XENO & OAKLANDER - Par Avion - Ghostly International

Brooklyn Duo Xeno and Oaklander are a minimal electronics girl/boy duo from Brooklyn, NY.
They began writing music and soundtracks in 2004. Liz Wendelbo is French / Norwegian and Sean McBride is from Maryland.
They record their songs live in their Brooklyn studio and play analogue synthesizers and instruments exclusively.
This summer, Xeno and Oaklander bring their minimal electronic sounds to Ghostly International with new album Par Avion, their first for the label, July 14th. The album's title is a reference to postcards — it translates as "by plane", and was used to mark airmail sent from exotic places. The songs are postcards of love for a cold age — shimmering moments from the present, romantic messages from the past, and love mementos for the future. Together, they make up an album of contrasts — the songs move from upbeat to downbeat, slow to fast, light to dark.
Par Avion's rich diversity of sounds comes at least in part from the fact that it's an album-long ode to synesthesia. As singer Liz Wendelbo explains, “Sound makes me think of a scent, which makes me think of an image, which makes me think of a certain kind of light.” The sensory experiences are palpable: "Jasmine" calls to mind the intoxicating scent of jasmine flowers that bloom at night, "Nuage D'Ivoire" sweats under a tropical sky full of clouds that hold the key to the past and the future, "Sheen" glistens with reflections dancing in the water and with inner visions of romance, where light and dark meet in the pupil of the eye.
Adding to the sense of exoticism, Wendelbo's whispery vocals are sung in both French and English, calling to mind Jane Birkin and Françoise Hardy. Again, there's a contrast between dark and light — the alluring, tropical warmth of Wendelbo's vocals is juxtaposed against duo's signature icy cold, ultra-modern synth sounds. Those sounds have a new component for Par Avion — synth wizard Sean McBride uses an analogue Serge modular synth to create washes of sound that recall '90s shoegaze. The result is an album that stimulates and fascinates throughout, a rich feast for all the senses, a world to get lost in again and again.
Par Avion will be released in LP, CD and digital formats. A special edition vinyl version, limited to 350 hand-numbered copies, will include flesh colored vinyl and a rose-scented art perfume insert, allowing further personal exploration of synesthesia.
Sean McBride talks synthesizers in an extended interview from Robert Fantinatto's upcoming documentary I Dream Of Wires.


Tracklist:

01 Interface
02 Lastly
03 Sheen
04 Par Avion
05 Jasmine Night
06 Reflections
07 Nuage d'lvoire
08 Providence
09 G. Bruno

HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club - Ghostly International

Psychic 9-5 Club marks the beginning of a new chapter for HTRK. It's an album that looks back on a time of sadness and struggle, and within that struggle they find hope and humour and love. It's Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang's first album recorded entirely as a duo—former band member Sean Stewart died halfway through the recording of their last LP, 2011's Work (Work Work).
Though the record is instantly recognisable as HTRK—Standish's vocal delivery remains central to the band's sound, while the productions are typically lean and dubby—they've found ample room for exploration within this framework. Gone are the reverb-soaked guitar explorations of 2009's Marry Me Tonight and the fuzzy growls that ran through Work (Work Work). They've been replaced with something tender, velvety and polished. This is HTRK, but the flesh has been stripped from their sound, throwing the focus on naked arrangements and minimalist sound design.
The album was recorded at Blazer Sound Studios in New Mexico with Excepter's Nathan Corbin, who had previously directed the video clip for Work (Work Work) cut "Bendin." Inviting a third party into their world was no easy decision, but in Corbin they found a kindred spirit. The LP was then refined and reworked in Australia at the turn of 2013, before the finishing touches were applied in New York during the summer.
Of all the themes that run through Psychic 9-5 Club, love is the most central. The word is laced throughout the album in lyrics and titles—love as a distraction, loving yourself, loving others. Standish's lyrics explore the complexities of sexuality and the body's reaction to personal loss, though there's room for wry humour—a constant through much of the best experimental Australian music of the past few decades.
Standish explores her vocal range fully—her husky spoken-word drawl remains, but we also hear her laugh and sing. Equally, Yang's exploratory production techniques—particularly his well-documented love of dub—are given room to shine. They dip headlong into some of the things that make humans tick—love, loss and desire—with the kind of integrity that has marked the band out from day one. Psychic 9-5 Club is truly an album for the body and for the soul.


Tracklist:

01 Give It Up
02 Blue Sunshine
03 Feels Like Love
04 Soul Sleep
05 Wet Dream
06 Love Is Distraction
07 Chinatown Style
08 The Body You Deserve

RECONDITE - Hinterland LR - Ghostly International

A year on from his acclaimed excursions with the 303 for Acid Test, Recondite arrives on Ghostly International for a full-length album of startling maturity. Set for release on November 11th, it shows the artist looking towards his homeland of Lower Bavaria for inspiration, seeking to capture “the area’s mentality and natural environment” within the 10-track LP.
Utilising local field recordings taken during a number of stints in the German region, he depicts the “emotions of the four seasons” and “characteristics of people’s minds” throughout the record, an approach that finds him exploring the celestial angles of a sound that has been developed throughout a recording career still shy of half a decade.
That said the Berlin-based producer has already amassed a covetable discography, with releases on the likes of Hotflush, Dystopian and his own Plangent Records imprint garnering him a formidable reputation amongst the most discerning of music lovers, and seeing his tracks being championed by everyone from Dixon to Marcel Dettmann.
Never one to rest on his laurels, his debut for Ghostly International finds him at his most arresting, exhibiting a refined palette that masterfully adheres to the concept he’s devised for himself. Notably coherent, the harrowing timbres of ‘Floe’, punishing weight of ‘Stems’ and rousing motifs of the Pitchfork premiered ‘Abscondence’ display the full breadth of his imagination, earning himself a distinct place on the established roster whilst chronicling what looks to have been a remarkably personal journey.
“Basically, this is the album that had to come out of Recondite eventually. It is Recondite.”


Tracklist:

01 Rise
02 Leafs
03 Still
04 Riant
05 Stems
06 Floe
07 Abscondence
08 Clouded
09 Fey
10 The Fade
11 Grove (Bonus Track)

COMA - My Orbit - Kompakt

In seguito ai due acclamati Ep sempre su Kompakt e dopo un anno di meticolosa preparazione dell'album Technicolor in uscita ad aprile, i Coma rilasciano un anteprima del loro lavoro scortato da due remix brillanti prodotti da Dauwd, fresco di release su Ghostly International  e dal duo finlandese Clouds già noti ai molti per le loro produzioni su Ramp Recordings.

BEACON - The Ways We Separate - Ghostly International

Thomas Mullarney e Jacob Gossett in arte Beacon dubuttano con l'album "The Ways We Separate" su Ghostly International.
Come suggerisce il titolo, questo lavoro consolida e sviluppa l'idea della separazione del contesto e del senso, frequenze diverse ma coinvolte in una intensa relazione, desideri e passioni con svariate prospettive per la costruzione di una riflessione sfumata  alla base di questo progetto.
Un'ampia tavolozza ricca di sonorità e sintesi analogica muove gli ingranaggi della sperimentazione e dell'elaborazione, mentre lo stato d'animo dell'ascoltatore rimane costantemente immerso in una notte di introspezione sconfortante e oscuramente seducente.

LUSINE - The Waiting Room - Ghostly International

 

Il produttore texano Jeff Mcllwain sotto il moniker di Lusine rilascia per Ghostly International il suo ultimo album "The Waiting Room".

Diversità e coerenza sono caratteristiche che sin dal primo ascolto identificano questo album; ampie atmosfere e percorsi logici danno spazio alla sensazione di vivere ed assaporare un percorso sonoro ben definito.