2010s 212 Items

Yes, double stars do exist. They are a reality. They appear in the firmament – sometimes as an optical and sometimes as a physical phenomenon. Two celestial bodies, working in relation to each other, circling around each other, responding to each other.

This double A-sided 7" features two new cool, sophisticated and funky melodic pop songs from Bank. Tight bass lines, multi-hued percussion, snappily intertwining guitars, yearning melodies and clever production touches abound. These Tokyo veterans evince their love of all varieties of funky pop from recent decades in these two sweet sides.

Limited to 500 copies on transparent blue vinyl.

Björk presents a strings version of her highly-acclaimed eighth studio studio album Vulnicura, officially titled Vulnicura Strings. The original version of Vulnicura layered the boom and crack of electronic beats with an intense vocal melody and incredible string arrangements by Björk which have been performed live with a fifteen chair orchestra. The new version is musically wholly comprised of strings, with new violin solos by Una Sveinbjarnardóttir and strings recorded by a Viola Organista. Björk used the only Viola Organista in the world to perform some of the arrangements; an instrument which was designed originally by Leonardo Da Vinci but not built until after his lifetime. The instrument uses a friction belt to vibrate individual strings (similar to a violin), with the strings selected by pressing keys on the keyboard (similar to an organ). The instrument was recorded in Krakow, Poland by it's constructor Slawomir Zubrzycki and here is where the album reached completion.

Part of a series of single-sided etched translucent 12” records, each with their own unique etching and die-cut ‘Vulnicura’ wound sleeves, designed by M/M, Paris.“Lotic is the one of the first musicians Alejandro introduced me to in Autumn 2013 with piles of enthusiasm: I got immediately obsessed enjoying how always total nature he was!! The most clublike flamboyant anthems of his always seem like shrieks of beasts, dark insects and pagan birds displaying their feathers in a territorial way: a colourful celebration!! The reason why I asked him to do ‘Notget’ was there are certain suspension-like elastic gravitydefying beat structures that him and Alejandro share (each in their total idiosyncratic way though) that Notget has and I had a gut feeling he would take further. Which he did.” - Björk. “When Björk sent over the original track to review late last year, I couldn't believe how well she had intuited that ‘Notget’ was the perfect selection for me. Perhaps it was a bit of coincidence, but I was very much still tending to the scars left from my previous relationship while at the same time nurturing my current one. ‘Notget’ is both the mourning and the eulogy; I knew this meant remixing the song would be difficult, both technically and emotionally. In the end, I felt I had to attempt to amplify both the desperation the song expresses as well as the inspired, reminiscent joy.” – Lotic

Part of a series of single-sided etched translucent 12” records, each with their own unique etching and die-cut ‘Vulnicura’ wound sleeves, designed by M/M, Paris. “Mica is someone I have been following growing since 2008, like a proud aunt, I might even have been at her first concert? Sooo exciting to witness her grow into a full on composer and carry the weight of such things as ‘Under The Skin’... And I still adore her upbeat stuff withTirzah too !!!” - Björk. “I did a karaoke version more than a remix, because I love her string arrangements
and thought it would be an opportunity to draw attention to them. I hope Björk isn’t
offended that I took her voice out, [but] you can hear it in your head - or sing
along.” - Mica Levi

Part of a series of single-sided etched translucent 12” records, each with their own unique etching and die-cut ‘Vulnicura’ wound sleeves, designed by M/M, Paris. “Krampfhaft is someone I have been listening to for few years adoring his hyperbeauty, orchid techno I nickname it in the
vein of plaid and others: brave enough to take joy on in the often rather apocalyptic
environment of electronic music” - Björk. “I was very honoured to be part of this, although it was a pretty daunting task to
rework a song with such an intimate topic! As the original is very stripped down, all
I could think of doing was adding in [even more] tension and drama. So I layered the
whole track on to a bed of heavily compressed cloth movement and gradually built up
the tension from there.” - Kramphaft

The modernist Dreampop of Magic Island’s Wasted Dawn was catalyzed and nurtured by Berlin. The predominant Casio keyboard was found in the street, the project itself developed under the influence of a close circle of Berlin-based artists and friends, including Touchy Mob and Montreal’s Sean Nicholas Savage, while the compositions strongly reflect both the complex and most simplistic day-to-day emotions, events and surrounding environment. That particular magic has proven charming to many, as this year Magic Island has played at Fusion Festival, Torstraßen festival, C/O Pop Festival, at The Lab Magazine’s Regenerate event series, as well as opening for Fenster (Morr Music), Ballet School (Bella Union), Hundred Waters (OWSLA), Soft Metals (Captured Tracks) and Teen Daze.

Limited edition for record Store Day 2017!