Marina Herlop - miu
Label: PAN
Cat.No. PAN 128S
Format: DL
Release Date: 10 September 2021
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/miu
Video: https://bit.ly/3k1RoJD

Barcelona-based artist Marina Herlop joins PAN with a striking new single, titled "miu". The artist invites the listener to step into her otherworldly dreamscape and in turn go down a sonic rabbit hole into her garden of forking paths. Resisting attempts to interpret her work, Marina Herlop prefers to create open worlds which nourish and stimulate the imagination. Experimenting freely with konnakol syllables and carnatic rhythms harnessing the processed human voice and electronics, "miu" can be treated as a black box or cenobitic toy which the listener can project their desires and dreams onto.

Composed, produced and recorded by Marina Herlop
Electric bass: Òscar Garrobé, “Garru”
Mix: James Ginzburg, Marina Herlop
Master: Rashad Becker
Artwork by Robert Clark

@marinaherlop

Marina Herlop - miu (PAN128S)

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)

upsammy - Being is a Stone
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 132S
Release Date: 02 March 2023
Purchase: https://pan.lnk.to/BeingisaStone

upsammy shares ‘Being is a Stone’, the first single from the upcoming full-length album ‘Germ in a Population of Buildings’ out via PAN on May 5th.

Mastered by Rashad Becker
Mixed by James Ginzburg
Artwork by Jonathan Castro Alejos and Tharim Cornelisse

upsammy - Being is a Stone (PAN 132S)

Marina Herlop - Nekkuja
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 141
Release Date: 27 October 2023
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/Nekkuja

While she was waiting for her last album 'Pripyat' to be released, Catalan composer and producer Marina Herlop was restless. She was concerned about her (by then) uncertain music career, and felt emotionally unmoored. "Some days I used to sit on the balcony of my flat to catch some sun,” she explains, "I would close my eyes and start visualizing myself as a gardener, pulling out purple weeds from the soil, every bad memory or emotion I wanted to expulse being one of the plants." As the days dragged on, the fantasy deepened, and Herlop discovered that parts of the garden was withering; the energy she had been putting into the non-musical side of her life had seeped into her creative pasture and poisoned it. She knew what she needed to do to overcome the blight: plant some seeds and tend to her art to help it blossom and bloom once again.

'Nekkuja' is a place for Herlop's warmest, sweetest sentiments to rise to the surface and crack through the topsoil. She describes the record as a way for her to seek and affirm inner light, and it's undoubtedly her brightest, poppiest statement to date. The forward-thinking, experimental touches that nourished 'Pripyat' are still present, but blessed with a level of positivity that's rare to find in a scene so entranced by darkness and melancholy. Skittering fragments of ornate acoustic instrumentation provide a serene welcome to 'Busa', punctuated by precise electronic processes that shuttle the sound towards abstraction and fantasy. Herlop's voice grows over the tangle of sounds from a childish giggle into a layered, matted mantra, sounding passionate, hopeful and full of energy. The vitality spills over into 'Cosset', where she wraps powerful motifs around ricocheting beats and dramatic piano rolls.

Herlop's garden opens up dramatically on 'Karada' when bucolic field recordings crack like sunlight over harp plucks and willowy vocals. Her voice seems to bend around the whooshing streams and chittering of birds as if she's singing to the manicured land itself - a utopian paradise that Herlop employs as a metaphor for the creative process. In contrast to the view that an artist is an isolated genius or an idol to be worshipped, Herlop believes that the garden helps us see the process as closer to devotion or perseverance. A gardener brings order to the wild chaos of the outdoors, collaborating with nature to arrange something vibrant and enduring. Blending familiar sounds with fanciful concepts, Herlop traces an imaginary garden, imploring us to wander and wonder. And by the album's billowing final track 'Babel', it's flowered into a flush of pruned vocal phrases and delicately groomed orchestral rushes, painted in orange, green, blue and red.

Composed, produced and recorded by Marina Herlop
Vocals by Marina Herlop
Mixed and mastered by Joker
Artwork by Mati Klarewin

Marina Herlop - Busa (PAN 141)

Billy Bultheel - The Arcades Project (Snow Cycle)
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 138S1
Release Date: 09 February 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/TheArcadesProject

Billy Bultheel shares 'The Arcades Project (Snow Cycle)', the first single from the upcoming full-length album 'Two Cycles' out via PAN on March 8th.

Written for Trackers by Billy Bulheel / IXVEUTAI by Sophocles, directed by M. Marmarinos at the Ancient Amphitheater of Epidaurus, 2021

Played by Spyros Vergis and Menelaos Moraitis
Recorded by Ilias R. Flammos at Antart Studios, Athens, 2022

Mixed by James Ginzburg
Mastered by Enyang Urbicks

Billy Bultheel - The Arcades Project (Snow Cycle) (PAN138S1)

Honour - U&Me (febfourteen) DJ HBK Remix
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 121S3
Release Date: 14 February 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/U-Me-DJHBKRemix

Honour shares 'U&Me (febfourteen) DJ HBK Remix', the remix of previously released single 'U&Me (decemberseventeen)' from the debut album 'Àlàáfíà', which came out via PAN on November 3rd, 2023.

Built and destroyed by Honour
Mixed by Honour
Mastered by Miles Whittaker
Artwork by Honour

Honour - U&Me (febfourteen) DJ HBK Remix (PAN 121S3)

Billy Bultheel - Snows of Venice (Snow Cycle) 
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 138S2
Release Date: 22 February 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/SnowsofVenice

Billy Bultheel shares 'Snows of Venice (Snow Cycle)', the second single from the upcoming full-length album 'Two Cycles' out via PAN on March 8th.

Dedicated to Jonas Wendelin
Written for the performance work Unter by Billy Bultheel in collaboration with the instrument builder Tanya ‘Viviana’ Abelson, 2021

Played by Adam Sinclaire and Rebecca Lane on flute
Recorded by Rabih Beaini at Morphine Raum, Berlin, DE, April 2022

Mixed by James Ginzburg
Mastered by Enyang Urbicks

Billy Bultheel - Snows of Venice (Snow Cycle) (PAN 138S2)

Billy Bultheel - Two Cycles
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 138
Release Date: 08 March 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/TwoCycles

Billy Bultheel's debut solo album is an ambitious distillation of the composer's,' sprawling litany of influences and his unique approach to site-specific composition. A compilation of pieces created between 2016 and 2023, the album is a forceful testament to Bultheel's expansive performance practice and collaborations with cutting-edge visual artists like Anne Imhof and James Richards.

Drawing inspiration from industrial music and metal as well as medieval and baroque polyphony, Bultheel devised a way to present this collection of works side-by-side. The record is split into two distinct cycles: the Snow Cycle, which collects Bultheel's electro-acoustic and compositional work, and the Game Cycle, which assembles his electronic productions. These two suites have unmistakable symmetry; Bultheel's traditional compositions are bolstered by his understanding of electronic production, while his electronic pieces are moulded by his knowledge of classical and traditional music. "Two Cycles" is an album that exhibits duality, embodying the dichotomy of Bultheel's roles as both an ensemble composer and an electronic producer.

The haunting opening track of the 'Snow Cycle', 'The Arcades Project', — named after the unfinished compendium of architectural contemplations penned by the eminent German philosopher, Walter Benjamin - places four tubas in strategic towers surrounding the audience, creating an immersive auditory experience. Conversely, 'The Snows of Venice' — named after Alexander Kluge and Ben Lerner collection of short stories and poems — was conceived for two flautists directed to intertwine their melodies as they traversed through knee-high water.

The 'Game Cycle' meanwhile places a strong emphasis on rhythm, crafting a sonic landscape that resonates with overdriven metallic clanks and sharp stabs. Drawing upon his extensive experience in composing for choreography, Bultheel envisions a series of jittery dances that purposefully deviate from conventional timelines. 'Decreation' infuses techno with the visceral qualities of noise music and 'Game Theory' offers an unsettling skeletal barrage of saturated, precisely tuned percussive hits. Bultheel brings 'Two Cycles' to a close with 'Gigue,' a reference to the 6/8 baroque court dance that traditionally marked the conclusion of a dance suite; by merging marching rhythms performed by two percussionists on a single drum set with chaotic and evocative synth leads, he establishes a tantalizing counterpoint.

'Two Cycles' is a musical compilation that explores the themes of locale and landscape, elucidating the intricate dynamics that arise between the musicians and their audience, the ears and the architecture. Considering timbre, density and the psycho-acoustic qualities of communal spaces, from the warehouse to the cathedral, Bultheel draws indelible lines between seemingly distant concepts, merging the celestial with the terrestrial.

The double album cover, one for each side and cycle on the record, features a collage created by the Welsh video artist James Richards that merges medieval iconography with snippets of queer memorabilia.

All tracks written by Billy Bultheel
Mixed by James Ginsburg
Mastered by Enyang Urbicks

Billy Bultheel - Foot Soldiers of the Fold (Snow Cycle) (PAN 138)

Billy Bultheel - Serpent Song (Snow Cycle) (PAN 138)

Billy Bultheel - The Man without Content (Snow Cycle) (PAN 138)

Billy Bultheel - Empire of the Senseless (Snow Cycle) (PAN 138)

Billy Bultheel - Mt. Analogue (Snow Cycle) (PAN 138)

Heith - medicine boy
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 143S
Release Date: 02 April 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/medicineboy

Heith shares ‘medicine boy’, the first single from the upcoming EP ‘The Liars Tell…’ out via PAN on May 10th.

Heith’s debut album X,wheel marked the beginning of a long journey, the start to a tortuous exploration of consciousness and spirit. The Liars Tell…, on the other hand, feels like a kind of respite, a moment of meditation and pause from the fatigue of dimension-hopping. As if the traveller dismounted their carriage and, standing puzzled on a crossroad, listened to the echoes of distant places. Occupying a liminal space and letting thousand of contradictory tales form the lyrics to one unfathomable song.

Written and produced by Heith
Flute by Leonardo Rubboli
Percussions by Jacopo Battaglia
Mixed & mastered at Tapewave Studio

Heith - medicine boy (PAN 143S)

Tongue In The Mind - Free Sex
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 140S2
Release Date: 18 April 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/FreeSex

Tongue In The Mind shares ‘Free Sex’, the second single from the upcoming EP out via PAN on May 17th.

'Free Sex' is a smoldering punk-metal riot set ablaze by tempered rifs and seething beatbox breaks; Huxtable’s vocals glide over top with cool, casual grace until the track sublimates into a vaporous techno fever dream. Toying with the ethos of Detroit's screwiest, most speculative sci-fi experiments, it flaunts Tongue In The Mind’s creative philosophy in widescreen, muddying the gulf between punk rock and cybernetic electro.

Performed by Juliana Huxtable, Via App, Jealous Orgasm
Vocals, lyrics, co-production and arrangement by Juliana Huxtable
Guitar, percussion, backing vocals, co-production and arrangement by Jealous Orgasm aka Joe Rinaldo Heffernan
Electronic drums, synths, co-production and arrangement by Via App

Tongue In The Mind - Free Sex (PAN 140S2)

Heith - ’<>*e
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 143S2
Release Date: 06 May 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/heith-e

Heith shares ‘’<>*e, the second single from the upcoming EP ‘The Liars Tell…’ out via PAN on May 10th.

Written and produced by Heith
Flute by Leonardo Rubboli
Percussions by Jacopo Battaglia
Mixed & mastered at Tapewave Studio
Artwork by Finley Stewart

Heith - ‘’<>*e (PAN 143S2)

Heith - The Liars Tell... 
Label: PAN
Cat.No.: PAN 143
Release Date: 10 May 2024
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/TheLiarsTell

Heith’s debut album X,wheel marked the beginning of a long journey, the start to a tortuous exploration of consciousness and spirit. The Liars Tell..., on the other hand, feels like a kind of respite, a moment of meditation and pause from the fatigue of dimension-hopping. As if the traveller dismounted their carriage and, standing puzzled on a crossroad, listened to the echoes of distant places. Occupying a liminal space and letting thousand of contradictory tales form the lyrics to one unfathomable song.

This EP’s emphasis on the singing voice is itself not casual, but the focal point of a research on language and words, from their uncanny worlding power to their ultimate failure to deliver universally accessible truths. The human voice is treated as the most fragile of instruments, a spectral presence aided into matter by technology. The tonally ambiguous beauty in Heith’s processed singing stands to imitate the immanent wisdom of sacral inspiration while simultaneously belonging to a sketchy trickster. A divine liar is whispering into the ears of the somnambulist, instigating dangerous temptations of knowledge.

The delicate shanty at the core of “<>e” conducts slowly from a shiny synth desert to a cascade of arpeggiated instruments to, finally, a contained eruption of percussion and noise, all while never losing its hypnotic sense of caution. INVERTED VERTIGO’s slow rising chords, prolonged whispers and lamenting flutes feel like a soul trembling to detach from a state of static plenitude, fevering to plunge into the abstract tumult of it conclusion. Similarly, the minimal, stretchy melody of “medicine boy/3cate” gives the vocals the space to alternatively fragment and multiply, only to then coalesce again into one choral force, ultimately giving space to a discharge of broken guitar strings. Closer “The Circus Lodge (Orchestroll Version)” is a mirrored reversion and an addendum to X, Wheel ’s “A Venus Flytrap In The Circus Lodge”, initially riding on the back of a reverb- drenched crescendo to a melancholic slow burn of electronic reeds.

This all makes The Liars Tell...a crucial point into Heith’s evolution, influenced by two years of increasingly ambitious live performances and by the relentless wanderings of an uncompromisingly creative mind.

Heith - The circus lodge (Orchestroll Version) (PAN 143)

Heith - INVERTED VERTIGO (PAN 143)

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)

Amnesia Scanner - Another Life
Format: LP / CD / Digital
Cat.No. PAN 96
Release date: 7 September 2018
pre-order album: bit.ly/2JxE61G / bit.ly/2uxWLWx
Video: https://youtu.be/U8Kk3nD2Bh8 

'AS Too Wrong' is the third single revealed from Amnesia Scanner's debut album 'Another Life'. Built around a haunting vocal hook from Oracle it has been already lauded as one of the most infectious doombahton songs of this year. It continues to unveil the distilled vocal heavy sound that is at the center stage of the album.

@amnesia-scanner
http://p-a-n.org

Another Life

pre-order

Amnesia Scanner - AS Too Wrong (PAN 96)

Slikback / Soda Plains — Split
Format: 12"
Cat.No: PAN 115
Release Date: 21 April 2020
Purchase: https://bit.ly/2RV8XfW

Hong Kong born, UK-based producer Soda Plains (production for Chynna, Scintii, Ian Isiah) and the Kenyan, Nyege Nyege-affiliated artist Slikback bring their distinct sounds to the third instalment of PAN’s club-focused "Split" series.

Limited to 300 copies, hand stamped, no repress.

The EP is mastered by Jeremy Cox

@freddymn @sodaplains

http://p-a-n.org

B2. Soda Plains - No Fear (PAN 115)

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 - 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)

Eartheater - Faith Consuming Hope (PAN 112)

Eartheater - Diamond in the Bedrock (PAN 112)

Label based in Berlin, est. 2008. http://www.p-a-n.org

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