APARDE - Forced Exposure

$17.00 IN STOCK

Aparde's new album, Alliance sees the German musician retreat from his recent experimentations with avant-garde pop music back into the world of deep, and oftentimes dark, electronica. For his previous album, Hands Rest (KI 020CD/LP, 2019), Aparde ventured outside Berlin's club scene through the use of his voice, which gave his music a softer and more intimate edge. Alliance is no less intimate, except this time the musician's vulnerability seeps through the cracks rather than taking center stage. As impressive sonically as it is technically, Aparde used a mixture of electronic sounds, analog equipment and his own voice either as a sound element or lyrical component to explore this duality of sound. "This album was about focusing on something that calmed me down and brought me away from reality," says Aparde. When the musician says "away from reality", he doesn't mean into dreamy, ethereal soundscapes, but rather a deep dive into dystopian atmospheres of drone sounds and chewed-up drum machines. Alliance's second track, "Allies" has a dire beginning and one might even be tempted in skipping it if it weren't for Aparde's hushed voice shining through the shadows, melancholic yes, but also warm. Despite the album's focus on electronic gear the music isn't exactly dance-able, tracks have a ruminative pace, brooding even, "I wanted to make the tracks with more breathing space between the atmosphere and silence. There are fewer elements but more impact, I think," says Aparde. Things change gears toward the middle of Alliance, with both "Lined" and "The Shift" representing the colder, club-ier tracks of the album. For both of these tunes, any emotionality gets converted into a dense and thumping energy that is released in a cathartic fashion. It is, as Aparde describes, music "for you to move to when you have a good moment or a mental crisis." But Aparde doesn't leave it at that frequency; he closes off the album courageously by letting listeners in, once again, to his own world and emotions. While still a driving electronic track, "Hole" is framed around melancholic piano keys that bring the mood down, and prepare listeners for "Know You", the album's most intimate, and vulnerable piece. With Alliance, Aparde brings listeners deep into his soul, a soul that is at times conflicted and agitated and at times low-key and solemn. And as he does so, the listener's own mood is muted and lifted in a journey of quest, dance and healing.

$23.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Aparde's new album, Alliance sees the German musician retreat from his recent experimentations with avant-garde pop music back into the world of deep, and oftentimes dark, electronica. For his previous album, Hands Rest (KI 020CD/LP, 2019), Aparde ventured outside Berlin's club scene through the use of his voice, which gave his music a softer and more intimate edge. Alliance is no less intimate, except this time the musician's vulnerability seeps through the cracks rather than taking center stage. As impressive sonically as it is technically, Aparde used a mixture of electronic sounds, analog equipment and his own voice either as a sound element or lyrical component to explore this duality of sound. "This album was about focusing on something that calmed me down and brought me away from reality," says Aparde. When the musician says "away from reality", he doesn't mean into dreamy, ethereal soundscapes, but rather a deep dive into dystopian atmospheres of drone sounds and chewed-up drum machines. Alliance's second track, "Allies" has a dire beginning and one might even be tempted in skipping it if it weren't for Aparde's hushed voice shining through the shadows, melancholic yes, but also warm. Despite the album's focus on electronic gear the music isn't exactly dance-able, tracks have a ruminative pace, brooding even, "I wanted to make the tracks with more breathing space between the atmosphere and silence. There are fewer elements but more impact, I think," says Aparde. Things change gears toward the middle of Alliance, with both "Lined" and "The Shift" representing the colder, club-ier tracks of the album. For both of these tunes, any emotionality gets converted into a dense and thumping energy that is released in a cathartic fashion. It is, as Aparde describes, music "for you to move to when you have a good moment or a mental crisis." But Aparde doesn't leave it at that frequency; he closes off the album courageously by letting listeners in, once again, to his own world and emotions. While still a driving electronic track, "Hole" is framed around melancholic piano keys that bring the mood down, and prepare listeners for "Know You", the album's most intimate, and vulnerable piece. With Alliance, Aparde brings listeners deep into his soul, a soul that is at times conflicted and agitated and at times low-key and solemn. And as he does so, the listener's own mood is muted and lifted in a journey of quest, dance and healing.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Art has the power to mirror and capture its creator's surroundings and environment. Art can also reflect something much more personal by offering you a glimpse of the artist's mind. Hands Rest, the second studio album by German composer and musician Aparde, does both. While reflecting the essence of Berlin's club scene, in which Aparde undoubtedly is immersed in, the album also takes you to the depths of the musician himself, far from clubs and live sets, to a world that is both intimate and profound. Hands Rest, which was created over the span of one year, has a cathartic feel to it, "the process was very diffused in terms of time, because over the past year my life circumstances have been very complicated and often frustrating, and I had to motivate myself again and again." While he crafted the tracks, Aparde was in fact processing his own thoughts and feelings after the end of a long relationship, and listeners navigate through varying soundscapes that seem to accompany Aparde's own internal commotions as he himself navigated a turbulent year. But while pain, anger and melancholy can be felt in tracks, Hands Rest also contains moments of transcendental insight and "breakthroughs" that evoke comfort and acceptance. There is undoubtedly a lot of Aparde in the album, not only through what he hand-crafts on his analog equipment, but also through his own voice. Aparde's lyrics also expose a fragility that complements the harder electronic elements. In fact, it is the use of his voice in Hands Rest, in hushed and soft tones, that balances some of the more dance tracks with mellow and deeply intimate undertones, showing the progression of the artist from a club musician to something that lies beyond that environment too. The second half of the album certainly feels more thumping than the first, with repetitive beats of a faster tempo, but the choice of equipment accompanied by Aparde's voice warms up what could otherwise feel impersonal.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Art has the power to mirror and capture its creator's surroundings and environment. Art can also reflect something much more personal by offering you a glimpse of the artist's mind. Hands Rest, the second studio album by German composer and musician Aparde, does both. While reflecting the essence of Berlin's club scene, in which Aparde undoubtedly is immersed in, the album also takes you to the depths of the musician himself, far from clubs and live sets, to a world that is both intimate and profound. Hands Rest, which was created over the span of one year, has a cathartic feel to it, "the process was very diffused in terms of time, because over the past year my life circumstances have been very complicated and often frustrating, and I had to motivate myself again and again." While he crafted the tracks, Aparde was in fact processing his own thoughts and feelings after the end of a long relationship, and listeners navigate through varying soundscapes that seem to accompany Aparde's own internal commotions as he himself navigated a turbulent year. But while pain, anger and melancholy can be felt in tracks, Hands Rest also contains moments of transcendental insight and "breakthroughs" that evoke comfort and acceptance. There is undoubtedly a lot of Aparde in the album, not only through what he hand-crafts on his analog equipment, but also through his own voice. Aparde's lyrics also expose a fragility that complements the harder electronic elements. In fact, it is the use of his voice in Hands Rest, in hushed and soft tones, that balances some of the more dance tracks with mellow and deeply intimate undertones, showing the progression of the artist from a club musician to something that lies beyond that environment too. The second half of the album certainly feels more thumping than the first, with repetitive beats of a faster tempo, but the choice of equipment accompanied by Aparde's voice warms up what could otherwise feel impersonal.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Milky glass stands for a semi-transparent, fragile barrier causing a diffuse glance onto life. It is about force, obsession, excess, consciousness, evolvement, liberation, reconciliation, inner conflicts, accomplishments, and the intercourse with these subjects that were decisive for the genesis of "Glass". The debut album of Aparde, Glass, is the attempt of a stylistic manifestation. Paul Camillo Rachel (Aparde) was able to give back the liberty to his musical output that he consciously subordinated, limited, and aligned. Glass sounds like a breakout; it's offensive, with deeper insight and attack, and passion. An unmistakable arrangement and atmosphere, accomplished through the usage of only self-recorded material. A kind of urban and conceptual field recording of sounds in all kinds of environments, selected and sorted by themes. Thus, for the title Glass, different kinds of glass were acoustically combined with other materials. Selected analog instruments and a reduced use of software resulted in a homogenized, warm, and classical, but specific character; Crystalline, organic percussion, vivid surfaces, sudden rhythms, and extent atmosphere, which distinctively scatter throughout and complement the stereoscopic sound image. The lone voice was out in a stronger focus. After a diffuse phase and adjacent relocation, finally resulting in the availability of their own room for musical and personal development, the songs here originated between the end of 2015 and mid-2016. Each song went through a lengthy process of development and many underwent a radical preadaptation around the start of 2017. The acoustic pattern of Glass became more and more distinct. The album was then finalized an early summer of 2017 in an old cottage in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, a very unique lake district in the north of Germany. The homonymous title track summarizes the atmosphere of the album in a comprehensible way. It is also the oldest title on the album. The topic was visually translated by literally looking through a milky glass: intertwined limbs of elusive bodies, diffuse and bizarrely aesthetic. "Mouth" features Anne. CD version includes two tracks not included on the LP version: "Wires" featuring Brigade and "Sand".

$21.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Milky glass stands for a semi-transparent, fragile barrier causing a diffuse glance onto life. It is about force, obsession, excess, consciousness, evolvement, liberation, reconciliation, inner conflicts, accomplishments, and the intercourse with these subjects that were decisive for the genesis of "Glass". The debut album of Aparde, Glass, is the attempt of a stylistic manifestation. Paul Camillo Rachel (Aparde) was able to give back the liberty to his musical output that he consciously subordinated, limited, and aligned. Glass sounds like a breakout; it's offensive, with deeper insight and attack, and passion. An unmistakable arrangement and atmosphere, accomplished through the usage of only self-recorded material. A kind of urban and conceptual field recording of sounds in all kinds of environments, selected and sorted by themes. Thus, for the title Glass, different kinds of glass were acoustically combined with other materials. Selected analog instruments and a reduced use of software resulted in a homogenized, warm, and classical, but specific character; Crystalline, organic percussion, vivid surfaces, sudden rhythms, and extent atmosphere, which distinctively scatter throughout and complement the stereoscopic sound image. The lone voice was out in a stronger focus. After a diffuse phase and adjacent relocation, finally resulting in the availability of their own room for musical and personal development, the songs here originated between the end of 2015 and mid-2016. Each song went through a lengthy process of development and many underwent a radical preadaptation around the start of 2017. The acoustic pattern of Glass became more and more distinct. The album was then finalized an early summer of 2017 in an old cottage in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, a very unique lake district in the north of Germany. The homonymous title track summarizes the atmosphere of the album in a comprehensible way. It is also the oldest title on the album. The topic was visually translated by literally looking through a milky glass: intertwined limbs of elusive bodies, diffuse and bizarrely aesthetic. "Mouth" features Anne.