Three new releases out now!!
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FRIEDER BUTZMANN 'Wie Zeit Vergeht' (PAN 14)

Berlin's berserk Frieder Butzmann composes an uninterrupted stream of timbre changing and alternating sounds. Taking influence from aspects of Karlheinz Stockhausen's work, albeit certainly far from Serielle Komposition methods, using an entirely different array of equipment and caring less for technical finesse, a raw and sometimes absurd quality emerges. In spite of the dramatic character of the compositions, Butzmann works with the same joy and intuition of when he first heard them almost 40 years ago. Manipulating analogue sounds culled from old electronic recordings that he made at STEIM in Amsterdam back in 1995 (using the infamous 'Black Box' modular system), a dadaistic influence shines through in the semi-naive use of electronics, vocals and undefined sound sources - the basic idea is always more important than the perfect realization. The lyrics are excerpts of articles ... wie die Zeit vergeht ..., Telemusik and Kurzwellen by Stockhausen plus re-writings of lyrics used in the first section of the composer's concrete and electronic composition Hymnen.

Frieder Butzmann is a veteran German composer, radio play author and performance artist. He has been playing overt eccentricity for quite some time (since the end of the 60s), though he would find his true metier during the NDW zeitgeist, a period during which his work was hugely influential, having been an early member of D.A.F as well as Din-A Testbild. A self-proclaimed "spokesman of the people," more specifically of the Berlin underground, at a time when electronic music was taking over punk, dada and new wave, replacing teenage angst. Butzmann's work threw longer and more disturbing shades out of the Berlin behind the wall - not unlike Die Tödliche Doris or Minus Delta T. He has collaborated with artists such as Genesis P. Orridge, Malaria! / Gudrun Gut, Martin Kippenberger, Thomas Kapielski and most notable is his ongoing work with Wolfgang Müller. His 'Vertrauensmann des Volkes,' debut album often states as the cornerstone of the German experimental and electronic scene.

The Lp is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, in a limited edition of 500 copies, pressed on 140g vinyl and comes in a poly-lined inner sleeve. It is packaged in a pro-press color jacket which itself is housed in a silk screened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas.

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HECKER 'Sun Pandämonium' (PAN 15)

"One of the most beautifully recorded bits of unpleasantness" - William Bennet (Whitehouse)

Deluxe vinyl issue of one of the most important albums of modern music and quite simply some of the finest computer audio excursions unleashed in recent years. Sun Pandämonium is the third full- length album from Florian Hecker, originally released in CD format on Mego in 2003. Sun Pandämonium also received the Award of Distinction Digital Music at the Prix Ars Electronica - the "International Competition for CyberArts" - the same year.

Striking the listener from many angles with a diverse range of fiercely dynamic electronic scenarios, Hecker utilizes the computer to materialize new compositional strategies, leaving behind standard musical structures and seeking out unusual timbral and textural effects. As one reviewer stated, “This record is electronic music as psilocybin science.” Or, as the American online journal Pitchforkmedia states: “Loud and overwhelming at any volume setting,” Sun Pandämonium contains “the sounds and frequencies not only of diamonds being sharpened, but then being used to etch directly on the lenses of your optical readers. Call him a sick fuck, a genius, or even Mister Antichrist, but this will cleanse the audio palate as it blows your teeth out.”

Florian Hecker's releases under his own name contain some of the most subtle, nebulous computer music. His extensive discography includes: NEU CD, Galerie Neu, Berlin, 2010; Acid in the Style of David Tudor, Editions Mego, Vienna, 2009; Haswell & Hecker: Blackest Ever Black (Electroacoustic UPIC Recordings), Warner Classics, London, 2007; Recordings for Rephlex, Rephlex, London, 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2010), Chisenhale Gallery, London (2010), Bawag Contemporary, Vienna (2009) and Sadie Coles HQ London (2008).

The LP is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, in a limited edition of 800 copies, pressed on 140g vinyl and comes in a poly- lined inner sleeve. It is packaged with six monochrome lacquered sheets which are housed in a silk screened PVC sleeve with the original artwork by Tina Frank & Florian Hecker.

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THOMAS ANKERSMIT / VALERIO TRICOLI 'Forma II' (PAN 16)

'Forma II' is the first collaborative output by Thomas Ankersmit and Valerio Tricoli.

Composed and recorded in Berlin from 2008 to 2010 the music consists of four electroacoustic pieces based largely on analogue synthesizer material and one long-form swarm-like composition for multiple overdubbed saxophones. Additional sounds range from metal foil floating on ultrasonic sound-beams to mechanical clickers recorded in the abandoned radar domes at Teufelsberg. The raw materials have been extensively processed and re-constructed using analogue tape and digital methods. The five pieces shift between sharply detailed blizzards of electronic interference to passages of delicate balance, between calm and turbulence, between stasis and rapid shape-shifting, between multiple virtual spaces and non-spaces.

Thomas Ankersmit is a saxophonist, electronic musician and installation artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam, who combines abstract, intensely focused acoustic saxophone work with hyper-kinetic analogue synth and computer improvisation. He also creates installation pieces that use sound, infrasound and "modifications to the acoustic characters of spaces" that disrupt the viewer/listener's perception of the exhibition space and their presence within it. He frequently works together with New York minimalist Phill Niblock. Other recent collaborators have included Kevin Drumm and Borbetomagus.

Valerio Tricoli is a Berlin-based composer, improviser, sound installation artist, producer, sound engineer and curator bridging musique concrète and conceptual forms of sound with a radical interest in how reality, virtuality and memory relate to each other during the acoustic event. He mostly uses analogue electronic devices (reel-to-reel tape recorders, synthesizers, microphones, light effects, ultrasonic speakers). The structure of the setup is ever-changing however, seeking multiple relations between the performers, the device and the space in which the event takes place. He is one of the founders of 3/4HadBeenEliminated and the Bowindo label/collective.

The CD is mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk, in a limited edition of 1000 copies. It is packaged in a pro-press digisleeve jacket which itself is housed in a one-tone silk screened pvc sleeve with interweaving geometric designs, with artwork by Kathryn Politis and Bill Kouligas.

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still available:
KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN 'Disingenuity b/w Disingenuousness' (PAN 13)
TREVOR WISHART 'Fanfare & Contrapunctus / Imago' (PAN 12)
EVAN PARKER / JOHN WIESE 'C-Section' (PAN 9)
JOSEPH HAMMER 'I Love You, Please Love Me Too' (PAN 8)

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News:
Hecker live at Tate Modern: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/musicperform/23031.htm
Thomas Ankersmit tour dates with Kevin Drumm and Phill Niblock here: www.thomasankersmit.com
Frieder Butzmann on Martin Kippenberger and on the newly reissued BerlinSuper80 here: www.kroethenhayn.de and www.monitorpop.de/?cat=products&subcat=147&id=121
Valerio Tricoli live with John Duncan, Robert Piotrowicz and more here: www.nkprojekt.de
Michel Chion, Ghédalia Tazartès, Rashad Becker live in London: http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/ ghedelia-tazartes-michel-chion.shtm
Borderline Festival feat. Alva Noto, Phill Niblock & Thomas Ankersmit, Pierre Bastien & Phonophani, Family Battle Snake, Hildur Gudnadóttir & BJ Nilsen, + more here:
www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/131 - www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/201 - www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/203

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PAN
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