v.a. – VV-VA-00 (CD & digital, VV-VA/٧٨-٧٧)
VV-VA-00 is the first release of VV-VA, a new Lebanese label run by Jawad Nawfal aka Munma, also known for his duo Tasjiil Moujahed. This collaboration includes a lot of his collaborations and collaborators, all based in Beirut : Mazen El Sayed (El Rass), Elyse Tabet (_Litter), Sharif Sehnaoui, Jad Atoui and Charbel Haber (Scrambled Eggs). Despite the sometimes very different scenes some of the musicians come from (from hip hop to free improv), the compilation maintains a very good unity, the tracks are for most ambient and electronica, many are instrumental, some include voices. (cdrk)
Serata Keiji – Ambiguous boundaries (digital, AMART)
Very peaceful and relaxing drone and ambient album with a pinch of field recordings ba Japanese composer Serata Keiji. (cdrk)
Normal Brain- Lady Maid (CD, cassette, vinyl, digital, WRWTFWW Records)
“Originally released in 1981 as a limited vinyl pressing of 300 copies on Agi Yuzuru’s fabled experimental label Vanity Records (R.N.A. Organism, Dada, Sympathy Nervous, Tolerance…), Lady Maid is a testament to the creativity of the early 80s’ Japanese electronic and experimental scene, encapsulating a prolific era when audio gear became affordable for musicians to explore sounds in the comfort of their home, free from studio time pressure and major label rules.” (from the labels’ page)
Miftah Bravenda – It’s Alright EP (digital, self-released)
New EP for Tangerang (a town at the outskirt of Jakarta) based Miftah Bravenda. From post-rock to electronic pop music. (cdrk)
Mise_En_Scene – -O-R-G-A-N- (cassette & digital, Crónica)
Mise_En_Scene is an Israeli solo project active for more than a decade.
-O-R-G-A-N- is a very minimalistic meditative drone album, except for the fifth track, remixed by sound artist Adam Basanta who provides a glitch/electronica piece. (cdrk)
Sankara Future Dub Resurgence – Drawing On Ancestral Knowledge (digital, Indigenous Resistance)
Excellent industrial dub made in Uganda and the UK. The release includes four heavy bass and distorted dub tracks with political lyrics, recorded in Kampala.
Sankara Future Dub Resurgence is a trio made of Ras Isaacs (percussions), Ras Charles (dj), Kabaka labartin Klacity (vocals) featuring Indonesian guest vocalist Nina and Dhangsha aka Dr Das, Churulian (Asian Dub Foundation) (noisy electronics).
You can watch their video on Vimeo. (cdrk)
Pengboon Don – I play Alone (digital, self-released)
Pengboon Don is one of the few free improvisers in Thailand. This new release contains one improvised piece for guitar, effects and field recordings. (cdrk)
Xu Shaoyang, Fiona Lee, Livia Garcia – live at cafe oto (digital, self-released)
This live recording is a mix of jazz piano and field recordings made in Honk Kong by Fiona Lee during the demonstrations happening in 2019, a field recording collage that you can hear here. (cdrk)
Fiona Lee – Hong Kong 9 June to 12 Sep 2019 (digital, self-released)
“This track is the field recordings on the protest to No Extradition Law in Hong Kong, from 9June 2019 to 12 Sep 2019.
From the first day till now, we Hong Kong people step out to fight for our right and freedom.
This track is including around 7 days recordings during the protest.” (Fiona Lee)
4lienetic – Abstract (digital, self-released)
4lienetic is a solo project based in Mumbai, India. This new album contains six ambient tracks, mostly electronic but here and there with post-rock or classical music influences, that remind of a film score. (cdrk)
DETHOMEGA – sub singularity (digital, Acid Distribution)
Filipino electronic music composer Dethomega is back with a new album that mixes plunderphonics, ambient, post-industrial, noise electronics that reminds of some music productions from the late 1990s. (cdrk)
madamdata – 3f requiem (digital, self-released)
One long onkyokei track by Singaporean artist madamdata : filtered minimalistic high pitch tones (feedback ?). (cdrk)
Fahmi M. – Climate Change (digital, self-released)
Hyper active Indonesian composer Fahmi M. provides us here some electroacoustic tracks made with modular synth. (cdrk)
BRRR. – Gendam Sukma (part1) (digital, self-released)
BRRR. is Mahamboro, a musician from Jogjakarta, Indonesia. This one track release is inspired by Javanase culture (no gamelan in here !) and rhythmical industrial music. (cdrk)
Arcade Ghoul – Heart of a Statue (digital, self-released)
Hailing from Istanbul, Turkey, Arcade Ghoul released a ten tracks album that oscillates between post-industrial, distorted electronics, rhythmic industrial and lo-fi ambient ballads. (cdrk)
Torturing Nurse / Bobryk – Vutuv / Why (cassette & digital, ЩЫЛ)
Split between Chinese harsh noise performer Torturing Nurse and Ukrainian noise artist Bobryk. (cdrk)
Reza Solatipour – The Gate (cassette, CDr & digital, Eighth Tower Records)
Reza Solatipour is an Iranian dark ambient artist. This new album contains ten dark and cinematic tracks that include many traditional ingredients of the genre : whispering, drones, reverberated choirs, tribal rhythm deeply buried in the background, dark melodies, and so on. (cdrk)
Ecko Bazz – Kyusa Embela (digital, Hakuna Kulala)
Great hip hop made in Kampala, Uganda, Ecko Bazz teams up with UK music producer pq to deliver three dark, distorted and heavy tracks between bass music and industrial hip hop. (cdrk)
Hoshiko Yamane & Mikael Lind – Spaces In Between (CD & digital, Time Released Sound & Time Sensitive Materials)
“Hoshiko Yamane is a classically trained violinist, and a current member of the legendary band Tangerine Dream. She’s also an accomplished composer, and whether releasing and playing under her own name, or as Tukico, her unique sound often features looped strings together with Moog synths and effects.
Mikael Lind has released several albums of experimental ambiances, often drifting between either more classical Warp style electronica, or a modern classically oriented sound. Early this year, Hoshiko and Mikael decided to try to compose two tracks together, mostly out of curiosity. Thrilled by the outcome of the first two songs, they ended up finishing this entire album!” (from the label’s page)
Miki Yui – wigawiga/wigawigawiga (casette & digital, Hasana Editions)
“Based in Germany for the last two decades, Japan-born Miki Yui’s music is relatively small in scale but exceptionally rich in texture. She is known for her peculiar minimalistic and organic approach towards sound, balancing a delicate tiny hiss to a distant hum, quirky electronic clicks and field recordings, and sculpted it into unhurried pieces of composition with suspense and narrative tension. wigawiga/wigawigawiga was recorded live earlier this year in her Düsseldorf studio, and is a manifestation of the memory of lived events. An ever-flowing streams, constantly rise and recede, reveal then erase its own traces, fading after having appeared or being awakened, crafting a poem of abstract landscapes.” (from the label’s page)
Das B – Canopy (CD & digital, ТОПОТ)
Das B is an international project founded in 2015 in Berlin and including Lebanese free improv musician Mazen Kerbaj (trumpet), German improviser Magda Mayas (piano), Australian improvisers Mike Majkowski (double bass) and Tony Buck (percussion) well known for playing with The Necks. Excellent team for an excellent result, a perfectly crafted free improv live recording at the Konfrontationen festival in Austria.
Syrphe magazine 杂志 