ELECTRONIC / HIP HOP / ROCK

A deafmute United Nations interpreter Alexandr Petrushevskaya is on the run, a Russian who was raised in South Africa and Mexico, he has mistakenly discovered a briefcase carrying top government files after witnessing an entire family of a German diplomat and their bodyguards was thrown off the 27th floor balcony of the hotel he was checked in. There where no bullets fired, they where all politely asked by a masked assassin to jump off one by one, the six children first and the pregnant wife. Only the note in the briefcase that led the interpreter into a wild goose chase hunt that leads to many staircases he wasn't even expected to be. He met a Australian spy by the name of Dr. Marilyn Redwood holding some answers to his questions but the doctor is suffering from acute Amnesia, now both are piecing off two different puzzles together, the blind leading the blind in a web of government conspiracies, only leading to one off the two, the doctor or the interpreter, going back to the exact scene of the crime and jumping off the same 27th floor with the masked assassin who started it all.

Good Evil Harvest

An imaginative collection of electronic imagistic tracks to fire the imagination with a brush of jazz textures.

Gently Falls The Rain

Blue Electric Light

Spirit in My Heart

"Shibboleth"
Valhjim

"Shibboleth" is a fun jazzy track with a brief motif that separates sections. This is me just having fun with some improvisations on guitar, tongue-in-cheek. 

(Featured in the Album: "Explorations": https://valhjim.bandcamp.com/album/explorations)

Hope you have fun with this one too, folks.
Thanks for listening
and for your kind comments.

Valhjim 

(CO 2024 Jim valero (all rights reserved).

Shibboleth

Afterlife

"Jazzscapes"
Valhjim 

"Jazzscapes" transports listeners into a mosaic of sonic realms, intertwining the lush timbres of female vocals, synthesizer sequencers, and an eclectic ensemble of instruments including bass, guitar, piano, saxophone, and clarinet. 

Each piece crafts intricate soundscapes, evoking diverse atmospheres and igniting the imagination through a rich tapestry of textures and ambience.

(Featured in the Album: "Explorations": https://valhjim.bandcamp.com/album/explorations)

Hope you like this one, folks.

Thanks for listening
and for your kind and thoughtful comments.

Valhjim 

(C) 2024 Jim Valero (all rights reserved).

Jazzscapes

Painkiller

Keep Moving

Just Like Heaven

Just Like Heaven (Live at BBC Maida Vale)

"Where  Water Flows"
Valhjim

"Where Water Flows" opens with a deep, resonant tom drum roll, setting the stage for a rich, evocative piano chord sequence. A soulful female voice hums, weaving through the air like a gentle current. The electric guitar soon takes the lead, its improvisations dancing atop the steady piano chords. As the progression evolves into a series of intricate, chromatic jazz chords, the guitar melody soars. The arrival of a bluesy tenor sax adds a moody, melodic depth, before the piece concludes with the same chromatic chords and a high, poignant guitar line, echoing the fluidity and movement of water.

Thanks to Mr. Martin MIers for his magic drums on this song.

Hope you like it, folks.

Thanks for listening
and for your kind comments.

Valhjim 

(C) 2024 Jim Valero (all rights reserved).

Where Water Flows- Valhjim w/Martin Miers

"Winds"
Valhjim

"Winds" opens with a haunting melody that floats through a landscape of echoes and unusual spaces. The song soon unfolds into arpeggiated electric guitar chords that gently waver, creating a shifting foundation. 

A pan flute weaves its melody over the guitar, its notes transformed by flangers and effects into a constantly morphing soundscape. A girl's voice enters, carrying a melody that leads into an electric guitar solo, rich with a sense of yearning. 

The piece closes with an intimate exchange between the girl's voice and the guitar, their melodies intertwining in delicate dialogue.

Hope you like it, folks.

Thanks for listening
and for your kind words.

Many thanks to Martin Miers for his magic 
percussions on this piece.

Valhjim

(C)2024 Valhjim (all rights reserved).

Winds - Valhjim w/Martin Miers

"Gently Falls The Rain"
Valhjim 

Gently falls the rain in the cool garden
while the soft breeze the bough leaves kisses
with its wet lips. 

I inhale the scent, feel the drops
upon my skin, listen to the sound on the dry
leaves and the damp earth.

O gentle rain, wrap me up in your gentle
streams and your ecstatic sound, fill my lungs
with your cool scent, bring my soul 

to peace and joy. 

(Thanks to Martin Miers for his magic percussions)

Thanks for listening, folks,
and for your kind words.

Valhjim 

(C) 2024 Valhjim (all rights reserved)>

Gently Falls The Rain - Valhjim w/Martin Miers

The track from the The Butcher's BBQ Pack PAYDAY 2 DLC!

The Flames Of Love - Smokey Bennett & The Hoops (PAYDAY 2)

Taken from his forthcoming album 'Spells' out June 10 on Erased Tapes.

Pre-order the LP/CD/DL here: www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP085
iTunes: http://snip.ftpromo.net/spells
Spotify: http://snip.ftpromo.net/goldentimes
Bandcamp: http://snip.ftpromo.net/spellsbc
or any other good record store worldwide

"It's just incredible" – Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6 Music
“Strangely upbeat nocturnes" – The Wire

‘Spells’ merges programmed piano pieces with live instruments, combining the controllable technical world and the often unpredictable aspects of live improvisation. In some ways it continues where his underground debut ‘Gravity’ left off, though a lot of weight is lifted, making room for a lighter and more energetic listen. Friend and fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm mixed and mastered both albums. Ben is not a master pianist like his dear friend, but his sound collages are so meticulously designed that after hearing the result an impressed Nils declared: “from now on, if anyone asks – this is a real piano”. 

His intricate, humanised programming – enhanced by drummer Achim Färber, cellist Anton Peisakhov and harpist Lara Somogyi, and a considerate selection of echoes, delays and compressors – has been used to create a hybrid sound that intends to deceive, question and challenge existing listening habits. Utilising the contrast between reduction and decoration, ‘Spells’ can be seen as a quest to find out how much or how little composition is required to constitute a song. Why the ear can and should be deceived about the authenticity of instruments. What significance these instruments have within this process, and why the personal perception of balance and sound exclude ultimate truths. 

Linking the two albums are the four movements of ‘Nocturne’, an ever-developing conversation that on occasion flirts with the grandeur of compressed rock drums. The first single, ‘Golden Times 1’, received a world premiere by BBC 6 Music’s Mary Anne Hobbs, proclaiming it as "incredible." An alternative version of ‘Sleepers Beat Theme’ – composed for the soundtrack to a short film about the Trans-Siberian Express – opened Jon Hopkins’ Late Night Tales album from 2015, who noted “I thought it was such a calming and sensitive piece that sounded to me like the beginning of something...the warmth and depth of the sound entrances me every time”. 

Though ‘Spells’ and ‘Gravity’ are his first albums recorded under his own name, as acclaimed electronic producer HECQ he’s released nine albums since 2003, exploring everything from ambient to breakcore. He has simultaneously established himself as a trusted composer and sound designer, working for a wide array of clients including Amnesty International and Marvel Comics; composing for feature films, games, art installations and convention opening titles.

After embracing this demanding line of work, in 2010 Ben felt the need to explore his roots and early education, which inspired these albums under his own name. Born in 1981 as the third child of opera singer Deirdre Boysen and actor Claus Boysen, his classical music training on piano and guitar began when he was seven years old; the works of Bruckner, Wagner and Bach laid an important foundation. Rediscovering this music shared with his parents – united with the sounds of Autechre, Cristian Vogel and Jiri.Ceiver to Pink Floyd and Godspeed You! Black Emperor – brought back an understanding of why he wanted to write music in the first place.

“Finding my views understood, reflected and welcomed by Erased Tapes was an encouraging experience, crowned by the offer to release ‘Spells’ and re-issue ‘Gravity’ with them. Through many caring conversations with Robert I felt that there’s no better home for the existing ideas and no better cradle for new ones.”  – Ben Lukas Boysen 

TRACK LISTING:  	

01. The Veil  02. Nocturne 3  03. Sleepers Beat Theme  04. Golden Times 1
05. Nocturne 4  06. Keep Watch  07. Golden Times 2  08. Selene

Spells

Keep Watch

Buy LP/CD/DL

Ben Lukas Boysen – Keep Watch

Tindersticks - Running Wild (Extended Instrumental)

www.facebook.com/laakemusic

Recorded, composed & mixed by LAAKE for Piano Day 2018
Mastering by Jeremy Henry @ La Villa Mastering

CLOCKS

single taken from the Robot Koch Album Sphere.
Out October 5th
Movement III written by Robot Koch and Julien Marchal

Movement III

One of the pieces I wrote as part of the score to the 2012 documentary film, "Outliers Vol. 1: Iceland".

More info here: www.outliersiceland.com

Black Beach (Outliers Vol. 1)

Valhjim is a music composer with an eclectic approach to different genres: rock, pop, folk, New Age, and experimental electronic music. Greatly driven by imagination and poetic imagery, he combines multiple instrumental textures to fire the imagination of his listeners. 

His more experimental ambience and electronic music is built with layers of suggestive sound textures, rhythms, and melodic lines that stir the imagination into suggestive imagery and worlds unseen, true architectures of sound that open up limitless spaces to explore. Often Valhjim's melodies sail through genre thresholds, crossing over from one genre to another, from neo classcal to electronic, or from jazz to rock or new age.