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CORTIZONA 028LP
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$28.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/15/2024
LP with insert with extended liner notes and download code including extra bonus track "Movements of The Mind." For his second album on the Belgian leftfield imprint Cortizona, Devin Brahja Waldman gathered a group of insanely gifted and talented musicians to start a new and highly moving musical chapter titled Nebulizer. From the first moment the pulsating tone of Devin's synth blends with the whispering voices of Earth, Wind and Choir and the menacing bells Naima Karlsson set in motion this record you just know and feel immediately Nebulizer will be a soul-searching journey, soaking you deep into an unknown and very personal musical world. Devin Brahja Waldman is a New York saxophonist, drummer, synthesizer player and composer who leads the group BRAHJA. He has performed with Patti Smith, William Parker, Nadah El Shazly, Malcolm Mooney, Thurston Moore, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Charles Hayward, Luke Stewart, and Yoshiko Chuma. Waldman is also a member of NYC's Heroes Are Gang Leaders, of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush, and of the Norwegian hardcore group MoE. Together with Adam Kinner, Georgia Wartel Collins, Earth, Wind and Choir, Luke Stewart, Kenichi Iwasa, Naima Karlsson, Alexis Mercelo, Janice Lowe, Watson and Damon Hankoff, Devin forms a slow-burning fireball unity. A devotional séance channeling unknown powers proving music is a healing force of the universe. Nebulizer is an elevating meditation on humanity's estrangement of nature. Interstellar sonic stardust from a mind-blowing collective that will leave you flabbergasted. Be prepared and hear it to believe it. For fans of: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, John & Alice Coltrane, Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, SAULT, Ill Considered, Jamie Branche, Angel Bat Dawid, Mackaya Craven, Matana Roberts, Sun Ra.
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CORTIZONA 024LP
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After her stunning and well acclaimed debut album For Trainspotters Only Ann Eysermans now releases Moonlight Shadoh, a tribute to her dog Shadoh. A record on which she explores the bond between herself and her faithful canine friend, Shadoh, through an extraordinary musical odyssey. Ann Eysermans masterfully weaves together a tapestry of field recordings, candy-like harmonies, and Shadoh's distinctive houndly expressions, creating otherworldly compositions that transcend genres which include recorded and integrated snarling feedback sounds. From the hauntingly beautiful melodies to the experimental sonic landscapes, every track tells a story that resonates deep within your soul. Feel the heartbeat of Shadoh as his barks, whimpers and playful antics merge seamlessly with Ann's soothing vocals, harp and viola da gamba. These evocative arrangements will transport you to a realm where the bond between human and dog is translated into an aural spectrum swaying between desolate harp sounds, recollecting the eerie Jandek spirit lacing with doomy, and catchy as hell, new beat vibes. Moonlight Shadoh is an exceptional journey blending acoustic instruments, phonic melancholy, analogue tape footage of Ann's personal sound archive and audio poetry. RIYL: Jandek, Claire Rousay, Andy Stott, William Bassinski, Kali Malone, Mica Levi.
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CORTIZONA 025LP
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On his third album, Comité Hypnotisé let you belly flop into his eleven chambers of the Danza Del Piri-Piri: expanding the feral and contagious universe he started to build a lifetime ago. Levitating and shimmering a glistering way through deep old school '70s sitar vibes and jitterbug grooves. This boogieman aka the Millionaire-mind and part of the Evil Superstars has carved some hot smoked out bass and organ flared cuts on wax, ready to never leave you again. Whether it is with woodchopped kazou sounds stretching into hazy sunshine desire or dazzling basslines blending with interstellar and stuttering kick drums: the Danza Del Piri-Piri flip-flops and slams into a wiggly relentless sonic future. Comité Hypnotisé is the brainchild of Tim Vanhamel, frontman of Millionaire and Evil Superstars, two of Belgium's most famous alternative rock bands. In 2013 Tim started creating solo music that only got released in 2021 on his first solo album through the Belgian eclectic Cortizona label. FFO Sven Wunder, Ennio Morricone, Khruangbin, Flying Lotus, The Meters, Parliament, Edan, The Gaslamp Killer.
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CORTIZONA 020LP
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Le Motel and Bruce Wijn met at school, during a school art trip to Munich. They went separate ways for a long time. Hailing from Brussels, Le Motel's world is a vortex of sight and sound that takes in the many and varied corners of the planet. As a music producer and film composer his versatility has taken him to festivals and clubs in every direction as naturally as he has ventured out to the less accessible areas of the globe as a field recordist. It's somewhere in between these spaces that Le Motel operates, gathering unique experiences and sounds to channel through his studio. Bruce Wijn is a Brussels-based guitarist who played in several post rock kind projects such as Sound Film, 52 Commercial Road, or more shoegaze Lazy Sin. These collaborations gave him the opportunity to perform in various locations in Belgium, France, England, and the USA. As a musician, his focus has always been attracted by progressively built rhythmic melodies, which would eventually turn into long reverberated or distorted swells, or the other way round. All these experiences brought them both to the idea of scoring movies with different yet similar approaches. That's how their first collaboration happened as Le Motel was working on the soundtrack of the movie Binti, and invited Bruce Wijn for the track "Exode" in 2018. Since then, they've been working on other scoring projects, such as the feature film Aller Retour more recently. Alongside the movie scoring activities another audio-visual live project was born, in collaboration with Antoine de Schuyter and his mesmerizing images. This one is more focusing on tape textures, field recordings, and glitchy effects in order to build atmospheric tracks that they decided to bring together in a first EP, MAAR. MAAR is elaborated as a soundtrack for an imaginary journey between cold seas and volcanoes explorations. From the first echoing sounds of playing kids on the shoreside in the opening track "La Perche," Le Motel & Bruce Wijn let you slide in a technicolor dreamworld, reverbing slowly innocent childhood memories into a chilled, out of range, future. MAAR dives deep into a kaleidoscopic microcosmos watching "Nautilus" playing hide and seek with "Captain Ahab" floating on sonic breaking waves, while seagulls gently spread their wings flying through the breezy and misty clouds of "Blankenberge." Lava vulcanica slowly melts in the sad euphorica of the cold North Sea, crystallizing sounds only Le Motel and Bruce Wijn can deliver.
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CORTIZONA 026LP
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Pruillip is a new Belgian band founded by Louis Evrard (Bert Dockx Band, Grid Ravage, Ottla) and Annelies Van Dinter (Echo Beatty, Takh & Naga Ghost). The duo started in 2022 after a request to play at De Nor, the open air sculpture park and venue of Dennis Tyfus. For this occasion, Annelies and Louis decided to do a position switch and play each other's instruments: Annelies beating the hell out of the drums and Louis ripping up the guitar. This record features eight songs channeling elemental emotions, kickin' deep into the internal organs of the body. Low end frequency swagger droning up from Louis Evrard's amp, ready to slip into "Place All Your Cards," slow burning sludge nugget, bolstered by the steady drum kicks of Annelies Van Dinter, where every note and strike seems to carry the weight of the world. Navigating through life, seducing you with her gloomy voice. Entering a quest into the unknown, a place you don't want to leave. A feeling increased by the abrasive and brutal "Boterham:" a punk sludge anthem for the hungry and the wild at heart, countered with the reverb-shrouded murmur "Distracted Enthusiasm." The lonely "Zonnedauw" sets the mark of an apparently more resigned B-side, stretching the Pruillip universe with primitive, but so addictive, riffs in "Mirrors," echoing vibes of '90s desert sessions while "Offload" and the lucid state of Ataraxia seems to drift on raw emotions and a sweaty claustrophobic tension, which would fit perfectly in Wim Wenders' Paris Texas movie. A whirlwind of a record, straight to the bone, leaving you flabbergasted and wanting for more.
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CORTIZONA 019LP
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Truly intrigued as a kid by the weird sounds his DIY electronica building kit could make, Mich L. (aka Mich Leemans of Paper Hats) never stopped his quest for more beauty in hidden frequencies and harmonics of modular synths and old tape recorders. His search into the deep mysterious sound spectrum unexpectedly made a surprising U-turn after a seizure of increasing tinnitus and enduring nausea. The concept of listening, as stated by Pauline Oliveros as "the involuntary nature of hearing and the voluntary, selective nature of listening" took focus in his being. These new insights, together with a studio rearrangement and the purchase of the EMS Synthi A are the keystones which shaped the contours of his debut solo album, Air Near Silence. A precious, fragile, and ultra-personal sonic exploration of the inner self translated in carefully constructed synth and tape compositions: a microscopic auditive dissection of time and soul. Slow burning stripped down shifting patterns, patched and wired straight from the heart, crawling steadily under your skin, with no plans to leave. Hushed analog splendor for patient music lovers who dare to be surprised. Recommended if you like: Eliane Radigue, Coil, Kali Malone, Lucy Railton, The Caretaker, Pauline Oliveros, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Throbbing Gristle, early electronics, Deathprod... LP includes CD; also includes insert with liner notes.
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CORTIZONA 022LP
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Get ready for schntzl 2.0. On their third album Casper Van De Velde and Hendrik Lasure, the two SpongeBobs of Belgian jazz, enter Cortizona and take you on board of their newly discovered musical spectrum. Rollercoastin' between extreme emotions Casper and Hendrik slide through 90's Euro-optimism on synths, frantic drum rolls, lost piano sounds, and sample wizardry: blending Spanish guitars, voices of singing ladies, slow-mo clarinets, and the patterns of a percussion robot. Holiday is the result of a residency in Ravenna, Italy in October in 2021 where musique concrète, replica sounds, and frenetic hyper-pop textures sneaked into the musical world of schntzl. Sculpting a world of friction, hypodermic joyful changes, sad euphoria, and good old plain fun. RIYL: Matmos in a jazz mood, free vibin' PC Music, Enya on XTC, improvising Valentina Magaletti, moody SOPHIE, BadBadNotGood going GoodGoodNotBad and other excellent music.
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CORTIZONA 021LP
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Glitching through pop music, cruising around the borders of the avant-garde, passing by the edge of coldwave and tumbling into dance and club vibes: after her debut Bad Woman, Céline Gillain is back with her second album: Mind Is Mud. On Mind Is Mud, Gillain let herself sink in the swamp of emotional confusion, the perpetual brain fog caused by a post Covid-world asking herself: do we have to get used to paradox as a way of life from now on? A musical dissection in nine songs of the mudflow, a flow which reveals its rich complexity the more Gillain dived into it: from the demanding intro "Together" Céline opens up her highly personal and unique vision, shifting between high-definition lost dimensions and emotions the mud slowly transfers in a crackling and sparkling stream of consciousness. The mud is well alive in all its weirdness and unclarity. At times, it even glows in the dark. The answer to that question is yes. The story of Mind Is Mud by Céline Gillain: "Music is a place where intuiting is a work in itself. For me, it's the one place where I'm in charge, free to think and do what I want. Mind Is Mud is the fruit of a collaborative practice with a DAW, a research around the palliative power of rhythm and the dancefloor, music as a space where emotions and ideas merge, storytelling, the comic potential and imaginative nature of sound. I don't really write, I copy paste and then I arrange and rearrange. Every sound I use comes from software, field recording, Instagram, movies and midi scores I collect here and there. In the hierarchy of sounds, you might call them cheap sounds. The lyrics are collages as well, made of pieces of texts from various contradictory sources. In addition to using the voice as a vehicle for ideas, I investigate its percussive and polyphonic potentialities, the possibility to have more than one voice/mouth." Sounds like: Grace Jones, Kae Tempest, Annie Lennox, Leslie Winer, and The Knife cutting up their favorite books, entering the k-hole and recording their dystopian dreams at the backstage of Berghain. Includes lyrics poster.
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2LP
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CORTIZONA 023LP
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Genesis P-Orridge and The Hafler Trio: do these two legends still need any introduction? Genesis P-Orridge was the founding person of COUM Transmissions in 1969, Throbbing Gristle in 1975, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Psychic TV in 1981. Andrew McKenzie started The Hafler Trio (together with Cabaret Voltaire's Chris Watson) in 1982 and since then released all his work under this moniker and collaborated with William S. Burroughs, Autechre, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Nurse With Wound, and Jónsi from Sigur Rós, to name a few. And he constructed the first kit Dreamachine in 1989 together with Brion Gysin. The impact and influence of these pioneers of the industrial underground, visionary thinkers and open minds, anti-heroes of the misfits and the outcasts is hard to underestimate. On Dream Less Suite, the first new album by The Hafler Trio since 2016, Andrew McKenzie unearths, resurrects and completed recordings he made through the years with Genesis P-Orridge. This double-LP features soundtracks to unfinished films, live performances and the real versions of tracks you know and love, released for the very first time and mastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes. Expect the unexpected and be prepared for the unprepared. File under: Subliminal soul music for the very faint-hearted; Demented disco for insecure insomniacs; Asymmetric acid for hoovering hipsters; Immersive polka for naughty night nurses; Soothing sounds for crying babies; Liberating Latin for lesbians on xtc; Transcending tribalism for jogging junkies; Frenetic freakbeat for nihilistic numerologists; Jiving jazz for tyrannic transgenders; Hypnotic exotica for corrupt gymnastics; Indescribable sounds for angry journalists; Endless entertainment for everyone and the rest of the family; All f#cks given 2.0 Masters at work. Includes two inner sleeves with extended liner notes.
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CORTIZONA 018LP
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Devin Brahja Waldman is a New York saxophonist, drummer, synthesizer player, and composer who leads the group Brahja. Waldman has accompanied his aunt, poet Anne Waldman, since the age of ten. Waldman is a co-founding member of Radical Reversal, Diva of Deva Loka, and Notable Deaths. He has performed with Patti Smith, William Parker, Nadah El Shazly, Malcolm Mooney, Thurston Moore, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Charles Hayward, Luke Stewart, and Yoshiko Chuma. Waldman is also a member of NYC's Heroes Are Gang Leaders (led by poet Thomas Sayers Ellis and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis), of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush, and of the Norwegian hardcore group MoE. As a youngster, Waldman was taken under the wing of avant-garde giant Paul Bley. Along with Anne Waldman and cousin Ambrose Bye, Waldman is a co-producer for Fast Speaking Music, a NYC poetry and music label which has released recordings with Amiri Baraka, Meredith Monk, William Parker, Laurie Anderson, Eileen Myles, CAConrad, Fred Moten, Daniel Carter, Clark Coolidge, Thurston Moore, Joanne Kyger, and many others.
The moment the first bass note of Luke Stewart kicks in on Watermelancholia, followed by the swelling drum roll of Malick Koly and the lush leading voice of Janice Lowe you feel Devin Brahja will take you on a deep mind-blowing spiritual journey. Channeling wild seventies Impulse vibes on "O.P.K" or, could you say, even resonating the guts of early Art Ensemble of Chicago and the tempering spirit of Max Roach's We Insist era: Brahja is soul searching their spirit on Watermelancholia. A poetic stream of consciousness, backboned by top-notch musicians, transcending the cosmic universe, trying to find answers and musically connecting. Watermelancholia is a meditation on healing the inner schism between the sense of self -- the ego -- and the inner being. It is about bringing the ego to justice; putting it on trial, as it were. Includes booklet with extended liner notes.
"Ancient to the future 2.0. Watermelancholia is about the law of Karma: a law so obvious that it often goes unspecified and ignored. Neglecting this law invites a world of chaos. It's been articulated in endless ways. Some have called it Cosmic Law or Natural Law. Others translate it as Do No Harm." --liner notes excerpt
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CORTIZONA 017LP
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On Upon This Fleeting Dream Clive Bell's Twinkle3 embraces medieval and 16th century Japanese poems and haiku about death and saying farewell. Twinkle3, consisting of Dave Ross and Richard Scott besides Clive Bell, expand their sonic borders to unknown territory: bringing these pithy epigrams to a new Fourth World where electro-acoustic sounds glitches into a hypnagogic, if not unconscious level of fragile beauty. The distinctive voice of David Sylvian, who reads the English version of the poems and created field recordings and the artwork for this album, blends in the most organic way with the shakuhachi, Thai reed flutes, and mouth organs played by Clive Bell. The narrative voices of David Sylvian and Kazuko Hohki's (Frank Chickens, Kahondo Style) velvet timbre are the cornerstones of this compelling journey while the tangling and abstract rhythms transcending from Dave Ross's modular synths and Richard Scott's sampler and analogue electronics, unravel and unfold a mesmerizing universe with unknown dimensions and frequencies of a fleeting dream. Vinyl edition with printed inlay and extra insert Recommended if you like: David Sylvian, Japanese poems, Jon Hassell, Pan Sonic, Laraaji, Brian Eno. Personnel: Clive Bell- Shakuhachi flute, pi saw, khene mouth organ; Dave Ross - Droscillator, modular synths, various wind and string instruments; Richard Scott - sampler, modular synths, analog electronics; David Sylvian - vocals, field recordings; Kazuko Hohki - Japanese voice.
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CORTIZONA 015LP
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First time release on vinyl of the breathtaking songs Patty Waters recorded with engineer Steve Atkins in 1970 at the Coast Recordings studio, together with the unreleased single "My One And Only Love" and a recorded live session at Lone Mountain College in 1974. The album You Loved Me is the missing link between her two groundbreaking pioneering and highly acclaimed ESP-Disk' records from the end of the '60s and her post '90s releases. The missing link between the radical ingenue of the 1960s and her late '90s songs wherein she expressed the resolution of all of her life's moments through mature readings of traditional songs and jazz standards. This collection aims to provide that missing link and to finally complete the picture of her storied recording career. In what would have been her third LP, the You Loved Me album serves as the inverse of Patty's debut. While her 1965 debut Sings (ESPDISK 1025CD) concerned itself with themes of heartbreak, loneliness, and yearning, there's an abundance of love, joy, and togetherness on You Loved Me. LP includes insert.
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CORTIZONA 014LP
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No time to waste: nine months after Tim Vanhamel released Dubs Pour Oh La La (2021), his debut album under the moniker Comité Hypnotisé, the Millionaire frontman presents already the second album Hiking The Trails Of Mount Muzak. Hardly leaving any traces of the dubbed-out vibe which marked the first record, Tim expands his Comité Hypnotisé universe to a surprising next level on this second album: exploring a place where James Last, Wu-Tang Clan, and DJ Shadow are cooking up a Thai meal in a Peruvian restaurant overlooking the breathtaking peaks of Mount Muzak. Ney flutes tumbling backwards over the edge of easy listening in opener "Rise Of The Equinoxians", lurking for feel good vibes in "Red Wolf Riddim" and breezing in to new dimensions in "Zing Zoing" on the A-side while the Comité enters the chambers of the '70s "Disco Skank" and rides an untamed dragon towards the scorching sun in search of a flame-bringing beat in "The Dragon Rider" on the flipside.
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2LP
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CORTIZONA 010LP
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Recording an album about the feelings of two prisoners waiting on death row. As a statement against capital punishment. It was (and even still is nowadays) a delicate and ambitious plan. Bernard Szajner did it, in 1980, after watching an Amnesty International documentary. And stakes were high: at that point in his life Szajner has spent the majority of the '70s doing light and visuals for bands as Magma, Gong, Pink Floyd, and The Who. In the meantime, he created his own instrument, the "Syringe", aka the first laser harp, and made his debut as a musician under the Z moniker with Visions of Dune. When listening to Some Deaths Take Forever in 2020 it's hard to believe it was recorded already four decades ago: the melancholic piano theme and the metallic synth riffs of opener "Welcome To Death Row" set the tone for a mind blowing audio journey which at one moment echoes the vibe of early '80s gloom funk and derailed krautrock drenching into pulsating proto Detroit techno and on the other hand sounds like the blueprint for a futuristic electronic music scene in the years to come. The influence and the impact of Some Deaths Take Forever is also still vibrating: Carl Craig mentioned it as his all-time favorite album in Future Mag, the signature sound of Oneohtrix Point Never feels almost like a not so hidden tribute and the killer sci-fi electronics of tracks "Ressurector" or "A Kind Of Freedom" resonates through the discography of Air and Daft Punk, to name a few. Includes five previously unreleased tracks.
Excerpt liner notes John Olson: "Szajner's album here sounds different with each listen, a new unnoticed corner blaring aloud to be (re)discovered within any of the ten tracks: strongest mark of a classic if there was any. So buckle in, spray yourself with this electric insecticide and let your shadowy sentence ring out with a 'loud clanging noise that turned out be an electronic gavel."
Excerpt liner notes Karel Beer: "Now 40 years later when listening to Some Deaths... in spite of the uncompromising subject matter and knowing that the written word is his most influential source of inspiration I am struck by the unexpected references that can be heard on the tracks. There's Shaft, Jeff Beck, Morricone, Weather Report, and even Timmy Thomas. A truly eclectic bunch that somehow makes sense of an era. It's almost as if Szajner is applying these accidental or intentional influences just as an artist would use inks, oils or found forms to a canvas."
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CORTIZONA 012LP
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More hands. More possibilities. More ethereal drones. More poly shifting rhythms. More fun. That was the starting point and the idea of Bakunawa: the album Pak Yan Lau recorded with her freshly started ensemble, consisting of the marvelous musicians Vera Cavallin, Giovanni Di Domenico, João Lobo, and Mathieu Calleja. On Bakunawa, Pak Yan and her ensemble are delving and digging deep into the sound spectrum of detuned toy pianos, second hand gong rods, prepared harp, metal tubes and U ring modulators. Instruments were searched, collected and bought worldwide: on Japanese street markets, in second hand stores in Brussels, from dedicated American Ebay-sellers and the cellar of the Musica centre in Neerpelt. The result is a record split up in two compositions of 20 minutes: on "Part 1" the Bakunawa ensemble let the overtones of the gong rods, prepared harp and metal tubes slowly resonate into a deep listening ambient state of mind. Rich harmonic textures of rather unconventional instruments shaping an immersive piece of spellbinding sonic details. On "Part II" the quintet crafts their own ritual ceremony music with distorted toy pianos and hypnotic percussion. Echoing the frequencies of a gamelan orchestra. Rhythms shifting in haunted patterns recalling the Philippine mythology where the moon swallowing sea dragon Bakunawa was scared away by drumming loudly on pots and pans. RIYL: Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Moondog, Philip Glass, Harry Partch, and Daphne Oram.
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CORTIZONA 009LP
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Luz Azul is a group started by LA-based vocal and performance artist Anna Homler (aka Breadwoman) together with musicians Marcos Fernandes and Robert Montoya in 2007. On this record, they compose their own mesmerizing cosmic universe where the hypnotic speaking in tongue voice of Anna Homler blends together with the sound of her found toys intensified by the shamanistic percussion of Marcos and the pulsating electronics of Montoya. As fellow percussionists and sound artists, Marcos Fernandes and Robert Montoya's collaborations began in 1983 and ran the gamut from ambient to noise, rock to electronica to improvisation. Both were founding members of Trummerflora, a collective of creative musicians based in San Diego from 1999 to 2009. All three artists were active in the improvised music scene in Southern California and met at Spring Reverb 2006, an annual festival of experimental music curated by the Trummerflra Collective. At the time, Fernandes was experimenting with processed percussion as well as phonography and samples while Montoyawas exploring improvisational possibilities on the computer. Fernandes and Homler expressed their mutual interest in collaborating but it was not until the fall of 2007 that they performed a series of concerts together. Pleased with the results, they performed together again in the spring of 2008 with the addition of Montoya. There was chemistry and the trio promptly decided to enter the studio to capture their collective magic. The session yielded the music found on Luz Azul. Personnel: Anna Homler - voice, pocket theremin, sample sticks, whistles, assorted dry and squeaky objects, greeting cards, wood devil, tiny metals, motors, potato slicer; Marcos Fernandes - percussion & electronics; Robert Montoya - electronics. 180 gram vinyl; includes insert with liner notes by Tom Recchion.
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CORTIZONA 008LP
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"Imagination: that was the feeling and the starting point of the debut album Jurgen De Blonde recorded under the moniker Kohn in 1998. Surrounded by an old sampler, an analogue synthesizer, a cheap sequencer, acoustic and electric guitar, bass and an electret microphone he modulated and crafted his own personal parallel universe in his bedroom in Gent. A world where the sound of a skipping cd mutates in a shoegaze vibe, hunted mosquitoes are locked in a psycho-acoustic melancholy or ringing phone songs slides into a brutal grime beat echoing the beginning days of Belgian electronic body music. 21 years on this debut is remastered and released for the first time on vinyl. Recommended if you like early Autechre, Oval, vintage electronics, shoegazing beat, instrumental Death Grips, demented industrial, nostalgia futurica, derailed post rock or excellent music in general . . . This person who is 'Kohn' seems to have no interest in seeing the tiny blizzards and blue-phosphorescent stars that pop out of his own chemicals. The whole thing is for us to dissect and admire, I feel certain that Kohn is already onto something new. Probably something so much further out it only exists in the ether." --excerpt of the included liner notes by Brecht "Razen" Ameel
"The goal was to make music that was rhythmic but without obvious percussion and drum sounds, to sample anything and hear what was possible or how it would inspire me. No effects, I didn't want to use any effects like reverb or delay, except as part of the sound. I wanted the sound to be dry and direct. No washes of reverb or sounds drowning in echo. This was not supposed to be an ambient record. Only the last two tracks were allowed an exception to this. Sounds belong to the room they're played in. I didn't want them to be in a space before leaving the speakers. Electronic sounds have no original acoustic space nor are they enhanced by a resonant body before they enter the air through a loudspeaker. I wanted the electronic sounds to be raw in that aspect, no polish or fake space. This, the sound of bedroom production." --excerpt of the included liner notes by Jurgen De Blonde
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CORTIZONA 007LP
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Most of the October nights in 1987 you could find Gerry Vergult (Aroma Di Amore, Fred A., Adult Fantasies) and Gerrit Valckenaers (Adult Fantasies, The Colorist Orchestra) in a desolated top studio in Ghent. At that time and place they sneakily crafted and shaped this Nasca record while they were supposed to finish a new Fred A. record. They created an abstract universe where minimal post-punk basslines blend together with radio sounds in "Nothing Toulouse", tropical tribal vibes oscillates between futuristic nostalgia and hunted dreams in "Ketama" and "Ritz", a sampled heartbeat slowly mutates in mesmerizing midnight jazz and a drugged-out dub groove of "Kamayacha" transforms into the inner city blues of "Josaphat". All tracks composed, arranged, and performed by Gerry Vergult and Gerrit Valckenaers. Personnel: Gerrit Valckenaers - piano, saxophone, clarinet, synths, samples, electronics; Gerry Vergult - guitar, bass, synths, samples, electronics. Produced by Koen Van Regenmortel. RIYL: Jah Wobble, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno & David Byrne, dub, world, jazz, dreamy electronica. Recorded in 1987 and now released for the first time ever with artwork by Sarah Yu Zeebroek.
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CORTIZONA 006LP
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After Mars II (2018) and Fortune de Mer (2018), the album Frederik Croene made together with Timo van Luijk, Croene releases Cul de Sac: a record where he explores the boundaries and limits of the piano. A mind-blowing journey through his soul and his past. After graduating from Conservatories in 1999, Frederik Croene embarked on several projects in which he would reflect on the ever-changing and multi-layered identities of the classical pianist. As the Gestalt of his instrument is grounded in 19th-century Romanticism, he still uses virtuosity to communicate about what it is to be a pianist. He has performed and recorded the classical repertoire and worked intensively with composers such as Michael Beil, Johannes Kreidler, Simon Steen-Andersen, Michael Finnissey, Alexander Schubert, and Stefan Prins. In 2010, he reached a turning point in his career as a composer-performer with the formulation of the concept of Le Piano Démécanisé ("The De-mechanized Piano") in an article and LP release (AUDIOMER 007LP). Croene composes almost exclusively for piano or dismantled piano, using extra-musical tools such as video, text, and choreography (Roll over Czerny, Piano Hero Parasite, On Education, Eagle Finger). To realize these often complex setups he founded Pianoguide, a piano duo/think tank with pianist Elisa Medinilla (Nadar Ensemble). He established an enduring collaboration with underground musician Timo van Luijk, which has given rise to many live performances and two LP releases: Voile au Vent (2009) and Fortune de Mer. He has been invited to perform recitals at Holland Festival, Transit Festival Leuven, Time of Music Festival in Finland, Huddersfield Contemporary Festival, and Festival van Vlaanderen. In addition to his career as a performer, Croene also curates a piano series at PostX, a small venue in his hometown of Merelbeke. He teaches piano and founded the Vinim atelier, where he coaches youngsters in experimental composition and improvisation.
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CORTIZONA 004LP
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Cortizona present the first time LP reissue of Noises, originally released on Kamikaze in 1977. Around the time Marc Moulin played his last concerts with Placebo, he met the young musician Michel Moers at the jazz venue "Les Lundis Hortense" in Brussels in 1977. Impressed by his vocal delivery Marc invited him to the small studio of his friend Dan Lacksman to work on the songs, "Ma Mère Etait Propre", "Musaque Etniq", and "Il Est Heures". A few weeks and recording sessions later the trio decide to start an electronic music group together -- named Telex --, and to release the miniatures of Michel Moers on the compilation Noises, on the very short-lived label Kamikaze, he introduced (and also ended) the same year in November. Noises is a rather uncommon collection of songs that ranges from pieces with stunning vocal harmonies of an early Ilona Chale (who later also would be a member of the band Cos) and her brother Eric, a hypnotic chant where Marc Moulin blends a speech of Belgian King Boudewijn I with reel-to-reel tape techniques to a trance anthem, zonin' the King's voice already into a Moskow Diskow-frequence, or Michel Moers discovering an unknown Deliverance vibe with a mouth harp and flute, Daniel Plasschaert stretching out an amazing new world in only 50 seconds, next level field recordings by Robert Altaber to Ariel Kalma who transforms a poem by Thibet Marpa in a mesmerizing ambient composition. An amazing Belgian compilation still oscillating 40 years later into the pop waves. 180 gram vinyl. Contains two new postcards as an insert, including liner notes by Michel Moers and the original lyrics of "Aman" and drawing by Ariel Kalma.
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CORTIZONA 005LP
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Previously unreleased live recordings of the Freddie Hubbard Quintet, recorded by Belgian Radio and Television (BRT) on a cold night in the church of Our Lady Queen in the small Heist-op-den-Berg hamlet of Zonderschot in 1973. The concert was organized by Juul Anthonissen, the owner of Hnita-Jazz Club. Liner notes by Gilles Peterson and Peter Anthonissen. Mastered by Gert Van Hoof; Cut by Dubplates & Mastering. 180 gram vinyl; Includes insert and postcard; Edition of 500.
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CORTIZONA 002LP
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Reissue, originally released in 1985. Two years after his debut double-LP Planètes (1981), Jean Hoyoux recorded three new compositions in the home build studio, Madame Bois. In his later published book NOOS, la naissance à l'esprit, Hoyoux described the recording of III Hymne as follows: "'Power of being' my fingers are wreathed with violets and blues. Sounds emerge from them, called by something unknown to me. Joyful forces embrace me. I am both listener and musician. The rising melodies come forth from some unknown universe, vibrating to some unknown world. E Minor, C Minor, G Minor: harmonies of the awareness inside. The third hymn." The original record was issued on CRETS, or Centre du Recherche et d'Etudes, in 1985 and now, 33 years later, re-released for the first time on Cortizona. On III Hymne, Hoyoux further explores the electronic instruments he also used on Planètes which results in a marvelous album that in some way connects the dots between ambient, library, cosmic, and spiritual music.
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