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Recorded acoustically in Arfryn, south west Wales, Two is an album of intertwining tales and layers of sound. It somehow combines a stark simplicity with a fecund complexity, an earthy reality with a gently unnerving, yet deeply enthralling magic. Shamanistic and visionary, folkloric and hypnotic, ancient and as fresh as the new day, Two moves through a myriad of moods and textures.

From atop of a hill all of a sudden there was a large rumble and a flash of light over the mountain. Anyone who was down under were startled and woke up suddenly. Everyone went out to look and just over the mountain there was lightning and thunder, and a very thick cloud hung over the mountain so you couldn’t see the top. Even the mountain shook and the sound of Buchla and Guitars could be heard getting louder and louder…

The Bardo Thödol, (བར ད ཐ ས ག ལ,) meaning Liberation by Listening in the Intermediate States or Tibetan Book of the Dead is a text describing the states of consciousness and perception that occur during the period from death to rebirth. The study of his life or the recitation of the main chapter by a lama during the agony or after death is supposed to help release the cycle of reincarnations, or at least to obtain a better reincarnation.

Several are the appealing elements to make a record inspired to this book. First of all to make it better known and especially in a sound form. Since this opus deals exactly with a « Liberation by Listening », letting my voice and Michael’s music serve this purpose is a real joy, and hopefully it works well for you.

Stations of the Sun was composed in the spring of 2020 after returning from travels through Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The five tracks form a ritual soundtrack to a journey which became an inadvertent pilgrimage to view the rising and setting sun from ancient sites of historical significance. These compositions are some of the most diverse in Sky Burial’s voyage of sonic transcendence.

Sky Burial was formed by Michael Page in 2006 inspired by kosmische, electronic, and industrial artists of the late 70s and early 80s. SB’s recordings often cite esoteric, literary, esoteric, metaphysical and mythological subject matter as muses.

Michael has released more 60 recordings since 2014 under various names and has collaborated on releases with Nik Turner (Hawkwind), Jarboe (ex-Swans), Anni Hogan (Marc Almond), Troum, Danny Hyde (Coil), Nigel Ayers (Nocturnal Emissions), Bridget Wishart (Hawkwind), Mark Spybey (Download/Dead Voice on Air/Zoviet France), Johann Eiriksson (Reptilicus, Gjöll) Nik Blinko (Rudimentary Peni), Robert Williams (SIEGE), and J. Randall (Agoraphobic Nosebleed) as well as album production by James Plotkin (Khanate) and Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) and cover art by Gee Vaucher (Crass) and Nick Blinko.

Richard van Kruysdijk now presents his new album ‘Breath Mule’, which marks the completon of the trilogy and his fnal release under the moniker CUT WORMS.
‘Breath Mule’ was created in an equally intuïtve manner as the previous two albums. Again, Van Kruysdijk used an array of ingeniously cross-connected effects to manipulate simple electronic sources, mainly
generated by a monophonic synth (Moog Werkstat) and a circuit-bent autoharp (Suzuki Omnichord). He builds his compositons improvising from scratch without any prefab sounds, beats or loops and records them
straight to 2-track in his studio.

Michael Schaffer is a German painter, musician and lyricist. Born in Andernach he lives and works on the rise above the Rhineland. As an autodidact he started painting in the late 90´s. Since then he took part in several exhibitions, both in Germany and in European countries such as Italy, Austria or Spain and in cities as Florence or Salzburg. He worked on mutiple music projects and did several solo work. Under the moniker machina elektrika he began a series of pure electronic and modular music.

I | Philippe Petit & Michael Schaffer From atop of a hill all of a sudden there was a large rumble and a flash of light over the mountain. Anyone who was down under were startled and woke up suddenly. Everyone went out to look and just over the mountain there was lightning and thunder, and a very thick cloud hung over the mountain so you couldn’t see the top. Even the mountain shook and the sound of Buchla and Guitars could be heard getting louder and louder… No commandments only an extrasensory experience one need to immerge inside…

Damnum Per Saeculorum’ is My Silent Wake’s 11th full-length album since forming in 2005 and is their fourth in the acoustic/ambient/experimental vein. The self-produced album was recorded in various sessions around the UK in late 2019/early 2020 and was mixed by Simon Bibby (keyboards). Song styles range from acoustic medieval themes to futuristic soundscapes and the non-instrumental tracks feature a wide range of vocal styles from various band members as well as lyrical contributions and vocal and instrumental performances from close friends and family of the band. Current Lineup: Ian Arkley – Guitars & Vocals Addam Westlake – Bass Guitar Gareth Arlett – Drums Simon Bibby – Keyboards David MacLean – Guitars Links: www.mysilentwake.com mysilentwake2.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/MySilentWake/ www.instagram.com/my_silent_wake_doom/

An hommage to Philip K. Dick’s « Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep ». A series of collaborations paying tribute to science-fictional aesthetics, imagery, and futuristic approach. More Electroacoustic than Pop, at least in its concrete approach and desire to break genre limitations… Science-Fiction and its quest to solve the unexplained has always been stimulating the imagination of Men, allowing to project into possible futures… Space and the unknown. Science… Fiction… An exploration of inner spaces, cinematic dreams, “forbidden planets »… 60 years ago, on September 14, 1959, Luna II was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and the first man-made object to land on another celestial body. 50 years ago, 1969, US landing of the first humans on the Moon marked the peak of the Space Age dreams and the first victory in that Space Race which had started in 1955. Back when Space Age Pop gave birth to musics inspired by the spirit of those times, an optimism based on the strong post-war economy and technology boom, and excitement about humanity’s early forays into space.
In the past few years Philippe Petit has been following courses in composition and Electroacoustic music at the Conservatory, specialising in spatialisation and semi or modular synthesis. A technique which is close to landing on a new planet since reproducing the same patch is almost impossible, which suits fine Petit’s ethical resolve to never produce the same album. Reaching a wholly new sound-universe, opening new doors of perception and possibilities, a technology allowing to create textures and electronic abstractions, plastic sounds, organised sonic objects using vintage instruments such as Buchla Easel « The Electric Music Box » , Moog Model 15, Minimoog Model D, Vintage RSF Expander Kobol, Arp 2600, Synclavier…
A new start, in search of a personal sound : sequencing color, forms and range, disrupting timbre and harmonics, de-uniting the principles of horizontality (melody) and those of verticality (chords), modulating a “perpetual timbric movement » always in mutation, a sound of both substance and shadow, a voyage into a new dimension: a Twilight Zone.
www.philippepetit.info

‘The Forcing Season: Further Acts Of Severance’ is the the sixteenth full-length release by Sky Burial. These recordings see the project’s compositions shift into a new phase with a series of shorter, more complex, and eclectic tracks. While still drawing inspiration from the same acts and and genres that inspired him to begin creating as Sky Burial, Michael has favored experimentation over imitation resulting in an album that defies pigeonholing.
Sky Burial is Michael Page, a visual and sound artist dividing his time between Cape Cod, Belize, and England. After several years recording and touring in the power electronics/industrial/noise genre as Fire in the Head, Michael formed Sky Burial in 2006 as an outlet to explore the ambient and experimental sides of industrial music, often citing esoteric, literary, esoteric, metaphysical and mythological subject matter as a muse. Much like the Tibetan ritual from which the project takes its name, the Sky Burial moniker was chosen as an act of cleaning the slate, to be pulled apart and dispersed providing an unfettered route for sonic expression and experimentation. Although initially inspired by early industrial music projects and electronic/ambient/kosmische acts of the 70s & 80s, the music of Sky Burial continues to evolve, creating a grey area between genre boundaries.

Inspired by a novel from Edgar Allan Poe « A Descent Into The Maelstrom » evokes the struggle of a Man who follows a path leading him to the edge of a steep cliff from where he hears the tumultuous waves of a «synthesized whirlwind», screaming and roaring incessantly that traps him within an ocean of rhythmic sound-in-fusion. A very «sciencefrictional» madness radiates, no frontiers are heard and yet the composer invites us to cross them all by penetrating into the depths of two autonomous and complementary universes… A chromatic complementarity between the ultra-coloured and vibrant sounds, inviting adventurous spectators/listeners to a « sinesthési-Kosmiche » journey, played on a mythic vintage machine: The Buchla Easel – The Electric Music Box,as can be read on the keyboard of that original instrument which is why Philippe Petit wanted to preserve an electric side, sometimes close to a guitar sound. Easel which in English refers to the painter’s easel. A painter uses an easel to support the canvas on which he creates his works. So the Buchla Easel is the ideal support to hold a canvas on which Petit wants to create his sound paintings. «For a long time Buchla would simply refuse to add a keyboard to his instruments. According to him, the synthesizer should be… a tool for music and experimental musicians. A keyboard would be an invitation to the conventional scale set…» so I chose not to use it. Recorded in one shot to preserve the spontaneity and using the instrument connected to an Avantone Pro CLA-200 amplifer and recorded on 2 separate tracks, each treated differently with a GRM «comb flter» to create true stereo spatialization and an even more effcient voltage intercourses between oscillator, modulator, pulser, LFO or other voltage sequencer. A unique vision of the Buchla for a Psychedelico-Shoegaze rendering, whose Drone thickness can also evoke MBV that would rub shoulders with the early Grateful Dead, of the time when Don Buchla was one of them and that his electronic-modular flights made the public lose all meaning under acid. Lysergic West-Coast Electro crazyness…
www.philippepetit.info

Monsta (Boaz Bentur) Monsta is a solo project by Boaz Bentur, Bass player and producer fromnorth of Israel combining elements from psychedelic music, electronic and experimental.Always diverse and always changing , this project moves between distorted electronic beats to ambience and meditative music. After realeasing his debut Ep “Nepture” in 2018, which was more electronic and experimental , Monsta is releasing a second album – “3”. This album is a part from a series of live psychedelic/meditative sessions performed in special locations and atmospheres when people are lying down on the floor with eyes closed. Boaz Bentur is as well a member of the band Tiny Fingers , Octans and moreprojects in the alternative music scene in Israel.

Transtilla is Anne-Chris Bakker and Romke Kleefstra. Since 2008 they have been working together in the trio Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra (KBK), that made eight releases so far. Both are also part of the group Tsjinlûd. Anne-Chris Bakker also made solo-albums and collaborates with ambient musician Andrew Heath. Romke Kleefstra is also part of groups like Piiptsjilling and The Alvaret Ensemble. With KBK they played throughout Europe and Japan. Live KBK sometimes turned noisy and harsh, a side of Bakker’s and Kleefstra’s music they both wanted to explore. This resulted in Transtilla, compared to KBK a bit more expressive and experimental, but still dark and with this constant underlying tension. With ‘Transtilla I’ Bakker and Kleefstra make their debut on Opa Loka Records.

AntonellaEYE Porcelluzzi radically rewrote texts by Mina Loy and Theresa of Avila, and interpreted them in accord with the musical language of Deaf Society. A few short qoutes from wikipedia: Mina Loy (1882 – 1966), was a British artist, writer, poet, playwright, novelist, futurist, feminist. Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515 –1582), was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun and author during the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. “Music enhances the possibilities to express the poetic message, and connects to all ancient traditions where poetry was always sung or told on music, by linking music rhythm and verses rhythmic. The Velocity of Velocities », I liked to work on old texts and rewrite, modify them in the sense of current issues, and link them to Ivan’s tech-music, drones and machine ambient. This experimental lust is very present in our record. Working with Ivan was very interesting in terms of alchemy, since we arrived in a short time to an instinctive reciprocal comprehension, his contribution and mine mixing to create further mystery and deepness than I had normally reached with my texts and voice. The result of our common efforts was suddenly amazing.”

Pianist Bart van Dongen and electronic conjurer Richard van Kruysdijk (Omnichord, Kaoss Pad, live sampling, effects) push the boundaries of the piano just a little further in joint improvisations, overlaying and interlacing the instrument with fields of otherworldly resonance and beauty. Regardless whether the piano is played with or without modifying additions, this environment gives it new… meaning. What’s more, the electronics do not just serve as a setting in which the piano may sparkle and shine, the two become intertwined. They may remain separately recognizable, but they do develop a symbiotic relationship. There is a magic of transformation in the air. The air resonates with musical alchemy. So, rather than subverting the piano, the two musicians forge something that sounds new and beguiling. Five pieces, five compounds, five wondrous hybrids. What once was rock solid has definitively been turned into a fluid existence.

After his well received debut album “Lumbar Fist” (see review sheet), Richard van Kruysdijk returns with his second output under the moniker CUT WORMS. “Cable Mounds” was created in an equally intuïtive manner as his first CD. Again, Van Kruysdijk used an array of ingeniously cross-connected effects to manipulate simple electronic sources, mainly a monophonic synth and a circuit-bent Omnichord, and some Baritone Guitar. He builds his compositions improvising from scratch without any prefab sounds, beats or loops and recording them straight to 2-track in his studio without any overdubs. Although CUT WORMS’ sound palette often tends towards the lower frequencies, it’s dark sounds rather present a more open, pastoral quality, reminiscent of Krautrock works by Cluster or Harmonia, than the opaque atmospheres usually evoked by most dark ambient acts, while easily steering free of any hollow new-age babble.

About Richard van Kruysdijk: Since his first solo release in 1993, drummer / multi-instrumentalist / producer / composer Richard van Kruysdijk (NL) has released many albums and 12″s with other group-projects as well as solo-projects. Most notable are his works with German eclectic industrial band Phallus Dei, “trip noir” duo Sonar Lodge, downtempo trio Strange Attractor and new wave duo Palais Ideal. These bands and other musical projects brought him on many stages throughout Europe playing drums and electronics, and in studios with many famous musicians from different musical realms: Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson (Coil, Psychic TV), Edward Ka-Spel & Niels van Hoorn (The Legendary Pink Dots), Graham Lewis (Wire), Jarboe (Swans), Gitane Demone, Daniel Johnston, Blaine L. Reininger & Winston Tong (Tuxedomoon), Richard Sinclair (Hatfield & The North), David J. (Bauhaus), Markus Stockhausen and many more.
Richard is nowadays an experienced producer with a distinct handwriting, known for his electronica / sound design skills who also creates music for films, documentaries and modern dance pieces. He works intensively with choreographers Jens van Daele for Jens’ company Burning Bridges and Itamar Serussi for companies around the world: Scapino Ballet (NL), Edge (UK), Ballet de Lorraine (F), Balletto di Roma (I), Hessisches Staats Ballett (D), Pennsylvania Ballet (USA), Fanclub (DK), Oper Ballett Graz (A).
In 2000, Richard co-founded the record labelMusic for Speakers. Since then, Music for Speakers has reached a cult status amongst lovers of adventurous electronic music with a hint of melancholy and lust for genre defying experiment.
www.richardvankruysdijk.com |

Jean-Philippe Feiss is a french musician, who plays cello and electronics. He plays in Sibiel, and is the main composer of this band. Sibiel released 3 albums, and did several projects involving video, dance and visuel arts. Besides that, he plays with famous french jazzmen like Emmanuel Bex, or Louis Sclavis. He also wrote music for several short films, and he works since 2016 with the israelian artist Sigalit Landau.

The person behind KRAFT is Rotterdam based Robert Hofman. After release of debut album ”Gelag van Zwartgeklede kraaien” of his band Osewoudt which was received very well in the Neo-folk scene he found himself with a gap as live shows don’t happen very often in the small scene. One night he attempted to ruin and rebuild a friends jazz demo which later became the very first song of this album called ” The Dreadful hours ”. At first it was all about personal trouble and difficulties of life. Later the love for Muslimgauze became an influence and being friends with musicians from Ukraine the protests and conflict and even a war in that country became one of the main topics of the story told in this album. Various instruments were bought and used and new friends were made. Osewoudt member Stefan Hayes (also black metal band ”Terzij de Horde”/Lanterns slide past a.o) decided to add music and later Rotterdam based Ukrainian singer/musician Kate Orange, Varunna guitarist Dennis Lamb and Richard Leviathan (Ostara/Strength through Joy/Death in june) joined to add to the whole. As it was quite hard to fit this project in a genre it was even more difficult to find a label for but in 2017 KRAFT found a home with Michael Schaffer’s OPA LOKA records. We sincerely hope you like and appreciate.

Orphax is a musical project with the focus on minimal ambient and drone music. In the music there is a development towards microtonal sounds, where time and spatiality are important factors. In this form of working the eventual result can be a static form of sound where development in the music becomes subordinate to the listener losing any sense of time.
Orphax bio:
Amsterdam based musician and trained drummer Sietse van Erve was introduced to electronic music in the early nineties. He started researching new sounds and new ways of working – always with an organic touch, often incorporating sounds that would be regarded by others as errors or mistakes. Considering life isn’t without errors either. During this search he found his way into drone and microtonal music. As a result his most recent work time and spatiality become more important factors. Live this is combined is loads of room for improvisation. This way of working results often an organic form of drone and minimal music. He has released over 30 releases, as download, CD-R, Tapes and CD’s, since he started working on music and contributed to many remix project including work for Kenneth Kirschner, TVO and Chris Dooks among others. In the past he has shared the stage with various musicians including Jos Smolders, Frans de Waard (Modelbau), Zeno van den Broek, TVO, BJ Nilsen, Edgars Rubenis and Sindre Bjerga. Some musical influences are Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Catherine Christer Hennix and Kassel Jaeger as well as folk and classical music from India and Tibet, mainly throat and overtone singing. Besides making music, Sietse van Erve runs Moving Furniture Records and has curated concerts at home, at Amsterdam institute STEIM, De Ruimte, OCCII and more.
www.orphax.com

Over the past decade My Silent Wake have carved their name into the annals of music history. They have become one of the most admired bands in the doom/death metal scene with incredible albums of unsurpassed depth, like the revered A Garland Of Tears and 2015s stunning Damnatio Memoriae opus. However, alongside their formidable melancholy metal releases the band have a whole other side to their musical character. They have stripped their music down to its acoustic essentials both live and on album, and with releases like the acclaimed Eye Of The Needle they have ventured into the world of dark ambience. My Silent Wake have proved themselves as adept with undulating waves of sound as with spirit crushing riffs. After drawing a line under the first ten years of their existence with the successful collection, An Unbroken Threnody 2005 – 2015, My Silent Wake have begun the next chapter of their career with perhaps their most intriguing and adventurous album to date. To create the unique sounds of Invitations to Imperfection the band used over thirty different instruments – from zithers to mandolins, pump organs to karimbas…plus quite literally parts of the kitchen sink. They recorded in a variety of locations, harvesting the sounds that resonated with the vision in their hearts and added the final deft touches by utilising the synth skills of Attrition’s Martin Bowes. Anything that was needed to create the perfect sound, the perfect ambience, the perfect atmosphere. The result is a very special album – deeply affecting, quietly powerful; something that can draw the listener into themselves, inspiring reflection and revelation.

Mensimonis is the coming together of two counterfigures in counterculture; Radboud Mens and Lukas Simonis. Although the two gentlemen liked and knew eachother for some time now, this teaming up was not the most obvious thing to do. Radboud coming from electronic/industrial/noise music, being a sort of whiz-kid in the studio and in general a controlfreak who doesn’t like things to slip out of his hands, and Lukas, with a background in noise and improv and ecclecticism in general (all projects he does seem to come from a totally different source…). Lukas and Radboud met up musically a few years back when they were doing recording & improv workshops for Secondary Schools (VMBO mostly) and in the end found themselves together on the stage where they played noisy improv music for teenagers that would rather watch a stupid game on their iphones… (well, the teachers that accompanied them were not much better). So this must have been the starting point that lead to the project (or is it a band) Mensimonis. Mensimonis try to do a ‘musical’ thing with the idea of droning away at it. It seems a very simple and basic concept but it always leads to quite different results. Radboud takes care of the lower parts of the sound, using oscillators and effects, Lukas is allowed to stay on top with an accumulation of looped guitarattacks that slowly evolve into drones as the overtones take over. That’s only the description of HOW to make these sounds. We’ll leave it at that, just have a short listen and it will all become clear…
https://z6records.bandcamp.com/ – http://www.z6records.nl/ – https://worm.org/ – https://worm.org/studios/sound-studio/ – https://soundcloud.com/z6records – http://klangendum.nl/

The project CORIUM is presenting now a lava-like mixture of industrial, musique concrète and ambient atmospheres.. The heterogenous nature of the CORIUM is based on a tension field which is generated by the two founding members Michael Schaffer and Matt Weigand. The musical roots of ambient and studio artist and guitarist M.Schaffer are located in projects such as Birdmachine, Indian Tree Pie or Monoflow and vary from experimental abstraction to a clear harmonic form. Nearly standing opposite to his rather musical approach is the intonation of non-musician M. Weigand. His early musical education ocurred via 7 Minutes of Nausea, End of Silence and XQM. While Schaffer is co-running the label for ambient and free sounds named opa loka records, Weigand is the owner of ecocentric records, well known for its harsh and noisy obsessions. Common to both members of CORIUM is a gift to fill the room with sculptures made of tones and frequencies – this room is simply shining in the blaze of the CORIUM ! The structures are yielding in an unique complexion of constructing/desconstructing euphony and -due to their will for transcendency- are interferring with entchanting additives to put the listener onto a magic journey alongside the dreamtime. So please be prepared to get melt down – and listen to the Corium!

Escape are — Stanley Carr – sequencers and synthesizers Michael Schaffer – guitars and samples

Low is a third and last album from an album trilogy by Gintas K. The first one was Lovely Banalities (Crónica, 2009), second – Slow (Bascaru, 2013). In Low Gintas K continues to explore microgranulated textures, deconstruction of melodic elements, and sonic plasticities that are altogether melted into blurred colors of acidulous tonalities and dynamic mixtures of metallic sonic palettes. Eleven short melancholic reminiscent pieces are presented in the album.

On the debut album Lumbar Fist, Richard van Kruysdijk’s solo Project Cut Worms playfully builds compositions from scratch without any prefab beats or loops, exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance and melody. Cut Worms’s long, dark chords are dragged through gravel while sounds are reversed, mangled, chopped, and regenerated into new musical entities, fostering a stillness in harmony that slowly evolves through interacting layers of sound. The result is highly atmospheric, cinematic, intuitive drone music. Cut Worms is clearly not another ambient laptop act, but distinguishes itself by utilising only live generated and processed sounds, both acoustic and electronic. During concerts, the musical performance is underlined by sparse,atmospheric black & white imagery projected on a video installation. Musical references: Stephan Mathieu, Tim Hecker, Oren Ambarchi, Glenn Branca, Will Guthrie, Jim O’Rourke.Since his first solo release in 1993, Richard van Kruysdijk (NL) has released many albums with group-projects as well as solo-projects. Most notable are his works with German eclectic industrial band Phallus Dei, “trip noir” duo Sonar Lodge and downtempo trio Strange Attractor. These bands and other musical projects brought him on many stages throughout Europe playing drums and electronics, and in studios with many famous musicians from different musical realms: Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson (Coil, Psychic TV), Edward Ka-Spel & Niels van Hoorn (The Legendary Pink Dots), Graham Lewis (Wire), Jarboe (Swans), Gitane Demone, Daniel Johnston, Blaine L. Reininger & Winston Tong (Tuxedomoon), Richard Sinclair (Hatfield & The North), David J. (Bauhaus), Markus Stockhausen and many more. He is a founding member of Daisy Bell, an indietronics group with Dyane Donck and Evelien van den Broek. Since 2010, Richard also creates music for modern dance pieces, working intensively and internationally with choreographers Jens van Daele and Itamar Serussi. In 2000, Richard co-founded the record label Music for Speakers. Since then, Music for Speakers has reached a cult status amongst lovers of adventurous electronic music with a hint of melancholy and lust for genre defying experiment. Cut Worms previewed in the Netherlands at the World Minimal Music Festival in Muziekgebouw a/h IJ, Amsterdam and premiered at November Music festival,‘s-Hertogenbosch.contact & information:www.richardvankruysdijk.com

The end of a world never is and never can be anything but the end of an illusion.” The second Kamalarabin album offers ritual trance occult esoteric lo fi  religious arab folk power electronics ambient dub terror horror music and field recordings. 

The first Chi Machine album “I bow to all ascetics” varies from esoteric ambient beats and sampling of jain chants to psychedelic soundscapes. “Namo Arihantanam — I bow down to all Arihantas. Namo Siddhanam — I bow down to all Siddhas. Namo Ayariyanam — I bow down to all Acharyas. Namo Uvajjhayanam — I bow down to Upadhyayas. Namo Loe Savvasahunam — I bow down to all the Sadhus and Sadhvis.I bow down to him whose all passions like attachment and malice, which sow the seeds of birth and rebirth, have been destroyed. ” All instruments by Michael Schaffer. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Michael Schaffer at Machina Elektrika.

The sixth Monoflow Album varies from vast ambient and dark gestures to Rock/Kraut and sessionlike Psychedelia. This time the commonly instrumental project is enriched by the vocals of Phallus Dei’s member Oliver St. Lingam. Play loud! Listen and levitate!

Bass-clarinet and electronics player Henk Bakker (a.k.a. Subterraneanact) is a mainstay in the Rotterdam improv scene, and co-runs the famous Worm studio. Knob twiddler Rutger Zuydervelt (a.k.a. Machinefabriek) is mainly known for being ridiculously prolific. For a gig at Worm, organizer Lukas Simonis came up with the idea to pair Henk and Rutger for a live performance, their first as a duo. They happily accepted the challenge, but not without planning a improv session to rehearse. With Henk on bass clarinet and live manipulation, and Rutger using his analogue tone generator, contact mics, tapes and effects, the two hit it off like a pressure-cooker. Without wasting time to discuss any plans, they simply communicated through their unrestrained, boisterous sounds. In the two hours they spend together, 90 minute of music was recorded. After some editing, the album ‘Persistent Objects’ took shape, and is now released on CD by Opa Loka Records.

Dutch trio Daisy Bell’s music varies from indietronics to atmospheric soundscapes. With a collection of acoustic and electronic instruments, live sampling, live sound manipulation and harmony vocals, Daisy Bell switches from soft and intimate to a raw and vibrant wall of Sound. On stage, the band is lit up by large projections of poems by William Blake (1757-1827), which they use as their lyrics. Daisy Bell debuted with a concert for VPRO radio (NL), broadcast live via satellite in 25 countries. Shortly after that they released their first songs on pink vinyl on WORM Records, were the support act for CocoRosie and played several gigs including Faust’s prestigious Avantgarde Festival (Germany). In July 2014, they have finished their debut album, which was recorded at the Hilvaria Studios with engineer Sandor Caron (Knalpot), after which it was mixed and produced by Darren Allison (producer of Efterklang, Amatorski, Belle & Sebastian, Spiritualized a.m.m.) in London. It was mastered by Uwe Teichert at Elektropolis in Brussels. Dyane, Evelien and Richard share a background in performing, producing and composing for the stage, installation and multidisciplinary art, film, theatre and dance and share a passion for genre-transcending music Projects. The name ‘Daisy Bell’ is derived from the first song that was ‘sung’ by a computer in 1961.

Based in Toronto, Canada, Clara Engel is an independent, multi-faceted artist and musician. She has independently recorded and released eleven albums, and has collaborated with musicians and artists from the UK, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, Iran, and the US. Engel’s music has been played on Italian National Radio, as well as BBC Radio 2, making it onto Tom Robinson’s show “BBC Introducing” on several occasions. Her music has been described as “folk noir,” “minimalist holy blues from another galaxy,” and “sung poetry.” Her voice and guitar stylings place her singularly on the genre-map, somewhere between avant-garde torch singer and gothic-blues artist. Her influences span genres and media, amongst them are Vasko Popa, Virginia Woolf, Theodore Roethke, Jim Jarmusch, Arvo Part, Meredith Monk, Robert Johnson, Gillian Welch, and Jacques Brel.