Search Results for:

BORDER COMMUNITY

Holden & Zimpel

The Universe Will Take Care Of You

    British synth wizard James Holden and Polish clarinet guru Waclaw Zimpel (Saagara, Shackleton) continue their fruitful collaboration with the blissful escapism of lush album debut 'The Universe Will Take Care Of You'.

    A deeply emotive warm and fuzzy delight, the rich textures and beguiling sound palette of the entrancing 'The Universe…' roams freely between bucolic pastorals, insistent arpeggios and shimmering euphoria.

    Embracing the playful, experimental approach of their Krautrock forefathers to explore their deepest improvisational urges, this is the joyful convergence of two like-minded masters of their craft, weaving in violin, percussion, lap steel guitar and the Indian twin pipe algoza flute amongst the expected modular synth and clarinet.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. You Are Gods
    2. Sunbeam Path
    3. Time Ring Rattles
    4. Sparkles, Crystals, Miracles
    5. Incredible Bliss
    6. The Universe Will Take Care Of You

    Holden

    The Inheritors - 2024 Reissue

      Long-awaited three-disc gatefold vinyl repress of James Holden’s critically acclaimed 2013 masterwork, ‘The Inheritors’, a timeless essential and the defining cornerstone of the UK electronic producer’s folk-trance manifesto.

      Carving out his own distinctive organic niche outside of the functional constraints of the dancefloor, ‘The Inheritors’ saw Holden instead embrace the experimental, playful spirit of Germany’s Krautrock forefathers.

      In Holden’s hands the modular synth is evocative, transportive and nostalgic, punctuated with found percussion, tantalising vocal fragments and a hypnotic pagan thud which feels inherently human.

      Reissued fresh off the back of his latest solo LP, ‘Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities’, and a run of UK and European support shows with The Smile, Holden’s ‘The Inheritors’ cult continues to seek out new converts. In addition, playbenny.com is open-source software built by Holden, and he also has a remix for Harmonia’s ‘Musik von Harmonia’ anniversary edition on Groenland Records.

      TRACK LISTING

      Rannoch Dawn
      ||:A Circle Inside A Circle
      Inside:||
      Renata
      The Caterpillar’s
      Intervention
      Sky Burial
      The Illuminations
      Inter-City 125
      Delabole
      Seven Stars
      Gone Feral
      The Inheritors
      Circle Of Fifths
      Some Respite
      Blackpool Late Eighties
      Self-Playing Schmaltz

      James Holden

      Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities

        Electronic explorer James Holden returns with a generically unconstrained new album of rave music for a parallel universe that seeks to reconnect with the feelings of hope, freedom and possibility that characterised the earliest days of dance music, coming to terms with his own musical past in the process.

        In contrast to its jazz adjacent live band predecessor The Animal Spirits, Holden's trippy fourth solo artist album is more of a continuous sound collage, artfully juxtaposing audio worlds and field recordings with an anything goes approach in the style of early nineties pastoral classics like The KLF’s Chill Out and the sprawling radioscapes of Future Sound of London.

        Physical formats include a colourful 12 page booklet of original illustrations by Jorge Velez (Professor Genius).


        STAFF COMMENTS

        Barry says: James Holden has been an inspiration for many a year, deftly moving from jagged instrumental genius ‘The Inheritors’ through jazzy ambient fare ‘Animal Spirits’ to this latest album, imbued with the spirit of both. It's a sprawling and multi-faceted triumph, another indication that Holden is one of the greatest producers around.

        TRACK LISTING

        1) You Are In A Clearing
        2) Contains Multitudes
        3) Common Land
        4) Trust Your Feet
        5) The Missing Key
        6) In The End You’ll Know
        7) Continuous Revolution
        8) Four Ways Down The Valley
        9) Worlds Collide Mountains Form
        10) The Answer Is Yes
        11) Infinite Fadeout
        12) You Can Never Go Back

        Luke Abbott

        Translate

          'Translate' is the first solo artist album in six years from Norfolk synthesizer specialist Luke Abbott: a strikingly direct and assured return to the solo music-making game following a productive diversion into live improvisation with his experimental jazz trio Szun Waves.

          At times dark and ominous, others bright and welcoming, these eleven electronic vignettes form a dramatic and undeniably cinematic body of work which functions as a fitting widescreen soundtrack to our new now.

          The lumbering rhythms, strident synths and distinctive touchstones of 'Translate' represent a musical reconciliation with the directness of the wave-making rolling synth-kraut of Abbott’s forthright debut 'Holkham Drones'.

          Newly-reinvigorated and with a new sense of musical purpose, this is Luke Abbott’s sound fully realised and never so sure of itself.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Barry says: 'Holkham Drones' was one of my favourite albums for many a year, and still gets a good playing nowadays but nothing has come close to the mind-melting electronic bliss-blanket of 'Translate'. Perfectly split between hypnotic electronic counterpoints and synthy, IDM levity.

          TRACK LISTING

          1) Kagen Sound
          2) Our Scene
          3) Flux
          4) Ames Window
          5) Roses
          6) Earthship
          7) Living Dust
          8) River Flow
          9) Feed Me Shapes
          10) Luna
          11) August Prism

          Holden & Zimpel

          Long Weekend EP

            UK synth wizard James Holden teams up with Polish clarinet guru Waclaw Zimpel for a four track mini album of deliciously Krauty improvisations, recorded back in the summer of 2018 when Zimpel (and, on "Tuesday" and "Wednesday", his longtime collaborator guitarist Jakub Ziolek) joined Holden in his London studio for a series of musical experiments; with the goal of completing one track per day. The resultant "Long Weekend EP" is a captivating, in-the-moment lyrical conversation between alto clarinet and modular synth, judiciously supplemented by guitar, organ, voice and assorted percussion and glued together with atmospheric syrupy tape overdubs. A meeting of two like-minded masters of their instrument, whose disparate musical journeys now converge in a shared love of all things hypnotic and trancey. 

            STAFF COMMENTS

            Matt says: A well trodden path but none the less arresting when done proper; the merger of advanced synthesis and organic instrumentation can yield dazzling results - perfectly demonstrated here by two master craftsmen.

            TRACK LISTING

            Saturday
            Sunday
            Tuesday (ft Jakub Ziolek)
            Wednesday (ft Jakub Ziolek)

            Technological force-of-nature Leafcutter John teams up with fellow stalwarts of idiosyncratic electronica Border Community for the release of his masterful seventh artist album: the small-yet- perfectly formed joyously utopian artefact ‘Yes! Come Parade With Us’.

            Interweaving layers of lyrical modular synth and occasional guest drums (from Tom Skinner and Sebastian Rochford) with a set of field recordings collected during his sixty mile walk along the Norfolk coastal path during the summer of 2017, these seven bright-eyed folk anthems sing with positivity and a sense of place and see Leafcutter John on career-defining form.

            TRACK LISTING

            Doing The Beeston Bump
            Yes! Come Parade With
            Us
            Pillar
            Elephant Bones
            Stepper Motor
            This Way Out
            Dunes

            James Holden

            A Cambodian Spring: Original Soundtrack

              The latest addition to the James Holden archive is an album of solo synth work originally written to accompany the critically-acclaimed documentary ‘A Cambodian Spring’: fourteen tracks of pulsing melancholy, foreboding drone and even the occasional burst of beatless trance in the form of the uplifting arpeggios of surefire album highlight ‘Solidarity Theme’.

              Picking up where his classic 2013 album ‘The Inheritors’ left off (and giving ‘Self-Playing Schmaltz’ a new cinematic airing) Holden’s debut soundtrack project combines the sound palette of his beloved Prophet 600 with a cranky old Hammond organ to showcase the full breadth of his musical tastes across the epic documentary format.

              The LP includes digital download code and sleevenotes by ‘Imaginary Cities’ author Darran Anderson.


              TRACK LISTING

              Srey Pov’s Theme
              Monk’s Theme Part I
              Downturn Medley
              Solidarity Theme (Villagers)
              Monk’s Theme Part II
              The Villagers
              Disintegration Drone I
              Solidarity Theme (Release)
              Monk’s Theme Part III (Exit)
              Reprise
              Disintegration Drone II (Torn Cone)
              Disintegration Drone III (Death Rattle)
              Self-Playing Schmaltz
              Srey Pov’s Theme (End Credits)

              James Holden & The Animal Spirits

              The Animal Spirits

                Let electronics guru James Holden and his newly-expanded band The Animal Spirits transport us to a magical other world with this third album: a bold new set of synth-led folk-trance standards, fusing elements of psychedelia, krautrock, world and spiritual jazz with Holden's usual propulsive melodic vigour into his most ambitious - but also most accessible - work to date.

                The synth-and-drum core of Holden's Inheritors-era live touring outfit has picked up several members along the way, incorporating saxophone, cornet, recorder and cosmic percussion, all recorded live together in one room under the direction of band leader Holden to produce a genre-blending new form of universal music that feels inherently fluid and alive.

                STAFF COMMENTS

                Barry says: Holden, and his newly inherited (pun intended) band segue away from the dense, fractured electronic excursions of yesteryear, into a genre-bending percussive world-music odyssey. Progressive, multi-layered and incredibly rewarding. Another slice of genius from the Border Community head honcho.

                TRACK LISTING

                Incantation For Inanimate Object
                Spinning Dance
                Pass Through The Fire
                Each Moment Like The First
                The Beginning & End Of The World
                Thunder Moon Gathering
                The Animal Spirits
                The Neverending
                Go Gladly Into The Earth

                James Holden & Camilo Tirado / Luke Abbott

                Outdoor Museum Of Fractals / 555Hz

                  Holden and Luke Abbott flirt with the new age in this split double album, with a pair of extended synth meditations indulging their respective loves of arpeggio and drone, originally composed for the occasion of Terry Riley’s 80th birthday. Holden’s "Outdoor Museum Of Fractals" fuses the endlessly unfolding fractal complexity of luxurious washes of arpeggiations with the pitched tabla drumming of Camilo Tirado, co-pilot on this hypnotic, meditative journey. Luke Abbott’s metallic gong-drone offering "555Hz" layers this mystical frequency and its related harmonics in a sequence of transportive wave-like swells. Running to over 45 and 30 minutes apiece in digital form but split in two to fit on the vinyl. The heavyweight double vinyl also includes uninterrupted digital download codes.

                  STAFF COMMENTS

                  Barry says: Border Community head-honcho and fanatic Synthesist James Holden teams up with one of the label's many star signings on this double LP. On one LP Holden jams over the trance-inducing Tabla playing of Camilo Tirado to full new-age effect, whilst on the other, known hardware-fiend Luke Abott explores drone and ambience. Both sides are exercises in skill and restraint and show how truly talented these guys (and generally, Border Community as a whole) are. Worth the effort this one, and a record that reveals more every time I listen.

                  Luke Abbott

                  Wysing Forest

                    Four years of slow-burning success on from the rolling primal rhythms and joyous arpeggios of his 2010 debut album 'Holkham Drones', Luke Abbott makes a bold return to the Border Community with his sublime second album offering ‘Wysing Forest’.

                    Named after the Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire who hosted Luke as their first ever musician-in-residence over a six week period during the winter of 2012, the album comprises a series of improvised live recordings, edited and compiled after a period of after-the-act reflection into one rapturous movement. The finished article’s 52-minute duration may have been chopped into nine track-sized chunks for its official album release, but this is most definitely an album which is greater than the sum of its parts, designed to be listened to in one immersive go.

                    “‘Wysing Forest’ has a very particular arc to it an the tracks only make sense in the context of that arc,” Luke explains. “Structuring the album to work as a whole was quite a challenge, almost more of a challenge than making the music, but I think I’ve ended up with something that has a kind of internal logic.” And though only a pair of tracks - ‘Free Migration’ and ‘Highrise’, together forming the subtle peak that marks the mid-point of the album - approach ‘Holkham Drones” idiosyncratic lumpen danceability, it is thanks to Luke’s perfectly judged elegant transitional dynamics that neither piece - although as dancefloor-directed as anything he has ever done before - feels out of place amongst the album’s more mellow moments.


                    Latest Pre-Sales

                    207 NEW ITEMS

                    E-newsletter —
                    Sign up
                    Back to top