Thavius Beck
Cosmic Noise

Great peak time track.

Lewis FAUTZIFigure 59Figure Germany

As part of long standing Dutch label EPMmusic's 20 year anniversary series of releases, we have some rarities from the vaults of the one and only Karl O'Connor aka Regis. The Downwards chief offers up three powerful expressions in pure form techno, all in his idiosyncratic style. From the driving and hypnotic tribal groove of 'No Love From Above' on the A side, to B side cuts like the steely and austere tool 'At The Side Of Silence' and the pounding drums of the title track, which takes on a majestic form when those rousing chords gradually ease into the mix.

Words from the Author:'Here comes another alias...These ideas were originally drafted and prepared for two live performances in Paris and Amsterdam in 2017. I took a reactionary approach to these performances, specifically in that I would not “perform” anything but rather “present” what could be called a snapshot of my studio explorations at the time. To be presented on record, outside of a live performance setting, some amendments have been made but the live sequence has remained intact.Play it loud.'Comes with printed colour insert.

For their 7” debut on Where To Now? U mines the considerable depths of his MPC hard drive to present 3 snapshots of an artist shaking off their formative influences and commencing the journey to unexplored realms of the sampler’s universe.'Junkies' has classical string stabs (that would later become a focal point on the sound of “Vienna Orchestra” (WTNLP05)) driven forth by dark, jazzy double bass licks, all shrouded in vinyl crackle and forced forward by a 2-step feel on the drums. It would have the essence of an early 2000s instrumental hip-hop track were it not for those drums shuffling off on a different tangent.'Too Good For Me' toys more with the sampled nature of the music, throwing abrupt rewinds and record manipulation into a melange of rumbling industrial sounds led by a pulsing high-pitched melody. This is underpinned by a Bossa-styled beat that further unsettles the murky atmosphere of the track.Finally 'Almost Man'’s exotic plucked strings and booming bass-heavy beat roll into snares in a marching rhythm that could reflect the march into the future for this unparalleled producer taking the lonely road to the outer edges of modern composition and electronic production.

Jacobus Derwort started exploring sonic soundscapes listening to his short-wave world receiver at the age of 12. There he would hear music from Africa, China, Japan, Indonesia, South America and beyond. He started playing guitar, piano, percussion and saxophone.He met Hanyo van Oosterom in 1978 and they started the legendary cult rock band, 'The Jones'. Derwort was playing the sax, van Oosterom the drums. They started conducting sound experiments in Hanyo’s small cellar in the Dutch village of Krimpen aan den IJssel.In the early eighties they made their first cassette, 'The Kallikatsou'. Hanyo started the ambient collective CHI in 1983. Jacobus was the first musician to join CHI. Together, they went to the magic rock “The Kallikatsou” on the island of Patmos, Greece. Here, Hanyo had stayed for months in a cave for some deep soul-searching. He heard the sound of CHI in the silence of the night like a message from out of space. Being together at the Kallikatsou they shaped the foundation of CHI, making handmade flutes from local bamboo and conducting field recordings ofwater, crickets, owls, goats, wind, etc...Back home they asked Willem Cramer to join CHI, and later Michel Banabila. They released a legendary ambient cassette, 'The Original Recordings', in 1983 which soon became a collectors item. CHI stopped in 1987 (and still now nobody knows exactly why). Willem Cramer and Michel Banabila started the world music collective 'East Meets West' in 1989. Hanyo and Jacobus kept recording ambient soundscapes.Jacobus was working on his 'Bamboo' recordings. Hanyo recorded the first tracks for 'The Kallikatsou Experience'. Neither album was ever released. They returned a few times together to The Kallikatsou, but there the history seems to end...…until decades later when Astral Industries located them after a long search, inspired by Rod Modell (Deepchord). The result was the vinyl release of CHI – The Original Recordings in February 2016. The album received great reviews and sold out in a few weeks.This inspired Hanyo and Jacobus to work on an old plan: remixing the old bamboo recordings. Most tracks were made in the eighties before and after CHI. Original tape recordings using mainly analogue sounds, percussion, samples and (of course)bamboo flutes and manipulated clarinets. Hanyo added some new recordings and remixed the old tapes in his Numoonlab Studio in Rotterdam. The result was 'The Bamboo Recordings', a timeless collection of ambient soundscapes.THE CHI FACTORY is the next step of CHI into the future. It will involve many future ambient collaborations. The next release will be 'The Kallikatsou Recordings'(Astral Industries 2016 TBA). Also bringing back the original line-up of CHI for new recordings is part of the plan. Who knows what may happen next.The Bamboo Recordings have been produced and remixed by Hanyo vanOosterom. Original recordings by Jacobus Derwort.Jacobus Derwort: bamboo flutes, clarinet, guitar, samples, loops, saxophone,percussion, field recordings.Hanyo van Oosterom: piano, bass, guitar, percussion, flute, samples and drones.The Bamboo Recordings contain voice samples from around the world,including Tibetan monks, Sufi chanting, a Hopi elder, a Hopi woman, Fulani storytellers, a Japanese girl singing, Spanish and Greek children, excerpts from Gratitude For The Gaze by Nikos Eliou and much more...