»Aquarium Eyes« is the second album by the Austrian duo, Ritornell. Their debut, »Golden Solitude«, was released in 2009 on Karaoke Kalk.

Acoustic and electronic sounds merge on»Aquarium Eyes«. Paying great attention to detail, Ritornell recorded at various locations (the studio of Patrick Pulsinger being one of them). The results are gently woven into their very own world of sound. Defamiliarized by subtle electronic manipulation, instruments such as piano, double bass, vibraphone, kalimba, and accordion develop a surprising life of their own, only to be consequently swallowed up by the hissing and buzzing of electronic devices.
Gleaming multi-layered electro-acoustic drones, isolated organic sounds, and sophisticated textures complete the intricate arrangements.

On »Aquarium Eyes«, Ritornell tackle the art of songwriting for the first time: Vienna based vocalist Mimu sings, whispers, and sighs golden threads through some of the fragile sound structures that Gerold and Eigner assembled with intuition. The duo also collaborated with vocal artist Didi Bruckmayer on the track »Tremble«.

»Music Box« is a conceptual piece: Under the direction of Richard Eigner, 20 people simultaneously turn the levers of their music boxes: Melodies of musical history blend into a sparkling confusion of sound.

With their interpretation of »In Every Dream Home A Heartache«, Ritornell finally present their very own version of a Roxy Music song, albeit with a twist: the guitars from the original have been replaced by a string trio.

During live performances, Richard Eigner and Roman Gerold present their music together with Mimu and Gerhard Daurer, occasionally supported by Bernd Klug on double bass and Meaghan Burke on cello.

Since the release of their debut album »Golden Solitude«, Richard Eigner and Roman Gerold have gained considerable attention through a number of collaborations with musicians, film makers, and writers:

They released the single »The Light« with Andreya Triana and the track »Three« with Sam Irl was selected by Kutmah to be featured on the compilation »Worldwide Family Vol. 2« (Brownswood). Richard Eigner played drums with Flying Lotus (Cosmogramma), Patrick Wolf (Magic Position), and Dimlite (Grimm Reality). Additionally, he provided remixes for Douglas Greed (Freude am Tanzen), Clara Moto (Infiné), and Abby Lee Tee.

In 2012, Ritornell, together with Mimu, Gerhard Daurer, and Jona Hoier, developed an audiovisual interpretation of Elfriede Jelinek’s play »Macht Nichts – Eine kleine Triologie des Todes. The DVD, with a duration of two hours, was commissioned by Departure and is Ritornell’s first production in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound.
http://richard.ritornell.at/index.php?show=macht_nichts

Invited by the festival Hörgerede, Ritornell worked with the Austrian writer Bodo Hell. The resulting text.ton.stück was performed in Graz in the autumn of 2012.

Ritornell’s long term collaboration with the noted experimental film maker Robert Seidel culminated in the joint endeavour »Erratic«, which premiered at the Vienna Independent Shorts Festival.
http://vimeo.com/45900969

The graphic designer Katharina Hölzl realised the project »Ritornell for Musicbox«: perforated business cards in the form of long music box paper strips, which generate an individual tune when fed into the instrument.
http://richard.ritornell.at/index.php?show=musicbox_cards

Since 2012, Ritornell has been responsible for the sound design of the new version of Rainer Kohlberger’s iPhone app »Rain«.
http://kohlberger.net/apps/rain

http://www.ritornell.at/

Tracklist

Tracklist

A1. The Morning Factory
A2. Urban Heartware
A3. In Every Dream Home A Heartache
A4. Aquarium Eyes

B1. Cherry Blossom
B2. Ono
B3. I've Stolen The Moon
B4. As We Swim Against The Tide

Limited edition, blue Vinyl

Karaoke Kalk's head Thorsten Lütz first met young Austrian Richard Eigner back in 2006. That was in Melbourne during the Red Bull Music Academy. They got along with each other instantly and stayed in touch. So much the more Thorsten's looking forward to the release of the experimental musician on his very own label in february 2009. Eigner's »Golden Solitude« is a collaboration with pianist and fellow countryman Roman Gerold. Eigner and Gerold had already worked together on the music for the dance performance »Urgent Appetite« by Canadian choreographer Laura Kappel.

»Golden Solitude« ranges between cheerful dance tunes and highbrow audible music. Very playful, but yet respectful, Ritornell are exploring the aesthetical achievements of the 20th century and experiment casually with bits and pieces from pop culture. With lots of flair they mix acoustical elements with electronic sounds and create an album that, even after repeated listening, preserves its shimmering on the edge between pop and avant-garde. As to the technical polish of this fresh emulsion of sounds, the duo was assisted by Patrick Pulsinger. Eigner & Gerold's subtle tracks were employed in numerous movies. Thus, amongst others, the Canadian director Bruce LaBruce used the composition »Concrete Leaves« for his melancholic zombie flick »Otto; Or, Up With Dead People«.

Richard Eigner, born in Linz in 1983, works mainly as a composer and sound-artist, but he has also contributed as a drummer to various productions, such as Patrick Wolf's album »Magic Position«. In 2005 he won the Elektronikland award for experimental electronic music. Besides quite a few other musical projects he is managing his own label, Wald Entertainment.
Roman Gerold, an awardee himself and born the same year as Eigner, has been working as a pianist for various jazz bands in Austria between 1996 and 2003. In 2002 he began studying multimedia-art in Salzburg and changed to German philology in 2006. He's composing his music freelance for theatre and film.

Live Ritornell showcase their material as a electro-acoustic trio together with Gerhard Daurer. They focus on improvisation with a very reduced instrumental set up.
While Gerhard Daurer maxes out the possibilities of his specially devised gamepad-granular-synthesizer, Roman Gerold is adding subtle melodies and vivid drones as well as processing the live-inputs of the acoustic instruments.
Richard Eigner again provides the electronic improvisations with fine acoustic rhythms and textures, playing his ride-cymbal with the use of diverse utensils such as bass bows, sizzle-chains or a toilet brush.

»Golden Solitude« provides the listener with a modern and extremely human sound experience that unites passion and irony.

TRACKLIST

01. golden solitude pt.1
02. golden solitude pt.2
03. emere
04. catch & kiss
05. a fancy friendship (richard's rework)
06. disappearing city
07. naked
08. nina
09. interludium
10. concrete leaves
11. golden solitude (dimlite's superloner remix)

similar to the kind of books you have to reread on and on - for with
every reading you keep this uncertain feeling of having catched just
a tiny piece of the huge secret - similar to this kind of books you
wish to listen to a quiet week in the house“on and on. the singing of
regina janssens, sometimes just a whisper but always gentle recalling
memories of likeable ones like isabelle antena, you may took a fancy
to in your youth and the dainty, always modest and tender soundings
and melodies: nearly everything is brighten radiating a lovely
warmth. a quiet week in the house“ is narrating the musical history
of donna regina and about the pleasure donna regina has in telling
this story. they share with us views behind closed meanwhile maybe
just forgotten doors or open so far unknown ones. without being too
melancholic, always with a good sense for our here and now.
exactly this kind of openminded and timeless sensuality made us carry
a quiet week in the house“ always with us - in this little box, where
you keep all of your biggest treasures.

01. why
02. day by day
03. bouge-toi
04. a quiet week in the house
05. shadow of your love
06. i’m walking alone
07. snow is only frozen water
08. big bright star
09. devotional sleeper
10. blue echo
11. star ferry
12. finally

Karaoke Kalk are proud to present:

the National Jazz Trio of Scotland’s Christmas Album
featuring members of Francois & the Atlas Mountains, Golden Grrls, The One Ensemble.

Bill Wells - piano, keyboards and samples
Aby Vulliamy - vocals
Lorna Gilfedder - vocals
Kate Sugden - vocals
Gerard Black - vocals

It’s a debut that isn’t really a debut, by a Trio that isn’t a trio; a Christmas album that’s unlike almost any other Christmas albums, and very possibly jazz for people with an especially subtle and sophisticated concept of what jazz might be.

Yes – the songs all look familiar, but it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard such a spooked version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, or The Christmas Song (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”) sounding so exquisitely bittersweet. Melodies are taken apart and rebuilt with the daring of Anita O’Day or Sheila Jordan, and delicate, looping, sampled arrangements throw frosty new light on lyrics we’ve always taken for granted – or perhaps never properly heard. When asked about the Christmas records he likes, Bill says “there are one or two, but they aren’t relevant - I made this mainly because there are so many that I don't!” When you think of the National Jazz Trio of Scotland, think Moondog plays Bacharach and you’re pretty much there. Oh – there is a Christmas album Bill loves, by the way – Carla Bley’s beautiful bruised blue Carla’s Christmas Carols.

Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat recently won the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award for their collaborative album Everything’s Getting Older, released on Chemikal Underground last year. You can hear pre-echoes of this particularly blue Christmas in Bill and Aidan’s brilliantly mournful cover of Bananarama’s Cruel Summer (2011) and this year’s The Powers and the Glory of Love single – a not-for-the-faint-hearted medley of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s The Power of Love, Jennifer Rush’s hitherto unrelated song of the same name and – just for added spice – Pete Cetera’s The Glory of Love.

The National Jazz Trio of Scotland is just one of many things Bill does when not making music with Aidan. Their actual debut was a track recorded with Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes from Belle and Sebastian on vibes, Frozen Vaults, (you can find it on Boomkat), released as (drum roll) the National Jazz Trio of Scotland with Beans. There’s also an undistributed CDR - Standards Vol 1 -from a little while back – but it was early days, and Bill says now they were just learning to play together, and “it wasn’t totally a serious thing - the character of the band hadn't really emerged at that point.”

The seed of this Christmas record was sown back in 2010, when Alasdair Campbell asked Bill to curate a Black Xmas gig at the Tolbooth in Stirling - most of these arrangements were written for that event. The samples are of Bill playing guitar or bass, and Aby playing viola – they were recorded by Bill’s longtime friend and collaborator Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) “ a while back.” The beautiful artwork is by another old friend, Jad Fair – who also did the sleeves for Lemondale and Standards Vol 1.

Here’s Bill on the band:
Lorna Gilfedder – “I think it's interesting that her other musical activities have been in more straightforwardly 'indie' bands – as drummer in Park Attack, guitarist in Golden Grrrls - but that neither of these showcase what a great all round singer she is. I truly think that she's capable of singing jazz standards as well as anyone I've heard.”

Aby Vulliamy – “Aby also plays in The One Ensemble and used to play in Nalle, of course she was a big part of the sound of Everything’s Getting Older as well. I just think she's one of the best musicians I ever worked with, she has that rare pairing of technique and emotion. She just has a very honest quality about anything she plays or sings and I think that comes across.”

Kate Sugden: “I first saw Kate play (drums) in a band called Johnny and the Entries, I mean who could resist? Again a very amazing voice, simultaneously conversational and musical.”

Gerard Black – ex-Findo Gask, currently in Francois & the Atlas Mountains, also has his own band Babe. “Gerard is obviously very theatrical compared to the others but it really works for me as contrast and also in harmony with the others (thought to be honest you don't hear that on the record).”

In the last few years, as well as the award-winning Everything’s Getting Older, Bill’s made records in collaboration with Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tape, Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot), and Stefan, Barbara Morgenstern and Annie Whitehead – quite a few of which have been released by Karaoke Kalk. Last year, Double Six released Lemondale – a labour of love (although all of Bill’s records are labours of love) which featured some of Bill’s favourite Japanese musicians – including Tenniscoats, the extraordinary singer Kazumi Nikaido and Tetsuya Umeda – who plays the electric fan.

Tracklist
1 Oh Xmas Tree
2 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
3 Hark The Herald Angles Sing
4 Carol Of The Birds
5 Winter Wonderland
6 Jingle Bells
7 I Saw Three Ships
8 Good King Wenceslas
9 The Christmas Song
10 In The Bleak Mid-Winter
11 Oh Come All Ye Faithful
12 We Three Kings

Just over one year after the release of his first vocal album Hello Friends, Goodbye Friends, 23 year old Will Samson presents a brand new album of his own personal fragile blend of experimental folk and ambient electronics.

However, with songs about a surreal overnight boat journey in South East Asia, paintings from a Dutch art gallery, to the simple love of a dear friend, Balance takes a confident step away from its predecessor in both feeling & sound.

The record began its life in Summer 2011, whilst Samson was living in a tiny bedroom in a shared apartment with 5 other people. One of whom was Joel Danell – a wonderful musician from Sweden making music under the pseudonym of 'Musette'. When Joel moved back to Stockholm towards the end of the summer, he kindly left behind a collection of old cassettes, a Tascam 8-track and a cassette deck for tape mastering – it was then that Will set to work on some new songs.

“It didn't take long before I became totally absorbed with the magic of analogue recording and the mysteries to be discovered within these ancient cassette tapes. Numerous nights were spent working through to the early morning, playing quietly so as not to wake up my house mates. On ‘Dusty Old Plane’ you can even hear the birds beginning to sing with the sunrise.” – Samson recalls.

Around September 2011 there were a few rough sketches of songs, but lack of equipment and recording knowledge had become a restriction. Around this time Will happened to receive an email from Florian Frenzel, expressing interest in helping to record some music. Shortly after, they casually met up at Florian's home and became better acquainted over a few cups of tea - soon realising that they shared a mutual obsession/love for the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack, as well as many other musical (and non-musical) interests.

It was in Frenzel's home studio (containing a multitude of vintage equipment such as salvaged organs, analogue tape delays, beautiful old microphones, home-made equipment, and even a reel-to-reel from a former GDR radio) where they began recording new songs, editing earlier cassette demos, drinking more tea, exchanging music & childhood stories, watching Autumn slowly turn into Winter – becoming great friends in the process.

By the beginning of Spring, the album was finally complete and handed over to their mutual friend, Nils Frahm, who lovingly mastered it at his Durton Studio in Berlin.

Floating in a gentle haze of melodies, soft white noise & intimate tape crackles, Balance manages to retain the spirit of the aged cassettes and equipment it was made with, whilst offering something altogether unique & new.

“The recording process of this album was a joyous one, and it is my sincere hope that you may find some happiness within these songs too.” – Will Samson

05th October will see the release of Balance via Karaoke Kalk, followed by a European tour.

http://willsamson.co.uk/
http://soundcloud.com/will_samson

Tracklist

01. Oceans Are Wilder
02. Cathedrals
03. Hunting Shadows
04. Eat Sleep Travel, Repeat
05. Painting A Horizon
06. Music For Autumn
07. Storms Above The Submarine
08. Dusty Old Plane

Bonus Track Digital
DX1. Oceans Are Wilder - Heimer Remix

le rok is from hanover, is in his everyday life called christoph döhne, and hausarbeiten is his musical debut. it is not easy to put a definite name to his music, as the twelve tracks on his album are all rather different. sometimes minimal, then again pop-like, sometimes even with a trace of rock;sometimes gloomy, then again cheerful;
twice with vocals and otherwise without. there is one thing all tracks have in common though: the beat is always prominent. this quality provides the album with continuity, forms a bracket to include its diverse parts and turns it into a unified whole.
with this compilation of tracks created between 1997 and today, le rok demonstrates how playful and cheerful music can sound. and this may be the reason why he has found his home on karaoke kalk, which has never been about the pursuit of one particular idea of music but about presenting music in its diversity and confusion.

http://www.lerok.de/

Tracklist
01. puppylove
02. nach dem urlaub
03. tuttifrutti
04. little piece of luck
05. topchic
06. knack
07. 93er
08. glockesong
09. tribute to miroslav
10. pro player
11. standing behind
12. radiowecker

Three years ago Karaoke Kalk released the debut by Le Rok, fittingly named Hausarbeiten, indoor works - a choice collection of home recorded tracks which may have been produced in the course of six long years but put together resulted in an album with varied themes but a close stylistic connection between tracks. Le Rok and his songs need and take their time. Now, three years later, enough new tracks have coalesced to come to life as Approx Twelve.

Every single track on the new album has an individual history starting out with the idea for a song in the classical sense of the word. Going on from this solid foundation Le Rok rather casually collects than produces the elements from which the tracks are put together like mosaics. This results in a specifically relaxed setting - which not necessarily means slow or quiet - while lots of little things cling themselves tightly around the spine that is the basic song. This method only works when the necessary time is taken for those small pieces to grow together into a whole. In the end everything is one unit comprising all the elements from the initial song to the final beat.

Although the tracks take shape as a construction of digital bits and cuts, the songs never lose themselves inside the technical devices from which they derive. Inbetween all the tight textures remains a slight sense of melancholy which is not hiding itself but needs to be found. All the while the beats may stay up front but they are not consuming what is definitely there to be listened to.

Le Rok is the project of Christoph Döhne from Hanover in northern Germany. And maybe this not exactly urban setting is the reason for a specially relaxed way of looking upon things and time and thus keeping a specific sense of otherness.

http://www.lerok.de/

Tracklist

01. bonsoir 80n
02. cold end
03. choped ride
04. weak textarea
05. dropdown
06. frameset
07. happy apple
08. cheeseball
09. altarboys
10. feierabend

Previously Guido Möbius has mostly given lyrics a wide berth. On his last album „Gebirge“ Möbius’ strategy to avoid meaning and pathos altogether was the collaboration with Andreas Gogol with his wordless dada-song. And although Gogol's highly musical stuttering is also present on Spirituals, Möbius now goes the other way on his fourth album: this time he's allowing himself to indulge in meaning and pathos.

„Spirituals“ unites crooked humour and dark premonition, apotheosis and kitsch. With each track Möbius highlights another aspect of spirituality, be it religious or another kind. Indeed, maybe one does come close to a feeling of transcendence through hypnotic rhythms. Maybe one can even achieve purification through noise or just take solace in singing spiritual songs. Möbius plays with the neo-pagan spirituality of Black Metal („all evil ways“) as well as with egocentric rallying calls of soul music („the right thing“). He evokes the spirits of the end of days („babylon’s falling“) and harnesses the touching confidence of an amateur choir („though the darkness gathers“). His pleasure in the unexpected is ever present in his music. Just as much as his preference for unusual sounds.

Six of the nine tracks on „Spirituals“ use the texts from traditional gospels. Without knowing the originals Guido Möbius gave these lyrics new melodies and used them for his own purposes. This poaching on forbidden terrain was a special joy for Möbius the atheist. But in so doing its not about provocation or any shock tactics. Far more he has re appropriated something that is already firmly anchored in the collective consciousness. The citation alone suffices to expose principles of guilt, angst and humility. Spiritual music can be defined either as humorous, oppressive or double-sided even if it is unintentionally so. But gospels are also good when you want to enter a fully authentic emotional state with no trace of irony. They are sympathetic and when sung in a collective, a source of genuine spirituality.

Following two albums of predominantly chamber music, Möbius finally approached bass and bass drum driven music with „Gebirge“. And the Berlin based musician with his roots in the Rheinland also uses the instrumentation of modern dance music on „Spirituals“. Although stylistically he still can't be pigeon holed. On „godhead appears“ he combines fevered percussion with Kiki Bohemias elegant singing and Andi Otto's cello playing. On „babylon’s falling“ we hear layers, stacked like geological sediment and streaked through with a restless pulse. The rhythmic saws and squeaking sound on „all evil ways“ combine with the morbid groove. Then there's „judgment“ with its dry funkiness and „blessed sleep“ with cutting guitar layers and noises of all kinds. The echo effect on „the reign of sin“ lets loose whispers from ghostly voices. While most of the sounds on „all around me“ come from the automatic tuner on an everyday portable radio.

This album has a light and a dark side. A fact that is most conspicuous in the LP format. The hopeful A-side with „all around me“ to „godhead appears“ could be understood under the motto redemption, whereas the B-side is more dedicated to damnation.

Guido Möbius works as a PR agent and runs the music publisher autopilot. On his 7“ label emphase records he releases records at irregular intervals which are always recorded using only one instrument. Early 2012 the split LP „asper 2“ featuring re-edited concert recordings by Guido Möbius and Centenaire + King Q4 came out on dokidoki / clapping music & guilty by association. „Spirituals“ is Guido Möbius' fourth studio album.

featuring:

KIKI BOHEMIA (lead and backing vocals on 1 and 4)
GO:GOL (beatboxing on 2, lead vocals on 6 and 7)
WUZI KHAN (lead vocals on 3)
JAN THOBEN (hihat on 1, cymbals and pots on 4)
ANDI OTTO (cello on 4)
CHRISTINE JOKERST, SINA KANTOWSKI, SABINE SCHUHKNECHT-KANTOWSKI, UTE MARKGRAF, THE MARBLE MAN, RALF SCHINDOFSKI (choir on 9)
LORENA ATRAKZY (backing vocals on 8)
JANA PLEWA (backing vocals on 8)
DÖRTE BADOCK (backing vocals on 6)
ALMEIRA, BO, DAVID, LUCILIA & TESS (kids voices on 2)

LP Tracklist

A1 All around me
A2 Judgment
A3 The right thing
A4 Godhead appears
A5 Though the darkness gathers

B1 Babylon's falling
B2 The reign of sin
B3 All evil ways
B4 Blessed sleep

First of all: Gebirge sounds quite different from everything we know by Guido Möbius. His first two albums klisten (Klangkrieg) and dishoek (Dekoder) featured melodies on a collision course with sounds, styles and idiosyncracies, melancholy and humour. Everything was interwoven, multi-layered and contrasting. But despite their complexity and their finesse neither of the two records sounds severe or academic, instead they delight with genial and intelligent instrumental music.

Whereas these two predecessors operate to a great extent without any beats or basses, Guido Möbius makes full use of the latter on Gebirge. Here they are: straight bassdrums, sub-basses and handclaps. Also present: all kinds of machinery noises serving as snaredrum-surrogates, clanking metal, spluttering cables and funk-guitars. Furthermore: brass sections that sound as if the inmates of a tuberculosis sanatorium had reluctantly reached for their trumpets.
It is out of these elements that Guido Möbius constructs rough, creaking tracks who despite their strangeness promt the swinging of your hips any time. After all Gebirge was greatly inspired by Möbius’ live sets who fervently dovetail funk with experiment, noise and techno.

And yet Gebirge holds another surprise: Vocals. Möbius has won 4-track-virtuoso Andreas Gogol aka go:gol (a-Musik) as a lead singer for his new album. go:gol, a multi-instrumentalist himself with a preference for grotesque sound constructions, employs a multitude of onomatopoeic, imaginary tongues on Gebirge. Which at times sounds as if James Brown’s body had received Kurt Schwitters’ soul. Both go:gol’s fake english and his Dada-funk are a great amusement.

And yet also with his third album Guido Möbius has remained true to himself in many respects. For example in the matter of subtleness: if Möbius sends one of his tracks on its journey you’ll never know where that journey might end. And it’s enormous fun to follow its musical mutations. The Berlin musician masters the art of subtly slipping us radical sounds and keeping a track in its flow even with the hardest breaks.

Like this an industrial-groove mutates into a main-floor-rave and eventually into a beatboxing-solo. Meditative slash krauty guitar-string-hammering turns out to be the priming for a tight beat. Which again runs into playfully filtered organ grooves which again sound the bell for technorock and polyphonic brass arrangements. But whoever may think he’s got it sussed out now is wrong. Because even surprise stays out at a certain point of our journey through the mountains of Gebirge. All of a sudden there’s a song who’s just that, a song, with verse, bridge and chorus.

Guido Möbius is one of those musicians you can positively recognize by their sound. At that it doesn’t matter whatever musical stops Möbius is pulling out or what instruments or stylistics he’s applying. His wit, his sobriety, his wealth of ideas and his very own musical dialect attest his authorship.

Möbius is running the music publishing company and PR-agency Autpilot. He is sporadically releasing one-instrument-singles on his own label emphase

www.myspace.com/guidomoebius

*What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.

The End of Music is the second full length album by Swedish group de la Mancha. At the core of the band are two childhood friends Jerker Lund and Dag Rosenqvist who founded the project back in 2003. A shared admiration for groups like Red House Painters, Sigur Rós, Led Zeppelin and My Bloody Valentine set out a general direction for the duo. And the band has stayed true to this tradition of leftfield pop-rock as The End of Music demonstrates most perfectly.

The album dives in at the deep end with a a brief intro, Golden Bells, which flows seemlessly into the straight up rocking number, Ursa Minor. Under A Leaden Sky is an epic orchestral ballad with strong dynamics. Again de la Mancha whose first release was an EP on Crying Bob Records in 2005, show their tremendous musical versatility on Hidden Mountains which quickly melts into a symphonic drone midway before tightening the reigns again at the very end, returning to the main refrain of the song.
There is no other word for Willow Lane than heart breaking. A stripped down arrangement of piano, vocals and organ make for an impact as powerful as any rock number. Equally fragile in its beauty is the sombre composition Erase. The song also relies for the most part on a very sparse instrumentation, but puts this to great effect.
Of course, the name de la Mancha is originally borrowed from Cervantes’ novel El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, perhaps better known as Don Quixote. But unlike the Spanish legend, de la Mancha are well aware of where they are going; they have a clear destination, as the penultimate number At Lands End proves. Clocking in at over 9 minutes, its the longest track on the album and marks our arrival at Til Gupu, a fitting close to The End of Music.

As with the bands first full-length album Atlas (Crying Bob Records, 2008), The End of Music is an album full of contrast and beauty. Each track has a clear identity and both the song-writing process as well as the production have been meticulously executes by Lund and Rosenqvist.
In addition to de la Mancha, Dag also keeps busy with his side project Jasper TX. Since his debut album back in 2005, Dag has been released albums on labels such as Miasmah (NO), Kning Disk (SE) and SMTG Limited (US). Over the years he has also collaborated with artists such as Machinefabriek, Mike Weis (from Zelienople) and Simon Scott (ex Slowdive) and in addition to that he’s done remixes for artists from a wide variety of genres. But its his collaboration with Jerker Lund in the form of de la Mancha that is the focus of 2012.

De la Mancha's new album is a highly charged emotional record. The band is clearly at ease embracing the moody turbulence that other artists and genres try to avoid at all costs. There is a resolute depth and profound truth to all the songs on The End of Music; each contains a level of authenticity and honesty seldom found in pop these days. The album title itself bears something of an apocalyptic tone. But let's hope we haven't heard the last from de la Mancha.

http://www.delamanchamusic.com/

Includes a free download voucher for the CD album with one extra track

VINYL
A1 Golden Bells
A2 Ursa Minor
A3 Under A Leaden Sky
A4 Hidden Mountains
A5 Willow Lane

B1 Erase
B2 What If Going Back Meant Coming Home?
B3 For Family

Time Elapsing Handheld is the third full length album by Italian experimental musician and sound-artist Emanuele Errante. His debut album Migrations came out in 2007 on Canadian label Apengenine to great acclaim. Along with Hauschka, Peter Broderick and the Books, Errante remixed his Karaoke Kalk label-mates Dakota Suite for their album The Night Just Keeps Coming In. Now with his latest work Time Elapsing Handheld he releases another long-playing record of astonishing majesty on Karaoke Kalk.

This stunning album kicks off with the appropriately titled opening track Leaving To Nowhere, and from the word go the listener is captivated by the many layers Errante's delicately interwoven sound-scapes. What's fascinating about Emanuele Errante's work is the way he combines acoustic sounds and electronic production methods to great effect. Like on Made To Give which was written in collaboration with English sound-artist Simon Scott who was formerly in Slowdive, now one member of Seavault on morr music (with A Ryan from ISAN) has also worked with Brian Eno, Machinefabriek, Jasper TX and Nils Frahm among others. Errante walks a fine line between an organic, analogue timbre on one hand and the modern digital world on the other. While the guitar, piano and harp all play a great role on Time Elapsing Handheld, its never too long before these instantly recognizable acoustic tones become engulfed by synthesized strings, sampled noise or digital effects.
Time Elapsing Handheld is accessible on a level that vocal based pop/rock can never be. And that is the wonderful thing about this kind of ambient music; it draws on our attention in a completely different way from traditional song-based music. Rather than constantly demanding close listening and cramming the compositions with obvious landmarks in order to grab one's attention, ambient seeps into the psyche effortlessly - almost against the will. In this way it is perhaps the most subversive music around as it is still taken in when one thinks one is not really listening; even as background music ambient sounds such as Errante's have a tremendous impact. In this way Time Elapsing Handheld plays with our preconceived perception of music and temporality allowing us a refreshingly positive new outlook. As Emanuele puts it: „Time is a relative concept. The recording of a song makes infinite the moment of its execution. But man has not yet succeeded in inventing a device that can accelerate the passing of time.“ This strong metaphysical concept behind the album is illustrated beautifully in Valentina Russo's stunning cover artwork. And with one amazing video for Dorian's Mirror already finished by director Mélanie Skriabine plus Errante currently collaborating with Italian experimental theater group Acchiappastorie, there is no lack of visual stimulus to accompany the recordings contained on Time Elapsing Handheld.

Time Elapsing Handheld will appeal to anyone interested in serious new music and might be especially interesting for fans of artists such as Arvo Part, Marsen Jules or Deaf Center. This is definitely ideal music for contemplation while listening from the comfortable solitude of headphones. The calm and tranquil atmospheres that Emanuele Errante evokes lend themselves perfectly to sitting back and letting the music sweep you along on a sonic journey.

TRACKLIST

TRACKLIST

01. Leaving The Nowhere
02. Made To Give
03. Counterclockwise
04. Inner
05. Later, Earlier
06. Dorian's Mirror
07. Memoirs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7FRZKgYyK8
http://www.e-errante.com
http://www.maisound.com/errante/
http://www.myspace.com/eerrante

The man in the crowd is a wonderer with relaxed habits. In him the course of things and movement of the city is reproduced. The Düsseldorfer Detlef Weinrich is such a man in the crows. Some one who is constantly listening to future winds through rushes of the past. He loves the night for its free will. And his music tells stories about it. You might know him as a member of the band Kreidler. As a solo artist he goes under the name Tolouse Low Trax. And he's already got three Eps and two albums under his belt. His first solo album „Mask Talk“ thrives on a feathery beat frequency and cool new-wave-strength. His recently released piece „Corridor Plateau“, which appeared as a limited edition to accompany the exhibition „Corridor Plateau“ contains percussive electronics and Industrial sounding like its from the second industrial revolution. His third album „Jeidem Fall“, is also not from here. It sounds like music brought down to earth from the heavens. But its a dark cosmos in which there are only fleeting glimpses of light. All eight tracks were composed in a short space of time over the period of just a few months and fit together perfectly atmospherically. With a musical expressiveness that undoubtedly twists your emotions, „Jeidem Fall“ attacks the subconscious and clouds the mind. The drums have more movement that on „Mask Talk“. Along with the constant tapping of drumsticks goes melodical arpeggios dancing dark and dirty. At times longing vocals drift abstractly through the room, as on „Sa Seline“ or „Geo Scan“, without telling any obvious story.
To sound like stylistic cross references from the present and past is all just speculation for nothing on „Jeidem Fall“ really sounds like anything that has gone before. You could compare the dark minimal timbre of the drum computer aesthetic with Craig Leon's first reductive album „Nommos“. There is also a hint of the minimallist industrial of the Spanish band Esplendor Geometrico in the bubbly textures. But Tolouse Low Trax is still looking from the present into the future and filter and filters all his personal preferences through his MPC and his small synth setup to make them come alive here and now in a new way. Again Tolouse Low Trax has created a truly mysteriously vibrating drum computer music which offers hypnotic magic for the shadowy dance floor. Only a little light should illuminate the whole thing and the bodies that move above them should have no fear from threatening percussion which are displaced into a misty trance. A dark swaying shadowy mass, ideal for a journey at the end of the night and all those non-places where longing sleeps and the last romantics dance while getting drunk.

http://soundcloud.com/detlefnet

For the latest release on Karaoke Kalk the Berlin label introduces us to another exciting new artist. J.R.Plankton is a collaborative project by Jens Strüver and Robert Ohm.

Strüver also manages the M=minimal label which has been responsible for releases by people such as the late great Krautrock legend Conrad Schnitzler. With his Project Borngräber & Strüver (Transkontinental, Freispiell) he released in 2011 the Album “Urlaub” and also a collaboration with Schnitzler titled “Con-Struct”, not to forget his “Kreuzberg“- release. His first collaboration with studionerd and multi-instrumentalist Robert Ohm was an hour lasting radioplay-soundcollage about the legendary composer Moondog, repeatedly broadcasted on german radio nationwide.

Now their own pure musical work on Neon is nothing less than a tour de force.

From the word go, the album sets an incredibly high standard. The french titled Musique Electronique is without a doubt a nod to the founding fathers of German electronic music, Kraftwerk. The highly charged electro style laid down in this opening track sets the pace for what follows over the remaining 37 minutes of the album.
Clocking in at a massive 8 minute City Jungle is equally epic in length. Musically the track changes down a gear though entering a more atmospheric world of ambient oscillations and arpeggiated synth sounds, while the tune moves towards a more driving industrial feel towards the end.
Sundance kicks in with a throbbing slap bass part, soon to be followed by wah-wahed guitars, all of which make for a surprise disco-funk track on this otherwise electro orientated album. This is clearly a feel good track and is sure to have any room jumping in seconds.
The penultimate track Nakamura starts as another downbeat foray into ambient but again builds to reach a powerful minimal crescendo. The track makes powerful use of textures to paint a sonic landscape which is a world unto itself. And this superb album draws to a close with Regen (trans. Rain), which is another masterpiece of arpeggio action. The tune teasingly implies that it might kick off at any moment, but the beat remains absent, creating instead a hypnotic tension.

Neon has all the elements one might wish for from a modern electronic record. The experimental nature of some of the more protracted interludes should appeal to fans of Kraut and electronica: these moments are ideal for losing oneself in the trance inducing intimacy of ones headphones. While at the same time there's plenty on the album to interest all you Djs out there who would do well to drop some of the more uptempo tracks on Neon. Debut albums don‘t come any stronger than this and one can only hope there will be a chance to hear more from J.R.Plankton before long.

http://m-minimal.com/

Tracklist
01 Musique Electronique
02 City Jungle
03 Sundance
04 Nakamura
05 Regen

For the latest release on Karaoke Kalk the Berlin label introduces us to another exciting new artist. J.R.Plankton is a collaborative project by Jens Strüver and Robert Ohm.

Strüver also manages the M=minimal label which has been responsible for releases by people such as the late great Krautrock legend Conrad Schnitzler. With his Project Borngräber & Strüver (Transkontinental, Freispiell) he released in 2011 the Album “Urlaub” and also a collaboration with Schnitzler titled “Con-Struct”, not to forget his “Kreuzberg“- release. His first collaboration with studionerd and multi-instrumentalist Robert Ohm was an hour lasting radioplay-soundcollage about the legendary composer Moondog, repeatedly broadcasted on german radio nationwide.

Now their own pure musical work on Neon is nothing less than a tour de force.

From the word go, the album sets an incredibly high standard. The french titled Musique Electronique is without a doubt a nod to the founding fathers of German electronic music, Kraftwerk. The highly charged electro style laid down in this opening track sets the pace for what follows over the remaining 37 minutes of the album.
Clocking in at a massive 8 minute City Jungle is equally epic in length. Musically the track changes down a gear though entering a more atmospheric world of ambient oscillations and arpeggiated synth sounds, while the tune moves towards a more driving industrial feel towards the end.
Sundance kicks in with a throbbing slap bass part, soon to be followed by wah-wahed guitars, all of which make for a surprise disco-funk track on this otherwise electro orientated album. This is clearly a feel good track and is sure to have any room jumping in seconds.
The penultimate track Nakamura starts as another downbeat foray into ambient but again builds to reach a powerful minimal crescendo. The track makes powerful use of textures to paint a sonic landscape which is a world unto itself. And this superb album draws to a close with Regen (trans. Rain), which is another masterpiece of arpeggio action. The tune teasingly implies that it might kick off at any moment, but the beat remains absent, creating instead a hypnotic tension.

Neon has all the elements one might wish for from a modern electronic record. The experimental nature of some of the more protracted interludes should appeal to fans of Kraut and electronica: these moments are ideal for losing oneself in the trance inducing intimacy of ones headphones. While at the same time there's plenty on the album to interest all you Djs out there who would do well to drop some of the more uptempo tracks on Neon. Debut albums don‘t come any stronger than this and one can only hope there will be a chance to hear more from J.R.Plankton before long.

http://m-minimal.com/

CD
01 Musique Electronique
02 City Jungle
03 Sundance
04 Nakamura
05 Regen

INCLUDES A FREE DOWNLOAD VOUCHER OF THE CD ALBUM WITH ONE EXTRA TRACK

For ages nighttime was said to be the time of ghosts and spirits. Creatures of the night were believed to gain special powers between midnight and dawn. In latin this shrouded in mystery lapse of time was called intempesta - time without time.
Detlef Weinrich, alias Toulouse Low Trax, too, seems to have lingered in the irrational universe of frozen continuity quite frequently within the last two years. Everyone who drifts to the sound of his first solo album Mask Talk will soon sense the musical intensity boding a different dancefloor.
Cool, atmospheric new-wave-sharpness, and a cushioned beat rate between 107 and 116 bpm call out a mechanical functionality that doesn't bow to any contemporary doctrine. Mask Talk: urban music, club album. Big city lights in Africa. Chilly neon-sounds made in Dusseldorf.
As a member of Kreidler, Weinrich just recently participated in the trio's newly found cosmic vibes, as well as in their album Mosaik 2014. Now, with his solo project, he is demonstrating that a MPC and a small synthesizer-ensemble are enough to bring alive futuristic dance music in the here and now.
Bedroom-recorded under tense creative circumstances, the ten tracks invoke, mostly instrumentally, an eerie atmosphere that would fit in perfectly with an early John Carpenter movie. The tracks' volume sounds as if a whole band had been at work in Weinrichs own four walls. With plenty delay on the bass figures, compact analogue effects, percussive dabs and a rough blend of layers, Weinrich has, without any digital support, created quivering drum machine music, whose dancability he was able to test regularly as a resident DJ and co-owner of the Dusseldof-based club/ bar Salon Des Amateurs. His new tracks breathe the hypnotic power of his DJ sets, where he arranges diverse rhythms between krautrock, cosmic, electronic and acid. They also remind of analogue-electronical pioneers such as Cluster or Peter Baumann. Also 1980s avant-gardists Cabaret Voltaire or Zazou Bikaye have left their mark, without Toulouse Low Trax explicitely referring to them.
All tracks are committed to experiment. They leave room for every sound without neglecting rhythmical clarity. A dark, urban solanum, full of reverb, whose melodies are never prankish, but whose minimal nonchalance is sure to help not only the dark creatures through the night. Form is essence brought to the surface Victor Hugo wrote 150 years ago. Mask Talk is reasserting this theory as a destillate of an operating procedure seeking to subvert ingrained listening habits and to resharpen the contours of the audible. Electronic music beyond any categorisation, whose sounds and rhythmics grow to an emotional atmosphere that far exceeds the immediately hearable.

TRACKLIST VINYL

A
01. Vai Vai
02. Mask Talk
03. Kingdom

B
01. Subghosts
02. Aseko On (vinyl only)
03. Prox

INCLUDES A FREE DOWNLOAD VOUCHER OF THE CD ALBUM WITH ONE EXTRA TRACK

Static is Berlin based musician and producer Hanno Leichtman. Besides his work as a member of the trio Groupshow along with Jan Jelinek and Andrew Pekler, and Denseland with David Moss and Hannes Strobl, Static is his main solo project. Following the release of the last album re:talking about memories on City Centre Offices in 2006 Leichtmann wanted the follow-up Static album to be something entirely different. The question was how to go about this?

While searching for an answer Leichtmann kept busy with his many other projects. He released an ambient album, Nuit Du Plomb, also on Karaoke Kalk, another album under the Forest Jackson moniker on the Austrian label Mosz Records and toured the world with Groupshow and as part of the Pole live band, all the time working on new Static material but never quite satisfied. Then, during a festival for improvised music in Berlin, he struck upon the idea of working with free improvising musicians, but to deploy them in a pop context. Leichtmann was already well acquainted with many of the musicians he wanted to record with from his days in the scene so it was easy to get the ball rolling.
The main collaborators for the production of Freedom of Noise were harpist Clare Cooper, the trumpet player Axel Dörner and the saxophonist Tobias Delius. In this way Leichtmann was able to perfectly combine Static's loop based methodology with the additional expressive possibilities of having all those great musicians involved. So Static was able to move freely between arrangements and improvised passages.
In addition to the three principle collaborators named above Leichtmann also brought the following players on board to enrich the compositions: Nicholas Bussmann on cello, Zoe Irvine on electronics, Magda Mayas on organ, David Moss on voice, Andrea Neumann on inside piano, Gert-Jan Prins on analogue devices, Maura Rougieux on background vocals, Clayton Thomas on double bass, Kassian Troyer on table guitar and Sabine Vogel on flutes. All these musicians help to bring the vibrancy of a full live band to the album to make for a richly detailed tapestry of sound. On top of all these talented instrumentalists Leichtmann invited the vocalists Falko Teichmann from Berlin and Yanira Castro from Madrid to sing on a number of tunes, adding to the pop element of the album.

The result of Static recruiting such a diverse host of other musicians is striking. And true to the album title the recordings exude a great sense of freedom, as if the tracks were by no means forced, sounding instead as though they have have been allowed to fall into place entirely naturally and to develop into the most comfortable structure quite organically. Musically the record is extremely multifaceted ranging from moments of eclectic pop, to experimental periods of neo-folk ambient and cut-up electronica. No doubt Leichtmann has succeeded in his goal of creating a new direction for Static. Freedom of Noise is a refreshing and adventurous musical journey.

http://www.static-music.com/

INCLUDES A FREE DOWNLOAD VOUCHER OF THE CD ALBUM

When I was making the record that became 'the end of trying' I had originally intended for it to be a double CD, the reason was that whilst I was recording the music, the mournful hymnal like austerity of the piano and cello, I also heard a more stripped back jazz based piano record and a series of more driven pulses and arrangements. I asked David if he would write me songs to compliment what I was doing which were more loose and free-form, essentially to make a modern jazz record as envisaged through Dakota Suite glasses (can you imagine such a thing??!?). So David took some of David Darling's pizzicato strings from the original recording sessions and wrote these sparse late night hymns of his own.

What you hear is David (Buxton) making music for me, playing the piano beautifully, recorded over two late nights and given to me. David is a genius, he knows how my heart sings (played by Bill Evans, obviously) and responded with these fourteen gifts. I knew immediately on hearing them that they needed to be heard on their own and without any distractions. Thanks Buko.

Chris Hooson, January 2011


Following the release of The End of Trying on Karaoke Kalk in 2008 and 2009's The Night Just Keeps Coming In, Dakota Suite are back with a new album of equally mesmerizing beauty. The band are led by Chris Hooson and completed by David Buxton and previously also Richard Formby. They released their first album in 1998 and The Hearts of Empty marks the significant milestone of being the bands 10th full length studio album.

All the compositions on The Hearts of Empty are performed by David Buxton with a perfectly sparse instrumentation. This sublimely minimal combination of piano, double-bass and percussive brushes make for a truly captivating sound. David really exhibits a mastery both in the concise nature of the arrangements as well as in their precise delivery. Every note sounds as if it is played with directed emotion, carefully placed and skillfully executed. This tremendous simplicity is reflected in the reductionism of Dakota Suite's album covers where they stick to the basic yet effective format of an evocative back and white photograph.
Of course it's a cliché from the Jazz scene, “its the notes you don't play...” but the grain of truth within this generalization certainly goes for Dakota Suite. Their music is at times sombre, meditative and withdrawn, but never is it forced or over-cluttered. Every melodic and rhythmic change seems to flow entirely naturally with the result that the music creates a wonderfully relaxed listening environment.
Indeed jazz has a strong musical influence on the style of the songs; most noticeable in the lilting piano refrain of Eskimo Nebula and the impeccable rim-shot and brushes drum work on Vermont Canyon Road for instance. And while this rich organic acoustic timbre pervades the entire album, there are a few exceptions such as the scientifically titled interlude M-Theory and the entrancing ambient tune The Ladder which see a brief excursion into the more digital world of experimental electronics through the use of synths and looping. Always the energy of the recordings conveys a well defined mood, such as on title track The Hearts of Empty which is reserved and yet uplifting at the same time.

Although Dakota Suite may be inspired by jazz music and draw on the influence of this colossal art form, they have taken it in an entirely different direction altogether with The Hearts of Empty. As far as Dakota Suite have a really original take on jazz it's fair to say they exceeded the goal described in Chris' statement of making modern jazz record as envisaged through Dakota Suite glasses This is exactly what they have achieved. The Hearts of Empty goes way beyond the traditional concept of a jazz trio foraying into fields such as new music, experimental and neo-classical and well as into completely uncharted territory altogether.
Although these compositions were conceived as an accompanying double CD to go along with the recordings with Grammy award winning cellist David Darling that appeared as The End of Trying, they work so well as an album in their own right. Every one of the pieces on The Hearts of Empty is of the utmost highest order.

http://www.dakotasuite.com
http://www.myspace.com/dakotasuite

INCLUDES A FREE DOWNLOAD VOUCHER OF THE CD ALBUM

Channel in Channel out is the musical project of Marcus Cotten and The Author and The Narrator marks his debut release on Karaoke Kalk. True to his name, Cotten is like an interface picking up as much inspiration as possible from his environment and sending the energy back out into the world in an entirely new form. ChInChOut fuses so many styles in his songs that it really is hard to know just what is going on between the input and the output that is his creative process. His art is like some alchemical spell, fusing genres as diverse as good old fashioned singer-songwriting with moments of experimental electronica.

The man from Americas west-coast bastion of all things indie Portland, Oregon sheds some light on the voyeuristic nature of his observations with song titles like Calculate The Surveillance. At times Channel In Channel Out's music verges on the psychedelic, but not matter how far-out the compositions become, they remain songs at heart. The song-writing has something of the throw-away sketch like approach of Guided By Voices. But there is clearly a profound message concealed within each of these songs, and although one might have to delve deep through many layers of figurative disguise to work it out, this is part of the enjoyment: much more than mere songs the tracks are like a kind of emotional riddle. While the tunes generally defy comparison, Cotten's voice has a somewhat familiar quality to it. With slightly nasal overtones Cotten's vocal style is at times reminiscent of Ade Blackburn from Clinic, for instance on the lamenting song A Modulating Perception.
Then out of nowhere, there are moments of loopy ambient bliss on The Author and The Narrator such as the instrumental Affirmation Confirmation. Cotten obviously knows that sometimes its good to let the music do the talking; actions speak louder than words. This ambient interlude quickly gives way to the almost bluesy acoustic guitar riff of the penultimate tune Drop by drop ill measure it myself. Almost bluesy because the piece begins and ends in the an analogue bubble-bath that could easily have been recorded by Delia Derbyshire.

Although there really is no direct genre for the music collectively gathered in this project there is an emphasis on forward thinking, creating with no boundaries, and hosting different sound and visual experiments throughout the journey of this project. Channel in Channel out's music definitely has a vibe to it that is driven by the atmospheres of scenery and nature as well being driven by the wonders and puzzles of every day life.

The overall goal of the project channel in channel out is to bring the music to life through Film, Art and Photography more of which can be viewed on the ChInChOut homepage. The spirit of the musical compositions are elaborated on more through these other mediums. In this way Marcus Cotten gives you the full scope of what the music is trying to convey. Channel in Channel Out was started in 2006. The delightful thing about Channel in Channel out is his seeming willingness to accept contradictions rather than stand in opposition to them. The Author and The Narrator is constantly full of surprises. One really never quite knows what to expect, other that a thoroughly delightful album and enjoyable listening experience that is. Lets hope Marcus Cotten's in and out channels continue to stay open for a long time to come.

http://www.channelinchannelout.com/
http://www.myspace.com/chinchout
http://vimeo.com/2928490
http://vimeo.com/16716344

Actually what Bill Wells and Stefan Schneider are doing on their new album „Pianotapes“ is chamber music. Wells plays fragile scales on the Bechstein grand piano, while Schneider records them on two old reel-to-reel tape machines and plays the recordings back at altered speeds. This real-time recording process is reflected in Well’s piano playing, who replies with modulation and key changes, building the sounds and ideas into his improvisation, playing with them and developing them.

Bill Wells is the Nestor of the Glasgow indie scene. The bassist, guitarrist and pianist has worked with the likes of The Pastels and the BMX Bandits as well as recording an album with Isobel Campbell, formerly singer/cellist in Belle & Sebastian. Wells has allways been interested in areas of the avant-garde that flourish on the bordeline between electronica, folk, jazz and new music. His album „Osaka Bridge“ which he recorded with the Japanese amateur ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz is legendary. And with his own trio and octet he also creates a truly inspiring sound.

Recently he produced the album „ Pick Up Sticks“ in 2003 which was the first time he worked with Stefan Schneider zusammen. The man from Düsseldorf is part of the trio To Rococo Rot, has a solo project Mapstation, and works with Joachim Roedlius from Cluster. Schneider and Wells developed the idea for „Pianotapes“ together and presented it live for the first time at the piano festival „Approximation“ at Salon des Amateurs in Düsseldorf.

For the recordings the two musicians only rehearsed the technical set-up, everything else came about through improvisation. And the result is a rich tapestry of sound. Occasionally  Schneider and Wells add synthesizer sounds into these counterplay of  original and copy. The atmosphere has soemthing of a fairytale quality to it, but is never too eccentric. This is music that has been arranged with great clarity to make for something atmospheric and fascinatingly timeless. Chamber music for the closing phases of globalisation.

With his cover design André Niebur, part of the artists collective hobbypopmuseum, has created the perfect visual counterpoint to the music on „Pianotapes“.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZW5bPytqVc

A short Interview with Mr. Max Rouen about his new Album "Magnetic Wave Of Sound", which should be released befginning June on Karaoke Kalk

how would you describe your music on "magnetic wave of sounds".

As how the world would sound like if I was in charge...No really, I would describe it as some kinda belgian surrealism, but with sound instead of images. I think the way I recorded also made a characteristic sound. Since my youth I was fascinated by reel to reel - tape recorders. And at the time I was working on the first songs of magnetic wave of sound everybody i knew was applying the computer and looking at a screen constantly, I tried to recreate the music they were doing with cutting and pasting real tape. witch gives of course a very gritty and sometimes noisy sound. You can make tape loops, reverse bits, cut real small pieces of tape, overmodulate the whole thing , tape it to another machine and start experimenting with the tape speed. And the results will allways differ a little bit of what you had in mind, so you're always eager to hear the result of what you did.

could you tell me something about your band members or the artists who support you on this album?

In fact, I can give you a million reasons why I like to work alone most of the times. I don't work strictly with professional people and this can add up in some strange results. For Instance Leon, the most remarkable voice on the record, is in fact a 68-year old alcoholic with a very bad reputation. Actually his rep. was so bad, my wife wouldn't let him in our house to make some recordings. So we had to use a field recording, that actually made it on the record. It's not easy working with him, harassing the female members of the group, showing up late, showing up drunk, forgetting all his lyrics and besides that acting like a diva... Luckily the other people are more stabile.

what can you tell me about the music scene in antwerpen as well as in belgium generally. are you part of any scene?

Well I've been around for a while, and I think I know some people that are quite known in the belgian scene, I'm on speaking terms with most of the major acts round here,dEUS, admiral freebee, Mauro, Arno and stephen of 2many dj's and I also get a lot of respect of them. But I don't have the feeling I belong to a scene. I make music and I'm not blind for all sorts of styles or genres and I want to be as versatile as possible, not as a goal, but to be able to make music without limitations.Of course that's suicide if you want to belong to a scene...

is this record your first appereance as musician?

No I recently made a track for a kids-cd, sold 10 or 15 thousand copies, witch is a lot for a belgian cd. They use it in basic schools nowadays. Pretty scary to know that a generation of alternative kids are growing up with your music as a soundtrack. I also played in a lot of rockbands, had a lot of fun doing that.

influence your work in a pub your work as musician? what are your influences for your music generally?

Well I get to know a lot of different music and a lot of interesting people, musicians, but also visual artists and actors, our bar is located near the most famous acting school in Belgium. I don't have to search a lot to find talent in these matters, just ask them if they come for a drink.
I listened to a lot of regular stuff: Bach, The Beatles, early Stones, Pink Floyd espec. Piper at the gates of dawn, 60's trash, Coltrane, Mingus, Duke, Motörhead, I like James Holden a lot, George Clinton, P-funk, Jimi Hendrix , Lee Scratch, King Tubby, starting to get into Miles Davis, Sun Ra , Mc 5, Dr. Dre, The Roots , Quantic, Kode 9 , Burial, White Noise or any other BBC radiophonic workshop-product.

any plans to play live shows?

I surely feel like it, but i'm still working on some details, playing music should be fun and not pampering diva's or organizing the whole deal. The last show we did , we played with a 7-piece band, very difficult to keep everyone happy, also very tiring to conduct

what music projects are you working on at the moment?

I'm working on a porno-cd, paying a homage to a business that became from being strictly illegal to mainstream in 30 years time or less. The least you can say about some porn-samples I made, is that they are rhythmically very interesting... So everything will sound quite dancy, allthough I'm also working on some post-coital songs so you can smoke your cigarette in peace. It's very hard to do the research on this cd, you can imagine! Because I can not work on porn-tracks all the time (yes you can call me a whimp) I'm also working on some pure pop-tunes and some experimental stuff.

do you was a member of any band or something similar in the past?

Yes, I was in bands all the time. As a guitar-player , a singer, bass-player or drummer. These skills are coming in very handy as I am getting tired of sampling and adjusting other peoples' stuff ( also getting clearance, beware you young thieves!!). I just can go down to my drum-cellar and lay down a beat in the perfect tempo with the right accents, instead of cutting, pasting and trying to fit everything in place.

do you have any hobbys next to music?

NO it's very difficult to ignore the fact that there is music playing in my head constantly. You can call it "blessed or possessed", I'm glad I can canalize it in some real music. But why do the best ideas come when I'm in bed after spending 5 hours in my studio? Must be the work of the devil.




A short Interview with Mr. Max Rouen about his new Album "Magnetic Wave Of Sound", which should be released befginning June on Karaoke Kalk

how would you describe your music on "magnetic wave of sounds".

As how the world would sound like if I was in charge...No really, I would describe it as some kinda belgian surrealism, but with sound instead of images. I think the way I recorded also made a characteristic sound. Since my youth I was fascinated by reel to reel - tape recorders. And at the time I was working on the first songs of magnetic wave of sound everybody i knew was applying the computer and looking at a screen constantly, I tried to recreate the music they were doing with cutting and pasting real tape. witch gives of course a very gritty and sometimes noisy sound. You can make tape loops, reverse bits, cut real small pieces of tape, overmodulate the whole thing , tape it to another machine and start experimenting with the tape speed. And the results will allways differ a little bit of what you had in mind, so you're always eager to hear the result of what you did.

could you tell me something about your band members or the artists who support you on this album?

In fact, I can give you a million reasons why I like to work alone most of the times. I don't work strictly with professional people and this can add up in some strange results. For Instance Leon, the most remarkable voice on the record, is in fact a 68-year old alcoholic with a very bad reputation. Actually his rep. was so bad, my wife wouldn't let him in our house to make some recordings. So we had to use a field recording, that actually made it on the record. It's not easy working with him, harassing the female members of the group, showing up late, showing up drunk, forgetting all his lyrics and besides that acting like a diva... Luckily the other people are more stabile.

what can you tell me about the music scene in antwerpen as well as in belgium generally. are you part of any scene?

Well I've been around for a while, and I think I know some people that are quite known in the belgian scene, I'm on speaking terms with most of the major acts round here,dEUS, admiral freebee, Mauro, Arno and stephen of 2many dj's and I also get a lot of respect of them. But I don't have the feeling I belong to a scene. I make music and I'm not blind for all sorts of styles or genres and I want to be as versatile as possible, not as a goal, but to be able to make music without limitations.Of course that's suicide if you want to belong to a scene...

is this record your first appereance as musician?

No I recently made a track for a kids-cd, sold 10 or 15 thousand copies, witch is a lot for a belgian cd. They use it in basic schools nowadays. Pretty scary to know that a generation of alternative kids are growing up with your music as a soundtrack. I also played in a lot of rockbands, had a lot of fun doing that.

influence your work in a pub your work as musician? what are your influences for your music generally?

Well I get to know a lot of different music and a lot of interesting people, musicians, but also visual artists and actors, our bar is located near the most famous acting school in Belgium. I don't have to search a lot to find talent in these matters, just ask them if they come for a drink.
I listened to a lot of regular stuff: Bach, The Beatles, early Stones, Pink Floyd espec. Piper at the gates of dawn, 60's trash, Coltrane, Mingus, Duke, Motörhead, I like James Holden a lot, George Clinton, P-funk, Jimi Hendrix , Lee Scratch, King Tubby, starting to get into Miles Davis, Sun Ra , Mc 5, Dr. Dre, The Roots , Quantic, Kode 9 , Burial, White Noise or any other BBC radiophonic workshop-product.

any plans to play live shows?

I surely feel like it, but i'm still working on some details, playing music should be fun and not pampering diva's or organizing the whole deal. The last show we did , we played with a 7-piece band, very difficult to keep everyone happy, also very tiring to conduct

what music projects are you working on at the moment?

I'm working on a porno-cd, paying a homage to a business that became from being strictly illegal to mainstream in 30 years time or less. The least you can say about some porn-samples I made, is that they are rhythmically very interesting... So everything will sound quite dancy, allthough I'm also working on some post-coital songs so you can smoke your cigarette in peace. It's very hard to do the research on this cd, you can imagine! Because I can not work on porn-tracks all the time (yes you can call me a whimp) I'm also working on some pure pop-tunes and some experimental stuff.

do you was a member of any band or something similar in the past?

Yes, I was in bands all the time. As a guitar-player , a singer, bass-player or drummer. These skills are coming in very handy as I am getting tired of sampling and adjusting other peoples' stuff ( also getting clearance, beware you young thieves!!). I just can go down to my drum-cellar and lay down a beat in the perfect tempo with the right accents, instead of cutting, pasting and trying to fit everything in place.

do you have any hobbys next to music?

NO it's very difficult to ignore the fact that there is music playing in my head constantly. You can call it "blessed or possessed", I'm glad I can canalize it in some real music. But why do the best ideas come when I'm in bed after spending 5 hours in my studio? Must be the work of the devil.

with the 23s karaoke kalk is putting forward yet another hitherto unknown project. and still the first notes already sound strangely familiar – not a familiarity that originates from a sound that you have heard a million times before but rather some sort of „heimatgefühl“, evoked by the free performing of music that embraces all its varieties inspite of depending on consented sound worlds.
the ten tracks are at times wry and gentle at times harmonical and twirly, they are wonderful all the time.
everything is touched on shortly before it vanishes again just as quickly. music that makes you wander off into an escapistic screenland. a short travel through time, a trip into a movie set. a quick conversation with the leading actress and before you know it you’re back home again pushing the repeat button so as to experience once more some wonderful moments of the journey.
bolivia is kind of muzak that reminds of french movies of the 70ies or in its best moments of phillip sarde, the ingenious composer of claude sautet’s movies’ scores.
music like summertimes’ crickets chirping, not as light as air’s and not as smooth as brasilian music, bolivia is more of the dark, conceptual type – and a brilliant album anyway!

apart from the cd a strictly limited vinyl edition will be available, too.

International musicians unite under a South American name in the metropolis of Berlin. Atmospheric dub soundscapes with pop appeal: Max Loderbauer, Pier Bucci and Argenis Brito are Maluco. There is no direct translation for their name. It’s slang for something like ‘crazy’, perhaps we could call them The Mad Men. Maluco are sure to delight listeners with this summer-fresh production released on Karaoke Kalk - three reputed personalities bringing together their various influences in electronic melodies.
Maluco certainly serve up a catchy audio treat. Tracks like “Dreamer” carry you away to warm summer nights on the Mediteranean and whether you are driven into instrumental intoxication (“Evandro”) or seduced by Argenis’ highly accented yet excellent vocals (“Passport”), Maluco make you feel comfortable. Flowing rhythms and melodies unite various musical periods; “River” is a cover of the Brian Eno and John Cale song, good old-fashioned Reggae is evident in “Sam” and there are Country music influences hiding within “Doped”. All in all it’s the softer sounds that take the foreground and stimulate your sensitive synapses.
Argenis Brito was born in Venezuela and is the singer of “Senor Coconut”, who perform classic pop and rock songs in Mambo and Cha Cha Cha interpretations. Brito recently made his Minimal-Techno-House ambitions clear with “Micro Mundo” released on Cadenza. One day he met the producer Pier Bucci from Chile, who scored an international hit with “Hay Consuelo”. He is also deemed to be a hot live-act; a bit rebellious and popular for his minimal mixture of Techno and House. Together they formed “Mambotur” and have released two albums: “Atina Latino” (2002) and “Al Frente” (2005), which bring Latin and electronic music together.
The third member of the band, Max Loderbauer, will also be familiar to those who pay attention through his countless, multi-faceted projects. He is a creative part of “Chica And The Folder” with Paula Schopf and works with Tom Thiel as “Attraktion Sun Electric”. He formed NSI with Tobias Freund (Odd Machine) with two records; “Max Binski” (2005) and “Clara Ghavami Extended” (2006) already out on Cadenza and a LP recently released on Finnish label Sähkö. In 2008, Max went on a club tour, playing various gigs right across Europe with the Finnish producer and musician Vladislav Delay and Moritz von Oswald (Palais Schaumburg, Basic Channel). A release this year is planned under the name “Moritz von Oswald Trio”. A world premiere of sound, image and vision will be celebrated in Mannheim on
the 1st of April. Ricardo Villalobos, Moritz von Oswald and Max Loderbauer have set the classic silent film, “Berlin – The Symphony of the Metropolis”, to music, especially for “Time Warp –Internationale Festival für Jetztmusik und Medienkunst“.
But let’s look forward to this new background music. These three dignitaries of electronic music have composed an acoustic experience that is drenched in sunshine. Loderbauer, Bucci and Brito make your wanderlust grow and day to day worries disappear. Maluco - soothing summer sounds in an rush of electronics.

Karaoke Kalk has become a synonyme for electronic experiments and exceptional music from Cologne. It's with this second compilation at the latest that you realise the intriguing and spectacular mixture of artists and detail-oriented producers the label has brought forth. "Kalk Seeds 2" presents the listener with small and mighty (re-)discoveries  by well-known performers such as Donna Regina or Wechsel Garland, artists that have accompanied the originally Cologne label right from its beginnings. A nice alternative to electro's or rock's trivial showing-off. Each and every track convinces by individual compositions, skewed beats, cheerful sound-systems and brain-fusing text passages. The two Leichtmetall girls Marion Dimbath and Nicola Schüpferling lead us - slightly apathetic but happy - the way to true "Paradies". There's something maniac about the two natives of Munich not only visually...but in a good way. Despite their fling with the surreal they know all about life and harmonise on a sisterly level, musically as well as vocal-wise. With folksy trombones and glockenspiel they beam themselves right into the hearts of the listeners. Wistfully they sing of forbidden apples, flowers and birds.

Karaoke Kalk, that in the meantime has moved his headquarters to Berlin, stands for sound washings out of the common and artists who never sound superficial or pretentious. Sensual melodica-sounds from Japan’s Takeo Toyama. Full of charming accents Maluco’s languorous “Kokain”, a song originally by rock musician Boris Bukowski. The voice of the South American singer and producer Argenis Brito lends a charts-style extremeness to the cover version that makes it sound very happy and definitely worth a heavy rotation in the radio. Also aspiring the top of the pops is electronic’s favourite pop-indie Roman who’s always defied classification anyway. On “Kalk Seeds 2” he presents himself unusually loud and almost partygenic. His “Gridwalk” could become a real enrichment of 2008’s dancefloor and eventually his very own nische.

Whereas Jörg Follert aka Wechsel Garland continues to take care of the tender moments in life. Again and again he succeeds in radiating a well sense of being even when times are at their bitterest. Already in 1998 Jörg blessed not only Karaoke Kalk but many plagued souls with his album “Wunder”. “Wunder” became Wechsel Garland under the name of which another two records were released on the same label: “Liberation Von History” (2002) and “Easy” (February 2006). On this collection seduction comes under the name of “Tiny Stars”, warm piano sounds and bell chimes that go by all too fast. The biggest surprise on “Kalk Seeds 2” are Dakota Suite whose album “The End Of Trying” will be released on Karaoke Kalk in autumn this year. “Underpowered” is a title to be taken literally, an excursion to a broken heart. The Leeds-based indie band has a reputation for melancholic sounds. The guitar, usually wailing in the foreground, presents itself melodic here together with a piano and chary beats of the brushes. And then it’s finishing time: Le Rok’s “Feierabend” features inconsistent beats but solid harmony. Just perfect to put your feet up and have another round of “Kalk Seeds 2” - a felicitous compilation just in time to help you through the silly season!

Liverpool is the home town of Chris Hooson, Singer/Songwriter for Dakota Suite. The band is an extremely personal guitar project that deals with tragedies in Chris’s life and the constant up and down in the success of his favourite team FC Everton. One things for certain, we’re not talking about happy music here. The track titles on the album "Alone With Everybody" (1996), "The Way I‘m Sick" (2002) or "Waiting For The Dawn To Crawl Through And Take Away Your Life" (2007) already point out some of this sensitive man’s feelings. The fool for football sticks to the motto of his club „Nil satis nisi optimum“, which means something like „Only the best is good enough“. He sometimes speaks about an event in his life that helped him to bring his soul out into the daylight a bit more and, above all, to be able to write about it. Then there was the time when several people around him died resulting in the fact that some of his songs are more intended for funerals.

Deeply sad melodies and melancholy pain are also the main emotions on the new record “The End Of Trying”, which is coming out in winter on Karaoke Kalk. But we're not talking about sadness in the form of self-pity. For sure the englishman who live in Leeds, succeeds time and time again to send unstable people plummeting into the abyss. But they never really lose it completely and stay hanging on happily with all their strength to the little masterpieces.

With "The End Of Trying" Hooson focuses on understated sounds like the flowing piano chords and a flexible cello arrangement. The songs tell purely instrumentally of worry and pain. While writing the individual piano pieces Chris felt very lost and saw his life flash before his eyes. Without singing, without guitar and without the otherwise touching voice of the Everton supporters, each track contains its own unique feeling. David Buxton, Colin Dunkley and Chris take turns on the piano. The Liverpudlian Hooson grew up in the Netherlands which becomes clear when one looks closely at the title of song Nr. 11 ("Een Langzaam Lekkende Wond").

David Darling wonderfully accentuates Hooson's harmonic sadness with his stylish string instrument. Chris was already crazy about the American cellist as a teenager and bought his first David Darling record at the age of fourteen. Darling usually feels at home in the areas of Jazz and classical. But improvised music is also a large part of his work, which had a big effect on the record "The End Of Trying". He started playing cello in 1951 at the age of ten and went on to study the instrument classically at Indiana University. After having been employed by several orchestras he started to concentrate more on his own compositions in the 80s. He made soundtracks for Wim Wenders ("Until The End Of The World" and "In weiter ferne, so nah") and has also worked together with Peter, Paul and Mary, Bobby McFerrin and Pierre Favre. In 2002 Darling was nominated for a Grammy Award for his album "Cello Blue". And further releases appeared on ECM Records, a very unconventional Label from Munich, which since 1969 has signed some of the most outstanding artists in the field of Jazz and improvised music.

Together Dakota Suite and the guest cellist Darling form a striking ensemble which by no means only have depressing moments - their music is very soothing too. The recordings were made in various houses in Leeds and at Darling's home in Goshen Connecticut. Chris realized a life long dream recording the album with his all time favorite cellist. He doesn't usually find life so great. He only gets the strength to survive from collaborations like this, a healthy portion of cynicism which he otherwise channels into his lyrics and above all, through his peaceful and sentimental sound experiences. Despite wild mood swings Dakota Suite are touring through Europe at the end of october to present their wordless, but none the less meaningful "The End Of Trying", to live audiences.

"Too Many Trees In The Forest"

Classical music and Jazz meet buzzing Electronica. Takeo Toyama was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1965. His classical influence is owed to his mother who would listen to Beethoven and Chopin at any given opportunity. Coming from
a Rock/ Pop background rather (Takeo was singing and playing in various punk-, soul- and rockbands) the learned pianist soon discovered the world of pure instrumental sounds. His first remixes were for the well-known japanese producer and label boss Nobukazo Takemura. 1998 saw the release of Toyama’s first solo album „Ground Piano“ (Current Label), for which he recorderd almost all the instruments himself.

Discordant harmonies and fast changing beats are the trademark of Takeo’s sound variations. Right now what he’s becoming more and more known for throughout Europe are his digital compositions for analogue instruments.
Electronic transformation and fancy feats were the characteristics of Toyama's first release, "Hello 88", on Karaoke Kalk (2003). The album had already been released on Japan Overseas (a label which unfortunately doesn't exist anymore) in 2001. An extra track, "Lithium", was added to the Karaoke Kalk re-release. The album received overwhelmingly good feedback both in Japan and Europe. The highlight of the album are the vocal parts that remind very much on the Beach Boys and prove Takeo's great affinity for pop music. After recording five full-length albums he has now started to arrange tracks for various artists, TV shows and animations. He is also in great demand as a composer for modern dance choreographies.

The licensed "Hello 88" was followed by several other releases on Karaoke Kalk, e.g. "Der Meteor", an exclusive track for the first Kalk Seeds compilation (2005) and "Bobbin" on Kalk Seeds 2 (2008), a track that can be heard on his most recent longplayer "Etudes", too. 2005 Takeo went on tour together with several other Karaoke Kalk artists, playing 16 shows in 8 different countries. Furthermore he contributed in the Remix album "Versions of The Prepared Piano" (2007) which collects various interpretations of tracks from the album "The Prepared Piano" by Hauschka.
Toyama chose the track "Kein Wort" and transformed it into his own version "Kotoba Naku".

Takeo Toyama's songs sound very cheerful as if they were made for some sort of amusing sunday afternoon cartoon.
But despite their gay whistles the compositions drift into saturnine realms too sometimes, awaking the evil monster in a classic silent movie. His new release, "Etudes", presents itself very dynamic and with an extraordinary spectrum of sounds: piano, melodica, strings, accordion. This album too has been previously released on Japan Overseas (2003). TaKeo has always used a great number of instruments for his little willful orchestra. The catchy melodies are flattering the ears but for short, before explosive and melancholic thunderstorms pierce the mind. Recurring structures don't materialize. Takeo tells us his little stories in a kind of blue and very authentic manner, browsing all the different worlds of international sound-design.

More is the sound of home.
On the road somewhere - alongside foreign waters, beneath foreign skies - it is the echo of your favourite memories. As if a friend was calling your name. A warm and fuzzy feeling arrives immediately with the first few beats of the opening song, a vague elation arises with the entry of the bass.

More is Donna Regina's 10th album, it plays deft music that has known the world but doesn't insist on permanently invoking it. Music that carries the world inside rather than getting bogged down in it. Music that has international calibre but doesn't urge to dislplay it.

More plays music about friendship, about sharing adulthood. Music that has grown up, too. Music that is present without being trendy.

Songs about positionning rather than posing.
Lyrics that don't describe heroic battles but those little private battles that sap our energy within our everyday life. The demand not to expect to much from life - but by no means to little neither. And the encouragement to stand up for the people and things you like or maybe even love.
Melodies and arrangements that transport a playful easiness. And a harmony whose preciousness is evoked by the lyrics. To keep this harmony is a challenge and can be done only with concentration, genuineness and a good deal of energy. But if you succeed it is a lot of fun. Again and again. Like the pop hit aspirant Dream On that seems like a cheerful children's song with its clear bells and the fair and sober voice of Regina Jannsen - but indeed it is a sharp declaration of war to a life full of complacency and a self-prescribed blikered idyll.
A sound that one's chosen to love a long time ago and that has been true in return ever since. Perfectly straightforward. Straightforwardly perfect.
An album for a very special moment when you catch yourself thinking: This is exactly how it's supposed to be. Like this it could be forever. Finally. For a moment. This very special moment that you can fall into for a short while before you have to return to your own life.

“We just had played a club gig in New York. I was taking a walk on Battery Park and it was raining. My head was spinning and i looked around at my friends and their faces. I said: I want to make a simple record telling stories: The MONSTROUS SURPLUS”.  This is how Marcus Schmickler, the musical brains and frontman of Pluramon remembers the moment Pluramon’s fourth album was born. What emerged from this moment was an album with three different vocalists and as many narrative voices. The songs do not simply present a singer or songwriter self: they push the envelope of what it means to tell a story. Completely contemporary, yet unabashedly diving into moods, the album succeeds in capturing the fragmented, yet sophisticated soul of urban life: “Can't Disappear” is a story about a secret threesome relationship: “for two it is magic for three it is war...”. “Fresh Aufhebung” is a spoken pamphlet for a breaking up towards uncompromised immediacy and subjectivity. “If Time was on my Side”, a melancholic story about bad timings with love. 

Listeners of the previous albums will recognize a style that remains dreamy and atmospheric and popsongs that are sometimes laid-back yet melancholic, even enigmatic, at other times dramatic and intense. Though, you dont have to listen to the songs on a rainy day to recognize: It is by far their most profund record todate. “It was cool to be so personal. Yet, because we are all so different, what you hear is a conversation, not just a monologue”, says Marcus Schmickler.

Their new, 4th album features appearances of very different vocalists: Julia Hummer is a prominent young German actress, who tours with her own band "Too Many Boys" since the release of her debut in 2005.  Julee Cruise, who was already featured on the last album. Third guest vocalist is New York based German artist and writer Jutta Koether. She is also known as co-founder of leading German popmagazine “SPEX”. Fourth Vocalist is Marcus himself on one song as well as backround on other songs. 

Also responsible for the production, Marcus Schmickler is well known in a lot of different contexts related to electronic music, let it be beat oriented, improvised music or classical music. He has just recently produced for Bands like Norwegian JAGA JAZZIST or Swedish Band TAPE and composed for choir and orchestra. His voice can also briefly be heared on one track on the recent Matmos album „The rose has teeth...“. Last but not least Pluramon made the Soundtrack to the German Movie "The Big Sellout".