There are a lot of issues to address. With the pandemic being the first and foremost, dominating our everyday lives, it’s easy to forget the struggles, tragedies and drama that is unfolding on another screen, not ours. It’s interesting to note that humans do not generally unite in happiness – it is the sorrow that we feel together, as a whole. One of the unfolding hardships revolves around refugees. Italian composer and violinist Laura Masotto, whom I first virtually met via 7k!‘s beautiful compilation, String Layers, has volunteered for a non-profit organization, Open Arms, which is dedicated to protecting those who try to reach Europe by sea, and has first-hand witnessed the ongoing misfortunes experiences by daily migrants in the Mediterranean. While working on her album, she wanted to capture the urgency of this ongoing emergency situation, even as the focus on COVID was drowning out other news. For this piece, appropriately titled “Refugees”, Masotto collaborated with the Spanish (and London-based) composer, Roger Goula, to create a piece of music that transmits both, gravity and hope. The track was subsequently used to score the images provided by Open Arms, which propels the immediacy of this cataclysm even further. And if this track premiere does not move your heart, I promise that the video will be remembered. I recommend you play and watch both in this order.

The video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=calDixdRcJ8

"When Laura contacted me in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic to collaborate on the Refugees single I knew that it would be a significant project, refocusing on an ongoing emergency too often overlooked as the norm. And in fact when I received Laura’s early sketches of the main theme for the piece I felt that sense of fragility but at the same time poignant energy that hugely inspired my musical contribution. The sense of rush of the fast violin arpeggios with yet strong harmonic changes made my imagination fly quickly and react musically in response to it straight away. Through a very organic collaboration with Laura, the music developed to deeply reflect the drama happening every day in the Mediterranean Sea with the hope that the language of music could touch our feelings and encourage our actions.“
-- Roger Goula

The video was made in collaboration with the Spanish NGO Open Arms which is involved in rescuing migrants who depart from the coasts of North Africa and travel Europe. The images used in the video were shot by the operators of Open Arms. “For Laura Masotto (who has long been close to the NGO) it was natural to think of using her music and these images to shine a light on the drama of these migrations.” You can support and donate to the organization here. The full album is due out on 7K! Records on June 11th.

Refugees

Pre-order

TRACK PREMIERE : Laura Masotto feat. Roger Goula - Refugees

From Still Life out Sept 21/21 on limited clear vinyl.

Igor Yalivec - Campanula

from 'Symmetrie und Wahnsinn' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den370
available on all formats at https://denovali.com/sanktotten/

After the 2020 album "Lieder Für Geometrische Stunden", Sankt Otten finally make us happy again with a new release at the beginning of 2022. "Symmetrie Und Wahnsinn" (Symmetry and madness) fits here skillfully, both creatively and musically, in an album series with geometric context.

The album starts unusually buoyant with "Hymne Der Melancholischen Programmierer" (Hymn for sentimental programmers). A Kraut-Pop pearl, which could go on forever with its Motorik swing and with its catchy melody the track doesn't come across as melancholic as the song title predicts. You have to listen twice to not succumb to the illusion that it was composed in Düsseldorf at the end of the seventies. Here (and on the track "Sei Symmetrisch Zu Mir"), Sankt Otten were supported in the studio by drummer friend DIRK PELLMANN.

The drum machine in rumbling funky mode. "Die Glücklichen Unglücklichen", the secret hit of the album? They bend the beat into geometric shapes, let the bass play in circles and cover the song with ghostly choirs. The echo of a spinett-like sound overlays the sound, spitting out a deceptively cuddly dream world.

The 10 minute long "Die Ordnung Des Lärms" could be called an Ambient-Kraut symphony without hesitation. An enormous swelling to ecstasy, a guitar sings distantly in the background. Silence. Synthetic strings pave the way and are supported by choirs. A crackle that suggests a rhythm until it is taken over by a drum computer in the main part of the track. Bombastic mountains of synthesizers pile up and yet a catchy melody finds its way through this mishmash of hypnotic electronics. Fourth movement - Kosmische-choirs in suspension over a bass synth and an Ebow guitar. Is this already Prog-Rock? The question doesn't arise, in the end everything merges into reverb.

"Luftspiegelung Der Sentimentalitäten" begins cautiously with a gentle sequence and a discreet kick drum. The mini-Moog sounds like a guitar. Anyway. A surface floats by and returns, layers and shapes build up. At last, everything melts into perfect harmony with a plaintive-sounding synth. This track was composed as a stripped back reprise of the first track from the last album "Sentimentale Sequenzen".

A hypnotic Motorik-beat of an 808 that encourages head nodding and could almost be danceable. True to style with warm analog 80s electronic sounds and a loose echo guitar. This is "Angekommen In Der letzten Reihe". Man and machine hand in hand as a homogeneous musical unit and the connection of tradition and vision.

Sankt Otten like images of infinity. In the religious sense of meditative mantras, or also in the mathematical sense of an elongated curve that eventually returns to its starting point. "Bis Das Helle Licht Uns Holt" goes exactly in this direction with its classical use of sequencers and a sound carpet of choirs. Sound worlds that, through a clever repetitiveness, barely noticeably guard the constant changes in the compositional mesh like a secret and only reveal what is to be discovered by listening closely and letting it be seen. Such a thing is probably called Berlin School?

The Osnabrück duo Sankt Otten, founded in 1999, has been releasing on Denovali since 2009. With their now 12th album they give us again a gem of timeless instrumental music. The holy trinity of Krautrock, Ambient and contemporary Electronics, but always stylistically confident and unmistakable Sankt Otten.

For the mastering New York based RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI could be won. Also with the cover layout again good taste is proven. As part two of a cover series, this extraordinary die-cut cover artwork was again created by designer DANIEL CASTREJÓN. The vinyl version comes in a die-cut cover (in a limited transparent edition), the CD in an elegant cardboard slipcase.

Symmetrie und Wahnsinn

Luftspiegelung der Sentimentalitäten

Sankt Otten - Luftspiegelung der Sentimentalitäten

CHROMA

Quite the predicament...


Composed and Produced by Moladoen

The Spiral Predicament

Carlos Cipa - The Whole Truth

WAV / FLAC / MP3

Some Familiar...

I first encountered Ben Chatwin's music as Talvihorros sometime in 2011 through his release on hibernate imprint. We become more acquainted when he contributed a beautiful track towards my ...and darkness came benefit compilation appearing in 2012. A few years later, Chatwin moved from London to Edinburgh and began recording under his real name. This new beginning also gave his music a refreshed and upgraded sound and with newly found confidence he moved on to the independent Village Green imprint - see Sleeper Awakes appearing on Headphone Commute's Best of 2015 lists. We've seen his follow-up, Heat & Entropy, grace the 'best of' lists a year later, but in 2018, I must admit, I was completely blown away with the Staccato Signals. Something changed entirely. Chatwin's music became cinematic, darker, edgier, blending synthetic and the acoustic, pushing the boundaries of intense sonics and textures, and totally gripping my mind. Needless to say, the album grabbed the top spot in the coveted Music For The Film Behind Closed Eyelids list of best cinematic music of 2018. This year, Ben Chatwin is back to unleash The Hum for Village Green, his sixth studio album under his own name, and today I've got an exclusive premiere from the release dropping tomorrow.

The title of the album, and indeed the title of this track, hint at something lurking behind the lights, the pipes, and concrete. That something is a sound, a drone, a purr, of lifeless objects generating life. When electricity is cut, the house fills with silence, and only then are you aware of all that constant whir you've been surrounded all time. This sonic ghost becomes the bloodstream of the dwelling, and with The Hum, Ben Chatwin amplifies its voice. This rumble is electric, growling, at times it's suffocating with the bass, its place expanded, frequencies increased, dynamics magnified. But at the center of this multi-dimensional chant lies a song, alone in space, alone in beauty. This is the song of Chatwin's music, and I've been mesmerized with all it has to say.

"When electronic artist Ben Chatwin plugged his Moog synthesiser into the mains at home one day, he was surprised to find the electrics of his home faintly singing. His house was built in the nineteenth century, and what he was listening to was the building’s natural hum. He boosted the volume, and in doing so, found the inspiration for his next release, The Hum, out on Village Green on November 6th"

July Seventeen

SEED