The sun shone brightly on the garden, casting its warm embrace on the verdant foliage, where the flowers swayed in a rhythmic dance. The wind whispered gently, as if it were singing an undulating melody, guiding the observer towards a peculiar sense of familiarity, an odd déjà vu, as it delicately cradled the leaves in its intangible arms. Amidst this idyllic scene, one couldn't help but notice the curious coalescence of shadows, converging into a harmoniously illogical pattern, wrapping themselves around the trees' trunks in an uncanny embrace.

The air was permeated by a peculiar fragrance, a scent that seemed at once sweet and daunting, a curious blend of petrichor and ephemeral dissonance. As the observer walked further into the garden, the overgrown path began to twist and contort, beckoning the traveler to venture deeper into an enigmatic labyrinth of verdure. The rustling leaves seemed to chant a cryptic incantation, spiraling into an ever-growing symphony of incohesive harmonics.

A strange sensation enveloped the observer, the boundaries between reality and imagination blurring in a disconcerting amalgamation. The vibrant colors of the blossoms began to bleed into one another, creating a swirling array of chromatic aberrations. The beauty of the garden seemed to transcend the confines of reason, morphing into a living, breathing canvas of distorted wonder.

The observer found themselves entranced by the garden's ethereal nature, each step revealing a myriad of inexplicable details. Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet began to undulate, like a restless ocean of verdant waves, urging them to cast away their preconceived notions and surrender to the enigmatic embrace of the surreal landscape.

As the observer succumbed to the hypnotic pull of the garden, words and phrases took on new, unanticipated meanings, their familiar cadences reshaped into bewildering constructs of sound and syntax. The flowers whispered in cryptic riddles, their petals unfurling to reveal unsettling truths hidden within their intricate folds. The unspoken promise of the garden, once so alluring and inviting, now swirled into an enigmatic whirlpool of uncertainty, its pull irresistible, its depths unfathomable. With each breath, the observer became further entwined in the garden's enigmatic embrace, the line between reality and illusion slipping away, like grains of sand through the fingers of time.

ı @≈∞|0

˝'<»>\\\°’◊•·`

Monstera Country Cyborg

TV on mute to light the saloon

Buy on Bandcamp

TV On Mute To Light The Saloon

amnesia

A potentially surprising release on Editions Mego. Another planned prior to the untimely passing of Peter Rehberg in 2021. 

Melvin Gibbs is the renowned bass player and producer from Brooklyn who’s vast resume includes playing with Sonny Sharrock, John Zorn, The Rollins Band, Dead Prez, Caetano Veloso and Femi Kuti amongst others. A solid resume, no doubt, but what is Gibbs doing on Editions Mego? 

Behind the scenes, those who know Gibbs knew that amongst all this he was also tinkering away at another form of music, one which skirts around the border between music and sound design. The Wave is the first release that reveals this side of Gibbs’ creative output to those outside his inner circle.

The driving force for this output is Gibbs’ multi-decade friendship with acclaimed  American video artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa. Over the course of time Gibbs and Jafa have had many conversations about music and the connection between film and music. Jafa’s desire to make film that worked the way Black (as in Black/African-American/ Afro-diasporic peoples) music worked inspired Gibbs to study the filmmakers Serge Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov and incorporate their philosophies and tactics when recording his own music. The two discussed sound design which directly informed Gibbs’ choice of music making tools and led to him acquiring Symbolic Systems Kyma software and hardware, incorporating this as a composition tool and sound design and component in his work. These conversations bore concrete fruit through Gibbs’ work for TNEG, the film studio Jafa ran with filmmakers Malik Sayeed and Elissa Blount Moorhead. Gibbs created the soundtrack for their very first project, the short film “Deshotten 1.0” (2009 - directed by Jafa and Sayeed) as well as their Martin Luther King-inspired meditation on Black life “Dreams Are Colder Than Death” (2013, directed by Jafa)  

The bass-forward music, or ‘sonics’ as Gibbs calls it, emerged from an alternative mode of contemplation, a mode that he sees as closer to the mindset of a rootworker, an African-American herbal doctor who cures psychic ailments using means derived from African spiritual practice, entering a forest to find the right plants for a suffering client than a mediator attempting to invoke mindfulness. Gibbs says this practice yields results that suggest an aural form of creation akin to coagulation, a formal movement that gives the sense that a flow of sounds can emit something bearing resemblance to solidifying objects. 

In 2020 Jafa asked Gibbs to work on the soundtrack for a work in progress called “The Wave''. When they got together to work on the soundtrack, Jafa played Gibbs a selection of sounds that included random moments of (probably unwanted) feedback on 70's Miles Davis records, Pop Smoke's Brooklyn drill, the music of Bernard Gunter and Darmstadt-style compositions made with test equipment. Those sounds, filtered through years of conversation with Jafa about Black creativity and the possible evolution of Black music, formed the sonic vocabulary of “The Wave”. 

Over time the sonics evolved and “The Wave” became the piece Jafa calls "AGHDRA". This soundtrack incorporates and expands upon the sonics composed for “The Wave”. Gibbs mentions although the work with Jafa has always skirted these lines of evolution, this side of his vocabulary has been generally neglected, until now, due to his current jazz musician/jazz festival-centric focus and radar. 

The result of this parallel exploration is a deep excursion into a nuanced sound world. The rich tapestry of textures allows one's mind to explore and project within this bed of curious investigation of sound. The bristling, itching, restless, clicking, diving nature of the electronic sound world presented by Gibbs, is abstract and unearthly on the surface but closer listening (which it demands) reveals a very human quality to these austere shapes.

Anamibia Sessions 1: The Wave

Ibo Code

Melvin Gibbs 'Ibo Code' (EMEGO291)

And inevitably absorbed by mercy of nature, as the weary is relieved from the aches of old age. Mulched. Resurrected into endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful. Liberated from the yearn of liberation, from the berating illusions drawing lines of moiré between the crest and the nadir. Habituated by the habits, normalised by the norms, the thirst for catharsis grows uniformly with the fear of transformation. This inner conflict serves as the fuel for the developing crust of the cocoon protecting from anything capable of perturbing the thin coat of coalesce covering the facade of an idyllic state of being. 

Snug, comfy and lulling. But with the inhabitant growing and thus the cradle becoming oppressive, the contrived occupant; more reluctant than ever, mistaking the smothering chrysalis as an enveloping fear of metamorphosis. Postponing the paramount. Embracing the resolution hatched by fear and discomfort. And the chassis thickens. 

Yet as the layers of anxiety harden, they also scar, embodying the wounds of a postponed ascension. And therein lays a paradox in this intricately woven tapestry; an unseen resilience growing, quietly countering the deceptive facade. For in its darkest recesses, where the light of the aurelian sun has not managed to lay its hand, resistance takes root. Every fibre of the habituated occupant pushing against the encasing shell, mustering strength from the drenched despair of its own reverberating echoes. Thus once again resistance transforms into the very act of watering the seeds of deliverance. 

C̢̹̹̹̱ͤ͑͢r͎̟͘å̛͚̯̟̙͚̆̃͌͐͛́̌͛c̴̢̢̧̼̤̣̲̒ͫͩͤ̉̋k̛̰̞̣̠̦ͨͪ̄̽̔ľ̨̂ͫ͞e̡̠̬̮̞̻̐̍́̃̽̓̊͟.̛̲̮̱̌ͩ̕
.
.̢̨̗͇̩̋͌̾́̀ͣͣͩ̚̚
.

√⁄•|⁄v⁄

the day of my wrath...

@vertigoattack ⌖

vertigo attack wrath ⌖⌖⌖

what is going on?

necklace

Coucou, ça faisait longtemps que j'avais rien enregistré/publié...

  C'est un texte de Grisélidis Réal sur une partie instrumentale au banjo inspirée de Pretty Polly de Dock Boggs.  

Grisélidis Réal est une écrivaine, peintre, travailleuse du sexe et activiste pour les droits des tds suisse morte en 2005.  

Si je peux faire entendre sa voix, et faire connaître son travail et son combat avec cette chanson, tant mieux !  

Le poème original s'appelle "De profundis" je l'ai découvert dans le bouquin "chair vive". 

J'ai dû modifier un chouïa pour le mettre en musique. 

Voici le texte original :  
J'ai tant aimé ton corps 
Qu'il sera comme un fleuve 
Bruissant dans mes artères 
J'ai tant aimé la source 
Envoûtée de caresses 
Brûlée de mes baisers 
Faisant jaillie l'eau vive 
De ton sexe 
Dans ma bouche amoureuse 
Que je n'aurai plus soif 
D'un autre océan 
Que ton sang 
Et faim d'une autre chair 
Que la tienne 
Je ne serai brûlée 
Par d'autres feus que tes mains 
Qui m'ont laissée en cendres 
Dans le désert 
Des nuits inhabitées

Chien Fer - J'ai Tant Aimé Ton Corps (grisélidis Réal)

release on 17 May 2024 : www.wabi-sabi-tapes.bandcamp.com
@melodieblaison

Mélodie Blaison is a French artist currently based in Brussels. Her work is a space for experimentation, combining modular sculptures, immersive installations and sound objects.

Mélodie Blaison - Pluie + Pluie

Rumina & Starleaf - jonted (demo)

@fngrlckn040 collective
@retreatradio resident

malmö/istanbul
for bookings: rumina.rattle@gmail.com

Rumina & Starleaf - jonted (demo)

Rumina

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