DELPHINE DORA - EUDAIMON
New album on three:four records, out on march 16th 2018.
Now looking for gigs!

inquiries: contact@three-four.net

"The twentieth century has had its share of poets exploring magic and mysticism. However, it is Kathleen Raine who has articulated the deepest spiritual vision throughout the entire body of her work. Having studied William Blake – and, in the process of doing so, reading all that he had read – Raine believed poetry to be an art-form that could open readers to an awareness of a divine, transcendental world which expresses itself to us through in the language of symbols.
As an example: for Raine, a tree is never ‘just’ a tree: it is a symbol of the unity of the universe. This symbol draws meaning from its presentation in the poem: it may blossom, decay, or be felled – each of these express different relationships between humanity and the universe. For Raine, nature and its symbols express an archetypal world, which she described as burning “with an interior light and glory, awe-inspiring.”
When we become acquainted with Raine’s symbols, we begin to see the world very differently: full of meanings and spiritual significance. Her vision of the poetic symbol has deeply influenced many artists – myself among them – and has led to a number of musical settings of her poetry. However, these are predominantly in the ‘art-song’ genre of classical composition – here, Raine’s simple and intimate language is often obscured by the compositional settings and vocal techniques that the classical idiom demands. What Delphine Dora has achieved here are naturalistic settings of Raine’s words, which present her poems in a new light. Delphine’s work interprets Raine’s poems in a style that is by turns ethereal, lively, melancholic and innocent – the last of these terms evoking the idea of the innocence of souls: who, being incarnated in the lower world, become corrupted and seek to return to their source through the gates of death.
Indeed, death is one of Raine’s prominent themes, and is explored on in the opening song on this album. H.G.A. sees Raine reflect on her proximity to her Holy Guardian Angel, who will soon lead her immortal soul away from sphere of creation, and, consequently, she will forget all that she now remembers about the material world. Many of us would be inclined to approach such a theme sombrely, but the melancholic sweetness of Delphine’s interpretation captures something of the yearning for the otherworldly and unknowable world of light that Raine believed to be the soul’s true habitation. This angel is the same as that sung about in Eudaimon, who sees her depart the celestial realms for the ‘prison house’ of the world, but who will one day bear her back to her true home in the stars.
Like Raine’s own poems, the songs on Eudaimon are pure in their simplicity and austere style. Yet they also shine with the crystalline fire of the world beyond: that same light which bleeds through the symbols that Raine believed helped our souls recall their original states. If you do not already know Raine’s work, there can be no better introduction."
Phil Legard

Phil Legard is an academic and musician. Previously of Xenis Emputae Travelling Band and Ashtray Navigations, he now records under his own name, and collaborates with Layla Legard as Hawthonn. He teaches music production at Leeds Beckett University, where his research focuses on the role of esotericism in contemporary music-making.

Delphine Dora - Eudaimon

NORBERTO LOBO - ESTRELA
http://www.three-four.net/releases/TFR048
available on LP, CD and digital
https://wearethreefour.bandcamp.com/album/estrela

Estrela is the third chapter of Norberto Lobo’s solo records on three:four. If it is easily identifiable by the black and white photography by António Júlio Duarte on the front cover, the music brings some newness: for the first time under his own name, Norberto Lobo is playing with a trio composed of Yaw Tembe (trumpet), Ricardo Jacinto (cello) and Marco Franco (drums). Paradoxically, it's accompanied by these experimented musicians that Estrela sounds like his most personal record to date.

Lobo's unique approach of composition claim some influences (Tom Zé, Moacir Santos, 50’s jazz) in a more assured way. Once again a result of his rich inner world, his puissant curiosity for life and people – fellow musicians, his peers, and audiences, other countries, languages and cultures – and a particular aesthetic disquietude to the musical language that he has been blessing us with his six strings.
Norberto Lobo - guitar and voice
Yaw Tembe - trumpet
Ricardo Jacinto - cello
Marco Franco - drums

All songs by Norberto Lobo
Recorded by Cristiano Nunes at Oficinas do Convento in June 2017. Mixed by Cristiano Nunes. Mastered by Julien Grandjean at Jetlag.
Cover photo by António Júlio Duarte (Diver, Osaka, 1997).
Design by Catarina Lee / Gaëtan Seguin

Estrela

Norberto Lobo - Noel Rosa

AMULETO - MISZTERIUMOK
TFR047
Available on LP on April, 6th 2018

Misztériumok is the third full-length record - their first on three:four - of Italian duo Amuleto, composed of Francesco Dillon and his cousin and three:four’s artist Riccardo Wanke. Following the route of previous releases this new album emerges as the fusion of composed and improvised forms and moves between contemporary and electronic music mixing acoustic, electronic and real world sounds. The music takes shapes from a progressive disclosure of sonic material that gradually manifests its nature: at times aggressive and distorted, other times ephemeral and intimate. Cello, electronics, field recordings and a large variety acoustic timbre merge into a unique sound. More intensively than before, Amuleto in these five pieces condenses their aesthetic within intense evolutions, concrete attacks and tight musical constructions. 
This work takes inspiration from a series of old photos (as negative silver bromide glass plates) found in the 'Feira da Ladra' flea market in Lisbon. They depict scenes of middle-European family life at the start of the 20th century mixing what seems an ephemeral serenity with an imminent sense of crisis and loss.

Amuleto is Francisco Dillon and Riccardo Wanke.
Cello, electronics, guitar, harmonium and piano; field recordings from France and Bolivia.
All music by Amuleto, except for Urlicht's theme by Gustav Mahler.
Recorded in Lisbon and Florence between September 2015 and April 2017. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Amuleto thanks Elena Abbado, Antje Disterheft, Maxime Guitton and Gaëtan Seguin.

Misztériumok

Amuleto - Der Turm

Filipe Felizardo & The Things Previous - Volume VI: The Sun Rises in your Tummy & other Christmas Illuminations

Available on LP and digital: https://wearethreefour.bandcamp.com/album/volume-vi-the-suns-rises-in-your-tummy-other-christmas-illuminations

Containing a heavy-haze version of Bonnie Beecher's "Come Wander"; "木瓜 " - a 3000yr old chinese poem; "I am the Res Erection" & the electric guitar monolith "Your Tits".

cover photo by António Júlio Duarte
produced by Cristiano Nunes

Volume VI - The Sun Rises in your Tummy and other Christmas Illuminations

Filipe Felizardo & The Things Previous - 木瓜

CIRCLE BROS - MOLEN
available on LP, dec. 2018

Circle Bros is the longrunning onemanproject of Wim Lecluyse (founder of Morc Records). What started out as a way to experiment with sounds and recording techniques, evolved throughout the years into a more song-oriented outfit. The roots are to be found in the world of drone, lo-fi and improvisation, which results in songs that are half improvised, and therefore have a more spontaneous structure. A sort of singer-songimprovisation for those that prefer soundexperiments over traditional verse/chorus-songs.

This fall, Circle Bros is putting out his third full length-LP 'Molen', just like its predecessor 'Rust' to be released on the swiss label three:four records. this album is continuing the soundevolution of Circle Bros: think of gritty, repetetive songs with influences from the worlds of shoegaze, slowcore, drone, noise and folk - somewhere in the same universe where artists like Labradford, For Carnation, Grouper or Roy Montgomery wander. This time, the songs are just a tad slower, more bareboned and maybe a little bit electronic sounding that what we heard thusfar.

Molen

Circle Bros - Art Deco

Alice

Music by Èlg
Text and vocals by Catherine Hershey

Taken from "Les Particules" original soundtrack released by three:four records in digital and LP.

A film by Blaise Harrison
Les Films du Poisson / Bande A Part Films / Les Films du Losange

Les Particules

Buy on bandcamp

Les Particules - Original Soundtrack - Particles

Composed, recorded and mixed by Èlg

Taken from "Les Particules" original soundtrack released by three:four records in digital and LP.

A film by Blaise Harrison
Les Films du Poisson / Bande A Part Films / Les Films du Losange

Les Particules - Original Soundtrack - La montée

'Confinuum' #4 - Eloïse Decazes

Excerpt from upcoming LP on Trás-os-Montes Records out in late 2020.

Yann Gourdon - vielle à roue, mixing
Filipe Felizardo - electric guitar
André Cepeda - cover photo

This recording was produced during a residency propitiated by Trás-os-Montes Records in Macedo de Cavaleiros, Portugal.

YANN GOURDON & FILIPE FELIZARDO - La Langue de l'Ophiolite (excerpt)

Three:Four Records was co-founded in 2008 by Gaëtan Seguin and Arnaud Guillet. Three:Four Records has been working since 2017 as a "mental stereo pair" made up of Seguin and Maxime Guitton, spreading their musical activities between Lausanne, Paris, Rome and Marseille. It is distributed by The Business (2).

Originally focusing on avant-folk, ambient and noise projects, the label has championed the debut albums of a number of artists and fostered a handful of collaborative efforts between established musicians, whilst promoting a wide array of musical styles and aesthetics (improvisation, songwriting, modern composition, experimental music, avant-rock, electronic and folk music, soundtracks, etc.). Through its patient mapping of a large family of artists across countries (Switzerland, Portugal, Canada, France, United States, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, etc.), three:four has been lately expanding its catalogue through a series of coproductions with partners in crime (Standard In-fi, A1000P, Bongo Joe, Feeding Tube, Meakusma, Carton)