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viewing 1 To 5 of 5 items
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SFERIC 005LP
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Absorbingly intricate ambient electronics from Echium, a secluded Manchester producer returning for a second release on sferic, the label home to Space Afrika, Perila, and Jake Muir. After inaugurating sferic with the Synthetic Space LP in 2017, Echium now leads the way with a remarkably refined, even meticulous grasp of sound design steering away from purely "synthetic space" to imaginary spaces that smudge the listener's perceptions of artificial and organic texture, tone, and spatial dynamics. Like the best of its contemporary field, from Vladislav Delay to uon and Heith, the meticulous technical physics of Disruptions Of Form provides the framework for a gently haunting spectra of metaphysical presence or spirited pathos to bleed through and reveal the sort of ghost in the machine that electronic music lovers prize. Collaged from banks of unfinished material, the results resemble a spongiform patchwork of shine-eye ambient-pop gestures and cosmic electro-acoustic parts that smudge and crystalize into a heavy-lidded, quietly beguiling narrative. The nine tracks resemble an archipelago of interlinked microcosmos, each a variation of the last, following a deformed geologic chain reaction of events through its terraforming sonic sculptures that appear to describe subaquatic organisms and their environment with close attention paid to both microscopic detail and plangent panoramics. As part of the next wave of artists innovating within dub techno and experimental ambient zones, Echium looks to loosen up its strictures while playing deep within its unfathomable dimensions, literally urging a dematerialization of mindsets and musical structures with literal titles such as "Collapsed Senses" and "Glacial Rust" matched by meticulous sound design that surely connotes and evokes their meaning in the most elusively abstract, lushly sensorial terms. Mastered and cut by Stefan Betke at Scape mastering. RIYL: West Mineral Ltd., Vladislav Delay, Jan Jelinek, Pole. Translucent orange vinyl; Edition of 300.
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SFERIC 004LP
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Answering a need for sincerity and intimacy in overwhelming times, Berlin's Perila makes her striking solo debut on sferic with a suite of sonic erotica, ASMR, and sensuous ambient environments. Born in St. Petersburg and based in Berlin, Alexandra Zakharenko, aka Perila, cut her teeth as in-house designer and programmer at the recently defunct Berlin Community Radio (BCR) before co-founding the Russian online station radio.syg.ma, which hosted one of her early productions on the SYGMATURE compilation in spring 2019. Perila is also founder of WET (Weird Erotic Tension), an online community exploring ideas of sonic sexuality in podcasts mixing spoken word, poetry, ASMR, and field recordings. Irer Dent stems directly from two WET podcasts, revolving readings of an erotic novel and a collection of poems by Nat Marcus and Inger Wold Lund, each set to absorbingly hypnagogic backdrops, and both accompanied by quietly seductive, original instrumental works. In five parts the album traces a filigree line between reality and fantasy in a more literal way than the label's previously all-instrumental releases. On "Nat's Poems" the voice of Nat Marcus regales a poetic account of Berlin nightlife woven with classic house lyrics from Rosie Gaines and Mr. White over 12 minutes of tumescent sub bass and phosphorescing pads. Where sensuality is implied on that piece, it's quietly explicit in the LP's other vocal piece "Sweat", which revolves around Inger Wold Lund recounting a dream about suppressed sexual desire in a hushed and unaffected manner amid a shimmering forcefield of spectral energy and meridian birdsong. Both pieces are complemented by extra subtle originals, including the barely-there, pink/purple hues of "Mouth Full of Tahini". Slipping very sweetly into sferic's liminal ambient space alongside Space Afrika, Echium, and Jake Muir, Irer Dent lends a distinct new shade of modern, adult, atmospheric emotion to the exploratory, Manchester-based label. RIYL: Félicia Atkinson, Huerco S, Leslie Winer. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space, cut at Dubplates & Mastering.
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SFERIC 003LP
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Sferic cruise the best coast with Jake Muir's solo debut, arriving in pursuit of the immersive ambient-architextural themes which also influenced Space Afrika's warmly received Somewhere Decent To Live LP (SFERIC 002LP, 2018) and Echium's lush Synthetic Space side (SFERIC 001LP, 2017). Jake Muir is a sound designer and artist from Los Angeles, California, where he's previously recorded and released albums under the Monadh moniker for Further Records and Dragon's Eye Recordings, the latter of which recently lead to his inclusion on the Touch compilation Live At Human Resources (2018), where he took part in a beautiful group tribute to Jóhann Jóhannsson along with a number of solo contributions. On Lady's Mantle Muir unfurls a poignant sound image crafted from samples of a well-loved American pop group and later smudged with field recordings made everywhere from Iceland to California. In nine succinct scenes, the results loosely limn a wide sense of space and place with its fading harmonic auroras and glinting, half-heard surf rock melodies rendered in an abstract impressionist manner that suggests a fine tracing of in-between-spaces, perhaps describing metropolitan sprawl giving way to vast mountain ranges and oceanic scales. In effect, the album recalls the intoxicated airs of Pinkcourtesyphone (aka L.A. resident Richard Chartier) as much as Andrew Pekler's sensorial soundscapes and even the plangent production techniques of Phil Spector. But for all its implied sense of space, ultimately there's a paradoxically close intimacy to proceedings which feels like you're the passenger in Muir's ride, and he patently knows the scenic route. Mastered by Lawrence English.
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SFERIC 002LP
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2023 repress forthcoming... Ambient duo Space Afrika offer a bird's-eye view of the city center at night with Somewhere Decent To Live; their keenly anticipated first album on Sferic -- the Manchester-based label they run in conjunction with Will Boyd. Taking gaseous form as a series of dark blue hues and electromagnetic sub-bass impulses, the vibe inside is delectably elusive. Unlike their previous transmissions on Where To Now? and Köln's LL.M., the pair's dancefloor urges are dissolved in favor of suggestively mutable ambient frameworks this time, leaving the kicks in the club whilst they appear to float overhead like the dead kid embarking his Bardo in Gaspar Noé's Enter The Void (2010). Unshackled from dancefloor needs, but still inspired and feeding off its spirit and romance, the pair respectfully acknowledge the undercurrents of jungle, dubstep, ambient techno, and deep house which feed into their home city's late-night economy, dowsing their tributaries back to dub and rendering the findings in a quiet, modestly lush ambient haze with a flawlessly anesthetizing effect. In firm but gentle style they feel out eight interlinked headspaces, drifting like spectral flaneurs from the Diversions-like opener "uwëm/creation" to intercept telepathic thoughts from Teutonic friends in the percolated subs and drizzly ambient clag of "sd/tl", before arriving at the most arresting moment in their catalog thus far with the masterfully widescreen yet immersive "bly" and its sublimely smeared timbral thizz. The second half of the record subsequently describes a more inward journey from wistful loops in "u+00B1" to the sylvan two-step of "gwabh" and "curve", featuring Echium, ultimately culminating in the echo chamber melt of "dred". RIYL: Jan Jelinek, Huerco S, Detroit Escalator Company, The Connection Machine. Master and lacquer cut by Pole at Scape Mastering.
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SFERIC 001LP
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The sferic label bubbles up from Manchester city center with Echium's debut suite of charming ambient gestures, neatly expanded by empathetic, weightless house remixes from local cuties, Perfume Advert and Space Afrika. Their mutual first move, Synthetic Space positions both Echium and sferic within a well-rooted tradition of Berlin kosmische, dub, and Detroit techno-informed electronics emanating from the rainy city, producing a wistful spirit that resonates with Martin Hannett's work for The Durutti Column as much as J.S. Zeiter's mutable dub techno and the humbly mannered moves of the CCO and meandyou labels. Its eight original tracks oscillate between effervescent tones and grained electronics with a carefully realized, cybernetic nuance, locating a lush balance of haptic nudge and detached process that really gets under the skin in altered states. It's active in the opening cut, "Blended Textures"' swirl of arid chords and frothing acid, and smudged deeply into the glowing pores of "Juum" and the noumenal bleep space of "Looum", and aching with a love-bot sentience in the Shinichi Atobe-esque title track, all on the A side, whereas the B side subtly edges up the bass to tactile, insistent degrees with the air-stepping "Ethereal" and "Activation" beauties giving way to the arabesque vignette, "Jazz Interlude". Special mention, then for the remixes, with Salford's Perfume Advert playing to their Anxiety Support Group tendencies with nervously deferred but soothing results, and the ascendant Space Afrika duo hustling a rolling, heads-down "Tribalist Dub" version that leaves the disc simmering for another spin. RIYL: Lee Gamble, Lanark Artefax, Jan Jelinek, Shinichi Atobe. Master and lacquer cut by Stefan Betke at Scape.
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