Flexidisc.

Inspired by Guy Debord, the detournement of the 1990 album City: Works Of Fiction, assembled twenty-four years later by Hassell, from alternate takes, demos and studio jams, in the same spirit of hip-hop-inspired, dubwise future-funk.
First time on vinyl.

A September 1989 performance at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City, with Brian Eno mixing live.
‘During this period Hassell was inspired by the increasingly innovative production techniques being used in hip-hop, in particular the hyper-collaged sampledelic barrage of the Bomb Squad’s work with Public Enemy, hearing it as a kind of extension of the tape splicing that Teo Macero brought to his work with Miles Davis. He began to incorporate more of this aesthetic into his own music, playing over loops of his own performances and riffing on angular juxtapositions of noise, rhythm and melody.’
First time on vinyl.

Melodic, fragile, enchanting music for the trippy Juliette Greco film, plus rare bits and bobs. ‘Layered, looped vocals, gossamer female voices, plucked strings, white noise wind, brooding treated piano.’

Ravishing jazz and electronics from the same stumbling, giddy reaches as La Monte Young and Terry Riley, recorded in Texas in 1981 on multi-tracked organ and synths (with tape loops of birds and wind-chimes), and acoustic guitar.
‘My music is designed to enhance deep meditative, or altered states, to allow the listener to personally connect to the Creator of All that exists in the Universe. My music style is to first create a foundation using cyclic, polyrhythmic music, then build several layers of improvised leads and rhythms that allows you to transcend time and space… We have Memories of Past Lives that reverberate in our hearts like Echoes From Ancient Caves.’

Recorded by Jean Michel Jarre in 1972, during his work experience at G.R.M. (Groupe de Recherches Musicales), for a commission to provide sound for public spaces like airports and libraries. Fifteen tracks made with only two synthesizers (EMS VCS3 & Farfisa organ) in an experimental and very minimal style.
‘It was a crazy album, totally homemade, with rhythms that I made in my student room, with a minimum of equipment and at the same time electronic sounds that I stole from the GRM where I went at night after stealing the keys to the studios. It is a pirate record, in every sense of the word, in which we find what I did afterwards.’

The first time out for these amazing recordings, meticulously restored and presented by the Institut for Dansk Lydarkæologi. The 24-page booklet is richly illustrated by Viktor’s marvellous photography, besides extensive, absorbing notes.
‘After studying painting in Copenhagen, in 1961 Knud Viktor moved into some dilapidated 14th century limestone buildings on the slopes of the Luberon mountain in Provence in 1961. He describes being disrupted in his painting by the thousands of cicadae demanding his attention. “They settled on your body, on the walls of houses, everywhere. Cicadas everywhere.” Their sound mirrored the sunlight: when a cloud passed before the sun they would stop sounding or change their rhythm. Their sounds led him to experiment with field recordings.
‘Often untreated and clearly recognizable, these recordings leave the inherent melody and rhythm of the animal sounds to sing for themselves, layering recordings to create simple and elegant sound images. In two of the twenty pieces Viktor’s own voice blends with the animals, as he recites two poems. One about the singing vineyard populated by musical crickets, the other painting an autumn picture with wine bubbling in the barrels as we hear the wine flies humming.’

Recordings of an owls nest throughout a nesting season in the spring and summer of 1978, with Viktor himself telling the story of an owl family. Originally planned to fit on a 7” record, but never released till now. The booklet includes Danish and English translations of the original French narration, illustrated with a series of Viktor’s own photographs of the owls.

‘Swooping, sub-heavy sci-fi from Riz Maslen, under a new moniker.
‘Heavy-lidded and ethereal, its balance of bass weight, mechanical metre, and darkly tinted new age feels like a cinematic re-approach to some of the textures, moods, and themes of her 1996 Laundrophonic maxi, under the alias Neotropic.
‘Stairway 13 folds in decades of experience in sound design and theatre, along with shards and elements abstracted from Riz’ more recent folk-like music, zoning into a deep, retreated, altogether dreamlike and expansive atmosphere. The scale and soundscape is reminiscent of Geinoh Yamashirogumi and their Ecophony album series, resonating to similar frequencies and exploring themes of chaos and rebirth in feature-length form.
‘The four parts spread and swoop as single extended sides across this double LP. Carried by waves of sub bass and heavenly chorus, and later punctuated with autonomic clicks of machinery, whirrs, and pulses, the work forms a gothic, otherworldly ambience. A subtle space opera.’

Notorious, seminal electropunk from 1981 — Beate Bartel from Einstürzende Neubauten and Chrislo ‘DAF’ Haas, with vocalist Krishna Goineau — which coursed into Chicago house and Detroit techno. Undiminished; still vital.

Startling, exhilarating concrete music by this experimental Canadian film-maker, beloved of Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas. (A homage to him is embedded in Star Wars.)

Three rare recordings by this pioneer of early Danish electronic music — compelling, often dazzling, but focussed and without bombast.
‘Electronic Music was originally released in 1987 as a retrospective album, collecting three of Bent Lorentzen’s electronic works from the 70s. These clearly demonstrate Lorentzen’s close familiarity with his equipment and his great technical proficiency regarding the creation and manipulation of all sorts of electronic and recorded acoustic sounds — typically in the form of speed changes, reversed sounds, and reverb and filter effects. The music is often quite dramatic with distinct narratives and multiple dynamic layers of sound, but still with a clear sense of disposition and restraint, possibly stemming from Lorentzen’s experience with classical instrumentation and orchestration.’
Fastidiously prepared and stylishly presented by IDL, as per.

“In the beginning of the pandemic we decided to take a turn and move to a small beach close to São Paulo, right in the middle of the rain forest… water definitely took a major role in our lives. We were living right in between the ocean and a waterfall, it´d rain for days on a roll sometimes and it was an open house where we had the sound of rain 360 degrees around us… I kinda think our music has a little of those different dynamics of water in its different states. Also, it might seem strange but São Paulo is a city in the water too, and it has a very chaotic relationship with it.”

‘The music itself is difficult to pin down: always kinetic and driven by fluid, nimble percussion, with a freeness to the sound overall, but also discipline, as the pair harness and channel the elemental force from which they’ve drawn their inspiration. At times the lines between Takara’s skittish percussion and Boregas’ idiosyncratic synth work and sound manipulation blur into flowing rivers or torrents of sound — here, both water and sound have the ability to awaken in us different memories, and emotional or physical states.
‘We could say say their sound contains clear influences from jazz, classic dub, krautrock, and the outer limits of post-punk. Contemporary allies include Holy Tongue, Shackleton, Oren Ambarchi…’

The 35th Anniversary Edition of the Ash Ra guitarist’s early-eighties guitars-and-electronics breakthrough, with the original embossing to the cover.
A real game-changer: a momentous influence on Basic Channel, Carl Craig and so many others.
Perfect for zoning out.
It’s a must.