German-Icelandic electro-acoustic trio Minua’s new EP Simulacra explores just tuning systems and alternate temperaments. Utilising various instruments like woodwinds, a modular synthesizer, a Bavarian zither or electric bass, the trio stretch barely song-like structures to their limits; the four pieces here move with glacial grandeur, their movement barely perceptible. 

The first half of the record revolves around the element of air. The opening “Order of Instants” utilises layered woodwind instruments to create a harmonic space inspired by an 18th century temperament often used by organ tuners. “Final Service” is an ode to overtones and noise, fusing bass clarinets with modular synthesizer and processed electric bass to calming, slowly modulating effect. 

The second half of the record shifts the trio’s focus to plucked instruments, but the pieces retain their slow-moving, monolithic character. “Sixfold Wilted Rose” features a Bavarian zither, unravelling its shimmering beauty on the bedrock of drone sounds like a rose blooming in parched soil, while the closing “Ascension Point” continues in a similar mood, a droning calmness underpinning the gentle electric guitar plucks. 

Inspired by traditional musics, elements of jazz and contemporary drone, Minua have created a body of work that draws parallels between musical worlds. Simulacra is beautiful, patient music.

Released by Warm Winters Ltd. as WW012 

Fabian Willmann – woodwinds 
Kristinn Kristinsson – guitar, electronics 
Luka Aron – guitar, zither, modular synthesizer 

Tracks 1-3 written by Luka Aron 
Track 4 written by Kristinn Kristinsson 

Recorded by Daniel Nentwig at Butterama Recording Center 
Mixed by Luca Aaron and Kristinn Kristinsson 
Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk 
Cover artwork by Nat Marcus

Simulacra

Minua - Final Service

TR188 - gilgul - OS-22 [excerpt]

from the upcoming album 'aSpiritual' by offthesky & Rin Howell... out august 8th, 2021

Music: offthesky & Rin Howell
Mastering: offthesky / Ian Hawgood
Print design: Craig Tattersall
Packaging design: Daniel Crossley
Label: Fluid Audio

offthesky & Rin Howell - Suspension

Shattering whispers, secrets, hideous children

Alice Kemp has a new album due to be released by Coherent States in autumn 2021.

/// UPDDATE ///  'TO ALL MY HIDEOUS CHILDREN' RELEASED JULY 2022. DIGITAL, CASSETTE, AND BLACKENED BOX EDITIONS.


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alicekemp.net
coherentstates.com

To All My Hideous Children

Grotesque III

Little thing with JD-Xi, System 1m and DX11.

Cloudberry

In his book 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑟𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒, Mark Fisher wrote about the two notions: While the weird is something present where it doesn’t belong—something from outside found on the inside—the eerie has to do specifically with outside space. Something is eerie when there are unanswered questions about agency: Who or what is responsible for the abandonment of this zone? Who or what is crying out in the distance?

Katharina Schmidt’s 𝑇𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑠 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑎𝑙𝑓 𝐿𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡, a single, longform track stretching to a near half hour, deftly captures this spatial sense of the eerie. The evolving drone is like coming upon a ruin, circling it, and being drawn inside. There are no surprises, no sudden horrors, just the strange pull of oscillating waveforms that paint a bleak yet soothing landscape.

In certain kinds of listeners, empty, abandoned spaces produce a pleasurable dejection. Maybe this is because spaces where human life is evacuated represent the end result of capital. (It seems to have withered away, but is in fact off to find another shell for its home.) What we’re left with is something new to inhabit, a new infrastructure for freedom. The subtle changes in Schmidt’s recording have less to do with melody and rhythm, more to do with accumulating color and texture of space. And so the half hour can feel like five minutes, or an eternity—time and scale exist differently here.

---

After years of playing drums and piano in various bands, Katharina Schmidt's solo work is influenced by indie, experimental, and improvised music. Exploring interests in storytelling, sonic topographies, and generative techniques, her music uses electronics, field recordings, and self-built interfaces alongside acoustic instruments. From sonifications to lullabies, her work is poised between formal experimentation and narratives cued by literature and pop culture, and can be heard in installations, film music, and radiophonic pieces, as well as releases on labels such as Flag Day Recordings, Slaapwel Records, and Focused Silence.

Katharina holds a master’s degree in Sound Studies from the Berlin University of the Arts and hosts resident shows at Cashmere Radio and SVS Radio.

katharina-schmidt.net
katharinaschmidt.bandcamp.com  

artwork by Stefan Lingg
audio finalized by Glyn Maier

all proceeds to The Homeless Period Project (Greenville, SC, US) - www.homelessperiodproject.org

Tennis Courts in the Half Light

Katharina Schmidt - Tennis Courts In The Half Light [Excerpt] (ENMD03)

SDG 15 - Created for SOUNDS SUSTAINABLE
la durabilité pour l’oreille
Nachhaltigkeit für’s Ohr

https://trnstn.ch/trnstn-box/

Life On Land

The scars soften - the silver knife melts. 
Sad-sack and cracked hearts, forever reaching the distorted harmony, 
never ceasing, beyond sight - sentimental, coarse reverie eats into euphony.

Each and all, we believe in our deities; although we may not tell, we worship in fear and in inspiration; although we may not feel it, we have our sacred places; although we may not see our idols, they are true in our dreams. Even as our prayer falls silent, these words of Voltaire will be, for us, forever true: if there were no God, it would be necessary to invent Him.

'Hedonistic Idols' is an album of six works by Volunteer Coroner, the avant-garde noise-and-ambient fusing project of artist and composer Preston Weippert. Through contrasts of harshness and fragility, the album explores truth in faith, and hope in decay.

Hedonistic Idols

Volunteer Coroner - Acts of Devotion

Played & Recorded at Burnout Regula by Feldermelder (live)

Feldermelder (live) - Radio Bollwerk - 28.10.2021

A remixed version of a track from the forthcoming Bandcamp reissue of "Very Early Fragments". Simulated x-rays of ancient limestone walls, circa 1971.

Khafra (elongated version)

Light & Colour

Songs, artifacts, and debris from an artificial past. Over 30 years of fake resurrection.

Khafra (elongated version)

Fossil Aerosol Mining Project