DARKSONICTALES, DarkSonicTales - LP

Release date - August 13th 2021
Catalogue nr. - HG2104
Format - Vinyl / digital
Hallow Ground

hallowground.bandcamp.com

Tracklist:
1) Info Pandemie (02:57)
2) Sonic Darkness (05:41)
3) Spring Feelings (03:51)
4) I Still Believe (09:02)
5) Kind Of Restless (07:47)
6) Gevoelige Huid (05:57)
7) Best Buddies (07:59) 
 
Credits: 
All music by Rolf Gisler
Lyrics of IStillBelieve by David Keenan
Voice of SonicDarkness taken from Music Thing Modular - Radio Music Module
Mixed by Rolf Gisler & Roger Hofmann, Mastered by Rob Viso
Original artwork „Flamme“ by Irene Bisang, Photo by Simon Villiger
Design by Ruth Stofer

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DarkSonicTales is a project by Rolf Gisler and his eponymous album is his first for Hallow Ground. Having been granted an artist residency by the label in a 300 year-old farm house in the Swiss countryside in autumn 2019, the Lucerne-based musician and sound artist explored the peculiar sonic environment of the building and its surroundings through the use of field recordings, modular synthesizers, guitar, bass, kalimbas, a singing saw as well as self-built instruments. The seven tracks, which were finalised in late 2019 and the spring of 2020, are as much a reaction to the setting that they sprung from as they reflect upon and express Gisler’s state of mind in these days of solitude. »The house, the forest around it and my isolation became the origins of the music that was created,« he explains. The result is a stylistically varied album that over the course of roughly 43 minutes does indeed tell its own stories. And while they may be sinister in tone, they are far from monochromatic. Ambient music, sombre spoken word passages, rhythmic noise and even intricate electronica or rock music interlock to form a larger narrative.

»DarkSonicTales« is an organic album in more than one sense of the word. Reacting to and reflecting the world around him as well as expressing his inner one, Gisler gives the sounds at the core of his multifaceted compositions space and lets them breathe. Working along stark contrasts and with surprising twists, he also shines a light on the atmospheric and emotional ambiguity of the world he encountered during his solitary artist residency—unearthing the hidden layers underneath what is perceivable.

DARKSONICTALES - Gevoelige Huid (HG2104)

German-Icelandic electro-acoustic trio Minua’s new EP Simulacra explores just tuning systems and alternate temperaments. Utilising various instruments like woodwinds, a modular synthesizer, a Bavarian zither or electric bass, the trio stretch barely song-like structures to their limits; the four pieces here move with glacial grandeur, their movement barely perceptible. 

The first half of the record revolves around the element of air. The opening “Order of Instants” utilises layered woodwind instruments to create a harmonic space inspired by an 18th century temperament often used by organ tuners. “Final Service” is an ode to overtones and noise, fusing bass clarinets with modular synthesizer and processed electric bass to calming, slowly modulating effect. 

The second half of the record shifts the trio’s focus to plucked instruments, but the pieces retain their slow-moving, monolithic character. “Sixfold Wilted Rose” features a Bavarian zither, unravelling its shimmering beauty on the bedrock of drone sounds like a rose blooming in parched soil, while the closing “Ascension Point” continues in a similar mood, a droning calmness underpinning the gentle electric guitar plucks. 

Inspired by traditional musics, elements of jazz and contemporary drone, Minua have created a body of work that draws parallels between musical worlds. Simulacra is beautiful, patient music.

Released by Warm Winters Ltd. as WW012 

Fabian Willmann – woodwinds 
Kristinn Kristinsson – guitar, electronics 
Luka Aron – guitar, zither, modular synthesizer 

Tracks 1-3 written by Luka Aron 
Track 4 written by Kristinn Kristinsson 

Recorded by Daniel Nentwig at Butterama Recording Center 
Mixed by Luca Aaron and Kristinn Kristinsson 
Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk 
Cover artwork by Nat Marcus

Simulacra

Minua - Final Service

With snowmelt, a vast forgotten place has reemerged. Rumors started circulating amongst people in the city nearby, and a few decided to go. These pilgrims could access the place only by moonlight, down long dirt paths. Amongst the ruins of this partial town, they found a funhouse, tavern, and cathedral. One of the visitors later described them as three different structures. Another swore it was a single space. The only certainty was that the structures shared a bright, blue-green mold.

On "Waiting + Remixes", two compositions by Emily Berregaard bookend five remixes. Each artist redraws a map from Berregaard’s: the areas where glacial expanse meets the heat of touch. These documents are devout as they are erotic, mirror images of the prayerful originals. The two tracks by Berregaard—extended abstractions of voice and saxophone, with dashes of textural field recordings—sourced from the artist's archives—are treated differently by each interlocutor.

Wilted Woman adds rhythm, darkly carnivalesque. Florian T M Zeisig, a celestial scrim. Angelo Harmsworth’s interpretation sees the place as a factory for affect, while Glyn Maier provides an asynchronous almanac. Alie draws an absorbing series of loops, a lacy garland made of Berregaard’s dreamy cantos.

released July 21, 2021

“Come Inside” originally released via lathe cut 7” by Primitive Languages (now psychicliberation.bandcamp.com) in 2018

Audio finalized by Glyn Maier

Waiting + Remixes

Emily Berregaard - Waiting (ENMB08)

Shattering whispers, secrets, hideous children

Alice Kemp has a new album due to be released by Coherent States in autumn 2021.

/// UPDDATE ///  'TO ALL MY HIDEOUS CHILDREN' RELEASED JULY 2022. DIGITAL, CASSETTE, AND BLACKENED BOX EDITIONS.


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alicekemp.net
coherentstates.com

To All My Hideous Children

Grotesque III

MSBR (Molten Salt Breeder Reactor), aka Koji Tano, was one of the most respected noise artists to arise from Japan's exciting noise/experimental music scene of the 1990s. Much of his material was self-released on his own label, the astounding MSBR Records, which was dedicated to the production of limited-edition releases with incredible artwork. MSBR present a music elaborated with previously chosen source of sounds, whose origins are either naturel or artificial, with use of Korg guitar synthesizer and some effects, working in analog sounds. Oscillating between grappling electro noise (as he describes his musical style) and pure noise, the really surprising quality of the sound research leads to a tremendous kind of noise-texture. 
After his debut LP and a lathe cut seven-inch, Structured Suicide is third MSBR release and first on tape in amazing package as everything other release by artist. The long track that occupies the entire A side of the cassette and the first track of the B side of over a quarter of an hour, are filled with excellent harsh noise with strong influences of concrete and electroacoustic music, deep and calmer rumble and ambient effluence. Structured Suicide is a terrific undertaking into the wickedness of mechanized clatter as a foreboding, consuming pollution, the unrelenting and ever-building storm of machines slowly lulling the living into bleak states of masochistic artificiality. This is the classic sound of MSBR, which envelops you with its texture of noise scales, suffocating and enthralling, without an immediate impact, but which then, at its harshest, hits you with devastating force! The other two quite short tracks that close the album are less conventional and show how much the artist wants to experiment, without closing himself in a pre-packaged genre.
Vinyl comes in only 199 copies with cover that faithfully reproduces the style of original art work, with vinyl labels that replicates inlay tape card. An awesome artefact of early 1990s Japan noise music, resting at the borders of electroacoustic, Urashima’s long awaited, first ever vinyl reissue of Koji Tano’s epoch-making album, 'Structured Suicide', emerges 28 years later as a stunning testament to the importance of the creative expansion to which it belongs. Absolutely essential on every count! Link in bio.

MSBR - Dead Lock (from Structured Suicide)

Released August 26, 2021

Written by: Gábor Kovács

Mastering : Pheek

Art Work: Gábor Kovács

Új Bála - Ital - Es - Pompa

A selection deeply intertwined with a long, bending, back-road tour amidst kaleidoscopic disorder. Sung from the Baltics to Portugal over 4 months in summer 2021. Including some understated favorites, new forthcoming material, unreleased home recordings, and field recordings of friend's performances along the route.

0- 4:38 : Sholto Dobie - Live at Real No Real, unreleased (2021, LT)

4:19 - 8:00 : People Skills - "Polymer" unreleased (2020, US)

7:43 - 11:48 : Bren't Lewiis Ensemble - "Porkchop Island Debrief" Oh! Carageenan!, cd (BUFMS 2018, US)

11:12 - 14:28 : Jon Collin - Live at the Park 8/23/21, unreleased (2021, SE)

14:12 - 19:18 : Black Phlegm - "Movement Six" Muzak For Abattoirs, lp (Magic-Mushroom 1989, AU)

18:52 - 23:28 : Employees of the Month (Dan Melchior & Jesse Dewlow) - "The Combed Thunderclap" unreleased (2020, US)

23:22 - 25:53 : Thomas Bush - "Flood" excerpt, Live in Gothenburg 8/20/21, unreleased (2021, SE)

25:54 - 28:05 : Jim Shepard - "Cycle of Songs" excerpt, Spirit Dominates Matter, cd comp (not on label, 2018 US)

28:04 - 36:52 : Edward Ka-Spel - "Looping '72" One Last Pose Before the Ruins, lp (Beta-lactam Ring Records 2013, US)

36:00 - 44:13 : Eyes of the Amaryllis - "Malibu (Part 1)" forthcoming lp (Horn of Plenty 2021, UK)

44:10 - 48:43 : Dan Gilmore - Jasmine Rice After Bottle Incident, cd excerpt (not on label 2020, US)

48:16 - 53:48 : Frumpalise - "The Cord" FR another World, cd (Kashual Plastik 2020, DE)

53:48 - 56:58 : People Skills - "Concrète Aegg" unreleased (2021, US)

56:53 - 59:40 : Vox Populi! - "Ney" Half Alive Ganja Music, cd (Cor Ardens, recorded 1990 released 2019, US)

https://soundcloud.com/people-skills
https://soundcloud.com/operator-radio
http://www.heresymuseum.com/

People Skills presents Elek Crossroads / Zenevloed @ Operator Radio

The scars soften - the silver knife melts. 
Sad-sack and cracked hearts, forever reaching the distorted harmony, 
never ceasing, beyond sight - sentimental, coarse reverie eats into euphony.

Each and all, we believe in our deities; although we may not tell, we worship in fear and in inspiration; although we may not feel it, we have our sacred places; although we may not see our idols, they are true in our dreams. Even as our prayer falls silent, these words of Voltaire will be, for us, forever true: if there were no God, it would be necessary to invent Him.

'Hedonistic Idols' is an album of six works by Volunteer Coroner, the avant-garde noise-and-ambient fusing project of artist and composer Preston Weippert. Through contrasts of harshness and fragility, the album explores truth in faith, and hope in decay.