Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Tape 413 Items

SIM Card Hã˜lder is not a band. It is the hybrid child of Ian Bruner, Drone Operatør and Gajek. It's procreation date is hard to pin down, but it started 2020 with an Insta chat and one of Ian's piano improvisations recorded in his Colorado living room. From there the album grew in separated covid lockdown wombs at three different locations in Germany. Ian's shadowy instrumentation of light piano and heavily layered and long believed to be dead soundscapes were digested, replanted and grown-over by Drone Operatør's and Gajek's uncompromising and individual sense for song structures and sounds. When finally all body parts were assembled in early 2021 the baby was already fluent in different languages.

Sim Card Hølder grows slowly while meandering through dense and open fields. It switches from calm and dreamy moods to wild fractured outbursts without fragmenting into the arbitrary. A raw spiritual power keeps every part connected and in perfect motion. Each song is a portal into multiple universes that suck you in on thick piano carpets, sharp saxophone spikes and buzzing quadcopter wings, warming insect intestines, blasting raw drums and slow healing winds, screeching synth rhymes, dissonant orchestral tales and floating blue melodies. It's a demanding ride but thoroughly deeply relaxing. The perfect soundtrack to rewind your mind.

As an outfit that has existed on the fringes of the club scene, Operant continues their willingness to break genre taboos and expectations with their debut LP, Traumkörper, exhibiting a hybrid vision of electronic and organic elements that gives rise to a sound self-described as somewhere between extra-terrestrial black-metal, singularity-sludge, proto-psy-trance, anime noise-core techno and auto-tuned trap-folk. These disparate methodologies are bound together by the conceptual elements that operate at the core of Operant’s thematic universe: the transcendence and destruction of the body, consciousness melding with machines and the manufacturing of new realities. As a blueprint to new forms, Traumkörper sets a path both disorienting and euphoric. Over the course of 11 tracks the Berlin based duo and operators of record label, Instruments Of Discipline, Luna Vassarotti (it) and August Skipper (aus) birth their dream-body, an unsettling soundtrack for the strangeness of our times. credits All songs written and mixed by Operant All songs mastered by Alain Paul Artwork Photography by Michael Italia Artwork by Operant

Both albums by Russian Armenian artist Aleksandra Evseeva aka Andra Ljos are themed around mythical wellsprings: last year’s debut of bewitched synthetic exotica, The Oasis Of Little Birds, and her latest, Fountain Of Inspiration. Conceived as a suite of imaginary ancient Grecian compositions for organ and sampler, the songs thread the saga of a sacred Greek island water sanctuary where the nymph Castalia drowned while escaping Apollo, and where visitors to the Oracle of Delphi bathed before receiving prophecy. Fountain feels appropriately holy and harrowing, eight cryptic processionals of keys, strings, sitar, backward whispers, and percussion, like hidden hymns for forbidden temples. Her background as a member of St. Petersburg wilderness ambient trio 2muchachos (alongside Vladimir Karpov / X.Y.R.) manifests in the music’s devotional mood and arcane reveries, conjured in mystic solitude at her Vilnius home studio. Andra is her mother’s pet name for her and Ljos is Icelandic for ‘light,’ due to having white hair; but combined they create an enlightened presence, channeling the siren frequencies of enchanted thresholds to realms both unreal and, till now, unheard.

A short visit to the Indochinese Peninsula at the wrong time of the global pandemic breakout, led Ian Richter to over a year and a half of living in Vietnam, and to a deep love affair with the Vietnamese folk religion. Ian was intrigued to find a place drenched in culture and mysticism existing hand in hand with hyper capitalism (yet officially committed to socialism). Over the course of the last 18 month Ian recorded, mentally and physically, the sounds of his encounters and experiences. From daily life, through industrial and natural landscapes, to ancient and modern dance, forging foreign with familiar, mysticism with science, and claustrophobia with liberation.

Limited to 100 Cassettes Fairground of Tears’ ‘Execution’ is a 10 track EP of heavy, noisy techno, containing 5 original tracks and 5 remixes from Melania., Phin, Pre Silent, Antechamber and Tomohiko Sagae. Conceptually, the release explores the multi-perspectival facets of the serial killer phenomenon, both the victim and the killer, but also the role of the voyeur, which in this instance, the listener becomes. Fairground Of Tears is a London based producer, resident DJ at Noise Orchestra and the founder and curator of the London event series, Exiled. credits Mastered by Joe Farr Artwork by Hila Angelica Mazzocco.

War Scenes continues his techno, hardware odyssey, returning to Instruments Of Discipline with his third EP, ‘Induced Sleep’, featuring a crushing remix from Ayarcana. Induced Sleep is a concept EP, the soundtrack to a generation who have signed themselves into suspended animation to wait out the strife of their times.

Following the critically acclaimed Vinyan cassette, Katha is Siamese Twins’ second curated pan-Asian compilation selected to form a continuous and coherent whole, whose strong transcendental ambience comes tinged with Eastern psychedelia. Katha is the Khmer and Thai name used for chanted sacred mantras and magical incantations that offer protection, charm, or certain influence in life. Its origins stem from "Gatha", a Sanskrit term referring to any poetic metre commonly used in legends - verses recited (usually mentally) in rhythm with the breath as part of mindfulness practice or meditation. A hypnotic sound bath in which tribally-rooted ambient morphs into one entity. Drones, live instruments and esoteric textures are transformed into a contemporary Katha interpretation.

Lotus Wash drops his debut album on LBD Sounds, bringing a whole load of fresh material which came out from his experience as a session musician, and performing his experimental live sets around the Czech Republic. He connects the dots between classically trained musician and modular synth-head, working in Prague's DIY shop and creative community Noise Kitchen. The album spans across 6 original tracks of pure analogue bliss and live ideas, alongside three remixes from his closest allies, local producers Oliver Torr, Vision of 1994, and Hrtl.

The Field Theory was created during a period of deep fascination with quantum physics, with the tracks being conceptually and aesthetically inspired by some of its phenomena. Acoustically, it's mostly a slow and dark affair, with Lotus Wash only letting the light in very briefly when the sun is young (Magnetic Moment), keeping the shutter firmly closed for the rest of the record. His music does not rely on banging beats to drive it, instead letting intense grooves do the job from deep underground, just like on earth-shattering album opener Vacuum Fluctuation. He masters his craft of building atmosphere, a skill learnt during multiple collaborations with various Czech theatres. Of course, he lets the steam out occasionally, and always with devastating effect (Higgs Field, Casimir Force), but mostly choses to keep it capped, humming and hissing. When the sky clears, he opts for a minimalistic and hypnotic approach, only to disturb this peace with a killer bassline in one of the album's highlights – Spooky Action in A Distance – later re-imagined and re-electrified by Oliver Torr. Standard Model is anything but your standard techno, while Hrtl's remix of Magic Moment flirts with techno too, but on a dubbier and brighter side. Bringing the album to a close is Vision of 1994's downtempo take on the same track, finally letting you breathe out.

The feeling of social isolation during the lockdown in the winter of '20/21 led us to work collectively and collaboratively. We explored the possibilities within the limitation of the concept of NO Recording project and adapted the method of Exquisite corpse.

Featured artists: Cienfuegos, group A, Horoscope, Isabella, Joachim Nordwall, Nick Klein, Tot Onyx, Wilted Woman

Recorded mostly with Korg Minilogue XD in September-October 2020. Some additions & mixing & cassette mastering November 2020 - February 2021, Digital version mastering July 2021.

Music & artwork by Jani Hirvonen. inspiration: Quantum physics, universe, cosmic vibrations / dimensions / frequencies, spirituality, the unknown...

*c50 length Cassette Tape* "Best Available Technology joins `blundar ́ C50 tape series followed by Blundar12 LP"

For the tenth edition of its tape series, Climate of Fear presents "Empire of the Senseless," a rippling, brooding session by Izabel. Recorded at an april 2019 party opening for Legowelt, "Empire" shows the Lullabies for Insomniacs boss in a molten halftime groove, drifting from fungal ambient to dark-aura'ed club crawlers. Rich, unnerving, sorrowful and sensuous. Feel your face melt.

We are excited to present you with the beginnings of a new mix series. Each mix will be 60 minutes long and strictly limited to a run of just 50 mixtapes. Each release will be designed by Cengiz Menguc and mastered by Felix-Florian Todtloff, and will come with a personal digital download code. First in line is Hamburg-based DJ, screenwriter, photographer and music curator Phuong-Dan. Departing from the standard chronology of a fixed A- and B-side, the release is comprised of just one title outlining the red thread throughout the whole tape, entitled "Sememes". Derived from the notion of the sememe--the smallest unit of intended meaning found within a word--and itself a palindrome, another notion that goes with the general idea behind this mixtape, the title and accompanying track leave all possible linear narratives behind. In Phuong-Dan's own words: 'All music and sound pieces in this mix could be regarded as individual sememes themselves, or even the whole mix as one in itself... or...'

A download code is included. Ambient Music? Oh yes! Number two in the Frank Music tape series comes from the city of Leipzig yet again. Mary Yalex is a mainstay in various genres of dance music. Better go and check her records on Kann & Dial for instance if you haven’t already. We are delighted to give you around 39 minutes of textures, sketches, warmth, weirdness and kindness. In other words: welcome to “Sentimental Journey". Mary guides us through a 10 tracks trip over calm pads ("November Strings"), steady bubbles ("Coral Reef"), postponed dreams ("Broken Café Blues"), ascending melodies ("Moonlight") and bitter realities ("Social Distance"). Tape format for the enthusiast, digital formats for all of us. Artwork by beloved illustrator Jana Marei.

Ragoo Records is proud to welcome Odeeno for Rgt06, the sixth installment of the cassette series curated by the label. The Alma project was born from a very strong personal experience that led Odeeno to get closer to his inner self and to know his own soul. Although it is in line with the already wide discography of Odeeno, Alma is a different EP, it represents the beginning of a new phase. Alma is a mature and conscious work, full of new inspirations and new languages. The struggle against personal ghosts is transferred to its decisive place, at the center of the body: the soul. She is the friend to listen to, to talk to in order to recognize life's mistakes and transform them into a richer and more defined experience, just like the beats of this work. The atmospheres of dark colors dissolve, the groove becomes more fluid, the times faster. Beyond darkness and gloom, for Odeeno there is now light. In this sense Alma is his most committed album, but also challenging, from an artistic and emotional point of view. Alma is growth and evolution, in other words a new beginning.

Lair returns to Eotrax with a new 4-track EP. Following her 2017 self-titled debut EP, releases on Urban Legend and Rhod Records as well as collaborative projects in the visual arts and dance she returns to Eotrax to release I Hurt So I Cry this summer. Created using elements of sound healing and sacred sound I Hurt So I Cry can be engaged with from a purely musical perspective or listeners can take advantage of its sound healing qualities and use this EP as an active sound bath- active in that the listener intentionally uses the music to support them in going within and releasing, resting and restoring their body, nervous system and heart. As with all Lair’s work, the music is composed using only her voice with one exception, a sampled cello in the EPs first track Foreshadow. This brooding opener inhabits the dark ambient world we've come to expect of her music but as the EP unfolds ethereal vocal lines mix with her darker sound and a new, lighter sound world is revealed. In the artist’s words: “A shadow falls across our lives, we hurt so we cry, the feeling starts to shift and from that shift hope can spring." Both intimate and expansive, the tracks create a feeling of existing outside time. Lair’s profound connection to nature can be felt through all the tracks - at times in a deep cavern, at times moving through an elvish forest and at times in an Otherworld. Released on June 29th on red cassette & digital with artwork and design by Goldmoth Media. Mastered by Dominic at Declared Sound.

Leavereveal is a rich collection of lofi beats that combine ambient elements with jazz and hiphop. The album expresses the feeling of growing older and changing with those moments when you find out that leaving one thing behind reveals other things you didn't yet know. Leavereveal is Qaett's first full album with Inner Ocean Records. About Qaett Having released music in digital and physical format on several labels since 2011 under a different alias, Qaett is a return to basics. Under this guise, Qaett creates ambient and neo-classical piano lofi music combining dreamy, melancholic beats. Qaett's music is meant for dreaming, relaxing, resting, studying, meditation, introspection and taking a step back. Artwork Design by Qaett

Back in February of 2019, Karen Gwyer opened Climate's first party of the year with her DJ debut. She delivered an extended study in mesmeric collage and impossibly deep sonic foraging. Gwyer is known for her unflinchingly adventurous productions and careening, unmistakable live performances. Take a peek behind the curtain and hear some of her most personal inspirations. A love letter to the strange and otherworldly, "Eternal Unborn Softly" plays as fluidly as a half remembered dream.

As for many musicians, if there was anything positive about the lockdown in the spring of 2020, it was having more time to create music, to experiment and to maybe even start a completely new project with someone you may never have worked with before.
when dominik grenzler aka an moku, a sound artist and bass player based in zurich, approached stefan schmidt (guitarist, composer and improviser from baden-baden) with the idea of collaborating, it turned out the initial spark for a fruitful process and artistic exchange: within just a couple of weeks they managed to craft an album which turned out edgy and harmonic at the same time. despite its abstractionism, „raum“ has a very organic feeling to it, provides a richness of details and finely processed sounds of different origins like bass, cello, field recordings and a vast array of electronic equipment. according to the 2 musicians, the process of creating the ten tracks was a smooth and intuitive one with hardly any need to discuss the concept or details, the communication took place within the music and the exchanged files.

100 copies only. C50 tape recording of Bantam Lions soundscapes. A preamble to a forthcoming 12” (blundar9) release in jointure with Best Available Technology.

AmiciMiei is very proud to announce the release of 42'37'' composed by Wladimir Schall 42’37’’ is forty-two minutes and thirty-seven seconds long Track 7 is named Sept 42’37’’ is filled with sounds and silences Track 4 is named Quatre 42’37’’ is an imaginary musical seascape where time floats One can listen to 42’37’’ for 34’22’’ or any other length

Somatic Suspension is the new album from Stockholm based Spanish composer and pianist Hara Alonso. Emerging from a classical contemporary background, her current work fuses electronic and instrumental music along with interactive works. Composed at the EMS studios is Stockholm, Somatic Suspension arises from a meditative process of introspection and inward listening. This work attempts to translate various somatic experiences into the sonic plane through the exploration of gestural repetition in a biofeedback continuum. The piano used, an electroacoustic Yamaha Cp-70, is a rare instrument with a piezo pick-up system, outputs, a built-in equalizer and a tremolo effect. It’s unique sound quality invoked the overall atmosphere of the album, sustained like a winter forest covered by scattered golden leaves. The digital processes that accompany the piano dissolve its pure sound into a mesmerizing superposition of layers and glitches. Intimate melodies, minimal electronic beats and teared textures merge together echoing the memory of an uncertain future. File next to: Klara Lis Coverdale, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, Kelly Moran Released on March 5th on white cassette & digital

Documa is the multimedia project of longtime Northwest Indiana musician Bobby Markos. Markos began writing and releasing music on his own, using analog production methods at home. The project debuted with a collection of songs called “The Color of Documa.” Around the same time, Documa began performing live, marrying audio and visual aspects to create an almost movie-like experience for audience members. The sounds of Documa are heavily influenced by music from the 60s and 70s, documentary soundtracks, and field recordings. The music incorporates fingerstyle guitar playing, as well as electronic compositions and samples to create ambient productions with country-western cadence. Markos relies on a home studio consisting of old reel-to-reel tape machines, VCRs, and cassette decks to engineer Documa recordings.

To integrate a longtime love of film, he founded Documavision, a production company focused on collaborating with other artists, visualizers, and motion graphics. The visual aesthetic focuses on film equipment and methods of the past as well, often using analog cameras, televisions, and VCRs to produce videos.

To close out 2020, Documa has partnered with Flesh & Bone Records to release a series of EPs, starting with the digital release of the EP “3.” and now a cassette release of "Lo-Fi One Two Seven".

RIYL: Duster, Bowery Electric, Codeine, Slowcore meets Downbeat, Tortoise.