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Edouard Cheritel

Suite No. 1

    Edouard Cheritel is a Paris based French composer who has been working on classical compositions for almost 25 years. At the age of four he started to learn the clarinet at the National Conservatory of Lyon and stayed there for 21 years. During this long development of his musical capabilities he has learned to write and play chamber and symphonic music - he studied classical composition for 15 years - and worked in the fields of modern composition for another 6 years.

    In the meantime Edouard always experimented with electronic music while being a member of several electronic and pop bands. The biggest commercial success was his project "Employee Of The Year", which has released two albums, layed several times on the French national television, has done remixes for SOHN & Wild Belle and provided several pieces for advertisements.

    After building this foundation as a very versatile artist over years, Edouard Cheritel finished his first solo compositions called "Suite No1" in 2019. They form a compact debut Suite consisting of four movements combining the classical composition skills of Edouard with his sensitivity for electronic tunes and a lightly pop appeal, resulting in a partly melancholic and partly very energetic journey.

    Beside the activities regarding the ongoing Suite series, Edouard Cheritel currently works on his debut solo full length and a project called "People" that he will realize in 2020. For "People" Edouard will compose music day-to-day together with and for the people in the pedestrian areas of Paris. Concrete plans for this project will be revealed at the end of 2019. In the future there will also be opportunitities to see his pieces being performed by himself solo in an intimate context or with a complete live orchestration he is currently working on.

    TRACK LISTING

    01 Movement 1 (4:54) 
    02 Movement 2 (7:08) 
    03 Movement 3 (3:26) 
    04 Movement 4 (8:09)

    Dag Rosenqvist + Matthew Collings

    Hello Darkness

      After his highly acclaimed „A Requiem For Edward Snowden“ LP, Matthew Collings returns with a collaboration with sound virtuoso Dag Rosenqvist. Hello Darkness is dark and it is bleak and it’s fragmented. It feels like those days when you want to just annihilate everything, and then stare at a river. It demands your attention. It sounds like it’s breaking from the inside. It’s serious. And not. Rosenqvist & Collings started their work on Hello Darkness already back in 2012, right after they had released the Wonderland EP (on Hibernate Recordings). This turned out to be one of those collabs that are kind of off and on.

      Rosenqvist & Collings worked destructively from processed stereo tracks with botched fade-ins, scrapping entire sessions and adding new layers and sounds of all kinds, letting it go in any directing it needed to, adding different time signatures on top of each other, turning sounds and entire tracks inside out and upside down. They found a freedom to go in any direction they wanted to, free from what they’ve done before, free from any expectations on both each other and from anyone else. Despite all of this, there is a humour to the album. There’s something tongue-in-cheek about the whole thing. This was also one of the reasons they choose to go with the title of the album, which is – in all honesty – slightly over the top. This was also the commission when creating the cover design. No holds barred, no restrictions. The title is of course “borrowed” from the Simon & Garfunkel track The Sound of Silence, a fact that probably doesn’t make them any cooler.

      TRACK LISTING

      1 It Was Digital, And It Was Beautiful 8:32 
      2 You Don't Have To Tell Me About Hell 4:12 
      3 Renaissance 4:52
      4 Hours And Days 1:48 
      5 Grey 5:21, 6 Streets 6:02
      7 In My Muscles 3:10
      8 The Age Of Wire And String 5:32

      Carlos Cipa, musician and composer residing in Munich (Germany), has been teaming up with pianist and composer SOPHIA JANI to follow up his highly acclaimed full length debut “The Monarch and the Viceroy“ with a two-piece collaboration record named RELIVE. Carlos discovered his passion for music very early in his life. At the age of 6 he began taking classical piano lessons with various renowned teachers. Ten years later after he started playing drums in different bands he became more and more interested in composition and improvisation. In the following years he made experiences in different music styles like jazz, hardcore/punk, indie rock and orchestral music.

      For his debut record on Denovali Records he focused on his main instrument, the piano. Currently, he is studying classical composition at the “University of Music and Performing Arts Munich”. Since the release of his debut record, Carlos so far shared the stage with marvelous acts like A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds. Sophia Jani, being in the beginning of her twenties like Carlos, has discovered her fascination for piano in a similar age. She is classically trained on piano and violin and has deepened her skills at the conservatory of music in Munich before she began studying piano at the conservatory in Bordeaux, France. Sophia left Bordeaux after one year turning away from just interpreting classical pieces to concentrate on writing her own music. Taking this crucial step, a concert of Ludovico Einaudi she attended played an important role. Recently Sophia developed an interest in filmscoring as well as experimenting with vocals.

      Besides classical composers like Chopin and Ravel, filmmusic especially from Bernard Hermann and Thomas Newman influenced her compositions. The two pieces “Anouk’s Dream” and “Whatever a Sun Will Always Sing” were written for Carlo’s and Sophia’s performance at the Denovali Swingfest 2013 in Essen. The idea was to jointly compose two piano pieces for four hands, which do not only include playing the ordinary way, but also utilising rather unusual sounds from inside the piano. Carlos and Sophia used all kinds of contemporary techniques to create these sounds, like plucking and beating the strings with their fingers or different kinds of beaters, bowing them with nylon guitar strings, creating harmonics while pressing fingers down on the strings during playing, using the „aeolian harp“-technique (used for the first time by Henry Cowell in 1923) or creating beats on the cast iron frame. Throughout the two tracks nothing other than their combined fingers, the two nylon strings and three different kinds of beaters were used to create the music, the pieces can be played live without using any electronics. During the recording process of the album RELIVE, neither of the compositions has been changed in any way. They were played exactly as in the live situation, which was a very important theme throughout this collaboration.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Anouk's Dream 13:32
      2. Whatever A Sun Will Always Sing 9:43

      Piano Interrupted is the brainchild of London-based pianist and composer Tom Hodge and French electronic producer Franz Kirmann. Coming from two very different musical worlds (electronica, pop and techno for Franz; classical and minimalism for Tom), the two musicians had been friends for a long time before deciding to make music together. The Unified Field is Piano Interrupted's 2nd album. It was recorded in London in the first half of 2013 and features 10 brand new compositions. Kirmann and Hodge began the recording process on Tom's childhood piano, a Pleyel baby grand complete with its own peculiar characteristics and quirky charm. Recordings of Greg Hall's cello followed, as well as the new addition of Tim Fairhall on double bass. The title of the album comes from David Lynch's book Catching The Big Fish. In the context of his film-making, Lynch explains that if such a field exists then everything within it interconnects in one way or another, so that scenes and elements that may initially seem disconnected from each other emotionally or in terms of meaning, would in fact eventually make sense. This idea seemed particularly fitting in a musical context also, as it neatly captures Piano Interrupted's core music-making methodology; namely to draw upon multiple, varied styles and influences and bring them into one coherent unifying whole.

      The Unified Field exhibits many classic Piano Interrupted's traits and tropes, but whereas their debut album Two By Four was all about discovery, the new album is about the deepening musical relationship between Kirmann and Hodge through their continuous exchange of ideas. If Two by Four was an amalgamation album borne of three EPs, then The Unified Field is a much more focused and concise snapshot of Piano Interrupted's approach. The new album simultaneously refers back to the intense intricacy of early EPs whilst building on developments from Piano Interrupted's live explorations and improvisations as well as the extended recording techniques and filmic sound of the Papa Hedi EP. Dense arrangements of fragile piano, colourful cinematic soundscapes, organic rhythmic textures and rich, warm strings provoke a diverse range of emotions. The Unified Field is both a seductive, one-time listening experience and a record to return to again and again to reveal its intricate secrets and subtleties.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Emoticon
      2. Two Or Three Things
      3. Cross Hands
      4. Darkly Shining
      5. The Unified Field
      6. An Accidental Fugue
      7. Open Line
      8. Camera Obscura
      9. Path Of Most Resistance
      10. Lost Coda

      For fans of : Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, Can, My Bloody Valentine, Boards Of Canada, Eno, Ennio Morricone. ‘Alpha Heaven’ is stepping through doors previously opened on AUN’s acclaimed 2011 ‘Phantom Ghost’ album. (''essential'' New Noise (France), ''as endlessly intriguing as it is majestic'' Rock-a-Rolla (UK), ''extraordinary'' Indie Rock Mag (France), ''amazing'' Titel Mag (Germany), ''one of the most beautiful experiments of the new millennium'' Storia Della Musica (Italy) ). Walking the line between, romantic, sinister, uplifting and melancholic hazy dreams of mistuned 70’s sci-fi TV, ‘Alpha Heaven’ is AUN’s most living and breathing recording to date. Mostly recorded in one take with little editing, apart from some overdubbed vocals, lounge organ and creaky acoustic piano parts. The space echoed, sometimes wobbly tape saturated tracks, evoke past and future, using a collection of electric pianos, organ, bass pedals and tapes, augmenting AUN’s otherworldly signature guitar, voice and electronics. Further merging their use of sometimes temperamental vintage analog, with more contemporary electronic equipment and techniques, the concise and focused tracks, find the duo at their most luminous and earthly, while pursuing their ongoing exploration of time, space and unknown dimensions.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Koenig
      2. Returna
      3. War Is Near
      4. Viva
      5. Vulcan
      6. La Luna
      7. Peacecalm
      8. Alpha
      9. Voyager
      10. Floodland
      11. Return To Jupiter

      WITXES is a sonic entity crashing popular music into singular music. This schizophrenic project, feminine, plural, finds its way in the balance between improvisation and passionate sound research. Since its inception, the project opened a couple of times for Tim Hecker (Kranky) on his european Ravedeath, 1972 tour, but also for Julianna Barwick (Asthmatic Kitty), Chelsea Wolfe (Pendu Sound), Christina Vantzou (Kranky), Duane Pitre (Important) or Colin Potter of Fovea Hex / Nurse With Wound, and created a special piece for an Extra Nuits Sonores 2010. Scrawls #01, a compilation of early works was self-released in December 2010, followed by isolated tracks on various labels compilations (Basses Fréquences, SEM, FutureSequence).

      February 2012 saw the release of a 26-min piece entitled Winter Light Burns for Leonardo Rosado’s FeedbackLoop label (PT). SORCERY / GEOGRAPHY, Witxes first album, was recorded between Autumn 2010 and Winter 2012 in various places such as the Ligerian woods, Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris, the underground of an old castle in Chemical Valley as well as a fancy recording facility in Lyon, before being mastered in Brisbane by Lawrence English. Aiming at balancing improvisation and passionate sound research, Sorcery / Geography is a witchcrafted recreation of an inmost geography. Roaming, roving and raving are giving birth to melodic spaces fed on colourful sound layers, shimmering textures and residual traces of sonic instants in which everyone can find a place.

      Previously released on Humanist Records in 2012 as a limited vinyl version, Denovali Records will re-issue this masterpiece on CD, vinyl, and digital, with reworked artwork and the bonus song 'Winter Light Burns' on CD, in line with the release of the new Witxes album 'A Fabric of Beliefs' in May 2013.

      TRACK LISTING

      01. Unlocation
      02. After The Horsefight
      03. Thirteen Emeralds
      04. Canyon Improbable
      05. The Reason
      06. Dead Reckoning
      07. Misscience
      08. Dunes Of Steel
      09. Somewhere
      10. No Sorcerer Of Mine
      11. Winter Light Burns (bonus Track)

      This schizophrenic, feminine and plural project, leaning toward esotericism, is a sonic entity crashing popular music into singular music. Aiming at balancing improvisation and passionate sound research, WITXES' debut 'Sorcery / Geography' was a witchcrafted recreation of an inmost geography. Roaming, roving and raving were giving birth to melodic spaces fed on colourful sound layers, shimmering textures and residual traces of sonic instants in which everyone can find a place. If 'Sorcery / Geography' took a look into the outside world, its follow-up is definitely about looking outside the inside world.

      'A Fabric of Beliefs' explores how our beliefs, whether they be ideas dogmas, superstitions, faith or spiritual convictions, sum up. It looks at how we pass them between us, giving shape to this ever-changing fabric; how we sew it, how we weave it, how it is hanging on us, how we try to make it fit. The album is not to be taken as a concept nor as an experimental process but more as an underlying narrative about this fabric: being the interface between our inner core and our everyday life. A Fabric of Beliefs sings stories about never ending pilgrimages, about our own personal mythologies, and the inconsistency of our strong conviction. In the light of the French language, the title widens its meaning up: « un tissu de mensonges », is an idiom used when someone is making up a whole story (literally « a fabric of lies »). The word « fabric » is also a false cognate of the word « fabrique » (a factory).

      The theme of this recording may seem to be far from its predecessor, but they end up being complementary and not so distant in terms of sound, therefore completing the birth of Witxes. A Fabric of Beliefs is, indeed, the nocturnal, pensive companion to Sorcery/Geography. The album was mainly recorded in the French black mountains and at Mikrokosm Recording Studios near Lyon, France. Just like Sorcery/Geography, this new release features guests who were involved in the late stages of creation, post-production by Benoît Bel, mastering by Lawrence English, and artwork collaboration with Alvina Von Rhein.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Through Abraxas I
      2. Through Abraxas II
      3. Through Abraxas III
      4. The Strands
      5. The Apparel
      6. The Breach
      7. The Visited
      8. The Weavers
      9. The Pilgrim
      10. The Turned
      11. The Words
      12. The Moonlit Passage

      .. It's been four years since their previous album, but now DOMINIC is finally ready with album number three, “Persona” // In the first years since their beginning in 2001, DOMINIC have mainly focused on concerts and live shows and have toured Europe a lot especially after 2003. Many DOMINIC releases have seen the light of the day during these years, including two full length albums. Most of these recordings had been done live and as quickly as possible. The band has had its focus on catching the nerve and roughness the live format adds, without spending too much time on post production. With the new album DOMINIC took a different approach and thus Persona marks a new step in their history as a band. DOMINIC started working on the songs for the album shortly after their previous album “Nord” was released in 2009. Since 2010 there have been fewer live shows, but a steady and continuous work on the material for Persona.

      Finally DOMINIC have been in and out of the recording studio in the Summer and Fall of 2012 to finish the record. The result is Persona, a manifestation of a band that has toured and played together for more than 10 years. DOMINIC have always been hard to label, but attemps to characterise them have used terms such as punk, hardcore, post-hardcore, screamo and post-rock. These are all genres the band is well known with, and musically DOMINIC is probably somewhere within. Yet, these terms could never suffice to describe Persona entirely, the only thing that's for certain is the fact that DOMINIC are DOMINIC, and Persona is Persona.

      The album name “Persona” is borrowed from the psychiatrist Carl Jung, who defined “the persona” as a mask, the facade we try to maintain in social settings. The persona-mask occurs between the individual and the society around, and is not more real than the characters played in a fictional play. Both in fiction and in real life, the mask has two functions; to make a certain impression on others, and to hide the true nature of the individual.

      TRACK LISTING

      1 To Live For
      2 Right For Me
      3 Skin Deep
      4 Expiration Date
      5 Dreamless Sleep
      6 The Only Thing That's For Certain
      7 A New Dawn
      8 Bottle Of Beast
      9 Last Breath

      This celebrated and long sold out self titled 2003 release of Switchblade is finally available again on both CD and vinyl, remastered and with a modified artwork. A 6 song, 47 minute journey, this album is the definition of epic. A dense sonic storm of ambient soundscapes, driving repetition, and dark instrumental passages, that's building to an immeasurable wall of sound and power. All with just sparse use of vocals. Switchblade have been seething and writhing within Sweden's prolific underground music community since 1998. Their progression was quick. In only a few years Switchblade went from wearing their influences on their sleeves to making major waves in a still young sub genre. Shaped equally by their love of the morose sounds of Joy Division, Swans, The Melvins, Neurosis, Isis, etc. 10 years later and with three further albums plus a Swedish Grammy nomination under their belt, Switchblade's sounds has shifter a bit, and Switchblade are now rather fans of Autopsy, Eagle Twin, Uriah Heep, Celtic Frost, Black Sabbath, Bohren & Der Club of Gore etc. Yet, Switchblade are still titans of minimalism and their 2003 marks an integral part of their discography as anybody can judge for himself.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Untitled 05:36
      2. Untitled 05:12
      3. Untitled 08:41
      4. Untitled 09:31
      5. Untitled 05:01
      6. Untitled 12:55

      After the debut album "Hypnos" and the "Veni Nox Anima" EP finally new material of this New York based composer. With ONEIROGEN, Mario Diaz de Leon creates his own style of hallucinatory music, merging ethereal synths, brutal distortion, dark ambient and noise. The project was initiated in 2012 with the release of "Hypnos", which garnered widespread acclaim among fans of experimental and heavy music for its varied and cinematic intensity. Steve Smith of the New York Times praised the disc for its hallucinatory intensity. While maintaining a strong electronic (and unclassifiable) sound, "Kiasma" offers an intensification of the metal elements present on the debut. Thoughout the album's walls of drumless distortion, melody is a prominent feature, with tracks such as "Numina", "Mutilation", "Pathogen", and "Mortisomnia" exploring revelatory intersections of heavy synths and guitars. The 14-minute "Katabasis" opened nearly every live show of 2012, and is rooted in drone/doom metal, with elements of modern classical and noise. "Gauze" and "Imminence" serve as haunting interludes, and are concise takes on bleak and cold melody. Ranging from melancholic to brutally foreboding, another immersive and visionary album by ONEIROGEN.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Numina (6:08)
      2. Pathogen (6:50)
      3. Mutilation (7:26)
      4. Imminence (4:16)
      5. Katabasis (14:35)
      6. Gauze (2:39)
      7. Mortisomnia

      The Pirate Ship Quintet

      The Pirate Ship Quintet

      The Pirate Ship Quintet’s self-titled debut E.P was first released in 2007 and quickly acquired a certain chic status among the niche circles of the U.K and European post-rock scene. It’s very limited print run (only 200 LPs and 500 Cds) sold out rapidly and until now has never been repressed. The record was recorded and mixed by the band and mastered by CULT OF LUNA drummer, Magnus Lindberg following the two bands sharing a stage and becoming allies. The E.P has placed extremely highly among countless ‘best of’ lists and has received honourable mentions from some of the most respected critics on the post-rock scene. Its exceedingly favourable reception, despite the absence of any promotion at all, is testament to the record’s substance. Soon after The Pirate Ship Quintet played its first U.K tour, the band disappeared from the live scene, only making music for personal pleasure, seldom appearing on stage and formally releasing none of the material they wrote. At the start of 2012 the band’s phenomenally talented cellist, who has played with the likes of The London Symphony Orchestra among others, accepted a full-time position with the National Orchestra of Wales which is based very close to the band’s home town. With all members of the group living in the same part of the UK once more and with their own small studio in the heart of Bristol they made the decision to return to functioning as a working band again.

      CD: nice digipak packaging
      Vinyl: thick gatefold sleeves; 180g vinyl; various different vinyl colors; free download code.


      TRACK LISTING

      1. Lost Science
      2. I Kina Spiser De Hund
      3. Pirate Ship

      A masterwork of minimalism, 'Winter Lady' - Alicia Merz's sophomore solo effort as Birds Of Passage sees an return to the desolate and melancholic soundcscapes of her highly acclaimed debut, 'Without The World'. With 'Winter Lady', Alicia presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation, a worthy addition to the oeuvre of Birds Of Passage. The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark. It's as if we are listening to the sound of winter itself; an audio exposure to the unforgiving elements of winter. With allusions to dark-pop and classic broken-folk, the reverb drenched instrumentation, metaphorical fairytale lyrics, and anti-climactic compositionsi remind us that Alicia Merz is a singer songwriter for people who don't like singer songwriters. With 'Winter Lady', Alicia re-establishes herself as a true musical maverick - who is able to capture the imaginations of audiences as diverse as those of Sigur Ros, Grouper and Zola Jesus. In short, Birds Of Passage's ''Winter Lady' is an album of authentic experimentation, masterful minimalism, immense tragedy, and glacial beauty. It is not surprising that already after the first album Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick (Efterklang) belonged to the fanbase of Birds Of Passage.


      TRACK LISTING

      1. Fatal Melody
      2. Highwaymen In Midnight Masks
      3. Away With The Night
      4. Disaster Of Dreams
      5. Hollow
      6. The Monster Inside You
      7. Waltz While We Sleep

      Even in the times of the internet where every band tries to find the quick success there are still some pearls out there who write and play sophisticated music since years – but never want to reach new fans via simple stupid promotion strategies and tools like myspace or facebook. So Kom from Germany released two little pieces of art (a double 5’’ cd book in 2006 and a very beautiful handmade 10’’ in 2009) in 4 years without trying to get the big short-term attention. For sure both are sold out since a while - luckily there are also still fans of honestly made not hyped good music around.

      Now Kom are back with their first real full length. The new record "Berry White" won't change their opinion about music and how they want to reach people – but with these new 12 songs they maybe get the attention of a wider audience they deserve. You still can’t talk about 12 single songs because this record again just makes sense if you look at it as a whole piece of art. It’s the homogeneity of artwork (a very limited handmade book for the vinyl version/ handprinted cardboard sleeves for the CD version), lyrics, interludes and the real songs which makes the record unique and outstanding. They still write and play those little pieces of art far away from established genre clichés. You can call it a mixture of indie-rock, singer songwriter or postrock – but all of these bromides don’t fit at all. They’re very influenced by old 60’s film music – but don’t sound like that. They like to listen to Robert Wyatt, Harmonia or Radiohead – but they don’t copy them. They’re just Kom – four guys from three cities in Germany who visit a small cottage in the woods every 2nd year to write a new refreshing and outstanding record... they write it for themselves and a few friends – they still don’t care if the press or new fans like it. And we think that’s their real strength. Enjoy!

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Hoist
      2. Fruits
      3. Fifteen
      4. Exobeat
      5. Citrinus
      6. Eightteen
      7. Teer
      8. Twenty
      9. Fittings
      10. Polyester Day
      11. Dart
      12. Seek


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