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Verdaillon
Saåad

Sep 21, 2016

by George McVicar in reviews

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Sep 19, 2016articles

Reconnect
ICM In Focus

Short run vinyl is a tricky business. In our own endeavours, we've often been advised pressings of less than 200 is a pointless excursion, financially speaking. One workaround is lathe cutting. In this process, each individual disc is cut separately, rather than cutting a master plate, which all the other records are pressed from. New York founded ICM, or 'In Context Music' learnt this lesson early on, limiting their releases to lathe cut series numbering just 25 from the very first release, as label owner Angus Tarnawsky explains.

Sep 17, 2016articles

1937 - 2016
Don Buchla's Legacy

It would be hard to give any extensive history of electronic music without making some recourse to Don Buchla. A pioneering engineer, Buchla shaped the sonic world that we currently live in. In particular, the Buchla 100 and 200 series came to define a generation of synthesisers. These were among the first synthesisers to be built and unlike Moog, they came without any standard black-and-white piano keys. This set the Buchla series apart from any other instruments made hitherto. They were synths made as they ought to be: ultra-modern, experimental and alien.

Sep 15, 2016reviews

Seven
Electric Indigo

There have been several facets to the career of Susanne Kirchmayr, aka Electric Indigo. Beginning her work as a DJ in the early 1990s, the Austrian born producer worked at the iconic Hardwax store in Berlin, delivering many of her own thundering 4/4 warehouse jams at the same time. In later years, Kirchmayr's style has diversified. She has worked on sound installations and theatre based projects, even receiving the 'Outstanding Artist Award' from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture in 2012. Her most recent 12", the HET released 'Seven' EP, sees a meeting of these two worlds, moving the dancefloor into the avante-garde.

Sep 07, 2016interviews

Draw The Notes
Mark Fell

You’d be forgiven for assuming there are several Mark Fell’s performing music, making films and exhibiting at galleries. There probably are other Mark Fell’s, but the one we spoke to is quite a prolific one, and quite hard to define too.

Aug 31, 2016reviews

Inner Geography
en creux

"...entropy, fission, infinity, hell, silence..." These are the words used by American composer Alvin Curran to describe the sound of an imaginary flight in his 1994 liner notes, accompanying a performance of _Inner Cities_. In the same liner notes, he muses on what sound might be like at the Earth's core, a theme which has been picked up on for the latest dispatch from Lucia H Chung's 'en creux' project, _Inner Geography_.

Aug 23, 2016interviews

Constellations
Peder Mannerfelt

Although I might not have clocked the name until years later, I guess my first exposure to Peder Mannerfelt would have been six or seven years ago, listening to the glacial electro-pop of fellow Swede, Fever Ray. As well as helping produce some of her most notable tracks, Mannerfelt has also worked with artists like Glasser, and even swung a credit on Britney Spears' 'Toxic' while working as a runner for producers Bloodshy & Avant.

Aug 16, 2016articles

That Time When
Blood Music

Simon Pomery aka Blood Music's live shows are a visceral experience to say the least. Twisted electronics and contact mic abstractions crumple beneath Pomery's crushing rhythms, in an onslaught which leaves your bones rattling. Where bands setups tend to push drummers to the back, in response to an "unspoken and repressive hierarchy" as he put to us during an interview last year, Blood Music shows put them back in focus.

Aug 10, 2016reviews

Even 11
Margaret Dygas

Minimal: for the most part, it's not a genre that excites me too much. An endless wave of barely distinguishable M_nus releases with unfathomably high Discogs values certainly hasn't helped, either. When it's right however it can be really right, as output from labels like ~scape, or Jan Jelinek's back-catalogue will attest. Berlin's Margaret Dygas is another such artist who rarely gets it wrong. Her last release, the head-spinning 'Even 11', is no different, showcasing her freeform approach to the genre with as much ingenuity as ever.

Aug 02, 2016articles

Use Your Head
Norbergfestival 2016

Until 1999, Norberg was probably best known for its history mining and refining iron ore. Amongst enthusiasts, it is also home to the Engelsberg-Norbergs Järnväg railway, which is now protected as a heritage site. Located a couple of hours outside of Stockholm, these days Norberg has a new attraction.

Jul 20, 2016podcasts

0065
Anne Lepère

Anne Lepère, a Brussels-based artist, explores the relationships between various strains of sound design in her work: field recordings, radio drama, and experimental music. Following her time as a co-student at l’IHECS (apply communication degree), Lepère continued to explore the relationship between melody, the voice and the body: in a range of different workshops and residencies. This includes building microphones, "playing sounds of daily life", choreographic programs, and breathing practices...

Jul 18, 2016interviews

The Golden Cage
Unknot

I first came across the work of Emanuele Porcinai through Contort: the event series and label owned by Hayley and Samuel Kerridge. His 'Stainless' EP under his WSR moniker followed a lineage of electro-acoustic composition, while simultaneously absorbing these sounds into the realms of contemporary electronic experimentation. Recently, I was recommended a collaborative project of his with Illian Tapes producer Sciahri, entitled Unknot.

Jul 17, 2016articles

Music is the Catalyst
Terraforma 2016

This July saw the third edition of Terraforma Festival, the now annual weekend of electronic music taking place in the grounds of the beautiful Villa Arconati, just north of Milan. This venue played host to around twenty acts on two distinct stages over the weekend. Also hosted were a few hundred campers, and what felt like an equal share of attendees coming just for individual days. In addition to the low capacity and picturesque venue, a clean and minimal design aesthetic, lots of space and minimal security gave the festival a relaxed atmosphere that felt, for the most part, pleasingly detached from the sponsored sheen of many other festivals.

Jul 14, 2016articles

That Time When
Sote

In the early 2000's Iranian artist Ata Ebtekar was picked up on by Warp Records, releasing two high charged percussive assaults, 'Electric Deaf' and 'Subconscious (Pure Mix)' under the name Sote. The record navigated away from the more conceptual work they had been exploring around the time, instead slamming the listener with redlining kicks and shuddering reece basslines. As one Discogs user put it, the loudness of the record "freaked more than a few people out".

Jul 09, 2016reviews

BATCH0003
AND REA

Things have changed somewhat since SM-LL graduated from digital to vinyl and lathe formats. Their early releases, the 'Default' series, were mainly reserved for the assorted projects of label owners Martin J Thompson and Lucia H Chung. These days however, there are new faces at every turn. Danish duo R.E.C, Belgian artist Yves De Mey and Japanese producer Durusin have all made appearances on the label. The latest release comes in the form of a new project from Kaj Duncan David, AND REA.

Jul 05, 2016interviews

Exist & Influence
Sissel Wincent

The talent pool for sonically challenging electronic music seems to be remarkably strong in Sweden at the moment. As well as imprints like Kontra Musik, Stockholm_LTD and Skudge Records who have been waving the avante-techno flag for years, recently Peder Mannerfelt has also been pushing the envelope with his own, eponymously titled label. Following on the heels of Machine Woman's stunning 'For Sweden' EP, Mannerfelt looked to fellow Swede Sissel Wincent for the latest offering on the label.

Jun 28, 2016articles

That Time When
Mary Velo

| Mary Velo has a fierce and unrestrained back-catalogue of warehouse thumpers behind her. The Toronto-raised producer has made notable impacts on labels such as Frozen Border and Att Series, disoriented 4/4 and twisting, discordant melodies perfectly suited to mind-bending, early-hour trips. As a DJ herself, Velo has become well-versed at creating music which balances functionality with densely interwoven melodic textures.

Jun 26, 2016reviews

Rundgång
A.O.T

Sonuous: perhaps the only label in the world that professes to deal exclusively with music between 35 and 80 BPM. A tempo range that many of us would consider murky and unfamiliar territory. How can you feel a rhythm that's but a quarter of your pulse? This is a label pushed to the extremes. Yet this is precisely the kind of obscurantism that its label boss Finn Albertsson craves.

Jun 21, 2016reviews

CSLM
Grischa Lichtenberger & Jesse Osborne-Lanthier

| Grischa Lichtenberger is not an artist I would have thought well suited to collaboration. Stylistically, he is often compared to Autechre, although I have always thought of his productions as existing completely in a sphere of their own. Tropes of Glitch and EDM are forced through a mesh of ultra-computerised processing. Given the highly unique and also often conceptual nature of his work, it can be difficult to imagine his sound jelling effectively with another artists.

Jun 18, 2016reviews

Terminal Velocity
Lars Lundehave Hansen

The topic of Stockholm's EMS studio has come up a few times this year. They helped curate this year's Intonal Festival in Sweden and I also spent time discussing the uniqueness of the space in an interview with Raster-Noton artist, Kyoka who attended sessions there in the creation of her 'SH' EP. A month or so ago the name came up again when I was presented with this rather intriguing selection of organically-textured electronics from Copenhagen based sound-artist, Lars Lundehave Hansen.

Jun 14, 2016reviews

Illusion of Randomness
Sissel Wincent

| Peder Mannerfelt's eponymous label is fast becoming a leader in championing new talent in the world of avante-electronics. The imprint provided the breakthrough EP from Anna Vtorova aka Machine Woman, as well as an early release from now Editions Mego signed Klara Lewis alongside assorted Mannerfelt self-releases. The latest act to feature on the label is Sissel Wincent, a Swedish artist with an ear for the same heat-warped electronics and tin-drum polyrhythms which typify Mannerfelt's own releases.

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