artist / title
"In the Depths of Winter I Finally Learned There Was In Me an Invincible Summer"
Drone / Ambient / Experimental. Details coming soon... [more]
[to be released in 2013]
coming soon...
"Login"
Experimental / Avantgarde. "When, years ago, I read Herman Hesse's "Steppenwolf" I was struck by a part of the novel... Harry Haller, the main character, is walking through a passage with endless doors. As he opens each door he is thrown into a new, unknown, mysterious dimension; a life between the real and the virtual world. "Login" is an imaginary journey through the web, where one can explore new realities - or different views of well known stuff - on a thin line between truth and fiction...". Fausto Balbo's meandering trip through the web began long ago, so long ago in fact that once it used to open with the unmistakable sound of a modem dialing up. By now that modem has disappeared, obsolete and pointless due to advances in technology and speed in Internet connection. However, for "Login", the artist didn't let himself get caught up in haste and kept working on his tracks until they reached the optimal point, found here in this CD. Since this work is inspired by the Internet, it is worth noting that all sounds were created exclusively using a single downloaded free software. Along the way, Fausto discovered the marvels of DPOAE and now - as if the rest wasn't enough - it's time for us to be impressed by the sonic inputs of those two particular tracks which seem to generate inside ourselves and then surround us in a thick sensory spiral. Few musicians in Italy can display a knowledge about sound matter that equals the one expressed by Fausto Balbo in this work: though his research will continue as always, this CD is a milestone of great value... [more]
[October 2012]
"Ermos EP"
Electronica / IDM. Included in the first 100 copies of Leeza's "Somewhere Out There" purchased from the Afe mail order - or directly from the artist - the "Ermos EP" comes as a pro-duplicated coloured MiniCD-R 3", orange or blue at your own choice while stocks last... [more]
100 copies
April 2011
"Somewhere Out There"
Electronica / IDM. Luca Di Mattei is one of the Afe resident artists since the early days of the label. During the years he had several releases under four different aliases: Leeza, Hendy Van Morris, Jabba and Bill Catez. Leeza is his most well-known and prolific incarnation. Generated using laptop computer technology, Leeza's music has its main roots in what was once called Intelligent Techno, and is clearly inspired by the great records published during the '90s by labels such as Warp, Rephlex, Skam, etc. After the successful "Living In a Pixel", Afe and Moonfear are proud to present Leeza's latest CD release entitled "Somewhere Out There". The album starts with the aptly entitled "Rejoice", a composition that showcases one of Leeza's trademark melodies laid upon tinkles and percussive effects. The atmosphere changes with "Legox" a darker number built on distorted and slightly drilled drums covered with sad pads. The shorter "Soa" brings visions of a distant planet inhabited by robot-builders combing a desert wasteland, a truly miniature sci-fi soundtrack! We're back to Earth with "Eupepsik", a faster acid episode helped by drum'n'bass ghosts and bubbling sequences. Placed as track five, "Mip_hurta" can be considered the fulcrum of the album: a warm and fascinating melody that could last forever, backed by frantic drums and quiet pads. One of our favourite Leeza tracks ever! [more]
April 2011
& FAUSTO BALBO
"Detrimental Dialogue"
Experimental / Avantgarde. Andrea Marutti and Fausto Balbo have met in 2005 at Lab12 in Vigevano; both active in music making since more than fifteen years, their friendship has grown over the years on the fertile ground of the interest that they share about electronic experimentation and their wide and open-minded listening habits. "Detrimental Dialogue", their very first collaboration, deeply explores various types of analogue and digital synthesis (additive, subtractive, Physical Modeling, FM, Phase Distortion, Granular, etc.) and live electronics elements. Recorded together in the authors' studios and then worked out in seclusion between 2007 and 2009, the tracks on "Detrimental Dialogue" were subsequently redefined during a one-week long collective mixing session rigorously made with analogue equipment and precious outboard effects at Fausto Balbo's studio. The album presents four experimental electronic pieces whose exact classification eludes us since their musical contents are rich of the most disparate suggestions. In a formula full of its own natural-born personality, we find elements that recall prominent experimental forms - sometimes pseudo-abstract - rich of fragments, loops and "clusters" of sounds that bear a pronounced and exhibited synthetic matrix. "Atmospheric", dilated and generally quiet sequences are alternated with more structured, dramatic and progressive moments that shake the listeners and emotionally involve them with a more orthodox path, without giving way to conventional or stereotyped solutions... [more]
October 2010
K11
"Waiting For the Darkness"
Experimental / Industrial / Noise. "K11 is a project that deals with the world of radio signals, the trans-communication and other invisible phenomena, to create a dimension where the only sound sources are signals from shortwave radio receivers. In this project I use only sounds coming from the atmosphere and from invisible places." Many music works created by Pietro Riparbelli were released by Radical Matters in Italy during the recent years. His "Voices From Thelema" was published by Aurora Borealis in the United Kingdom during early 2009. "Waiting For the Darkness" is K11's first release on Afe, here's a short introduction to the album written by the author: "Waiting For the Darkness" is the documentation of an action of instrumental transcommunication performed in a forest in 2007. It consists of a video, recorded during the last hours of the day and of five audio tracks composed with short wave radio signals recorded during the action itself. This work wishes to investigate the dimension of fear and continues the research of Pietro Riparbelli about Instrumental Transcommunication started off with the first action performed within the Abbey of Thelema and documented on the "Voices From Thelema" CD. "Waiting For the Darkness" was born as an audio-video installation which has been hosted by "PX Piombino Experimenta 04" international sound art festival in collaboration with Influx..." [more]
Pro-duplicated CD-R
100 copies
May 2010
"Retrovirus"
Infected Ambient / Experimental. Details coming soon... [more]
[to be released in 2013]
coming soon...
"Mexico"
Post-Rock / Electronic / Experimental. "Now we need to record the bagpipe tracks". These words were pronounced by Sparkle in Grey while recording their album "Mexico", on the second day of a week-end session with Cristiano Santini, leaving him flabbergasted. lt was April 2008, quite a while back; in that same year their previous record, "A Quiet Place", had been released with Disasters By Choice. The latter, critically acclaimed, has been compared to the work of the most disparate artists: Labradford, King Crimson, Massive Attack, Sol lnvictus, Piano Magic and Tuxedomoon were frequent references. lt's hard to say whether those who have listened to that record have actually grasped what really influenced the band members during the making of that record, but things have got even more weird with "Mexico", where a greater number of instruments stratify... It is, therefore, hard to define the true nature of "Mexico", with its dark hues, but possibly not as melancholy as the previous works. The title speaks of escape, of shelter, a place anything but quiet, a land of contrast where desperate violence is generated by the economic gap. The multi-coloured graphics and naif artwork of the band suggest a glimmer of hope, possibly as a means to deceive the audience... [more]
November 2011
MATHIEU RUHLMANN
"As a Leaf or a Stone"
Electroacoustic / Experimental / Musique concrète. Mathieu Ruhlmann is a visual and sound artist. He first began composing soundworks to accompany his visual art based on found material. He has created works for various labels worldwide - including S'agita Recordings, Mystery Sea, Spekk, Unfathomless, Taâlem and Gears of Sand - as well as contributed to several compilations. He has also produced sound installations and held performances throughout North America. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here's a description of "As a Leaf or a Stone" written by Will Long of Celer: "With every beginning, raw objects come into place, and within these objects are found the essence of meaning, and inspiration. "As a Leaf or a Stone", the new album by Mathieu Ruhlmann on Afe Records, is a thriving example of the individuality of natural materials, and the sculpture of character. Using an assemblage of instruments and raw objects, such as a coffee grinder, e-bow, denture cleaner, egg beater, ukelin, turkey baster, frying pan, shruti box (and many more), "As a Leaf or a Stone" stands as a work of creative ingenuity, finding beauty in the combination of raw materials that are characteristically regarded as mundane or lacking in spirit, and transforming them into a work that is both visually conjuring, and comfortingly familiar..." [more]
Pro-duplicated CD-R
100 copies
May 2010
SCUM FROM THE SUN
"Scum From The Sun"
Doom-Metal / Experimental / Ambient. Scum From The Sun were born as a way to experiment with uncompromising electroacoustic music. It is an open collective that also declares its intentions through installations, videos and other art forms. The group was founded in 2003 by Cash (synth, sound manipulation) and Black Mikey (bass), both coming from different experiences but united by their common passion for unconventional and experimental music. During the years they have successfully performed in the underground circuit, especially in squatts. "Scum From The Sun", their official debut album, was recorded and mixed during 2008. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, it was co-produced by Afe and finally released in June 2009. "The album focuses on those moments of life when losing oneself is necessary and unavoidable to reach mutation. Structured like an alchemical process, the CD consists of four tracks. Each of them represent a different level in the process which leads to the "Great Work", a metaphor of Man's spiritual elevation. "La caduta prima del distacco" (The Fall Before Separation) describes the sense of emptiness and bewilderment when falling free is the only form of resistance, the only way to give sense, denying it, to existence. Such a denial necessarily leads to a separation from matter, from all ties, and in full from the whole world that gets swallowed by the fall. "Caput Corvi", literally "Raven Head", just like the Nigredo symbol or "Black Work", represents all the troubles Man faces during his travel through the underworld, i.e. his own self. The separation which took place earlier is not so comfortable, and when Man reaches the bottom he is left alone, dragging himself in the darkness looking for something which can help him to climb up again..." [more]
Pro-duplicated CD-R
June 2009
La caduta prima del distacco [excerpt]
Il sorriso della Regina Bianca e il sonno del Re Rosso
MEERKAT
"Kapnos"
Electroacoustic / Experimental / Ambient. In 2003 Maurizio Bianchi and Matteo Uggeri / Hue met through Afe Records; three years later Maurizio asked Matteo for a musical collaboration, which grew up quickly under the design of a long term project called "Between the Elements", a sort of music transposition of concepts that lies in the empty spaces between the natural elements, which are over-abused terms in the New Age music scene. Two albums were published in 2008: one about the concept of "clouds" ("Nefelodhis", by MB and the post-rock band Sparkle in Grey) and one about the concept of "desert" ("Erimos", by MB with Hue and Luca Bergero / Fhievel). One year later, the third chapter entitled "Kapnos" – Greek for "smoke" - is finally available. The industrial master contributes to back notes and concept, but keeps his hands far from the musical matter, leaving it to the expertise of ten of the most interesting experimental musicians of the Italian scene, united under the cryptic name of Meerkat. The Meerkat ensemble is formed by a group of musicians working in the field of experimental music, drones, microsounds and field recordings: Adriano Zanni / Punck, Matteo Uggeri / Hue, Luca Sigurtà, Luca Bergero / Fhievel, Davide Valecchi / aal, Andrea Ferraris / Ics, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti (Logoplasm), Laura Lovreglio (Logoplasm) and Andrea Marutti / Amon / Never Known. The tracks on "Kapnos" present a surprising homogeneity in spite of the different attitudes of the artists, which mixed their experiences in each track creating new unforeseen connections, working in pairs or in threesome on each track... [more]
CD
June 2009