts’ history. And like the recent ‘Ten Years Of Artefacts’ album and the currently ongoing tour, this EP is a chance for Mortellaro to look back fondly at the label’s past while closely considering its present and its future.

The release of Donato Dozzy’s “Sotto Ma Sotto” in 2014 was in retrospect the moment at which Mortellaro’s curatorial vision broadened to include artists from outside of the immediate early collective of Lucy, Xhin, Dadub, et al. As an icon of Italian electronic music, Dozzy was perhaps an ideal figure to fulfill such a role. His hedonistic yet sharp-eyed “Sotto Ma Sotto” is recast by Mortellaro as a twilit techno roller, as the orginal’s fevered tempo is reduced to a sinister creep.

In remixing Caterina Barbieri, another beloved Italian artist, Mortellaro highlights the breaking of the barrier between experimental and club music that Stroboscopic Artefacts has always sought. His remix of “Virgo Rebellion”, which was released last year on the ‘Flowers From The Ashes’ compilation of contemporary Italian electronic music, retains the adventurous spirit of Barbieri’s gorgeous synth-driven original but frames it in a dramatic new dance floor context.   

The choice of “War Lullaby” is both a reflection on Mortellaro’s friendship and creative partnership with Ben Klock, and the closing of a chapter: the period in which the label’s focus moved past what had come to be perceived by the outside world as the sound of Berlin techno. The original might be considered a Stroboscopic Artefacts anthem, a track of such scale a remix could be risky. But Lucy responds to the project by matching the intensity of the original while subtly redirecting its synthetic expressions.

It would have been almost inconceivable to create a project such as this and not include Xhin. The visionary Singaporean was the first artist signed to the label, and Mortellaro doesn’t pass up the chance to journey back to 2009 and the label’s second release, the EP that gained it an international audience. You can sense the energy he draws from Xhin’s original, as he weaves a deadly synth line through the original’s laser-focussed groove.       

Over the years, it’s been vital for Mortellaro to maintain a more backgrounded presence with Stroboscopic Artefacts, allowing the music and artists to develop without his involvement appearing too closely in the frame. This EP, however, is a chance for him to boldly toast some of the label’s standout music, as Stroboscopic Artefacts marks ten years of challenging contemporary techno’s conventions.

All remixes by Luca Mortellaro AKA Lucy
A1 written & produced by Donato Dozzy
A2 written & produced by Caterina Barbieri
B1 written & produced by Luca Mortellaro AKA Lucy & Ben Klock
B2 written & produced by Xhin
Mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2020
Cat. No. SA10YEARSEP – All rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

‘X – Ten Years Of Artefacts’ tour dates:

18.01.2020 De School, Amsterdam (Lotus Eater, Lucy, Rrose)
24.01.2020 Kablys, Vilnius (Chevel, Lucy, Rrose)
25.01.2020 Case à Chocs, Neuchatel (Alessandro Adriani, Denise Rabe, Lucy)
13.02.2020 Lux, Lisbon (Lotus Eater, Lucy, Rrose)
22.02.2020 Cabaret Aléatoire, Marseille (Efdemin, Lucy, Serena Butler)
23.02.2020 Le Sucre, Lyon (Denise Rabe, Lucy, Luke Slater)
29.02.2020 Tanzhaus West, Frankfurt (Alessandro Adriani, Lucy)

Lucy Reworks [SA10YEARSEP]

Order: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/seventeen-zero-four-satotem007/

Five years on since their last joint outing in Stroboscopic Artefacts Monad series, Speedy J and Lucy team up again as Zeitgeber on ‘Seventeen Zero Four’, a new three-tracker descending deep into the filthy, tenebrous outskirts of club music. Torchbearers of techno as a life-affirming vehicle for human expression, as can be experienced through their multi-dimensional back catalogue of solo records and shared extended performances at some of the finest clubs and festivals around the globe, it’s safe to say Jochem and Luca share a certain taste for taking things off the beaten path and into new perspectives. True to their bold approach towards production, ‘Seventeen Zero Four‘ proudly continues the pair’s tradition of chiselled floor-focused shifts and divagations outside the ringfenced domain of no-nonsense 4/4 mechanics initiated on their self-titled debut album in 2013.

Drawing first blood, the title-track ‘Seventeen Zero Four‘ submerges us in a state of amniotic solitude as hell’s all set to break loose around. Sonar bleeps drip and dissolve across invisible plateaux as thunder rumbles and roars in the distance, mirroring and shattering all linearity between the bars. ‘One Zero Five‘ then implements a further straightforward groove, sequenced hats and kicks carving out a more familiar scenario for the dancers to appropriate, whilst maintaining that oddball, slightly off kind of minimal, dubbed-out blur. Rounding off the package, ‘Twenty Zero Two‘ throws further jazz into the mix, letting its sine curves hula hoop into the upper layers of the outer-audio-space as a shrewdly engineered industrial swing drops the hammer for an epic last stretch.

All tracks written & produced by Jochem Paap and Luca Mortellaro aka Lucy
Mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
Graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
℗ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2020
Cat. No. SATOTEM007 – All rights reserved
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

Zeitgeber - "Seventeen Zero Four" [SATOTEM007]

Order: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/if-not-now-when-sa036/

Sharing the same forward-facing approach to techno music, it was about time that Roman DJ and producer Adiel lands her debut EP on Stroboscopic Artefacts. Just a few months on from the drop of the label’s anniversary compilation ‘X – Ten Years of Artefacts’, featuring the broadest array of talents including Rrose, Shifted, Efdemin, Denise Rabe, Chevel, Lucy and more, the timing couldn’t be better for both her and Lucy’s mind-expanding visions to unify.

Following on from an array of 12-inches on her own imprint, including a recent joint effort with Anthony Linell, ‘If Not Now When?’ is an ode to the all-enveloping strangeness of eternal nights that cuts a path of ecstatic light in the dark. Breaking the ice, the title-track plunges us in an effervescing pool of menacing reverbs, bloopy signals and rippling synth tides on a murky tip, while its faster and sharper twin ‘At The Bottom Of The Sea’ vigorously ups the ante to ensure optimal peak time firepower.

Flip sides and here’s ‘If Not Me Who’ diving even deeper into tape-echo’ed bizarro, swashing back and forth from blunt lo-freq frenzy to liquid-like levitation. ‘ESRR’ rounds off the package on a further freaky note, merging heavily processed vocals and swampy, octave-shifting keyboard movements to form a slice of wild, cross-pollinated electronics laid upon a much enticing techno swing. The very epitome of surgically executed dance music with a fascinatingly soulful, nearly shamanic edge to it.

all tracks (w) & (p) by Adiel
additional production and mixdown on A1, A2 and B1
by Tobias Freund at Non Standard Studio, Berlin
on B2 by Jonas Palzer
mastered @ Artefacts Mastering Studio, Berlin
graphic concept by Ignazio Mortellaro [OA]
cat. No. SA036 – All rights reserved
Ⓟ & © Stroboscopic Artefacts 2020
www.stroboscopicartefacts.com

Adiel - If Not Now When? [SA036]

Order: https://stroboscopicartefacts.com/shop/if-not-now-when-sa036/

Sharing the same forward-facing approach to techno music, it was about time that Roman DJ and producer Adiel lands her debut EP on Stroboscopic Artefacts. Just a few months on from the drop of the label’s anniversary compilation ‘X – Ten Years of Artefacts’, featuring the broadest array of talents including Rrose, Shifted, Efdemin, Denise Rabe, Chevel, Lucy and more, the timing couldn’t be better for both her and Lucy’s mind-expanding visions to unify.

Following on from an array of 12-inches on her own imprint, including a recent joint effort with Anthony Linell, ‘If Not Now When?’ is an ode to the all-enveloping strangeness of eternal nights that cuts a path of ecstatic light in the dark. Breaking the ice, the title-track plunges us in an effervescing pool of menacing reverbs, bloopy signals and rippling synth tides on a murky tip, while its faster and sharper twin ‘At The Bottom Of The Sea’ vigorously ups the ante to ensure optimal peak time firepower.

Flip sides and here’s ‘If Not Me Who’ diving even deeper into tape-echo’ed bizarro, swashing back and forth from blunt lo-freq frenzy to liquid-like levitation. ‘ESRR’ rounds off the package on a further freaky note, merging heavily processed vocals and swampy, octave-shifting keyboard movements to form a slice of wild, cross-pollinated electronics laid upon a much enticing techno swing. The very epitome of surgically executed dance music with a fascinatingly soulful, nearly shamanic edge to it.

Adiel - "If Not Now When?" [SA036]

Back in 2009, Italian DJ and producer Luca Mortellaro - better known simply as Lucy - established the Stroboscopic Artefacts label. And over the last 14 years, the imprint has nurtured a reputation for its line-blurring electronic abstraction and dancefloor experimentation, releasing influential material by artists like Speedy J, Kangding Ray, Donato Dozzy, Paula Temple, Rrose, Ben Klock, Wanton Witch, and of course Lucy themselves. Naturally following the label's ten year threshold, the pandemic pause and Mortellaro's subsequent artistic re-evaluation, OTHER FACTS emerges as a fresh entity, fully unplugged from Stroboscopic Artefacts' dancefloor mainframe, with its gaze pointed on widescreen cinematic sound design and audio-visual art.

Other Facts (fka Stroboscopic Artefacts)

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