Belgian composer and sound artist Adriaan Swerts announces the release of his debut full-length album One in collaboration with piano and coffee records – a collection of twelve deeply personal compositions that, originally, were not conceived with the idea of ever getting released but that, like shards of ice, slowly floated together and formed an island of music.

Both a life-threatening accident – which caused his disability –and the passing of his grandfather confronted Adriaan with the fragility of life. Thematically, this album deals with the eternal, life fading away, death, and the afterlife. At the same time, it attempts to celebrate the beauty of love, life, nature and all that lives on earth.

The characteristic sounds on this album are field recordings of natural landscapes Adriaan visited, which he transformed into instruments and used almost solely to compose. The piano and other acoustic instruments such as the harmonium and strings, as old but not forgotten classical friends, are the other elements that accompany these transformed natural sounds. Icelandic glaciers, geysers, Scottish lochs, waterfalls, oceans and more all found a home on this album. In addition, Swerts uses reel-to-reel tape processing to degrade the sound of the recordings and make them sound broken – a reflection of what his body feels like.

The artwork of the album similarly reflects Adriaan's focus on the theme of the fragility of life and nature. The cracks in the ice symbolise how easily something can be broken into pieces – just like what happened to his body after his accident – but can still be a whole. In addition, Adriaan crafted a videoclip for each piece of the album through the process of cymatics – the study of visible sound vibration and the transformational nature of sound and matter. He filmed the sound vibrations caused by his music in water, unveiling beautiful and unique geometric patterns for each composition.

One comes out digitally and on limited edition CD on the 28th of October, featuring artwork and design by Celia Bayo.

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Adriaan Swerts - Old Shelter

Jaime Bermúdez Escamilla adopted his pen name from the late poet María del Adarve. A music enthusiast, as well as a composer and sound designer, Jaime was always compelled by what awaits at the intersection where music, words and images meet, and how the audience takes part in that exchange. His work has found its place in film, theater and video games over the past decade. 

He began to develop his passion for music at the age of 12, when he started taking classical piano lessons in his hometown in Andalusia. At age 17 he joined a metal band, which is what you do at that age. A natural-born geek, he then bought his first Pro Tools equipment and began writing and producing fun instrumental pieces that sounded a lot like movie soundtracks. Not long after, he would start collaborating with friends on their projects, writing music for live art performances, short films and small games. 

In 2015, Jaime co-founded his own video game company, an adventure that would give way to his freelance career in the sector. On the side, he’s an interactive music lecturer at the University of Barcelona and he also writes for the classical music magazine Press Music. 

The music in Neu, his upcoming debut EP, was first conceived for the stage. In early 2019, Catalan playwright Bernat Muñoz commissioned Jaime’s music and sound for his soon-to-be premiered stage play. Neu delicately portrays the reunion between Tea, a woman with autism, and her sister Ada, following the death of their mother. Each piece is dedicated to each of the women in the story. The songs that were originally born from this script are now revisited and reshaped as an independent body of work. They were recorded live at Sol de Sants Studios in September 2022. 

Neu releases on the 24th of March, featuring photographs taken by Jaime and graphic design by Celia Bayo.

Jaime del Adarve - Tea

Muerte en una tarde de verano

Promesas que se disuelven entre las nubes

Composed & recorded by Sylvain Texier aka Ô Lake
Strings Orchestra recorded at Fame's Project
Additional drums recorded by Samuel Chapelain
Mixed by Thomas Ricou at Vaka Studio
Mastered by Alexis Bardinet at Globe Audio Mastering

Cover painting: Pauline Taudourdeau
Layout: Yoann Buffeteau

Publishing: AlterK

℗ 2021 Patchrock & Night Night Records
© 2021 Night Night Records

Booking : guillaume@patchrock.com
Label : steph@patchrock.com
Artist : mgmt.olake@gmail.com

Press : Epicerie Libre
Matthieu Burel +33 6 77 86 44 10 burel.matthieu@gmail.com
Romain Méril + 33 6 28 04 32 80 romain.meril@gmail.com

A licensing agreement must be obtained before any of these works can be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever.

Avalanche

Molecular

Molecular (Piano Day 2023)

It's been three years since the instrumental music band featuring a dark and cinematic sound, Anoice, released their fourth EP 'invisible wall’, which expressed the world that has been facing off against the effects of the the COVID-19 pandemic. They will release the fifth EP 'unerasable fire' which pairs with 'invisible wall' on April 7th, 2023.

Just like the previous EP, it mainly consists of quiet and dark neo-classical compositions such as 'the suspicion' and 'keep silence' featuring Films, who sing in their own originally created languages in the same named project produced by Anoice, and Calu who is the vocalist of the electronica unit, Matryoshka. It also includes exciting songs that mix the sounds of a spectacular orchestra sound with instrumental rock such as 'civil war' and 'monster'.

Division, isolation, and war. This is new release which Anoice can only express at a time when the world confronts new problems generated after the pandemic period. Please have a listen to the previous EP 'invisible wall' again while you wait for the upcoming 'unerasable fire'.

unerasable fire

BandCamp

isolation (Anoice 'unerasable fire')

View the film:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbcmenVhxmo&t=346s

Always Present

Comfort

Birch Forest

Birch Forest (Reinvented)

The pastoral view, the view into forests, mountains, and oceans, has kept alive a great, wonderful element of non mechanical response which one day can and will enter into concrete leisure; however, the access to it is, as a precapitalist one in a capitalist age, still largely archaic-romantic [...] a utopian kind of restful land.

E. Bloch, The principle of hope

Mass society strives for growth. Growth in populations, growth in cities, growth in economies. The individual imbibes this intoxicating brew, and so dutifully strives for growth also – always looking ahead, always seeking more. Yet, modern society has been confronted with the confounding truth: Our world has little yield to further accommodate our voracity. Rainforests are declining, temperatures are rising, species are dying. This realisation of endless growth’s folly, and of the need to embrace what we have now finds expression in an arresting new album from Stockholm-based Spanish pianist Hara Alonso.

A study in semantics as well as philosophy, Notions of Hope invites a meditative listen. Each of its deft, stark piano tracks explores a different, nuanced interpretation of the concept of hope, delving beneath our overt, sanguine associations with the word. Inspired by springtime walks in the forest and nighttime readings on secular faith from the likes of Bloch, Kierkegaard and Hägglund, the set documents – the passing of the seasons from darkest winter to delicate spring – the time of new beginnings. Green shoots and lingering sun. It also arrives soon after the start of a new year, when we author resolutions for how to improve our lot. Nature’s cycle and humanity’s ritual, both lulling us into complacency. Through her fragile piano keys, Alonso wordlessly urges listeners to consider the fragility of our world, and switch from a mode of hope to one of care. Care for surroundings, care for your actions, care for your world – in all its finite glory.

In Notion 5, Alonso rises ever further up her piano, until it has no more keys to offer. The piece ends – as we all do – and we enjoyed what was captured before the end.

In a nontheistic state of mind, abandoning hope is an affirmation, the beginning of the beginning.

Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

Notions of Hope releases digitally on the 29th of September, featuring artwork by Spanish graphic designer Celia Bayo.

Hara Alonso - Notion 10

Continuum

(feat. Jacob Collier choir)
Imagine witnessing something epic unfolding while at a funeral.
Instrumentation jammed packed with: woodwinds, piano, an organ fugue, choir, an original braam, and timpani
JordanAnjelAddison.com

An Epic Phenomenon

A relevant spot for artists from all over the world who cross the borders between ambient, electronic, and contemporary classical music.

label@pianoandcoffee.com

Vargkvint / Sergio Díaz De Rojas / Klangriket / Plinki Plonki / Manos Milonakis / Cedric Vermue / Sjors Mans / Justina Jaruševičiūtė / Didacte / Adrien Casalis / Leon den Engelsen

Hara Alonso - Notion 10

piano and coffee records

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