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LP
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N 103LP
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$34.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/7/2025
Moving freely through time and space via experimental DIY recordings since 2009, Joasihno return with their fourth album Spots. Southern German experimental pop duo Joasihno -- initial solo founder Cico Beck (The Notwist, Aloa Input, Spirit Fest) and drummer/composer Nico Sierig (Instrument, Fehler Kuti) -- seem to know exactly when it's time to shine. Idiosyncratic genre tweakers since day one, they have been operating at their own pace, mostly staying in their own shady corner. Yet, almost a decade after their most recent Meshes (N 047CD), it's high time for them to take over more corners, to reclaim even more spots between lo-fi and sci-fi, retro electronica and contemporary classic. Drawing upon influences as varied as Reich, Riley, Ryuichi, múm, Meek, and Moondog, while also nodding to other experimental twosomes (e.g. The Books), the duo's fourth full-length Spots arrives via Alien Transistor. Electronic shapes align and things lift off -- with a majestic 8-bit sunrise soon appearing right in front of the listener. Whereas playful title song "Spots" is a miniature Rube Goldberg kind of device, with quirky plucked strings and glitches setting off more and more contraption layers, "Crackleboom" is uncharted energy, an open landscape, an expanding bonfire that leads to a long-forgotten piano, all dust-covered in some kind of saloon. Things break and shatter in the distance, but this spot right here is for hypnosis, dancing, sylvan spirits. And yeah, it's surprisingly hot down here in the undergrowth. It's all DIY spots, spots that leave room to dream or dangle, drape yourself over or dive into. Returning to the leafy bower on a melancholy post rock tip, we eventually learn that "Death Is Real" -- and so the listener is left with a laterna magica that turns and turns and turns. It's a beautiful spot where light and shadows keep on dancing, just like they've always done, ever since the dawn of this madcap universe.
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CD
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N 047CD
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"I always have a spatial vision of music," says Cico Beck, mastermind of Joasihno and member of The Notwist and Aloa Input. Sitting in his basement studio among self-made synthesizers, records, and weird instruments, he points at a tiny robot beating an electronic drum: "That's one of my new musicians." Alongside member and co-producer Nico Sierig, the band is accompanied by a robot orchestra. But first things first. The third Joasihno album, Meshes, is a spectacular transformation. Cico Beck took off for Berlin to meet co-producer Tadklimp one spring night in 2015. Some ecstatic sessions later, the vision was evolving, captured on opener "Nuh Nuh," an experimental electronic piece winding into infinity with a friendly grin, reflecting the amplitude between modular synthesizers and Fisher Price keyboards. Once you're under the hypnosis of this soft monster, you are floating peacefully into the new world of Joasihno's Meshes. Despite a plethora of oscillating ideas and acoustic bubbles, Joasihno never lose touch with the listener, while sailing placidly through all aspects of Beck's vision of electronic anti-pop. The entertaining Meshes features another nine sparkling miniature gems, simultaneously complex and accessible, melancholic and hilarious, bright and deep. The music breathes ideas of smart UK garage-philosopher Four Tet, the crazy street composer Moondog, and some sort of Nils Frahm approach -- and, of course, pop music. Even if most tracks deny structures and rules of pop composing, they are always interacting with pop -- sometimes with a twinkling eye, sometimes in a deep lust for destruction. "In the end I found out, that I was approaching my own roots, the vision I had when I started Joasihno. I wanted the music to be more raw, intuitive and playful." From this perspective, Meshes is some kind of liberation for him Cico Beck. "I had a good time ignoring popular music," he says with a grin on his face. His previous album -- We Say: Oh Well (2011) and A Lie (N 033CD/LP, 2013) -- were situated in the space between Iceland and Africa. Meshes puts a new spot on his musical map: New York, home of great magicians like Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Raymond Scott. The transformation to the complex electronics of Meshes is both harmonious and unavoidable. Artwork by Aslak Gurholt Rønsen of Yokoland.
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LP
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N 047LP
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LP version. Artwork with spot silver foil print. Includes download code. "I always have a spatial vision of music," says Cico Beck, mastermind of Joasihno and member of The Notwist and Aloa Input. Sitting in his basement studio among self-made synthesizers, records, and weird instruments, he points at a tiny robot beating an electronic drum: "That's one of my new musicians." Alongside member and co-producer Nico Sierig, the band is accompanied by a robot orchestra. But first things first. The third Joasihno album, Meshes, is a spectacular transformation. Cico Beck took off for Berlin to meet co-producer Tadklimp one spring night in 2015. Some ecstatic sessions later, the vision was evolving, captured on opener "Nuh Nuh," an experimental electronic piece winding into infinity with a friendly grin, reflecting the amplitude between modular synthesizers and Fisher Price keyboards. Once you're under the hypnosis of this soft monster, you are floating peacefully into the new world of Joasihno's Meshes. Despite a plethora of oscillating ideas and acoustic bubbles, Joasihno never lose touch with the listener, while sailing placidly through all aspects of Beck's vision of electronic anti-pop. The entertaining Meshes features another nine sparkling miniature gems, simultaneously complex and accessible, melancholic and hilarious, bright and deep. The music breathes ideas of smart UK garage-philosopher Four Tet, the crazy street composer Moondog, and some sort of Nils Frahm approach -- and, of course, pop music. Even if most tracks deny structures and rules of pop composing, they are always interacting with pop -- sometimes with a twinkling eye, sometimes in a deep lust for destruction. "In the end I found out, that I was approaching my own roots, the vision I had when I started Joasihno. I wanted the music to be more raw, intuitive and playful." From this perspective, Meshes is some kind of liberation for him Cico Beck. "I had a good time ignoring popular music," he says with a grin on his face. His previous album -- We Say: Oh Well (2011) and A Lie (N 033CD/LP, 2013) -- were situated in the space between Iceland and Africa. Meshes puts a new spot on his musical map: New York, home of great magicians like Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Raymond Scott. The transformation to the complex electronics of Meshes is both harmonious and unavoidable. Artwork by Aslak Gurholt Rønsen of Yokoland.
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CD
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N 033CD
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The rectangular fields surrounding, shaping, and defining the upper Bavarian village Joasihno call home turned out to be a significant influence and defining factor during the duo's recording sessions for their sophomore effort A Lie. Former sole mastermind Christoph "Cico" Beck (Aloa Input, Ms. John Soda) and his new bandmate Nico Sierig (Missent To Denmark) have referred to them before, and apparently these fields work pretty much like blank sheets -- just waiting to be filled with Joasihno's shapeshifting, rather circular, meandering, and free-floating tracks that are full of surprising little twists and turns. The opening track of Joasihno's second album feels a bit like a plane's smooth landing at sundown. The air is shimmering, and suddenly there's this new thirst for action upon touchdown. Further down those fields, they present a sound that seems to bolt and shoot off into the wind -- "Oh Boy!" -- but also staying true to its melancholy undercurrents reminiscent of the Matt Marque. Elsewhere, Joasihno even live up to Cico's last name when "Some Light" indeed sounds a bit like Beck Hansen trapped in the garden of intricate beats. Over the course of the LP, the duo weaves a vast array of influences ranging from world music to minimal and back -- Cico mentions Reich, Glass, Ligeti, and Nancarrow when asked about his key influences -- into an electro-acoustic tapestry of sound that includes hypnotic layers, surprising melodies almost reminiscent of The Strokes, and some fine home-made soundtrack material that would make any super-8 collection look even better. On this album sonic snapshots and moments hum like an old-school slide show -- in fact, you can almost feel the shimmering air against your skin.
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N 033LP
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LP version with die-cut front cover. The rectangular fields surrounding, shaping, and defining the upper Bavarian village Joasihno call home turned out to be a significant influence and defining factor during the duo's recording sessions for their sophomore effort A Lie. Former sole mastermind Christoph "Cico" Beck (Aloa Input, Ms. John Soda) and his new bandmate Nico Sierig (Missent To Denmark) have referred to them before, and apparently these fields work pretty much like blank sheets -- just waiting to be filled with Joasihno's shapeshifting, rather circular, meandering, and free-floating tracks that are full of surprising little twists and turns. The opening track of Joasihno's second album feels a bit like a plane's smooth landing at sundown. The air is shimmering, and suddenly there's this new thirst for action upon touchdown. Further down those fields, they present a sound that seems to bolt and shoot off into the wind -- "Oh Boy!" -- but also staying true to its melancholy undercurrents reminiscent of the Matt Marque. Elsewhere, Joasihno even live up to Cico's last name when "Some Light" indeed sounds a bit like Beck Hansen trapped in the garden of intricate beats. Over the course of the LP, the duo weaves a vast array of influences ranging from world music to minimal and back -- Cico mentions Reich, Glass, Ligeti, and Nancarrow when asked about his key influences -- into an electro-acoustic tapestry of sound that includes hypnotic layers, surprising melodies almost reminiscent of The Strokes, and some fine home-made soundtrack material that would make any super-8 collection look even better. On this album sonic snapshots and moments hum like an old-school slide show -- in fact, you can almost feel the shimmering air against your skin.
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