Bongo Joe HHV Records 83 Items

Where to place Yīn Yīn on the map ? Maybe somewhere between Netherlands and South-East Asia, on an imaginary tropical island. That’s where they brew a strange cocktail made of disco grooves, powerful “thaï beat” tunes and experimental tropi-synths. After two mind blowing singles on Les Disques Bongo Joe, they’re back with «The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers ». Yīn Yīn passed last months burning scenes and make people dance around Europe, so they’re ready to blow the world with this awaited Sirst album. Made of groovy tunes and danceSloor killers, this album could be the crazy soundtrack of a 60s hippie village on the South China Sea. Due for fall 2019, still on Les Disques Bongo Joe, this twelve songs gem will warm you up during the cold season.

Derya Yildirim and Grup Simsek are back with their third album Dost 2, the second of a two part series following 2021"s highly acclaimed Dost 1. The eight-track release sees Turkish singer, baglama player and multi- instrumentalist Derya Yildirim and her international band of brothers and sisters continue their psychedelic journey, meandering through Anatolian folk music and poetry with their electrifying grooves, while also delving into their own lives and personal experiences.

After the success of Cruise Control repress, Les Disques Bongo Joe are proud to announce the official reissue of Polymood, second album of L"Éclair and maybe their most renowned project for the moment. Recorded live in Amsterdam by the wizard Japser Gelük (Altin Gün, Allah Las, Jacco Gardner, this library-groove-oriented album goes deep into L"Éclair influences back in the days : Piero Piccioni, AIR, Sly Stone or Can.

Introducing the much anticipated 7"" vinyl featuring two standout tracks from Sami Galbi. Face A is "Dakchi Hani," a poignant post-breakup anthem blending raï influences with contemporary rhythms, offering a humorous take on navigating emotions. Face B showcases "Rruina," a powerful follow-up track that delves deeper into darker, club-oriented sounds, pushing the boundaries of Swiss-Moroccan raï-chaabi fusion. Seamlessly transitioning from the raw synths and bouncing rhythms of "Dakchi Hani" to the tension-filled atmosphere of "Rruina," this vinyl promises a captivating journey through Sami Galbi"s musical evolution. With each track tailored for the dancefloors, this vinyl release is poised to explode with energy wherever it goes.

Bongo Joe presents "Club Coco", a summary outernational latin and afro rooted music compilation curated by Coco María.

Damily was born in 1968 in Tongobory, a village surrounded by the great Malagasy river Onilahy. His career as a professional Tsapiky musician began in 1986; he settled in France in 2003, and since then has been developing his international career with his Malagasy musicians. This album is a compilation of his cassettes recorded in Madagascar between 1995 and 2002.

Safari In DLes Disques Bongo Joe are happy to announce the first official repress of L"Éclair acclaimed first album Cruise Control. Almost impossible to find a fair price, this album is the roots of L"Éclair well known poly-groove vibe. Back in the days, the guys were obsessed by afrobeat, funk and psychedelic music. Recorded live by Vincent Hänggi, Cruise Control has a totally unique sound. Witht this, you"ll understand everything you missed about the Geneva based crew! Released originally on Rock This Town, we"re happy to work with directly with L"Éclair to repress this gem. If you already missed it once, don"t sleep this time!

Cansu Ak, Tolga Horasanli and Mehmet Koray Erol came together in 2019 to produce their own music with creating the band "oldu o zaman". Since they gathered as a band, 2 songs written, composed and arranged by them have been released by Avrupa Müzik. After that, the band decided to make their mutual dream which is covering and arranging Turkish traditional well-known folk songs with psychedelic and electronic elements to create a unique sound with their own touch. There was a psychedelic music trend in 70"s used in traditional Anatolian folk songs. Oldu o Zaman rearranged famous tavern song "Sigarasi Yaldizli" and a well known Turkish gipsy song "Mastika" by using this trend in electronic form.

Started as a home-recording project, the Amsterdam-based three piece finds itself on a middle ground between wave-punk and dub merging into gloomy yet upbeat tunes. With "Fixed Position", Housepainters releases their first single on Swiss label Bongo Joe Records.

In response to the current political and ecological turmoil, the famous Malian quintet BKO appeals to the magical spirit of the djinn with Djine Bora (the appearance of the genie). An explosive and mystical third album, embodied by a music of resistance, the fruit of their unique experimentation with Mandingo music and their extraordinary history.

Bongo Joe presents brand new sounds from the cutting-edge of the 21st century Istanbul underground by powerhouse Turkish trio Lalalar. Riding a wave of fierce energy and acclaim generated by their show-stopping festival performances at Le Guess Who and Trans Musicales, they now unleash their hotly-anticipated debut album, "Bi Cinnete Bakar". The brainchild of three of Turkey's most active and innovative alternative artists - Ali Güçlü Simsek, Barlas Tan Özemek and Kaan Düzarat - the album is a thrilling mix of punk energy, dark electronics and Turkish instrumentation and samples.

The two Portuguese-speaking African islands of Sao Tomé & Principe, located in the Gulf of Guinea, created an unique music called Puxa : a refined mixture of various musical components from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. A blend of Semba, Merengue, Kompas, Soukouss, Coladeira patterns, often pushing forward with a voodoo-like energy, solid bass lines, delicate melodies and backing harmonies of the rich Sao Tomean melodic traditions. Very first compilation focusing on the golden age of these island’s sounds, the 16 tracks selected will surely set fire on all dance floors !

Léve-Léve is the first ever compilation devoted to music from São Tome and Principe, two small islands situated off the coast of Gabon in central Africa. The album unravels a story of liberation where the music of Africa, Europe and the Americas unify with a carefree spirit personified by a phrase the islanders use all the time: “léve, léve” (“take it easy”). With echoes of Angolan semba and merengue, of Brazilian afoxê, of coladeira from Cape Verde and dance music from the Caribbean, it is a sound fiercely proud of its island heritage, sung in local dialects and using distinctive local rhythms.

On this record you can hear the cultural and social history of São Tome and Principe, and how live music represented its beating heart. Once known as the “Chocolate Islands” (remarkably, these two tiny islands were the largest cocoa producers in the world, though now this title acts as a reminder of its colonial past), through the years leading up to independence from Portugal, music would be a fundamental voice of liberation and conviviality. Os Úntués were one of the first groups to make an impression, releasing a couple of 7 inches in Angola – the litmus test of success for any of the islands’ groups. They united unique rhythms and dances like socopé, puita and dança-congo – borne from the islands’ largely slave-descendant population – with the sound of pop music beamed in on the radio from Europe, even adding in a little bit of soukous and Brazilian instrumentation. Their main rivals were Conjunto Mindelo, who fused São Toméan rhythms with rebita, an Angolan style, to create high energy puxa, a truly original island rhythm.

From the mid-1970s, coinciding with independence from Portugal in 1975, the islands’ groups featured an even stronger African influence and nowhere was that more apparent than with Africa Negra. They would listen to the latest records from Gabon, Zaire and Cameroon, taking inspiration and trying out phrasing from the greats of Central African guitar playing, developing a devoted fan base off the islands, as well as on. A score of other bands would follow a similar musical path, with a few getting their dues overseas in Angola, Cape Verde, Portugal and across Africa.

Os Leonenses (led by the iconic Pedro Lima), Conjunto Sangazuza, Sum Alvarinho and Conjunto Ecuador were just some of the other bands that formed a lively home-grown music scene that lit up the islands’ bars and open-air shows from the 1950s through to the mid-90s. Regardless of class or age, they were responsible for keeping the population entertained come the weekend, with Sunday matinee shows the highlight of the week, the music not stopping from midday until midnight.

As a Portuguese island colony that was for many years populated with slaves brought from Africa, São Tome and Principe has much in common with other Lusophone countries and boasts a richly complex and idiosyncratic musical DNA. Whilst the musical tapestries of Angola and Cape Verde are well known, São Tome and Principe’s secrets were assigned to the islanders themselves. Until now.

Transcendentally beautiful, The Space Lady's music is returning to Earth. Transmitting messages of peace and harmony, The Space Lady began her odyssey on the streets of Boston in the late 70s, then San Francisco ten years later, playing versions of contemporary pop music with an accordion and dressed flamboyantly. Following the theft and destruction of her accordion , The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, complete with a phase shifter and headset mic, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its leading exponents ever since.

Having toured successfully all around the world with her greatest 90s hits record, she felt it was time to record new songs... and so she did!

❝ J'aime écrire de la musique de chambre et des chorales, et particulièrement de la musique pour orchestres. Mais il n'est pas toujours simple de voir ces dernières jouées, l'orgue devient alors le meilleur moyen de donner au compositeur de vastes ressources ❞, écrivait Moondog en 1978 pour accompagner l’album Selected Works – confidentiel cousin américain de Moondog in Europe le premier disque enregistré en Allemagne.

Avec New Sound l’Ensemble Minisym fait le chemin inverse, emportant les pièces pour orgue(s) qui constituent l’album A New Sound of an Old Instrument (1979) – ainsi que des pièces composées en Europe durant cette même période – vers une instrumentation nouvelle et singulière. Le travail de l’Ensemble se base alors sur une grande connaissance de l’univers de Moondog qui a lui-même – et tout au long de sa vie – régulièrement donné de nouvelles couleurs à de mêmes compositions en changeant leurs instrumentations. Ce qui est d’ailleurs particulièrement manifeste au sein de l’album A New Sound of an Old Instrument dont la première face est constituée de pièces essentiellement composées aux milieu du tumulte des rues de New-York et marquée par une incroyable science du métissage (« Oasis », « Single Foot ») quand la seconde fait la part belle à de nouvelles compositions inspirées par ce sol européen que Moondog foule depuis peu et de manière désormais définitive (« Barn Dance », « Elf Dance », « Log in B »).
Empruntant des chemins de traverses les musiciens de Minisym déchiffrent par ailleurs des pièces jusque là inédites, parfois jamais jouées ni-même enregistrées par Moondog (« Logrundr in a », « Ground in d minor », « Marche Funèbre (Vercingétorix) », « Shneeflocken »).
Loin des académismes, c’est un monde que l’on rencontre ici, à l’ombre des instruments aussi rares que chers à Moondog. Ce disque, fruit d’un travail au long cours permet un souffle aussi fidèle qu’iconoclaste sur la musique d'un compositeur qui a passé sa vie entière à échafauder une oeuvre d'une naïveté toute particulière.

Following several cassette releases and a remarkable debut 7" on Lux Records, Geneva-based duo Bound By Endogamy delivers a heavy blend of rave, synth-punk, and industrial music. The self-titled album combines raw, growling basslines, crisp analog rhythms, and passionate vocals ranging from breathy to fiercely cutting.

The next 7inch release from Bongo Joe. This one is from Collignon which comprises Yves Lennertz on guitar (and bass), Gino Bombrini on drums (and percussion) and Jori Collignon on the keyboards (and taking care of the production). The three friends have been making music together for some time, collaborating in different groups and settings, Jori and Gino as part of the band SKIP&DIE, Gino as a producer for Yves" former group, YIN YIN.

Ndox Electrique results from the collaboration between François R. Cambuzat, Gianna Greco (also known for their work with Ifriqiyya Electrique), and the n"doëp community in Senegal. The project originated from the duo"s quest to trace the origins of North African rituals, which led them to the Lebu community in Cap-Vert, an isolated region at Africa"s westernmost point.

Armed with a thrift-store synth, bizarre wit and arresting vocals, the intergenerational, all-female micro-choir Alice release their second album L"Oiseau magnifique. Hailing from Geneva, Alice"s music subverts French and Occitan folk music to create a playful and poignant blend of intricate harmony and storytelling lyricism - a unique sound that is deep yet deceptively minimal.

La Tène"s boundary-blurring fragmentation of traditional music is a propulsive and pulsating trip drawing upon Terry Riley and the minimalist masters. La Tène named themselves in reference to a cultural period spanning a few centuries of the late Iron Age, first defined in the mid-19th century after a flurry of archaeological discoveries near a Swiss lake. That"s not a superficial hat tip, either. La Tène"s long, hypnotic, wordless pieces are built from traditional folk instrumentation, wild percussion and blurred, subtle electronic embellishments, and feel as ancient and earthy as those millennia-old artefacts - with all the metal, wood, dedication, and craftsmanship they entailed. Ecorcha / Taillée, their fourth release and third for Geneva"s Bongo Joe label, is the sound of three musicians playing together as intuitively as if hooked up to a central, pulsating brain.

Following on from the first edition released earlier this year, Les Disques Bongo Joe are pleased to announce "Ayiti Kongo Dub Ep#2" by Chouk Bwa & The Ângströmers. Following on from 2020s acclaimed album Vodou Ale, Chouk Bwa turn up the heat for this exhilarating trip into their bush of ghosts by introducing a new stripped down line-up to fire up the dance floor, based exclusively on the drums and rhythms of the Haitian kongo rite and deep electronic dub expansions by their trusted Belgian counterparts The Ângströmers. As Afro-Caribbean polyrhythms meet bass-weight dub electronics, the two part EP has documented the group experimenting with a stripped back form which focuses on the dimension of trance. Opening with a cermonial chant and designed to enduce dancefloor delirium, the first track taken from the EP is the raw, high-octane, primordial techno of "Zemedo".

With his third album, The Big Swim, due out in December 2022 on Bongo Joe records, Augenwasser ventures once again into the paths of synth wave exploration with a pop feel. Still laced with the folk textures of his early days, he nevertheless develops a dance approach that can at times be akin to melancholic drone. His music takes you to an imaginary, dark club, lulled by a haunting rhythm, surrounded by the fumes of the night, where it is possible to indulge in that quiet voice that has already confessed that it is too late but will never stop repeating its soft, cold poetry:

Toxic Kisses The rave next door won’t quit. It’s 5 in the morning, but the kids in the garage want just one more song: Toxic Kisses. An upbeat, poetic, pep-rally bop that serves a catchy reminder to give love to your friends today, so you don’t lose them to hate tomorrow

Wartime The churning robotic bass synth and hypnotic polyrhythms of Wartime evoke the trance-like states we find ourselves in daily. Reject the war industry we’ve been thrust into with dance as your revolution.

Brother and sister, Citron Citron is the new revelation of the Geneva underground scene! "Chagrin Bleu" explores the melancholy of the night and the joy of a flight under the sun. Songs with transcendent refrains, and synthetic laments with romantic melodies, carried by groove box-like rhythms.

Bukaroo Bank is actually Mauskovic’s second album. There, the band reinvents both their approach and their sound, while maintaining the rhythm-forward euphoria heard on their debut album and surrounding singles. It is one of those albums that sounds brashly live, like you’re in the room while the jams are being kicked out, but in fact uses the studio very shrewdly.

Recorded in 2020, during one of the Netherlands’ intermittent lockdown bouts, for this one the MDB wanted to step up from their previous homebase, Garage Noord – an ad hoc Amsterdam space for recording, practise and after-hours parties. They chose Electric Monkey, operated by engineer Kasper Frenkel. His stacks of what Nicola calls “very strange equipment”, and ability to sprinkle magic dub dust over everything, suited the vibe perfectly. The results glow and shiver with assembled synth sounds, rhythms spliced and echoed in a way that hails late Jamaican dub great Lee Perry – maybe the band’s biggest influence.

Some sections might remind you of Afro-disco or slightly older highlife, others industrial prototypes like early Cabaret Voltaire, or 1980s On-U Sound mainstays like African Head Charge, or NYC groovers such as Liquid Liquid... there are outbreaks of saxophone, congas, echo units, wah-wah disco guitars, beats that sound programmed but aren’t (a nod to MDB’s industrial side). If that sounds fun to you, be assured that Bukaroo Bank is an irrepressibly fun album – but one that contains multitudes.

Pedro Lima was certainly the most iconic singer from Sao Tomé Island. Born in 1944, his career began at teenage, with his faithful band Os Leonenses, who were mostly members of his family and shared most of his musical life; and lasted until his death on January 31st, 2019. Until the very end, he kept performing big events all around the country, and was among the very few singers and bands from Sao Tomé & Principe that recorded in Luanda Angola for N'Gola and Merengue labels in the 70's, and in Lisbon for the essential Iefe imprint in the 80's. Respected father of 27 children from 4 different wives, people named him "A voz do povo de Sao Tomé", the people's voice of the island, as he always made very clear his political views on internal affairs and backed since day one the revolutionary party that took power after the independence obtained from Portugal on July 12th 1975. A powerful and free soul, expressing through his beautifully soft and deep voice range, the concerns of the poor, in this often-troubled country.

Really cool dubbed out electronics meet Haitian folk rhythms. This is a precursor to a new album next year and follows from their Vodou Alé album released in 2020.

With a tour schedule to make even the most hard working of musicians blush, Madalitso Band have taken their exuberant, Malawian folk music from the streets of Lilongwe to thrilling audiences across Europe and are now are gearing up to release their third album Musakayike via the acclaimed Swiss imprint Bongo Joe Madalisto Band return this summer with a packed tour schedule and a brand new album Musakayike. Recorded in Malawi in November of last year, the duo, along with their "accidental manager" Neil Nayar, headed into the studio with a cleareridea of how to to capture that Madalisto Band sound without losing any of their groove and infectious energy. After all, this is music to make you clap, dance and smile.

Continuing our work on Sao Tomé and Principe with curator DJ Tom B., we are pleased to announce the release of an anthology of the group África Negra.

This first volume includes 12 of their key tracks, remastered for the occasion and selected only from those officially released on different media. The album is accompanied by a booklet with the original covers and interviews with the band members still with us. A second volume containing only unreleased material, digitized from the studio tapes by their tour manager, and filled with period photos, is expected soon.

Formed in the early 1970s by Horacio, a butcher by trade, and his guitarist friend Emidio Pontes, África Negra is the best known of the great São Tomé and Principe bands. The catchy melodies in the local Forro language, provided by lead singer João Seria, and subtly harmonized by the enchanting backing vocals of the rest of the band, quickly ensured their influence outside the archipelago. Their incomparable blend of Puxa and Rumba rhythms and subtle melodies made them the most regular touring band from Sao Tome.

Their first album (Aninha) was released in 1981, followed by three more in 1983. They contain an incredible collection of timeless hits and have achieved high ratings on the second-hand market. Then came the excellent San Lena in 1986, which was unfortunately only released on cassette, but for which we were able to digitize the original tape. In 1990 their last album in vinyl format (Paga me uma cerveja) was released, the rarest. Three CDs and five cassettes followed in the 1990s. Like most São Tomean bands, they recorded their compositions at Radio Nacional STP, the only studio on the island at the time, whose cramped premises forced the big bands to do sessions outside in the courtyard, at night, facing the ocean and in front of their fans.

Reformed around João Seria, the band has recorded three albums since 2012, and has been touring again for a few years, offering, always with the same energy, their frenzied rhythms, their graceful harmonies, their poetry full of social metaphors, and their typical dance steps.

Chance, is the second album of Société Étrange, composed of 6 love songs without words, with equivocal rhythms, glaucous turquoise bass and melodies affectionately tinged with melancholy. The album was recorded in July 2020 in Vaulx-en-Velin from a collection of materials and collective drift. Composed in studio, it is by the live that is shaped their pieces, several years to test them together so that these three musicians let us glimpse a possible civilization. Not fantasies that cannot be apprehended, but a future that we can hope to desire. Their hypnotic compositions, drunk with dub, iron harmonics and polymetric measures, play a music that is a bit shady, one of those that provoke the space for the dance to happen, without anesthesia. Société Étrange was formed in 2012 by Antoine Bellini (Electronics) and Romain Hervault (Bass), joined in 2015 by Jonathan Grandcollot (Percussions) after the release of their first album "Au revoir"

Paz en La Tierra is a result of a search by the Meridian Brothers & Conjunto Media Luna of the heart of something that can be called a 'power format' of Colombian Caribbean music; Accordion, Guacharaca, Caja, Congas, Electric bass, and vocals.

Departing from this idea, and casually working with the music of a documentary on the famous singer Diomedes Diaz, Iván Medellín (accordionist of Conjunto media luna), and Eblis Álvarez from the Meridian Brothers, embarked on a new work building a sound exclusively on the traditional format, searching for several spaces between the lines in the universe of accordion in Colombian music.

The duo departed from the basic: the line of vallenato, the most famous in the country but not the only one, the line of sabanero music more of the lands of Sucre and Córdoba inclined towards cumbia, bullerengue, son vallenato among other airs fed the group's ideas. The Barranquilla center deserves a separate mention, due to its cosmopolitan approach, using all kinds of influences, from the Caribbean islands to ancient rhythms or even modern rock and funk, also used as an inspiration for this record.

In the process, new ways of melody appeared and new ways of expression emerged. Although the rhythms used in the record are rooted in the traditional, the duo glitched those rhythms turning them into new directions in the style, using exclusively the past references to transmute the sound into something that looks inside a parallel future.

Using several theatrical situations, alterations in musical structures, and slight deformations of the traditional harmony (a tonal center and its dominant) the result of "Paz en la Tierra" is enigmatic and charming, and at the same time directed towards the dance floor keeping the past alive and flourishing the essence of the tradition.

A band as kinetic as L’Eclair cannot stay idle. So when the pandemic hit, they stayed true to form and began recording a new album. With their former records usually recorded in a few days, live to tape, they took a decidedly different approach with this LP. Recorded in four sessions spread out over nine months, the group and their trusted engineer (and manager) Benoit Erard were able to spend more time, energy, and consideration on the production. This new approach gave them the ability to reflect and revise, allowing them to focus more on composition, arrangements and structures. The result is their fourth album Confusions: a sprawling hour-long, 12 track record- their most diverse, concise, and focused effort to date.

Confusions finds L’Eclair finding themselves, having distilled their mastery of groove and rhythm down to a science. Club vibes, psych grooves, rhythmic trances, and ambient comedowns are all present in equal measure, while maintaining a cohesive and consistent flavor throughout. Confusions is both expertly crafted and joyfully spontaneous, danceable yet ethereal, emotive yet cerebral. The shifting moods and melodies imbue the album with a depth that demands repeat listens.

Their influences are on full display here, with nods to CAN, Piero Umiliani, and Tangerine Dream- seamlessly blended with the unique sound L’Eclair has established over the years. New influences are also apparent, such as the house grooves of 80’s Madchester and Aphex twin, as well as the textures and ambience of Boards of Canada. As with past L’Eclair releases, Confusions is sure to attract some fans of hip-hop, recalling the likes of producers Madlib, MF doom, and Dilla. The ever-present dub and house influences bubble up here and there but despite the many inspirations behind Confusions, the sound is pure L’Eclair.

Augenwasser represents the alter ego of multi-instrumentalist Elias Raschle from Biel. The project was born in 2014 with a first 7“ record produced by La Suisse Primitive and a self-produced cassette entitled 'Fireworks', under Augenwasser's own label Hot Dogma.

In December 2015, Augenwasser's first album 'Drones & Love Songs' was released on Bongo Joe Records. Intimate compositions, solitary writings and raw melodies come together to create a personal and genuine project. He recorded it solo in the secrecy of his home studio. However, Elias Raschle asks for reinforcements for his stage shows. Trustworthy musicians agree to jump on board with him: Elias Gamma (Martin Savage Gang / ex-GOU, Shady & the Vamp), Juliette Rosset (zayk), Levent Pinarci (ex-GOU, Levent, Uht). Amongst others, the group performs at the notorious Bad Bonn Kilbi Festival, and also tours abroad: Belgium, Greece, United Kingdom, France.

After joining forces with the American musician Kelley Stoltz in 2017, the duo gives birth to a collaborative album that got released on the 'Transnational Serie' by the label La Suisse Primitive. On stage, Augenwasser becomes a solitary project. Elias Raschle now performs alone on the guitar for a more intimate experience. In 2018, he produces a collection of recordings entitled “The Last Campfire Smokeout“, that he put out on Soundcloud and Bandcamp. For his upcoming project, Elias immersed himself in the composition of 'Sleepdancer', to be released in 2020 on Les Disques Bongo Joe.

Augenwasser represents the alter ego of multi-instrumentalist Elias Raschle from Biel. The project was born in 2014 with a first 7“ record produced by La Suisse Primitive and a self-produced cassette entitled 'Fireworks', under Augenwasser's own label Hot Dogma.

In December 2015, Augenwasser's first album 'Drones & Love Songs' was released on Bongo Joe Records. Intimate compositions, solitary writings and raw melodies come together to create a personal and genuine project. He recorded it solo in the secrecy of his home studio. However, Elias Raschle asks for reinforcements for his stage shows. Trustworthy musicians agree to jump on board with him: Elias Gamma (Martin Savage Gang / ex-GOU, Shady & the Vamp), Juliette Rosset (zayk), Levent Pinarci (ex-GOU, Levent, Uht). Amongst others, the group performs at the notorious Bad Bonn Kilbi Festival, and also tours abroad: Belgium, Greece, United Kingdom, France.

After joining forces with the American musician Kelley Stoltz in 2017, the duo gives birth to a collaborative album that got released on the 'Transnational Serie' by the label La Suisse Primitive. On stage, Augenwasser becomes a solitary project. Elias Raschle now performs alone on the guitar for a more intimate experience. In 2018, he produces a collection of recordings entitled “The Last Campfire Smokeout“, that he put out on Soundcloud and Bandcamp. For his upcoming project, Elias immersed himself in the composition of 'Sleepdancer', to be released in 2020 on Les Disques Bongo Joe.

Recorded between Lausanne and Brussels during summer 2019, this new series of songs by Meril Wubslin dig deeper into this tribal, rustic and minimal tendency that they had in the two previous albums. It is the desire to search for sounds, to manipulate matter: sound matter, rhythmic matter, to knead it to its hottest point, that guided the work of composition. All vintage guitars were recorded without amps. Tambourines and other maracas were approached as a drum kit. But the harmonies and melodies are still present and sometimes event enhanced by the occasional participation of a choir of female voices or a minimal synth line. Always with this desire to use French, their mother tongue, while trying to avoid the trap of « variété française ».

With this new album, we wanted to try something slightly different with the sound. Explore new ways to record our instruments and voices. Thus we decided to put away the amplifiers that we used for rockier moods. And we tried the acoustic option. We were surprised by the wide range of possibilities, much more direct and much more emotional actually. About the texts, we still insist on this open way of writing, a mixture of abstract and concrete which offers several understandings. With this liberty in the structure, we avoid the predominance of the message, to go towards a more sensitive and open meaning.

Recorded between Lausanne and Brussels during summer 2019, this new series of songs by Meril Wubslin dig deeper into this tribal, rustic and minimal tendency that they had in the two previous albums. It is the desire to search for sounds, to manipulate matter: sound matter, rhythmic matter, to knead it to its hottest point, that guided the work of composition. All vintage guitars were recorded without amps. Tambourines and other maracas were approached as a drum kit. But the harmonies and melodies are still present and sometimes event enhanced by the occasional participation of a choir of female voices or a minimal synth line. Always with this desire to use French, their mother tongue, while trying to avoid the trap of « variété française ».

With this new album, we wanted to try something slightly different with the sound. Explore new ways to record our instruments and voices. Thus we decided to put away the amplifiers that we used for rockier moods. And we tried the acoustic option. We were surprised by the wide range of possibilities, much more direct and much more emotional actually. About the texts, we still insist on this open way of writing, a mixture of abstract and concrete which offers several understandings. With this liberty in the structure, we avoid the predominance of the message, to go towards a more sensitive and open meaning.

Following “La Contra Ola” (bjr015), Bongo Joe is pleased to present LA OLA Interior, a compilation exploring the ambient side of the Spanish electronic music produced in the ’80s. It gathers musicians from various horizons and of many generations, who shared the desire to create an immersive soundscape and to combine electronic music with non-Western musical traditions. As a general rule, the Anglo-Saxon tropism did relate the Spanish peninsula’s ambient music to the Balearic Sound, that is to say to the relaxing music played in Ibiza’s nightclubs. But this music takes place in the productive territory of experimental musics, and particularly in its two main breeding grounds: the tape recording underground and the independent musicians-producers scene.

Inseparable from the processes of self-publishing, distribution and exchange of music that were then taking place in Spain in an artisanal way, the vast underground movement of cassettes was divided between an 'ethno-trance' combining industrial beats and oriental sounds on the one hand (Esplendor Geométrico, Miguel A. Ruiz / Orfeón Gagarin) and unclassifiable low-fi tinkerers on the other hand (Camino al desván, Eli Gras, Mataparda, Victor Nubla). Hyperactive, this scene is radical and strongly dominated by the hardest musical styles, but the ambient, influenced by the German Kosmische Musik and 'krautrock', also develops here.

The second vein of Spanish ambient comes from some of the independent labels of the peninsula (dro, Gasa, El Cometa de Madrid, Egk) whose activity will mark the return of some of the most adventurous musicians-producers of the 70s. Some were influenced by American minimalism (Luis Delgado / Mecánica Popular, Suso Saiz, Javier Segura), others by Fourth-World Music conceived by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno (Finis Africae, Jabir). Having passed through folk, ancient, traditional or contemporary music, and being familiar with improvisation and studio techniques, these artists come from a mutant hippie culture, capable of phagocyting many musical styles from electronic ambient to ethnic improvisation and modal jazz.

These two scenes and generations that makeup LA OLA Interior intersect around a common interest in non-Western musical traditions. Their exploration may be that of the tribal origins of electronic rhythms or the Arab heritage of Spain. Above all, it is a dreamy exoticism, an immobile journey as the sounds, rhythms or instruments of these traditions are scrutinized by Western practices (avant-garde music, electronic technology). The result is a hybrid music, filtered and reinvented, neither Western nor extra-Western, with a pronounced taste for the fusion of opposites, which we have called 'Acid Exoticism' because of its permanent search for trance or contemplation. Atmospheric, contemplative and serial, these musics still plunge us today into a sensorial journey, at the same time interior and distant, organic and technological, between exotic reminiscences and interior visions.

LA OLA Interior brings together 20 little-known and innovative pieces from the golden age of Spanish electronic music.