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viewing 1 To 6 of 6 items
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GR 2037LP
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Werke Für Schlagzeug Und Elektroakustische Geräte ("Works for Percussion and Electro-Acoustic Devices") is the second album of the Polish percussion duo Miłosz Pękala and Magda Kordylasińska. The compositions "Renaissance Gameboy #1" and "#2" (2011) by Felix Kubin were originally written for violin, saxophone, cello, piano, drums, and tape. The new versions arranged by the duo transport his pieces into the world of an extended percussion set, with marimba and vibraphone placed in the center. Additionally, several parts were recorded on tape. "Black Page #1" by Frank Zappa features close-miking recordings of guiro, reco-reco, temple blocks, and everyday objects like cups and computer. The pulse generated by dripping water and unusual percussive sets provide a new, intimate interpretation of Zappa's dynamic music. Minimal music has always had a special place in the hearts of the Polish duo. In "Vermont Counterpoint" (1982) by Steve Reich, they replace the orchestra (including flutes) with vibraphone, glockenspiel, marimba, and dulcimer. By including Reich's composition on this record, Pękala and Kordylasińska refer to their own musical roots. Repetitiveness can also be heard in a piece entitled "Smells Like Victory" (2016) commissioned to Thymme Jones, the founder of a band called Cheer Accident. The composition is written for marimba, vibraphone, two Chinese gongs, electronics, and includes choreography. "Modular #1" (2016) by Miłosz Pękala completes the album. It's based on a rhythmic pattern generated by a modular synthesizer. Ongoing permeation of electronic and acoustic sounds with dynamic narrative creates a fertile ground for the musicians' expression as percussionists and at the same time gives them great pleasure as players. Pękala and Kordylasińska on the album: "This album is a next step in exploring the world of percussive instruments. We recorded it mainly out of urge to present our experience as musicians of the twenty first century surrounded by contemporary art." The album comes in a special sleeve with golden hotstamp printing designed by Polish musician and artist Macio Moretti.
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GR 2036LP
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Triggered by the 2015 edition of the Labor Sonor Festival "Translating Music" in Berlin, this split album between the Splitter Orchester and Felix Kubin offers two sides of the same coin, sometimes appearing like the rendering of an identikit picture. Taking up side A of the album, the Splitter Orchester remains faithful to its trademark technique of improvised composition. Their sound carries the spirit of artists like Jani Christou, John Cage, Franco Evangelisti, and the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, taking it further to the 21st century and strictly avoiding any scores. Specially built and prepared instruments add to the complexity of sound layers that slowly unfold, filling both an imaginary and physical space. Starting with a short piano loop, "Diagram 1" turns into a darker drone cut by crashing glasses, giving it an almost Hörspiele-like character. "Diagram 2" is a piece about transformation and metamorphosis which starts with airy highest tones that unravel into a sort of chanting before slowly descending downwards, reaching deeper realms of rumbling which culminate in brutal noise. On side B, Felix Kubin reinterprets these tracks, creating a physically closer and blunter atmosphere, which turns the distant dreamlike atmosphere of side A into a state of awakening. His two versions present a more systematic technique, counteracting the subconscious swarm composition of the Orchester. For his take on "Diagram 1", under the title "Lückenschere", he uses a sequenced sample of the piano loop which generates different dynamics, spiraling over sequencer variations. Much rawer and with aspects of minimal music is "Lichtsplitter", a pure electronic blueprint of "Diagram 2", that involves a black and white score drawing turned into sound with an eight-channel light scanner. The Splitter Orchester, founded in 2010, is a Berlin-based collection of internationally respected composer-performers which draws inspiration from many genres, most noticeably contemporary/improvised music. Splitter Orchester originates from the "Echtzeitmusik" scene, which emerged in Berlin in the mid-1990s - a locally based and globally networked experimental music scene and long-term platform for the exchange of artistic ideas.
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GR 2035LP
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Long before digital sampling was affordable for everyone, A.K. Klosowski invented his kassetteninstrument, a custom-made music apparatus consisting of eight Sony Walkmans with a mute/de-mute mechanism. The outputs of the instrument could be controlled both by hand and by an automatic trigger module. In addition, a drum computer and some effect machines were fed into the circuit. This technique allowed for a very intuitive control over the analog tape sources. A.K. Klosowski began performing with his kassetteninstrument at different occasions in the early 1980s. When Kurt Dahlke, aka Pyrolator (of the famous Düsseldorf synth band Der Plan), saw him play he suggested recording an album together which finally led to the critically acclaimed 1985 LP, Home Taping Is Killing Music (BB 128CD/LP). However, the raw, plunderphonic aspect of Klosowski's music, his rough and edgy rhythms, cut-up techniques and sparkling noise colors, are much more present in his solo work, which are featured here for the first time on Gagarin Records. All of the 13 tracks on this album were recorded straight to the master tape without multi-tracking between 1982 and 1984. Although drawing on pre-existing sound sources, they provide a texture that is different to digital sampling. This is not only due to the charmingly imprecise mechanics of the compact cassette, with all its faults and phasings, but also to the fact that the sounds don't share the same starting point, as they are picked in real time from continuously running audio tapes. At times, Klosowski's kassetteninstrument behaves like a malfunctioning jukebox or an auto-correction system that takes the listener on a romantic trip through wobbly loops, erratic swings and dub-like echo effects. These sonic detours are combined with spherical flutter sounds, industrial atmospheres, African patterns and the beauty of 1980s low-cost rhythm machines. Their liveliness and unusual groove is still as fresh today as it was back in the pre-digital age. It is a blessing to witness Mr. Klosowski only just managing to rule his outrageous machine, forever wresting back control with a human touch.
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GR 2034LP
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For his next release on Felix Kubin's Gagarin Records, multi-instrumentalist Adi Gelbart delivers twelve Preemptive Musical Offerings To Satisfy Our Future Masters. With a spiraling musical complexity reminiscent of film scores, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, library music, criminal swing, Russian vitamins, tinnitus' twist, abstract jazz and musique concrète, Gelbart surpasses himself this time by augmenting his palette of instruments to the extent where he becomes a small orchestra. "The Source" of his musical identity plays "The Message" of synths, broken organs, harpsichord (!), double bass, horns, cymbals and crispy drum machines. It's a "Spacetime Reverie," where "Tsuburaya" blows "Leaves For Gamera" while "He Who Speaks Through Pyramids" walks through "Echoville" with "Dust" on his shoes, contemplating the "Birth Of Alpha" after "The Big Sleep." While humming to songs of the second moon, the "Harpsichord Automata" leads "The March Of The Thinking Machines" to a blissful silver big bang. The LP comes in a beautifully designed sleeve with cover artwork by Berlin-based German illustration star Benedikt Rugar, who has contributed to newspapers such as The New York Times and Spiegel, as well as numerous animation film festivals. A download card is included with the purchase of the record.
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GR 2013LP
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"With almost universal access to the internet and the rise of the online archive it may appear that the entire history of recorded sound is only a few mouse clicks away. However, the 2008 discovery in a Paris archive of a phonautograph recording of 'Au Clair de Lune' from 1860 demonstrated that fragile treasures remain to be discovered by the dedicated explorer. Musician, composer and radio producer Felix Kubin has spent the last 5 years investigating, tracking down and collecting a stunning selection of hitherto neglected recordings from archives and private collections. With an eye for the antique curiosity, and an ear for the curious dusty beauty of abandoned transmissions from the past, he is now proud to present this first collection of historical recordings. The recordings presented here offer many and diverse pleasures from the analogue realm. Amongst the jewels offered are chronicles of eccentric machines, alleged occult occurrences on telephone exchanges, drunken whalers, marine plankton, music hall entertainers, Nazi attempts to play proto-synthesizers, uncategorizable oddities, and lost documents by originators of the avant-garde. This deluxe vinyl only edition is presented in lavish packaging including a booklet which contains an essay by Felix Kubin, extensive notes on each track and illustrations."
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GR 2009
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"Patric Catani started to make music very early, in his teenager age he used to program on his C64 Computer and used to 'rip' the old arcade game music out of games. He continued to work on the home computer and made his first Hardcore/Techno Candie Hank is a grotesque entertainment show with no limit, a collision of Rock´n Roll, Moog influenced but harsh synthscapes breakcore but Belly Dance Punk and Gabba like Proto Pop. His debut LP Kimouchi just got released on Gagarin Records run by Felix Kubin who couldn´t deny to release the Candie Hank stuff and even called it a 'landmark'. Candie Hank calls it Lubricant Sleazecore.Gabba record in the age of 16 in the year 1992 on his Amiga 500 computer."
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