MORR MUSIC - Forced Exposure

$37.50$31.88 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves and 32-page booklet; Includes download code; edition of 500. In collaboration with Markus Acher's Alien Transistor label, Morr Music presents a collection of hard-to-find Japanese independent music, compiled by Saya, who plays with Ueno Takashi in the iconic duo Tenniscoats. They are part of a current music scene, which is little known outside of Japan. Minna Miteru focuses on that very scene: the featured bands and musicians share a certain idea of DIY, and are also connected through frequent collaborations and mutual appreciation.

The following notes were written by Markus Acher, who also plays with Saya & Ueno in the band Spirit Fest: "In 2018 I was sitting in the Tenniscoats' kitchen with beer and music, looking at Ueno's wonderful risograph songbook 'Minna Miteru' (Everybody Watch) which collects the lyrics and chords of their friends' songs alongside his own illustrations, when Saya suggested putting together a compilation of these and other songs for our label. I couldn't have been happier, this sounded like a dream to me . . . here is Minna Miteru, a compilation of recent Japanese indie-music. And I'm very happy about it, because although there have been many great reissues of '70s and '80s Japanese music recently, most contemporary Japanese independent bands and artists are hardly known outside of Japan and so it's hard to find their music. And I couldn't think of a better guide to this special scene than Saya, whose love, dedication, and personal selections have made this such a unique and beautiful compilation. You'll hear some of the Tenniscoats' closest friends and collaborators (Eddie Marcon, Yumbo, Yuko Ikema), but also artists they are fans of, like the legendary Jun Konagaya (aka Grim) and many befriended bands that form a scene of uncategorizable outsiders in pop, like the one-man-orchestra Ichi, the trumpet-trumpet-organ-trio Popo, the mysterious psychedelic songwriter Aritomo, and the pianist/electronic musician, Ytamo. So many beautiful surprises: melodicas, electronics, folk-songs, brass bands, sound-experiments and melodies, melodies, melodies... Every song a treasure, exploding with ideas, and me personally, I could listen to the Tenniscoats and Yumbo collaboration and Zayaendo's 'Hiyodori' forever on repeat." Also features Takashi Hattori, namaeganai, Takako Minekawa ＆ Dustin Wong, Alpha, Vagamoron, Kasumi Trio, Go Hirano, Satoko Shibata, Tomoaki Saito + Tenco Matsuri, Cacoy, Andersens, Jiro Imai, Urichipangoon, Jun Konagaya, Nikasoup & Sayasource, Borzoi, and 2B.

$37.50$31.88 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve; includes printed inner sleeves and download code. "With Mirage Mirage, avant-pop quintet Spirit Fest gifts their listeners with their richest, deepest record to date. It's no surprise when you consider the group's membership: Saya and Ueno, aka the duo Tenniscoats; Markus Acher, best known as singer of The Notwist; Mat Fowler, who plays with Jam Money and Bons; and Cico Beck, who's making music with Joasinho, Aloa Input, and The Notwist. If that feels like a heavyweight line-up, that's because it is -- yet the overarching mood of Spirit Fest is one of lightness and joy, of experiment and pure pop pleasure. Sessions for the album were split between the Tenniscoats' Tokyo home studio in November 2018, and a small apartment studio in Munich in June 2019. Saya, Ueno and Markus pitched in songs, but sometimes, as with 'Fish With Arms', beguiling moments grew from group improvisations, often kicked off by Cico and Mat. All members stretched their instrumental limbs, too . . . There's a sincere, child-like generosity to the music, and a playfulness with an everyday surrealism you can hear in some of the experimental interjections across the album. Its final sound is the rolling click-clacking of a bicycle wheel. The bike was key to one of Mat's explorations of the Tenniscoats' Tokyo neighborhood . . . Stumbling across art amongst the everyday; that's also core to Spirit Fest . . . There's more here than just avant-pop: see the pronounced folksy lilt to 'The Snow Falls On Everyone'; or 'Mohikone', a gorgeous instrumental, droplets of piano pattering amongst a plangent acoustic guitar. The seven-minute 'Zenbu Honto (Every Thing Is Everything)' is a spiraling psychedelic pop mantra, with field recordings and slithering electronics tracing a path under the scrub-growth of guitar, piano, and drums. There are guest appearances from Micha Acher (The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio) on trumpet, and Aiko Okamoto, who takes part in the choral rounds of the album's closing tune, 'Saigo Song'. Whichever way you approach it, though, the guiding force of Spirit Fest is friendship and collaboration, giving life to collective dreaming..." --Jon Dale

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

"With Mirage Mirage, avant-pop quintet Spirit Fest gifts their listeners with their richest, deepest record to date. It's no surprise when you consider the group's membership: Saya and Ueno, aka the duo Tenniscoats; Markus Acher, best known as singer of The Notwist; Mat Fowler, who plays with Jam Money and Bons; and Cico Beck, who's making music with Joasinho, Aloa Input, and The Notwist. If that feels like a heavyweight line-up, that's because it is -- yet the overarching mood of Spirit Fest is one of lightness and joy, of experiment and pure pop pleasure. Sessions for the album were split between the Tenniscoats' Tokyo home studio in November 2018, and a small apartment studio in Munich in June 2019. Saya, Ueno and Markus pitched in songs, but sometimes, as with 'Fish With Arms', beguiling moments grew from group improvisations, often kicked off by Cico and Mat. All members stretched their instrumental limbs, too . . . There's a sincere, child-like generosity to the music, and a playfulness with an everyday surrealism you can hear in some of the experimental interjections across the album. Its final sound is the rolling click-clacking of a bicycle wheel. The bike was key to one of Mat's explorations of the Tenniscoats' Tokyo neighborhood . . . Stumbling across art amongst the everyday; that's also core to Spirit Fest . . . There's more here than just avant-pop: see the pronounced folksy lilt to 'The Snow Falls On Everyone'; or 'Mohikone', a gorgeous instrumental, droplets of piano pattering amongst a plangent acoustic guitar. The seven-minute 'Zenbu Honto (Every Thing Is Everything)' is a spiraling psychedelic pop mantra, with field recordings and slithering electronics tracing a path under the scrub-growth of guitar, piano, and drums. There are guest appearances from Micha Acher (The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio) on trumpet, and Aiko Okamoto, who takes part in the choral rounds of the album's closing tune, 'Saigo Song'. Whichever way you approach it, though, the guiding force of Spirit Fest is friendship and collaboration, giving life to collective dreaming..." --Jon Dale CD version comes in digipak; includes eight-page booklet.

$21.00$17.85 IN STOCK

In collaboration with Markus Acher's Alien Transistor label, Morr Music presents a collection of hard-to-find Japanese independent music, compiled by Saya, who plays with Ueno Takashi in the iconic duo Tenniscoats. They are part of a current music scene, which is little known outside of Japan. Minna Miteru focuses on that very scene: the featured bands and musicians share a certain idea of DIY, and are also connected through frequent collaborations and mutual appreciation. Includes 32-page booklet.

The following notes were written by Markus Acher, who also plays with Saya & Ueno in the band Spirit Fest: "In 2018 I was sitting in the Tenniscoats' kitchen with beer and music, looking at Ueno's wonderful risograph songbook 'Minna Miteru' (Everybody Watch) which collects the lyrics and chords of their friends' songs alongside his own illustrations, when Saya suggested putting together a compilation of these and other songs for our label. I couldn't have been happier, this sounded like a dream to me . . . here is Minna Miteru, a compilation of recent Japanese indie-music. And I'm very happy about it, because although there have been many great reissues of '70s and '80s Japanese music recently, most contemporary Japanese independent bands and artists are hardly known outside of Japan and so it's hard to find their music. And I couldn't think of a better guide to this special scene than Saya, whose love, dedication, and personal selections have made this such a unique and beautiful compilation. You'll hear some of the Tenniscoats' closest friends and collaborators (Eddie Marcon, Yumbo, Yuko Ikema), but also artists they are fans of, like the legendary Jun Konagaya (aka Grim) and many befriended bands that form a scene of uncategorizable outsiders in pop, like the one-man-orchestra Ichi, the trumpet-trumpet-organ-trio Popo, the mysterious psychedelic songwriter Aritomo, and the pianist/electronic musician, Ytamo. So many beautiful surprises: melodicas, electronics, folk-songs, brass bands, sound-experiments and melodies, melodies, melodies... Every song a treasure, exploding with ideas, and me personally, I could listen to the Tenniscoats and Yumbo collaboration and Zayaendo's 'Hiyodori' forever on repeat." Also features Takashi Hattori, namaeganai, Takako Minekawa ＆ Dustin Wong, Alpha, Vagamoron, Kasumi Trio, Go Hirano, Satoko Shibata, Tomoaki Saito + Tenco Matsuri, Cacoy, Andersens, Jiro Imai, Urichipangoon, Jun Konagaya, Nikasoup & Sayasource, Borzoi, and 2B.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Slow Reels combines Ian Hawgood's love of reel-to-reel tape machines and vintage synthesizers with James Murray's melodicism and richly textured digital sound design. Their Morr Music debut, Farewell Islands, is an arresting, fluorescing album that blends full-frequency drone-scaping with a slow-burning ambient minimalism. Ian and James met on the UK minimal music scene releasing each others' music on their Home Normal and Slowcraft labels. Their recording collaboration began remotely while Ian lived in Warsaw, spending long nights with his collection of reel-to-reel machines: "I created a number of loops with an old and sadly dying Akai which was noisy and would stutter quite a bit. I also found myself using older tape on cracked reels and the effects of this really helped develop a newer path for my own work." James began to weave piano, guitar and synthesizers into the material from his London studio, combining the two artists' tonalities into something so unexpectedly compelling it took them both by surprise. Ian then transferred these manipulations back onto tape, further refining and defining the sound during deep dive experimental analogue mastering sessions. The role of old technology in Slow Reels' work lends a sense of decay and transience sure to resonate with admirers of William Basinski, Rafael Anton Irisarri, and Benoît Pioulard, but the underlying melodies set a clear counterpoint: a longing for the vivid is deeply grounded within this music. The four cinematic, long-form movements of Farewell Islands possess a delicate romanticism and emotional urgency that engages and gradually overwhelms the listener. The islands of the title are both real and notional, as James explains: "places of meaning to both of us in our lives, found now only out of time, belonging outside the present and out of reach." This nostalgic farewell also marks a fresh beginning, as the duo's ongoing Brighton-based studio sessions generate further reels of unearthly electronic landscapes that seem to hiss, warble and granulate their own way onto tape.

$20.00$17.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download code. Slow Reels combines Ian Hawgood's love of reel-to-reel tape machines and vintage synthesizers with James Murray's melodicism and richly textured digital sound design. Their Morr Music debut, Farewell Islands, is an arresting, fluorescing album that blends full-frequency drone-scaping with a slow-burning ambient minimalism. Ian and James met on the UK minimal music scene releasing each others' music on their Home Normal and Slowcraft labels. Their recording collaboration began remotely while Ian lived in Warsaw, spending long nights with his collection of reel-to-reel machines: "I created a number of loops with an old and sadly dying Akai which was noisy and would stutter quite a bit. I also found myself using older tape on cracked reels and the effects of this really helped develop a newer path for my own work." James began to weave piano, guitar and synthesizers into the material from his London studio, combining the two artists' tonalities into something so unexpectedly compelling it took them both by surprise. Ian then transferred these manipulations back onto tape, further refining and defining the sound during deep dive experimental analogue mastering sessions. The role of old technology in Slow Reels' work lends a sense of decay and transience sure to resonate with admirers of William Basinski, Rafael Anton Irisarri, and Benoît Pioulard, but the underlying melodies set a clear counterpoint: a longing for the vivid is deeply grounded within this music. The four cinematic, long-form movements of Farewell Islands possess a delicate romanticism and emotional urgency that engages and gradually overwhelms the listener. The islands of the title are both real and notional, as James explains: "places of meaning to both of us in our lives, found now only out of time, belonging outside the present and out of reach." This nostalgic farewell also marks a fresh beginning, as the duo's ongoing Brighton-based studio sessions generate further reels of unearthly electronic landscapes that seem to hiss, warble and granulate their own way onto tape.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

ISAN's Robin Saville reveals an ambient album, which merges the electronica aesthetics of his main project with field recordings, drones, and acoustic instrumentation. A lot of things have been written about what happens to the mind when the body starts moving. Instead of reciting poems of the inevitable self-help books, let's get straight to the point: For many, taking walks on a regular basis is both liberating and empowering. It is not necessarily so much about the exercise, but rather finding one's own rhythm in life. Robin Saville is such an ambler. His walks inspired him to base his third solo album -- his first one for Morr Music following releases on Static Caravan and Second Language -- on the out of the way places he came to see and experience while being out and about. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes in total, Build A Diorama is both a subtle culmination and a poignant antipode to what Saville has achieved together with Antony Ryan as ISAN. While the aesthetics might seem similar in places, Saville opts for a decisively different pace when it comes to writing and producing. Progress is steady, and change, however, is slow -- like looking at a diorama for a long period of time in the ever so slightly changing light or as a flaneur focusing on one particular spot, a found object so-to-speak, waiting for the mind to orchestrate it appropriately, giving it sense and meaning. Built around quiet field recordings, Saville's six compositions transform this highly personal and, therefore, difficult-to-convey experience into a comprehensible exploration of beauty. Where ISAN almost exclusively uses electronics, Saville deliberately expands this well-established palette with acoustic instruments like bass guitar, chimes, and glockenspiel, aiming for an even more suitable musical manifestation of what the walker sees and feels once he fully engages in his passion. Ranging from blissfully pulsing pads allowing for complete associative freedom ("The Deepdale Halophyte Economy") to the playful minimalism of an orchestra dominated by busy bells ("Bosky"), Saville's Build A Diorama is not just a valuable addition to his musical output, but an essential audio guide for those striving to explore, learn, and understand.

$20.00$17.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code. ISAN's Robin Saville reveals an ambient album, which merges the electronica aesthetics of his main project with field recordings, drones, and acoustic instrumentation. A lot of things have been written about what happens to the mind when the body starts moving. Instead of reciting poems of the inevitable self-help books, let's get straight to the point: For many, taking walks on a regular basis is both liberating and empowering. It is not necessarily so much about the exercise, but rather finding one's own rhythm in life. Robin Saville is such an ambler. His walks inspired him to base his third solo album -- his first one for Morr Music following releases on Static Caravan and Second Language -- on the out of the way places he came to see and experience while being out and about. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes in total, Build A Diorama is both a subtle culmination and a poignant antipode to what Saville has achieved together with Antony Ryan as ISAN. While the aesthetics might seem similar in places, Saville opts for a decisively different pace when it comes to writing and producing. Progress is steady, and change, however, is slow -- like looking at a diorama for a long period of time in the ever so slightly changing light or as a flaneur focusing on one particular spot, a found object so-to-speak, waiting for the mind to orchestrate it appropriately, giving it sense and meaning. Built around quiet field recordings, Saville's six compositions transform this highly personal and, therefore, difficult-to-convey experience into a comprehensible exploration of beauty. Where ISAN almost exclusively uses electronics, Saville deliberately expands this well-established palette with acoustic instruments like bass guitar, chimes, and glockenspiel, aiming for an even more suitable musical manifestation of what the walker sees and feels once he fully engages in his passion. Ranging from blissfully pulsing pads allowing for complete associative freedom ("The Deepdale Halophyte Economy") to the playful minimalism of an orchestra dominated by busy bells ("Bosky"), Saville's Build A Diorama is not just a valuable addition to his musical output, but an essential audio guide for those striving to explore, learn, and understand.

$55.00$46.75 IN STOCK

Art book with 100 pictures, 84 pages. 24x24cm, hardcover in linen weave with metallic embossed printing. Kranky veteran Benoît Pioulard (Thomas Meluch) has created his first full-length for Morr Music (MORR 162CD/LP). The release is complemented by the book presented here. A linen book of Polaroid SX70 photographs from more than two years of environmental explorations. The music on Sylva and its 84-page visual companion bear the beauty and strange shapes of nature: desert rock formations and colorful leaves, restless waters and peculiar plants. Meluch's dreamy ambient drones and saturated lo-fi pop embody the impressionist sensation of his visual aesthetic -- with this collection sound and vision are merged into an affectionate study of the organic. No audio is included with this book.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Kranky veteran Benoît Pioulard (Thomas Meluch) has created his first full-length for Morr Music. The music on Sylva bears the beauty and strange shapes of nature: desert rock formations and colorful leaves, restless waters and peculiar plants. Meluch's dreamy ambient drones and saturated lo-fi pop embody the impressionist sensation of his visual aesthetic -- with this collection sound and vision are merged into an affectionate study of the organic. Sylva is the result of one of the most productive periods in Meluch's life. During a nine-month hiatus from his day job he embarked on daily recording sessions amid trips to the American southwest, Montana, Hawai'i, and his native Michigan. Back home in Seattle, he developed his recordings and wrote the album's two mesmerizing vocal tracks, which call to mind early Fleetwood Mac or peak pop-era Brian Eno. "Keep" is based on a tiny flower called Draba mentioned in the book A Sand County Almanac (1949), about which "no one ever wrote a poem"; considering all the little plants he had inadvertently crushed throughout a lifetime of hikes, he wrote it for them. The piano-driven "Meristem" features a striking violin contribution from Freya Creech (London, UK), and is dedicated to Meluch's brother, who died suddenly two years ago. Sylva's other collaboration is the soaring vocal arrangement created for "Raze II" by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/singer Caroline Shaw (New York, USA), a former touring mate who resided at the Banff Centre (Alberta, CAN) during the same period in which Meluch completed his recordings there. The album's ten songs are divided into four movements: Solum (soil/solitude), Ignis (fire), Coeptum (seed), and Vireo (thrive), with each group embodying a slightly different environ. When paring down the photo collection Meluch abided three guidelines: no man-made objects, no redundant textures, and a color palette as diverse as his vintage camera allowed. Follows two albums by his band-project Orcas (with Rafael Anton Irisarri).

$19.50$16.58 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download code. Kranky veteran Benoît Pioulard (Thomas Meluch) has created his first full-length for Morr Music. The music on Sylva bears the beauty and strange shapes of nature: desert rock formations and colorful leaves, restless waters and peculiar plants. Meluch's dreamy ambient drones and saturated lo-fi pop embody the impressionist sensation of his visual aesthetic -- with this collection sound and vision are merged into an affectionate study of the organic. Sylva is the result of one of the most productive periods in Meluch's life. During a nine-month hiatus from his day job he embarked on daily recording sessions amid trips to the American southwest, Montana, Hawai'i, and his native Michigan. Back home in Seattle, he developed his recordings and wrote the album's two mesmerizing vocal tracks, which call to mind early Fleetwood Mac or peak pop-era Brian Eno. "Keep" is based on a tiny flower called Draba mentioned in the book A Sand County Almanac (1949), about which "no one ever wrote a poem"; considering all the little plants he had inadvertently crushed throughout a lifetime of hikes, he wrote it for them. The piano-driven "Meristem" features a striking violin contribution from Freya Creech (London, UK), and is dedicated to Meluch's brother, who died suddenly two years ago. Sylva's other collaboration is the soaring vocal arrangement created for "Raze II" by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/singer Caroline Shaw (New York, USA), a former touring mate who resided at the Banff Centre (Alberta, CAN) during the same period in which Meluch completed his recordings there. The album's ten songs are divided into four movements: Solum (soil/solitude), Ignis (fire), Coeptum (seed), and Vireo (thrive), with each group embodying a slightly different environ. When paring down the photo collection Meluch abided three guidelines: no man-made objects, no redundant textures, and a color palette as diverse as his vintage camera allowed. Follows two albums by his band-project Orcas (with Rafael Anton Irisarri).

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

After his collaboration with Sóley and múm's Örvar Smárason for the 2018 album Team Dreams (MORR 150CD/LP), Sad Party sees Sindri Sigfússon take things into his own hands again. As a result of frantic and mostly improvised jam sessions, the nine pop songs are as bittersweet as the title suggests, meandering between Sin Fang's trademark knack for catchy melodies, rich sonic textures, and advanced musical experimentalism. Psychedelic and melancholic at once, it brings Sigfússon's many different musical facets into a consistent and irresistible flow. Sad Party was recorded by Sigfússon alone over the course of three weeks in an old wooden studio in downtown Reykjavík before it was, like so many Icelandic venues in recent times, closed for good thanks to rising rents. "It had a wonderful view, something most music studios do not have," says Sigfússon of the place, where he had spent so much time recording, drinking, and playing table tennis in the past years. Now he locked himself in for three weeks to throw a very last Sad Party. Aiming for the music to be "not too fast and not too slow, not too loud and not too quiet", the songwriter followed a radical stream of consciousness approach for the lyrics. Starting with lush and warm drones, the opener "Planet Arfth" sets the mood for Sin Fang's fifth solo record just perfectly. This is goodbye, the wordless vocals in the background seem to say -- but we're going to make the best of it, counters the slow hip-hop groove that takes center stage midway through the track. Soon giving way for slow and funky dream pop sounds ("Hollow"), Sad Party slowly picks up speed with intricately built rhythms ("No Summer"), piano-driven power pop ("Smother") and even IDM-influenced electronica ("Goldenboy Is Sleeping"), before the second half makes the melancholy that comes with a farewell audible. The bitter follows the sweet. After a wonderfully psychedelic gem ("Happiness"), a hazy mid-tempo rock ballad ("Never Who I Wanna Be") and a shimmering downbeat piece that highlights Sigfússon's abilities as a producer of experimental electronic music ("Cloudjuice"), "Constellation" serves as the perfect coda to the album. With its underwater lo-fi aesthetics and its psychoactive qualities, it ends the album with just the right amount of anthemic ambiguity. Here's to old places, new beginnings and, most of all, Sin Fang!

$20.00$17.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve; includes download code. After his collaboration with Sóley and múm's Örvar Smárason for the 2018 album Team Dreams (MORR 150CD/LP), Sad Party sees Sindri Sigfússon take things into his own hands again. As a result of frantic and mostly improvised jam sessions, the nine pop songs are as bittersweet as the title suggests, meandering between Sin Fang's trademark knack for catchy melodies, rich sonic textures, and advanced musical experimentalism. Psychedelic and melancholic at once, it brings Sigfússon's many different musical facets into a consistent and irresistible flow. Sad Party was recorded by Sigfússon alone over the course of three weeks in an old wooden studio in downtown Reykjavík before it was, like so many Icelandic venues in recent times, closed for good thanks to rising rents. "It had a wonderful view, something most music studios do not have," says Sigfússon of the place, where he had spent so much time recording, drinking, and playing table tennis in the past years. Now he locked himself in for three weeks to throw a very last Sad Party. Aiming for the music to be "not too fast and not too slow, not too loud and not too quiet", the songwriter followed a radical stream of consciousness approach for the lyrics. Starting with lush and warm drones, the opener "Planet Arfth" sets the mood for Sin Fang's fifth solo record just perfectly. This is goodbye, the wordless vocals in the background seem to say -- but we're going to make the best of it, counters the slow hip-hop groove that takes center stage midway through the track. Soon giving way for slow and funky dream pop sounds ("Hollow"), Sad Party slowly picks up speed with intricately built rhythms ("No Summer"), piano-driven power pop ("Smother") and even IDM-influenced electronica ("Goldenboy Is Sleeping"), before the second half makes the melancholy that comes with a farewell audible. The bitter follows the sweet. After a wonderfully psychedelic gem ("Happiness"), a hazy mid-tempo rock ballad ("Never Who I Wanna Be") and a shimmering downbeat piece that highlights Sigfússon's abilities as a producer of experimental electronic music ("Cloudjuice"), "Constellation" serves as the perfect coda to the album. With its underwater lo-fi aesthetics and its psychoactive qualities, it ends the album with just the right amount of anthemic ambiguity. Here's to old places, new beginnings and, most of all, Sin Fang!

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Antony Ryan and Robin Saville return with their ninth studio album as ISAN, Lamenting Machine. Three years in the making, Lamenting Machine is the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along -- all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music. Produced both in Denmark and the UK in their respective studios, each of the eight tracks symbolize a sea of blossoms carefully crafted and tended to, bringing color and hope to today's fragile and volatile world. And while there is definitely a lot worth lamenting about, ISAN's machine of the same name is an explorational celebration of their own musical past, once more bringing to the surface the project's essence of aural delight. Listening to ISAN requires time, but it is time well invested. While sounding exquisitely lighthearted from the outside, a closer inspection reveals a richly orchestrated and multi-layered musical riddle, mimicking a hedge maze of gargantuan scale and complexity, with each tone and each rhythmic pattern to be dissected, analyzed and understood individually in order to find the way out. ISAN's music has always had this quality, yet reflecting on their own past more consciously, the music on the new album redefines this approach in a more precise and gratifying way than ever before. While wholeheartedly shimmering and drenched in beauty, in order to fully appreciate the whole scale of ISAN, it is key to bravely engage with the underlying vagueness and fuzziness lingering in the tracks. Letting each piece of gear be true to itself, accepting its flaws as part of its unique personality, and turning these frailties into a starting point of inter-circuitry communication, ISAN has been at the forefront of humanizing technology and eliminating the dystopian men machine debate, clearing the table for a better future. This approach actually requires time in the studio as well: circuits need time to warm up, get to know each other, understand the energy flowing through the cables connecting them, figuring out what to do and what they really want. This process is not so much about giving up control, but rather to moderate a constant exchange of ideas.

$19.50$16.58 IN STOCK

LP version. Antony Ryan and Robin Saville return with their ninth studio album as ISAN, Lamenting Machine. Three years in the making, Lamenting Machine is the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along -- all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music. Produced both in Denmark and the UK in their respective studios, each of the eight tracks symbolize a sea of blossoms carefully crafted and tended to, bringing color and hope to today's fragile and volatile world. And while there is definitely a lot worth lamenting about, ISAN's machine of the same name is an explorational celebration of their own musical past, once more bringing to the surface the project's essence of aural delight. Listening to ISAN requires time, but it is time well invested. While sounding exquisitely lighthearted from the outside, a closer inspection reveals a richly orchestrated and multi-layered musical riddle, mimicking a hedge maze of gargantuan scale and complexity, with each tone and each rhythmic pattern to be dissected, analyzed and understood individually in order to find the way out. ISAN's music has always had this quality, yet reflecting on their own past more consciously, the music on the new album redefines this approach in a more precise and gratifying way than ever before. While wholeheartedly shimmering and drenched in beauty, in order to fully appreciate the whole scale of ISAN, it is key to bravely engage with the underlying vagueness and fuzziness lingering in the tracks. Letting each piece of gear be true to itself, accepting its flaws as part of its unique personality, and turning these frailties into a starting point of inter-circuitry communication, ISAN has been at the forefront of humanizing technology and eliminating the dystopian men machine debate, clearing the table for a better future. This approach actually requires time in the studio as well: circuits need time to warm up, get to know each other, understand the energy flowing through the cables connecting them, figuring out what to do and what they really want. This process is not so much about giving up control, but rather to moderate a constant exchange of ideas.

$33.00$28.05 IN STOCK

2020 repress; triple LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Morr Music present a 20th Anniversary Edition of múm's Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK. In 1999, on December 23rd to be precise, the electronic music landscape changed forever. On that day, the now legendary Icelandic band múm released their debut album Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK. The thing is though, back in the day, hardly anybody realized. It was Christmas after all, people were busy with potentially more important things and didn't pay attention to some kids selling records on Reykjavík's high street. Thankfully, those ten tracks weren't overlooked for long. On the contrary: the album went on to become one of the most influential building blocks of what back then was called electronica and today is considered an art form playing a crucial and important role in shaping and defining the rich electronic music culture of the 21st century. Now, 20 years after the record dropped onto planet Earth, Morr Music is re-issuing the remastered album with its original artwork, adding newly commissioned re-works: a note-for-note representation of "Smell Memory" by Kronos Quartet (with additional drums by múm's Samuli Kosminen), a gentle reinterpretation of "Random Summer" by acclaimed pianist and composer Hauschka and an otherworldly new version of "Ballad Of The Broken String" recorded by label mate Sóley. In 1999, electronic music was in full bloom. Yet the concept of using electronic sounds in acoustic-based productions (or vice versa) was still in its infancy. Many producers were trying, most of them failed. The results felt often forced, fabricated, unimaginative, random, and forgettable. New ideas require new mindsets after all. With Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK, múm established a new approach in music production. Instead of setting a fixed agenda and working with a distinct hierarchy for their sonic palette, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, Gunnar Örn Tynes, and Örvar Smárason let each instrument and sound source be true to itself, creating an ever-evolving universe of sonic bliss. Combining drill-and-bass-inspired beat-chopping, future-informed DSP-programming, ethereal vocal work, indie rock's boominess, folk music's soulful brittleness, and a lofty feeling for melody and arrangement, the album is a rare example of musical transcendence and remains impossible to categorize. Many of the ideas formulated and recorded for the album quickly became an integral part of the canonical self-conception musicians around the world were and still are aspiring to. Includes four remixes produced in the early 2000s by Ruxpin, Bix, µ-Ziq, and Biogen.

$17.50$14.88 IN STOCK

Morr Music present a 20th Anniversary Edition of múm's Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK. In 1999, on December 23rd to be precise, the electronic music landscape changed forever. On that day, the now legendary Icelandic band múm released their debut album Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK. The thing is though, back in the day, hardly anybody realized. It was Christmas after all, people were busy with potentially more important things and didn't pay attention to some kids selling records on Reykjavík's high street. Thankfully, those ten tracks weren't overlooked for long. On the contrary: the album went on to become one of the most influential building blocks of what back then was called electronica and today is considered an art form playing a crucial and important role in shaping and defining the rich electronic music culture of the 21st century. Now, 20 years after the record dropped onto planet Earth, Morr Music is re-issuing the remastered album with its original artwork, adding newly commissioned re-works: a note-for-note representation of "Smell Memory" by Kronos Quartet (with additional drums by múm's Samuli Kosminen), a gentle reinterpretation of "Random Summer" by acclaimed pianist and composer Hauschka and an otherworldly new version of "Ballad Of The Broken String" recorded by label mate Sóley. In 1999, electronic music was in full bloom. Yet the concept of using electronic sounds in acoustic-based productions (or vice versa) was still in its infancy. Many producers were trying, most of them failed. The results felt often forced, fabricated, unimaginative, random, and forgettable. New ideas require new mindsets after all. With Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK, múm established a new approach in music production. Instead of setting a fixed agenda and working with a distinct hierarchy for their sonic palette, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, Gunnar Örn Tynes, and Örvar Smárason let each instrument and sound source be true to itself, creating an ever-evolving universe of sonic bliss. Combining drill-and-bass-inspired beat-chopping, future-informed DSP-programming, ethereal vocal work, indie rock's boominess, folk music's soulful brittleness, and a lofty feeling for melody and arrangement, the album is a rare example of musical transcendence and remains impossible to categorize. Many of the ideas formulated and recorded for the album quickly became an integral part of the canonical self-conception musicians around the world were and still are aspiring to. Includes four remixes produced in the early 2000s by Ruxpin, Bix, µ-Ziq, and Biogen.

$19.50$16.58 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download code. Mikko Singh has been living different musical lives from the start. With Cloud Formations, his third album under the Haleiwa moniker, Singh eschews the guitar-dominated sound of his first two LPs for lush but grainy textures. Inspired by bands and songwriters like Animal Collective, Real Estate, and the late Jay Reatard, Cloud Formations is a hopeful record whose experimental approach to rock music calls to mind the experimental pop of Morr Music label mates like Sequoyah Tiger or even Stereolab's motorik-driven post-rock. It's a fusion of fuzzed-out sounds, washed-out sentiments and far-out songwriting -- perhaps the only shoegaze record you can actually take along to the beach. Ever since he first picked up the classical guitar at age nine, Singh has pursued many different ambitions. Having moved on from skate punk and hardcore bands to instrumental indie rock, Singh even released an album of subtle piano compositions on the 1631 label alongside artists like Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka. As an album dedicated to new beginnings, Cloud Formations proves to be the perfect synthesis for all of these ambitions. 0After the release 2015's Palm Trees of the Subarctic, Singh began experimenting with his collection of vintage and analog synthesizers, exploring different ways of using the guitar and putting an emphasis on his bass playing when composing. While some of the songs on Cloud Formations were initially conceived in 2015, he recorded and produced the album between 2017 and 2018 in what he calls a "long and continuous process". Apart from some drum recordings (provided by his long-time friend Johan Nordlund of the Swedish hardcore band This Gift Is A Curse), Singh maintained full creative control of the album, tweaking the nine songs in his own Stockholm studio. He paid more attention than before to the subtleties of sound design and their emotive qualities; the result is a dense, at times psychedelic and intimate album, abundant with passion and optimism, despite its name, which may at first indicate the opposite. Singh wants to express hope on Cloud Formations, an approach that becomes tangible from the very first seconds of the anthemic opener "HKI -97". Between the fuzzy ambience of "Ka'a'awa Surfin'", the title track's hypnagogic mid-tempo grooves, to the relentless drive of "Swell" or "Crossroads", and the eerie final track "Cold Concrete", this album is to be understood as a celebration of different musical lives becoming one.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Mikko Singh has been living different musical lives from the start. With Cloud Formations, his third album under the Haleiwa moniker, Singh eschews the guitar-dominated sound of his first two LPs for lush but grainy textures. Inspired by bands and songwriters like Animal Collective, Real Estate, and the late Jay Reatard, Cloud Formations is a hopeful record whose experimental approach to rock music calls to mind the experimental pop of Morr Music label mates like Sequoyah Tiger or even Stereolab's motorik-driven post-rock. It's a fusion of fuzzed-out sounds, washed-out sentiments and far-out songwriting -- perhaps the only shoegaze record you can actually take along to the beach. Ever since he first picked up the classical guitar at age nine, Singh has pursued many different ambitions. Having moved on from skate punk and hardcore bands to instrumental indie rock, Singh even released an album of subtle piano compositions on the 1631 label alongside artists like Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka. As an album dedicated to new beginnings, Cloud Formations proves to be the perfect synthesis for all of these ambitions. 0After the release 2015's Palm Trees of the Subarctic, Singh began experimenting with his collection of vintage and analog synthesizers, exploring different ways of using the guitar and putting an emphasis on his bass playing when composing. While some of the songs on Cloud Formations were initially conceived in 2015, he recorded and produced the album between 2017 and 2018 in what he calls a "long and continuous process". Apart from some drum recordings (provided by his long-time friend Johan Nordlund of the Swedish hardcore band This Gift Is A Curse), Singh maintained full creative control of the album, tweaking the nine songs in his own Stockholm studio. He paid more attention than before to the subtleties of sound design and their emotive qualities; the result is a dense, at times psychedelic and intimate album, abundant with passion and optimism, despite its name, which may at first indicate the opposite. Singh wants to express hope on Cloud Formations, an approach that becomes tangible from the very first seconds of the anthemic opener "HKI -97". Between the fuzzy ambience of "Ka'a'awa Surfin'", the title track's hypnagogic mid-tempo grooves, to the relentless drive of "Swell" or "Crossroads", and the eerie final track "Cold Concrete", this album is to be understood as a celebration of different musical lives becoming one.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Creating a composition means making decisions. During times in which you virtually have all sounds that have ever been recorded at your availability, composers must choose between infinite possibilities. The duo Ellicist does not perceive this contemporary ocean of possibilities as too much choice, they are swimming in it. Ellicist are weaving thick textures from the most diverse tones and rhythms. Their tracks are placing synthetic buzzing, the croaking of frogs, low frequency billowing and humming, flutes, the droning of flies, and the whole spectrum of the digital creation of sound next to one another. This intensity of sensations is not supposed to overstrain the listener, it invites them to follow a process. This music does not have a strict structure; instead, it is breathing openness at every moment. Ellicist are incessantly oscillating between abstraction and elements of pop music. Melodies are being hinted at, and sounds are being piled up, at times tirelessly. Fragments of etheric choirs or field recordings are unfolding their associative power. The melodious Ink is a track full of touching intimacy and is in constant motion until it eventually pauses to create a silent ocean of sound. "Passage People" is permeated by a groove of throbbing synths. The tapestries of sound of "Ponds & Graves", on the other hand, are creating the foundation for expressive percussions. "Ihnen Steg" is almost a dub track. During the opener Hennepin and its follower "Lilei" sounds of palpable corporeity are being combined with ones that are hardly tangible. Point Defects has an incredible spatiality. At one point you might believe that you are able to precisely localize the sounds in an imaginary system of coordinates. And then the whole systemization crumbles. It is an astonishing production: you can almost taste the sounds. Ellicist are Thomas Chousos and Florian Zimmer. Chousos studied composition in Greece before moving to Berlin, where he is working as a producer and sound engineer under the moniker Tadklimp. Florian Zimmer has been playing with several groups; Besides Ellicist he is a member of Saroos and Driftmachine.

$19.50$16.58 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download code. Creating a composition means making decisions. During times in which you virtually have all sounds that have ever been recorded at your availability, composers must choose between infinite possibilities. The duo Ellicist does not perceive this contemporary ocean of possibilities as too much choice, they are swimming in it. Ellicist are weaving thick textures from the most diverse tones and rhythms. Their tracks are placing synthetic buzzing, the croaking of frogs, low frequency billowing and humming, flutes, the droning of flies, and the whole spectrum of the digital creation of sound next to one another. This intensity of sensations is not supposed to overstrain the listener, it invites them to follow a process. This music does not have a strict structure; instead, it is breathing openness at every moment. Ellicist are incessantly oscillating between abstraction and elements of pop music. Melodies are being hinted at, and sounds are being piled up, at times tirelessly. Fragments of etheric choirs or field recordings are unfolding their associative power. The melodious Ink is a track full of touching intimacy and is in constant motion until it eventually pauses to create a silent ocean of sound. "Passage People" is permeated by a groove of throbbing synths. The tapestries of sound of "Ponds & Graves", on the other hand, are creating the foundation for expressive percussions. "Ihnen Steg" is almost a dub track. During the opener Hennepin and its follower "Lilei" sounds of palpable corporeity are being combined with ones that are hardly tangible. Point Defects has an incredible spatiality. At one point you might believe that you are able to precisely localize the sounds in an imaginary system of coordinates. And then the whole systemization crumbles. It is an astonishing production: you can almost taste the sounds. Ellicist are Thomas Chousos and Florian Zimmer. Chousos studied composition in Greece before moving to Berlin, where he is working as a producer and sound engineer under the moniker Tadklimp. Florian Zimmer has been playing with several groups; Besides Ellicist he is a member of Saroos and Driftmachine.

$18.00$15.30 IN STOCK

With Being Water Lali Puna refine their distinctive take on pop and electronics. Although singer Valerie Trebeljahr wrote "Being Water" mostly by herself, backed by Christian Heiß and Christoph Brandner, she rejects the idea of authorship. "Who's That Genius" pays tribute to Virginia Woolf and Madonna. The title track turns this Bruce Lee quote upside-down: "Be formless, shapeless, like water". The lyrics for "For Only Love" were written after watching the documentary The War Show (2016). The free-floating piano chords and tricky rhythm patterns of "Beatx" mark a new territory for Lali Puna. Features a remix by Dave DK.

$22.00$18.70 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code. Plus, the new album from Danish electronic trio System, is a collaborative effort with piano magician Nils Frahm. Frahm's purpose-built improvisations on synth, organ and piano served as source material for the members of System (Thomas Knak, Anders Remmer, and Jesper Skaaning), who merged his warm acoustic tones with their minimalist digitalism and to translate their distinctive electronics into vivid soundscapes. Over two years in the making, the resulting nine tracks are as sonically as they are touching. Ranging from the mellow bliss of the title track to echoes of '90s and 2000s electronica and ambient sequences with mesmerizing movements and sounds, the blending of piano and digital tones and noises into emotive pieces recalls the work of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, though System and Frahm come to quite different results. Knak met Frahm at one of his concerts in Copenhagen; staying in touch, they exchanged thoughts and ideas. Two years later, Remmer was also introduced to Frahm; serious ideas for a collaboration formed. As Frahm was a fan of System's self-titled debut album (2002), their talks centered around dub and minimalism, elements that constitute most of System's music. This in mind, System began producing sketches and brought them to Frahm´s studio in Berlin, where they recorded ten hours of him playing to their drafts. Back in Copenhagen, they decided to change direction. "Nils had told us about his fascination with our debut album, so we tried to rediscover this minimal clicks 'n' cuts era. But hearing Nils playing to our rhythmic beds, we felt the need to scrap those beats and instead head in a more cinematic direction." They started building new pieces from Frahm's recordings, maintaining some of the minimal and static quality while new layers of synth sounds and noises created a richer and more organic quality compared to older System albums. The solo projects of Thomas (Opiate), Anders (Dub Tractor) and Jesper (Acustic) relied on steady beats or rhythmic material, so the productions of Plus, with their acoustic and melodic elements, ambient layers and cinematic moods, sees them move into new areas. The trio thus avoided copying what they had done years ago, having built a reputation as Denmark's originators within electronic music in the '90s. Plus is a triumphant example of collaborative experimentation and may be the dawn of a new era for System. CD version comes in digipak.

$15.50$13.18 IN STOCK

Plus, the new album from Danish electronic trio System, is a collaborative effort with piano magician Nils Frahm. Frahm's purpose-built improvisations on synth, organ and piano served as source material for the members of System (Thomas Knak, Anders Remmer, and Jesper Skaaning), who merged his warm acoustic tones with their minimalist digitalism and to translate their distinctive electronics into vivid soundscapes. Over two years in the making, the resulting nine tracks are as sonically as they are touching. Ranging from the mellow bliss of the title track to echoes of '90s and 2000s electronica and ambient sequences with mesmerizing movements and sounds, the blending of piano and digital tones and noises into emotive pieces recalls the work of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, though System and Frahm come to quite different results. Knak met Frahm at one of his concerts in Copenhagen; staying in touch, they exchanged thoughts and ideas. Two years later, Remmer was also introduced to Frahm; serious ideas for a collaboration formed. As Frahm was a fan of System's self-titled debut album (2002), their talks centered around dub and minimalism, elements that constitute most of System's music. This in mind, System began producing sketches and brought them to Frahm´s studio in Berlin, where they recorded ten hours of him playing to their drafts. Back in Copenhagen, they decided to change direction. "Nils had told us about his fascination with our debut album, so we tried to rediscover this minimal clicks 'n' cuts era. But hearing Nils playing to our rhythmic beds, we felt the need to scrap those beats and instead head in a more cinematic direction." They started building new pieces from Frahm's recordings, maintaining some of the minimal and static quality while new layers of synth sounds and noises created a richer and more organic quality compared to older System albums. The solo projects of Thomas (Opiate), Anders (Dub Tractor) and Jesper (Acustic) relied on steady beats or rhythmic material, so the productions of Plus, with their acoustic and melodic elements, ambient layers and cinematic moods, sees them move into new areas. The trio thus avoided copying what they had done years ago, having built a reputation as Denmark's originators within electronic music in the '90s. Plus is a triumphant example of collaborative experimentation and may be the dawn of a new era for System. CD version comes in digipak.

$20.00$17.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Deluxe relief varnish artwork; includes printed inner sleeve; includes download code. Flowing and brimming with life, Anohito, the second album by indie supergroup Spirit Fest, has come ashore. The group is comprised of Tokyo-based duo Tenniscoats (Saya and Takashi Ueno), Markus Acher (The Notwist, Rayon), Cico Beck (Aloa Input, The Notwist), and Mat Fowler (Jam Money, Bons). Crossing boundaries geographically and musically, each member contributes rich experiences in collaboration. But experience can be a tricky friend to navigate, often leaving musicians trapped in their comfort zones. However, Spirit Fest embodies the idea of perpetual motion. Ever-changing and keeping their music alive, the singular souls of Spirit Fest have been drawn together a second time. In the wake of releasing their first record, the group embarked on a European tour where they found their own distinct character and collective voice. From this shared experience, new songs and recordings followed, encompassing Anohito (Japanese for "that person"). The first two album tracks were constructed on a day off in London. The triumphant opener, "Anohito (Till The Gate)", an extraordinary minor key title track, sets the tone of the record; Saya's tender voice and the shimmering, delayed guitars and zither reach delicate and pastoral heights. The loopy folktronica of "Fête De Départ" continues to preserve the pace of the album perfectly. Spirit Fest recorded the remainder of Anohito at Markus's home in Munich. Only Mat operated from London, contributing additional recordings in the form of a tape exchange. These begin with the collective lament of "Yuri's Zahn", followed by Markus's evocative banjo pop "Look At The Colours" and the twisted Raymond Scott/Dick Hyman-ish wonk of "Ueno The Future". The album draws to a close with "Takeda No Komoriuta" ("Lullaby Of Takeda"), a beautiful cover of a dark Japanese traditional, followed by the instrumental track "Bye Bye" -- a perfect collage to close and document this rich and playful collaboration by highly imaginative and ego-free musicians.