'Zauberberg' – Wolfgang Voigt’s most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography – finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendour.

Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, 'Zauberberg' is now released on his own label Kompakt on 180 gram vinyl in its original.

Though this narcotic symphony is not the first release under the GAS moniker, 'Zauberberg' is the first to disclose the true nature of Wolfgang Voigt’s unified sound and ideology as GAS. Layers of ominous intensity supported by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction, 'Zauberberg' is the definitive GAS album and a perfect starting point for those not familiar with his music.

FORMAT INFORMATION

3xLtd LP Info: Classic album reissued now as 180gram 3xlp.

3xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Wolfgang Voigt (aka GAS) curated series, POP AMBIENT returns with a change of pace. Be prepared for a more acoustically prominent / avant-garde collection that follows the aesthetic of previous editions...and goes where you have never heard before in the series.

Features an incredible cast of newcomers to the series including Chicago based Coupler, Last Train To Brooklyn, The Black Frame, Yui Onodera alongside veteran contributors Max Würde, Triola aka Jörg Burger / The Modernist, Thomas Fehlmann and more.

Contemporary electronic music has taken a front seat in music. From the rise of avant-garde artists performing festivals around the world to the many famed artists and acts incorporating such sounds and ideas into mainstream music...Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series is there to provide an alternative, yet familiar antidote to the trends that exist and shall remain to persist.

Boum Boum Boum! 25 years of KOMPAKT. When a record label still thrives after a quarter of a century thanks to a focus of what was expected to be a short lived music phenomenon called TECHNO, then it stands to prove two things; that it techno has taken its place amongst serious, multilayered musical genres like rock’n’roll, pop and folk music. And that KOMPAKT has never been only for techno, but KOMPAKT stands as a broad-minded, genre-defying entity that has set out to cross-pollinate all kinds of musical inventions within the realm of electronic music. Through its course, KOMPAKT has sent “Around The World”, all kinds of sub-genres, concept series and crossover adventures based on the non- negotiable 4/4 beat. And back again.

Without a doubt, the 100% kickdrum-free POP AMBIENT series is the most endearing and enduring concept that I have had the pleasure to curate. From the start, I felt there was a strong need to add a certain pop- elegance - ensouled by discourse as much as hedonism - to a sound that was recognized as “Chill Out” music that could be heard in seedy techno club back rooms and forgotten festival areas. Over the years, I like to imagine that POP AMBIENT has crystallized into a highly recognizable trademark sound and a multi-facetted musical universe of its own.

So once again, I had the pleasure to put together this year’s edition by plowing through an ocean of sonic jewelry that had been submitted from all over the world by new and old friends. The task was clear: for this special edition, I must create a homogenous listening experience that would both appeal to our trusting followers, to continue our tradition while integrating new micro facets , variations and influences from neighboring musical universes as possible. Obligatory while being innovative. Conspirative while being cosmopolitan. Albeit the headline “Ambient” might sound a little too humble for a compilation that encompasses aspects of neo classic, atonal music and the most beautiful aural kitsch imaginable, it still helps as a necessary means of orientation in the best possible sense. Same goes for another dear tradition: Veronika Unland’s abstract-floral cover design that keeps on pleasing our sore eyes year after year.
Although each and every POP AMBIENT edition doesn’t shy away from diving into the relevant question of “What is contemporary discourse music” – in the end it all boils down to that elevated moment where all theory dissolves into ambient air, into a higher state of cosmic bliss. POP AMBIENT is sacral music for non-believers.

Wolfgang Voigt Cologne, October 2018 

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLtd LP Info: 180 gram vinyl.

2xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

CD Info: CD is a continuous mix of the album.

Two years on since his last outing on the label, 'The Follower', Axel Willner puts on his Field suit again to present his sixth full-length effort for Kompakt, 'Infinite Moment' - which sees him striding further across the deeper, richer rims of the hue cycle.

Substituting the uptempo vim of his previous pieces for a sense of mind-expanding horizontality, 'Infinite Moment' is an album filled with hope and draped in a diffuse, appeasing light; easing the pain and troubles of the human soul through a lushly forested recital of shoegazing modular, complex textural interplays and solar, atmospheric fractals. The matrix cut 'Made of steel, made of stone' gets the ball rolling on a thumping downtempo note, wrapping the listener up in hazy drones, fractured vocoder and rumbling bass tones. "Divide Now" is a proper sonic mitosis, engaging the metamorphosis to come; like a larvae pupating and reemerging weeks later from under rough bark in the form of a vividly coloured butterfly - fluttering breaks eventually shedding their skin then making way for a crucially more intimate and hypnotic second chapter. "Hear Your Voice" propels the lavish, pad-upholstered glamour of its melodic lines in the mixer for a bolder syncopated revisitation of '80s indebted pop harmonics, while 'Something left, something right, something wrong' returns to a flaring post-euphoric daze. Legs numb, mind confused and eyes lost into the greater whole, where nascent stars dance their way across the milky way to the rhythm of samba, and universal loving is no utopia.

A more arrhythmic affair, 'Who Goes There' spins out into orbit wildly, fusing stealth acid bass moves with a haunting off-kilter motorik that bears The Field's seal of exclusivity, playing with the listener's mind intensely before the ten-minute-long epic 'Infinite Moment' ushers its listener in a highly immersive final ballet of buzzing chords, trampling drums and all-consuming drones. Syncing the self with its environment in ways never explored before, this album is a direct soul-to-soul transmission, aiming no further than at finding the right balance between contained emotion and an expressive eloquence. No fluff, no bluff - with 'Infinite Moment', The Field goes straight for the heart, stripping bare of all vain and futile attributes to focus on the very essential - He is hopeful, and so are we.

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: It is The Field again! You know the drill; the formula has not changed: thumping beat, ethereal melodies, trance-like loops and a sense of possibility always present. This one is as good as all the others. In my books, that is a very good thing.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

The latest instalment of the Cologne label's annual compilation will arrive August 24th. Compiled by Michael Mayer, it collects a mix of released and unreleased productions from the likes of John Tejada, Voigt & Voigt, T. Raumschmiere, Gui Boratto, Kölsch, Jürgen Paape and other Kompakt luminaries. There's also a Dixon edit of Vermont.

Total 18 will be available either as an eight-track double-LP or a 25-track double CD/digital package. Mayer compared the compiling process to "going through one's photos at the end of the year. Memories come back to mind from moments when a particular track made its first impression on me or how the same track would become a highlight in my DJ sets at some point." 

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLP includes MP3 Download Code.

Sao Paulo’s Gui Boratto has been an innovator and leading member Brazil's dance music community for some time. His versatility to cross genres and remain faithful to the floor has been proven time and time again. Be it from “Beautiful Life” to “Azzura” or “No Turning Back”, his influence has struck a permanent chord in melodic dance music.

"Pentagram" sees Boratto expand and diversify his catalogue. It opens with the sublime, electrified beauty of "The Walker" before dropping to the drum-kit guided chaos of "The Black Bookshell". Beautiful Life vocalist Luciana Villanova sings on "Overload", a fast paced and evocative track that's ridiculously now, whilst "The Phoenix", featuring another guest vocalist - Nathan Berger - sees more emotive moods contrasted against Boratto's impressive electronic underlay.

Through his signature kaleidoscopic approach, Boratto has delivered a far-reaching, all-encompassing album that's wonderfully accessible. At once able to soundtrack a cocktail party on the beach, a night out on the town with the ladies / lads as well as the Sunday afternoon chores; it's radio crossover potential is also painfully apparent from the very first track with the Brazilian producer embracing a pop-like charm and songwriting style throughout.

Whereas "Spur" (a field-tested 808 and 909-heavy 'purist track', 'very, very old school' Boratto insists) and "Alcazar" are sheer smooth-edged 4/4 epics, the album also has some surprising, startling moments up it's sleeve: the John Barry-esque "Scene 2" (with a hint of Amon Tobin, "Easy Muffin" style, throw in) and its refined string-laden buildup, 100% fitted for a 007 opening credit sequence; or with "Hallucination" (feat B.T.) and the further James Holden-ish title-track "Pentagram" (think 'The Idiots Are Winning'); 'one of those exercises I did when I got my Buchla modular synth', Boratto analyses, 'I think I’ve used more than 30 different snares, with different delays and reverbs. The whole song is alive'. And so is "Pentagram" in its entirety: alive and definitely just as manifold and hopeful as its architectonics are; the stuff of science and dreams all at once. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

A new force on the modern Balearic scene made of up Thomas Gandey aka Cagedbaby (member of Matom alongside Matt Edwards) and Daniel McLewin, half of UK-based production duo Psychemagik. Together they drop their first single on Germany's long running leftfield label Kompakt.

"Saturnus" is an upright mano a mano between two musicians and their gear, unchained from all preconceptions and biases; real (machine) talk as the hip-hop heads would say.

On "Zuul Passage" we get a twangy and Tron-esque futurescape generated by a good old Moog Voyager, '70s string machines', Oberheim OBXA, 303, Space Echo and the too little-known and equally little-used Korg Lambda. The track traverses remote kosmische-indebted expanses but hits close to the core with its deft mix of slow-burning spectral funk, textured outerspace pads and further stirring heart-searching harmonics. Subtly arranged yet leaving maximum room to the lively force of its original layout, it is a lovingly crafted piece of emotive and psychedelic magnitude that's seamlessly and almost effortlessly produced; allowing the listener to relish undistrubed in its sensuous offerings. 

Jono Ma (of Jagwar Ma) and Angus Gruzman (of Dreems, Die Orangen) present “The Dreemas”. Recorded between their studios in industrial North London and the rogue outskirts of Berlin, The Dreemas is an electronic cryogenic stasis of two life-long friends in varying states of crisis, conversion and transcendence thru the year 2017. Two minds and hearts coalesced into an ocean of sound, the groundwork formed with over a decade of instinctive studio sessions, sweat-riddled DJ conferences, and shoulder-to-shoulder dance-offs in clubs, pubs and dusty down under doofs. They’ve spent endless hours together at the bottom of salty oceans gazing up at alien aquatic life forms. For years they’ve shared synthesisers across continents, exchanged records, lived together, flown together and bled together. Now, they tekno together!

Futuristic, hermetic sounds are order of the day as the pair demonstrate the shamanic synthesizer knowledge and intricate groove capabilities. Opting for a palette of strange, intriging and otherworldy sounds rather than flat-lined wrecking balls; there's a poised and sophisticated air to these mutant synth jams that set them apart on a higher celestial plane yet also find them totally at home on the pioneering Kompact label. 

In the body of work of Cologne artist Wolfgang Voigt – who, like few others, has informed, shaped and influenced the world of electronic music with countless different projects since the early 1990s -, GAS stands out in particular, a saturnine sound cosmos based on heavily condensed classic sequences. Even after nearly 20 years, the sound of GAS doesn’t seem to have lost any of its luster, as shown by the commanding success of Kompakt’s fall 2016 re-release of the essential back catalogue as a 10xLP/4xCD box set.

The overwhelming feedback from a loyal international fan community and worldwide media outlets attests once again to the sheer timelessness of GAS. Which is why it will feel like hardly a day has passed since the release of the last official album “Pop” nearly two decades ago, when Wolfgang Voigt resumes this specific creative path with the upcoming new full-length NARKOPOP.

Even in the here and now, the unmistakable vibe of GAS immediately hits home, taking the listener on an otherworldly journey with the very first sounds, drawing him or her into an impervious sonic thicket, down to the depths of rapture and reverie. From wafts of dense symphonic mist emerges a floating and whirling feeling of weightlessness, before the listener steps into an eerily beautiful forest of fantasy, pulled in by the allure of a narcotic bass drum.

While earlier GAS tracks were often based on the hypnotic effects of looping techniques, the 10 new pieces on NARKOPOP unfold their magic in a more entwined manner, sometimes with the sonic might of an entire philharmonic orchestra, sometimes as subtle and fragile as the most delicate branch of a tree with many. A main characteristic of Voigt’s oeuvre, the coalescence of seemingly contradictory stylistic aspects such as harmonious and atonal, concrete and abstract, light and heavy, near and far is also a decisive feature of NARKOPOP.

In accordance with the transgressive spirit of his collective work, Voigt carries the aesthetic conceptions of his music over to the realm of the visual. Based on his abstract forest pictures, the GAS artwork addresses Voigt’s artistic affinity to romanticism and the forest as a place of yearning. For the first time, a closer look at the cover of NARKOPOP reveals signs of architectural fragments which hint at another, maybe parallel world behind Voigt’s forest. Truth is the prettiest illusion.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Obviously, Voigt is an ambient legend. We all know this, and here he is in his GAS moniker. What we get treated to is dubbed-out atmospherics, static crackle and cataclysmic filtered pad swells. As full-bodied as ambient ever gets with the emotional range and swooning light-headed joy of modern classical chucked in for good measure. Predictably, a triumph.

FORMAT INFORMATION

3xDeluxe LP Info: 3xLP vinyl version comes with a CD version of the full album and a vinyl-only bonus cut.

Swedish sound-smith Axel Willner is well-known for his mastery when it comes to the allusive layering of loops, but with his last album "Cupid's Head" a tougher soundscape started to replace the soft-hued sonics of his ambient-infused techno, giving it a darker mood and stronger footing than before. 'The Follower' goes even further in blurring the lines between concrete experimentation, body music and precisely laid-out arrangement, leading to one of the most rhythmically and texturally engaging listening experiences in Willner's catalogue. This is ambient techno on steroids, with a dose of metal machine music for good measure.

Title track 'The Follower' opens on a surprisingly muscular groove and sets the tone for The Field's most floor-attuned work yet - a raw bounce dripping with foggy acid and marching percussion catches long-standing fans off-guard while providing a perfect entry point for curious newcomers. Pulling no punches, Willner's knack for entwined drones and mutating loops is very much in place, but finds powerful support in an excitingly sturdy bassline and guitar-like screeches.

Next up 'Pink Sun' quickly finds its pace with one of these perpetually rotating hooks Willner is known for, while 'Monte Veritá' specialises in tunefully glitched vocal samples with accompanying bass workout - a powerful and propelling album build-up that finds its first moment of introspection with the mountainous 'Soft Streams', an exciting synth journey that emits both ethereal and kinetic propensities. 'Raise The Dead' presents The Field's focused sonic storytelling at its minimalist best, gyrating around a basic motive for a while before joining an earthy beat and opening up the sunshine roof. It's a winding, hypnotic track that also works particularly well as transition to the album's remarkable closing chapter: the slow-paced 'Reflecting Lights' shows Willner at his most refined, evoking his often-quoted appreciation of Wolfgang Voigt's ambient project Gas as well as an obvious fondness for kraut synthesists and their trance-inducing exploits.

"'The Follower' is about old myths, finding utopia and how mankind repeatedly makes the same mistakes over and over again", explains Willner. However he remains an artist who prefers keeping the mystery intact - his latest full-length certainly doesn't need more introductions: it evidently shows a maturity and consistent evolution of The Field's trademark style of creation, but may very well be considered one of his most vibrant and visceral outings yet

Revered Danish producer and live performer Kolsch follows his 2013 hit album "1977" with the new full-length "1983", again chaining up heroic techno tracks for a grandiose sonic journey to the vibrant heart of today's dancefloor.

This latest full-length offering from Kolsch is very much a travel album: "When I was a kid in 1983, we used to drive through Europe every summer on the way to the south of France", he explains. "A lot of my early music memories stem from these long travels, as we would listen to all my father's favorite records on the cassette deck. After getting a walkman, I would make up my own soundtrack for travelling, with early electro and hip hop creeping into my life". Informed by the symbolic quality of these slightly gauzy childhood memories, Kolsch's unique melange of emotional and functional elements works exceptionally well for the full-length format - a seamless transition of musing introspection and explosve expression, where catharsis never seems far away in dancefloor-ready techno vignettes like ‘Moonface’, Unterwegs’ or ‘Pacer’.

From beat less opener and title track 1983 to the piano banger ‘Die Anderen’ or the bleep-infused synth-fest ‘E45’, each cut operates as its own little time capsule, storing bits and pieces of recollection and then magically transforming them into epic, beat-driven soundscapes. Confronted with other producer's input, these traits find themselves extended in the most interesting ways - ‘Talbot’, ‘The Road’ and ‘Cassiopeia’ make excellent use of Gregor Schwellenbach's emotive orchestral flourishes, while Bloodline's lyrics come to life thanks to the distinct timbre of Tomas Hoffding of WhoMadeWho fame.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

- THE FIELD's legendary debut album FROM HERE WE GO SUBLIME finally finds its way onto vinyl

- Special edition for RECORD STORE DAY 2014, only available in participating stores

- Pressed on 180g audiophile grade vinyl, including a CD version of the album

-Originally rolled out in 2007, this much-acclaimed full-length debut of what was to
become one of the most celebrated projects in Kompakt's artist fold saw a regular CD edition and an accompanying 12" sampler - but never a full vinyl release.

-Enter RECORD STORE DAY 2014 and the perfect opportunity to finally present this stunning masterpiece the way it deserves.

Axel Willner aka THE FIELD joined the Kompakt family in 2005, bringing forward a new fusion of ambient and techno that fed on his adoration for Wolfgang Voigt's classic 90's projects Gas and M:I:5 as well as the shoegazer rock of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.

Called a "techno pop landmark" by Pitchfork, FROM HERE WE GO SUBLIME almost immediately became a cult favourite, starting a trend that continues to this day - as can be seen with THE FIELD's most recent full-length offering CUPID'S HEAD that has been lauded by critics and crowds alike.

The most striking feat of FROM HERE WE GO SUBLIME must be its sonic cohesiveness, debuting a fully-formed artistic vision that - seven years and three albums later - hasn't lost any of its luster. As a fixture in THE FIELD's discography, it remains as important as ever, with Axel Willner installing a blueprint that inspired many but sounds like no one else... except himself. Giving you a feeling of warmth and familiarity on first listen that you can't quite grasp, it's like this sound has always existed, when in fact it was the unique creation from one highly gifted producer. And it
all starts here.

It's when VOIGT & VOIGT gather in the same studio that the sparks start to fly dangerously low within this unique machinery humbly named Kompakt, resulting more often than not in a rather unlikely combination of separate elements suddenly kickstarting into communication. For their debut full-length DIE ZAUBERHAFTE WELT DER ANDEREN, the Voigt brothers draw from a plethora of influences to build an incomparable sound world, for the first time fully realizing what previous, now classic tracks on SPEICHER have been hinting at. Produced side by side with the essential Techno of ERDINGERTRAX, this album opts for a strong psychedelic narrative, brilliantly showcasing Voigt & Voigt’s experimental inclinations while knowing a thing or two about the perfect groove.

Marrying the more cerebral aspects of Techno science with the sheer will to party, the Voigtian output is an unpredictable, but constant fixture in KOMPAKT's back catalogue that brings together the distinctive talents of brothers WOLFGANG and REINHARD VOIGT. With each one being a highly prolific artist in its own right, the joint work on their album debut never ceased to surprise even its originators, who used the twilight of their nightly studio sessions to process a shared stream of auditive consciousness feeding on influences as diverse as Techno and New German cinema.

Full of nods to specific movie and TV esthetics, Voigt & Voigt’s DIE ZAUBERHAFTE WELT DER ANDEREN references the higher and lower brows of auteur film culture already in its name, where widely known French alternative comedy DIE ZAUBERHAFTE WELT DER AMELIE and Oscar-winning German drama DIE WELT DER ANDEREN find themselves forming a truly odd couple. It’s an unusual combination, but it works, as first track INTRO KÖNIG confidently proves, indulging in some sort of abstract theme motive until a poker-faced beat creeps in, priming the sound canvas for things to come. DER ERSTE ZUG takes on the challenge and establishes a monochrome rhythm pattern springing to live when chatting percussion introduces it to the thrust of Hitchcockian railroad travel.

In the meantime, DER KEIL NRW delves deep into Fassbinder territory and fuses the matter-of-fact news style of Germany’s late Seventies TV with a throbbing rhythm straight out of Thrillerville, making this a perfect candidate for car chasing scenes in Cold-War-era Berlin. TJA MAMA, SANDRA MAISCHBERGER (citing a popular German talk show) and SOZIAL consecutively calm things down for a little mid-movie catharsis, but the tension rises back up soon enough with whodunit-styled spine-chiller DIE GLOCKE (ENDSTATION WIENER PLATZ) and retro-romantic audio drama HOTEL NOKI, followed by the hauntingly detached mantra of AKIRA.

Multi-angled police procedural TRYPTICHON NUMMER 7 sees Voigt & Voigt dissecting their own trademark sounds as the end credits slowly start to roll, leading to an excitingly minimalist Synth Pop work-out eventually washed away by final orchester hits full of foreboding. It’s as if the album wants to show you one final, very important picture, and indeed it does with DER LETZTE ZUG, a short ride to the other side of reality, clocking in at just over two minutes, but carrying all the weight of an epic cliffhanger. To be continued, hopefully.

"Ada - Mixtape #1 - Adaptions" brings together a collection of new and unreleased music, Ada's remixes, renditions of her tracks touched by friends, plus even a lost, alternative take of her most loved song "Blindhouse". Lovingly blended together but not to be confused with a DJ mix, the songs here have a degree of separation between each other (I think we might call them 'gaps'). Diving in, Tracey Thorn's vocals brood over Ada's delicate beats, propelling us into what promises to be a world of modern Booka Shade remix, to the house-drenched cycle of "Forty Winks" to her musical duet with Raz Ohara of Apparat fame,Adaptions" showcases a speculative depth rarely heard in Ada's music and provokes a more matured aspect to her own production. Bringing a slight twist to the typical remix collection, Ada invites some of her favorite remixes onboard for the ride. Studio-mate Dee Pulse hits back with his unreleased remix of "Fizzman" and Tobias Thomas and Michael Mayer team up to tackle the unforgettable Yeah Yeah Yeah's cover of Maps that originally appeared on Ada's debut album "Blondie". It's safe to say that ADA has brilliantly succeeded in creating her own, personal mixtape that is well deserving of being shared with everyone.

Tracklisting
1. Tracey Thorn's Grand Canyon (Ada remix)
2. Ada - Fizzmann (Dee Pulse Remix)
3. Booka Shade Vertigo vs. Cha (Ada Remix)
4. Brant Feat. Mr. Roper - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (Ada Remix)
5. Ada - Maps (Thomas / Mayer Remix)
6. Alex Smoke - Never Want To See You Again (Ada Remix)
7. Ada - Eve (DJ Koze Mix)
8. Ada Feat. Raz Ohara - Lovestoned
9. Andi Teichmann - Tape (Ada Remix)
10. Ada - Living It Up
11. Ada - Forty Winks
12. Ada Feat. Cosmic DJ - Our Blindhouse

The Field, aka Kompakt label boss Axel Willner, follows up his 2007 offering "Here We Go Sublime" with another killer long player of shoegazer-meets-techno. On "Yesterday & Today" Willner expands his palette, continuing the oblique sampling strategy of "From Here We Go Sublime" while building up the rhythmic architecture. He's joined by a band's worth of live musicians, including ex-Helmet and current Battles man John Stanier on drums, Dan Enqvist (guitar), Johan Grimlund (bass) and Ola Keijer (electric piano), who all work together to create the immense sound offered here. The result is a sublime mix of techno, building sonic layers and the kind of ambience previously used by Krautrock outfits like Tangerine Dream - lush blissed out and electrophoric.

It's Kompakt's 15th anniversary and to celebrate the label have put together this excellent collection of deep electronic house / tech-house sounds, spreading the tracks across two CDs / three LPs. This double disc brings all the label's vinyl singles together onto CD for the first time. The set features the label's leading artists and some fabulous newcomers, which exclusive music you've never heard before. Includes Justus Kohncke, DJ Koze, Superpitcher, Supermayer, Matias Aguayo, Partial Arts, Gui Boratto, The Rice Twins, Dubshape, Thomas Fehlmann, Freiland and many more.