British artist Douglas Dare announces the release of his fourth album Omni. Seen by Douglas himself as a bold rebirth and embrace of the electronic, Omni is all at once a throbbing, avant-garde, queer, dark and cinematic record imbued with a love of rave culture and sense of fearless storytelling that’s deeply evocative. Omni will be released on May 10 via Erased Tapes. To mark the announcement, Douglas today shares the first taster of the record with ‘Mouth To Mouth’, a pulsing, synth-laden track that begs to be played loud. ‘Mouth To Mouth’ sees a collaboration with label mate Daniel Brandt who appears on production duties, with beats supplied by Rival Consoles. Speaking on the track, Douglas says, “life, death, fate and orgies; this is the heartfelt club track I always wanted to write.” Since 2013, Douglas has blurred classical, chamber-pop, folk and avant-garde to dazzling effect, with a startling voice that can stop you in your tracks. It’s why he’s played with luminaries like Nils Frahm, Perfume Genius and Ólafur Arnalds, and was selected by David Lynch and The Cure’s Robert Smith for their respective cultural festivals in Manchester (MIF) and London (Meltdown). But Douglas’s fourth album, Omni, is a fresh awakening. Encouraged by Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths, he decided to step away from acoustic instruments, especially the piano he grew up playing, and swapped them for synths and drum machines. His new music has much in common with Arca and the late SOPHIE, two artists for whom self-expression meant liberation. “I got to hang out in the studio with her,” says Douglas of the latter musician, “the way she made music made a big impression on me.” And yet Omni is steeped in the kind of deft storytelling, sweeping strings, elegant contrasts and fairytale atmosphere that marks Douglas out as a crucial and singular voice. It’s not often you hear a strutting electro banger that could have been straight out of 90s Soho, with vocal loops inspired by US experimentalist Meredith Monk. For Douglas, Omni is about reconciling all those different sides of himself – the songwriter, the raver, the lover, the observer. It’s a hugely queer record: seductive, sexy, lusty, untethered from the genre binary. “It’s even got sailors on it!” laughs Douglas. “You don’t get more queer than that.

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Today, migration seems to be encoded into everyday habits. As so many of our minds and bodies aggressively globalise in unprecedented ways, previously fixed “genres” and identities of any kind are constantly being dismantled, made redundant, and born anew.

It’s from this space of flux that American composer and vocalist Sheherazaad derives song. Her mini-album, Qasr, was engendered during a time of family estrangement, grief over a lost elder, and the racial polarisation of her country as she knew it.

Translating to “castle” or “fortress” in Urdu, Qasr is indeed a monument — like encapsulation of the real strains of displacement, the push and pull of diaspora, and the depravity of erasure and forgotten roots. These experiences and their inherent violence, hysteria, and romance imbue her sonic deep-dive into the world of the so-called in-between.

Native to the San Francisco Bay Area, Sheher studied Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu in an attempt to re-access lost heritage, where she quickly advanced and wrote test lyrics. These would result in her self-released 2020 underground project Khwaabistan, and garner the attention of Arooj Aftab, who offered to produce her next record.

Working long-distance from separate coasts during the pandemic, the pair got to work on Qasr. The collaboration would culminate in the heart of Brooklyn at the Glass Wall studio, during late-night, feverish recording sessions and utilising a groundbreaking cast of international musicianship, including Basma Edrees (Egypt), Gilbert Mansour (Lebanon), and Firas Zreik (Palestine); mastered by Heba Kadry (Björk, Ryuichi Sakamoto).

And so, on Qasr, Sheherazaad gives us a beguiling new soundscape, not yet of this world. But she also stokes the flame of fantasies inherent to the nomadic experience, which may finally be brought to the fore. Overall, the bewitching album finds an artist building her own fortress, while enticing us to forge our own castles, musical queendoms, and impossible dreamlands.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mashoor
2. Dhundlo Lo Mujhe
3. Koshish
4. Khatam
5. Lehja

This autumn, Erased Tapes are set to release ‘Give It to the Sky: Arthur Russell’s Tower of Meaning Expanded’ by composer and producer Peter Broderick and French 12-piece group Ensemble 0; a complete re-recording of Russell’s epic minimalist orchestral composition originally released in 1983. Released 6th October, ‘Give It to the Sky’ also includes unreleased tracks by Russell which have been restored and re-recorded, resulting in an 80-minute reanimation that threads several lost songs into a meticulous and gorgeous rendering.

Ensemble 0 weave in and out of Broderick’s additions. ‘Corky’, a poignant cowboy ballad that Russell never finished, appears, disappears, and reappears three times, the droning exhalations of ‘Tower of Meaning’ making it feel sweeter and sadder. Arriving just after the triumphant halfway mark, the title track is a sublime meditation on mere existence, about staring at some simple rural scene and marcelling at the miracle of being anywhere at all. It is an apt encapsulation of how this entire project feels – a glorious way to hear something that might have seemed familiar as if for the very first time.

Russell was never much for definitive versions, of course. He was constantly rethinking the possibilities of a piece, of wondering what else it could do. ‘Give it to the Sky’ is a powerful affirmation of those principles, using Tower of Meaning’s framework to build outward and upward, to shape something that functions within Russell’s wondrous, paradoxical world. And ‘Give it to the Sky’ is also not intended to be some definitive last word. Broderick and Ensemble 0 speak already of the ways it may shift on stage, of where else it might lead.

TRACK LISTING

A1.Tower Of Meaning I
A2. Tower Of Meaning II
A3. Tower Of Meaning III
A4. Tower Of Meaning IV
A5. Corky I / White Jet Set Smoke Trail I
A6. Consideration
B1. Tower Of Meaning V
B2. Tower Of Meaning VI
B3. Tower Of Meaning VII
B4. Tower Of Meaning VIII
B5. Tower Of Meaning IX / Corky II
C1. Tower Of Meaning X
C2. Give It To The Sky
D1. Tower Of Meaning XI
D2. Tower Of Meaning XII
D3. Corky III
D4. White Jet Smoke Trail II

Ahead of his upcoming North American and European live A/V tour, Rival Consoles reissues his fan favourite ‘Night Melody’ on limited edition blue vinyl, coinciding with its 7th anniversary this month.

'Night Melody' was born out of and shaped by long hours working into the night. It retains a nocturnal sound, capturing the mystery often associated with the late hours. As Rival Consoles describes it, "I found myself, in a silent home, with the days getting dark very early. I’ve never before in my life been affected by the lack of light so much. I just remember it always being night time. I would either make music into the night, go out drinking with friends, or go to parties and dance into the early hours, every day, week after week, month after month, until eventually the days became brighter again."

The opening statement ‘Pattern of the North’ starts off with a collage of spliced synth melodies, inspired by anxiety that accompanies going home for Christmas. It’s followed by ‘Johannesburg’, an early sketch gradually filled out during his tour in South Africa. “After playing it around some of the cities, I got a lot of inspiration to bring it to life and push it into something that really moves me. I think this is one of my most colourful pieces of music, with its driving rhythm and almost a homage to Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ towards the end, with a build of very simple, hypnotic parts. I especially love that for over five minutes the piece is tied to just one note. This makes the ending very dramatic, because all of a sudden there is this harmonic change.”

‘Lone’ started life around the time Ryan was working on his ‘Sonne’ EP in 2014. It’s the result of constant adjustments to find the perfect balance of fragility and assurance. As everything on the album, it’s a carefully considered, emotionally mature piece. “I think, as I get older, I need music to represent something and not just sound interesting, though of course the two are connected.” The closing statement ‘What Sorrow’ is a fitting end to the album, building from gentle melancholia to a joyous crescendo. It’s a sensibility that’s central to the record; joy and sorrow both find their counterpoints.

“This record is very personal to me and I hope it offers something for other people, as it helped me to make it and to listen to it. Almost every synth line was recorded intuitively, without perfection but with a lot of intention and expression. I’m not interested in making something sad or making something happy. I want music to be bittersweet, to be more complex, like life – containing moments of vibrant colour and hope, as much as darkness and sadness.

Ryan is set to embark on an exciting tour this Autumn/Winter, across North America and Europe. The tour kicks off in notable cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Mexico City. The journey culminates in an unforgettable finale at the enchanting Wonderfruit Festival in Thailand.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Pattern Of The North
A2. Johannesburg
A3. Slow Song
B1. Lone
B2. Night Melody
B3. What Sorrow

Icelandic composer Högni’s score for the much acclaimed Netflix’s series Katla will see its full release on July 28. The series takes place in Iceland, after the subglacial volcano Katla has been erupting constantly for a whole year, Gríma is still looking for her missing sister who disappeared the day the eruption started. As her hope of ever finding her body is fading, the residents of the surrounding area start to have visits from unexpected guests. There might be something hidden under the glacier no one could ever have foreseen.

Speaking about the score, Högni says: “when I was asked by Baltasar [Kormákur] – the director and show creator – I started writing so when the filming was finished, I had already written a number of pieces for the show. As relatively in-experienced in the field I imagined that my work was finished and the rest was a matter of post-production and music editing. However it immediately became clear that my ambitions and the nature of the project called for second, third and fourth wind in order to fulfil the auditory architecture that needed to be built”. Realising it was a monumental task, Högni kept a strict schedule every day, starting by writing and arranging in the morning, recording and mixing in the afternoon and presenting to the producer each evening. The score was recorded in Högni’s own studio, where him and his collaborators consisting of Tóti Guðnason, Inga Magnes, Petter Ekman, Þórunn Ósk and Sigurgeir found themselves working in a completely different way than they’ve done before, due to the nature of the project – “we worked the music out of my studio in Reykjavik, where a healthy number of musicians rotated through at the pace of an average ice cream parlour on a long summers evening in Reykjavik. The urgency of delivering cues and material left one in the state of instinctual execution at all hours without hesitation”.

TRACK LISTING

A
1. KTLA
2. Anda Inn Gu (ft. Hatis Noit)
3. Resurgentis
4. El'
5. Aequilibrium
6. Andardr'ttur Myrkrah'f'ingjans
B
7. Gratandi Jeg Thig Bei'i (ft. Eron Thor J'nsson)
8. Tactus
9. Bo'or'
10. Larva
11. Tryptic
12. Vivus
13. Elegy (ft. Hallveig R'narsdottir)

Penguin Cafe return with new album Rain Before Seven.. A sense of optimism infuses Penguin Cafe’s fifth studio album, not the braggadocious, overconfident kind, but more a blithe, self-effacing optimism in keeping with the national character. Even when all signs point to the contrary, it operates within the certainty that things are going to be alright. Probably.

The title comes from an old weather proverb with the rhyming prognostication — fine before eleven — hinting at a happy ending, irrespective of the science: “I found it in a book and I'd never heard it before,” says Arthur Jeffes, leader of Penguin Cafe. “It has faintly optimistic overtones and I quite like it. It's fallen out of usage recently but it does describe English weather patterns coming in off the Atlantic.”

From the widescreen reverie of opener ‘Welcome to London’ with its cheeky nod to Morricone to ‘Goldfinch Yodel’, the self-described “Maypole banger” at the denouement, there’s a welcome sense of sanguinity, always with an undercurrent of exotic rhythmic exuberance. Playfulness pervades, with a titular nod to A Matter of Life… from 2011, the last album title that concluded with an ellipsis. That Penguin Cafe debut is the bridge between the legendary Penguin Cafe Orchestra, led by Arthur’s father Simon Jeffes, and the muchloved descendent, led by Arthur.

“Stylistically it's really satisfying to get back to playful rhythms and instruments,” says the younger Jeffes, who kept the group’s debut from 12 years ago in mind when writing the new album. “Certainly when starting out, I became aware that we’d stopped using quite a few of the textures that had been there at the beginning—and it was certainly there in my dad's earlier stuff. So there's a lot of balafon and textures from completely different parts of the world, musically and geographically: ukuleles, cuatros and melodicas that you can hear.”

Encouraged by co-producer Robert Raths, the rhythmic elements of Rain Before Seven… have never been more to the fore and, at times, even hint at the electronic. ‘Find Your Feet’, for instance, is underpinned with more than just a pulse. Mixed by Tom Chichester-Clark, it brings to the musical melange what Arthur describes as a “near electronic feel”. He adds, excitedly: “There are elements of fun here which we haven't really done with the last three records.” Another ebullient highlight is ‘In Re Budd’, dedicated to the late ambient godfather Harold Budd, who Arthur discovered had died on the day he’d been writing the celebratory ear worm with a deceptively tricky syncopation. Played on an upright piano with some “prepared” felt to accentuate the bounce, Jeffes feels a track with an Afro Cuban Cafe vibe would appeal to Budd’s contrariness.

And then there’s the aforementioned ‘Welcome to London’, which got its name as the world started to open up and people were finally allowed to fly again. Jeffes, who touched down on home soil for the first time in a while, was struck by its cinematic John Barry-esque qualities as he took a taxi into West London from Heathrow with the mise-en-scène of the opulent twilight. The optimism is there, and maybe a little caustic irony too. “Robert [Raths] added a layer of nuance which I think is interesting, because many Londoners are not from London originally. So you pitch up to London as an outsider, and you haven't really found your tribe yet, you get mugged… and then ‘Welcome to London’ takes on a more sarcastic resonance.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1 Welcome To London
2 Temporary Shelter From The Storm
3 In Re Budd
4 Second Variety
5 Galahad
Side B:
6 Might Be Something
7 No One Really Leaves…
8 Find Your Feet
9 Lamborghini 754
10 Goldfinch Yodel

Following the reissue of Bell Orchestre's debut album "Recording a Tape the Colour of Light" and their Juno award-winning second album "As Seen Through Windows" Erased Tapes is excited to announce the reissue of the band's original remix EP "Who Designs Nature's How". Bell Orchestre is a collaborative instrumental, Montreal based group who originally formed back in 1999. The first music they created was predominately live scores for contemporary dance performances and theatrical puppet shows. The fusion of Bell Orchestre's wildly divergent musical backgrounds and the energy created from this connection is the catalyst to the group's signature avantgarde sound. “

Who Designs Nature's How” features remixes of select songs from Bell Orchestre's second full-length album “As Seen Through Windows” and has been pressed on vinyl for the first time ever - originally only released on CD and exclusively sold on tour. Besides being pressed on vinyl for the very first time, the record features brand-new cover artwork by Munich-based graphic designer Bernd Kuchenbeiser. The album includes the spellbinding reinterpretation of Water / Light / Shifts courtesy of fellow Canadian electronic producer Tim Hecker.

“Listening to this, 14 years later and having totally forgotten making this one afternoon, was a reminder that things do change. I can hear the old markers of granular synthesis, Nord Modular synth and fake mellotron samples. These are tools left on a past workbench. It has the rough style of probably 5 layers of improvisation stacked against each other, in a way that feels both like home and yet also some distant foreign self.” — Tim Hecker In addition to Tim Hecker's lead single Water / Light / Shifts, The album also features contributions from the late Japanese prodigious composer Susuma Yokota, dub legend Mad Professor, Canadian DJ and producer Kid Koala, as well as long-time friend and collaborator Colin Stetson amongst others. I have some incredible memories from my brief stint as occasionally joining these lovely friends on stages around the world, and I am excited to see this music flitting about once again.

Erased Tapes are thrilled to announce the reissue of Bell Orchestre second album As Seen Through Windows out on April 28th.

Bell Orchestre is a collaborative instrumental group based in Montreal. Whose six members come from wildly divergent musical backgrounds, and the unlikely chemistry that results from their collaboration is the very thing that sustains their connection. It’s as if the group as a whole has tapped into a very particular, very distinct energy: like that of an approaching storm. In many ways, Bell Orchestre is the sum of not only its parts but the sum of its influences and inspirations

Expanding further on the foundation that Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light laid, the group refined and tightened their sound on this masterpiece.

Bell Orchestre retreated to Banff Centre in the rocky mountains of Alberta to write the follow-up to their debut album. The title As Seen Through Windows is inspired by the rehearsal space where it was written. The room had two exterior walls entirely made of windows, and with the cinematic view of the mountains they saw occasional herds of elks and deer’s passing by.

The specifics of time and place, the elemental forces at work outside, and those forces that exist inside, all come into play within Bell Orchestre’s musical process. This particular music could be made by no one else at no other time in history.

The album was produced by John McEntire (Stereolab, Jeff Parker), drummer and producer of the legendary Chicago post-rock band Tortoise. McEntire had been the group’s dream producer to work with. “I think I was more starstruck around John McEntire than I’d been around anyone before,” says violinist Sarah Neufeld. McEntire was up for trying anything in the studio, and inspired the band endlessly.

Now looking back at the recording sessions, lap steel guitarist Michael Feuerstack remembers “I don’t know how aware we were of the uniqueness of our bond and the resulting methods of music making, but they are very evident across this recording.”

Following the original release, they went on to tour the world, from festivals and theatres to small venues.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stripes
2. Elephants
3. Icicles / Bicycles
4. Water / Light / Shifts
5. Bucephalus Bouncing Ball
6. As Seen Through Windows
7. The Gaze
8. Dark Lights
9. Air Lines / Land Lines

"If I knew I were alive, I could do so much better. If I knew what I had, then I could use it more wisely. If only I’d known before then I’d be in a better place already. If only."

London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare releases new EP, following on from his debut album Whelm. Named after album track Caroline and new track If I Knew I Were Alive, it also features remixes by fellow label mate Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles and Houndstooth’s own electronic producer Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow.

Caroline has always been a precious track for Douglas, one of the first tracks he recorded and a story in which he imagines his grandfather is writing to a loved one during the war. As the only song on his debut album that is stripped down to just his voice and piano playing, and it being a favourite amongst fans at his concerts, it was a natural choice as a first single.

The new track If I Knew I Were Alive Douglas wrote by creating beats, looping them and recording parts live. Dancing around to the beats in his room, he started singing melodies and coming up with ideas that he wouldn’t usually have, sitting at the piano. The idea that we can do a lot more if only we appreciated our own ability and opportunity encouraged Douglas to not take the track to anyone else to re-record it, but to work with what he had created himself.

“The recording has this demo quality, which I really enjoy. I love how revealing a demo can be. It seems to expose the fundamental ideas the songwriter had and the basic quality of the recording is very revealing. One of my favourite records is PJ Harvey’s ‘4 Track Demos’, where the songs are so stripped back that you can appreciate the finest details.” – Douglas Dare

Ryan Lee West, who crafted the Rival Consoles remix of album track Swim explains, “the track existed in a minimal state for a while, and I kept thinking something was missing. There's always something missing! And then out of casual chance, I was sorting through my portable recorder files, and I came across a recording of an installation that I did, which included four motors hitting glockenspiel or xylophone notes at random. I chopped it up in a few seconds and it worked perfectly. It adds texture and movement to the remix. But what's important about these sounds is that they are not in time. I think this remix creates sense of space, subtlety and physicality.”

"The original is so well put together, and the vocal so unique that it was a hard one to approach. I set out to reflect the beauty of the vocal in the intro, so that I could build it into something darker later on. This also mirrors the meaning of the vocal. The last sections are meant to evoke feelings of being washed away by a torrent” – Ross Tones about his Throwing Snow remix of Nile.

Ireland based American songsmith Peter Broderick announces the release of Piano Works Vol. 1 (Floating in Tucker’s Basement) — a new comprehensive album of solo piano recordings out November 25. Shining a light on the artist’s ongoing piano-based compositions, this release offers an opportunity to celebrate his more intimate work.

A comprehensive collection of Peter Broderick’s piano work to date, these recordings were originally captured in Berlin to accompany the 2017 sheet music book Piano Works Vol. 1. The book contains 20 pieces for solo piano and a download code to access new recordings of all 20 pieces. Up until now, the only way to hear these recordings was to purchase the sheet music book.

This release sees the original recordings receiving further treatment and processing by Tucker Martine in the customised echo chamber of his studio in Portland, Oregon—the region where Broderick grew up. The clean and unaffected original recordings were intended for educational purposes, so for this release Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths suggested to ‘throw the recordings into the well’, for a more dynamic and conscious listening experience.

“We gave these recordings a bit of a makeover. We sent all the tracks over to legendary engineer/producer Tucker Martine, who processed all 20 of them with unique tape and reverb treatments, utilising the echo chamber of his Portland studio, Flora Recording & Playback,” explains Broderick.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Peter Broderick is a lovely man and a fine composer, with his interests and abilities spanning a huge variety of genres, but for my money is at his most profoundly moving (apart from on the spine-tingling 'Home') when he's behind the piano. Piano works is, predictably, exactly that (piano pieces) and spans all of his albums to date. Nuanced, tender piano pieces with Broderick's perfect melodic ear.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sonata For The Sirius
2. A Snowflake
3. Diverge
4. Pulling The Rain
5. Low Light
6. Bernard & Elba’s Waltz
7. Under The Bridge
8. Moment
9. Query
10. It’s A Storm When I Sleep
11. Eyes Closed And Traveling
12. Planes (Solo)
13. Ceasefire
14. Carried
15. Laden
16. Three Floats
17. Up Niek Mountain
18. Conspiraling
19. When I’m Gone
20. Dearest

A new compilation titled Erased Tapes 十五, encompassing a two hour cross-section of the label's 15-year history including hidden gems and previously unreleased material, will be available on November 4 to coincide with specially curated festivals in London and Berlin.

The first offering comes from UK producer Kevin Richard Martin aka The Bug and Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit who share their paranormal first collaborative cut After the Storm amongst other unique pairings such as The Art Ensemble of Chicago featuring Moor Mother, Bell Orchestre interpreted by Colin Stetson, Douglas Dare joined by The London Contemporary Orchestra and Ben Lukas Boysen remixed by Kiasmos.

Premiered exclusively via The Wire magazine in form of a free download ahead of their debut live performance at Le Guess Who? Festival 2019 in Utrecht, the track is now finally made available on vinyl and streaming platforms alongside other previously unreleased pieces from electronic producer Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles and Icelandic composer Högni.

“As a solo vocalist and voice artist, I’d always dreamed of floating and being drowned in a beautiful sonic storm. And then I met Kevin Martin” — Hatis Noit

The artwork was created with calligraphy by label founder Robert Raths and designed by Munich-based graphic designer Bernd Kuchenbeiser.

TRACK LISTING

Rival Consoles Them Is Us
The Art Ensemble Of Chicago Mama Koko (feat. Moor Mother)
Bell Orchestre The Stars In His Head / Bernard 33 - Dark Lights (Colin Stetson Remix)
Masayoshi Fujita Book Of Life
Hatis Noit Aura
Anne Müller Nummer 20
Lubomyr Melnyk Son Of Parasol
Daniel Brandt Flamingo
Ben Lukas Boysen Clarion (Kiasmos Remix)
Crayon Ithinkso (feat. Bastien Brison)
Penguin Cafe Harry Piers 2021
Peter Broderick Sonata For The Sirius
Qasim Naqvi Aftertouched
Kevin Richard Martin & Hatis Noit After The Storm
Rival Consoles I Love This, I Love You
Douglas Dare Heavenly Bodies (feat. London Contemporary Orchestra)
Roedelius & Story Spirit Clock
Högni Anda Þinn Guð (feat. Hatis Noit)
Daniel Thorne From The Other Side Of The World
Michael Price Sandham (feat. Shards)
Shards Inner Counterpoint
David Allred The Garden
Nils Frahm O I End

London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, aka Rival Consoles, creates driving, experimental electronic music that makes synthesisers sound human. His consistent desire to create a more organic, living sound, sees him forming pieces that capture a sense of songwriting behind the machines.

‘Now Is’ marks a new chapter in an ongoing quest for refinement and evolution. More playful and melodic, the album draws from much experimentation in minimalist songwriting and seamlessly blends synthesisers and acoustic instruments. “There are some pieces that are influenced quite strongly by the isolation and anxiety of these times. There are also pieces which are more optimistic and vibrant, which I think is a consistent attitude of my records, as I want art to express many aspects of life.”

From the elevating arrangements of ‘Beginnings’ and motorik beats of ‘World Turns’, to the isolation of ‘Frontiers’, influenced by the barren landscapes of Iceland, Rival Consoles’ eighth studio album subtly morphs and evolves. “The title of the record ‘Now Is’ interests me because it is the beginning of a statement, but it is incomplete. I like art that is open and suggestive of ideas even if they are inspired by very specific things. With my previous record ‘Overflow’ being very dark, heavy and almost dystopian, I wanted to escape into a different world with this music and ended up creating a record which is a lot more colourful and euphoric.”

For the sonic ‘Vision of Self’, West looked to create the kind of movement and colour a string section in an orchestra would construct, but with synthesisers. “I think there’s a lot of synergy between the two worlds. I wanted to create a hypnotic journey, where the synths and sounds weave in and out of each other, so you get lost in the music and don’t know where one sound starts or another ends.” This “journey” West refers to is symbiotic of the way he has approached music throughout a progressive career – an ongoing project that is never static and always moving forward.

A sense of euphoria is reached with the pulsating title track which bursts into colour like the appearance of the summer sun, while ‘Echoes’ is a vivid exploration of rhythm and sound for summer nights. The track starts with a dense collage of modular synths, fragmented metallic tones, broken sounding drums and a downcast melodic synth line. “This is a piece where the main melody has been in my head for a long time and was just waiting to come out. I kind of think of it as the sonic equivalent to an impressionist painting in that I wanted to explore the sensation of lots of small layers of different colours and textures that are constantly moving around each other.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Beginnings
2. World Turns
3. Eventually
4. Frontiers
5. Vision Of Self
6. Now Is
7. Echoes
8. Running
9. The Fade
10. A Warning
11. Quiet Home

Rival Consoles returns with a resonant and explorative soundscape of original music, composed for renowned choreographer Alexander Whitley’s contemporary dance production Overflow.

Exploring themes of the human and emotional consequences of life surrounded by data, the piece echoes the concept of social media, advertising, marketing companies and political factions exploiting our data to gain wealth, political advantage and sow division. Key reading for the project was based around the contemporary philosophical work Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han.

“The piece opens with Monster which has a kind of drunken madness to it, highly repetitive to mirror the repetitive nature of how we as humans engage with technology such as social media. It’s sometimes edging towards chaos but yet always returning back to the same starting point, but eventually giving way to exhaustion. I wanted to create a bold opening piece for Overflow,” states West.

I Like features the mapping of data from dancer Tia Hockey’s personal monologue, which allows chords to be heard - but only based on the activity of her voice, drawing attention to things happening behind the curtain, invisible systems, algorithms. The album also features the previously released standalone slice of euphoria, Pulses of Information — described by UK mag Clash as “typically entrancing, Pulses of Information seems to encourage a form of internal dialogue, between our inner and outer selves.”

Overflow was premiered by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company in May 2021 at the Sadler’s Wells in London and is scheduled to tour through theatres in Europe in spring 2022. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've been a fan of Ryan Lee West's Rival Consoles project for a good few years now ('Howl' on Erased Tapes still gets played weekly on my stereo at home), and it's safe to say that while the sound is a lot more abrasive than those early days, it's as rich and as fulfilling a listen as ever. 'Overflow' is a wonderfully dynamic, beautifully achieved juxtaposition of melody and grit.

TRACK LISTING

1. Monster
2. I Like
3. Hands
4. Pulses Of Information
5. Noise Call And Response I
6. Overflow
7. The Cloud Oracle
8. Tension In The Cloud
9. Noise Call And Response II
10. Scanning
11. Flow State
12. Touches Everything
13. Making Sense Of It All

There isn’t a more unique entry into a musical journey than that of Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit, who today announces her much anticipated debut album Aura will be on Erased Tapes.

Her musical awakening took place at the tender age of sixteen during a trek to Buddha's birthplace in Nepal. One morning when staying at a women’s temple she came across a female monk singing Buddhist chants whose otherworldly sounds moved her so intensely that she was instantly aware of the visceral power of the human voice; a primal and instinctive instrument that connects us to the very essence of humanity, nature and our universe. From that moment she knew singing was her calling.

The album title Aura was inspired by the German philosopher Walter Benjamin who used this term to describe the fundamental essence of art, which he believed is strongest in its original form, only happening once. Hatis agrees with this particular aspect as she realised, “during the pandemic, I really struggled. As a singer, I’m not very good at working on the computer. I much prefer doing live performances in physical spaces. Being with people, sharing the same space with them and feeling the atmosphere and energy of that moment, inspires me every time. To me art is that — that shared moment.” The gravitas of the pandemic caused Noit to look inwards and reflect. This resulted in the album becoming a remedy for what was going on in the world and ultimately to remember the joys and richness of life. Hatis adds to this sentiment, “we cannot live forever, do everything or be everywhere. But that makes our lives unique and invaluable. I wanted to be focused on our limitations and show how precious life is.”

The name Hatis Noit itself is taken from Japanese folklore, meaning the stem of the lotus flower. The lotus represents the living world, while its root represents the spirit world, therefore Hatis Noit is what connects the two. For Hatis, music represents the same netherworld with its ability to move and transport us to the other side; the past, a memory, our subconscious.

Through the opening piece ‘Aura’, which shares its title with the album, she evokes a haunting memory of getting lost in a forest in her birthplace Shiretoko, Hokkaido. “I felt as if I was close to my death, I could feel myself dissolving into and becoming a part of nature rather than just being an individual. This sense of awe and peace found there is always the place where I start making music from,” she remembers.

Years of perfecting her craft via live performances led her to the creation of this debut album which follows on from the introductory 2018 EP, Illogical Dance. An autodidact with an impressive range, Noit is inspired by Gagaku — Japanese classical music — folk music, operatic styles, Bulgarian and Gregorian chanting, as well as avant-garde and pop vocalists to create her inimitable style. Hatis creates wordless music, unique song worlds with transcendent vocal interpretations of epic proportions — most evident on ‘Jomon’ where she channels the fierce, dynamic energy and power of prehistoric culture during Japan’s Jomon period.

Astonishingly all songs on this record were created using her voice only. The single exception being ‘Inori’ for which she took a field recording of the ocean only one kilometre away from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Hatis Noit had been invited there for a memorial ceremony which marked the re-opening of the area for local people to return to their homes. The emotive and compassionate song is dedicated to the lives lost due to 2011’s tsunami, but equally to the many beautiful memories people have of their hometown.

The album was recorded in Berlin where Noit laid down her vocals in just eight hours, before the pandemic forced her and producer Robert Raths to stay local and mix it in East London, which led to working with a new collaborator: engineer Marta Salogni. Between lockdowns it was decided to take the recordings and reamplify them in a local church to bring them closer to that moment of live performance. “It was almost like a miracle when Robert came up with the idea. That was the moment that changed everything for the album as the physical space with its organic ambience brought everything to life,” Hatis Noit recalls. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hatis Noit's sound may at first seem quite minimalistic, being that it's crafted for voice alone, but it's the incredible range of sounds that she manages to coax out, rich with syncopation and melody, that really make the album such a gorgeous, unexpected treat. More genius from Hatis Noit and the always excellent Erased Tapes.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Aura
2. Thor
3. Himbrimi
4. A Caso
Side B
5. Jomon
6. Angelus Novus
7. Inori
8. Sir Etok

Penguin Cafe are back with a lovingly produced 10th anniversary reissue of their debut album, titled A Matter of Life… 2021. Besides being completely remastered and pressed on vinyl for the very first time, the record also features a brand new 2021 recording of lead single Harry Piers, a song commemorating Arthur Jeffes’ late father and Penguin Cafe Orchestra founder Simon Jeffes.

“I originally wrote Harry Piers to play at my dad‘s memorial service 24 years ago, and I played it at the end of pretty much every gig (and soundcheck) we’ve done since, so I’ve probably played it hundreds if not thousands of times since we originally released A Matter of Life... So when we decided to reissue the album, Robert and I both felt it would be fun to record an up-to-date version of this song, because it has changed over time and it continues to evolve. So while this is still very much the same tune, I think it has a lot more nuance and detail that reflect the years that have passed since 2011,” Arthur explains.

A Matter of Life… 2021 is a chance for a classic example of the beauty that’s found in collaboration to reach fresh ears, and an opportunity to breathe new life into fan favourites. The album, performed by a mix of personalities — including Neil Codling of Suede and, on percussion, Cass Browne of Gorillaz — incorporates the aesthetics of the original PCO, seasoned into a confident and redefined style, maintaining that quintessentially English sound, but adding a fresh direction and a sense that they are evolving into something new and very much their own.

Arthur says “it’s been really lovely to come back to these old friends — and with this re-issue we’ll be bringing them all out to play live again. Now four albums on, and with our new home at Erased Tapes, it makes a lot of sense for us to go back and pull this record out and brush it off for today”.

The cover artwork also received an update in the shape of a beautiful photograph taken by the UK photographer and long-time collaborator Alex Kozobolis, who was sent to visit Arthur in his second home in Tuscany. Raths’ concept for this was to not only reenact the original painting by Emily Young, but to express the generational change by putting Arthur and his daughter in place of the little boy and the emperor penguin figure that suggest father and son.

TRACK LISTING

1. That, Not That
2. Landau
3. Sundog
4. The Fox And The Leopard
5. Finland
6. Pale Peach Jukebox
7. Harry Piers 2021
8. Two Beans Shaker
9. From A Blue Temple
10. Ghost In The Pond
11. Coriolis

There are very few artists that could compete with the Erased Tapes roster when it comes to throught provoking, modern classical music in the 21st century, and this latest four-track compilation sees them pulling together some of the most effective and beautful pieces from any of their respective catalogues. 

We kick things off with the static music-concrete stillness of 'Fernweh' by Hatis Noit. Slowly pulled synth swells and abstracted twinkling bells are joined by the odd hit of percussion, focusing the disparate organic strands into something cohesive and anchored. It swims with the spirit of Japanese ambient music, but with a little more elctronic interruption and crackling glitched stereo sweeps. 

Masayoshi fujita follows things up with 'Led By A Blue Bird Into The Mountain', drawing melody out of snapping woody hits and organic animalistic wails.There are moments of stillness, but the main refrain here is wrought out of these moments of incidental percussion and the syncopation of a number of elements, crafting melody through reptition. 

Ryan Lee West has always been one of my favourites and sees him here in superb form, abstracting melodies and rhythms with a mix of the vigour of his early years ('Howl' was a particular favourite of mine, and you can still hear the echoes of it here) and the more arty, stretched-out post-club haze. 

This is all before the stunning closer from Daniel Thorne 'Outline Of A Distant Memory' which sees a fractured, world ending static a-la Hecker meet headfirst  with shadowy strings and what could easily be described as a sort of  'train coming out of the fog' rhythmic foundation. It's a wonderful end to a superb compilation, and more evidence (if any were needed) that Erased Tapes are *still* one of the greatest labels around. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning collection of off-piste ambience and drones from some of the greatest artists working in the avant-garde field today, for one of the greatest labels presenting it. Thoroughly brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fernweh - Hatis Noit
2. Led By A Blue Bird Into The Mountain - Masayoshi Fujita
3. Under Waves, Ascending - Rival Consoles
4. Outline Of A Distant Memory - Daniel Thorne

4 Hands, an intimate and surreal musical conversation on the piano from German sound pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius and American composer Tim Story, is an example of all the warm yet otherworldly beauty that can come from approaching a shared love for a singular instrument from overlapping directions.

Recorded sequentially but on one and the same grand piano, Roedelius laid down a few impromptu piano études in May 2019 whilst visiting his transatlantic friend Story. Tim then learned all their intricate phrasings to add his own parts in the following months.

"Together we shaped the basic compositions, sometimes carefully preparing the piano with various materials (including my own hands), and Achim’s performances were committed to tape. I continued to compose and refine my parts in the following months. Because it was all recorded on the same piano, the result has a very appealing consistency of sound, and hopefully blurs our individual contributions into a single integrated voice,” Story explains.

4 Hands encapsulates rippling minimalistic patterns and delicate, ghostly interactions with surprising harmonic twists. Roedelius’ intuitive and instinctive approach based in improvisation, paired hand in hand with Story’s deliberate distilling of ideas over time, creates two sides of an engaging and thought provoking conversation that seems to evolve and deepen with each successive listen.

"4 Hands is not just a new album — the logical continuation of the long-standing friendship between two composers. It’s our tribute to awareness and listening, coaxing a new sound language from the endless possibilities of a single piano played by our four hands. For me, these pieces express a different kind of beauty, they evoke more than the sum of their parts, they are a wordless dialogue, a bridge across the great water that separates our cultures from one another. Allons enfants des deux patrie, haha!” adds Roedelius.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A compositionally stunning selection of ambient piano pieces on the ever-reliable Erased Tapes, '4 Hands' sees Roedelius and Story pulling together an unexpected and beautiful juxtaposition of solemn unadorned instrumentals and jagged, unexpected syncopation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nurzu
2. Spirit Clock
3. Haru
4. Rever
5. Seeweed
6. Allegro Estinto
7. Crisscrossing
8. Thrum
9. Bent Rhyme
10. Skitter
11. Ba

Ben Lukas Boysen expands on 2020’s album Mirage with his brand new follow-up EP Clarion featuring a rare Kiasmos remix.

Containing two brand new tracks from the Berlin-based electronic composer and producer, plus three very special remixes ranging as wide as from Hyperdub producer Foodman to Scottish post rock legends Mogwai, Clarion picks up where Mirage left off. The first single arrives in the shape of a rare Kiasmos remix of the title track, crafted by the Icelandic techno duo and Erased Tapes label mates Janus Rasmussen and Ólafur Arnalds.

“Hearing how Kiasmos tamed the somewhat rough nature of Clarion and elevated it to a focussed and highly energised dream-like state made my day when I first heard the remix. The floating and driving rhythm of this version distils the original into a luxurious percussive meditation,” Boysen says.

About the making of, Janus Rasmussen explains: “Sometimes remixes can be a joy to work on, especially when the original material is as strong as this one. Immediately after hearing the stems, the idea of the remix was so apparent. It was almost as if the song had already existed in this remixed form. The main melody is so catchy yet intriguing that it's a perfect fit for a Kiasmos remix.”

The new material on this 6-track EP expands on themes of Ben’s 2020 album.

“Mirage was about the diffusion and change of weight of elements within a piece as well as giving the instrumentalists featured, such as cellist Anne Müller, a different function and meaning. Lux and Plexus revisit this mindset, diving into granular, resyncing patterns and harmonic studies,” he adds.

TRACK LISTING

1.Clarion
2.Lux
3.Plexus
4.Clarion (Kiasmos Remix)
5.Medela (Foodman Remix)
6.Love (Mogwai Remix)

Peter Broderick returns with new EP ‘The Wind That Shakes The Bramble’ on 10 September 2021.

It’s the mid 1800s in Ireland, and a local poet from Limerick by the name of Robert Dwyer Joyce has written a ballad called ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’:
…
A bullet pierced my true love’s side

In life’s young spring so early

And on my breast in blood she died

While soft winds shook the barley
…

The recurring imagery of the barley standing tall amidst the breeze was meant to symbolise the resilience of Irish people amidst oppressive British rule. In 2006, the song title and its theme served as the inspiration for a powerful and heartbreaking film starring Cillian Murphy. Now, in 2021, Peter Broderick pays homage once again, weaving this motif into his latest EP, The Wind That Shakes The Bramble.

Following on from his 2020 album, Blackberry, Broderick shares some additional work from the same sessions, as well as a beautiful two-part rework from Bing & Ruth (4AD) and the new 22-minute title track . . . an expansive and meditative ambient odyssey . . . a balm for the baffling chaos of the current era.

Broderick’s obsession with and devotion to the Blackberry plant go well beyond his music. Last year, along with the release of the new album, he shared an eight-part video series (Blackberry Diaries) in which he demonstrated all the different uses of this incredible, ubiquitous plant . . . everything from Blackberry jam to weaving baskets and hats with the Bramble vines . . . from making tea of out the young leaves to making artwork with late-season berries past their prime.

He draws attention to the fact that the Blackberry plant itself is an incredible symbol of resilience. It weaves itself all through our countrysides, playing an important role in holding the soil together, and also makes its way into our cities, proliferating even in such hyper urban environments as London. And while most modern people have lost the ability to identify the wild plants growing around us, the Blackberry remains a commonly foraged plant all around the globe. It’s as if the more domesticated we become and the more our technology separates us from the natural.

TRACK LISTING

1. Some People Don’t Have Gonads
2. A Year Without Summer
3. What Happened To Your Heart (Bing & Ruth Rework - Part I)
4. What Happened To Your Heart (Bing & Ruth Rework - Part II)

Erased Tapes release the results of their 20･･－－－0 project on June 12th 2021.

"Especially in this time of isolation we need to remind ourselves of the importance of art, just how magical a medium sound is to express, to raise and answer question marks, to open and mend the soul… it’s the most universally speaking of all languages as it knows no borders." At a time of global separation, Erased Tapes founder and sonic explorer Robert Raths stitched together a project putting what is most important at the forefront — connection. This collection of works by undisclosed artists from the roster gives space and time to appreciate art at its most honest. By shedding the information noise usually attached to release cycles and by bringing music back to the magic of sound, we're presented with an opportunity for exploration when we need it most. Robert spoke to Mary Anne Hobbs of BBC 6Music about how releasing music without revealing its origin through the 20･･－－0 morse code series enabled him to share what him and the artists have been working on in real-time as opposed to the usual delays that come with releasing music.

"All the information, all that noise… As much as it can help give context, it also takes something away. It tends to cloud your senses and take away from the magic of when you first hear something that’s completely unknown to your ears. How wonderful a sensation it is to just listen and let the music speak for itself without prejudice or the need for any references." — Robert Raths

Piano Day 2021 sees Nils Frahm surprise the world with his Erased Tapes debut. Wait, what? How? Anyone who has seen the trail blazing sonic pioneer live will know Nils likes to deadpan a joke. Graz is in fact the first studio album he recorded for the label back in 2009, that somehow remained a secret… until now.

Nils Frahm has quietly changed the musical landscape, reincarnating the centuries old figure of a pianist-composer for a new generation of music fans. As Nils’ word-of-mouth popularity grew and grew, so did the pop-culture profile of his instrument. He founded Piano Day with a team of like-minded friends in 2015 to help that process, some years releasing an album of piano recordings to celebrate one of humankind’s greatest inventions. Graz is one such record; an unheard snapshot of a young Nils recorded at Mumuth, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, in 2009 as part of the thesis Conversations for Piano and Room produced by Thomas Geiger, which received an award in the Classical Surround Recording category at the 127th AES Convention in New York.

Whilst at the time it was decided to keep the grand piano recordings from the Graz sessions locked away and instead focus on his close mic’ed, dampened piano explorations which would become his acclaimed studio album Felt in 2011, two of the pieces — most notably Hammers — lived on as part of his live set, and were expanded on and re-recorded as part of his breakthrough 2013 record Spaces (a collage of field recordings from concerts which broke the Fourth Wall and included audience coughs). Over his mercurial career, Nils has pushed and pulled at the boundaries and parameters of his prolific work like that. He’s physically changed his piano (the softened prepared strings of Felt) played with a modified body (Screws recorded with 9 fingers and a broken thumb) played with scale (Solo recorded on the 3.7 metre high Klavins M370) and with the different layers of formats (last year’s Tripping with Nils Frahm nested his studio setup inside a live performance, concert film and live album). Now with Graz he has found the final frontier for play: time itself and his own discography. Graz is a moment of time at the very beginning of Nils’ quiet revolution. The essential genius is already evident; the harmonic language of classical, and the immediacy of jazz. Nils seems to pull down each idea moment by moment, gently, to not scare away the muse.

He describes: “sometimes when you hear a piano, you might think it’s a conversation between a woman and a man. At the same time, it can hint at shapes of the universe and describe how a black hole looks. You can make sounds that have no relation to anything we can measure.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There have been a number of Frahm iterations. Personally (though I love them all), I think that the era that birthed both 'Felt' and 'The Bells' is probably my favourite. It's with considerable excitement I read that this 'latest' outing is in fact the least latest of all the outings. Gorgeous piano musings, tickling ivories and roomy 'verb, just like in the olden days (2009 - 2011). Astoundingly good.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lighter
2. O I End
3. Because This Must Be
4. Kurzum
5. And Om
6. Hammers
7. Crossings
8. About Coming And Leaving
9. Went Missing

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2021 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY JULY 17TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 6PM ON THE SAME DAY (SATURDAY JULY 17TH).

July 17 will see the much-treasured analog synthesizer suite Chronology by Pakistani-American composer and drummer of the cult trio Dawn of Midi, Qasim Naqvi, finally receiving a worldwide vinyl release on Record Store Day 2021. Originally conceived only digitally in 2016, Chronology was Qasimís first release of electronic music. Having been in the world of improvised and classical music up to this point, it seemed only fitting for Naqviís inaugural electronic music album to be made exclusively on a malfunctioning synthesizer ó an old Moog Model D. Leaving the abundant options of a computer behind. Transparent vinyl

Bird Ambience brings several fresh changes for the artist. Until now, Fujita would separate his acoustic solo recordings from the electronic dub under his El Fog alias and experimental improvisations with contemporaries such as Jan Jelinek, Bird Ambience sees him unite all of these different sides to his work for the first time, into one singular vision. He also makes a lateral leap from his signature instrument the vibraphone, on which he created his acclaimed triptych Stories (2012), Apologues (2015) and Book of Life (2018), to the marimba, which takes centre stage on his new album alongside drums, percussion, synths, effectors and tape recorder.

“The way of playing the marimba is similar to the vibraphone, so it was kind of a natural development for me and easier to start with, yet it sounds very different”, explains Masayoshi. “The marimba bars are made with wood and it has a wider range than the vibraphone, which gives me a bigger sound palette with more possibilities. I play the instrument with bows and mallets, and sometimes manipulate it with effects.”

Bird Ambience also marks his liberation from fastidious preparation for past solo releases to new endeavours in improvisation. “I prioritised trying to capture the wonder which happens during those occasional magic improv moments. Sometimes the mic-ing and placement of instruments was pretty rough; things weren’t perfect and everything was done quickly, but it turned out as the final recording. Overall when I

couldn’t decide between two takes, I told myself to go with the first”, Masayoshi recalls.



Arranged with a perfect Kanso-like balance, the unhurried pace of Bird Ambience allows each sound and phrase enough time to be mindfully absorbed and savoured. This subtle but affective work carries ethereal remnants of Midori Takada’s minimalism, the static atmospheres of Mika Vainio, To Rococo Rot’s organics and the bucolic electronics of Minotaur Shock. Fujita vaporises contemporary and classical, ambient and dismantled dub, controlled noise and fragments of jazz into an atmospheric, static mist, which he skilfully coerces into new forms.

After 13 years in Berlin, Masayoshi recently relocated to a new home and studio in the rural Japanese mountain village of Kami-cho, Hyogo, following his life-long dream of creating music in nature. Even though the album was entirely recorded in Germany before he left, it has this palpable sense of reverie found in the natural world. From there we can only imagine the kind of impact his new life in rural West Japan will have on future works.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bird Ambience
2. Thunder
3. Anakreon
4. Cumulonimbus Dream
5. Gaia
6. Noise Marimba Tape
7. Morocco
8. Miyama No Kitsune
9. Nord Ambient
10. Stellar
11. Pons
12. Fabric

A legendary artist at a legendary location: Tripping with Nils Frahm captures one of the world’s most sought-after live acts performing at one of Berlin’s most iconic buildings.

When Nils Frahm kicked off his world tour at Funkhaus Berlin in January 2018 to bring his highly acclaimed studio album All Melody to the stage, an ambitious journey was just to begin: Over the next two years, Frahm played more than 180 sold-out performances, including the Sydney Opera House, LA’s Disney Hall, the Barbican in London, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and several big festival stages around the globe. Yet the stunning setting of Funkhaus Berlin, renowned for its vintage grandeur and outstanding acoustics, and also home to Frahm’s magnificent studio where All Melody was recorded, had occupied a unique place in the artist's heart.

In December 2018, Nils Frahm eventually returned to Funkhaus Berlin to host another set of four shows, tickets sold out within hours. Frahm’s friend and film director Benoit Toulemonde — a collaborator since 2011 — captured the concerts on film, only using handheld cameras, and employing techniques he had mastered for the famous concert series La Blogotèque, which featured some of the world’s most popular artists.

Tripping with Nils Frahm is an illustration of Nils’s lauded ability as a composer and passionate live artist as well as the enchanting atmosphere of his captivating, and already legendary Funkhaus shows: An extraordinary musical trip – rare and exclusive, close and intimate, bringing a unique concert experience to the screen.

"It was about time to document my concerts in picture and sound, trying to freeze a moment of this period where my team and I were nomads, using any method of travel to play yet another show the next day. Maybe tonight is the night where everything works out perfectly and things fall into place?

Normally things go wrong with concerts, but by combining our favorite moments of four performances, we were able to achieve what I was trying to do in these two years of touring: getting it right!

When you hear the applause on the end of the film you should know that I was smiling happily, being a tad proud and feeling blessed to share these moments with you.
Much love, Nils"

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The ever prolific Frahm brings his unbelievable live act to recorded media. Though 'Spaces' was very much an in-studio distillation of the timbres and feelings expressed on-stage, it could never have captured the live energy and spine-tingling sonic euphoria that 'Tripping With..' does. A superb and all-encompassing powerhouse of a live LP.

TRACK LISTING

01 Enters
02 Sunson
03 Fundamental Values
04 My Friend The Forest
05 The Dane
06 All Melody
07 #2
08 Ode – Our Own Roof

Erased Tapes announce Bell Orchestre’s House Music — an immersive ecosystem of an album to be released on March 19, and the first full-length work released by the acclaimed Montreal-based outfit in over a decade. House Music unfolds as one long piece, a recorded-then-sculpted improvisation that vastly expands their work, coalescing classical and electronic instrumentation in the creation of genre-defying musical worlds. After having shared the short film “IX: Nature That’s It That’s All.” — which layered archival visuals of blissed-out crowds at a carnival over one of the later, dreamier sections of House Music — Bell Orchestre presents a video for the one-track album’s most anthemic and explosive segment, “V: Movement”, directed by band member Kaveh Nabatian.

In the album’s liner notes, the group recalls countless moments when, in kinetic moments of improvisation, “a nuanced piece of music would emerge organically, completely formed, without any plan or discussion or rational thought” — and then be lost because it wasn’t recorded. In conceiving a new album, they decided to celebrate the spontaneous and accidental, to centrally situate the act of collaborative, democratic creation in their finished work. With the legacies of improvisation-exploring greats like Talk Talk, The Orb, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis and the late Ennio Morricone in mind, on House Music, Bell Orchestre captures the impulsive, connective, mysterious poetics of musical invention happening in real-time.


With help from engineer Hans Bernhard, the band wired every corner of Sarah Neufeld’s (Violin, vocals) multi-story rural Vermont house. She and the mini orchestra’s other five members — Pietro Amato: French horn, keyboards, electronics; Michael Feuerstack: Pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals; Kaveh Nabatian: Trumpet, gongoma, keyboards, vocals; Richard Reed Parry: Bass, vocals; and Stefan Schneider: Drums — assigned themselves to different rooms. They spent two weeks together in camaraderie, creation, and focused isolation to record their improvised sessions every day, but ultimately structured a 45-minute album out of a one hour-and-a-half long improvisation.

“If you sliced away the front wall of the house and looked in, you’d see the horn section — with so many different things going on — down on the first floor of what would normally be the living/dining room, and it was full chaos with tables and tables of kalimbas and harmonicas and synthesizers and horns. Then you travel up a floor, and there’s me and Richie in an empty, warm sounding wooden bedroom. Mike was on pedal steel in the bathroom, on the same floor as us. And then up the stairs, through the ceiling and in the attic, was Stefan, alone on drums. It’s a big piece of land, and if you went outside to take a break, you’d look over and hear all of this crazy shit coming out of all the different floors, and it filled this valley, and there were lots of rocks so the sound would bounce around. It was spooky and glorious”, describes Sarah.

While edited and trimmed, and occasionally added to, the album itself is in large part the original recording — with the broad structure of its movements kept intact. This single piece of music — written almost entirely as it was being recorded — emerged with no parameters beyond the inclusion of a short harmonic loop Parry had brought in as a starting point, which coheres and propels the album as it moves forward through the birth; vigorous, unrestrained growth; and ultimate slowdown of the musical ecosystem it creates. What the band generated is an album that lays bare the contours of a lived musical moment.

“Most of my favorite recordings have some element of an explorative and accidental feeling within the music, a feeling which reflects the truth of musical minds which are partially super focused on specific musical ideas and partially wandering, exploring the musical world surrounding those ideas,” says Parry. “I think it’s really satisfying as a listener when you can hear a musical mind exploring an idea — not just a musician who has pre-formed an idea and rehearsed it 100 times until it’s totally perfect and ironed out. In this recording, every one of the six of us is simultaneously exploring our own ideas,

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As one of my favourite labels, it's always an exciting time when Erased Tapes put a new one out, and Bell Orchestre sees Arcade Fires' Sarah Neufeld and Owen Pallett percussionish Stefan Schneider team up with a host of others to create this jazzy, downbeat chamber classical gem.

TRACK LISTING

I: Opening
II: House
III: Dark Steel
IV: What You're Thinking
V: Movement
VI: All The Time Sorrow
VII: Colour Fields
VIII: Making Time
IX: Nature That's It That's All.
X: Closing

Some of London-based electronic songwriter Ryan Lee West’s most recognised work to date comes in the shape of spontaneous EP or so-called mini album releases— clocking in just under the 40-minute mark, keeping their contents urgent, immediate and to the point.

As with his 2013 EP Odyssey and 2014’s Sonne, which were later compiled to a full-length release titled Odyssey / Sonne in 2015, there is a similarly strong synergy between his 2016 mini album Night Melody and this year’s Articulation — made available on CD and digital formats under the title Night Melody / Articulation.

His 34-minute, 6-track mini album Night Melody was born out of and shaped by long hours working into the night. It’s nocturnal in sound; mysterious in the way that the early hours so often are. The opening statement Pattern Of The North starts off with a collage of spliced synth melodies, inspired by anxiety that accompanies going home for Christmas. It’s followed by Johannesburg, an early sketch gradually filled out during his tour in South Africa. The closing statement What Sorrow is a fitting end to the album, building from gentle melancholia to a joyous crescendo. It’s a sensibility that’s central to the record; joy and sorrow both find their counterpoints.

July 31, 2020 saw the release of his highly anticipated new album Articulation with an equal running time of 34 minutes. Lead track and album centrepiece ‘Articulation’ links the record back to the analogue fluidity and colour of 2016’s Night Melody. The division of varying time signatures, intertwined with a complex structure of notes, creates an expression of a moving structure and conjures a dreamy, motorik energy.

Articulation was conceived with a very visual way of thinking, unusual for the London musician and producer. During the writing process Ryan drew structures, shapes and patterns by hand to try and find new ways of thinking about music, giving himself a way to problem-solve away from the computer. The album title references a piece by the avant-garde contemporary composer Györgi Ligeti, though not for its music, but for the non-traditional graphic score that accompanied it.

The idea of using analogue drawings and tools to bolster digital creations can be heard in the structure of the pieces that make up Articulation from the broody techno opener ‘Vibrations on a String’ all the way to the album’s boundless closer ‘Sudden Awareness of Now’. Rising out of birdsong heard from his studio window, it has a particular urgency about it and seems to perfectly capture a longing for escape. Built around a simple and repetitive melodic theme, expanding and retracting over the course of its seven-minute odyssey.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Rival Consoles' albums are a thing to behold, hugely cinematic journeys of depth, intricacy and groove. the EP's are like snapshots of these, a short-movie if you will. Now they've collected two STUNNING EP's together onto one easy to digest CD. What are you waiting for?

TRACK LISTING

1 Pattern Of The North
2 Johannesburg
3 Slow Song
4 Lone
5 Night Melody
6 What Sorrow
7 Vibrations On A String
8 Forwardism
9 Melodica
10 Articulation
11 Still Here
12 Sudden Awareness Of Now

English songsmith Douglas Dare returns with his third and most stripped back studio album to date, "Milkteeth". Produced by Mike Lindsay - founding member of Tunng and one half of LUMP with Laura Marling - in his studio in Margate in just twelve days, "Milkteeth" sees Douglas become confident and comfortable enough with his own identity to reflect on both the joys and pains of youth. In doing so, he has established himself as a serious 21st century singer-songwriter with an enduring lyrical poise and elegant minimalist sound.

Douglas Dare grew up on a farm as the youngest member of a large extended family, where he was often found in his own private world, dancing in his mother’s pink ballet dress. 'Only now do I feel free to express my inner child again, and am giving myself permission to play dress up,' says Dare of Milkteeth’s cover shot, in which he wears soft makeup and is draped with layers of white linen, acting the part of a Greek muse. 'I never felt like I fit in. I was different, odd. I wanted to dance and sing and dress up and on a small farm in rural Dorset that really stuck out.'

Where previously he has been known as a piano player, for "Milkteeth" Dare picked up a new instrument, the autoharp, and as soon as he sat down with it, songs poured out – he wrote the album’s first single "Silly Games", in under an hour. 'Instinctual feelings about childhood and innocence were the catalyst,' he explains. 'Then with the autoharp, it all just clicked – I could see the album laid out ahead of me.'

Dare’s music speaks of his own experiences of universal themes like love, loss, and childhood. Perhaps most importantly, his music gives a voice and a sanctuary to anyone who’s ever felt unusual or out of place. Whether he’s singing of the pain of those in the Magdalene Laundries as on Whelm, describing coming out to his parents on Aforger, or processing his own childhood isolation on Milkteeth, Dare has a graceful honesty and an abiding clarity of vision in his simple and distinctive sound.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Tender ballads of loss and hope, brittle instrumentation and Dare's rich syrupy vocals combine into an atmospherically rich but instrumentally minimalistic suite of heartfelt ballads and hypnotic, swimming bliss.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Am Free
2. Red Arrows
3. Heavenly Bodies
4. The Piano Room
5. Silly Games
6. The Joy In Sarah’s Eyes
7. The Stairwell
8. Whereever You Are
9. The Window
10. The Playground
11. Run

Blackberry is Peter’s first vocal album in five years, since 2015’s Colours of the Night. The entire album was recorded in Peter’s bedroom in London during the summer of 2019, hence Peter’s description of it as “Experimental-Bedroom-Folk-Pop”. All instrumentation is by Peter with additional vocals on the last track by his wife, singer Brigid Mae Power, and his stepson, Seán Power.

The subject matter of Blackberry is wide-ranging. He touches on family and on the connection we all need as social animals. He writes about technology and whether it will save or doom us. And of course, he writes about nature, about foraging, about the importance of engaging with the outside world in cities and in the country. Peter and his family recently returned to Co. Galway as they have a great love for the Irish countryside, having lived there before their move to London in 2019.

Peter explains the idea behind the album and its name, saying: “It is with all seriousness and great reverence that this album is named Blackberry. In a time when us humans are coming face to face with the impact of our actions on the environment at large, I strongly advocate for engaging with our local landscapes. When I first became obsessed with foraging edible wild plants a few years back, I wasn’t particularly excited about the humble blackberry, but I would soon return with great passion to this familiar fruit of my youth. Even in our most urban environments, the gnarled and resilient blackberry vines continue to weave themselves throughout, as if to keep reminding us where we come from.”

Peter Broderick is perhaps most well known as a live member of Efterklang, the Danish indie-rock group with whom he played from 2007-2013. In recent years he’s been kept busy working on the archives of Arthur Russell, being hired to perform audio restoration, editing and mixing for the latest posthumous release by the cult icon. Peter has also released over twenty solo recordings in the last thirteen years, as well as composed music for film and dance, most recently the multi-award winning animated film Two Balloons. Not wanting his creativity to be reined in by any one genre, Peter has explored gospel and soul, spoken word and beat boxing, through to folk and rock and classical. He thrives on constant experimentation and collaboration with like-minded creators. Early 2020 saw him performing in the band of Tim Burgess (Charlatans), whose latest chart topping solo album features Broderick on violin.

The first vocal line on Blackberry is “You can only be as happy as the world that you live in…” — a sentiment that all of us can relate to as we struggle with climate change, with a global pandemic and resulting lockdown, with an uncertainty about the future that the modern world generates in us all. But as musicians like Peter soundtrack these turbulent times, they provide us with a lifeline, a way of looking at the world that is hopeful and full of wonder.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The transformation from restful modern classical serenades to brittle folky ballads has been a smooth one for Broderick, and 'Blackberry' is a perfect meeting of the sounds of each. We get subtle acoustic guitar and more fully-fledged, melodic numbers. A beautiful development of his sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stop And Listen
2. But
3. What Happened To Your Heart
4. The Niece
5. Ode To Blackberry
6. Let It Go
7. What’s Wrong With A Straight Up Love Song
8. Wild Food

To mark this year’s Piano Day and as an acknowledgement to these unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in, Nils Frahm surprised the world with a collection of eight solo piano pieces, titled Empty, made available digitally on March 28. The highly anticipated physical editions on vinyl and CD are set for release via Erased Tapes on October 23, 2020.

Conceived of just before Nils broke his thumb and composed the similarly intimate solo piano album Screws, Empty is a soothing vessel of eight simple and serene pieces originally recorded as the music to a short art film he shot with his friend and film director Benoît Toulemonde. Drifting through emotions from the stark and sobering opener ‘First Defeat’, to the gently euphoric ‘No Step On Wing’ and the contemplative but hopeful closer ‘Black Notes’, with its poignant minute of silence, Empty is a comforting score for these turbulent times.

“When I came back from the hospital with a broken thumb and listened to the recordings, I felt they were unfinished. I decided to put them aside and started to work on my small album, Screws.

Many many other notes of the piano have been struck since these days, and before we all forget about this, I thought it would be a good moment to share these lullabies with you. I hope they help you stay all strong and calm in these days of solitude – despite the hardship, we can discover introspection and reflection unexpectedly. Who knows what it is good for.
Much love, Nils”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Frahm is back! Returning to his much sought after piano-forte after a fruitful foray into synthland. ‘Empty’ is a hushed affair, gorgeously plaintive and brimming with the sort of atmospheric recording and room sounds which made 'Felt' such a beautiful success. Gorgeous.

TRACK LISTING

1. First Defeat
2. A Shine
3. No Step On A Wing
4. The Big O
5. Second Defeat
6. A Shimmer
7. Sonar
8. Black Notes

Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles drops the much anticipated new album "Articulation". Named after the lead track and album centerpiece, the album looks back to the analogue fluidity and colour of 2016's "Night Melody". The division of varying time signatures, intertwined with a complex structure of notes, creates an expression of a moving structure and conjures a dreamy motorik energy. Ryan Lee West explains, 'The title track is about articulation and playfulness with shape and time. Its structure is very machine-like, but I was really interested in how melody and sense of story could develop out of this, and it became an exploration of mathematical structures - patterns and shapes having a conversation. I love that something on paper can appear rigid and calculated, but then take on new meaning based on the context that surrounds it, or how it changes over time.'

"Articulation" (which follows 2018’s "Persona") was conceived with a very visual way of thinking, unusual for the London musician and producer. During the writing process Ryan drew structures, shapes and patterns by hand to try and find new ways of thinking about music, giving himself a way to problem-solve away from the computer. The album title references a piece by the avant-garde contemporary composer Györgi Ligeti, though not for its music, but for the non-traditional graphic score that accompanied it.

'I find electronic music is often battling to say something with integrity because technology and production can easily get in the way. I think the goal of a lot of electronic composers is to find a balance between the vision of the idea and the power of possibilities on the computer. With a pen and paper sketch you can compose and rethink ideas without technology getting in the way, so for me it acts as a very helpful tool to refresh the process.' - Ryan Lee West

Since the release of Persona, Ryan Lee West has taken his captivating live A/V set to all corners of the world. Last seen live on stage with 17 players of the London Contemporary Orchestra for a sold-out orchestral performance at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in January 2020.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Ryan West has never been an easy one to pin down stylistically, 2015's Howl was a superb outing, but definitely tread more along the dancefloor IDM route while this newest outing is both a continuation and expansion of Night Melody. Syncopated percussion and rich sequencing pull together into an off-kilter but fully absorbing cascade of reticent melody. Gorgeous once again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Vibrations On A String
2. Forwardism
3. Melodica
4. Articulation
5. Still Here
6. Sudden Awareness Of Now

Love Record Stores Edition available from 9am on Saturday June 20th.
Limited to one per person.

Pakistani-American avant-composer and drummer of the cult experimental acoustic trio Dawn of Midi, Qasim Naqvi releases his new record titled Beta on a limited edition clear vinyl for the first Love Record Stores Day on June 20.

Meant as a sister release to last year’s acclaimed six-part modular synth suite Teenages, Beta is a series of experiments chronicling Naqvi’s understanding of writing for this type of instrument and the growth of the instrument itself.

“Beta is a prequel to the story of Teenages. At the time I had the most basic elements of a modular synthesizer- one oscillator and a random voltage generator which is a module that releases sporadic currents through the system. Ironically, this component provided a lot of warmth and humanness to the music, a kind of fallibility. I fed simple melodic ideas and rhythmic patterns into this bare bones setup and observed the responses, while occasionally guiding the music in other directions. It was like a diagnostic test. At the time I felt that this music was underdeveloped but listening back, I think the Beta tracks add an interesting dimension to the entire Teenages arc.They’re the zygotes.” — Qasim Naqvi

The B side of Beta is a live performance of the track 'Teenages', which was recorded at the first Erased Tapes x LCO: Purcell Session at the Southbank Centre, in London last February. “I had performed this work just a couple of times and this particular one was special. There were microphones up everywhere and you could hear the room bleeding into the sound of the synthesiser” says Qasim of the performance.

If Teenages captured the sound of electronics living, breathing and mutating of their own accord, Beta rather describes the moment they came to life.

Love Record Stores Day is an initiative from the #loverecordstores campaign, launched during lockdown to encourage music fans to shop online with their favourite record stores. Qasim Naqvi joins a wide range of artists and labels who have pledged to release exclusive, limited edition records including Caribou, Belle and Sebastian, Beach House, Robyn, New Order and many more.

Berlin based composer and producer Ben Lukas Boysen returns with his most progressive and shape-shifting work to date, the long awaited Mirage, on 1 May 2020 with Erased Tapes. The third album to be penned under his own name proceeding his Hecq moniker, Mirage follows 2013’s Gravity and the acclaimed 2016 full length Spells, a record as much admired by his peers as it was loved by fans that not only yielded remixes from Max Cooper and Tim Hecker, but also opened Jon Hopkins’ Late Night Tales compilation.

Since the release of Spells, Ben continued to be in demand for his scoring abilities, collaborating with cellist and composer Sebastian Plano on the music for David OReilly’s landmark innovative video game Everything. It was added to the long list for the Best Animated Short at the 90th Academy Awards, making it the first video game to qualify for an Oscar. In 2019 Ben contributed to the Brainwaves project alongside fellow Erased Tapes artists Michael Price and Högni Egilsson in collaboration with a team of scientists at Goldsmiths University, London — linking states of consciousness and music. He also scored the soundtrack to the DAFF award-winning German TV show Beat, the feature film The Collini Case, and co-composed the music for the short film Manifesto with Nils Frahm, starring Cate Blanchett.

As with Gravity and Spells, Ben has an array of musical guests adorning Mirage, including long time collaborator, Berlin based cellist and composer Anne Müller as well as Australian saxophonist and composer Daniel Thorne — for whom Ben wrote parts specifically, having heard his 2019 solo debut Lines of Sight. Lead track Medela features both and takes the listener on a kaleidoscopic journey that slides with ease across sonic terrains. By the end it’s difficult to tell what exactly was heard; “I wanted to experiment with blending these recordings with 100% artificial elements, often to points where an instrument becomes an abstraction of what it was and the musicians’ presence in the song is much more of an important DNA string in the song rather than an obvious layer.”

Mirage, like its title suggests, feels like a sonic optical illusion — each piece containing sounds and techniques bent and processed to make them seem overexposed; the overly felt-y piano on Clarion, Daniel Thorne’s saxophone on Medela, the single note voice of Lisa Morgenstern splitting into different chords on Empyrean. It is detectable but also easily missed, like the double piano on Kenotaph that could be perceived as one, but is actually two pianos in two different rooms, separate countries even — one is digital while the other is acoustic.

While on Spells Ben made programmed pieces sound indistinguishable from human playing, with Mirage he set out to do the opposite and make the human touch unrecognisable, creating something of a mystery or a mirage.

Classically trained at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts under the renowned cellist and conductor Michael Sanderling, Anne Müller performed as a cellist in many of Berlin’s symphonies for some time before choosing a different path with her music and focussing on novel approaches to classical instrumentation. A profound believer in the power of artistic collaboration, Anne’s skilled cello playing and instinctive composition became extremely sought after. Following her work with Nils Frahm, an enduring partnership with singer-songwriter-composer Agnes Obel ensued, touring for five years together and featuring on two albums (Philharmonics and Aventine) and most recently, working with multiinstrumentalist Markus Sieber (aka Aukai) on his 2019 album Reminiscence. In between all this, Müller also co-founded the progressive live project Solo Collective along with violinist/singer Alex Stolze and pianist/conceptual artist Sebastian Reynolds, releasing Solo Collective Part One in 2017.

A solo record in every sense of the word, Müller wrote, recorded, arranged and produced Heliopause. The album is named after the boundary where the sun’s wind ceases to have influence. It is ultimately, the border of our solar system. The name struck a chord with Müller since the two voyagers sent on an exploratory mission 42 years ago, recently crossed the Heliopause, entering into interstellar space and losing power from our own sun. Müller recognised herself in this moment, not only approaching the same age, but also breaking new ground; having relied on collaborating with so many other stars and now venturing into the unknown with her first solo statement; “Heliopause marks the end of a long journey but also the start of voyages to explore strange new worlds” Boldly opening the album with Being Anne, it sees Müller embrace her new found freedom with the most experimental piece on the record, placing the cello in a completely new context. Playing the strings of a broken down piano with a plectrum and scratching parts of the key mechanism to produce a rhythm, the once lost instrument is given a new lease of life among looped cello drones and drums. “I used the sounds of a tiny piano I got from my mother that she bought when she was a student and didn’t have any money. Later it stood for years in our little summer garden house, where I practiced on it constantly for my piano lessons. Even though it’s old and not in the best shape, I love the way it sounds and call it my little circus piano”.

The atmospheric swells of noise on Being Anne are juxtaposed beautifully with the most stripped back and exposed song, Solo? Repeat!. The J.S. Bach and Gaspar Cassadó influenced piece sees Müller go solo in its purest form: unaccompanied cello. Lead single Nummer 2 is so titled as it’s the second piece Anne ever wrote. A mixture of old sounds and newer structures, its repeated arpeggio conjures drama and displays Müller’s dexterous production abilities. Drifting Circles meanwhile provides the album’s climax, amid an orchestra of looped cellos and vocals. Referencing the minimalism of contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, it builds to a crescendo of harmonics, allowing the cello to sore as it crosses the border from minor to major. Both as the closing title track and album as a whole, Heliopause crosses these physical and invisible borders throughout, sending the cello as a typically classical instrument to exciting new and uncharted territory

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Müller's 2010 outing with Nils Frahm, '7 Fingers' was one of my early highlights on Erased Tapes, and this long awaited follow-up is just as good. Obviously, being a solo record rather than a collaboration, the focus is entirely on Müller here, and she manages to pull off a stunning set of atmospheric ambient chamber classical and swimming minimalist brilliance. Gorgeous.

TRACK LISTING

1. Being Anne
2. Solo? Repeat!
3. Nummer 2
4. Aarhus / Reminiscences
5. Drifting Circles
6. Heliopause

The three EPs will be available as one full length release titled All Encores featuring 80 minutes of music to follow his masterful 2018 album All Melody.

Whilst Encores 1 focused on an acoustic pallet of sounds with solo piano and harmonium at the core, and Encores 2 explored more ambient landscapes, now Encores 3 sees Nils expand on the percussive and electronic elements in his work.

“The idea behind All Encores is one we had from before All Melody; to separate releases each with their own distinct musical style and theme, perhaps even as a triple album. But All Melody became larger than itself and took over any initial concepts. I think the idea of All Encores is like musical islands that compliment All Melody.”

Moulded during All Melody but refined by his live performances, All Encores is testament to Nils’ exceptional ability to craft his art on stage. Artificially Intelligent which showcases his ‘mad professor’ organ, and All Armed which has been a live favourite for some time, appearing on set lists since 2015, are now available to hear on record for the very first time. The final track of Encores 3, as well as the whole series, Amirador, perhaps aptly nods to the Spanish word for ‘lookout’ and hints at what’s to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Roughest Trade
2. Ringing
3. To Thomas
4. The Dane
5. Harmonium In The Well
6. Sweet Little Lies
7. A Walking Embrace
8. Talisman
9. Spells
10. Artificially Intelligent
11. All Armed
12. Amirador

Vinyl Tracklist:
A1 The Roughest Trade
A2 Ringing
A3 To Thomas
A4 The Dane
B1 Harmonium In The Well
C1 Sweet Little Lie
C2 A Walking Embrace
C3 Talisman
D1 Spells
E1 Artificially Intelligent
E2 All Armed
F1 Amirador

Erased Tapes presents Continuous Music: Selected Works, the first printed collection of scores from prolific pianist and Continuous Music pioneer Lubomyr Melnyk, making his unique technique available to piano lovers all around the world. This first volume contains selections from each of Melnyk’s releases on Erased Tapes, including Corollaries (2013), Evertina (2014), Rivers and Streams (2015) and a very special handwritten score of Pockets of Light, serving as an entry point to his technique. Continuous Music Selected Works also contains a previously unreleased score, The Moving Window, plus detailed notes from the composer himself. Every copy comes with audio recordings of all six pieces including a new version of Butterfly, specially recorded for the reader. Melnyk’s mission with this sheet music book is for musicians and piano enthusiasts to gain a greater love and understanding of the instrument, while being inspired to delve further into the world of Continuous Music.

“This music offers you a new dimension of your own self that you did not know existed … a delightful place where you feel the total freedom of the music opening up before you, a vast open plain where you can sail and frolic freely anywhere you wish to go … Your ship is awaiting you, and the sea is endless and at peace … there are no dangers, and no reefs to shatter your journey … only the open, endless water for your discovery.” Only Parasol and Pockets Of Light are what Melnyk calls “pure” Continuous Music. The other four works are in a standard notation format and include Evertina, Awaiting, a hybrid of Butterfly — a mixture of both regular and Continuous Piano — and The Moving Window, containing elements of both worlds. Since Continuous Music is very different to standard piano music, it has been challenging to present it in a readable and playable notation as there are simply too many notes. Instead, Melnyk developed a new method of notation that can give a clear and immediate impression of the piece; “a notation that lets the music live in your fingers, a notation that offers you Freedom instead of Conformity!

“ Although his scores might look daunting at first — some pages are reminiscent of the avant-garde notation of composers like John Cage, Cornelius Cardew or George Crumb — these pieces offer the pianist a great degree of freedom to formulate their own personal vision of the moment they are playing. A particular kind of improvisation is a key part of performing this music and a technique that Lubomyr uses himself. Melnyk’s scores therefore are a unique combination of traditional notation, text and the occasional use of slightly more avant-garde symbology. Importantly, the written scores of Lubomyr are a fascinating insight into his mind, character and personality. “Do not be dismayed by any difficulties you might face in learning these pieces! It is more important that you use these notations to help you generate a living piece of music, rather than playing every note on the page…As the (in)famous pirate Jack Sparrow once said: “They are more a ‘guideline’ … than a ‘Book of Rules” — Lubomyr Melnyk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pockets Of Light ? With Handwritten Score
2. Evertina
3. Awaiting
4. Butterfly ? New Recording Included
5. Parasol
6. The Moving Window ? Previously Unreleased

Erased Tapes present "Handfuls of Night" - the highly anticipated follow-up to Penguin Cafe’s much applauded 2017 album "The Imperfect Sea" - inspired by the Antarctic, Arthur Jeffes’ journey following in Scott’s footsteps and our penguin friends that reside there.

Using gut-stringed violins, viola, cello, bass, percussion, upright and grand pianos, synthesiser, harmonium and more, Arthur Jeffes and his cohorts have crafted a vivid series of panoramic sonic landscapes, that are as rich in cerebral poignancy as they are in emotional depth.

Bookended by the atmospheric ambient piano pieces ‘Winter Sun’ and ‘Midnight Sun’, the album traverses glacial minimalism with ease, combining their signature contemporary classical panoramas, such as the melancholic yet upbeat lead track ‘At the Top of the Hill, They Stood...’ and the colossal cinematic piece ‘Chapter’, with the crystalline folktronica on ‘Pythagorus on the Line Again’ — a re-visiting and continuation of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s 1993 Union Cafe song on the principles of harmonics.

Handfuls of Night began life after Greenpeace commissioned Jeffes to write four pieces of music corresponding to four breeds of penguins, to help raise awareness for the endangered Antarctic seas . A fundraising evening at EartH in Hackney followed, where Penguin Cafe premiered the four songs named after their feathered counterparts to a sold out audience; the rousing contemporary folk inflected ‘Chinstrap’, the mournful and minimalistic ‘Adelie’, stoic and rhythmic ‘The Life of an Emperor’ and the wistful, string-laden ‘Gentoo Origin’.

“This record started with a core of pieces I wrote specifically about penguins in the Antarctic for a project with Greenpeace in autumn 2018. There are four native Antarctic penguin species – each with their own individual characteristics and natures. I carried on from there to envisage a whole anthropomorphised world, where these penguins had narratives and adventures that we soundtracked”, says Jeffes. But both the album and Penguin Cafe as a project have origins that reach further back:

“In 2005 I was asked to join an expedition re-creating Scott’s last Antarctic trip in 1911 for the BBC, using the same Edwardian equipment. I’m no explorer but I was keen, especially as there’s a family link – Scott was married to my great grandmother before she married my great grandfather. Antarctica by this stage being a protected environment, we swapped to the Arctic circle where we spent 3 months on the Greenland ice sheet, first dog-sledding and then man-hauling just short of 1000 km at 10,000 feet, across ice fields and glaciers. I had lots of time to ponder my life back home. It was then that I decided to get my Master of Music degree and focus on composing music, and also then that I realised that even in the most remote silent places, music can still be a huge part of one’s internal world and imagination. Whilst on the expedition. I spent days playing things back in my head and also writing new things, which I would then try and write down at the end of the day.”

Handfuls of Night’s tones, textures and melodies evoke otherworldly expanses, which at different junctures are either foreboding, awe inspiring or peaceful. There’s subtly morphing rhythmic repetition throughout, somewhere between minimalism, krautrock and the piano-cascades of label peer Lubomyr Melnyk. Jeffes creates a kinetic, circling motion, which drives the album forward in the form of a musical trip that mirrors the physical journey it was inspired by.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful and climactic collection of exuberant orchestration, soaring strings and twinkling piano. Smoothly segueing between brittle, icy ambience and warm, sun-drenched audio euphoria. Stunning.

TRACK LISTING

1. Winter Sun
2. Chinstrap
3. Chapter
4. Adelie
5. At The Top Of The Hill, They Stood...
6. Pythagoras On The Line Again
7. The Life Of An Emperor
8. Gentoo Origin
9. Midnight Sun

Nils Frahm announces the third and final instalment of his Encores series. 

Whilst Encores 1 focused on an acoustic pallet of sounds with solo piano and harmonium at the core, and Encores 2 explored more ambient landscapes, now Encores 3 sees Nils expand on the percussive and electronic elements in his work.

“The idea behind All Encores is one we had from before All Melody; to separate releases each with their own distinct musical style and theme, perhaps even as a triple album. But All Melody became larger than itself and took over any initial concepts. I think the idea of All Encores is like musical islands that compliment All Melody.”

Moulded during All Melody but refined by his live performances, All Encores is testament to Nils’ exceptional ability to craft his art on stage. Artificially Intelligent which showcases his ‘mad professor’ organ, and All Armed which has been a live favourite for some time, appearing on set lists since 2015, are now available to hear on record for the very first time. The final track of Encores 3, as well as the whole series, Amirador, perhaps aptly nods to the Spanish word for ‘lookout’ and hints at what’s to come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: if you enjoyed Nils Frahm's collab with Olafur Arnalds a few years ago (was it really THAT long ago?!) then this is the Encores for you! Percussive, more 'dancefloor' focused (as much as can be), and absolutely hypnotic, this is probably my favourite of the lot, and I have excellent taste. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Artificially Intelligent
2. All Armed
3. Amirador

Find Sound is the debut record from Shards, a London based vocal group led by singer, composer and producer Kieran Brunt. Combining voices, synths and percussion, Find Sound is an astonishing exploration of the human voice; using the concepts of sound and light as simple metaphors for gaining understanding. The album’s pieces are intended to be miniature sonic paintings, with each adding to an overall picture of the emotional confusion of early adulthood: the uncertainty, the excitement, the terror and relief.

After collaborating with Terry Riley in 2016, Brunt was asked by the Barbican to form a choral group for Nils Frahm’s Possibly Colliding festival that summer. Following the success of the shows, Frahm invited Brunt to join him in Berlin to collaborate on choral arrangements for his recent album All Melody. Shards have since gone on to collaborate with other notable artists, including Michael Price on his recent LP Tender Symmetry.

Brunt details how he put Shards together: “I decided to go for 12 singers, capable of creating a good amount of noise but also small enough to get to know each other intimately. I also knew that I wanted to work with not just great voices, but singers with lots of personality and open minds when it comes to experimenting and trying things out.

The group ended up consisting almost entirely of friends and friends-of-friends. I also tried my best to ask people who weren’t just singers, but who do have other projects and musical interests. As such, we have people in the group who are also composers, instrumentalists, folk musicians and teachers. It’s a vibrant mix, and I’m constantly discovering new things about them the more we make music together.”

Each of the singers in Shards brings a very distinctive musical personality to the group, something which Brunt was eager to emphasise on their debut record. Rather than aiming for a seamless blend or absolute precision when recording, the differences between voices has been intentionally highlighted — celebrating their unique textures and inviting the listener to hear their minutest details up-close.

The album was recorded in Italy at Palazzo Stabile, a tranquil house and studio in the hills of the Piedmontese countryside. During a two-week residency, the group lived and recorded together under one roof, giving them the opportunity to play with recording techniques and experiment with different spaces. Most of the final record was recorded in a converted barn used primarily as a painting studio, and underneath the house in a 200 year-old wine cellar. The album was written and produced by Kieran Brunt with additional production from Paul Corley (Sigur Ros, Oneohtrix Point Never, Yves Tumor).

TRACK LISTING

1. Find Sound
2. Summer Sickness
3. Dissect
4. Thoughts
5. Beams
6. Lost
7. Nebulous
8. Unrest
9. Inner Counterpoint
10. I Needed The Sun

Iconic, innovative and internationally renowned force in avant-garde music The Art Ensemble of Chicago released their 50th anniversary celebratory album We Are On The Edge in April, and Erased Tapes are honoured to announce the vinyl edition of this exceptional body of work. Led by surviving founding members Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye, these brand new recordings involve a staggering array of contemporary artists ranging from across the jazz, experimental and improvised music spheres; from the visionary poet and musician Moor Mother, trumpeters Fred Berry and Hugh Ragin, who have performed with Mitchell for over five and four decades, to bassist Jaribu Shahid, supreme cellist Tomeka Reid, celebrated flute virtuoso Nicole Mitchell and the extraordinary voice of Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron.

The vinyl edition will be available as a double album featuring a meticulous studio session of the newly assembled group of musicians, combining re-recordings of works spanning the last 50 years, some never before recorded, as well as new compositions. The 4-LP special edition also includes their live set recorded at Edgefest, the annual experimental jazz and creative new music festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Having witnessed this exciting new formation around Roscoe and Don live at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Robert Raths was compelled to start a conversation with their US label Pi Recordings, based out of New York, and support this project in any way possible.
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is a band that has been at the forefront of creative improvised music since forming in 1969. It has also long served as the flagship ensemble of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the august Chicago-based organisation that also fostered the careers of members such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, and Wadada Leo Smith, among many others. Now led by the surviving members Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye, their new album We Are On The Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration is not only a commemoration of a half-century of magical music making, but also a loving tribute to the band’s three original members who have passed: Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and most recently, Joseph Jarman.

The greatness of the Art Ensemble has always been the shared commitment of its original members to the total realm of African diasporic music: what they have long-termed “Great Black Music — Ancient to the Future”. Also important are the group’s disparate musical and artistic personalities, comprised of jazz, advanced compositional techniques, theatrical performance, poetry, Pan-African percussion, all tied together with improvisational flair, a taste for the absurd, and the exploration of pure sound and space. It is this open-mindedness – absorbed from the basic tenets of the AACM – that has made the band one of the most important in the history of music.

Mitchell and Moye are now 78 and 72, respectively, but one would never guess by their outlook. Mitchell, who was recently named to a prestigious United States Artist Fellowship, is about to retire from his teaching position at Mills College, is most excited when you ask him about his upcoming projects, gushing about a dizzying array of performances, commissions, collaborations, composition ideas, and musical studies and inventions. There is, of course some wistfulness when looking back, particularly with the passing of Joseph Jarman earlier this year, but the overwhelming feeling is anticipation of what is coming next or, as Moye always says, "focus and forward motion". It’s a clarion statement that Mitchell and Moye are intent on ushering The Art Ensemble of Chicago forcefully into its sixth decade. As Moor Mother declares: "We are on the edge!" 

TRACK LISTING

1. Bell Song
2. We Are On The Edge
3. I Greet You With Open Arms
4. Chi-Congo 50
5. Jamaican Farewell Part I
6. Villa Tiamo
7. Saturday Morning
8. Jamaican Farewell Part II
9. Mama Koko
10. Fanfare And Bell
11. Variations And Sketches From The Bamboo Terrace
12. Oasis At Dusk
13. We Are On The Edge/Cards (Live)
14. Oasis At Dusk (Live)
15. Chi-Congo 50 (Live)
16. Tutankhamun (Live)
17. Mama Koko (Live)
18. Saturday Morning (Live)
19. Odwalla/The Theme (Live)

Meant as a companion piece to The Transition, The Cell picks up where The Transition left off, with David continuing the search to find his place in the world. “The Cell is about warmly acknowledging the darkness in our individual lives as a strategic method of gaining a deeper understanding of how to move forward in a vastly dissonant world with optimism, harmony and light.”

Opening with the title track, The Cell immediately draws us into David’s unique world of storytelling, displaying his peculiar skill of weaving feelings and characters with wandering melodies. The five-minute opener peaks with David’s emotional falsetto repeating “In the mind”, acting as an alarm call for himself and his surroundings. Lead track Nature’s Course finds David delving deeper into existential questions about the human condition and its relation to nature, set to a gentle, melancholy piano ballad.

“Nature’s Course is a feeling pertaining to the way our subjective human experience is subconsciously directly related to the slow steady pace of nature and our ability to cope with our inner struggles accordingly” explains David.

The Cell further cements David’s place among the American songwriting tradition, from the slow methodical spacey instrumental Mandatory Soul to the poetic solo piano number Family and the dense and continuous Lexington Hills. With each piece we are transported to David’s unusual but rich and textured little world.

Hailing from Loomis, a small town outside of Sacramento, via Portland, Oregon – David worked as a sound engineer and session musician, featuring on multiple recordings by the likes of Birger Olsen, Brigid Mae Power, Brumes, The Beacon Sound Choir, Chantal Acda, Heather Woods Broderick, Jung Body, Masayoshi Fujita, and many more. He quickly found himself touring Europe with Peter, culminating in a Royal Festival Hall performance, and contributing the arresting voice and double bass piece Ahoy to the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary box set 1+1=X.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: They're becoming quite the collective this lot. With Allred recently collaborating with the splendid Peter Broderick, and he in turn collaborating with Chatal Acda and the superb Bridgid Mae Powers, the musical ouroboros continues to produce the goods. Allred is a hugely talented individual and clearly knows exactly how to accentuate his beautiful pieces with the help of some good pals. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Cell
2. Mandatory Soul
3. Nature's Course
4. Full Moon
5. Fading Away
6. Family
7. Lexington Hills

In 2009 instrumental rock music experienced a new peak. Codes In The Clouds, the English quintet of Ciaran Morahan, Stephen Peeling, Jack Major, Joe Power and Robert Smith had found a firm place in this vast growing scene, spearheaded by the likes of Mogwai and 65daysofstatic — whom CITC supported live. With their harmonious and blissful sound they weaved guitar melodies, liable to explode any minute. Now Codes In The Clouds celebrate their tenth anniversary with the first vinyl edition of their seminal debut album Paper Canyon.Completed under the experienced eye of Justin Lockey (Minor Victories, The Editors, Yourcodenameis: Milo, The British Expeditionary Force) and with the vinyl master cut by legendary engineer Barry Grint (Radiohead, Oasis, Kate Bush) at Alchemy, London, Paper Canyon has lost none of its original urgency; at once energetic and charming, always surprising and unpredictable.

Bassist Joe Power recalls; “Paper Canyon was recorded in the late summer of 2008 over 5 days in Doncaster. The days in the studio were long, but working with two perfectionists in Justin and James Lockey you knew that the long days were going to be worth it.

Looking back on the process now, the memories that stand out are the endless shouts of “tune up!” after every take, the nearby café that offered “bottomless toast” with every breakfast (challenge accepted). Above all else, I think what stands out the most when reflecting on this record and listening to the tracks now is how young we were. This album could only have been written by people just entering their 20’s.

It has been great going through all the songs, the demos and the videos from that time and we’re really excited to finally have the album released in the format for which it was designed.”

TRACK LISTING

A 1. Fractures
A 2. Don't Go Awash In This Digital Landscape
A 3. Distant Street Lights
A 4. We Anchor In Hope
B 1. You Are Not What You Think You Are
B 2. The Distance Between Us

Pakistani-American composer Qasim Naqvi will release his debut album for Erased Tapes on May 3rd. 'Teenages’ captures the sound of electronics living, breathing and mutating of their own accord – almost autonomously – with only subtle, sparing but perfectly-judged and masterful guidance.

This album is one singular synergy between Qasim and his machine within a broader milieu of sound, also explored by contemporaries Sarah Davachi, Alessandro Cortini, Caterina Barbieri and also the forefather, Morton Subotnick. At points tonal, textural and rhythmic, over six evolving and growing audio organisms, the album flourishes upwards in stages, from initial micro-sonics to something bigger, brighter and anthemic.

This is Naqvi’s first non-soundtrack release, having previously established himself as a renowned composer for dance, theatre, film and installation-based art, not to mention his role as drummer in lauded trio Dawn of Midi. According to Naqvi, “my past releases like ‘Chronology’, ‘Preamble’, ‘Fjoloy’ and ‘Film’ were made to accompany visual mediums. The music was always written to enhance another form. ‘Teenages’ is the first album with its own motivating force. It’s a live multi movement work that I recorded for myself.”

With ‘Teenages’, Naqvi summoned all the material on an analog modular synthesizer – a voltage-controlled sound generating system comprised of multiple modules. Naqvi built this synth over the course of two years and amassed a collection of works for this album.

“I’ve always been drawn to the power of un-amplified acoustic music. And for me modular synthesizers are a natural progression forward from the acoustic realm into the electric. It feels like an orchestra comprised of very unusual instruments, and their orchestration and vibrational properties lie in the patching and flow of voltages through a system.

They’re also unstable and they rarely play the same thing twice in any exact way. It’s almost organic and human. It was really important for this album to capture that kind of uninterrupted behavior.”

Capturing a live feeling without the aid of heavy studio production was an important component to this release: “Even though this is ‘electronic music,’ I didn’t want to rely heavily on a computer with an array of plugins, loops and samples, or exhaustive editing as part of the writing process. I wanted to treat this work like a live piece of music and have the natural behavior of the machine shine through and sound huge, like an orchestra of electrical signals.”

Gently stuttering like a time lapse-video of a seed sprouting up from the earth, ‘Intermission’ sets the scene, before musical motifs begin to emerge on the dancing, bubbling bassline of ‘Mrs 2E’, which possesses a playful, infantile quality, like a newborn animal learning to walk after birth.

More bouncy, skewed bottom-line squelch appears on the jittery, buzzing ‘Palace Workers’, which seems to evoke life in the form of amplified insect or bat noises, with a melody that eventually unfolds into something akin to a fractal rendition of ‘Oxygene’. By ‘No Tongue’ more traditionally identifiable musical signifiers begin to emerge, with a bright and melodic synth line evoking the new blooms of spring, whereas ‘Artilect’ takes a more ominous drone tone, insinuating the dark, potential threat of artificially augmented biological intelligence.

Like a coming-of-age, the album culminates on title track ‘Teenages’ – a dynamic, technicolour symphony that was recorded in one take, with no overdubs or edits. In the year leading up to ‘Teenages’, Naqvi created a series of shorter works. These stepping-stones eventually became the first 5 tracks of the album and were part of a larger process, leading to the realization of the title track. “I wanted to show the stages of development that lead to the main act. All of these tracks share the same D.N.A., even though they seem distantly related.” Explains Naqvi.

The pieces heard prior to ‘Teenages’ chronicle both Naqvi’s understanding of writing for this type of instrument and the growth of the instrument itself: “I started with just a few modules. And naturally things had to be layered and pieced together but as the synthesizer and its components grew over time, I was able to create broader and more complex strokes in the moment. And by the time I got to ‘Teenages’, it was possible to create a robust, large-scale piece spontaneously. This is very much an experiential album for me because it was borne out of my direct experience of learning the instrument. And as the synthesizer grew over time with more components, it matured. At times I felt like it was even rebelling against my instructions or surprising me with what felt like its own choices.

When everything was finished and I was thinking about track titles, this idea of artificial intelligence came into my head; a machine that reacts to your impulses and is capable of giving you something different from what you ask, and even defying you. It felt like different stages of growth and adolescence, and that lead to the album title, ‘Teenages’.”

Deeply rewarding on close listening, Naqvi has created an inspiring and synapsestimulating new masterwork, within the analogue/modular cannon.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intermission
2. Mrs 2E
3. Palace Workers
4. No Tongue
5. Artilect
6. Teenages

On March 15th Erased Tapes presents the invigorating and powerful debut solo album Lines of Sight by Australian-born, Liverpool-based composer, saxophonist and founder of Immix Ensemble, Daniel Thorne.

Deeply moving, full of otherworldly beauty and rapture, the album is alive, throbbing like a circulatory system, colourful and glowing. It literally dazzles – effectively capturing what the birth (or death) of a planet might sound like.

In Daniel’s own words, “Thematically, this music was inspired by birds-eye aerial images and the idea of perspective - how something incredibly complex like a river or the surface of the ocean is reduced to a simple line or shape when viewed from the heavens. The line between natural and man-made becomes increasingly blurred.”

Every strand is fresh, vital and purposeful. The description ‘seamless’ might suggest a smooth, bland fusion, but here elements overlap in intermittent, undulating layers of mesh. Avant-garde, noise, electronics, ecclesiastical, classical, a touch of jazz and traces of Wyatt-style contemporary folk come together, each occupying their own space while acquiescing with the whole.

“Several compositions are derived from ratios and processes, and are highly calculated, while others evolved in a much more organic way. I wanted to create music that blurred lines between acoustic and electronic, organic and synthetic, composition and improvisation.

I’ve long been a fan of studio-based composition, but have always found the infinite possibilities on offer daunting and, often, a stumbling block. To get around this I set myself a challenge of limiting myself to the physical instruments in my possession – a few different saxophones and a bass synth, with no more than four tracks to record them,” he adds.

Lines of Sight follows Thorne’s work as artistic director of the acclaimed, collaboration-focussed group Immix Ensemble. Together with experimental electronic artist Vessel, he co-wrote Transition released on Erased Tapes in 2016, described by BBC Radio 6’s Mary Anne Hobbs as “a remarkable new piece of music”. More recently, he worked with acclaimed modular synth wizard Luke Abbott, to create a four-part suite, which was premiered live in June 2017. Immix Ensemble have also performed special live commissions with Kelly Lee Owens, Dialect, Jane Weaver and Bill Ryder-Jones, among others.

Prior to leaving Australia, Daniel was fortunate to work with some of the country’s leading new music ensembles as both a composer and performer, receiving commissions from the TURA New Music Festival and the Australia Council, as well as being appointed as Composer in Residence at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. In the UK he was the recipient of the prestigious Dankworth Prize for Jazz Composition, and also undertook a residency at Metal Liverpool, which provided him with the time and space to create Immix.

As the first track under Thorne’s own name, ‘Iroise’ was recorded for the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary release 1+1=X, alongside works by Nils

Frahm, Penguin Cafe, A Winged Victory For The Sullen and Rival Consoles. He also recently remixed Manu Delago, known as the live percussionist for Björk and Ólafur Arnalds.

After a first solo performance at Sea Change Festival 2018, the new year will see Daniel tour across Europe, promoting the forthcoming release of Lines of Sight.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Dense synthetic soundscapes mix beautifully with shimmering post-apocalyptic drone into a richly textured and highly hypnotic suite of electronic soundscapes. With the tender touch of modern-classical (no surprise being an Erased Tapes release) slowly moving into soaring euphoric musique concrete.

TRACK LISTING

1. From Inside, Looking Out
2. From The Other Side Of The World
3. From The Heavens
4. Pyriscence
5. Threnody For A Burning Building
6. Fear Of Floating

Following the release of Encores 1 on June 1st, Nils Frahm releases of Encores 2, the second in a series of EPs following the release of the universally acclaimed album, All Melody, released in January of this year.

While Encores 1 focused on an acoustic pallet of sounds with just a solo piano and harmonium, Encores 2 explores a more ambient landscape from the All Melody sessions, the pinnacle of which is the astral 12 minute showpiece Spells. Recorded through an amplified stone well Frahm found on Mallorca, Encores 2 is at once unique but familiar; orbiting the universe of All Melody while inhabiting its own world.

“The idea behind Encores is one we had from before All Melody; to separate releases each with their own distinct musical style and theme, perhaps even as a triple album. But All Melody became larger than itself and took over any initial concepts. I think the idea of Encores is like musical islands that compliment All Melody”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful counterfoil to last years' 'Encores 1', we get a wealth of beautifully textured field recordings, icy and crepuscular loops bolstered with beautifully weighted and perfectly paced piano, as is Frahm's style. Encompassing elements of dark ambient and minimalism, this is further evidence of Frahm's domination of the modern classical field, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Sweet Little Lie
A Walking Embrace
Talisman
Spells

Erased Tapes present ‘Fallen Trees’ – the new album by singular talent and literal force of nature Lubomyr Melnyk – known as ‘the prophet of the piano’ due to his lifelong devotion to his instrument.

The album release coincides with Melnyk’s 70th birthday, but despite the autumnal hint in its title, there’s little suggestion of him slowing down. Having received critical acclaim and coheadlining the prestigious Royal Festival Hall as part of the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary celebrations, after many years his audience is now both global and growing. The composer is finally gaining a momentum in his career that matches the vibrant, highly active energy of his playing.

Cascades of notes, canyons and rivers of sound: there’s something about his music that channels the natural world at its most awe-inspiring. In ‘Fallen Trees’ the connection with the environment continues, taking its cue from a long rail journey Melnyk made through Europe. Glancing out of the window as the train passed through a dark forest, he was struck by the sight of trees that had recently been felled. “They were glorious,” he says. “Even though they’d been killed, they weren’t dead. There was something sorrowful there, but also hopeful.” That sense of sadness touched by optimism infuses the album, too: rarely has Melnyk made music so shot through with melancholy and regret, but which sounds so rapt, even radiant.

Drawing comparisons with Steve Reich and the post-rock group Godspeed You, Black Emperor!, Pitchfork praised his 2015 album ‘Rivers And Streams’ for it’s “sustained concentration and ecstatic energy”. That energy is present in ‘Fallen Trees’ too, but at points the tone is quieter, the mood darker and more wistful. At points elsewhere on the album, despite being rooted in the wonders of the natural world, there’s a kaleidoscopic quality in the fractal flurry of notes and the broad spectrum of colour they summon.

Critics have detected the influence of Ravi Shankar and other Indian styles in Melnyk’s music, along with the insistent, repetitive textures of minimalist pioneers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Melnyk himself cites his debt to the American composer Terry Riley, particularly the legendary 1964 work ‘In C’, which he says “opened the world for me”. But he adds that if you listen carefully, you’ll also be able to hear the lilting contours of traditional Ukrainian folk music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: For those of you that thought modern classical music was all plaintive, slowed-down montage soundtracking (Dave?), Melnyk is here to provide a frenetic but strangely relaxing onslaught of shimmering keys and endlessly expressive pianissising about.

TRACK LISTING

1. Requiem For A Fallen Tree
2. Son Of Parasol
3. Barcarolle
4. Fallen Trees - Part I: Preamble
5. Fallen Trees - Part II: Existence
6. Fallen Trees - Part III: Apparition
7. Fallen Trees - Part IV: The Are Down
8. Fallen Trees - Part V: Not Forgotten

American-born multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Peter Broderick will releases 'Two Balloons' via Erased Tapes. Available as a limited edition 10” vinyl and digital download, it features the score for the award-winning animation of the same name, inspired by an early recording of his, plus a 9-minute electronic rework on the B-side titled Techno For Lemurs.

Fairly often we see albums of “Music inspired by the film __”, but less common is a film inspired by music. Such is the case with Two Balloons. Director Mark C. Smith got the idea for his nine-minute stop frame animation film while out at sea, looking at a majestic funnel cloud in the distance. Shortly after he heard a song by Peter Broderick from one of his earliest recordings — 4 Track Songs — and the music struck a chord so strongly, he knew he wanted to make a film to fit the melody. And so began the five-year labour of love that would eventually produce this enchanting little film, currently circulating film festivals around the world and racking up countless awards and accolades including ‘Best Original Music Score’ at the New Renaissance Film Festival in Amsterdam.

Even though the film was inspired by an older Broderick composition, the score for Two Balloons was recorded from scratch, revised and expanded to fit each frame. The process of stop frame animation is a labour intensive and painstaking one, but the attention to detail didn’t stop at the picture for this film. The score was an integral part of the film from the very beginning, with both the director and composer going to great lengths to experiment not only with the composition itself, but also the fidelity. The first sound heard on the score is a piano playing a waltz figure, and the sound is noticeably lo-fi, but this isn’t just some modern digital trickery. This piano was recorded on a wire recorder, a recording technology that predates magnetic tape and has been virtually forgotten about.

In the process of recording the score, many different technologies were experimented with. In addition to purchasing and refurbishing several wire recorders, the director at one stage acquired several massive AM radio consoles as well as an AM radio transmitter, so that a digital recording from the computer could be broadcast through the AM radio waves and then captured through one of these nostalgic sounding old radios. A variety of these technologies from different eras were used to create a score that both sounds like it’s from several different time periods and from no specific time at all.

The B-side, if you will, is more than just a remix that recycles the original recordings. In fact none of the original parts have been re-used. ‘Techno For Lemurs’ is a homage to the two main characters in the story, the ring-tailed lemurs Bernard and Elba. Serving as Broderick’s first foray into the world of techno, this playful piece reinterprets the melodic themes from the original score by adapting them with electronic instrumentation. In Peter’s own words: “Let’s pretend for nine minutes that we’re ring-tailed lemurs and get this party started!” 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Two Balloons (Part 1)
A2. Two Balloons (Part 2)
A3. Two Balloons (Part 3)
A4. Two Balloons (Part 4)
A5. Two Balloons (Part 5)
B1. Techno For Lemurs

Hailing from Loomis, a small town outside of Sacramento, via Portland, Oregon – David worked as a sound engineer and session musician, featuring on multiple recordings by the likes of Birger Olsen, Brigid Mae Power, Brumes, The Beacon Sound Choir, Chantal Acda, Heather Woods Broderick, Jung Body, Masayoshi Fujita, and many more. He quickly found himself touring Europe with Peter, culminating in a Royal Festival Hall performance, and contributing the arresting voice and double bass piece Ahoy to the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary box set 1+1=X; only to return to where he started, Loomis, and finally write and record The Transition as his first full-length statement in just one month.

“At 26 years old, I found myself back in the town where I grew up, feeling a bit like a failure for not “making it” out there in the years I spent living and working on my own. I picked up a job working in a retirement home, surrounded by those who are at the very end of their lives, and they’ve kept saying the same thing: that they had no idea life would happen that fast. So I decided to make an album inspired by my recent experiences and stories I heard through working with them,” he explains.

With the release of The Transition, David Allred takes his place among the classic American songwriting tradition whilst revealing a peculiarity to his storytelling. Isolated and cut off from the outside world, David began unravelling his life and putting it on record. With a double bass in his bedroom and a piano in a church across the street, the stories started to unfold until a set of ten songs came to life. Vignettes and feelings from his own experiences, as well as characters he met along the way, inspired a rich tapestry of stories and melodies. Songs like the lead single The Garden show a maturity, depth and thoughtfulness beyond his years. Randy and Susan, a song about love, betrayal, greed and getting old, was made up from various stories David collected at his day job as a caretaker. It was written as a companion piece to Hey Stranger, “a poignant tale of a disappeared friend” (Mojo) from his collaborative release with Peter, and an attempt to make peace with this unresolved situation. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Scoop Troop
2. For Catherine E. Coulson
3. Randy And Susan
4. The Transition
5. Impending Imperative Change
6. The Garden
7. The Mirror Of Time
8. For The Penguins
9. For Only All
10. Poet Tree

Daniel Brandt, co-founder of acclaimed German ensemble Brandt Brauer Frick, is set to release his second solo album for London imprint Erased Tapes on October 12th. Titled Channels, the new record follows the release of the London and Berlin based producer’s solo debut Eternal Something from 2017. The seven-track LP is Brandt’s biggest statement yet, with the album’s thrilling avant-garde framework interweaving chord-driven techno, orchestral flourishes, rich electronic textures and hints of dark cinematic pop. Following on from Eternal Something, which captured a contemplative kind of isolationism, with Channels Brandt set out to create an album that captures the essence of minimalism whilst lending it to a more playful context. After performing and recording Steve Reich’s Six Pianos in a group of six, Brandt began regularly composing long meditations on the piano, something that permeates the sound of the new record. Its frenetic energy and shape-shifting identity was also born out of touring with his new band Eternal Something — comprised of Brandt on piano, drums and synthesisers, Pascal Bideau on guitar and bass, plus Florian Juncker on trombone — and a desire to translate both the sound and spiritual unity of their live shows in which musicians locked together to create an intriguing meld of expansive works. Intricate floor-filler and lead track ‘Flamingo’ synthesises the measured pacing of Detroit techno with an orchestral background. As with all of the tracks on Channels, ‘Flamingo’ began life as a sketch with very basic instrumentation, before taking it into the studio to rehearse with his band members, giving the album a live and visceral sound that sets it apart from his debut; “It was a great experience to do it this way as I have always wanted to have the chance to try out something in a live setting before recording it in the studio and not the other way round,” explains Daniel. “The actual typical rock band recording style that I never had the chance to do before.”

The album’s most immersive, club-ready track ‘Sailboats III’ is built with a vivid and pulsating bass line that takes inspiration from a Lichtenstein painting, as well as the UK bass scene and producers like Tessela and Lord Tusk. The blossoming cosmos of ‘Cherry Dream’ is informed by Tangerine Dream’s iconic soundtrack to the film Risky Business, a compelling reinterpretation of Love On A Real Train replete with darker, electronic elements and live orchestration. ‘Daze’, co-written with guitarist Pascal Bideau, chimes with an acoustic melody and is carried by a rhythmic percussive pulse, whilst the understated ‘Ltd’ was stylistically inspired by Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint as well as Daniel and his band’s live improvisations with orchestral collective Stargaze, whose founder and conductor André de Ridder contributed violin on the album. Title track ‘Channels’ melds instrumental ambient with melodramatic embellishments, whilst the record’s closer ‘Twentynine Palms’ takes its name from the vast Californian desert, and was written while Daniel was travelling there, evoking the widescreen and rapturous sound of open space and nature. With Brandt also being skilled as a filmmaker, directing and producing visuals for BBF and Eternal Something, much of the new album’s creative ideas reference a rich visual palette. He directed the video for ‘Flamingo’, a sideways glance at the art world that takes the concept behind John Cage’s 4’33” and turns it on its head. “The video for Flamingo is deliberately non performance — people sitting in a room and watching basically nothing, never really sure if anything is ever going to happen. It’s also a play on John Cage’s 4’33”, except in this instance there isn’t even a performer present.” — Daniel Brandt

Daniel’s passion for film even prompted him to kick start his own online television channel Strrr.tv in 2017 that since attracted a lot of attention with guest moderators including BBC Radio DJ Gilles Peterson, modular synth legend Suzanne Ciani and Berghain bouncer Sven Marquardt counting amongst the most popular episodes.

Recorded between Berlin and London, Channels is a deeply enthralling listening experience, which sees Daniel Brandt build upon his distinctive percussive sound whilst exploring new and expansive horizons.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flamingo
2. Sailboats III
3. Cherry Dream
4. Daze
5. Ltd
6. Channels
7. Twentynine Palms

Emmy award-winning composer Michael Price releases Tender Symmetry, his second album with Erased Tapes. The ambitious musical project takes in a series of iconic National Trust locations across England as its inspiration, turning them into unlikely recording spaces. Michael and a host of musicians and collaborators — including soprano Grace Davidson (featured on Max Richter’s Sleep) and Shards (the choir on Nils Frahm’s All Melody) — travelled across the country in pursuit of places far removed from the traditional recording studio to create seven unique and moving pieces, straddling the past and the future.

The diversity of Michael Price’s choices ranges from the ruins of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire to the Fan Bay WWII shelter, cut deep into the chalk cliffs of Dover. All owned by the National Trust save one, each venue became both the inspiration and the recording studio for Michael Price and his accompaniment of renowned musical ensembles, choirs and soloists.

"For Tender Symmetry, I stopped admiring and started participating in these buildings. This began as an exploration of writing and recording out in the world beyond the studio. I am interested in where we build our homes in an increasingly virtual world and the spirit of place we feel as we walk our local streets, our schools, temples and public spaces. Taking inspiration from a place, and the stories it told, then going back to that place to record, sometimes in less than ideal conditions, made the two-year adventure much more like shooting a film than making a record.” — Michael Price

Acoustics varied wildly as the artists moved from places designed with sound in mind to locations which demanded the use of miners’ helmets for light and battery-powered sound gear. The final recordings carry the genuinely unique sonic blueprints and spirit of each place – from the birdsong in the courtyard at Speke Hall to the steam-driven cotton mill accompaniment at Quarry Bank. “When we recorded the piece at Fan Bay in the World War II shelter deep inside the chalk cliffs of Dover, Peter Gregson’s cello wasn’t at all happy with the clammy, dank conditions; but to be in the tunnels where young soldiers spent months on end, constantly on alert for incoming bombers, gave the recording an extraordinarily intimate, moving quality. At each site, the human mixed with the historical, and the natural environment of each space comes through with each piece. I tried to leave an imprint of each location on the record.”

While each piece of music is named after the location in which it was created, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience courses through them as well. Soprano Grace Davidson sings Blake’s poignant words about nature, religion and the industrial revolution on several of the pieces including the astoundingly beautiful album closer Shade Of Dreams, written after the birth of Michael’s daughter. “The final piece, Shade of Dreams, is part of a group of pieces I wrote for the birth of our daughter, Emilie. It, like all the works on the album, takes its text from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, in this case, A Cradle Song. As much as Tender Symmetry is about the past, it is firmly about the future, and all our of shared futures.”

Grace Davies, National Trust contemporary arts programme manager said:
“We were delighted when Michael approached us with this project as it directly draws on the extraordinary stories and history of these special places. The sheer variety of sites that Michael has chosen has resulted in a collection of new music that is sometimes surprising, sometimes poignant, and – above all – inspirational. I am sure that audiences will be enchanted both by Michael’s music and our places that have inspired him.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Holding all the beauty of his inspirations' natural environments and brittle balance of ecological equilibrium within his pieces, Price fills the sonic room with delicate but grand strings, crystalline vocals and a breathtaking sense of organic space. Majestic and breathtaking, but imbued with a nerve-racking transience and innate delicacy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sandham
2. Speke
3. Willow Road
4. Quarry Bank
5. Fan Bay
6. Fountains
7. Shade Of Dreams

“I suppose finding words and meaning to describe this release would be next to impossible. This recording was a real joy, to go back to our humble beginnings. To have the freedom to create art only for ourselves was truly sublime” — Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie of A Winged Victory For The Sullen

Erased Tapes rounds off a jubilant year of tenth anniversary celebrations with a very special release, 1+1=X, a set of exclusive music from every artist on the label. Featuring never before heard tracks from Nils Frahm, Kiasmos and A Winged Victory For The Sullen, 1+1=X sees Erased Tapes artists come together to make an album as a collective. Sharing the same space, instruments and each others’ capabilities during a residency at Vox-Ton studio in Berlin, they recorded 20 songs to mark the label's 10-year history.

Between August 2016 and 2017, each artist arrived with a new composition or an improvisation to record at Vox-Ton. Run with much love and care by Italian engineer Francesco Donadello – who has worked on many Erased Tapes recordings before including A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Michael Price and Lubomyr Melnyk – it is one of the few studios left where it’s still possible to record fully analogue, isolated from the city noise and in a room that can fit a large ensemble. Reflective of the communal spirit, 1+1=X is the result of an ambitious undertaking; to create a singular record as a collective, not just a compilation of songs, that celebrates the benefits of community over individuality and improvisation over rigorous planning.

“As much as Erased Tapes probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the digital age, we should also remind ourselves of what we are capable of without it,” adds Raths. “1+1=X is a testament of what can be achieved when we work together as a collective, which is more than the sum of what we can achieve as individuals.”

The majority of songs on this album feature contributions from multiple performers, whether it’s Nils Frahm duetting on the keys with Arthur Jeffes of Penguin Cafe, Kiasmos being joined by Högni and a string ensemble, Douglas Dare’s one-take ‘Darling’ featuring Rival Consoles on synths, Masayoshi Fujita on vibes and Raths himself controlling the tremolo on his voice. Peter Broderick’s ‘The Perpetual Glow’ meanwhile, brings in a full big band and choir where everyone present, including the studio staff, was invited to grab any instrument and join in. Every song has a unique story and approach – in-themoment decisions and little accidents that could only come out of these kinds of circumstances where people work together in the same space, sparking off each other and their environment. Even Rival Consoles’ remix of Daniel Brandt’s ‘Blackpool Sands Forever’ was conceived of in the studio kitchen during recording breaks.

Japanese vocal performer Hatis Noit decided to bring a field recording of the ocean with her, which she had taken near the Fukushima power plant after participating in a memorial ceremony for the opening of the evacuation area. It is also no coincidence that the album opens with ‘Brutal Moderna’ by Qasim Naqvi (Dawn of Midi) and A Winged Victory For The Sullen’s ‘Long May It Sustain’, which were both recorded on the day the U.S. election results came in. “Qasim asked me to read the news headlines with a stutter over the top of his piece. It was an oddly beautiful experience which brought all of us together on a day when spirits were otherwise a bit low,” says Peter Broderick. “I thought this residency was a wonderful idea. In fact I would have loved to be there for more of it. I made some amazing new friends, some stronger bonds with old friends and some wonderful pieces of music that I’m honoured to be a part of. Robert has often described Erased Tapes as a family, and perhaps above all else this was just his earnest effort to bring the family together. I hope we’ll have some reunions in years to come!” 

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklisting:
Disc 1
1. Qasim Naqvi - Brutal Moderna
2. A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Long May It Sustain
3. Rival Consoles - Ritual Song
4. Nils Frahm - Frau Dehlholm
5. Daniel Thorne - Iroise
6. Daniel Brandt - Blackpool Sands Forever
7. Douglas Dare - Darling
8. Michael Price - Eyn Hallow
9. Kiasmos & Hogni - Zebra
10. Ben Lukas Boysen - Pending
11. David Allred - Ahoy

Disc 2
1. Anne Müller - Bel Tono
2. Lubomyr Melnyk - Palisade 1
3. Hatis Noit - Inori
4. Masayoshi Fujita - Spaceship Magical
5. Hogni - Mani
6. Peter Broderick - The Perpetual Glow
7. Arthur Jeffes & Nils Frahm - Up Is Good
8. Daniel Brandt - Blackpool Sands Forever (Rival Consoles Remix)
9. Penguin Cafe - Wheels Within Wheels (Greg Gives Peter Space Remix)

Vinyl Tracklisting:
A1. Qasim Naqvi - Brutal Moderna
A2. A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Long May It Sustain
A3. Rival Consoles - Ritual Song
A4. Nils Frahm - Frau Dehlholm
B1. Daniel Thorne - Iroise
B2. Daniel Brandt - Blackpool Sands Forever
B3. Douglas Dare - Darling
C1. Michael Price - Eyn Hallow
C2. Kiasmos & Högni - Zebra
C3. Ben Lukas Boysen - Pending
C4. David Allred - Ahoy
D1. Anne Müller - Bel Tono
D2. Lubomyr Melnyk - Palisade 1
E1. Hatis Noit - Inori
E2. Masayoshi Fujita - Spaceship Magical
E3. Högni - Möni
E4. Peter Broderick - The Perpetual Glow
F1. Arthur Jeffes & Nils Frahm - Up Is Good
F2. Daniel Brandt - Blackpool Sands Forever (Rival Consoles Remix)
F3. Penguin Cafe - Wheels Within Wheels (Greg Gives Peter Space Remix)

Ahead of the release of his new album Book Of Life, Erased Tapes will re-issue Stories, the first in a trilogy of vibraphone solo albums by Berlin-based composer Masayoshi Fujita. This quietly exquisite album is like a book of illustrations, evoking scenes of natural beauty and poetic poignancy that combines climactic crescendos laced with electronic detail and luxurious melody. Stories is the beginning of Masayoshi’s mission in bringing the vibraphone — a relatively new invention in the history of instruments often kept in the background in orchestras and jazz outfits — into the spotlight. Having trained as a drummer, Masayoshi began experimenting with the vibraphone, preparing its bars with kitchen foil or beads, playing it with the cello bow or using the other end of the mallets to create a more ambient texture of sound. Focussing on the vibraphone in this way sets Masayoshi apart, dedicating his artistic life to celebrating this fascinating and often under appreciated instrument and making his take on ambient and modern compositional styles a unique one.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deers
2. Snow Storm
3. Cloud
4. Story Of Forest
5. Story Of Waterfall I. & II.
6. Swan And Morning Dews
7. River
8. Memories Of The Wind

Following on from his acclaimed works Stories and Apologues, Berlin-based composer and vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita will release his new album Book of Life, the third instalment in a trilogy of solo vibraphone recordings, on July 27th via Erased Tapes. Stories, the first in the series and Masayoshi’s debut under his own name, will be re-issued by Erased Tapes at the same time.

With Book of Life Masayoshi continues his mission in bringing the vibraphone — a relatively new invention in the history of instruments often kept in the background in orchestras and jazz outfits — into the spotlight. Having trained as a drummer, Masayoshi began experimenting with the vibraphone, preparing its bars with kitchen foil or beads, playing it with the cello bow such as in Fog or using the other end of the mallets to create a more ambient texture of sound, as with the title track. Focussing on the vibraphone in this way sets Masayoshi apart, dedicating his artistic life to celebrating this fascinating and often underappreciated instrument and making his take on ambient and modern compositional styles a unique one.

“I think the vibraphone is capable of more interesting and beautiful sounds that haven’t been heard before. It’s quite a new instrument but it’s often played in a similar way. I feel that there is a lot more to explore with this exciting instrument.”

Book of Life sees Masayoshi expand on his compositional skills, bringing in more orchestral elements such as strings, brass and even a choir to interact with the vibraphone. And not just any choir — members of this chorus include musical friends Peter Broderick, Hatis Noit, David Allred and Shards who featured on Nils Frahm’s latest album All Melody. The instruments come to represent characters in Masayoshi’s stories, hinted at in each accompanying text contained in the album booklet, which Masayoshi recites at his live performances. They set the scene for each piece, for example “the choir in Misty Avalanche is meant to resemble the blizzard, while the vibraphone is the bird hovering above,” he explains.

The title track however, was unusual from the start; “Book Of Life is very different to my other songs. It was about humans, whereas the other songs are all about animals and nature. And it was improvised initially, whereas normally my songs are composed and planned. This one was free. I scratched the vibraphone bar as if I was writing something. An image connected in my mind: these two people meeting and sharing their lives. This image was the book of life.”

The upbeat lead single It’s Magical features two cellos and a flute as extensions of the vibraphone; “like a man who’s put artificial wings on his arms to attempt to fly like a bird, before an airplane was invented,” says Masayoshi. A different version of the song, called Spaceship Magical, also appears on the Erased Tapes 10th anniversary box set 1+1=X. “Like most of my songs, It’s Magical started from one simple phrase that I’d played again and again. But at one point I had two very different versions; one acoustic with orchestral arrangement, whilst the other had distorted guitars with electronic bass that perfectly suited the collaborative nature of the label residency when Robert invited me to participate.”

His new album arrives at a time of renewed interest for percussive, ambient music following the reissue of minimalist composer Midori Takada’s seminal album Through The Looking Glass last year and compounded by the comeback of Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose cinematic compositions parallel Masayoshi’s storytelling soundscapes. BBC Radio 3 confirmed this renaissance of Japanese music and culture, dedicating their recent Night Blossoms season to new experimental artists, including fellow Erased Tapes vocal performer Hatis Noit. Masayoshi previously released two albums under his alias El Fog that touched on the vibraphone but appeared mostly in a supporting role, accompanying his intricate electronic production. Much like his instrument, he has often been a collaborator as opposed to a front man — his sympathetic musicianship complimenting a variety of creative outputs. Most frequently with the adventurous German producer Jan Jelinek. Their most recent offering Schaum displays a dialogue between the two that makes it hard to tell just where Fujita’s vibraphone ends and Jelinek’s whirring loops begin. Another fruitful partnership was the
experimental Needle Six piece, a BBC Radio 3 recording of an improvised session with UK electronic artist Guy Andrews for Late Junction. The mesmeric and compelling 30-minute piece was released for Record Store Day in 2016. In addition his label peer and fellow Berlin resident Nils Frahm mastered Stories, providing a fitting symmetry to its re-issue on Erased Tapes now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Snowy Night Tale
2. Fog
3. It's Magical
4. Old Automation
5. Book Of Life
6. Harp
7. Mountain Deer
8. Sadness
9. Misty Avalanche
10. Cloud Of Light

Encores 1 is five track 12" vinyl EP previously only available as an exclusive, limited release via Rough Trade. It was recorded in Nils Frahm's studio at the Funkhaus in Berlin, as part of the same sessions for the recently released and universally acclaimed new album, All Melody (Official Album Charts #21), released earlier this year on Erased Tapes. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Suddenly arriving as a top secret release on Friday morning, Frahm delivers five accompanying session tracks to his rather wonderful 'All Melody' album. Top drawer stuff!!

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Roughest Trade
A2. Ringing
A3. To Thomas
A4. The Dane
B1. Harmonium In The Well

Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles presents his expressive new album ‘Persona’ via Erased Tapes. The title ‘Persona’ was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film of the same name, specifically a shot in the opening credits of a child reaching out to touch a woman’s face on a screen, which is shifting between one face and another. This powerful image struck Ryan and it inspired the album’s main theme — an exploration of the persona, the difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us, the spaces in between; between states, people, light and dark, the inner persona and the outer persona. “My music is generally inward looking. I like finding something about the self within music, that doesn't have to be specific but maybe asks something or reveals something. This record is a continuation on the self through electronic sounds. Like Legowelt once said ‘a synthesiser is like a translator for unknown emotions’, which I think sums up what I am trying to do. I think all these emotions we have make up our persona. So in a way by finding new ones you alter or expand your persona. And that is what I want my music to try to do. I deliberately aimed to be more sonically diverse with this record. I wanted to experiment more. I wanted to create new sounds and new emotions.” — Rival Consoles.

Recorded at his studio in south-east London, ‘Persona’ benefits from Ryan’s exploration of a dynamic production process that combines analogue-heavy synthesisers, acoustic and electric instruments with a shoegaze-level obsession with effect pedals. A greater depth of emotion and confidence can be heard across the album. From the deconstructed movements on ‘Unfolding’ that starts the album with a snap of delayed snares, the apocalyptic drones of the title track and thundering drums in ‘Phantom Grip’ to more restrained ambient feels of ‘Dreamer’s Wake’, ‘Rest’ and ‘Untravel’. The latter transverses six beatless minutes of undulating melodies representing “a limbo space, a feeling of ennui, of not really ever being known to others and others not ever really being known to you”.

‘Be Kind’ reveals a musical connection with fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm, with its minimal approach and improvisational nature. On the more complex sounding ‘I Think So’ Ryan aims to replicate a colour collage with sound. Like a musical kaleidoscope, a flashing and convoluted mass. Written after he saw Slowdive perform live last year, ‘Hidden’ builds from whispers to landscapes of controlled noise. In an interview with XLR8R magazine, Ryan explains: “once you start trying to make a sound loud, then you turn your back on thousands and thousands of sonic possibilities. One of the best things to do is to start a track with a really quiet, weak sound.” Taking this idea to its ultimate conclusion, ‘Fragment’ closes the album as an innocent sounding ambient piece, almost nursery rhyme like, yielding time for reflection on how the persona has changed.

‘Persona’ follows the success of a series of releases — the ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Sonne’ EPs, long player ‘Howl’, and 2016’s mini album ‘Night Melody’ — that saw Ryan mature into what Pitchfork has called a “forward-thinking electronic musician with his own ideas about sound”. Atypical of instrumental-electronic music, Ryan has achieved a signature sound that’s unmistakably identifiable as Rival Consoles. Going beyond typical electronic music production, Ryan defines it as “songwriting with an electronic palette of sounds”. The increasingly dynamic live audio-visual show, born from bespoke performances at the Tate and for Boiler Room at the V&A Museum featuring self-programmed visuals in Max/MSP, has propelled him to play around the world. Ryan launches ‘Persona’ at London’s XOYO on 12th April with further dates to be announced.

TRACK LISTING

1. Unfolding
2. Persona
3. Memory Arc
4. Phantom Grip
5. Be Kind
6. I Think So
7. Sun's Abandon
8. Dreamer's Wake
9. Untravel
10. Rest
11. Hidden
12. Fragment

Japanese vocal performer Hatis Noit releases her enigmatic EP Illogical Dance via Erased Tapes. The arresting 4-track record creates unique song-worlds with transcendent vocal interpretations that at once deconstruct and recombine Western Classical, Japanese folk and nature’s own ambience atmosphere. Illogical Dance also features Björk-collaborators Matmos, who were so impressed with Hatis Noit’s recordings, they volunteered to edit the lead track Illogical Lullaby.
Hailing from the distant Shiretoko, a small town in Hokkaido, which is the largest island in north Japan, Hatis Noit’s accomplished range is astonishingly self-taught, inspired by everything she could find from Gagaku — Japanese classical music — and operatic styles, Bulgarian and Gregorian chanting, to avant-garde and pop vocalists. The sounds she created on Illogical Dance, co-produced by Haruhisa Tanaka and Matmos, bring to mind the experimental vocal patterns of Meredith Monk with the attentive production of Holly Herndon. It was at the age of 16, during a trek in Nepal to the Buddha’s birthplace, when she realised singing was her calling. While staying at a women’s temple in Lumbini, one morning on a walk Hatis Noit heard someone singing. On further investigation it was a female monk singing Buddhist chants, alone. The sound moved her so intensely she was instantly aware of the visceral power of the human voice; a primal and instinctive instrument that connects us to the very essence of humanity, nature and our universe.

The name Hatis Noit itself is taken from Japanese folklore, meaning the stem of the lotus flower. The lotus represents the living world, while its root the spirit world, therefore Hatis Noit is what connects the two. For Hatis Noit, music represents the same netherworld with its ability to move and transport us to the other side; the past, a memory, our subconscious. It is the same for Illogical Dance, a set of transformative songs that taps into our most primal instincts.

“The human voice is our oldest, most primal yet most powerful instrument. I use it to describe nature’s many sounds, a language that isn’t logical. Yet it forms a beautiful conversation that isn’t restricted to words like the human language is. I want my music to remind us of that.” — Hatis Noit
Wanting to interpret and mimic the sounds Hatis Noit hears in nature, Illogical Dance is as unpredictable, beautiful and mysterious as the world around us. Each track is made up from multi layers of vocals, all improvised and without words, before being carefully pieced together. Astonishingly no samples are used throughout, even the sound of crushing leaves came from Hatis Noit’s own vocal chords. The result is a stunning array of sound sculptures that see her switching between multiple styles with great ease. From the sweet operatics on Illogical Lullaby, the manipulated vocal loops duplicating electronic production on Anagram c.i.y. to the primordial chanting call to arms of Angelus Novus, a 10-minute odyssey that features whispering and leaves crunching, it showcases Hatis Noit’s full range and introduces a truly original artist. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning, complex mix of vocal layering, serene ambience and brittle, modern-classical compositions that could really be on no other label than the legendary Erased Tapes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Angelus Novus
2. Anagram C.i.y
3. Illogical Lullaby
4. Illogical Lullaby (Matmos Edit)

Frahm returns to Erased Tapes for his most beguiling outing yet. Kicking things off with the choral solemnity of the brief 'The Whole Universe Wants To Be Touched',  before 'Sunson' excellently displays the sort of percussive demi-trance that he and Olafur Arnalds excelled at in their collaborative output. 'My Friend The Forest' has perhaps the most semblance to Frahm's earlier work, with the gently hammered piano strings being subtly blunted with some sort of preparation. It doesn't sound quite as muted as his seminal work (perhaps the felt has worn out a little), and is unmistakeable in it's  rapid trills, separated by moments of acoustic ambience. 

'Forever Changeless' is again littered with moments of progressive beauty, but eases off a little on the sustain to give way to a slightly terse atmosphere, beautifully accentuated by Frahm's deft hands before moving into 'All Melody' which couldn't be more reminiscent of the spine-tingling electronic crescendo of 'Says' from 2013's 'Spaces'. 

With the percussive workout of '#2' and 'Momentum' taking a metaphorical breath from the more upbeat moments, it gives us time to relax and reflect before the mournful military requiem of 'Fundamental Values' gives way to it's own latter resolution and smooth segue into the tropical arps of 'Kaleidoscope' and the soul-soothing slow-mo beauty of 'Harm Hymn'. 

Another beautiful outing for Frahm, and further evidence of his credentials as one of today's most talented composers. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Whole Universe Wants To Be Touched
2. Sunson
3. A Place
4. My Friend The Forest
5. Human Range
6. Forever Changeless
7. All Melody
8. #2
9. Momentum
10. Fundamental Values
11. Kaleidoscope
12. Harm Hymn

Erased Tapes has the privilege of reissuing Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s last studio album Union Cafe — out December 1st 2017 to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of Simon Jeffes’ passing in 1997.

"I was 17 when Simon Jeffes passed away and sadly I never got the chance to meet him whilst he was still walking this earth with his infamous Penguin Cafe Orchestra. There are some parallels between our lives that could simply be rationalised by the fact that anyone that loves music travels a lot. But from what I know about Simon we both seem to believe in something beyond that, something more magical that cannot be explained by numbers alone. For example, the fact that Kyoto had both a special impact on his and my life as the city where he found the harmonium on which he’d write his possibly most famous piece of music and the one where I found the love of my life. Or the fact that we both got severely poisoned by eating bad seafood in the south of France. Although admittedly I can’t say that my bed-bound days of hallucinations come anywhere close to the grandeur of his recurring vision; one of a George Orwell type of desolate future with people living in concrete buildings, hearing without listening, making love and music without touching. It was only the other day that I heard Simon’s son Arthur tell this story for a BBC documentary on the Erased Tapes tenth anniversary festivities inside one of London’s largest brutalist buildings, the Southbank Centre, and in a time when making music and love over the internet is seen as something perfectly normal. I wasn’t aware until then that our shared near-death experience in France propelled Simon to dream up a place called the Penguin Cafe, where penguins serve the Japanese soul food that is Okonomiyaki and wine that makes you feel lighter, float even — a colourful, magical place far away from those big grey buildings where everyone is neutral, numb and anonymous. And so he’d form the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and dedicate his life to writing the joyful music the band would play in that cafe.

The first song from Union Cafe that I’d unknowingly heard was Nothing Really Blue, performed live by Arthur and his successor band Penguin Cafe at the Barbican in summer 2016 — another icon in brutalist architecture. He simply announced it as “another one of my dad’s”, and left me wondering all night about which record it was from. Considering myself a decent collector of their music, I thought I’d heard it all. Well, I clearly hadn’t. Another mystery? I forgot to ask when I first met Arthur that night, but it marked the start of our relationship as kindred spirits. For everyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of witnessing it yet, hearing Arthur play his father’s songs with so much joy and gusto truly feels like meeting old friends. And it’s the most beautiful reminder of how everything in this world is connected. It’s one thing to accept growth and decay as a constant passing on of energy and knowledge, from one generation to the next. But I really can’t imagine the kind of love that Simon must feel if only he had the chance to see his son right now, performing his songs in front of thousands of people on both sides of the planet each night.

It wasn’t until summer 2017, a whole year later, that Arthur shared his father’s last studio recordings with me. Union Cafe is a record that somehow missed me, simply because it wasn’t available on vinyl like the other records were that I had gathered over the years. I couldn't help but feel privileged for the chance to discover another original PCO album. And so I put my headphones on and lay down at the foot of the small lake in Victoria Park to listen to this box of treasures. And as with all of Simon’s works, a whole world appeared in front of my closed eyelids — a world full of love and wonder, that manages to put tears in my eyes, shivers down my spine and a smile on my face. Scherzo And Trio would become the song that manages to brighten up my days, no matter how grey London sometimes gets. Organum would become the piece that Arthur played at my wedding. Cage Dead with its déjà vu-like character would become the theme song to a series of live sessions with artists from all around the world performing in the Sound Gallery, our new home on 174 Victoria Park Road. Songs like Silver Star Of Bologna and Kora Kora, just like all the classic PCO songs, would feel familiar, though I’d never heard them before. Lie Back And Think Of England sounded like the work of a seasoned composer and yet unfamiliar at the same time — it made me wonder if Simon was planning a new adventure for his orchestra. Lastly, Passing Through would remind me that having a hidden track on your album was very popular with bands in the 90s, but finishing your album with the sound of water dripping out of a sink, slowly forming a musical pattern within all the chaos before the record suddenly ends, surely must be the most perfect way to say goodbye.

Dear Simon. Even though we never met, strangely I too feel like I lost a friend on December 11, 1997. And I like to think it’s simply down to the music that you left us, the songs that have become some of the best companions one could ask for, reminding us that there’s an alternative to the prison we’ve built ourselves. And that with every song I get one step closer to the magical world you’ve created, and that Arthur continues to create. I like to think that if I keep listening, maybe one day we will all unite in the Penguin Cafe, so I can tell you all about the wonderful son you and Emily have raised. And so I can thank you for all the love you’ve given this world.”– Robert Raths.

TRACK LISTING

1. Scherzo And Trio
2. Lifeboat (Lovers Rock)
3. Nothing Really Blue
4. Cage Dead
5. Vega
6. Yodel 3
7. Organum
8. Another One From Porlock
9. Thorn Tree Wind
10. Silver Star Of Bologna
11. Discover America
12. Pythagoras On The Line
13. Kora Kora
14. Lie Back And Think Of England
15. Red Shorts
16. Passing Through

There is no end to composer Peter Broderick’s creative output, and so we present to you his new album titled All Together Again - available worldwide on November 17th 2017 via Erased Tapes.

They say music takes you on a journey, and this collection of commissioned work by Peter quite literally does that. From a ferry boat ride in Istanbul, to walking down the aisle at a wedding, these songs were created for particular situations, yet Peter found a way to work without any sort of limitations and on his own terms. The result is an assortment of works from the past ten years, coming together as one: Peter’s new album.

Words from Peter, October 2017:

Ever since I started releasing records in 2007 (10 years ago now!), people have contacted me periodically to ask if I’d be interested in making music to accompany their projects. Most of these projects have been things like films, dance pieces and theatre plays . . . but every so often I get the odd request for something a little different. Peter, would you write a song for my wedding? My one year anniversary? A ferry boat ride?

In early 2015 I was asked to perform 12 minutes of music during a runway show as part of New York Fashion Week. I agreed and began composing a 12-minute piece which I could perform on my own with a few different instruments and some looping pedals. I made a recording of the piece and sent it over to my contacts at the fashion show . . . but a few days before I was to fly out to New York, they wrote back and told me they actually just wanted me to play a few older songs that they were already familiar with. Feeling slightly disappointed, I shelved the other piece, giving it the title If I Were A Runway Model.

It is with great pleasure that I now present this piece in a collection of commissioned works spanning the last decade . . . it’s All Together Again. This group of oddball works does indeed include a couple pieces written for weddings (Our Future In Wedlock and The Walk), and a song someone asked me to write as a gift for his wife on their first year wedding anniversary (Emily). And indeed, there’s a 17-minute piece written to accompany a ferry boat ride in Istanbul (A Ride On The Bosphorus). A few of the pieces were written for films (Robbie’s Song, Atlantic and Seeing Things), and one for a kind of interactive installation (Unsung Heroes).

In my early days of recording, I took pride in playing all the different instruments myself and doing the recording myself as well. And then at some point I started branching out, working with other musicians and recording engineers. But this record is very dear to me in that it’s a return to that original approach . . . playing all the different instruments myself, working with my limits on each one, and my own limits in recording and mixing. I’ve always held a broad curiosity for all different instruments and all different styles of music, and if nothing else I hope this record will portray that curiosity, and my pure love for this thing we call music. Can you dig it?

The cover art was made by Peter himself in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, by cutting and sticking different coloured paper fragments to depict the individuality of each track. 

TRACK LISTING

1. If I Were A Runway Model
2. Robbie's Song
3. A Ride On The Bosphorus
4. Emily
5. Our Future In Wedlock
6. The Walk
7. Atlantic
8. Seeing Things
9. Unsung Heroes

Introducing Icelandic composer and singer Högni, better known as the front man of indie rock band Hjaltalín and previous member of electronic group GusGus, as the newest addition to Erased Tapes with his solo debut album Two Trains – available worldwide on October 20th 2017. Amidst destruction on the mainland, the two locomotives Minør and Pionér transported wagons full of rock and gravel to the Icelandic seaside during the construction of the Reykjavík harbour in 1913-1917.

The two metallic giants ushered in a new age in Iceland. However, soon after construction ceased the two trains were parked and have never driven since. Now they only serve to remind us of the grandeur of a bygone future. They are the only trains ever to have graced the Icelandic landscape. The music in Two Trains embraces the spirit of the original European avant-garde and invokes these concepts in its chugging rhythms, metallic clangs and brooding choral arrangements (men's choruses are a distinctly Icelandic phenomena related to the national/romantic politics of the 19th and 20th century) while the lyrics speak of ominous clouds on the war-ridden eastern horizon and freight cars filled with gravel and dreams.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bleak, pulsing electronics, soaring string arrangements, glacial atmospherics and clattering futuristic noisy stuff. PLUS the added bonus of not understanding what they're saying. I like to imagine icelandic bands (Múm, Sigur, etc.) are singing songs about their pet fish, or painting their wagon good. They're probably not, but that's what I like to think.

TRACK LISTING

1. Anda?u
2. Shed Your Skin
3. Komdu Me?
4. Crash
5. Drag?u Mig
6. ?ve?urssk?
7. Break Up
8. Moon Pitcher
9. Parallel
10. Enn N??a Or?

Kiasmos mark their return in 2017 with a new 12” EP titled Blurred — available worldwide on October 6th via Erased Tapes.

Since their 2015 Swept EP, the duo have been performing shows extensively across the world. After writing and recording together in their native Iceland this year, the pair will be bringing a glimpse of light to a particularly gloomy time of year as their light sounds are brighter than ever.

Words from Ólafur and Janus, August 2017:
“To write new material felt like a new beginning for us after two years of touring. The plan was to write something a tad darker than our previous stuff. Spring in Reykjavík had other plans though, as this turned out to be our brightest release to date.” - Janus Rasmussen.

“Stimming was one of the reasons we started making four-on-the-floor music and we have been listening to Bonobo since we were young, so it was a great honour that they wanted to contribute remixes for the EP.” - Ólafur Arnalds.

The EP closes with remixes from British producer Bonobo and German electronic musician Stimming, taking tracks Blurred and Paused into different coloured realms.

The cover art featuring the iconic Kiasmos symbol is by long-time Erased Tapes collaborator Torsten Posselt at FELD.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Shed
A2. Blurred
A3. Blurred (Bonobo Remix)
B1. Jarred
B2. Paused
B3. Paused (Stimming Remix)

Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds reissues and revives his debut album in form of a special remastered 10th Anniversary edition titled Eulogy For Evolution 2017 — available worldwide via Erased Tapes on August 25th. Following its initial release in 2007 and coinciding with Ólafur’s 30th birthday, label founder Robert Raths gifted the chance for this record to shine a second time. Eulogy For Evolution is a journey from birth to death, transporting the listener through life itself.

Originally written as a teenager, the record has now been restored with the help of his friends, remixed by Ólafur himself and remastered by Nils Frahm. The cover art was redesigned and enhanced by Torsten Posselt at FELD using the original photographs taken by Stuart Bailes during a trip to Ólafur’s home in Iceland in 2007.

To experience the record in the present day is not only to experience the past, but also the sheer timelessness and relevance of these compositions, and the ambition Ólafur has had from the very beginning. “Fast forward 10 years, our relationships and knowledge in sound have matured, but you can still hear this urgency in Óli’s songs that caught my ears to begin with”, states Robert Raths.

TRACK LISTING

1. 0040
2. 0048 / 0729
3. 0952
4. 1440
5. 1953
6. 3055
7. 3326
8. 3704 / 3837

Enter the all-encompassing universe of Everything, a score by Ben Lukas Boysen and Sebastian Plano. Game creator David OReilly has built an interactive world for you to explore at your choosing. Whether you decide to take the role of a microbe inside a plant in the desert, or a star in the furthermost galaxy, each layer of the game is coated with ambience which takes the simulation even further into the limitless boundaries of each world. Composers Ben Lukas Boysen and Sebastian Plano have shaped this experience with their intricate 4-hour soundscape, alongside the continuous narration by philosopher Alan Watts. Words from Ben and Sebastian, April 2017:

“Composing something quite modular yet coherent that connects with the idea and fabric of the game was quite a task. We discussed many approaches, from really mathematical and direct, to abstract and philosophical, and we ended up with a mixture of both. Every element depends and builds on another and connects to previous and following songs. May it be on a compositional or on an abstract and conceptual level, the game and the music follow the same path and shares almost the same inspirational DNA.“ — Ben Lukas Boysen "Working on the soundtrack has been a truly inspiring collaboration. What fascinates me about the game is the self-exploratory approach it allows the player to experience; there is no purpose other than just being. This concept gave us wonderful freedom in searching for sounds and ideas that would fit the game.

Throughout the score there is a subtle level of drama which gives depth to the game, yet the music never becomes predominant taking the player away from the main experience of being anything. Honest, simple and beautiful, Everything has been a rewarding creative journey to contribute to." — Sebastian Plano Though the score has an important part to play in heightening the atmosphere of the game, it has the capability of being a standalone album – carefully sequenced down to a 10-track selection by label founder Robert Raths. There is a considerably therapeutic quality about it, allowing the audience to transcend into a meditative state, which is what makes it a perfect partner for Everything. The music is a whole world of its own, yet part of the game’s universe.

TRACK LISTING

1. Opening
2. We?re Here
3. Winding And Unwinding
4. Eisenach
5. An Infinite Day
6. Opening Light
7. Aalystice
8. Inside Air
9. After Our Efforts
10. Reaching Light

Worlds collide as Penguin Cafe and Japanese producer Cornelius' mutual admiration for one another led to them joining forces for this four-track 'Umbrella EP'. The pair reworked and reimagined existing tracks of their own, alongside two new Penguin Cafe songs.

Penguin Cafe was founded by Arthur Jeffes in 2009, bringing together a diverse and disparate group of musicians from the likes of Suede, Gorillaz and Razorlight, initially to perform his father Simon Jeffes’ legacy of world renowned Penguin Cafe Orchestra music, ten years after his untimely death in 1997. Arthur, a composer in his own right, quickly began to create new and unique genre-defying music, with the spellbinding philosophy of the Penguin Cafe always in his mind.

The project has evolved into something at the hands of Arthur who utilises many different instruments and influences including elements of African, Venezuelan, Brazilian, bluegrass, classical, avant-garde and minimalist music — using a variety of instruments from strings, pianos, harmoniums, slide guitars, cuatros, kalimbas, experimental sound loops, mathematical notations and more. To date, the new Penguin Cafe have released two albums of fresh, innovative and beautiful music, developing from the traditional folk and jazz heritage Penguin Cafe Orchestra is known for into another realm of blissful ambience and dance music, recreated using strictly acoustic elements. 

TRACK LISTING

Solaris (Cornelius Mix)
Birdwatching At Inner Forest
(Penguin Cafe Mix)
Close Encounter
The Track Of The Dull Sun

Electronic producer Max Cooper and ambient master Tim Hecker rework Ben Lukas Boysen on his new EP Golden Times 1 – out on Erased Tapes, June 30th 2017.

Championed by many including BBC Radio DJ Mary Anne Hobbs as the standout track from his most recent album Spells, Boysen’s Golden Times 1 forms the very heart of his new EP with the same name. Boysen entrusted none other than Max Cooper and Tim Hecker to meticulously shape and lure the title track plus second single Nocturne 4 into two entirely separate territories, yet never drifting too far away from their original soundscapes. With Evensong the composer himself contributes a previously unreleased piece. It is yet another example that Boysen is still opening new and unexplored doors in a bid to challenge the existing realm of contemporary music he is very much a part of.

The iconic Penguin Cafe join the Erased Tapes family and open a brand new chapter to their unique world with new album The Imperfect Sea.

A penguin stands in the middle of a scorching desert, far away from its natural habitat. This mirrors composer Arthur Jeffes’ journey and exploration into a new musical territory. Penguin Cafe have evolved into something of their own at the hands of Arthur who started the band in 2009 with the continuation and homage to his father’s legacy, to the late Simon Jeffes’ Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Now, their upcoming album echoes reminiscent sounds that embrace the new.

The album title refers to a saying by his father that “we wade in a sea of imperfections…”, reflecting upon the idea that beauty can be found amongst the chaos. “If there is a narrative to the album it’s coming to the acceptance of the imperfections in all aspects of life; moreover, the recognition that these imperfections and tiny randomnesses are in fact what make up the best parts”, Arthur explains. This has also been highlighted by the striking cover artwork designed by FELD under the art direction of label founder Robert Raths, resembling a lone figure adapting to and accepting its surrounding environment.

Predominantly self-composed, the new album also features covers of electronic works by Simian Mobile Disco and Kraftwerk, along with a re-working of Simon's 'Now Nothing'. Arthur has developed from the traditional folk and jazz heritage Penguin Cafe Orchestra is known for into another realm of blissful ambience and dance music, recreated using strictly acoustic elements.

“For this album I wanted to effect a departure from where we’d been up to now. The idea was to create a musical world that would feel familiar to an audience more used to dance records but stay true to our own values. So we replaced electronic layers with real instruments: pads with real string sections, synths with heavily-effected pianos, and atmospheric analogue drones with real feedback loops ringing through a stone and a piano soundboard.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Keeping the upbeat and intricate, but decidedly pastoral vibes of Penguin Cafe Orchestra (a different, but both figuratively and literally related band) intact whilst having a different focal point was never going to be an easy task for Arthur Jeffes, but on 'The Imperfect Sea' we get the perfect combination. Erased Tapes are, in the most part a modern-classical label (there are a good number of exceptions), and there are definitely nods to that in “Control 1” and “Rescue”, but with it come brilliant folky outings like opener “Ricercar” and the wildly dreamy staccato-string haze of “Franz Schubert”. With their name being as it is, Penguin Cafe are never going to escape the considerable shadow of PCO, but with a history as rich as theirs, and with Jeffes' ability to put his own twist on their already established sound, why would you? A stunningly rich, and hugely rewarding journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ricercar
2. Cantorum
3. Control 1 (Interlude)
4. Franz Schubert
5. Half Certainty
6. Protection
7. Rescue
8. Now Nothing (Rock Music)
9. Wheels Within Wheels

Peter Broderick returns with Allred & Broderick – a duo project between him and his musical partner David Allred – and their debut album ‘Find The Ways’ out on April 7th 2017. Armed with nothing but their voices, a violin and an upright bass, Allred & Broderick began their journey to create an album as minimal as possible.

Recorded in Peter’s studio The Sparkle on the Oregon coast, the pair used this solitude to focus on creating something as raw and honest as possible, particularly in what some might deem unattainable during a time where complexity is sought most. In a world full of noise and the anxieties of every day life, Find The Ways brings us together and reminds us to appreciate and confront the simple and fundamental facts of life, and that we as individuals will eventually find our way. Words from Peter and David, January 2017: “I sensed a truly unique character in David’s own music that is wonderfully heartfelt and sincere.

With this recording David and I set out to make something raw which is an honest document of what we are capable of doing together at once, with just two acoustic instruments and our voices. The entire album was recorded live, with no overdubs and no edits. Just two guys playing together in a room. I have always dreamed of doing a project in which I only use my violin and my voice and David just plays upright bass and sings. It truly is a fifty-fifty collaboration.” – Peter Broderick “It is such a pleasure to work with Peter. I feel that we're on the same page in more ways than one, both musically and non-musically.

The making of this album was an incredibly fun challenge; writing music to be performed and recorded live with only violin, upright bass, and voices. It still amazes me that we managed to make a whole record with only those three elements. Over the years, I have felt a very strong connection to Peter's music and friendship, and I feel that this collaboration comes from a really good place. I hope this music gives the listeners a feeling of comfort, confusion and understanding.” – David Allred

TRACK LISTING

1. Living On A Wire
2. The Wise One
3. Two Otters
4. Hey Stranger
5. Four Aspens
6. The Ways
7. Hesitation
8. I'm Not Crazy
9. Ode To Angelica
10. Robert, Please

Daniel Brandt, co-founder of Germany’s electroacoustic ensemble Brandt Brauer Frick, joins the Erased Tapes family with his solo debut album Eternal Something.

What started off as a more simplistic idea soon evolved into something a lot more complex as the London and Berlin based music producer travelled across the world, experimenting with various other artists and different instruments. From his father’s cabin based in the German countryside with access to nothing but cymbals, to being surrounded by guitars in Joshua Tree, his unexpected journey soon progressed into what became his first solo album.

Daniel played nearly all instruments himself with the only exception being fellow musicians Florian Juncker on trombone, Manu Delago on hang drum and Andreas Voss on cello. Using his Berlin studio as his main base for recording, Brandt created an album that encapsulates the idea that despite setting out with a particular creative vision, external influences and environments will always shift the process, and create an Eternal Something.

Words from Daniel, January 2017:
“The initial idea was to make a cymbal album. I wanted to surround myself with all types of cymbals. I locked myself into my father’s cabin in the woods for three days. That was the moment I realised it was not possible for me to make an album just with cymbals because other ideas and instruments imposed themselves on me. I had a clear sense of what I wanted to do now. The intention was to let the songs evolve by themselves and not edit too much, keep it raw and have an explosion-like energy to them. I wanted to create a different sound, songs that build up like dance tunes but don't feel like club music at all. Travelling around in California for two months gave me the possibility to deeply get into this concept outside my normal environment. Robert Raths, who served as a great motivator throughout the whole process (I guess he had listened to the record more than I ever had) came up with the perfect order for the songs. This record is about failing to make the original plan happen, but then the discovery of something I couldn't even think of before.”

Prior to being enlisted to create the album artwork, Iranian artist Shaz Madani coincidentally had also planned a trip to Joshua Tree where she documented her own experience of Eternal Something, forming the visual counterpart to the record.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chaparral Mesa
2. FSG
3. The White Of The Eye
4. Turn Over
5. Kale Me
6. Eternal Something
7. Casa Fiesta
8. On The Move 

A Winged Victory For The Sullen, the otherworldly collaboration between Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran, return with their third full-length titled Iris – available worldwide via Erased Tapes. Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie and Dustin O'Halloran first met the director Jalil Lespert after he had discovered A Winged Victory For The Sullen on a music search online. After listening to their music, he immediately knew: "it was the sound of my new film". With an excellent cast of France’s finest actors Romain Duris, Charlotte Le Bon, and the director himself, plus a script filled with tension, sexuality and darkness, they knew there was a lot of musical territory to mine. It was agreed that they wanted to explore more analogue electronique experiments as well as working with a large string ensemble, to create something that felt very modern and still cinematic.

“Despite A Winged Victory For The Sullen being associated with film score type music, trying to survive the process of creating the modern film score is not for people with fragile egos. It requires those who are the most responsive to change. The director and the film presented a new set of challenges, so we decided to stop thinking about cinema as an object, and moved closer to using the film’s images as triggers for experiences. The more we were able to let go, and see the music as something that happens, like a process – not a quality, the more we were able to reach a place that sounded like us. It was as if we were making our first record all over again, except being filtered through another language littered with dead metaphors”, the duo elaborate. The recording sessions began with their long time sound collaborator Francesco Donadello in the form of some modular synth sessions in Berlin. Dustin and Adam began working from the script in their own studios, and after filming commenced they continued to create music that could be used for first edits of the film – each day getting new scenes that triggered ideas that would become the base of the film score. Over the course of the next few months the two slowly crafted the music with weekly discussion from their studio to the editing room. The final sessions to what is now the score of Iris were recorded with a 40-piece string orchestra at Magyar Radio in Budapest.

Upon label founder Robert Raths' request the over sixty minutes of material were then edited down to a concise album listen at forty-one minutes with a physical release set for January 13, 2017. The digital bonus track edition includes two solo pieces by Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie entitled The Endless Battle Of The Maudlin Ballade Part 2 and The Endless Battle Of The Maudlin Ballade Part 3, as well as tracks by Petite Noir, dOP, DJ Pone and The Shoes which feature in the film. The artwork was created by Berlin based illustrator Stephanie F. Scholz who also created the iconic cover for Nils Frahm's Music for The Motion Picture Victoria.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: ‘Iris’ builds on their already stunning canon with a smattering of pulsing synthesis joining their trademark modern classical soundscapes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prologue Iris
2. Retour Au Champs De Mars
3. Fantasme
4. Gare Du Nord Part One
5. L'embauche
6. Le Retour En Foret
7. Metro Part Three
8. Flashback Antoine
9. Galerie
10. Le Renversement
11. Normandie
12. Comme On A Dit

Not long after the release of Peter Broderick’s seventh solo album ‘Partners’, the composer closes 2016 with his equally exceptional ‘Grunewald’ recordings via Erased Tapes.

Born in just one night inside the four walls of the discrete yet majestic Grunewald Church, situated on the outskirts of Berlin, this five-track EP is an exploration of the alluring partnership between the acoustic space and Broderick's solo performance on piano and violin. Reflecting the grandeur of the room and the natural interaction between the instruments and their surrounding environment, 'Grunewald' pays homage to a very unusual space that's become a haven for an entire generation of contemporary composers.

Words from Peter, October 2016:
“In the few years between 2008 and 2011 or so, the Grunewald Church in Berlin was something of a hotspot for a group of us musicians. It started when Nils scouted it as a location in which to record The Bells . . . and then it seemed like we were in there every month or two for a while, either for recordings or for concerts.

There was a lady living just down the street from the church, and we’d just knock on her door, give her a couple hundred euros, and then she’d hand over the keys to the church! To be given unsupervised access in a space like that is really quite unheard of most of the time… For anyone who likes reverb, the Grunewald is a dream come true. That in combination with the beautiful old Bösendorfer piano made it the perfect place for both recording and performing.

When mixing the recordings that comprise this EP, simply titled Grunewald in homage to that old haven of ours, there were no artificial reverbs or delays used . . . only the natural sound of that epic space. Originally these piano recordings were released as part of a split album on a small Japanese label, and the violin piece was included on a compilation, also Japanese . . . but all these pieces were recorded on the same night, in the same space, and it is with great pleasure that I see them reunited for this release.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Goodnight
2. Low Light
3. Violin Solo No.1
4. It's A Storm When I Sleep
5. Eyes Closed And Traveling

Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie, the creative force behind A Winged Victory For The Sullen and Stars Of The Lid, is to officially release his score for the non-fiction film ‘Salero’ on November 11th.

Having channelled some of the most iconic drift music of our time through A Winged Victory For The Sullen and Stars of the Lid, 2016 has already seen Erased Tapes luminary Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie provide original scores for a number of feature films including Jalil Lespert’s ‘Iris’ and ‘The Yellow Birds’ by Alexandre Moors.

It’s on ‘Salero’ however, that we see Wiltzie weave some of his finest work and deliver an expertly distilled accompaniment to director Mike Plunkett’s sprawling, uncompromising visuals. Set in Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat, the narrative follows the region’s ‘Saleros’ – those who have for generations gathered salt and earned enough to somehow carve out an existence in such a barren landscape. It’s with the discovery of huge Lithium reserves – a mineral used frequently throughout the tech industry – under the scorched earth that acts as a catalyst for exploitation of the environment and its people; holding a microscope to the drastic effect industrialisation has on local culture and tradition.

“I have always said that composing music is infinitely easier when you have beautiful images to be inspired by. It was a pleasure to write a score over this captivating place of endless, glimmering salt before its impending demise. I was fascinated by this mythical space and its ability to define the identities of the people who live in its vicinity, where this vast salt flat itself would be a central character” – Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie

Recording took place in Adam’s Belgium-based studio for the guitars, percussion and small string ensemble tracking. Hungary was chosen for the final large string orchestra recordings at Magyar Radio Studio #22 with the Budapest Art Orchestra.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As expected, Stars Of The Lid and AWVFTS member Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie comes out with a heartbreaking suite of modern-classical masterpieces resplendent with emotional heft and aching beauty. Slow string pulls and soaring crescendos, all delivered with impeccable grace and breathtaking precision. Beautiful.

Following his acclaimed debut "Whelm", London-based singer-songwriter and pianist Douglas Dare returns to Erased Tapes with his sophomore album "Aforger". In a digital age where memories are mimicked by pixels and identity is as malleable as static, Douglas Dare’s new album "Aforger" questions the boundaries between reality and fiction. Inspired by recent events and revelations encountered in his life these songs depict Dare at his most vulnerable, whilst simultaneously reflecting our own obsession with reality and technology back at us. Aforger was produced by long-time collaborator Fabian Prynn, mixed by Paul Gregory of Lanterns On The Lake and mastered at the iconic Abbey Road Studios. In the following conversation Douglas strips back the personal journeys and realisations which preceded its recording.

In a conversation with Douglas Dare on July 11th 2016:
The album title plays with the idea of a forger – someone creating imitations or copies, and reimagines them as the creator of something that’s no longer real. Prior to writing the record, I came out to my father and came out of a long relationship, both were hugely challenging for me and questioned my idea of identity and reality. These thoughts leaked out into the record and formed the core of Aforger. I was determined not to write a break-up album or repeat what I’d done before..

I grew up on quite an isolated farm in Dorset, surrounded by fields and not much besides. My mother taught piano from home and we didn’t have a computer, or the internet or mobile phones. In fact, my family still chooses not to use these things. It’s worlds apart from my life now in London where technology seems to dominate everything I do.

After finding out my boyfriend had been leading this double-life, I became obsessed with the question of what is real and George Orwell’s 1984 felt appropriate for me to re-read. Orwell explains this idea of reality control and Doublethink, and it struck a chord with me. The idea that truth can be steered or changed, and we might be able to believe two contradictory things at once. In my case, ignorance was my protection from the truth and ignorance really is bliss, until you’re no longer ignorant.

Binary talks about the idea that technology is allowing us to live on after we’re gone. A relative of mine whose parent passed away kept a picture of them on their phone as a background image. A friend saw this and asked ‘how can you have that there to constantly remind you of your loss?’ They replied, ‘no I have to, it shows me that they’re still here’. This resonated with me and I thought ‘okay, this is just an image to me but to them it’s more than a reminder or a reassurance, it’s a reality’. At the same time, I was finding myself haunted by the digital reminder of my ex-partner and wishing they would disappear. I had to realise that it’s all just pixels on a screen.

I think New York can be thought of as this fabricated, magical place. I was there with my boyfriend after touring the U.S., but when I came back to London I discovered all these lies and began questioning everything. I even questioned whether New York actually happened or not. New York is a song that’s literally describing that very real feeling of not knowing who or what to believe any more – scary and magical at the same time.

Lyrically I wanted to be as honest as possible. The album deals with so much dishonesty, so I felt the lyrics had to be the counterbalance. I was inspired by Björk’s album Vulnicura and how everything is almost awkward in its honesty. Like my first album, Aforger started as poetry, but I consciously tried to be less poetic. For instance, Oh Father is an example of complete unambiguity. It’s certainly the most personal song I’ve put out there, and the realisation that people may hear it makes me feel very vulnerable. That’s the most real feeling of all for me right now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Doublethink
2. Greenhouse
3. Oh Father
4. New York
5. The Edge
6. Binary
7. Stranger
8. Venus
9. Thinking Of Him
10. Rex

Veteran Erased Tapes recording artist Peter Broderick set to release new studio album Partners on 19th August 2016.

For close to a decade, Portland’s Peter Broderick has cut his own unpredictable path through the world of contemporary music. So far, his wanderings have led him from solo works into the realms of film, dance and documentary scores, as well as art installations.

Now Peter takes that unpredictability one step further. For his latest album, a series of voice and piano recordings, he experiments with chance, surrendering an entire song’s composition to the roll of dice.

As he explains below in an email to Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths, it was John Cage’s tendency to remove himself from his music, to somehow automate his own process, which inspired the strange mechanics with which this record was created.

In the words of Cage himself, ‘the world is teeming; anything can happen.’

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: He went a bit off-piste there for a bit didn't he? Not to say that 'It Starts Hear' wasn't great (not heard quite so many references to the World Wide Web in pop media since Sandra Bullock's magnum opus 'The Net') It clearly had it's moments, as did the following albums. This is a different beast altogether however, much like Broderick's modern-classical masterpiece 'Float', this is elegant and beautiful piano music. Reverb drenched piano glides along, slowed-down arpeggios segue into hurried note clusters before washing away into a stream-of-consciousness ambient wash. This is as mellow as I've heard Broderick's work for some time, and it's as moving as it ever was.

TRACK LISTING

1. Partners
2. In A Landscape
3. Carried
4. Under The Bridge
5. Conspiraling
6. Up Niek Mountain
7. Sometimes

For the first half of the twentieth century, Ellis Island stood as the gateway to America. For some twelve million people, it was their first encounter with the land they hoped to call home.

Directed by acclaimed artist JR, ELLIS tells the story of one such migrant. Starring Robert De Niro, the film winds its way through the crumbling hallways of the abandoned Ellis Island hospital complex, now home to JR’s Unframed art installation. It’s a place that reverberates with the hopes and fears of those who passed through it, the echoes especially resonant today. Entwined with the narrative is a score composed by Woodkid, performed and co-written by Nils Frahm. The delicate piano motifs of Winter Morning I culminate in a crescendo of strings, while the harmonium swells on the B-side are the foundation for De Niro’s narration: an encomium for those who shaped modern America.

There’s perhaps never been a more fitting time for this story, with all the proceeds going to the Sea Watch initiative, a non-profit charity dedicated to the protection and rescue of civilian refugees. 

Nils Frahm: ‘The opportunity to work on JR´s fantastic short film ELLIS came through my good friend Yoann aka Woodkid. We agreed on recording the piano parts in my studio in Berlin and so it happened that JR and Woodkid were guests at Durton studio on a wonderful late summer day in 2015. We managed to record all the crucial elements that day. The music fell in our laps and melted with the images: a wonderful experience. The film has stuck in my head ever since; it moved my heart and changed my soul.

A couple of weeks later I had to cancel a trip to Brussels because of a terror warning; all events got cancelled and I stayed home, having an unexpected day off. I felt rather depressed that day, thinking that the Europe I knew was already gone. I sat down at the harmonium, listened to Robert De Niro’s voice and played for the rest of the day. The result is ‘Winter Morning II,’ the B-side of the ELLIS soundtrack release.

Robert says it all in 17 minutes. We are not facing a refugee crisis. We are facing a crisis because we do not embrace, we do not sympathise and we cannot give up fear. Art can encourage so I hope this project will help fight the fear in all of us.’

Yoann Lemoine, aka Woodkid: ‘Ellis is my second collaboration with JR after the New York City Ballet piece for Les Bosquets. I initially wanted this piece to sound like it was recorded on an old piano that we found in the ruins of Ellis Island, in the restricted area that is not open to the public, where JR pasted the pictures on the walls for the film Ellis.

I had worked with Nils before and I wanted him to create a sound for this piano part that I composed that was extremely gentle and organic. I wanted the listener to hear the mechanisms, the breathing of the instrument. I wanted it to be imperfect, to sound like a ruin, a trace, an echo, the way the pastings on the walls seem to be ghosts, almost imperceptible.

After a few rehearsals, Nils stripped down my piano parts and we removed almost all orchestration around the piano. He then worked on the extended version that is his interpretation of my piece, with Robert de Niro’s vocals. Because this film and this recording is historically meaningful, it was important for us to create this piece as an echo to the immigration situation in Europe, and decided to release it in support of Sea Watch.’

ABOUT JR: JR is the pseudonym of a French artist, director and photographer whose identity is still unknown, and who has been described as the 'French Banksy’. His large scale black-and-white portraits are among the most iconic in contemporary street art, drawing our attention to stories that might otherwise be forgotten. Unframed, which features prominently in both the film and the album booklet, does just this, memorialising through photographic prints those who came through Ellis Island. ‘Trying to see and understand our past better,’ he says, ‘is a good way to understand what’s going on right now and maybe face our future.’ May 29th will see JR and Nils Frahm collaborate again when Nils and Erased Tapes peer Ólafur Arnalds take part in his takeover of the world famous Louvre museum in Paris.

In celebration of their latest signing, Erased Tapes re-issue Ben Lukas Boysen’s compelling debut album ‘Gravity’, alongside new album ‘Spells’. ‘Gravity’ was the first album Ben recorded under his own name, merging programmed piano pieces with live instruments, combining the controllable technical world and the often unpredictable aspects of live improvisation.

From ‘Only In The Dark’ to the two movements of ‘Nocturne’, it’s a serious, solemn listen. And yet, with pieces like ‘To The Hills’ and ‘Eos’, ‘Gravity’ is an exploration of heights, cliffs and vertigoes. With piano lines and choir-like drones, this record suits its title in all its meanings, as the magnetic force takes us deeper towards the core. Marking a new beginning, this debut reveals a touching, and more melodic side to Ben’s body of work, which he previously only hinted at as HECQ.

Friend and fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm mixed and mastered the album. Ben is not a master pianist like his dear friend, but his sound collages are so meticulously designed that after hearing the result an impressed Nils declared: “from now on, if anyone asks – this is a real piano”.

His intricate, humanised programming – enhanced by drummer Achim Färber, additional synthesisers played by Nils, and a considerate selection of echoes, delays and compressors – has been used to create a hybrid sound that intends to deceive, question and challenge existing listening habits. Utilising the contrast between reduction and decoration, ‘Gravity’ as well as its successor ‘Spells’ can be seen as a quest to find out how much or how little composition is required to constitute a song. Why the ear can and should be deceived about the authenticity of instruments. What significance these instruments have within this process, and why the personal perception of balance and sound exclude ultimate truths. Linking the two albums are the four movements of ‘Nocturne’, an ever-developing conversation that on occasion flirts with the grandeur of compressed rock drums. As HECQ Ben has released nine albums since 2003, exploring everything from ambient to breakcore. He has simultaneously established himself as a trusted composer and sound designer, working for a wide array of clients including Amnesty International and Marvel Comics; composing for feature films, games, art installations and convention opening titles.

After embracing this demanding line of work, in 2010 Ben felt the need to explore his roots and early education, which inspired these albums under his own name. Born in 1981 as the third child of opera singer Deirdre Boysen and actor Claus Boysen, his classical music training on piano and guitar began when he was seven years old; the works of Bruckner, Wagner and Bach laid an important foundation. Rediscovering this music shared with his parents – united with the sounds of Autechre, Cristian Vogel and Jiri.Ceiver to Pink Floyd and Godspeed You! Black Emperor – brought back an understanding of why he wanted to write music in the first place.

‘Spells’ merges programmed piano pieces with live instruments, combining the controllable technical world and the often unpredictable aspects of live improvisation. In some ways it continues where his underground debut ‘Gravity’ left off, though a lot of weight is lifted, making room for a lighter and more energetic listen. Friend and fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm mixed and mastered both albums. Ben is not a master pianist like his dear friend, but his sound collages are so meticulously designed that after hearing the result an impressed Nils declared: “from now on, if anyone asks – this is a real piano”. His intricate, humanised programming – enhanced by drummer Achim Färber, cellist Anton Peisakhov and harpist Lara Somogyi, and a considerate selection of echoes, delays and compressors – has been used to create a hybrid sound that intends to deceive, question and challenge existing listening habits. Utilising the contrast between reduction and decoration, ‘Spells’ can be seen as a quest to find out how much or how little composition is required to constitute a song. Why the ear can and should be deceived about the authenticity of instruments. What significance these instruments have within this process, and why the personal perception of balance and sound exclude ultimate truths.

Linking the two albums are the four movements of ‘Nocturne’, an everdeveloping conversation that on occasion flirts with the grandeur of compressed rock drums. The first single, ‘Golden Times 1’, received a world premiere by BBC 6 Music’s Mary Anne Hobbs, proclaiming it as "incredible." An alternative version of ‘Sleepers Beat Theme’ – composed for the soundtrack to a short film about the Trans-Siberian Express – opened Jon Hopkins’ Late Night Tales album from 2015, who noted “I thought it was such a calming and sensitive piece that sounded to me like the beginning of something...the warmth and depth of the sound entrances me every time”.

Though ‘Spells’ and ‘Gravity’ are his first albums recorded under his own name, as acclaimed electronic producer HECQ he’s released nine albums since 2003, exploring everything from ambient to breakcore. He has simultaneously established himself as a trusted composer and sound designer, working for a wide array of clients including Amnesty International and Marvel Comics; composing for feature films, games, art installations and convention opening titles.

After embracing this demanding line of work, in 2010 Ben felt the need to explore his roots and early education, which inspired these albums under his own name. Born in 1981 as the third child of opera singer Deirdre Boysen and actor Claus Boysen, his classical music training on piano and guitar began when he was seven years old; the works of Bruckner, Wagner and Bach laid an important foundation. Rediscovering this music shared with his parents – united with the sounds of Autechre, Cristian Vogel and Jiri.Ceiver to Pink Floyd and Godspeed You! Black Emperor – brought back an understanding of why he wanted to write music in the first place.

'Transition', the collaborative release of Immix Ensemble and Vessel focuses on the theme of technology. Musical instruments are a somewhat technological anomaly in that they are rarely updated after their conception, often only receiving minor tweaks over the course of hundreds of years. As such, each instrument provides us with a snapshot of the cutting edge technologies of a particular time and place – in this sense, the instrumentation used by Immix provides us with snapshots of technologies that can be traced back as far as 1500BC.

Taking these snapshots as a starting point, each movement in 'Transition' features one or two instruments, and, thematically, explores a significant invention or discovery that took place at around the same time as the invention and development of these instruments. Collaborating with Vessel updates this technological chronology by including the tools of the digital age.

Immix is lead by Australian-born composer and sax player Daniel Thorne. The now Liverpool-based artist has a genuine passion for exploring and creating music in a diverse range of forms; composed and improvised, acoustic and electronic, and the various shades in-between. Founded in 2014, the idea behind Immix has been to galvanise the innovative musical voices from across the country.

With the addition of Vessel, the moniker of Bristolian electronic composer Sebastian Gainsborough, Immix found a valuable first partner in exploring forward-thinking composition that slips between the cracks of traditional and contemporary styles. A stalwart of the UK experimental electronica community, Vessel's solo work has received critical acclaim for it’s post-industrial, visceral tone, using a sonic palette derived from the creation of home-made instruments, aiding in the creation of his signature nonreplicable sound.

As the first in this series, March 18, 2016 will see the release of 'Transition' on 12" vinyl and download, followed by a string of live performances by the collaborators. Future episodes will bring further collaborations by Daniel Thorne’s ensemble with other forward-thinking artists and ensure Immix continues to evolve and expand. “A remarkable new piece of music” – Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC Radio 6 Music.

Having been available exclusively as the second disc to 2015's 'Collaborative Works', Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm's improvised audio recordings 'Trance Frendz', taken from their 45-minute studio film of the same name, have been given their own vinyl release – out March 4th, 2016.

Prior to a string of collaborative Erased Tapes releases, which include 2012's 'Stare' 10” and last year’s 'Life Story Love and Glory' 7” and 'Loon' 12” – compiled on the 'Collaborative Works' 2-CD set, Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm spent many hours together in their studios across Berlin and Reykjavik. Both have carved out genre-defying musical careers and formed unique live shows, creating a fan base loyal to their prolific output.

During a session at Durton Studio in Berlin last summer, Nils and Ólafur invited Alexander Schneider and his camera to document it. The recording continued long after the first take, stretching out into the next day until, eventually, several new improvisations had been recorded in 8 hours with no overdubs or edits. The unexpected nature in which these pieces had been created was reminiscent of their first on-stage improvisation many years ago. It became immediately clear how special these songs were.

"At the end of the night we had all this music that sounded unfamiliar even to us, loudly asking to be included in this collection.”

Originally made available as a 45-minute film on their joint website (www.arnaldsfrahm.com) last September, 'Trance Frendz' is now available on vinyl. Press for their 'Collaborative Works':

'A particularly joyous wash of slinky percussion and juddering layers' (8/10) – Clash

'An enchanting listen. The bar for a Lads' Night In has just been raised a few notches' (7/10) – Drowned In Sound. 

‘This is music for slowing down the pace of modern life... An immersive listening experience is guaranteed, while we must hope Frahm and Arnalds go on ‘holiday’ together more in future, and don’t forget to take their musical instruments.’ ★★★★ – MusicOMH. 

'A collection of gorgeously intimate piano compositions and eye-opening synth pieces, each never aggressive but always powerfully poignant' (8/10) – Under The Radar.

'What Collaborative Works offers is something strange: a shared world created by two mad geniuses. Long may Arnalds and Frahm tinker' (8/10) – PopMatters.

'Collaborative Works further proves just how natural a fit Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm are together' – Resident Advisor. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. 20:17
A2. 21:05
A3. 23:17
B1. 23:52
B2. 00:26
B3. 01:41
B4. 03:06

Through relentless touring and multiple album recordings, Portlandbased Peter Broderick has established himself as a contemporary composer, known for his innate gift as a musical medium to picking up any instrument, turning his musings into poignant songs. The scope of Peter’s work is vast – his recordings and original score work currently feature in dance arrangements, art installations, films and documentaries. He collaborated with many like-minded contemporaries such as Nils Frahm and Greg Haines, and featured on Clint Mansell’s Last Night soundtrack. Peter’s signature emotional depth cuts through any instrument to create stirring, personal music that is full of artistic detail. Currently an artist in residence at Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, Ireland, 2016 has much in store for Peter.

2009’s Music for Falling From Trees, a 30-minute piece in seven sections, was created for a contemporary dance by London-based choreographer Adrienne Hart at Neon Dance. Adrienne was looking for a score of piano and strings, so Peter left the guitar and his voice aside and focused entirely on those two timbres. The dance tells the story of a man in a psychiatric hospital, and his struggle to maintain his identity. The music is sometimes melancholic, sometimes playful, sometimes chaotic, but with the combination of piano and strings, full of beauty, reverence and awe.

IN HIS OWN WORDS: “In late 2008, Adrienne Hart contacted me about scoring her new work, Falling From Trees. In Adrienne's words, ‘the piece is set in a psychiatric hospital and centered around one man's struggle to retain his identity in the most extreme of circumstances.’ There are four dancers in the piece. One male playing the patient, and three female hospital workers. I had been making music for a variety of film projects, but the thought of scoring a dance was very exciting to me. I was on tour at the time, so I wasn't able to start writing the music until I had a break in early January. The dance premiered on January 21st, so I had about three weeks to create the score. I camped out up in the top of my father's barn with some minimal recording equipment, my violin and viola, and an old broken piano. Given the time constraints, I approached the music in a very open way. Rather than sit down and try to compose something, I just set up a microphone and started playing. After coming up with a couple of themes on the piano, I started recording, using those small themes and improvising around them. Most of the sections have a small core that is composed, and then the rest is improvised. Luckily for me this method seemed to work. I would work all day and then send a sketch over to Adrienne, and every time her response was positive. So in this way we worked very well together. I give my hugest thanks to Adrienne for trusting me to create the music for her wonderful work. Adrienne told me from the beginning she was looking for a score of piano and strings. So I decided to take this literally and make a rule not to use any other instruments. In the script it called for the sound of a ticking clock. I made this sound by tapping on the body of the violin with my fingernails. The sound of an electric shock given to the patient is depicted by a quick, distorted piano chord. And all other droning and bass tones were made by extending and processing violin and/or piano tones, etc. Thank you very much for listening.” – Peter Broderick, March 2009.

TRACK LISTING

01. Part 1: An Introduction To The Patient
02. Part 2: Patient Observation
03. Part 3: Pill Induced Slumber
04. Part 4: The Dream
05. Part 5: Awaken/Panic/Restraint
06. Part 6: Electroconvulsive Shock
07. Part 7: The Path To Recovery

Through relentless touring and multiple album recordings, Portlandbased Peter Broderick has established himself as a contemporary composer, known for his innate gift as a musical medium to picking up any instrument, turning his musings into poignant songs. The scope of Peter’s work is vast – his recordings and original score work currently feature in dance arrangements, art installations, films and documentaries. He collaborated with many like-minded contemporaries such as Nils Frahm and Greg Haines, and featured on Clint Mansell’s Last Night soundtrack. Peter’s signature emotional depth cuts through any instrument to create stirring, personal music that is full of artistic detail. Currently an artist in residence at Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, Ireland, 2016 has much in store for Peter.

Created in 2011 for Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott’s spell binding documentary film on five unsolved murders in Idaho, the soundtrack takes the listener through waves of stark emotions.

IN HIS OWN WORDS: “It was November 2010 when I started to seriously think about relocating to Berlin. I knew my Danish visa would run out sometime in 2011 and if I wanted to stay in Europe I'd need to either renew it or get another visa elsewhere.
Berlin pulled me in like a magnet, with so many of my friends and inspirations living and working there, and also being so central for my frequent European travels. And just when I started to think about finding a place, I heard about a friend of a friend who was renting out a spacious two-floor apartment in the middle of town. I was told the building was owned by a man who only wanted musicians to live there, so I could make all the noise I wanted, and on top of that I was given a key to the piano store on the bottom floor so I could play anytime the store was closed… the place was made for me! All winter, when I wasn't traveling and playing concerts, I was locked away in this new space creating. I had been asked to make the score for a documentary film called Confluence. The film is based in the Lewiston, Idaho area, not too far from where I grew up in the USA, and it chronicles several mysterious cases of young girls found murdered or gone missing around 1980, all of which seem to lead back to one man who for a variety of reasons has not been able to be charged with these crimes.
So with my minimal equipment and a key to Die Klavier Etage (the piano store), I set out to create some textural soundscapes which could compliment the building tension of the story without being too intrusive or suggestive. Days and nights, snowed in and experimenting with layers and layers of whichever instruments I had around, finding a murky atmosphere that fit with the uneasy feeling which the film gave to me. On New Year's Eve I was inside, recording the final notes for the score. I had finished everything except the piece for the credits. After speaking with one of the directors of the film, Vernon Lott, we decided the song for the credits should be different from the rest of the score. So while the fireworks were exploding outside my window, I was recording Old Time, a song which for me felt like a breath-of-fresh-air after story which can only leave you wondering…” – Peter Broderick.

TRACK LISTING

01. In The Valley Itself
02. The Last Christmas
03. We Didn't Find Anything
04. Some Fisherman On The Snake River
05. We Enjoyed Life Together
06. She Just Quit Coming To School
07. It Wasn't A Deer Skull
08. What Was Found
09. He Was Inside That Building
10. The Person Of Interest
11. Circumstantial Evidence
12. Until The Person Is Aprehended
13. Old Time

A collection of nine reworks crafted by fans and selected by Nils himself form the ‘Screws Reworked’ re-issue, also featuring his original ‘Screws’

The 2012 album 'Screws' by Nils Frahm, was the result of inspiration from his fans and friends while he recovered from an unfortunate accident, which saw him fall from his bunk bed located directly above his studio, which resulted in a broken thumb. These nine intimate recordings were offered to fans to download for free and in return fans thanked Nils by sending him their audio and visual reinterpretations.

Fascinated by the results, Nils then publicly asked his fans to submit their reworks or any form of art that was inspired by the release and all these submissions have been collected since on a dedicated website: screws.nilsfrahm.com. It gave birth to the 'Screws Reworked' project from which Nils selected nine reworks to feature on a special edition re-issue which also includes his original ‘Screws’.

Helios, Bug Lover and Plasma Rüby are amongst Nils’s final selection for ‘Screws Reworked’, housed in an inner sleeve a visual rework created by Adam Young aka Saturnine.

“Whenever you have to decide between two things, you end up favouring one over the other. In the case of this record, I had to choose nine out of hundreds of songs – but I didn’t want to follow this logic, I didn’t want the songs to compete against each other. I never liked music competitions, neither when I was a kid playing classical music contests nor today when the best album of 2015 is awarded. Having been in the situation to pick my own tracks for my own records, I knew that the only way to manage this tough job is to concentrate on the cohesiveness of listening to the songs all together. Screws Reworked should sound like a record, not like a random collection of tracks.

The motivation to make such a record came with the release of Screws in 2012 as a gift to my listeners. I thought about it as a starting point for people to make their own interpretations of the songs. The feedback was overwhelming. A couple of months later, we counted over 300 contributions. Without going through a selection process, they were all available only online until now. It seemed essential to make it a real record as I imagined how happy it must make those who would find their names – in most cases for the first time – on a real record.

Now is the time to thank you all for your numerous and beautiful contributions. In case you don’t find your track here, please don’t think it stands behind the others. This record means, in fact, that some of the most beautiful songs couldn’t be included as they simply weren’t ‘good neighbours’ and because there is only one rework for each of my original compositions. However all of you opened your hearts and minds and shared your uniqueness with us and I feel incredibly blessed by each and every single rework of Screws. Thank you!” – Nils Frahm.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 Disc 2
1. You 1. You (Bug Lover Rework)
2. Do 2. Do (Databoy78 Rework)
3. Re 3. Re (Helios Rework)
4. Mi 4. Mi (Soul Channel Rework)
5. Fa 5. Fa (Fred Yaddaden Rework)
6. Sol 6. Sol (Ruhe Rework)
7. La 7. La (Sebastian Freij Rework)
8. Si 8. Si (Plasma R?by Rework)
9. Me 9. Me (Analogue Dear Rework)

Lubomyr Melnyk returns with his new album ‘Rivers and Streams’, the embodiment of his signature style.

Ukrainian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk has often felt that his unique Continuous Music playing is akin to water – flowing and ever connected. As he further developed his technique, and the more the notes flowed, the closer to water he felt. “I found my hands and arms and everything inside them changing from normal muscle and flesh to well... water.”

With his latest album, ‘Rivers and Streams’, Lubomyr focuses deeply on this connection to water, to the point where the music itself begins to embody its liquid form. Produced by Robert Raths and Jamie Perera, the album flows seamlessly from the live recordings of ‘The Pool of Memories’, captured in a church, to pieces entirely born in the studio, such as ‘Sunshimmers’ and ‘Ripples in a Water Scene’, which feature Perera on acoustic and electric guitar.

Amorphous, ever-changing, Lubomyr as performer becomes subsumed into the natural ebb and flow of the keys as the album drifts between nascent upstream trickles and deeply reflective passages through winding river valleys. The album reaches its climax in ‘The Amazon’, a 20-minute piece dedicated to the world’s largest river. Raths invited Korean flautist Hyelim Kim to guest on the first part, before Lubomyr closes the album with cascades of arpeggio figures, stretching across the breadth of the keyboard with rapid virtuosity.

Following on from 2013’s ‘Corollaries’ album and last year’s ‘Evertina’ EP, Lubomyr’s latest offering compounds upon his existing fluid signature style, and breathes an organic vitality, both nuanced and thoughtful.

"In the body of the Continuous Piano Master, the fingers and the hands turn into Water, Air and Stone. These are the three manifestations of the Continuous Technique. And for the Continuous Pianist, the fingers physically transform the music into one of these three elements.

The greatest of all miracles in the universe is Water. It is also, I believe, the rarest of all physical things in the universe. Water is the most magical and the most mysterious of all things we know! And so I dedicate this album to the Rivers and Streams of this world – in gratitude for their Beauty!“ – Lubomyr Melnyk.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another beautiful release from Lubomyr Melnyk, creator and practician of what he calls 'Continuous Music'. A technique in which constant notes are played throughout the pieces, creating a driven and dynamic style. Despite being continously playing, Melnyk manages to imbue these pieces with a certain delicacy when needed, reminiscent of Labelmate Nils Frahm, these tracks are beautifully nuanced and outstandingly performed. Gorgeous meditative modern-classical.

TRACK LISTING

1. Parasol
2. The Pool Of Memories
3. Sunshimmers
4. Ripples In A Water Scene
5. The Amazon: The Highlands
6. The Amazon: The Lowlands

Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm announce Double-CD release ‘Collaborative Works’ – comprising all three vinyl EPs ‘Loon’, ‘Stare’ and ‘Life Story Love And Glory’ as well as 7 new songs from their ‘Trance Frendz’ studio film

‘Stare’ (2012) was the very first collaborative recording made by Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm – a true family effort featuring long-time collaborator and cellist Anne Müller, which took place in 2011 between Reykjavík and Berlin. Originally released as a strictly limited 10-inch vinyl record exclusive on Record Store Day 2012, this long sold-out must-have was re-issued on July 17, 2015 – this time in 12-inch format. Óli and Nils recorded and mixed their first collaborative record between Reykjavík and Berlin as a surprise release for label founder Robert Raths.

‘Loon’ (2015) is a synthesiser-led 5-track EP that was recorded in autumn 2014 across five days at Nils’s Durton Studio in Berlin, and continues with the ambient sounds of ‘Stare’ but with the addition of more percussive elements and dub influences. For ‘Loon’ they wired the Oberheim 4 Voice and a Korg PS3100 to the patch bay/mixing desk and performed live takes. With all four hands on its pots, all mixes were recorded straight onto 2-track ½-inch tape.

'Life Story Love And Glory' (2015) is a 2-track live improv affair on two pianos, also recorded at Nils’s place in October 2012, the day before the two went on the road for the Erased Tapes 5th Anniversary Tour. It was released on August 21, 2015 as a surprise 7” available through record stores only, two weeks ahead of its digital release, and entered the Official UK Vinyl Single Charts at #3, still remaining in the Top 10 after 3 weeks.

‘Trance Frendz’ (2015) is the audio recording of their intimate 45-minute studio film. Originally planned as a short video session of previously released tracks, instead the two ended up recording seven brand new improvisations – showcasing the nature of their musical friendship. It was revealed on September 1, 2015 as part of their joint website www.arnaldsfrahm.com

"The music on this CD is a collection of our studio collaborations from recent years. We would meet in Reykjavik or Berlin with the intention to share some days off work, hiking, swimming or eating pizza. That is great for a couple days, but after a while we would always end up back in the studio, fiddling with synths or pianos. This collection of recordings cannot be an album. It will remain a collage of our studio experiments of the past. It simply is convenient to have them all together here, so you don’t need to look out for some limited 10” somewhere or deal with a nerdy record dealer in Japan to track down this one 7 ̋ which will turn out to sound pretty rough anyways... consider them as moments in space and time where we shared the same room for some days to come down and enjoy making music. After deciding to release the studio collaborations, we planned to do a video session of us performing an improvised duet to promote the release.

On the 28th of July 2015 we met up at Durton Studio in Berlin and invited Alexander Schneider and his camera to document it. But instead of ending the session after the first take we continued improvising throughout the night, ending up with several new pieces written and recorded in 8 hours with no overdubs and no edits. We felt there was something special in these songs as they arrived so quickly and unexpectedly, remembering that our friendship and collaboration originally started with live improvisation on stage. At the end of the night we had all this music that sounded unfamiliar even to us, loudly asking to be included in this collection.” (Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm)

TRACK LISTING

CD 1
1. Four
2. Three
3. Wide Open
4. W
5. M
6. A1
7. A2
8. B1
9. Life Story
10. Love And Glory

CD 2
1. 20:17
2. 21:05
3. 23:17
4. 23:52
5. 00:26
6. 01:41
7. 03:06

'Howl' is the new album by Rival Consoles, London-based electronic producer Ryan Lee West.

Foremost a guitarist, growing up listening to rock rather than club music, West continues to strive towards finding a more personal balance between music for home listening and larger spaces. The title track was inspired by the howl-like tones he developed by running synths through guitar pedals.

"By slowly drifting the pitch through distortion and delays, the result sounded like vocal cries – something which was perfect for the song and this inspired me to take on a darker set of tones across the whole album. It was made over the past few years, inspired by capturing small performances on synths, touring with some of my musical heroes, playing with feedback when I should have been catching a train, sampling my voice in unexpected conditions and recording textures in different countries.”

The album explores a wide range of emotions; from the dissonance eruptions and primal rhythms in 'Howl', to the mournful improvisations of '3 Laments', which features a sample of his own voice. Alongside his performances on Moog, Prophet, tape delay and guitar, West enlisted the help of drummer Fabian Prynn for ‘Low’ and cellist Peter Gregson for ‘Walls’, both long-time collaborators of Erased Tapes peers Douglas Dare and Michael Price.

"This album features a lot of my own recordings, rather than simply using samples that I have sitting on my computer. This gives the album a more personal feeling, which is very important to me because I think we live in a time where there is just so much recorded material out there, and accessible at a click of a button, that the joy of recording your own drum sounds, your own percussion, your own claps, seems redundant – but it’s not! That should be a priority because its often more interesting and makes you choose a different creative path."

It’s rarely reported that Rival Consoles was Erased Tapes' very first signing, with a CDR of early demos under the name Aparatec that inspired founder Robert Raths to start the label. Indeed West has more in common with his contemporaries Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick than some might think. His consistent desire to create a more organic, humanised sound sees West often draft early ideas on traditional, acoustic instruments like the guitar or the piano; forming pieces that capture a sense of songwriting behind the electronics.

"I try to create atmosphere and mood throughout with a less-is-more approach to composition. I'm always trying to find an exciting reaction from a few ingredients, because that is magic to me. To make something interesting with tons of layers of effects just doesn't excite me. But to make something interesting with just three layers requires a special alignment of sounds, ideas and timing. This is my most personal work to date, following on from 'Odyssey' and 'Sonne' which gave me the confidence to continue exploring my own ideas and approach to sound. The essence of this album was made with a few synths, some guitar pedals and lots of cups of tea. I hope you’ll enjoy it."

Having repeatedly performed at such prestigious venues as the Tate, and having created a bespoke audio-visual performance for Boiler Room at the V&A Museum, the blueprint for West’s current live A/V show was formed. Featuring self-programmed visuals in Max/MSP has earned him appearances at music festivals around the world including Mutek, Decibel, Big Ears and Berghain’s Pop-Kultur Festival, as well as tours in support of Clark, Nosaj Thing, Luke Abbott and Kiasmos.

TRACK LISTING

1. Howl
2. Ghosting
3. Afterglow
4. Pre
5. Walls
6. Low
7. 3 Laments
8. Morning Vox
9. Looming

Masayoshi Fujita, the Berlin-based Japanese vibraphone player, also known under his alias el fog came to the attention of label founder Robert Raths a few years ago. Not only because the vibraphone is an intriguing instrument, but also the way Masayoshi treats his instrument and draws ethereal and layered sounds, is what truly attracted him to Masayoshi’s work.

Having released more ambient-based/electronic recordings of the vibraphone under el fog, Masa became more interested in the sound of the vibraphone itself. He started to compose acoustic pieces and released the first solo album under his real name, titled ‘Stories’, in early 2013. ‘Apologues’ sees Masayoshi for the first time use an array of instruments besides his lead instrument – such as the violin, cello, flute, clarinet, French horn, accordion, piano and snare drum played by friends, but arranged by Masa himself.

“My idea was to let those instruments express their own images or atmospheres that each instruments have by nature, or have been given in their history, and not treating them just as accompaniments of the vibraphone. Also, it was new for me to compose a song as a whole. As I wrote the vibraphone part first, I tried to hear other sounds in my head and tried to leave enough room for them and sometimes play only fundamental parts on the vibes.”

In addition to the mallets, Masayoshi often plays the vibraphone with a violin or cello bow, like on ‘Tears of Unicorn’ and ‘Knight and Spirit of Lake’. He would also place bead strings on the vibraphone bars to create an ambient shimmer that can be heard on songs like ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Swallow Flies High in the May Sky’. The latter was composed to let the clarinet express its characteristics and tell its story, whilst the vibraphone takes a supporting role. “The clarinet sounds very warm and soft and very ‘spring’ to me”, says Masa.

Inspired by “the silence and deepness of the fog, the mountains and the gravity within”, his music has a very unique atmosphere and often creates images in the listener. ‘Requiem’, which Masayoshi composed for French horn, to him evokes “images of mountains, fields and the far away”. The song ‘Tears of Unicorn’ was inspired by a painting which features in Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli animation ‘Kiki's Delivery Service’, drawn by a woman that lives in the forest.

“With this album the main idea was to evoke images, atmospheres, sceneries and stories in the listener, the images that have accumulated in myself. At the same time it was an exploration of the unexplored beauty of the vibraphone, and also a pursuit of the charm of the instrumentation and the music itself. Erased Tapes releases a lot of great stuff and naturally became my favourite label of late. And I thought it would fit well to my music.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Maximum Vibraphone right here. Who'd of thought you could say so much with just a load of metal blocks and some spinning resonator tubes. Fujita shows us how.

TWO WEEK EXCLUSIVE RECORD STORE ONLY RELEASE!

Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm reveal a new 7” single titled ‘Life Story Love and Glory’ following on from their recently re-issued 2012 collaborative EP ‘Stare’.

Erased Tapes artists and friends Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm have separately carved out a musical career that defies genres both with their unique live shows and a loyal fan base that’s always eager to hear what their prolific output will bring.

Their latest collaborative 2-track release ‘Life Story Love and Glory’ is a live improv affair on two pianos, recorded in 2012 at Nils’s Durton Studio in Berlin. Fans may wonder why they have waited until 2015 to release these tracks, but having revealed a new website www.arnaldsfrahm.com you may think this may not be the end to their musical story this year.

“We would meet in Reykjavik or Berlin with the intention to share some days off work, hiking, swimming or eating pizza. That is great for a couple days, but after a while we would always end up back in the studio, fiddling with synths or pianos.” – Nils Frahm.

“You can hear in the beginning of ‘Life Story’ how I have already started playing the piano whilst Nils is still moving microphones around and preparing everything. It was all kept in!“ – Ólafur Arnalds.

‘Life Story Love and Glory’ will be released as a 7” on Erased Tapes – exclusively through record stores only on August 21, 2015 ahead of its digital release later on – as an ode to this classic and beloved format.

Originally released as a strictly limited 10-inch vinyl record exclusive on Record Store Day 2012, this long sold-out must-have for fans of these two artists will finally be re-issued – this time in 12-inch format!

Erased Tapes label mates Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm recorded and mixed their first collaborative record between Reyjkjavík and Berlin as a surprise release for label founder Robert Raths.

The ambient/electronic work ‘Stare’ is a true family effort with long-time collaborator Anne Müller joining in on cello and all graphics created by close label-friend and designer Torsten Posselt of FELD Studios.

Words by Nils Frahm:

“I heard ‘Eulogy For Evolution’ for the first time six years ago and I was totally captivated. Impossible to know back then that I was supposed to meet Ólafur many years later as my label mate. Later when he took me along a tour of his we also noted that we kind of like hanging out together, doing important things like cover versions of long forgotten songs or eating veggie pizza. Also he would join my live set for a jam and I would return the favour by playing along with his set.

All in all, I fell for Óli and after one memorable jam session we had in Berlin at Roter Salon in 2011, he finally proposed the idea to visit me in my studio in Berlin to work on 'some music'. I was happy and delighted about that idea, so we got together in April 2011 and after having a big pizza, I plugged in some old analogue synths and we played for four days until late in the night. Also queen Anne Müller stopped by after a show with Agnes Obel to record some cello at 5 am in the morning for ‘b1’. Making music together with people is lovely!

The time I spent with Óli in Berlin made me very happy and the music wasn't like anything I have heard before. It was all very reduced and minimal and I felt like I couldn't have done this alone. So we decided to do another 4-day jam at Óli´s E7 studio in Reykjavik. So I flew there in the end of October 2011 to repeat the trick and record some out of this world ambient music. It didn't take us too long to write ‘a1’ and ‘a2’. I can’t wait for the follow up!”

Nils Frahm has always said that he’s just waiting for something real special when being asked if he would ever score the music for a film. And that’s exactly what German director Sebastian Schipperpresented to him with his one-take feature ‘Victoria’. Filmed in Berlin, Victoria’s plot sees a runaway party girl, who's asked by three friendly men to join them as they hit the town, but their wild night of partying suddenly turns into a bank robbery as the music changes from techno to subdued piano sounds.

For the recording session at Studio P4 in Berlin, Frahm enlisted the help of long-time collaborator and cellist Anne Müller, violist Viktor Orri Árnason and ambient artist Erik K. Skodvin of Deaf Center on guitar.

The soundtrack opens with an edit of ‘Burn With Me’ by German producer DJ Koze.

Dear viewer and listener,

I’ve finally written music for a film. It took me some time to do so, as I was patiently waiting for a movie that would truly speak to me. When director Sebastian Schipper invited me to work on Victoria, I knew it was worth the long wait. Does such a strong film even need music? I realised it wouldn’t be easy to create a score that embraces these bold pictures.

Luckily we were given unusual creative freedom by approaching the movie together with Sebastian Schipper, who was keeping the production and direction to one single team. The score was recorded in a special location, the former GDR broadcasting production facilities that today host Studio P4. We simply put a big screen in the middle of the room, filled it with microphones and instruments, set the movie on loop and kept improvising on top of it together – my good friends and I.

The guest musicians started their recording session by playing a cohesive take over the course of the whole movie. This was the most interesting part of the day, since they hadn’t seen the film before. They became spectators and creators at once, intuitively recording hundreds of different cues that way. You are about to listen to some of its highlights. I hope they do Victoria and your ears justice.

With love, Nils Frahm.

TRACK LISTING

01 Burn With Me (Victoria Edit DJ Koze)
02 Our Own Roof
03 A Stolen Car
04 In The Parking Garage
05 Them
06 The Bank
07 The Shooting
08 Nobody Knows Who You Are
09 Pendulum

Channelled madness – the sound Dawn of Midi spent years shaping is culminating into their most mesmerising work yet.

With Dysnomia, the Brooklyn-based group Dawn of Midi abandons improvisation in favour of composition, utilising sophisticated rhythmic structures from North and West African folk traditions to weave a sonic tapestry of trance-inducing grooves. From close up one may see only dots, but when stepping back an undulating image reveals itself. “We didn’t want to create anything cerebral,” says Belyamani, “we wanted something visceral, something that would awaken our instinctive dance impulses.”

Having met at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles in 2006, bassist Aakaash Israni, pianist Amino Belyamani and drummer Qasim Naqvi found their original rapport through late night tennis matches on the campus court. The chemistry they founded there eventually led them back indoors to improvise together; something they did in total darkness to deprive themselves of all their senses except the crucial one – their hearing.

The manner, by which a trio of solely acoustic instruments ends up sounding like electronic music, has to do with the unconventional ways the group play their instruments on Dysnomia. The record comes to life in the trio’s critically acclaimed live shows, a test of endurance and trust that involves performing their hand-looped acoustic minimalism note for note, just as the compositions were recorded. Dawn of Midi’s sets are as energetic and rhythmic as a seamlessly mixed DJ-set, mesmerising fans in the same way the group’s favourite experimental and electronic acts have for decades.

The album was recorded to 2-inch tape at Waterfront Studios in Hudson, New York - a former church that was purchased and transformed into an analogue recording playground by the great engineer Henry Hirsch. Once the band visited the studio and met Henry, an expert in analogue recording equipped with a vintage Helios console, 16 and 24-track tape machines and a superb collection of microphones, it was obvious they had to record there; it was miles ahead of anywhere else they had visited. Rusty Santos then mixed the album to make sure it would hit as hard as the group’s favourite electronic albums do in spite of it being entirely acoustic.

“We wanted to make a record that sounded both musically futuristic and sonically vintage,” explains Israni, “and since the album never saw a proper international release, it is very exciting to see what might happen when more people are exposed to it. And to be aligned with Erased Tapes, whose enthusiasm for the music they release has done a lot for exposing unique instrumental and electronic music, makes it that much more interesting.”

“No click tracks, no headphones, and no film. Just the spontaneity of performance and the sound of musicians hearing, connecting and responding.”

‘Entanglement’, the debut album by Michael Price fulfills his long-term desire to explore new musical territories, featuring Michael on the piano, with the addition of cello, soprano voice, string orchestra, modular synth, tape effects and electronics.

Throughout the record you will hear street sounds from ‘Budapest’ captured and processed on Michael’s mobile phone, as well as chamber music recorded direct to tape with vintage microphones in single takes. ‘The Attachment’ was partly recorded onto a 1940s magnetic disc recorder, which immediately connected the piece back to a pre-digital musical age. Many of the titles and underlying concepts behind the tracks come from Michael’s love of science and physics, and fascination with how science often can give us intriguing metaphors for human relationships.

“Entanglement is a very personal expression of my obsessions: music, love, physics and the inter-connectedness of things. There is structure and freedom, chaos and control, and the beauty of ancient instruments set against impassive machines.”

Collaboration and connection with musicians has always been a crucial element to Michael’s music making, and in ‘Entanglement’ the cello and soprano vocal parts were written specifically and directly for cellist Peter Gregson and vocalist Ashley Knight, whose expressive voice features on tracks ‘Maitri‘ and ‘The Uncertainly Principle’. The lyrics for both songs are Japanese poetry sung in English, dealing with age, loss and the inevitable fading of beauty. Michael wanted to further extend the sound world of Ashley’s voice with tape effects and natural reverbs, so that although the music could have been performed in any era, the interpretation was contemporary.

‘Entanglement’ was written over a period of two years on paper and by hand with Michael exploring oldest and the newest technology at Abbey Road Studios and Snap Studios in London, before most of the recording and mixing took place at Vox-Ton in Berlin. Joe Rubel’s involvement from the beginning of the project, along with Nick Hill, was crucial in bringing the ideas, intact and prepared, to the Berlin sessions with Francesco Donadello at Vox-Ton – a haven for creating music that can stand on its own, outside any era or genre.

“I wanted to make an album that sounded like a dark, Berlin record store discovery from the 30s. Something that had timeless emotive power, and pre-digital rawness. Something that I hope would make a deeper connection in superficially networked times. I think there is a duty for artists to be honest, and vulnerable. Because then there is a possibility of real connection. Entanglement is both honest and vulnerable and to go through the two year process of writing, refining and recording an album has been more intense and more beautiful than I could have possibly imagined.” – Michael Price.

Nils Frahm reveals new ‘Solo’ album and the ‘Klavins 450’ piano project on the world’s first Piano Day!

Berlin-based composer Nils Frahm has fast become know as a prolific performer and recording artist with the piano at the core. Piano Day is an official body created by Nils and his closest friends, and will house various exciting, piano-related projects. The first project revealed by the Piano Day team is the building of what will be world’s tallest piano: the Klavins 450.

As the life-long dream of David Klavins, it even exceeds the currently largest upright piano there is, the Klavins M370. Situated in Germany, Tübingen, 1.8 tons in weight, 3.7 meters high, its longest strings are about 10 feet in length. And it was on this piano that Nils recorded eight improvised piano motifs in one sitting, which form his new ‘Solo’ album – available for free download on the world’s first Piano Day on the 88th day (March 29, 2015) from www.pianoday.org. Once recorded, Nils began to think of ways to release the album as a gift to his fans, similarly to his 2012 release ‘Screws’, and that’s when Nils came up with the idea of Piano Day.

With a target of 100.000 euros to reach, Nils eases his fans into sharing their money for the project with this free release. All direct donations and a portion from any record sales will go to the Klavins 450 project until the target has been hit.

LINER NOTES:
Situated in Germany, Tübingen, 1.8 tons in weight, 3.7 meters high: the Klavins M370 is probably the largest upright piano there is. Its longest strings are about 10 feet in length.
This colossus was initially built to evaluate a useful maximum size of the piano. Driven by the assumption that pianos could sound better, David got to work in 1985 and finished his instrument 2 years later. Back then I was 5 years old, having no idea how much I would fall in love with it.
When I finally met David Klavins and his enormous piano 27 years later, in the very beginning of 2014, I arrived with empty hands. I didn't know what music, what songs I was about to record in the next 3 days.
Every piano has unique features and certain strengths. Some have more, some have less of them, but there is no bad piano out there, although I do moan about them almost all the time. Some simply hide their secrets better than others. These thoughts made me start to write music when I am with the particular instrument, the tape running.
The 8 pieces featured on this album were selected out of hours of improvising, happy hours as I recollect. The joy of playing and listening to the sound of the instrument made me play slower and slower, softer and softer, as almost every new note was destroying the immense beauty and sustain of the previous note. I was preparing the instrument with parts of my felt collection, carefully tuning mic positions with the help of my dear friend and recording gear wizard Matthias Hahn and simply playing whatever came to my mind. In conversations about this I am still struggling for words in order to praise David’s instrument. Words simply don’t do it justice, so listen for yourself. With lots of love, Nils Frahm.

TRACK LISTING

01. Ode
02. Some
03. Circling
04. Merry
05. Chant
06. Wall
07. Immerse!
08. Four Hands

Erased Tapes first introduced Lubomyr Melnyk and his unique continuous music technique to a wider audience with ‘Corollaries’, an album produced by Peter Broderick in 2013. Now he returns with a 24-minute mini album entitled 'Evertina'. Featuring three newly composed solo piano pieces, the long-form EP showcases another side to Lubomyr Melnyk – his more gentle and melodic work.

In 2012 Lubomyr's ears began to notice the remarkable tonal depth of upright pianos. To Lubomyr the upright piano sound is like a natural forest of microcosmic colours. 'Evertina' and 'Awaiting' were created on a middle-aged upright piano at a friend's home in New York in October 2012 – just before Hurricane Sandy hit the city. Some children were listening to Lubomyr as he played in a hotel lobby in Cologne and 'Butterfly' is the piece that he made for them. It was recorded on a battered grand piano somewhere in Switzerland in late 2013, with the lid closed down to soften the effect.

"The piano for me has so many different faces, so many personalities and wonders, it is like life itself, ever-changing yet always holding to a permanence of beauty. Like butterflies that never fly in a straight line but always carry their loveliness with them in their multi-angled paths. I want people to hear these pieces, that are always hidden from the world. I keep them locked away in a quiet place, far from the concert hall. Why do I do that? I guess it is because they are so easy to play, so effortless, I can do them while sleeping. Whereas my more demanding abilities on the piano come out in the forceful nature of continuous playing. There, the new ground is being broken and a new door is being opened for the world. But that does not mean that I am bound by nature or by god to do only continuous music. My heart moves into these pieces just as it moves into the continuous modalities. So here, for the very first time, I am bringing three of these little miniatures to the public view. May everyone enjoy them for their gentle simplicity and quietude.

These three pieces fit so nicely together in spirit, they present a tableau, a tiny triptych that can reach the world without waiting for a major work, they stand beautifully on their own, and do not need an album to surround them with comfort and padding. No, they are what they are, and a short musical interlude as this record gives, is just perfect for their nature." – Lubomyr Melnyk

Lubomyr Melnyk is a true innovator, exploring new directions for contemporary music. Classically trained and greatly affected by the minimalist movement in the early 1970s, the Ukrainian pianist developed his own unique language for the piano, named after the principle of maintaining a continuous, unbroken stream of sound. Melnyk has shown a remarkable devotion to the instrument, always striving to discover new ways of composing music in the continuous mode. His focus is on the actual sound of the piano as much as the harmonies and melodies of the music. Playing rapid and complex note patterns made Lubomyr one of the world’s fastest concert pianists. His virtuoso piano technique forms overtones that blend, collide or even create new melodies in rare moments, and thereby shape the composition beyond its original form. To accomplish this requires a special technique, one that has taken Melnyk many years to master. To witness one of his rare live performances is nothing short of a mind-opening experience.

TRACK LISTING

01. Evertina
02. Awaiting
03. Butterfly (for Solo Piano)

Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen finally release their unique Nordic electronic sounds in album size

After dropping several tracks and performing at select festivals throughout the years, Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen dedicated the year 2014 to explore the area in-between Ólafur’s more acoustic, piano-based solo work and Janus’s synth-heavy electro pop, with their collaborative electronic project Kiasmos.

By focusing solely on their self-titled debut album, Ólafur and Janus have been able to combine and further develop their unique sound aesthetics to complete an album driven by their mutual love for electronic music. Made in Ólafur’s newly build studio in Reykjavík, Iceland, a majority of the album was recorded using acoustic instruments next to a variety of synthesisers, drum machines and tape delays. It features a live drummer, string quartet and Ólafur performing on the grand piano, producing an ambient, textured sound, which makes it a perfect home listen and equally danceable record. If you listen closely, you can spot them record the thumb piano, finger snapping and even the sound of the metal grinder of a lighter slowly to replace the usual electronic hi-hat sounds, giving the album a far more intimate and unique atmosphere.

“We decided to start almost completely over with this record, so most of the material is written this year with the idea of making a record that can stand as one piece rather than a collection of songs. I am very excited to get a proper record out exploring a different territory than I am used to. I touch a lot on electronic genres in my own music but never have the opportunity to go full out electronic like we do here.” – Ólafur Arnalds

“The Kiasmos project has been around since 2007, but because of all our other projects we never really got the time to sit down and write all the tracks we always wanted to. So when we early this year finally found the time to sit down and make a full length album there was so much we wanted to try out. The result surprised us a bit, it's deeper and more emotional than we imagined it to be, but that's the beauty of being able to make an album.” – Janus Rasmussen

Long-term Erased Tapes graphics collaborator Torsten Posselt at Feld Studios in Berlin created the cover artwork. Feld Studios was a natural choice for Kiasmos, seeing he also designed the cover for their Thrown EP, released previously.

Kiasmos is made up of Icelandic BAFTA-winning composer Ólafur Arnalds, known for his unique blend of minimal piano and string compositions with electronic sounds, and Janus Rasmussen from the Faroe Islands, known as the mastermind of the electro-pop outfit Bloodgroup. Based in Reykjavík, Arnalds used to work as a sound engineer, often for Rasmussen's other projects, where the two musicians discovered their common love for minimal, experimental music. They eventually became best friends, often hanging out in their studio, exploring electronic sounds.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lit
2. Held
3. Looped
4. Swayed
5. Thrown
6. Dragged
7. Bent
8. Burnt

Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran return with their second studio album inspired by contemporary dance and new instrumentation.

After releasing a first glimpse in the form of the ‘Atomos VII’ EP earlier this year, A Winged Victory For The Sullen finally reveal their second full-length album entitled ‘Atomos’, which besides familiar piano, string and drone sounds also sees the duo introduce flurries of electronics, harp and modular synthesisers.

In 2011 A Winged Victory For The Sullen introduced themselves to the world with a self-titled album, showcasing their unique collaboration of ambient guitar drone from Stars Of The Lid member Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie and sparse piano tunes by contemporary classical composer Dustin O’Halloran, winning them fans around the world. "An immersive, and inevitably cinematic, ambient gem" ★★★★ – Mojo

Wayne McGregor, founder of Random Dance Company and resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, was one of these fans and chose to play the album repeatedly during practices with his core group of dancers. After noticing the group's reaction with the music, he contacted Adam and Dustin to see if they could write the score for his new oeuvre. The duo were given complete artistic freedom and they treated the score with the same care and attention as their debut album. They recorded more than sixty minutes of music over a four-month period during the summer of 2013 across studios in Brussels, Berlin and Reykjavik, with the help of their long time collaborative sound engineer Francesco Donadello. During the recording process they realised, that this would become their official second studio album. McGregor provided them with the inspiration to expand their sound palette into more electronic territory, whilst keeping their signature chamber sound, resulting in a very unique record.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS:
“As a wise man once said, one who procrastinates their own choosing will inevitably have their choice served to them by circumstance. We had virtually no time for second guessing ourselves. That being said, we tried to balance the discordance between being creative, and fulfilling our duties for a commissioned soundtrack with a very strict deadline, and all the while staying true to our collective melancholy.” – Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie

“We never imagined 2013 would be such an explosively creative year. The first record took us two years from start to finish, but in the micro span of time over last summer we were able to change the formula for the way we write, record, and let go. It was incredibly liberating.” – Dustin O'Halloran.

TRACK LISTING

1. Atomos I
2. Atomos II
3. Atomos III
4. Atomos V
5. Atomos VI
6. Atomos VII
7. Atomos VIII
8. Atomos IX
9. Atomos X
10. Atomos XI
11. Atomos XII

Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles reinforces his unique style of minimal electronic arrangements with a new 6-track EP .

Continuing on from his Odyssey EP released in 2013, Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles creates atmosphere and space whilst exploring waves of sound and rhythm, and the power of colour. With Sonne Ryan creates music to structure itself around a pulse, rather than the pulse being the defining point.

The title track begins with “a very subtle set of melodies that repeat almost without confidence, and then gradually give way to a huge collage of colour and power”, as Ryan describes it. Not relying on a conventional beat, it’s a prime example of how an analogue synthesiser can create the power and momentum of a rhythm section. From the distorted waves in 3 Chords, growing and shrinking, to the rhythmic waves of constant speeding up and then slowing down in Recovery, it’s the Moog Voyager, Prophet and tape delay that make up the core sound of the EP. Whilst tracks like Helios, Haunt and Think Tank see West play live drums and acoustic guitar.

“I’m often looking at art in exhibitions and I always think to myself ‘why the hell don’t I have this much colour in my work?’ The answer in part I think is down to synthesis. It is very difficult to create colour without it sounding plastic. Colour in music is both the note combinations and the actual timbre of the sounds. There are lots of instances of very colourful ambient sounds, which I took great care to create for each song, using various methods – from passing analogue synths through chains of effects to chopping up random sequences of recordings and forming tiny collages." – Ryan Lee West

Resembling the colour and vibrancy in his music, the cover art was created by South London artist Supermundane, who was also responsible for the artwork of the Odyssey EP.

After supporting Luke Abbott on his recent UK tour and I Break Horses on their North American tour in spring, Ryan will debut his new live set with a special release show in London, followed by a string of West Coast U.S. dates culminating in Decibel Festival.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Some might be surprised that London based electronic producer Ryan Lee West, the man behind Rival Consoles, shares a home with contemporary classical composers such as Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds and Peter Broderick. And yet they have a lot more in common than expected. Fascinated by sound from an early age, Ryan chose to dedicate his time to studying, experimenting with and producing sound graduating from De Montfort University in Leicester. One consistent element in his musical journey has been his desire to create a more organic, humanised sound. Ryan often drafts early ideas on piano, violin and guitar, although the end result is much more electronic-laden. As an accomplished sound designer he has repeatedly performed at the Tate, and recently created a bespoke audio-visual performance for Boiler Room at the V&A. Ryan is currently composing music for a BBC production.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Sonne
A2. 3 Chords
A3. Helios
B1. Haunt
B2. Think Tank
B3. Recovery

The long overdue first collaborative work by Greg Haines and Peter Broderick.

“Greg and I became good friends while both living in Berlin, around 2009 to 2013. We spent countless late nights playing records for each other, dreaming the dream of good music. We talked a lot about collaborating and even put in quite a few hours at each other's studios . . . but for some strange reason we never seemed to finish anything. Maybe we were just busy enough with our other projects and didn't feel in any rush. But we certainly had it in mind that we'd like to finish something one day. And we are very proud to say that day is finally here!

Primarily inspired by mine and Greg's recent obsession with dub music, Greg Gives Peter Space is a mini album comprised of six tracks filled with – you guessed it – spacey sounds, created with the help of Greg's ever-growing collection of synthesizers, tape delays and reel-to-reel machines. In the true spirit of dub music, many of the mixes were made live, both of us hovering over the mixing board, dancing around and following our intuitions, processing the sounds with live effects while the music bounced down to tape.

We are extremely excited to release this record in the summer time and to celebrate with a few select shows around Europe. We've enlisted our dear friend Martyn Heyne to help us perform the music live, and we plan on bringing as much of the original gear from the recordings as possible. After years of playing fairly quiet music for an often seated audience, we can't wait to get on stage and bounce around to some groovy rhythms, heavy bass and spacey synthesizers. Prepare for take off! “ – Peter Broderick, April 2014.

London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare releases his debut album Whelm on Erased Tapes. With the piano at the core, Dare vocalises his short prose and poems to a backdrop of drums, electronics and brass…

It was in November last year that the duo Douglas Dare and producer/percussionist Fabian Prynn decided to record an album, and by January they were listening to it. Finding themselves out of the home-studio for the first time, the pair recorded much of the album in Flood’s studio Assault & Battery in West London. Other touches were recorded back in Fabian’s home. With the comfort of familiar songs from his live set, such as Clockwork, Caroline and London’s Rose, the session was equally driven by the excitement of creating brand new tracks like Nile, Swim and Unrest in a new environment.

The recordings began with finding the perfect piano – a grand piano, battered and bruised, but with a beautiful sound. Flood’s studio provided a treasure trove of gear, including Dare’s favourite new instrument, the Mini Moog, which inspired bass parts on tracks like Unrest. Prynn engineered, produced and mixed the record, and with just the two of them involved from start to finish, their vision for the album remained clear and unclouded.

Lyrically, Whelm is often written from other people’s perspectives, with a few of the songs stemming from historical events. London’s Rose for example came from a poem Douglas wrote about the use of underground stations as bomb shelters during WWII; whilst Whitewash addresses the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, and Clockwork was inspired by the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient analogue computer found in the ocean. Despite the weight to some of these subjects, Dare has always enjoyed the use of plain language that is simple and very human. Most of his songs begin with words, as it’s the stories that inspire the music.

Erased Tapes are pleased to announce the release of A Winged Victory for the Sullen's ‘ATOMOS VII’. The first installment leading up to the release of the second full length studio album 'ATOMOS', and score for choreographer Wayne McGregor's long form dance piece.

McGregor was heavily influenced by the duo's 2011 self-titled debut, playing it repeatedly during practices with his core group of dancers. After noticing the group's reaction with the music, he contacted Adam and Dustin to see if they could write the score for his new oeuvre. The duo recorded more than sixty minutes of music over a four-month period during the summer of 2013 in Brussels, Berlin and Reykjavik with the help of their longtime collaborative sound engineer Francesco Donadello. This EP also sees the involvement of Ben Frost, who composed the music for McGregor’s previous work 'Far'.

McGregor, mastermind behind the Random Dance Company and resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet since 2006, is known in popular culture circles for serving as movement director for the film 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. He has also choreographed the Radiohead video 'Lotus Flower' and 'Ingenue’ by Atoms for Peace.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS:
‘While we were re-amping guitars at Greenhouse studios, Ben expressed interest and admiration in the sounds we had created. We were planning for the B-side to be a metamorphosis of part VII, and Ben seemed the obvious choice. With the multi-tracks transformed, it follows a trajectory that we had not felt comfortable with before. But with Ben's involvement and influence, it was a painless entrance to this crooked, distorted world.’
– Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie.

‘We never imagined 2013 would be such an explosively creative year. The first record took us two years from start to finish, but in the micro span of time over last summer we were able to change the formula for the way we write, record, and let go. It was incredibly liberating.’
– Dustin O'Halloran.

October 28, 2013 will see the reissue of 26-year old American composer Peter Broderick's 2008 debut album 'Float'. Returning to his home in Oregon, where his musical journey began, Peter completes the circle with the release of 'Float 2013', accompanied by a 7" single with exclusive material. 'Float 2013 Addendum' features album track ‘Something Has Changed’ re-arranged as a duet for violin and viola, with the new title ‘Something Has Remained’. The b-side holds an alternative version of 'Stopping On The Broadway Bridge' entitled 'Continuing On The Broadway Bridge'. Both have been mastered by the gifted hands of Nils Frahm.

Brought up in a musical household in Oregon, Peter quickly became a popular session musician for the likes of M. Ward in the Portland area. Later discovered by the Danish band Efterklang he joined their live band and spent the next six years based in Europe where he collaborated with many like-minded contemporaries. Through relentless touring, multiple album recordings and film scores Peter has established himself as a solo artist, known for his innate gift as a musical medium to picking up any instrument, turning his musings into poignant songs.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Something Has Remained
B1. Continuing On The Broadway Bridge

Berlin-based contemporary composer Nils Frahm has built a steady reputation for his intimate, poignant piano recordings, yet they so far only showed a fragment of what to expect from a Nils Frahm concert. Frahm’s heart lies in improvisation, in the magic of a moment where, inspired by the space and the audience, his fingers can create new compositions loosely based around his familiar melodies.

Spaces is an ode to the joy of live performance. It expresses Frahm’s love for experimentation and answers the call from his fans for a record that truly reflects what they have witnessed during his concerts. Breaking the convention of a traditional live album, Spaces was recorded over the course of two years in different locations and on various mediums, including old portable reel-to-reel recorders and cassette tape decks. These moments were later pieced together in his Durton Studio and referred to by Frahm as a collage of field recordings rather than a live album. It Includes surprise moments such as the sound of him banging a toilet brush on the piano strings to create a dub-sounding track. The decision to select takes that have people coughing and cell phones ringing show that his audience is an integral part of every performance. In his own words:

"What I love most about playing in front of people has something to do with a certain kind of energy exchange. The attention and appreciation of my audience feeds back into my playing. It really seems as if there is a true and equal give and take between performer and listener, making me aware of how much I depend on my audience. And since the audience is different every night, the music being played will differ too. Every space I performed in has its own magic and spirit." – Nils Frahm.

Spaces was mastered by the gifted hands of Mandy Parnell.