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LP
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EMEGO 104LTD-LP
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$29.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/26/2021
Special mirrored silver foil gatefold cover with banderole. Pressed on crystal clear vinyl; one time pressing. Returnal is the fourth album from Daniel Lopatin's Oneohtrix Point Never project, after Betrayed In The Octagon (Deception Island, 2007), Zones Without People (Arbor, 2009) and Russian Mind (No Fun, 2009). All three albums being superbly compiled on the Rifts double CD set (No Fun, 2009). It sees Lopatin fine-tune his craft for the creation of deep atmospheres and textures even further. Starting off with the mind-blowing triptych of "Nil Admiari"/"Describing Bodies"/"Stress Waves," which fires off into a noise/rhythm excess before entering a zone of relative calm, building to the melancholy of the final part. This sets the tone perfectly for the album's title track, a stunning, out-of-this-world ballad featuring Lopatin's near-desperate vocal delivery, ending what could be seen as one of his most chilling and thought-provoking sides to-date. The atmosphere is slightly lifted as the darkened sun comes up over the ruins on "Pelham Island Road" and "Where Does Time Go," with the album closing with edgy broken beats and the fourth-world possible landscapes of "Preyouandi," which fades into the distance with echoes of the "Returnal" chorus closing the loop. What's burnt into memory here is Lopatin's love affair with the long, slow path back home... the cycle... the hypnotic sector... the ghost in the machine... and whether people are making dance music or hip-hop or space head-music or metal, the ouroboros is present in every sector -- as it was in Bach's study, and in the elephant songs of the Ituri forests. Instrumentation: Akai AX-60, Roland Juno-60, Roland MSQ-700, Korg Electribe ES-1, Voice. Recorded using a personal computer. Mastered by James Plotkin. Tape-op & additional engineering by Al Carlson. Design by Stephen O'Malley.
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EMEGO 289CD
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KMRU is the moniker of Joseph Kamaru, a sound artist and producer based in Nairobi. One of the leading exponents of the burgeoning experimental music scene in Nairobi and beyond, he was listed by Resident Advisor as one of "15 East African Artists You Need To Hear" in 2018 and is a regular performer at the fabled Nyege Nyege Festival having also presented live performances at CTM festival and Gamma Festival. Peel is KMRU's first release for Editions Mego. An exquisite mix of field recordings and electronics unravelling at a repetitive and leisurely pace to expose a rich tapestry of sound, revered for its ability to cross borders with the sheer undertow of emotional content. The subtle calming atmosphere within Peel belies the compositional prowess as layers of delicate sounds wrap around each other creating a hybrid new form ambient music both captivating through its textural depth and kaleidoscopic patterns. The track titles lend themselves to the themes and mood set within: "Why Are You Here", "Well", "Solace", "Klang", "Insubstantial", and the title track. This is a deep heartfelt journey with a new strong voice being expressed through the means of organically presented electronic ambient sounds, one which reveals further layers on repeat listens. All tracks written and produced by KMRU. Recorded and produced in Rimpa, (Nairobi, KE). Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, June 2020. Photography: Claudia Mock; Layout/Design: Nik Void.
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2LP
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EMEGO 304LP
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$34.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 10/1/2021
Double LP version. "Gonzen, uminari or retumbos. Perhaps you've heard these sounds? They're known to occur all over the world and, as one might expect, humans have strained to offer various explanations for these unsettling emissions that materialize unbidden from the sky. We like to say that we've understood what's happening so that we can move on. Tidy up the loose ends and don't scare the horses. Nothing wrong with that in good measure, but there's something to be said for the Haudenosaunee peoples' explanation. They pointed out that the Great Spirit hasn't finished their work of shaping the earth and is making a fair bit of noise while they're at it. If you accept that many questions never truly get answered, in fact can or should never truly be answered, you may be able to tune your mind to this collection of lingering sonic detonations. If you accept that the work is ongoing, our labors seldom done, that there's not much point talking about the end of anything, you may be ready to join us. It's not our task to finish it, nor are we free to desist." Written and produced by Anthony Child and Daniel Bean. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, February 2021. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, April 2021.
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EMEGO 301LP
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$24.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 10/1/2021
LP version. Editions Mego welcomes Powell to its roster with a bizarre and strangely emotive new album of synthetic computer works entitled Piano Music 1-7. Via his own Diagonal Records imprint, his work on XL Recordings and, most recently, the opening of audio/film platform A Folder [afolder.studio], Powell has firm footing in the contemporary electronic landscape. During a wry and obstinate musical life he has twisted myriad synthetic forms into shapes that explore and expand upon the districts of post-punk, techno, noise + computer music, and in the last year alone he has released four albums of hi-def abstractions, each inspired by a formalization of music proposed by Iannis Xenakis. As an extension of this intense period of work/research/play with stochastic functions [using probabilities to compose music], various processes emerged that Powell then began to apply to more traditional musical events. Where ordinarily in his work the probabilities and relationships are used to define parameters such as wave-shape, folding, FM, filter modes etc., he now began to use them to create musical formations and visual scores that could be played back using any software/MIDI instrument. While mapping out this cartography of relations, he used a basic Grand Steinway sampler as a placeholder instrument; the longer the process went on, though, the more he began to embrace the acoustic properties of the synthetic piano and make it the bedrock for this new constellation of work. Piano Music 1-7, subtitled Music for Synthetic Piano and Assorted Electronics, consists of seven different synthetic islands strung together into a single composition. All were composed using the aforementioned processes that allowed Powell to play a piano, even if he never learned to do so with his hands. At times the piano skips gleefully over shadowing synthesis, whilst at others the synthetic sheets swarm and envelope the keys. The interplay between the two create a fantastical alternate reality, a cosmic machine in which time is eroded, shrunk and expanded, like a wax upon which operations and relations are inscribed or engraved. This interplay of the [artifical] acoustic and the electronic builds on the pioneering processes developed by David Behrman in works such as Leapday Night, and Piano Music 1-7 could also be posited as a modern take on Conlon Nancarrow's investigations for player piano. Similarly, the razor-sharp sonic properties and unfolding of non-human events recall the computer works of Xenakis and the surgical precision of Mego mainstay Florian Hecker. Recorded in late 2020.
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EMEGO 296LP
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Marcus Schmickler's music is designed for multi-channel sound projections and references German electronic music tradition, spectral music, experimentalism as well as 1990s club music. His artistic practice explores avant-garde trajectories in electronic music composition, formal systems, sonification and psychoacoustics. This release features two new major works from this audacious sound explorer. Sky Dice / Mapping the Studio premiered at Donaueschinger Tage fur Neue Musik 10.20.2018 having being commissioned by SWR and realized at the Experimentalstudio (EXP) in Freiburg. This is a work for ARP 2500, Publison DHM89B, Publison Infernal Machine and Computer. Taking cues from Bruce Nauman's Mapping the Studio I (Fat Chance John Cage) (2001) the piece draws a fragmented acoustic map of the SWR facility itself; the studio serves as a source-model for the sonic display of historical signal flow graphs. Various acoustic and psychoacoustic effects come into play including the Larsen effect, as well as Style Transfer and Topological Sonification. The result is a daring and dizzying display of disorientating audio. Sound moves in most unusual ways, rising and falling simultaneously, appearing and disappearing like apparitions, nothing here behaves in expected ways. To paraphrase Albert Einstein's now famous quote regarding quantum mechanics, this is spooky audio at a distance. "Fortuna Ribbon" is a selection of sonic material that emerged from a research based on how DPOAEs (Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission) can be designed in the context of musical frameworks, augmenting the compositional pallets in regard to spatial hearing. In this manifestation, the materials are presented without context. The resulting emissions from the ear that are excited in varying ways from the six examples on display here. Playback in undisturbed acoustic environments is recommended at >82 dB/A. Schmickler's ongoing investigation of sound matter conjures impossible audio that delights in the extremity of form and resulting effects on the listener. Schmickler's audio invocations explore the capabilities of contemporary technology resulting in dizzying new worlds of sound. Cut 01/2021 by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin. Artwork by Neo-Metabolism.
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EMEGO 304CD
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"Gonzen, uminari or retumbos. Perhaps you've heard these sounds? They're known to occur all over the world and, as one might expect, humans have strained to offer various explanations for these unsettling emissions that materialize unbidden from the sky. We like to say that we've understood what's happening so that we can move on. Tidy up the loose ends and don't scare the horses. Nothing wrong with that in good measure, but there's something to be said for the Haudenosaunee peoples' explanation. They pointed out that the Great Spirit hasn't finished their work of shaping the earth and is making a fair bit of noise while they're at it. If you accept that many questions never truly get answered, in fact can or should never truly be answered, you may be able to tune your mind to this collection of lingering sonic detonations. If you accept that the work is ongoing, our labors seldom done, that there's not much point talking about the end of anything, you may be ready to join us. It's not our task to finish it, nor are we free to desist." Written and produced by Anthony Child and Daniel Bean. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, February 2021. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, April 2021.
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EMEGO 301CD
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$16.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 10/1/2021
Editions Mego welcomes Powell to its roster with a bizarre and strangely emotive new album of synthetic computer works entitled Piano Music 1-7. Via his own Diagonal Records imprint, his work on XL Recordings and, most recently, the opening of audio/film platform A Folder [afolder.studio], Powell has firm footing in the contemporary electronic landscape. During a wry and obstinate musical life he has twisted myriad synthetic forms into shapes that explore and expand upon the districts of post-punk, techno, noise + computer music, and in the last year alone he has released four albums of hi-def abstractions, each inspired by a formalization of music proposed by Iannis Xenakis. As an extension of this intense period of work/research/play with stochastic functions [using probabilities to compose music], various processes emerged that Powell then began to apply to more traditional musical events. Where ordinarily in his work the probabilities and relationships are used to define parameters such as wave-shape, folding, FM, filter modes etc., he now began to use them to create musical formations and visual scores that could be played back using any software/MIDI instrument. While mapping out this cartography of relations, he used a basic Grand Steinway sampler as a placeholder instrument; the longer the process went on, though, the more he began to embrace the acoustic properties of the synthetic piano and make it the bedrock for this new constellation of work. Piano Music 1-7, subtitled Music for Synthetic Piano and Assorted Electronics, consists of seven different synthetic islands strung together into a single composition. All were composed using the aforementioned processes that allowed Powell to play a piano, even if he never learned to do so with his hands. At times the piano skips gleefully over shadowing synthesis, whilst at others the synthetic sheets swarm and envelope the keys. The interplay between the two create a fantastical alternate reality, a cosmic machine in which time is eroded, shrunk and expanded, like a wax upon which operations and relations are inscribed or engraved. This interplay of the [artifical] acoustic and the electronic builds on the pioneering processes developed by David Behrman in works such as Leapday Night, and Piano Music 1-7 could also be posited as a modern take on Conlon Nancarrow's investigations for player piano. Similarly, the razor-sharp sonic properties and unfolding of non-human events recall the computer works of Xenakis and the surgical precision of Mego mainstay Florian Hecker. Recorded in late 2020.
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EMEGO 305CD
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$16.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/3/2021
Irreal definition is -- not real. "In order to imagine, a consciousness must be able to posit an object as irreal' -- nonexistent, absent -- Jean Paul Sartre Irreal is a selection of recordings from different situations encountered in Austria, Russia, South Korea and The Benelux. The range of sound is as wide as is the emotional impact which slides from the unnerving to the shimmering and gorgeous. Doors, bells, birds, wet snow falling from a tree, hacking of wood, water dripping in a cave are all exquisitely captured and molded into vast landscapes of sound. Human voices, string instruments, descending trains, oceans, winds, grass, trees. These diverse sonic elements are grafted around and upon each other to create a rich tapestry of sound. Electronic embellishments harness the whole to create a singular expressive canvas. The three-part suite concludes with the "Beyond pebbles, rubble and dust", a grand glacial work which serves as a masterclass in extraordinary transcendental drone. The sound of nature, the nature of sound and the effects these have on humans has been a primary focus of BJ Nilsen's investigation over the years. Irreal resounds with a level of sophisticated enquiry one would expect from one of the contemporary masters of the form. Includes 16-page booklet. All material by BJ Nilsen. Recorded and Mixed at Odd Phasing and Echoes, Amsterdam NL 2021. Source material from Austria, Russia, South Korea and The Benelux. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Photography Karl Lemieux. Design by Stephen O'Malley.
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2LP
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EMEGO 279LP
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"Fantas" is the epic opening track on Caterina Barbieri's acclaimed 2019 release Ecstatic Computation (EMEGO 259LP, 2019). The original "Fantas" laid out a magical path of patterns leading the listener on a journey into the sound itself. Fantas Variations maps out eight new potentials sprung from this initial path as constructed by a diverse mix of artists lending to a wide spectrum of new works extrapolated from the original work. For this project Barbieri invited friends and long-time collaborators from a variety of musical backgrounds to create a more sustainable and inclusive landscape in terms of stylistic, geographical, gender, and generational balance. The results are a diverse array of approaches and instrumentation which blur the boundaries between the acoustic and electronic. Fantas Variations embraces a platform for mutual exchange and support between like-minded artists, where active and collective re-imagination is prioritized over the traditional model of remixes, which is often strategic, functional and more passive. Longtime friend and collaborator Kali Malone rearranged "Fantas" to a slowed-down, austere and eerie version for two organs. Evelyn Saylor created a piece for a vocal ensemble consisting of her, Lyra Pramuk, Stine Janvin, and Annie Garlid, joining forces to express the choral, psychedelic and vital nature of the piece. Barbieri's former guitar professor at the Conservatory in Bologna, Walter Zanetti, composes "Fantas" for electric guitar, by translating every single gesture of the original electronic piece into a personal, nuanced and detailed interpretation. Bendik Giske's reinterpretation for saxophone and voice captures the atmospheric essence of "Fantas" and its psychic meteorology. Longtime collaborator and along with Barbieri the other half of the outfit Punctum, Carlo Maria, resynthesizes "Fantas" for TR808 and MC202, bringing a more club-oriented dimension of the piece to life whilst unveiling the sonic continuum between rhythm and pitch through a sensitive timbral approach. Jay Mitta's Singeli reinterpretation of "Fantas" transpires with pitched-up percussion and turbo-fast polyrhythmic patterns unleashing the frenetic, shifting, transformative matter within the piece to a higher plain of euphoric dance. Baseck's variation is a rave fantasia, where the prismatic trance of the original is channeled into fierce, uncompromising hardcore, whilst Kara-Lis Coverdale's take is a phantasmagoria for piano that gently, yet inexorably, captures the relentlessness chimerical qualities of the original, unveiling its spectral backbone. Mastered by Rashad Becker, February 2021. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, February 2021. Artwork and typography by Ruben Spini. Lettering by Alice Fiorelli.
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LP
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EMEGO 283LP
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Throughout his vast career, the New York based Australian composer JG Thirlwell has adopted many masks as a means of infiltrating and subsequently subverting a wide range of cultural forms. His work under the Foetus moniker has taken on everything from big band to opera to noise-rock. Steroid Maximus embraced exotica and the world of soundtracks, while his Manorexia project continued his quest to the outer limits of contemporary composition and musique concrete. Thirlwell has also carved out a significant output in the field of the soundtrack via the large body of work created for the animated television shows Archer and The Venture Bros. In addition, he has been commissioned to create compositions by such notables as Kronos Quartet, Bang On A Can, Alarm Will Sound, String Orchestra of Brooklyn, and many others. Now there is Omniverse, the second release under the moniker Xordox. Xordox is a synthesizer-based project, and on this evocative album we see the project branch into many new avenues. Science fiction elements brush up against crime noir and the epic film scores. With an audacious attitude and an arsenal of machines Thirlwell serves up a selection of thrilling retro-future mind capsules. This is music made from a life saturated in culture, both underground and mainstream, high and low. Fully formed compositions, tense sequencing and noir-tinged keyboard lines invoke a powerful visual image of films and memory, of screens and speakers, of sound and space, all entering the cosmos and the subsequent galactic race. Thirlwell's decades long exploration of sampling and sequencing, composing and ingesting a daunting amount of audio and visual artworks speaks volumes for the bold assimilations exposed here. "Between Dimensions" lays out a tense theme which starts off suspensefully before morphing into a simulacra of sci-fi dystopia; "Oil Slick" permeates wormholes, updating lifeforms with its stealth sequencing and tense momentum, and "Argonia" appears to herald the creation of a new sonic civilization. Omniverse is a synthesized soundtrack journey, one which embraces past forms whilst reshaping them for the new unknown. Omniverse is a thrilling liquid ride through fear and hope, and like all the best of Thirlwell's output, is simply one hell of an enjoyable journey to take.
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EMEGO 294LP
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Syn is the second album by Innode, a trio featuring Steven Hess and Bernhard Breuer on drums as well as Stefan Németh on synthesizers and sampler. Initiated as a solo project by Németh, Innode transformed into a band while working on the live presentation of Gridshifter (EMEGO 168LP, 2013), the debut recording on Editions MEGO, which was centered around electronic pieces with contributions by Breuer and Hess on separate tracks. On Syn, all three musicians provided creative input on the album's development from inception to completion. Sounds, fragments, and arrangements were exchanged and reshaped to form preliminary versions of the compositions, which were subsequently recorded by the trio in the studio. More space was given to the spontaneous interaction between individual band members. The music of Innode has been described as rhythm and noise, with electronic and acoustic elements assembled into precise, quasi-minimalist constructions. With Syn, the band expands on this basic idea in terms of form and sonic palette. There is a clear shift away from programmed drum patterns toward acoustic or electronic drums played live. Synthesizer sounds are still pure, and the arrangement remains controlled, but Innode has broadened their musical investigations to include more expressive passages and micro-melodies. In contrast to previous works, the tracks represent an integration of material coming from three musicians, finally merging into a single unit. Personnel: Bernhard Breuer - drums, drum synthesizer; Steven Hess - drums; Stefan Németh - synths, sampler. Recorded by Nik Hummer and Brigitta Bödenauer (recording assistant) at Minusgroundzero, Vienna, AT Additional drums on "Odessa" and "Moon" recorded by Doug Malone at Jamdek Recording Studio, Chicago, IL. Drums in "PTMKN" recorded by Bernard Breuer. Modular synth on "L" by Nik Hummer. Mixed by Nik Hummer at Minusgroundzero, Vienna, AT. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, Bonn, DE. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, DE. Artwork by Nik Thoenen.
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EMEGO 297LP
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LP version. Schneider TM is the multidimensional music project of Dirk Dresselhaus which has been operating since the mid '90s. His latest opus is also his first for release for Editions Mego. With an extensive catalogue under his belt, one may wonder where this one takes us" The 8 Of Space orbits the realm of "pop" more overtly than the project has done for 14 years, residing in the line of works that temporarily ended with Skoda Mluvit from 2006. In the age of scattered streaming listening habits, The 8 Of Space champions the classic album format with connected tracks that act like chapters adding up to what could be framed as an "audio-movie". The "plot" revolves around a post-dystopian landscape which posits the make-up of reality in the future. The vessel is electronic pop music but one which takes inspiration from the spirit of a multitude of musical forms absorbed into a trans human sound world where biological and technological elements complement each other (We are NOT The Robots!). The music unifies the analog world of acoustic and electric instruments with electronic and digital possibilities that range from heavily processed acoustic and electric guitars and bass, tube organ, analog modular synth units, acoustic drums and percussion, analog and digital drum machines and effect units, hardware and software processing. Generative music, audio spirals like clockworks create ever changing musical combinations; thrown-in sounds, polyrhythms and cascades based on the concept of chance attributed to the service of the song. The lyrics are a key component. Holistic, associative poetry acts as interactive trigger points for the mechanisms of existence in times of a paradigm shift that are open to the listeners discretion. Autobiographical elements combine with science fiction and dreams, protagonists shift where the "I" or "me" is not necessarily the voice of the artist, nor even the same person. Alongside a more naturalized voice another protagonist appears represented by a processed voice. This character, named iBot, evolved around the start of the millennium and has appeared on some previous Schneider TM recordings. All the elements on The 8 Of Space, the music, sounds, vocals and artwork fit together as a whole, creating a dazzling electro pop future questioning it's own certainty. This is experimental electroacoustic pop music featuring glorious melodies dancing along human/machine voices, each track is a small universe that triggers the physical mind and tickles the subconsciousness.
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EMEGO 286LP
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Johannes Auvinen has been a one-man acid king for over a decade producing a wealth of acid and acid house under the moniker Tin Man. For this new release on Editions Mego, he navigates an entirely different zone. Drawing on the history of electronic music, Akkosaari is a transcendental journey far from the sensual frenzy of sweaty acid drenched dancefloors we are accustomed to with his work. Akkosaari lies in the middle of the kosmic komische of Ash Ra Temple's "Jenseits", the weightless transcendentalism of Eliane Radigue's Trilogie De Morts, and the more glacial output of the Sähkö catalogue. The pace is gentle as the listener is drawn further into a world unlike the one we inhabit, these machines are more second life than one's emulating real life. The fantastic potential for audio induced visions are at play in this adventure in music as mind travel. On "Kyläläiset Tanssii" a measured pulse acts as a means of navigation before "Susi" spirals out clouds of sound. By the time you get to "Kelluminen" you are deeply within an unfamiliar state prior to landing in the heavenly plateau of "Akkosaari". Throughout Akkosaari, you are bathed in enrapturing and enveloping mists of psychedelic haze which take the listener on a vivid mental journey. This is intoxicating head music unfolding like an astral ascension and like any trip warrants repeat visitation. Composed by Auvinen. Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering, June 2020. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnitstelle, Berlin, June 2020.
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EMEGO 293LP
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Swedish producer and electronic enthusiast Rivet (Mika Hallbäck Vuorenpää, Malmö) joins the Editions Mego fold with a dynamic and diverse album that pivots between the punctuated pop of Ivan Pavlov's COH project, the chromatic slink of Chris and Cosey whilst also bearing a degree of fruit birthed from Hallbäck's home country Sweden in skewered pop such as The Knife. This is electronic music born from the worship of machines and the spirit of punk, mood music brooding with sophistication and subversive twists all underscored with a deep industrial pulse. Are these songs? Are these lyrics? Words melt as beat perpetually takes us deeper into flight. Interpretation is flung open as the audience are invited to gauge what on earth is going on here. Are "Sooty Wing Flecks" a minuscule species of half keyboard half vocoder chatter? Is "Gleitende Liebe" to be trusted or simply laying out a guide for disorientation? "Pearling Woes" is a queasy ballad sung by a robot on a very special comedown. "Keloid" knows exactly where the party can be now whereas Sodden Healer is an uber ride sans mask to destinations dark and unknown. Throughout this trip sharp snares punctuate ghost melodies as vocals rise and vaporize. Shadows hover the walls leaving holographic traces of the duality between fun and fear, the unexpected drifts diagonally across the audio plane teasing and taunting the listener in a unique blend of industrial, techno, pop, and experimental forms. On Feather and Wire is a deep absorbing trip through multiple moods, genres, and guises, as mysterious as it is engaging and one to ingest in a single sitting, lying back, sitting up, standing up and yes, even dancing. Let the angels and angles, the voices and distorted faces take shape before your mind. Who is "Ordine Kadmia"? What are they saying to me, here we go, on and on... With its haunted vocals, coded linguistics, and dark sensual propulsive atmosphere, On Feather and Wire is a sublime contemporary techno pop trip both psychedelic and subversive. Images by Dimitrios Bizios; Artwork by Nik Void. Written and produced by Mika Hallbäck Vuorenpää; Post-production by Mika Hallbäck Vuorenpää and Benny Liberg at Inkonst Studio Malmö; Mixed by Oscar Mulero at Dead Souls Studio Gijón; Mastered by Stephan Mathieu.
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2CD
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EMEGO 256CD
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What you hear in Synopsis Seriation, Hecker's latest album with Editions Mego, draws upon current research in machine listening and music information retrieval, where the "ghosts in the machine" are unsupervised convolutional operators designed to extract auditory features from a signal. Experimental deployment of these virtual listening agents has only just begun, and Synopsis Seriation advances a general research program Hecker initiated through a series of publications, performances and installations since 2013. In A Script for Machine Synthesis (EMEGO 226CD, 2017), the third chapter in the trilogy of text-sound pieces in collaboration with the philosopher Reza Negarestani, both a resynthesized and a computer-generated voice modelled after the narrators's voice, reflecting on systems of language, automatons and chimerized synthesis. Articulação Sintetico (2017) -- a complete resynthesis of Hecker's album Articulação (EMEGO 180CD, 2014) -- features synthetic voice models of Joan La Barbara, Sugata Bose and Anna Kohler. Central to Inspection II (EMEGO 268CD, 2019) is a bespoke computer-generated voice, reciting Robin Mackay's libretto -- by means of deep neural networks and machine listening computation, perpetually crossing formal anticipations of sound analysis to the unexpected artefacts of synthesis. Synopsis Seriation does away with such staging of computer-generated speech. It dramatizes synthetic sound in all its unnamable intensities and detail by transforming four multichannel pieces Hecker produced since 2015. These have been analyzed, dissected and reconstructed utilizing information geometry, a subfield of mathematics at the interaction between statistics and differential geometry, designed by Vincent Lostanlen. His scientific work is at the forefront of the movement of computational auditory analysis out of the frequency domain model toward a more complex understanding of the auditory landscape and perceptual processing. Written and produced by Florian Hecker, 2015-2020. Information geometry and sound computation by Vincent Lostanlen. Mastering by Rashad Becker.
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EMEGO 297CD
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Schneider TM is the multidimensional music project of Dirk Dresselhaus which has been operating since the mid '90s. His latest opus is also his first for release for Editions Mego. With an extensive catalogue under his belt, one may wonder where this one takes us" The 8 Of Space orbits the realm of "pop" more overtly than the project has done for 14 years, residing in the line of works that temporarily ended with Skoda Mluvit from 2006. In the age of scattered streaming listening habits, The 8 Of Space champions the classic album format with connected tracks that act like chapters adding up to what could be framed as an "audio-movie". The "plot" revolves around a post-dystopian landscape which posits the make-up of reality in the future. The vessel is electronic pop music but one which takes inspiration from the spirit of a multitude of musical forms absorbed into a trans human sound world where biological and technological elements complement each other (We are NOT The Robots!). The music unifies the analog world of acoustic and electric instruments with electronic and digital possibilities that range from heavily processed acoustic and electric guitars and bass, tube organ, analog modular synth units, acoustic drums and percussion, analog and digital drum machines and effect units, hardware and software processing. Generative music, audio spirals like clockworks create ever changing musical combinations; thrown-in sounds, polyrhythms and cascades based on the concept of chance attributed to the service of the song. The lyrics are a key component. Holistic, associative poetry acts as interactive trigger points for the mechanisms of existence in times of a paradigm shift that are open to the listeners discretion. Autobiographical elements combine with science fiction and dreams, protagonists shift where the "I" or "me" is not necessarily the voice of the artist, nor even the same person. Alongside a more naturalized voice another protagonist appears represented by a processed voice. This character, named iBot, evolved around the start of the millennium and has appeared on some previous Schneider TM recordings. All the elements on The 8 Of Space, the music, sounds, vocals and artwork fit together as a whole, creating a dazzling electro pop future questioning it's own certainty. This is experimental electroacoustic pop music featuring glorious melodies dancing along human/machine voices, each track is a small universe that triggers the physical mind and tickles the subconsciousness.
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EMEGO 283CD
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Throughout his vast career, the New York based Australian composer JG Thirlwell has adopted many masks as a means of infiltrating and subsequently subverting a wide range of cultural forms. His work under the Foetus moniker has taken on everything from big band to opera to noise-rock. Steroid Maximus embraced exotica and the world of soundtracks, while his Manorexia project continued his quest to the outer limits of contemporary composition and musique concrete. Thirlwell has also carved out a significant output in the field of the soundtrack via the large body of work created for the animated television shows Archer and The Venture Bros. In addition, he has been commissioned to create compositions by such notables as Kronos Quartet, Bang On A Can, Alarm Will Sound, String Orchestra of Brooklyn, and many others. Now there is Omniverse, the second release under the moniker Xordox. Xordox is a synthesizer-based project, and on this evocative album we see the project branch into many new avenues. Science fiction elements brush up against crime noir and the epic film scores. With an audacious attitude and an arsenal of machines Thirlwell serves up a selection of thrilling retro-future mind capsules. This is music made from a life saturated in culture, both underground and mainstream, high and low. Fully formed compositions, tense sequencing and noir-tinged keyboard lines invoke a powerful visual image of films and memory, of screens and speakers, of sound and space, all entering the cosmos and the subsequent galactic race. Thirlwell's decades long exploration of sampling and sequencing, composing and ingesting a daunting amount of audio and visual artworks speaks volumes for the bold assimilations exposed here. "Between Dimensions" lays out a tense theme which starts off suspensefully before morphing into a simulacra of sci-fi dystopia; "Oil Slick" permeates wormholes, updating lifeforms with its stealth sequencing and tense momentum, and "Argonia" appears to herald the creation of a new sonic civilization. Omniverse is a synthesized soundtrack journey, one which embraces past forms whilst reshaping them for the new unknown. Omniverse is a thrilling liquid ride through fear and hope, and like all the best of Thirlwell's output, is simply one hell of an enjoyable journey to take.
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EMEGO 298LP
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$23.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 6/25/2021
Cylene Suisse Redux documents François J. Bonnet and Stephen O'Malley's Switzerland tour in December 2019, following the release of their first album, Cylene (EMEGO 262LP, 2019). The two musicians chose to entrust sound material recorded on the tour to the expert ears of two friends and great musicians Jim O'Rourke and Ryoji Ikeda, giving them carte blanche, and each in turn chose a distinct personal approach. For Ryoji Ikeda, it was a question of finding a moment, circumscribing a fragment of time through his listening, with minimal intervention. For Jim O'Rourke, on the other hand, the live recordings became material to be deconstructed and reassembled, to tell, according to his musical sensibility, a path of metamorphosis for Bonnet and O'Malley's music. Cylene Suisse Redux is a prismatic substrate of a series of concerts surrounded by friendship, lakes, mountains, and by nightfall. Recorded in Geneva at Cave 12, Zürich at Zukunft & Düdingen at Bad Bonn December 17-19, 2019. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin, January 2021. Cover photo and aesthetical counsel by Eléonore Huisse.
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EMEGO 300CD
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"This edition was produced and finalized in a particular context, Mika Vainio having left us on 12.04.2017. This material is the last concert he has gave. It took place at Cave12 on 02.02.2017. We needed time to listen to this archive again, which we did in situ in June 2020 with Cindy Van Acker. After this listening, we felt invested in having to make this archive public. In order to edit and work on this material, we asked Carl Michael von Hausswolff to do the mixing. At our request, this recording was organized in four movements. Stephen O'Malley kindly joined in the pre-edit process that took place on August 24 2020 at EMS Studios, Stockholm. Denis Blackham did the mastering. This process was carried out in collaboration with Rikke Lundgreen." Recorded 02.02.2017 at Cave12, Geneva by Benjamin Ephise; Edit by Stephen O'Malley and Carl Michael von Hausswolff at EMS, Stockholm; Mastered by Denis Blackham. Vinyl cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin; Artworks by Franz Graf, Mika Vainio Archive, Oslo and Cm von Hausswolff collection. Cave12/Editions Mego co-release.
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2LP
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EMEGO 300LP
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Double LP version. "This edition was produced and finalized in a particular context, Mika Vainio having left us on 12.04.2017. This material is the last concert he has gave. It took place at Cave12 on 02.02.2017. We needed time to listen to this archive again, which we did in situ in June 2020 with Cindy Van Acker. After this listening, we felt invested in having to make this archive public. In order to edit and work on this material, we asked Carl Michael von Hausswolff to do the mixing. At our request, this recording was organized in four movements. Stephen O'Malley kindly joined in the pre-edit process that took place on August 24 2020 at EMS Studios, Stockholm. Denis Blackham did the mastering. This process was carried out in collaboration with Rikke Lundgreen." Recorded 02.02.2017 at Cave12, Geneva by Benjamin Ephise; Edit by Stephen O'Malley and Carl Michael von Hausswolff at EMS, Stockholm; Mastered by Denis Blackham. Vinyl cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin; Artworks by Franz Graf, Mika Vainio Archive, Oslo and Cm von Hausswolff collection. Cave12/Editions Mego co-release.
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LP+12"
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EMEGO 292LP
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Coventry's most notorious export celebrates 50 years of existence with an expansive new set on Editions Mego. Spread across two x vinyls (LP and 12"). Please note the 12" tracks are exclusive and do not appear on the digital release. Having spent decades carving out his very particular niche which takes influence from a vast range of extreme music this is Russell's nostalgic nod to his influences whilst forging onwards with his perpetually unforeseen experience. Working in a variety of media over decades Russell Haswell's belligerence towards his craft and critique of others has allowed him to operate in a zone outside of peers. As daunting as it is refreshing Haswell's output is always on the very edge of genre. 2001 saw the release of his first audio documentation with Live Salvage 1997→2000 (MEGO 012CD), a compact disc that compiled a series of ferocious live performances. Paradoxically precise and reckless, Haswell's music has an uneasy relationship with the predictable but acknowledges being birthed from a variety of 20th Century radical forms such as metal, noise, electro-acoustic, power electronics, and techno. Haswell's ongoing output resides as a continuously in-flux, inquisitive and predominantly improvised exploration of the extreme limits of machine-based art. Haswell has never been a "studio artist" or "producer". 12" channels the original role of the medium with two tracks of beats that present themselves in unpredictable ways. 12" also features the head shattering bonus cut, "Always Check Their Instagram". LP cut at 33rpm allows explorations into broader territories with deep ambience running into twisted acid and splattered shapes bouncing amongst rapid fire rhythms. This set is both a celebration of new forms whilst making many a sly nod to nostalgic influence throughout. LP+12" is an unexpected experience from one of contemporary music's most ruthlessly exhilarating and uncompromising figures. Raise a glass and listen LOUD. NOTE: The tracks on 12" are exclusive to the format not available on any digital format. Recorded December 2019-February 2020. Mastered: March 2020. Used = ADDAC Systems, ALM/Busy Circuits, Cwejman, Epoc Modular, Expert Sleepers, FANCYYYYY Synthesis, flight of harmony, Make Noise, Tiptop Audio...
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EMEGO 274LP
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In retrospection, it seems significant that Reinhold Friedl and Eryck Abecassis met for the first time in Marseille, a brute and operatic melting pot of cultures and sounds and noises. They idea of a common project came up, but it took almost ten years to be realized. Finally, François Bonnet (GRM artistic director) supported enthusiastically the collaboration and invited the two composer-performer to the Akousma Festival 2019 at Radio France in Paris. Intense rehearsal periods in Vienna and at la muse en circuit in Paris defined the compositional directions: precise transitions between accurately defined musical states: the raw furious energy textures of "animal électrique 1" and "5", the contrasted calm with shaking fog horns "à la Lucier" of "animal électrique 3" and "6", noise and notes in the astonishing fusion of "animal électrique 2" (which could also be titled "Tsunami and minor thirds"), and finally the delicate non-tempered vocality of both piano and synthesizer in "animal électrique 4", a detuned operatic aria. Animal Électrique is a melting point of piano and synthesizer, both put into musical travesty: the piano becomes a sound and noise machine, with strong electronic influence; the analog synthesizer starts to sing and to hoot, producing raw and brutal instrument-like sounds, in line with brute electronic synthesis. This allows Eryck Abecassis and Reinhold Friedl to combine the exigence of composing with the instant pleasures of the game. Personnel: Reinhold Friedl - piano; Eryck Abecassis - analog synthesizer. Recorded by Grégory Joubert at Studio Luc Ferrari, La Muse en Circuit, CNCM, Paris, France, June 2019. Mixed by Eryck Abecassis. Mastered by Russell Haswell. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnitstelle, Berlin.
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EMEGO 290LP
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After two years since her debut full-length release, Grand River presents her second album Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes on Editions Mego. The eight track LP shows an evolution towards a more experimental side of the Dutch-Italian composer which is here superbly combined with her ability of creating melodies previously heard on her double-LP Pineapple, released on Spazio Disponibile in 2018. Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes expresses how acoustic instruments can be perfectly merged with electronic and analog synthesizers to become one new organic whole. The composer, whose birth-name is Aimée Portioli, brings the listener along on her personal explorational journey of expressions within a certain genre. The title of the album indicates the desire to explore what is new and see what is around us from different perspectives. The album opens with the track "Side Lengths", a complex and dreamy sequence made with one of her favorite synthesizers, the Yamaha DX-7. From there we are brought from extended panoramic sound design and cinematic ambiences, back and forth to synthetic melodies, field recordings, strings and for the first time ever, Aimée's own modified voice in the closing track, "All There Now". Recorded primarily at her home base in Berlin, Grand River's music is pure, magnificent and elegant which documents a solemn atemporal story where her experiences are translated into another language. Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci at Enisslab Studio, Rome. Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin. Original artwork by Nathan Melaragno. Typography by Marco Ciceri.
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EMEGO 288LP
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Vanish is Julia Reidy's yearning, fat debut for Editions Mego. Since 2019, Julia's bubbling 12-string guitar work -- sighing streams of crystal plucks drawn closer or echoing on -- has moored a tactile, ever-lusher sound. On "Guitar", the Australian, Berlin-based musician melts down sharp synths; electric fuzz and flex; uncanny found sounds; and autotuned voice and harmonica in a heady, overpowering potion. Reidy's music sweeps you up. It's restless, always traveling on. Lonesome tones into machine chorales into hesitant hum. The LP's side-long cuts sway between scenes but are always rooted: Julia's guitar and vocal lines seem mapped to the natural ebb-and-flow of breath and thought, they lull you as they push through vast and secret spaces. Vanish completes a trio of releases begun with last year's brace, brace (Slip, 2019) and In Real Life (BT 051LP). The delicious unease, the anxious burning of the preceding volumes has settled, becoming more wide-eyed and resolute. For all its poise, the album's sense of build -- electric licks rasping into glistening synths, punctured by distant kicks -- feels freshest. When "Oh Boy"'s smudged whistle comes, it has fought its way out of the thickets, and hits like heartbreak. Music by Julia Reidy. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Holding Pattern Berlin, June 2020. Artwork by Suze Whaites. Layout by Nik Void. Impossible without: Suze Whaites, Adam Pultz Melbye, Manuel Pessoa de Lima, David Walker.
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2LP
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EMEGO 289LP
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2021 repress. KMRU is the moniker of Joseph Kamaru, a sound artist and producer based in Nairobi. One of the leading exponents of the burgeoning experimental music scene in Nairobi and beyond, he was listed by Resident Advisor as one of "15 East African Artists You Need To Hear" in 2018 and is a regular performer at the fabled Nyege Nyege Festival having also presented live performances at CTM festival and Gamma Festival. Peel is KMRU's first release for Editions Mego. An exquisite mix of field recordings and electronics unravelling at a repetitive and leisurely pace to expose a rich tapestry of sound, revered for its ability to cross borders with the sheer undertow of emotional content. The subtle calming atmosphere within Peel belies the compositional prowess as layers of delicate sounds wrap around each other creating a hybrid new form ambient music both captivating through its textural depth and kaleidoscopic patterns. The track titles lend themselves to the themes and mood set within: "Why Are You Here", "Well", "Solace", "Klang", "Insubstantial", and the title track. This is a deep heartfelt journey with a new strong voice being expressed through the means of organically presented electronic ambient sounds, one which reveals further layers on repeat listens. All tracks written and produced by KMRU. Recorded and produced in Rimpa, (Nairobi, KE). Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, June 2020. Photography: Claudia Mock; Layout/Design: Nik Void.
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