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LP
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MUSAR 019LP
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For Dutch artist Stefan Vincent, the feeling of melancholy also offers the opportunity for beauty to be found. "Decay and loneliness can serve a purpose. Depression can teach you things. To feel deep sadness also means the ability to feel profound emotions." he says. With this in mind, his debut album on MUSAR Recordings, Post Melancholy, unpacks the twists and turns of grappling with this emotion, drawing from breaks, electro and IDM to make his most intricate work to date, after previous releases on Token, Dynamic Reflection, Symbolism, and Non-Series. Throughout Post Melancholy Vincent traces the wave of melancholy and how it moves through the body, which allows for lighter moments alongside darker moods. Perhaps the lightest track on the album is its acidic-breaks opener, "Eyes Unclouded", with its soaring acid lines and dazzling synths, which acts as a false pretense for the rest of the album. Tracks like "Poise", "Arpeggino" and the meditative "Yonghegong Lama Temple Exit F" also break up the intensity. However, nestled between the more-pacey, bass-weighted tracks on the album, these lighter openings still feel like tear-jerkers. The more common associations of melancholy show up on tracks like "Another Skin To Wear" and "You Know This Isn't Going To End Well", which all create a more ominous feel via IDM and the polyrhythmic structures of drum'n'bass. Particularly on "Another Skin To Wear", which borrows its name from a Radiohead lyric, the track's swooping motion feels realistic to melancholy's chaotic and often unpredictable path. But, like all great storytellers, Vincent leaves the most poignant moment of the album for last with the rolling "8AM on the Train... (For Maarten)" devoted to his dear friend, Maarten, who sadly passed away at the young age of 36.
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12"
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MUSAR 018EP
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Melancholy, the feeling, is often associated with darkness and deep depression. For Dutch artist Stefan Vincent, within the experience of melancholy there's beauty to be found. "Decay and loneliness can serve a purpose. Depression can teach you things. To feel deep sadness also means the ability to feel profound emotions." he says. For his debut on Musar Recordings, Pre Melancholy EP, Vincent channels these notions of melancholy into three tracks that draw on darker moods but also reflect beauty in their intricacy and the atmospheres they create. This EP acts as a precursor to his forthcoming album on Musar, Post Melancholy. "Mono No Aware" and "Yonghegong Lama Temple Exit F" are both taken from the LP, placed side by side with "Agent of Distraction", an exclusive track from Vincent for this EP only. Musar also have Montreal-based musician Priori on the remix of "Yonghegong..." His rework draws further emotion from that of Vincent's by slowing the pace and bringing delicate melodies to the forefront; it's one for introspection. Transparent crystal vinyl; PVC sleeve with inner printed artwork. Features Priori remix.
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12"
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BALANS 010EP
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Amsterdam's Stefan Vincent unleashes these four gems into the world. Both "Conflate Four" and "Five" are about as trippy as it gets, reminding us of the golden '90s era of psychedelic Detroit and Berlin techno. Stefan showcases a different side of himself on "Fool Me Again" and "Welder." Two downtempo, electronic, ambient cuts. "Welder" embraces futuristic synths and abstract, alienating sound design, while "Fool Me Again" is Detroit melancholy at its best: try and not get goosebumps.
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