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viewing 1 To 12 of 12 items
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LP
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ESC 165LP
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Danish four-piece Liss share their debut album in the hopes of creating a lasting legacy for late lead singer Søren Holm's life, love, and talent. Although recording began many years prior, the album was only finished shortly before Holm tragically passed away in May 2021. From the most recent release "Boys In Movies" featuring Nilüfer Yanya, which oscillates gorgeously between dark, grungy guitar chords and a sunny, optimistic ear worm of a chorus, to "Exist", an ethereal plea with hints of a hymn in the vocal stacks, the record shows all the transfixing sides of Liss with extraordinary heart. With the release, a new video for "Nobody Really Cares" filmed in Western Denmark, the area where Holm was raised. Shot by his two dear friends Albert Hildebrand and Yasmina Derradj, this video embraces the Western Danish wilds with portraits of Holm's friends blended with clips of natural elements as the visual become more and more surreal. Of the debut album's release today, Liss share, "Today our album I Guess Nothing Will Be The Same is released. We have spent an important part of our life together since we started the band seven years ago . . . Søren was always the one who made us understand each other better. He was extremely generous with his creativity and as a human being. We would like to thank Søren's parents, Leonida and Niels, for supporting us in releasing this album..." The project's title, I Guess Nothing Will Be The Same, is a line from, "Text Me Back," a song about a break-up with someone you love that closes out the new album. The world was first introduced to Holm's off-kilter charm and mesmerizing voice in the video for Liss's debut video, "Try", in 2015. In the pursuing years, Søren and his fellow band members Villads, Vilhelm, and Tobias navigated Liss's rise in popularity and everything it brought with it. Co-signed by the likes of Pharrell Williams, they soon followed up with the widely praised First EP (2016) released via XL Recordings. After an enforced hiatus, they returned with their EPs, Second (2019) and Third (2020). Combining Holm's captivating voice with their grungy take on r&b, soul, and alternative pop, stints on the road with artists like Vampire Weekend, MO, and jungle soon followed. Blue vinyl.
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LP
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ESC 125LP
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On Ydegirl, the Copenhagen and Berlin-based musician Andrea Novel channels women from the past to find healing in her own present. The album's themes span time and her body's adaption to its changing passages, of places -- both real and imagined -- and her relationship to them. The songs exist in a limbo, fragmented state, reflecting Andrea's desire to challenge the concept of wholeness as the ideal. "I wanted to embrace being on the cusp, and not idealizing the wholesome or homogenous sound or form of storytelling," Novel says of the album. "It's more a collage work where I've been patching together the corners of my sound and mind, and then from different angles letting through all the voices, fantasies, moods and memories I have inside. The good and bad, the clear and distorted, the desired and unwanted, the ancient and yet to come." Ydegirl stages modern day r&b and pop elements in a Nordic baroque scene, using classical instruments like clarinet, guitar, and violin in the same breath as synthesizers and electronic drum patterns. Center to the music is her captivating voice, interlacing feelings of past, present and future in unique sonic arrangements. In Yde in the Netherlands in 1897, a 2000 year-old body of a girl was found in a local bog, remarkably preserved thanks to the effects of the acid in the peat. When found her head was partly shaved and her chest and pelvis almost dissolved. It's an image that's stayed with Danish artist Andrea Novel, inspiring not just her stage name Ydegirl, but also acting as something of a muse for the tightrope walking tension of her haunting chamber pop. Novel shared her first project as Ydegirl in 2019 with her debut EP notes19, a collection of self-produced songs that play out like an intimate diary, secret tellings of desires, plans and turmoil, creating sparks of energy around her artistic practice. Since her debut, Ydegirl has performed across Europe including a recent gallery show in London, Vega in Copenhagen, and at multiple festivals across Scandinavia including Norway's by:Larm and Denmark's SPOT. Ydegirl is Novel's debut album. Clear, swirly vinyl; includes swamp extract and double-sided 70x100 cm poster with album art and lyrics; edition of 500.
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LP
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ESC 167LP
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Following his gorgeous collaborative single with Ian Isiah, "Fiction," and his most recent singles "Swim On" and "Seconds" (featuring feat. Coco O), internationally acclaimed Danish pianist and producer, August Rosenbaum, shares his highly collaborative Songs People Together LP via Escho, featuring Ian Isiah, Kool Keith, Moses Boyd, and more. At 34 years old, August's acclaimed career as a multifaceted artist melds the cinematic and classic. His talents as a writer range from crafting timeless pop songs including collaborating and recording with some of today's most exciting and established musicians, Kendrick Lamar, Dijon, Dev Hynes, Kindness, and more; to composing numerous scores for film, TV and art installations, and recently co-wrote a ballet score with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He also regularly collaborates with leading visual artist Jesper Just on exhibitions for a.o. Palais De Tokyo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Songs People Together is expansive, with elements of RnB, pop, soul -- all filtered through August's unique experimental lens. The record as a whole is a world unto itself, with the production often booming but always crystal clear. It's immersive and haunting sonically, wrapping you up in the main thesis of the album, which is that connecting with each other is the main goal of any kind of music, no matter who you are or what it sounds like. The voices on the record (including August's own for the first time) give us different perspectives within this one landscape. Also features Emi Wes, Felukah, Philip Owusu, and Jada.
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LP
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ESC 182LP
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Puyain Sanati is a Danish-Iranian, Copenhagen-based composer and sound artist. Hailing from a background in more dance-oriented club music he now also works within the field of electroacoustic and abstract music. Influenced by improvisation and ritual music, he has been delving into his artistic research on the subject of "ancient traditions with today's electronic possibilities", utilizing hypnotic rhythms and soundscapes to map out some kind of bigger universal language, perhaps bridging a wider human consciousness. Nafas Morte is the title of Puyain Sanati's new album and Farsi for "final breath". As with all undulations of breath, nothing here is constant. The five tracks work as cinematic soundscapes to an array of possible narratives -- personal, universal, or abstract -- all of which center around notions of rituals and tragedy. With a generous and candid approach, Nafas Morte sonically illustrates these complex subjects in a poetic and non-grid manner. According to Sanati, the album is an exploration of rituals of grief, loss, and the transcendence that follows. Emitting a faint hubbub holding a likeness to crowds or reverberating machinery the record oscillates between moments of build-up and release -- implemental for mirroring the flow and pace of our world. With elements akin to ambient, industrial, drone, kosmische, and musique concrète, Sanati utilizes a range of technical approaches, including experiments with electronic processing and acoustic sources, side by side and together. Choral harmonies, flute, and the santoor effortlessly weave together into the tapestry of sound. All these sources, overlapping layers, textures, and tempos somehow feel dense yet light at the same time. Death is change. And with its intrinsic beauty it trickles through the veins of this album, beckoning the listener to ponder the state of transition. Clear vinyl.
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2LP
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ESC 100LP
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Copenhagen based label Escho release Escho 15 år: Burgers For My New Life, an extensive compilation of exclusive material for their 15th anniversary (2005-2020). The compilation gathers music by all the currently active artists of Escho -- both Danish and international -- 27 artists in total. Across its releases, Escho's aesthetic has allowed for the amateurish and the obsessive, the soft and the hard. Escho is about the power of shared experimental experience. Escho was born in a period of time where alternative and underground music existed on a private, separate plane to mass culture, and it now finds itself in a time where mass culture and the underground are porous. Tribalism and niche knowledge has been blended by the internet, erasing the border between mainstream and underground modes. Alternative thinking takes many forms now, and new artists continue to expand and interpret the sound of Escho, carrying with them the same curiosity that lit the first Escho sparks 15 years ago. As a whole, this compilation -- it is important to note -- is jagged in form and tone. It is not even close to a conventional scene compilation, where the sound of a clan flows together. This record doesn't flow like that. And this, fittingly, makes this anniversary album a "classic" Escho release, because conventions about form and presentation are thrown out the window and new conventions proposed. More than its form and tone, however, this compilation is jagged because it is a document of today. It is not final, or conclusive in any way, because the contours of contemporary music are boundless. It's jagged because Escho has been to a million shows, and put on a million shows, and still loves going to shows. It is a picture of pluralism, discovery and openness. It makes a case for having ears, and making art, and propagating this so that successive generations of young people do it too. Transparent blue and transparent orange. Contributing artists for the compilation are (in alphabetical order): Anders P Jensen, August Rosenbaum, Astrid Sonne, Baby In Vain, BishBusch, The Bleeder Group, Bona Fide, Collider, Dane TS Hawk, Eric Copeland, Excepter, First Hate, Gullo Gullo, Homies, iB101, Iceage, Joanne Robertson, Kh Marie, Liss, Oliver Coates, Puyain Sanati, Small White Man, Smerz, Søren Kjærgaard, Thulebasen, Varnrable, Yangze, and Ydegirl.
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LP
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ESC 102LP
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2019 release. Whirlwind of a debut album from Copenhagen underground phenomenon Collider. High intensity guitar music with psychedelic, dreamy elements of boy/girl vocals and even a flute. The soundscape points towards starry shoegaze and '90s slacker rock, while progressive shifts and a daring, illogical approach to composition places the band in their very own fusion genre. Based on paranormal, astral experiences and a chaotic way of life, the universe of Collider is both expanding and enclosing. A noisy backdrop with soft, hazy melodies in the foreground, occasionally interrupted by snarling outbreaks is the result of an expressive and sensible way of four young human beings playing music together.
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LP
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ESC 083LP
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2017 release. Debut album from 2017 by Copenhagen synth-pop duo First Hate. Having refined their impeccable knack for melodies and dramatic pop productions, A Prayer For The Unemployed is a cornerstone in the world building of First Hate. Dark club beats meet synth melodies reminiscing both '80s pop hits and more recent Euro dance lifestyle. The theatrical yet sincere vocal of charismatic front singer Anton Falck Gansted tells tales of euphoria and loneliness, of cursed relationships, sentimental nights and never-ending dances while the sun rises. A dire atmosphere throughout the album is juxtaposed with use of playful flutes, harmonicas, and sparkling trance keys, perfectly encapsulating all of the opposites that makes for the memories of youth. Since 2014, First Hate has gained a truly dedicated following all around the world. Building from the releases of their first EPs First Hate (2014) and Mind of a Gemini (2016) along with countless tours in Europe and Asia, the band has become a sensible catalyst for many fans caught in between youthful naivety and a growing feeling of mature responsibilities. A Prayer For The Unemployed provided an even more solid framework for First Hate's characteristic aesthetic and broadened the reach of the band.
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LP
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ESC 136LP
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Baby In Vain's See Through is a sonic taxonomy of resistance rock. It is at times upfront and confrontational, a little dangerous in the detuned dirge of Sonic Youth or sleazy fuzz shimmy of Royal Trux, emphatic and big, the lip sometimes curling into a sneer. At other times it is internal and contained, crystalline, shy and pretty like shoegaze, leading with fine dynamics, or filled with the faraway choral warmth of dream pop, the gentle unity of girl-group gang vocals, or the tentative joy of garage, where all the possibilities of kids with two guitars and a drum set were born. See Through is instinctive -- it doesn't mean to contain the history of DIY expression in all its rawness and vulnerability. It doesn't wish to look back. It is, ultimately, a record made by young people, about being a young person. Its themes include self-image, love and lust, risk-taking, abandonment and society. Children of the 21st-century draw strength from the children before them, forging their own splintered identities from the ruins and relics around them while never losing sight of the fact that making your noise on your terms is still the best first step in finding yourself and fixing your world in place. Baby In Vain is: Lola Hammerich Binzer (vocal, guitar), Andrea Thuesen Johansen (vocal, guitar), Benedicte Pierleoni-Nielsen (drums). Produced by Baby In Vain and Nis Bysted (Iceage, Chorus Grant). Mixed by Baby In Vain and Nis Bysted. Master by ET Mastering. All music written and performed by Baby In Vain. Additional strings on "Million" and "See Through" by Nils Gröndahl. Recorded in Copenhagen in 2019-2020.
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LP
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ESC 116LP
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Fourth studio album by Danish experimental, electronic pop trio, When Saints Go Machine. Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild (vocals, production), Jonas Kenton (production), and Silas Moldenhawer's (production) unique brand of digital pop experiments has seen them collaborate with the likes of Killer Mike (Run The Jewels), carved themselves an exciting niche and received critical acclaim worldwide. The three-piece's sound was born of a complicated melting pot of musical influences. A heady mix of modern electronics, European club culture, contemporary rap and a dualism between composed and produced sounds. The engaging, extra-terrestrial feel to "So Deep" is another ambitious move from the three-piece and its genesis came about through a collaboration with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, who reinterpreted material from earlier records for live performances. That process inspired further collaborations and the expansive sound of "So Deep" is the result of that continued affinity between two tribes of musicians who, on paper, may seem the antithesis of each other. The album incorporates club inspired elements, both in sound and arrangement, exploring the process and dialogue between traditional music creation and modern digital creation. The band work tirelessly to create an expansive sample bank of orchestra recordings to put into a digital world, and then pushed and stretched them into something else entirely. The band manipulated sounds while recording in real time, which then became the sample. Samples were crafted into a score that was given back to orchestra, completing the work. A symphony of synthetic and traditional was the result, sinews between the past and future of music to create something truly unusual. This playful sense of pushing forward, of a restless desire to do something different and otherworldly is apparent across the record, an alien experiment in sound.
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LP
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ESC 110LP
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Cliodynamics is the second release by Copenhagen composer and musician Astrid Sonne. The mini-LP is a collection of tracks written and recorded over the past year in Germany, Portugal, and her birth island Bornholm in Denmark. Acting as a sequel to her debut album Human Lines (2018), Cliodynamics allows the listener to delve deeper into the enveloping elements of her compositional practice. The result is an even more refined electronic expression, continuing to bring in her instrument of choice, the viola, as a natural part of her music. As well as adding something new to her work, working with four vocalists. With a reinforced interest in transitions and crossings in form and structure, the six tracks present their very own perception of emotional states of being. Each composition is a thorough exploration of their own dynamics and pace, paying close attention to the qualities connected to the sensitive features. Cliodynamics in total becomes a guide carrying the listener through islands of both high-intensity polyrhythmic and careful ambience with equal kindness. Common for the compositions is the continued way of working with the balance between repetition and renewal in the musical material. While some themes remain the same, others naturally evolve showing Sonnes growth as a composer. The viola can now be found directly connected to electronic elements bringing forward the acoustic/electronic dualism of Sonnes musical practice. Sonne explores an inner mediation on beginnings and endings, on memories and awareness of universal temporality blending an emotional soundscape with minimalistic compositional tools, resulting in a crystal-clear musical aesthetic. Astrid Sonne's connection to choir music emerges in the closing track of Cliodynamics with the vocal piece "Strong, Calm, Slow". Each voice has its own distinct features and qualities, creating four unique ways of singing by vocalists Andrea Novél, Henriette Motzfeldt, and Xenia Xamanek. However, it is the unity of these different expressions that create the piece, maintaining their individuality while being more than the sum of four voices at the same time. This union between such diversities becomes a strong metaphor within the mini-LP too, six different sides of Sonne's universe appearing in total as a multifaceted quartz crystal that is Cliodynamics. Starting points for the two last tracks, "Area Under A Curve" and "Strong, Calm, Slow" were both written as parts of a longer live piece "Ephemeral", premiered at Berlin Atonal 2018.
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LP
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ESC 108LP
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Never before released score for Nicolas Winding Refn's infamous movie Pusher 3: I'm The Angel of Death from 2005, composed by legendary Danish punkers Peter Peter (Sods) and Peter Kyed. Refn's three Pusher films endure as the most important Danish gangster films ever made. They revealed a gruesome, desperate national underbelly that had not been depicted on screen before, and they single-handedly anticipated the dark aesthetics of so-called "Nordic Noir" that took over the world in the two decades that followed. The films launched the international career of Mads Mikkelsen, unrecognizable in the early role of skinhead thug Tonny. The films are driven by a jagged, schizophrenic tempo, anxious atmosphere, and explosions of catharsis, a vibe Refn engineered with the close collaboration of Peter Peter and Peter Kyed. The audio and the visuals are inseparable. Since late '70s, Peter Peter casts a long shadow over the Danish punk underground, embracing the aesthetics and possibilities opened up by that period, from post-punk to goth, noise, art rock and free jazz. Peter's invigorating, almost optimistic attitude about the possibilities of sonic violence is a crucial early influence on Refn, and Peter Peters group Bleeder even inspired the title of Refn's movie by that same name. In Pusher 3, guitar noise, pulses of static, and ghostly piano figures tail the terrorizing stress of Milo (Zlatko Burić) through the film. Crystalline synth soundscapes offer temporary, untrustworthy relief, a nauseous kind of peace. The soundtrack is a sonic companion to heroin relapses, birthday party preparations and the carving up of rivals. Solid purple vinyl.
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LP
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ESC 107LP
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Never before released score for Nicolas Winding Refn's infamous movie Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands from 2004, composed by legendary Danish punkers Peter Peter (Sods) and Peter Kyed. Refn's three Pusher films endure as the most important Danish gangster films ever made. They revealed a gruesome, desperate national underbelly that had not been depicted on screen before, and they single-handedly anticipated the dark aesthetics of so-called "Nordic Noir" that took over the world in the two decades that followed. The films launched the international career of Mads Mikkelsen, unrecognizable in the early role of skinhead thug Tonny. The films are driven by a jagged, schizophrenic tempo, anxious atmosphere, and explosions of catharsis, a vibe Refn engineered with the close collaboration of Peter Peter and Peter Kyed. The audio and the visuals are inseparable. Since late '70s, Peter Peter casts a long shadow over the Danish punk underground, embracing the aesthetics and possibilities opened up by that period, from post-punk to goth, noise, art rock and free jazz. Peter's invigorating, almost optimistic attitude about the possibilities of sonic violence is a crucial early influence on Refn, and Peter Peters group Bleeder even inspired the title of Refn's movie by that same name. In Pusher II, eerie ambience and violent outburst of heavy synth follow the cascading drums and uncompromising guitar riff of the memorable theme as Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) adjusts to life on the outside. Driving rock sketches describe a race through chaos, and the clash between instinct and morality. Solid red vinyl.
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