thirty seventh of our "States United" show on @n10-as, with guest @gab_ii

States United 37: ｇａｂ_ｉ

LAVURN is the debut self-titled album from Lavurn Lee, a singer, songwriter, producer, performer and DJ from the inner suburbs of Toronto. He has also lived and worked in Sydney, Hong Kong and Berlin. His music is an emotionally complex assemblage of processed vocals, filtered pads, surgically programmed drums, haunting melodic fragments and hazy textures. This 13 track album of sparse, emotive and experimental R&B is his second for SUMAC and his first under his own name, following a previous record under the name Fake in 2018. Lavurn was made over three years between Toronto, Berlin and Hong Kong in close dialogue with SUMAC founders DJ Plead and T.Morimoto.

Previously, as Cassius Select, he has established himself as a unique voice in dance music, releasing on cult labels such as Unknown to the Unknown, Accidental Jnr, Hypercolour, Banoffee Pies, Raw Basics and Bruk Records. His side projects include collaborations with vocalists such as VV Pete and Daemon, his previous experimental R&B aliases Guerre and Fake, and BV (alongside Marcus Whale and DJ Plead).


THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS ON THE MAKING OF LAVURN

“I’m trying to make pop music. Not in the industry sense, but in the way that everyone is making their own type of pop music. It wants to be listenable, so it can create emotions. I come from bedroom song writing in the age of the internet. The lyrical content and sounds reflect my demeanor. Big ego with low sense of self-worth. Constantly posturing. At once both strong and weak. I don’t always trust my abilities. I don’t have the voice to produce contemporary radio R&B. I don’t do traditional harmonies, mine are all over the place.

It's the first time I'm writing about my own life in a literal sense. I spent years writing love songs having never been in a relationship. Whereas this feels very raw as a reflection of my experiences. To me the album sounds insular because it was made that way, in isolation. The vocals are used in a sampled way. A chorus for one track might be chopped and turned into another hook. A verse for one song is half timed and used for the chorus of another. Auto-Tune is used heavily. Some tracks are ‘written’ by pulling different beats, textures and vocals from different tracks and seeing what fits together. I tried to take self-sampling further and further. I was thinking of ways to world-build.

Most of the lyrical content on the album is about dealing with a breakup. But the album doesn’t reflect a break-up because it’s completely one sided. It doesn’t reflect the reality that I was an awful person during the relationship. Really it's an inward study of a reaction to rejection. It’s ambivalent. The attitude is “hey imma do me and improve myself”, while also desperately wanting someone back (for all the wrong reasons). There’s a veneer of self-improvement and healing. But it’s all performance. I used to think all the songs had a kind of toxic intent because of this. Trying to impress someone in a way that would make them want to return to you. In retrospect I understand the songs differently. They’re not perfect. A bit confused in their vulnerability. Maybe quite sweet in a way. I think it’s healthy for me to see the lyrics on the album as directed at myself. It’s an album about self-love. I learnt that making music can be a kind of self-care.” 
credits
released February 16, 2024

Written, recorded, produced and mixed by Lavurn Lee
Mastered by T.Morimoto
Photography by DJ Plead

LAVURN - STILL

Fresh Marseille based label Cimetières de France trap crew member Oliver Foster for a mix, featuring an hour of picks from the wider collective and beyond, including new and unreleased material… 

 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/cimetieres-de-france-w-oliver-foster-11th-october-2024

cimetières de france w/ oliver foster 111024

Recorded at Operator Radio, February 18, 2022.
By Casimir Geelhoed (@casimirsound) & Anni Nöps (@anninops).

Lawrence English - Antarctica
Jana Winderen - Aquaculture
Eric Holm - Surface Detail
Casimir - Trail (Emergence)
Drippin - End Effect
Szelag - While You Were Sleeping I Was Blood Red
B.P. & Undveld - Entrance To The Wilderness
Hiro Kone - A Fossil Begins To Bray
N1L - Undo The Anthropocene
LXV - Fever Dreaming
Fis & Renick Bell - The Inner Turmoil Of Virtual Sparrows
Diego Navarro - Inside The Mirror Room
Ljudvägg - Skogsrå (Dayin Remix)
Angelo Harmsworth - Untitled
Casimir - Air CPA
knifebody - this shit is lonely
Martina Bertoni - Music For Empty Flats
Farwarmth - Amber Weight
Martina Bertoni - Bits
Loke Rahbek - A Mess Of Love
Liisa Hirsch - Mechanics Of Flying

Whitespace XI

Monthly hub for club geographies, place-specific constructions, architectural musics and the production of sonic space and scale. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/astral-plane/episodes/astral-plane-16th-november-2024

Topias w/ Gabriel Meier 161124

What happens when dubby drum & bass meets Dischord’s post-punk colossus Black Eyes? “Break” is the new EP from NY’s Relaxer, the long running alias of Daniel Martin-McCormick (Black Eyes, Ital and co-founder of Dripping), and it signals a decisive shift in his music.

Prompted by friends to write a drum & bass live set just as Black Eyes was reuniting, the results didn’t quite fit the d&b genre. But it felt right. Quick, nimble, with room for the ferocity of his favorite post punk and some of the spaciousness of dub. Evergreen vibes, really, but seen from a fresh perspective.

Honed over a period of two years, the five tracks on “Break” fuse Relaxer’s careening, technoid sounds with free jazz-tinted drum programming, snarling sound design and spacious echo trails. It’s a perfect fit for 29 Speedway’s future-facing, exploratory anti-genre approach to electronics. The tape features two remixes by the singular DJ Marcelle and mastering by Dubplates & Mastering. Daniel tells his side of the story below:

“Two years ago my friends who run the drum ‘n’ bass party Headznite asked me to write a live set for a Ukraine fundraiser they were putting on. Right at the same time, my punk band Black Eyes was having our first practices in 20 years, which meant I was re-training my body to scream at top volume and high registers and to lay into my guitar at full force. In those same months, Dripping was forming and ideas were flying for crazy, boundary-pushing lineups. I had just finished writing the meditative composition suite “In Softening Air” and was feeling the call; it was time to let it rip.

Everything poured into that live set for Headznite, and a new style was born. Relaxer had begun as a decisively techno project, but pushing the BPMs and working in drum breaks tweaked the formula enough to cut any lingering ties with that ethos.

Over the next two years I kept on it, writing more, recording, pushing the technique and exploring the sound. “Break” is the first time any of this work has been made public. Sometimes a detour can hack your brain. My first dance 12” as Ital was supposed to be a one-off side project to my punk band and it ended up taking over my life. Now punk music is calling asking for the debt to be repaid. Fuck it.”

Written & recorded by Daniel Martin-McCormick, 2022-2024.
Mixed by Daniel Martin-McCormick & Sol León, with assistance from Sphente Shepherd.
Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering.
Art & design by Brian Mark.
Thanks to Headznite for the prompt.

Chasing Your Own Tail (DJ Marcelle's Strong Tale Remix)


      Played & Recorded at Burnout-Regula by Antonina Nowacka
      
      ┈┈┈┈․° ☣ °․┈┈┈┈
      
      freeminded non-commercial music diffusion
      www.radio-bollwerk.ch
      

Antonina Nowacka | Full Of Lava  - Radio Bollwerk - 22.11.2024

AA390COMP01: CANTO I: IMPRIMATURA

We asked artists we love to contribute towards our first compilation. For this first collection we wanted to try and capture a sense of what sounds we as an archive/label want to highlight in music. An eclectic range of music that span from electronic to acoustic and somewhere in the middle.

This release will only be available on Bandcamp, with all proceeds being donated towards Medical Aid For Palestinians. If you would rather not give a percentage to Bandcamp we would encourage a direct donation to the charity.

Featured artists:
BORÉE, CALLAZ & MOSS KISSING, CALLUM FINN, DJMOKISS, GADUTRA, JAKE SG, OLM EYES, RITA SHOARMA, USOF, ZARYA

Mastered by usof
Artwork by James Usill

mantra (ARCHIVE: A390)

Spirit Project - Written in the Heavens (Original Mix).

Written in the Heavens (Original Mix)

cold

Ambient Dreamscapes for you to enjoy. Relax, unwind, meditate and chillout

DARK AMBIENT - BECOMING

Sonic landscapes by @anninops & @casimirsound
𝐹𝒾𝑒𝓁𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝐹𝒾𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 - nuanced listening music events in Amsterdam
Whitespace - radio shows 

Calendar 
28.03.2024 event at OT301 Amsterdam
with Anthony Linell ambient live, Kareem Lotfy live, Leslee Smucker live, Anni Nöps x Casimir Geelhoed collaborative live 
https://www.ot301.nl/agenda/15589 

09.03.2023 Whitespace event at OT301, Amsterdam 
Vanity Productions (Posh Isolation), Aimée Theriot-Ramos, Casimir, Anni Nöps, Agita Reke  
https://ot301.nl/nl/agenda/13297




02.02.2023 Operator Radio
18.02.2022 Operator Radio
24.02.2021 Operator Radio
24.09.2020 Immersive spatial sound installation. Fiber Festival, Amsterdam. 
05.06.2020 tba, Berlin
23.01.2020 Whitespace at OT301, Amsterdam https://www.facebook.com/events/2432476967018018/
22.01.20202 Operator Radio, with Jonathan Castro
06.12.2019 VII, Red Light Radio, with Kareem Lotfy
22.08.2019 VI, Red Light Radio 
01.12.2018 Fiber Weekends, Amsterdam  [AV]
01.09.2018 Laser Club, Den Haag
31.08.2018 V, Red Light Radio
03.08.2018 Under The Rose, Tallinn
31.07.2018 IDA raadio, Tallinn 
19.06.2018 IV, Red Light Radio
10.04.2018 III, Red Light Radio
05.03.2018 II, Red Light Radio
09.02.2018 I, Red Light Radio

whitespaceworkspace@gmail.com

Whitespace XI

Field of Fictions