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ETUDE RECORDS RELEASES 
ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO "ÉPICYCLE"
1-Épicycle

Alfredo Costa Monteiro: Voice & processing | computer.

from etude records...

"Even in the rarified, difficult to define world of contemporary electro-acoustic improvisation there are artists who can be said to fall into one of two general categories: for some, the listener has a fairly good idea what to expect from a new recording; for others not. There’s no qualitative judgment being made here—certain musicians can mine a narrow area very profitably—but Alfredo Costa Monteiro definitely falls into the latter grouping. From works for prepared accordion to creative abuses of turntables to at least two recordings where the sole sound source is paper, he’s rendered it futile to approach a new offering with any particular sonic expectations. And with “Epicycle”, he does so once again.-Brian Olewnick"

"Alfredo Costa Monteiro is a Barcelona based artist who works across the spectrum from sound art to visual art after moving out of a sculpture/mixed media background. If that suggests a certain restlessness, his discography bears that out: Paper Music (2001) was generated entirely from paper-sourced sounds, while Rumeur (2004) was also a solo accordion work. Epicycle is an exercise in voice processing, produced entirely using Monteiro´ voice, filtered and reshaped by software. Not that you can really tell: Monteiro renders it into crackles, buzz, gales of static, and even at one point a bass rumble that threatens to erupt into Merzbow-style power electronics. Only the faintest traces implying a human larynx are detectable. Epicycle has a proise and organisation which you could call sculptural as much as musical or tonal, but it feels dogged by a certain flatness, an interest in form above all else, that makes for an overly pro-faced atmosphere.-Sam Davies (THE WIRE)"

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

 

 
TOMASZ KRAKOWIAK "LA CIUTAT ETS TU"
1-Bal
2-La ciutat ets tu
3-Drgacze
4-Sink
5-o_vbrdub
6-Aigua per A
7-Diners per N

Tomasz Krakowiak: percussion & microphone placement.

from etude records...

Tomasz Krakowiak (b. July 31, 1972, Tarnów, Poland) is a percussionist and composer. During the last few years, Krakowiak has performed and recorded with artists such as Mike Hansen, John Oswald, Ireneusz Socha, Le Quan Ninh, Kaffe Matthews, Mike Snow, Domenico Sciajno, Alessandro Bosetti, Anna Zaradny, Ute Völker, Sophie Angel, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, Paul Dutton, John Butcher, Gert-Jan Prins, Karlheinz Essl, Pau Torres and others throughout Europe and North America e.g. Musica Genera Festival, Victoriaville FIMAV, AudioArt Festival. Influenced by experimental and electroacoustic practices, Krakowiak's sounds are explorations of different sonoristic drum qualities. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

"To listen to the first record, I had to clear my mind. It wasn't just a cup of java that I needed - I was searching for a secluded spot. I loaded the CD into my portable player and headed for the basement. After the kids were put to sleep was the best time to attempt any decent analysis of the music at hand. What exactly has percussionist [multi instrumentalist really - as he's played laptop, junk, even piano] cooked up this time around? Without a doubt, the sounds on "La Ciutat Ets Tu" are alien, even eerie. Not once do I get an impression that they're cold or in any way removed from the human element. Tomasz Krakowiak claims that his tools on the record were percussion and microphone placements. That's all. So how do you explain the vibrating sounds on "Aigua per A"? Did Krakowiak place old screws and nails on top of an old window air-conditioning unit and let the microphones pick up gyrations? Is that a fan that I'm hearing or are my ears being tricked into false sense of reality? "Drgacze" features light tickling of cymbals and possibly chains that are rattled in a subtly pleasing way, while "Sink" is a mystery piece altogether. Is the composer rubbing against a metal object or is he scraping nails on a chalkboard? The whole lot ends on a high note with "Diners per N". It's full of gentle trickling of water on a steel pan or perhaps fingers tapped in succession on the cymbals or perhaps something else altogether. The record's greatest merit is the guesswork that goes into the listening session. Would one even hazard to guess that this is the work of a percussionist or was it really made by somebody who understands the aesthetic qualities of his surroundings to the fullest. Listener is left alone with no clues as to source of the sounds at hand. Audio soundtrack to a movie that has yet to be produced, "La Ciutat Ets Tu" is perfectly satisfying and conducive to praise every minute of its duration. -TOM SEKOWSKI (GAZ-ETA)"

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

 

 
JOSE LUIS REDONDO "LA REPONSE EST AUX PIEDS"
1-282
2-DRAGON.GEMINI
3-YOUNGE BLUES
4-...
5-CRAZY STAMP
6-ENDING
7-...SWINGING...
8-THE AIRPORT
9-EARTH BRAIN
10-MANDELBROT´S SILENCE
11-DEVINE A QUI JE PENSE?

Jose Luis Redondo: Guitar & strange string instruments.

from etude records...

Etude Records is proud to present the first release statement of this unexpected and amazing guitar/ composer/ musician call Jose Luis Redondo. His first release for Etude Records “La reponse est aux pieds” (Etude017) is an astonishing 11 tracks suite with some of the most adventurous guitar pieces. Using a whole range of string  instruments (Dobro, banjo, electric guitar, piccolo bass, etc…), Jose Luis develops an amazing and unique personal world of sounds, techniques and compositions. Beautiful, bizarre , strange and lovely!

"Ah, people who know the guitar so well they begin to play it in a way that sounds like they just bought it hours before rule. I don’t have the most remarkably trained ear; rather, I tend to judge music more on its effect than on its process. So experimenting with an instrument, particularly the guitar, goes only so far in my book. There needs to be a heart pulsing somewhere beneath the wankery, so that a connection can be made beyond “Dude, this dude’s like painting a fence with his axe and recording it.” Jose Luis Redondo walks that thin line with “La Reponse Est Aux Pieds,” and while the majority of the eleven pieces flirt gratuitously with aimless determination and a what-can-I-use-to-scrape-this-with mentality, the overall core is one of emotion. Tracks like “Dragon Gemini” seem as though Redondo is listening to whale songs on headphones and playing with his hand in a cast, but still a humanity pervades even the least melodious of the phrases. “Crazy Stamp” is Fahey with nearly all the notes skimmed off the top, leaving only a fast-forwarded hint of what could have been a beautiful (and less interesting) piece. “Ending” throws you for a loop with its intense feedback and reined-in distortion and is immediately a standout. “Mandelbrot’s Silence” is the best and strangest offering, shuttling between ominous drone and strumming and each point of the spectrum between. “Devine a Qui Je Pense?” closes the album on a positively bluesy note, and even if it does sound like Redondo is warming up to sell his soul at the crossroads, it’s all the more gorgeous for that. The record might only chime with hidden emotion, but it shines through secretly, and the heart doesn’t need the ears to pick up on it. 8/10 - Michael Wehunt (FOXY DIGITALIS)"

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN 

FERRAN FAGES "CANÇONS PER A UN LENT RETARD" 
1- Suspens vertical (9:31)
2- Més ràpid que l´ull (3:26)
3- Tanget al dit (3:54) <<-Listening [mp3]
4- L´ombre del dit (7:08) 
5- Suspens horitzontal (16:08)
6- Paraula clau (17:39)
7- El retard del mirall (2:29)
8- Gir lent (5:15)
9- Retard llarg (6:05)

Ferran Fages: Acoustic guitar
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga: Detuning on track 6.

from etude records...

... Guitar compositions curving time with suspense, delay, slower or faster remnants. We are confronted with intensity "colored" with dense and resistant materiality and aggressiveness... and it is not pure materiality. The musical event is immanentized by a death operation. The Imminent death of a close person, totally unpredictable, was constantly interrupting or (not) the process of synthesis, retroactively forming the song by assuming and distorting their materiality. The emotional and predetermined character of this operation dissolves through the insistent and continuous listening of the cançons, thus it seems that the songs´time can truly exist outside Ferran´s emotional temporality (that´s why the ARE songs). The conjunction and interconnections of these autonumous musical events, that coexist in many levels, produces refrains, small melodies, and many other different figures...in short Ferran designates a "new" musical timeplace where improvisation and composition is open-from being open-form or aleatoric, a destinerrance where something eventually must happen, something beyond calculation and labor, not negating death, but something that comes from the other, wich is any-particular song listener." -Michalis Kyratsous (July 2007)

"...The technical and influential aspects are really secondary, though. The music here is extraordinary, often brutally so. Fages opens himself to the experience of a loved one’s deterioration, neither glancing away in “good taste” or reluctance to face reality nor ignoring the enormous emotional price it’s exacting on him. No pathos, just hard-edged sorrow.

When he closes the disc with “retall llorg”, using perhaps something like an e-bow on the strings to generate layers of morose drones before merging into a slow cascade of dolorous notes, there’s a sense of true exhaustion. It’s not pretty or hopeful, just very true.-Brian Olewnick (Bagatellen)"

BUY ITEM 12€ EUR/WORLD

 

BUY ITEM 17$ US/CAN

  

LNGTCHÉ "MUSIC FOR AN UNTITLED FILM BY T.ZARKKOF"
1-One

p.t.:Guitar & Ambiances

from etude records...

ETUDE RECORDS is proud to present the first release by composer Lngtché. Titled “Music for an untitled film by T.Zarkkof”, the release is a long 44:22 piece of dark isolation, drones and exploration of the ambient music blending the electronic soundscape with the sound of the raw guitar.Beautiful, haunting and darkly complex work packaged in an exclusive triptic panel with a brilliant artwork by Seldon Hunt.

"I’ve been spending probably too much time on the edge of righteous oblivion by making repeated listens to MUSIC FOR AN UNTITLED FILM BY T. ZARKKOF by the strangely-monickered Lngtché. Released on the Barcelona record label Etude, Lngtché’s music is herein presented as a single 44-minute track that issues forth from the speakers like one continuous and unrestrained flow of lava bursting out from under the floorboards and seeping out of the walls, like bubbling plasma from the mind of Roky Erikson.-Julian Cope (Head Heritage | Adress Drudion)"

SOLD OUT

  

MIKE HANSEN "AT EVERY POINT"
1-the day before the day (15:35)
2-tidying up after (11:08)
3-the alarm went off sooner than expected (11:06)
4-once held a lighter high in the sky (6:59) 
5-an example of what I meant (7:40)

Mike Hansen: prepared record player, guitar, percussion.

from etude records...

With Mike Hansen’s “At Every Point,” the Toronto-based musician steps out of his familiar role of turntablist-improviser to explore thepossibilities
of a purely digital medium. While each of these five compositions is clearly sequenced, the improviser’s sense of openness and play consistently comes through. The raw materials of Hansen’s compositions are the sounds of cowbells, harmonicas, Vietnamese drums, an electric guitar and amp, and of course sounds and samples captured off a set up of prepared turntables, reassembled from thekind of rugged record players kids played with in grade schools across Canadain the 1970s.

"With his 2006 Etude Records release “At Every Point,” Hansen presents a sparse, starkly arranged collection of electroacoustic work. Although the credited instruments only include a prepared record player, guitar, and percussion; this is clearly not the case– avoiding the overt use of the studio as instrument is ignoring a tremendous elephant in the room.On tracks like the album’s opener “The day before the day,” Hansen arranges numerous smaller sounds as acousmatic tableau; metal punctures alongside scraping swing-sounds, before rubbed drums signal an oncoming slow-motion crash of cymbals. Unless Hansen has developed a second pair of arms, its clear a lot of editing is going on here.Don’t believe for a second that I think this is a bad thing. In no way do I feel tricked, or disappointed. Rather, I am quite happy to find a recording combining so many elements I enjoy: the prepared turntable (which Hansen is well-known to utilize), the obsessive quality of sound placement common to electroacoustic recording, and the finicky attention to detail only available to those willing to spend a significant amount of time whittling at digital recordings.In passing, this is not an album that grabs you right away. Almost everything about it is low-key to the casual encounter. Instead, this is what I internally refer to as a “growing” album, a slow-burn that gathers steam with every time you press “repeat.” Whereas the metallic bowed-string noise of “Tidying up after” seem rather monolithic at first, upon examination, they surely resolve into layers of alternating tones, growing amongst one another as crystals. And how long it takes to notice the underlying crackle of vinyl when concentrating on scraped rust events, the single tap of glass, and the nervous, nearly-arrhythmic drumrolls!For all the studio effort Hansen surely put into this album, it is most striking, then, that it develops as much organic flow and real-time improvisatory qualities as it does. I can imagine this work being played as a trio or quartet, as it is not burdened with effect-trickery. Recommended for headphones, or rather loud speakers. -Dave X (Starling moniker)."

BUY ITEM 12€ EUR/WORLD

 

BUY ITEM 17$ US/CAN

 

 

 

 

 
AGUSTÍ MARTÍNEZ "ARE SPIRITS WHAT I HEAR?" 
1-Serie B (To Scelsi)
2-For Pau
3-Tic
4-Are spirits what I hear?
5-Meeting
6-Stateless folk song 
7-Cross-Light
8-Moc and Caniche (To Paula)
9-Che collons!
10-Island Lava

Agustí Martínez: Solo alto saxophon (no overdubs)

from etude records...

Etude Records is proud to present the first release by composer Agustí Martínez,born 1960 in Barcelona, this is the first ever released record of some of his minimal,graphic scores and homemade compositions for alto saxophone.
A figure in the underground avant guarde of Barcelona, "Are Spirits what I hear?"is an unique oportunity to hear the ghosts inside this amazing composer.

"Are spirits what I hear" has been recently included in the book "Best Musicians, Singers, Albums and Entertainment Personalities of the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries", Volume V of World Who's Who in Jazz, Cabaret, Music and Entertainment. Published by the Federation of American Musicians, Singers and Performing Artists (FAMSPA.)

BUY ITEM 12€ EUR/WORLD

 

BUY ITEM 17$ US/CAN

 

DISTRIBUTED ITEMS
500MG "ANOTHER ORDER OF EXISTENCE"

1-servants of the star and snake (parts 1+2) (13:32)
2-the joy of dissolution / orison (14:04)

...from archivecd:

"a two part experimental acoustic guitar offering funneled through a train load of pedals and effect and then ejected from a marshall 1/2 stack performed by michael gibbons of bardo pond (and all things philadelphia and psychedelic). recorded by myself in 2007 at the worlds nosiest book store bigjar in philly. comes housed in a slightly taller sleeve with two color silk screen work by alan sherry of siwa on a heavyweight 140lb paper. the front cover is die cut with an inserted picture from the performance printed on vellum, all hand glued and assembled by myself. graphic work by demian johnston."

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

 

AURAL HOLOGRAMS VOL. I

All of You who have gone before, across the ages we call You, to join us and together reach the unsetting stars of the White Nights, the Horizon of Hollow Earth.

The very first part of the Aural Holograms series incorporates various call and response patterns manifesting vibrating, subtle energies, all of which have been accurately divided into separate rhythmic dimensions and time-shifting aural tapestries.

The overall experience - i.e. the ecstatic effect - is transmitted by the intensity of syncopated rhythms, reed organ lingering on a few tones, self-transforming vocal work accompanied with carefully chosen oscillating tunes and a variety of percussive patterns utilising artefacts crafted according to the methods of traditional metallurgia, as well as real-time tape operations.

{ 61°26'N 21°52'E } The rum is poured on the ground, words are spoken in secrecy: the Dead Men will come to tell their tales.

Comes in six-panel hand finished cardboard booklet. (Aural Hypnox)

SOLD OUT

ARKTAU EOS "MIRRORION"

Presented in seventeen chapters that can be approached as singular gateways or a slowly unfolding journey of epic proportions, the debut album of ARKTAU EOS is a challenging, complex work. Born of intense private musico-magical sessions held in places abandoned by man and further refined in the temple-laboratory of the duo, it is the distillation of seven arduous months of work.

As the title suggests, 'Mirrorion' is the music of stellar light thrown down from the Heaven's zenith and its eldritch reflections in the depths below, uniting atavistic elemental noise with serene passages of crystalline, spectral ambience. Ultimately, 'Mirrorion' seeks to surpass such earthly definitions in favour of a non-dual vision of reality, hopefully transforming the listener in the process.

For this recording ARKTAU EOS have favoured an organic approach with majority of instrumentation being of acoustic variety, including the unearthly choral of the kanglings, piercings blasts of windbones, accelerating steel-plate rolls, singing bowl and various kinds of stringed instruments.

Comes in an six-panel, A5 booklet. (Aural Hypnox).

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

ALUK TODOLO "DESCENSION"

The first full-length shows the band developing the esoteric theorems established on it's debut 7" and going far deeper in the methodical exploration of the occult powers of musical trance. With the goal to create a timeless, organic mixing of krautrock's strangeness and black metal's coldness, Aluk Todolo conjures rabid obsessive rhythms and abyssal disharmonic guitars, subliminal spiritualist vibrations and bizarre, magick summonings. By reducing psychedelic improvisation to a bare, telluric instrumentation, and basking in the archaic rawness of lo-fi production, the trio elaborates on an audio ritual meant to be monolithic and stabbing, hypnotic but unpredictable, minimalist yet teeming.

BUY ITEM 11€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 16$ US/CAN

 

ALUK TODOLO "S/TDEBUT" 7´LP

Aluk Todolo (France) plays Occult Rock. The band uses traditional rock instruments and magickal theories to reach elevated levels of psychedelic trance and new states of consciousness. This 7" marks their debut debut and features two esoteric compositions that are drawn from the bands improv-laden, live rituals. Side A is a rhythmic and moody piece which gradually builds intensity only to crescendo and gently drift into a blur of sound and mysterious mumblings from Aleister Crowley. The B-side is more krautrock-influenced and upbeat, but fades into an ethereal drone only to explode back into a heavy rock jam. Aluk Todolo features members from the legendary, underground black metal acts, Diamatregon (tUMULt) & Vediog Svaor (Paragon International).

BUY ITEM 6€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 9$ US/CAN

BARZEL "A SHIELD OF DEFENSE AND THE WORD OF THE SON OF BLOOD" (TOPHETH PROPHET)

The 9 tracks here (plus a short intro blurt) blast through 48 minutes filled with burning oil and billowing smoke. As one would hope from the byline, the focus here is on martial music based around heavy industry and themes of racial / religious pride. Lyrically the tracks are crammed with historical references to the birth of Israel, go words like "honour" and "Zionism" and the same sort of creepy hate fueled fanaticism that drives both the JDL and WAR alike. Still, there is less focus on the "other" and more on self agrandizment, militant empowerment and nationalism.

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL : Gunpowder Temple of Heaven

Birchville Cat Motel is the project of New Zealander Campbell Kneale, who has from his base in Lower Hutt since the mid 90-ies established himself as the leading voice of this generation of NZ sound artists. Gunpowder Temple of Heaven is a new highlight in his extensive discography. A single 40 minute long-form piece that keeps building and unfolding; heaven for drone-noise enthustiasts.

The CD comes with a booklet with a complete Birchville discography as well as liner-notes by Bruce Russell.

From the liner notes of Bruce Russell (The Dead C):
"I've been listening to the music of Campbell Kneale for more than a decade now. Recently I've been listening with a sense of increasing admiration as he stacks up monumental sound slabs in an architecture of audition - building a lofty tower of sound. Always a dedicated worker at whatever he does, Campbell had mastered the detailed work required to place many sounds accurately across each another. Often this kind of 'more is more' strategy backfires into murky sludge, where the increasing layers merely obscure each other. On the contrary, the more BCM puts into a piece, the more you hear coming out."

BUY ITEM 10€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 15$ US/CAN

BORIS Soundtrack from the film "Mabuta no Ura"

The Japanese masters of drone and analog feedback never cease to amaze us. Fans actually never know what to expect from a new album. Sludgy guitar riffs, super distorted psych rock or mighty minimal drones? Just be prepared for a new masterpiece, the way only they seem to do it.

Soundtrack from film Mabuta No Ura (translated as Backside Of The Eyelids) presents BORIS at their most abstract personality. A stunning guitar-driven psychedelic voyage to an imaginary land where Pink Floyd's "More" meditates with Sunn 0))) drenched in ambience and feedback!

Being a flowing and brooding soundtrack to an imaginary film conceived by the three band members, the album manages to present the listener to a number of moods and soundscapes without actually breaking out of its shell. From mellow, dreamy Syd Barret-inspired acoustic incursions, hazy vocals, slow post-rock tones and rhythms to occasional bursts of dynamics passing through avant-noise experiments and mammoth deep drones of blasting energy (like on the 12 minutes long "Space Behind Me (part 1)"). A contemplative masterwork!

Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be? The evocative sounds here give us freedom to conjure up appropriate images and quoting Atsuo's own words: "This is a soundtrack for images that appear on the mabuta no ura of the listeners, by reading the stories contained on the album and listening to the music. It's dew made from unconsciousness of Boris members. The dewdrops are spun into thread and the thread forms a whole story. The way we refer to images of the daily lives."

Housed in a slipcase that holds our luxurious custom heavy mini-replica of the gatefold vinyl including a set of cards unveiling mabuta no ura stories and photos of the band members taken in their most recent European trip.

BUY ITEM 15€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 22$ US/CAN

 
BURIAL HEX "INITIATIONS" CD
1-Will to the chapel
2-8 pentacles
3-River of los
4-Bo -II- Ne


from aurora-borealis....

"Initiations", the debut recording for Aurora Borealis, is a lengthy proposition. Clocking in at one hour, thirteen minutes, it represents a journey, a metaphysical odyssey of uncertain outcome. From the psycho-religious clamour of 'Will to the chapel' with its jihadic cries, through to the somnambulant, subterranean oscillations of 'Eight pentacles', the way ahead is far from clear, the atmosphere claustrophobic and threatening. 'The river of Los' showcases a new breadth of vision for Burial Hex with layers of undulating analogue synth and gentle percussion, an opiate addled take on the horror electronics hinted at previously, and perhaps an indication of things to come. This long track takes the listener on a river journey, part Apocalypse Now!, part Orpheus in the Underworld, submerged in Carpenter's dense Fog, slow moving discomfort and ague. The album ends with the half speed collisions, static miasma and white noise squawl of 'Bo -II- Ne', the listener deposited on shores unknown, prostrate at the feet of the infinite mystery.

Burial Hex has surpassed all expectation with "Initiations": Kneel, o ye acolytes, before an astral-industrial opus of vast depth and occult magnitude.

CD in printed card packaging with spine, with two inserts, in poly bag.

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

BURIAL HEX "CULT CASSETTES" Cd-r

Burial Hex released 4 EPs and one split on Cult Cassettes, all of which sold out within days of our last update. Not wanting this material to disappear so soon, we have collected and reissued all 4 EPs: Curses of the Earth, Goy Godal, Trinity Position and the Felon Wind. Spanning from black void noise to numb ambient to emotional power electronics this cdr represents the many stages of development in the formative years of the Hexen. True Horror.

BUT ITEM 6€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 9$ US/CAN

BURIAL HEX "MaHaBone" 2 x Cd-r

Making way for the unconquerable Brothers of Dobrzyn, MaHaBone compiles 4 massive compositions along with several smaller pieces and is truly an epic double album of reclusive analog fetish and cryptic occult voyage. Using ancient modular synth, homemade oscillators, altered organ, reverb tanks, metal frame, damaged effects and chthonic invokation to create dark meditations in electronic pathworking and explorative divination through additive synthesis.::. this is by far thee most bloody sacrifice. Horror Electronics in the twilight of the Kali Yuga. Light a candle and sharpen your blade.

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS "S/T" (Testing Ground)

This work, 500 copies limited, consists in two tracks, the first "A Length of Stovepipe" is a precious guitar based melody in the most pop side of the band. The second, without title, is an incursion in most pure ambient style, where the electronica is the protagonist, a disquieting atmosphere starts from the silence and is coming "in crescendo" until arriving at the pure noise. This minicd is essential for the unconditional fans and a good way to begin in the incredible and personal world of Climax Golden Twins. The cover design has been made by the fantastic Japanese painter and designer Marefumi Komura.

SOLD OUT 

DANIEL MENCHE "Wolf's Milk" (UTECH RECORDS)
daniel menche: organ, gong, trumpet.

Crystalline drones and sacred incantation. Nectar procured from golden fruit. Shimmering resonance channeled through dream. A most anticipated return to form for Menche. Breathtaking purity of sound. Wolf's Milk is a triumph of immense magnitude.

ARC SERIES #2

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN 

DEAD RAVEN CHOIR "My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind" CD
1-Kigi Wa Haru
2-Our mother the mountain
3-A rosebud in June
4-Genesis Hall
5-Bluenose
6-Sheep-crook, Black dog
7-It´s all right with me
8-The trees they grow so high
9-Favorite
10-From the stars


from aurora-borealis...

Recorded in Poland on cheap and archaic Soviet Bloc technology,"My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind" sees DEAD RAVEN CHOIR in full throttle audio assault with total disregard for all conventions of audio fidelity, with great songs of the 20th Century by artists diverse as Townes Van Zandt, Richard Thompson and Cole Porter torn limb from limb and dragged through Smolken's forest home. Curiously upbeat in parts, though with harrowing and bizarre artwork.

"A ghostly fog. A hollow sonic death rattle: Doom with pneumonia" - THE WIRE

"A fusion of folk and country song templates and trebly, bass-deprived black metal sounds... Triumphant" - Boomkat

CD in deluxe matte laminate digi pack with 8pp booklet.

BUY ITEM 11€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 16 US/CAN

DEADWOOD "8 19" (COLD SPRING)

Outstanding Power Electronics from Sweden. This is DEADWOOD's debut album and is a solid, pounding force of electronics, Death Ambient atmospheres and brutal vocals. Featuring a member of Satanic Black Metal act Blodulv. File alongside such luminaries as The Grey Wolves and Mz.412. DEADWOOD is a relentless assault on the senses! Approach with due caution!

BUY ITEM 10€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 15$ US/CAN

ERIC CORDIER OSOREZAN "Selected field Recording 1993-2006"

Recorded in Niseko, southwest of Hokaïdo and in Osorezan, northern of Honshu in August 2006. Gas emanation of volcano in Japan. The sound recordings were carried out in the depths and then re-organised. We listen to gas bubbling in water, gas mouths, gas that creates rhythms while escaping from under a dead leaf down in the clay, whistling…All panoramic movements, repetitions, effects of phasing have been carried out during the time of the recording, travelling at the mouth to gather the sound of sulphur gas as a sound pallette.

BUY ITEM 9€ EUR/WORLD

BUY ITEM 13$ US/CAN

FERMENTAE "Diaspora"

DIASPORA is the first proper release under the FERMENTÆ moniker: consisting of a solitary track performed via. bass/guitars, field recordings and percussion being recorded in parts throughout '06 - '07 onto primitive ZIP disk via Roland 8-track. A 19m45s passage of unwavering ambience, chaotic disintegration and return towards peace in discord... Limited to a mere 200 hand-numbered copies –once these are gone, I will not be pressing anymore.

eardrum death tantrum(s) in the negative human-hive : captured via Roland 8-track magnetic tape(s) and scribed onto obsidian scratch-plates

Expect more obscure archives from San Francisco based Kevin Yuen
alter ego Fermentae on Etude Records. Late 2008.

FREE WITH THE PURCHASE OF TWO (OR MORE) RELEASES FROM THE
CATALOGUE!!!
 

HALO MANASH "Language of Red Goats"

Guided by nether nectars and dream herbs, oneiric visions and the light of lunar tides, Halo Manash Language of Red Goats aims to be a cartography of cavernous elemental realms and regions, sources and springs that run deep and thick with the fluids of life, death and dream. What was seeded at the Thin Veils has been gathered at Harvest time, and is offered to the seeker as a libation and guide into the ever-liminal, shrouded spaces, for dream-vigils and awakenings.

Language of Red Goats is a complete work in itself, but can also be viewed as the first facet of a tripartite series of works that are part of one holistic creation – three faces of the same being. More akin to a primitive fieldrecording in the realm of oneirotropic exploration, than an actual album, the work consists of one lengthy tripartite soundscape. Utilizing only gongs, bells, metal bowls and wind instruments, as well as flocks of birds, the work is in contrast to earlier more refined works that feature a wide multiplicity of instruments and soundsources. Language of Red Goats is a bare, primitive and sometimes raw aural landscape, and yet nonetheless achieves a rare subliminal intensity and an edge of otherwordly luminosity.

Comes in a hand finished cardboard booklet.

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HEAVENSORE "ASMODAI"
1-aurora
2-tabula smaragdina
3-asmodeus

...from Utech Records:
"The forsaken mother has birthed a godhead. A triune declaration of 
intent rich in the beliefs of the Tabula Smaragdina and Solomonic Magic. 
Asmodai/Sammael reigns as the king of impurity spreading his blackened 
sovereignty like so much tar upon the heart of man. And as all things were 
by the contemplation of one; so all things arose from this one thing by 
adaptation.
"There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. 
It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme 
and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; 
or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God."---Aleister Crowley

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HEAVY WINGED “FEEL INSIDE”
1-the frozen darkness (15:38)
2-the tangled white (16:19)
3-the wave crest (12:10)

from archivecd...

Brand new three trax release from Portland/ Brooklyn based unit which comes on the heels of the bands recently re-issue disc, and highly excellent three lobed release “blacc lust”, comes three long playing journeys into psych noise dronedom. I’m not a huge fan of the press release description game where the label goes on to babble and make absurd quotes like “sounds like every band that has sold a shit load of records this past month if you combine sunno))) with your mamma then you know exactly how great this record is”. I’d just like to humbly state to me it comes off like the Bardo Pond brothers recording in the lo-fi high fuzz induced kitchen of the Goslings. All label claims aside listen to the clip!! PACKAGE comes packed in a double cover center opening sleeves with the outer shell being a vellum overlay wonderfully executed graphically by Chasse Middaugh. Single pressing of 600 copies. aRCHIVE RECORDINGS.

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HILD SOFIE TAFJORD: "Kama"
1-kama (41:00)

from PicaDisk...

Finally, the wait is over. KAMA is here. A monumental 41 minute colossal single-track of an album recorded in the period from summer 2006 to february 2007 during dark nights in her studio in Oslo.

KAMA is mostly made from the sound of her french-horn; although if you didn't know it you probably wouldn't have guessed. Layers upon layers of distorted, processed and mangled pieces of sound form a consistent stream of sonic bliss. Within this massive sound-construction slowly shapes build into an epic climax. The title KAMA hits at few interpretations. A quick wikipedia search tells us that KAMA could be a number of things; a double edged dagger, iron pots used in tea ceremonies, and indian for lust (as in kama sutra). Well, who cares what it means when it feels and sounds this good?! Hild Sofie Tafjord's debut album is here, and it has been worth the wait.

SOLD OUT 

HIJOKAIDAN: Polar Nights Live CD
1-hijokaidan - no oslo no harm (26:56)
2-jojo hiroshige & per gisle galåen - book of changes (26:36)
3-junko & sten ove toft - le rayon verte (25:38)


from PicaDisk...

Hijokaidan has since 1979 been one of the leading voices in Japanese noise music. Starting out with a broad line-up of performers, eventually in the course of the 80-ies the Hijokaidan sound became easily identifiable with the shredding guitar-sound of band-leader Jojo Hiroshige and the high-pitched piercing voice of Junko. Few noise acts have such an instantly recognizable (and intense) sound.

Although Hijokaidan's status as noise superstars they rarely perform outside Japan. The pleasure was then ever greater for the All Ears festival in Oslo Norway to present Hijokaidan at their festival in january 2006. Polar Nights Live documents these historical and astonishing performances.

Jojo and Junko performed as a Hijokaidan two-piece on the opening night of the festival, a rarely heard line-up. Their performance got such a tremendous response that they came back for an encore (Otomo Yoshihide, longtime Hijokaidan fan who also performed at the festival, proclaimed "Incredible! Hijokaidan never does encores!"). The second night Jojo collaborated with guitarist Per Gisle Galåen (DEL, The Birds), unleashing thick layers of psychedelic and distorted guitar fog, which fans of of Fushitsusha, Les Rallizes Denudes and Jojo's non-Hijokaidan work will appreciate. The final night saw Junko hooking up with noise-nik Sten Ove Toft (Ryfylke) for a hellish meltdown of twisted electronics and the most intense voice in music.

Unlike most other noise acts Hijokaidan has not spoiled their fans with a huge number of releases, which makes Polar Nights Live an even more unique statement of pure noise sound.

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INCAPACITANTS: Burning Orange Cd
1-incapacitants - orange smoke (28:27)
2-fumio tommikawa - out of schnaps (26:25)


from PicaDisk...

Incapacitants needs no introduction; the duo of Fumio Kosakai and T.Mikawa; veterans and originators of Japanese noise music; cult band number one for noise fanatics worldwide; a band whose infamous status as the best live noise act ever has continued to grow over the years because the duo almost never plays outside of Japan.

In January 2007 Incapacitants performed live, for the second time in Europe in 25 years, at the All Ears festival in Oslo Norway for an overly enthusiastic audience (people from all around Europe had travelled to see their heroes). The band later described the two shows as highlights of their career.

Burning Orange documents these concerts. The CD consists of two complete sets; one Incapacitants as a duo and on the second joined by finnish noise-connoisseur Tommi Keränen (Testicle Hazard) as a trio under the name of Fumio Tommiakawa (a take on Gomikawa Fumio; the trio of Pain Jerk and Incapacitants).

The sound of Incapacitants is described in the liner notes of Burning Orange by Tommi Keränen as "an inspiring, pure, all-encompassing, ecstatic storm of sound that has a power of near-religious proportions – and that alone, without any unnecessary gimmicks". That celebratory ecstasy certainly comes across on Burning Orange, of which Keränen also handled the post-production under the supervision of Mikawa.

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JAMES PLOTKIN "Indirmek" (UTECH RECORDS).
1-afyon
2-amfetamin

recorded:
afyon > nyc > may 26, 2007 > guitar > filter > powerbook.
amfetamin > nyc > october 6, 2006 > pc > powerbook > software.

James Plotkin unveils his second solo release in as many years. Indirmek
presents two distinct facets of his musical work. The first track, Afyon
(opium) lies closest to Plotkin's trademark drift. In essence, a guitar
track stretched to limitless possibility. An elemental fury contained,
dissected and entrusted to a NYC audience for their consideration in the
spring of 2007. Amfetamin (amphetamine) is a second recording from NYC,
performed in the fall of 2006. The track is considerably more immediate.
It's allure can be credited to Plotkin's use of electronics to invoke raw
sound and shape it as he sees necessary to fit a given context. The track
speaks a multitude of languages in succession and simultaneously.

ARC SERIES #4

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JAZKAMER "EAT SHIT"

1-untitled (8:33)
2-untitled (9:06)
3-untitled (8:54)
4-untitled (24:16)
5-untitled (5:22)

"...“tour merch” item by the duo, “eat shit” contains five untitled tracks, housed in a sleevelet designed by the unmistakable dennis tyfus (i.e. ultra eczema)"

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JOSHUA CONVEY "Vacant Integument" (UTECH RECORDS). 
1-jejune
2-oospore
3-shuck
4-idle

joshua convey: guitar, harmonica, electronics.

Vacant Integument is the debut release from NY resident Joshua Convey.
Sharp, spiky overtones rattle four skillfully assembled tracks. Each gritty
frame is lined with a delicate array of guitar, harmonica and electronics.
Quiet drone hums along as melody slowly reveals itself amongst carefully
placed shards of raw feedback and noise. Not since Kaoru Abe or Masayoshi
Urabe has the harmonica been used to such magnificent effect. Vacant
Integument is a singular and resonant work that deserves all manner of
praise.

ARC SERIES #5

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KNELL "last Ten Meters" (UTECH RECORDS)

johannes buff: guitar, unprocessed field recordings, sound sources.

First release from French guitarist Johannes Buff. An attempt to disect the methodology he explores with guitar. Using a single sound source and unprocessed field recordings Knell invoke rich beauty and obsessive melodics. A luminous patina reveals vague, underlying threat. Drone as a catalyst of frequency and time. Nothing to understand through listening, only to gaze.

ARCE SERIES #3

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