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viewing 1 To 8 of 8 items
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LP
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99CHANTS 016LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/1/2025
Indonesian duo Kuntari make music that's so distinctive, they had to devise their own genre: primal-core. On Mutu Beton, multiinstrumentalist Tesla Manaf and percussionist Rio Abror dialog with both history and their tropical surroundings in Bandung, West Java's mountainous capital. Using the cornet and hulusi, a free reed instrument made from a bottle gourd and bamboo pipes, Manaf echoes the bellows of local elephants, orangutans and rhinos, grazing Abror's ancestral Indonesian rhythms with potent overdriven riffs and evocative microtonal chimes. It's music that's profoundly atmospheric and simultaneously raw, recorded live to fully encapsulate the dynamic and deeply human interaction between the two seasoned players. There are elements of sludge metal, noise and post-hardcore, references to traditional folk music and jazz, and gestures towards sound art, 20th century minimalism and dark ambient, but what Kuntari do is completely idiosyncratic -- it's hardly surprising it needed a similarly unique categorization. Manaf started Kuntari as a solo project, debuting in 2020 with Black Shirt Attracts More Feather and animating his nimble instrumental improvisations with bold electronic processes and booming synthetic drums. And by the time he recorded 2022's acclaimed Last Boy Picked, his approach had evolved significantly; prioritizing organic sounds, he played prepared cornet and piano, bringing in additional percussionists to help devise a ritualistic rhythm section. Abror was one of those performers, and ended up sticking around, playing on 2023's furious LARYNX/STRIDULA, the stylistic precursor for Mutu Beton. At this stage, the duo have racked up a litany of accolades and collaborated with a spectrum of like-minded artists, from noise deity Keiji Haino to fellow Indonesian free-thinker Rully Shabara, who's best known for his work with Senyawa and avant-garde supergroup Osmium. Mutu Beton plays like a lap of honor, showcasing their most kinetic and most feral recordings to date. Kuntari surpass their own high standards, folding history and geography in on itself and suggesting a trailblazing Indonesian cultural movement that's not restricted by highbrow Western conventions. It's not just automation and technology that drives progression, it's interaction and observation. And there's nothing more primal, or revolutionary, than that.
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CD
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99CHANTS 012CD
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A lavish four-chapter chronicle that imagines an alternative evolution of mankind through sound, VĪS (Latin for energy or force) is the result of a lengthy process of self-discovery, collaboration and research for Italian-German composer David August. The son of a classical pianist, August slipped from the academic music world into an early career as a dance music producer and DJ before he felt his artistic outlook shifting considerably. He established the adventurous 99CHANTS label in 2018, and has since used it as an output for his most progressive notions, collaborating most recently with jazz-noise vocalist Cansu Tanrikulu and Carnatic singer Sushma Soma on last year's acclaimed Imaginary Landscapes compilation. VĪS then is a chance for August to reconcile his personal narrative, leveling it with concepts that touch on history, transformation and metaphysics. He wrote the album's 13 pieces to play like a linear storyline, tracking the development of culture from its illusory beginnings in Plato's Cave into the wider world and observing its progression and adaptation. August represents these themes with levitational orchestral drones, choirs and bells that slowly bend to long-forgotten ancestral rhythms, inevitably colliding with the digitized chaos of the information age. Motion guides everything, whether it's shadows on a wall projected by dancing flames, or dramatic, overlayed rhythms that vibrate the air and excite the feet. VĪS is a dynamic attempt to show the movement of time on a macro scale, looking backwards in order to move forwards. It charts mankind's journey from its cosmic beginnings through the awe-inspiring world of flora and fauna, grounding the experience in rhythmic expression and dance before we're returned to the stars in transcended form. Crucially, it's a hopeful articulation of ideas and concepts that continue to echo throughout history, inviting us to imagine greater and cherish the teeming landscape that surrounds us.
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2LP
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99CHANTS 012LP
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Double LP version. Heavyweight, gatefold sleeve with silver metallic print and screenprinted PE sleeve. A lavish four-chapter chronicle that imagines an alternative evolution of mankind through sound, VĪS (Latin for energy or force) is the result of a lengthy process of self-discovery, collaboration and research for Italian-German composer David August. The son of a classical pianist, August slipped from the academic music world into an early career as a dance music producer and DJ before he felt his artistic outlook shifting considerably. He established the adventurous 99CHANTS label in 2018, and has since used it as an output for his most progressive notions, collaborating most recently with jazz-noise vocalist Cansu Tanrikulu and Carnatic singer Sushma Soma on last year's acclaimed Imaginary Landscapes compilation. VĪS then is a chance for August to reconcile his personal narrative, leveling it with concepts that touch on history, transformation and metaphysics. He wrote the album's 13 pieces to play like a linear storyline, tracking the development of culture from its illusory beginnings in Plato's Cave into the wider world and observing its progression and adaptation. August represents these themes with levitational orchestral drones, choirs and bells that slowly bend to long-forgotten ancestral rhythms, inevitably colliding with the digitized chaos of the information age. Motion guides everything, whether it's shadows on a wall projected by dancing flames, or dramatic, overlayed rhythms that vibrate the air and excite the feet. VĪS is a dynamic attempt to show the movement of time on a macro scale, looking backwards in order to move forwards. It charts mankind's journey from its cosmic beginnings through the awe-inspiring world of flora and fauna, grounding the experience in rhythmic expression and dance before we're returned to the stars in transcended form. Crucially, it's a hopeful articulation of ideas and concepts that continue to echo throughout history, inviting us to imagine greater and cherish the teeming landscape that surrounds us.
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LP
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99CHANTS 005LP
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Dream Rooms, the new release from the shadowy Italian project Ambienti Coassiali, is an organic development rising out of the ashes of the surreal synthesized tone poems they released in the late 1980s, developing into cult favorites, spoken of with quiet reverence. Spread out over two sides, Dream Rooms is an immersive listen, ambience that's frigid but not dark; a cold morning in the valleys. Recorded with a vintage EKO Ranger guitar from the early 1970s, loops extend to infinity, echoing into the distance and melting into themselves, over and over again. There's not much manipulation, sounds are left alone to slowly evolve and develop organically. Over their three decades of creating music, Ambienti Coassiali show that, whether synthesized or organic, they are able to construct complex atmospheres out of the ether, all parts in their place; music for the conscious, and the subconscious. 180 gram vinyl.
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LP
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99CHANTS 004LP
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Opener "Brezza Perduti Arsi Tramonti" is an introspective composition, where fluttering soundscapes meld with soaring choral voices, contrasting with the darker post-rock atmospherics of "Mirages and Miracles", with distorted radio transmissions crackling through the heavy ether. The detuned, insistent bliss of "Meiosis, Remembrances" intertwines delicate piano with heavy synthesis, leading into the dubbed-out ambience of "Fuoco Lontano", heard inside a glassine chamber with a distant skyline twinkling in the background. The reworks -- meditations on meaning and perception -- showcase how an established body of work can be diversified, and how "[in] a world where many tend to create borders to contain people that share supposed homogenous features, music reminds us that diversity is the soul of humanity". RIYL: Steve Roach, Fennesz, Kara Lis Coverdale, William Basinski, Tim Hecker, Deepchord, the dronier moments of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. 180 gram vinyl.
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12"
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99CHANTS 003EP
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Two tracks from David August's album D'Angelo are given two radically different takes from two titans of their fields, on David's first official remix EP. Rafael Anton Irisarri deconstructs "Florence" and rebuilds it into something grander, even more filmic than the original. Sparse, dripping piano, warbling, fizzing drones, and haunting specters of voices phasing through the mists. Ron Trent reconstructs and extends "Elysian Fields" into a slowly evolving soulful house jam. Insistent drums, blissful guitar, and piano themes are all perfectly interlocked, with David's plaintive vocals reconstituted into a textured layer flowing underneath and above.
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LP
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99CHANTS 002LP
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The second installment of David August's 99CHANTS comes in the form of Adisceda, the debut offering of 21-year-old UK producer Louis Sterling. Louis' talents initially caught David's attention through a demo, which showcased Louis' impressive musical maturity and his ability to express complex emotions through his music. Through an in-depth correspondence over the next months, Adisceda slowly found its shape. Conceived during the mourning process for a close family member that passed away in 2016, Adisceda was freely written as a continuous prayer of reminiscence; "Like a photograph, capturing a close memory as it gradually fades away, becoming pale, faint and less visible", as Louis recalls. "Even at times of desperately trying to recollect the close moments that once meant the world to me." Yet, Adisceda captures the overcoming of grief and loss -- a healing process beautiful, hopeful, pure, and transcendent. Mastered by ambient specialist Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios NY in a full color cover designed by Colin D. Fletcher. 180 gram vinyl with white inners in stickered sleeve.
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2LP
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99CHANTS 001LP
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A proudly nonconformist and multifaceted electronic artist, David August went on hiatus for a year. Taking time to reflect and discover unknown paths in both, musically and personally, August connected to his Italian roots, drawing inspiration from its history, rich culture, and diverse landscape. The result is a new language of sound and space that until now has remained hidden inside of him. Ready to come back, August emerges with a new label, 99CHANTS, a finite project limited to 99 releases. Offering an openminded platform for a diverse range of artists, the label aims to contribute to culture and society in a positive way. The first release comes from August himself. Ambient in form, DCXXXIX A.C. marks the first step that will lead to a bigger picture. David in his own words: "A couple years ago, I found myself in jam sessions, naively messing around with sound; no rhythm, no structure. Not considering any borders, trying to 'think' about music, as subconsciously as possible. It's been a vein in me ever since, which I developed and explored quietly in my personal space, slowly realizing that half of me somehow existed in this realm; so-called ambient music. During these years, a relevant amount of drafts came together. While working on my main project last year, I decided to present this other side of me in an own independent way, to initialize a path that would be continued. I founded a new label, 99CHANTS, a dream I wish I could have realized earlier. . . . Everything relies on these two things, in my opinion. The record is 60 minutes in length and contains 24 tracks, which I see as being all linked together, forming a single, extended breath. As my most recent work pulls inspiration from my Italian provenience, so does this album. I go back in time, finding myself surrounded by the nature and old spirits of an ancient commune, in the middle of the country. Relating to the details of a land, it's a soundtrack to a time and space unknown. Generally speaking, the tracks took shape rather quickly, trying to believe in the moment of what a first intuition could have of value, or maybe not. All music came together in Berlin, Iceland, above the Atlantic and in a small Mediterranean town. Connecting the dots, the story leads to where the next begins." Gatefold sleeve.
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