Dark Entries HHV Records 111 Items

Sunfear, the project of Istanbul-based multidisciplinary artist Eylül Deniz, debuts on Dark Entries with Octopus. Since 2017, Deniz has been working as a composer, performer, and DJ, with a focus on different facets of ambient, jazz, and experimental music. Deniz is deeply steeped in both music theory and history. She explores electroacoustic techniques, utilizing piano, guitar, voice, and synthesizer. These are her tools for self-expression, the means to tell her story to the world. Octopus is a rumination on loneliness, memory, and Deniz’s childhood fondness for aquatic creatures. The ten songs on the album are static and turbulent, mournful and optimistic, grounded and otherworldly. A field recording of a gently flowing stream undergirds instrumental album opener “Dokun”. The stream begins by soothing us, but as tension builds throughout the song, its presence becomes unstable, uncanny. On “I Don’t Know Why I’m Crying”, a repeating motif serves as the canvas for Deniz’s majestic, reverberant voice. While the source of sorrow remains unknowable, her catharsis is pure and real. The penultimate track, “Octopus”, breaks into an unexpected trip hop-esque beat, which only enriches the album’s introspective terroir. With Octopus, Deniz gently guides the listener to places unknown. All songs on Octopus were mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The sleeve, designed by Eloise Leigh, features a manipulated photograph taken by Deniz, which contrasts textures and colors in a non-representational fashion. Also included is an 11 x 11 insert with lyrics and a photo.

The label is of the New Age Transmission out of the New Age Box Set 1982-84 Cat# DE 250. All records of the first press have been labeled wrong.

Suzanne Doucet was born in Tuebingen, Germany where as a three year old, Doucet discovered her innate artistic gifts. Instinctively, she was always drawing, playing music, singing, and writing. By the age of 18, Suzanne was an established pop star in Germany with several #1 hits. She also made her mark as a composer, actress, TV moderator, director, engineer, and producer. At age 25. she took a sabbatical from the music business to go on a spiritual odyssey. In 1970 she released a triple album of field recordings and mind-expanding psychedelia under the name Zweistein. For the next ten years, she developed her own style of New Age music while exploring many areas of metaphysics and spiritual practices, including astrology, music therapy, tarot, yoga and the Kabbalah.

In 1979, Doucet launched a record label in West Germany named Isis, after the Egyptian goddess of feminine divinity. She formed the duo New Age with her musical partner Christian Bühner, and released the 1982 cassette album ‘Transformation’, which was inspired by a visit to Findhorn, Scottland. Suzanne and Christian recorded acoustic sounds such as waterdrops and vocals using sophisticated sound manipulation devices and muli-track recording techniques. The only electronic instruments used were the Jupiter 8 and the Roland TR-808 drum machine. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios and each album is housed in jackets using the original cassette artwork

Disco legend Sylvester comes to Dark Entries with Private Recordings: August 1970, an intimate collection of vintage jazz, blues, and gospel. While Sylvester is best known for his chart-topping collaborations with producer Patrick Cowley, such as “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” this release reveals his passion for the sounds of the 30s and 40s. In 1970 a 22-year-old Sylvester had moved to San Francisco and found himself involved with the Cockettes, the infamous psychedelic performance art troupe. Among this milieu was Peter Mintun, a pianist and record collector living in a commune devoted to retro culture. According to Mintun, “We were like hippies who lived in the twenties. We lived in a house that didn’t have anything modern in it. Nothing in it was made after World War II.” Mintun and Sylvester bonded over their love of Black singers of yore and were allotted a slot during Cockettes performances reviving the music of the Prohibition Era. One afternoon, Sylvester and Mintun recorded a number of their shared favorites using a high-end microphone a friend had acquired. Private Recordings features 9 songs from this session, including standards like “Stormy Weather,” “Happy Days Are Here Again,” and “God Bless the Child.” Sylvester’s unmistakable falsetto brings depth and a dash of camp to these familiar tunes. The recordings are casual and intimate, even capturing banter between Sylvester and Mintun; their brief rendition of “When My Dreamboat Comes Home” has the duo working out a melody in real time. In addition to their sonic explorations of decades past, Sylvester and Mintun also staged photographic shoots in vintage couture. Private Recordings comes with a 16-page booklet on firm cardstock featuring images from these never-before-seen shoots as well as liner notes from Mintun detailing his friendship with Sylvester and their experiences recording. All this is housed in a metallic silver sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a 1920’s Art Deco aesthetic. The record will be released on September 6th which would have been Sylvester’s 76th birthday, and all proceeds from Private Recordings will go to the two charities that Sylvester left his royalties after his death: Project Open Hand and PRC (formerly Aids Emergency Fund). This essential release documents the earliest known recordings from one of disco’s greatest talents.

The Arms of Someone New formed in 1983 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois as the brainchild Mel Eberle and Steve Jones. Steve managed and helped record Mel’s band The First Things; while in the studio to demo some of Mel’s songs, they started collaborating. The idea for the Arms of Someone New was to combine Mel’s and Steve’s several varied interests in the Beatles, psychedelia, blues, new wave and post-punk to create a sound in which the listener would be enveloped, immersed. They drew inspiration from Joy Division, Young Marble Giants, Nico and Pink Floyd. Between 1983 and 1985 they released four cassettes, one 7” and one EP.

In September 1985, the duo self-released their debut full length ‘Susan Sleepwalking’ on Office Records. Equipped with simple keyboards, drum machines and jangly guitars, The Arms Of Someone New provided an American take on English folk, Ambient and Industrial music. The album is ten tracks of mood-filled music with sparse instrumentation and simple chord changes that paint pictures of stillness and calm. Psychedelic vocals add texture, producing an ethereal, dream-like quality. The Arms of Someone New challenges conformity by mixing styles, but without sacrificing unity. “‘Susan Sleepwalking’ could as well be retitled ‘Music for Interiors’ – both architectural and of the mind” – The Michigan Daily 1985.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in the original jacket featuring an blood red tinted photograph with ghostly textures. Each copy includes a 2-sided 11” square insert with lyrics, and press clipping from the band’s archive.

The venerable Dark Entries celebrates it’s 300th release with Panoramic Coloursound, a triple LP from the Creative Technology Consortium. Traxx, Andrew Bisenius, and Jason Letkiewicz forged the CtC during the depths of pandemic isolation. Drawing from film and television music of the 80’s/90’s and armed with a mighty array of vintage analog and digital synthesizers, they set out to explore heists, vices, and catastrophe. Panoramic Coloursound collapses sound and image into a neon blur throughout its 25 tracks. While retro scores were the starting point for the CtC, the project does more than pay dutiful homage — these notes are warped and skewed, devolving into decaying digital soundscapes. EBM-inflected basslines pop up on tracks like “Catastrophe” and “A Retro Vice”, menacing numbers that recall Traxx and Letkiewicz’s legendary work as Mutant Beat Dance (a project also featuring Beau Wanzer). “Follow Our Kode” pairs heroic synths with funky bass, striking cosmic chords akin to the material that Traxx and Bisenius have released as An Anomaly. Krautrock-esque guitars slide along anthemic pads on “Beautifully Polluted Sunset”, which comes across like an alien Miami Vice closing theme. The CtC channel corroded VHS vibes while making music for the future. Panoramic Coloursound was mastered by Frédéric Alstadt. The sleeve was designed by Eloise Leigh, and features a photograph by Jason Letkiewicz. Also included is a postcard featuring liner notes, a gear list, and a photograph by Maria Tzeka.

Bay Area post-punk outfit Topographies deliver their sophomore LP, Interior Spring, via Dark Entries. Formed in 2018 in San Francisco by Justin Oronos, Jeremie Ruest, and Gray Tolhurst, Topographies link the icy riffs and gloomy atmosphere of early coldwave with the textural depth and warmth of classic shoegaze, emerging with a style that’s both contemporary and timeless. On Interior Spring, Topographies explore themes of guilt, inherited trauma, and recovery. The meaning of its title is triplicate: a submerged river carrying hope, an anxiously wound clock, and a season where wildflowers bloom on the graves of the past. While the work of Tolhurst’s father - Laurence Tolhurst from The Cure - provides a clear influence, Topographies expertly channel acts like Asylum Party or The Chameleons on anthemic pearls like “Night Sea” and “Chain of Days”. Tolhurst’s lyrics draw on his own experience in recovery from substance abuse to examine the cycle of use and hopelessness that characterizes addiction. Through these ten songs, the group hopes to present the idea that freedom is not an escape but an embrace of the quotidian beauty of human life.

In eleven years of deep digging, Dark Entries has uncovered many curiosities, lone exemplars of the scarsest breeds. They are lurking in Croatia, on the streets of New York, maybe in the back of your own dusty closet - these odd-ball Italo and synth-wave monsters are too rare to live, too divine to die. Once-lost creatures now have a home with Dark Entries’ new Endangered Species series. The inaugural edition features five specimens previously deemed extinct, only mentioned passingly in lore and speculation, but now safely preserved on vinyl. The first cut on Endangered Species Vol. 1 is the previously unreleased electro-New Wave gem “Munich” by John King, an artist best known for his work as one half of the Dust Brothers, lauded producers of the Beastie Boys’ legendary Paul’s Boutique. “Munich”, a Danceteria-ready cut produced in 1983, sheds some light on King’s earlier interests, bridging between freestyle and emotive synthpop. Next up is a rare demo version of The Actor’s “Picture 210”. The Dutch duo here channel both the minimalism of Kraftwerk and the Surrealism of Throbbing Gristle to create one of the finest teary-eyed Goth club anthems. Brazil is a synthpop band from Croatia, and they feature with their 1990 cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World”, which is sure to turn some heads on the dancefloor. The eerily faithful production belies Brazil’s re-working of the song’s lyrics. “L'Étranger (Ana Gharib)” by Jamal Khe follows, a pearl originally only available on an impossibly rare French 7” from 1983. Khe is from the Ain Beida region of Algeria, and his Arabic vocal melodies perfectly complement the propulsive percussion and airy arpeggios from producer Jacky Bourgogne. Closing the record is the previously unreleased “Abemus Mind” from Marzio Benellil’s project Nightless. Recorded in 1983, this moody, low-tempo Italo groover features Gregorian chant-inspired vocoders and jazzy piano courtesy of Benelli’s collaborator Marco Falagiani. All songs were mastered for vinyl by George Horn. The sleeve is the first in a series of endangered animal designs by Eloise Leigh, featuring the glam tiger in its natural, 1980’s habitat. Also included is an insert with lyrics, photos, and notes. Please assist us in our efforts to preserve this planet’s weirdest beasts.

Dark Entries and Sacred Bones team up to release the early discography of UK synth-punk and Deathrock label Outer Himmalayan Records. Between 1979 and 1982, Nick Blinko and Martin Cooper’s Outer Himmalayan Records released 7-inches by three short-lived bands – The Magits, Soft Drinks, and S-Haters – who would nonetheless cast a massive shadow on the UK’s burgeoning post-punk/anarcho punk scene. Outer Himmalayan Presents collects all of the music found on those original records, along with rare and unreleased tracks by all three bands. It’s a snapshot of a period of frenzied creativity by some of the UK’s most thrilling experimental punks.


Before Blinko went on to found the essential anarcho band Rudimentary Peni, whose storied body of work also appeared on Outer Himmalayan, he and label co-founder Cooper were The Magits. The lone release by the minimal synth-and-vocals duo, Fully Coherent, was the inaugural release on Outer Himmalayan — and, in fact, Blinko and Cooper’s impetus for starting the label. The four tracks on Fully Coherent are short, sharp bursts, comprising a total of four minutes. Here, they’re presented alongside the five-and-a-half minute “A Pawn in the Game,” a song that sees Blinko and Cooper get truly weird with the extra space the longer runtime afforded them.


The next release on Outer Himmalayan was S-Haters’ Death of a Vampire 7", which the quartet quickly followed with Stories as Cold as the Irish Sea. The band was recognizably a deathrock act, their gothic punk in the same lineage as Joy Division and PIL’s Metal Box, but it showed the same sonic adventurousness that characterized the rest of Outer Himalayan’s output. “1980,” an oddity taken from the rare Another Bouquet on the Grave of Free Enterprise cassette comp, shows the most experimental flourish, with dueling male/female vocals and a prominent acoustic guitar.


The final Outer Himmalayan release before it became strictly a Rudimentary Peni label was Soft Drinks’ Popstars in Their Pyjamas 7". Popstars ended up being the tongue-in-cheek synth-punk trio’s only release before their breakup, though they would also record “Dangers of Drink,” for the Bouquet of Barbed Wire comp and included here, as well as the one-off track “Misconception,” previously unreleased but now available exclusively on Outer Himmalayan Presents.


All songs have been mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Cover artwork features a collage by Eloise Leigh and each copy includes a 20-page zine featuring liner notes and ephemera associated with the original pressings plus never before seen photos.

The seductive sounds of Portugal swing to Dark Entries on Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa 1985-1986, a compilation of vintage Iberian synth, wave, and postpunk gems. The legendary club Rock Rendez Vous (rrv) opened its doors in Lisbon in 1980, heralding a new era in the Portuguese underground. Although touring acts like Killing Joke, Danse Society, or Echo & the Bunnymen graced its stage, RRV more vitally served as ground zero for a new generation of Portuguese bands, one simultaneously in touch with broader international musical movements while being invested in establishing a national sonic identity. Rock Rendez Vous culls 9 tracks of prime Portuguese indie tunes from the Música Moderna Portuguesa compilations released in 1985 and 1986, documenting the heyday of this movement. Jangly and brooding postpunk gems like “Levante” from Jovem Guarda, Projecto AZUL’s “New Sides,” and Essa ENTENTE’s “Festa Final” are well-represented here. Meanwhile, quirky Balearic-laced synthpop gems like D. W. ART’s “Mate” or Zona PROIBIDA’s “Musak” add a subtly regional flare. Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa comes housed in a sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a photo of the club RRV, and also includes a double-sided insert with lyrics, photos, and liner notes.

Celebrating a Decade of Dark Entries with a compilation titled Tens Across The Board. We revisit our roster and chose 10 songs from 10 bands from 10 different countries spanning the years 1981-1993. The songs flow in chronological order and have never appeared on vinyl, with 7 of the songs previously unreleased. Features tracks from PARADE GROUND, DISENO CORBUSIER, LENA PLATONOS, VICTROLA, BORGHESIA, TOM ELLARD, X-RAY POP, SECOND DECAY, FROM NURSERY TO MISERY, and CYRNAI. All songs have been remastered by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios. The vinyl is housed in a custom designed jacket by ELOISE LEIGH featuring our label’s colors black-white-red with connect-the-dots pattern linking the 10 songs via maps/timeline/location, all relating to the reissue process, plus source images from San Francisco, our hometown. For this landmark release we've also printed a 2-sided fold-out wall poster that includes every artist we've released in our first 10 years 2009-2019 in black, red and silver metallic ink, plus an 8x11 insert with lyrics, notes and photos.

Villa Abo is the alternative solo project of Swedish musician and producer Jan Svensson, who has been making electronic music for the better part of 30 years as the artist behind such aliases as Frak, Studio SS and Alvars Orkestra. Svensson also runs legendary Swedish dance and experimental music label Börft, the product of a mutual appreciation for Severed Heads and Terse Tapes. As Villa Åbo he released two records in 1997 on Börft and remained inactive for 17 years until the Dutch label Bio Rhythm coaxed him into revisiting the project and released a double 12″ in 2014. Jan has since followed with a steady stream of 12” singles for Kontra-Musik, Noise In My Head and Radio Lundberg.


“Magnetic Moves” is Villa Åbo’s debut album, originally released in an limited edition of 65 hand-numbered cassettes by Funeral Fog in 2016. Clocking in at over 46 minutes, this first-ever vinyl edition spreads the 8 ragged techno tracks across four sides for maximum loudness. Some songs are aggressively potent, with cyclical synth riffs and razor-sharp acid lines riding a heavy, funk-fuelled techno groove. Others tracks are more fluid, vintage Underground Resistance or Derrick May with killer drum machine workouts that come in handy as DJ tools. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is housed in a custom made jacket designed by Eloise Leigh, featuring a photograph of Jan’s mother’s house, the meaning behind “Villa Åbo”. Each copy includes a double-sided postcard with notes.

We are honored to release the debut album from Violet, the alias of Inês Borges Coutinho, Lisbon born and raised DJ, producer boss of Naive records, co-founder of Rádio Quântica, and mina resident. Violet began producing music in 2012 and has released music on One Eyed Jacks, Love on the Rocks, Paraíso and Naive. Inês uses her seemingly boundless energy to amplify other artists all the while progressing her own creative practice.
‘Bed of Roses’ contains 10 songs made as a sort of childhood-teenage memories diary, a return to things Inês liked then and also the difficult things she’s been through. The feeling behind the album is self forgiveness in an optimistic way but also in an adult way, aware of the bruises (thorns) but also of the invaluable love and life experiences (roses). The title comes from the Bon Jovi song that Inês loved as a 9-year old and doubles as an intent of positivity paired with the inescapable darkness of life. Inês says, “I wrote this music as a healing device that I hope can somehow help heal others too.” All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The jacket features an original design by Eloise Leigh that incorporates themes of self-inspection and hope mixing a teen bedroom girly vintage scrapbook aesthetic with contemporary 3D mapping techniques. Each LP contains a postcard featuring a childhood photo of Inês with notes.

Vocoder were a quartet from Zaragoza, Spain formed in 1981. Keyboardists Antonio Laval, Alfonso Olarte and Antonio Tenas met while attending university, and were later joined by vocalist Pilar Pellicer. They recorded several demos with synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines, creating a soundtrack for the clubs and dance floors. After sending demos to various record companies, they signed a deal with Aviador Dro's sublabel Neón Danza and released two EPs, "What Happens Now"/"Radio" in 1984, "Mindanao"/"Amor de Robot" in 1985 and a self-titled LP which was produced by Michel Huygen (Neuronium) in 1987. Vocoder also appeared on the TV program La Bola De Cristal, presenting their music video for "What Happens Now," in which the band danced in a supermarket with a shopping cart full of synthesizers. The group mutually disbanded in 1988 and continued to organize concerts for other groups touring in Spain. Cuadro Sinóptico compiles both two-song 12" maxi singles as one four-song EP. All four songs were recorded during 1984-85 at Doublewtronics Studios in Madrid, Spain, using the most advanced and sophisticated techniques of time in digital recording and Direct Metal Mastering (DMM). The band utilized many professional synthesizers of the time: Roland Juno 60, Prophet V, Korg Poly 61, Yamaha DX-7, Roland TR-909 and the Linn Drum, which was used by most Italo Disco artists. These songs were recorded in the highest fidelity with disc jockeys in mind. Genuinely catchy, Vocoder combined soaring melodies with cybernetic coldness. A futuristic sound for the modern age topped with Pilar's charismatic vocals. Lyrically they address robotic love, disco dancing, and the tropical island of Mindanao, and sing in Spanish, English and French. All songs on Cuadro Sinóptico have been remastered from the original reel to reel master tapes for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. Each LP includes a double-sided insert with photos, lyrics and liner notes by Flemming Dalum, a Danish DJ who introduced much of the world to Vocoder in 2008 on his “French Spanish Italo Connection” mix. Vocoder want you to barricade yourself in the discotheques and dance away the depression.

Zru Vogue is a two man post punk avant-pop group from Palo Alto, California, combining the talents of Andrew Finkle and Rick Cuevas. The band began in 1980 as a four member group: Rick, Andy, Tom Sanders and Nancy Miller. Tom and Nancy left the group shortly after the first single, "Nakweda Dream", was released by independent San Francisco label Adolescent Records in February 1981. Inspired by rave reviews and heavy airplay on alternative radio stations, Andy and Rick went back into the studio, now as a duo, to record some new ZRU tracks. The self-tilted LP was released on the band's Zero Risk Records in 1982. It contains eight compositions blending African tribal and Middle Eastern rhythms, avant-garde rock, minimal electronics, and funk-rock guitars. The duo's sound is inspired by the art and anti-art movements of Dada and Surrealism. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in a replica of the original jacket, which features artwork by the group members, and includes the original 2-sided lyric sheet.