Three Murcof UK dates have been announced, including a very special performance at the newly opened Peter Harrison Planetarium at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.

The dates will follow the release of Murcof’s splendid third album, Cosmos, on Leaf on 17 September. Murcof will be playing the following venues:

3/10: Colchester Art Center
4/10: Peter Harrison Planetarium, Greenwich, London
7/10: The Arches, Glasgow

More dates are due to be announced soon.

Murcof | The Leaf Label

Efterklang have announced details of part of the European leg of their imminent world tour in support of their second album, Parades, due out on 15 October.

Confirmed dates so far:

16/10: Paris, France
17/10: Le Havre, France
18/10: Rennes, France
21/10: Madrid (Festival De Otono), Spain
30/10: Malmø, Sweden
31/10: Oslo, Norway

1/11: Stockholm, Sweden
3/11: Gothenburg, Sweden
8/11: Albertslund, Denmark
9/11: Vejle, Denmark
10/11: Århus, Denmark
15/11: Copenhagen, Denmark
16/11: Odense, Denmark
17/11: Aalborg, Denmark
21/11: Bristol, England
22/11: Birmingham, England
23/11: London, England
24/11: Leeds, England
25/11: Nottingham, England
27/11: Glasgow, Scotland
28/11: Dublin, Ireland
29/11: Belfast, North Ireland
30/11: Manchester, England

1/12: Brighton, England
2/12: Bruxelles, Belgium
3/12: Amsterdam, Holland

Efterklang | The Leaf Label | Rumraket

MURCOF
Cosmos
BAY59CD
The Leaf Label 2007
06 Tracks. 56mins12secs

In the five years that separate Murcof’s majestic debut album, Martes, and his most recent offering, Cosmos, Fernando Corona has become one of the most respected electronic musicians around, and a source of inspiration for a whole new generation of musicians, not only in his native Mexico where his success has energised a myriad of new artists and labels, but also across Europe, with artists such as Deaf Center or part of the roster of Erik Skodvin’s Miasmah imprint openly claiming to have been influenced by his visionary take on classical sounds and electronica.

Coming two years after Remembranza, which explored more complex sound and harmonic structures than its predecessor, Cosmos is an altogether much grander and ambitious record than any of his previous releases. Continue Reading »

With just a handful of releases under his belt, Mexican electronic musician Fernando Corona, AKA Murcof, has established a very unique sound and is already named as a major influence by some. Five years after his seminal debut album, Martes, was released, he is back with his magnificent third album, Cosmos, on Leaf. For this latest effort, Corona pretty much ditches the micro beats and samples that have informed previous releases to work from recordings of real classical instruments. The result is a superb tapestry of sounds, drones and melodies which Corona will take on the road for a planetarium tour in the autumn. Here, Fernando Corona talks to the themilkman from his home in Barcelona, where he currently resides, about the new album, his soundtrack work and the rise of the Mexican electronic scene.

Continue Reading »

Danish band Efterklang will be releasing the follow up to their 2004 debut Tripper with a second album, Parades, due out on 15 October on Leaf. The album follows the magnificent mini album Under Giant Trees released earlier this year. While Under Giant Trees was conceived while the band was touring, Parades is the fruit of eighteen months of recording and involved more than thirty guest musicians, including a string quartet, a brass quintet and three separate choirs.

The band have this video teaser which uses one of the tracks of the album, Horseback Tenors. The video is directed by Conkerco.

You can view a high resolution 8mb Quicktime version here.

Efterklang, augmented with three additional members, will be undertaking a world tour this autumn which is due to continue at least until summer 2008.

Efterklang | The Leaf Label

A HAWK AND A HACKSAW & THE HUN HANGÁR ENSEMBLE
A Hawk And A Hacksaw & The Hun Hangár Ensemble
DOCK47CDVD
The Leaf Label 2007
08 Tracks. 29mins20secs

Originally the solo project of former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes, A Hack And A Hacksaw is a totally unique project, which has taken Barnes in a variety of locations across the world. Beside his previous regular spot as drummer with Neutral Milk Hotel, Barnes has also served with Bablicon, Bright Eyes and Broadcast. He started working on his next project, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, toward the beginning of the century, and released his first album in 2003.

Feeding on a vast set of influences, ranging from Eastern European traditional music to avant-garde and beyond, the first self-titled A Hawk And A Hacksaw album, recorded in the quiet town of Saumur, on the border of the Loire, in France, totally disregarded traditional musical boundaries to create an exhilarating soundtrack out of field recordings over which pianos, accordions and various other instruments flourished into beautiful melodies. Continue Reading »

COLLEEN
Les Ondes Silencieuses
BAY57
The Leaf Label 2007
09 Tracks. 43mins20secs

The twist on Colleen’s third album title, which translates as ‘The quiet waters’ but can also be interpreted as ‘The silent soundwaves’, reveals a lot about the content of the record. Gone are the complex electronic experimentations of previous records, replaced with simple melodies and crystal-pure acoustic instrumentation. While Paris-based Cecile Schott had already made a substantial step towards real instrumentation on her previous album, The Golden Morning Breaks (2005), there were still traces of the electronic treatments she had applied on previous outputs. For Les Ondes Silencieuses, Schott relies solely on instruments such as viola da gamba, which she already used on The Golden Morning Breaks, spinet, a relative of the harpsichord, both dating from the baroque period, as well as classical guitar, clarinet and crystal glasses. Continue Reading »

EFTERKLANG
Under Giant Trees
DOCK46CD
The Leaf Label 2007
05 Tracks. 29mins11secs

Copenhagen-based outfit Efterklang caused something of a stir as they deployed their elegant pastoral pop songs over the course of Tripper, their debut album, released in the autumn of 2004 on Leaf. In just under an hour, the quintet, formed of Mads Brauer (electronics), Rune Mølgaard (piano), Thomas Husmer (drums) and multi instrumentists Rasmus Solberg and Casper Clausen, the latter also assuming vocal duties, hung up beautiful crafted songs set in scintillating backdrops of pianos, strings and found sounds. The album followed a previous EP, Springer, originally published on the band’s own Rumraket imprint in 2003 before Leaf released it early again in 2005. Efterklang have since released a very limited one-sided vinyl EP at the end of 2006. Continue Reading »

ADRIAN KLUMPES
Be Still
BAY56CD
The Leaf Label 2006
09 Tracks. 51mins05secs

Adrian Klumpes usually officiates as part of Australian formation Triosk, with whom he has released two albums, including the recent The Headlight Serenade, and collaborated with experimental sound artist Jan Jelinek. Be Still is his first foray into solo work.

Built from recordings made during a single five-hour long improvisation session, Be Still originally intended to capture part of the creative process behind his music, yet the subsequent processing revealed a much more complex and somewhat abstract tone. While the recording context certainly influences the nature of this record, the nine tracks collated here appear especially suspended in both time and space. Continue Reading »

COLLEEN ET LES BOITES A MUSIQUE
Colleen Et Les Boîtes A Musique
BAY53CD
The Leaf Label 2006
14 Tracks. 38mins55secs

Colleen is a very singular artist with a sharp visionary mind and a deep understanding of a wide range of music genres. Based in Paris, where she has spent most of her life, Cécile Schott as she was born, was classically trained, but she has since embraced modern technology to support her work.

Colleen’s work first emerged on a joint compilation from French imprints Active Suspension and Clapping Music, which rapidly lead to her being signed on Leaf. Her first album, Everyone Alive Wants Answers (2003) made good use of electronically treated acoustic elements and samples to create rich evocative soundscapes in which she dressed her compositions. Her second effort, The Golden Morning Breaks saw her abandoning this process to focus solely on acoustic instruments, something she had been using during live performances for some time. Continue Reading »