rooklyn Duo Xeno and Oaklander are a minimal electronics girl/boy duo from Brooklyn, NY. They began writing music and soundtracks in 2004. Liz Wendelbo is French / Norwegian and Sean McBride is from Maryland. They record their songs live in their Brooklyn studio and play analogue synthesizers and instruments exclusively.
This summer, Xeno and 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.
Arrow Films’ Noir label is pleased to confirm that the highly-acclaimed Irish TV-drama Amber will be released on DVD from Monday 30th June 2014 and available on digital download from today (Wednesday 4th June), following it’s BBC transmission.
Following their recent success with international shows such as Salamander, Hinterland and Generation War, Arrow Films will continue to house quality international crime shows from various European territories, with their newly launched sub-label ‘Noir’, a spin-off of the hugely successful Nordic Noir imprint that now incorporates crime series from multiple countries under the wider umbrella Nordic Noir & Beyond.
Having already seen massive success with their Bafta winning series The Bridge, The Killing and Borgen, Arrow Films are thrilled to announce the release of the Irish TV-drama Amber, which begins airing in the UK on BBC 4 this week, the series comes to DVD in the UK on 30th June 2014.
iving in Dublin’s suburbs, Ben and Sarah Bailey are recently separated yet doing their best to get on with their lives while remaining good parents to their children, Amber and Eamon. Then, in one day, their lives are turned upside down when Amber fails to return home one evening.
The disappearance of 14-year-old Amber Bailey sets off a two-year search during which time her family experience unimaginable guilt, fear, and devastating grief as they live out every parent’s worst nightmare.
Investigating the case of the missing teenager from different viewpoints, each episode plays with the chronology of events and focuses on the perspective of one individual connected to the case as first her family, then friends, then complete strangers become drawn into the quest to find out what happened.
As the drama unfolds the audience must answer pivotal questions to unravel the mystery… What are “the daughters of the air”? Who is the prison inmate who claims to know something about Amber? Who has Amber’s phone? And was someone watching Amber online?
An ambitious and powerful story, Amber is an emotional journey filled with psychological insight and unexpected twists as the girl’s disappearance has an impact far greater than anyone could have imagined, imparting the sense of loss, incomprehension and anguish a family feels when a loved one, especially a child, goes missing.
Starring Eva Birthistle (Waking the Dead, Wake Wood), David Murray (Zonad, Raw), Lauryn Canny (A Thousand Times Goodnight), Levi O’Sullivan, Justine Mitchell
Executive Producers:Jane Gogan & David Crean
Director:Thaddeus O’Sullivan (IFTA winner – Single Handed, Into the Storm, Stella Days)
Writers:Rob Cawley & Gary Duggan
Produced and Created by: Rob Cawley & Paul Duane (Secret Diary of a Call Girl)
Mute are delighted to announce the release of Plastikman’s new album, EX, his first album release since 2003’s Closer. Listen to an excerpt here: http://po.st/EX
Plastikman, aka Richie Hawtin recorded EX at the Guggenheim, New York’s iconic art museum. This very special performance was at the invitation of influential Belgium fashion designer and artistic director at Dior, Raf Simons, for the Guggenheim’s annual fundraiser, performed around a specially constructed LED obelisk.
Richie Hawtin explains, “I knew that Raf was a long time Plastikman fan so by accepting his offer to perform at the Dior event at the Guggenheim I knew I’d set myself up to a huge challenge. Although Raf was happy to have the already complete Plastikman Live 1.5 show, I locked myself away in a series of intense studio sessions and quickly recorded enough new material for the performance and realized I might also have enough for a complete new album. The music came out of me effortlessly as I was very inspired by the opportunity to play in this beautiful architectural space renowned more for art than music. The location also allowed me to step far away from the dancefloor, giving me a huge amount of freedom to EXplore any sonic ideas that I had. Art, music, architecture, painting, sculpture – these mediums are supposed to live together.”
EX is released digitally on 10 June and on vinyl, CD and limited edition SubPac bundle on 14 July. In addition to the vinyl, CD and digital releases, Plastikman has teamed up with SubPac to create a Limited Edition Premium Bundle. The album will be presented on vinyl, with a signed certificate of authenticity and a custom Plastikman edition of the SubPac S1. SubPac is a unique portable bass system that allows an immersive music experience. When you’re using the SubPac, the powerful bass and sub-bass frequencies – the sensations you usually only get in a club situation – are reproduced meaning you can actually FEEL the music.
Richie Hawtin explains, “By introducing the physical dimension of sound, the SubPac creates a direct connection between the fan and the music in its purest form,
allowing a deeper appreciation for the music we all love. As with all Plastikman albums, there is a lot of sonic information in the lower frequency range, that make the SubPac a perfect listening accompaniment in order to fully appreciate the experience.”
Plastikman will perform only one show this year, at Sónar 2014 on 12 June. New tracks will be presented at the Barcelona festival, pushing the boundaries of techno, offering a synchronicity of art and sound, a place for electronica that’s both cinematic and thought-provoking. Plastikman’s career has pushed at the frontiers of dance music, rejecting first the endless drive for faster speeds and, later, the blatant pop aspirations in favour of more imagination and more musical engagement.
Richie Hawtin is many things – an extraordinary DJ, creator of the ENTER. experience, mastermind behind the M_nus label, technological innovator, art aficionado – in 2011 he collaborated with British sculptor Anish Kapoor for an installation in Paris - and style icon. Before this, though, and perhaps most famously of all, he was and is Plastikman, an electronic music phenomenon whose followers are legion and fanatic.
Between 1993 and 2003, Plastikman created an astonishing body of work, one that didn't so much define a time and place as explode them, expanding the dimensions of Detroit techno and redefining the possibilities of electronic dance music. Across six albums (‘Sheet One’, ‘Musik’, ‘Recycled Plastik’, ‘Consumed’, ‘Artifakts (B.C.)’, and ‘Closer)’ and numerous singles such as ‘Spastik’, ‘Plastique’, and ‘Sickness’, Plastikman evolved into one of contemporary electronic music’s most distinctive voices: minimalist, psychedelic, seriously groove-laden, and ever mindful of the transcendent properties of electronica.
Plastikman was never going to be a heritage dance act and this latest renaissance opens doors few never knew existed, showcasing a master at work.
EX is released digitally on 10 June and on vinyl, CD and limited edition SubPac bundle on 14 July.
DOM04-S: V/A - " Transmission - Barcelona: Second Anniversary " LP
Track listing:
A1. Seacrypt - Glass Eye
A2. Madmoizel - Come
A3. Phosphor - Linear Attraction
A4. Des Âmes Libres - Today Not Tomorrow
A5. Schonwald - Treasure
B1. In Death It Ends - Futureblack
B2. Női Kabát - Kitchen Person
B3. Más Allá - ElectroAreas
B4. In A Lonely Place - Run
B5. Xiu - Dancing With You
The label is so happy to introduce: Transmission - Barcelona 'Second Anniversary', compilated and produced by Dj Sandman and Domestica Records. After the great success of volume one, edited on CD due to Transimission's first anniversary, we decided that volume two should be presented in the format we love the most: vinyl.
Transmission is a monthly party dedicated to all the international New New Wave, Post Punk, Cold Wave, Dark Wave scene, celebrated at Antiobiotic Bar in Barcelona since December 2011. Sessions are accurately selected by Dj Sandman, where emerging and unknown bands are really important and also forgotten gems from the underrated 80s scene.
Edition of 400 copies. Includes an insert.
DOM14-L: Handful Of Snowdrops - " Land Of The Damned: 25th Anniversary Edition "
Track listing:
A1. Terroir I
A2. When Comes Day Light
A3. Gabrielle
A4. A Miracle
B1. Scream Cry Or Fall
B2. Face To Face
B3. Terroir II
B4. Land Of The Damned
It was more than 25 years ago that Handful of Snowdrops, a pioneer band and a model to follow in the Canadian Electronic New-Wave, released its first and mythical album 'Land of the Damned', which, with own effort, has become an essential and cult piece of music to worship especially amongst all kind of true collectionists and music-lovers, into the most Gothic, Electronic and Dark Wave...
Unfortunately, nowadays it is very difficult to obtain a copy of 'Land Of The Damned' in good conditions, and even more difficult to have it at reasonable price. For all that, today we are particularly moved to introduce you the official reedition of their debut album in vinyl format, carefully remastered and redesigned for the occasion. Enjoy yourselves!
Edition of 250 copies, no repress. Includes an insert.
DOM15-L: Handful Of Snowdrops - " Unreleased & Demos 1984-1986: 25th Anniversary Edition "
Track listing:
A1. Gabrielle (Demo Version)
A2. The Keep
A3. White Dominoes
A4. The View
B1. Face To Face (Demo Version)
B2. Holy Hossuary
B3. Still We Live
B4. Somewhere Higher
Long time before Handful of Snowdrops released their first and mythical album 'Land of the Damned', this cult band originally from Quebec City had produced, since their beginnings in 1984, an amazing amount of demos, although they had never managed to attract the interest and attention of the big record companies, despite their originality. In that moment, there was not a background or collective in Canada where they could fit... these are the very significant words of Jean-Pierre Mercier, co-founder of the band, in a recent interview in the digital magazine 'Subterock.com': " Quebec City was not known for its strong music scene, to say the least. It gave us a kind of freedom and infused us with a carelessness that I’m still grateful to. "
With this album we wanted to gather a compilation of some of their best unreleased songs, compounded in different moments but which have the same essence, always encouraged and led by Mercier brothers. All the songs are, up to now, totally unpublished, with the exception of two demo versions former to their first album ('Face to Face' and 'Gabrielle'), and they have been remastered with an enourmous care, as usual, by Yves Roussel.
Edition of 250 copies, no repress. Includes an insert.
Since last year's release of their highly acclaimed debut album "House Of Wonders", Belgium's act LOVELORN DOLLS have been very active in studio preparing their follow-up full length release together with new producer maXX, studio guru from cult-band HELALYN FLOWERS.
"The Thrill" is the first single taken from their forthcoming album "Japanese Robot Invasion" announced by Alfa Matrix for this autumn... With its intelligent mixture of haunting dark atmospheres, catchy wave pop synth tunes and full on trashy guitar assaults beautifully lead by LadyHell's unique expressive female vocals, this highly dynamic new song will surely wet your appetite for some more LOVELORN DOLLS sonic injections! "The Thrill" is bound to become an instant classic hit on all dark electro / goth metal dancefloors! The band also reveals here a second new song with the more moody "Miss Friday Night" released here in a laid-back radio mix by Singapore based label mates COSMIC ARMCHAIR.
Title-song "The Thrill" also gets released in 4 additional different flavours through the radical remix work of JUNKSISTA for an electro version, BLEEDING CORP. for a dirty trashy rendition and RESTRICTION 9 for a turbo dancefloor rework...
1. The Thrill (single edit)
2. The Thrill (JUNKSISTA rmx) view
3. Miss Friday Night (COSMIC ARMCHAIR radio rmx)
4. The Thrill (BLEEDING CORP. rmx)
5. The Thrill (RESTRICTION 9 rmx)
