Taking charge of ZEHNIN01 is Lucy, who has evolved his distinct sound signature by reconciling the deeply personal with the esoteric, and by harmonizing the spheres of technology and biology. Whether he is acting in the role of producer, DJ, performer, or Stroboscopic Artefacts’ curator, Lucy’s clear passion for creative evolution and mutation is something that continues to attract new listeners, and keeps giving his current supporters new reasons to continue tuning in.

EP opener ‘The Hermit’ is eight minutes of spacious and cerebral techno. Rolling drums are buried deep as little flecks of sound design peel off the groove. Occasional bell hits bring a sombre and languid feel despite the drive of the drums, and it is the sort of perfectly absorbing track that will suck you down a 5am rabbit hole. 

On the flip, ‘The High Priestess’ is a similarly mental work out that is empty and eerie, with distant drones and yawning pads outlining a vast underground space. The drums here are again rubbery and rolling, but a little more prominent, and the whole thing manages to be both soothing and unsettling.

The Hermit / The High Priestess

Lucy - The High Priestess [ZEHNIN01]

Taking charge of ZEHNIN01 is Lucy, who has evolved his distinct sound signature by reconciling the deeply personal with the esoteric, and by harmonizing the spheres of technology and biology. Whether he is acting in the role of producer, DJ, performer, or Stroboscopic Artefacts’ curator, Lucy’s clear passion for creative evolution and mutation is something that continues to attract new listeners, and keeps giving his current supporters new reasons to continue tuning in.

EP opener ‘The Hermit’ is eight minutes of spacious and cerebral techno. Rolling drums are buried deep as little flecks of sound design peel off the groove. Occasional bell hits bring a sombre and languid feel despite the drive of the drums, and it is the sort of perfectly absorbing track that will suck you down a 5am rabbit hole.

On the flip, ‘The High Priestess’ is a similarly mental work out that is empty and eerie, with distant drones and yawning pads outlining a vast underground space. The drums here are again rubbery and rolling, but a little more prominent, and the whole thing manages to be both soothing and unsettling.

Lucy - The Hermit [ZEHNIN01]

Sang des Betes / Affaires des Rats [EP] 
ZEHNIN02 
May 26th, 2017, pre-order > https://Zehnin.lnk.to/RIHEP

Petites Madeleines [LP] 
ZEHNIN03 
June 16th, 2017, pre-order > https://Zehnin.lnk.to/RIHLP

Roots In Heaven is a Berlin-based act that could very easily capitalize on his past accomplishments within the world of electronic music. As a label owner, resident DJ at cutting-edge clubs, and accomplished solo artist behind a number of conceptually unique full-length albums, the conceiver of this project won’t likely need any introduction to the intrepid fans of electronic music. As an extension of this artist’s already solid commitment to deep sound, Roots in Heaven represents a new voyage without the help of biographical cues to his listeners: hidden behind an evocative mesh mask lined with obsidian feathers, Roots in Heaven ignores the need to provide “social proof” or self-justification. He communicates purely through the language of concentrated sensory impression, for which reason he has titled his debut, “Petites Madeleines,” after one of the most memorable descriptive sequences in literary history (the famous meditation on the madeleine from Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu). 

As a prelude to the first full-length, Roots In Heaven has issued an untitled EP as a resounding ‘shot across the bow’. However, this record is no half-conceived experiment to see what works and what doesn’t, nor does it even feel like an “EP” (in the traditional meaning of being a précis whose full report is available elsewhere). Attentive listening to its contents can cause a kind of time dilation, and a mysterious feeling of entering a world where familiar dualities (nature vs. technology, action vs. contemplation) are replaced by a feeling of total immanence. 

The A-side, “Sang des Betes”, accomplishes this with cascading, viscous layers of electronic tones that narrow and widen, rise and fall like the breath of some ancient entity. Periodically, bright flashes of tone arc across the horizon of the sound space, emphatically present but also elusive.

The flipside, “Affaire des Rats” goes in a different direction sonically without straying from the A-side’s feeling of immensity, and of the transition between states of matter and states of being. Underpinned by a simple cardiac rhythm and overlaid with a deceptively tranquil layer of white noise, “Affaire…” is another fascinating survey of a world where the artificial and organic can no longer be easily distinguished from one another. As with the A-side, swathes of pure electronic tone arc and fall across a darkened plain, complemented by echoing, full-throated drones. 

Listeners will enjoy this EP as a challenging response to an electronic music world that too often ignores the more fertile creative ground in between the polar extremes of anemic ‘healing’ music and aimless assaults on the nervous system.

Roots In Heaven - Affaire Des Rats [PREVIEW]

Underpinned by a simple cardiac rhythm and overlaid with a deceptively tranquil layer of white noise, “Affaire Des Rats” is a fascinating survey of a world where the artificial and organic can no longer be easily distinguished from one another. Swathes of pure electronic tone arc and fall across a darkened plain, complemented by echoing, full-throated drones.

Sang Des Betes / Affaire Des Rats

Roots In Heaven - Affaire Des Rats [ZEHNIN02]

Lucy - The High Priestess (Blawan Remix) [PREVIEW]

Lucy - The Hermit (Blawan Remix) [PREVIEW]

Blawan has been in his own sound world for years now. Releasing on the likes of Hessle Audio, Hinge Finger and his own Ternesc, he’s made brutalist, heavily textured tracks, big room tools and dark grooves with freaky sound design. It’s all helped to make him one of the most interesting producers of the day, and here he shows another side to his sound. 

First up is his version of ‘The Hermit,’ which is seven spacious and mysterious minutes of creeping pads and implicit rhythms. Dark but inviting, it’s stripped back, hollowed out techno that manages to be hugely absorbing and menacing without any clearly defined drums. 

On the flip is the equally beguiling ‘The High Priestess’. Deep, subliminal kicks set the tone as groaning riffs, train-track percussion and distant, tortured pads all slowly hypnotise. It builds in pressure and creeps you out as it locks you ever further in. 

This is evocative dead-of-night music that says a lot in impressively economical ways.

The Hermit / The High Priestess (Blawan Remixes)

Lucy - The Hermit (Blawan Remix) [ZEHNIN04]

Launching in 2017 we saw innovative releases from the likes of Lucy, Blawan and Roots in Heaven. Kicking things off in 2018 we welcome Paleman to the family with a new direction of sound for the London based producer in fierce four-tracker 'Searching'.

Now often releasing on his own PLMN label, this classically and jazz trained artist has previously won plenty of fans and plaudits for heavyweight rollers on labels like Swamp 81, 81 and School Records. Emerging from the ashes of dubstep to come up with his own deep techno sound, he is a Rinse FM regular with his experimental show 'Trenches' and mirrors this exploration with tracks full of texture, modular synthesis and visceral percussion.

Opener ‘2068’ is a dark and foreboding bit of economical techno. Monolithic kicks set a forceful groove below as they rock back and forth, and factory floor sounds, scurrying little sonic details and rattling hits all peel off the groove as it powers on. ‘Searching’ is five minutes of tight drum programming overlaid with twisted fx, edgy alarms and menacing spirits.

The flip brings with it another all consuming bit of warehouse techno in ’The Peg Loosens’. With scraping hits and groaning synths and drums that again seem to rock back and forth on their heels, it has a masterfully muggy, bleak and foreboding sense of atmosphere that is unsettling yet absorbing. Last of all, the industrial tinged ‘Slurp’ hurries along with bristling percussion and warped synth stabs doing a manic dance in the distance. It’s urgent and compelling as it barrels along, never letting up and never allowing you to look back. 

These are four powerful pieces of full bodied techno.

Searching

PRE-ORDER

B2 Paleman - Slurp [PREVIEW]

B1 Paleman - The Peg Loosens [PREVIEW]

A2 Paleman - Searching [PREVIEW]

A1 Paleman - 2068 [PREVIEW]

Launching in 2017 we saw innovative releases from the likes of Lucy, Blawan and Roots in Heaven. Kicking things off in 2018 we welcome Paleman to the family with a new direction of sound for the London based producer.

Zehnin

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