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viewing 1 To 18 of 18 items
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LP
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STRLP 030LP
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Maroma was there long before the Moors. The Moors were there long before man landed on the moon half a century ago. Drum machines meant you didn't have to take Ginger Baker out for a drink. Life takes on sublime logic. In retrospect, everything takes on a new meaning from a different perspective. The past is the future. From Glasgow to Edinburgh to Andalucia. This music is about a small journey, an aural triptych of sounds.
"The Glasgow period was most definitively 1982-1987 and the Edinburgh period didn't really start again until around 2010. Two decades without creating music is a long time and it had been gnawing at me all along the yellow brick road I'd been travelling. With a new vigor and echoes of teenage angst I began again. I decided to call myself 'Reluctant Participant'. It was very apt. It was a love/hate relationship that reached deep into the soul. Delving down into dormant memories of places visited and the atmospheres created by them. Like the ice white shroud that lay over winter in Krakow's Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz. Photographs didn't do it justice. It needed a piano. The Edinburgh period on this LP is represented by the four piano pieces 'Embers', 'Kazimierz', 'Star Chamber' and 'Ritual', all recorded there between 2014-2016. They're part of a sequence of around fifty compositions from the same period some of which featured on the previous Vazz LP on STROOM and on the accompanying twenty track CD on Forced Nostalgia. It was a three-year purge recording this piano music. Emotionally intense and technically challenging. I'm glad it's over. It was the culmination of another chapter of music that remains frozen in time and place. It was time to move on again to pastures new. Constricted by the boundaries of a small island and the madness of Brexit I felt an urge to leave it all behind in 2017 in search of the exotic. The same urge that took fellow Scotsman Robert Louis Stevenson to look for his treasure island. He died in Samoa in 1894. I didn't feel the urge to go that far and Stevenson is quoted as saying 'wine is bottled poetry'. Yes, I agree, and the wine is cheap and very fine in Spain. Cheap poetry was what I needed. Bukowski told me to do it." Hugh Small, May 2019
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LP
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STRLP 033LP
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"Sometimes our own creations surprised us," says Inguna Rubene, flute player, guitarist, bassoonist, and songwriter for 19 Gadi Pirms Sākuma (19 Years Before the Beginning). Created with the idea of lasting for a single performance, 19 Gadi Pirms Sākuma developed into one of the most delicate, intriguing groups in Latvia's 1980s and early 1990s music scene. Formed in 1988, the band arrived at a time when the Soviet Union was showing the first signs of unravelling. "19 Gadi Pirms Sākuma started because we wanted to prepare a musical program for an exhibition organized by Hardijs Lediņs, Juris Boiko [both from the band/performance collective NSRD] and other avant-garde artists at the Aizrobezu Art Museum [now the Art Museum of Riga Bourse]. It could have remained as a one-time musical project if it were not for two journalists from West Berlin who were at the exhibition," Rubene reveals. "They asked for the band's album, but there was none." The band: Inguna (vocal, flute, bassoon, rhythm guitar) Daiga Mazversite (Daiga Mazvērsīte) (synthesizer), Ilgvars Riskis (Ilgvars Risķis) (percussion), and Viesturs Slava (keyboards, guitar, programming, vocal); improvised a studio in Riskis's apartment and with the modest equipment available to them set about recording. They laid down four tracks, one of which, "Singapūras Vējš", appears on this compilation. Listening to it now, the frantic synths, percussion and Rubene's vocal reveal the urgency of the time. Shortly after that first recording session they were invited to play West Berlin's Transmission Festival, sharing the stage with the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten. The following year, two new members joined 19 Gadi Pirms Sākuma: Uldis Vanags (woodwinds) and Ugis Serins (Uģis Sēriņs) (saxophone). Once more they entered the studio, this time laying down five tracks, "Die Wilde Frau", "Ruhig", "Kurmja Deja", "Nikni Zvēri", "Pāri Upei", all of which are present on this compilation. Seemingly disparate acoustic and synthetic sounds orchestrated into swooning, surreal songs. Elements of minimalism combined with synth pop and echoes of folk melodicism. Much like their contemporaries and collaborators NSRD, 19 Gadi Pirms Sākuma's music captures frustration with their own reality, and a playful drive to make up a new one. In the years since that initial burst of life, 19 Gadi Pirms Sākuma remained active. In 1990 their track "Nakts Ir Mana Zemapziņa" was released on the Ienāc Ausīs compilation of underground Latvian music (1990), the first record released in Latvia following its independence.
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12"
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STR12 020EP
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"To understand where 'The Attic' came from, we have to go back to one of my oldest memories: watching movies on German TV. Those that left the deepest marks on me zoomed in on the bad sides of technology and predicted the downfall of mankind. A next cornerstone was 'Are Friends Electric?'; it was the first time I was blown away by the sound of synths. I quit the army and made 'The Attic'. When the demo was finished, we went handed it to Olivier Pieters, who played it, going on to become one of the signature songs for which they switched on the big lasers..."
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LP
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STRLP 005LP
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2019 repress of Jan van den Broeke's 11000 Dreams, an ambient/synth/wave compilation centering on the man who brought the world Absent Music, The Misz, and June11. Introvert gold!
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LP
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STREP 028LP
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The cover art text, translated: "Shakti, a three-man formation around Praga Khan. With this first mini-LP, Praga once more proves his capability to drill into new rhythmic territories. Demonic Forces is a dance record. Western discotheque rhythmics mixed with Eastern influences -- a unique creation that certainly can be called astonishing. The use of original Eastern instruments gives the whole an extra mystik dimension. With the help of some friends amongst whom, amongst others, Naburak Pran, Shakti succeeds in attaining an unparalleled atmosphere without losing sight of the ever so important dance beat. Demonic Forces, a revelation."
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LP
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STRLP 029LP
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TRjj is made up of several people that meet regularly since 2016. TRjj stems from TRIIMusik, a loose group based in Germany since 1998. It is practiced collectively with interchanging names and roles, so the full control about disguised authorship would be guaranteed. Everyone involved was set to meet half way. TRjj is a filter for the kinship of many. It's the freedom attained, once you have gotten rid of yourself. This heteronomic practice would be ideal to advocate against reasons which are claimed, biographies that are scripted, economies that are fueled and histories that are written to be recognized as something apparently truly valid and fully finished.
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LP
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STRLP 027LP
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"Benjamin Lew was an enlightened amateur, in the noble and almost Renaissance-like sense of the word: he dabbled with equal grace in photography, writing, visual arts ... and worked part-time as a cocktail mixer in a tropical bar which was one of the favorite watering holes of Brussels' thriving artistic community of the early '80s. Tuxedomoon had just moved to Brussels, and Steven Brown was among the many musicians, designers, and artists who patronized the bar. Benjamin had a secret passion: he wasn't a musician, but had acquired a small analog computer, with which he had started creating these strange mysterious little pieces. Benjamin played them to Steven and asked him if he'd agree to record with him. Steven was taken with them and accepted. The Douzième Journée was largely created in the studio by both protagonists, with the help of Gilles Martin and myself, in the spring of '82. Listening to his albums (he went on to record four more with Crammed) is like embarking on a dream journey to the Sahara or the Far East. You'd think that some of the pieces feature non-European musicians or samples but: no... this is just Benjamin's imagination, his synths, and his friends... " --Marc Hollander, Feb. 2019
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LP
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STREP 023LP
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Stroom's valentine special for 2019. "Lovely" electro/wave from Venice, Italy (1981-1984). The second to last decade of the 20th century was flourishing in its full glory with uncompromising decisions and emergence of new genres to experiment with. Several years before the boom of the '80s is when Alessandro Pizzin got involved with the creation of Ruins and was later joined by Piergiuseppe Ciranna in the fluctuating group constitution. After several alterations in the group it didn't take long until their duo came together in an attempt to make the first wave twist towards experimenting with electronic sounds. In the frame of the birthtime of many new branches of musical subdivision, the artists fused their intentions and virtuosity to base the centerpiece of their prospective electro sound.
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12"
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STR12 021EP
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One of Nosedrip's favorite Belgian releases from the early '90s reissued on Stroom. Trance/new beat embodied as a shovel in mud?
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LP
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STRLP 019LP
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48 Cameras was the brainchild and life project of self-proclaimed non-musician Jean-Marie Mathoul, a social worker born and raised in Huy who carefully conducted 48C towards cult status. The name of the collective references photographer Eadweard Muybridge and a poem by Jim Morrison; "Muybridge derived his animal subjects from the Philadelphia Zoological Garden, male performers from the University. The women were professional artists' models, also actresses and dancers, parading nude before the 48 cameras". It is important to note that 48C is somewhat of a non-band. The musicians and collaborators never actually recorded together, and to this day some haven't even met each other. Before starting the recording process, J-M built an album in his mind: choice of album and song titles, who was to collaborate, even the artwork was clear long before the first note was played, leaving little room for surprises. Throughout the years, collaborators sent their parts by snail mail on tape, DAT, or even MiniDisc, and with the arrival of the internet some began to upload their contributions. Jean-Marie even refused to recognize one album and a rare live show as being 48C, stating: "That's not 48 Cameras." Yves Tassin: "I remember one time being in a record shop with J-M, and I stumbled upon the second album we had released, however, J-M had told me that particular album no longer existed. In his typical stubborn style, he told me: 'Buy the album, but I'm leaving.' It's still not clear what his problem with that particular album was, but he didn't want to acknowledge it. Of course when I was holding it in my hand he had to admit that it existed." J-M welcomed new collaborators by saying: "You are here, thanks to the Domino Principle: you'll meet someone, who will allow you to meet a next person, after that one, another, etcetera." This principle he held dearly, almost as a life philosophy. Which is not to say that all encounters were fructuous. Calo: "One day I introduced J-M to Tucker Zimmerman, so they could maybe collaborate, but nothing happened. On a photo taken on that particular day, you see J-M and Tucker silently sitting next to each other in the garden, not really talking to each other. Both personalities too strong to collaborate." Stubborn leaders demand to be tested, so at times some of the members of the collective decided to challenge J-M, telling him they'd sneak in melodies of popular hit songs. Features a remix by Vesica Piscis.
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7"
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STR7 018EP
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Vandershrick's Onzeker was brewed up in the bedroom of Stroom intern Victor De Roo and roommate Felix Poffé. Now elevated to new heights by Stroom Records. Don't miss! Edition of 300.
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LP
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STRLP 015LP
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Spoki ("Ghosts") is the sound of an artist putting their private world to tape. Of exploring and pushing the limits of themselves and technology to realize the music in their head. The material here was recorded in Riga between 1988-2011. As Ingus Bausķenieks himself explains: "My own world differs a little from my friends' tastes. And -- as my father said -- the collective art is not art at all. The music of Ingus Bausķenieks is both deeply private and completely alien. Experimental yet happy to celebrate pop influences such as Engelbert Humperdinck, Simon & Garfunkel, or Fleetwood Mac. It is shaped by the artist's engagement with technology and his strive to put to record his "own world". As Ingus explains, it is the sound of him: "doing what I like to do."
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LP
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STRLP 006LP
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Repress; Originally released in 2017. A techno-nature synthesis for an East-West confrontation/a musical travel log from a Dutch musician searching for inspiration in the East in the early '80s.
Stroom on the release: "After travelling to India, Indonesia, Thailand, Bali and Java in his younger days, Cybe released three cassette tapes. Tropisch Verlangen now compiles a series of ten wonderful handcrafted analogue electronics from those tapes, sounding like lush fields of electronic wheat swaying in voltage-controlled wind. It reads as a musical travelogue from a Dutch musician from Haarlem, who listened to way too much Gong and went searching for inspiration, sound recordings and instruments in the East in the early eighties."
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12"
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STRLP 012LP
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Pablo's Eye is the science of studio pressure, when engineer becomes artist. Appropriating left and right as well as front and back, Pablo's Eye uses the mixing desk to examine and exhaust the possibilities of moments. Pablo's Eye is a record of that examination and exhaustion, but it is also a record of its own inner space. By means of depth placement, psychoacoustics and spatial fug, Pablo's Eye is experienced in the deeper reaches of the body, bypassing the conscious part of the mind entirely. Pablo's Eye is the turning of recorded music inside out to show its seams. It interrogates a song, stripping down the body of the song to reveal its bones. Pablo's Eye is in the interstices of music, it plugs the gaps, fills the holes. Pablo's Eye seeks out the concealed mechanisms, it is a song's hidden agenda. For this compilation, it was decided to present the softer air-beatings of Pablo's Eye. More than anything, Pablo's Eye is a temporary atmosphere, like a taste or a dream...
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12"
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STR12 004EP
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Maxi 12" of danceable tracks by NSRD, best known as a Latvian avant-garde, postmodern, experimental, and underground music group active in the '80s.
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STRLP 003LP
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Juris Boiko (1954-2002) and Hardijs Lediņs (1955-2004) were the core members of the NSRD, best known as a Latvian avant-garde, postmodern, experimental and underground music group active in 1980s. Their activities were widely multidisciplinary and they cannot be considered as purely musicians since none of them had a professional musical education. Their creativity was manifested through variety of media -- music, performance and action art, visual arts, poetry, samizdat, the introduction video art in Latvia etc. NSRD also made a significant contribution to the explanation of the theoretical aspects of art in the interpretation of the postmodernist movement, and developed the independent concept of "Approximate Art". At the end of the '80s, NSRD got connected and performed with several artists and musicians living in West Germany, including Indulis Bilzēns, Micky Remann, Maximilian Lenz, aka Westbam, and others. Includes download code.
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LP+CD
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STRLP 008LP
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Post-punk pop meets ethereal wave. Vazz are one of Scotland's best kept secrets. Includes a bonus CD of piano works. Features a mix by Macula Lutea.
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LP
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STRLP 001LP
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Dark ambient synth album by Alain Pierre for Belgium's first long animated picture, Jan Zonder Vress (1984), directed by Jef Cassiers. Teenage horror cult from Flanders - full cartoon art. The score ranges from catchy synthesizer tunes over upbeat medieval melodies with an eighties make-over, to near-atmospheric ambient, and the theme song is an earworm that's nested deep into the collective memory of every Flemish person who had a TV in the late eighties and nineties. This is the maiden vinyl voyage for Ghent's maverick internet broadcasting crew, Stroom. 180 gram vinyl; Comes in a gatefold sleeve; Includes a download code.
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