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2LP
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PERMVAC 170LP
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Double LP version. Includes download code. Born in the high north of Germany and now a Berlin resident, Ralf Schmidt, aka Aera, first appeared on the electronic music map when he established his own Aleph Music label back in 2010. With only a handful of releases, Aera was able to lay out his very own musically topography on the cutting edges between house, psychedelia, and breakbeats. This colorful mix culminated on his debut album Offseason Traveller in 2013 (ALEPH 001CD/LP), resonating the past forty years of electronic music, which brought him the attention of a wider audience as well as fellow DJs and producers. So it was a logical consequence that his talent also attracted other labels and lead to widely praised releases on Innervisions, Maeve, or John Talabot's Hivern Discs. With these, Aera's sound bloomed further into bubbly acid and trancey territories and his fine reputation as a singular producer, travelling DJ, and remixer flourished. With The Sound Path Aera continues his musical travels on Permanent Vacation. His second album is the most coherent and definitely most personal work to date. Here, he has perfected his sound even further -- adding nuances from the meadows of new age, kraut cliffs, and high-flying kites of ambient. Complete with the cinematic and natural qualities of Ralf's music, it will draw you in deeply through a great variety of landscapes before your inner eye. However, you'll never lose track, because this path is beautifully illuminated.
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CD
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PERMVAC 170CD
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Born in the high north of Germany and now a Berlin resident, Ralf Schmidt, aka Aera, first appeared on the electronic music map when he established his own Aleph Music label back in 2010. With only a handful of releases, Aera was able to lay out his very own musically topography on the cutting edges between house, psychedelia, and breakbeats. This colorful mix culminated on his debut album Offseason Traveller in 2013 (ALEPH 001CD/LP), resonating the past forty years of electronic music, which brought him the attention of a wider audience as well as fellow DJs and producers. So it was a logical consequence that his talent also attracted other labels and lead to widely praised releases on Innervisions, Maeve, or John Talabot's Hivern Discs. With these, Aera's sound bloomed further into bubbly acid and trancey territories and his fine reputation as a singular producer, travelling DJ, and remixer flourished. With The Sound Path Aera continues his musical travels on Permanent Vacation. His second album is the most coherent and definitely most personal work to date. Here, he has perfected his sound even further -- adding nuances from the meadows of new age, kraut cliffs, and high-flying kites of ambient. Complete with the cinematic and natural qualities of Ralf's music, it will draw you in deeply through a great variety of landscapes before your inner eye. However, you'll never lose track, because this path is beautifully illuminated. CD version comes in a jewel case and includes an eight-page booklet.
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12"
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ALEPH 006EP
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Aera is back on his own Aleph Music imprint with three unique tracks. "Two Planets" is an exercise in outsider trance. A pulsating, polyrhythmic synth propels the track forward - the intricate 707 pattern keeping a steady pace - while background strings provide all the drama. Reminiscent of Aera's first releases on Aleph Music, "Black Glitz" floats on a cloud of dreamy pads and voices. "Maskull" is a rather ambiguous little tune. Somewhat rough around the edges, sparkling in the darkness of late nights, dwelling in voices and fog - this is the one for the heads.
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12"
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MAEVE 006EP
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Maeve co-founders Mano le Tough, The Drifter, and Baikal previously ran a Berlin club night called Passion Beat at which Aera was an occasional guest. Aera now contributes the label's sixth release, You Know Juno. Aera's original features warm arps and a dark, hypnotic bassline over a jacking house beat. On first hearing the track, The Drifter was keen to do a remix. His interpretation is a dark take on the original, boosting the bassline, adding a driving beat, and pushing the drama to high levels.
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2LP
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ALEPH 001LP
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Double LP version with download code.
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CD
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ALEPH 001CD
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Berlin-based producer Aera has been travelling off the beaten path ever since he first went on the road with his Aleph Music label back in 2010. With only five releases, he already laid out his very own musical topography in the borderlands in between house, UK bass and psychedelia. Aera is now excited to present his debut album, Offseason Traveller. It is a personal notebook of his voyage of discovery to the vast landscapes of Peru and Bolivia, fleeing Berlin in pursuit of new ideas, eyes and ears. Drawing upon influences as diverse as German Krautrock, Detroit machine funk, South American ethnic percussion and UK bass music, Offseason Traveller takes the listener on an exploration through the ever-active imagination of Aera. Album concepts are hard to shape with regards to electronic dance music, but Aera has sequenced his debut just right. From the opening off-beat ambience of "Kiss Off" and "Baby/Comet/Face," the joyful morning-glow of "Fever Beach" and the dusky, dubby "Cambio," we are taken to the swinging, jacking, 303-drenched peaks of "Leaving the Fiction" and "Chevere" towards the trotting Shaolin funk of "Die Pferden." The syncopated beatdown-ish funk of "Viejo Loco," the blippy space-opera of "Flipside of Time" and the industrial, Carpenter-esqe filmscore of "Tunguska" close the harder, more percussive mid-section of the album. To finish our voyage of discovery, "Iguazu Express" takes the listener into the closing straits with a spine-shaking, deep house groove while "By the Red Lake" berths us at our home port with sparkling keys, evocative vibrations and squelching waves of joy. Cut and mastered by CGB at Dubplates & Mastering.
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12"
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ALEPH 003EP
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"When an idea first comes to you, it has an intrinsic power. You have to try to remember the way you felt when the idea first came to you and to remain faithful to that." --David Lynch
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12"
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ALEPH 002EP
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"Daidalus" redefines some of the ideas already put forth on ALEPH 001EP: dance music is not a prison. "Hoverboarding" is more of a concept which could not be put into words than an actual piece of music. An experiment in infrasonic structures. "Port Hope" is not a place, it is a state of mind. "Week Of Fear" has no particular meaning -- just the ramblings of some castaway on his desert island, waiting for a ship to come.
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LP
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LHC 044LP
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"Second album of this great German band for the first time re-released on vinyl. The line-up had a little bit changed. Drummer Wolfgang Teske was replaced by Lucky Schmidt (of Wind fame) and due to the addition of violin player Christoph Krieger the sound was a touch more varied but mostly in the vein of Humanum Est. Again great melodies, driving rhythms and lots of space for solos from guitar, sax and flute and in addition from violin. Long tracks like their classics 'Mechelwind' and 'Elephen Elephants' show the bands' impressive ability to create atmosphere, passion and force. Absolutely great stuff. Remastered from the original tape, Comes with 4 page insert. A must have. Limited 500 copies."
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