03 Casi Cada Minuto - In Vain

01 Imre Kiss - Untitled (XLB)

02 Imre Kiss & S Olbricht - Urizen

03 Imre Kiss - Dis Slo

Wake Up In Bits

Foundling - We Managed To Get Up

Foundling - Unformer

Selected tracks to be premiered soon on The WIRE affiliated REWIRED radioshow on NTS Radio.

Lobster Theremin's Imre Kiss and Exitab's Casi Cada Minuto: 'A-sites' the new split series curated by the recently launched Proto Sites imprint pairs two burgeoning artists. The fledgling Hungarian producer confirms his status as one of the pillars of Budapest's murky underground, delving beyond the immersive haze-house deconstructions of his 'Midnight Wave' tape and the now sold-out 'Raw Energy' EP (labeled as 12” of the month by FACT's Vinyl Factory). The dissolving and re-compounding techno ridden tropes of 'Urizen' (feat. S Olbricht) could go on forever, strengthening its intensity with each loop. Tangible percussion work and occasional down pitched vocal samples dominates the uneasy 'Dis Slo' but its the Kiss' trademark synths which delivers the greatest impact. For its carefully chosen momentum shifts aren't far from recalling the repetitive tension of William S. Burroughs' dream machine. Although the rich yet minimalist aural texture of Casi Cada Minuto's 'Intonarumori' comes in juxtaposition to Kiss' decayed sound, its loopy wave motion seemingly never ending or beginning, holds same affinity for the effects of repetition and strangely volatile synth work. With 'Mindless' the fluid hallucinatory setting comes full circle: distinct echo of early cosmische/krautrock collides with radio-static emissions reminiscent of NASA's recent soundcloud contribution to the world.

Transparent red vinyl / Digital out 15th of December on Proto Sites
Mastered by Opal Tapes' Stephen Bishop.

A. Imre Kiss

BUY AND SUPPORT ON BANDCAMP:
protosites.bandcamp.com/

The second installment of the Less is Sound series aims to document the local soundscapes of hidden natural locations around the periphery of Bratislava while layering this experience with sonic postcards from faraway.
Driven by the practical need to bring sound arts outdoors during COVID, Less is Sound set out on a mission to facilitate critical reflection on the sounds of nature (including human actors) on the city's periphery.

The project aims to highlight the act of deep listening, elevating it to a practice of extended perception of reality. In a time of crises fueled by patriarchal-colonial hyper-capitalism, deep listening becomes an ecological and political practice. It requires transcending anthropocentrism and reveals new forms of attention based on empathy.

Less is Sound vol.2 took place on August 18th, 2023, at dawn at the magical location called Starohájsky Ostrov—one of the last untouched and relatively forgotten pieces of uncultivated nature around Slovakia's capital, home to nearly fifty species of birds.

Whether it's the minimalist, vocal-driven compositions of Adela Mede, the shimmering electro-acoustic interplay of Jonatan Pastirčák and Petr Vrba, Luc Vitk’s cheeky participatory piece for sand, accordion, cymatics, and bells, or Lea Bertucci’s evocative drone landscapes, the approach that unites these recordings remains the same: to listen to and respect the local soundscape and interact with it as an equal artist.

01 Lea Bertucci - A Western Sea Fret

Proto Sites: http://protosites.bandcamp.com/
Bleep: http://bleep.com/release/60019-s-olbricht-trancess
Juno: http://juno.co.uk/artists/S+Olbricht/
Red Eye: http://redeyerecords.co.uk/vinyl/63422-p…icht-trancess
Phonica: http://phonicarecords.com/product/s-olb…-sites/129995


Buy 12"

S Olbricht - On (Trancess EP / PS004)

S Olbricht - Trancess
Out now on - 12"

BUY on Bleep! http://bit.ly/PS004BLP

After the immersive split from Imre Kiss and Casi Cada Minuto, plus news of the impending release from Warsaw based Lutto Lento, Proto Sites is going further down the rabbit hole with a new six track story from Hungarian (de)constructionist S Olbricht. 'Trancess' promises hazy ambient techno and distorted house roots, ever exploring the gritty themes present in the consistent body of work for the likes of Opal Tapes, Gang of Ducks, Lobster Theremin, SicSic or his own Farbwechsel imprint. 

As if trapped in locked groove or tape loop the whole EP drifts in a circular motion. 'On's naked percussive patterns repeatedly fall over each other while the disorienting staccatos of 'Onlon' fade into the thick smoke soaked basements. 'Lacertid' featuring label mate Imre Kiss starts with a rattling sound which could be recordings of rain rapidly falling onto windows. When the greyscale synths kick in they rupture this descending bleakness with a strange otherness. 

Further down the spiral, from the agile 'Onlom' to the grainy blur of 'Trancess' and finally to the epic droning atmospheric synths of 'Cambran' things gets more distorted in time and space. Cambran as perhaps the most psychedelic exercise comes with bare bone drum hits, rough and raw underpinning the highly processed sound geography of this no mans land. It's in these details that Olbrichts work proves to be a powerful grower. An abstract end breaking down this purposeful degradation of sound into its most core components.


S Olbricht - Trancess 12" excerpts (out now on Proto Sites)

Get this 12" on the Bleep store! http://bit.ly/PS005BLP

‘Dog Leaf’ by Lutto Lento now breaks through as Proto Sites' third twelve inch release and finds the Warsaw based artist at his most raw and idiosyncratic. With the recent cuts from FTD, Where To Now? or his own Sangoplasmo Lentos discography shows wide variety of 
approaches and yet remains strangely homogeneous. 

Organ drone with processed field recordings sat right next to stripped down saturated techno and quirky house. Dog Leaf is no exception to his rebellious journey. Sparse abstract drum work puncturing seductive ghostly vocal cuts and noir-jazz samples, with an evocative tension mark the A-side grooves. Inconspicuous sonic artefacts resemble sliced up film clips where ephemeral dreamlike images sprawl into view. 

On the flip side things move closer to the club, with Mantle of Strength being perhaps the closest we've ever been to that. Busted tape heads and lashings of noise, Lento whips his limiter to bring dark heavy bespoke rhythms as the backdrop to a poem turned mantra, sampled from one of David Tibet's early records. 

Facilitating these connections of sonic elements and ideas which usually wouldn't meet each other is one of Luttos defining qualities, a modus operandi to his unique sonic palette.
credits


PS005 - Lutto Lento - Dog Leaf (excerpts)

Excerpts from PS007 - Liminal Zones

In stores +
Zwart Goud - http://bit.ly/PS007ZG
Juno - http://bit.ly/PS007JR
HHV - http://bit.ly/PS007HHV
Unearthed Sounds - http://bit.ly/PS007US
Deejay.de - http://bit.ly/PS007DEE
*
Liminal Zones is by young Bratislava based ear scratcher Jonatán Pastirčák. Marking a significant paradigm shift in Proto Sites' sonic geography Pastirčák pushes things into territories of hi­res electroacoustic energy, contextualizing neo­futuristic aesthetics into vast textured landscapes of distorted cello, synthetic wines and organic crunching paths. At its core, Liminal Zones floats through recognisable sonic objects; acoustic voices mimic electronic processing and vice versa, creating a fragile simulacra in constant flux. Some elements, like recordings of airflow through huge Organ pipes were picked up during an artist residency in Stavanger, Norway in 2015.

Up until the closing track 'Illulisa', the EP moves in rather entropic fashion, It’s a work of high dynamic and visceral contrast. The opener 'Train Fuck Koto' starts with ambient hum quickly masked by what seems to be a binaural recording of metallic origin. Koto strings with glimpses of harmony surface and are cut by layers of textured hiss, pounding bass and heavy tonalities. With 'VVR Asylum' the sonic topography of Liminal Zones gradually cracks and opens towards higher level of sparseness and abstraction leaving behind visions of spaces fluctuating to the vibrating heavily distorted subs and dripping synths. A staccato beat ruptures the atmosphere, caustic and raw.

Eerie synth lines crawling around, striped down nonlinear beats and off­ kilter high­-hats then dissolve into ‘Maranat’ a six minute deep dive into the abyss. Rapid screeches slice the thick air. Sharp sonic attacks are scattered around the spectrum. As everything is about to peak over the edges when we are then dissolved into the final fully acoustic chapter of 'Illulisa'. It is an act of freeing these elements from their fundamental environment and placing them in a breathable, sparse, new space.

Track List
A1 - Train F*&k Koto
A2 - VVR Asylum
B1 - Maranat
B2 - Illulisa

Artist: @Pjoni
Title: Liminal Zones
Label: Proto Sites
Cat no: PS007
Format: 12” black vinyl, full colour jacket 
Length: 23:64
Graphic design: Matúš Hnát
Mastering and cutting: Christoph at D&M Berlin
Distributor: Lobster Distribution
Suggested genre tags: Electroacoustic, Noise, Avantgarde

Liminal Zones

Buy Release

PS007 – Pjoni – Liminal Zones (excerpts)

Fresh Water by Jake Marshall releases on the 17th of March on limited edition cassette. 
Pre-order - https://protosites.bandcamp.com/album/fresh-water-ps008

Fresh Water

PS008 - Jake Marshall - Fresh Water (excerpts)

PS009 - Szlazak - Suspension EP - Cassette

Out now on Proto Sites

http://bit.ly/PS009BC

PS009 - Szlazak - Suspension EP (excerpts)

Read the article on TMT - https://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/premiere-blood-room-got-boom-feat-tans-sensational

Breakers Yard

A2 - Blood Room - This Got Boom (Feat TANS & Sensational) [TMT]

The new EP ‘Breakers Yard’ from British producer Blood Room, vaporizes some classic flavours on glowing hot charcoals. Orchestra hits, wobbly synth stabs, mechanically cranking up and springing out. Sparse snappy percussion, populates space with all the groove where it needs to be. A distinctly western feel to this compared with our earlier forays in the more eastern style hardware ambiences; textures are dry and crisp. These deceptively straightforward micro tracks have elements of hip-hop, UK garage and weirdo modular square wave madness in some kind of dialogue, not arguing, playing nicely. Big descending pitch enveloped bass hits pound through the whole mix, club readying the addictive ‘This Got Boom’ featuring some sweet one liners from rapper Sensational; totally dry, like they are in the room with you. As we move on to the B side it’s truly all about the generative micro cuts slip-sliding through chilled improv beats super groovy and got that feeling of arriving from nowhere. The elements of dubwise nostalgia breaking through the staccato rhythms on this record give me that warm glow inside. Breakers yard has a truly natural feel, nothing overcooked, and big on the exploratory sound design. Crunchy and caustic, Blood Room chooses these little sparks of electronic circuit bent inspiration and makes whole tunes, naturally occurring rhythms from a cosmic mental bank. Breakers Yard is a generous work, significant in its wisdom and straightforwardness.

Proto Sites

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