artist / title
AMON vs. MORTAR
"Amon vs. Mortar"
Dark Ambient. Amon is one of the earliest music projects of Andrea Marutti from Italy, also active under his own name and the Never Known alias, and also Afe Records label owner. He is also responsible of many other projects dealing with different styles of electronic music (Lips Vago, Wolkspurz & Ramirez, The Afeman, etc. and he is part of Hall of Mirrors along with Giuseppe Verticchio (Nimh), of Sil Muir with Andrea "Ics" Ferraris (Ur, Airchamber3) and of Molnija Aura with Davide Del Col (Ornament, Echran). Mortar was a side-project of Moreno Daldosso, mainly active in the Power-Electronics area as Murder Corporation. Owner of the now defunct Murder Release label - mostly specialized in Power-Electronics / Noise cassette releases - he also released music under the Metastatic and Spiral aliases. Mortar's trademark lo-fi sound can be easily filed under the Death-Ambient genre, we'd like to remember his ability to create horrifing soundscapes using low-resolution and time-stretched samples of classic music. "Emperor's Return", the first Mortar CD album, was published by Fuoco (a joint effort between Eibon Records and Amplexus) in 1998, while a limited LP vinyl album entitled "From the Grave" was released by Oktagön Records in 2000. This LP is now made available again by Afe Records in the form of an unlimited CD-R release aptly re-entitled "Amon vs. Mortar" that also includes two extra-tracks - consisting of about 30 minutes of music - which were recorded during the same sessions but were not part of the original release on Oktagön Records... [more]
CD-R
October 2008
JOHN HUDAK
"Miss Dove, Mr. Dove"
Experimental / Avantgarde. John Hudak has been interested in sound and music from the age of four when he began to play a variety of instruments. At the University of Delaware (BA, English 1981) and Naropa Institute for the Arts (1979), he studied video, photography, creative writing and dance. He then began to create taped soundtracks for his solo performance-art/dance pieces that later developed into sound-only pieces. In recent years, he has concentrated solely on sound, particularly natural sounds. His work has been published by labels such as Alluvial Recordings, and/OAR, Korm Plastics, Aesova, Intransitive Recordings, Digital Narcis, Presto!? and many others. "Miss Dove, Mr. Dove" was especially created by John Hudak for a release on Afe. Here's a description of the album inception in his own words: "During the late spring of 2007, my family spent some time visiting relatives in the Czech Republic,in a small village outside of Prague called Pelhřimov. One morning there, I woke to the sound of many doves. The building we stayed in was directly across from another similar building, and the space between the two created a wide echo. The birds sat on the adjacent building, making their plaintive sounds, at the crack of dawn; their sound mixing with the sounds of people talking as they left for work, and the sounds of trucks idling while making their morning deliveries..." [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
MARK HAMN
"Je déchire l'ongle aux criminels"
Post-Everything / Electroacoustic / Glitch. Francesco Giannico, best known as Mark Hamn, originates from Carosino a small town near Taranto, in the southern part of Italy. He's graduated in "Musicology and Musical Heritage" at the University of Lecce with a thesis on "History of film music". Musically he was born as an indie-guitarist, but an unexpected convergence with experimental electronic music some ten years ago changed his musical orientation, driving him into a different direction. During the recent years several of his works were published on the Internet in the form of free downloadable albums by popular net labels, including the italian Sine3pm. His musical approach is better described as a cinematic journey which pushes the boundaries of digital media even further by incorporating smooth melodies and gentle textures. More canonical instruments such as guitar and piano are constantly present into Mark's music, within interrupted structures or long and dreaming sonorous carpets. "Je déchire l'ongle aux criminels" is his first physical release and it is published as a friendly co-production between Afe and Bar La Muerte... [more]
CD-R
150 copies
April 2007
À partir est d'ici la seule solution
Le vent fait un tour en dehors à la notification de moi
NEVER KNOWN
"Live at the Cosmic Egg, 10.06.2000"
Ambient. Never Known is the earliest music project of Andrea Marutti, best known as Amon and as Afe label owner. Andrea began his experiments with music in the early '90s using tapes and concrete elements. A few years later he also began to use synthesizers, samplers and other electronic devices, and founded the Lips Vago Digital Studio. Several releases of Ambient / Dark Ambient music were published by labels such as Eibon Records, Amplexus, Drone Records, Taâlem, etc. on CD and other medias. The first edition of Never Known's "Live at the Cosmic Egg, 10.06.2000" was originally published by Centiens, a division of Anaemic Waves Factory, in October 2000 and is sold-out since long time. For this new edition, all tracks were remastered - and sometimes slightly reworked - from the original Dat recording by the author in March 2007 at Lips Vago Digital Studio. The concert was performed at the Cosmic Egg Floatation Center opening party on June the 10th 2000, just a few weeks after "On the Edge of Forever", Never Known's fourth full-lenght album, was released by Eibon Records... [more]
CD-R
April 2007
MAURIZIO BIANCHI / M.B. & MAOR APPELBAUM
"Innervation"
Industrial / Noise. Maurizio Bianchi is probably the most well-known and respected italian experimental composer; at the end of the 70s, at the peak of the Industrial scene, he released several tapes of noise music under the Sacher-Pelz and M.B. Symphony for a Genocide was his first vinyl record, soon followed by other cult albums such as Menses, Neuro Habitat, Regel, Mectpyo Bakterium, Das Testament, Endometrio, Carcinosi and The Plain Truth. In 1984, "Armaghedon" was announced as his last record. In 1998-2000 the whole M.B. vinyl catalogue was officially re-released on CD by Ees't Records. At the same time, after a 14 years of meditative pause, Maurizio Bianchi returned to create music. Plenty of solo albums and collaborations were released since then, showcasing Bianchi's different approaches at experimental music. Maor Appelbaum has been part of the Israel music scene for many years. He is involved in many experimental projects such as Sleepless, Vultures, I.W.R and Thy Mesmerized, as well as being the sole creator of Vectorscope, Lunisolar and Screening. His musical ventures expand to more metallic bands such as the doom infested Moonskin. He has done various musical collaborations with Maurizio Bianchi, Kenji Siratori, Clint Listing, The Hollowing and Tom Davidov. Coming after "Environmental Meditations" (Topheth Prophet, 2006) and "Electrostatic Deflection" (Silentes, 2007), "Innervation" is Maurizio Bianchi & Maor Appelbaum's third collaborative effort. The six tracks on the album have a strong impact, treating us with stabs of intense noise generated by analog synthesizers and effects... [more]
CD-R
300 copies
October 2008
BRIAN LAVELLE
"Ustrina"
Experimental / Ambient. Brian Lavelle is a Scottish musician who has been active for more than fifteen years creating music with a variety of electronic devices. His compositions showcase resonant and textural layers of digital material, drones and processed field recordings. Among his works we remember the "Radios" series, composed along with Richard Youngs, and we can't help mentioning his wonderful "How To Construct a Time Machine" guitar suite released by Staalplaat's subsidiary Bake Records and "fault/r", released on Microwave Records back in 2000. Brian was a member of Inversion along with Alistair Crosbie and together with him and Murray Johnston he was also involved in No Input, a one-off improvising trio. Between 2000 and 2003 he curated the techNOH online mp3 label. "Ustrina" follows a surge of increased activity over the last two years with highly regarded releases such as "Just a Song at Twilight" (Dust, Unsettled, 2006), "Fallen Are the Domes of Green Amber" (Diophantine Discs, 2007) and "Supernaturalist" (EE Tapes, 2008). "Ustrina" consists of a single long-form work entitled "Pyre Nullity", which is a set of dense, shifting cloudscapes, perhaps a little darker in focus than Lavelle's last few releases and certainly his longest single composition to date. Its layers of ghostly, distant voices, subterranean drones and processed field recordings evoke forgotten realms, but this is not dark ambient music. Its compositional approach, subject matter and photographic imagery all point to hidden places, memories from a Golden Age cast on the fire, but not necessarily the darker side of existence. Indeed the cover suggests a possible modus operandi: cross the bridge, open the gate, move within... [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
DANIELE BRUSASCHETTO & BENNY BRAATEN
"Db9"
Experimental / Industrial / Noise. Daniele Brusaschetto started to play as a solo artist since the mid 90s. His first 7" vinyl EP "Paturnie" was published in 1996. The next year he gave life to ZZZ Productions, the label released his debut CD album "Bellies/Pance". American label RRR co-produced "Bellies/Pance" and the following CD "Mamma fottimi" (1999). His third album entitled "Bluviola" (2001) was also released in the USA by Radon Studio. His fourth solo CD entitled "Poesia totale dei muscoli" (Total Poetry of Muscles) was released by his newest label Bosco Rec in collaboration with Bar La Muerte and Radon Studio. "Mezza luna piena" (Half full-moon) was released during summer 2005 by Bosco Rec and Bar La Muerte. Bosco Rec has also released his latest CD album "Circonvoluzioni" in winter 2007, while Blossoming Noise has recently published a stunning collection of brutal remixes he did for OvO. Benny Braaten is better known as B9 and Origami Galaktika. This project saw the light during Christmas 1994 when Benny recorded what was to become the first LP "Stjernevandring" in cooperation with his younger brother Kjell Øyvind. Origami Galaktika is one of the more prolific underground ambient acts to rise out of Norway, alongside names like Deathprod and Biosphere. Famed for utilizing sound sources from obscure places like Estlandic caves and Norwegian glaciers, B9's music is as unclassifiable as it is unique, yet it has a strong identity of its own. Origami Galaktika's music was released on labels such as Black Orchid Productions, Speeding Across My Hemisphere, Staalplaat, Jester Records, Vendlus, Purple Soil and many others. "Db9" is a collaborative album between Daniele and Benny delving in noise territory, here's a few words about it by Daniele brusaschetto himself: "In October 2004 Benny was in Italy to play gigs as Origami Galaktika, he stayed at my place for a few days and on such occasion we recorded "Db9"..." [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
SUBINTERIOR
"Mesmerize"
Dark Ambient. Subinterior is the dark-ambient oriented project of Andrea Freschi from Milan, Italy. It is born from the urge to create tracks using only excerpts taken from the usual noises and sounds that normally surround us. The equipment he uses to create his compositions consists of a mini-disc recorder that is mainly used to capture atmospheres created by millers, lapping wheel, lathes, industrial refrigeration plants, safety doors and other unusual "instruments". "Mesmerize" is Subinterior's fifth full-lenght work. Once again it was created with almost no samples and keyboards as most of the sounds included consists of field-recordings manipulated by computer technology and softwares. The result falls into the dark ambient / experimental musical territory, althought the overall effect is aurally dynamic, as usually happens with Subinterior's releases. "Mesmerize" basically follows on from the previous Subinterior release, "The Chrysalis Secret", showcasing his ability at creating deep and obscure atmospheres without falling into cheap clichés. The album spreads over five tracks and has a dense start with "The White Space", which becomes more minimal and then is filled with mysterious noises resembling an haunted aviary. "The Dominant Colour" is built on layers of windy and metallic drones from which a disturbing voice suddendly emerges."Azuria"'s undercurrents follow on with their subliminal microevents and effected metallic chimes, before turning into a shifting simple melody which ends up in mild distortion."Instant Forever" continues the journey with a sort of percussive loop that fades into a sustained drone later filled with distorted sonic scoriae of undefined nature... [more]
CD-R
150 copies
October 2008
TIZIANO MILANI
"Im Innersten"
Electroacoustic / Experimental. Tiziano Milani, acoustic architect, approached experimental music in the second half of the '90. His passion for the "collected" sounds led him to devote his work to this particular kind of music. Milani's music was released on CD-R by Setola di Maiale ("Chamber Music For Screeching and Artificial Insects" and "Music As a Second Language") and as freely downloadable Mp3s by the Chew'z net-label ("SuoniOggettiRisonanti"). "Nothing in the sounds I pick up is affirmed with will and enterprise, but rather whispered or murmured almost by chance, just like a conversation unintentionally heard on a subway train, or accidentally eavesdropped through the wall of an hotel room. The approach to sounds must not be simplified because every single sound is nothing but a small part of a whole which should be considerated in its own theoretic - and then mechanic - execution. Several different stages of work are stratified in every single piece (contemporary or not). In some cases sounds are generated by touching, beating and breaking contact-miked objects. In other cases, they are the results of manipulated fluxes. In the audio tracks everything is deposited like in a melting-pot than receives and mixes alchemies...". "Im Innersten" is conceived as a continuous flux where "all events coming from a different origin interact with each other so that each of them contains all the others in itself". Intervention is focused on the sound/space relation. The research operated inside a reverberating room is an important experience in this relation: rebuilding sonic objects starting from electronic and acoustic improvisations through the properties of "differently musical" objects that have "sensible" distinctive sound features. Part of the sounds of "Im Innersten" were obtained in such a way... [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
From Order To Border (Resonating) [excerpt]
CISFINITUM
"Nevmenosis"
Dark Ambient / Experimental. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
150 copies
October 2008
ASCANIO BORGA
"Xenomorphic"
Experimental / Ambient. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
150 copies
October 2008
Apnea (The Hollow Mind) [excerpt]
MIRKO UHLIG
"Supper"
Experimental / Minimal Ambient / Drone Music. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
My Child Goes To the Surf (1st)
GENETIC TRANSMISSION
"Spiral"
Experimental / Industrial / Noise. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
UR + CRAIG HILTON
"I Will Be the Light"
Industrial. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
"I Will Be the Light" [excerpt]
HORCHATA
"Acytota"
Minimal Ambient / Experimental / Glitch. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
GYDJA
"Helchemy"
Dark Ambient / Experimental. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
The Spirit of the Earth With Venom Intoxicate [excerpt]
The Black Sea, the Black Lune, the Black Soll [excerpt]
ALISTAIR CROSBIE
"Musicforshipwrecks"
Ambient / Drone Music. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
FHIEVEL
"Pipe Smoking On a Balloon"
Minimal Ambient / Experimental. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R
100 copies
October 2008
OLYVETTY
"Nostalgya Canaglya"
Noise. Details coming soon. [more]
CD-R Card
80 copies
October 2008
ANDREA MARUTTI / TOMMASO COSCO
"Turra"
Ambient / Dark Ambient / Drone Music. "In the house where I live, a fire-place continually warms my own intimacy during wintertime, while my wife spreads sweet gastronomical scents of real mediterranean nature as I capture the flights and rests of the birds in the garden with my eyes. In silence I listen to the beating of time that scans each and every of my emotions for all the smallest particles and instants of my perceptions. When I have the chance I go to Archiaro, a countryplace where memory and becoming merge in a present full of inspired consciousness. Gratitude lives in my existence and it keeps me in touch with the pulses of silences that pour inside my body where I keep the "Knots" of R.D. Laing, the "Moses and Aaron" of Jean-Marie Straub, the sounds of Morton Feldman, the movements of turtles and a trove where I hope to give shelter to all God's creations." [Tommaso Cosco]
"Turra" is meant to be a natural extension to "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets (Live in Archiaro)" CD released by well-known Czech label Nextera in January 2008... [more]
MiniCD-R 3"
October 2008
MEERKAT
"Kapnos"
Electroacoustic / Experimental / Ambient. Details coming soon. [more]
CD
[to be released in February 2009]
coming soon...