French Poet Félicia Atkinson Lines Up New Shelter Press Album

Félicia Atkinson is up next on Shelter Press with her new album, The Flower & The Vessel.

The French poet and ASMR auteur has frequently fixated on the interwoven relationship between microcosms and macrocosms—how even the quietest creative act ripples outward in unforeseen ways. Her latest work pursues this notion in a more literal and lasting fashion, as it was crafted while pregnant on tour, in impersonal hotel rooms in foreign cities. She describes it as “a record not about being pregnant but a record made with pregnancy.” Each day and night, finding herself far from home, she asked herself “What am I doing here? How can I connect myself to the world?” The answer gradually revealed itself: “With small gestures: recording my voice, recording birds, a simple melody.”

The album’s 11 songs span a vast range of whispering textures, opaque moods, and surreal spoken word. Atkinson cites a trio of French classical compositions from her childhood as formative influences on this particular collection: Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (meaning “a scary opera for kids”), Debussy’s La Mer (for its union of narration and music), and Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies (as an exercise in negative space, irony without cynicism, and “melody with doubt”.) We’re told that there’s a shade of classicism woven within these tracks, however veiled, abstracted, or unorthodox. Melancholic piano motifs repeat then retreat into a radiant frost of shivering frequencies; processed voices recite cut-up poems and interviews over delay-refracted Rhodes and Wurlitzer; iPad gamelan patterns flutter from meditative to melancholic and back again. 

Although much of Atkinson’s past discography is shaped by speech and the lyricism of language, The Flower & The Vessel ventures farther into silence, absence, and voicelessness. It also features field recordings from Tasmania and the Mojave Desert, which murmur beneath hushed reverberations of gong, vibraphone, and marimba. 

Atkinson’s last solo album, Hand In Hand, came in 2017, also on Shelter Press.  

Tracklisting

01. L’Après-Midi

02. Moderato Cantabile

03. Shirley to Shirley

04. Un Ovale Vert

05. You Have To Have Eyes

06. Linguistics Of Atoms

07. Lush

08. Joan

09. Open / Ouvre

10. L’Enfant Et Le Poulpe

11. Des Pierres

The Flower & The Vessel LP lands July 5, with “Shirley to Shirley” streaming below. 

Los Angeles’ Black Marble Collective Welcomes Dev79 for New EP

Dev79 will release a new EP on Black Marble Collective, titled Can’t Fit In A Box.

Dev 79 is a Philadelphia-bred artist who has been DJing and producing for 20 years with roots in grime, jungle, ghetto-tech, and industrial. He weaves elements of a plethora of music styles into a tapestry of urban bass music that he, along with compatriot Starkey, have dubbed “Street Bass.” This latest effort, a four-tracker, was finished in his new home of Los Angeles but all themes relate to his Philly roots. 

The EP features “huge smacking basslines and melodies,” the label explains. “If you’re looking for tunes to impress, this has something for everyone, from hip-hop heads, footwork fans, club fiends, and even something for the underground rave, all twisted to the unique vision of Dev79.” 

Lead single “You & I Is Us” features Philly’s MC Elixir, who busts his deep raps over intricate beat chops and 160BPM bass. The EP’s other collaboration, “Emerald Tree Boa” with Dev79’s 160 Philly partner Sideswipe, has an old school rave and garage feel that will get dancefloors bumping. 

Tracklisting

01. You & I Is Us ft. MC Elixir

02. 215 Alive

03. Emerald Tree Boa ft. Sideswipe

04. Where Kings Are Bred

Can’t Fit In A Box’ EP is available May 10 on all platforms, with clips here. 

Davy’s Futurepast Welcomes Former R&S Records Engineer David Morley

Next up on Davy’s Futurepast label is David Morley, the in-house engineer for R&S Records in the 1980s and 1990s. 

The London-born, Belgium-based artist was prolific through the ’90s and has released a string of album’s through the 2000s. His last studio album, The Origin Of Storms, surfaced in 2016. This is his first EP in six years. 

Davy’s Futurepast label launched in 2016 with an EP from Davy himself, before MGUN delivered The Nerve EP. 

For more information on Davy, listen to his XLR8R podcast here. 

Tracklisting

01. Boundary Travels

02. Limbo

03. Crushing Pressure

Boundary Travels EP lands May 28, with clips below. 

Davy’s Futurepast Welcomes Former R&S Records Engineer David Morley

Next up on Davy’s Futurepast label is David Morley, the in-house engineer for R&S Records in the 1980s and 1990s. 

The London-born, Belgium-based artist was prolific through the ’90s and has released a string of album’s through the 2000s. His last studio album, The Origin Of Storms, surfaced in 2016. This is his first EP in six years. 

Davy’s Futurepast label launched in 2016 with an EP from Davy himself, before MGUN delivered The Nerve EP. 

For more information on Davy, listen to his XLR8R podcast here. 

Tracklisting

01. Boundary Travels

02. Limbo

03. Crushing Pressure

Boundary Travels EP lands May 28, with clips below. 

Baltra Reflects on the Death of his Father on Debut Album

Michael Baltra will release his first album, Ted, in July via his own 96 And Forever. 

The 15-track LP is described as a “time capsule of expression.” It started out as an idea lacking focus but took on greater meaning when Baltra’s father passed away somewhat unexpectedly. “He was the rock in our family and I wouldn’t be who I am today without him,” Baltra says. The album is titled Ted in his honour. 

Whilst an unexpected tragedy may have shaped the trajectory of the album and given it a sense of purpose and meaning, musically the result feels more rooted in triumph and elation. The label describes it as a “deeply personal, intricate, and stirring collection of electronic music.” 

“The album went through many phases,” Baltra says. “But in the end staying true to my emotions along this whirlwind of a ride seemed like the proper way to do it rather than to conceptualize something that I couldn’t even put into words at the time. With this record I’ve aimed to really bring the listener into my world, and into my audio landscape.” 

Park Hye Jin features on the lead single, “Ahead Of Time.” 

Baltra’s previously released on Lobster Theremin, Lost Palms, and Of Paradise. 

Tracklisting

01. Flashback 

02. Opal Drip 

03. Supreme 

04. In The Mist Of Lovers Past 

05. How Does It Work? 

06. Ted’s Interlude 

07. Rue Des Sablons

08. Bankrolls  

09. Ahead Of Time (with 박혜진 park hye jin) 

10. Pleasurematrix 

11. x_dkjf_a 

12. This Is The Last Time, I Promise 

13. Mariyah 

14. Study Of You

15. Forever Alone

Ted LP lands on July 19, with the title track streaming below. 

Rosa Anschütz “Diopter”

Trans-media artist, composer, and vocalist Rosa Anschütz will release a new four-song post-techno/post-punk/noise EP on Quiet Love on May 25. 

Rigid is described as a personal EP, and a patchwork made of daily notes, dreams, nightmares, and loose ruminations on life, stitched together with analog synths and thick, cavernous reverbs. 

The material was written in 2018 between Berlin and Vienna. It began with a series of instrumental sketches and “lyrics as a series of daily snapshots”that Rosa Anschütz brought to the Hiti Papa studio in Kreuzberg, Berlin, where she worked with producer Jan Wagner. During the sessions, these rudimentary drafts were transformed into elaborate, orchestral, synth-driven, highly dramatic arrangements. We’re told that the production is warm, fleshy, with carefully sculpted spaces; while the vocals oscillate between spoken word, singing, and “voice as strings.” 

The Zurich label’s last release came from Diskret, the ambient electronic duo of Ramon Ziegler and James Varghese. 

Ahead of the EP’s May 25 release, you can download “Diopter” in full via the button below, or here for EU readers due to temporary GDPR restrictions. 

Premiere: Drift Off with a Gloomy, Hypnotic Studio Jam from Dark Star Safari

Photo: Camille Blake 

As announced, Dark Star Safari—a newly formed band project featuring Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, and Samuel Rohrer—will present their recording debut, an evocative self-titled song-driven album, via arjunamusic records on May 10. 

The album stems from what the group describes as a two-stage process, at the centre of which lies an organic freedom that enables the music “to fill itself in,” to be self-actualizing via the musicians.

It began with an improvisation session initiated by Rohrer, who invited Bang and Aarset to the Candy Bomber studio in Berlin. The session was run by sound engineer Ingo Krauss, who worked in the famous Conny Plank studio. This meeting opened the door for something larger to emerge, and drove all four artists to attentively manipulate the material in order to discover what it had to offer. 

During this second phase, Bang, while meditating upon the possibilities of the improvised material, felt an urge to give additional colour by singing. So he stepped into the role of vocalist, a role he had not pursued since the early days of his musical career. He sent the results to Honoré, who penned the lyrics and composed two additional songs, “Mordechai (A Prophecy)” and “Fault Line,” to complete the project. 

The songs conjure shadows of memory, clouds of dreaming, and silhouettes of foreboding through the album’s layered, textured fabrics and Bang’s delivery of Honoré’s lyrics.

Ahead of the album’s May 10 release, you can hear “Mordechai (A Prophecy)” in full via the player below.

 

Peggy Gou Mixes DJ-Kicks Number 69

Peggy Gou has mixed the 69th edition of DJ-Kicks for !K7. 

The Berlin-based Korean artist started working on the mix last year, aiming to create a portrayal of her own musical journey—an “18-track listening session that takes you straight into Peggy Gou’s living room where she plays you the formative tunes from her collection,” the press release explains. We’re told that she moves across disco, house, techno, and electro, and that the mix ranges from 90 to 150 BPM. The earliest tunes are from 1983.

The cover references both Korean iconography and the endangered status of the the tiger, the creature of the Korea’s country’s foundational mythology. “I had the concept of this cover in my mind for a long time—as the first Korean woman to contribute to the DJ-Kicks series I wanted to do something from my heritage, so I chose the tiger, which is very important in Korean traditions and a metaphor for my personality,” Gou says. Jonas Lindstroem, the artist behind the cover, used a library image to make a composite, and the tiger ‘disappears’ when you turn to the inside-cover photo, “to highlight that these beautiful animals are already extinct in my home country and in danger of disappearing from our world entirely,” Gou adds.  

The mix features tracks from Pearson Sound, Deniro, Kode9, and JRMS, whose contribution is forthcoming on Gou’s new imprint. You’ll also find tracks from Aphex Twin and Andrew Weatherall, plus three exclusives. “Hungboo,” the first of these, is the first track Gou ever produced. The two others come from Hiver and I:Cube. 

DJ-Kicks: Peggy Gou lands June 28, with full tracklisting and a stream of Hiver’s “Pert” below. 

Tracklisting

01. Spacetime Continuum “Fluresence” 

02. Peggy Gou “Hungboo” 

03. Pearson Sound “Earwig” 

04. Pegasus “Perseguido Por El Rayo” 

05. Sly and Lovechild “The World According To Sly And Lovechild” (Andrew Weatherall Soul Of Europe Mix) 

06. Dorisburg “Rytm804”

07. Hiver “Pert”

08. Kyle Hall “Flemmenup”

09. DMX Krew “EPR Phenomena”

10. JRMS “3”

11. Shades of Rhythm “Exorcist” 

12. Kode 9 “Magnetic City” 

13. The System “Vampirella”

14. Black Merlin “Kundu”

15. Aphex Twin “Vordhosbn”

16. R-Tyme “Illusion” (Mayday Remix) 

17. Psyche “Crackdown” 

18. Deniro “Epirus”

19. I:Cube “Cassette Jam 1993”  

Brandt Brauer Frick Announces Fifth Album with New Single

Brandt Brauer Frick will release their fifth studio album, Echo, on Because Music on May 31. To coincide with the announcement, the German trio shared “Rest,” their first new music in almost three years, and announced a series of EU shows. 

“Rest” unfurls cinematically with its slow-burn of strings and an industrial- sounding chorus. It started with the discovery of an old sketch on a road trip through Italy. Returning to their Berlin studio, the band began working on it and continued in the Joshua Tree desert before to then recording strings and brass back in Berlin. “The song has evolved quite a bit and we believe you can feel some of the different places and moments in our lives within it,” the band explains. 

Formed by friends Daniel Brandt, Jan Brauer, and Paul Frick in Berlin in 2009, the trio’s music owes as much to minimal masters Steve Reich and Philip Glass as they do the minimal techno of Ricardo Villalobos and the Perlon label. Their debut album, You Make Me Real, blended the highbrow music of concert halls with the euphoric abandon of club music and in doing so helped to pioneer the contemporary classical movement. It was followed with Mr Machine, a “remix” version of You Make Me Real, and then 2013’s  Miami, a concept album that drew on funk and spooky synths, and featured an unusual slate of guests including Jamie Lidell, Nina Kraviz, and Gudrun Gut. In 2016, they then morphed into a post-punk band entirely with Joy, bringing onboard Canadian poet Beaver Sheppard as their frontman. 

The album lands June 7, with more details to come soon. Meanwhile, you can stream “Rest” below. 

The full list of European shows is as follows:

May 10: Xjazz festival, Berlin 

May 16: Electrowerkz, London

May 18: Switch Festival, Venues, France

Roche “A Future with No Robots”

Photo: Mariah Tiffany

Roche has today released the final part of his three-part Integral Synthesia Sessions series via Jacktone Records. As with the first two parts, which landed on April 16 and April 25 respectively, part three contains two tracks exploring a range of emotion and sonic content, upbeat salutes to his hip-hop past, patient and meditative sound worlds, and intense waves of bass and percussion. 

The Integral Synthesia Sessions series was recorded over the past decade at Roche’s home studio in San Francisco, and is a collection of meticulously-carved singular experiences of sound. Together, the series creates a hallucinatory narrative as well as a personal soundtrack to the moments that make up one’s life. 

Roche, real name Ben Winans, has also released on 100% Silk, Mathematics, Perfect Location Recordings, Hobo Camp, and most recently a 12″ with the newly formed Vinyl Dreams Records. He co-hosted the long-running weekly event series Run the Length of Your Wildness with Cherushii, and is currently in a duo called Paramour with Bleie. 

Tracklisting

01. Aphotic Breakthrough

02. A Future with No Robots

In support of the EP’s release today, you can download “A Future with No Robots” in full via the WeTransfer button below, or here for EU readers.

 

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