Browse by Label: STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)

Artist:	REZNICEK
Title:	Audi & Goggo
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 004EP

A 10" picture disc release. "New work by this audio and visual artist from Hamburg known for his releases on Wachsender Prozess and Odd Size as well as for collaborating with Klangkrieg. This 10" features two inspired series of miniature musique concrete pieces. 'Audi & Goggo' -- the stereo mix of the quadrophonic soundtrack to a multivision show -- is entirely made of voice sounds taken from private family tapes of the years 1965 to 1970. On 'Armgartburg' Reznicek works with sounds recorded in the house where he lives. A very personal statement convincing both musically and visually. Music with many ipm (ideas per minute)."

Artist:	INSTITUT FÜR FEINMOTORIK
Title:	Wenig Information: Kein Titel
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 005LP

"On this mini LP the group's work is focused on the acoustic sphere beyond usual gain signals. Elements of noise containing no original sense emerge to significant structures. The setup consists of six to eight 'empty' record players which means that no gain signals but the empty or manipulated lock grooves or the paper labels of the records are played. Besides that Institut Fuer Feinmotorik have found some other ways to generate acoustic signals out of empty record players: house-rubberbands, adhesive tape and tooth brushes are just a few instruments used to produce different sounds." "Audio-path non-congestion from this unnamed grouping of Staubgold-related individuals, recorded live between April & June 1998. It may all be a ruse but I sense the same sort of post-plate Brinkmann/Betke-isms (straight-line scratches 90 degrees from the travel of the tone arm, tempos of exactly 133.333~ BPM for the perfect synchronization of downbeat ones along the side-path) in linear-growth & random click/pop aesthetic. Something for the Mego/Oval/life set." -- Hrvatski.

Artist:	SACK & BLUMM
Title:	Sylvester Orchester 2000/Maus-Garage
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	7"
Price:	$6.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 006EP

Originally released in 1999. "After last year's highly-acclaimed Die Fuenfte Dengelophonie 7", Berlin/Cologne duo Sack and Blumm's single on Staubgold featuring two charming home electronica pieces. Sack & Blumm like to produce their music mechanically/physically in the room, using more or less everything that they can get in their hands. Structures arise from their curiosity in the origin and the physicality of sounds (wood, stone, sheet metal, paper, air... ) and from experimenting and playing with the materials (plucking, beating, rubbing, blowing). Musical instruments are based on these principles of generating sound and musical instruments can be everything and they can be found everywhere. The ones that you find in the toy stores are most of the times very attractive because they carry these very beautiful overtones in their ground noise level or they tend to be totally unpredictable which makes a high potential for surprising results. And not to forget, Sack & Blumm have both followed classical training before, on their instruments horn and guitar. Harald "Sack" Ziegler can also be heard as guest musician on Mouse On Mars' Niun Niggung CD."

Artist:	GROENLAND ORCHESTER
Title:	Ballistik
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 007LP

Remixes of tracks from their smash-up Trigger Happiness, originally released in 1999. "Groenland Orchester is the working relationship of two busy German guys: Gunter Reznicek, who also works under his own name and as Nova Huta, and Jyrgen Hall (aka Gunter Adler). Some of these works under their other alter egos are experimental, but with Groenland Orchester the two have found a way to play with precise electronic pop music. This is a highly sped-up sounds of tinkling keyboards, marimbas from patches and a general happy feel to all tracks. You may compare them to Dat Politics, except Groenland Orchester are much sweeter, less distorted. Groenland Orchester appear to have a much fuller sound, with more layers of DSP available, more ram and gigas on their computer. Very German, because very funny (that sounds like a contradiction, but for the majority of their underground electronic music it's true). Great stuff." --Vital Weekly

Artist:	REUBER
Title:	Anna
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 008LP

"First solo release (vinyl-only) by this member of Cologne electronic duo Klangwart. Following the paths of Klangwart's debut album Köln-Olpe, Reuber mixes his idea of Krautrock and minimalism with elements of musique concrete and a strong sense for subtle structures. Besides the usual electronic instruments Reuber uses trombone, voice, bass -- played by Jyrgen Hall (Groenland Orchester) -- and various percussion instruments. Comes in full-color cover designed by Lichtbad. A passionate exploration of rhythm and sound."

Artist:	ADLER, GUNTER
Title:	15 Electronic Pieces
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 009CD

"Jyrgen Hall, member of the Groenland Orchester, now releases on Staubgold his first solo CD using his alter ego Gunter Adler. Having a background in sound research and psychoacoustics, Hall appeared on the scene for the first time in the mid '90s, being a member of Hamburg's Stora Community and releasing music under the name Anubis. The 15 Electronic Pieces prove of Hall's long experience in working with electronic music. Being both a piece of very diligent work and a labor of love, his vivid electro-pop miniatures tell of adventurous travels to far away countries. His best trump card: simple and charming melodies."

Artist:	GROENLAND ORCHESTER
Title:	Trigger Happiness
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 010CD

"Founded in 1998, the Groenland Orchester produces electronic pop music of a special quality, cleverly avoiding the aesthetic traps of common dance music. The duo's background in sound experimentation is obvious, but there's always room enough for simple and sweet melodies. The orchestra's conductors are Reznicek (a.k.a. Nova Huta) and Jyrgen Hall. Reznicek (programming, orchestration, electric guitar) is already well known for his experimental solo releases, for his collaborations with Klangkrieg and Felix Kubin, and for his Las Vegas Show with artist and painter Mariola Brillowska. Jyrgen Hall (programming, transfer, bass guitar) is a specialist in psychoacoustics and psychophysics. He also releases solo works under the pseudonym of Gunter Adler."

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	Sleep, Engine Sleep
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 011CD

"Second release (with 26+ minutes running time) by To Roccoco Rot member Stefan Schneider after his highly acclaimed solo debut on London's Soul Static Sound label in 1999. With Sleep, Engine Sleep, his second solo release, Stefan Schneider provides a beautiful collection of minimal pulsing rhythms, fragile melodies, and delicate sounds. The seven tracks on this mini album show a very intimate musical language simultaneously recalling Chain Reaction, Cluster, and the new school of 'clicks and cuts'."

Artist:	GROENLAND ORCHESTER
Title:	Nurobic
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 013CD

"Founded in 1998, the Groenland Orchester produces multi-dimensional electronic music of a special quality, cleverly avoiding the aesthetic traps of common dance music. Its background in experimental music is obvious and leads to an unique adventure in sound and structure created by as many as 40 orchestra members. Surreal pop for today's Hieronymous Bosch crowd. The orchestra's conductors are Günter Reznicek (aka Reznicek, Nova Huta) and Jyrgen Hall (aka Gunter Adler)."

Artist:	SACK AND BLUMM
Title:	2x5inch
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	10"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 014EP

"After their highly acclaimed CD releases on Tom and Gefriem labels Sack (Cologne) and Blumm (Berlin) are back on vinyl and present themselves as solo musicians, each having recorded one side of this 10" mini album. Blumm's side is an adventurous collage of loops, rhythms and melodies, arranged in the style of a radio play and echoing the sound world of Sack & Blumm's previous duo work. Sack's five tracks are classic examples of his unique toy techno goes Dada pop style."

Artist:	AMBARCHI & MARTIN NG, OREN
Title:	Reconnaissance
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 015CD

"The first duo release by Australian composers Oren Ambarchi and Martin Ng from Sydney -- a trilogy of pieces based upon the fluid architectural modulation of harmonics and resonances. Recalling the landmark experiments of the Sonic Arts Union (Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma), Ambarchi and Ng create an enigmatic tapestry of pulsing, shimmering and shifting sound which represents a subtle and compelling realignment of Eastern and Western minimalist traditions. Oren Ambarchi's work to date has been rooted in the exploration and extension of the guitar's outer limits with solo releases Insulation on Touch and Stacte 3 on Plate Lunch as well as collaborations with Robbie Avenaim on Tzadik and AMM's Keith Rowe, Fennesz, Peter Rehberg and Pimmon on Ritornell. Electronic musician Martin Ng currently works with such diverse artists as Farmers Manual's Hiaz Gmachl and woodwinds player Jim Denley. The unique full-color art work accompanying this release was created by Viennese graphic designer Tina Frank (Mego)."

Artist:	BALANESCU, ETC., ALEXANDER
Title:	Lume Lume
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 016CD

"Co-released with Ars Electronica Center, Linz. During the Austrian Ars Electronica festival in September 2000 eight musicians led by well-known Romanian composer Alexander Balanescu came together to build a session group creating a 57-hour live soundtrack that was accompanied by daily performances. The recordings of these sessions made by Austrian national radio ORF show a fascinating confrontation of differing musical methods and styles through the collaboration of internationally renowned artists representing different generations. Balanescu himself edited the recordings to 17 pieces of various lengths, picking only the finest moments of this extraordinary four-day jam." Alexander Balanescu about Lume Lume: "I have experienced and come away with so much from Linz this year, working together with Sergio, members of To Rococo Rot, Siegfried, Rupert and Isabella. I was able to bring aspects of my music-making into sharp focus that would otherwise remain peripheral. These artists, with their own very particular areas of creativity, through an almost miraculous chemistry, managed to bring out the best of themselves and each other. I also learned how to play for and with the river, rain, wind, the changing sky, the back-drop of Linz's buildings, the passing ships, the people, dogs, the darkness and ourselves."

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 017LP

"The long awaited new album by this outstanding artist after his Aeriola Frequency CD from 1998 feat. 10 tracks recorded between 1993 and 2000 and comes in wonderful full-color sleeve designed by Jon Wozencroft. The CD version of this album is released by Touch (UK). Rafael Toral is a musician, producer and sound engineer. His work focuses mainly on the possibilities of ambient music (variable attention listening process), the electric guitar as a sound generator and improvisation with higher levels of risk (using instruments or systems that behave in unpredictable ways) in real time sonic exploration."

Artist:	REUBER
Title:	Ruhig Blut
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 018CD

"Ruhig Blut (meaning 'keep cool') is the second solo release by Timo Reuber, member of Cologne electronic duo Klangwart, after his amazing debut album Anna from last year (Staubgold 8). The album is about swinging between poles -- between A and B, city and countryside, living and working, ambient and beat. Reuber takes the artistic freedom and psychedelic spirit of the '70s, electronic equipment of the 80s and a 90s sound aesthetic to create his very own music for the new decade."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Staubgold
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 020CD

Lo-priced label introductory sampler CD. "14 tracks + video. Feat. Alexander Balanescu, To Rococo Rot, Mapstation, Ekkehard Ehlers, Groenland Orchester, Institut Für Feinmotorik, Reuber, Rafael Toral etc. Gorgeous string sounds besides vivid electro miniatures -- fragile clicks and cuts side by side with anarchic rhythm structures -- in between: psychedelic freakout, beautiful feedback drones, burlesque Dada pop. Wide space at the end. What sounds heterogeneous in description, proves on this compilation to be an as homogeneous as adventurous sound journey through the catalogue of Cologne's Staubgold label. Its international artists share an enthusiasm for fresh sounds and structures which leads to very individual musical statements off the beaten track. Founded in 1998 by musician and journalist Markus Detmer, Staubgold provides a platform for the most different musical styles which still have one thing in common -- they all want to inspire, touch and seduce."

Artist:	TO ROCOCO ROT
Title:	Kölner Brett
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 022CD

"12 exclusive new tracks recorded by the trio of Lippok/Lippok/Schneider. Kölner Brett is the name of a building, designed by Cologne architects b&k+ in 2000, that blends living and working in each of its single units. On the occasion of Archilab, an architectural exhibition held at Orleans in May 2001, b&k+ and Staubgold present a musical translation of the Kölner Brett, composed by To Rococo Rot. The music of To Rococo Rot reflects the architectural grid (twelve equally sized modules giving structure and shape to the building as a whole) as well as the possible individual living and working conditions of the dweller, respectively."

Artist:	DELAY, VLADISLAV
Title:	Naima
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 023CD

"Exclusive live recordings from the Ars Electronica Klangpark 2001. For this exclusive release Vladislav Delay compiled the best moments of his live recordings during the Klangpark sessions at Ars Electronica festival 2001. On the basis of the sound material used on his current studio album Anima (Mille Plateaux) Delay transformed the park near the river Danube into an impressive acoustic environment. Music for a river and for passers-by. Out of his home in Helsinki, Finland, Delay has brought forward a new directive into the sounds of dub and minimal electronics, placing him as one of the premier artists involved in the recent wave of electronic dub hybrids. His music, released on labels like Mille Plateaux, Chain Reaction and Sigma, is a continuous mix that reveals itself beyond audio design. Delay succeeds in developing his new methods of production and altering music as it is typically translated. Rather than familiar electronic traits of looping sounds, the music continually develops in an organic flow, thus giving the interpretation that perhaps the music is less a digital excursion and more an instrumental development."

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	New Direction
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 024EP

"New vinyl-only EP by Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot). The title track of this new Mapstation release is a soulful dub meets electronica anthem featuring Ras Donovan from Tikiman's Berlin posse on vocals. Still being a 'new direction' for Schneider who before has only worked with vocals on his 12" in Domino's Model 500 series, the combination with Donovan's rich narrative voice appears like the logical extension of his intimate electronics which simultaneously recall Chain Reaction, Cluster and the school of clicks and cuts. The instrumental version of 'New Direction' and 'Stop', another new track on this EP, reveal the full beauty of Schneider's minimal pulsing rhythms, fragile melodies and delicate sounds. The fourth track finally is an a cappella version of 'New Direction' with Donovan's pure vocals being a perfect DJ tool."

Artist:	INSTITUT FÜR FEINMOTORIK
Title:	Penetrans
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 025CD

"Long expected new album by Southern German turntable rockers and clicks'n'cuts veterans Institut Fuer Feinmotorik; 8 killer tracks created on up to 8 'empty' record players prepared with household materials... Name of the project: Institut Fuer Feinmotorik (= institute for precision motoricity). Purpose: different occupations in different formats; among a.o. organization of events (Entertainment/Music/Fine Arts), marginal reflections on the subject of the term of precision motoricity in different contexts, experiment setups for the production of sound and light works, concentration on reduction of the instruments, among others interest in acoustic phenomena around the record player, indeed along with abandonment of records; accompanying motto: 'To produce from almost nothing almost nothing'. Since 1997 different presentations with the concept of 'empty' record players, thereby 2-4 persons play approx. 8 record players under the application of different handicraft-materials in a music performance."

Artist:	ZIEGLER, HARALD SACK
Title:	Kopf Zahl Bauch
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 028CD

"Over a period of more than one and a half year, Cologne based artist Harald 'Sack' Ziegler, partner in Sack & Blumm as well as collaborator with Mouse On Mars, worked on these 11 tracks of his new album. Guest musicians Mouse On Mars, Joseph Suchy, Marcus Schmickler, FX Randomiz, Reuber, Blumm, Guido Möbius and Ron Martin contributed to the recording process, not by remixing tracks, but by adding to and finishing the material that Harald gave them. Kopf Zahl Bauch is Harald 'Sack' Zieglers strongest and most complete solo release to date, going new ways in sound, but keeping the humorous Dada pop style which is a trademark of him. The shimmering mix of cheap electronica, German vocals, weird rhythms, samples and guitars almost always manages to stick to a more or less loose song format which will heavily appeal not only to fans of early New German Wave."

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	A Way To Find The Day
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 029CD

"Names on maps are often more than mere geographical terms. They are sound and color, dream and memory, mystery and magic, and it is a moment of wonderful gracefulness when one day you look at them with your own eyes and they are taking shape. A way to find the day is the first album of Mapstation at full-length and it comes along as a flamboyant soulful piece of music. While the pre-released 12" 'New direction' managed to raise high expectations, A Way to Find the Day picks up the tension and gives way to 43 minutes of attentive and curious dynamics, rhythmic irrealities and gently warm disorder. Since a bit more than two years Mapstation has been the imprint of Stefan Schneider who is also playing bass and electronics with the Düsseldorf/Berlin trio To Rococo Rot. Mapstation's music is closer to minimalist techno but brings the euphoria of the genre together with charming slow-downs of pace and bpm. Did the tracks on the preceding mini-album Sleep, Engine Sleep predominantly explore the shifts from daylight to dream, A Way to Find the Day is effortlessly able to impress with even more subtle shapes of resonance plus slightly unexpected and chliché-free branchings to reggae music. This dimension to Mapstation comes from the influence of recent Jamaican dancehall reggae, with Schneider citing its corporation of electronic sounds, and his own practice of mixing reggae a cappellas into his DJ sets. On A Way to Find the Day Schneider takes the idea further into a stunning collaboration with reggae singer Ras Donovan."

Artist:	EHLERS, EKKEHARD
Title:	Plays
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 030CD

"This amazing 76min CD contains Ehlers' complete Plays vinyl, originally released on Staubgold and the Dutch Bottrop-Boy label. Staubgold released the mini LPs Plays Albert Ayler, Plays John Cassavetes and Plays Hubert Fichte while the 7" singles Plays Robert Johnson and Plays Cornelius Cardew came out on Bottrop-Boy. 'The 'Plays' series deals with 'reference'', explains Ehlers. 'Everyone is sampling; sampling is the figure of historic devices in digital music. My idea is not to sample, but to refer to historic places and figures.' For the series Ehlers has assembled an intriguing constellation of figures, from actor/film maker John Cassavetes to German author Hubert Fichte, and only the Cardew pieces contain actual samples. 'Reference is a basic structure in digital music', Ehlers continues. 'I'm trying to deal with that more abstractly.' That abstraction is as much macroscopic as microscopic: the back cover of each vinyl record features a photograph of the region the artist of the title came from, filmed by a NASA satellite. An artist and educator based in Frankfurt, Ehlers recorded his first works for Mille Plateaux and its offshoot Ritornell in 1998, as part of the Autopoieses duo with Sebastien Meissner. Since then he has used the aliases Auch and Betrieb (for Force Inc and Klang Elektronik respectively), and teamed up with Albrecht Kunze in the group März."

Artist:	KLANGKRIEG/GUNTER ADLER
Title:
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 031LP

"...exciting split album by Hamburg's finest noise makers... Klangkrieg have been founded in 1987 by Felix Knoth and Tim Buhre from Hamburg, Germany. In futuristic tradition the group processes the big city noise and the whispering of power lines into electroacoustic compositions which are documented on digital and analog records. Artificial and natural sounds are edited in harsh cut-ups or fine transitions, violence and sensibility stay close to each other. Gunter Adler is the alter ego of Jyrgen Hall, together with Reznicek member of Hamburg's Dada pop super group Groenland Orchester. Adler's pieces on this split album show his experimental and scientific side in full effect."

Artist:	AMBARCHI & KEITH ROWE, OREN
Title:	Flypaper
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 032CD

"Oren Ambarchi (guitar & electronics), Keith Rowe (tabletop guitar & electronics). These recordings depart wildly from anything that either Rowe or Ambarchi have produced before. This speaks volumes when you consider the combined weight of their explorations to this point. Amazingly, neither player falls back on past gestures or comfortable proven techniques. The result is four startling electro-acoustic environments. Only David Tudor's Rainforest has gone so far to create a world that is at once highly electronic, yet totally organic, without resorting to base mimicry of natural sounds. It evokes the sea, an immovable mass of fluidity, in a way that Roland Kayn would admire. But having said that, there is little to compare this to. The four pieces on this disc could be field recordings from lost civilizations. Comes in digipak with artwork by Keith Rowe."

Artist:	THILGES 3
Title:	Die Offene Gesellschaft
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 033CD

"Viennese trio Thilges 3 now presents its first full-length album release Die offene Gesellschaft which translates as 'the open society'. As well as with their previous releases, the basis of this project is a series of live performances, this time held in the small Austrian city of Feldkirch in the summer of 2001. Thilges 3 performed with children in a nursery home, played in front of Buddhist monks, criminals and old people. Field recordings captured at the various locations, live material and studio work were combined and condensed to 8 diverse pieces that found their way on this album. Thilges 3: Armin Steiner, Gammon, Nik Hummer, a formation founded in 1996 out of a spontaneous live performance, are working and experimenting with 'live performance electroacoustic installations' utilizing only analog synthesizers for sound generation and engineering. The flexible use of this technology enables a dynamism far beyond usual MIDI logic. Through permanent work on the configuration of the various modules new ideas form all the time which surpass concepts of mere sound creation. Since live performances reflect the ultimate goal for Thilges 3 the confrontation with the sound potential / architecture of the venue are an integral part of their music. The rapid motion of sound patterns combined with the free movement of the listener provides a completely new access to rhythmic electronic music."

Artist:	HUBER, RUPERT
Title:	Open Air Radiotopia
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 034CD

"The release of the Radiotopia album, compiled and edited by Rupert Huber (Tosca), is the third collaboration between the Austrian Ars Electronic Center and Cologne's Staubgold label, after Alexander Balanescu's Lume Lume, and Vladislav Delay's Naima. Participating artists include Alexander Balanescu, Rupert Huber, Andres Bosshard, Lukas Ligeti, Sam Auinger, Bruce Odland, Isabella Bordoni, Lorenzo Brusci and many more. Strictly limited to 1000 copies worldwide, this CD documents the fascinating 'Radiotopia' sound/network project as presented during the open air Klangpark at last year's Ars Electronica festival. Radiotopia, the largest and most extensive of projects ever launched by the Ars Electronica festival, was simultaneously a demonstration and an attempt. On the one hand it was a demonstration of the evolvement in the Internet and other transmission and data manipulation technology over the course of the years, on the other hand -- perhaps more significantly -- it was an attempt to illustrate the points and areas where the Internet and other technologies still have difficulties and weaknesses, and to indicate pathways for future improvements and developments. The center of Radiotopia was the global sound network database designed by August Black and Norbert Math. It was a simultaneous storage bank of freely accessible sound material that transcended time, location, cultural and geographical borders. Anyone with access to the Internet was able to join in. This sound network database (with a total of over 500 submissions) was the basis of the material that the international artists invited to the festival worked with."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Music Out Of Place
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 035CD

"... 50min of finest Staubgold sounds ... feat. Faust, F.S. Blumm, Ekkehard Ehlers, Mapstation, Oren Ambarchi, Sun, Joseph Suchy, Reuber, Harald 'Sack' Ziegler feat. Marcus Schmickler, Institut Fuer Feinmotorik, Thilges 3, Scott Horscroft + Klangwart . Music out of place, Staubgold's second label compilation, gives a beautiful and inspiring overview of the label's strong and diverse roster. Available in shops at the price of a 12", the compilation presents the core of Staubgold including already known acts like Ekkehard Ehlers, Mapstation and Institut Fuer Feinmotorik as well as it introduces quite some artists that are new to the label -- first of all Faust (CD/LP in November), but also F.S. Blumm (new album in October) and especially Sun, Oren Ambarchi's singer/songwriter pop project (dbl album in spring 2003)."

Artist:	BLUMM, F.S.
Title:	Ankern
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 036CD

"On his second solo album after last year's Mondkuchen multi-instrumentalist Frank Schültge aka F.S. Blumm from Berlin presents again a multitude of lovely instrumental pop songs, with his guitar, horn and trumpet (Harald 'Sack' Ziegler), vibes (Patrick Leuschner), mbira, kalimba and toy piano being the favorite ingredients of his sound kitchen. The musical result is in a way original that the popular namedropping doesn´t help that much to describe F.S.Blumm´s music. Nevertheless bands and projects like Gastr Del Sol or others who work on the combination of improvised elements with pop-approved structures come to mind, as well as American folk pioneer John Fahey or minimal music representatives Pauline Oliveros and David Behrman for their similar sense of poise and release."

Artist:	FAUST
Title:	Patchwork 1971-2002
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 037CD

"'Yes. Faust will forever be heralded as a pioneer in the electronic/rock avant garde, emerging in the early seventies branching off from Brit/American commercial rock bands, employing the use of alterior sonic landscapes to create a new musical tangent.' (Alternative Press). For this very special release Staubgold label manager Markus Detmer and Faust member Hans Joachim Irmler compiled unreleased Faust recordings from 1971 to 2002, covering the legendary Wümme Years (1971 - 1973) and the time at Virgin's Manor studios (1974- 1975) as well as their new start in the early 80s and recent years. Compiled as a collage, as the title suggests, Patchwork unfolds the core qualities of Faust and gives a deep impression of their working method."

Artist:	MAPSTATION FEAT. RAS DONOVAN
Title:	Version Train
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 038CD

"Version Train is the latest excursion from the consistently engaging Mapstation, featuring some beautiful new pieces and a couple of abstractions/developments from the previous set, A Way To Find The Day. These cuts, 'Wake Up' and 'Gravity', are wryly cited as 'versions' (in the Jamaican tradition), and in particular show off the understanding that the main collaborators, Stefan Schneider and Ras Donovan, now have for the drift of this music: creating pretty patterns, then breaking them up, moving forward as one, and then contradicting each other. On 'Be True' we hear Donovan sounding at his sweetest, tossing off his lines like it's a super-warm Jamaican production with a gorgeous melodic base, instead of Schneider's rather colder North European design. Other times the roles reverse, and we remember Schneider's role in To Rococo Rot is usually to bring the melody. Version Train also introduces two new elements to the Mapstation equation: DJ singer, Scallo, from Donovan's group (both also perform live with Tikiman), and Martin Brandlmayr from Vienna-based unit, Radian. While these interventions suggest that, like their name, Mapstation is always in some flux, always restless, somehow Version Train also seems very much like an encapsulation of all the Mapstation styles, and really it's a perfect introduction to the group."

Artist:	SUN
Title:	Sun
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 039CD

"Staubgold proudly presents the self-titled debut album from the Sydney duo Sun, licensed from Australia's Preservation Records for exclusive worldwide release, and accompanied by a complete bonus remix album feat. mixes of all original tracks by Hrvatski, Mapstation, Pluramon, Christoph Heemann, Tom Recchion, Rafael Toral, Pimmon and Voice Crack. Sun is the unusual pairing of world renowned experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and Australian music figurehead Chris Townend. Sun confirms its authors as two truly original music minds, a languid and sweet pop creation, brimming with sly invention in its classicist frame. These songs simply float into the consciousness with a grand air and sublimely delicate touch. There's an easy warmth to Sun as well as some darker surprises for added depth and nuance."

Artist:	EHLERS, EKKEHARD
Title:	Politik Braucht Keinen Feind
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 041CD

"With his new album after the highly acclaimed Plays series in 2002, pop musician and sound artist Ekkehard Ehlers presents his first fully composed works. 'Mäander' and 'Blind' are based on manipulated bass clarinet and cello recordings which Ehlers arranges like an orchestra in his laptop. Opposed to the pop music he produces with Albrecht Kunze in März, this is avant garde music put into dreamlike states and finally looping in endless circles of magic fragile sound. coming in a foldout digipak with accompanying poster, Politik Braucht Keinen Feind is Ehlers' both musically and visually most advanced artistic statement to date. Ekkehard Ehlers lives in Frankfurt/Germany. His large discography includes releases with autopoieses (La vie á noir, Mille Plateaux, 1999) and März (März, Karaoke Kalk, 2002) as well as his debut CD Betrieb (Mille Plateaux, 2001) on which he put samples of Arnold Schönberg and Charles Ives into new perspective. Last year's CD Ekkehard Ehlers Plays was a musical homage to free jazz legend Albert Ayler, blues singer Robert Johnson, filmmaker John Cassavetes, composer Cornelius Cardew and writer Hubert Fichte. His project März successfully realized his idea of new electronic folk pop. Ekkehard Ehlers also teaches time based media at Stuttgart's Merz Academy for Design."

Artist:	SACK & BLUMM
Title:	Kind Kind
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 042CD

"Three years after their phenomenal Shy Noon album on the seminal Gefriem label Harald 'Sack' Ziegler and Frank Schültge Blumm continue a home recording series that travels between their postboxes since 1999. Sack & Blumm are not a band or a studio project, but may be described rather as a home recording project that was conceived independently in their bedroom studios in Berlin and Cologne. Instead of being sequenced on computers, the music lives from the experience of two true musicians. Folk themes are set against digital fragmentations. Sounds are taken from everywhere. Instruments include horn, kalimba, tabla, bass, knitting needles, toy drums and toy piano, melodica, mbira and more. Even Rod Stewart is hidden somewhere on this album."

Artist:	SUCHY, JOSEPH
Title:	calabi.yau
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 043CD

"'Not a rocker. Not an electronic artist. A sensual, a feeling person. No copy-art. In these times of senseless struggles for sovereignty at the musicians' regular table, Suchy is the cowboy with the Indian's face.' This is what one of Germany's biggest daily newspapers recently wrote about Joseph Suchy, 'Cologne's very own professor of guitar research'. They got it spot on. In the global improv & avant garde community, the born Franconian is no unknown person. He collaborated with artists like David Grubbs, Ekkehard Ehlers, Niobe and FX Randomiz; he is a permanent member of Burnt Friedmann's Nub Dub Players; and he was one of the founders of Cologne-based cult-improv-label Grob. The musical sensitivity of this slightly odd artist in his mid-forties is hard to match. calabi.yau is Suchy's new solo-outing. It's a music of delicate sounds, in which acoustic guitars and electro-acoustic signals are woven into non-linear, fragile sound sculptures. At times, this music borders on sensory deception (what is this sound? Electric or acoustic?); it is an illustrated broadsheet of a strange, yet familiar reality. Suchy cunningly and imperturbably evades the categorizations of contemporary modern music: What he does is giving his listeners a carte blanche to dream. Or, as the artist himself puts it: 'Music in search of the freakwave'."

Artist:	IRMLER, HANS JOACHIM
Title:	Lifelike
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 044CD

"The first official solo album of any of the original fAUST-members ever to be released. Lifelike was conceived by Irmler as 'a biography in sound' (sounds like the title of a 'Best of James Last'-Album, doesn't it? But even that may be part of a plan...). And it's strictly sounds, there are no words in here (at least none discernible). He wanted to describe a person's life through sound. And this is what fAUST have always been good at: to find strange and unusual sounds to trigger their listeners' imagination. This record mirrors the growth of a human being in its microstructure and evolution of life in general in its macrostructure. At the beginning, the listener can hear the sounds of a bubbling primordial soup. Out of this, a simple, innocent theme takes a shy peek. A life is born; melody evolves out of sound. This peaceful growth soon becomes interrupted by industrial noises (is there a war going on?) -- and so we're already into the story after track 2. What Irmler does is the antithesis of so many productions in the field of 'modern electronic music'. Irmler cunningly disturbs simple patterns and shifts them so slightly that at first, it only registers in your subconscious. Thus you are disturbed but you don't know by what. Another point in favor is that this music is nowhere as hectic as many other productions are nowadays with their clicks and beats. This music gives the listener time & space to step inside and if he or she wishes to inhabit this music. From the view of form, Lifelike even resembles classical music with its recurring and interwoven themes."

Artist:	RAND AND HOLLAND
Title:	Tomorrow Will Be Like Today
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 045CD

"Rand And Holland is the golden pop vehicle of a longstanding member of Sydney's experimental music scene, Brett Thompson. Not unlike label-mates and fellow travellers Sun (Thompson works with Chris Townend and Scott Horscroft at Bigjesusburger Studios), Rand and Holland manage to produce maximum emotional impact by the simplest and most direct means. Here every sound has integral purpose and meaning, drawing the listener into an intimate and uniquely personal world. Emotions are laid bare with an honesty and clarity rarely seen in pop music today. A stunning debut and one for the ages. Built around the voice of Brett Thompson, Rand And Holland love the spaces as much as they love the sounds. This sparse album recalls the moods of Mercury Rev, Yo La Tengo and Smog. Its songs manage to find the balance between epic and intimate, carried by a deeply resonant vocal and direct, unaffected lyricism. Tomorrow Will Be Like Today was produced by both Brett Thompson and Sun's Chris Townend. Guest musicians include Townend, Oren Ambarchi and Scott Horscroft."

Artist:	KAT COSM
Title:	Knightboat
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 047CD

"Features remixes by Leafcutter John (Planet µ), TenEcke (Calla) and Mondomarc (Mondo Fumatore). It's the small things in life which make sure that though being chained to all kinds of dreary everyday routines you do not forget that life is essentially beautiful. When the sun is shining, when somebody unexpectedly turns and smiles at you or when you discover some beautiful new music -- that's life. This new record by Kat Cosm is like all these things at once. When listening to it, you'll probably feel a pale winter sun shine on your face or it will simply make you smile. And of course it's a great record.

       And here are the facts: Jana Plewa and Sebastian Skalei are the two Berlin-based singer-songwriters at the core of Kat Cosm (I say core, because everybody who is in any way involved in this project can be regarded as being 'in the band' -- for example, when Sebastian talks about the guy who designed the cover, he talks about him like a member of the band). For this mini-album, they present two new songs which they composed and recorded at their respective homes. The songs are located almost exactly in the middle between electro-acoustic music and classic songwriting. Jana and Sebastian made sketches of these songs on guitar or piano, but recording them with the computer -- an instrument which they use very playfully -- is what gave them their final shape. Another trademark of this record is its richness in variety. Not only can one hear echoes from all genres and periods of popular music of the last 35 years, but Jana and Sebastian also take it in turns to sing. On top of that, we get a nice instrumental ('Hotgirl') and a demo by the title of 'Circe' which could have been one of Syd Barret's more beautiful songs -- if Syd had cared to write it, that is. Compared to their last album, this record also has a much better sound. Think as you may about the advantages of analogue recording; what Jana and Sebastian are demonstrating here is that it is very well possible to create a warm and rich sound at your PC. And if the term hadn't already been invented by Nicolas Currie a.k.a. Momus, I'd say that with this mini-album, Jana and Sebastian created a genre of their own: 'Folktronic'. So they may not be its inventors, but they're at least one of its protagonists.

       More of less as a bonus, we are presented with three remixes of the first track. Leafcutter John (Planet µ) in his mix emphasises both the songwriting-side and the electronic aspect of Kat Cosm's music. Thus it sounds like an update of the Beach Boys before mutating into almost grotesque digital noise. The second remix is supplied by TenEcke (Calla). He deconstructs the original piece without robbing it of its original charm. The final remix is by Mondomarc (Mondo Fumatore; Marc and Gwen have also contributed additional vocals to the original track). He puts beats at the track's centre and creates something completely new from the source material. And now the record is over and the only thing left to do is to invite you to join (ladies and gentlemen): The Kat Cosm."

Artist:	REUBER
Title:	Kintopp
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 048CD

"Kintopp, the acclaimed Cologne musician's third album, is his best and most complete to date. Reuber draws from many years of experience in the field of psychedelic electronic music, both solo and as one half of the duo Klangwart (with Markus Detmer) with whom he recorded two full-length albums ('Köln-Olpe', 'Zwei'). Kintopp (a colloquial German expression for 'cinema') narrates a movie; instead of words, it creates images in the mind of the listener. In the style of a collage, associative sounds and sequences from various different musical contexts were reassembled and interwoven with each other. The new musical pieces thus composed offer plateaus rich in imagery and emotion -- a point of departure for the audience's imagination, travelling alongside the story or beyond it. About Reuber's first album Anna (staubgold 8) Vital Weekly wrote: 'The result is a cosmic trip with sounds moving everywhere, very vivid. With some of the overtones I was reminded of Steve Reich on acid with electricity up his you know what. It's very pleasant music to sit through, read the newspaper and enjoy life'."

Artist:	EHLERS/SUCHY/HAUTZINGER
Title:	Soundchambers
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 049CD

"Well-known improvisers Ekkehard Ehlers (laptop), Joseph Suchy (guitar) and Franz Hautzinger (trumpet) team up for a supertrio of broken pop ambient. While on the one hand providing a state-of-the-art sound aesthetic, Soundchambers will on the other hand also appeal to friends of the music that Brian Eno and trumpeter Jon Hassell created in the mid-70s. The concept: 'Sound Chambers' is an architectural, graphical and musical installation that provides a site specific intervention in the park of Museu Serralves in Porto. By referring to a geometrical configuration of hedges it develops a new structure that expands, diverts and bifurcates existing conditions of the park. It creates a configuration between interior and exterior spaces and provides sound chambers that perform a specifically developed music. Architecture, graphics and music refer to the same notation of an existing piece of park (Roseiral): 77 elements of different geometries reconfigured in a new composition."

Artist:	GARLAND AND WORLD STANDARD, WECHSEL
Title:	The Isle
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 051CD

"After two internationally acclaimed Wechsel Garland albums (Wechsel Garland/Morrmusic 2000, and Liberation von History/Karaoke Kalk 2002) and their precursor Wunder (also on Karaoke Kalk), Jörg Follert does no longer need an introduction, at least not in circles of electronic music aficionados. On The Isle (which has already seen an exclusive release in Japan in 2003 and is now made available world-wide through Staubgold) Follert teamed up with Japanese artist Sohichiro Suzuki/World Standard, who, despite having created a body of work that stretches out over 20 years, is not very widely known in Europe. Suzuki released many of his albums through Haruomi Hosono's (Yellow Magic Orchestra) Daisyworld label. Thematically, his work is located on the fringes of European, American and Far Eastern 'exotic music'. It's neigh on impossible to fathom who did what in this collaboration. Follert and Suzuki met twice in Japan to record together, the rest of the album was done, well, 'by mail'. Delicately plucked acoustic guitars are broken up into fragments and re-assembled, strings snuggle against the cosy sounds of melodica and toy piano, while sparsely used elements of percussion are reluctant to pick up the pulse, since they do not want to irritate the fragile arrangements, which are constantly petering out into the off. In a loose, but harmonic sequence, the 15 tracks of The Isle create a mood music, which is calm and still like a summer house by the edge of the sea. Its music chirps like the steppe in Tuscany during May. This album needs no formula to function. Oh, and not to forget: The track 'Solitude Sea' has been used as the opener of DJ Koze's mix CD All People Is My Friends (where it has erroneously been credited as 'The Isle')."

Artist:	MINIT
Title:	Now Right Here
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 053CD

"Minit (Sydney/Berlin) create hypnotic sonic habitats, which, characterized by a sense of endlessness, transform incrementally over time in subtle and hallucinatory ways. Through sampling, digital processing and electro-acoustic techniques they produce a sound of surprising emotive power and musicality. From fragile harmonic and melodic intonations to towering, ecstatic drones, erratic fragmented rhythms and electrical disturbances, minit explore the psychedelic moment when everything begins to slip in and out of cohesion. It is these moments that gently fracture 'listening' and signal what is rich and unusual and experimental about Minit´s whole music project. Minit is Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly. They are currently living and working in Berlin."

Artist:	ROBERTS, DEAN
Title:	And the Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 054CD

"A re-release of the long deleted Ritornell CD from 2000, many fans and critics regard New Zealander Dean Roberts' second solo album And the Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema as his best so far. This re-issue comes with complete new artwork and is available on vinyl for the first time. Guest musicians include Tim Barnes, Charles Curtis and Matt Valentine." "And the Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema is a tremendous achievement. Everything fits. It's less of an attempt to blend genres -- post-rock, prepared-guitar improv, glitchadelica -- than a demonstration of how; for the truly imaginative, genres remain utterly meaningless. Roberts has always had a fine ear for sonic exploration, but Moths sees him on peak form. Even when he leaves the instruments to drone, their individual character and juxtaposition as interesting as the appealing density of their combined harmonics. On this album, the overall essence is truly far more than the sum of its parts." (Brian Duguid, The Wire).

Artist:	VA
Title:	Tempo Technik Teamwork
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 055CD

"The new Staubgold label compilation comes as a double CD with 26 tracks for a special price. Includes new and unreleased tracks by Ekkehard Ehlers and John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Sun, Klangwart and many more. It's two years ago that the last Staubgold retrospective Music out of Place (Staubgold 35 CD/LP) appeared. Not only has the label moved its homebase from Cologne to Berlin, but it has also broadened its perspective on music. Back in 2002, Staubgold was synonymous with experimental and electronic music of all kinds. This notion has been increasingly disrupted by the addition of artists like Sun, Faust or FS Blumm to the Staubgold roster. Musicians like Mapstation, Reuber or Harald 'Sack' Ziegler have increasingly combined acoustic and electronic instruments. The idea of musical openness and blurred boundaries of musical genres has been vigorously pursued by label owner Makus Detmer through the label's release policy. The new compilation Tempo Technik Teamwork documents on two CDs a multi-facetted program, the spectrum and individuality of which denies any attempts at categorization. As opposed to many other labels, it is not the goal of Staubgold to occupy just one niche defined by either means of production (for example the computer), means of expression ('electronica', 'clicks and cuts') or a geographical proximity (Cologne, Berlin). The artists represented on Tempo Technik Teamwork are at home in many diverse genres off the mainstream. Their flirts with New Music are just as gallant as those with Electronica or Indie Pop -- be it in Cologne, Berlin, Sydney or New York." Also features: Minit, Faust vs. Dälek, Joseph Suchy, Dean Roberts, The Loop Orchestra, Sack und Blumm, agf, Hans Joachim Irmler, Oren Ambarchi & Keith Rowe, many more.

Artist:	AUTISTIC DAUGHTERS
Title:	Jealousy and Diamond
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 056LP

"The Autistic Daughters is the trio of New Zealander Dean Roberts and the Viennese Martin Brandlmayr (Radian, Trapist) and Werner Dafeldecker (Polwechsel). Jealousy and Diamond is the group's first statement. The CD version of this album is released by the American Kranky label. Dean Roberts plays guitar, vocals, harmonica, harmonium and percussion, Martin Brandlmayr plays drums, vibraphone and electronics and Werner Dafeldecker plays electric bass and contra bass. Guest musicians were Valerio Tricoli (Loops, Handclaps, Campanelli, B-Vocals) and Anthony Guerra (Guitar, Palermo Hand-Clappers Union). Beginning with the post punk rock trio Thela and moving through White Winged Moth and into his solo recordings, Dean Roberts has marked himself as a guitarist of unique talents. His latest album, Be Mine Tonight, has been released on Kranky in 2003. Austrian drummer Martin Brandlmayr is well known as a member of free rock trios Radian and Trapist who currently release for the Thrill Jockey label. Werner Dafeldecker is a freelance musician, composer and producer, concentrating on improvisation, electronic music and cross-over projects. A longtime sound research, pure acoustic research and the creation of a personal sound archive are the basis for his work."

Artist:	DIE WELTTRAUMFORSCHER
Title:	21 Weltraum-Standards
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 057CD

2CD release, for the price of one. "First things first: Staubgold are immensely proud to present this cooperation with one of Europe's most enduring avant garde pop groups ever. Since their formation in Zurich in 1978, the Welttraumforscher's music has been moving to and fro in a field marked by the cornerstones of the classic pop song as epitomized by Burt Bacharach or Simon and Garfunkel, the emotional barrenness of Nick Drake's compositions, the escapism of Syd Barrett and electronic home recording-miniatures of cinematic dimensions as [co-]developed by Der Plan and Cabaret Voltaire.

       But this band never consciously flirted with the notion of 'being ahead of their time'. The Welttraumforscher have always been self-sufficient and completely independent -- and that goes for their musical as well as their lyrical content. In their unique way, they are working on everyday myths (complete with fantasy characters like Kip Eulenmeister and Leguan Rätselmann). This is not limited to their music but also comes out in the hand drawn cover art and comic strips. All this they do in their incomparable, unprejudiced and highly idiosyncratic style.

       In the first 25 years of their existence the band created a body of work surrounded by a mystic aura similar to that of the Residents -- with the difference that Welttraumforscher-Mastermind Christian Pfluger has never tried to stay anonymous. At the beginning of the Eighties he started the band's own Monif label which henceforth released almost all of the band's output, at first exclusively on cassettes, and from the middle of the Eighties also on limited vinyl editions. Since 1993 the band has also issued their music on CD. 21 Weltraum-Standards does not lay claim to being a representative cross-section of the band's output over the last 25 years; the intention of this compilation is more one of presenting the Welttraumforscher from their friendliest and more accessible side, thus trying to introduce them to a larger audience.

       The vinyl version of the 21 Weltraum-Standards will be released as a single LP while the digital version will appear in the form of a double CD (for the price of a normal CD). The latter will include the album '..remixen die Welttraumforscher', formerly released as a vinyl-only on Felix Kubin's label Gagarin Records and which has long sold out. This album contains remixes by Mouse on Mars, Barbara Morgenstern, FX Randomiz, Neoangin, Schlammpeitziger, Minitchev, Nova Huta, Harald 'Sack' Ziegler, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Joe Tabu and Klangwart. As a bonus the CD is augmented by two most charming (but then what of the Welttraumforscher's output could defy that adjective?) and hitherto unreleased videos of the band."

Artist:	ZIEGLER, HARALD SACK
Title:	Punkt
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 059CD

A killer collection of Cologne-based legend Harald "Sack" Ziegler's greatest hits, fully re-mastered from his long out-of-print vinyl and cassette-only releases. None of these 22 tracks has ever been available on CD before. Besides his incredibly large discography produced as a solo artist over the past twenty years, Harald "Sack" Ziegler has released three critically- acclaimed albums with F.S. Blumm as Sack & Blumm, and continuously collaborated with Mouse On Mars, both live and in the studio. An innovator and pioneer of the '80s German tape scene, Ziegler is a techno-Dadaist composer/pop artist of the highest order, known for his frenetic live shows with toy instruments. His shimmering mix of cheap electronica, German vocals, weird rhythms, samples and guitars almost always manages to stick to a more or less loose song format tending to appeal not only to fans of early German new wave, but also to anyone who has an inexhaustible love for wonky melodies and funky sound bites. A master of many instruments, Ziegler is as likely to whip out a French horn as he is a beat box, and Punkt collects more pop/noise/child music insouciance than you can shake a toy flute at.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Childish Music
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 060CD

Twenty-five tracks of childish music, compiled by Ekkehard Ehlers, in an attempt to define a new genre. Naive sounds from Germany, Scotland, France, Japan, Australia and the United States comprise a superstar collection of new music for new children featuring contributions by Hassle Hound, Lawrence, Yuichiro Fujimoto, La Grande Illusion, World Standard, RdL, Guido Möbius, F.S. Blumm, Oren Ambarchi, Harald "Sack" Ziegler, Anne Laplantine, and Bernadette La Hengstand (all exclusive tracks, commissioned for this release), plus 13 more tracks, including artists such as Fan Club Orchestra, Maher Shahal Hash Baz, Dr. Rockit, Arrow Tour, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Devendra Banhart, Asa-Chung & Junray, Nobukazu Takemura, Lullatone, Asao Kikuchi, Sketch Show, Kazumasa Hashimoto, and Takagi Masakatsu. The CD comes with a luxurious 32-page full-color booklet including extensive liner-notes.

Artist:	SCHWABINGGRAD BALLETT
Title:	Schwabinggrad Ballett
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 061CD

Pop-leftists Schwabinggrad Ballett founded the collective in 2000 at an antiracist No Border camp. The group developed a flexible performing strategy, with which it wants to create confusion, to break up old forms, and to politicize and reactivate. The Schwabinggrad Ballett is an open collective and understands itself as part of a network, which among other activities runs the Buttclub in Hamburg, which in turn organizes discussions, readings, exhibitions, concerts and reading groups. Resisting the band format and its marketing treadmill, inspiration for much of the musical output derives from the marching band and free jazz: accordion, timpani, shopping carts, chair improv, and brass. Instead of a lead singer, there are hoarse choirs, and instead of "discourse pop," Dadaist agitprop takes its place. Members of the Schwabinggrad Ballett are: Der Buttclub, Thomas Butteweg, Christine Eder, Ekkehard Ehlers, Ted Gaier, Bernadette Hengst, Frank John, Thomas Lörtsch, Heiko Marn, Roberto Ohrt, Peter Ott, DJ Patex, Tina Petersen, Knarf Rellöm, Christoph Schäfer, Barbara Schulz, Christine Schulz, Christopher Twickel, Kathrin Wildner, Frank Will. Described by Christopher Twickel as: "seventeen killer tracks between caterwauling and 'the collective.' Seventeen sips of musical rotgut between punk and Penderecki. Seventeen pieces of adutainment between the critical mass and massive criticism. Really difficult and really beautiful."

Artist:	PEKLER, ANDREW
Title:	Strings + Feedback
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 062CD

California-transplant to Berlin Andrew Pekler's third full-length and first release on Staubgold. On his two previous albums (released on the Scape label) Pekler led his listeners on a random walk through the clear and mysterious air of a metropolis at midnight. There he met with a form of jazz one may be familiar with from French films of the 1950s. He picked up this music's narrative and re-told it to the listener by adding a lively tinge of digital contrasts. Those two albums may be taken as necessary starting points for him to arrive at Strings + Feedback. The ten tracks on this new album embark on an excursion into the direct vicinity of sounds and into the inner life of the mixing desk. It is here where sounds are organized, where they all must pass through, that Pekler develops his breathtaking signal flow. Inside his mixing console, Pekler forces a conversation between a few string and piano samples (taken mostly from Morton Feldman's work in the 1950s), forcing unpredictable encounters, intensification and distortion. If Pekler on his previous albums appeared as a minute observer who knows how to describe even the most delicate atmospheric conditions through music, then on Strings + Feedback he has become an intermediary between sound worlds. Similar to the imaginary circuit diagram on the album's cover, Pekler's pieces leave the safe and beaten tracks on which most specialists tread and instead create open-ended and yet-to-be-discovered paths which cannot be described through the logic of a manual. It may be unintentional that the cover design is reminiscent of the 1960s Situationist's visionary city maps, but it matches Pekler's approach as he creates a new topography by re-organizing existing sound material. In the words of Yoko Ono: "Draw a map to get lost."

Artist:	KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF
Title:	Remixed Part 1
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 063EP

After the successful and critically-acclaimed release of Kammerflimmer Kollektief's Absencen album in spring of 2005, Staubgold now offers the first in a series of two remix 12"s featuring four beautiful and kicking mixes, done by Jan Jelinek, Aoki Takamasa, Nôze and David Last. Kammerflimmer Kollektief have been compared to Amon Düül, Four Tet, The Notwist, Styrofoam, the Morr Music roster, etc. Musique concrète, soundscapes, country, free jazz, the scores of yet unmade films -- all these components make up Kollektief's art without ever being there simply for their own sake, a fact which they communicate to the listener.

Artist:	HASSLE HOUND
Title:	Limelight Cordial
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 065CD

Debut full length by this trio. Hassle Hound are a benign tornado, roaring and twisting through the best and most eclectic of record collections, ripping out and tearing off ideas and samples. They plunder for a reason -- to make fragile and lovely music, often charmingly odd but with a gleeful melancholy, off-kilter but on the ball. There is a childlike quality to their music, but the child in question must be a musical prodigy with a wry sense of humor and a maturity beyond his years. They are not afraid to be beautiful. Machines and beats are caressed into soft humanity by delicate vocals, the boisterous cuddle of eccentrically played instruments and ingenious guitar patterns. Here are wistful love songs which also sound like the greatest James Bond theme ever (if those films had ever been made by a 60's new wave Czech director). Cartoon oneirics slapstick their way across lush countryside and toddle through town, favorite-uncle drunk and beaming expansively. Trying to pin them down is like drinking beer with a fork. They coin new genres like other bands do sound checks -- too much funky not enough, crofter dub, genial noise, surf and turf guitar, carousel gothic, collagetronica. If Harry Partch had made music for ice-cream vans it might have been like some of these affable inventions.

Artist:	EHLERS, EKKEHARD
Title:	A Life Without Fear
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 066CD

This is Frankfurt-based Ekkehard Ehlers' (Autopoieses, Marz) seventh release for the Staubgold label. A frontrunner in electronic experimentation and electroacoustic composition, Ehlers has reinterpreted Schoenberg, produced an album of folktronica, and paid aural indietronic tributes to Albert Ayler and Cornelius Cardew on his acclaimed Plays series of EPs. Anomalous in the best sense of the word, A Life Without Fear is as unexpected as Jim O'Rourke's embrace of John Fahey's music a decade ago. Ekkehard Ehlers once again harnesses the genius natural resource that is Joseph Suchy's go-for-broke attitude towards the guitar, and the "electric blues" are given yet another definition. A Life Without Fear occasionally strays into Maher Shalal or 21st century Red Krayola Blues, Hollers and Hellos turf, but wait -- Franz Hautzinger's at the door. Droning, guitar-picked porch blues blend with whiskey-soaked vocals, voodoo jazz, and throbbing electronics while low hums rub up against scraped strings and a buzzed-out harmonica heard through a tin-can. This is rough-hewn experimental bluestronica mixed with graveyard dirt.

Artist:	NO NECK BLUES BAND AND EMBRYO
Title:	EmbryoNNCK
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 067CD

New York mavericks No Neck Blues Band and Munich-based Krautrock band Embryo explore the indigenous urban music phenomenon on this, their debut collaborative release. The No Neck Blues Band are one of the most enigmatic, mysterious, and defiantly anti-commercial groups to emerge from the New York loft scene during the '90s. The collective was formed in 1992 around a core of multi-instrumentalists who have stubbornly and admirably insisted on individual anonymity. Incorporating elements of folk, drone, psychedelia, free jazz, noise, and just about everything else, NNCK have nevertheless carved out a distinctive sound from complementary and disparate component elements. One of the most original and innovative Krautrock bands, Embryo fused traditional ethnic music with their own jazzy space rock style. Over their 35+-year existence, during which Christian Burchard has been the only consistent member, the group has traveled the world, playing with hundreds of different musicians and releasing countless records. Melding their wildly diverse forays into experimental, blues, Middle Eastern, Turkish and African music, these two groups have since become brothers in unparalleled improvisatory spirit, and EmbryoNNCK is the fruit of that merge. To quote Christian Burchard, "The NNCK players were flying... Little melodies we never had heard, different moods, rhythmic interplays, and in between the musicmaking it was like we had been together all the time." This should be one of the most transcendent releases of the year. The CD version includes a 24-pages booklet with photos and linernotes. LP version is Sound @ One.

Artist:	LEAFCUTTER JOHN
Title:	The Forest and The Sea
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 068CD

Leafcutter John is London-based John Burton, and this is his first release on the Staubgold label. Since his debut on Planet Mu records in 2000, Burton has developed a strong musical identity using processed instrumental and environmental recordings. The Forest and The Sea features a dynamic hybrid of electronic and acoustic songs. Telling a true story, the compositions are bound together by a meticulous narrative enriched by haunting vocals and traditional instrumentation. Both story and field recordings were constructed and gathered in various locations including Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This journey reveals John's musical kaleidoscope and his consolidated approach to songwriting, field recordings and electronics. A significant development from John's earlier works, he manages to produce seamless transitions between electronics and songwriting. The end result is the creation of a new, all-encompassing genre. The list of guests includes drummer Seb Rochford and bassist Tom Herbert from Mercury Music Prize nominees Polar Bear -- of which John is a full-time member. Additional vocals are provided by Leo Chadburn aka Simon Bookish, and Alice Grant.

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Space
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 069CD

This is Rafael Toral's second full-length release for Staubgold. Space marks a radical change in Rafael Toral's music. After 15+ years of accomplished work on guitar and electronics, the Portuguese musician, producer and sound engineer found his way into a complete renovation of his music: "For a new endeavor I needed new information, and I discovered that the field of knowledge in music that I had most to learn from was jazz. There is a long line of connections and fusions between jazz and electronic music, and I envisioned that a step beyond would not be more jazz with electronics, but on electronics." In his emerging new conception of electronic music, Toral looks to the value of human performance while sharing values from jazz culture. Quoting longtime collaborator Sei Miguel, Toral's playing is "not composed, not improvised, and not a compromise between the two." In recent years, Rafael Toral has been developing and performing solo concerts on his instruments (modified or custom-built electronic devices) in a field of work he calls the "Space program." He slowly merged hours of live and studio recordings into "Space" (the program's first release), which is no less than a full orchestra of such instruments. The result suggests that the expression "space-jazz" was invented before the music it would describe best. The "Space program" is a vast and ambitious undertaking, featuring a two-paired series of record releases: Space Elements -- centering each volume on a certain instrument, while adding few others and featuring collaborations; and the Solo Series -- documenting solo performance on various instruments. The album Space belongs to neither of these, but is rather the "Space program's" fundamental release.

Artist:	KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF
Title:	Remixed
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 070CD

This is the sixth album by this German sextet, based in Karlsruhe. With previous albums on Staubgold, Quecksilber, Afterhours, and Temporary Residence, they have been compared to Amon Düül, Four Tet, The Notwist, Styrofoam, the Morr Music roster, etc. Musique concrète, soundscapes, country, free jazz, jazz, the scores of yet unmade films etc., all these components make up Kollektief's art without ever being there simply for their own sake, a fact which they communicate to the listener. After the successful and critically acclaimed release of their Absencen album in 2005, Staubgold now offers a killer collection of remixes, previously only released on two limited edition 12" EPs. Besides the eight mixes by Jan Jelinek, Sutekh, Aoki Takamasa, Secondo, Radian, Nôze, David Last and Lump200 which appeared on the vinyls, this CD also includes two exclusive bonus mixes by Hans Appelqvist and David Last again, now under his Pocket Pet alias.

Artist:	WIRKUS, PAUL
Title:	Déformation Professionnelle
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 071CD

This is Polish drummer and electronic musician Paul Wirkus' fourth solo release, and first for Staubgold. When his previous album Inteletto D'Amore came out on the Quecksilber label two years ago, for The Wire magazine it was the most engaging and fully-formed work in the field of glitchology to that date. "What makes Wirkus such a master is his ability to show enough of the source material to allow the listener to follow the narrative journey of its processing, and to fit the digital shards and splinters which result into the music's total perspective," Keith Moliné wrote. "He never once falls into the trap of believing that it's only in this digi-scree that the art happens." All this can also easily be said about the Cologne resident's new work, Déformation Professionnelle, but that's just half the truth. Wirkus has gone a big step further. The glitch still forms the basis, but the result is much more song-structured than before, further emphasizing this sound artist's unique narrative qualities. There's hardly any programming here, with most of the tracks directly recorded live onto DAT without overdubs. Melody has become the main focus. Wirkus' background as an improvising percussionist still informs the pointillistic perfection of his output, developed through a series of serious and studied solo albums and extremely varied collaborations.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Jukebox Buddha
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 072CD

Fifteen tracks made with the FM3 Buddha Machine. Featuring exclusive contributions by Adrian Sherwood and Doug Wimbish, Blixa Bargeld, SunnO))), Thomas Fehlmann, Sun City Girls, Gudrun Gut, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Jan Jelinek/Andrew Pekler/Hanno Leichtmann, Mapstation, Aki Onda, Robert Henke, Es, Alog, Minit and Wang Fan. It was about three years ago whilst loafing in one of Beijing's finer foot massage joints that Christiaan Virant, the other half of Chinese duo FM3 to Zhang Jian, began to riff mutation fantasies as applied to the Buddha Machine. The Buddha Machine is a literal translation from Mandarin for the small plastic box, driven by two double 'A' batteries, that grinds out low-fi looped sutra variants across the whole of China and South East Asia. The original concept was to locate the nest, infect the breeding process with the new strain of meditative sonics developed by FM3 over the previous couple of years, lop off a hundred or so clones for promotion purposes and bounce off the impact with a few European gigs. That idea died as soon as the little babies fell into the hands of Brian Eno, a rare musical expeditionary from the far West visiting China, and the notorious Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls. Only just over twelve months later the little beggar polls 88 thousand pages on Google (the number 8 is the luckiest number in China) and has a dedicated My Space page almost as amusing as the soundbox itself when only the Pope is missing from its fanbase! On Jukebox Buddha, the first chapter of Buddha version, disciples of many levels stretch, compress, reconfigure, rub and dust, and generally fuck around with the nine floating loops clipped out from FM3's confrontational world of quiet. Moving straight to level four, the entry from Einsturzende Neubauten's Blixa Bargeld finds the Beijing resident submitting to sweeter harmonies than those with which he is traditionally associated, even eschewing voice in a move that could free him from the eternal cycle of rebirth. Level two devotee Wang Fan, longtime associate of FM3, builds environmentally-friendly filigrees of sound while new initiates Sherwood and Wimbish immediately recognize the key importance of bass to the Buddha. A true Zen moment is struck by the shameless humor of Jan Jelinek, Andrew Pekler and Hanno Leichtmann's commercial but Robert Henke (Monolake) takes a more devotional approach with a lift from his new album of droneage based entirely on loops from the Buddha Machine. Although Mapstation sound like Mapstation, in an act of submission Thomas Fehlmann bucks the beat and builds floating layers of naked vocal. The Sun City Girls prove they have visited more temples in the East than any other Westerner, and SunnO))) arrive from a different dimension with incomparable restraint. In fact, the absence of self indulgence pervades many of these contributions, as with Minit whose contribution is the only one to actually sound like FM3 but none more so than Gudrun Gut's analysis of the creative process employed in producing the track she has offered here.

Artist:	TO ROCOCO ROT
Title:	Taken From Vinyl
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 073CD

Taken From Vinyl is comprised of 12 rare, vinyl-only tracks taken from To Rococo Rot's out-of-print releases on Fat Cat, Sub Pop, Domino and City Slang, plus the video for "Telema" directed by Sebastian Kutscher. Maybe it was just a coincidence that the first artistic statement from To Rococo Rot in 1995 had been a sound installation, in which record players were driven by power drills. The dubplates specially produced for this occasion were played both ways. A short time later, their first album was released by Kitty-Yo as a picture disc. Like many others, To Rococo Rot have approved of and used all kinds of existing sound storage media. As their music is addressed to everyone everywhere, it requires many different formats to transport the music to the diverse places and to make it audible there. For example, in the '90s, they produced tape editions of their albums for the Eastern European countries. Some of the tracks you will hear on this CD are taken from 12" EPs, which had been produced for experimental and ambient-oriented clubs (many of which have since ceased to exist, and the remaining clubs no longer possess the vibrancy they had in the '90s). Also, the role of the single as the "herald" announcing an album has substantially changed. This compilation CD is an assortment of out-of-print-tracks, which hitherto had been available only in vinyl format. Mostly, they are exclusive, one-off contributions to compilations and commissioned by labels such as Fat Cat, Sub Pop, Domino or City Slang. During the last years, the number of requests for this material has steadily increased, which led to the decision to make some of those tracks available again. The majority of the tracks on this CD have been remastered from vinyl in order to retain a few traces of the original's sound, where possible. This is a view of the last eleven years during which To Rococo Rot played together. It provides the opportunity to re-visit things said a long time ago, to listen to them in the present and to see, what it is that this music -- which creates itself within the moment -- rears itself on today. So please feel free to draw no line between the past and the future, between the music that has been made and the music that is to be. All is constantly moving.

Artist:	ORGAN EYE
Title:	Organ Eye
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 074CD

This is the debut recording from Organ Eye, a collaboration formed by chance at a live performance by David Maranha (Osso Exótico) and Minit (Jasmine Guffond & Torben Tilly), which took place at the ZDB Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal, at the end of February 2005. With the addition of Patrícia Machás (also a member of Osso Exótico), the quartet that now forms Organ Eye was completed and in March and December of 2006, they recorded this eponymous release. The two long tracks that comprise this album equally reflect the qualities of the two contributing sides -- Minit's loop-driven fragmented melancholic electronics and the sombre medieval acoustic drone studies of Maranha and Machás. Despite its monolithic nature there is still a lot of detail, and repeated listening will reveal a moody, unfixed world of miniature vibrations, harmonics and noise -- both machine-made and organic. There are also moments of great serenity and at times a sense of directionlessness that allows space to breath. Organ Eye experiments with a live improvised form that neither parties have explored on record before. With the structural looseness of simultaneous solo-ing, it could also be described as a kind of free jazz. The musicians themselves reference The Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" as well as Buddhism, Albert Ayler and an element of doom metal. Organ Eye is a volatile rocket of intense drone-mutation, fleeting sonic ghosts and suspended feedback on the brink of implosion. 44 minutes of vitriolic electric-acoustic drone. The outward and the inward eye.

Artist:	REUBER
Title:	Südpol
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 075CD

Cologne electronic musician Reuber (one half of the duo Klangwart, along with Markus Detmer) presents his fourth album on Staubgold, Südpol (trans. "South Pole"). Reuber creates unusual electronic pastiches that weave a massive selection of esoteric and unexpected samples into a stunning, vibrant patchwork that constantly pulls in different directions. Much in the same way that Reuber so successfully welded image with associative sounds and sequences from various different musical contexts on his previous release, Kintopp, Reuber's instinct for unusual juxtapositions goes well beyond the postmodern irony of incorporating aboriginal music into a psychedelic techno collage -- he has a true ear for combinations that work. Much like shifting curtains of the Aurora Australis, Südpol is cosmic.

Artist:	REUBER
Title:	Südpol
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 075LP

Previously released on CD by Staubgold, now available in a deluxe vinyl version (heavy cardboard, silk-screened sleeves) of Reuber's Südpol album from 2007. A limited edition of 150 copies. Cologne electronic musician Reuber (one half of the duo Klangwart, along with Markus Detmer) presents his fourth album on Staubgold, Südpol (trans. "South Pole"). Reuber creates unusual electronic pastiches that weave a massive selection of esoteric and unexpected samples into a stunning, vibrant patchwork that constantly pulls in different directions. Much in the same way that Reuber so successfully welded image with associative sounds and sequences from various different musical contexts on his previous release, Kintopp, Reuber's instinct for unusual juxtapositions goes well beyond the postmodern irony of incorporating aboriginal music into a psychedelic techno collage -- he has a true ear for combinations that work. Much like shifting curtains of the Aurora Australis, Südpol is cosmic.

Artist:	THILGES
Title:	La Double Absence
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 076CD

Thilges (sometimes known as Thilges3) are Austrians Gammon (bass, drums, guitar, electronics) and Nik Hummer (trautonium, synth, programming) and this is their second full-length release on Staubgold after their Die Offene Gesellschaft release in 2002. La Double Absence is Western experimental music meets Oriental art music. The ensemble emerged in 2003, when Thilges was commissioned by the renowned music promoter Jeunesse to make a composition. The track "Izdiucz" is characteristic of this release: in Arabic, this term describes the fusion of two different materials, and stands for breaking down cultural barriers, and certainly the guest artists on this recording are emblematic of that. The Persian vocalist Zohre Jooya is a widely known interpreter of Persian and Afghan music, and Asim Al-Chalabi who composed the tracks with Thilges is regarded as grandmaster of the oud in the Arabic world. Also appearing on this CD is American viola player Eyvind Kang. For La Double Absence a specific, new way of playing had to be developed; some pieces are completely notated, others are improvised. The music is based on magams, traditional Arabic scales, that were assigned to particular musicians. For this, Thilges invited some of Austria's most approved musicians for guest performances: Franz Hautzinger (Zeitkratzer, Comforts of Madness) and Peter Rosmanith (Otto Lechner Ensemble), who contribute trumpet and percussion parts. Patrick Pulsinger is responsible for the mastering of the record. La Double Absence offers everything a good pop record asks for: catchy melodies, complex rhythms, and a downright atmospheric density. The music is about bacchanal, melancholic, and difficult situations, thus simply about life. This is international music; timeless, beautiful, meditative, and complex. Thilges has been one of Austria's standard bands for sophisticated experimental and electronic music for a long time, and you can see why.

Artist:	KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF
Title:	Jinx
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 077CD

This is the sixth full-length release from Karlsruhe, Germany's Kammerflimmer Kollektief, recorded by Tobias Levin at Electric Avenue Studio. This band is still a "collective," although within the last years and extensive touring through Europe, a group of three core members emerged from the original line-up: Thomas Weber (guitar, electronics, piano), Heike Aumüller (harmonium, vocals, synthesizer, percussion) and Johannes Frisch (double bass and percussion). Whispering, a laid-back pop rhythm and something that sounds like an overwound gramophone, the eight songs on Jinx leave the wide-screen cinemascope soundscapes of the previous albums behind. With their serenity, these songs sound almost like a sediment of the band's earlier approach. This becomes evident in a track like "Nest" (which is reminiscent of the folk-jazz-approach of early Pentangle albums), or the beautifully minimalist yet very touching country-epic "Live At The Cactus Tree Motel." Faced with this music, the usual groping for stylistic comparisons and genre attributions appears more helpless than ever. This is mainly due to the focused use of instrumental improvisation on this album. In their dialogue with the sound impulse, the musicians re-endow data-folk with a body and electronic music with its metaphysics. This becomes evident on both the title track and in "Both Eyes Tight Shut," where in a repetitive swing, Aumüller's voice persistently fishes half-words from the vortex of sound particles. On "Gammler, Zen & Hohe Berge," a tiny echo from the beat on a small wood block that is electronically slowed down, dies away. Time drips through the spheres, quietly. Jinx -- the mythological bird that heralds bad luck -- comes to you when you return from the quest for happiness in the computer game world of virtual identities. With Jinx, the Kammerflimmer Kollektief has created a touching soundtrack for these moments -- when you leave the simulated wonderworld of commerce like "Second Life," when you log off your avatar and suddenly find yourself confronted with the disdainful universality of your own thinking.

Artist:	KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF
Title:	Jinx
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 077LP

LP version. This is the sixth full-length release from Karlsruhe, Germany's Kammerflimmer Kollektief, recorded by Tobias Levin at Electric Avenue Studio. This band is still a "collective," although within the last years and extensive touring through Europe, a group of three core members emerged from the original line-up: Thomas Weber (guitar, electronics, piano), Heike Aumüller (harmonium, vocals, synthesizer, percussion) and Johannes Frisch (double bass and percussion). Whispering, a laid-back pop rhythm and something that sounds like an overwound gramophone, the eight songs on Jinx leave the wide-screen cinemascope soundscapes of the previous albums behind. With their serenity, these songs sound almost like a sediment of the band's earlier approach. This becomes evident in a track like "Nest" (which is reminiscent of the folk-jazz-approach of early Pentangle albums), or the beautifully minimalist yet very touching country-epic "Live At The Cactus Tree Motel." Faced with this music, the usual groping for stylistic comparisons and genre attributions appears more helpless than ever. This is mainly due to the focused use of instrumental improvisation on this album. In their dialogue with the sound impulse, the musicians re-endow data-folk with a body and electronic music with its metaphysics. This becomes evident on both the title track and in "Both Eyes Tight Shut," where in a repetitive swing, Aumüller's voice persistently fishes half-words from the vortex of sound particles. On "Gammler, Zen & Hohe Berge," a tiny echo from the beat on a small wood block that is electronically slowed down, dies away. Time drips through the spheres, quietly. Jinx -- the mythological bird that heralds bad luck -- comes to you when you return from the quest for happiness in the computer game world of virtual identities. With Jinx, the Kammerflimmer Kollektief has created a touching soundtrack for these moments -- when you leave the simulated wonderworld of commerce like "Second Life," when you log off your avatar and suddenly find yourself confronted with the disdainful universality of your own thinking.

Artist:	FRANOV, ALEJANDRO
Title:	Khali
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 078CD

This is the first worldwide release by Argentinian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Alejandro Franov. Franov is one of the key figures of the alternative folk and world music scene of his country, brought to worldwide critical acclaim by singer/songwriter and actress Juana Molina. He collaborated with Juana Molina on three of her albums, Segundo (2000), Tres Cosas (2002) and Son (2006). With Khali, Staubgold is proud to present his first worldwide release, after five solo albums which have only been released in South America and Japan. Khali -- which is mainly based on three instruments -- the African mbira, the Paraguayan harp arpa and the Indian sitar -- is the result of Franov's studies in African and Arabic music, especially the music of the Shona from Zimbabwe. He carefully combines these unique instruments with percussion, voices and minimal electronics in order to create a comfortably floating stream of world music in the purest sense, hardly relating to any certain country or region. On the one hand, Khali is the name of the Croatian island where Franov's grandfather was born; on the other hand, it's taken from the tabla rhythm cycle of Hindustani music, and it's the name of a Hindu goddess. Born in 1972, today Alejandro Franov is one of the most important musicians in Argentina. His unique musical talent has attracted many artists and led to collaborations with Juana Molina, Liliana Herrero, Fernando Kabusacki, Mono Fontana, Santiago Vasquez, Seiichi Yamamoto (Rovo, ex-Boredoms), Yuji Katsui (Rovo), Kama Aina and many more.

Artist:	FRANOV, ALEJANDRO
Title:	Khali
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 078LP

LP version. This is the first worldwide release by Argentinian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Alejandro Franov. Franov is one of the key figures of the alternative folk and world music scene of his country, brought to worldwide critical acclaim by singer/songwriter and actress Juana Molina. Khali -- which is mainly based on three instruments -- the African mbira, the Paraguayan harp arpa and the Indian sitar -- is the result of Franov's studies in African and Arabic music, especially the music of the Shona from Zimbabwe. He carefully combines these unique instruments with percussion, voices and minimal electronics in order to create a comfortably floating stream of world music in the purest sense, hardly relating to any certain country or region.

Artist:	SUN
Title:	I'll Be The Same
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 079CD

I'll Be The Same is the second recording from Australian duo, Sun. Sun is the coupling of sound artist Oren Ambarchi and musician-producer, Chris Townend. The pair have been kindred spirits for many years, with Townend being a sensitive and crucial ear in engineering Ambarchi's landmark solo recordings. It was their shared love for expansive pop that led them to their first musical collaboration together as Sun, released on Staubgold in 2003. The self-titled debut was a laid-back delight of many melodic charms and artful creation (what Pitchfork referred to as Ambarchi's "complete & total infatuation with all things Brian Wilson"), as sweet as it was wry in its lyricism. Those trademarks continue with I'll Be The Same, though the songs here are more freewheeling pleasures where an unaffected sense of experimentalism breezes in. There's a special kind of warmth to I'll Be The Same that feels easy, a reflection of the state of play when these two come together. And with Ambarchi now residing in Melbourne and Townend's imminent move to Tasmania, along with multiple touring and recording commitments for both, really the only thing about Sun that isn't easy, is finding the time to make it happen. I'll Be The Same is finally a beaming signal of more to follow.

Artist:	KLANGWART
Title:	Stadtlandfluss
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 080CD

After an eight year long studio hiatus, the Cologne- and Berlin-based electronic duo Klangwart (Markus Detmer and Timo Reuber) present Stadtlandfluss. Since 1999, Klangwart have been experimenting at their concerts with a limited pool of sounds and loops (developed and compiled by Timo). From this, the two generated the concert piece Stadtlandfluss in real-time, which they have been (re-)creating as a continuous experiment for many years. Thus, Stadtlandfluss is a "work in progress." Little of what's happening within the piece is determined. Dynamics range from "very quiet" (minimal, subtle, harmonious, finely-honed) to "extremely loud" (harsh, raw, pure energy). The piece is in a state of permanent flux, it changes from performance to performance depending on the acoustics of the place and the physical and mental state of Klangwart and the audience. No two concerts sound the same. With this piece, Klangwart allowed themselves the luxury of a long gestation. In 2007, Markus and Timo decided to capture the piece in their Cologne-based Inkiek-Studio and release it on an album of the same title. Although the music is split into seven tracks, it is still one continuous piece. Droning soundscapes mixed with restless electronics that envigorate the very act of listening.

Artist:	AUTISTIC DAUGHTERS
Title:	Uneasy Flowers
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 081LP

Released on CD in March of 2008 on Kranky, Uneasy Flowers is the second album by New Zealand's Autistic Daughters, the intercontinental trio of Dean Roberts (guitar, vocals), Martin Brandlmayr (percussion, computer) and Werner Dafeldecker (guitar, bass). It is also the fourth in a series of records in which Roberts, having begun in more abstract territory in New Zealand's mid-1990s "free noise" ferment, has embraced song, lyric and voice as vessels for topographic and psychoanalytic tracings of the impacts of territory and nomadism on the subject. This is reflected by the shape-shifting nature of the outfit: while Autistic Daughters (whose name comes from a lyric from their first record Jealousy And Diamond) are resolutely a trio, they also work in cinematic format, with ancillary players behind the trio's complex, worm-turning arrangements: in this instance, Chris Abrahams of The Necks, Martin Siewert and Valerio Tricoli. With Uneasy Flowers, Roberts traces the internal and external workings of one protagonist: or, rather, a protagonist who "contains multitudes," a Whitmanian figure that dissolves the unified self. Rather, this character, "Rehana," embodies multiplicity and fragmentation in order to both a) address loss and b) aim toward transfiguration, transcendence. There are traces in the lyrics -- traces of addiction and desire, myth and transformation -- that are obliquely reflected in the music's structure, its uneasy tension between the pop song (the "moment") and experiment (the "process"). In some ways, it reminds of the structural, loop-based cinema of figures like Malcolm LeGrice: taking one moment and stretching it, the better to capture its nuances and to draw out all the repressed material caught in the mise-en-scène, the hidden, cloaked content that erupts when your world spirals out of your control and gets caught in webs of interpersonal politic. The move from intimacy to the capture of the "greater picture" enacted by both lyric and music here resembles a camera dollying out, a shift of perspective unsettling for its vertigo-inducing qualities. Experimental deconstructionism within a pop framework that is contemplative, well-crafted, and gracefully unsettling.

Artist:	GRUMMICH, PETER
Title:	Dinner Music For Clubbers: Peter Grummich Plays Staubgold
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 082CD

The much-beloved Berlin techno-minimalist/producer Peter Grummich, in partnership with the Staubgold label, presents a dinner mix for your appetite and for your aural enjoyment. At first contemplation, this combination of hell-raising artist and highly-prolific and respectable label seems highly unlikely: however, both address gut-level feelings via music that has no boundaries. Dinner Music For Clubbers presents music for before and after one hits the floor. This isn't dance music, but music to listen to -- which inspires, stimulates and gently widens one's aural perception. The arc of this compilation comprises a complete menu -- from the aperitif to the digestive. This mix CD is Grummich's alternative to the uniform "Buenavistabuddhabar" ambience, which rules the cafés, bars and hip restaurants of this world with an iron fist. Featuring music by To Rococo Rot, Ehlers/Suchy/Hautzinger, Sack Und Blumm, Rafael Toral, Andrew Pekler, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Alejandro Franov, Reuber, Alejandro Franov, Sun, Mapstation, No-Neck Blues Band And Embryo, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, and F.S. Blumm.

Artist:	PEDAL
Title:	Pedal
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 083CD

Pedal is comprised of duo improvisations for two pianos by Australians Chris Abrahams (The Necks) and Simon James Phillips. While Abrahams is inspired by jazz, be-bop, hard-bop, free-jazz, rock 'n roll, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, improvisation, Terry Riley, and dare I say... Little Richard, Phillips feels much more at home with the concert hall, opera house, chamber works, Grieg, Janacek, Feldman, Ives, old-school, new-school, classically-trained pianist, conductor, pedagogue. The music: What are they thinking? These guys are doing a recording of acoustic piano music in this day and age?! Just when you think two grand pianos and four hands have nothing to say in this 21st century, you're wrong, because these are two brilliant minds. Every single piece of music on this recording was fully improvised. To borrow a phrase from Ornette Coleman in relation to his view about the state of music in general: "Beauty is a rare thing." Well, here is that rare thing.

Artist:	WIRKUS/MAPSTATION, PAUL
Title:	Forest Full Of Drums
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 085LP

This is the debut collaborative release by Mapstation (Stefan Schneider) and Paul Wirkus. The artists describe the process of recording Forest Full Of Drums thusly: "Everything was already there. The trees, the wind, the birds, the muddy soil, the undergrowth, playing children, people taking walks, the distant hum of a motorway and airplanes above. We arrived there as beginners. We had to wait for the right weather, to look for a good spot, to practice patience, to carry the drum kit through the bush and to set it up and start playing and recording. Daylight was all that was needed. It had begun as a fantasy, a vague and simple picture that you carry with you. Derived from the joy of being outside in nature: a drum kit standing in a forest. What would it sound like if you play and record it there? The forest as a resonating space. A room where you are inside and outside at once. Sometimes it looks like a friendly home, and at other times becomes an eerie sea. A space in which the ancient sounds of the world meet the sounds of civilization. If you stand in one spot, it is difficult to recognize where the sounds are coming from and whom or what they belong to. Playing and recording there was very far from being in a perfectly-controlled studio situation. First, we started hitting the drums we brought and then later on we started picking up sticks and branches, tossing around big logs and becoming curious about what they would sound like. The forest had slowly changed our initial ideas in an elegant way. It enabled us to make music with just what we found and what was there. In the very moment that we wanted to do it, we simply had to dive into it, look underneath. Then the world became a bigger place than it was before." Paul Wirkus (drums, cymbals, branches, leaves, air improvisations); Stefan Schneider (steps, recording, editing, mixing).

Artist:	MASCHINA, JASMINA
Title:	The Demolition Series
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 086CD

This is the debut full-length release by Berlin-based Jasmina Maschina (one-half of the duo Minit). Jasmina Maschina's sonic folk soundscape transports you into the world of a familiar song that you are only too pleased to hear again. In the gorgeousness of the everyday, she melds the most simple and innocent chord progressions of time-honored folk music with a noisenik's attraction to repetition, drone and inventiveness to create the sensation of paresthesia on the skin and mind. The vocals resonate astonishment at the normal wonders of the world, an intensity of just being lucky enough to feel sensation and experience, undertaking the weight of human emotion with a flightful ease. The Demolition Series sounds like an effortless album. Soaring beauty, short rides to nowhere, characters met in the dark, are all in the experience of the artist. A clear view through steely eyes with a touch of innocent mysticism. Guest musicians include Torben Tilly (guitar), Jimmy Trash (melodica), Ari Benjamin Meyers (piano), Anthony Pieretti (drums) and Lucinda Dayhew (voice).

Artist:	MASCHINA, JASMINA
Title:	The Demolition Series
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 086LP

LP version. This is the debut full-length release by Berlin-based Jasmina Maschina (one-half of the duo Minit). Jasmina Maschina's sonic folk soundscape transports you into the world of a familiar song that you are only too pleased to hear again. In the gorgeousness of the everyday, she melds the most simple and innocent chord progressions of time-honored folk music with a noisenik's attraction to repetition, drone and inventiveness to create the sensation of paresthesia on the skin and mind. The vocals resonate astonishment at the normal wonders of the world, an intensity of just being lucky enough to feel sensation and experience, undertaking the weight of human emotion with a flightful ease. The Demolition Series sounds like an effortless album. Soaring beauty, short rides to nowhere, characters met in the dark, are all in the experience of the artist. A clear view through steely eyes with a touch of innocent mysticism. Guest musicians include Torben Tilly (guitar), Jimmy Trash (melodica), Ari Benjamin Meyers (piano), Anthony Pieretti (drums) and Lucinda Dayhew (voice).

Artist:	HEAVEN AND
Title:	Sweeter As The Years Roll By
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 087CD

Heaven And are Tony Buck (drums, percussion); Steve Heather (drums, marimba, percussion); Martin Siewert (guitars, lap steel, electronics, keyboards); Zeitblom (bass, keyboards); Alexander Hacke (vocals). Sweeter As The Years Roll By is their debut full-length release for the Staubgold label and it's a phrase which many will associate with wine. The music of the 21st century has evolved to become the proverbial "old wine in new skins" -- since remixing, cut'n'paste, and other methods of producing new culture by using the old, have become available to almost everyone. Because of the "digital revolution," the layman can now easily become the mixer and magician. The music of Heaven And is inspired by the diverse music styles all conglomerated in our culture -- elements of the diverse musical styles from the last five decades are clearly discernible. Listening to the first track "As If A Star," one can make out a vast range of influences: a psychedelic backwards guitar cuts through the whirr of a cymbal reminiscent of jazz and trance music, while in the second half, a layer of guitar sounds hovers over it all, which reminds one of the sounds emanating from the Fender amps of the bands belonging to the so-called Americana movement. At the same time, the track comes across as an update of those stoic monster tracks of early '70s Krautrock. (And when it comes to minimalism, the bass line beats any of Holger Czukay's in terms of sparseness.) "Bring Back Those Happy Days" with its manic, almost exploding guitar and its rompish, hippie-like percussion orgy, is quite another cup of tea. Art Ensemble Of Chicago meets Keiji Haino? Or Pharoah Sanders meets Sonny Sharrock meets Boredoms? In the course of the album's duration, Heaven And take their listeners on an unsettling roller coaster ride of styles. Sometimes, elements of the blues stick out, while at other times, elements of heavy metal, post-rock, avant garde, free jazz or noise are up front, so that the listener keeps wondering what (in heaven's name) it is s/he's hearing. One clue to this is the list of participants on this project. One look at it makes it clear that this is not music concocted by some part-time musician at his laptop, in which the fissures between the elements are still evident through the electronic glue. In Heaven And, they use musical forms which through their overuse have almost all turned into clichés and fill them with new ideas. These four individuals create their music without making the slightest compromise, sounding only like they themselves could in this constellation -- which renders all attempts at describing their music futile. Their music teems with energy and everything has been played in real time (thus harking back to the production methods of an era in which the computer was not yet the supreme ruler in the studio). Real music, recast.

Artist:	HEAVEN AND
Title:	Sweeter As The Years Roll By
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 087LP

LP version. Heaven And are Tony Buck (drums, percussion); Steve Heather (drums, marimba, percussion); Martin Siewert (guitars, lap steel, electronics, keyboards); Zeitblom (bass, keyboards); Alexander Hacke (vocals). Sweeter As The Years Roll By is their debut full-length release for the Staubgold label and it's a phrase which many will associate with wine. The music of Heaven And is inspired by the diverse music styles all conglomerated in our culture -- elements of the diverse musical styles from the last five decades are clearly discernible. Listening to the first track "As If A Star," one can make out a vast range of influences: a psychedelic backwards guitar cuts through the whirr of a cymbal reminiscent of jazz and trance music, while in the second half, a layer of guitar sounds hovers over it all, which reminds one of the sounds emanating from the Fender amps of the bands belonging to the so-called Americana movement. At the same time, the track comes across as an update of those stoic monster tracks of early '70s Krautrock. (And when it comes to minimalism, the bass line beats any of Holger Czukay's in terms of sparseness.) "Bring Back Those Happy Days" with its manic, almost exploding guitar and its rompish, hippie-like percussion orgy, is quite another cup of tea. Art Ensemble Of Chicago meets Keiji Haino? Or Pharoah Sanders meets Sonny Sharrock meets Boredoms? In the course of the album's duration, Heaven And take their listeners on an unsettling roller coaster ride of styles. Sometimes, elements of the blues stick out, while at other times, elements of heavy metal, post-rock, avant garde, free jazz or noise are up front, so that the listener keeps wondering what (in heaven's name) it is s/he's hearing.

Artist:	SACK & BLUMM
Title:	Returns
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 089CD

This is the duo of Harald Sack Ziegler and Frank Schültge Blumm aka Sack & Blumm, and this is the first release on Staubgold since 2003's Kind Kind. For Kind Kind, they sent "musical" letters back and forth between Cologne and Berlin. For Returns, they sat side-by-side in front of their recording equipment in Berlin to be able to communicate their musical ideas more directly. Sack & Blumm present a very autonomous, unpretentious music; music which caters to no audience and which is vaguely reminiscent of the kind of music children play, but which never attempts to emulate their naïveté, due to the subtle virtuosity with which they play their instruments. They're not so much playful as they are receptive in their play, always willing and prepared to follow their ears. Sack & Blumm give each other a lot of space. Within these spaces, their instruments meet, mostly without the disguise of effects. And just like the drops on the cover designed by Eric "E*Rock" Mast (head of the Audio Dregs label), are not just a displays of themselves, but seem to present a microscopic viewing of something underneath them. The compositions of Sack & Blumm are also apt to be acoustic amplifiers of the minutest soundscapes, to serve as magnifying glasses for extremely delicate musical processes and events. And there are quite a lot of these on Returns. Seven guest musicians left their traces on the 23 tracks. Elaborately-arranged fabrics of percussion; the interplay of many-voiced horns with trunks, doors, guitars, pianos, elastophones and unobtrusive electronica; a melody triggering fleeting memories of a Western; breathing sound loops, etc., all of this does not add up to a randomly-assembled jigsaw of sounds. Instead, it is a kite which is released and guided by safe and steady hands, and which inhabits the winds of all climate zones.

Artist:	TORAL, RAFAEL
Title:	Space Elements Vol. 1
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 090CD

This is the third in Rafael Toral's Space Program series of releases -- his long-term research project launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with "phrasing and swing" and performing strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is something you're unlikely to have heard before, a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral Space and the follow-up Space Solo 1, this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instrument, on small settings and including collaborations. Space Elements Vol. I features Rute Praça (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel's amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel himself. From Toral's liner notes: "Having found that jazz is the field of musical knowledge where disciplined decision-making is most developed, this music is more informed by jazz than by any other. The Space Program emphasizes articulating silence and sound, by structuring musical discourse on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. To my surprise, I found no historical precedents to this practice, being that it draws practically no information from electronic music history (which is grounded on different thinking patterns), and it draws very little from jazz history as well, since the instruments I use are inadequate to play any music based on the Western system. I regard this approach to jazz (meaning a system of individual decision-making from the standpoint of free-spectrum live electronics) as a new and exciting field of creative possibilities. I called it 'post-free jazz electronic music.'"

Artist:	YASUAKI & DAVID CUNNINGHAM, SHIMIZU
Title:	One Hundred
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 091CD

Legendary UK producer David Cunningham's (The Flying Lizards, Michael Nyman, This Heat) first album in almost ten years. David Cunningham is a record producer and musician who makes installation works based on real-time exploration of acoustics. His first significant commercial success came with The Flying Lizards' single "Money," an international hit in 1979. Over the years he has worked with an eclectic range of people and music, from pop groups (This Heat, Martin Creed) to improvisation (David Toop, Steve Beresford) to Michael Nyman's music for Peter Greenaway's films and work with Ute Lemper and others. His installation works have inhabited the 11th Biennale of Sydney, Tate Britain, ICC Tokyo, Ikon Birmingham and most recently, Carter Presents, London. "I'm interested in what happens when time, sound and space are explored together. Inseparable elements, but formal European thought does not really seem to acknowledge this ... I was fascinated by the sonic vocabulary enabled by the reel-to-reel tape recorder and its successor technology -- tools that could manipulate and shape sound like nothing else. Most records I intuitively love involve this sort of treatment -- from Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel to The Ronettes to Terry Riley to Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' and so many more." Yasuaki Shimizu, Japanese composer, arranger and renowned jazz saxophonist (who has worked with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bill Laswell and The Orb) has been pushing the saxophone to the limit since the 1970s. Whether as a solo performer, with his group Saxophonettes or as a composer for film and video soundtracks (e.g. Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book) he has consistently explored new avenues in an unparalleled musical career. David Cunningham: guitar, footpedals, delays and kalimba. Yasuaki Shimizu: tenor saxophone, piano, delays.

Artist:	EMPIRE, ALEC
Title:	Rauschgold: Alec Empire Plays Staubgold
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 092CD

After Dinner Music For Clubbers (STAUB 082CD) by Peter Grummich, it's now Alec Empire (ex-Atari Teenage Riot) who puts his hands on the Staubgold label back-catalog, producing the second volume in this ongoing series of DJ mix CDs. 70 minutes of droning Krautronica madness that is guaranteed to make you dance. Compiled, mixed and edited by Alec Empire. Selected by A.E. and Markus Detmer. Artists include: Irmler/Reuber, Groenland Orchester, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Nôze, Mapstation, Schwabinggrad Ballett, Organ Eye, The Loop Orchestra, Autistic Daughters, Faust, Harald Sack Ziegler, Die Welttraumforscher, Heaven And, Alexander Hacke, Klangwart, Beta Erko, and Paul Wirkus.

Artist:	PROJEKT TRANSMIT
Title:	Projekt Transmit
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 093CD

This is the debut full-length release by Projekt Transmit, a group formed by Anthony Buck. Most people would know Anthony Buck as Tony Buck, drummer and percussionist from sublime Australian improvisational trio The Necks. With Projekt Transmit, we see another side of this artist's multi-faceted musical personality: giving a firm nod to bands like Shellac and My Bloody Valentine, Projekt Transmit is the result of Buck's hardcore, post-rock side. Retaining the experimental edge that encompasses much of his music, each song on this record is rich with texture and momentum. Buck starts with a basic, minimalist idea -- be it a driving riff, a syncopated melody or rolling rhythm -- and builds upon it with layers of sounds and harmonies. He drums, sings and plays guitar on an album that challenges as much as his history would suggest it should. From the opening "What You Want," an unrelenting post-rock alternate-James Bond-theme, to the closing, ten-minute "Time," an exploration of sound and texture that melts into a gentle lullaby, building like waves on the shore, then dissipating back to where it came from -- this album keeps you on your toes, leaves your nerves on edge, never able to settle, despite its strongly minimalistic, rhythmic nature. Buck's post-apocalyptic version of Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War" could not be more apt. He has set out to reach a "sound and momentum" and has achieved that and more. To truly appreciate Anthony Buck's musical language, it's important to catch the tiny, but significant details on this album. The jangly guitar edges, the well-placed harmonic sounds, the subtle edges, even the humming vocals: listen closely -- otherwise, you might just miss something.

Artist:	PROJEKT TRANSMIT
Title:	Projekt Transmit
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 093LP

LP version. This is the debut full-length release by Projekt Transmit, a group formed by Anthony Buck. Most people would know Anthony Buck as Tony Buck, drummer and percussionist from sublime Australian improvisational trio The Necks. With Projekt Transmit, we see another side of this artist's multi-faceted musical personality: giving a firm nod to bands like Shellac and My Bloody Valentine, Projekt Transmit is the result of Buck's hardcore, post-rock side. Retaining the experimental edge that encompasses much of his music, each song on this record is rich with texture and momentum. Buck starts with a basic, minimalist idea -- be it a driving riff, a syncopated melody or rolling rhythm -- and builds upon it with layers of sounds and harmonies. He drums, sings and plays guitar on an album that challenges as much as his history would suggest it should. From the opening "What You Want," an unrelenting post-rock alternate-James Bond-theme, to the closing, ten-minute "Time," an exploration of sound and texture that melts into a gentle lullaby, building like waves on the shore, then dissipating back to where it came from -- this album keeps you on your toes, leaves your nerves on edge, never able to settle, despite its strongly minimalistic, rhythmic nature. Buck's post-apocalyptic version of Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War" could not be more apt. He has set out to reach a "sound and momentum" and has achieved that and more. To truly appreciate Anthony Buck's musical language, it's important to catch the tiny, but significant details on this album. The jangly guitar edges, the well-placed harmonic sounds, the subtle edges, even the humming vocals: listen closely -- otherwise, you might just miss something.

Artist:	DIETMAR DATH & KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF
Title:	Im Erwachten Garten
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 094CD

Contemporary German novelist, writer and translator Dietmar Dath (b. 1970) reads Im Erwachten Garten (trans. In The Awoken Garden), a hitherto unpublished "alternate version" or "looking glass text" of his polyphonic novel Die Abschaffung Der Arten (The Abolition Of The Species), with musical interpretation by Kammerflimmer Kollektief. In this story, animals explain the meaning of love, war and history to human beings. The animated, unpredictable and ever-changing environment is ably supported by the Kammerflimmer Kollektief, who musically illustrate the map to a secret original text which lies beneath the published novel. Text becomes music, music becomes legible. These are two voices: that of the text and the voice of sound, which whispers, susurrates and coos, like a Pentecostal flame. This voice is essentially unknowable, yet it is intimately tied up within the substance of the text, like evening beauty wrapped up in reverb. A drum kit invokes the beating of a human heart, an echo resounds. Tonal matter seems to be organized in lines; the sounds map a layout of the ear so that the narrative assumes a lyrical texture.

Artist:	LAST VS. ZULU, DAVID
Title:	Musically Massive
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 095CD

This is the debut collaborative release from beatmaker David Last and dancehall vocalist Zulu. Taking a break from the grind of New York City, Last found himself living for a few weeks near a beach in Sydney, Australia. He was determined to make new tracks, far away from home. Having spent two years making club music almost exclusively, he was ready to lay back into the influence of dancehall reggae's slower tempos. Vocals were a natural choice. For several years now, Zulu's unique dancehall vocals have been heard in collaboration with the likes of Ghislain Poirier, Kool Keith, and DJ C. A referral from grime-bounce mash-up king DJ C led to an email exchange between Zulu in Chicago, and David in Sydney. In 14 hours, David Last and Zulu had completed their first track via email. The track was good enough that there was only one thing to do... make a whole album. The record label Staubgold in Berlin, having hired Last to remix Kammerflimmer Kollektief, was keen to hear Last's new project. Staubgold listened, and within 24 hours, the project was moving forward at full speed between Chicago, Sydney and Berlin. Like its birth, the sound is also distinctly international -- funk without borders. It is influenced by both electronica and by reggae music, but it is officially neither. It feels like pop, but it blazes new ground in its rhythms and arrangements. Simply put, this release is simply indescribably good -- fast-paced, bouncing, dance-y, yet not even close to being over-the-top. Last and Zulu seem meant for this trip together -- propelling each other energetically forward with their contrapuntal rhythms. Guest artists include CX Kidtronik and Maharani.

Artist:	CURSE OV DIALECT
Title:	Crisis Tales
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 096CD

This is the first full-length by Australian hip-hop mavericks Curse ov Dialect for Staubgold -- a dizzying, multi-dimensional carnival of conscious hip-hop. Inspired by surrealistic grappling with questions of identity and evolution, Curse ov Dialect have collectively created Crisis Tales: a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic scrawl of mercurial rage and spasmodic humor, flowing freely into the void of consumer culture. The alien yet familiar sounds of Crisis Tales reflect the psychological and geographical adventures of the five-strong Melbourne crew (MCs Raceless and Vulk Makedonski, vocalists August the 2nd and Aturungi, and DJ/producer Paso Bionic). This is the most impressive product yet of the band's restless creativity and degenerate mindscape. A hybrid gumbo of musical mutations and bending of genres and cultures, the album climaxes with an epic, 11-minute transnational posse track featuring guest rappers from Macedonia, Germany, Poland, Indonesia, Switzerland and the United States. Produced by Curse ov Dialect and mixed by DJ/producer Danielsan (Koolism), Crisis Tales sprawls a wide-spectrum, organic sonic palette with a solid hip-hop foundation. Special guests include Joelistics, Elf Tranzporter, Kaigen, RKS, Hugo 1, Eytan Messiah, and Trillion. Equal parts empathy and theatricality, Crisis Tales is at once a strident call to arms, challenging society's restraints of conformity, oppression and religion, and a dreamy contemplation of all things metaphorical and metaphysical. With an armory of lyrics both sharp and thoughtful, inscrutable and existential, and a mindblowing, hyper-authentic musicality, Curse ov Dialect is conclusive proof that Australian hip-hop is worth infiltrating and subverting.

Artist:	CURSE OV DIALECT
Title:	Crisis Tales
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 096LP

LP version. This is the first full-length by Australian hip-hop mavericks Curse ov Dialect for Staubgold -- a dizzying, multi-dimensional carnival of conscious hip-hop. Inspired by surrealistic grappling with questions of identity and evolution, Curse ov Dialect have collectively created Crisis Tales: a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic scrawl of mercurial rage and spasmodic humor, flowing freely into the void of consumer culture. The alien yet familiar sounds of Crisis Tales reflect the psychological and geographical adventures of the five-strong Melbourne crew (MCs Raceless and Vulk Makedonski, vocalists August the 2nd and Aturungi, and DJ/producer Paso Bionic). This is the most impressive product yet of the band's restless creativity and degenerate mindscape. A hybrid gumbo of musical mutations and bending of genres and cultures, the album climaxes with an epic, 11-minute transnational posse track featuring guest rappers from Macedonia, Germany, Poland, Indonesia, Switzerland and the United States. Produced by Curse ov Dialect and mixed by DJ/producer Danielsan (Koolism), Crisis Tales sprawls a wide-spectrum, organic sonic palette with a solid hip-hop foundation. Special guests include Joelistics, Elf Tranzporter, Kaigen, RKS, Hugo 1, Eytan Messiah, and Trillion. Equal parts empathy and theatricality, Crisis Tales is at once a strident call to arms, challenging society's restraints of conformity, oppression and religion, and a dreamy contemplation of all things metaphorical and metaphysical. With an armory of lyrics both sharp and thoughtful, inscrutable and existential, and a mindblowing, hyper-authentic musicality, Curse ov Dialect is conclusive proof that Australian hip-hop is worth infiltrating and subverting.

Artist:	EHLERS/PAUL WIRKUS, EKKEHARD
Title:	Ballads
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUBDIG 001CD

This is the debut collaborative release by electronic composer Ekkehard Ehlers and percussionist Paul Wirkus. A mish-mash of improvisational electronic and organic textures that hiss, hum, and drone into exploratory, avant-garde outerspace. Ekkehard Ehlers explains, "Well, maybe it is a jazz record. Most parts are improvised by Paul and me by playing on the keyboards of our laptops (using strange Reaktor patches) and were recorded directly to a third computer. Sometimes we used a double-bass backing (played by Werner Dafeldecker and Achim Tang) to play on, and sometimes Kai Fagaschinski added clarinet. And, of course, we used drums played by Paul. We tried to avoid loop-structures while playing together, which is always the most difficult thing. As samples, we used string instruments like oud, guitar and so on, and transformed them to more organ-like sounds. And we used two Alice Coltrane samples for some tracks and a Henry Flynt sample flying around during the tracks. When we started working together, we had the idea of making a sound installation in Poland. For that we wanted to travel the German-Polish border and play somewhere on the countryside and record it on a mobile unit. But the weather was too bad and we had no money. So finally we got stuck in my studio exchanging experiences and experimenting with patches. We had five sessions in four days for recording. The post-production and mixing took another two months. Every time Paul and I met, we did heavy jazz listening sessions."

Artist:	NORSCQ
Title:	Gelatinosa Substancia
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	STAUBDIG 003CD

Norscq, a Paris-based electronic musician, has been one of the key instigators of the French underground scene for more than 25 years. He founded the iconoclastic cult group The Grief in 1984, producing 10 exceptional releases. Norscq is a prolific artist with a fine ear for electronica that moves from ambient to rhythmically explosive with a sonic continuity uniting the extremes. His solo album on Staubgold is also the soundtrack to a movie directed by Véronique Ruggia. Gelatinosa Substancia is a strange curiosity. Firstly, the sound feels as though it had been recorded over a 50 year time span. The quality and sharpness of the recording fluctuates and evolves, seemingly improving along with the emergence of the newer recording equipment of the era. We sense that the musicians are always the same despite the radical changes in quality. As the artist describes, "They will play while they move, whether it be on a merry-go-round or a boat ... by way of this, the music will create the sensation of a voyage, that we are actually moving, even if the rhythm is slow and ebbing, or the drones leave us floating in space... the audience will rise to an unknown place. Out to the stars, as they watch the film." A decidedly French amalgam of musique concrète, found sounds, digital fuckery, sample collages, and electro-acoustic absurdist theater.

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