Intelligent Serenity

Kruder & Dorfmeister - Amsterdam Dub Sessions (rare full mix) 1

01-kruder and dorfmeister--live at heitere open air zofingen 08-14-2010-mbs2

god, grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, courage to change the things i can, and wisdom to know the difference.
(reinhold niebuhr: the prayer of serenity)

the_empath, aka mike erkau, has been part of electronic music since 1993 and he started releasing his own work on cdrs in 1999. shortly after he began to do remixes for other artists and won the 2004 congress of media award in the audio category. the award was for his remix of 'no protection' (originally by utr). four years later he turned the tables by releasing the 'second earth remix project' which included remixes of his work by ab ovo, def, fractional, heimstatt yipotash, sunao inami and others (more info: www.subroom.com/second%20earth.html) . at the same time as an media engineer and tutor, mike was able to acquire advanced technical skills in video technology. his live appearances are always combined with a video performance which is strictly balanced to the tracks (a good example is consider:noize and elektroanschlag). since 2005 he has been working as a video composer and vj for xabec (aka manuel g. richter; who also mastered the_empath's first album on hymen records: meanwhile).

this album was recorded over the last five years and demonstrates the_empath's current state. the music was not created to exist in an isolated artistic vacuum - each track was made as a result of specific thoughts, meanings and impressions. this is not art for art's sake. a sampling of items that made this album possible: technology turning from today's state-of-the-art to tomorrow's future space junk, arbitrary anxiety of imperfectness, burdens of the past which are only visible to adepts, an imaginary image of ultima thule (a place located beyond the borders of the known world), a score to fictitious thriller.
however this is just sampling of what meanwhile is about.

the_empath's music ranges between ambient and electronica with organic industrial audio components. a stimulating flow of imaginative soundscapes, complex rhythmic textures, mixtures of experimental electronics, field recordings and ground loops. crystal clear tones meet thrilling low frequencies that are mastered with an impressive amount of dynamics. the result of this electronic crucible is a powerful mind infiltrating compound - devotees of intelligent electronics will be reminded (in concept - this is not a derivative work) of early autechre, beefcake and gridlock. in short, fans of good music will take a shine to mike erkau's work. enjoy!

Y784 Meanwhile - 01 at the heart of it all

UTRB - Pressure (UNKLE Reconstruction)

from 'Ocean Noise' [CD|2xLP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den213
available now on all formats at [http://denovali.com/panme]

PAN & ME is the solo project of musician and curator Christophe Mevel, known as one of the founding members of dark-jazz collective THE DALE COOPER QUARTET & THE DICTAPHONES. His debut “Paal” was recorded back in 2010 while being on a boat trip along Unalaska island and has been released worldwide via Denovali Records in 2012. With Pan & Me Christophe Mevel continues the intelligent song writing of the Dale Cooper Quartet with a different approach - the arrangements are not jazz-orientated like those he creates with the other Dale musicians on their three classics 'Parole de Navarre',  'Metamanoir' and 'Quatorze Pièces de Menace'. His influences are coming from all over the map. The debut “Paal” was rather piano- and electronic-driven referring to artists in the likes of Oval, Wim Mertens or Angelo Badalamenti. His forthcoming second full length called "Ocean noise" is an intense and highly diverse collection of material ranging from ambient, guitar drones, vocals, field recordings and synth sounds in a much wider orchestration including piano, strings and percussion, forming a CD and Vinyl double album set to be released in September 2014.

For "Ocean Noise" Christophe Mevel created a musical journey with the attempt of being listened as one extensive piece. This experience should only be interrupted by flipping the record in order to continue following the route of this single man leading us through a vast landscape, where repetitive melodies of an organic sound are established drawing our attention away from hectic routines. Tidal waves of long synth tunes are rising up in choirs and ebb away exposing a lonely setting on the edge of nature, where observations of all kinds of narratives seem to start. Quickly fading into pulsing guitar drones taking over the second half of the record, "Ocean Noise" ends with mysterious vocals and footsteps to rewind of what has been left behind.

Christophe Mevel offers a display of memorable melodic songwriting with a deep sense for ever changing atmospheres and complex in its use of overlapping instrumentation and extended techniques. The experimental and detail orientated methods remind a bit of his work with Dale Cooper Quartet, but his imaginery soundscapes thrive from a single inimitable artistic vision. "Ocean Noise" has been played, recorded and composed by Christophe Mevel between November 2011  and April 2014 near the Atlantic Ocean in Britanny, France. Found-sounds and guitars by Cyril Pansal.

Ocean Noise

Pan & Me - Fahrenheit

HYBRID ELECTRONICS - electronica, ambient, experimentell, industrial

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Sonic-Seducer-Cold-Hands-Seduction-Vol-163/release/6703605

http://www.subroom.com/

nwo hindsight (Sonic Seducer Cold Hands 163 - 2015)

HYBRID ELECTRONICS - electronica, ambient, experimentell, industrial

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Elektroanschlag-3/release/942350

http://www.discogs.com/sell/item/20771692

http://www.subroom.com/

home and dry (Elektroanschlag 3 - 2007)

Martin L Gore - Featherlight [weightless remix by the_empath]

Out Now: 
Download: http://smarturl.it/YWIDremixDL
Stream:  http://smarturl.it/YWIDremixStr
YouTube: https://youtu.be/xejva1SMP4E
Vevo: http://www.vevo.com/watch/CAC231600050

Leonard Cohen on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2dQvsMB
Paul Kalkbrenner on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2dQvZhl

#YouWantItDarker
#PaulKalkbrenner
#LeonardCohen

Download

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker (Paul Kalkbrenner Remix) [Out Now]

Hatikvah - Synchronicity (SomaCD086)

1.	 Big Mind
2.	 Synchronicity
3.	 Unforgettable
4.	 Zen 
5.	 Modern Times
6.	 Introduce Me
7.	 Daedalus
8.	 Beneath
9.	 In The Spirit
10.	 Spend Some Time

The production team of Florian Schirmacher and Helmut Ebritsch are weathered veterans of the vast electronic field. Florian’s production history covers many bases and collaborations, having started with Guido Schneider under the Glowing Glisses alias for his 2003 debut album, Silver Surfer, on Berlin’s Poker Flat imprint. Since then he has founded Wareika, Federleicht, Here Today and of course Hatikvah working with labels like Cadenza, Vakant, Liebe Detail, Buzzin Fly and Morris Audio to name but a few. Helmut is also one half the acclaimed Klartaum outfit, along with Nadja Lind. His solid contributions to the Klartraum releases have pushed them from strength to strength over the course of their productions. Helmut, also known throughout the electronic world for his skilful mastering technique, balances this duo with complete precision. Both artists work on lyrics and production, but the signing is left solely to Florian.  Their sound is distinctly dub influenced, yet balances the soulful edge of the lyrics and chords with the dance-floor framed beats – a clever and fascinating combination, that allows them create their own spiritual dimension to a view of their idealistic future. 

Synchronicity opens with Big Mind, a murky and introverted overture to Hatikvah’s debut album. Deeply dubby and mellow throughout, washing pads mingle happily with gentile chords and wandering percussion. Set on the sea front it paints a picture of serenity, thought and evaluation – asking questions of the Big Heart and Big Mind, the conection between the two and the balance in their production of sound and soul. Both are present and validated in Big Mind. The album title track, Synchronicity, sings soul from its depths. Heavyweight sub-sonics rise from the bass and warmth emanates from the delicate and understated synth work, allowing Florian’s profound, yet wanting lyrics to glide through with ease along with the cries of the evening Lark – fly away with me. At a mammoth thirteen and a half minutes long, Unforgettable is anything but. A sombre and heartfelt tale of lost love treads a meandering path through jazz influenced keys and chords. A higher tempo than previous outings, the pace is kept with clever and intuitive sequence changes that are subtle and soft on the ear. Zen then takes the tempo down and with it the heart rate. Great delays carry the keys and percussive elements off way in to the distance, creating a rich sonic environment from which slight and dainty percussion emerges. 

Modern Times is given a complete refurbishment from the track originally released on the Suol imprint. Being one of the more dance-floor orientated tracks on the album, it carries solid rhythm, but retains a deep feeling found throughout the Synchronicity album. Following on, Introduce Me steps things up a gear and grows intensity. Daedalus brings us back down to earth with a beautifully crafted and emotive piece of music which brings playful connotations of lullabies and slumber through Florian’s solo Rhodes play. Beneath brings a combination of optimistic chords and vocals that sit amongst intelligent percussion and fx use. In The Spirit, the first single from the album, which includes Deepchord remixes, has a slightly more aggressive and rasping bass. Whispered vocals add more of a rhythmic effect than in previous tracks and allow space in the mix where everything has its place. Possibly the busiest track on the album, Spend Some Time brings close with layered vocals, guitars and several basslines. Together, it blends perfectly.

An album that is deep and intense in places, yet greenly optimistic in others, Hatikvah’s Synchronicity is undoubtedly one of the LP highlights of 2010.




Hatikvah - Synchronicity

>> 1. Ten And Tracer - Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny [Rope Swing Cities, 2006]
>> 2. Lunar Testing Lab - Mock-Orange [I, Absentee, 2008]
>> 3. Bitstream - Crab Nebula [City Centre Offices, 2002]
>> 4. Bradley Strider - Bradley's Robot A2 [Rephlex, 1993]
>> 5. DJ Sprinkles - Ball'r/Madonna Free Zone [Mule Musiq, 2009]
>> 6. Bonobo - The Plug [Tru Thoughts, 2000]
>> 7. Kiln - Kekker [Thalassa, 1998]
>> 8. Manual - Miraparque [Awkward Silence, 2008]
>> 9. The Gentle People - Journey (Aphex Twin Care Mix) [Rephlex, 1995]
>> 10. Quantic - The 5th Exotic [Tru Thoughts, 2001]
>> 11. Signaldrift - Welcome Ceylon [Wobblyhead, 2003]
>> 12. Cylob - Foid [Rephlex, 1996]
>> 13. Arovane - Deauville [City Centre Offices, 2000]
>> 14. Loess - Viscer [Toytronic, 2003]

isolatedmix 03 - Milieu - One last push on the swing

Like the massive spectrum of music in my head, Finnish brothers Orion and J.Shore usually sit at opposite ends on the music production front. Juska (Orion), grew up on the early 90′s hypnotic trance sound such as Cygnus X’s album “Hypermetrical” and Sven Väth’s “The Harlequin – The Robot And The Ballet-Dancer” and for the past five years has hosted a variety of electronic music on his National Finnish Radio show. In a vein I can very much relate to, these early 90′s records often contained a few ambient or downtempo tracks and Juska soon grew to love the sleepier side of electronic music as much as the ecstasy of early 90′s trance.

Younger Brother J.Shore however, had a much more straight forward introduction into the ambient/electronica genre, listening to Aphex Twin, Global Communication and Boards of Canada, he grew up to to become a very talented choir conductor and pianist. And it was on these terms that the two combined to produce music together with their first album, Brotherhood, released in 2011 – an album that I still hold in high regard, and featured at the beginning of last year.

It’s this unique collaboration that I can hear throughout each record and as hoped, within this mix. Their records often consist of live strings, guitars and pianos, and as Orion has found out, this ‘orchestral’ out-take is a perfect addition to a well composed chill-out track. For this mix Orion and J.Shore have decided to “introduce many Finnish and Scandinavian artists which we think are incredibly talented” as well as including a couple of unreleased tracks from the studio, including Orkidea’s Unity and Chris Coco’s ‘My Sunset’.

Here’s a quick intro from Juska on some of the artists and tracks featured:

“Some of the artists worth highlighting from the mix are Gorm Sørensen, who is a super talented Danish chill-out producer and Silk Sofa label A&R; Tokyo Boulevard, whose debut is one of those timeless chill-out albums; Norwegian Xerxes who releases amazing music and made a really great unofficial remix of our “Brotherhood” track; Finnish Softys, one half of the legendary Slusnik Luna, who is a very talented chill-out producer, too; Indigo, who hasn’t released too much but whose chill-out mixes in the 90s were a big inspiration for me; Planet Boelex, who made an exclusive remix of Nails for this mix only and who is easily in the Top 3 of Finnish chill-out/ambient producers; and finally Kajis and Turismo, both very very promising Finnish newcomers. Kajis delivered a beautiful orchestral track for this mix and Turismo’s remix of Architect’s Dream has exactly this oldskool vibe I love”

More info: http://asip.me/isolatedmix35

1. Gorm Sørensen - ID
2. Tim Sane - Untitled
3. Lauge & Baba Gnohm - Structures
4. Orion & J.Shore - Brotherhood (Xerxes remix)
5. Stephen J. Kroos - IO
6. Orion & J.Shore - Deep Blue (Tokyo Boulevard Downtempo Remix)
7. Jani R - All The Beauty (2012 Beat Mix)
8. Softys - No More Time For Us
9. Orion & J.Shore - Architect's Dream (Turismo Remix)
10. Indigo - Dineh
11. Orion & J.Shore - Nails (Planet Boelex remix)
12. Kajis - What Are We Doing
13. Incolumis - Cloudcage
14. Turismo - And Our Universe Was Born
15. Unfabled - Solitude 
16. Orkidea - Unity (Orion & J.Shore remix)
17. Chris Coco - My Sunset (Orion & J.Shore remix)

isolatedmix 35 - Orion & J.Shore

More info including an interview with Rafael > http://asip.me/isolatedmix37

http://www.substratafestival.com/
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-make-another-memorable-substrata-happen

Tracklist:

0:00. Lawrence English – Patterns Review
1:28. Rafael Anton Irisarri – Substrata Hydrophonic Listening
2:15. Yagya/The Sight Below – Sleepygirl
6:52. Markus Guentner – Get Anything Done In This World
16:17. Loscil – Hastings Sunrise
23:09. Mirrorring – Drowning The Call
29:45. Svarte Greiner – Final Sleep
32:57. Tim Hecker – Dungeoneering
37:28. Scanner – 47° 36′ 35″ N, 122° 19′ 59″ W
40:47. Biosphere – Warmed By The Drift
47:11. Jacaszek – Lament
54:01. Nils Frahm – Ambre
57:39. Marcus Fischer – Shape To Shore
63:05. Oren Ambarchi – Stars Aligned, Webs Spun
66:10. Eluvium – Under The Water It Glowed
