ROTHKAMM
Alt
KARU15
Baskaru 2009
10 Tracks. 39mins35secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Despite a body of work that spans over twenty solo releases, spread over twenty five years, German-born musician and conceptual artist Frank Rothkamm has remained a fairly enigmatic figure for most. Beside his own music, Rothkamm, who currently lives in Los Angeles, has provided music and sound design for big international corporations (Levi Strauss, Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Warner Bros…), and has worked with a wide range of artists, including the likes of Lesa Carlson, Wolfgang Muthspiel or DJ Spooky.

Released on the excellent Baskaru, ALT sequences ten fairly minimal pieces, all named using seemingly random collections of three letters, some ordered in familiar patterns (SUN, RED, LOW, CON, GUI) others in more mysterious strings (AAA, RND, OOO, DEC). The music appears to focus on the introspective experimentations of granular electronic sounds and tones, often taking the appearance of slow evolutive drones and textures, which are not without evoking some of Tangerine Dream’s early experiments. Continue Reading »

ETHAN ROSE
Oaks
KARU14
Baskaru 2009
08 Tracks. 37mins51secs

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Hailing from Portland, OR, Ethan Rose works with unusual sound sources which he processes and collates into delicate atmospheric pieces to create wonderfully textural records. His debut album, Ceiling Songs, released in 2006 on Locust Music, documented his work with automated instruments (music boxes, taped up player piano rolls), which, combined with acoustic instruments and electronics, created a fragile and ephemeral world where textures were layered into gossamer formations. His follow up record, Spinning Pieces, published in 2007, once again on Locust, collected three tracks which had previously been released in extremely small quantity, and continued to showcase his work with automated instruments.

For his third album, Oaks, released on Baskaru in Europe, Holocene in the US and Headz in Japan, Rose has sourced all his sounds from a Wurlitzer theatre organ dating back from the mid-1920s, which was originally used to accompany silent films. Continue Reading »

SYMBIOSIS ORCHESTRA
Live Journeys
KARU12
Baskaru 2009
11 Tracks. 38mins23secs

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Encompassing everything from modern composition to experimental jazz to electronica, Symbiosis Orchestra is actually quite difficult to place. Originally the idea of Italian sound artist Andrea Gabriele, known as one half of electronic duos Pirandelo and Mou, Lips!, the formation, which includes musicians as diverse as Scanner’s Robin Rimbaud, Iris Garrelfs, Mario Masullo, all three known for their involvement with electronic music, as well as vibes player Stefano Tedesco, flutist Geoff Warren, violonist Diego, trumpetist Robereto di Egidio and pianist Michele Scurti, plus multi media artist Claudio Sinatti, blends in electronic and acoustic into surprisingly spacious and versatile compositions. Continue Reading »

MICHAEL SANTOS
The Happy Error
KARU11
Baskaru 2008
11 Tracks. 52mins04secs

London-based musician and sound artist Michael Santos has already been featured on a handful of compilations, and a first collection of compositions was released as part of Benbecula’s Mineral Series of CDRs in 2006, followed by another CDR release for U-Cover. The Happy Error, brought to you by the rather excellent Baskaru imprint is, however, is first proper release.

Working from a classic set up of processed guitars and sine waves, Santos creates evocative little atmospheric pieces. Continue Reading »

YOSHIO MACHIDA
Hypernatural #3
KARU10
Baskaru 2008
08 Tracks. 53mins42secs

Yoshio Machida began working on his Hypernatural series in 1997. The first volume in the series was self-released two years later, and the second came out in 2001, on German label Softl Music. Since the Tokyo-based artist has been busy with other experimental projects and has released a handful of records on his own imprint, Amorfon, but this year sees the third and final part of the series.

The first Hypernatural release focused on memory in Eastern Asia, while the second investigated the concepts of transparency, unconsciousness and invisible existence. With Hypernatural #3, Machida turns his attention to oblivion as a one of the many processes of life. Creating sonic pieces from field recordings, electronics and acoustic instruments, Machida presents a captivating journey through tightly held organic sound formations which incorporate essentially natural elements, which, although heavily processed, retain some elements of their original aspect. Continue Reading »

Maurizio Bianchi is one of the leader of the Italian noise and experimental scene. He first appeared in 1979, and in the first five years of his career, he released a considerable amount of work on a variety of labels before retiring from the music scene completely. For the next thirteen years, he remained silent, but he resumed his relentless work pace. His latest project is a collaboration with Emanuela De Angelis Twenty years his junior, De Angelis has nevertheless an already impressive body of work behind her, as a member of various formations and, in recent years, as a solo artist. As MD+EDA, the pair have, for a moment, left behind their respective noise remit to investigate a much quieter realm, developed over the whole length of their first album together. Robert Rowlands caught up with the pair to discuss age difference, the pros and cons of working on a collaborative project and how their calm soundscapes are much noisier than it seems. Continue Reading »

M.B. + E.D.A.
Regolelettroniche
KARU8
Baskaru 2008
04 Tracks. 47mins24secs

Born in 1955, Maurizio Bianchi is a long-standing member of the Italian experimental music scene. He debuted in 1979, and, until 1984, he released a considerable amount of work, but then withdrew from the music business completely as he entered a deeply religious and spiritual part of his life. He came out of retirement in 1997 and has since resumed a very productive work pace, with a mix of new releases and re-issues being made available. Twenty years Bianchi’s junior, Emanuela De Angelis first emerged as lead singer and guitarist with noise formation Joyce Whore Not in the early nineties and later founded Mou, Lips!, an experimental electronic project, with Andrea Gabriele, and has been working as a solo artist for over four years.

For their first collaboration, Bianchi and De Angelis create long and expensive drone-like forms, developed over the four tracks and nearly fifty minutes of Regolelettroniche, which vaguely translates into ‘electronic rules’, and which informs the record and sets its the boundaries. Continue Reading »