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LP
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EDDA 064LP
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"I like to work with a variety of instruments and set ups," says Mark Van Hoen, sometimes known as Locust or Autocreation but here working under his own name on the excellent Plan For A Miracle, his first physical release of solo music since 2018's Invisible Threads (TO 104CD). "Sometimes it's literally in my studio, with all the hardware electronics available. Sometimes the laptop, using software instruments. Some of the tracks on this record were recorded in the desert (Joshua Tree) using a four-track tape machine and small modular synthesizer set up. Each track was recorded in different location using different instruments, which accounts for the distinction between each piece. It's also about my own reaction to my environment, and what's going on in my life at the time." Mark Van Hoen has worked on a number of collaborations, including with Nick Holton and Neil Halstead of Slowdive, under the moniker of Black Hearted Brother -- their Stars Are Our Home was released in 2013. Each track on Plan For A Miracle does indeed sound like a world unto itself, a mini-environment, a weather condition, an ecosystem created for the moment. It's a collection of tracks recorded over the past few years, released on Bandcamp -- despite his apparent absence, Van Hoen works constantly. Although the album is non-thematic, non-specific in its atmospheres, sound paintings, elegant structures it most certainly stands as a magnificent monument to Osho's memory. Album mastered for vinyl by Stefan Betke at Scape. Artwork by Ian Anderson (Designers Republic).
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CD
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TO 104CD
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Mark Van Hoen on Invisible Threads: "In mid-2016 I did a brief tour of the west coast with Philip Jeck, Simon Scott, Daniel Mensche, Lee Bannon, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Pye Corner Audio, and Marcus Fischer. The music of all these great artists and the experience of playing these shows with them all informed what would become Invisible Threads which was primarily composed and recorded in the latter half of 2016. I had not played live at dates in such a dense cluster for many years, and the exposure to so much great music and the artists was inspiring. Other Touch artists were also an influence here -- Claire M Singer, Jana Winderen, and as ever Chris Watson (who has been an enduring influence from the moment I first heard Cabaret Voltaire in 1979), along with my project drøne with Mike Harding, the collaborative aspect of drøne brought up a few new paths in itself. During the time I was recording the album I was editing audio and sound design for films -- this too went some way to defining the structure and sound of Invisible Threads. At the time of recording several of the titles on the album, I had re-read The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion (1839), a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, and in some ways this record is a soundtrack to that. The title Invisible Threads refers to the intangible connection between all of the musical and personal influences that brought this record into being." Instrumentation/sound sources: Modular synthesizer notably using modules manufactured by Make Noise, The Harvestman & Mutable Audio Software -- Ableton Live, Pro Tools and many plugins -- heavily used were Max, Soundhack, and Native Instruments' Reaktor & Kontakt Sound libraries from Spitfire Audio; Fender Rhodes piano, Fender Jaguar guitar; Farfisa Organ, Vox continental; Notably no analogue synthesizers were used on this album - probably the first time I've made a record without them since Aurobindo: Involution in 1994. A few field recordings made on my very modest Zoom H4n recorder (mainly domestic sounds) made it onto the record Some 'found' sources also are present, mainly from vinyl records and YouTube." Photography & design by Jon Wozencroft. Mastered by Denis Blackham.
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Cassette
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TTW 080CS
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The Worcester Tapes presents recordings Mark Van Hoen made as a teenager in the 80s, after Mark moved to the historical English city. These tracks feature his first synthesizer and tape recorder, from 1983; tape loop experiments; and several tracks utilizing the Roland S-10, Mark's first digital sampler. The tape opens with a recently rediscovered 30 minute ambient piece from 1987, "Fortified Hill." All of these recordings were originally mastered on cassette, and all titles are released here on a physical format for the first and only time. A fascinating snapshot of Mark's early music, made some 7-10 years before his first official releases. Edition of 150 copies.
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2LP
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EMEGO 136LP
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2LP version. "Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret and nostalgia. The album's foundation was shaped by a memory and a chance encounter. While remastering some of his early '90s releases and Peel Session tracks, Van Hoen -- a founding member of Seefeel, who also worked as Locust and in Seefeel offshoot Scala and has collaborated with Slowdive, Robert Fripp, Edison Woods and Esben And The Witch, amongst others -- happened upon a track he had recorded in 1982. Attracted by its simplicity, he was inspired to record the basis of The Revenant Diary on 4-track tape, using a minimal set-up, reminiscent of his first early '80s musical adventures as a young teenager. The recollection of one of these -- a 13 year-old Van Hoen's experiment in reel-to-reel tape recording of an ineffectual pop song playing on the radio, which spuriously transformed it into a spooky amalgam of backwards church organ and unintelligible voices -- provided an evocative inspiration. The Revenant Diary pivots on this combination of complex reflection and simplified technology. A determinedly analog affair, it brims over with Van Hoen's signature sounds: immersively-decayed drones, almost broken ambient surfaces and lulling rhythms, with granular crackle providing spectral grit. Fragments of female vocals pepper the album, and notably dominate the 10-minute epic "Holy Me," one of Van Hoen's most complex compositions, in which non-verbal sounds rub delicately against each other in an otherworldly choral composition. Less song-based than his last solo work, the well-received Where Is The Truth (CCO 046CD/LP), its palette and structure are more descendants of the 1995 album Truth Is Born Of Arguments, which utilized a similar combination of decayed atmosphere against a granular/glitch rhythmic structure. Tracks like "Laughing Stars At Night" and "Unknown Host" exude a powerful emotional undertow, as alluringly woozy as they are intensely contemplative. But this is no exercise in Instagram-style disposable nostalgia. Van Hoen's adroit juxtapositions of gauzy textures evoke the blurred luminescence of 16mm film and the rich, color-saturated hues of rediscovered Polaroid photos, as the cover artwork, designed by Stephen O'Malley, acknowledges. The Revenant Diary expertly renders displaced memory daze in lushly melodic, gently delirious electronic sound. All titles composed by Mark Van Hoen. Recorded in Brooklyn & Woodstock, NY, 2011. All instruments & processing by Mark Van Hoen with additional vocals by Georgia Belmont. Housed in a deluxe full-color gatefold sleeve with spot-varnished design. The second LP is one-sided.
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CD
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EMEGO 136CD
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"Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret and nostalgia. The album's foundation was shaped by a memory and a chance encounter. While remastering some of his early '90s releases and Peel Session tracks, Van Hoen -- a founding member of Seefeel, who also worked as Locust and in Seefeel offshoot Scala and has collaborated with Slowdive, Robert Fripp, Edison Woods and Esben And The Witch, amongst others -- happened upon a track he had recorded in 1982. Attracted by its simplicity, he was inspired to record the basis of The Revenant Diary on 4-track tape, using a minimal set-up, reminiscent of his first early '80s musical adventures as a young teenager. The recollection of one of these -- a 13 year-old Van Hoen's experiment in reel-to-reel tape recording of an ineffectual pop song playing on the radio, which spuriously transformed it into a spooky amalgam of backwards church organ and unintelligible voices -- provided an evocative inspiration. The Revenant Diary pivots on this combination of complex reflection and simplified technology. A determinedly analog affair, it brims over with Van Hoen's signature sounds: immersively-decayed drones, almost broken ambient surfaces and lulling rhythms, with granular crackle providing spectral grit. Fragments of female vocals pepper the album, and notably dominate the 10-minute epic "Holy Me," one of Van Hoen's most complex compositions, in which non-verbal sounds rub delicately against each other in an otherworldly choral composition. Less song-based than his last solo work, the well-received Where Is The Truth (CCO 046CD/LP), its palette and structure are more descendants of the 1995 album Truth Is Born Of Arguments, which utilized a similar combination of decayed atmosphere against a granular/glitch rhythmic structure. Tracks like "Laughing Stars At Night" and "Unknown Host" exude a powerful emotional undertow, as alluringly woozy as they are intensely contemplative. But this is no exercise in Instagram-style disposable nostalgia. Van Hoen's adroit juxtapositions of gauzy textures evoke the blurred luminescence of 16mm film and the rich, color-saturated hues of rediscovered Polaroid photos, as the cover artwork, designed by Stephen O'Malley, acknowledges. The Revenant Diary expertly renders displaced memory daze in lushly melodic, gently delirious electronic sound. All titles composed by Mark Van Hoen. Recorded in Brooklyn & Woodstock, NY, 2011. All instruments & processing by Mark Van Hoen with additional vocals by Georgia Belmont.
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LP
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CCO 046LP
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LP version. Mark Van Hoen bought his first synthesizer and tape recorder in 1981, and immediately began making electronic music with influences from Brian Eno and Cabaret Voltaire. Most recordings were made at his home studio, but others were made at the radio stations he worked at during the '80s. As a contemporary of Aphex Twin, he was signed in 1993 on R&S Records as Locust. Listening to what he's done in the past over various labels from R&S, Touch, 4AD and now City Centre Offices, it's clear that it's time for Van Hoen's music to be up for critical reappraisal. He is a greatly admired and influential composer and performer that has inspired many other musicians. Recorded in London UK and Brooklyn, USA and finished in his recording studio in Woodstock, New York, this album is more than just a mere collection of tracks. A life-changing discovery and enlightenment is expressed in this rich, dense and emotive album. While working through the red tape involved in emigrating from the UK to the USA, he discovered quite by chance that his identity and childhood family life contained the dark secret of a covered up adoption. His life-long sense of displacement started to make sense and the cathartic voyage that ensued is explored in this album. More collaborative than his previous solo works, Where Is The Truth includes contributions from other musicians including Neil Halstead (Slowdive, Mojave 3) and Julia Frodahl (Edison Woods). Reliant not only on Mark's familiar brooding electronic tones, it features more electro-acoustic sounds than in previous releases. Interestingly, this album also consolidates many of the styles and sounds Mark has explored on previous albums, as a solo artist, collaborator and producer. Where Is The Truth sees Mark Van Hoen entering a new phase.
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