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GZH 102CD
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French composer and multi-instrumentalist Christine Ott returns to Gizeh Records for her fourth album Time to Die, the sequel to the highly regarded Only Silence Remains (GZH 066CD/LP, 2016). Time to Die is a musical fresco in eight chapters, a sensory journey between the world of the living and the dead, for which the musician weaves a unique dramaturgy between contemporary classical and electro-acoustic music. The title track picks up the story where Only Silence Remains left off ... Like it's centrepiece; "Disaster", the beloved cinematic text here is read by Casey Brown. Ott seeks to offer strong sensations, without artifice, whether by the power of her compositions on the piano ("Brumes", "Horizons Fauves"), or by intuitive arrangements mixing her unique practice of Ondes Martenot with a maelstrom of Jupiter8, Monotrons, timpani, and tubular bells as on the first track. In addition, Ott captivates us with her harp playing on "Chasing Harp", by her aerial singing on "Landscape", or even on the airwaves on "Comma Opening", which ends a triptych of songs after the versions published on "Chimères (pour Ondes Martenot)" (NAHAL, 2020) and on Volutes from her side-project Snowdrops (2020). These two previous records have been praised by critics, especially in the best records of the year according to The Guardian. This expressive and spontaneous impetus, leitmotif in her musical production, takes a new form within Time to Die. Through the notes disseminated in an endlessly reinvented minimalist heritage, the interpretation is the ultimate musical glue allowing the pieces to come to life, thereby making this repertoire and its composer-performer unique. A universe where music -- despite the album's title -- never dies American musician and videographer Fredo Viola, with whom Christine has forged long-distance correspondence since the first lockdown, wrote Ott these few words about the record: "Stunning, terrifying, magnetic, delicate, painful and uncanny... It's like discovering a bizarre object hanging very low in the sky, something beautiful but unfathomable, just out of reach. The way I see the album is as a series of quite cinematic meditations on the theme of death and dying, changing prismatically, up to that incredibly delicate and beautiful conclusion." CD version comes in six-panel digipak with additional artwork featured on the inner sleeve.
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GZH 098LP
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LP version. The Bit is the second recorded collaboration between Aidan Baker (Nadja, Hypnodrone Ensemble), Simon Goff (Jóhann Johannsson, Hildur Gudnadottir), and Thor Harris (Swans, Shearwater, Thor & Friends). Following on from 2017's Noplace album (GZH 079LP), The Bit treads a similar path in terms of the recording process as the trio spent a day improvising at Voxton Studios in Berlin whilst on a European tour. The result was then edited and molded into six hypnotic tracks that ebb and flow with beauty and ease. The Bit finds the trio painting with a lighter touch than on its predecessor. Thor Harris's motorik beats still underpin the music but the atmospherics take a more prominent role and there is a pure and cohesive path to be found throughout the record. Much like on Noplace, Baker's guitar and Goff's violin weave together beautifully, forming a deep bed of melody, ambience, and reverb. Given the trios credentials it's not surprising they have created another immersive and stunning record.
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GZH 098CD
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The Bit is the second recorded collaboration between Aidan Baker (Nadja, Hypnodrone Ensemble), Simon Goff (Jóhann Johannsson, Hildur Gudnadottir), and Thor Harris (Swans, Shearwater, Thor & Friends). Following on from 2017's Noplace album (GZH 079LP), The Bit treads a similar path in terms of the recording process as the trio spent a day improvising at Voxton Studios in Berlin whilst on a European tour. The result was then edited and molded into six hypnotic tracks that ebb and flow with beauty and ease. The Bit finds the trio painting with a lighter touch than on its predecessor. Thor Harris's motorik beats still underpin the music but the atmospherics take a more prominent role and there is a pure and cohesive path to be found throughout the record. Much like on Noplace, Baker's guitar and Goff's violin weave together beautifully, forming a deep bed of melody, ambience, and reverb. Given the trios credentials it's not surprising they have created another immersive and stunning record.
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GZH 099LP
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LP version. Includes download code. Groundswells is the third chapter in Wren's seasonal lore exploration, and their first through Gizeh Records. These six melancholy-shrouded sonic ruminations swell between intimate performances devoid of adornment, and evolving soundscapes of auditory ruin. Tracing an elemental arch, Groundswells captures Wren delving into earthen awakenings. Launching into a monochromatic dirge, "Chromed" announces the LPs stylistic intentions, forgoing the trappings of traditional harmony with deliberate pendulums of pitch and tone. Swarms of percussion drag the track to its conclusion in a collage of insidious feedback, with oscillations sculpted by the record's producer, Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City. Elsewhere, swift variance is displayed in Wrens' deft handling of genre and form, refusing to be solely one of either. The record courses between rigid post-punk, broad waves of dreaded sludge, and austere choral reverberations. Pulsating krautrock themes present in their previous work are revisited, with a focus on embracing archetypal motorik technique, as the album stretches compositions to their furthest tensions through profuse repetition, straining the cracks between. Inviting physical, elemental surrounds into "Subterranean Messiah", Wren allow space for the sudden cloudburst of Middle Farm Studios in the introductory passage via location recording, embracing the interplay between source and locality. Combined with the painterly fretwork and ghostly chants of Fvnerals, the collaboration seeks an emotive new path of melodic vulnerability. In contrast, the closing elegy is layered with disharmonious cycles of agonized cello from Jo Quail. As with other conclusions on the album, the track's commitment to strained repetition is rewarded with sonic climaxes of blackened psychedelia, led by stalagmitic spirals of atonalism. Throughout the album, Wren draws from their long-standing apologue, with a partnership of vocalists showcasing a lyrical and vocal interplay thick with a dense lore new to their compositions. Groundswells brings Wren to an equinox in their earthly contemplations. Ruminating on the decaying inanition that engenders renewal, this record is a revelry in the cyclical, repetitious infinity of planetary. For fans of: Godflesh, ISIS, Kowloon Walled City, Neurosis.
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GZH 099CD
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Groundswells is the third chapter in Wren's seasonal lore exploration, and their first through Gizeh Records. These six melancholy-shrouded sonic ruminations swell between intimate performances devoid of adornment, and evolving soundscapes of auditory ruin. Tracing an elemental arch, Groundswells captures Wren delving into earthen awakenings. Launching into a monochromatic dirge, "Chromed" announces the LPs stylistic intentions, forgoing the trappings of traditional harmony with deliberate pendulums of pitch and tone. Swarms of percussion drag the track to its conclusion in a collage of insidious feedback, with oscillations sculpted by the record's producer, Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City. Elsewhere, swift variance is displayed in Wrens' deft handling of genre and form, refusing to be solely one of either. The record courses between rigid post-punk, broad waves of dreaded sludge, and austere choral reverberations. Pulsating krautrock themes present in their previous work are revisited, with a focus on embracing archetypal motorik technique, as the album stretches compositions to their furthest tensions through profuse repetition, straining the cracks between. Inviting physical, elemental surrounds into "Subterranean Messiah", Wren allow space for the sudden cloudburst of Middle Farm Studios in the introductory passage via location recording, embracing the interplay between source and locality. Combined with the painterly fretwork and ghostly chants of Fvnerals, the collaboration seeks an emotive new path of melodic vulnerability. In contrast, the closing elegy is layered with disharmonious cycles of agonized cello from Jo Quail. As with other conclusions on the album, the track's commitment to strained repetition is rewarded with sonic climaxes of blackened psychedelia, led by stalagmitic spirals of atonalism. Throughout the album, Wren draws from their long-standing apologue, with a partnership of vocalists showcasing a lyrical and vocal interplay thick with a dense lore new to their compositions. Groundswells brings Wren to an equinox in their earthly contemplations. Ruminating on the decaying inanition that engenders renewal, this record is a revelry in the cyclical, repetitious infinity of planetary. For fans of: Godflesh, ISIS, Kowloon Walled City, Neurosis. CD comes in silkscreened, recycled card sleeve.
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GZH 097CD
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Black Rain (I) takes the form of three extended pieces of new music from A-Sun Amissa, written and recorded by Richard Knox during the early months of 2020. Focusing on a more ambient and cinematic approach, Black Rain offers another texture to the A-Sun Amissa palette. Lulling, melancholic atmospheres are the order of the day here as intricate layers of sound weave in and out of each other, forming a bleak and sentimental tone. Never one to repeat himself, Knox has taken the more ambient elements of previous releases and developed them into a more consistent whole. The three pieces of music found here work beautifully in unison as orchestral drones lay the foundations for each movement while heavily processed guitar, synth, and piano jostle for the shafts of light that intermittently penetrate the gloom. The soundscapes drip with warmth and hopeful fragility, yet the signature doom-ridden nervous tension is present throughout, seeping into the subliminal textures and impressionistic, distorted swells of noise. There is a great deal of restraint used here and certainly the minimalistic approach gives the tracks on Black Rain the space to breathe and evolve in a very natural way. The record was written over a three-month period where Knox had a self-imposed deadline of completing one piece of music per month to then be released digitally with immediate effect at the beginning of the following month. A deliberate move to be more impulsive and instinctive during the writing process and, for him, a new way of looking at releasing a record. For Fans of: Ben Frost, Mogwai, Tim Hecker, Ben Salisbury. Hand-silkscreened, recycled card sleeve.
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GZH 095LP
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Directly influenced by the film noir tradition and the hardboiled detective novels of yesteryear, Aging craft gloom heavy mood music that aspires to create a cinema without image. Sentenced To Love is the pinnacle of the band's work. Led by David McLean, Aging's fourth album is a direct continuation of the music he was commissioned to make during his 2017 Samarbeta Residency with The Crime Scene Ensemble, a 15-piece band of actors and jazz musicians formed to live soundtrack the short stories of pulp fiction writer and collage artist Phil Carney. Chronicling tales full of obsession, longing, double crosses, and murder, the same thematic and melodic gravitas is present in Sentenced To Love, largely due to a handpicked selection of musicians from Manchester's avant-garde and experimental music scenes being involved in both. Whereas previous records by the band have largely been improvised, the six brooding scenes that complete Sentenced To Love reveal a new compositional rigor and emotional weight, whilst still retaining pockets of nocturnal improvisation, each carefully crafted to create their own distinct and filmic sound world. From the low lit, dive bar blues of "Nights In Amber" to the gun out chase theme of "The Trapped Man", the nameless cowboy ghost story "A Shadow On My Name" and the redemptive odyssey of "Cursed With The Thirst", Aging's detailed mise-en-scene full of brass, double bass, simmering drums and reverb drenched guitars conjures the pantheon of noir cinema. This is no truer than on the album's title track, a vampiric torch song whose crescendo soars with Ali Bell's lamenting, tremulous vocals, which act as a midnight confession of a doomed romance. In an age where most musicians are attempting to free themselves from limitations, Aging's Sentenced To Love stands proudly as a genre record, one evoking the tradition of the jazz ballad, designed to swallow the listener into the dark cascade of its drama.
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GZH 093CD
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Nanook of the North tells the daily life of the Eskimo family living in Hudson Bay. Fights for life, constant shifts, fishing, seal hunting... The spectator shares the life of the family of the far north. "The magic of the film lies in the fact that they are themselves and that they are not comedy. They are." says Robert Flaherty. Christine Ott's sober compositions combined with unusual timbres by Torsten Böttcher marry these images together and bear witness to a great simplicity and humanity. This live soundtrack creation was first commissioned to Ott in 2013 by La Rochelle International Film Festival. Ott is internationally known for her Ondes Martenot playing; but this time we do not discover Ott playing Martenot, as in the recent soundtrack she did with Snowdrops to the movie Manta Ray (GZH 087CD). In agreement with Flaherty's film, she decided to work with acoustic instrumentation, of skin, of hammers, of breaths. She's playing piano, percussions, gong, and decided to invite Torsten Böttcher to add hang, kalimba, and didgeridoo. Ott met Böttcher in 2011. She was impressed by his hang drum playing. Torsten has collaborated with renowned world music players, jazz formations, and orchestras. They first collaborated for Ott's Tabu soundtrack, created in 2012 and released in 2016 on Gizeh (GZH 069CD), also as part of the label's Dark Peak series. One year later, Ott and Böttcher co-composed this new live soundtrack -- again on a Robert Flaherty movie, travelling from the south of Bora Bora to the far north of Nanook. This very acoustic set is deeply linked to the rough life of Nanook and his family. The setlist is mainly balanced between Ott's piano pieces (the main theme "Nanook", "Kayak Fragile", "Lights") and Böttcher's hang lead works ("Family", "Igloos", "Tâches ménagères"). You can feel in the compositions and in their playing the sincerity and the beauty of each gesture of Nanook's daily life. One of the highlights of this live recording is the haunting duet "Première chasse / Walrus hunting", in which Ott's bouncing piano playing is perfectly responding to the groove of Böttcher's hang, in an almost jazz influenced sequence. Ott and Böttcher reworked this creation during 2018 in Strasbourg. This recording is a bit shorter than the stage version, but keeps the movie's frame. And at the end, the last piece "...Et le blizzard" resonates as a magnificent repetitive track in this majestic but relentless North; Nanook died of hunger, two years after the shooting, during a particularly disastrous hunting expedition. Gatefold, recycled card sleeve; includes download code; edition of 175.
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GZH 092CD
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For Burdened and Bright Light is the fifth full-length album from A-Sun Amissa. This new work builds on the foundations of previous record Ceremony In The Stillness (GZH 085CD/LP, 2018), incorporating some of the heavier, distorted, guitar-oriented themes but this time fuses them with broken, crumbling electronic beats and primal drone movements. The result is two long-form pieces of work that take time to unfold and multiple listens to truly digest what is on offer. The music of A-Sun Amissa has evolved some-what naturally over the years, drawing from elements of dark-ambient, post-rock, and minimal doom, but always with a leading experimental edge and a huge amount of room to push the boundaries back as far as possible. For Burdened and Bright Light feels like the next logical chapter in the journey. Essentially, A-Sun Amissa is the project of Richard Knox (Gizeh Records founder, The Eternal Return Arkestra curator, member of The Rustle of the Stars, Shield Patterns, and Glissando) who has utilized a vast array of other musicians throughout the group's previous records. This time around though it's almost exclusively the work of Knox who continues to embed his typical DIY approach in writing, recording, and mixing the entire album, alongside providing the artwork. On a sonic level For Burdened and Bright Light is the furthest Knox has gone in terms of production, depth, and working with a more diverse palette of sounds. A-Sun Amissa's distinct atmosphere remains intact however and the result is a more immersive, ambitious, adventurous record of conflicting emotions as the theme of the work tackles the contradictions of being human and explores the duality of light and dark, hope and despair. The two compositions found here are underpinned by vast ambient passages that are drenched in distortion and reverb, slowly unfurling before more industrial, kinetic sounds are introduced and heaving guitars come to the fore. The clarinet work of Claire Knox features prominently and ranges from huge, droning, orchestral overtones in the opening section of "Breath by Breath" to a wild, free-jazz explosion in the middle of "Seagraves". The addition of David Armes's lap-steel for the first time brings a discordant and haunting element to the sound and builds on the recent live work this trio have done together.
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GZH 092LP
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LP version. White color vinyl; edition of 300. For Burdened and Bright Light is the fifth full-length album from A-Sun Amissa. This new work builds on the foundations of previous record Ceremony In The Stillness (GZH 085CD/LP, 2018), incorporating some of the heavier, distorted, guitar-oriented themes but this time fuses them with broken, crumbling electronic beats and primal drone movements. The result is two long-form pieces of work that take time to unfold and multiple listens to truly digest what is on offer. The music of A-Sun Amissa has evolved some-what naturally over the years, drawing from elements of dark-ambient, post-rock, and minimal doom, but always with a leading experimental edge and a huge amount of room to push the boundaries back as far as possible. For Burdened and Bright Light feels like the next logical chapter in the journey. Essentially, A-Sun Amissa is the project of Richard Knox (Gizeh Records founder, The Eternal Return Arkestra curator, member of The Rustle of the Stars, Shield Patterns, and Glissando) who has utilized a vast array of other musicians throughout the group's previous records. This time around though it's almost exclusively the work of Knox who continues to embed his typical DIY approach in writing, recording, and mixing the entire album, alongside providing the artwork. On a sonic level For Burdened and Bright Light is the furthest Knox has gone in terms of production, depth, and working with a more diverse palette of sounds. A-Sun Amissa's distinct atmosphere remains intact however and the result is a more immersive, ambitious, adventurous record of conflicting emotions as the theme of the work tackles the contradictions of being human and explores the duality of light and dark, hope and despair. The two compositions found here are underpinned by vast ambient passages that are drenched in distortion and reverb, slowly unfurling before more industrial, kinetic sounds are introduced and heaving guitars come to the fore. The clarinet work of Claire Knox features prominently and ranges from huge, droning, orchestral overtones in the opening section of "Breath by Breath" to a wild, free-jazz explosion in the middle of "Seagraves". The addition of David Armes's lap-steel for the first time brings a discordant and haunting element to the sound and builds on the recent live work this trio have done together.
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GZH 091CD
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Several Wives lie in the darkened corner of a room. Paintings torn, forgotten against the wall. Dead rhythms seep through the floor. Everything is tired. Everything is jaded. Göldi Fell is Several Wives' newest work, following on from the excellent Blonde, Arms Tight Black cassette release on Tombed Visions (2017). The bowed, electro-acoustic, heavy drones continue and present an almost horror-soundtrack performance of intense beauty. It's a deep, dark world of reverb, echoes, and distant pulses all struggling to be heard and understood. This is a stunning piece of experimental, almost classical work, evoking a sense of ethereal dread and mournful regret. A thick air creeps in. It's a doom-ladened record and one that will take you over if you let it. File under: avant-garde, experimental, drone, ambient. Part of Gizeh's "Dark Peak" series. CD version comes in an edition of 175; Housed in a black, gatefold, recycled card sleeve; Each copy is printed and assembled by hand at Gizeh HQ; Includes download code.
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GZH 089LP
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French modern-classical quartet Astrïd return with the first part of a new release entitled A Porthole. Conceptually, the two records will work in unison, focusing on portholes into the abyss, with part one delving into the depths of the deep sea. The tracks are named after various strains of seaweed, the artwork depicting dark waves and uncertainty. Part two will follow in a year's time and will turn its attention to the night sky and constellations. A Porthole continues Astrïd's signature style of billowing guitars, strings and woodwinds. Each element is intertwined with another, linked perfectly together through restrained jazz-tinged percussion. 2017's acclaimed Through The Sparkle (GZH 073CD/LP) with renowned pianist Rachel Grimes (of Rachels) set the bar high for this release but Astrïd have matched the depth, melody and quality of that record here. Part one of this journey features some sublime compositions with Cyril Secq's expressive and bold guitar playing carrying the pieces into chamber music territory, joined seamlessly by a variety of other instruments that swell and soar and fit perfectly into the story being told. Everything seems to have its place; nothing is overplayed or out of step here, and there is an organic nature to the way this quartet plays and interacts with one another as melodies circle back and fade away in the same beautiful breath. A Porthole is a deeply charming record, exercising glorious, nuanced refrains and offering a sort of hope rarely found in music these days. Mastered by Harris Newman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tindersticks), art by Gizeh overlord Richard Knox. Edition of 300 on aqua blue vinyl, includes download.
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GZH 088LP
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See Through is a new collaboration between Aidan Baker (Nadja), Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer, Mara, Sige Records), and renowned percussionist Jon Mueller. The project was brought to life through Baker exploring textural rhythms created by sampling small, sharp and abrupt sounds on the electric guitar and then sequencing them in a drum machine to form the bedrock of the tracks. Mueller then added his particular, signature brand of intricate, hypnotic percussion to the mix and the compositions began to grow and take shape. The pair agreed that the pieces needed a more human touch and Coloccia was invited onboard, contributing processed vocals via looping, tape manipulation, and microphone feedback. The result is an other-worldly record that seamlessly flows from beginning to end, immersing the listener in waves of ambient movements and soporific beats. There is a trance-inducing aspect to this work, deserving to be consumed in one sitting and allowed to manifest itself for the duration. The trio have crafted a piece of work that stands up to the quality and integrity of their combined back catalogs and indeed adds something completely new for fans to discover and devour. Personnel: Aidan Baker - guitar, FX; Faith Coloccia - vocals, FX; Jon Mueller - drums, percussion. Mixed by Randall Dunn at Figure 8 Studios in NY. Includes download code. Color vinyl; edition of 300.
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GZH 085CD
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Ceremony In The Stillness is the new album from A-Sun Amissa on Gizeh Records and Consouling Sounds. For their fourth album, A-Sun Amissa plunge deeper than before. Guitars come to the fore, and heavy, distorted chords are present from the off, complemented by desolate ambient passages of sound. The claustrophobic atmospheres remain but combine with a new density and sonic experimentation to present a huge leap forward in structure and composition. Ceremony In The Stillness hints at themes from the previous three outings while pushing the project into new territories. The intricate nuances and lulling melodies from Desperate In Her Heavy Sleep (GZH 037CD, 2012) reappear while the billowing guitars of You Stood Up for Victory, We Stood Up for Less (GZH 044LP, 2013) are referenced throughout. In comparison to The Gatherer (2017), there is a firmer direction here as the album weaves through elements of doom, dark ambient, and post-rock, placing its unique mark firmly into the ears of the listener. A-Sun Amissa is the project of Gizeh founder Richard Knox (The Rustle of the Stars, Shield Patterns, and Glissando). Knox takes a central role here, but we see several collaborators contributing to the record. As album opener "The Black Path" unfurls, the cello of Jo Quail creeps through the thick wall of guitar to offer a moment of calm before the song comes to life with the introduction of drums from Archelon's TJ Fairfax. Alongside a dense and hypnotically repetitive riff, it's A-Sun Amissa's heaviest moment to date as the song collapses under its own weight to leave a crumbling and uneasy passage of cello and guitar drone. Intertwining guitars take center stage on the "With Wearied Eyes" as the atmosphere harks back to the band's earlier work. "The Skulk", meanwhile, evokes The Gatherer as David McLean's saxophone unravels around the ondes Martenot of Christine Ott. The record then takes a turn as "No Perception of Light"'s soporific opening gives way to a mesmerizing beat which develops into a wall of crunching guitars and electronics before "Remembrancer" closes with chiming guitars and bowed strings before evolving into a haunting orchestral outro that concludes the record. It's clear that Knox is comfortable being on the outside looking in, and in expanding A-Sun Amissa's sonic palette, it only adds to the intrigue of what comes next.
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GZH 087CD
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Manta Ray is the first release of Snowdrops, a French-based keyboard duo composed by Mathieu Gabry and Christine Ott (Yann Tiersen, Tindersticks, Foudre !); this opus is the soundtrack they composed for Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's film of the same name, which has won several awards including Best Film in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival. Strangers in a strange land... Borders, belonging and banishment are the issues in Manta Ray. The Thai film trains a poetic look at the void of humanity through the story of two men, a Thai fisherman with peroxide blonde hair and a nameless stranger stuck in a foreign land and supposed to be a Rohingya of Myanmar, whose continuing persecution is constituting one of the biggest human rights scandals of our time. The realism of this story melds with magical elements into a complex whole leaving plenty of room for interpretation. Aroonpheng's first feature is a mesmerizing experience, sometimes compared to Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee (2010) and Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). Snowdrops' soundtrack brings another dimension to Aroonpheng's movie. The duo was especially focused to build their sound here on a frame of keyboards of different generations (Ondes Martenot, Mellotron, MS2000 or Altered keyboards). The color is sometimes dark ("The Mangrove", "Losing A Friend To Death"), sometimes surrealistic ("Lights In The Deep"), and in the case of "Weird Dance", a suggestion of romance between the two main characters on the rhythm of a dreamy electronic tune. The French duo also re-arranged a composition ("Hot Springs") by renowned Thai singer Rasmee, who features as an actor in the movie. Always moving in a physical and sensorial approach, Snowdrops were also involved in the sound design of the movie, as the music is often merging with the other auditive elements and with the images themselves as an organic painting; this hypnotic experiment finds its climax at the end of the movie, with Ott's piano running wild and Gabry's soundscapes swirling in between "The Harmony Of Rohingya's Voices" in a breathtaking scene. File under: avant-garde, electronic, experimental, modern classical, soundtrack.
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GZH 086LP
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Kami 神 is the fourth opus of Foudre!, a telluric drone quartet composed of Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête, Le Réveil des Tropiques, The Rustle Of The Stars, FareWell Poetry), Romain Barbot (Saåad), Grégory Buffier (Saåad, Autrenoir), and Paul Régimbeau (Mondkopf, Autrenoir, Extreme Precautions) who meet punctually for sessions of ritual improvisation where they invoke noise and drone and the deities of chaos. Improvised and recorded live at Le Rex de Toulouse supporting the tenth anniversary of French doom metal band Monarch!, Kami 神 extends the cosmogony and the sound of the band by taking excursions into the invisible and ambiguous side of nature. In this orgiastic and surprising mix of sonic textures and rhythms, one may hear strange phenomena, summoning of animistic spirits, shamanic calls, siren yellings and growls. The original chemigram artwork was created by French artist Fanny Béguély by painting with chemicals on light-sensitive paper. Following the sold-out Earth soundtrack (GZH 071LP, 2015), Kami 神 delivers an immersive soundscape for abstract clubbers, where Kosmiche electronic, power ambient and industrial punk music are freely invited to commune. This pagan ceremonial is an ode to the ever-changing vortex of life, a sonic dream machine for the occurring now.
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GZH 075CD
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A-Sun Amissa is a project formed out of Leeds, UK in 2011 by members of Glissando and The Rustle Of The Stars. Built on the foundations of the unknown, a project that encompasses minimalist drones, modern-classical movements and avant-garde tendencies. Richard Knox (Glissando, The Rustle Of The Stars, Of Thread & Mist) and Angela Chan (Glissando, The Rustle Of The Stars, Ten, Tomorrow We Sail) began forming the initial ideas in the Autumn of 2011, moving away from the piano-led ambience of previous outputs. You Stood Up for Victory, We Stood Up for Less sees A-Sun Amissa moving in a more dense direction, the drones are heavier, the sound thicker and with the added bass-clarinet of Gareth Davis, there is a new, slightly darker jazz element to the music. The two tracks were conceived initially as two drone guitar pieces -- following that, work was done on the composition and atmosphere of the tracks, adding the bass-clarinet, viola, vocals, field recordings and piano. The finished works produce an unsettling but hypnotic listen, with melodies moving in and out of the mix throughout these two pieces. Limited edition of 175 individually numbered, hand-printed copies.
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GZH 085LP
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LP version. Includes download code. Silkscreened, hand-numbered sleeves designed at SmilingPaperGhosts. Ceremony In The Stillness is the new album from A-Sun Amissa on Gizeh Records and Consouling Sounds. For their fourth album, A-Sun Amissa plunge deeper than before. Guitars come to the fore, and heavy, distorted chords are present from the off, complemented by desolate ambient passages of sound. The claustrophobic atmospheres remain but combine with a new density and sonic experimentation to present a huge leap forward in structure and composition. Ceremony In The Stillness hints at themes from the previous three outings while pushing the project into new territories. The intricate nuances and lulling melodies from Desperate In Her Heavy Sleep (GZH 037CD, 2012) reappear while the billowing guitars of You Stood Up for Victory, We Stood Up for Less (GZH 044LP, 2013) are referenced throughout. In comparison to The Gatherer (2017), there is a firmer direction here as the album weaves through elements of doom, dark ambient, and post-rock, placing its unique mark firmly into the ears of the listener. A-Sun Amissa is the project of Gizeh founder Richard Knox (The Rustle of the Stars, Shield Patterns, and Glissando). Knox takes a central role here, but we see several collaborators contributing to the record. As album opener "The Black Path" unfurls, the cello of Jo Quail creeps through the thick wall of guitar to offer a moment of calm before the song comes to life with the introduction of drums from Archelon's TJ Fairfax. Alongside a dense and hypnotically repetitive riff, it's A-Sun Amissa's heaviest moment to date as the song collapses under its own weight to leave a crumbling and uneasy passage of cello and guitar drone. Intertwining guitars take center stage on the "With Wearied Eyes" as the atmosphere harks back to the band's earlier work. "The Skulk", meanwhile, evokes The Gatherer as David McLean's saxophone unravels around the ondes Martenot of Christine Ott. The record then takes a turn as "No Perception of Light"'s soporific opening gives way to a mesmerizing beat which develops into a wall of crunching guitars and electronics before "Remembrancer" closes with chiming guitars and bowed strings before evolving into a haunting orchestral outro that concludes the record. It's clear that Knox is comfortable being on the outside looking in, and in expanding A-Sun Amissa's sonic palette, it only adds to the intrigue of what comes next.
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CD
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GZH 084CD
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The Great Lake Swallows is a collaboration between Canadian cellist Julia Kent and Belgian guitarist/tape machine manipulator Jean D.L. Recorded in Charleroi, Belgium in 2015 during a video installation with Sandrine Verstraete, the music was created using field recordings, processed guitar, and cello and serves as a soundtrack to the video of the same name. The album is an aching, ambient wonderland that ensues beauty at every turn. It was built as a whole and, indeed, should be consumed as a whole. The repetition is hypnotizing, a lulling sense of calm entwined in hints of unease that flows seamlessly in-and-out of sleepy melodies and broken drones. Unfolding over a brief twenty-six minutes, The Great Lake Swallows cannot out-stay its welcome. Everything contained within feels necessary, each movement informing the next, a conversation between two outstanding musicians. Hand-printed and assembled sleeves.
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CD
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GZH 083CD
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Breaching is the debut album from Leeds-based, six-piece, post-metallers Hundred Year Old Man. Hot on the heels of their recent Rei EP (GZH 081EP), Breaching emits the same heaving intensity and unforgiving, wall of sound approach. Dense and billowing riffs are intertwined with field recordings and spoken-word passages to form an unyielding, sprawling piece of work that delivers the bands artistic vision perfectly. The more ambient, drone sections of the record compliment and allow the real songs to take flight. Debut single "Black Fire" is reworked to give the track a new lease of life, whilst the other heavy hitters here; "The Forest", "Long Wall", "Disconnect", and "Ascension" are a continuation of the excellent work found on the Rei EP. Breaching contains masses of atmosphere and is a ferocious and immersive listening experience. An epic, monolithic voyage full of texture, depth, aggression, and emotion. Breaching is an album that should be approached as a whole, with patience and attention. The rewards will deliver a unique, crushing and quite simply superb record. Mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna).
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CD
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GZH 069CD
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Just a few months after the release of her highly acclaimed album, Only Silence Remains (GZH 066CD/LP, 2016), Christine Ott proposed a new album to Gizeh Records for its Dark Peak Series. Tabu is an original, live soundtrack, composed in 2012 for the movie of the same name by F.W. Murnau and Robert Flaherty and a performance that she's playing regularly as a ciné-concert throughout France and Europe. The magic, the beauty, and the incredible light of the movie associated to its astonishing modernity have contributed to the choice of the composer. Christine has been shattered and very moved by the movie, the story of an impossible love on Bora-Bora island, between Matahi, a young pearl diver, and Reri, a young woman promised to the gods. The circumstances of the death of Murnau, prematurely died in a car accident before the film premiere, emphasizes the mystery around this movie. More than a ciné-concert, Ott's creation is a black pearl, as is Murnau's ultimate movie. Ott's creation alternates avant-garde tracks with ondes Martenot and modern-classic piano pieces, sometimes light and delicate, sometimes dark and fune real . This cinematographic journey is ending with the original version of "Tempête", composed for the last scene of the movie, a stunning piece that Ott re-worked for Only Silence Remains. With Tabu, Christine Ott combines her passion for images and cinema to musical composition, creating new sound territories along the way. After lots of experiments down different paths, and collaborations with the likes of Yann Tiersen, Radiohead, Tindersticks, Syd Matters, and Foudre!, Ott here releases her taste for a kind of minimalistic chamber music. Initial pressing CD released via Gizeh Records in 2016.
"Christine Ott is giving us, with this new album, her first inspiration to the screen -- spontaneous and sometimes fragile. There is indeed a secret link which joins together Reri, daughter of the water, to Christine, sister of the ondes Martenot. In these pure moments when Ott's piano becomes a waterfall, a river, an ocean. In these heartbreaking moments when the composer, without ever over-playing manages to simply let go, thanks to a very mysterious and fascinating instrument, the tears that the audience may not always dare to have." --Thierry Méranger, Les Cahiers du Cinéma
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LP
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GZH 082LP
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LP version. Includes download code. The Shadows is the new album from Leeds-based six-piece Tomorrow We Sail. Building on their debut release For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight (GZH 049CD, 2014) over the course of three years, this new work combines perfectly the soaring atmospherics, gorgeously intertwined vocal harmonies, and dramatic shifts in tone and dynamics that have come to characterize Tomorrow We Sail's sound. Yet, there is a new sense of urgency here. Very much an album of its time, The Shadows draws upon the same sense of connection to both past and present that defined its precursor but features storytelling that's even more defiant and deeply personal. Like its predecessor, the record features seven songs but from the chiming guitars of opening track "Side By Side", it is clear that the stately pace of For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight has made way for a far more dynamic and driving energy; perhaps best captured in the righteous anger of "The Ghost Of John Maynard Keynes". Tomorrow We Sail still invoke a keen sense of measured grace in their songwriting -- from the sweeping, elegiac title track, through to the sparse, restrained, yet haunting beauty of "Winifred" and "To Sleep". Urgent, yet assured, The Shadows demands your attention. Personnel: Ella Blake - vocals, guitar, piano, harmonium, harp; Angela Chan - viola, violin, vocals; Matt Clarke - guitar, keyboard, Hammond organ, glockenspiel, vocals; Alistair Hay - drums, percussion; Tim Hay - vocals, guitar, piano; Tom Ilett - bass guitar, vocals.
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CD
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GZH 082CD
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The Shadows is the new album from Leeds-based six-piece Tomorrow We Sail. Building on their debut release For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight (GZH 049CD, 2014) over the course of three years, this new work combines perfectly the soaring atmospherics, gorgeously intertwined vocal harmonies, and dramatic shifts in tone and dynamics that have come to characterize Tomorrow We Sail's sound. Yet, there is a new sense of urgency here. Very much an album of its time, The Shadows draws upon the same sense of connection to both past and present that defined its precursor but features storytelling that's even more defiant and deeply personal. Like its predecessor, the record features seven songs but from the chiming guitars of opening track "Side By Side", it is clear that the stately pace of For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight has made way for a far more dynamic and driving energy; perhaps best captured in the righteous anger of "The Ghost Of John Maynard Keynes". Tomorrow We Sail still invoke a keen sense of measured grace in their songwriting -- from the sweeping, elegiac title track, through to the sparse, restrained, yet haunting beauty of "Winifred" and "To Sleep". Urgent, yet assured, The Shadows demands your attention. Personnel: Ella Blake - vocals, guitar, piano, harmonium, harp; Angela Chan - viola, violin, vocals; Matt Clarke - guitar, keyboard, Hammond organ, glockenspiel, vocals; Alistair Hay - drums, percussion; Tim Hay - vocals, guitar, piano; Tom Ilett - bass guitar, vocals.
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12"
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GZH 081EP
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Leeds-based post-metal six-piece Hundred Year Old Man follow their debut single Black Fire (2016) with the three-track EP Rei. The EP opens with "Sun & Moon", a monstrous slab of heaving guitars falling out of atmospheric beginnings. Paul Broughton's vocal erupts and the track explodes into life, destroying everything in its path until the shadows return to close, leading the way into an interlude that corrodes and drifts before joining these two monolithic pieces. "Rei" rips into a cathartic sludge reminiscent of Neurosis at their best; it's a towering, immersive, nine-minute journey. Etching on the B side; Edition of 300.
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LP
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GZH 079LP
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Noplace is an improvised collaboration between Aidan Baker (Nadja, Caudal, B/B/S/), Simon Goff (Molecular, Bee & Flower), and Thor Harris (Swans, Shearwater, Thor & Friends). Having known each other for a number of years and previously contributed to one another's recordings, this trio finally came together as a whole on May 7th, 2017 at Redrum Studios in Berlin. In a short, improvised session of just a few hours, they set about laying down as much material as possible which was then subsequently edited and re-worked (without overdubs) to form this album. The same evening the trio played together as part of a nine-piece Thor & Friends ensemble which also included Christopher Hefner (on musical saw) whose artwork graces the cover of the record and gave it its name. Noplace is a hypnotic and deep listen. Kinetic rhythms pulsate throughout whilst the guitar and violin jostle and weave around the metronomic beats, creating a cathartic and all-encompassing experience. The very nature of the instrumental repetitions gives it an immediate avant/krautrock feel but the whole record is coated in a wonderful psychedelic atmosphere that's both melodic, textured, and innovative. Without doubt a perfect marriage and the sum of its parts. You would be forgiven for thinking Noplace took years to craft, but that's testament to three excellent musicians who have produced a real treat of a record. Broken down into seven pieces, but best enjoyed as a thrilling whole, Noplace is a powerful and highly addictive album. File under: avant/krautrock/improv/experimental. Artwork by Christopher Hefner. Mastered by Lawrence English. Includes download code; 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 500.
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