Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield CD 282 Items

* First-ever official reissue of the pioneering 1986 ambient work * Produced in full cooperation with Hiroshi Yoshimura’s estate * New liner notes by original album producer Hiroyoshi Shiokawa * Includes Yoshimura’s original notes in Japanese & English * Remastering and lacquer cutting by John Baldwin * Vinyl pressed at Gotta Groove Records "If Surround can be listened to as music that’s asclose to air itself, allowing us to enter each listener’s sound scenery, or assomething that exists within a new perspective, expanding the middle groundbetween sound and music, and transforming it into a comfortable space, it wouldbe much appreciated.— Hiroshi YoshimuraTemporal Drift proudly presents the long-awaited, first-everreissue of Surround, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s sought-after ambient classic. Originally released as an album in January 1986, Surroundwas recorded by Yoshimura as a commission from home builder Misawa Homes,intended to function as an “amenity” designed to enhance the company’s newlybuilt living spaces. A pioneer in the field of environmental music, Yoshimura’sprevious works included Music For Nine Post Cards (1982), originally producedto be played back inside a museum space, and designing sound environments forpublic spaces and subway systems. Surround was recorded almost concurrentlywith the acclaimed and popular Green (1986); the two albums are described byHiroyoshi Shiokawa in his liner notes as being Yoshimura’s yin and yang. In his original notes for the album, Yoshimura recommendsthat Surround be placed in the same family of sounds “as the vibration offootsteps, the hum of an air conditioner, or the clanging of a spoon inside acoffee cup.” And, as he suggests, “with the addition of city noise from outsidethe window,” you may hear Surround in a completely new way."

•7" vinyl •Lyric insert •Blue and pink swirled 7" •Download card

Despite his status as a key figure in the history of Japanese ambient music, Hiroshi Yoshimura remains tragically under-known outside of his home country. Empire of Signs – a new imprint co-helmed by Maxwell August Croy, Spencer Doran and distributed by Light In The Attic – is proud to reissue Yoshimura’s debut Music for Nine Post Cards for the first time outside Japan in collaboration with Hiroshi’s widow Yoko Yoshimura, with more reissues of Hiroshi’s works to follow in the future.

Working initially as a conceptual artist, the musical side of Yoshimura’s artistic practice came to prominence in the post-Fluxus scene of late 1970s Tokyo alongside Akio Suzuki and Takehisa Kosugi, taking many subsequent turns within Japan’s bubble economy afterward. His sound works took on many forms – commissioned fashion runway scores, soundtracking perfume, soundscapes for pre-fab houses, train station sound design – all existing not as side work but as logical extensions of his philosophy of sound. His work strived for serenity as an ideal, and this approach can be felt strongly on Music for Nine Post Cards.

Home recorded on a minimal setup of keyboard and Fender Rhodes, Music for Nine Post Cards was Yoshimura’s first concrete collection of music, initially a demo recording given to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art to be played within the building’s architecture. This was not background music in the prior Japanese “bgm” sense of the word, but “environmental music”, the literal translation of the Japanese term kankyō ongaku [環境音楽] given to Brian Eno’s “ambient” music when it arrived in late 70’s Japan. Yoshimura, along with his musical co-traveler Satoshi Ashikawa, searched for a new dialog between sound and space: music not as an external absolute, but as something that interlocks with a physical environment and shifts the listener’s experience within it. Erik Satie’s furniture music, R. Murray Schafer’s concept of the soundscape and Eno’s ambience all greatly informed their work, but the specific form of tranquil stasis presented on releases like Nine Post Cards is still difficult to place within a specific tradition, remaining elusive and idiosyncratic despite the economy of its construction. This record offers the perfect introduction to Hiroshi’s unique and beautiful worldview: it’s one that can be listened to – and lived in – endlessly.

‣ Pressed onto Red Sony 80 minute Mdw80t MiniDiscs.

‣ Comes with Mini Disc insert boasting full color 6 panels of supreme artwork with high quality covering, and Includes album tracklistings.

‣ Mini disc is enclosed in high quality jewel casing.

Included are electronic music works created by Hiroshi Siotani, the first technician of the NHK (nippon Hoso Kyokai - Japan Broadcasting Corporation) Electronic Music Studio. Works from 1955 ~ 1966.

The super deluxe reissue of Tricky’s ‘Maxinquaye’, his debut album from 1995. The album has sold over half a million copies to date and always appears on authoritative lists of the greatest ever albums, including NME’s “500 Greatest Albums List, Q’s “List of the 100 Greatest British Albums”, Mojo’s “100 Modern Classics” and Rolling Stone’s “Essential Recordings of the 90s”.

This reissue is a welcome reappraisal of Tricky’s seminal album as it approaches its 30th anniversary (2025). It features the original studio album remastered at Abbey Road, with the 3LP having the original album spread over 3 sides for the first time to get the best possible sound on wax, as well as 6 new Maxinquaye “Reincarnated” versions recorded by Tricky in 2022, and a previously unreleased BBC session of album tracks recorded with a full live band in the autumn of 1995.

Viajes al Sur is the first non drum and bass LP released on Sable Noir recordings, it is a recollection of tunes produced during the past 10 years, sometimes used to score music for documentaries, others just experiments, but also the desire to release a full album going throught all genres that tells a special story, and this time maybe more for a "listening purpose" and not following any dance music rules . It is done to express something more personal, and also dedicated to persons I love.

HYbr:ID Vol. 2 is the second installment of Alva Noto’sHYbr:IDseries initiated in 2021. The new album captures the music commissioned to score RichardSiegal's Ectopia performed in 2021 by Tanztheater Pina Bausch with Shooting into the Corner (2008-09) by Anish Kapoor. Building upon the captivating blend of immersive dub and electronica from the first installment, HYbr:ID Vol. 2 takes the listener on a journey into the realm of intricately manipulated digital production. These ten compositions delve into infinity, drawing inspiration from resonance and elasticity, concepts rooted in Minkowski's four-dimensional spacetime model. Throughout the album, Carsten Nicolai summons precise rhythmic patterns that gracefully hover, reminiscent of celestial bodies orbiting in perfect cosmic unison. The sonic landscape gradually unfolds with somber and brooding tones, incorporating spacious sound design, ethereal atmospheres, and cascading metallic percussions. These elements are delicately crafted with artistic finesse, set against a backdrop of expansive dub textures. At times, the music takes unforeseen turns, as melancholic chords skitter and meander through a digital haze, evoking an atmosphere of introspection and emotion. The ten compositions are accompanied by graphic notations informed by the album’s sonic and acoustic codes.

Produced by Brian Eno and Fred Gibson

4th April 2020 - 23rd December 2022

Mastered by Kieran Hebden

Lacquer cut by Bernie Grundman

Artwork by loose

Gatefold photograph by Brian Eno

The new album from Hysterical Love Project is a moody collection of guitar-shimmered downtempo odes. Lashed by the blue-hot debris of missing, it reverbs with adoration for those dear and far. It says I'm sorry for taking photos of sunsets, I couldn't wait to be alive.

* Available in three formats: Black Vinyl, Clear Vinyl, and 2CD * Brilliantly chaotic and outrageously rhythmic material from 1993-1996, originally meant as the follow-up to “Love’s Secret Domain” * “The New Backwards” effectively became the final official Coil studio release of all new material whilst Peter was still alive * Unlike the 2008 edition, the KontaktAudio edition contains the titlesong 'Backwards' * Mastered by Grammy nominated Jessica Thompson * Artwork by Ian Johnstone, licensed by The Estate of Ian Johnstone * 2CD version contains 8 additional tracks of previously unheard material from the same sessions * 2CD featured image below“The New Backwards” was conceived by Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson in 2007, revisiting stray tracks which hadn’t seemed to gel with the material he had chosen for the more somber “Ape of Naples” from 2005, Coil’s initial posthumous release, a sort of requiem and a kiss-goodbye to his then recently deceased partner John Balance. Significantly different to its sister release, this album collects the brilliantly chaotic and outrageously rhythmic material from the original sessions for the album that was begun as early as 1993 and had originally been conceptualised as the follow-up to “Love’s Secret Domain”. These songs are as diverse and wild as the places they originated from, partly infamously spawned in Sharon Tate’s former home in the Hollywood Hills, the Nine Inch Nails home base in New Orleans and London’s Swanyard, remixed and restructured with the help of long-term friend Danny Hyde in Thailand, this collection has its own unique flow and an atmosphere not found on any other Coil release. Both “ayor” and “Backwards” had by the time the album was first released already become favourites in Coil’s manic live performances. Some of the other tracks had only leaked in demo versions and are here presented updated and polished as Christopherson and Hyde intended them to be heard. It is interesting to consider Balance’s vocal contributions, too. Whilst on the albums Coil did release at the time this material was first put aside (“Black Light District” and “ElpH”) his voice is all but absent, his vocal performances and his lyric writing here are arguably more closely indebted to the previous “Love’s Secret Domain” era, especially the epic “Copacaballa” is noteworthy in that respect. The New Backwards” effectively became the final official Coil studio release of all new material whilst Peter was still alive and is here presented for the first time fully supervised by Danny Hyde, its co-creator. The stunning cover uses a detail from artist Ian Johnstone’s “Cubic Raven” painting, licensed from the estate of IJ.. It is high time to rediscover this timeless album with the Infinite Fog release boasting eight further tracks of previously unheard material from the same sessions, rough working stages and surprising remixes which will surely delight the dedicated Coil archaeologists, as they shine yet another light on the creative process and on what could have been. Recorded at Swanyard, London and at Nothing Studios, New Orleans, 1996. Thanks to everyone there, especially Trent Reznor who made it all possible. Written & Produced by Coil & Danny Hyde. Remixed by Peter Christopherson & Danny Hyde, Bangkok 2007. For that session Coil were: Peter Christopherson, Jhonn Balance & Drew McDowall. Mastered by Jessica Thompson. Front artwork by Ian Johnstone. Artwork licensed from The Estate of Ian Johnstone. Layout Cold Graves and Oleg Galay.

Wrwtfww Records is proud to announce the worldwide reissue of Midori Takada’s solo album from 1999, Tree of Life, available on vinyl for the first time ever in a new audiophile mix by the Japanese percussionist herself, and in full half-speed-mastered glory. The 180g LP comes in a heavy sleeve with a beautiful design by Kohei Sugiura. Tree of Life is also available in CD (digipack) and digital formats.

Originally recorded in September 1998 at legendary Ginza (Tokyo) studio Onkio Haus (founded in 1974 and where Ryuichi Sakamoto’s "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and many more were recorded) and released on CD only for the Japan market in 1999, Tree of Life is Midori Takada’s best kept secret, a lost gem of minimalism and percussive ambient. The album is separated in two parts, the first one finds Takada exploring her trademark environmental soundscapes with precise mastery of marimba, drums, and bells, notably on the magnificent fan-favorite "Love Song Of Urfa". The second half is a collaboration with Chinese virtuoso Erhu player Jiang Jian Hua, allowing Midori Takada to unveil new layers of her artistic mind with a slightly more theatrical approach and a beautiful crystallization of complex simplicity.

The entire album was given a fresh new audiophile mix by Midori Takada herself and was mastered at Emil Berliner Studios, with half speed cutting for the vinyl version, to ensure an audio presentation aligned with the Japanese pioneer’s vision.

This Tree of Life reissue follows two newly recorded Midori Takada albums, Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter and You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana, both available on Wrwtfww Records, along with her 1983 masterpiece, Through The Looking Glass.

Here is the Deluxe Version of 'Voltaic' which includes 2CDs and 2 DVDs of her performing Live in Paris and Reyk_Javik. Also features Live in the Studio and Remix Versions of her tracks

Initially released in 2006, ‘Revep’ is the third collaboration album between Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto and the third installment of V.I.R.U.S.’s five albums series. Remastered in 2021 in collaboration with Calyx Studio, the album’s recordings are accompanied by three new compositions titled ‘City Radieuse’, ‘Veru 1’, and ‘Veru 2’. ‘City Radieuse’ was composed for the 2012 short cinematic essay titled ‘Cité Radieuse’ and part of Carsten Nicolai’s ‘future past perfect’ series. The video shot at le Corbusier’s Unité D’Habitation in Nantes (called ‘cité radieuse’) takes the viewer through the modular system and design applied to the residential buildings. The film’s narrative unfolds through a sequence of images tracking the apartments’ indoor space and details, and points to the different benchmarks of standardized production as they correlate to their environment and its inhabitants.

The album’s original recordings resulted from musical exchanges that began with ‘Vrioon’ and revolved around a collaborative arrangement of Sakamoto’s classic ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,’ the theme music to the 1983 movie starring David Bowie, Takeshi Kitano, and Ryuichi Sakamoto himself. In ‘Revep,’ the piano takes the lead while the padded bass and pitched electronic frequencies mark sudden change. Deeply evocative and effortlessly colliding worlds of analog beauty and digital mastery, this album is considered another indispensable record from the duo’s ongoing collaboration.

Originally released in 2005, 'Insen' is the second collaboration album between Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto and the second installment of V.I.R.U.S.'s five albums series.

Remastered in 2021 in collaboration with Calyx Studio, the album's recordings are accompanied by an unreleased composition titled 'Barco.' Initially composed for Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto's 2005 'Insen' tour, the audio material used in this piece is based on the subtle sounds of Barco projectors, whose tonalities served as a ground for the artists' live improvisation. ? In 'Insen', Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto explore the potential for interaction and tension between electronic and acoustic instrumentation. Across eight compositions, the echoes of the cascading piano combine, collide, and dissolve with the tapestry of digital breakages in sheer vibrancy. This relationship lies at the album's core. It subtly continues Vrioon's calm melancholia, becoming a vessel for all the emotions and memories nourished by the listener. As you hear the opening, lonesome notes of 'Aurora,' you realize that the pair have once again conceded an ambition to embed elaborate disciplines into an archetypal sound of soul-searching beauty.

"Sound Space Variations" is a delicate and restrained sound bath. A mix of atmospheric, suspenseful drone sounds and meditative aspects. It is an album made for those moments when we just are. zake has managed to capture the moments that lie between sounds; the unagitated murmurs and atmospheric hisses. The artist connects this in-between-world and our earthly one with calm and sonorous scores, making us think about everything and nothing. The six pieces on the record do not seem heavy-headed or overloaded but much more airy, wide and open for interpretations. They stimulate the imagination - in a wonderfully unbiased way. In the last track. James Bernhard mixed and mastered the album, written and produced by drone artist zake, at Ambient Mountain House Studio. zake himself provided the artwork and photos himself."

"Mulid El-Magnoun” addresses the term ‘moulid’ and its various manifestations it takes on in Egyptian folk music. Here, the word ‘moulid’ does not exclusively refer to Sufi moulids: rather also the intertwined artistic spaces that lie between the moulid in its Sufi sense and what it carries in distinctive rhythmic patterns, musical instruments, and artistic forms, and the moulid as a musical genre originating from folk weddings that enjoy special aesthetics and unique styles.

Through this project, Yunis tries to explore the spaces where those two concepts collide through producing an original musical composition which reflects his own vision and understanding of ‘moulids’ as well as the manifestations the word carries within him.

About Yunis:

Yunis (b. 1994 - Kafr El-Dauwar) is an Egyptian musician and music Producer. He has produced two albums until now; «The Blue Djinn Dance» which was his first solo album, and «Ya Khal» which was a collaborative work with Ibrahim X. He is also a co-founder of Kafr El-Dauwar Records, an independent digital record label interested in contemporary and experimental music, founded by a group of young artists with the aim of creating a musical movement in the city, by supporting a group of artists to start their music from Kafr El-Dauwar with the potential of going with the music to the farthest point it could arrive.

In his music, Yunis seeks inspiration from the popular Egyptian folkloric heritage, which boasts many instruments, tools, and musical styles. He then reads and analyzes the musical legacy and presents it with the forms of his contemporary time.

Anybody who has witnessed a live performance of Anna von Hausswolff and band can attest to the extraordinary and commanding nature of the experience. The distinctive music, as captured across five full-length albums, comes to life, shifting from hypnotic and mantra-like moods to thunderous drama, dissonance and cacophony. The musicians master playful dynamics and wield immense power.

Alessandro Cortini's acclaimed 'Forse' series is available for the first time on CD including an exclusive disc of 'Forse' performed live. Packaged in matte coated digipacks housed in a heavy duty tip-on style outer box. 2021 digital master by Stephan Mathieu.

Composed using only an original Buchla Music Easel, an incredibly rare electronic music instrument designed by Don Buchla, the Forse series features long, romantic compositions full of voluminous, bombastic tones and dripping with thick timbre.

CD Jewel Case With 8 pages Booklet, Pictures , Notes In anticipation of the 35th anniversary next year one of electronic music´s most influential recordings, the legendary E2-E4, from 12.12.1981 does get an official rerelease by Manuel Göttsching on his own Label MG.ART. Carefully overseen by the Master himself

Set against the backdrop of an escape to hidden corners of the rural Southeast, prolific healing sound propagandist zake presents 'Carolina & Coppice Movements'. Suffused with manipulated field recordings, each of these pieces reenact a moment in its composer's journey. These tracks represent a solemn yet joyful paean to seclusion, and the awe beyond our doors.

Music From Memory is excited to announce a special compilation that they’ve been working on for some time now; Mfm053 – VA – Heisei No Oto – Japanese Left-field Pop From The CD Age (1989-1996). Compiled by long-time friends of the label, Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato, Heisei No Oto delves into a world of music released almost exclusively on CD and brings together a fascinating selection of discoveries from a little known and overlooked part of Japan’s musical history. The last ten or so years have seen a global wave of interest in Japanese music encompassing ambient, jazz, new wave and pop records from the 1980s, some of which is increasingly considered the most innovative and visionary music of that time. Although some music from this period, in the form of ‘City Pop’ or ‘rare groove’ records, had been coveted by collectors and DJs for a number of years, most Japanese music from the time was little known outside and often even within Japan. Sometime around the mid 2000s, two Osaka record store owners, Eiji Taniguchi of Revelation Time and Norio Sato of Rare Groove, along with a handful of deep Japanese diggers such as Chee Shimizu of Organic Music records in Tokyo, began to explore beyond the typical ‘grooves’ or ‘breaks’. Much like their counterparts in Europe and the US, they began delving into home-grown ambient, jazz, new wave and pop records, discovering visionary music, often driven by synthesizers or drum computers, that broke beyond the typical confines of their genres. Spending tireless hours in local record stores and embarking on digging trips across the country, Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato, much like Chee Shimizu, have been at the forefront of unearthing and introducing many of the very Japanese records now loved and sought after around the world. Yet as YouTube algorithms and vinyl reissues would transport such music into the global consciousness and demand and therefore scarcity intensified for such records, so Eiji and Norio have recently begun to turn their attention to CDs. The title of the compilation Heisei No Oto refers to the sound of the Heisei era, which began in 1989 and corresponds to the reign of Emperor Akihito until his abdication in 2019. Marking the culmination of one of the most rapid economic growths in Japanese history, 1989 also coincided with the music industry’s final shift away from vinyl in favour of CDs. And, although compact discs were first introduced seven years earlier it wasn’t until late into the ‘80s that, beyond dance music labels, CDs became the exclusive format for major and independent labels in Japan and throughout the world. This however didn’t signal the end of the innovation in Japan. Many of those same musicians who have become known for their work in the ‘80s would continue to produce outstanding music well into the mid ‘90s, as greater innovation and advances in musical equipment allowed Japanese musicians and producers to refine and explore new sounds. While musicians such as the seminal Haruomi Hosono, whose productions feature on a number of tracks, would continue to push the boundaries of these new technologies, these technological advances also meant less established musicians were able to make use of increasingly affordable but state-of-the-art equipment. Including music by Haruomi Hosono as well as Yasuaki Shimizu, Toshifumi Hinata and Ichiko Hashimoto who have become known and loved around the world in recent years, Hesei No Oto also features Japanese pop star Yosui Inoue, producers Jun Sato and Keisuke Kikuchi in aaddition to less established artists from the contemporary, jazz, new wave, pop and dance music scenes. Bringing together a selection of tracks that seem to define these specific genres and in fact move fluidly between a number of them, the music on the compilation is again underscored by experimentations with synthesizers and drum computers though with something of a gentle Pop sensibility. Reimagined here then under the encompassing term ‘Left-field Pop’, this is an exciting chapter in Japanese musical history that has only just begun to be fully explored. VA - Heisei No Oto - Japanese Left-field Pop From The CD Age (1989-1996) is a 2xLP/2xCD that includes liner notes by Chee Shimizu and artwork by Hagihara Takuya and is released on February 28th.

First ever reissue of this groundbreaking ambient work
Produced in full cooperation with Yoshimura’s estate
Remastered for vinyl and pressed at RTI
Unseen original handwritten track notes by Yoshimura.

Barely known outside of his home country during his lifetime, the late Japanese ambient music pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura has seen his global stature rise steadily in the past few years. The 2017 reissue of his lauded debut, Music For Nine Post Cards, along with a slow building cult internet following has helped ignite a renaissance in his acclaimed body of work, much of which has never been released outside of Japan. Known for his sound design and environmental music, Yoshimura worked on a number of commissions following the 1982 release of Music For Nine Post Cards, including works for museums, galleries, public spaces, TV shows, video art, fashion shows, and even a cosmetics company.

Originally released in 1986, GREEN is one of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s most well-loved recordings and a favorite of the artist himself. Recorded over the winter of 1985-86 at Yoshimura’s home studio, the compositions unfold at an unhurried pace, a stark contrast to the busy city life of Tokyo. As Yoshimura explained in the original liner notes, the album title in the context of this body of work is not meant to be seen as a color, but is rather used to convey “the comfortable scenery of the natural cycle known as GREEN”—which perfectly encapsulates the soothing and warm sounds contained on the album, although it was created utilizing Yamaha FM synthesizers, known for their crisp digital tones.

This edition marks the first reissue of the highly sought-after and impossible to find album. It features the original mix preferred by Yoshimura himself, previously available only on the initial Japanese vinyl release (a limited edition remixed version of the album, with added sound effects, was released on CD in the US). Additionally, this release is the first in our ongoing series, WATER COPY, focusing on the works of Hiroshi Yoshimura.

A download code is included. With Velvet Desert Music Vol. 2, curator Jörg Burger has intensified his vision for this new series of compilations on Kompakt. The music he’s collected here has a unique vibration, perhaps an audio equivalent to the legendary ‘acid Western’ films of the 1960s and 1970s, when the wild frontier logic of the western met the consciousness-altering psychedelia of the counterculture. ‘Velvet Desert Music’ is Burger exploring possibilities: what happens when you extract the essence from genres as diverse as spaghetti Western soundtracks, moody lamp-lit pop, downtempo, Krautrock, minimalism, classic ‘60s psychedelia, and more, and let their scents intermingle, Des Esseintes-style?

Two thrilling tracks and a bonus CD "mixtape" are three good reasons not to sleep on this.

classic 13 tracks plus full length bonus cd with alternate mixes and unreleased bonus material !

With his first widely available new material in 5 years, Aphex Twin returns with an intricate and melodic addition to his discography.

The machines co-opted in production are as complex as the Weirdcore artwork, layering signature sombre ambient chords with intricate drum programming.

‘Blackbox Life Recorder 21f’ marks Aphex Twin’s official and celebrated return to augment our current reality.

It wasn't so long ago we were writing about the joys of BVDUB's Fumika Fades, a new double pack in February that sunk us deep into moving ambient soundscapes. Now the Bay Area dub techno titan Brock van Wey is back once again with yet another album - he dropped plenty of them last year too so is clearly in a mad creative patch. Slowly Shifting Lakes comes in multiple formats, this one being a double CD. The ambient here is coarse and textured, fizzing synths stretching out over skittish rhythmic frameworks before sinking into calmer waters on cuts like the escapist 'Searching For Glowing Shores.' Another triumphant album for sure.

Hajj's Dawn label returns with a limited CD drop from Modern Collaspe Recommended if you're into Youth & Bfdm.

A note from Lawrence English
Some time in the early 00s John Chantler, who was living in Japan at the time, sent me a couple of curious
sound pieces he’d just recorded with musicians he’d met from Tokyo - Tenniscoats. This was my first
introduction to Saya and Ueno, who have subsequently gone on to become longtime friends and a wellspring
of sonic inspiration.
In 2005, through their connections to Guy Blackman in Melbourne, Tenniscoats under took a tour of
Australia and as part of that visit I arranged a concert for them in Brisbane. Their show, held at Rics Cafe in
Fortitude Valley, was a wildly-flowing flux of song, improvisation and sheer melodic freedom. Following the
performance Saya, Ueno and drummer Yoshinari Kishida spent a few additional days in Brisbane, and it’s
during this time that the majority of Totemo Aimasho was recorded.
The recording itself took place in a reappropriated office building, where my friend Heinz Riegler had set up
a small recording space. We were able to use the various offices as somewhat isolated recording zones. The
results were surprisingly rich, a testament to office room design I suppose.
For this special 15th anniversary edition, I spent some time going back over the recordings to remaster them.
This version is perhaps a bit more faithful to the dynamics of those sessions. I also spent some days going
through archival materials that were not included in the original Totemo Aimasho sessions. To my surprise
I found a couple of demo versions of Cacoy, one of my favourite pieces from the record, as well as some
variations of other album pieces and also a couple of experiments not included on the record.
There’s a certain radiant joy to this music. The record is equal parts curiosity, porousness and generosity. It’s
a mixed methodology that informed this collaboration, and equally the creation of Totemo Aimasho itself.
I want to send a special note of thanks to John, without whom this project, and many subsequent other
connections, would not have occurred

‘Glass World’ is the resoundingly classic debut by a pioneering American artist whose tactile, holistic
approach to sound craft has been crucial in blurring distinctions between academic, sound art, and
experimental musics for half a century. The album’s 23 vignette-like pieces derive from hands-on
experiments with the form and function of glass in a musical context, using various techniques to stimulate
and animate glass objects and revel in their familiar yet peculiar acoustic resonances and ringing overtones.
Over the decades the album has achieved legendary status as one of those records that has found its way
to curious ears one way or another, and has sparked the imaginations of so many sound dreamers in the
process.
Born in New Zealand in 1939, Annea moved to England in 1961 to study at the Royal College of Music, London,
and followed courses under post-serialist pioneer Gottfried Michael Koenig (an influence upon everyone
from Roland Kayn to AFX) which honed her playfully intuitive fascination with the malleability and endless
strangeness of acoustic sound vibration and resonance. ‘Glass World of Annea Lockwood’, as it was originally
known, most beautifully made audible her vision in 1970 with something like a sound map to an archipelago
of imagined, ethnomusicological sounds that resemble rudimentary gamelan as much as the sounds of
liquid water music or domestic chores, each twinkling and chattering with a recognisable yet otherworldly
character that leaves an indelible imprint on the listener.
With all but ‘Water Gong’ and ‘Deep Water Gong’ lasting under 3 minutes, the purely instrumental parts flow
over the user in an effortlessly enchanting passage of time, future-proofed by their plaintive simplicity but
riddled with the sort of detail that snags on first listen and rewards with repeat returns. It’s not hard to hear
analogs with Annea’s recordings in work by her contemporaries such as longterm partner, Ruth Anderson,
or the deep listening strategies of Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier or Christina Kubisch, but also likewise in the
modern world with the direct similarities of Tomoko Sauvage and claire rousay’s small sound experiments,
or the between-worlds electro-acoustic sensitivities of Teresa Winter and Madalyn Merkey.

Acustica: For this acoustic sources-only mix, Stefan Goldmann cut up a vast library of recorded interpretations of 20th century avant-garde compositions. Layered segments of individual instrumental and chamber performances form emergent orchestral opulence – just to spill over into actual orchestral segments. Goldmann has tackled acoustic archives before with his edit of multiple recordings of Igor Stravinsky's 'Le Sacre du Printemps'. However, this mix traverses the disparities and convergences of seven decades of score-based music with impressively results. A meta-level polystylistic work that explores vast potentials of integration, interaction and interference. An antidote to the prevailing practice of sounding compositions in scattered, sterile isolation. Here, opposing concepts of music are channeled into one continuous flow, with a coherent DJ performance as the vehicle.

Amen Seat is music for anyone's inner insane teenage girl. This duo project from MCB & Wobbly (of Negativland), presents a wide pallet of agreeably disorienting sounds that lunge, shriek and panic their way into song-like shapes. If one must dance for a living, this is the album to set yourself on fire to, music to break up with yourself over — a message in a bottle from vocalist MCB’s younger self, reflecting the deeply personal and universal truths about the patriarchal institutions which shape our lives. Flutes, percussion, choral vocals and musique concrète flow together here to stare down the myths of the last two to five thousand years. The duo are joined by Jonathan Snipes of Clipping. (Sub Pop), Drew Daniel of Matmos (Thrill Jockey), Corey Fogel of Julia Holter's ensemble (Domino), Zeena Parkins, Craig McFarland, and Dominique Leone. This is Amen Seat's first album.

Programmed by footie-mad graphic designer/DJ, Andrew Lyster, ’Sports 3’ casts a wide net over work by Youth label friends and extended family with results limning a dead cranky conception of club music and blooz/beatdown pressure. All sharing a taste for texture that sounds like the masters were left to decompose for winter, the 16 cuts map odd gooches and ginnels of the contemporary soundsphere from the washed-out jazz reminiscence of Zesknel next to harder-to- place works such as the metallic cyborgian slug of ‘Driesh’ by Craig Birrel, or the groggy breaks of ‘Cocaine’ from HR For Drug Dealers. Pigbaby plays the game with a highlight of midnight keys on ‘Far From Home’, and we spy a zinger from Sockethead on the feral yowl of ‘Coarse Ground’, while Dave Saved keeps it slanted on ‘Abisso 66’ and into a super glum one by the still enigmatic Yugen Disciple. That sense of entropy also infects the set’s more energetic bits, as with the PointilisticT arp flight of ’T’ by S, and the drowning struggle of ‘When It Rains (It Pours)’ from Significant Other complementing the worn out acid trample of Iueke’s ‘Videoslash’ and Jessic*nt’s murky stealth bomb ‘Manic/Panic’. Rat Heart, Michael J. Blood x Sockethead unsurprisingly steal the show on the slow cymbal-crash blooz of ‘True’, and the album ends with Lyster’s own VIP of NW / HR tripped & screwed hardcore submersion.

Hot on the heels of their third album Forget The Curse (Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox, 2023), Fördämning Arkiv presents a Troth anthology compiling early non-album material and other odds and ends from the Australian duo. A massive 15-track retrospective, Uncut Flowers consists of the tracks from the Our Opaque Wreath cassette (Moontown Records, 2019), The Optimist (Essential Minerals, 2019), the Garland And Gauze 7" (Altered States Tapes, 2020) as well as various compilation contributions. 74 minutes.

"In evidence throughout is Troth’s penchant for capturing and collecting sounds from their environments, transforming field recordings, organic and non-organic sonic sources into textures of a palette that they then compose and improvise with. There’s a virtuosity of sampling and sound manipulation. The recurrent sounds from Besseny and Bowman’s intrepid field and bush explorations often verge on an indistinguishability between the synthesised and the concrete-organic. Permutated hand percussion or the throbbing of a waterfall; xylophonic melody or the tape loop of a bird call. The clank and tings of unidentified objects, matter itself writhing in the veggie garden. An environment starts speaking from iron gates in a paddock anywhere, close to the damp leaf and loam of a forest floor far below unseen birds and their cacophony of song and chatter. Tracks often collapse into a grey zone stretched between composition and improvisation." - Chris Colla

Digipack in an edition of 500 copies including a 8-page booklet with liner notes, photos etc. Mastered by Joakim Karlsson. Artwork by Charlott Malmenholt. Fördämning Arkiv 10.

Peter Culshaw was described by Malcolm Mclaren as “the Indiana Jones of World Music” and has tracked down music from the Amazon to Siberia and lived with Pygmies in Central Africa and dervishes in Istanbul. Culshaw interviewed many of the greats including Fela Kuti, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Caetano Veloso and Ibrahim Ferrer. His book Clandestino, now published in ten languages, was a biography/ travelogue on the road with Manu Chao. The result of decades of research is this, his first solo album. As a composer, his East-West group West India Company’s album New Demons, which featured Bollywood diva Asha Bhosle, was released by Editions EG , a label set up by Brian Eno. He has composed award - winning music for assorted dance companies and animated films. He wrote an “opera” recorded in Havana, to be released soon. Music From The Temple of Light was recorded mainly in Half Step Audio, in Mumbai with some of the most vital contemporary Indian musicians including Paras Nath on bansuri flute and Chandana Bala Kalyan on enchanting vocals. The music is a mysterious mix of East and West, ancient and modern, led by minimal tantric piano, objective, meditative music for a chaotic age. Other recordings took place in pre-war Odesa and it was mixed in London. It is the first part of a trilogy. The project was funded by the sale of Malcolm Mclaren’s classic Mercedes, which he left to Culshaw and some successful bets on Leicester City Football Club. The next release on Iskra in 2023 will be Aeroclube - an anglo-Brazilian fever dream. recorded in Salvador, Bahia. Music From THE Temple OF Light will be released on Vinyl, CD and digitally in March 2023, preceded by a trio of “singles”……

As a musician he plays alto saxophone, guitar, percussion and synthesizer with several bands and an expanding collective of like minded artists. Being a self-taught musician, his sound work is an extension of his visual work and his music is a mixture of joyful noise and simple naive melodies.

Seljuk has performed and recorded with artists such as Otomo Yoshihide, Senyawa, Hada Benedito Mateo, Eiko Ishibashi, Mitsuaki Matsumoto, Pisitakun, Yuen Chee Wai, Dharma, DJ Sniff, Maximilian Glass, Duncan Bruce, Hilary Jeffery and Hayden Chisholm. He has also worked with many theatre practitioners & performance artists in India making music for theatre as well as curating shows & workshops with actors and performers from around India.

The recordings on Cardboard Castles were made at Seljuk's studio in Kochi between 2016 and 2021 and were mostly instant compositions and single take recordings created in collaboration with a number of fellow travellers who've passed through the studio. At the inception of the album's creation Seljuk sought to reflect on what freedom means and what the musical limitations of this are, and how his involvement as a free improviser might project fixed ideas onto a listener. He wanted to use an improvisational approach that focussed on presenting ideas with a beauty inherent in their sound, coalescing these into song form. Cardboard Castles is the resulting album and application of these concepts.

We at Hive Mind feel privileged to have worked with Seljuk to bring you these deeply personal and highly idiosyncratic works which really do defy easy description. Ranging from strange and wonky electronic improvisations, gentle acoustic instrumentals such as the lush opener with the input of the Cochin String Orchestra, through experiments in traditional Indian song, this album will keep you guessing. Everything appears touched with a mischievous sense of playfulness that's maybe reflected in the face of the grinning camel that adorns the sleeve. We're sure you'll agree there's plenty to delight the listener on this strange dream of an album, Seljuk's first to receive a physical release.'

The CD version comes in a gatefold card digisleeve in an edition of 250 copies

Seljuk Rustum: Piano, Synthesizer, Sequencer, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Saxophone, Voice, Percussion Sekhar Sudhir: Violin on Tracks 5, 7&8, Acoustic Guitar on Track 4, Mandolin & Melodica on Track 3 Akshay Ashokan: Electric Guitar on Track 4 Joffy Chirayath: Drums on Tracks 3 & 10 Cochin String Orchestra: Strings on Track 1 (Thanks to Duncan Roy Bruce)

Produced, Engineered & Mixed by Seljuk Rustum Tracks 9,4 & 8 Edited by Sekhar Sudhir Track 3 voice from the Alan Lomax Archive from recordings made in Kerala in the 1970s to document the Malayam language Track 2 was composed for BUS (a theatre performance Written & Directed by Firoz Khan

Album Art: Unknown Artist (found on the walls near Palayam Market, Kozhikode).