'An Embrace' is a collaborative project between the Bulgarian experimental music collective Amek and the German music label Vaagner.

The project was commissioned by Easterndaze, A Berlin based annual festival which fosters ties between Eastern & Western European labels through series of collaborative live shows.

This year, the 4th edition of the Festival had to be moved online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a response to these new circumstances, Amek & Vaagner proposed a physical release titled 'An Embrace', inviting 8 artists from their respective regions to form duos and collaborate online, with each duo being asked to compose a piece inspired by the project's title.

In the end, 'An Embrace' became an ambitious effort that included multiple contributors and took months to complete, thus we are now proud to share the final result, which is comprised of a limited edition cassette tape featuring the four collaborative compositions, as well as a riso-printed zine which offers further insight into the participants creative processes, while also including additional poetry and texts by Jeremiah Carter, S. N., Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Krisztián Puskár and Stanimir Panayotov.

We hope you enjoy this special outing and we want to thank all the participants and contributors who made this project a reality.

Funded by Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and

Mastered by Tomas Boden

VAK41 | Ekin Fil & krāllār  - Koyu (Тъмно)

‘9 Mezzotintsʼ is the latest offering by Japanese composer Yosuke Tokunaga, on the album, each piece presents a singular sound study, Though when experiencing ‘9 Mezzotintsʼ as a whole, the album is bound together by a near mythical silhouette of sonic fragmentation.

On '9 Mezzotins' Yosuke Tokunaga once again inhabits a sonic spectrum entirely his own, occupied by old piano chords, disintegrated string arrangements and distant echoes, while featuring themes ranging from Japanese folklore to classical music and film. 

On ‘9 Mezzotintsʼ time seemingly repeats itself, expands and collapses, as Tokunaga’s unique musical terrain of sound studies bring forth a sprawling environment of details that newly unfurl which each piece.

VAK43 | Yosuke Tokunaga - M EZZOTINTS

VAK48 | Jeremiah Carter & Kelby Clark - It Sure Ain't Worth A Damn (Feat. Sarah Viviana Valdez)

VAK50B | Theodore Cale Schafer - Slacker

ASM02 | Perila - Haven't Left Home 4 4 Days

Following the sedative magic of Perila’s ‘7.37/2.11’, the next auditory journal on A Sunken Mall comes in form of the new album ‘Feelings’ by Ekin Fil. 

Similarly to ‘7.37/2.11’, the album was completed throughout 2020, offering another deeply poignant response to a year dominated by isolationism and trepidations.

The resulting album contains some of Ekin Fil’s most vulnerable, yet sanguine work to date, as it sees her directly channel her emotions into sincere, visceral music.

ASM03 | Ekin Fil - Little One

Winter Olympics II

Featuring

Virginia Aveline
øjeRum
The Humble Bee
Civilistjävel!

VAK53 | VA - Winter Olympics II [Snippets]

120121 (DIG Master)

VAK55 | Kevin Drumm - Grey Screen

A stirring ambient mix by Tokyo resident yolabmi featuring works by Claire Rousay, KMRU, Ben Bondy & Sarah Davachi, among others.

VACAST 11 // yolabmi

'Being Held' by Ekin Fil, from the album 'Feelings' (Vaagner/A Sunken Mall), gets tantalisingly reinterpreted by none other than Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.

download it here: https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/track/being-held-jefre-cantu-ledesma-rework

VAK57 | Ekin Fil - Being Held (Jefre Cantu-Ledesma Rework)

PRESS:

(transcribed from German)

The release of the compilation »Setting Thoughts On Fire« on the Berlin label Vaagner, the proceeds of which go to 'Kyiv Angles' and 'Helping to Leave', does not seem unusual at first. But the six pieces come exclusively from artists who could face serious repercussions in their home country of Russia for any kind of expression of solidarity. Perhaps it's no wonder that even an artist like Perila, who otherwise works intensively with her own voice, does without vocals on her track, just as her colleagues—including Pavel Milyakov, known as Buttechno, and X.Y.R., for example—largely do without the direct and obvious, i.e. without statements. Instead, they express a basic mood with electronic soundscapes and only rarely very discreetly used rhythms. But in the course of this stringently curated compilation, the atmosphere gradually changes and ends on a lighter note. Is all of this to be understood as a kind of wordless protest? Perhaps. But it most certainly offers musical visions of a world in which it would not even be necessary.

https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/setting-thoughts-on-fire

VAK58 | Perila – Setting Thoughts On Fire

'For Wind Poetry' releases October, 2022.

Wind Poetry

VAK 62 | yolabmi - Circulation

From the viscerally punishing and nerve wrecking, to the meditatively sublime, Kevin Drumm has a talent for exploring heightened states through the timbres of minute details. Now, throughout this series of archival works dating from 2000 to 2022, his mastery is once again on full display.

Battering Rams

ASM05 / VAK67 | Kevin Drumm - Old Shoes

"All things that have form eventually decay."

After last year's tenuous offering "Another Fall," Craig Tattersall (A Humble Bee) returns with a new collaborator in tow, Erik Williamson. Together the duo unveil a body of collaborative work titled 'remnants', showcasing a near hour-long offering of unfaltering melancholy, with each piece engulfing the listener in an abyss of tape-laden hiss, while drifting ever so slightly into aimless reverie.

VAK66 | Abandoned Bees - Monuments

Vaagner is proud to present the third and final installment of Jeremiah M. Carter’s album triptych, ‘Vessels’.

Spanning 6 pieces, each work feels like an integral part of the album's overarching narrative, fervently nestled amid divinity and humility.

By its final piece, 'Vessel X', which also clocks in as the longest in the entire triptych, we are treated to one of Jeremiah’s finest moments, and for a few seconds, it all comes together for one last swansong, forming a sonic distillation of elation and grief, desire and passion. – It’s all here.

Vessels

ASM06 | J. Carter - Vessel X (Falling On Our Faces During the Morning Prayers)

VAK68 | Abigail Toll – A Cut In A Curve

VAK69 | Jeremiah M. Carter - A Transition From A Barren Place To A Barren Place

In November 2020, KMRU self-released ‘Drawing Water’. The release contained 3 supple works of porous resonance and intimate motion, giving way to a very heartfelt body of work that peers directly into the fabric of the everyday; gestures, movement, conversation, rendered graciously into waveform.

Now, Vaagner is proud to present a special edition vinyl and cassette reissue of ‘Drawing Water’ via its A Sunken Mall imprint, with the original material spanning the first side of the record in remastered from.

Drawing

ASM07| KMRU - Uneven

Streamed live on Noods radio, 13.8.23

Tracklist:
Perila - Memory Latency
Forest Management - Seven Years Ago
Sophia Zhuravkova & yusk - jk5
Ribbons - Which Direction They Went 
Igor Len - Here...
Ciaran Jacob & Flora Yin-Wong - Dome C
Abandoned Bees - Monuments
Ian William Craig - Sentimental Drift
Orchid Dealer - Night Fragments
sicu - piano rain
k.m.k. - untitled unreleased

VACAST 14 // k.m.k.

After cultivating his own sound for over 30 years, de Babalon has continually expanded his sonic trajectory throughout the last few years via a series of noteworthy release on labels such as Alter, A Colorful Storm and AD 93. Now he presents his most encompassing album to date via Vale, an hour long phantasmagoric onslaught showcasing the full spectrum of de Babalon’s radical, menacing and inimitable style.

Vale (Master)

VAK71 | Christoph de Babalon - Denn Sie Sind Hünen

Whisky soaked, nocturnal, brooding. Aging’s album ‘Troubles? I Got A Bartender’ was a noteworthy, film-noir infused suite that quietly slipped out on cassette in 2015 by a then budding Manchester avant-jazz ensemble, led by David McLean.

In 2020, amidst the pandemic’s tempest and winter's gloom, the idea manifested of showcasing McLean’s slow burning, wistful soirée in a new light via a curated effort

by Berlin’s Vaagner label, which invited a series of hand-picked artist to rework selected compositions from the album, rendering its mournful, smoke-tinged resonances into new shapes.

Showcased here, is one of these efforts, by Manchester based Craig Tattersall aka A Humble Bee.

VAA07 | Aging - Vampire Body Blues (The Humble Bee Rework)

Fragmented, glacial mementos presented across 4 sides of tape, with each artist exhibiting work across one side.

This most likely represents the final Winter Olympics compilation, (seeing that these unique tape boxes have become exceedingly rare and expensive). 

Mainstays's like label favorite øjeRum and the elusive Korea Undok Group make a return, while label affiliates Thme, and The Humble Bee, (in conjunction with collaborator Erik Williamson) also add their delicate, winter struck gestures to the compilation.

Again, all pieces have been produced specifically with the tape medium in mind, and thus will only be available in the given format.

VAK72 | VA - Winter Olympics III [Snippets]

O. Vaupel has been showcasing his uncompromising talent via his last two astounding outings for Janushoved and is held in the highest of regards here at the Vaagner HQ. 

It is an honour to be able to present his contribution to the 'Convalescence' compilation, for which O. Vaupel sonically interpreted the Convalescent thematic by revisiting an older composition of his own. 

VAKNAR 02 VA - Convalescence will come housed in individually screen printed sleeves and will be made available via the Vaagner Bandcamp.

Due to be released in mid to late March


Janushoved will be presenting a showcase in Berlin in co-collaboration with Vaagner, taking place at the end of June. 

For more details visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/1650714645049430/

VAK03 | O. Vaupel - At Se I Mørke

For it's 4th instalment and final addition to the May batch, Vaknar is enthralled to present 60+ minutes of selected organ music over two set of tapes, all coming courtesy of none other then Danish collage artist and musician øjeRum.

øjeRum has been a favourite of the Vaagner/Vaknar hub for years, and it is with the utmost honour that we were given the chance to comply some old, new and unreleased organ works for this upcoming release, all of which will be presented via a double cassette box that will include a riso printed, fold out sleeve and feature work by both, the label and the artist himself.

øjeRum - 'Selected Organ Works' will be made available around late May.

VAK04 | øjeRum - Selected Organ Works

The next Vaknar release will come via a compilation that showcases the artistic wealth of the current Japanese experimental music scene.

First up is a premiere of 'Pyre Hymn' from Sho Mura - Sho is otherwise known for his excellent 'Ikura Imprints' show on NTS which often showcases Japanese fringe music from illusive bedroom producers currently active throughout Japan.

More info's to be announced soon.

VAK 06 | Shō Mura - Pyre Hymn

Facing a period significant change, Anasisana decided to funnel this emotionally jarring yet creatively invigorating journey into music. 

The result is a cluster of sentimental hymns and arresting compositions, resulting in Anasisana's debut album being an deeply compelling listen from start to finish 

'Stuck Between Worlds Colliding' is the title track of the album, which is out on cassette now via the Vaagner bandcamp.

Video by 29nov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zljzBRZO2M

VAK 07 | Anasisana - Stuck Between Worlds Colliding

https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/solitary-hymns

Solitary Hymns is an assemblage of ambient compositions which have been sourced and compiled by the label over the last 7 days. 

Each artist on this compilation originates from a different part of the globe, and while some of the featured works are direct, sonic responses to the occurrences of the past days, others are unreleased recordings, that take on an entirely new context in the current, unprecedented situation we all see ourselves in.

‘Solitary Hymns’ is for free, and while every donation is deeply appreciated, it is our intention that the work is accessible to anyone who might currently be looking for a brief escape from feelings of uncertainty, lonesomeness or anxiety.


Tracklist:
Theodore Cale Schafer - Mansfield
Anthéne – Light Years
Benoît Pioulard – Careworn
øjeRum - Your Chest, Your Hands, Your Mouth
Stijn Hüwels – Magnolia III
Forest Management – Fill in the Blank
Hakubone - March 28th
Zen Zsigo - (Windowpane) Nowhere Nearer
Oberlin – Remaining Embers

VAK29 | VA - Solitary Hymns

Since it's inception in 2019, the Porto based Eastern Nurseries label has released a string of noteworthy titles, yet the first two outings by Canadian Rifles, the solo moniker of label founder Rui P. Andrade, remain defining pillars in the labels discography.

These first two releases, Canadian Rifles ‘Eastern Nurseries’ album and the follow up single ‘Of Course I Still Love You / Geranium’ sprawl with acute emotive clangour and venerable opulence, their soundscapes conjuring visions of windswept cities, blemished technology and inherent tenderness. 

Now these works have been carefully reassembled on one expanded reissue, remastered by Daniele Antezza of Dadub mastering and featuring two new remixes by Italian artist Dino Spiluttini, who released an album on Editions Mego this year, and British artist Burning Pyre, who collaborated on piece with Canadian Rifles last year, which was featured on a Vaknar and Vienna Press split release.

Featured above is the first piece from the upcoming release, 'Red Flares Ignite At Europe's Borders', which is now being debuted in its remastered form.

VAK30 | Canadian Rifles - Red Flares Ignite at Europe's Borders

Poem by Carlo Giustini 
Translated from Italian to English 
March 29, 2020

'Gli Spiriti Della Marca'

Reality fell into a slumber,

upon waking, it stumbled loudly.

The old, familiar voice of dust returned to sing.

These are days suspended in time, suspended in smoke.

A reverie, an acquainted painting, worn and creased by the whistle of our factories. We found ourselves confined in a thought, entombed in a home.

Traditions, the ancient ones, they still give us comfort. 

Like spectres we wander in our houses, indefinitely at ease.

VAK31 | Carlo Giustini - Gli Spiriti Della Marca

In 2019, Copenhagen based sound artist and composer Sofie Birch embarked on a trip to Colombia, taking with her a series of pre recorded synth chords and old demos of unfinished tracks. 

Over the span of the trip, she began collecting a wide array of field recordings, including bird song, Colombian instruments and jungle ambiance.

Processing her journey though music, Sofie produced a series of sound collages, initially presented as one mix and later split into two works, each of which present themselves as an audible postcard, sonically painting a diary of her journey, while encapsulating her moods and thoughts from her time spent in the South American jungle.

VAK32 | Sofie Birch - Morgenånder

Our final release of the summer comes in form of Couture’s debut LP, ‘Fashion Week’.⁣
⁣
The premiere of the A side, ‘Paris’, is streaming via the Vaagner Soundcloud now and showcases a gracefully woven gesture of solo piano and guitar works, connected by a suite of ambient synth movements and coated by a layer of faint hiss.⁣
⁣
After the first moment onward, Couture manage to present work so profoundly emotive and heartfelt that it beckons its own sense of space, from the initial, ardent series of piano notes on ‘Paris’, to the final, swooning yet tantalizing synth layers on ‘Milan’, the albums tongue in cheek title gives little indication of the profound beauty, opulent emotional grandeur and sensitive underlying core that end up making Couture’s debut ‘Fashion Week’ such a substantial body of work.⁣
⁣
'Couture - Fashion Week' is on a limited run of 20 hand made vinyl LP’s, produced by Disc Archive Berlin and made available as a pre-order this Friday via the Vaagner Bandcamp.

VAK34 | Couture - Paris

Compiled and Composed by Anthéne, Mixed by O.R

For our latest edition of the ongoing VACAST series we present an hour long suite of immersive and emotional serenity that encompasses the core of Anthéne's discography, all while acting as a resoundingly cleansing backdrop to the ongoing turbulence and turmoil we currently find ourselves enveloped in.

VACAST 08 // Anthéne

Copenhagen based Sofie Birch shares some music from her record collection in this hour long vinyl only mix for Vaagner.

Teeming with healing soundscapes, forth world ambiance and Japanese environmental music, the mix reflects Sofie's ardour for soothing atmospheres, which quite frankly feels like pure balsam to our ears as this tumultuous year finally comes to an end.

Popular tracks by VAAGNER