SARA OSWALD + FELDERMELDER - DRAWN
Cat #: OUS033
Release date: June 18, 2021
Distributed by Kudos: https://kudosdistribution.co.uk
Bandcamp: https://feldermelder.bandcamp.com/album/drawn

«The way we approach recording music — starting from an inner and outer void, where there is just acoustical action and reaction — is an attempt to emulate and slow down the fleeting memories that occur during a near death experience. A scintillating recollection that is the essence of who we are, slowed down and enhanced in order to be captured.» - Sara Oswald + Feldermelder

Prolific cellist Sara Oswald and experimental electronic musician Feldermelder present a captivating experience that resembles the suspended timelessness of an embryonic world. The way in which the duo modulate our perception of time, across this EP of three distinct pieces, represents an impressive display of aesthetic power, enabling listeners to experience the here and now in a total, physical engagement, and to travel through endless, transitional states of mind. «Drawn» is a meditation, where process becomes form. 

The first piece ‘Fishes in Histogram Waterfalls’ opens up a time-space where acoustic elements meet electronics; a fragile and organic encounter that nevertheless remains potent and precise. In this Sara Oswald and Feldermelder form resonant clouds of sound that hover and move discreetly. 	

The second piece ‘Volcanic Meditation Walks’ is more rhythmically defined, punctuated by repetitive accents and imbued with an enchanting, longing melody. Interspersed with heavy, phantasmal electronics, the track evokes a surreal passage across a scorched landscape, like a trek at the foot of Mount Etna.

«Drawn» reflects a dislocation of conventional temporality, and with the final piece ‘Short Term Memories’ the duo offer a denouement, where ‘the naked truth of our existence is revealed’, where every moment is again just another shift, another liminal state. Here they embody the perpetual flow of existence, where birth and death form a circle — where the same form never reappears — where every moment is unique. And where memory has its limits, because neither past nor future really exist.

CREDITS
All tracks written by Sara Oswald and Feldermelder
Produced by Manuel Oberholzer
Mixed and mastered by VFBM 
Cover by Manuel Oberholzer

This is OUS033
www.ous.ooo
@feldermelder

Drawn

Volcanic Meditation Walks

Buy digital

@momofzeli

photo by Atousa Radmanesh

tracklist: 
1000Pa - tufifetu naar
bwah-spatium - ANGKUHL
Happa - Digital Recall
Plus One - Scrap
Julmud جُلْمود -  Kassara كسّارة
Arca - Anaesthetic
User from PT - Three-six Paths
Le Motel - Shaolin (feat. Magugu)
Silk Road Assassins - Feelin Blu
Basile3 - Mutual 
Rude Boi - Dope 
Montross - Interlagos
Kellen303 - White Label 
Nerve - Blacktip Reef Shark (Carcharhinus Melanopterus)
Yre Den - Silk Evade
Entek - Geodine
Bbymutha - Green Candle Music
Cakedog - Flight
Ursula Sereghy - Slug Tremollo (Defenders of the Existent)
Best Available Technology - Session 6192
Gent1e $oul - Cabo Horn
Healion - Vetiver
??
??
Blithe Field - Finally Understanding, Sleeping bags in a row

not your skin - momo zeli

Dobra voda is a small bay on the island of Silba. A remote beach is situated an hours walking distance from the only village on the island.

This mystical and completely secluded place was once a summer commune, gathering creative minds from Yugoslavia but also from all over Europe. A versatile art scene emerged, the one that preceded Ljubljana's alternative theatre scene, Rijeka's new wave and some of the most influential ex-Yu alternative bands; "[...] The music was coming from every single bush: violins, cellos, saxophones, trumpets, and, of course, mostly guitars [...]."

One of my dearest friends, Natasha Kadin, curator and cultural manager of SEA Silba Environment Art organised a wonderful exhibition in 2018 with found archive photos made by Marijan Blažina, one of the artists from the commune. Croatian multi-disciplinary artist and author Boris Greiner wrote more about this exhibition: www.silba-environment-art.hr/en/blog/boris-greiner-slikovne-poruke-s-dobre-vode/

I visited Dobre vode on a few occasions, but this particular time I wanted to record a sonic palimpsest, built from water memories and other environmental simulacra of this magical little bay. I recorded with hydrophones from various angles, listened to the interplay between water and salt and different geological formations. The movement of the pebbles from the sea bed, water sliding down the rocks and crevices, burying my "ears" under the sea bed but also inside the enormous piles of dry Posidonia oceanica, commonly known as Neptune grass or Mediterranean tapeweed, a seagrass species that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. It forms large underwater meadows that are an important part of the ecosystem. The Posidonia has a very high carbon absorption capacity, being able to soak up 15 times more carbon dioxide every year than a similar-sized piece of the Amazon rainforest.

Dobra voda bay is positioned to accumulate dry Posidonia once it is washed ashore. It is absolutely impossible to be still in those clouds of dry seaweed and be completely silent. Even so, I tried.

The sound piece is a mix of 16 chosen recordings placed in a dronesque metaphor of passing time. 

released August 25, 2022

All sounds recorded, edited and composed by Manja Ristić
Recorded during SEA Silba Environment Art Residence 2021
www.silba-environment-art.hr
Hydrophone built by Jez riley French
jezrileyfrench.co.uk
Mastering La Plant Studio Belgrade
laplantstudio.com

Dobra voda

August 25th, 2022

Bandcamp

Cafe Oto Sept.4 2022

"Son Sistem Tsiftetelli Vol.1 (1933-1969)” by Souma Records is the first part of a selection of Greek and Turkish tsiftetéli – or çiftetelli – songs and instrumentals, some in Greek Rebetiko and Laikó style, others in the oriental folk tradition of Greece and Asia Minor led by Roma musicians.

For Greeks dancing tsiftetéli is a social thing, sometimes performed by couples. During the 60s and 70s in Greece and the US, live Laikó bands and oriental ensembles were often accompanied by a belly dancer, although this was not the case when the style first crept into the Greek repertoire when the repatriated musicians from Asia Minor expressed their pain and loss through this music. Mainly during the 60s the gloomy lyrics disappeared from the tsiftetéli and it morphed into a beguiling dance. Modern belly dancers hardly ever dance to tsiftetéli anymore but prefer instead the typical dance routines (raks sharqi) from the Middle East. The magic of tsiftetéli lies within its hypnotic grooves, intoxicating melodic scales and the extreme musicianship of the performers.
 
The term tsiftetéli derives from the turkish word çifte-telli, which means ‘double-stringed’ (diplóchordo in Greek) and refers to an authentic violin technique (cfr tracks 4,11,16 & 17) of running two strings through the same nut slot of the instrument creating tautophony (two strings playing at the same pitch) or tuning them an octave apart. This spaced-out effect generates a more oriental and sensual feel.

All tracks are recorded from Fred Kramer's (Souma Records, BE) collection of shellac and vinyl records he excavated over the last 10 years in Greece, Egypt and the US.

Tracklist in the comments below. 

Check out more from Souma Records here:: https://soumarecords.bandcamp.com/ and here: https://soundcloud.com/soumarecords

Son Sistem Tsiftetelli Vol.1 (1933-1969) - Fred Kramer (Souma Records) (RIAFC100)

E.T. is available on a vinyl compilation LP via Knekelhuis:
https://knekelhuis.bandcamp.com/album/va-and-felt-like (2021 remaster)

Please check also this awesome mix by Rone for Tsugi Mag. (n°66 - oct 2013) ; (E.T. included) https://www.discogs.com/Rone-Boarding-Pass/release/5033436.  With tracks by Autechre, James Holden, Clark, Caribou, Jon Hopkins, Downliners Sekt, Michel Banabila, Kuage, Rone, Blind Digital Citizen

And Felt Like...

E.T.

buy at bandcamp

E.T. (Knekelhuis, VA - 'And Felt Like...' / June 2021)

recorded in Tehran in 1928

I came across a worn copy this 1928 Iranian disc and asked my old pal Kevan Harris to translate the label for me.
He told me it was by the great singer Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri (b. 1905; d. 1959. No relation to the composer and tarist Col. Ali Naqi Vaziri; she named herself after him) who was, famously, the first woman to sing in front of men unveiled.
She made dozens of recordings in the late 20s, but this one is significant and exceedingly scarce. Kevan pointed out a very good English-language entry describing the song's "long and troubled history." https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/morg-e-sahar
To summarize the article, the lyrics to Morg-E Sahar (Dawn Bird) were composed in the early 1920s when their author began to notice the rise of the dictatorship. When the country's new ruler Reza Shah heard Qamar-ol-Moluk sing it at a party in the mid-20s, he banned the second verse, which bemoans militarism, corruption, and tyranny. Over the course of the past century, the song has taken on significant nationalist meaning, through various administrations and hopes for a political new dawn in Iran.
The article, last updated a decade ago, points out there was at the time no evidence of a recording of it by Qamar-ol-Moluk existing. Since then, a copy of the first side has appeared on YouTube but the politically sensitive second side does not circulate online, so despite the poor condition of the disc, I felt obliged to make the entire performance available in reasonably listenable form.
It is presented here in solidarity for the struggle of women in Iran.
The lyrics in English, taken from the above article are: 
Dawn bird, lament!
Make my brand burn even more.
With the sparks from your sigh, break
And turn this cage upside down.
Wing-tied nightingale come out of the corner of your cage, and
Sing the song of freedom for human kind.
With your fiery breath ignite,
The breath of this peopled land.
The cruelty of the cruel and the tyranny of the hunter
Have blown away my nest.
O God, O Heavens, O Nature,
Turn our dark night to dawn.
It’s a new spring, roses are in bloom
Dew drops are falling from my cloudy eyes
This cage, like my heart, is narrow and dark.
O fiery sigh set alight this cage
O fate, do not pick the flower of my life.
O rose, look towards this lover ,
Look again, again, again.
O heart-lost bird, shorten, shorten, shorten,
The tale of separation.
Truth’s life has come to an end
Faith and fidelity have been replaced by the shield of war.
Lover’s lament and beloved’s coyness,
Are but lies and have no power.
Truth, love and affection are but myths
Oath and honour are but vanished.
For thieving, country and religion are pretexts, eyes are wet
Landlord’s cruelty, master’s tyranny,
The farmer’s restless from sorrow.
The cup of the rich is full of pure wine,
Our cup is filled with our heart’s blood.
O anxious heart, cry out aloud
And avoid those who have powerful hands,
Count not on justice.
O rosy-cheeked cup-bearer, give the fiery water,
Play a joyful tune, O charming friend.
O sad nightingale lament from your cage.
Because of your grief my heart is
Full of sparks, sparks, sparks.

Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri - Morghe Sahar parts 1 & 2

Conditional | Colleen

LP preview:  Random Gods: Gazulo à Estronca da Santosa

from Antologia de Música Atípica Portuguesa Vol2 more info at https://www.discrepant.net/product/various-antologia-de-musica-atipica-portuguesa-vol2/

Antologia de Música Atípica Portuguesa Vol2

Various - Antologia de Música Atípica Portuguesa Vol2 (LP preview feat. Random Gods)

Taken from the album 'Shutting Down Here' released as LP and Digital.

Jim O'Rourke 'Shutting Down Here' (excerpt)(SPGRM 001)

***RELEASES 16/04/21***

ISLE011 is a collection of cassette recordings made in Athens by Christos Chondropoulos over the last five years. Coming from an avant-garde percussion background, Christos calls upon themes of ancient Greek folklore and musical tradition through a futurist lens depicting robotic societies in post-human harmony.  He constructs worlds reminiscent of Marcello Giombini’s Mondial Folk series or Umiliani’s exoticised Omicron outings. By looking to the future rather than the far-off past, he builds upon these early instances of technologically charged cultural geography and presents an authentically Greek reading of a parallel Athenian basin. Where his last work for 12th Isle explored once-forbidden tunings and unplaceable tonalities, these recordings further expand on the artist’s simultaneous concern for heritage and imaginary projection. Across the final Side D, Chondropoulos explores themes of maternal love present across the album by working with local singer Sofia Sarri to record six piercing, beautiful acapella phrases.

Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri - Morghe Sahar parts 1 & 2

Canary Records

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