Stefano De Santis
Barra Nova

Brouillant les frontières temporelles et géographiques, Ko Shin Moon mêle instruments acoustiques de diverses régions du monde, machineries analogiques, musiques traditionnelles, arrangements électroniques, sampling et enregistrements de terrain.Bande son d’une traversée patchwork, le premier LP du groupe transporte vers une succession de territoires hybrides, de paysages sonores fantasmés, de collages bigarrés : Acid Dabke, Disco Greco-Turque, Raï Cosmique, Molam New Beat, Ambient Tibétaine, Synth Wave Hindi Filmi, Rickshaw Dance Music…

Kolida Babo is the collaboration between two Greek woodwind musicians from separate regions - Socratis Votskos is from Pella, and Harris P is from Athens. This, their debut album, was recorded in improvised live-take sessions beginning on the night of the “Kolida Babo” folk rituals of music and dance in northern Greece in winter 2013. The sessions proceeded over three years, exploring the ancient music of Armenia and the folk traditions of northern Greece’s Epirus and Thrace regions alongside abstract electronics and free jazz.As musicians of modern Greece, the sonic palette is developed in part as a means of processing the country’s immediate actualities: its relation to its regional traditions, its urban centres and its humanitarian and economic crises. In this, the music is at once clearly located in traditional sounds and disjointed from them, at times contrasting or harmonious in both concept and sound.The Armenian Duduk that anchors the project is a double-reeded woodwind instrument made of apricot wood with thousands of years of history and generations of venerable masters - the duo cite Djivan Gasparyan as a main influence, and Harris studied with Vahan Galstyan. Traditionally its music is played in duet: a melody on one duduk, a low drone accompaniment (“the dum”) on another. Kolida Babo preserves and extends the dual nature of duduk music in many ways, replacing the dum at times with the tones of a moog synthesizer to allow the two players to weave harmonies together in duet. And there is a persistent duality in the braid of Kolido Babo’s sonic associations - modern and ancient, local and global - sometimes underpinning one another, sometimes undermining. “Sometimes we mock modern times and sometimes the other way around”, they say - it’s a collision, or an engagement, romantic or pugilistic, and the sense is of an experiment without expectation, without preciousness or exoticism of folk culture. The elements challenge each other and the listener - while the music is very much about texture and tone, the sounds aren’t clearly modern or ancient: it’s futile to identify, we’re reminded, and instead we experience the immediate presence and power of the combination. Influences include Armenian Folk music, Greek Rebetiko, German Kosmiche, Spiritual Jazz, the Fourth World Music of Brian Eno and John Hassell, British Trip Hop, Electrified West African Funk. But where these can be identified they are as sidelong journeymakers through the borderless idiolect belonging to the dialogue between the two players and enabling its free and full execution, subtle markers used to co-ordinate the collaboration.

A still from the film is a sort of sister release of 2012’s ‘detachment’. So you can expect warm and dark drones, mostly guitarbased. But this album is at the same time more abstract, and more accessible. The a-side is one sidelong track. Whereas many artists start out with a melody that degenerates into chaos, Karina ESP builds a subtle melody out of what starts as a vague mix of hiss, crackles and guitarsounds. the b-side of the record is more straightforward, with a prominent role for Gowers’ vocals, which makes the album stand out far from his contemporaries.ltd vinyl edtiion. 150 copies. high quality german vinyl. comes in a dark grey screenprinted sleeve on very heavy paper, by the masters at smeraldina rima, with download coupon.

Seconde sortie annoncée pour les « New Generation Series » de Dubquake Records avec le tout premier EP d'une productrice proche du O.B.F crew : Esaïa. Habituée des sessions soundsystem, passionnée par la techno et les musiques électroniques au sens large, fascinée par les musiques de film, la jeune Genevoise s'est construite une identité sonore non étiquetable aux traits bass music appuyés. Le dub jamais très loin, Esaïa joue des drums, des nappes et des synthés pour toucher les corps et transmettre les émotions.Avec « Origin 4000 » elle présente un EP purement instrumental composé sur le thème de la ville. Soit six tracks qui s’imprègnent des écueils de la société urbaine, du rythme effréné de la vie dans les grandes citées et de l'impact de l'urbanisation sur la nature.Finalisé au cœur du Dubquake studio, mixé par Rico O.B.F, illustré par Kazy Usclef « Origin 4000 » ravira les adeptes du son hors case autant qu'il saura surprendre les inconditionnels de dub stepper !

Please find enclosed one 'Deluxe' stereophonic gramophone record from Concept City, containing thirteen recordings of musics entirely produced upon 4-track portastudio for your pleasure and discourse - the sole work of Mr Robert Grant of this parish.So states the photocopy insert from the 1985 November LP on Cordelia Records. Home to R. Stevie Moore, Rimarimba –recently reissued by Freedom To Spend - and label owner Alan Jenkin’s The Deep Freeze Mice, Cordelia was home to a menagerie of sound collage plucked from the ether.Included is the only vinyl release from “Concept City”, spreading across 13 instrumental tracks of samples and noise. The Welsh choir and robovox meets hypnotic bass of Open The Network glides to the acoustics of Jayne Andrews and Filament, before Steam amasses TV ad cassette archives. As Etruria and Lapse Wine’s Durutti meets reel-to-reel to the cold wave of War, Children and wasp synth of Helsinki, Grant slowly unfolds a masterpiece.Looped drum samples, multiple layered to tape, sped up and slowed down for phasing, the title track is a pinnacle of 80s DiY genius. ‘Crossroads’ multi-sampling Meg leads to the exotica ‘muzak’ closings of Penetration and Friends. With just 5 albums over 40 years the music of Mr Concept can be a discovery and cherished.