TAL - Forced Exposure

$31.50 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 11/29/2024

Highly regarded as a former resident at Salon Des Amateurs at his native Düsseldorf, Tolouse Low Trax/Detlef Weinrich has carved one of the most distinctive sounds in contemporary leftfield club music, thanks to his deeply unusual grooves and hypnotic arrangements over the past 15 years as a solo artist. Fung Day is his first album with entirely new material since Leave Me Alone which was released through Bureau B in 2022. Fung Day was written and recorded over the course of two years, slowly mutating and progressing from one state to another. Mixed, produced and finally mastered in Paris, his new domicile by choice.

A few words by Yvan Smagghe about Fung Day: "He pretended he was in exile from Germany but he was a French lover like all of us; his MPC Sampler was smoking hot, an Enigma machine, an ashtray full of ghosts. I had left Paris for the same reasons he came. I could strangely relate. We'd met before he left Düsseldorf, and I knew of him through his oeuvre, his art over words (they were few) and piercing blue eyes. He was now texting me on a night train from Warsaw going East, as in a Greene novel, asking me to go over his file. He sent me a spontaneous, fun, brave and bold record which is his new album -- one that curiously smelled of mechanical grease -- machinery of the soul, broken transport rhythms, samples like memories, noise at peace. Referenced yet uncoded. I don't believe in ulterior motives and complex explanations. Not here at least. On the other hand, I do believe that works can be exposure -- especially with the silent type or mistaken identities -- and I knew about these too." --London, 2024

$31.50 IN STOCK

The Well is the second album by the duo So Sner, composed of Susanna Gartmayer (bass clarinet) and Stefan Schneider (electronics). Recorded over nearly two years in various studios and spaces, the album reflects So Sner's extensive touring across Europe. The final mixing took place in Vienna at the studio of Martin Siewert, who served as both co-producer and mastering engineer. Known for his meticulous attention to sonic detail, Siewert brings his unique techniques and distinctive sound enhancements to the album, resulting in a work that is both stylistically cohesive and daringly uncompromising. With The Well, the duo explores both fluid and dissonant sonic landscapes, embracing different structural and sonic challenges. The result is a quieter, more introspective set of compositions than many might have anticipated. The album is a statement of two confident collaborators crafting com-plex, spatial musical moments in their own distinct manner. The music on The Well generates a multiplicity of effects that transcend conventional oppositions such as hand-played versus programmed, composition versus improvisation, or analog versus digital. The album suggests a re-articulation of these categories, allowing the ten tracks to gradually blend one musical idea into another, and one musician into another, in a circular and complementary fashion. The polymetric permutations and exploratory reed components create a soundscape where all elements coexist harmoniously, without compromising or diminishing each other's presence. With its sparse sound architecture, The Well invites listeners into a space of effective emptiness, offering room for the mind and body to explore -- a sonic island where one can develop sensuality through patient movement. The Well captures the genuine act of exploring new territories, serving as a storage place for the time and space shared by the duo, re-filtering their experiences of performing and traveling together. The Well is a lucidly playful and ambitious album by two contemporary musicians who are continually learning to create and respond to the subtle and significant changes in their music, maintaining momentum throughout the entire work. In addition to her work with So Sner, Susanna Gartmayer has recently collaborated with artists such as Joe McPhee and Maria Portugal, and remains a member of her long-running band, the Vegetable Orchestra. Stefan Schneider, founder of the label TAL, has recently performed with Garth Erasmus from Cape Town and fine art luminary Katharina Grosse.

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Permanent Parts is the second album released by visual artist Katharina Grosse (synthesizer) and musician Stefan Schneider (synthesizer; So Sner, To Rococo Rot, Mapstation). Grosse and Schneider were joined at Galerie Max Hetzler on 29 April 2023, performing as part of the Spectrum without Traces exhibition, by three artists who all generally work within improvised music -- Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet), Tintin Patrone (trombone and electronics), and Billy Roisz (noise generator, piezo and mini cymbal). Permanent Parts is an extraordinary set of recordings that inhabits multiple zones at once: within its thirty-five minutes, listeners can hear the interactions of non-idiomatic collective music making, and the electronic glimmers of electro-acoustics, while, at the same time, the music remains untethered to genre. This capacity to work within liminal zones makes perfect sense when thinking about both Grosse's and Schneider's prior work, whether the energetic diffusions and spatial explorations of Grosse's artistic practice, or the slippery texturology of Schneider's recent work with electronics. Khorkhordina, Patrone and Roisz all find their own ways into this dynamic, too, and Permanent Parts feels like an equal exchange of presence and contribution; there are no hierarchies here. This might explain the music's curious sense of development, where several elements are allowed to exist alongside each other, not in direct contact but in a mode that's somewhere between carefree layering and unconscious juxtaposition. The musicians are listening, but not just with their ears -- their skin, their bodies are hearing, too. There's a curious phrase on the back cover of the album, before the artists are listed: "Wir sind eine Batterie/We are a battery." This sums up the spirit of Permanent Parts. Schneider recalls that Grosse said this phrase to the musicians at the start of the performance. Grosse explains further, "The figure of the battery referred to our placement in the space building out a small circle facing one another from where the sound could spill into the impressive volume of the gallery."

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Rain and experimental music have had an interesting connection for decades. Perhaps as a reminder of the musical quality of rain, but knowing full well that it can only be enjoyed in theory, Razen call their new album Rain Without Rain. In the music of the Brussels collective led by the two multi-instrumentalists Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour, it certainly pours down on the roofs. In fact, the album opens with the sound of pouring rain before we hear the sequence of an oscillator played through a guitar amp on the first track "Lazy, Lazy Eye." The album is the captivating result of a one-night mobile studio field recording in an abandoned pedestrian tunnel in the center of Düsseldorf, and it is finding beauty with brutal(ist) means: recorder, oscillator, guitar amp and reverberation, two musicians and four microphones, early electronics versus early music. "Suicide meet Hildegard von Bingen," as Stefan Schneider, who recorded the session, admits. "Ghostly occurrences," he adds. Brecht Ameel states: "We do put a lot of weight and care on acoustics. On some of our recordings, the room acts as another band member, or as the main 'mixing board'. Most of the albums we have recorded so far are not mixed in the traditional sense: they are simply 'captured,' and we let the room decide what is left on the tapes. The studio recordings, then, give us the possibility of bringing other elements to the fore; precision of interplay, or tiny variations in breathing." The group Razen has existed since 2010 and has since released numerous records on labels such as KRAAK, Marionette and Hands In The Dark. Rain Without Rain is their debut on the Düsseldorf label TAL. If there has been an increased international interest in experimental music from Belgium in recent years, this is not least due to musician collectives such as Razen. In terms of its electro-folkloristic intensity and instrumentation, Razen's music is quite unique worldwide.

$32.00 IN STOCK

Garth Erasmus is an artist and musician based in Cape Town, South Africa. Threnody for the KhoiSan is his first album under his own name. Since 1985 his artistic interests have broadened to include music-making, designing and making his own instruments based on indigenous KhoiSan knowledge. From 1999 to 2012 he was a member of the South African First Nation activist group Khoi Khonnexion. In the past couple of years Garth Erasmus has also been a pivotal part of various international performance pieces and exhibition projects which brought him regularly to Europe. Most of these activities were developed and performed in collaboration with the Hamburg based band Kante and his band Khoi Khonnexion. His works in music are predominantly characterized by a restless quest for alternative forms of expression and materials including self-build instruments, field recordings or various electronic music devices. In this context the music on Threnody for the KhoiSan takes on a primal and metaphorical meaning. Rather than a formal, physical initiation, this process is more spiritually inclined, yet it is a spirituality which is consistently put into action. All instruments which appear on Threnody for the KhoiSan are products of a process of discovery starting from square one. All this is based and founded on the beauty of simplicity and minimalism as symbolized by the single string Khoisan musical bow and arrow as trance musical instrument. In this sense it soon became manifest for Garth Erasmus to combine the bow instruments with various electronic instruments. Besides developing his own unique language in music, he also shared an expressed interested in experimental sound aesthetics, avantgarde composition and free jazz. However, his non-academic approach towards sound and music was always fueled by the desire for a reconnection to the land and to the indigenous knowledge of the KhoiSan, whose struggle for First Nation status continues.

$32.00 IN STOCK

Yuko Kureyama returns to TAL with the album Heart Fresh, her first ever full-length release under her Kopy moniker. All tracks for the album were recorded in Tokyo in June 2023 at the famous live house Ochiai Soup. For the recordings of the ten tracks, Ochiai Soup was swiftly converted into a recording studio as the intimate atmosphere of the club and its perfect room acoustics gave Kopy the chance to record her music like in a live situation. Amazingly Kopy's instrumentation on Heart Fresh consists only of a Jomox x Base 09 rhythm machine and an Elektron Digitakt mini sampler. In the hands of Kopy this fairly basic and common gear creates an unmistakably intuitive and original approach to drum programming, which is recognizably her very own. Heart Fresh seems even more focused, urgent, and ambitious than its predecessors, the Paredo EP, the Eternal EP (TAL 024EP, 2021), and the split album Super Mild (TAL 015CD, 2019). Nothing on Heart Fresh is subdued. The entire production is resonating with its peculiar frequencies, it is wonderfully evocative, open hearted, full of life and intelligence. The album opens with "Night Sarkas" with quirky snare rolls played against slashing, nervy chunks of melody. Samples of organ and chimes evoke a rollercoaster spinning out of tune and synch. "Hole Hole" is a beat driven and melody free short story for bass drum, snare and hi hat with constantly changing bpm's. "TIR TONE" marks the arrival of annunciatory rhythm patterns and a lovely sprinkling of distorted synths. The album's final track "Moonlight Pool" is the perfect closer for an album of taut, free-wheeling figurations of meter and tone, a nod to classical ambient music as well as to contemporary more experimental digressions. However, the album's most startling and unexpected moments come when Kopy follows her futuristic inclinations and matches them with dissonant excoriations that shuttle the mind into a completely different place where all kinds of different activities seem to follow their own individual compasses.

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With this release TAL delves deep into the very beginnings of Düsseldorf's post punk scene of the early 1980s. STUMM was the duo of Detlef Funder and Bernd Sevens who both would become pivotal figures in the tape underground movement of West-Germany, when they launched the SDV label in 1986. Individually they went on to produce boundary defying works as Konrad Kraft and Seventh Day respectively. The material on this album was recorded by Funder and Sevens quite casually in 1980 in a rehearsal studio in the center of Düsseldorf. Right from the beginning the two young musicians incorporated the atmosphere of the space in order to document the process of their sound experiments on a 4-track tape machine. For those recording sessions, which are now released for the first time ever on vinyl, Funder and Sevens managed to get their hands on a very rudimentary set of equipment consisting of merely a Korg MS 20 synth, a Roland CR 78 drum machine, a few electronic effects and a drum kit. The urgent and rough sound of the recordings imbues their production with a characteristic and era-specific edge that's hard to imitate today. Spontaneity and understatement were key elements in the brief creative period of STUMM. The recordings still have a uniquely dizzying quality and are somewhat of a basic blueprint for a lot of industrial/techno and post punk which was about to loom in all corners of the world. These tracks are also a testament to the vivid spark of a period in time that would soon be radically changed through the rise of digital technology. Bernd Sevens: "Around 1980 there was a great musical awakening. Punk, new wave, industrial and of course dub reggae -- the electronic music blew us away. Everything we heard influenced us. Back then, cassette tapes were cheap and easily available. We could record our ideas on the spot and then copy and distribute the tapes. That's how it started. Giving it a go, experimenting, trial and error. The music you hear on the record was spontaneous and had no concept. Our collaboration was also not intended to be a permanent project. You could say we were dilettantes setting out on our journey, making it up as we went along. It felt like a beginning." Includes printed inner sleeve and download code; edition of 300.

$34.00 IN STOCK

This unique and unconventional set combines a 7" single with two yet unreleased songs by Non Band and a photo magazine, both of which provide essential evidence of the tsunami-like tidal wave of the Japanese post punk movement. The two featured songs "Vibration Army" and "Silence-High-Speed" perfectly capture the charismatic formative years of Non Band, with their sound emerging as an entirely unique mix of driving punk veering from no wave and folk into raw post punk mutations. Both songs were committed to tape in 1981 at the legendary facilities of Mod Studio, Tokyo, by engineer Yasushi Konichi when the band recorded their eponymous debut album which was issued via Tokyo's Telegraph Records back in 1982. Although both songs were miraculously omitted from the final album. Like all of Non Band recordings they have withstood the test of time thanks to their mix of direct, experimental yet disciplined rawness and studio magick. The magazine features a text and a careful selection of photos from the vast archives of photographer Yuichi Jibiki, who was also the man behind the label Telegraph Records. Since 1978 Yuichi Jibiki was intimately involved with the early Japanese punk scene as a photographer, manager, and organizer. He could be found very much in the midst of all Non Band live shows between '79-82 as well as pulling the strings behind the scenes. After the reissue edition of Non Band's debut album via Stefan Schneider' TAL imprint in 2017 the label is excited to be able to offer another key release showcasing the creative peak of Japanese post punk. Music by Non Band. Recorded by Yasushi Konishi in 1981 at Mod Studio, Tokyo. Mastering by Detlef Funder at Paraschall, Düsseldorf 2022. Photographs by Yuchi Jibiki, 1979-82. 7" with magazine; 48pp photo magazine; includes download code; edition of 300.

$15.50 IN STOCK

"'Is it too Sam Prekop?', Sam Prekop asked me in an email conversation in which he delivered his wonderful illustrations which would become the front cover artwork. No, it is not too Sam Prekop at all. His drawings as well as the freeform music on this album are subtly different from anything else he has produced in his solo career. Regardless of the style he is working in, Sam Prekop's music is always imbued with a sense of wide-eyed discovery and unpredictable exploration. On The Sparrow, Sam Prekop expands his electronic cosmos with a remarkable expression of timeless simplicity and coherent execution. It's deceptively simple music that feels accessible without abandoning the experimental legacy of the modular hardware system which serves, besides a polyphonic Prophet 5 synthesizer, as the center piece of this production. The side long title track 'The Sparrow' opens this album with unpredictable synth dissonances and broken step sequenced patterns. 'Palm' brings the set to a close with its irregular fragility while 'Fall is Farewell' is built around a yearning brassy fanfare which resembles the noir romance theme of Michael Smalls soundtrack for the 1971 film Klute. The sparkling essence of 'Step and Stair' seems a suitable space for unforgotten summer holidays of our childhood. On his first solo release for Düsseldorf's label TAL, electronic experimentalist Sam Prekop offers his most captivating yet stripped-down modular music. All compositions on The Sparrow were gradually developed piece by piece. Best known for his jazz-leaning tropicalismo with The Sea And Cake, a key part of the Chicago scene with the likes of Tortoise or Chicago Underground Duo, he has in recent years established himself as a modular synthesist, building his instrument meticulously to create a unique system that allows him to create highly individual music through mechanical patterns, repetitions and chance. In this context his widely acclaimed community forming public tutorials on fb should be noted as well. The Sparrow is an exciting new chapter in his development as a constant creative influence." --Stefan Schneider, Düsseldorf August 2022 CD version comes in an edition of 500.

$25.00 IN STOCK

Limited restock. LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve; includes download code; edition of 700. "'Is it too Sam Prekop?', Sam Prekop asked me in an email conversation in which he delivered his wonderful illustrations which would become the front cover artwork. No, it is not too Sam Prekop at all. His drawings as well as the freeform music on this album are subtly different from anything else he has produced in his solo career. Regardless of the style he is working in, Sam Prekop's music is always imbued with a sense of wide-eyed discovery and unpredictable exploration. On The Sparrow, Sam Prekop expands his electronic cosmos with a remarkable expression of timeless simplicity and coherent execution. It's deceptively simple music that feels accessible without abandoning the experimental legacy of the modular hardware system which serves, besides a polyphonic Prophet 5 synthesizer, as the center piece of this production. The side long title track 'The Sparrow' opens this album with unpredictable synth dissonances and broken step sequenced patterns. 'Palm' brings the set to a close with its irregular fragility while 'Fall is Farewell' is built around a yearning brassy fanfare which resembles the noir romance theme of Michael Smalls soundtrack for the 1971 film Klute. The sparkling essence of 'Step and Stair' seems a suitable space for unforgotten summer holidays of our childhood. On his first solo release for Düsseldorf's label TAL, electronic experimentalist Sam Prekop offers his most captivating yet stripped-down modular music. All compositions on The Sparrow were gradually developed piece by piece. Best known for his jazz-leaning tropicalismo with The Sea And Cake, a key part of the Chicago scene with the likes of Tortoise or Chicago Underground Duo, he has in recent years established himself as a modular synthesist, building his instrument meticulously to create a unique system that allows him to create highly individual music through mechanical patterns, repetitions and chance. In this context his widely acclaimed community forming public tutorials on fb should be noted as well. The Sparrow is an exciting new chapter in his development as a constant creative influence." --Stefan Schneider, Düsseldorf August 2022

$28.00 IN STOCK

First ever vinyl edition of this one-off collaboration between Philippe Poirier (Kat Onoma) and Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot) which was initiated by La Batie -- Festival de Geneve, in 2002. The original recordings of the album took place the same year at Bleibeil Studios, Berlin. Engineered by Bernd Jestram. Restoration and mastering by Detlef Funder at Paraschall, Düsseldorf in 2022. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code; edition of 300.

"19 or 20 years, what difference does it make if the beautiful things in life are able to transport us back to Year Zero -- again and again. The moment when this album was created. It is the timeless horizon that motivates the artist. 'Dad, what's the line doing there?' -- a good start for a story. Philippe Poirier and Stefan Schneider recount tales of slow travel, far beyond the known continents. The adventures of a certain Corto Maltese, mysterious love stories in long forgotten harbors. A love that creates its own time, just like a chess game, an ocean liner or propeller airplanes. The enthusiasm for cartography which Philippe Poirier and Stefan Schneider share, time and again, similar to dream. The dream of an idea, of exploration, of finding. The first lines of a drawing that become the great painting. The sequences and the words which design a world in its own right. A tremendous reservoir and my old friend knows that there is an ideal companion for every journey. This time Philippe Poirier is a narrator who finds a sound like sand flowing through fingers and who knows how deep each object accompanies each love. Les Choses de la Vie." --Detlef Weinrich (Tolouse Low Tax), Paris 2021.

$20.50 IN STOCK

Following the footsteps of her Super Mild split album with Tentenko (TAL 015CD/LP) from 2019, Tokyo producer Kopy makes a welcome return to TAL with a new EP full of gritty wonders and buzzing rhythm structures. Eternal EP presents two of her new tracks plus luminous remix appearances by Elena Colombi, Harmonious Thelonious, and Dynamo Dreesen & SJ Tequilla. Kopy sums it up: "For 'Fujiko', I had an aggressive spaciousness in mind. The track 'Lok' made me feel like my feet were firmly on the ground." The pièce de résistance of the entire EP might be the extended reworking by Elena Colombi (Osàre! Editions), who in her debut appearance in the producer's chair offers up a cinematic bricolage, inspired by dreams and scraps of intimate, cartoonish ambiences. The eight-minute-long journey is full of space, swirling alarm clocks and candid evocations of imaginary creatures and environments crossed with diverse snippets of Kopy's two original tracks. Harmonious Thelonious who has already shared the stage with Kopy at Düsseldorf's Salon des Amateurs, contributes a trademark HT remix which combines infectious danceable beats with injections of oddness and raw beauty. For their "Kopy Kontrast" mix DD and SJT drew inspiration from a fulminant Kopy live set in Osaka which they had witnessed while being on a tour in Japan. The 12" EP is lavishly presented, with a fully illustrated jacket and inner sleeve design by Sarah Szscesny. Includes download code; edition of 400.

$25.00 IN STOCK

Reissue of Konrad Kraft's mid'80s electronic underground recordings, Accident In Heaven. Originally released in 1987 as a hand-made micro-edition of about 40 cassette tapes. It was only the third ever release on the short-lived now near legendary SDV label which had been established that same year by Konrad Kraft, Bernd Sevens, and Dino Oon in Düsseldorf. Accident In Heaven is a strong testament to the explorative experiments of Detlef Funder, aka Konrad Kraft, whose homebuilt studio sound attempted to bridge the clinical roughness of Severed Heads and the psychedelia of Coil with the density and force of industrial, post-punk and proto techno. Concurrent with his ever-expanding production skills, Konrad Kraft's sound work in the second half of the '80s stayed firmly rooted within a highly stylized underground spirit. Both his music and also the freshly launched SDV label first and foremost served as a medium for communication. The vital urgency of Accident In Heaven underlines the record's core narrative which arguably sounds even more futuristic today than it did 30 years ago. Hallmarks of Accident In Heaven are an 8-track tape recorder, a Yamaha DX7 synth and a Roland 707 drum computer and the late '80s internationally ubiquitous shift from analogue to digital music production. Whilst its predecessor Arctica (another cassette-only release from 1986/87) was significantly more experimental and almost an in-between-states affair, Accident In Heaven was the point at which Konrad Kraft really began to experiment with beat structures, sequenced synth pads and the framework of "dance" music. However, the rhythmic elements are submerged so far beneath his expertly crafted drones it's almost impossible to label these sounds as "dancefloor oriented" work at all, as the tracks on the album joyfully disrespect the rules and boundaries of that or indeed any other genre. Accident In Heaven also epitomizes the decade's ending energy and sharp momentum with its successful merging of highly individual production and irresistible rhythm tracks. The rich wealth of references is mirrored within the silhouettes and the graphics of the album's unique artwork, which was created by Dino Oon. The new mastering has all sounds on Accident In Heaven emerge in fresh shades and three dimensional plasticity, inviting the listener not to merely revisit the full palette of Konrad Kraft's creation but offering an entirely new sound experience. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code edition of 400.

$15.50 IN STOCK

"How can one explain the lasting popularity of the bass clarinet in musical circles from Vienna to Brussels? Perhaps because its frequency range articulates an alternative to conventions of popular music, where 'bass' is reserved primarily for rhythmic impulses and the very foundation of the music. Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer's playing can by no means be reduced to just this, rather, it scrutinizes the entire sound universe: she can do rhythm and drone, not to mention melody and noise, often all at once. Who would be a more fitting collaborator than Stefan Schneider, with his minimalist rhythms and subtle cosmic exploration? Together, Schneider and Gartmayer form the project So Sner, which owes its existence to a concert in 2015 at the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf. Gartmayer's bass clarinet polyphonies so impressed Schneider that he quickly suggested a collaboration. That same year, they began recording the album Reime in Kraftwerk's former Kling Klang studio, which in 2015 became workspace and concert venue simply called Elektro Müller. The second part was recorded in the summer of 2020 in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth at Stammhaus church, whose interior wood paneling facilitated organic acoustics. Susanna Gartmayer has been active as a musician and composer in various realms between experimental rock music, improvisation and multimedia sound performance since the early 2000s, releasing the album Smaller Sad with Christof Kurzmann and Black Burst Sound Generator with Brigitta Bödenauer in 2020. In addition to his solo project Mapstation, Düsseldorf-based musician and producer Stefan Schneider has been pursuing new avenues of experimental music in the here and now for over 20 years, in numerous collaborations with Sofia Jernberg, krautrock pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, or visual artist Katharina Grosse among others. So Sner's sound is equally oriented towards experiment and tradition, whose roots can be traced back to the UK of the early '80s: an era in which soul and synth, jazz and industrial, avant-garde, and polyrhythm were blended with the help of intellectualism and punk attitude in such a way that manifold sketches of possible music emerged which are only being colorized today. Like So Sner -- from the very first stomp to the very last drop." --Olaf Karnik, Cologne, October 2021.

$25.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code; edition of 300. "How can one explain the lasting popularity of the bass clarinet in musical circles from Vienna to Brussels? Perhaps because its frequency range articulates an alternative to conventions of popular music, where 'bass' is reserved primarily for rhythmic impulses and the very foundation of the music. Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer's playing can by no means be reduced to just this, rather, it scrutinizes the entire sound universe: she can do rhythm and drone, not to mention melody and noise, often all at once. Who would be a more fitting collaborator than Stefan Schneider, with his minimalist rhythms and subtle cosmic exploration? Together, Schneider and Gartmayer form the project So Sner, which owes its existence to a concert in 2015 at the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf. Gartmayer's bass clarinet polyphonies so impressed Schneider that he quickly suggested a collaboration. That same year, they began recording the album Reime in Kraftwerk's former Kling Klang studio, which in 2015 became workspace and concert venue simply called Elektro Müller. The second part was recorded in the summer of 2020 in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth at Stammhaus church, whose interior wood paneling facilitated organic acoustics. Susanna Gartmayer has been active as a musician and composer in various realms between experimental rock music, improvisation and multimedia sound performance since the early 2000s, releasing the album Smaller Sad with Christof Kurzmann and Black Burst Sound Generator with Brigitta Bödenauer in 2020. In addition to his solo project Mapstation, Düsseldorf-based musician and producer Stefan Schneider has been pursuing new avenues of experimental music in the here and now for over 20 years, in numerous collaborations with Sofia Jernberg, krautrock pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, or visual artist Katharina Grosse among others. So Sner's sound is equally oriented towards experiment and tradition, whose roots can be traced back to the UK of the early '80s: an era in which soul and synth, jazz and industrial, avant-garde, and polyrhythm were blended with the help of intellectualism and punk attitude in such a way that manifold sketches of possible music emerged which are only being colorized today. Like So Sner -- from the very first stomp to the very last drop." --Olaf Karnik, Cologne, October 2021.

$15.50 IN STOCK

TAL presents the first musical collaboration between Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens and Japanese artist Miki Yui, operating out of Düsseldorf for almost 20 years now. Highly respected and hugely influential artist Asmus Tietchens first made his mark on the electronic music scene in the late 1970s, whereas Miki Yui debuted her sonic settings in 1999. Their first joint album Neues Boot envelops the listener with a poetic sound sensibility and a conceptual clarity which was processed and passed back and forth between their individual studios in Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

Asmus Tietchens: "After Stefan Schneider suggested to release a Yui-Tietchens album on his TAL imprint Miki and I quickly developed some ideas towards our eventual collaboration. We agreed upon an ongoing mutual exchange of material. We have both been very familiar with each other's music for a long time and we found our individual approach towards sound design to be uniquely compatible. We do not use our electronic tools in order to merely achieve the maximum of technical possibilities, but to illustrate aesthetic necessities. This entails a deliberate reduction and refined perception of the sonic characteristics of the material. Only this approach enabled us to fully realise the complete spectrum of the sounds and noises we were working with in order to construct this New Boat. Each and everyone of my treatments is exclusively based on a track supplied by Miki..."

Miki Yui: "The title of the album as well as the individual tracks have been inspired by conversations with Asmus. When we had a chat after one of his concerts, he told me about Kōdō, the Art or the Way of the Scent. It is an 8th century Japanese incense ceremony. Very frequently the names of Japanese incense sticks are derived from natural themes, e.g. Bairin is the plum grove, the scent of the first blossom heralding the end of winter. This poetry, the ephemeral nature of the world reminded me of Kigo, words from a Haiku (a form of Japanese poetry), which reference a particular season or a natural phenomenon. So I chose the names of the individual pieces from Kigo as if The Boat was exploring nature whilst sailing through the seasons. Only in retrospect I realised that the titles combined create this poem: Early spring a hazy view in the night (Oboro) Plum groves (Bairin) Over a Dayfly (Kagerou) A Milkyway (Amanogawa) Dawn (Akatsuki) Art of fragrance (Kōdō) On fragile thin ice (Usurai)"

$21.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download code; edition of 300. TAL presents the first musical collaboration between Hamburg based Asmus Tietchens and Japanese artist Miki Yui, operating out of Düsseldorf for almost 20 years now. Highly respected and hugely influential artist Asmus Tietchens first made his mark on the electronic music scene in the late 1970s, whereas Miki Yui debuted her sonic settings in 1999. Their first joint album Neues Boot envelops the listener with a poetic sound sensibility and a conceptual clarity which was processed and passed back and forth between their individual studios in Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

Asmus Tietchens: "After Stefan Schneider suggested to release a Yui-Tietchens album on his TAL imprint Miki and I quickly developed some ideas towards our eventual collaboration. We agreed upon an ongoing mutual exchange of material. We have both been very familiar with each other's music for a long time and we found our individual approach towards sound design to be uniquely compatible. We do not use our electronic tools in order to merely achieve the maximum of technical possibilities, but to illustrate aesthetic necessities. This entails a deliberate reduction and refined perception of the sonic characteristics of the material. Only this approach enabled us to fully realise the complete spectrum of the sounds and noises we were working with in order to construct this New Boat. Each and everyone of my treatments is exclusively based on a track supplied by Miki..."

Miki Yui: "The title of the album as well as the individual tracks have been inspired by conversations with Asmus. When we had a chat after one of his concerts, he told me about Kōdō, the Art or the Way of the Scent. It is an 8th century Japanese incense ceremony. Very frequently the names of Japanese incense sticks are derived from natural themes, e.g. Bairin is the plum grove, the scent of the first blossom heralding the end of winter. This poetry, the ephemeral nature of the world reminded me of Kigo, words from a Haiku (a form of Japanese poetry), which reference a particular season or a natural phenomenon. So I chose the names of the individual pieces from Kigo as if The Boat was exploring nature whilst sailing through the seasons. Only in retrospect I realised that the titles combined create this poem: Early spring a hazy view in the night (Oboro) Plum groves (Bairin) Over a Dayfly (Kagerou) A Milkyway (Amanogawa) Dawn (Akatsuki) Art of fragrance (Kōdō) On fragile thin ice (Usurai)"

$20.00 NOT IN STOCK

An Antworten EP showcases two new tracks from Tokyo based producer Tentenko alongside revisited and reworked versions by Tolouse Low Trax, MM/KM, and Nika Son. Whilst on her first ever European tour in December 2019, TENTENKO played a number of highly energized live shows in venues such as Salon des Amateurs or Alien Disko Festival Munich, where she has had the chance to finally meet up with some local electronic producers like Tolouse Low Trax, Mix Mup, Kassem Mosse, and Nika Son, whose work she had admired from afar for a long time already. Through these meetings the ideas towards this remix ep began to take shape. Tolouse Low Trax toils a tuff sort of hypnotizing Crepuscule-hip-hop minimalism. His "Spray Sky Mix" is faithfully in tune with the original Tentenko material whilst still bearing his most explicit rhythmic signature. MM/KM (Mix Mup and Kassem Mosse) have over the years consolidated a strong identity of non-conformist dance music. When MM/KM stressed that they would rather answer (Antworten) the sounds of Tentenko than doing a mere remix, this approach led not only to their "Get Version" but also ended up supplying the title of this EP. Nika Son's "Mizu-Iro Morph" is exploring a more narrative based dramaturgy of sounds that imbue the original track with a duskier cineastic appeal. Tentenko is a Tokyo-based electronic music producer. Her career began in 2013 when she joined the mainstream idol group BiS. Immediately after her departure from BIS in 2014 she commenced work on her solo project under her artist name Tentenko. Since then, she has radically reinvented her music away from glossy J-pop towards weird and industrial rooted dancefloor. Printed inner sleeve; includes download code; edition of 400.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Tastaturstuecke Vol 1 introduces nine outstanding new compositions for church organ, harpsichord, and self-programmed software. The album comprises the first collaborative recordings of Brian Parks (Atlanta) and Phillip Schulze (Düsseldorf). The two musicians first met in the early 2000s at the famous Wesleyan University, Connecticut, where they regularly attended seminars of their teachers Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton. Through extended preparations for a series of live performances in Europe in 2019 (e.g. at the Approximation Festival, Düsseldorf) Parks and Schulze developed and refined a unique approach towards composition, highlighting their interest in the correlation of the invariable flawlessness of a computer versus the human performer on church organ or harpsichord. Largely written for church organ and harpsichord all pieces also correspond perfectly with the physical spaces the recordings have taken place at. The album was recorded in three different churches in Düsseldorf which have been chosen for the different qualities of their specific room acoustics. Treating slight differences in pitch, phasing, overtones and rhythm all compositions on Tastaturstuecke Vol 1 offer an evocative density and flexibility that imbue the music with an organic feel. The nine pieces range in shape and form from concise and sharp clarity such as "Ranking Studies 1-3" to the extended, exquisitely paced radiance of the eight minutes of "Partials Chrorale". "Mensuring Canon for 8 voices" is obsessively restated in constantly changing permutations whereas the metronomic "Reliefs For Ecclesial Space" sounds urgent, deep and explosive. The last piece, "Activated Progression", in particular reverses the roles between computer and the human musician. The software never messes up the phase. The human would do his best to gradually change from one state to another. Once decisions are made regarding registration and finger assignment, the human should behave like a well-fabricated wind-up toy. The two hands remain offset the entire time, and at the fastest possible speed, enact patterns of three notes (left hand) and four notes (right hand). The computer meanwhile, moves from Euclidean rhythm to Euclidean rhythm over leisurely time periods.

$21.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

LP version. Includes download code. Tastaturstuecke Vol 1 introduces nine outstanding new compositions for church organ, harpsichord, and self-programmed software. The album comprises the first collaborative recordings of Brian Parks (Atlanta) and Phillip Schulze (Düsseldorf). The two musicians first met in the early 2000s at the famous Wesleyan University, Connecticut, where they regularly attended seminars of their teachers Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton. Through extended preparations for a series of live performances in Europe in 2019 (e.g. at the Approximation Festival, Düsseldorf) Parks and Schulze developed and refined a unique approach towards composition, highlighting their interest in the correlation of the invariable flawlessness of a computer versus the human performer on church organ or harpsichord. Largely written for church organ and harpsichord all pieces also correspond perfectly with the physical spaces the recordings have taken place at. The album was recorded in three different churches in Düsseldorf which have been chosen for the different qualities of their specific room acoustics. Treating slight differences in pitch, phasing, overtones and rhythm all compositions on Tastaturstuecke Vol 1 offer an evocative density and flexibility that imbue the music with an organic feel. The nine pieces range in shape and form from concise and sharp clarity such as "Ranking Studies 1-3" to the extended, exquisitely paced radiance of the eight minutes of "Partials Chrorale". "Mensuring Canon for 8 voices" is obsessively restated in constantly changing permutations whereas the metronomic "Reliefs For Ecclesial Space" sounds urgent, deep and explosive. The last piece, "Activated Progression", in particular reverses the roles between computer and the human musician. The software never messes up the phase. The human would do his best to gradually change from one state to another. Once decisions are made regarding registration and finger assignment, the human should behave like a well-fabricated wind-up toy. The two hands remain offset the entire time, and at the fastest possible speed, enact patterns of three notes (left hand) and four notes (right hand). The computer meanwhile, moves from Euclidean rhythm to Euclidean rhythm over leisurely time periods.

$15.50 IN STOCK

This split release unites two female underground acts, both of whom have recently become pivotal parts of the contemporary electronic musical landscape in Japan. Hot on the heels of the acclaimed Paredo EP compilation (TAL 012EP), which was been released in May 2019 (and also includes contributions from Lena Willikens and Miki Yui), the Super Mild split album is the second outing by Kopy and Tentenko on TAL. Their newest works punctuate their highly individual approaches to contemporary experimental dance music. Tentenko is a Tokyo-based electronic music producer. Her career began in 2013 when she joined the mainstream idol group BiS. Immediately after her departure from BiS in 2014 she commenced work on her solo project under her artist name Tentenko. Since then she has radically reinvented her music away from glossy J-pop towards weird and industrial rooted dancefloor. Tentenko first made a name for herself on the alternative Japanese music scene with a steady flow of live performances as well as collaborations with members of the legendary Japanese noise band Hijokaidan. For a few years now, Kopy has been an unpredictable and charismatic part of the vital electronic music scene of Osaka. She has quickly garnered a reputation for creating her live sets exclusively with borrowed electronic equipment. Her name Kopy very much originates from this "concept". Apart from a few performances at Düsseldorf's famous nightspot Salon Des Amateurs, she has been invited by Lena Willikens to her showcase at the Meakusma Festival in 2018. Her sinister dancefloor mystique is heavily steeped in the free-spirited noise and rhythm cultures of her hometown.

$19.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download code; edition of 500. This split release unites two female underground acts, both of whom have recently become pivotal parts of the contemporary electronic musical landscape in Japan. Hot on the heels of the acclaimed Paredo EP compilation (TAL 012EP), which was been released in May 2019 (and also includes contributions from Lena Willikens and Miki Yui), the Super Mild split album is the second outing by Kopy and Tentenko on TAL. Their newest works punctuate their highly individual approaches to contemporary experimental dance music. Tentenko is a Tokyo-based electronic music producer. Her career began in 2013 when she joined the mainstream idol group BiS. Immediately after her departure from BiS in 2014 she commenced work on her solo project under her artist name Tentenko. Since then she has radically reinvented her music away from glossy J-pop towards weird and industrial rooted dancefloor. Tentenko first made a name for herself on the alternative Japanese music scene with a steady flow of live performances as well as collaborations with members of the legendary Japanese noise band Hijokaidan. For a few years now, Kopy has been an unpredictable and charismatic part of the vital electronic music scene of Osaka. She has quickly garnered a reputation for creating her live sets exclusively with borrowed electronic equipment. Her name Kopy very much originates from this "concept". Apart from a few performances at Düsseldorf's famous nightspot Salon Des Amateurs, she has been invited by Lena Willikens to her showcase at the Meakusma Festival in 2018. Her sinister dancefloor mystique is heavily steeped in the free-spirited noise and rhythm cultures of her hometown.

$19.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes download code. Since 2000, Mapstation has been the moniker for the solo work of TAL Label founder Stefan Schneider. Schneider has won international acclaim as a founding member of Kreidler and To Rococo Rot, as well as through unique collaboration works with artists such as Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia), Bill Wells, Katharina Grosse, Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia), Sofia Jernberg, or Jochen Irmler (Faust). There has not been a new Mapstation release since 2009's The Africa Chamber (SCAPE 059CD) which had former Fela Kuti member Nicholas Addo-Nettey on percussion. Present Unmetrics is not entirely a stand-alone creation either. There are guest appearances by Thomas Klein (Kreidler) on percussion, Michael Acher (The Notwist) on Sousaphone and an outstanding vocal contribution from Japanese singer Haco, all deeply woven into the digital topography of the music. Present Unmetrics offers a collection of radically subtle music. The guiding principle of the album was to construct direct and nuanced tracks which embody a sense of open-ended incompleteness and heterogenous dynamics. Out-of-sync bass arpeggios, infused with uneven rhythms, fractured synth stabs, and intimate melodies, frequently created here with a Schlumberg sine wave generator, are continuously engage with experimentation, both on sound and structure. Expertly pieced together and produced in timeless fashion, Present Unmetrics displays all the coherence and artistic authority of an album on a constant quest so vital to the music of Mapstation. An album that couldn't have been made by any other than Mapstation.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Since 2000, Mapstation has been the moniker for the solo work of TAL Label founder Stefan Schneider. Schneider has won international acclaim as a founding member of Kreidler and To Rococo Rot, as well as through unique collaboration works with artists such as Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia), Bill Wells, Katharina Grosse, Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia), Sofia Jernberg, or Jochen Irmler (Faust). There has not been a new Mapstation release since 2009's The Africa Chamber (SCAPE 059CD) which had former Fela Kuti member Nicholas Addo-Nettey on percussion. Present Unmetrics is not entirely a stand-alone creation either. There are guest appearances by Thomas Klein (Kreidler) on percussion, Michael Acher (The Notwist) on Sousaphone and an outstanding vocal contribution from Japanese singer Haco, all deeply woven into the digital topography of the music. Present Unmetrics offers a collection of radically subtle music. The guiding principle of the album was to construct direct and nuanced tracks which embody a sense of open-ended incompleteness and heterogenous dynamics. Out-of-sync bass arpeggios, infused with uneven rhythms, fractured synth stabs, and intimate melodies, frequently created here with a Schlumberg sine wave generator, are continuously engage with experimentation, both on sound and structure. Expertly pieced together and produced in timeless fashion, Present Unmetrics displays all the coherence and artistic authority of an album on a constant quest so vital to the music of Mapstation. An album that couldn't have been made by any other than Mapstation.

$14.50 IN STOCK

Paredo presents new and exclusive works by three female Japanese music producers: Kopy, Tentenko, and Miki Yui, and a radical reinterpretation using elements of the featured works by Lena Willikens. All four contributions showcase their highly individual approaches to contemporary electronic dance music.