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viewing 1 To 21 of 21 items
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PE 037CD
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Hardly anything is known about the person behind the pseudonym Anom Vitruv. The artist who has previously released music on UK techno label Tabernacle Records and Los Angeles-based experimental powerhouse Total Stasis, among other outlets, chooses to remain anonymous and lets his music speak for itself. Over more than a decade, the Switzerland-based musician has carefully constructed a body of work that is closely interlinked with his public perception: Always vague, elusive, and thus open. Anom Vitruv took his time with 6.4311 -- his first release in more than six years. The artist's latest project is full of philosophical references around being, time, space, death, and the worthwhile life that not only are visible in the album title and through the artist's use of samples but are directly manifested in the structure and atmosphere of the music itself. The album is deeply contemplative in its approach. The constant oscillation between the abstract and the concrete, the elaborate build-ups, the subtle emergence and disappearance of elements, and his careful take on layering sounds are all factors that make 6.4311 an engaging album from start to finish. With his latest full length, the enigmatic artist sets an example on how to incorporate references and concepts into music -- all without it being a shallow gesture.
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PE 026LP
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The new album of Swiss artist Martina Lussi joins what no longer is conjoined. Conceived and realized over a period marked by major changes in both the private sphere and the world at large, Balance brings together the before and after. The album is held together by a common feature: Lussi's voice, with which every composition began. Her singing, modified by effects, is supplemented by other sounds, which are light at times, bittersweet at others, and sometimes replace her voice altogether, like on the album's fulcrum "Fragments of Attention". On the first half of Balance, Lussi's singing plunges "Meditation on the Multitab" into a cosmic soundscape; occasionally a rhythm irrupts into it. On "Time Laps", a track from the album's second half, the artist's singsong articulates rhythmical elements and propels them towards a reluctant euphoria. Balance appears open and fragile, at times even vulnerable, but Lussi's relentless openness derives from the immense strength needed to weather changes both small and large. Cover design by Dorothee Dähler. Features scented inner record sleeve, scent by In'n'Out Fragrances. Edition of 200.
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2LP
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PE 028LP
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The Ring Orchestra is an eight-person effort, a collective coming together to tackle opera and one of the genre's controversial poster boys. 18 compositions, the artists Born In Flamez, Gil Schneider, Simonne Jones, Leo Luchini, Legion Seven, P.A. Hülsenbeck, Isa GT, and Ixa create a collaborative musical score that uses Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen as the point of departure. Originally, the music was created for a staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen at Schauspielhaus Zürich, directed by Christopher Rüping and written by Necati Öziri. Far from being an affirmative tribute, the orchestra sets out to deconstruct and break down what Wagner and his opus magnum represent: collaboration over singularity and openness instead of conservative rigidity. The resulting score doesn't shy away from ambivalence by de-centralizing authorship and encompassing everything from ambient to pop, reggaeton, and a wider variety of non-western musical influences.
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PE 025LP
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With her second album SODA, Belia Winnewisser continues on the path she has been following for quite some time. Few share the Swiss artist's knack for combining a sensibility to the enthusiastic potential of pop with an interest in niche references of experimental sound design. In recent years, her feel for this fusion brought Winnewisser to the attention of the electronic club music scene. This world and the various genres related to it leave their mark on SODA: sing-along anthems like "So Real" and the densely layered drone of "They Cry of the Sirens" stand alongside the feverish dance track that gives the album its name and rave bombs like "Solen". A year without club nights allowed Winnewisser to fully embrace her flair for pop and experimentalism, which resulted in more than a mere series of nods to different genres and acts. SODA -- both as a resonant title and as a collection of music -- is a direct call without hidden meanings or implicit references. It's simply the path she's on and the way she's going. Post-production together with Phillip Jondo. Cover design by Kaj Lehmann. White vinyl; edition of 300.
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LP
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PE 027LP
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Kapriole is the debut album by Zurich- and Hamburg-based artist Leo Hofmann after working in music theater, sound art, and performance contexts. Central to the album, which refers in its title to a joyous jump, is the ambition to translate an ephemeral practice into recorded matter. Fixed but never static, Kapriole is informed by intimate and detailed listening situations and sound practices like ASMR or the acoustically sheltered world of noise cancelling headphones. And while it is apparent that Hofmann has a deeply rooted understanding of technology and its abundant possibilities, Kapriole is a tender and almost analog feeling affair. The human voice occupies a central role in the musical configuration of the album: quirky repetitions, hushed fragments, and poetic statements, circling topics like communication, mobility, and immersion occupy the album's eight tracks. The result is a sonorous sensation, which, in its scarcity, paves the way for meticulously crafted and delicate soundscapes. Kapriole as a joyous jump which is technological as much as it is emotional. Graphic design by Karan Kobel. Includes download codes; edition of 300.
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MAG
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MAGAZIN 023
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Frequent readers of zweikommasieben will know that the creative processes highlighted in the magazine are an eclectic gathering of influences that result in varied creative practices. But what might be the common denominator connecting all the dots in this plurality? For the new issue, zweikommasieben makes the case for the discursive potential of personal experiences. Once the personal is taken seriously, anecdotes provide major insights into an artist's practice. A portrait on producer Malibu taps into memories of popular culture and traces musical experiences from her childhood to highlight the dedication she brings towards composing melodies and using samples. In their essay, the duo Space Afrika assembles recollections of their daily lives in north-west England to frame their artistic output over the years. Highlighting subjective perspectives also allows for the differentiation of what might appear similar at first. Both the collaboration of Andreas Bülhoff and Marc Matter featured in "Soundtexte" and the interview with Tygapaw refer to the use of poetry. The former condense language to its most basic units and present them as rhythmic building blocks for DJs. Taking a different approach, Tygapaw asked a poet to be the narrator of their album, expanding the tracks by embedding an additional layer of meaning. zweikommasieben #23 includes: interviews with Bass Clef, Crystalmess, Flora Yin-Wong, Grand River, Ikonika, Jabu & Daniela Dyson, Meemo Comma, and Tygapaw. 160 pages, 170x240mm -- all content in EN, parts in DE, FR, NL, and IT.
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LP
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PE 024LP
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Magda Drozd is deeply concerned with listening in her artistic practice. Her second album, 18 Floors, Drozd focused on the apartment building she called home for several years, compiling a corpus of field recordings in and of the building, which she approached as a living organism rather than static material. The result challenges current assumptions about living together in urban settings. The field recordings were woven into eleven speculative tracks consisting of sounds including violins, guitars, synthesizers, drum machines, and Drozd's voice. The music moves between sound art, ambient, indie rock, and R&B. 18 Floors presciently emphasizes the importance of the home, which has become glaringly obvious in the age of Corona. Her foresight constitutes her avant-gardism as much as her preference for documenting what might be over what actually is. The result is an album that creates a space for what is transient, uncertain, and unstable. And it creates a space for opportunities, which is needed now more than ever. Liner notes by Salomé Voeglin. White vinyl; edition of 400.
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LP
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PE 023LP
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On Interior, Swiss composer Samuel Reinhard excavates intricate resonances at the periphery of our attention. Across four movements, Reinhard follows a process whereby he layers and loops fragments of piano improvisations. Yet, Interior complicates its own systematicity by using samples that are not only recognizable as piano notes, but as live recordings of a piano being played. Reinhard composes from traces both analog and digital: you can hear static hiss and clicks, but also the soft trace of a finger pressing a key or the shuffle of a body shifting position. Interior asks you to think about where you are, and how close you are willing to look, feel, and listen. Over the course of the four movements sounds return, familiar but transformed. What sounds like repetition is something more like accumulation, a thickening of space. Whether regarded at intimate range or from a distance, these compositions reveal more the longer we linger in the presence of each. Artwork photography by Jeff Ross. Edition of 200.
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MAG
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MAGAZIN 022
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A number of contributions in the new issue of zweikommasieben relate to the past in some shape or form, and they conjure it in different ways. An approach that seems adequate, since the year 2020 might have given momentum to a nostalgic way of looking at the world. In an interview, the Australian duo CS + Kreme talks about how they still feed off the energy of an alchemic jam they had at the very beginning of their collaboration. Similarly, Johanna Hedva takes on the past in her artistic practice and speaks about how she understands performances as "the communion with the dead, with the past." But how could what has passed become productive and how can we meet the reproach of nostalgia? Tracing connections between memories and the present provides a possible answer, as one comes across in an interview with Kamixlo. There, the artist recapitulates the long temporal reaches of the process that culminated in his latest album. The traces from the past can lead us back into the present, as they have changed the now, and following down these tracks might lead to the discovery of new pathways into the present. Yet, one should not dismiss the comforting innocence of a passing recollection. British DJ and producer Mark Lawrence aka Mala presents such examples when he talks about the early parties organized by DMZ in Brixton. And so does Chinese artist Yikii, when she tells anecdotes about her school days. The reading of this issue, then, should be both an occasion to appraise the potential of the past in the present as well as for innocently savoring a nostalgic memory or two. All content in EN and parts in DE, NL, as well as PL. 152 pages; 208x287 mm; edition of 2000.
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MAG
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MAGAZIN 021
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Zweikommasieben is a magazine that has been devoted to the documentation of contemporary music and sound since the summer of 2011. Issue #21 includes: interviews with Anthony Pateras, Asma Maroof, Ben Vince, MC Buzzz, Dasychira, East Man, Laila Sakini, Lung Dart, Lyra Pramuk, Mark Knekelhuis, Sicaria Sound, Sonia Calico, Stine Janvin, and VTSS. Essays on Nicolás Jaar as well as by Annie Garlid and Flora Yin-Wong. Contributions by A ?lolder (aka Powell, Michael Amstad, and Marte Eknæs), Èlg, and the Nihilist Spasm Band. Columns by Alex Rudolph (feat. poetry by Chirstof Szalay), George Gatsas (photos), and Michael Eby ("Art Review" on an exhibition by Graham Lambkin). Bi-lingual EN/DE; 144 pages; size 200 x 285mm; edition of 2000.
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LP
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PE 020LP
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On Miniatures, Swiss composer and producer Samuel Reinhard looks to indeterminate techniques of mid-century experimental composers to produce a sonic path forward that's as refined as it is evocative. While Miniatures is built from recordings of short piano gestures decaying towards silence, amid the four movements that comprise the suite, something else grows. Notes cycle, collide, and wash away within boundaries the artist has set, but in their wake new processual textures develop. A hiss blankets the harmonic material, and clicks that once marked sharp cuts between repetitions become a percussive undercurrent. Working with digital tools, Reinhard conjures the interior of an animate environment and extends an invitation to notice the small stuff that swells when you settle in with duration. Cover photography by Samuel Reinhard; design by Kaj Lehmann. Edition of 200.
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MAG
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MAGAZIN 020
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The twentieth issue of Zweikommasieben Magazin tries once again to trace what forces shape contemporary musical practice and its underlying aesthetic premises. It features interviews with artists like pianist and composer Kelly Moran, who discusses her desire to give a more palpable form to her emotions through her music. DJ Lyzza and performer Aya (fka Loft) understand their work in terms of the impact it might have on the nightlife and its attitude towards minorities and marginalized groups. Kelman Duran, whose music offers a melancholic echo to the history of reggaeton, describes how he attempts to keep his compositions clear of most discursive ballast. These interviews (and more) are complemented with columns and contributions, including the poetry of Cia Rinne, a photographic essay by Georg Gatsas as well as pieces by Paul Woolford and Sea Urchin. The artists featured and their musical practices may raise questions that have been exhaustively debated in other disciplines of art. However, these contexts are neither more suited to address them, nor have those questions been answered with any degree of finality. The latter claim, in particular, would be naïve and Zweikommasieben #20 proves that there is a myriad of ways of addressing these questions in aesthetic discourse. Also includes interviews with: Mana, Not Waving, Osheyack, Siavash Amini, Still; a portrait of Carl Gari; an essay on "Hardcore After The Revival" and a special feature on Meakusma Festival; and a regular column by Simian Keiser (poetry: "Sound Texts"). English/German; 120 pages; 210x288x9 mm.
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LP
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PE 018LP
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The title of Magda Drozd's debut album, Songs for Plants, goes beyond the invocation of an unusual implied audience and indicates her desire to challenge conventional listening experiences. Plants have been central to the writing-process of the eleven-song LP by the musician, artist, performer, and curator. Drozd's sound palette includes synthesizers, field recordings, a violin, guitar, her own voice, and recordings of cacti, the latter of which were made using the latest recording technology that allowed Drozd to render audible the sound of the prickly pear for example. In this way, Drozd raises questions about authorship while she also shows up the absurdity of the relentless pursuit of new sonic sources in contemporary experimental music. All this leaves Drozd with a highly poetic album located somewhere between experimental electronics, ambient, off-pop, and dub techno. Tender and abrasive at times, she manages to combine the melancholic, critical, hopeful, and distanced -- as if Grouper, Jan Jelinek, The Space Lady, and Hieroglyphic Being got together to re-record Alec Empire's Low on Ice (1995).
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LP
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PE 017LP
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Walls, Corridors, Baffles is the debut album of Swiss musician and producer Samuel Savenberg, aka S S S S. Following various releases on Haunter Records, aufnahme+wiedergabe, and Hallow Ground, his LP on Präsens Editionen tries to find an approach to an artistic expression beyond tropes of darkness, harshness, and excess. Thus, the aesthetic of Walls, Corridors, Baffles is radically and uncompromisingly sober. Instead of focusing on a conceptual or symbolic treatment of sound as an abstraction, Savenberg emphasizes its materiality. The album consists of eight pieces strung together into a manifesto which calls for a febrile embrace of an unheard-of, intense sobriety. In Walls, Corridors, Baffles, unadulterated percussive force meets an astoundingly precise and frugal vocabulary of electroacoustic sounds, as for example on the opener "Deserter". Passages extended over long melodies invite the listener to lose oneself in the contrastive emptiness. Central to the work are the affective qualities of the music which lapses only at moments into a more defined emotional quality -- as on the final track "Nothing But The Circulation Of Air". Edition of 300.
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LP
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PE 016LP
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American performance and improv artist Anna Homler is best known for her early work as Breadwoman, originally released in the mid-80s. Ever since, Homler has played a myriad of live gigs, released a steady stream of music, and has been part of numerous collaborations. With Deliquium in C, Präsens Editionen presents four new tracks originating from Homler's collaborations, on which she sounds gentle and pervasive, maternal and childlike, enigmatic and familiar, playful and severe, squeaking and humming. For Deliquium in C, Homler worked together with four extraordinary artists moving in the domain of electronic music in its broadest sense: Gang of Ducks' Alessio Capovilla, Mark Davies's alias The Pylon King (who, together with Homler, forms the duo Voices of Kwahn), PAN-affiliate Steven Warwick, aka Heatsick, and the late Steve Moshier, who produced the original Breadwoman tape (1985). These collaborations emphasize once more just how versatile Homler is, as a singer and as a master of her toys. Graphic design by Dorothee Dähler. Liner notes and interviews with Anna Homler and her collaborators on inner sleeve; Edition of 300.
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LP
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PE 013LP
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Präsens Editionen present Economy And Failure, an LP by Berlin based musician Brendan Dougherty. Economy And Failure is a work stemming from two tumultuous years for the artist: births, deaths, and other big changes. The music was made in hotel rooms, airports, cafes, and various studios using a basic setup of laptop and headphones. In contrast to Dougherty's 2016 LP Sensate, which used heavy synth patterns to create jittering rhythmic pulses without drum sounds, Economy And Failure sees the drums return on longer arrangements that bear some resemblance to techno. These tracks are interspersed with shorter études in texture and pulse. The resulting pattern heightens the tension between minimalism and emotional depth, making Economy And Failure a peculiar and poetic piece that the artist himself counts as his most direct and emotionally connected yet. Cover photography by Justinas Vilutis. Typography by Kaj Lehman. Edition of 300.
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MAG
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MAGAZIN 016
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To what extent can we imagine community, exchange, and collective projects that no longer fall back on the dominant narratives of nation, fatherland, and family? This is the question posed by Terre Thaemlitz in a detailed exchange featured in the 16th edition of zweikommasieben. Throughout this issue of the magazine, similar questions are asked; the artists and musicians featured seem to be looking for a progressive reaction to the feeling of disintegration that not only can be witnessed in the larger society but in the music scene as well. The questions are subliminally present in the contribution about the independent collective and venue called Macao, or in interviews with musicians such as NON's Farai or American experimentalist Steve Hauschildt. The answers often remain ambivalent; ultimately there won't be any utopias. "There's a sun in the sky," as Laurel Halo points out in the magazine, "but it's burning ever hotter." Includes interviews with DVA Damas, Farai, Laurel Halo, Mechatok, Parrish Smith, Steve Hauschildt; portraits on Golden Pudel's/V I S's Nina as well as Evil Grimace and Von Bikräv from Casual Gabberz; essays on "Late-Phase Identity Politics" (with Terre Thaemlitz) and "A Short History of the Aesthetics of Excess in Hip Hop"; columns on the oral history in reggae ("Basslines"), Black Sweat Records ("From Here Till Now"); pictures from Georg Gatsas ("We Are Time") and Nadja Stäubli (about Red Bull Music Academy Weekender 2016 in Zürich) as well as poetry with "Sound Texts"; Contributions by Das Ding, Macao, Laraaji, and German Army. Co-published with Motto Books. Bilingual: English/Deutsch; 152 pages; size: 190x 280mm; Edition of 2000.
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Cassette
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PE 010CS
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PE-010 is a pretty trippy split-tape between L.Zylberberg and Belia Winnewisser that should strike anybody's soft spot for esotericism. "Chatter", a 15-miuntes Balearic/electro-jam by L.Zylberberg, feels like a warm handshake between Manuel Göttsching and Heinrich Müller. "Chatter" features addition mixing by Silard Kru. L.Zylberberg does ring a bell? Then you've probably run into her at Berlin hotspots like Sameheads, O Tannenbaum, or Griessmühle. The other side of the tape features three synth-pop-y oddballs by Belia Winnewisser that are equally fragile, haunting, and strong, and they sit somewhere between the smell of melted butter and having a nude jog. Belia is a Lucerne-based artist that is part of α=f/m (alongside Rolf Laureijs) and goth-outfit Evje, among other projects. The split tape marks the tenth audio-release by Präsens Editionen. Black ink printed on pink cassette, housed in a glossy cardboard slipcase featuring calligraphic designs by Kaj Lehmann; Edition of 100.
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7"
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PE 009EP
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Präsens Editionen present 7-Split, a 7 inch split-EP presenting two tracks from Basel-based rave connoisseur Fabian Peña. Präsens Editionen dug deep into his vast archive of tracks and found two gems that are particularly striking: a live recording from a collaborative noise project called Nilbog and a Mr.Mitch-like peace-dub under his Mr.Peña moniker. Nilbog's "Liverecording 02/11/16" is an ever-changing, unpredictable and as-harsh-and-fun-as-it-gets piece of music. Mr.Peña lets loose, aiming at hardcore dancefloors with "TMC" while balancing between fight-or-flight terror and pacifying joy. Edition of 300.
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Cassette
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PE 008CS
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Präsens Editionen present the ambient soundscapes by industrial-pioneer Robert Turman. Veiling Reflections is a one-hour dark ambient-jam that is to equal parts narcotic and haunting. The brand new piece by Robert Turman is an outgrowth of zweikommasieben's Surreal Sleep - an event series featuring audio and visual material by different artists exploring the realm of sleep. Veiling Reflections was composed for an edition of Surreal Sleep during the RBMA Weekender Zurich in late 2016. Robert Turman is an American experimental and noise musician based in Oberlin, Ohio. In the seventies, he rose to prominence as part of NON, collaborating with Boyd Rice, before leaving to pursue his own more expansive solo vision during the eighties. After years of silence, Robert started to release music again in 2008 - together with noise artist Aaron Dilloway and on his own. Professionally dubbed cassette tapes; Edition of 100.
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12"
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PE 007EP
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On the EP f 109, Basel-based duo P.Noir celebrates the final fusion of dub and electroacoustic. Besides various feedback-loops and amps, the musical elements are reduced to the max. What's left is a 30-minute-trip into drums, drones and dread. After an unterwelt-y 12" by dane//close and a chaos-tape straight out of Lucerne, f 109 marks the third audio release of 2016 on Präsens Editionen, also home to the zweikommasieben Magazin.
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