Browse by Artist: LITHOPS

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Formationen
Label:	A-MUSIK (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	A 035LP

"The A-Musik label is back with a very special release by Jan Werner, who has been an important artist on the label since 1995. Its first release back then was the debut LP by Microstoria, Werner's collaboration with Oval's Markus Popp that became a milestone in the history of experimental electronica. The sources for Formationen are early solo recordings by Werner, which he produced with synthesizers and tapes in 1992 and 1993, during his collaborations with F.X.Randomiz and his first experiments with Andi Thoma that would be released a bit later under the alias Mouse on Mars. Werner found those early tapes a while ago, remastered and carefully re-worked them, and the result is four stunning pieces of beautiful electronic music. Formationen closes a gap in the oeuvre of Jan Werner and helps understand the impressive work of one of the key figures of 1990s/2000s electronica. Essential and highly recommended. Vinyl only, strictly limited to 300 copies."

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Uni Umit
Label:	MOIKAI
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	M02 CD

First full length solo release by Jan St. Werner (Mouse On Mars, Microstoria). "Uni Umit was released in Europe as a vinyl-only item on Mouse on Mars' Sonig label. This is it's first CD issue, featuring new mixes as well as bonus tracks. Laying somewhere between his work in MoM and Microstoria, Uni Umit is both musical and abstract, melodic and scattered...stands out amongst the current crop because it harkens back to the early 90s, (can we indulge and say) 'classic', Köln sound. It features those strange bubbling rhythms that seem to be more lava burps than drum blurts, but also moves back through the experimental kind of textures that were found on the classic albums on Quiet Artworks and Dom Bartwuchs (Christoph Heemann's old label)."

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Sequenced Twinset.Fi
Label:	SONIG (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	SONIG 008EP

German pressing on the original Sonig label (this was also licensed to Thrill Jockey for release in the U.S., as THR 12.19). "Lithops is Jan from Mouse on Mars. 'Sequenced Twinset' and "Fi" are two remastered tracks from the early Lithops period in 1995. Beautifully flowing, they leave behind the boundaries between classical music writing, sound programming, and spontaneous music improvisation. Microtonal buzzes, strained melodies, feedback hiss, digital noise events, tape tricks, and dub perversions fuse to become a hybrid lecture of freaked out subtleness. This limited 12" is filled with poetic surgery dissecting, traces of structural complexity, and compositional skill on the surface of pure music." Limited stock.

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Sequenced Twinset/Fi
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	12"
Price:	$6.50
Catalog #:	THR 012.19EP

"Lithops is Jan from Mouse on Mars. 'Sequenced Twinset' and "Fi" are two remastered tracks from the early Lithops period in 1995. Beautifully flowing, they leave behind the boundaries between classical music writing, sound programming, and spontaneous music improvisation. Microtonal buzzes, strained melodies, feedback hiss, digital noise events, tape tricks, and dub perversions fuse to become a hybrid lecture of freaked out subtleness. This limited 12" is filled with poetic surgery dissecting, traces of structural complexity, and compositional skill on the surface of pure music." Limited stock.

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Scrypt
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 132CD

"Lithops is the solo outlet of Jan St. Werner from the Cologne based Mouse on Mars. Scrypt begins by extending its relentless sound to more consistent -- yet bizarre -- sound configurations and even greater compositional extremity. Scrypt creates a roadmap along which the music evolves towards structured examples of a multi-linear paradigm. The route itself runs in parallel within the music; every scriptable motion is matched by a layered countermotion across the duration of the pieces. Minute edits of off-time slamming grain sounds, feedback tips, guitar bursts and bass flange accelerations conspire with harmonic distortions, burbling forth melodic eccentricities and sudden harmonic changes, occasionally introducing brass arrangements. Blast-punctured streams of organ chord changes spell out melodies, while sub-style attacking bass concludes and infects the structure of the tracks. Drums are intercut to create shuddering explosions of precise deconstruction. Each piece has its own circuit board floor plan, allowing a high degree of listenability. Lithops' lowed down grind core improv derivatives spit out non linear rhythm ms, immediately unravelling the predictability of the usual speed metal and free jazz exercises with which they might be compared."

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Mound Magnet
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 179CD

"It's all in there, somewhere. Or at least I've fooled myself into thinking that it is. 'All,' referring to the accumulated chops and gestures and signeage and grooves and grooves denied that have accrued over the course of Jan St. Werner's tenure in Mouse on Mars, Microstoria, and as Lithops. (The name of Jan's solo work has always struck me as deceptively gentle. Lithops are plants from Namibia and South Africa also known as 'living stones' for their--ding!--deceptive appearance.) It's all in there, or much of it, on Mound Magnet. More so than on the other Lithops releases, each of which could be said to comprise a narrower set of oft-ludic investigations. If I think I hear it all in there, what else am I hearing? Uni Umit, the first Lithops record on Moikai; Mouse on Mars' Idiology; the rubber-bandish electric guitar that leads off MoM's Niun Niggung; much besides. Hearing it all in there...somewhere...is less a matter of being fooled than of trusting...in...accumulated...wisdom. Non-renunciation. That's something that has kept me coming back to each new record of MoM/Microstoria/Lithops. Jan St. Werner is less the perpetual refugee from and much more perpetually astride these multiple musical worlds." --David Grubbs

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Ye Viols!
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 209CD

"Lithops is the solo disguise of Jan St. Werner known for his work in Mouse On Mars, Microstoria and his most recent collaboration with Mark E Smith and Andi Toma as Von Sudenfed. With Ye Viols!, Lithops presents a selection of installation soundtracks assembled from several recent exhibitions. Ye Viols! can be seen as background noise for a visual utopia: a recombined industrial iconography of spatial adventures, futuristic collages and phantasmagoric scenes. 'Graf' accompanied a slide show of architectural sketches about neo-modernist city scapes that was shown in Amsterdam. The masking of identities and deconstruction of the ego was the theme of 'Bacchus,' a series of drawings and photo collages by Illui Nonobac. The cover artwork and enclosed poster supplement of Ye Viols! are taken from that series. Nonobac's images are collages of hybrid creatures: animals, plants, and humans that have been further modified by additional drawings. A three-channel version of 'Bacchus' was continuously played during the show. 'Handed' premiered in the sound bowl of the Project Arts Centre in Dublin as an accompaniment to an exhibition by Rosa Barba and David Maljkovic. 'Decay objects. Incredibly fast moving objects. Invisible objects.' is a speaker installation for which parts of the track 'In Nitro' were used. 'Apps 1 & 2' is derived from another soundtrack for a 35mm film installation by Rosa Barba. Lastly, 'Inductech' was used for a dance performance by young Korean choreographer Lee Yaung. Although the works were created for these installations, their dense and layered sounds and creative structures manifested by Werner allows the pieces to stand alone as musical works whose details continue to reveal themselves with each listen. The album is released in a limited edition CD with hand printed cover using recycled paper and vegetable inks."

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