Category Archives: UPDATE

Fire is Free No. XXVI Steve Hand – ‘R.I.P.s’ CDr
First physical edition from Steve Hand, two intricately-woven pieces of memorial drone; vast landscapes of dark and heavenly beauty to occupy and explore through your mind’s eye. Hit play and begin your ascent to within. Incense smoke curls forth from your speakers. Laying on the carpet we are all floating in space. FFO: Phill Niblock, Slomo, Ampbuzz, Muslimgauze. Pro printed cdr edition of 100 in 7″ cardboard sleeves with paste-on covers.

Fire is Free No. XXVII BAND – ‘Skryer in the Spirit Vision’ CDr
This enigmatic Columbus, OH collective makes its debut on Fire is Free in rare cosmic solo-drone mode. Though known for leaving throngs of stunned audiences members in the wake of free-noise avant garde pop covers, dangerous theatrical feats and bloodshed both real and imagined, this recording consists of a single 45 minute drone piece perfect for your next séance or astral traveling session. FFO: Catherine Christer Hennix & Henry Flynt. One time cdr digipak edition of 100 copies.

Fire is Free No. XXIX Son of Buzzi – ‘Fluss’ CDr
This project of Swiss guitarist Sebastian ‘Blind Joey Deaf’ Bischoff has been steadily releasing some of the greatest most consistently beautiful fingerpicking atop drone beds and location recordings that have graced the ears at the label in recent memory. FFO: Jack Rose, Robbie Basho, John Fahey, and pre- School of the Flower era Six Organs of Admittance. These comparisons are apt. Get it before it’s gone. CDr edition available through Fire is Free, but only 66 copies will be available in the US. The remaining 33 copies and an artist-run cassette edition of 30 copies will be available directly from Son of Buzzi for European distribution (cassette sold out before release).

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Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy – ‘Stress Hydrique’
Field recordings and percussion. Accidental dive into collided waters and imaginary yet familiar landcapes. Soundtrack for the movie “La Remuée” by Fabien Delisle

Hubert Kostkiewicz – ‘Emergetyki’
By dubbing raw field recordings and recording the live playback, Kostkiewicz transforms the mixing console into a modular synthesizer. Harnessing these sometimes unruly temporalities, the album invokes conflicting extremities, a dying dub pulse or the sense of melting ice. By playing with his listeners (the acoustic masquerading as electronic) he addresses larger questions about identity and personhood amidst widespread ecological collapse. Kostkiewics is also the guitarist in the band KURWS.

Leo Suarez – ‘Circle Tension’
A focus on stretching and altering resonances as they leave the body of a drum or the surface of a cymbal, and re-incorporating them as accents and key statements in a realm of pulse and cycle. That which is actually in a state of decay becomes propelled forward as a fixture in the sonic environment.

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CARINE DONNEGER CD 7€
two electroacoustic pieces composed between the music school and the bedroom. etheric ramblings and contemplative wanderings. Soviet tunes, siberian drone, sparse atmospheres.

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GATE – ‘WINTER SONGS’ LP
Limited to 300 copies. NZ sound artist Gate (Michael Morley of The Dead C) has followed up his atmospheric recent album Highway Ghosts with new record Winter Songs, a hazy three track collection of fuzzed out guitar drones. Like Winter Songs’ indistinct album cover, Morley’s guitars smear across the surfaces of the increasingly long-form instrumental works, engulfing listeners in a slow-motion blizzard of feedback and endlessly decaying tones. Dive in below…

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Moon Reflecting – ‘Non G.M.O. Rain Dance’ $7
In the shadow of Arizona’s mesas, shrouded in swirls of sand, there exist the keyboard meditations of Cynthia Montross a.k.a. Moon Reflecting. Her instrumentals are hymns to a precarious planet: basslines blur like chemtrails smudged over the firmament; melodies glint through veils of narcotic mist. There is no consistent rhythm, no robotic sequencing. Her songs are wobbly and winding. They shuffle between tempos and lean in on off-beats. They twinkle at random. Non G.M.O. Rain Dance pulses like a transmission out of time, shot through with stardust and radiated soil, and left to wander the desert skies.

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Shovel Dance Collective/C Joynes
For the seventh Betwixt & Between we’re changing the format a little. In place of another solo outing, Jacken is appearing as one member of the Shovel Dance Collective, a newly formed group of nine musicians exploring the folk traditions of these islands (and beyond). While nurturing the history of the source material, the collective brings to it sensibilities drawn from drone, improvisation, and metal. In so doing, they aim to uncover proto-feminist narratives and queer histories, and to make heard the voices of the working people that created and create the wealth of the world. On the other side we’re honoured to be joined by C Joynes as this edition’s contributing artist. Cambridge-based Joynes will be well known to many, as the master of a magpie approach to fingerpicking English parlour guitar. Recently leading C Joynes & The Furlong Bray, an ensemble featuring Dead Rat Orchestra, Cam Deas and Nick Jonah Davis, or working alongside dbh, Gavin Clarke, and Andrew Cheetham as Waterless Hills, Joynes is appearing solo here with an electrifying live set.

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Stuart Chalmers/Distant Animals – ‘Live at Cave 12’
Stuart Chalmers and Distant Animals explore the line between improvisation and composition with two long-form works for acoustic and electronic instruments. Sharing a stage at Geneva’s Cave 12 in 2019, these two recordings document intimate solo electro-acoustic performance. With Chalmers playing a prepared Swarmandal routed through a complex FX chain, and Distant Animals working with a modular-synthesiser and amplified wooden-box, both artists interrogate often radically different sound-worlds. The works are tied together by more than just a shared location, however; both are born of a careful, explorative navigation of timbre and rhythm, the line between acoustic and electronic sound constantly called into question.

Aidan Baker – ‘Stimmt’
Aidan Baker is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist from Toronto (now resident in Berlin) with the electric guitar his primary instrument. Using prepared and alternate methods of playing the guitar, along with various electronic effects, Baker creates music which generally falls within the ambient/experimental genre but draws on influences from rock, electronic, classical, and jazz.

MAbH ( Mortuus Auris & the Black Hand) – ‘Look Under’
MAbH is the solo project of UK based artist Peter Taylor, who has been producing music since 2008, having had his debut on Digitalis Limited. 21 albums and singles later, ‘Look Under’ has been born. ‘Look Under’ is a collection of seven pieces that claw beneath the surface, never quite fully appearing in the light. The dimness of sounds is that of a captured breath; a head, half-submerged in water – ears below the surface, and tired eyes watching the wider world flushing in chaos. Never quite drowning yet never coming up for air.

Fast Blood – ‘Fast Blood EP’
Comprised of stalwarts of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne DIY scene, Fast Blood played their first ever gig in April 2019 opening for Durham pop-punk mainstays Martha. They have since shared the stage with the likes of Jeffrey Lewis, Mannequin Pussy and Cocaine Piss. Recalling the likes of Pretty Girls Make Graves, F*cked Up and Hot Snakes.

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[mt135cs] Pedestrian Deposit – ‘Debilitant • Erase • Stitching’ 3CS
The early, solo-project era of PD had two concurrent but intentionally separate behaviors; the all encompassing genre-hybrid for which is most commonly known, and another infrequent mode as a traditional, old-school harsh noise project dealing in micro-edition releases of less accessible material. This is perhaps the most definitive release of that personality, originally released in 2003 in a limited edition of 30 copies. Consisting of five sides of blisteringly pure electronics recorded live in the studio and direct to tape with no editing — with the final side reserved for a long sound-collage piece — this cassette trilogy effectively links the two modes but also re-contextualizes the familiar elements of the project and presents them in isolated form, making for some of the most obscure and uncompromising PD material. Packaged in a triple cassette case with new artwork, with all tracks remastered in 2020.

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Ezio Piermattei – ‘From Afar it Looks Like An Oriflamme’ C34
Italian sound artist Ezio Piermattei is an active musician since 2010. Until now, his work has been published through labels like Chocolate Monk, My Dance The Skull, Steep Gloss and his own Tutore Burlato label. ‘From Afar it Looks Like An Oriflamme’ captures some of the most delicate compositions by him. Detailed narratives are mixed with a big variety of field recordings, object and instrument sounds, as well as tape manipulation.

Brandstifter & Diurnal Burdens – ‘Manchmal Auch Nicht’ C44
Collaborative work between Brandstifter & Diurnal Burdens (Aka Ross Scott-Buccleuch). A great sound-collage with both artists using a big variety of analogue sound sources and materials like dictaphone field recordings, sound poetry snippets, homemade twin walkman tape looper, modular synth, effects pedals.

Jim Strong – ‘Voluntary Letters’ C30
Jim Strong is a visual artist, painter, performer & experimental instrument builder. Until now his music is released on respectful labels like Vitrine and Crisis Of Taste. He is the one half of Melkings, a collaborative group with T.D. & founder of the experimental label Cor Ardens. Jim Strong uses handcrafted instruments, spoken words, cracking noises & broken electronics.

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Newphew Lagoon – ‘Naked Fuse’ CD $10
nephew lagoon is the solo project of 27-year-old michigan based producer michael loren. using synthesizers, field recordings, and a laptop, michael creates deliberate compositions examining the harmony of ephemeral moments. naked fuse, the follow up to 2019’s isPlorica, further explores these playful musical collages, with each track rearranging itself like a chemical reaction or a cyborg dreaming in sound…

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