Erased Tapes are proud to announce the first in a series of Bell Orchestre reissues. The band’s landmark debut album Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light is now streaming everywhere, with the original masters being repressed on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 2005. The vinyl reissue is out January 13 and available to pre-order now.

Formed in 1999 whilst studying in Montreal, the first music Bell Orchestre made was live scores for contemporary dance performances and puppet shows. Looking back at the band’s early years two decades later, drummer Stefan Schneider says: “Everybody was doing random things to pay the rent like working at cafes, busking, cooking at a daycare, making pizzas, teaching kids in China English by telephone at four in the morning. Mostly in our early 20s, Montreal was cheap, a little grungy and there was a vibrant DIY scene. We were all excited about this special chemistry that was felt making music together.”

A few years later, the writing and recording sessions for Recording a Tape... started taking shape. Most of the music was written in Kaveh Nabatian’s family cabin near a lake in remote Vermont in the deep winter. The roads weren’t ploughed, so to get there the group of friends had to cross a frozen lake on foot, carrying the instruments and boxes of food on sleds over snow and ice.

“The first pieces of music that were actually recorded were the field recordings that became the opening, middle and closing of the album. Pietro and I lived together in this loft that was beside the Lachine canal, and at the bottom of our street there was a traffic tunnel that went underneath the canal, and whenever I went walking down there I noticed the incredible acoustics — the sound of cars driving through it was this immense kind of oceanic sound. Pietro and Kaveh just improvised all these slow moving fanfare ideas, just playing together until their instruments got too cold to play and we eventually had to go inside again”, Richard Reed Parry remembers.

When the group entered the now-legendary Montreal studio Hotel2Tango, Arcade Fire were also recording their eponymous debut Funeral there and the two bands had to take turns recording. Due to the growing interest in Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre was put on hold as members of both bands, Parry and Sarah Neufeld, quickly became occupied with Arcade Fire’s busy touring schedule. “The Bell Orchestre album was almost done, but it kind of sat there. We were just sitting on this album that we were really proud of, but we didn't have anyone to pay attention to it” Parry told Pitchfork in 2005. After signing to Rough Trade the same year, the album was released to critical acclaim and despite being overshadowed has since received cult status among fans.

After almost a decade of hiatus, the band signed to Erased Tapes in 2020. Long-time fan and friend of Bell Orchestre and its individual members, label founder Robert Raths was equally excited about them releasing new music and the opportunity to shine more light on their astonishing body of work.

“This record has always had a firm place in the wider Erased Tapes story, because it contributed heavily to some of us connecting online and eventually meeting in person. It is deeply ingrained in my memory of the time when I had just moved to London. I worked across the street from this small record shop called Pure Groove, where I’m pretty sure I picked up a copy based on its intriguing title and a hand-written note of recommendation by the staff.”

“When retouching the artwork files for this reissue, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before. There is this seismographic disc that’s printed on the labels, which is astonishingly similar to the one that forms the basis for the original Erased Tapes mountain logo drawing by Chris Hernandez from 2007. When I pointed this funny little coincidence out to Richard, he immediately agreed it would be damn nice to highlight this connection,” states Robert Raths.

Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light

Bell Orchestre - Les Lumières Pt. 1

By the time you hear this

The Inventory Of Our Desire

Faces

Athens-based instrumental act Burgundy Grapes returns with its fourth album, “Quadrella”, a collection of atmospheric soundscapes propelled by more rhythmic drive than usual. 
The act’s core members George Kolyvas and Alexandros Miaoulis create and arrange material through introspection, approaching their songwriting endeavours with intuition and honesty that keeps the music they have listened to and adored over the years at bay, deep in the subconscious.
The resulting material, gracefully fuses genres ranging from psychedelic folk-rock to cinematic and classical minimalism. Its mood swings from laid-back to dramatic. 
“Quadrella” is an entirely home-recorded album. Once again, the act’s core duo played guitars and a variety of other instruments, joined by a regular cast of esteemed musicians. (Dionysis Makris - double bass/electric bass; Giorgos Tsiatsoulis – organ; Thodoris Rellos – baritone sax; Kostas Kakouris – piano; George Katsanos – theremin, stylophone; Nikos Veliotis – cello). 

Out on LP and Digital Album via Inner Ear.

* * * 

Το ορχηστρικό σχήμα Burgundy Grapes με έδρα την Αθήνα επιστρέφει με το τέταρτο άλμπουμ του, "Quadrella", μια συλλογή ατμοσφαιρικών ηχοτοπίων που κινούνται με περισσότερη ρυθμική ορμή από ό,τι συνήθως.
Τα βασικά μέλη του σχήματος, ο Γιώργος Κολυβάς και ο Αλέξανδρος Μιαούλης, δημιουργούν και ενορχηστρώνουν υλικό μέσα από την ενδοσκόπηση, προσεγγίζοντας τις συνθετικές τους προσπάθειες με διαίσθηση και ειλικρίνεια που κρατούν τη μουσική που έχουν ακούσει και λατρέψει όλα αυτά τα χρόνια βαθιά στο υποσυνείδητο.
Το υλικό που προκύπτει συνδυάζει με χάρη είδη που κυμαίνονται από ψυχεδελικό φολκ-ροκ μέχρι κινηματογραφικό και κλασικό μινιμαλισμό. Η διάθεσή του κυμαίνεται από χαλαρή έως δραματική.
Το "Quadrella" αποτελείται εξ ολοκλήρου από σπιτικές ηχογραφήσεις. Για άλλη μια φορά, το βασικό δίδυμο του σχήματος έπαιξε κιθάρες και μια ποικιλία άλλων οργάνων, πλαισιωμένο από ένα σταθερό καστ αξιόλογων μουσικών. (Διονύσης Μακρής - κοντραμπάσο/ηλεκτρικό μπάσο, Γιώργος Τσιατσούλης - όργανο, Θοδωρής Ρέλλος - βαρύτονο σαξόφωνο, Κώστας Κακούρης - πιάνο, Γιώργος Κατσάνος - theremin, στυλόφωνο, Νίκος Βελιώτης - τσέλο).

Κυκλοφορεί σε LP και Digital Album από την Inner Ear.

Quadrella

Burgundy Grapes - Wander To Stride

Invisible - Take 1

It's been three years since the instrumental music band featuring a dark and cinematic sound, Anoice, released their fourth EP 'invisible wall’, which expressed the world that has been facing off against the effects of the the COVID-19 pandemic. They will release the fifth EP 'unerasable fire' which pairs with 'invisible wall' on April 7th, 2023.

Just like the previous EP, it mainly consists of quiet and dark neo-classical compositions such as 'the suspicion' and 'keep silence' featuring Films, who sing in their own originally created languages in the same named project produced by Anoice, and Calu who is the vocalist of the electronica unit, Matryoshka. It also includes exciting songs that mix the sounds of a spectacular orchestra sound with instrumental rock such as 'civil war' and 'monster'.

Division, isolation, and war. This is new release which Anoice can only express at a time when the world confronts new problems generated after the pandemic period. Please have a listen to the previous EP 'invisible wall' again while you wait for the upcoming 'unerasable fire'.

unerasable fire

BandCamp

isolation (Anoice 'unerasable fire')

Aventine (Deluxe)

Chord Left (Live)

The Basement

One October weekend in 2020 Flunk went into the woods, in vocalist Anja's cabin outside Oslo. This is what we recorded.

Karma Police (Cabin Session Oct 2020)

THE B-SIDES COLLECTION

MOVE LIKE A FEVER (Extended Vinyl Mix)

My new album Love, Disorderly is out now!
https://thomasazier.lnk.to/lovedisorderly

Invisible - Take 1

Thomas Azier

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