INTERVIEW: http://://www.thefader.com/2013/10/15/fader-mix-perera-elsewhere

Perera Elsewhere FADER Mix

For Balmat’s fourth release, we turn our attention close to home: to the Mallorca-born, Barcelona-based artist @nueen, aka Nacho Pezzati.

Nueen has been developing his highly personal style of blissfully Balearic ambient over the past few years, with releases on labels like Quiet Time Tapes and Good Morning Tapes. On Diagrams of Thought, he explores new depths in his sound. His atmospheres remain bucolic, but there’s a disturbance at work, a hint of uncertainty swirling beneath seemingly placid pads.

While Diagrams of Thought retains the ambient (or at least ambient-adjacent) focus of all Balmat’s releases so far, the album also marks new frontiers for the label; the album’s first half is graceful and largely beatless, but the mood grows murkier with the foggy drones of “Dome” and the intimations of liquid drum ’n’ bass on “Maxima”; “Veta,” meanwhile, might just represent the most forceful rhythm to appear on a Balmat release yet. 

Despite the album’s considerable range of moods, tones, and textures, it’s all tied together by a singular preoccupation, says Nueen: 

	“Lately, I’ve become conscious of my fascination for the notion of the break, on a conceptual and musical level. What’s temporary and what’s permanent. Thinking and making out of what isn’t there, yet is. Some people would call it silence, but it could also be a skip of the needle, an ellipsis. Something very basic—or Basic Channelesque. A set of sounds and silences, structuring just a hint of rhythm. Sounds that become silences, and silences that become sounds. 

The other day, I was saying to someone that for me, the sound of electric current running through the power lines above the train tracks is the most ambient sound there is. That infinity in which you never quite grasp all the harmonics and reverberations. It’s a form of time detained or expanded. Recently, I’ve been rereading Morton Feldman—you can tell, right? Vertical time, the silence that sounds. A sort of sacredness. My mind is blown every time I walk into a church, for whatever that’s worth.”

Written & Produced by Nacho Blanco Pezzati.
Mastered by Pedro Pina.
Cover artwork by José Quintanar.
Designed by Basora.

Diagrams of Thought

Nueen - Diagrams of Thought [BALMAT04]

First single from the album "Baba Soirée" 
Release: Oct 27 

Two visionary maestros, Pierre Bastien and Michel Banabila, unite in their first collaborative album, Baba Soirée. The veterans of electronic music bring their unique expertise to the table, resulting in a captivating fusion of experimental styles. Bastien’s mechanical loops and experimental instrumental setups merge seamlessly with Banabila's sound design and impeccable skills of sampling collages. It's not a dance party, nor is it an avant-garde intervention. It's a soirée: a cultivated evening of sonic alchemy hosted by these two charismatic gentlemen.

Pierre Bastien is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with a background in French literature. He has spent decades crafting an idiosyncratic world of experimental sound with his self-built mechanical orchestra Mecanium. It was most notably showcased in audiovisual releases on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label. Bastien's creations are a mesmerizing combination of traditional instruments (he has a vast collection) and mechanical automatons. The violin in the track Rotomotor, for example, is physically played by one of his machines. In Baba Soirée, Bastien also plays a prepared cornet (Slow Dance, Banbas Aura), infusing the recordings with a breathy, dreamy dimension.

Michel Banabila, a sound artist, composer and producer, possesses an eclectic musical repertoire that defies genres. His seamless blend of minimal electronica, tribal ambient, and neo-classical influences has earned him a prominent place in the world of experimental music, and an impressive discography (Knekelhuis, Bureau B, Séance Center, a.o.). Banabila serves as the creative sampling editor for Baba Soirée, expertly weaving together the recordings to craft an evocative sonic tapestry.

The two share a curiosity for traditional instruments from various cultures. The instruments used in the recordings are shown in the cover artwork. A mutual admiration for each other's work paved the way for this fruitful artistic partnership of the Rotterdam-based artists: Collaborating on a single as a fundraiser for Yemen in 2022 set the stage for the creation of Baba Soirée.

For Pierre Bastien, Dada, Fluxus and International Situationism have played a significant role in shaping his artistic vision. The title Baba Soirée is an homage to Kurt Schwitters and Theo van Doesburg's "Kleine Dada Soirée" collaboration which took place exactly a century ago. There's an unmistakable stoicism and an anarchic not-giving-a-f*** attitude in these recordings by Bastien & Banabila, which resonates in the light of this Dada reference.

Baba Soirée

Slow Dance

DL / Preorder Album

Pierre Bastien, Michel Banabila: Slow Dance (Pingipung 083 / LP, digital)

Lions Gate Full Moon Portal 8:8

Live For The Stars

ARCHANGEL

Steve Hauschildt - Boiler Room In Stereo

Two cult entities rejoin for today's offering. Renowned minimalist wizard, Gigi Masin, and downtempo savants, Tempelhof, are elegant music-makers in their own right. But come June 10th, they cross swords for a joint outing entitled Tsuki — arriving via Cascine in North America and Hell Yeah Records elsewhere.

The former is a living sample bank for artists as far-flung as Bjork, Main Attraktionz and Nujabes, as well as playing a crucial role in Italy's avant-garde thrust. Despite only releasing a handful of releases — one solo album (Frozen Dancers), a 12” single (Piano Piano) and another joint LP with Masin (Hoshi) — Tempelhof (Luciano Ermondi and Paolo Mazzacani) weigh in with considerable gravitas among those in the know. Together, they're the perfect embodiment of career cryogenics — creatives whose artistry has received a rightful second lease of life via well-placed reissues.

Tsuki is a lesson in tasteful ambience, melding episodes of weightless wonderings with forays into percussive, softly-softly electronica. The project is pinned by the hip to each artists' respective homelands of Venice and Mantua, making for a well-travelled and emotional jaunt into minimalism. 

"Corner Song" is just that; almost otherworldly in nature, but atmospheric and deeply stirring. The perfect introduction to a project that's bound to cause souls to salivate.

Pre-Order

Tempelhof X Gigi Masin "Corner Song" - Boiler Room Debuts

Axel Willner - Drone trax, sax

SPOTIFY

MOVING MASSES a i r s p a c e REMIX

from the album Shards of Distant Times released on LP and CD by Karlrecords

Mastered by Helmut Erler at D&M, Berlin
Artwork by kaidoh based on a photography by Giulio Aldinucci

Shards Of Distant Times

Every Forgotten Word

Connecting club culture to the wider world, on screen and irl through parties, film and video.