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viewing 1 To 6 of 6 items
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LP
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EKS 019LP
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Jatinder Singh Durhailay and David Edren released Tea Notes as a cassette back in April of 2018. London-based Jatinder Singh Durhailay is a painter and student of Indian Classical music. He has trained in both the sitar and the Hindi singing technique, Dhrupad. He also plays two traditional Sikh instruments; the bowed, stringed Dilruba and Taus. Poetic Pastel Press issued his solo debut, The Last Ballad Of Mardana, in 2017. David Edren's expertise lies with machines and modular synthesis. His kosmische and new age-inspired electronics have featured on numerous cassettes, and compilations, produced for imprints from the current Belgian underground, such as JJ Funhouse, Social Harmony, and Ultra Eczema. These recordings appearing, since the turn of the millennium, either under his own name, or the moniker DSR Lines. Jatinder and David's collaboration, Tea Notes, is a celebration, a meditation, on both the beverage, and the communal time-shared imbibing. The coming together to partake in its ritual. Each of the six tracks represents a different infusion. The opening piece is a tribute to semi-oxidized "Oolong", from China's Wuyi Mountains, with hammered dulcimer-like glissando. Gongs shimmering, gently crashing, as if signaling a change in the weather. A calm of thin, stretched synths and Ai angels introduces "Tulsi" from India. The Holy Basil of Hinduism, used in the worship of Vishnu, Krishna, and Rama. A traditional herb of Ayurveda and Siddha medicine. Automated arpeggiated sequences raising a vibrating wall of hallucinatory sound. "Ceylon" is a modern twist on the classical raga. Serving to tell the story of a tea smuggled into Sri Lanka in the 19th century. Plants stolen from South West China, where the brew had been enjoyed since the days of the Shang Dynasty (1766 to 1122 BC). Muted organ and sleepy, treated sine wave microtones describe "Kava", the Polynesian fireweed root, whose extract serves as both sedative and euphoriant. "Shincha" are the first young leaves of the season. Picked in Southern Japan and steamed to prevent oxidization, retain their flavor and green/gold color. Melodies treated with subtle sustain and delay denote "Pu-Her", from the Yunnan province. The only truly fermented black tea -- made distinctive by the action of bacteria, molds, and yeasts. Recorded January to March 2018 in Antwerpen and London. Mastered and cut by Anne Taegert at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork by Victor Robyn.
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LP
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EKS 018LP
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The New York duo of Brian Close and Justin Tripp have been releasing music from their Chinatown studio, since 2012. Under the alias Georgia they make a sound which combines tech and tradition. Their compositions created by two hits of improvisation, where live jams are further edited and processed. They've graced labels such as Belgium's Meakusma, and London`s FTD, and produced super limited cassettes for France's Good Morning Tapes, and Kashual Plastik in Germany. These global collaborations reflecting Georgia's particular reworking of the "World Music" genre. Their approach resulting in the acclaimed All Kind Music (2016), on NYC's Palto Flats, and participation in Emotional Response's respected Schleißen Series. Now comes Immute, for Ekster.
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2LP
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EKSTER 015LP
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The world outside resonates metallic. Its activity humming calm harmonics. You are the stasis. Liquefied. Receiving alien signals. Unseen universes translated into sound. Notes bend like light reflected in a curved, hard surface. Muscles form and tie. Limbs from this soup. Pain is not the word for it. This flux. Detach from your body. Listen to it bubble and evolve. Guess your shape. Serene. Yet you'll grow impatient. Anxious to be free as the world vibrates. You have your life to be getting on with after all. How long have you been in here? What will you find when you emerge? Celebrations? Or stamped on like a roach? Will you be wonderful with color and wingspan? Dancing for a mate. You wonder as you wait and change. Change and wait. Would you be content on a diet of dirt? It goes like this. Your thoughts in circles. Dream chasing worry. Worry chasing dream. Waiting to be reborn. Maybe You'll soar. Riding warm swells on summer days. Or will you dwell in the dark? No use for eyes. Only smell. Tasting the air for a sense of direction. Will you find yourself one of a hive? Or will you remain alone? Expanding to crack this shell. Forcing yourself out into the sun. Everything rings different in the light. I am slow in the warmth. A breeze drying my soft skin. Transforming it. Tempering it to steel. Polishing it until it shines. You can't see your face in it. Old friends won`t recognize you. And you won`t recognize them. Remixed, remodeled, restructured. Bold explorers discovering purpose anew. Before all you did was eat. First steps you stumble. Unsure of how many legs you've got. The sun seems to sing her reassurance. Her welcome. Your joints clank and rattle. Like those of a machine. You move stiff and robotic, but swiftly now. Here comes the rain. Heaven cracks back to throw its shower against your armor and you feel invincible, immortal. Impenetrable in the private fortress of this exoskeleton. Shrugging off a god's tears. Blood races. Oxygen pumps. What passes for a heart, this heart, is strong. With no measure of time, you busy yourself with the business of being alive. Features Hiele, Polysick, Rembrandt Redandt, Soft Focus, Alois R., Milan W., Fregnacciarius, Elko B., Hantrax, Jonny Nash, Gigi Masin, Suzanne Kraft, Componium Ensemble, and Roger 3000.
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LP
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EKSTER 012LP
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We Never Happened is the second release from Ssaliva on Ekster. Ssaliva (François Boulanger) works under the aliases Cupp Cave and Kingfisherg. "I am a vessel. A muffled mass. A bulk. Extent. A womb. I move. So I am neither here nor there. Always somewhere in between. To give substance to this frame, I carve out a piece of me. Sometimes a shape, sometimes a form. Into this space I pour the siege of me: words, pictures, you. So we can become me. Viscosity and temperature dictate the time it takes. When it is done, I break the mold I am. I take the cast inside and place it by the others. Choose one and take it home." 180 gram vinyl packed in a pantone printed outer sleeve with drawing by Charles-Henry Sommelette; Comes with printed inner-sleeves and silk screened plastic over-sleeve.
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10"
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EKS 010LP
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Hiele's soundtrack to the film Saints (2016), by Dieter Deswarte. Eleven tracks on this 10" vinyl. Specks of land in the vast infinite sea, islands have long fascinated the human imagination. Oddly exotic & gently paced, Hiele's soundtrack drags the listener into eleven pastorals bulking of fragile sustained breaths of melody. Accents of resonating strings, airy playfulness and sacred fragments of droning nature drive with the instrumentation of clarinet, double bass and various electronics. Cover photo by Sylvie De Weze. Saints is the documentary film about isolation and the impact that it can have on a small society.
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LP
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EKSTER 004LP
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Ekster presents the second album from the very talented Hiele -- more dope shit from this highly-skilled young whipper-snapper. Limited to 500 copies. Behavioral scientists discovered why watching a forest relaxes the mind while the sight of an urban jungle, no matter how intricate, stresses us out. A forest contains so many lines, triangles, etc., that our mind immediately gives up on trying to see it all. This giving up is the relaxing effect. In the city our eyes and mind keep on trying to see every line, square, rectangle, etc. Impossible of course, and thus: stressing. The same goes for Hiele's music, which is a true aural forest of all electronic music. There's simply too much to hear: ambient, 808 jack, '90s IDM, Chicago footstep, glitchy bits, etc. So, there are only two cerebral reactions possible. First, if not accustomed with electronic music, is to put the needle off the record after a few seconds into the first track, and to never give it a second try. Secondly, to sit back and let the ingenious compositions wash over you. By the time you've been able to pinpoint a certain recognizable sound, Essential Oils, even more so than its predecessor, has already moved on so much that it leaves you wondering if a new track has already begun or not. (This wondering, again, makes you lose the pace.) Most electronic artists would be able to make a full-length album with the material that Hiele uses in only one track. Yet, amidst all his frantic compositions, Hiele never loses his keen sense for sweet melodies and, yes, even danceable beats. The album comes in a full-color printed sleeve, with a cover photo by Hildegard Hanssen and graphic work by Victor Robyn. All tracks produced and mixed by Roman Hiele. Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
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