mystified – Return of Plunderman (Webbed Hand Records, 2011)

“Return Of Plunderman” is the exciting sequel to “Adventures Of Plunderman”. Tight loops plundered from vinyl were embellished with rhythms, sequences and other sounds to create an excellent aural experience. Hear the old and new meshed together, combined in synchronous ecstasy! All mastered from 24-bit audio.
Webbed Hand Records

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No-xygen – …Entry to a Defiled Reverie… (Webbed Hand Records, 2011)

01 The Deserted 05:00
02 Shadows of Oblivion 06:45
03 Move To An Entry To A Defiled Reverie 09:32
04 Surrounded By Solitude 06:58

No-xygen is dark/ambient project from Greece which started in 2007 by Manos F. and Thanos M. The first release “towards the sun” was recorded in 2008 and it was a sample of space/ambient music. After more experimentations the music changed to something new, dark and eerie. In 2010 No-xygen released the second release entitled “u-235″ a more dark ambient/industrial album. This one led the project to release in 2011 the third album so far “…entry to a defiled reverie…” which is also the landmark of no-xygen’s sound and of the direction we follow so far.
No-xygen

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Moljebka Pvlse - The Leaves Of Their Songs (Fin De Siècle Media, 2004)

1 Suriak 6:16
2 Nyogen 7:14
3 Chotan 7:47
4 Chorei 17:39
5 Anzan 27:28
6 Mugen 6:28

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The Omega Core - Massive Black (Earth Mantra, 2011)

01 - Maleficence Approaches 1:11
02 - They Look Back Upon the Burning 2:17
03 - Trepidation 5:13
04 - Artwork Forbade 4:04
05 - Pending the Morning Sun 3:42
06 - Four Billion Cubic Kilometres of Shining Papyrus 1:30
07 - The Sun Rises 2:15
08 - Clockwork Fascinates 1:48
09 - As it Began, I Looked to the Sky 4:31
10 - Entropy 4:57
11 - Unfathom 2:28
12 - The Greenhouse of Abject Horrors 1:43
13 - Modulation of the Last 4:48
14 - Eons Away, They Looked to the Stars 3:31
15 - Far 1:29

We have oft mentioned how much we enjoy meeting new folks and bringing their music to our listening audience. Today, we have the pleasure of welcoming Matt Shepherd of The Omega Core to our family of artists, with his fascinating release Massive Black.

We find it difficult to categorize this captivating album. Certainly much of the music could be labeled dark ambient, replete with foreboding abstract sound sculpture and baleful waves of texture crashing all around. But much more lurks in this album than darkness, including movements of beautiful melody and radiant light. Somehow Matt found a way to blend all of these disparate elements into a cohesive whole that hangs together in a truly hypnotic fashion.

For this reason, we think that Massive Black will speak to lovers of many schools of ambient thought. Those who seek epic scope and haunting vistas will find much to love here. But likewise, those who eschew the darkness and instead crave concrete musical elements, even melody, will find parts of this album deeply satisfying. For our part, we find this fusion of ambient styles to be a novel and holistic form unto itself, a clever combination of pieces that yields a unity that stands firmly on its own, a whole whose value exceeds the sum of its parts. Truly well done.

Matt himself describes the album thus: "Being a fan of drone, and huge, dreamy soundscapes, I thought I'd have a bash at creating my own. I wanted to make something that would make my spine tingle, even after listening to it countless times during the 'inspiration' sessions. Massive Black isn't exactly that, as it's rather more abstract than I would have ultimately wanted, but an entire album full of ear-bending symphonic ambient might get a bit tiring after a while. You need to have intervals of peace and WHAM, into the climax."

If this album weren't enough, Matt has released a great deal of other music directly through The Omega Core's web site, and we encourage our audience to not only grab Massive Black for your collections, but to investigate his other work as well. Earth Mantra is very happy to bring Massive Black to our listeners, and we certainly look forward to Matt's future releases, both via Earth Mantra and beyond. Highly recommended.
Earth Mantra

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Aairria - Katharsis (Earth Mantra, 2011)

01 - Imipramine 10:20
02 - Amoxapine 9:36
03 - A Waterclock, A Ball-Jointed Doll, A Broken Piano 47:54

After a long time away, ambient prodigy Marcin Drabot returns to Earth Mantra with another collection of fathomless textural music, this time a trio of captivating pieces from his Aairria project called Katharsis.

We will confess from the outset that our admiration for Drabot's music extends very far and very deep. We consider him nothing less than one of the premier ambient artists active today, having created several pieces that we would call classics, essential listening for anyone who claims to love this genre. Needless to say, when Marcin gave us the opportunity to release another album by him, we literally jumped at the chance.

And what a release we have in store for our listeners. Perhaps unlike the artist's excellent 2007 Earth Mantra release Nasti, the music of Katharsis covers a surprisingly broad swath of the ambient landscape, at times dark and mildly foreboding, other times mellow and contemplative, and still other times textural and abstract. Our amazement at Marcin's mastery of so many ambient forms never ceases, and we think Katharsis makes a particularly apt introduction to his music for those who are unfamiliar, as well as a singularly welcome addition to his catalogue for those who have long enjoyed his work. Remarkably well done.

In fact, though we may never cherish anything Marcin produces as much as his magnum opus Inside My Room, Watching The Rain, a release that we consider to be the penultimate ambient composition ever made by anyone anywhere. we find the music of Katharsis to stand up very strongly against even this towering standard. Such a lovely collection of colors, mingled together so tastefully, that we have to say this is one of the best releases Marcin has ever produced. The compositions are especially well crafted, and complement each other aesthetically on multiple levels. This is the kind of music that suspends time, the sort of experience that speaks to a deeper consciousness well below the surface, something that you will want to hear again and again.

So it is with great pleasure that we announce the second release by Aairria on Earth Mantra, the brilliant and evocative Katharsis. It has been much too long since the last time Marcin Drabot has shared his music with our audience, and we hope that it will not be nearly so long until we again have the privilege. Highly, highly recommended.
Earth Mantra

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RIP Lucette Bourdin

The late Lucette Bourdin was a visual and music artist who was a native of France, having grown up in the villages and towns near the Doubs River in the eastern part of the country. The childhood phase of scribbling and coloring never ended for Lucette nor could several years of law school diminish her desire to become an artist. So, when she married an American and moved to the United States she felt her life was going to start over and her art would begin. Always an independent and self-disciplined individual, and feeling that the art programs available would only limit her expression, Lucette embarked upon a rigorous study of artists, color and design which eventually resulted in her own unique style.

Using watercolor/gouache as her media, Lucette developed a painting style which both expresses and evokes the subtlety of the soul. The outer landscape is a metaphor for the spirit that seeks expression as the light of transformation and redemption.

As accomplished at visual art as she was, Lucette was also a master of the ambient music genre, producing a wide ranging collection of albums that can only be described as masterworks. Lucette saw an interesting duality between the two forms of art, where the practice of one reinforces the practice of the other.

Lucette once said: "The closest analogy to how I experience both the act of painting and a finished work of art is music. While I am painting I feel like music is streaming through me on to the paper. It is difficult to say whether I am playing the music or the instrument being played. My experience is the reverse of music however, because the performance is done privately in my studio while the completed score in its entirety is what I show the public. There is another interesting distinction between the two mediums for me as well. Music is played in a line, it is linear, but it creates an atmosphere that continues after it has been played. A painting is a whole piece of music sounding all at once and which the viewer replays by looking at it. As the eye wanders around a painting the colors, forms, textures and their relationships are "sounding" within the viewer creating an experience or mood or atmosphere."

Lucette passed away in February of 2011, but her unique perspective on music and art lives on. Earth Mantra is very proud to have brought Lucette's music to our listeners and to have helped ensure that her music continues to inspire for many, many years to come.
Earth Mantra

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Loopool – Troposphere (Webbed Hand Records, 2011)

01 troposphere [00:29:54]

“loopool is committed to perpetual change and movement, using music as a medium for the power of the brain to reshape itself and rewire the synapses.”

“About: loopool has been active since 1998, releasing records continuously since 1999 and performing once every year since then. He has collaborated with the following artist for recording and live material: Oneirothopter, 100 Pieces, Danse Perdue, Alex Crockett, Stabbings and Robedoor.” — the artist

loopool is Jean-Paul Garnier
Webbed Hand Records

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Blue Albatross – Sunset and the Palm Trees (Webbed Hand records, 2011)

01 Dreamscapes [02:34]
02 Pamplemousse [02:53]
03 Walt Whitman [03:22]
04 City of Elves [04:37]
05 Craftsman [02:48]
06 Shipwrecked [02:41]
07 Banquets [02:32]
08 I’ll Meet You in France [05:13]
09 Morphosis [2:36]
10 Willow Tree [03:27]
11 Greatest Voyager [01:34]
12 Violet Transistor Bridge [02:48]
13 Cerulean Sky [02:15]

Blue Albatross is Rendi Pahlefi
About Sunset And The Palm Trees:
“it’s all about my imagination of Dreamland, Fantasy and Deep Sky in the Night Blue.”

Credit:
Rendi plays Synthesizer, Keyboard, Glockenspiel and Laptop
Mixing, Mastering, Engineering by Rendi @ Theater Airship
Artwork by Summerstar07
Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

“thank you for support me, listen to my sounds and appreciate my work”

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[mikra] – Attalla2 (Webbed Hand Records, 2011)

01 Attalla2 [01:59:17]

“Now it is a little about itself and about the given two-hour material. Was born and live in the city of Minsk which is capital of last dictatorial state of Europe (at present) @ Belarus. To me 34 years. It is dissolved. There is a daughter who is called by Nastya, and its voice is on ATTALLA2. There is a girlfriend with whom I want to connect all remained life. Her name is Nadya – and is present its image on a cover to music. ATTALLA2 – very personal intimate (for me) work. In it I tell about myself, by means of the primitive computer and analog old Soviet synthesizers. I haven’t dared to divide all sounding into separate parts as it is often accepted because then integrity of my history and the concept put in music would be broken. I can only advise – to perceive the given work as film viewing … a film about me, my life and my love.. Thanks for attention)))” —
Pavel [mikra]

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Obscure Visions – Four Roads (Webbed Hand Records, 2011)

01 Road I [03:12]
02 Road II [06:00]
03 Road III [10:02]
04 RoadIV [07:50]

Fabián Ramírez (México City, 1987) began producing at the age of 13. Also he has played his music in several parties of Mexico City. He runs his own netlabel, Heromlabs Records.

Heromlabs Records starts on january 2001 with the main objective, share his music all around the world. His headquarters are established in Mexico city. He is mainly dedicated to Hardcore Techno, Noise, Ambient, Dark Ambient, Experimental, IDM, EBM, 8-Bits, Neo-Classic and Trance music.

He runs the netlabel and various of his projects like: 101001010101 [Noise], Dr. Herom [Hardcore Techno], Obscure Visions [Dark Ambient], Button A [8-bits], Ündich [EBM] & Yspco [Trance], are part of the catalogue.

He was invited to collaborate with Toxicpro Records on 2003, there he worked in some radio programs, event production and compilations.

Then he joined to Gabbermex Crew on the same year. He is the youngest member from Gabbermex.

Fabián was influenced by a lot of artists, like Aghast, Yen Pox, Ophidian, Bit Shifter, Front 242, Converter.
Webbed Hand Records

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ZMG – The Sect (Webbed Hand Records / Black Square, 2011)

01 The Sect – p0 [01:25]
02 The Sect – p1 [03:36]
03 The Sect – p2 [02:52]
04 The Sect – p3 [01:24]
05 The Sect – p4 [04:15]
06 The Sect – p5 [02:34]
07 The Sect – p6 [04:27]

About the album:
A descent through the cracks of the end of the world,the cry of souls trapped between the weight of a sky full of sulphur and lead that falls down on earth, not leaving a single ray of light cross the membrane of a dying sun.

About ZMG:
ZMG is a contemporary composer of incidental music for films and videogames, who based his career in genres of terror, horror, suspense and impact.
He lives in Argentina. Throughout all these years he has created countless sound designs making himself a place in the national scene and also he worked for USA, Colombia, Spain, Chile, France and others.
Webbed Hand Records

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Bo Becker - Transpiritus (self release, 2011)

1 Transpiritus I 10:45
2 Transpiritus II 13:15
3 Transpiritus III 08:33

This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. It is one, consistent journey. Much work and time was put into it. It is meant to be played loud, with eyes closed and mind open. I hope you enjoy.
Bo Becker

credits
released 28 February 2011
bo becker - guitars / arrangement / engineering / artwork
eliza smith - cello / harp

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Nicholas Szczepanik - An Underside soon ready for shipping

Ante Algo Azul consists of 12 pieces; each will be released on a 3" CDr limited to 100 copies. The set will be sold as a subscription and each piece will be mailed individually, as it is finished. Each piece will be handwrapped in paper and, at times, a piece may also include other keepsakes like photographs, poetry, etc...

I will primarily be selling this as a subscription, but perhaps I will sell individual copies without the extra fun stuff; I'm not sure yet. If you have any questions, please email me at naszczepanik@gmail.com. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Nicholas Szczepanik

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1000schøen - Yoshiwara (Kafue Systeme, 2007)

1 Sow 1:36
2 Bear Around 9:02
3 So Long 26:41
4 Followed Your Steps 17:24
5 Yoshiwara 20:07

"Yoshiwara" is also the name of a prostitute area of the 17 th century's Tokyo just like it was the name of the nightclub in Fritz Lang's movie "Metropolis" (1927) where the main character Maria worked as an exotic dancer. This very interesting album by German composer 1000Schøen could well be the soundtrack for a 21 st century's edition of the Fritz Lang's legendary futuristic movie. Taking its starting point in the world of ambience the intense work circulates in sonic worlds of buzzing noise drones and otherworldly spheres of melodic beauty. Thus being both dramatic and harmonic in expression the album changes between short tracks and long conceptual tracks with the third track (all tracks are untitled!) clocking 26+ minutes. "Yoshiwara" is a remarkable work of experimental ambient.
Niels Mark, Vital Weekly

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Mysterybear - Following A Line (self release, 2011)

1 Following A Line Part 1
2 Following A Line Part 2

I have started a little netlabel as a way to distribute my improvisation electronic music. The first release is a set of two recent improvisations called Following A Line. These pieces feature Auduino, Buddha Machines (FM1, FM2, and FM3), MoogerFooger ring modulator, Deluxe Memory Man, and RC-2 looper. I recorded them live using a Zoom H4 recorder, and they are unedited except to clean up the beginnings and endings.

Both tracks were previously released (and are still available) on SoundCloud: Following A Line, Part 1 and Following A Line, Part 2. Marc Weidenbaum of was kind enough to mention it on Disquiet.

I may also make this release available as a CD-R.
Mysterybear

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Luke Bacon - Equivalence #3 (self release, 2011)

1 Equivalence #3

Recorded on a rainy night in December 2010, this is an improvised piece, the first thing that happened when I sat down at the piano.
Luke Bacon

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Luke Bacon - Equivalence (self release, 2010)

1 Equivalence #1
2 Equivalence #2

Two pieces built around recorded improvised performances.
Luke Bacon

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Nacht Und Nebel - Shapeless (self release, 2011)

1 irem (city of a thousand pillars) 12:28
2 saprophyte (live at chameleon 200409) 12:11

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Alexei Borisov & Olga Nosova - Live At Staalplaat (Electronic Musik, 2011)

Borisov/Nosova duo was formed in Moscow (RF), april 2009.
Music components: free improvized, live electronics, noise, electroacoustic, spoken word, tape music, ambient, soundtracks, field recordings etc.

The duo collaborates with different musicians, sound artists, video-artists, dancers and poets from different countries: Anton Nikkila (Finland), Dave Phillips (Switzerland), Matthieu Werchowsky (France), Dora Bleu (Canada), Thomas Buckner (USA), Tom Smith (USA), Jandek (USA), Edyta Fil (Poland), Kim_Nasung (Poland), Ilya Belorukov (Russia), Fear Konstruktor (Russia), Sergei Letov (Russia), Yuri Yaremtchuk (Ukrain), Volga (Russia), Rafal Mazur (Poland), Alexei Rafiev (Russia), Oleg Kornev (France), Nikita Tsymbal (Russia), Mitya Fedorenko (France) and more....

Produces music for silent movies ("The 11th" by Dziga Vertov), art exhibitions, theatrical and multi-media events and actions. International events and festivals: The 10th Anniversary of GEZ-21 International Music Fest (St.Petersburg, Russia, 2009), Spektro Fest (Istanbul, Turkey 2009), Jauna Muzika (Vilnius, Lithuania 2010), Sonic Circuits (Washington DC, USA 2010), Interpretations (NYC, USA 2010), joint tour with Dora Bleu in Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, Borisov/Nosova/Belorukov/Nasung Tour in Poland 2009, Salvador Dali art exhibition at Inartis Gallery (Moscow, Russia 2009), live at Staalplaat record store in Berlin, concerts in Ljubljana, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, Hannover, Prague, Riga, Dusseldorf, Providence, NYC and more...

Showcases and lectures at Berklee Music Collage (Boston), George Washington University (Washington DC) Releases: "Istanbul Kebap" (Live at Spektro 2009) (net-album by www.top-40.org) "No No Music" (net-album by www.kroogi.com - (2010) CD-R releases by Bornos produkt: "Selected works, vol. 1" (2009) "Selected works, vol 2" (2010) "Live recordings" (2009-2010) "Grundig" (2010) CD: "Elektrokooperativ" (Industrial Culture, UK 2010.
Electronic Musik

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Madame B / Wehwalt - Madame B / Wehwalt (Otorragie, 2011)

1 Madame B - Don't separate my body from my soul - 05:50
2 Wehwalt - Phalloïde - 07:52
3 Madame B & Wehwalt - Body Shock - 08:47

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