BUREAU B - Forced Exposure

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/1/2022

Bureau B invite you on an expedition to Silberland, a singular span of spacetime created by Germany's sonic futurists of the seventies and eighties. Embracing the early electronics and tape experiments of the sixties' avant-garde, these artists aimed to boldly go, eschewing small steps for giant leaps into a nebulous and novel sound. The kosmische generation emerged from the revolutionary student movement of '67 and '68, opposing any lingering political ties to Nazism and occupying the cultural vacuum which endured long after the post-war era. Encompassing both better known and more obscure artists, this collection is a trip into the psychedelic and cerebral strain of this amorphous genre, pairing the pulsating and propulsive with moments of cosmic calm.

Opener "Strahlsund" by Die Partei serves as the national anthem for this no-place, its utopian melodies and stately rhythm evoking an optimism which is swiftly skewed by the chrome tones and snapping percussion of Ralf Trostel's "Two Face". The delirious drive of Michael Bundt's "Full Steam Ahead" embraces the uncanny as jarring bursts of laughter drown out a serpentine topline before the fever breaks into the cold sweat of Moebius' "Etwas", a sweet synth sonata decorated with detuned keys. "Scharfer Schnitt (No1)" is the first suggestion of Silberland's full scope, the Populäre Mechanik A-side fusing postpunk and dubby funk and perfectly paving the way for the ritualistic stomp of Roedelius' trance-dancing "Regenmacher". Splitting the difference between Berlin and Düsseldorf schools, Tyndall offers the typically glittering "Großstadtgefühl", which smoothly segues into the synth scree of Conrad Schnitzler's beatless and balletic "Bis Die Blaue Blume Blüht". The zero-gravity drift continues with a contribution from Cologne's Phantom Band, who achieve an effortless groove while Bernd Kistenmacher takes you to the midpoint with the deep space repetition and Teutonic tessellations of "Quitting Time". The return journey begins with the beauty and sadness of Heiko Maile's "Nachtspaziergang" then sidesteps into a punkish pair from Moebius & Plank and Faust. If this bristling brace toyed with the terrestrial, Riechmann takes an aerial view of Earth via "Weltweit" and Asmus Tietchens strays way too close to the sun with a playful take on Venusian exotica. Things take a turn for the psychedelic via the Arabesque piano of Cluster's transformative "Avanti" and Günter Schickert's strung-out and smoldering "Wanderer", before the roving sequences of You's "Live Line" fire up the hyperdrive for a foray into warp speed. Cutting the thrusters almost entirely, the synthesist himself Harald Grosskopf takes the controls for re-entry, gliding through the upper atmosphere on the heartfelt waveforms of "Emphasis", cushioning the craft into Eno, Moebius and Roedelius' hypnagogic "Base & Apex".

$35.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/1/2022

LP version. Bureau B invite you on an expedition to Silberland, a singular span of spacetime created by Germany's sonic futurists of the seventies and eighties. Embracing the early electronics and tape experiments of the sixties' avant-garde, these artists aimed to boldly go, eschewing small steps for giant leaps into a nebulous and novel sound. The kosmische generation emerged from the revolutionary student movement of '67 and '68, opposing any lingering political ties to Nazism and occupying the cultural vacuum which endured long after the post-war era. Encompassing both better known and more obscure artists, this collection is a trip into the psychedelic and cerebral strain of this amorphous genre, pairing the pulsating and propulsive with moments of cosmic calm.

Opener "Strahlsund" by Die Partei serves as the national anthem for this no-place, its utopian melodies and stately rhythm evoking an optimism which is swiftly skewed by the chrome tones and snapping percussion of Ralf Trostel's "Two Face". The delirious drive of Michael Bundt's "Full Steam Ahead" embraces the uncanny as jarring bursts of laughter drown out a serpentine topline before the fever breaks into the cold sweat of Moebius' "Etwas", a sweet synth sonata decorated with detuned keys. "Scharfer Schnitt (No1)" is the first suggestion of Silberland's full scope, the Populäre Mechanik A-side fusing postpunk and dubby funk and perfectly paving the way for the ritualistic stomp of Roedelius' trance-dancing "Regenmacher". Splitting the difference between Berlin and Düsseldorf schools, Tyndall offers the typically glittering "Großstadtgefühl", which smoothly segues into the synth scree of Conrad Schnitzler's beatless and balletic "Bis Die Blaue Blume Blüht". The zero-gravity drift continues with a contribution from Cologne's Phantom Band, who achieve an effortless groove while Bernd Kistenmacher takes you to the midpoint with the deep space repetition and Teutonic tessellations of "Quitting Time". The return journey begins with the beauty and sadness of Heiko Maile's "Nachtspaziergang" then sidesteps into a punkish pair from Moebius & Plank and Faust. If this bristling brace toyed with the terrestrial, Riechmann takes an aerial view of Earth via "Weltweit" and Asmus Tietchens strays way too close to the sun with a playful take on Venusian exotica. Things take a turn for the psychedelic via the Arabesque piano of Cluster's transformative "Avanti" and Günter Schickert's strung-out and smoldering "Wanderer", before the roving sequences of You's "Live Line" fire up the hyperdrive for a foray into warp speed. Cutting the thrusters almost entirely, the synthesist himself Harald Grosskopf takes the controls for re-entry, gliding through the upper atmosphere on the heartfelt waveforms of "Emphasis", cushioning the craft into Eno, Moebius and Roedelius' hypnagogic "Base & Apex".

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 6/10/2022

LP version. Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to numerous solo releases Schnitzler was also involved in various band formations not least Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Representing another of his musical landmarks are the Consequenz releases. Consequenz II emerged from a collaboration with Wolfgang Seidel alias Wolf Sequenza, and is the follow-up project to Consequenz (BB 121CD/LP) which was a low-budget production that had an overriding aim of liberating music from its elitist circles in a "Beuys-ian" sense. Consequenz II returned to the theme with electronic apparatus that professionalized the sound but by no means reduced the fun he found in experimentation.

"... Schnitzler had studied sculpture under Joseph Beuys and the statement echoed his teacher's philosophy: 'Everyone is an artist.' The flyer continued in similar vein: 'ERUPTION are freeing the prisoners from their ivory towers.' Schnitzler viewed art as social practice, not the realm of specialists. Anyone could get involved. You didn't even need to be able to play an instrument. The flyer also announced: 'Members of the audience who bring transistor radios will get reduced admission if they play music on their radios inside the venue.' That was back in 1971, ten years before we produced and recorded the Consequenz LP. We included instructions inside the sleeve for setting up just such a project with the minimum of technical fuss, inviting submissions which used the record as a playback tool . . . We had almost resigned ourselves to life in the ivory tower when a letter from a Spanish label (Esplendor Geometrico) reached us, asking for a sequel -- Consequenz II. It didn't take long for us to decide to accept the offer, encouraged by the fact that we would not have to finance the release out of our own pockets -- as had been the case with the first Consquenz. Certain 'secret devices' had materialized in our ivory tower in the meantime. Conrad Schnitzler had purchased an 8-track recorder with money he had earned from 'proper' art. I borrowed various bits of equipment from my band -- Populäre Mechanik -- including a drum computer, so we could really let rip. The little songs we made sounded much more 'professional' than the cheerfully low budget music of the first Consequenz . . . All we needed now was music for the B-side, but our enthusiasm for the borrowed drum computer had waned somewhat. It was always the first track we recorded, which meant that everything else had to follow its lead. The beat itself was singularly unimpressed by what came next. This was an unsatisfactory state of affairs for two players (musicians?) who had begun with free improvisation, with either of the participants able to change the direction of the whole thing..." --Wolfgang Seidel, November 2021

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 6/10/2022

Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to many other musical stations, bustling Schnitzler was a member of the kraut-electronic formations Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Numerous solo releases complete his extensive oeuvre. One of them is Con 84, probably his most composed work, on which he challenges the traditions of so-called Ernste Musik. The result is a complex electronic sound structure that marks a break with Schnitzler's previous work in a subversive flirtation with traditionalism.

"... Con 84 is evidently the product of a computer-supported sound generator -- a sampler. The original LP came completer with sheet music inserts, so a music printer must also have been part of the package. It is hard to say which instruments Schnitzler had at his disposal in the early 1980s. And more to the point, where did he record these pieces? Was he still at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio? Leaving such questions aside, what really matters here is the opportunity to gain an insight into Schnitzler's complex musical imagination and powers. It appears as if he wanted to show the listener that he can still compose in the classical sense, creating a series of miniatures which are not so far away from the infinite glittering patterns of the existing Schnitzler cosmos. Con 84 lines up polyphonic compositions from start to finish. John Cage, Fluxus, randomness -- nowhere to be seen. Schnitzler the traditionalist? A highbrow composer? On the contrary. Just as he so marvelously subverted common conceptions of art, Schnitzler crafted Con 84 to sound like Ernste Musik -- serious (classical) music. He was a master of camouflage (with a wink of the eye) and repeated the trick nine years later on the French release CD Con Brio. Following Schnitzler has always meant being ready to expect the unexpected. When he could, and had the financial means to do so, Schnitzler liked to use the latest technology. Con 84 was technologically advanced for its time, yet the music was paradoxically conventional..." --Asmus Tietchens, 2022

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 6/10/2022

LP version. Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to many other musical stations, bustling Schnitzler was a member of the kraut-electronic formations Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Numerous solo releases complete his extensive oeuvre. One of them is Con 84, probably his most composed work, on which he challenges the traditions of so-called Ernste Musik. The result is a complex electronic sound structure that marks a break with Schnitzler's previous work in a subversive flirtation with traditionalism.

"... Con 84 is evidently the product of a computer-supported sound generator -- a sampler. The original LP came completer with sheet music inserts, so a music printer must also have been part of the package. It is hard to say which instruments Schnitzler had at his disposal in the early 1980s. And more to the point, where did he record these pieces? Was he still at Peter Baumann's Paragon Studio? Leaving such questions aside, what really matters here is the opportunity to gain an insight into Schnitzler's complex musical imagination and powers. It appears as if he wanted to show the listener that he can still compose in the classical sense, creating a series of miniatures which are not so far away from the infinite glittering patterns of the existing Schnitzler cosmos. Con 84 lines up polyphonic compositions from start to finish. John Cage, Fluxus, randomness -- nowhere to be seen. Schnitzler the traditionalist? A highbrow composer? On the contrary. Just as he so marvelously subverted common conceptions of art, Schnitzler crafted Con 84 to sound like Ernste Musik -- serious (classical) music. He was a master of camouflage (with a wink of the eye) and repeated the trick nine years later on the French release CD Con Brio. Following Schnitzler has always meant being ready to expect the unexpected. When he could, and had the financial means to do so, Schnitzler liked to use the latest technology. Con 84 was technologically advanced for its time, yet the music was paradoxically conventional..." --Asmus Tietchens, 2022

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 6/10/2022

Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to numerous solo releases Schnitzler was also involved in various band formations not least Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Representing another of his musical landmarks are the Consequenz releases. Consequenz II emerged from a collaboration with Wolfgang Seidel alias Wolf Sequenza, and is the follow-up project to Consequenz (BB 121CD/LP) which was a low-budget production that had an overriding aim of liberating music from its elitist circles in a "Beuys-ian" sense. Consequenz II returned to the theme with electronic apparatus that professionalized the sound but by no means reduced the fun he found in experimentation.

"... Schnitzler had studied sculpture under Joseph Beuys and the statement echoed his teacher's philosophy: 'Everyone is an artist.' The flyer continued in similar vein: 'ERUPTION are freeing the prisoners from their ivory towers.' Schnitzler viewed art as social practice, not the realm of specialists. Anyone could get involved. You didn't even need to be able to play an instrument. The flyer also announced: 'Members of the audience who bring transistor radios will get reduced admission if they play music on their radios inside the venue.' That was back in 1971, ten years before we produced and recorded the Consequenz LP. We included instructions inside the sleeve for setting up just such a project with the minimum of technical fuss, inviting submissions which used the record as a playback tool . . . We had almost resigned ourselves to life in the ivory tower when a letter from a Spanish label (Esplendor Geometrico) reached us, asking for a sequel -- Consequenz II. It didn't take long for us to decide to accept the offer, encouraged by the fact that we would not have to finance the release out of our own pockets -- as had been the case with the first Consquenz. Certain 'secret devices' had materialized in our ivory tower in the meantime. Conrad Schnitzler had purchased an 8-track recorder with money he had earned from 'proper' art. I borrowed various bits of equipment from my band -- Populäre Mechanik -- including a drum computer, so we could really let rip. The little songs we made sounded much more 'professional' than the cheerfully low budget music of the first Consequenz . . . All we needed now was music for the B-side, but our enthusiasm for the borrowed drum computer had waned somewhat. It was always the first track we recorded, which meant that everything else had to follow its lead. The beat itself was singularly unimpressed by what came next. This was an unsatisfactory state of affairs for two players (musicians?) who had begun with free improvisation, with either of the participants able to change the direction of the whole thing..." --Wolfgang Seidel, November 2021

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/20/2022

"Jimi Tenor has always been something of a Renaissance man. On leaving his Finnish homeland for New York in the early 1990s, and later as he travelled through Europe, he quickly discovered what he calls his ikigai, his great joy in life: to record and produce music in DIY mode at home with the most rudimentary of means, spontaneously and intuitively. In more than 30 years of making music, Tenor has remained true to his ideal, whether as a solo artist on his early electronic albums or in the widely diverse collaborations and constellations which followed (with the likes of Tony Allen, Kabu Kabu, Abdissa Assefa). Multiversum is now his third album for Hamburg-based label Bureau B. Jimi Tenor and Bureau B first teamed up in 2020 on the former's NY, Hel, Barca retrospective (BB 333CD/LP) and continued their association with the release of Deep Sound Learning (BB 366CD/LP), a collection of rarities, in spring 2021. Whilst Tenor has predominantly released jazz and Afrobeat records over the past two decades, his live performances have often seen him return to his minimalist roots. Enthralled by how Jimi Tenor the solo artist conjured up his space music with just a synthesizer, flute and saxophone, Bureau B ultimately invited him to record an album with this basic and yet astoundingly effective set-up. Within just a few months, Tenor delivered an impressive selection of new pieces to Bureau B; all recorded in his Helsinki home studio. These tracks are now presented on Multiversum, a record which provides further proof of Jimi Tenor's versatility. Based on drum machine beats and synthesizer loops, Tenor's music invites the listener to drift into open, limitless expanses -- he is a master of the unforeseeable, audibly infusing all twelve new tunes with a sense of joie de vivre and intuition, with no recourse to standards. Multiversum is a declaration of love to the DIY spirit, somewhere between bedroom jazz and deviant techno. As a counterpoint to the album release, Omniverse is one of the first books to be published in Bureau B/Tapete Records joint venture with the Mainz-based publisher Ventil. It is an impressive portrait of the artist, packed with photos and stories documenting Jimi Tenor's life and career in music." --Daniel Jahn

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/20/2022

LP version. "Jimi Tenor has always been something of a Renaissance man. On leaving his Finnish homeland for New York in the early 1990s, and later as he travelled through Europe, he quickly discovered what he calls his ikigai, his great joy in life: to record and produce music in DIY mode at home with the most rudimentary of means, spontaneously and intuitively. In more than 30 years of making music, Tenor has remained true to his ideal, whether as a solo artist on his early electronic albums or in the widely diverse collaborations and constellations which followed (with the likes of Tony Allen, Kabu Kabu, Abdissa Assefa). Multiversum is now his third album for Hamburg-based label Bureau B. Jimi Tenor and Bureau B first teamed up in 2020 on the former's NY, Hel, Barca retrospective (BB 333CD/LP) and continued their association with the release of Deep Sound Learning (BB 366CD/LP), a collection of rarities, in spring 2021. Whilst Tenor has predominantly released jazz and Afrobeat records over the past two decades, his live performances have often seen him return to his minimalist roots. Enthralled by how Jimi Tenor the solo artist conjured up his space music with just a synthesizer, flute and saxophone, Bureau B ultimately invited him to record an album with this basic and yet astoundingly effective set-up. Within just a few months, Tenor delivered an impressive selection of new pieces to Bureau B; all recorded in his Helsinki home studio. These tracks are now presented on Multiversum, a record which provides further proof of Jimi Tenor's versatility. Based on drum machine beats and synthesizer loops, Tenor's music invites the listener to drift into open, limitless expanses -- he is a master of the unforeseeable, audibly infusing all twelve new tunes with a sense of joie de vivre and intuition, with no recourse to standards. Multiversum is a declaration of love to the DIY spirit, somewhere between bedroom jazz and deviant techno. As a counterpoint to the album release, Omniverse is one of the first books to be published in Bureau B/Tapete Records joint venture with the Mainz-based publisher Ventil. It is an impressive portrait of the artist, packed with photos and stories documenting Jimi Tenor's life and career in music." --Daniel Jahn

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/13/2022

After the overwhelming success of the 1971-1974 box set release (BB 374CD/LP), containing the first four studio albums and for the first time ever this lost "last" album recording, Punkt gets a deserved and necessary standalone release.

"The band called it 5½, fans referred to it as the 'Munich album' and for almost fifty years it's been the missing chapter in Faustian mythology. Now for the first time, the German iconoclasts' previously unreleased fifth album sees the light of day as Punkt . . . Punkt is Faust at their most unhindered, untethered and unstoppable. Returning to Germany after a loss-making U.K. tour and after their manager Uwe Nettelbeck had split with them, the group dusted themselves down and planned their next project, what would have been their second for Richard Branson's Virgin. Joined as always by their engineering genius Kurt Graupner, the band took residence in the Arabella High Rise Building, the luxury hotel which housed Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studio in its basement . . . Faust spent their nights below ground, creating the sublime cacophony which courses through these seven tracks. Driven by Diermaier's primitive repetition and Péron's rabid low-end growl, 'Morning Land' stomps its way through almost ten minutes of heavy psychedelia . . . A Luciferian spirit courses through the beatless 'Crapolino', a tumult of scorched guitar chords, strident FXs and disembodied vocals which bares all the hallmarks of a black mass. And just like that, the group summon some demonic hunting party for 'Knochentanz' (bone dance), arguably their most immersive creation . . . The storm clears for a second to allow a celestial chord progression to emerge from the darkness before the heavens open and Sosna's snarling, sawing guitar rains down from above, carrying 'Knochentanz' through its final iteration, a collision of muscular fretwork, percussion freakout and bleeping organ which completes the most psychedelic recording you've never heard. The frazzled optimism of 'Fernlicht' buzzes away like an acid Beethoven bathed in neons, before the breathless 'Juggernaut' stretches the definition of blues rock to its limit as squirming sine waves, clattering cymbals and corrosive guitars pan, reverse and overlap, each following its own unhinged rhythm. Then for a time the sound and the fury abate, making space for the frankly sublime 'Schön Rund', a piano-led diversion into the soul-swelling realms of ECM jazz and fin de siècle impressionism, which rivals anything else in their catalogue for pure beauty. And in case you thought they'd gone soft, Faust sign off with the guttural groans and course drones of 'Prends Ton Temps'..." --Patrick Ryder

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/13/2022

LP version. After the overwhelming success of the 1971-1974 box set release (BB 374CD/LP), containing the first four studio albums and for the first time ever this lost "last" album recording, Punkt gets a deserved and necessary standalone release.

"The band called it 5½, fans referred to it as the 'Munich album' and for almost fifty years it's been the missing chapter in Faustian mythology. Now for the first time, the German iconoclasts' previously unreleased fifth album sees the light of day as Punkt . . . Punkt is Faust at their most unhindered, untethered and unstoppable. Returning to Germany after a loss-making U.K. tour and after their manager Uwe Nettelbeck had split with them, the group dusted themselves down and planned their next project, what would have been their second for Richard Branson's Virgin. Joined as always by their engineering genius Kurt Graupner, the band took residence in the Arabella High Rise Building, the luxury hotel which housed Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studio in its basement . . . Faust spent their nights below ground, creating the sublime cacophony which courses through these seven tracks. Driven by Diermaier's primitive repetition and Péron's rabid low-end growl, 'Morning Land' stomps its way through almost ten minutes of heavy psychedelia . . . A Luciferian spirit courses through the beatless 'Crapolino', a tumult of scorched guitar chords, strident FXs and disembodied vocals which bares all the hallmarks of a black mass. And just like that, the group summon some demonic hunting party for 'Knochentanz' (bone dance), arguably their most immersive creation . . . The storm clears for a second to allow a celestial chord progression to emerge from the darkness before the heavens open and Sosna's snarling, sawing guitar rains down from above, carrying 'Knochentanz' through its final iteration, a collision of muscular fretwork, percussion freakout and bleeping organ which completes the most psychedelic recording you've never heard. The frazzled optimism of 'Fernlicht' buzzes away like an acid Beethoven bathed in neons, before the breathless 'Juggernaut' stretches the definition of blues rock to its limit as squirming sine waves, clattering cymbals and corrosive guitars pan, reverse and overlap, each following its own unhinged rhythm. Then for a time the sound and the fury abate, making space for the frankly sublime 'Schön Rund', a piano-led diversion into the soul-swelling realms of ECM jazz and fin de siècle impressionism, which rivals anything else in their catalogue for pure beauty. And in case you thought they'd gone soft, Faust sign off with the guttural groans and course drones of 'Prends Ton Temps'..." --Patrick Ryder

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/29/2022

Serendipitously coinciding with the publication of a second book, Magnetizdat DDR, Bureau B now revisit the experimental electronic underground of the German Democratic Republic with two releases: Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde (BB 387CD/LP), a collection of Jörg Thomasius productions spanning the years 1980 to 1990, and MEZ 31,00 by Dieter Zobel aka Didier Leboz, recorded in 1988 and released as a solo Kröten cassette in the watershed year of 1989. Das Freie Orchester emerged from the off-center environs of Prenzlauer Berg in 1985 as a wild and outstanding descendent of the so-called Komplexbrigade. Ever open to progressive tendencies, with a strong predilection for all things kraut (including Can, of course) and emboldened by the GDR free jazz which was sweeping the international scene as well as the Treptow Cultural Centre, upstairs and downstairs, the orchestra wholly identified with the concept of free expression: everything was improvised. As seriously as they took their sonic explorations, their love of unserious paronomasia was just as pronounced. Dieter Zobel, first and foremost DFO guitarist, dreamed up the Leboz brand name for the instruments he had built himself, then took DFO-speak a step further by christening his devices sadophone and masophone or Metallic Noise Masturbator, names which only served as rough approximations of the bizarre sounds they generated. MEZ 31,00 was actually a rather more conventional production, based on a Yamaha CX5M purchased with Western currency left to him by his grandmother. The Yamaha would also spawn a further and possibly superior Zobel Kröten tape by the name of "Moschus". Zobel, it should be said, was not so thrilled with the instrument. Zobel, fascinated then and now by minimal music in the style of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, nevertheless got to grips with the "infernal machine" and emulated the compositional techniques of the aforementioned masters he so revered. He layered numerous loops of the same sequence but of different length to create concentrated polyrhythmic forms. Those in the know were reminded of contemporary Japanese ambient works, including Hiroshi Yoshimura's early albums or Yasuaki Shimizu's Music For Commercials. In spite of his toils with tricky equipment, Zobel took his initial steps in algorhythmic composition, largely using his own devices. For around 20 years he has been crafting sequencers, samplers, synths, or effects with Native Instruments Reaktor. From hardware to software: it's a tough habit to break. Freestyle remains the modus operandi for Das Freie Orchester, who recently came together for a final album, but Zobel has also discovered his love for dub.

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/29/2022

Jörg Thomasius, otherwise known as Tomato, born in East Berlin in 1955, discovered progressive sounds in the early 1970s. He was increasingly drawn towards the electronic signals emanating from West Berlin, so close and yet so far away, carried on radio waves through the Iron Curtain and surfacing sporadically in eager record collector circles on the eastern side of the wall. A Venn diagram of interests brought Tomato into the same space as Andreas Grosser, renowned today for his legendary microphone repair skills. Grosser's Dutch father had lost no time establishing contact with the West Berlin scene, sourcing equipment for congenial zeitgeist trips in his Berlin-Biesdorf garden arbor. On seeing this wired-up chamber of wonders in late 1977, Thomasius was catapulted into the world of electronics. It was here that he would meet Terry Riley, handing out LSD on his eastern expedition. Grosser became a kind of mentor to Thomasius, who had started to explore the tape format. Thomasius also struck up a rapport with Conrad Schnitzler and the pair spoke regularly on the telephone until they were finally able to meet in person in 1985. Thomasius had been working on a GDR radio show called Trend since 1981, albeit outside of any legal structures, and in 1982 he began writing "Innovation under adverse conditions" copy for the English Eurock fanzine Neumusik alongside the GDR mainstream producer Wolfgang Fuchs from Pond. He was also a member of Das Freie Orchester (until 1989). Kröten Kassetten was founded to cater to DFO and any solo or duo jaunts. Thomasius worked as a boilerman and exhibition technician for the Centre for Art Exhibitions of the GDR. Ken Montgomery, who ran the American label Generations Unlimited, organized an illegal Schnitzler performance in East Berlin's Church of the Redeemer in 1986 which was also made available via Kröten channels, whilst the Thomasius LP Tomato was released on Generations Unlimited in 1989. The material collected on Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde comes from three places: the Schwarze Hände cassette with productions from 1980-1985, released on Werner Piepner's Transmitter label, the 1989 Kröten cassette Gesänge der Komparsen and After Eight from the year 1990, issued on the Tomato label after Thomasius had left the DFO. Spanning a full decade, the selection presents Thomasius as the multifaceted artist he is, even if he sees himself as more of an experimental DIY sonic creator: spherical, elegiac sounds float around whimsical jewels of extreme playfulness, weaving obscure vocal fragments into strange minimal constructs.

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/29/2022

"Hamburg synthesist Richard von der Schulenburg returns to Bureau B with the follow-up to last year's Moods & Dances 2021 (BB 365CD/LP, 2021), harnessing hardware crunch, cryptic found sounds, and field recordings on a mission for Cosmic Diversity. Taking inspiration from the haunting electronica of Boards of Canada and Plaid, refracted here through the half-life of a Zeiss lens, RVDS navigates the musical multiverse, simultaneously straddling electro, IDM, kosmische, and dub across eight exploratory compositions. Created during lockdown as an escape from the insular, this LP looks outward but reaches inwards with emotive melodies at every turn. Opening in adagio, 'Schoolyard Sweets' sets the scene in mournful monochrome, its dislocated vocal samples cascading over a snaking bassline while a gloomy waveform detunes through to the final resolution. 'Darkest Planet' latches on to a faltering radio broadcast before falling foul of a Möbius loop, the repeated vocal mutating endlessly within a maze of brittle percussion. A needling sequence suggests we're destined for the event horizon, where the synth wavers between a sigh and a scream. There's a brief glimpse of daylight via 'Daily Circles', though its birdsong slowly melts into bat calls as somber organ and back masked vocals soundtrack a black mass. Schulenburg takes us to the midpoint with stately synthscape 'Future Night', a tone poem which perfectly paves the way for the titular Cosmic Diversity. Blasting the pastoral vision of MHTRTC into orbit, this celestial bossa looks back on Planet Earth with some necessary perspective, its crystalline lead capturing the beauty and fragility of our planet perfectly. 'Reset My Brain' sees RVDS push the pace, pairing a snapping electro breakbeat with the low end rumble of a Sheffield bassline, tunnelling into the heart of the dancefloor before those golden tones begin to bloom. Shades of industrial dancehall and Detroit's originators color 'Dance Of The Plutos', an intergalactic raga-cum-ragga snarler which shows just enough restraint not to melt the wax. Schulenburg signs off with the pastoral beauty of 'Rain In Romance', a transcendental blend of wordless chanting, detuned bells, gentle rainfall and Berlin school electronics which brings Cosmic Diversity's stylistic journey full circle." --Patrick Ryder

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/29/2022

LP version. Serendipitously coinciding with the publication of a second book, Magnetizdat DDR, Bureau B now revisit the experimental electronic underground of the German Democratic Republic with two releases: Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde (BB 387CD/LP), a collection of Jörg Thomasius productions spanning the years 1980 to 1990, and MEZ 31,00 by Dieter Zobel aka Didier Leboz, recorded in 1988 and released as a solo Kröten cassette in the watershed year of 1989. Das Freie Orchester emerged from the off-center environs of Prenzlauer Berg in 1985 as a wild and outstanding descendent of the so-called Komplexbrigade. Ever open to progressive tendencies, with a strong predilection for all things kraut (including Can, of course) and emboldened by the GDR free jazz which was sweeping the international scene as well as the Treptow Cultural Centre, upstairs and downstairs, the orchestra wholly identified with the concept of free expression: everything was improvised. As seriously as they took their sonic explorations, their love of unserious paronomasia was just as pronounced. Dieter Zobel, first and foremost DFO guitarist, dreamed up the Leboz brand name for the instruments he had built himself, then took DFO-speak a step further by christening his devices sadophone and masophone or Metallic Noise Masturbator, names which only served as rough approximations of the bizarre sounds they generated. MEZ 31,00 was actually a rather more conventional production, based on a Yamaha CX5M purchased with Western currency left to him by his grandmother. The Yamaha would also spawn a further and possibly superior Zobel Kröten tape by the name of "Moschus". Zobel, it should be said, was not so thrilled with the instrument. Zobel, fascinated then and now by minimal music in the style of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, nevertheless got to grips with the "infernal machine" and emulated the compositional techniques of the aforementioned masters he so revered. He layered numerous loops of the same sequence but of different length to create concentrated polyrhythmic forms. Those in the know were reminded of contemporary Japanese ambient works, including Hiroshi Yoshimura's early albums or Yasuaki Shimizu's Music For Commercials. In spite of his toils with tricky equipment, Zobel took his initial steps in algorhythmic composition, largely using his own devices. For around 20 years he has been crafting sequencers, samplers, synths, or effects with Native Instruments Reaktor. From hardware to software: it's a tough habit to break. Freestyle remains the modus operandi for Das Freie Orchester, who recently came together for a final album, but Zobel has also discovered his love for dub.

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/29/2022

LP version. Jörg Thomasius, otherwise known as Tomato, born in East Berlin in 1955, discovered progressive sounds in the early 1970s. He was increasingly drawn towards the electronic signals emanating from West Berlin, so close and yet so far away, carried on radio waves through the Iron Curtain and surfacing sporadically in eager record collector circles on the eastern side of the wall. A Venn diagram of interests brought Tomato into the same space as Andreas Grosser, renowned today for his legendary microphone repair skills. Grosser's Dutch father had lost no time establishing contact with the West Berlin scene, sourcing equipment for congenial zeitgeist trips in his Berlin-Biesdorf garden arbor. On seeing this wired-up chamber of wonders in late 1977, Thomasius was catapulted into the world of electronics. It was here that he would meet Terry Riley, handing out LSD on his eastern expedition. Grosser became a kind of mentor to Thomasius, who had started to explore the tape format. Thomasius also struck up a rapport with Conrad Schnitzler and the pair spoke regularly on the telephone until they were finally able to meet in person in 1985. Thomasius had been working on a GDR radio show called Trend since 1981, albeit outside of any legal structures, and in 1982 he began writing "Innovation under adverse conditions" copy for the English Eurock fanzine Neumusik alongside the GDR mainstream producer Wolfgang Fuchs from Pond. He was also a member of Das Freie Orchester (until 1989). Kröten Kassetten was founded to cater to DFO and any solo or duo jaunts. Thomasius worked as a boilerman and exhibition technician for the Centre for Art Exhibitions of the GDR. Ken Montgomery, who ran the American label Generations Unlimited, organized an illegal Schnitzler performance in East Berlin's Church of the Redeemer in 1986 which was also made available via Kröten channels, whilst the Thomasius LP Tomato was released on Generations Unlimited in 1989. The material collected on Acht Gesänge der schwarzen Hunde comes from three places: the Schwarze Hände cassette with productions from 1980-1985, released on Werner Piepner's Transmitter label, the 1989 Kröten cassette Gesänge der Komparsen and After Eight from the year 1990, issued on the Tomato label after Thomasius had left the DFO. Spanning a full decade, the selection presents Thomasius as the multifaceted artist he is, even if he sees himself as more of an experimental DIY sonic creator: spherical, elegiac sounds float around whimsical jewels of extreme playfulness, weaving obscure vocal fragments into strange minimal constructs.

$25.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Bureau B reissue Dunkelziffer's last studio album Songs For Everyone, originally released 1989. Displaced from their spiritual home (the Stollwerck complex had been levelled in 1987) and robbed of the collaborative exchange it facilitated, Dunkelziffer took a different tack on Songs For Everyone, slimming down to a sextet with a newly streamlined sound. Olek Gelba and Reiner Linke remained in the percussive pocket, laying the foundation for Von Senger and Schubert's melodic prowess, with newcomers Jorge Guarin Quintaro and Irene Lorenz breathing fresh air into keys and vocals respectively. The reduced line-up may have diminished the chaotic brilliance of their earlier work, but the sparing palette allowed room for each member to shine brighter than ever before. Most notably, Dominik Von Senger, often restricted to rhythm guitar in the past, populated the newfound space with a bounty of rhapsodic solos. Stylistically, the Jamaican riddims, gnarly new wave and Eastern tonality of previous albums were supplanted by the smoothest jazz imbued with Latin flavors and a Mediterranean mindset. Arriving amid a ripple of taut timbales and spritely trumpet, opener "Songs For Everyone" sounds like it's been playing somewhere forever, just waiting for its moment of discovery. The rounded sound of guest Xavier Padilla's double bass dominates the bottom end, a familiar anchor as the mariachi keys and incendiary guitar try to spirit us away. Light-footed and heavily syncopated, "See It" sashays along the shoreline, inviting you to dance wherever blue seas kiss white sand. Each instrument is crisp, clear and accomplished, while Lorenz voice swells from a sultry whisper into a rich rasping fullness. Optimistic and melancholic in equal measure, "Illuminate" closes the A-side with a triumph of pure pop sincerity. The smooth jazz sophistication continues on the B-side with "Friends", a gorgeous Balearic torch song for a rose that's never been kissed. Echoes of "Lucky Star" and reverb-soaked drums cascade through a DX7 dreamscape as the plangent woodwind plays an elegy for summer fling. On "Spell It" the cowbells, congas, timbales and toms of Gelba, Linke and sessionist Daniel Basanta form an intricate rhythmic tapestry, transformed into a hip-flexing mambo by the addition of Guarin Quintaro's piano. Dunkelziffer close the LP with Jamaican flavor, though "Inside" is a much more atmospheric creature than the sun-kissed skanks of their previous releases. Largely stripped back to a core of dubby bass, sparse rhythm and subdued piano, this evocative swan-song splits the difference between Compass Point and the Wild Bunch, its muted vocals and distorted guitar anticipating the trip hoppers who would soundtrack the decade to come.

$26.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/29/2022

LP version. "Hamburg synthesist Richard von der Schulenburg returns to Bureau B with the follow-up to last year's Moods & Dances 2021 (BB 365CD/LP, 2021), harnessing hardware crunch, cryptic found sounds, and field recordings on a mission for Cosmic Diversity. Taking inspiration from the haunting electronica of Boards of Canada and Plaid, refracted here through the half-life of a Zeiss lens, RVDS navigates the musical multiverse, simultaneously straddling electro, IDM, kosmische, and dub across eight exploratory compositions. Created during lockdown as an escape from the insular, this LP looks outward but reaches inwards with emotive melodies at every turn. Opening in adagio, 'Schoolyard Sweets' sets the scene in mournful monochrome, its dislocated vocal samples cascading over a snaking bassline while a gloomy waveform detunes through to the final resolution. 'Darkest Planet' latches on to a faltering radio broadcast before falling foul of a Möbius loop, the repeated vocal mutating endlessly within a maze of brittle percussion. A needling sequence suggests we're destined for the event horizon, where the synth wavers between a sigh and a scream. There's a brief glimpse of daylight via 'Daily Circles', though its birdsong slowly melts into bat calls as somber organ and back masked vocals soundtrack a black mass. Schulenburg takes us to the midpoint with stately synthscape 'Future Night', a tone poem which perfectly paves the way for the titular Cosmic Diversity. Blasting the pastoral vision of MHTRTC into orbit, this celestial bossa looks back on Planet Earth with some necessary perspective, its crystalline lead capturing the beauty and fragility of our planet perfectly. 'Reset My Brain' sees RVDS push the pace, pairing a snapping electro breakbeat with the low end rumble of a Sheffield bassline, tunnelling into the heart of the dancefloor before those golden tones begin to bloom. Shades of industrial dancehall and Detroit's originators color 'Dance Of The Plutos', an intergalactic raga-cum-ragga snarler which shows just enough restraint not to melt the wax. Schulenburg signs off with the pastoral beauty of 'Rain In Romance', a transcendental blend of wordless chanting, detuned bells, gentle rainfall and Berlin school electronics which brings Cosmic Diversity's stylistic journey full circle." --Patrick Ryder

$17.00 IN STOCK

Bureau B reissue Dunkelziffer's last studio album Songs For Everyone, originally released 1989. Displaced from their spiritual home (the Stollwerck complex had been levelled in 1987) and robbed of the collaborative exchange it facilitated, Dunkelziffer took a different tack on Songs For Everyone, slimming down to a sextet with a newly streamlined sound. Olek Gelba and Reiner Linke remained in the percussive pocket, laying the foundation for Von Senger and Schubert's melodic prowess, with newcomers Jorge Guarin Quintaro and Irene Lorenz breathing fresh air into keys and vocals respectively. The reduced line-up may have diminished the chaotic brilliance of their earlier work, but the sparing palette allowed room for each member to shine brighter than ever before. Most notably, Dominik Von Senger, often restricted to rhythm guitar in the past, populated the newfound space with a bounty of rhapsodic solos. Stylistically, the Jamaican riddims, gnarly new wave and Eastern tonality of previous albums were supplanted by the smoothest jazz imbued with Latin flavors and a Mediterranean mindset. Arriving amid a ripple of taut timbales and spritely trumpet, opener "Songs For Everyone" sounds like it's been playing somewhere forever, just waiting for its moment of discovery. The rounded sound of guest Xavier Padilla's double bass dominates the bottom end, a familiar anchor as the mariachi keys and incendiary guitar try to spirit us away. Light-footed and heavily syncopated, "See It" sashays along the shoreline, inviting you to dance wherever blue seas kiss white sand. Each instrument is crisp, clear and accomplished, while Lorenz voice swells from a sultry whisper into a rich rasping fullness. Optimistic and melancholic in equal measure, "Illuminate" closes the A-side with a triumph of pure pop sincerity. The smooth jazz sophistication continues on the B-side with "Friends", a gorgeous Balearic torch song for a rose that's never been kissed. Echoes of "Lucky Star" and reverb-soaked drums cascade through a DX7 dreamscape as the plangent woodwind plays an elegy for summer fling. On "Spell It" the cowbells, congas, timbales and toms of Gelba, Linke and sessionist Daniel Basanta form an intricate rhythmic tapestry, transformed into a hip-flexing mambo by the addition of Guarin Quintaro's piano. Dunkelziffer close the LP with Jamaican flavor, though "Inside" is a much more atmospheric creature than the sun-kissed skanks of their previous releases. Largely stripped back to a core of dubby bass, sparse rhythm and subdued piano, this evocative swan-song splits the difference between Compass Point and the Wild Bunch, its muted vocals and distorted guitar anticipating the trip hoppers who would soundtrack the decade to come.

$29.50 NOT IN STOCK

For the 50th anniversary of this influential album, Bureau B release Cluster 71 as a special LP version: 500 copies, numbered, gatefold and 180 gram vinyl. According to The Wire, the British bible of musical excellence, Cluster 71 is one of the "one hundred records that set the world on fire." Very few albums from Germany can lay claim to this honor. Cluster 71 is a monster: the debut work from the year 1971 (actually just called Cluster) contains a mere three tracks (untitled) and is quite an ordeal for untrained ears -- back then, at least. Yet the album pointed the way forward like no other electronic opus. Cluster's previous incarnation was a trio named Kluster. A change in direction and musical differences moved Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius to split from their third member, Konrad Schnitzler, in 1970. The following year, as well as playing live, they recorded their first album, Cluster 71, in publisher Ralf Arnie's Star Musik Studio in Hamburg. Here they first met Conny Plank, who would himself become a legend. They remained close friends until his death in 1987. Early Cluster music was new. New in the sense that it did not continue any tradition, instead laying the foundations for a future tradition. The duo's utter renunciation of conventional harmony and rhythm, their embracing of near total aural abstraction, confident use of noise, rigorous live electronic improvisation and a positive mindset tuned to winning rather than losing -- these were all factors in Cluster's innovative trailblazing of 1971. For want of a better category, Cluster 71 was classified rather inappropriately and incorrectly as "cosmic". Few recognized Cluster for what it was -- the synthesis of pop music stripped of embarrassing glamor and so-called serious music without intellectual constraints. Moebius and Roedelius took the liberty of raiding both disciplines to perfect their musical concept. A common enough practice today, but akin to a palace revolution in 1971. So it is that three pieces of electronic music meander and pulsate through Cluster 71, with no beginning and no end. Cluster's music is free and open in all directions. There are sounds, noises and structures to be heard on this album which would become ingrained in the electronic pop music of the 1980s and 1990s. Cluster had taken the first step into the future with Cluster 71.

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Metamorphoses is the debut album by electronic duo God is God for Hamburg-based imprint Bureau B. The duo consists of Turkish musician, producer and Kinship label founder Etkin Çekin and Belarussian multi-instrumentalist, composer singer and Not Not Fun alumni Galina Ozeran who started making music after a chance meeting in Berlin in 2015. Metamorphoses is the product of their second ever improvisational encounter: an undulating, avant-pop journey of low-BPM twists and turns guided by Ozeran's synthesizers, Russian and English vocals and Çekin's ethereal production and guitar sensibility. Central to the album's musical narrative are both contemporary dancefloor-adjacent electronics and Eastern European and Turkish psychedelic electronic traditions -- all filtered through the prism of Çekin and Ozeran's respective musical histories.

"Ozeran grew up in Vitebsk, Belarus playing classical piano before making her way to St. Petersburg to study curation and become a musician. There she formed various bands and began the lo-fi improvisational dream-pop solo project Chikiss, influenced by Soviet synth pioneers Eduard Artemiev and Alexander Zatcepin as well as American film composer Angelo Badelamenti, Laurie Anderson, and early Warp records. On Metamorphoses, this is reflected in her narcotic melody lines and sung 'liquid language' -- a kind of improvisational, non-semantic vocalization, which combines fluidly with Çekin's sonic vision. The latter was honed in both Istanbul and Germany and draws equally on the sounds of Bülent Arel, Erkan Oğur and Turkish '90s indie-experimental band ZEN as well as Roedelius, La Düsseldorf and Suicide. The result of Çekin and Ozeran's collaboration is both measured and electric. Things start slow with billowing, amorphous chord clouds in opener 'Behind The Heroes' before setting off into the foundational groove of 'The Song Pt. 1', which tunnels forward, bass-first, into dark disco territory. This soon leads into album single 'The Song Pt. 2', a continuation of the previous groove cleverly revisited with Ozeran's dynamic vocalizing and seductive, dubbed-out sibilance. From here things open up into the wide vistas and droning, string-heavy soundscapes of 'Masha Marie' and 'Dream', interspersed by the almost new age FM synth work of 'Liquid Space' and 'Drops'. By the time the huge melancholic dance closer 'Song To The Siren' sounds it's final notes, the impulse is to start the journey all over again. It's a testament to not only GiG's improvisational chops, but also to their Teo Macero-like additional editing process by Sebastian Lee Philip (Die Wilde Jagd) of condensing a cloud of improvisation into a narrative, 40 minutes of bliss -- and multiple modes of psychedelia." --Alexander James Samuels

$16.50 IN STOCK

Metamorphoses is the debut album by electronic duo God is God for Hamburg-based imprint Bureau B. The duo consists of Turkish musician, producer and Kinship label founder Etkin Çekin and Belarussian multi-instrumentalist, composer singer and Not Not Fun alumni Galina Ozeran who started making music after a chance meeting in Berlin in 2015. Metamorphoses is the product of their second ever improvisational encounter: an undulating, avant-pop journey of low-BPM twists and turns guided by Ozeran's synthesizers, Russian and English vocals and Çekin's ethereal production and guitar sensibility. Central to the album's musical narrative are both contemporary dancefloor-adjacent electronics and Eastern European and Turkish psychedelic electronic traditions -- all filtered through the prism of Çekin and Ozeran's respective musical histories.

"Ozeran grew up in Vitebsk, Belarus playing classical piano before making her way to St. Petersburg to study curation and become a musician. There she formed various bands and began the lo-fi improvisational dream-pop solo project Chikiss, influenced by Soviet synth pioneers Eduard Artemiev and Alexander Zatcepin as well as American film composer Angelo Badelamenti, Laurie Anderson, and early Warp records. On Metamorphoses, this is reflected in her narcotic melody lines and sung 'liquid language' -- a kind of improvisational, non-semantic vocalization, which combines fluidly with Çekin's sonic vision. The latter was honed in both Istanbul and Germany and draws equally on the sounds of Bülent Arel, Erkan Oğur and Turkish '90s indie-experimental band ZEN as well as Roedelius, La Düsseldorf and Suicide. The result of Çekin and Ozeran's collaboration is both measured and electric. Things start slow with billowing, amorphous chord clouds in opener 'Behind The Heroes' before setting off into the foundational groove of 'The Song Pt. 1', which tunnels forward, bass-first, into dark disco territory. This soon leads into album single 'The Song Pt. 2', a continuation of the previous groove cleverly revisited with Ozeran's dynamic vocalizing and seductive, dubbed-out sibilance. From here things open up into the wide vistas and droning, string-heavy soundscapes of 'Masha Marie' and 'Dream', interspersed by the almost new age FM synth work of 'Liquid Space' and 'Drops'. By the time the huge melancholic dance closer 'Song To The Siren' sounds it's final notes, the impulse is to start the journey all over again. It's a testament to not only GiG's improvisational chops, but also to their Teo Macero-like additional editing process by Sebastian Lee Philip (Die Wilde Jagd) of condensing a cloud of improvisation into a narrative, 40 minutes of bliss -- and multiple modes of psychedelia." --Alexander James Samuels

$16.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/22/2022

On their self-titled debut album Etienne Jaumet and Fabrizio Rat, both trained pianists, re-invent their favorite instrument to make you hear it in a totally new way. While the former creates unusual sounds thanks to the rhythmic machines that accompany his piano, the latter uses this classical and romantic instrument par excellence to explore the techno sphere. "The basic idea of our duo is to confront the harmonic richness of the piano and the synthesizer through rhythm. To explore our interactions through live music. To develop new atmospheres thanks to the evocative power of unusual sounds. Somewhere between ambient and sound experimentation..." Simple musical ideas are repeated and transformed in an extremely gradual process, investigating the possibilities of these two very different sound sources. Fabrizio's playing technique on the piano is anything but conventional. He choses to employ only a few notes from the 88 keys available, and uses his left hand to transform the piano sound by manipulating the strings on different points with his fingers. His goal is to produce acoustic filtering and harmonic effects normally associated with electronic music. Etienne is a sonic sculptor who uses his modular synthesizer to create modulations and sonic mantras that evolve over time. His sounds are warm and alive. They hypnotize the listener in a mental vortex. The real focus of the duo is sonic transformation, departing from basic melodic and rhythmical elements. The harmonic richness of the acoustic piano mixes with the modulating lines of the modular filters creating unheard textures. The listeners are captured in a trip between trance and hypnosis, punctuated by the sparse hits of a drum machine. "Rive Opposte" opens with a repeated note modulated throughout the track in ever different ways while the piano unfolds a pattern played in harmonics, on the lower piano strings. In "Sentiero" the same melodic idea is played by both instruments in unison, repeated over and over while the modular timbre evolves very gradually -- the piano displaces the melody through the octaves and harmonizes it in ever changing ways. "Visione Pop" has a playful character. Permutations of a three-note pattern at the piano respond to a captivating melody on the modular. The two elements evolve independently, exploring various sonic possibilities and playing techniques. The resulting album from this collaboration is a deeply hypnotic trip, exploring novel sonic mixtures between the acoustic and electronic world.

$16.50 IN STOCK

Richard Pinhas' album Iceland was first released in 1979 and is his third solo work, also the first after the split from Heldon. This album seems like a long, inward-looking journey and is like a kind of counter-point to the expansive sci-fi worlds and the bombastic prog of Heldon; on Iceland you will find long, sublime tracks next to short, rougher sketches. Echo guitars, rhythm machines and the washed-out warmth of analog synthesizer sounds create a very peculiar, chilling atmosphere.

"... Iceland is the perfect description of this music -- when you start to focus on the details contained within these juggernauts of atmosphere, you sense the precision involved with each element, its place in the mix meticulously chosen. Despite the nature of the sounds, there is nothing cold about Pinhas' appreciation of the record. Enthusing over aspects of how he made certain tracks -- recording with his first ARP 2600, using 'white noise as the source!... creating these very special voices', playing his original 1957 Black Beauty Les Paul, and how François Auger's fantastic drumming enlightens 'Greenland' with his softness of touch. For a man often critical of his own work, Pinhas tells me that he 'loves' Iceland, that it ranks in the top five of his records . . . An unflinching look at the bleakness of the landscapes glimpsed. But it is through that refusal to shut off one's senses, that their true majesty is revealed. A ghostly homing sound beckons as 'Iceland 2' begins. Our guide leading us into the terrain is an uneasy rhythmic pulse, a 4/4 figure stylistically displaced to make it into a 9/8 meter. Momentary beauty at 2:23 as three fuzzy warmer chords swell up, rising away . . . By 'Iceland 3' we're somewhat used to the topography, the tones warmer, or perhaps just familiar, even as the utterances of what now sound like soul-devouring entities grow louder. And they seem to have wound their way into 'The Last Kings Of Thule''s pulse as Richard's almost jazz -- though in no way is this jazz -- guitar contorts itself all over it. Closing the record, 'Greenland' is gorgeous, lysergic dreams sweeping you off to sleep at sunrise after a 'Long Dark Night Of The Soul'. The ghastly voices subdued as they settle back underneath consciousness. Those noises - in a different form, perhaps now processed by the psyche -- resurface on the title track of Stand By, recorded at the same time as Iceland. Pinhas would work on this, his third solo record, during meal breaks at Heldon sessions in Paris' Ramses Studios. However, the bulk of the album was recorded at home and, except for the final track, 'quite alone'..." --Aug Stone

$26.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Richard Pinhas' album Iceland was first released in 1979 and is his third solo work, also the first after the split from Heldon. This album seems like a long, inward-looking journey and is like a kind of counter-point to the expansive sci-fi worlds and the bombastic prog of Heldon; on Iceland you will find long, sublime tracks next to short, rougher sketches. Echo guitars, rhythm machines and the washed-out warmth of analog synthesizer sounds create a very peculiar, chilling atmosphere.

"... Iceland is the perfect description of this music -- when you start to focus on the details contained within these juggernauts of atmosphere, you sense the precision involved with each element, its place in the mix meticulously chosen. Despite the nature of the sounds, there is nothing cold about Pinhas' appreciation of the record. Enthusing over aspects of how he made certain tracks -- recording with his first ARP 2600, using 'white noise as the source!... creating these very special voices', playing his original 1957 Black Beauty Les Paul, and how François Auger's fantastic drumming enlightens 'Greenland' with his softness of touch. For a man often critical of his own work, Pinhas tells me that he 'loves' Iceland, that it ranks in the top five of his records . . . An unflinching look at the bleakness of the landscapes glimpsed. But it is through that refusal to shut off one's senses, that their true majesty is revealed. A ghostly homing sound beckons as 'Iceland 2' begins. Our guide leading us into the terrain is an uneasy rhythmic pulse, a 4/4 figure stylistically displaced to make it into a 9/8 meter. Momentary beauty at 2:23 as three fuzzy warmer chords swell up, rising away . . . By 'Iceland 3' we're somewhat used to the topography, the tones warmer, or perhaps just familiar, even as the utterances of what now sound like soul-devouring entities grow louder. And they seem to have wound their way into 'The Last Kings Of Thule''s pulse as Richard's almost jazz -- though in no way is this jazz -- guitar contorts itself all over it. Closing the record, 'Greenland' is gorgeous, lysergic dreams sweeping you off to sleep at sunrise after a 'Long Dark Night Of The Soul'. The ghastly voices subdued as they settle back underneath consciousness. Those noises - in a different form, perhaps now processed by the psyche -- resurface on the title track of Stand By, recorded at the same time as Iceland. Pinhas would work on this, his third solo record, during meal breaks at Heldon sessions in Paris' Ramses Studios. However, the bulk of the album was recorded at home and, except for the final track, 'quite alone'..." --Aug Stone

$16.50 IN STOCK

In a year of the moon, Kreidler have produced the album Spells And Daubs. In September 2020 the band met for exploratory sessions and initial recordings in Düsseldorf, in the familiar settings of the Kabawil Theater. The impetus this time was a solitary gig in the conspicuously spacious surroundings of the (former) Philipshalle. Over the winter Kreidler worked remotely, sifting through the material, arranging the pieces, adding textures and contours. They met again in the spring of 2021 for further recordings at the Uhrwerk Orange studio in Hilden, near Düsseldorf. From fifteen pieces they filtered out ten, and thus held an album in their hands. Then they took it to London, to Peter Walsh, so that he could mix the tracks.

"... Spells And Daubs is a melodious interplay. Not that Kreidler neglect the rhythmic; their characteristic drive runs through all the pieces on Spells And Daubs. Perhaps it's like this: The beat is musicalized, the melody rhythmitized. Spells And Daubs is like a collection of short stories. Its ten pieces explore the same space drawn together by an overlaying arc . . . Perhaps most beautiful in the irresistible pop gems 'Arena', 'Unframed Drawings', and 'Revery'. Aptly, Alex Paulick moved to the fretless bass -- conjuring the spirit of Mick Karn. The album opens with 'Tantrum'. It's a quick fit, nothing too violent, more a play at throwing things about . . . 'Toys I Never Sell' takes it down a notch, a poetic exploration of the room . . . 'Dirty Laundry' depicts an empty city with fading footsteps, though not aimless, a sort of a cold wave funk, a certain eeriness, a brief threat like an espionage story . . . In 'Revery' a synth sequence chases forward, with an enchanted melody on co-driver's seat . . . 'Unframed Drawings' breezes a somewhat bluer note, think of layered memories, slightly blurred, faded, ushering back and forth looking for a new formation, a new narration, a fresh start, combining longing with comfort. In 'Arise Above', 'Tantrum''s secret cousin, a soaring synthesizer starts the drum beat, the bass kicks in, and the rhythmic framework is ensnared by a netting of insidious melodies . . . 'Arena' is a melancholic urge, the song runs into a delay, its theme turns over, tumbles, falls into itself, finding itself in itself, and takes itself up again. 'Greetings From Dave' starts with the telephone call, a postcard from Paris, Then the snare surges ahead, and a recorder-like, and a bagpipe-like push the boat out, for a celebration in the final grooves of the album, big fuss, turn the record over! For all of their Krautrock attributions, Kreidler never tire of reminding us that their musical development stemmed from a love of British pop music. So you might say the co-op with Peter Walsh is a match made in heaven. His illustrious mixing and production skills have lifted works from Shalamar or Lynx to Heaven 17 to Scott Walker, Pulp or FKA Twigs into other spheres..." --V. Luxemburgo