Ornament - "Unicorn Lullaby"

Unicorn Lullaby" was self-released by Ornament in a few copies back in 2000 and is now published by Afe in a fully remastered and repackaged version that showcases the author's visionary attitude. Due to the poor distribution of the original version, this is probably Ornament's less know work, but it's probably his best attempt at Dark Ambient music contaminated with Industrial elements. If we look for some kind of internal reference wondering through the whole Afe catalogue, this can easily be found in Never Known's "Dawn of an Era", but "Unicorn Lullaby" has of course a personality of his own. According to his author, "Unicorn Lullaby" is an oniric / visionary concept in sounds, a travel to and back from an imaginary collapsing world where the "Unicorn Shaped Labyrinth" is the entrance / exit. "Noctifer" is the star shining above this imaginary world, while the gear-sounding "High Density of Grief" is a representation of the slave-citizens forced to work in a consuming production-chain and "From Concealed Gardens" tries to describe its mysterious flora and fauna. After entering the imaginary world, the protagonist wakes up ("I Opened My Eyes in the Liquid Room") and fight against his "Fiendish Ego" as the world begins to collapse ("Under Shivering Columns") as predicted by ancient priests who were charged with heresy ("The Heretics' Heritage"). This heritage is the only key that allows the protagonist to survive the ordeal and return to the place where he belongs as only a few traces of past life surround him ("Only Life Remains"). The distinctive overall sound of the album is subtly achieved with a rich shady substratum of distant sounds that are intentionally and elegantly kept in the background and are fully appreciable at a mid volume level.”

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Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar - "Asylum Lunaticum"

Intimate, absurd, feral and aggressive in its homemade weirdness, the music of Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar has been a well-kept secret for too long. Hjuler & Bar have self-published their dada-esque sound poetry experiments on small-edition lathe-cut LPs, tapes, and CDRs for years, usually adorning them with elaborate junk sculptures and profane paintings. Intransitive is proud to collect their best recordings so far onto a single, widely available CD so that anyone can hear the music without making a major financial investment.
The husband and wife duo uses deceptively simple means – typically just their voices, a cassette-tape recorder and a microphone – to create astonishing suburban dramas that are somehow both sweetly charming and staggeringly psychotic, sometimes simultaneously. Join Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar as they perform acts of banal heroics, like exploring the basement… taking their son for a bicycle ride… walking with a red shirt into a field of cattle… or pondering reforms made to the Danish police system.
Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar are painters, sculptors, film-makers, and musicians based in Flensberg, Germany, near the Danish border. Their artwork has been exhibited in galleries and at festivals around the world. They collaborated with like-minded artists such as Thurston Moore, Arnulf Meifert, John Wiese, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Brume, and Af Ursin, among many others.

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Li ZengHui - "Live at Waterland Kwanyin"

Li Zenghui
Male, born in Qingdao in 1983, relocated in Beijing in 2007. He is the most promising star in China’s free music/avant-jazz realm. Saxophone player, poet, voice experimenter.
He had found indie/experimental rock band “The Tipsy Verse” in 2001. Afterwards he held a concurrent post as the keyboard player in “Pipedream Princess”. Founded “Walnut Room” with Feng Hao in 2007.

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Cor Fuhler / Gert-Jan Prins - "The Flirts"

Cor Fuhler and Gert-Jan Prins are both prominent members of the European improv world. Both live in Amsterdam, yet their paths rarely crossed before they became involved in the initial incarnation of MIMEO in 1997.
Fuhler is primarily known for his work as a pianist, in ongoing projects with such mainstays of the Dutch scene as Han Bennink, Michael Moore and Tristan Honsinger. He released a superb solo prepared piano CD in 1994, 7CC in IO (Geestgronden). In The Flirts, Fuhler manipulates sounds from turntables and mbiras, filtering them through an analogue synth. PrinsÕ background is as a drummer, but over the past decade, heÕs focused almost exclusively on electronic noise-based music, using radio and television transmitters to create a distinctive, physical sound. In 2000, he released a solo CD on Grob, Prins Live, as well as a superb trio CD with Thomas Lehn and Peter Van Bergen, e-rax-Live At the Bimhuis, on his own label, X-Or. Both Fuhler and Prins are also still members of MIMEO.
Since joining MIMEO, Fuhler and Prins have worked more and more together, in and out of the band, and in early 2001, they recorded The Flirts over the course of two studio sessions in Amsterdam. The Flirts combines a relentless yet subdued energy with an endless stream of fresh ideas, resulting in a CD that is seemingly chaotic, yet very musical.
The stunning packaging was entirely created by NYC-based designer Friederike Paetzold.
"Prins Live was one of the best records of 2000. Here returns the man with Cor Fuhler: a serious, tender and yet kicking approach that is never just music. The real virtuality!" -- Marcus Schmickler

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Eric Cordier - "Osorezan"

One of the best field recording albums is Eric Cordier’s Oserezan released two years ago by the Malaysian Herbal Records. Yes, it’s an ugly cover but the audio pieces are impressive, poetic and clear. The album is a collection of unprocessed recordings made by Cordier in the thirteen years hunting for sounds and goes as wide as Japanses volcanoes over a small french village. Think it’s the only pure field recording album Cordier made.

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