Artists

Virginia's the Black Twig Pickers have signed to Thrill Jockey and release 'Ironto Special', their first record for the label, in September 20. This coincides with them playing a string of UK dates, some in the company of Charlie Parr.

Banjos and fiddles, boards and bones in hand, the Black Twig Pickers dove into a living tradition of old-time music that surrounds their homes in Southwest Virginia and never looked back. Both scholars of the regional sounds and advocates of an ecstatic and highly personal approach to the music, the Twigs hold down local dance and bar gigs, play all manner of celebrations and every so often, hit the road. Along the way, Isak Howell, Nathan Bowles and Mike Gangloff kept company with some of underground America’s heavyweights and haunted the doorsteps of Appalachian fiddle and banjo masters. They’ve played for the National Council for the Traditional Arts and for audiences overseas. And they’ve put out a string of acclaimed albums, including 2008’s Hobo Handshake and last year’s Jack Rose & the Black Twig Pickers.

Ironto Special is an album of traditional Appalachian old-time tunes (and two originals) that they’ve learned through study of both local old-time musicians and old-time records and field recordings. The instrumentation is all-acoustic and features some of the old-time usuals – fiddle, banjo, guitar – and some less-routinely-heard-in-today’s-old- time-scene implements like washboard, bones, fiddlesticks, mouth harp and jaw harp. Plus (on one song) a one-of- a-kind baritone resonator 12-string guitar. Old-time music served, and continues to serve, a variety of functions in Appalachian life – from dance music to somber solo performance to raggier blues and everything in between. Ironto Special is an attempt to celebrate this variety in the old-time tradition through the band’s process of learning and growth as they explore the music’s many facets.

As a result, the band is in a constant state of evolution as they gleefully tackle this music that fascinates and enraptures them. Mike Gangloff’s fiddle playing is driven by often-frenzied bow rhythms and a steadily improving technique, which combine with his near-religious fervor of gathering tune variations, giving him a large range of expression on the instrument. Isak’s guitar is as chugging and powerful as ever, but this record is really his standout harmonica showcase. Perhaps the biggest change from Hobo Handshake to Ironto Special is Nathan’s move to the clawhammer banjo. The washboard attack of Hobo Handshake is still present on a few tracks (and bones and fiddlesticks make welcome appearances), but the majority of the cuts are a snapshot of Nathan’s growth on clawhammer banjo, further allowing Mike (previously the band’s primary banjoist) to soar above it all with his idiosyncratic fiddle style.

Recorded throughout 2009 in the Shred Shed in Ironto, Virginia, Ironto Special is entirely recorded in single takes. There are no overdubs on the record in any form. Although Ironto Special is their Thrill Jockey debut, the Black Twig Pickers have recorded several releases for VHF, The Great Pop Supplement, and Klang. Mike continues to play in Pelt and the Spiral Joy Band with Nathan. Isak has also recorded and played with both bands.

At some point, these three musicians realized that old-time music is a living, breathing art form, not just music that was recorded in the 1920s or 30s, and it managed to bring them all together. Old-time music is not something that needs to be re-enacted or revived – it’s doing just fine and all they did was to step in and take part. They are not pretending to have grown up in the music or in the part of Virginia they now call home, but like the many who have come before them and passed on their knowledge, they consider themselves to be a part of the music as much as anyone else, and Ironto Special is their contribution to the continuously flowing tradition that will eventually be passed on to the next generation of players.

"The Black Twigs come from the tradition more akin to the previous generation of masters than from many of those plying the trade today ... wild and wooly playing, full out. What a refreshing sound, nothing fancy here! ... The Black Twigs recapture the golden age of old-time music with all the spirit intact." -- Sing Out! Magazine

"Denk een beetje aan de 'Beggar's Banquet'-periode van The Rolling Stones." -- Konkurrent

"A peculiar and joyously dark sound ... It's a hoedown that never strays far from the most primitive roots, familial and earthbound. Calling all campfires, yr bare feet are stained with the dirt of a hundred years." -- Bigrockcandymountain

"A shitkicking Virginian group" -- John Mulvey, Uncut

"The Appalachian Crazy Horse" -- cowsarejustfood

"The Black Twigs (a.k.a. Black Twig Pickers) are one of southwest Virginia's best old-time acts, yet they might as well be playing balls-out boogie rock. This trio can do more with fiddle/banjo, guitar and washboard than most bands can with towering stacks and squealing feedback. The Twigs understand that rhythm isn't a question of volume or force -- or feedback and reverb for that matter. It's about timing. ... You could call these guys alternative, which some in the old-time community do, but the Twigs aren't indie foreigners tinkering with Appalachian traditions." -- Justin Farrar, Strawberry Flats

"Exciting old-time music at its finest." -- Bluegrass Unlimited

The Black Twig Pickers will return to the UK in September 2010.

Ironto Special (Thrill Jockey - 2010)

Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers cd/lp (VHF/Beautiful Happiness - 2009)

Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers 'Shooting Creek' 7" (Great Pop Supplement - 2009)

Hobo Handsake cd (VHF - 2008))

Midnight Has Come And Gone cd (VHF- 2005)

Soon One Morning cd (VHF - 2003)

North Fork Flyer cd (VHF- 2001)

Bong formed in 2005 in Newcastle. They merge classic doom rock tactics with a love of psychedelia and raga hypnotism, lacing their monolithic drones with vocal incantations and live sitar.

"Like space rock slowed waaaaaay down, Bong unleash a dark, dense roiling dirge drone doom, that slowly and gradually, and yes, druggily develops into something super rocking and ultra heavy. Crushing low end, lugubrious stoner doom riffs, pounding drums, and some buzzing sitar, adding a woozy Eastern vibe to the otherwise sludge-y proceedings. This is a total druggy lumbering stoned slow motion doom groove drug jam, channeling Monster Magnet, Black Sabbath, SUNNO))) and especially some Electric Wizard." (Aquarius Records)

Bong play Supernormal festival in August and Supersonic festival in October.

http://www.supernormalfestival.co.uk/

http://www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic/

Evolution Is So Creative (2xCDr, Ltd) Fuckin' Amateurs 2007

Head Of Steam 31/09/07 (CDr, Ltd) Fuckin' Amateurs 2007

Bong Live January 2008 (CDr, Ltd) Chance 2008 Under Byker Bridge 08/03/08 (CDr, Ltd) Slight Chance 2008

Bethmoora (2xCDr, Album, RE) Infinite Exchange 2009

Bong (LP, Ltd) Heidenwut Productions 2009

Bong At Tyneside Cinema June 12th 2009 (CDr, Ltd) Blyth Bites Back 2009

Exhalation / Tonight We Will Pretend We Are Human Beings (LP, Ltd) Blackest Rainbow 2009

Gnod / Bong (7" + CDr + , Ltd) Box Records (3) 2009

In And Around Newcastle (4xCDr, Ltd) Fuckin' Amateurs 2009

Novum Castellum (3xCD, Ltd, In ) Turgid Animal 2009

Recorded Live At La Toscana (CDr, Ltd) Blyth Bites Back 2009

Split (CDr, Ltd) Fuckin' Amateurs 2009

Blitzed In Brixton (CDr, Ltd) Untitled Fuckin' Amateurs 2009

Bong At Easter (3xCDr, Ltd)

"A 30-year history has proven Borbetomagus to be a groundbreaking, seminal, and visionary group. The trio crafted a huge mass of incendiary sound ("noise") that went far beyond anything previously heard. They formed in New York in the late 1970’s at the time that radical punk rock, no-wave, free jazz, and downtown "new music" were all changing the way people heard sound. But Borbetomagus stood on its own, chiseling out an unlikely noise that separated it from what was being heard in those other scenes. The unusual instrumentation (two amplified saxophones and an electric guitar) reveals inspiration from free jazz and underground rock. But more direct sources may be the extremes of minimalism, 20th century composition and abstract art. Borbetomagus sculpt a massive wall of sound that can seem cacophonous and impenetrable on one hand, while rhythmic and beautifully textured on the other. Their 30-year dedication to this vision calls to mind great abstractionists such as Mark Rothko who spent a lifetime grappling with the intensity of a monumental and personal form. Standing on their own at the time of their inception, Borbetomagus went on to inspire everyone from Sonic Youth to Merzbow to a whole genre of music ("Noise") that would become an international force almost 15 years later. Borbetomagus is active on the festival circuit in Europe and Japan." David Dove, Signal to Noise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VwBMyrIPzE Borbetomagus will tour the UK in December 2010, with support from Thomas Ankersmit.

2008 saw Anglo-American duo Cath & Phil Tyler release their debut album ‘Dumb Supper’ to great critical acclaim across all divides of the modern folk landscape – as Plan B rightly noted, “Dumb Supper is one of those rare modern folk albums that will find a home both in the longstanding ‘traditional’ music community and among those attracted to the form’s more experimental and lo-fi possibilities”.

And so it was that they were feted by a bewilderingly multilateral mix of critics from The Wire to Mike Harding to Brainwashed to Bob Harris (for whom they recorded a session too). Fiona Talkington of BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction was especially ardent, even arranging their performance at the Royal Opera House, this similarly contrasting with their underground UK tour in the company of Finnish jouhikko player Pekko Kappi.

And the only thing that stopped them fulfilling their booking at 2008’s Green Man Festival was the early arrival of their son Byron…

With their follow-up album 'The Hind Wheels Of Bad Luck' (out now digitally via www.diogenesmusic.com, out on cd in March), Cath & Phil Tyler further enhance their reputation for raw and powerfully emotive folk music that goes direct to the source, mining through their own contacts and treasure troves such as the Anne & Frank Warner Collection and the Sacred Harp song book, re-interpreting or adding their own music, and surfacing with pure gold.

And while they continue down their own thrillingly sparse furrow, this second album brings with it an added assuredness in their craft that shows how they’ve grown in stature as performers and players. So fully engrossing and fulfilling is their minimal sound, for example the voice and guitar on Dearest Dear, that when the accordion comes in on the song’s later stages, its as affecting and rewarding as if it were an entire orchestra.

While many of the lyrics have been unearthed, the majority of the music has been composed by Cath & Phil. Tracks such as Golden Ace (which segues into the starkly contrasting Courting Is A Pleasure) and Whip Poor Will highlight their divine union of the joy they take in playing and their sublime ability to do so. Phil’s banjo playing provides an indestructible backbone to the songs it features on, while his guitar playing darts, dips and flourishes joyfully – listen to the teasingly abbreviated The Wind That Shakes The Barley or the way his dancing strings vie with the fiddle on Golden Ace.

Phil is an exquisite guitar and banjo player, and layered with Cath’s earthen voice and their haunted harmonies, plus Cath’s barebones fiddle playing, makes for an exquisitely minimal, beautifully scything delivery.

Whip Poor Will, a Tyler-penned instrumental, sounds like a soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are that should have been, conjuring a sense of child-like theatricality and anticipation that truly highlights Cath & Phil’s compositional skills, brilliantly breaking up the rhythm of the surrounding ballads and throwing something unexpected into the album’s emotional make-up.

Fittingly, ‘The Hind Wheels Of Bad Luck’ was recorded over a long weekend in Morden Tower, the ancient and legendary miniature music venue built into Newcastle’s old town walls that has hosted everyone from Allen Ginsberg and Basil Bunting to The New Blockaders and Sir Richard Bishop. The album was produced by Newcastle-based producer Andrew Gardiner. There’s something very fitting about a place that’s been a (largely unsung) cornerstone of Newcastle’s cultural evolution, and even older than many of the stories told on this album, being the place for this album to be made. Morden Tower holds a timeless and undying magic for those who’ve been there, its enigma preserved through the centuries. Similarly, Cath & Phil Tyler have brought us some ancient musical diamonds, added some of their own sorcery, and created something profound and wonderful for the folk of today.

Forthcoming dates:

28/1/10 Cumberland Arms, Newcastle w/ Felix & Men Diamler

10/2/10 Star & Shadow, Newcastle w/MV&EE

8/5/10 Citizens Theatre, Glasgow

http://citz.co.uk/whatson/info/frost_and_fire/

27/6/10 Leigh Folk Festival, Leigh on Sea

'The Hind Wheels Of Bad Luck' cd (2010) 'The Hind Wheels Of Bad Luck' digital album via www.diogenesmusic.com (2009) 'Dumb Supper' cd (2008)

It must be a crazy world when “authentic” is a term used to separate an artist from the pack. Charlie Parr is a folk and country blues musician who is routinely labeled “authentic” and “the real deal” by fans and critics alike. Charlie shows up with a lived-in rasp of a voice, National resonator and 12-string acoustic guitars, a banjo and a batch of his own songs and well-traveled numbers by Mississippi John Hurt, Charley Patton and other cohorts from another time. He lays it on you, and you sense that the gamblers, the union workers, the criminals and the sinners that wander around his songs are peering right over your shoulder. Parr has sung about these folks at steady gigs in his hometown of Duluth, Minnesota, showcase performances like “A Prairie Home Companion,” roadhouses in Texas and Montana, punk clubs in Ireland and pubs in London – let's just say that he's turned a lot of heads. His self-taught mix of slide, finger-picking and quasi-frailing technique, together with a voice that's low on drama and high on impact, can also be heard on four CDs (including the acclaimed 2005 release Rooster). The stories he tells get into some dark spots; that place where regret and remorse part company. A bit of a modern take on timeless conditions. Check him out and you'll probably agree – Charlie Parr is coming from a very real place, and this has, in fact, always been a crazy world.

Charlie Parr grew up in Austin, Minnesota, in a house filled with the music that would inform his style. His late father loved the music found on collections like the field recordings by Alan Lomax released on the Folkways / Smithsonian label and Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. The elder Parr's first-hand accounts of growing up during the Depression, riding the freight trains and traveling to places like the Piedmont region (a North Carolina country blues mecca), made the music all the more visceral to Charlie. While his peers were immersed in what is now called “classic rock,” Charlie was soaking up the music of Furry Lewis, Rev. Gary Davis and Mance Lipscomb. As both his parents were union workers at Austin's Hormel plant – picket line fixtures during bitter labor strikes in the mid-1980s – Charlie himself got a first-hand view of what those old songs were talking about.

Parr picked up the guitar around age eight, however, music lessons never held his interest. He's one of those self-taught guys who inevitably brings his own twists to music. He dropped out of high school as a freshman, eventually earning his GED after moving to Minneapolis. Parr's performing career began in 1988, playing in Twin Cities coffeehouses and clubs where he also spent a lot of time listening to (and learning from) resident greats like Dave Ray and “Spider” John Koerner.

Over the next decade-plus, Parr continued to hone his style and took up songwriting in earnest. Parr also earned a degree in philosophy and became an outreach worker for the homeless, working for the Salvation Army in Minneapolis. His experiences in social services can be heard in his songs, the way any songwriter is impacted by their life experiences. Don't, however, look for any one person's story in Parr's songs. Like his music, Charlie's work helping people in tough spots has been nothing short of a calling (and it ain't no research project). Dignity, and the struggle to keep it, are central themes in Parr's songs, and he's not the kind of guy to trade it on the cheap.

Parr moved from the Twin Cities to Duluth, Minnesota in 2000. In 2001 he released his debut CD, Criminals & Sinners, named “Best Local Folk Record” by Duluth's Ripsaw News. His three additional releases include 1922 (in 2002), King Earl (2004) and Rooster (2005). Glowing reviews for each release have cited the obvious influence of pioneers like Mississippi John Hurt and Robert Johnson, as well as more modern artists like John Fahey and Nick Drake. But what also gets people's attention is Parr's willingness to be himself – unbound by the constrictions of traditionalists and undeterred by present-day themes. (You wouldn't hear Robert Johnson refer to television or raising funds by recycling cans. Charlie does, but not for the sake of irony – it's simply part of his landscape.) Perhaps being steeped in pre-WWII acoustic blues while having his eyes wide open to current conditions explains how Charlie Parr has been embraced at punk clubs, jam band festivals and trendy bistros, in addition to traditional “Americana/roots” venues.

On top of his workman-like gig schedule (that often includes a show in the day in Duluth followed by a bar-closing performance in the Twin Cities at night), Charlie Parr has played his share of high-profile and far flung stages. He appeared on NPR's “A Prairie Home Companion,” handpicked from the vibrant Duluth music scene when the show visited in 2004. In 2001, Parr performed with folk music icon Greg Brown at a fundraiser to restore a family farm barn roof, resulting in the live album Down in the Valley. Brown has become a fan and supporter (comparing Parr to Dave Van Ronk), and has invited him on stage at the Big Top Chautauqua and dropped in to play at a Parr performance at a Duluth tavern. Charlie has made four trips to the British Isles, performing in England and Ireland to enthusiastic crowds. From photocopied fanzines to The Sunday Times in London, Parr has been embraced as an Americana ambassador.

Charlie Parr's fan base says a lot about how his music connects with people. From folk-blues purists to Goth-rock fans to 21st Century Deadheads, Parr has been welcomed into their worlds. With famous fans like Brown, noted eccentric and illustrator R. Crumb and fellow Duluthian Alan Sparhawk of Low, Parr has received some well-credentialed endorsements. When you hear all of these people from all of these outlooks describe Charlie Parr, one thing is evident. Their admiration for his music is, indeed, authentic.

Roustabout (2008) Jubilee (2007) Backslider (2006) Rooster (2005) King Earl (2004) 1922 (2002)

Alan Courtis & Aaron Moore return to the UK for more of their explosive collaborative live shows following their first tour and album together in February 2008. This time they’ll be providing a live soundtrack to Argentine Home Movie Cavalcade, the 2008 film by Sergio Subero and Sergio Brauer that compiles a selection of Argentine Home-Movies mainly from the 70’s. Based on amateur found footage from unknown authors in the 1970s, the film brings a portrait of Argentinian collective memory from those years and is presented with a live music performance oriented to experimental drone, psychedelic and abstract noise and free rock improvisation by Courtis and Moore. As Courtis/Moore they released their first collaborative album 'Brokebox Juke' (NO-FI) earlier this year, to a raft of critical acclaim - "a great achievement, and one of the year's strongest releases" The Wire Moore has also of late been touring in his band with No Neck Blues Band's Dave Nuss, Amolvacy, and has just completed 4 performances in New York as part of Boredoms for their Boadrum9 shows. And of course, he's an integral member of the increasingly seminal Volcano The Bear, who have, in the words of The Wire, "produced some of the finest, wildest British music of the last 10 years on record and on stage…”. Or, as Losing Today puts it, “No one sounds, has sounded or will ever sound quite like Volcano the Bear.” Alan Courtis (aka Anla Courtis, Alna Courtis, etc) was a founder member of the Reynols, a band with more than 100 releases on labels from USA, Europe, Japan & NZ, including conceptual and/or absurd projects like: 10.000 Chicken Symphony, Blank Tapes, Whistling Kettle Quartet. He has collaborated with musicians like: Pauline Oliveros, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Damo Suzuki (Can), Eddie Prevost (AMM), Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls), Yoshimi P-Wee (Boredoms), Chris Corsano, Ashtray Navigations, Michael Snow, Birchville Cat Motel, and members of Avarus and Kemialliset Ystävät. He has also released more than one hundred solo releases and collaborations on labels like Tonschacht (Germany), Blossoming Noise (USA), Antifrost (Greece), Celebrate Psi Phenomenon (New Zealand), 267 Lattajjaa (Finland), Jewelled Antler (USA), Riot Season (UK).

"The legacy of Goblin is vast and full of surprises, and they've had a great influence on how rock music can be used in film scores. And, as such, Goblin can claim to be not only one of the most important of Italian rock bands, but also creators of some of the finest Italian film soundtracks alongside the redoubtable Ennio Morricone!” Alan Freeman

“Aside from Franco/Hubler/Schwab's Vampyros Lesbos music, Suspiria's Goblin soundtrack is the most infamous of all underground movie scores. Revolutionary, kinetic and spine-tingling—just like the movie.” Slantmagazine.com

“Argento's best work and Goblin's best work are one and the same.” Boomkat.com

The incredible sound of Goblin comes back from the dead! After their amazing performances last year at Supersonic and London's Scala, where they blew away audiences with awesomely powerful deliveries of their classic tracks from the soundtracks of 'Suspiria', 'Profondo Rosso', 'Dawn Of the Dead' and more, it seemed like Goblin had climbed back into the grave. A crying shame after the 30 year wait to actually see them perform live exceeded any expectations in buckets (of blood).

But now, after a sensational line-up shuffle that brings Claudio Simonetti back into the fold, Goblin are back and looking for more live victims. The power of their greatest horror anthems truly came to life in a hugely powerful way on their 2009 UK dates, and this new line-up can only make seeing them live even more astounding.

Profondo Rosso (1975, Cinevox) Roller (1976, Cinevox) Suspiria (1977, Cinevox) Il Fantastico Viaggio Del 'Bagarozzo' Mark (1978, Cinevox) Zombi (1978, Cinevox) Squadra Antigangsters (1979, Cinevox) Amo Non Amo (1979, Cinevox) Patrick (1979, Cinevox) Contamination (1980, Cinevox) Tenebre (1982, Cinevox) Volo (1982, Cinevox) Nottumo (1983, Cinevox) La Chiesa (1988, Cinevox) Back To The Goblin (2009, Giallo Records)

HEATSICK is the solo moniker of Berlin-based performer/musician Steven Warwick, also known as one half of the duo Birds of Delay. Heatsick uses various instruments including voice, keyboard and percussion to create saturated washes of tone, floating and disintegrating entropic loops, while also using deliberately broken continuity as a playful, live conceptual gesture.

The project is focused on repetition as a means of creating abstraction, improvising with organic variations of a theme, yet embracing the artificial to facilitate a psychedelic mindshift. The music references a palette of sources from early tape music and Psychedelia, through to the early Chicago House mix tapes, creating a unique and compelling sound.

Forthcoming vinyl releases on Pan, Cocktail d'Amore and Olde English Spelling Bee, and look out for his European tour with Stellar Om Source and Hungry Soul this October.

Milky Quilt (CDr, Ltd) (Alcoholic Narcolepsy, 2006) Pre-Cum Fog Ballet (Cass) (Alcoholic Narcolepsy, 2006) Submerged (CDr, Ltd) (Alcoholic Narcolepsy, 2006) Total Afternoon Sundae (Cass) (Alcoholic Narcolepsy, 2006) Aubergine Haze (Cass, S/Sided, C30) (Beyond Repair Records, 2007) Dubbed Sunshine (Cass, Ltd) (Searching Records, 2007) Muddy Paw (CDr, Ltd) (Trans-dimensional Sushi Recordings, 2007) Reverse Gardens (Cass, Ltd, C60) (Turgid Animal, 2007) Searing Light Of Glue Prisms (Cass, Ltd) (Alcoholic Narcolepsy, 2007) Styles Of The Queen Bee Pollen (Cass, Album, C90) (Matching Head, 2007) Perpendicular Rain (Cass, Ltd) (Not Not Fun Records, 2008) Pre-Cum Fog Ballet / Total Afternoon Sundae (2xCass) (Relax With Nature, 2008) Split (Cass) (Tape Tektoniks, 2008) Solipsistic Pillow (CDr, Ltd) (Alcoholic Narcolepsy, 2010) Tracks Appear On: 6!! (CDr, Comp) Feel The Coffin (Tochnit Aleph, 2006) Popcorn (2xLP, Comp) Melts In Your Mouth (Ultra Eczema, 2010)

Islaja is the recording alias of Merja Kokkonen, a musician and visual artist from Helsinki, currently based in Berlin. A regular contributor to the more psych/folk and improv oriented Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus, Islaja’s recordings are by contrast almost entirely self-contained, reflecting the more personal nature of her music, and a natural affinity towards an independent/DIY aesthetic. Her fourth album for Fonal (following 2008’s excursion on Ecstatic Peace for the live document Blaze Mountain Recordings), "Keraaminen Pää" (or ‘Ceramic Head’) contains many shades of black. It also bears witness to a shift in perception and execution; yet the thread that weaves it’s way through all Islaja’s work remains resolute, visible and intact.

If Islaja’s previous albums for Fonal appear to exhibit a more overtly pastoral nature, this in part feels coincidental, or secondary to something much larger and more difficult to define. From the earliest Islaja recordings, Merja has made the simplest of instrumentation work to her own ends, displaying a disquieting combination of innocence and fearlessness, and a seemingly innate ability to transcend the confines of a genre. It is the same singular approach and vision that informs ‘Keraaminen Pää’ – born largely of whatever instruments were to hand, if the sound has shifted into more electronic terrain, it remains as immersive and subtly evocative as ever.

When sketching out the dimensions of Keraaminen Pää, Islaja was clear about one thing: the album should have a soul within, preferably silky thin and translucent, like a jellyfish swimming around in the ocean. During the recording process, however, Keraaminen Pää turned into a heavy, robot-moulded disc of clay. It spins, shines, pops and crackles, all the while escaping definition. Thoughts fill the insides of Pää like a stern row of type letters. They reveal the artist’s restlessness but also betray a desire for harmony.

‘Keraaminen Pää’ is the first Islaja album to feature English translations of Merja’s lyrics. Whilst singing in her native tongue has never proved to be obstructive (at times it can even seem more suggestive), for those not conversant with the Finnish language, these translations shine a light that makes things seem almost iridescent. The sense of mystery is not lost; words cut fresh question marks from the shadows, suggesting new worlds and possibilities, real or imagined.

The songs on Keraaminen Pää were written, composed, and recorded on three continents over a period of three years, with Islaja performing, recording and mixing the majority of the album herself. The recordings may recall the waves crashing on the Bight of Benin, the frogs croaking on Lantau Island, the starry sky above Roihuvuori, Helsinki, or maybe a one-euro pizza in Berlin. These songs travelled with their writer for a long time, acquiring new layers during and after the trips, perhaps lending the lyrics their predominantly domestic focus. Less fractured and more fleshed out than previous Islaja recordings, the songs still careen recklessly on both sides of the middle lane, pulsing and shifting with a life of their own:

Islaja has left the forests and moss-covered paths behind. Through an underground tunnel, she wandered off towards the city and found you again. She came in through the door as you were taking out the rubbish. Or through the window you opened on a summer’s night. Do you feel as though you’re not alone, even if there’s no one else in the house? Look around you and you’ll see – Islaja, petrified into a ceramic head on your window sill, on your television set.

Islaja has toured the world extensively, playing Thurston Moore’s ATP in 2006, and supporting Animal Collective across Europe on their 2007 tour. She was part of the Approximately Infinite Universe European tour 2008 alongside Skaters, Fursaxa, Axolotl, Es, Blevin Blectum, Samara Lubelski and Tomutonttu.

Islaja tours the UK this September

Keraaminen Paa cd/lp (Fonal 2010) Blaze Mountain Recordings cd/lp (Ecstatic Peace, 2008) Ulual YYY cd/lp (Fonal, 2007) Melodi, Melodika/Kammen, Kynsi, Kieli 7" (Fonal, 2006) Live At Blaze Mountain Road 18 cdr (no label, 2006) Palaa Aurinkon cd/lp (Fonal, 2005) Meritie cd/lp (Fonal, 2004)

Composer-lute player Jozef Van Wissem is renowned for his unusual approach of the Renaissance and Baroque lute, probably the most unlikely instruments in the world of contemporary music. He cuts and pastes classical pieces, reverses melodies, adds electronics and processed field recordings The unusual wedlock of composition and improvisation creates an unheard amalgam of contemporary, folk and early music Van Wissem has accomplished the strange feat of bridging the idiom of seventeenth century lute literature and twenty-first century contemporary music. Although he uses subtle electronic sound manipulation, he has largely stayed faithful to the particular timbre, resonance and playing technique of the lute.

Van Wissem first came to be noticed a few years ago because of his radical conceptual approach to Renaissance lute music: He deconstructed existing compositions, for instance by playing them backwards. He also composed his own pieces for lute, using palindromes and mirrored structures. His music therefore does not have a traditional linear progression, nor leads to a climax, it rather stays on the same level of intensity. It doesn’t demand concentrated listening, as it will bring the listener to a state of concentrated listening.

Jozef runs the Incunabulum label, and performs extensively around the world. He also works with M.B. / Maurizio Bianchi, James Blackshaw and Tetuzi Akiyama. With Blackshaw he formed the duo Brethren of the Free Spirit, which has two releases on Important records. Wire Magazine called his solo lute cd “ Stations of the Cross “ a small masterpiece. He has two solo records out on Important records and has lectured a.o. at Wesleyan University and Mills College on ‘the liberation of the lute”. Van Wissem has received numerous commisions and grants, most recently from National Gallery, London.

He performs about 80 concerts per year around the world and has appeared live on national tv and radiostations, twice on the Dutch Vrije Geluiden Vpro TV show and has performed at prestigious festivals and venues like Expo Zaragoza 2008, Spain, Kr-aa-k Festival , Belgium, ZXZW Festival, Holland, Sonorités Festival, France, Serralves em festa Festival, Portugal, Seattle Improvised Music Festival, Suono Per Il Popolo Festival, Montreal, Sintra Music and Dance Festival, Portugal, Byzantine Fresco Museum, Texas, I.C.A, London, and Glasgow, Schindler House, Hollywood.

“In “The Mirror of Eternal Light,” the Dutch lutist Jozef van Wissem catches his own reflection in tender, minimalist picking and gold-spray overdubs.” -David Fricke, senior editor, Rolling Stone Magazine, March 2008

"Van Wissem seems to breeze across musical boundaries with an effortless fluency" - Pitchfork Media

Michael Chapman rose to prominence at the height of the UK’s folk rock scene in the early 1970s. He was championed by John Peel and Charles Shaar Murray, appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test (see the clip below) and had Mick Ronson on lead guitar on his classic ‘Fully Qualified Survivor’ album, one of several releases for the Harvest label.

Though slipping from the limelight in subsequent years, to some extent, Michael Chapman has recently enjoyed a renewed appeal and a new audience amongst new lovers of folk on both sides of the Atlantic. He was rediscovered and championed by artists such as No Neck Blues Band and Jack Rose, both of whom he toured the US with.

Chapman has released over 30 albums in his career, still gigs heavily, and is still a sublime guitarist who must be seen live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGRbPYhHM64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYecbNduSEI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwYlQ7KhTgI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBlM8C2HtBM&feature=related

Monopoly Child Star Searchers is a solo mask for Spencer Clark, one half of the legendary Skaters.

Clark has issued over 15 relases from the label Pacific City Sound Visions , highlighting music by his alter egos Black Joker, Dolphins Into the Future, Miles Devens, and Vodka Soap.

Monopoly Child Star Searchers is the sound of a nostalgic alchemist summoning dust-encrusted tribal rhythms from musics that fell through the gap between the horizon and the sky.

"Sonically, (Monopoly Child Star Searchers) is definitely reminiscent of the Skaters, but where the Skaters dabbled in murky tribal jams, and stumbling free folk rituals, the sound here is much more chaotic and playful, almost circusy at times, sounding like some cracked pop record rolled in tape his, and played back at the wrong speed, all bass and no treble, so even the high end sounds like a buzzy blur. Super hypnotic, a looped landscape of hiccupping stuttering melodies, dizzying and dense, while in the background, long drawn out tones drift in the background, synths or vocals, hard to tell, but they sound angelic and haunting." Aquarius Records

M.V. Carbon is a Brooklyn based sound artist and producer. Her work is comprised of complex, woven rhythmic structures and soundscapes that are formed with vintage drum machines, cello, guitar, analog synths, analog reel to reel tape machines, field recordings and vocals.

She has collaborated with many artists including Tony Conrad, Dominic Lash, Aki Onda, Evan Parker, Andrea Parkins, Alex Waterman, and John Wiese.

She is half of the electronic dark wave duo, Metalux who have released a series of records on various labels (5rc, Hanson, Load Records, No Fun Productions, Rampage, Recipient, Veglia) on their own and in collaboration with Smegma, John Wiese and Carlos Giffoni.

As well as her acclaimed collaboration with Tony Conrad, '45 Years On The Infinite Plain' which was performed at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2008, Carbon was also part of NO-FI's Free Noise tour in 2007, featuring Metalux, Evan Parker, Yellow Swans, Paul Hession, C. Spencer Yeh, John Wiese, John Edwards and Culver.

Carbon's collaboration with Carlos Giffoni, Jackal Blade, release their first album 'Lid' on NO-FI in spring 2010.

MV Carbon's solo album 'The Dislodged Perihelion' comes out on Ecstatic Peace in spring 2010.

Nalle is the trio of Hanna Tuulikki, Aby Vulliamy and Chris Hladowski. Performing since 2004, the group have toured extensively in Europe and the United States, drawing audiences into their intimate sound world. Spearheaded by Tuulikki’s expressive vocals and straight-from-the-heart song craft, the music is underpinned by intuitive group interplay on an array of instruments from the four corners of the globe, from bouzouki and viola to Finnish kantele and mouth harps

In 2006 Nalle released their debut album By Chance Upon Waking (Pickled Egg records). In a Foxy Digitalis review it states “…the chemistry between the three is instantly obvious. Acoustic arrangements that stir like lost children late at night provide the perfect palette for Tuulikki to weave pure magic…. As a listener, you feel as overwhelmed as Nalle sounds. It's beautiful.” Hanna’s enthralling multi-octave vocal range and singular delivery brought comparisons to other women vocalists who have explored the limits of the voice within traditional musical conventions, but as the Wire noted, Nalle’s “clear individuality banishes lazy comparisons to others operative in this area of folk-inflected new music.” Their second album The Sirens Wave (Locust Music) from 2008 “is a considerably more meditative and meticulous recording” as the wire notes “a stunning conglomeration of East European and traditional Scottish nuances which fold into each other, alternately pushing then subsiding, flowing like rolling waves”.

In spring 2010, they release their third studio album entitled “Wilder Shores Of Love” with Alt.Vinyl, produced with regular collaborator John Cavanagh. It is perhaps the most directly personal statement the band have committed to tape - an attempt at laying down bare bones of experience, endeavouring to transform the heavy lead of human emotions into moments of golden insight. Using symbolic language, recurring motifs, and the odd sprinkling of good old rock and roll, the songs weave strong narrative tapestries about love lost and found, inner mindscapes and outer landscapes, getting lost on the journey, and finding understanding.

Nalle is in many ways inseparable from Hanna’s work as a visual artist, something that she will be exploring further with “Wilder Shores Of Love” - named after the painting by Cy Twombly and inspired by the Greek myth of Hero and Leander - including limited edition hand drawn covers, screen prints, alongside deluxe 180g vinyl and CD editions.

Nalle will be touring the UK in July 2010, along with the most recent addition to the group – Aby’s baby daughter Elsa.

Members of the group also play with The One Ensemble, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, The Family Elan, and The National Jazz Trio of Scotland.

More reviews:

LIVE at the GRAMAPHONE, LONDON

(by bobby barry, plan B)

"Her voice always makes me feel so calm," my companion spoke to me softly in a brief interval between songs as Nalle swap instruments, clarinet for bazouki, kantele for acoustic guitar, "But like, on the edge of a cliff. . . " People who have been through near-death experiences have reported hearing music in those brief moments of ecstatic drift from consciousness. If semi-improvised music always involves a kind of figurative plunge off the edge of a precipice, a Kierkegaardian leap of faith into the unknown, Nalle go one further and present the very sound of this freefall towards oblivion, the noise of win rushing past your ears, the voices of angels beckoning you towards paradise. Crafting a new kind of folk music that is far from both the hippie swap-meet of Sunburned Hand of the Man and the frat-boy experimentalism of Animal Collective, Nalle employ a combination of patient, sensitive and careful research into the ancestral musics of northern Europe with the most contemporary extended instrumental techniques, all wrapped in a softly enveloping, yet eerily unheimlich cocoon of noise and feedback, static and fizz.

And soaring above al this: that voice. A piercing cry, veering between Finnish, English and a sublime wordless glossolalia, at once both utterly autochthonous and thoroughly deterritorialised, a cosmic astral projection; a message from outer space rendered somehow intimate and friendly as a kiss on the cheek. "I'm trembling," my companion confesses, as the show draws gently, without fanfare, to a close.

The Sirens Wave

by Mia Clarke, The Wire, Issue 291, May 2008)

Hanna Tuulikki, a young British/Finnish artist and musician currently residing in Glasgow, Scotland, formed Nalle in the Summer of 2004 in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and former Scatter member Chris Hladowski and viola player Aby Vulliamy. Their debut album, By Chance Upon Waking- a largely spontaneous collection of songs recorded in two short sessions – introduced the trio as enthusiastic experimenters with traditional musical techniques, employing a range of instruments including the kantele, flute, clarinet and, Hladowski’s tour de force, the bouzouki.

In contrast, Nalle’s second album, The Sirens Wave, is a considerably more meditative and meticulous recording, which further explores the unearthly, mysterious qualities suggested in By Chance Upon Waking. While the latter kept to shorter song structures, The Sirens Wave is built around two ten minute tracks, “Voi Ruusuni (O rose)” and “Secret Of The Seven Sirens”, a stunning conglomeration of East European and traditional Scottish nuances which fold into each other, alternately pushing then subsiding, flowing like rolling waves. These dynamics shape the whole recording, and Tuulikki’s unusual, non-modal approach to vocal melody sends a chill through every track.

The inspiration and imagery of Nalle, which means little bear in Finnish, are drawn from nature and rebirth. The opening track “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and the album’s beautiful conclusion, “So Eden Sank To Grief”, take their titles and lyrical motivation from the bucolic verse of the poet Robert Frost; references to animals, landscape and the sun are prevalent, an reflect the substance of Tuulikki’s impressive work as a visual artist. An ode to Tuulikki’s late friend Alice Duncan , “Alice’s Ladder”, interweaves soaring violin and spacious vocals in a way that sounds as though the two instruments are reaching out of the waves into the dark unknown.

Like their friends and peers A Hawk and A Hacksaw, Nalle’s integration of music styles, played with a variety of instruments from across the globe, is so eloquently and passionately performed that it does not sound affected. On the contrary, this is a bold and complex album, on which metaphysical themes of life and grief are articulated with such consideration that the result is unique and deeply touching.

The Sirens Wave

(by Joel Elliott, cokemachineglow, 19 June 2008)

When you’re this good, you don’t ever need to change chords. Falling somewhere in between the more avant-garde-oriented experiments of Tim Buckley and Björk, the acoustic drones of Pauline Oliveros, and the more common contemporary strains of Renaissance-tinged psych-folk, Nalle is far from lacking in epochal points of reference. Perhaps a more immediately obvious one would be Joanna Newsom, and while Hanna Tuulikki’s voice shares many of the same pre-pubescent inflections, she can do a lot more with it, most notably the perfectly-controlled warbles that complement the sustained accordion, violin, and other ancient stringed instruments that back her. This vocal strength gives Nalle a vast spaciousness and patience, and when she stretches it in these bird-like oscillations the music seems to hover around her in enthralling anticipation. Like a lot of traditional Japanese music, Nalle shifts away from the Western focus on the rhythm of the heartbeat towards the slow, meditative and irregular movements of breathing. You can actually hear these breaths as “Voi Nuusuni (O Rose)” fades out amid the elastic reverberations of the mouth harp and creaky violin. Needless to say, most contemporary Glaswegian folk isn’t a very good point of reference here.

And it’s not all drone-y experiments either: “Secret of the Seven Sirens” is based firmly in traditional British folk, and were it not for the moments where the track veers into abstraction, it could easily be something by Fairport Convention with its Pan-trudging-through-the-forest flute and Celtic acoustic guitar. I still find that there’s something archaic about this style that seems to be trying too hard to reach back into the past, but this is the only track here that adheres to any conventional genre. And it’s much more than a tired replication of any kind of traditional music: the band includes abrupt tempo-changes, slowing down an otherwise briskly-paced song with Tuulikki’s voice drifting on clear, resonant and wordless tones. Likewise, “Alice’s Ladder,” while maintaining basic folk patterns throughout, constantly stretches itself out, always on the brink of abstraction and, with its drawn-out harmonium and plucked strings from God-knows-what-instrument, always flirting with dissonance.

Then there’s the rest of the tracks, which barely hold onto any semblance of structure, being about as relevant to traditional folk music as Charalambides’ seminal albums Unknown Spin (2003) and Joy Shapes (2004). “First Eden Sank to Grief” is one of the most haunting pieces of chamber music I’ve heard in years, constantly fading completely into silence then coming back to life again. The fact that the band doesn’t need to write actual “songs” is proof of their strength in understanding and appropriating drone and Minimalist influences; the play of overtones is interesting enough even to sustain “Voi Ruusuni”‘s 10-and-a-half-minute length. That track is a delicate balancing act to see how long Tuulikki can oscillate at perfect pitch, while holding the rest of the instruments at bay. Like Astral Weeks (1968), The Siren’s Wave sounds like it was created with the instruments improvising in real time around more-composed vocal lines. In this way, most of these tracks have loose (or non-existent) time signatures, with the instrumentation responding to Tuulikki’s inflections and natural rhythms. But even if her vocals are more “composed,” that doesn’t mean she can’t conjure up the agonized spirits at will: peep their live video. Yes, she’s really doing that.

"By Chance Upon Waking"

(by Jez Riley, The Wire, Issue 266, April 2006)

The cover artwork for the debut of Glasgow group Nalle gives clues to the music within and matches its tone: detailed drawings of winged polar bears, bees, birds, and plants on a snow-white background, all plucked from the imagination of singer-songwriter and Kantele player Hanna Tuulikki. Within the first notes of "Sunne Song" the album's array of instrumentation - viola, bouzouki, clarinet, shruti box and guitar - makes total sense. Its clear individuality banishes lazy comparisons to others operative in this area of folk-inflected new music, like Lau Nau or Joanna Newsom.There's a sticky, happy quality to this debut, one that feeds on the underbelly of British and European folk traditions, as well as the threads of Hanna'a Finnish heritage. Her vocals veer between fragility and a forcefully positive self-belief that pushes her voice whrere she clearly believes it must go, whether at it's most extreme in duet with Aby Vulliamy's viola on "Forest-mountain" or hovering close to the point of natural disappearance on "Sea Change".Much of the album was recorded by Volcano the Bear's Daniel Padden and both Vulliamy and Chris Hladowski play in his One Ensemble group. "By Chance Upon Waking" sounds like a record made by a group of friends. It gathers together disparate elements, speaking of winter but always with fire at its core.

"By Chance Upon Waking"

(by Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis, 28 June 2006)

10/10 -- Brad Rose What is the criteria for a perfect album? Is there a laundry list of things that one must check off to qualify? For some people, perhaps. For me? It's more of a feeling, something in my gut that goes all wonky when a record is pouring out of my speakers. It's an album that can inspire me to no end. Something that makes you feel like you, as a listener, are vital to the music transcending some artificial line in the sand. I don't know, it's very fluid and never easy to pin down. It's one of those things that I know when I hear it. And I certainly heard it a few weeks ago when Nalle first graced my ears.

Nalle is a trio featuring three members of Scatter (two of which also play in One Ensemble of Daniel Padden. Yeah, we're dealing with heavyweights here). Chris Hladowski, Aby Vulliamy, and Hanna Tuulikki make up the group, and the chemistry between the three is instantly obvious. Acoustic arrangements that stir like lost children late at night provide the perfect palette for Tuulikki to weave pure magic.Nalle treads similar ground as Tuulikki's Finnish compatriots Lau Nau and Islaja, but there's a decidedly Scottish twist. Hladowski's bouzouki and Vulliamy's viola give the feeling of regal music played in the Medieval villages that dotted the British Isles. The way Tuulikki sings and the things she sings about are a celebration of life and the magic and mysticism that accompanies it. "Forest Mountain" turns the mountains and forests into enchanting characters that are part of some great universal play. As the tension builds, the interplay between the bouzouki and viola becomes almost too much to bear. Tuulikki's voices waltzes and wavers like a child sorceress conjuring up all the greats spirits of the Earth. Everything comes together to form something totally magnificent on this track. As a listener, you feel as overwhelmed as Nalle sounds. It's beautiful. The opening track, "Sunne Song," is a great way to begin the album. It reminds me of early morning on the weekends, lazily rolling out of bed, and stretching your arms to the sun. The hesitant bouzouki notes and the viola drones are subtle, but reenergizing. They pull you out from under the sheets and drag you into the warm summer breezes. "By Chance Upon Waking" is spellbinding from the first flickering moments.

Everything comes together on Nalle's debut to produce some of the best music I've heard in years. The instrumentation is wonderful and Tuulikki's voice, which falls somewhere between Bjork and Austria's Gustav, are absolute perfection. I can't get over just how amazing this record is. Nalle's debut is easily the best thing I've heard in 2006 thusfar, and I reckon it's going to be hard for anything to come close to it. The highest of recommendations.

Wilder Shores of Love (Alt. Vinyl) 2010 The Sirens Wave (Locust) 2008 Live cdr (Secret Eye) 2008 By Chance Upon Waking (Pickled Egg) 2006

Natural Snow Buildings are the Burgundy, France based duo of Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte. They’ve been playing together since 1997 and in that time have released countless albums and cdrs, almost all in miniscule, rapidly disappearing runs. Sheffield’s Blackest Rainbow label went some way to making their work more widely available this year with the release of the deluxe package set Shadow Kingdom. Clocking in at over 2 hours, Shadow Kingdom typifies how Ameziane and Gularte have taken the whole idea of drone/folk or whatever you want to call it to a completely new level of virtuosity and production values. Its fair to say Natural Snow Buildings have no peers and inhabit an exquisite genre of one. Or as Foxy Digitalis put it, “It is a rare thing to hear an album that makes you appreciate the simple fact that music exists. As the notes begin, the rest of the world slowly melts away; the only thing that matters is the sound emanating from the stereo, taking a life of its own. French duo Natural Snow Buildings craft music so beautiful, so fragile, it almost makes me want to weep.” Comparisons abound to Windy & Carl, MV &EE, Rachels, Neil Young and more, but none have managed to convey in words yet just what is so magical about this duo. Using little more than guitar, cello, vocals and judiciously applied affects, Mehdi and Solange have, through an ever longer list of micro-releases and rabid word-of-mouth fanaticism on both sides of the Atlantic, found themselves at the epicenter of what can only be described as a cult-in the-making. This will be the first Natural Snow Buildings UK tour, and takes place in a year when they will rightly be getting a lot of attention once they no doubt rise to the top of many a year end poll this December. If you haven’t yet heard them, then its time to be spellbound.

Oren Ambarchi's works are hesitant and tense extended songforms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing; laminal improvisation and minimalism; hushed, pensive songwriting; the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as Morton Feldman and Alvin Lucier; and the physicality of rock music, slowed down and stripped back to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal.

From the late 90's his experiments in guitar abstraction and extended technique have led to a more personal and unique sound-world incorporating a broader palette of instruments and sensibilities. On recent releases such as Grapes From The Estate and In The Pendulum's Embrace Ambarchi has employed glass harmonica, strings, bells, piano, drums and percussion, creating fragile textures as light as air which tenuously coexist with the deep, wall-shaking bass tones derived from his guitar.

Ambarchi works with simple constructs and parameters; exploring one idea over an extended duration and patiently teasing every nuance and implication from each texture; the phenomena of sum and difference tones; carefully tended arrangements that unravel gently; unprepossessing melodies that slowly work their way through various permutations; resulting in an otherworldly, cumulative impact of patiently unfolding compositions.

Ambarchi has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists such as Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Pimmon, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Rizili, Voice Crack, Jim O'Rourke, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, Dave Grohl, Gunter Muller, Evan Parker, z'ev, Toshimaru Nakamura, Peter Rehberg, Merzbow and many more. Since 2004 Ambarchi has worked with American avant metal outfit Sunn 0))) contributing to many of their releases and side-projects including their Black One album from 2005 and the recent Monoliths & Dimensions release.

For 10 years together with Robbie Avenaim, Ambarchi was the co-organiser of the What Is Music? festival, Australia’s premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music. The festival hosted over 200 local and international performers. Ambarchi now curates the Maximum Arousal series at The Toff In Town in Melbourne and has recently co-produced an Australian television series on experimental music called Subsonics. Ambarchi recently co-curated the sound program for the 2008 Yokohama Triennale.

Ambarchi has released numerous recordings for international labels such as Touch, Southern Lord, Table Of The Elements and Tzadik. In 2003 his live release Triste received an 'honourary mention' in the Prix Ars Electronica digital music category. Oren Ambarchi is signed to Touch Music.

Destinationless Desire 7" (Touch, 2008)

In The Pendulum's Embrace cd (Touch, 2007)

Grapes From The Estate (Touch, 2004)

Suspension cd (Touch, 2001)

Insulation cd (Touch 1999)

Other releases:

In The Pendulum's Embrace [Southern Lord, USA 2008] 2LP version with bonus LP only side-long track "Intimidator" featuring Anthony Pateras

A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks [Table Of The Elements, USA 2008] One-sided LP with Savage Pencil etching

Lost Like A Star [Bo' Weavil, UK 2007] LP

Stacte Motors [Western Vinyl, USA 2007] LP

Grapes From The Estate [Southern Lord, USA 2006] 2LP

Stacte.4 [En/Of, Holland in collaboration with visual artist Simon Starling [Art Edition 2002] LP

Triste Complete live performance from Extrapool, Nijmegen, Holland 14/06/2001 with bonus 7" remix from Tom Recchion [Idea, USA 2003] LP + 7" & [Southern Lord, USA 2005] CD

Suspension + Bonus Remixes from Jim O’Rourke, Tim Barnes, Phill Niblock, Michael J Schumacher, Brendan Walls, Pimmon [Staubgold, Germany 2002] 2LP

Mort Aux Vaches Live recording from VPRO Radio Broadcast, Amsterdam, Holland [Staalplaat, Holland 2002] CD

Der Kleine Konig [Tonschacht, Germany 2002] 7"

Persona [E.R.S., Netherlands 2001] LP

Stacte.3 [Plate Lunch, Germany 2000] LP

Stacte.2 [Jerker, Australia 1999] LP

Stacte [Jerker, Australia 1998] LP

Pelt’s drone-based improvisations have spanned electric and acoustic realms and incorporated cataclysmic roars and near-comatose whispers, folk music sensibilities and extended techniques. From the mid-'90s on, Pelt has occupied a singular place on the musical map -- counted among the founders of the auditory outburst once termed the "New Weird America," but alone in its preoccupations with exploring and incorporating the echoes of traditional musicks amid the clang and om of long-form avant workouts.

The Washington Post once described the band's sound this way: “What separates Pelt … is the willful sonic escalation from monk chant and Appalachian bowed sitar to Blue Ridge mountain grinding ear-death. … They’ve not become giants; they’ve become the mountain.”

selected discography: Brown Cyclopaedia (Radioactive Rat 1995; VHF, 1996) burning/filament/rockets (Econogold, 1996) Max Meadows (VHF, 1997) Snake to Snake (Klang Industries, 1997) Techeod (VHF, 1998) For Michael Hannahs (VHF, 1998) Empty Bell Ringing in the Sky (VHF, 1999) Rob's Choice (VHF, 2000) Ayahuasca (VHF, 2001) Pearls from the River (VHF, 2003) untitled (VHF, 2005) Bestio Tergum Degero (VHF, 2006) Heraldic Beasts (Eclipse, 2007) Dauphin Elegies (VHF, 2008) Stone for Angus Maclise (2008)

Stellar OM Source is the solo project of Dutch electronic musician Christelle Gualdi. She began to play electronic music as a teenager while recording soundtracks for exhibitions, assisting her father at the radio studio using Yamaha MSX and Atari 1040 systems. Next to this, her music taste has been influenced by early fascination for fusion, guitar heroes and ECM artists, as well as disco and new-age music and her studies in music theory, electro-acoustic composition and architecture.

Across a range of different analog synths, Stellar OM Source uses music as "transport to the ocean realm within the stars". Christelle's beautifully liquid sonic textures form an ecstatic bridge between the music of machines and the rituals and sensations of the spirtual and devotional, and her work has been compared to Terry Riley, Alice Coltrane and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

She extensively tours throughout Europe and the United States and played with numerous members of the international experimental and avant-garde scene.

After several years of collaborative releases, her solo debut LP came out in March 2009, recorded and released by the American Black Dirt Records label in New York State. She self-released a CD trilogy in May 2009, spanning four years of recordings.

See an online interview with Christelle here: http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/features.php?which=463

Stellar Om Source will tour the UK and Ireland in May/June.

Solo The Far Skies Fellowship, Tape, Silver Ghosts NL 2005 Onness O ", CD, Endless Summer, NL 2008 Split Warmer Milks, CD, Pot, NL 2008 Ao Vivo Avenida (with David Vanzan) CD, Troglosound IT 2008 Trilogy CD, NL, 2009 Rise in Planes, LP, Black Dirt Records, US 2009 Heartlands Suite CD, FR, 2009 Exises CD, 2010 Bands Stiff River met Uw Hypotheekadvies, Julie Mittens, self-released, NL 2006 Mean Motion, cd, self-released, NL, 2008 Mean Motion Live I & II, Tape, NL 2007 Collaborations Keijo & Free Players, cd, Foxglove, US 2007 Weg van het Kruis, LP, Soundatone, US 2008 Uton, CD, Digitalis, US 2008 Original Innocence, LP, Soundatone, US 2009 Ashtray Navigations/Family Battle Snake/Stellar OM Source, LP, Absurd, Greece, 2009 Oneohtrix Point Never, CD Ocean Woman, US 2009

Thomas Ankersmit (born 1979, Leiden, The Netherlands) is a musician and artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam. His main instruments are a Serge analogue modular synthesizer, computer and alto saxophone.

Since 2003 Ankersmit regularly tours and performs together with New York-based composer Phill Niblock and more recently as a duo with Italian electroacoustic musician Valerio Tricoli. Other collaborations have included Tony Conrad, Maryanne Amacher, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Axel Dörner and Borbetomagus.

Ankersmit's few releases (now all out of print) include a 3" solo saxophone CD, a CD-R with guest contributions by Kevin Drumm and a split LP with Jim O'Rourke. His first full-length CD is out soon on Touch Records sublabel Ash International.

"Ankersmit is one of the latest in a line of saxophone players - from Evan Parker and John Butcher to Mats Gustafsson - who are taking the instrument into radical new territories." The Wire

"Jump-starting his performance on the intimidating Serge modular synthesizer, Ankersmit created a fractured, tension-filled stream of electric sound. Flicking switches and pulling at patchcords at breakneck speed, he shaped his swarm of synthesized blips and metallic jabs into a very deliberate, beautifully coherent composition. Constantly reconfiguring his electroacoustic pinpricks and distorted crackle, microscopic but detail-rich and intensely vibrant, sonic fragments skittered across the stereo spectrum like fireflies.

Continuing on acoustic alto saxophone, he slowed down the event density but maintained the heat, pairing intensely focussed energy and sonic determination with a delicate sensitivity to texture. Ankersmit's saxophone voice is an entrancing, violent mass of multiphonic, shapeshifting sound, oscillating endlessly through circular breathing, penetrating every corner of the room. Far removed from the syntax of jazz or improv, his was a spectacular recontextualisation of the instrument's possibilities, forcing it into uncharted sonic territory." VPRO

"What's most striking about this music is its combination of sonic detail and intelligence with exhilarating energy and violence. The saxophone creates a slowly beating noise-drone intertwined with countless splintering high-frequency resonances and overtones, growing ever more intense. It's a piercing, stunningly complex sound. The white-light intensity of this music stands in sharp contrast to the polite textures of much acoustic and electroacoustic improv of today." Daniel Sorenson, Sonomu

"The effect is intense (very) and fascinating, resolutely harsh but not off-putting, creating a virtual hive of activity, overtones swirling between one’s ears like a horde of angered wasps. The music is unique, unyielding to the point of obsessiveness and, for the adventurous listener, very rewarding. Along with only a handful of other reed players, Ankersmit is treading in entirely new ground. Highly recommended." All-Music Guide

"On this first EP, Ankersmit takes only sixteen recorded minutes to succeed where countless improvisers have failed in wringing out new and memorable textures from the increasingly tired confines of the alto saxophone. It’s an amazingly intense affair and positively wired with innovation and energy from start to finish. Thus, this first effort acts as both a stunning piece on its own and as a promise for fine things to come.” Stylus Magazine

Träd Gräs Och Stenar (Trees, Grass & Stones) were forged out of the 'communitarian' underground scene in Sweden. Their fusion of psychedelic folk and cosmic rock has been hugely influential on today's underground. Describing themselves as Sweden's "first minimalist rock group", the band sound as contemporary now as ever.

Träd Gräs Och Stenar evolved from the ashes of equally legendary Swedish underground psychedelic acts Parson Sound and International Harvester.

Heavily influenced by witnessing a live performance by Terry riley in Sweden, TGOS' own take on minimalism merged with their lysergic roots to create a powerfully transcendent next stage in Swedish psychedelia.

Träd Gräs Och Stenar have in recent years become an increasingly acknowledged influence on modern psych folk and outsider rock music, touted by artists such as No Neck Blues Band and Keith Fullerton Whitman as a vital influential touchstone.

Live, the band are as hypnotic and transcendent as ever, and return to the UK for live dates in late April/early May 2010.

Volcano The Bear have, in the words of The Wire, "produced some of the finest, wildest British music of the last 10 years on record and on stage…”. Or, as Losing Today puts it, “No one sounds, has sounded or will ever sound quite like Volcano the Bear.”

A calculatedly hysterical melting pot of This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Faust and Albert Ayler, seen through a prism of occasionally theatrical improvisations and unhinged set pieces, VTB so excited Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton that he brought his United Dairies label out of cold storage to release their first album proper, 'The Inhazer Decline', in 2000.

Since then, they've graced such labels as Beta Lactam Ring, Textile, Digitalis, Pickled Egg, Alt Vinyl, even NO-FI with their peerless product.

VTB live is the duo of Daniel Padden and Aaron Moore - you'll know Padden from his sublime The One Ensemble (and their excellent Orchestra, whose 'Other Thunders' cd came out on NO-FI this year), whilst Moore has also of late been touring in his band with NNCK's Dave Nuss, Amolvacy, and has just completed 4 performances in New York as part of Boredoms for their Boadrum9 shows.

You may also have seen Moore earlier touring with Anla Courtis, or heard their delicious 'Brokebox Juke' lp ("a great achievement, and one of the year's strongest releases", The Wire).

On record, Volcano The Bear offer stark and stunning absurdities, in the most bizarrely beautiful way. Live, the adrenalin and invention drips from their earlobes as they thrust spectacular oddities in the faces of their audiences, always aided by their sublime multi-instrumentalism.

Once seen, never forgotten, or as this review from 2007's Avanto festival puts it: "Volcano The Bear...combines improvisation and playful experimentation with a conception of music that borders on the anthropological. Their extensive knowledge of the traditions of both experimental and folk music, combined with their other influences, makes the band a difficult one to categorise. Although VTB has been mentioned in connection with bands such as Vibracthedral Orchestra, Jackie-O Motherfucker and No-Neck Blues Band, VTB differs from the aforementioned as it consciously avoids the trance-inducing pulse in its music. Rather than trying to reach a trance through repetition they set up a ritual space where a large number of instruments associate freely. Absurd humour and eclectic ways of producing sounds are characteristic of VTB's live performances, which are largely built on improvisation. Familiar themes can be introduced as milestones on a journey towards a result, which remains unknown. The band records everything they play, and uses these recordings as raw material for their albums. For Volcano The Bear, post-processing is part of composing; their records are reminiscent of how This Heat and Faust used collage methods in rock music...The surprise element of their performances is further emphasised by the fact that their records - combinations of disciplined studio work and recorded improvisation - often sound nothing like the music played by the band on stage."

A selected discography:

Yak Folks Y'Are EP (Pickled Egg 1999)

The Inhazer Decline CD (United Dairies 2000)

The One Burned Ma CD (Misra 2000)

Five Hundred Boy Piano CD (United Dairies 2001)

Guess The Birds EP (Beta-Lactam Ring 2002)

The Idea Of Wood CD/LP (Textile 2003)

All The Paint I Can Breathe EP (Beta-Lactam Ring 2004)

The Mountains Among Us LP (Beta-Lactam Ring 2004)

Shake Your Crow/Tunnels & Wheels 7" (Gold Soundz 2004)

Catonapotato CD (Broken Face/Digitalis 2005)

Classic Erasmus Fusion CD/LP (Beta-Lactam Ring 2006)

Egg And Two Books CD (Vivo 2006)

Birth Of Streissand 7" (No-Fi 2006)

Volfurten LP (Volucan 2006)

Massive Furniture Invasion 8" (Alt Vinyl 2006)

Amidst The Noise And Twigs CD (Beta-Lactam Ring 2007)

11 Years Of Yes - 1 track cd (Twisted Knister 2007)

That People Don't Know They Are Monsters 7" (Quasi Pop 2009)

The Shy Volcanic Society At The Bear And Bird Parade - split with La STPO (Beta-Lactam Ring 2009)

Volrudolf / Grande Pfungst (Volfurten 2010)