Oiseaux-Tempête - طرب TARAB (Sub Rosa)
The collective
Oiseaux-Tempête has stretched its electric arc over musical genres and borders, imposing itself in a river of tours and releases like a wild UFO within the hexagonal indie scene. Navigating instinct, as attracted by disorder, the music of Oiseaux-Tempête has always increased tenfold in live performance.
طرب TARAB (in literary arabic - euphoria, secular exaltation, ecstasy), their sixth release on the demanding label Sub Rosa, is the result of live recordings captured during the AL-'AN! Tour. Hypnotic in pulsation, TARAB is a meeting of the Parisian founding members Frédéric D. Oberland and Stéphane Pigneul, electronic sound wizard Mondkopf, G.W.Sok from The Ex, Sylvain Joasson of Mendelson, videographers As Human Pattern and the Lebanese musicians Charbel Haber, Abed Kobeissy and Ali El Hout (aka Two Or The Dragon). Marrying free-rock, organic electronics, traditional instruments and unbridled electricity, TARAB, far beyond the vibrant testimony, is a generous invitation to experience, to meditate and to share.
Only Now & Orogen - S/T (Discrepant)
"Unearth I and II" carves tunnels of resonance which mimic the cosmic proportions and monolithic movements of exoplanet existence. As the compositions grow on into side B of the cassette, the zero BPM landscape slowly transforms into cycles, distinctly organic and tribal, slipping out the very last, or the very first primitive signs of life on a planet, not of our own.
Only Now (Kush Arora) and
Orogen (Lucas Patzek) grew up together in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have been collaborating on ambient and experimental sound projects for 19 years. In high school they began manipulating and arranging audio from minidisc field recordings, first-generation software synths, hardware samplers and FX pedals, and homemade contact mics. The sonic innovators that inspired their early work include Zoviet France, Brume, Lustmord, Alio Die, Haujobb, and Hafler Trio. They were drawn to the occult music scenes of California and beyond, and performed together from their teenage years through their 20’s at a variety of venues, from outdoor music festivals to artsy fashion shows.
SØS Gunver Ryberg - Solfald (Noise Manifesto)
The Danish composer, performer and sound artist
SØS Gunver Ryberg appeared on the second chapter of the Noise Manifesto Decon/Recon series together with Aïsha Devi, Rrose, and Paula Temple herself. ‘Solfald’ is her own solo EP for the label including six original tracks, some of which have evolved from her captivating live performances. SØS Gunver Ryberg creates genre-defying electronic music, sound installations and stage performances. Her characteristic style is recognized for challenging your state of consciousness by transformative music experiences with insistent rhythms, combined with a meticulous exploration of textures and timbres. Raw sounds created from synthesis and processed field recordings are framed by symphonic forms and create a unique expressivity.
Topdown Dialectic - S/T (Peak Oil)
The dissociative electronic designs of incognito American producer
Topdown Dialectic originated as a set of software strategies, rather than compositions in the traditional sense. The recordings are captures and edits of various nonlinear sound-systems, shifting conditions, and reactions to internal changes. Despite such a conceptual basis the music is hyper-sensory, evocative, and emotive, meshing the impossible sonic geometries of early UK warehouse bleeps and IDM stutters with the gritty spatial abstraction of Basic Channel to chart dynamic and diaphanous electronic topographies, at once decentralized, parallel, and environmental. The eight identical-length tracks comprising this self-titled vinyl debut demonstrate the breadth of the Topdown sound world: shuddering, circuitous, textural, kinetic. This is compelling, composite music, instigated as much as created, like obscure machinations occurring deep in the labyrinth of a server somewhere.
Unearthing The Music – Notes From The Underground (Experimental Sounds Behind The Iron Curtain)
This double LP compilation is a meeting of musicians and artists that never happened. Mostly active in the 1970s and 1980s in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Hungarian People’s Republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the People’s Republic of Poland, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the German Democratic Republic, the groups and individuals who feature on this record were often divided by the insular and paranoid policies of the communist states in which they lived. Some of the music was recorded during energetic public concerts; some of it was laid down in home-made studios, and some in state recording facilities. This compilation signals the coming together of four different projects which have been covering overlooked histories and alternative art in the former Eastern Bloc and Yugoslavia in the second half of the 20th century: Germany’s Major Label and Zonic platform, Poland’s Notes From the Underground exhibition and Portugal’s Unearthing the Music project.