Hesaitix - Noctian Airgap (PAN 152)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 152
Release Date: 06 December 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/NoctianAirgap

Through the haze we could make out hardly anything. Just the black line of the horizon. And in the distance the faint glimmering of the sea.

James Whipple returns from a long period of musical dormancy with his first full length LP for PAN since 2017.

As M.E.S.H., he honed a singular and unpredictable sonic identity on his debut album Piteous Gate. Re-emerging as Hesaitix, the now-familiar motifs have become streamlined, the sound palette both more refined and more elaborate. Even at its most abstract, there is an uncanny presence permeating the record, a convincing emotional reality with its own narrative and spatial logic.

Opener ‘Cusp of Unknowing’ announces itself with crushing low end synths feathered with delicate chimes before dissolving into the oceanic din of a data center. Rolling, engine-like subs mark the start of ‘Taurian Shade,’ a low- tempo percussive drive past iced-over chords and angular synth lines. ‘Geflatnet’ and ‘Volunteer’ dip into grooves bordering on nostalgic, referencing a misremembered golden era of electronica long-players. On ‘Santarosae (Black Dolphin),’ a sense of primordial awe comes to the fore, while ‘Black Line,’ originally presented as an audio installation in 2022, uses the human voice to explore a narrative approach to sound. ‘Noctian Airgap’ and ‘Anticrime’ return to syncopation and its complex moods, while ‘Subdermal’ and ‘Hypersea’ embrace repetition in service to atmosphere.

Hesaitix - Noctian Airgap (PAN 152)

SoFTT - HaRDD (PAN 158)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 158
Release Date: 07 March 2025
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/HaRDD

Miami’s SoFTT (South Florida Trance Team), the duo of Kablito and Trevor McFedries, unveil details of their new four-track EP via PAN. Roadtested in clubs across the globe, their unique sound is pushing boundaries and cementing them as rising stars in the electronic music scene.

Pushing the limits of their sugary club anthems, the acrobatic duo are forever expanding the mystical world of SoFTT. “I think for both of us the feeling of getting lifted off the ground by a lyric or a melody is something missing in dance music at the moment,” explain the duo. “We spend a lot of our time listening to country, folk, singer-songwriter driven music as well as the hard stuff so throughout the EP we wanted to incorporate all the things we love into SoFTT. The last few months we've been thinking about how to extend what SoFTT is - from experimenting with the show, to rethinking the physical objects that accompany the music and the project. This new music has been at the center of all of that, just trying to push things and create the world we want to exist in."

SoFTT - HaRDD (PAN 158)

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Phase Shifting Index (PAN 146)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 146
Release Date: 28 March 2025
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/PSI

Phase Shifting Index is a time capsule record of Jeremy Shaw’s vast original artwork that includes audio excerpts, voiceover passages and music composed by There in Spirit and Konrad Black. Shaw’s seven-channel video, sound and light installation–that premiered at Centre Pompidou in 2020–uses science fiction, documentary, visual effects and synchronisation to induce an ecstatic experience in narrative temporality. Each video details the belief systems of one of seven fictional subcultural groups spread across time that aspire to induce parallel realities that could redirect the evolution of the human species through embodied forms of ritual, ideology and movement. 

"Cross-Temporal Sync" written and produced by There In Spirit. All other titles written and produced by Konrad Black.
Mixed by Konrad Black at Blackprint Studios.
Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk, Berlin
Design by Information Office, Vancouver.

Phase Shifting Index premiered at Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2020 and has since been exhibited in nine international venues including ARoS, Denmark, MONA, Tasmania, MAC, Montreal and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Phase Shifting Index (PAN 146)

Evita Manji - Body/Prison
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 136S
Format: DL
Release Date: 05 December 2022
Purchase: PAN.lnk.to/Body_Prison

'Body/Prison' the first single of Evita Manji's forthcoming debut album 'Spandrel?' is out now.

In evolutionary biology, the term spandrel refers to the features of an organism that aren't developments for survival, and seemingly possess no obvious purpose. The word is taken from an architectural label for the triangular spaces in the corner of an arch: small aesthetic elements that provide symmetry and demarcate boundaries. Musician and vocalist Evita Manji asks an opaque question on their debut album, wondering in the face of immense loss what elements of ourselves might be for endurance, and what might just be decoration. Their tracks, pieced together from the vapors of contemporary club music, baroque pop, and experimental sound design, are a way for Manji to examine their relationship with the world at large and within, disassembling systems of control and highlighting interconnectedness.

Manji has been an ethereal presence on the scene for the last few years, collaborating with numerous artists as both a sound artist and a creative director. Last year, they launched their own platform myxoxym, where they debuted two singles from "Spandrel?" and assembled an ambitious fundraiser compilation featuring Rainy Miller, Palmistry, Cecile Believe and others, raising money for Greek wildlife fund ANIMA. Performing across the world at festivals such as Unsound, Lunchmeat, and Rhizom, Manji has also appeared at clubs in Berlin and London, and was picked to represent the Shape+ platform in 2022. These experiences teem through "Spandrel?", helping them weave a complex artistic tapestry that seeks to look far beneath the surface of existence, attempting to balance the doom of global climate meltdown with themes of self-actualization, love, and bodily autonomy.

The album opens on the title track, an introductory précis that prepares listeners for what they're about to hear. Manji's vocals hum with a plugged-in sense of cybernetic melancholia, filtering the world's barrage of rhythms and harmonic themes into lithe, clubwise pop that's buoyed by their advanced sonics. From there, we're wrenched into the sadness of atmospheric lament 'Pitch Black', a meditation on death that submerges deep bass beneath layers of choral bliss, evoking the church and the dancefloor without sacrificing the power of each polar element. Their darkness is pushed from the inside to the outside on 'Oil/Too Much’, a commentary on the oil industry from the perspective of the animal kingdom that doubles as a neon-hued expression of contemporary depression. But it's on 'Body/Prison’ where Manji sounds most naked, speaking honestly about their life's darkest moments and confessing their deepest feelings over searing trance-inspired synths and grotesque percussion.

"Spandrel?" is an album that takes time to unravel, and Manji's themes resonate through history that's older than pop music. It's tragic, romantic, and poetic, and resolutely refuses to turn away from the era's most urgent concerns.

Production, writing, composition: Evita Manji
Mix: Evita Manji
Master: Enyang Urbiks
Artwork: Spyros Droussiotis

Spandrel?

Evita Manji - Body/Prison (PAN 136S)

Tzusing - 孝忍狠 (Filial Endure Ruthless)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 123S
Release Date: 02 February 2023
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/FilialEndureRuthless

Tzusing shares '孝忍狠 (Filial Endure Ruthless)', the first single from the upcoming full-length album '绿帽 Green Hat' out via PAN on March 31st.

Mastered by Enyang Urbiks
Cover photography by Xiaopeng
Artwork by Virgile Flores

Tzusing - 孝忍狠 (Filial Endure Ruthless) (PAN 123S)

Tzusing - 绿帽 Green Hat
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 123
Release Date: 31 March 2023
Purchase: PAN.lnk.to/GreenHat

Mastered by Enyang Urbiks
Mixed by Jondu
Cover photography by Xiaopeng
Artwork by Virgile Flores

绿帽 Green Hat

Tzusing - Residual Stress (PAN 123)

Kamixlo & Isabella Lovestory - Pitch Black
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 144S2
Release Date: 27 June 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/PitchBlack

Kamixlo and Isabella Lovestory share the new single 'Pitch Black' out via PAN out June 27th.
It's the perfect pre-game to an endless, messy night, leaving Isabella Lovestory to lurch towards the mass of sweaty bodies on 'Pitch Black', rhyming sensually over Kamixlo's provocative metallic plucks and slow-motion dembow pulse.

Written by Kamixlo and Isabella Lovestory
Produced by Kamixlo
Mixed by Felix Lee
Mastered by Enyang Urbiks
Artwork by Daniel Swan

Deathwork

Kamixlo & Isabella Lovestory - Pitch Black (PAN 144S2)

Kamixlo - DEATHWORK
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 144
Release Date: 26 July 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/DEATHWORK

A peppery smorgasbord of industrial rhythms, razor-sharp stabs and provocative vocals, 'Deathwork' is Brixton-based Kamixlo's strongest statement yet, sandwiching earworm-laced pop between refried layers of euphoric back-room ambience and visceral hard dance distortion. It's been four years since Kamixlo poured his heart out on his acclaimed debut album 'Cicatriz', and he's been experimenting incessantly since then, figuring out how to integrate bold, memorable hooks into his signature alloy of burnished synths and mangled samples. And if its predecessor represented catharsis after a discomfiting period of loss, 'Deathwork' finds Kamixlo's emotional load lightened, freeing him to survey and tighten his formula by traversing club music's most eccentric, genre-agnostic fringes.

The young DJ and producer cut his teeth in the early 2010s, forming the iconic Bala Club party and label before deploying a series of EPs that accurately captured the era's voracious zeitgeist. Muddling references to nu-metal and emo classics with nervy dembow and bass deconstructions and dissociated SoundCloud rap thuds, Kamixlo characterized a new type of inclusive artist, unprejudiced by preconceptions of the underground or mainstream. 'Deathwork' builds on this legacy and widens his outlook substantially, urging listeners to step towards the dancefloor no matter how they might engage with music. And for the first time, Kamixlo seamlessly amalgamates his delirious bass-heavy atmospheres and kinetic beats with vocals, incorporating compelling performances from reggaetón sensation Isabella Lovestory, avant-pop outsider Puzzle, and Drain Gang's infamous Bladee. There's even an appearance from Berlin's Mechatok, who shows out with a production assist on the album's syrupy closing track 'Insect'.

From the ecstatic opening breaths of 'Ketamine Fields', it's clear that Kamixlo's in a fresh headspace. Weightless angelic voices curve gracefully around overdriven rave-ready bass twangs, while muffled, blown-out drums echo somewhere in the distance. It's the perfect pre-game to an endless, messy night, leaving Isabella Lovestory to lurch towards the mass of sweaty bodies on 'Pitch Black', rhyming sensually over Kamixlo's provocative metallic plucks and slow-motion dembow pulse. And by 'Combe', the peak time energy is palpable, with carnivalesque percussion and eardrum-popping high pitched squeals that grind against the pummeling gabber kicks. Puzzle brings the album back down to earth on 'Chaos', casually free associating and providing a light-hearted counter to the fog of machine crunches and deranged laughter.

On 'One More Night At The Line', Kamixlo carves the house blueprint into a neurotic chatter of helium voices and cocky slams, and when Bladee arrives in a wisp of smoke on 'Death Forever', the noise has calmed a little. Here, Kamixlo flexes his most exploratory muscles, nesting Bladee's grungy voice in an erratic tangle of muted, almost pacifying, black metal screams and nursery rhyme chimes. It's a paradox that perfectly encapsulates the scope of 'Deathwork', an album that continually flips expectations, turning in on itself and questioning its own logic without ever losing its momentum.

Written and produced by Kamixlo
Mixed by Felix Lee
Mastered by Enyang Urbiks
Artwork by Daniel Swan

Kamixlo (feat. Mechatok) - Insect

Kamixlo (feat. Bladee) - Death Forever

Hesaitix - Cusp of Unknowing

Hesaitix - Taurian Shade

Hesaitix - Geflatnet

Hesaitix - Volunteer

Hesaitix - Santarosae (Black Dolphin)

SoFTT - Cerca Al Cielo (PAN 158S)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 158S
Release Date: 17 February 2025
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/CercaAlCielo

Miami’s SoFTT (South Florida Trance Team), the duo of Kablito and Trevor McFedries, unveil details of their new four-track EP via PAN. Roadtested in clubs across the globe, their unique sound is pushing boundaries and cementing them as rising stars in the electronic music scene. Alongside the EP announcement, SoFTT drop their latest single, “Cerca Al Cielo”, a track that seamlessly blends the raw energy of hard trance with soaring, earworm-worthy pop elegance.

SoFTT - Cerca Al Cielo (PAN 158S)

SoFTT - Linda, Triste, Una Popstar

SoFTT - Espero Que No Se Equivoque Mi Corazon

SoFTT - NA NA NA

Heith - You In Reverse (PAN 147S)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 147S
Release Date: 20 March 2025
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/YouInReverse

Heith shares 'You In Reverse', the first single of the upcoming album 'Escape Lounge' out via PAN on April 25th, 2025.

Written and produced by Heith
Drums by Alexander Iezzi
Saxophone by Aase Nielsen
Flute by Leonardo Rubboli
Mixed at TWS
Mastered by Amir Shoat
Artwork by Heith and Nicola Tirabasso

Heith - You In Reverse (PAN 147S)

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - The Cyclical Culture

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - The Alignment Movement

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Particles

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Cross-Temporal Sync

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Zero-Ones

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Quantum Moderns

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Mosh

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Ramping

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - Countdown

Jeremy Shaw, There In Spirit, Konrad Black - The Violet Lux

Heith - The Scrollkeeper (PAN 147S2)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 147S2
Release Date: 15 April 2025
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/TheScrollkeeper

Heith shares 'The Scrollkeeper', the second single from the upcoming album 'Escape Lounge', out via PAN on April 25th, 2025 - accompanied by a new music video.

Written and produced by Heith and Leonardo Rubboli
Drums by Jacopo Battaglia
Harmonica and Synthesizer by Leonardo Rubboli
Mixed at TWS
Mastered by Amir Shoat
Artwork by Heith and Nicola Tirabasso

Heith - The Scrollkeeper (PAN 147S2)

YVES TUMOR — Serpent Music
Format: LP / Digital
Cat.No: PAN 73
Release Date: 23 September 2016

http://p-a-n.org/

The enigmatic Tennessee-raised, Turin-based Yves Tumor presents a poignant new album, recorded between Miami, Leipzig, Los Angeles and Berlin over the past three years. 

Evolved from a diverse and prolific creative history under an expansive plethora of covert aliases via various forward-thinking labels, 'Yves Tumor' emerges as his most personal and matured incarnation to date.

With involvement across various artistic outlets expanding to fashion such as a visceral live performance for LA's Hood By Air earlier this year, the global artist has built a distinctly bold personal aesthetic both musically and visually as a performer.

Painstakingly written from pieces developed upon since 2013, the new record, titled 'Serpent Music', was initially composed as a soul record - based around delicate and emotive songwriting in various forms. It was a highly difficult project to undertake on both a creative and personal level, weaving thematic links through paranoia, social anxiety, and missing loved ones. "The songs come from a much more emotional and very vulnerable place... They're very close to me and I've been cautious of how I would eventually present them to the world." he explains. 

The album spans sonically diverse and richly-textured pieces, formed from live, organic instruments, samples and various field recordings. Dreamlike lo-fi psychedelia sits alongside broken electronic experimentations, ambient compositions between abrasive noise offer insight into a haunting otherworld. From melodic choral vocals and soaring synths, to screeching guitar riffs, dramatic spoken word samples and live drumming, 'Serpent Music' evidently moves through a strange and intriguing personal journey.

The album is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, featuring photography by Daniel Sannwald.

Serpent Music

Yves Tumor - Role In Creation (PAN 73)

Yves Tumor - Dajjal (PAN 73)

Yves Tumor - The Feeling When You Walk Away (PAN 73)

Yves Tumor - Devout (PAN 73)

V/A - mono no aware もののあわれ

Format: 2xLP / Digital
Label: PAN
Cat.No: PAN 77
Release Date: 17 March 2017

http://p-a-n.org/

purchase:
site: http://bit.ly/2mQN5AO
bandcamp: http://bit.ly/2n9ToSm

mono no aware (もののあわれ) is the first compilation to be released on PAN, collating unreleased ambient tracks from both new and existing PAN artists.

Featuring Jeff Witscher, Helm, TCF, Yves Tumor, M.E.S.H., Pan Daijing, HVAD, Kareem Lotfy, ADR, Mya Gomez, Sky H1, James K, Oli XL, Bill Kouligas, Flora Yin-Wong, Malibu, and AYYA, the compilation moves through more traditional notions of what is called ’ambient’, to incorporating wider variations that fall under the term.

“Mono no aware”, ‘the pathos of things’, also translates as “an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera”. A term for the awareness of impermanence, or the transience of things. A meditation on mortality and life's transience, ephemerality heightens the appreciation of beauty and sensitivity to their passing. In investigating the passing of time, the boundaries between memory and hallucination become blurred; between fiction and reality. The movement of time transforms into an eternal present.

The album is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, featuring photography by Molly Matalon and design by Bill Kouligas. A limited version of 100 copies will be released as a special art edition in collaboration with Mount Analog for the LA Art Book Fair 2017, before going on general release.

mono no aware

1. Kareem Lotfy - Fr3sh (PAN 77)

2. Malibu - Held (PAN 77)

3. Yves Tumor - Limerence (PAN 77)

6. AYYA - Second Mistake (PAN 77)

15. Oli XL - Heretic (PAN 77)

Eartheater - Below the Clavicle
Format: DL
Cat.No. PAN 112S
Release Date: 5 May 2020 
Purchase/stream: pan.lnk.to/Clavicle
@alex-drewchin

Eartheater unveils a new single, “Below The Clavicle.” It is her first release for PAN since her 2018 album IRISIRI.

Eartheater shares the following about the track: “I wrote ‘Below the Clavicle’ when I was waiting to understand more about a situation before talking about it — when the meaning was still below the clavicle and hadn’t made it up to my head yet. The understanding was still underground — forging in my heart and gut. In my upcoming album, I thought a lot about lava and volcanoes and the formation of stone and mountains.”

Written and arranged by Eartheater
Produced by Eartheater
Guitar performed by Eartheater
Harp performed by Marilu Donovan
Chamber arrangements performed by the Ensemble de Cámara CSMA:
Cello - Laura Sorribas
Violin I - Belén Pérez
Violin II - Celia Álvarez
Flute I - María del Barrio
Flute II - Ana Navarro
Recorded by Eartheater and Santiago Latorre at Etopia in Zaragoza Spain
Mixed by Kiri Stensby
Mastered by Heba Kadry
Art Direction by Eartheater and Daniel Sannwald
Photography by Daniel Sannwald
Special Thanks to FUGA

Eartheater - Below The Clavicle (PAN 112)

Elysia Crampton - ORCORARA 2010
Format: 2LP (July 10) / DL
Cat.No. PAN 101
Release Date: 1 May 2020 
Purchase: https://bit.ly/2WeCpPj

This album follows intergenerational trauma, fugitives of Christian violence in a twilight called Puruma, returning to Mama Cocha, the sea that theorists call Nowhere.

Dedicated to the life of Paul Sousa, who while incarcerated, worked years as an inmate firefighter across the Sierra Nevada of California. Also dedicated to the work of Sage LaPena and Dr. Gretel Mendizabal Nolte. (Includes misreadings of Jimenez, Saenz, Claudel, & Wright).

Not one, not world, not body, not god, not salvation, not zero; only a ceaseless approaching toward, with, and as the great mystery, by Grace, Tatamama. Jallalla.

ORCORARA 2010 was comissioned and released in 2018 by Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, CH for the first floor at the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2018 ‘The sound of screens imploding’.

The album is mastered by Jeremy Cox.

All proceeds go to the American Indian Movement West/ AIM SoCal chapters.

ORCORARA 2010

Elysia Crampton - Crest (feat. Fanny Pankara Chuquimia) (PAN 101)

Elysia Crampton - Grove (ft. Embaci) (PAN 101)

Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
Format: LP / DL
Cat.No. PAN 112
Release Date: 2 October 2020
Purchase/stream: pan.lnk.to/Phoenix

Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections the project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. While the album renews her focus on guitar performance and legible structure, Eartheater balances the unabashed prettiness of acoustic harmonic songs with the dissonant gestural embroidery of oblique instrumentals. Having fallen back in love with the idioms that first captivated her, she worked to crack open the techniques that had fossilized inside of her, while still seeking to apply the electro-alchemical knowledge she picked up along her journey. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix recontextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most confident abstractions, adjacent to some of her most direct songs to date.

Eartheater composed and workshopped most of Phoenix over a ten-week artist residency (FUGA) in Zaragoza, Spain, housed in a sprawling, cubic glass facility that looked out over wildflower-flecked mountains. Following an intensive period of recording and touring, the residency provided her with an unprecedented period of solitude in the small Spanish town. Her newfound sense of isolation ultimately became liberating, leading her to sidestep the crutches and steady grids inherent to electronic music, and to conceive pieces rooted in her guitar and her desire to perform with other players live. Eartheater’s voice glows brighter than ever at the center of Phoenix’s arrangements — her familiar operatic highs are grounded by newly expanded velvety lows, leaping lucidly up and down octaves. Her intricate guitar work flits across baroque fingerpicked passages and latches into cyclical figures that meet her voice in lush harmonic progressions. From her own guitar parts, to the orchestral string arrangements she wrote for the Spanish conservatory group Ensemble de Camara, to the harp and violin lines performed by her close friends and collaborators Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz of LEYA, Eartheater’s applications of acoustic instruments bring an extraordinary emotional emphasis to her compositions. Phoenix prepares for a future where electronic sound — or even electricity itself — isn’t guaranteed, but where her music could still come to life with a group of hands dexterously winding across instruments against the light of the fire.

Eartheater drew inspiration for Phoenix from geological imagery, whose turbulence and potential for genesis mirror the trajectory of her own life and relationships. The album’s instrumental pieces directly reference these moments of upheaval, colliding audio of volcano and lightning storms with resplendent string and vocal arrangements. “Volcano” looks out over the album from its peak at the center, its tectonic plates colliding in towering melodies and layers of vocal harmonies, as piano accents crest and cascade down the mountainside. When Eartheater sings, “I’m still building mountains underground,” she is trying to reconcile the pinnacles of her ambition with the comforts of a simple existence buried beneath the surface. “Diamond in the Bedrock” finds her admiring the gemstone forming under intense pressure inside her, but rejecting the romantic promise that the diamond signifies, choosing instead to escape a relationship that has come to stifle her.

Read full press release: https://bit.ly/2XtJGvQ

Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin

Eartheater - How To Fight (PAN 112)

Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
Format: LP / DL
Cat.No. PAN 112
Release Date: 2 October 2020
Purchase/stream: pan.lnk.to/Phoenix

Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections the project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. While the album renews her focus on guitar performance and legible structure, Eartheater balances the unabashed prettiness of acoustic harmonic songs with the dissonant gestural embroidery of oblique instrumentals. Having fallen back in love with the idioms that first captivated her, she worked to crack open the techniques that had fossilized inside of her, while still seeking to apply the electro-alchemical knowledge she picked up along her journey. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix recontextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most confident abstractions, adjacent to some of her most direct songs to date.

Eartheater composed and workshopped most of Phoenix over a ten-week artist residency (FUGA) in Zaragoza, Spain, housed in a sprawling, cubic glass facility that looked out over wildflower-flecked mountains. Following an intensive period of recording and touring, the residency provided her with an unprecedented period of solitude in the small Spanish town. Her newfound sense of isolation ultimately became liberating, leading her to sidestep the crutches and steady grids inherent to electronic music, and to conceive pieces rooted in her guitar and her desire to perform with other players live. Eartheater’s voice glows brighter than ever at the center of Phoenix’s arrangements — her familiar operatic highs are grounded by newly expanded velvety lows, leaping lucidly up and down octaves. Her intricate guitar work flits across baroque fingerpicked passages and latches into cyclical figures that meet her voice in lush harmonic progressions. From her own guitar parts, to the orchestral string arrangements she wrote for the Spanish conservatory group Ensemble de Camara, to the harp and violin lines performed by her close friends and collaborators Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz of LEYA, Eartheater’s applications of acoustic instruments bring an extraordinary emotional emphasis to her compositions. Phoenix prepares for a future where electronic sound — or even electricity itself — isn’t guaranteed, but where her music could still come to life with a group of hands dexterously winding across instruments against the light of the fire.

Eartheater drew inspiration for Phoenix from geological imagery, whose turbulence and potential for genesis mirror the trajectory of her own life and relationships. The album’s instrumental pieces directly reference these moments of upheaval, colliding audio of volcano and lightning storms with resplendent string and vocal arrangements. “Volcano” looks out over the album from its peak at the center, its tectonic plates colliding in towering melodies and layers of vocal harmonies, as piano accents crest and cascade down the mountainside. When Eartheater sings, “I’m still building mountains underground,” she is trying to reconcile the pinnacles of her ambition with the comforts of a simple existence buried beneath the surface. “Diamond in the Bedrock” finds her admiring the gemstone forming under intense pressure inside her, but rejecting the romantic promise that the diamond signifies, choosing instead to escape a relationship that has come to stifle her.

Read full press release: bit.ly/2XtJGvQ

Eartheater - Volcano (PAN 112)

Arca - &&&&&
Format: LP (Special etched vinyl edition) / DL
Cat.No. PAN 100
Release Date: 18 September 2020
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/Arca
Fully remastered & first-time release of individual tracks

For anyone who can remember, Arca’s &&&&& was a moment. Its 25-minute stretch of coiling, contorted grime and glitch; dub and hip hop dropped with the buzz of an impending co-production credit on Kanye West’s Yeezus in 2013. It included cuts of sound and beats that were too weird for that pop project, while becoming a piece of experimental art that what would come to define what is by now broadly known as a ‘post-club’ sound. It’s music that is as visceral as it is experimental; made as much for the mind, as it is for the body.

Released with no warning seven years ago, &&&&& became a bridge between Alejandra Ghersi’s time partying and collaborating with her queer peers, while still living in New York to the next stage of her career releasing on Mute in London. She’d go from making beats for rapper Mykki Blanco and fashion label Hood By Air, posting lurching bass reworkings of pop hits on YouTube, and producing her first fluid mixtapes with DIS Magazine, to finishing off this seminal mixtape on the synths in Daniel Miller’s studio.

After dropping three impressive EPs the year before, &&&&& marked a transition. Continuations and extrapolations of material from Stretch 1 and Stretch 2 appeared in the mangled RnB sampling of “Century” and Arca’s signature vocal layering in the pitched flow of “Waste”. Along with the fluttering, muted heartbeat of “Obelisk”, and the lumbering piano chords of “Mother”, fourteen sonic sketches were elegantly woven together into a single, downloadable whole.

As Alejandra’s course turned toward moving to Europe from the United States, &&&&& became a remarkable challenge to the form of the mixtape, which was a relatively new trend taking hold of the online-oriented underground at the turn of the 2010s. But where many, if not most mixtapes where treated simply as a showcase of individual tracks presaging a more ‘official’ release to come, &&&&& was a complete piece in its own right. “I wanted to make something that was my best work,” Alejandra says about a record that has stood the test of time, “I listen to it very fondly today.”

Now, with the lifespan of the Arca project nearing a decade, Alejandra has entered a new era of ‘non-binary pop’ with her fourth album, KiCk i, out on XL Recordings. It’s more important than ever to look back while forging ahead, and &&&&&’s ground-breaking hybrid dance music is a good place to start:

“A sense of possibility, a sense of the unknown; punk attitude, respect for classical music and formality; cyberpunk, anime, sexual tension; trauma, innocence, fear of death; kink, lots of weed, and wanting to connect with people, but not on the terms of a status quo. That kind of sums up &&&&& for me.”

The release is mastered by Enyang Urbiks, with artwork by Jesse Kanda.

PAN

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