This summer, Xeno & Oaklander bring their minimal electronic sounds to Ghostly International with new album Par Avion, their first for the label, June 24th. The album's title is a reference to postcards — it translates as "by plane", and was used to mark airmail sent from exotic places. The songs are postcards of love for a cold age — shimmering moments from the present, romantic messages from the past, and love mementos for the future. Together, they make up an album of contrasts — the songs move from upbeat to downbeat, slow to fast, light to dark.
Par Avion's rich diversity of sounds comes at least in part from the fact that it's an album-long ode to synesthesia. As singer Liz Wendelbo explains, “Sound makes me think of a scent, which makes me think of an image, which makes me think of a certain kind of light.” The sensory experiences are palpable: "Jasmine" calls to mind the intoxicating scent of jasmine flowers that bloom at night, "Nuage D'Ivoire" sweats under a tropical sky full of clouds that hold the key to the past and the future, "Sheen" glistens with reflections dancing in the water and with inner visions of romance, where light and dark meet in the pupil of the eye.
Adding to the sense of exoticism, Wendelbo's whispery vocals are sung in both French and English, calling to mind Jane Birkin and Françoise Hardy. Again, there's a contrast between dark and light — the alluring, tropical warmth of Wendelbo's vocals is juxtaposed against duo's signature icy cold, ultra-modern synth sounds. Those sounds have a new component for Par Avion — synth wizard Sean McBride uses an analogue Serge modular synth to create washes of sound that recall '90s shoegaze. The result is an album that stimulates and fascinates throughout, a rich feast for all the senses, a world to get lost in again and again.
Par Avion will be released in LP, CD, and digital formats. A special edition vinyl version, limited to 350 hand-numbered copies, will include flesh colored vinyl and a rose-scented art perfume insert, allowing further personal exploration of synesthesia.
The Berlin-based producer and sound designer Rico F. Piller (P24) and Mario Bouvain (The Voice) known from the well-known band Never Endless have a new Vainerz release ready.
With their EP "Love run", the two electronic wizards Mario & Rico complete a logical further development. Pop, electro, drum loops, melody, order, confusion, silence, noise, feel, strength and much more.
With seven tracks "Love run" is actually more of a mini album than an EP!
It also contains the previously unreleased song "Girls" stands.. Very atmospheric, absolutely varied, it includes electro pop, future pop, drum 'n' bass, classic EBM elements and many other varieties of electronic music. Nevertheless, nothing sounds put-on, but very relaxed. And it is also danceable...
You can pre-listen 'Love Runs' on Soundcloud
Below you can enjoy 'You Create It' a track from their previous album 'Silence' (2012).
Limited edition, 200 Copies!
Deluxe CD in ecoWallet with 8-page lyric poster • $14
Stream a few tracks & digital download at Projekt's Bandcamp page • $10
Ethereal, hypnotic, dizzying, gripping, lush, oceanic, driving, cinematic, haunting… these are good words to describe A Waking Ghost Inside, the debut release from San Francisco-based Mercury’s Antennae. Comprised of vocalist Dru Allen (This Ascension, Mirabilis) and multi-instrumentalist Erick R. Scheid (Translucia), the band’s sound is distinctly reminiscent of ‘90s-era Projekt acts. Ranging from the heavy moodiness and guitar drone of Lycia to the unadorned acoustic beauty of Love Spirals Downwards to the passionate rock of This Ascension, the duo also draws on ambient and tribal influences, contemporary electronica, the sweet melodic pop of 4AD, and the blissful guitar noise of bands like Curve.
Guitarist/instrumentalist Scheid co-founded the band Translucia in 1994. After appearing on the Cocteau Twins tribute Half Gifts on the now defunct Dewdrops label, Translucia were signed to Toronto’s Plan 11 label, which released two albums. Allen has studied and performed rock, heavenly voices, classical and world music for over 25 years. Best known for fronting the darkwave act This Ascension she is also one-half of the neo-classical, heavenly voices band Mirabilis.
Read full text at the Projekt site.
Fans of darkwave, heavenly voices and spacious atmospheres will find themselves at home within these 77 minutes: it’s an alchemy of harmonic, swirling guitars, lush, glimmering instrumentation, and Dru’s dream-felt and sirenic vocals. A Waking Ghost Inside is released to coincide with Mercury’s Antennae’s first ever West Coast tour.
Lust For Youth shares 'Illume' video (dir. Cali DeWitt), 'International' LP out 6/10
After recently announcing news of their forthcoming album International, which is set for release on June 10th via Sacred Bones, Copenhagen-based trio Lust For Youth share their video for new single ‘Illume’, which premiered on Dazed Digital.
The track is also available on the Sacred Bones’ Record Store Day compilation Todo Muere Vol. 4, which is out April 19th.
On the making of the video, director Cali Thornhill Dewitt commented "The concept of this was simple. My subjects were/are very attractive people, so I decided to pair them with attractive landscapes. We shot the whole thing in one 24 hour period, and Loke and Hannes were very comfortable dressed in their Cary Grant suits."
To put it bluntly, Lust For Youth’s International is unrecognizable as a Lust For Youth record on first listen. Frontman Hannes Norrvide’s previous solo albums under the Lust for Youth moniker have been described as “dark, cold, atonal, tormented, lonely, and lower than lo-fi.” The approach on‘International’ has shifted dramatically. Writing as a three-piece now, withlongtime live collaborator Loke Rahbek and new band member Malthe Fischer, who produces and plays guitar, LFY have entered a completely new territory. The result is stunning. International is a buoyant synth masterpiece in the vein of early Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and New Order. Norrvide’s work has always had pop sensibilities buried deep in the reverb, but the hooks are front and center on International, and there is nothing lo-fi about it.
That is not to say the record is without substance. There are still some deeply introspective moments as well, notably the instrumental passages ‘Ultras’ and ‘Basorexia’, which evoke the morning-after loneliness that a lot of earlier LFY work has explored. According to Rahbek, “the record sort of happened by chance. Hannes and I had talked about recording some stuff together for the fun of it, and Malthe offered to help us record. Initially, we were just going to do a song or two for the fun of it, but within a few weeks it was obvious that it was a combination that worked. Malthe went from recording to joining within the first few days and we made the whole thing over the last half-year, drinking gin and tonics everyday in the studio. The period was strange, terrible things happened in everyone’s life outside of the studio, so as a result many hours were spent in the studio, like a safe zone.”
“As the title indicates,” Rahbek adds, “the record deals with the rootless, sometimes almost inhuman, nature of traveling and touring. Hotel rooms and strangers' beds, drugs and clubs, and the impossibility of living a regular life.” It may be an irregular life, but nothing could suit them better; International is Norrvide’s magnum opus, and with Fischer’s production and Rahbek’s co-writing skills, the potential this band has always shown has been gloriously realized.
The deluxe edition of International, exclusively available through Sacred Bones mail order will ship with a bonus cassette featuring remixes by Silent Servant, Total Control, Helm, Cult of Youth, Marshstepper & more. This bonus remix EP will also be available as a deluxe edition of the album available from digital retailers.
TOUR DATES
Apr 5, 2014: Moscow, RU, DOM
Apr 15, 2014: Aarhus, DK, Train (w/ When Saints Go Machine)
Apr 16, 2014: Copenhagen, DK, Store Vega (w/ When Saints Go Machine)
May 17, 2014: Los Angeles, CA, The Church on York
Jul 1, 2014: London, UK, Rough Trade
Jul 2, 2014: London, UK, Shacklewell Arms
Arrow Films’ Arrow Academy label is delighted to announce the release of the iconic and influential cinematic experiences Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi, from Producers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, both discs will be released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK on 12th May 2014.
Free of traditional storytelling methods - there is no dialogue, no narrative, no cast or characters - Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi present exquisite widescreen imagery that weaves and dances, slows and races to the dizzying tempo of Philip Glass's extraordinary score, tracing life's shift from nature's cycles to technology's inescapable forward momentum.
These feature-packed discs will be released as a deluxe Blu-ray featuring newly restored digital transfers of Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi, both approved by director Godfrey Reggio, an introduction by filmmaker and composer Gary Tarn (Black Sun, The Prophet), interviews with Reggio and composer Philip Glass on the making of both films and Anima Mundi, Reggio’s 28-minute montage of over seventy animal species, scored once again by Glass. The Blu-ray will also include a new illustrated collector’s 72-page booklet featuring writing on the films by Anton Bitel, Michael Brooke, Peter Cowie and Jean-Baptiste Gouyon.
Synopsis
ko●yaa●nis●qatsi (from the Hopi language)n., 1. crazy life 2. life in turmoil 3. life out of balance 4. life disintegrating 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living
po●waq●qa●tsi (from the Hopi language, powaq sorcerer + qatsi life)
n., an entity, a way of life that consumes the life forces of other beings in order to further its own life
Told without dialogue, narration, cast or characters, Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi are dizzying, hypnotic examples of cinema set to extraordinary scores by Philip Glass. The first instalment concentrates on the United States, contrasting its natural beauty with a population ever more dependent on modern technology. The second switches to the Southern hemisphere and focuses on cultures and traditions that are slowly eroding away as the modern world takes over.
This super-deluxe package will be full of special features and bonus material including:
+ New, restored digital transfers of Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi, approved by director Godfrey Reggio, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
+ Introduction by filmmaker and composer Gary Tarn (Black Sun, The Prophet)
+ Interviews with Reggio and composer Philip Glass on the making of Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi
+ Anima Mundi (1992): Reggio’s 28-minute montage of over seventy animal species, scored by Philip Glass
+ Original theatrical trailers for Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi
+ Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films by Anton Bitel, Michael Brooke, Peter Cowie and Jean-Baptiste Gouyon
