2020s Preorder 359 Items

Switching seaside ambience for a sound shaped by inner-city living, Atelier’s second full-length studio album, Lights
Towards The Exit, channels the mood of a sleepless cityscape.
Lights Towards The Exit is Atelier’s second full-length studio album. After the release of Varsam Court at the end of
2019 on Lossless, run by mentors and friends Mathias Schober and Thomas Herb, the duo experimented with different
ideas in the studio, and at the start of 2020 a common thread began to appear between a few of the tracks which laid
the foundation for the sound of their second album.
Both Alexander and Jas moved to Berlin in the period before the release of Varsam Court from their hometown of Cape
Town, South Africa, where their first album was written and recorded. Moving provided some challenges, particularly
with what was the most essential equipment to bring from their previous studio set-up, but those limitations proved to
be useful in incorporating new instruments and techniques to the recording process.
Lights Towards The Exit was written and recorded in different spaces in Berlin – from bedrooms in apartment blocks to
three different studios across the city. The different locations all had a specific ambience – such as 4th- and 5th-floor
bedrooms with busy street views; a studio with no windows in a typical old Berlin backyard complex forever under
threat of being sold and gentrified; and a bigger studio with windows on the opposite side of the corridor overlooking the
backyard of a mechanic workshop. The final details and edits were completed in Atelier’s current studio, in a
contrasting area surrounded by office blocks, plazas, 9-5ers and, most importantly, their friends and colleagues.
Swapping the mountains, sea and seclusion for tall buildings, backyards and a new community, Lights Towards The
Exit channels the sensation of being surrounded by people, but still feeling like you're on your own. The album was
written through three years of cold winters, sweaty summers and a period where the world stood still during the
pandemic. Frustrated with the cease of momentum, but still optimistic, Atelier disappeared from public view,
abandoning social media to focus on recording, songwriting and experimentation.
It was a difficult time: the duo longed to perform and continue producing music, and the imposed limitations sometimes
felt like an impossible obstacle. Ultimately, though, this would provide unexpected inspiration and influence the sound
and direction of the new album.
The sound of Lights Towards The Exit is not a departure from their first album, but a progression: influenced by the new
surroundings in the duo’s adoptive city, Atelier’s second album is an ode to first-time experiences, new languages,
challenges, club culture and the shift from youth to maturity, as well as a balm to those stuck somewhere in between.
The overall sound is a lift not in tempo, but in energy, matching the openness needed to make a new start in a new
place.

All tracks written, produced, arranged and performed by Atelier - Jás Miszewski & Alexander Inggs
Mastered by Mathias Schober, Artwork by David Kochs , Cover Photography by Alexander Inggs
A&R: Mathias Schober & Thomas Herb

Ortrotasce comes to Dark Entries with Dispatches From Solitude, their latest LP. For over a decade, Nic Hamersly has been using the Ortotrasce (pronounced: or-tro-task) moniker to unleash brooding-yet-propulsive darkwave anthems upon the world. Hamersly’s work explores the intersection between industrial and synth pop, drawing a line from the sounds of the past to the present. Recorded during the Covid and post-Covid era, Dispatches from Solitude brings 8 tracks of tightly wrought synth-pop exploring grief, romance, and our strange world - which just keeps getting stranger. The cover art was designed by Hamersly, and the record includes a postcard with notes. Dispatches From Solitude will thrill fans of classic industrial-laced wave bands like Hard Corps, Fad Gadget, and SPK

First Dabeull's proper album of his career after several key releases - Intimate Fonk, Fonk Delight or the sought-after compilation InDaStudio.

For Dabeull, analog production is his favorite playground as showing his upcoming 9-track album, "Analog Love" (out on April 12th 2024) was recorded using Michael Jackson's Thriller console - 100% analog.

Glim Spanky, a male-female rock unit consisting of Remi Matsuo and Hiroki Kamemoto, is releasing two popular songs released in 2021 as limited 7".

Swedish songwriter and multi-instrumentalist FredAtlast has announced his debut EP 'Banner Of A Lost Belief' to be released on Small Matter Records. Fred, currently better known for his day job as the bassist in Little Dragon, describes lead single 'One Day' as 'A meditation on impermanence and our way of dealing with loss. A plea to our nearest to be: nearer, dearer and more daring'. The EP was written in Fred's kitchen under the spiritual guidance of the late author Sven Lindqvist and has been his way of finding a direct voice, embracing a new sound and diving into the deep well. It was recorded in the Little Dragon studio in Gothenburg with help and support from the rest of the band who feature in different ways on the EP.

2LP black, 180g, printed jackets w/ printed inner sleeves,
40 page booklet,
folded 24”x 36” poster,
in a slipcase