Trapist - "The Golden Years"

'If Morton Feldman, John Cage and David Tudor had formed a rock band, they might have sounded a bit like this.' (Peter Marsh/BBC)

Restraint is a key word in the Trapist musical vocabulary which is no wonder as the group's name relates to the Trappist fraternity whose devotion is demonstrated by their silence. Whereas on previous albums the group often relied on drastical editing and melodic ornamentation in order to escape restraint, 'The Golden Years' displays a newly gained maturity which is breathtaking: Trapist bring the attack and release game to a climax never heard before. Sharp shocks of black and white with some golden silence in between.

Drawing from both a wide variety of influences ranging from space rock to improvised minimal music, and from folk-influenced psychedelia to noise as well as the members' numerous collaborations the band has managed to establish an unique ensemble sound defying categorization, blending both acoustic and electronic instruments as well as blurring the gaps between improvisational music and prestructured forms. Their blend of sparse improvisation and delicate electronics is a welcome and refreshing change for fans of electronic and free music of all types.

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AARON DILLOWAY / JASON LESCALLEET 'Grapes And Snakes'

Aaron Dilloway: synth and tapes recorded at Tarker Mills, Oberlin OH
Jason Lescalleet: synth, tapes, and Dell XPS recorded and mixed at Glistening Labs, Berwick ME 

‘Grapes and Snakes’ is the first collaborative work of two of the most respected American underground experimental/noise artists, Aaron Dilloway and Jason Lescalleet. Using purely analog synths and tape manipulation, they build a foggy psychoacoustic mass that lies between dynamic yet patiently treated tape-music and industrial howl. 

Jason Lescalleet's sound world occupies a space between noise, contemporary composition, and minimal electronics. Using decidedly primitive tactics and equipment (e.g. antiquated reel-to-reel recorders, damaged tape, etc.), his work focuses on extreme frequencies and microscopic audio detail. He's been a member of Due Process, performed and recorded with Keith Rowe, Joe Colley, Jason Kahn, John Hudak, Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley (both separately and as Nmperign), and most recently Graham Lambkin in their Breadwinner project which has yielded unprecedented and glorious results in the electroacoustic music of today. He lives and works in the state of Maine. 

Phenomenal live performer and recording artist, Aaron Dilloway utilizes magnetic tape, synths, contact mic growls, and various other electronics and evocative sounds to create experimental noise and electronic sets that tend to start with a slow burn and build to mindmelting climaxes of intense energy and catharsis. A very physical and versatile performer who has shared the stage and collaborated with a who's who in noise and experimental electronic sound, audiences tend to walk away from Aaron's sets completely dumbfounded. He is a former member of the band Wolf Eyes, and currently also works with his solo modular synth project Spine Scavenger and an ever-changing cast of sound artists under the name The Nevari Butchers. 

The LP is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, pressed on 140g vinyl and it is packaged in a pro-press color jacket which itself is housed in a silkscreened pvc sleeve. 

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MARCUS SCHMICKLER "Bari Workshop" LP

Bari Workshop hosted a group of medieval miniature manuscript painters who were amongst the experts in the recording of the history of science and who circulated knowledge around the world and across cultures. 
Greek texts on Euclidean geometry were translated into Arabic, and medieval Arabic manuscripts on optics and geometry migrated to Western Europe, where, translated into Latin, they contributed to the development of perspective in Renaissance Italy.

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James Hoff

James Hoff’s “How Wheeling Feels when the Ground Walks Away” presents an audio landscape comprised of various historic riots, from the concert hall and music venue to the sounds of modern warfare. Presented in surround sound, the work relentlessly envelops the audience as the tumultuous panorama of over-layered riots travel around the gallery. Part of Riot Radio Ballad, which explores the performative and futurist aspects of spoken word, audio, and radio material. Curated by Mark Beasley. Commissioned by Performa. Co-presented by Performa and Artists Space. Produced by Mike Skinner and James Hoff - sound design Mike Skinner and James Hoff.

James Hoff is an artist, editor and art curator living in New York City. He has been working with sound and performance since 2003. He is also co-founder and editor of Primary Information- an organization devoted to publishing lost works of the avant-garde and artists publications vital to discussions in contemporary artistic practice.

The Lp is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, in a limited edition of 200 copies, pressed on a 140g one-sided picture disc, housed in a silk-screened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas.

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Jooklo Duo and Bill Nace - "Scratch"

Two sides of ecstatic noise captured on tape by Jason Lafarge at Seizures Palace, Brooklyn, in occasion of the East Coast and Midwest Tour of the Italian psychedelic tenor sax and drums duo of Virginia Genta and David Vanzan, joined by guitar wizard Bill Nace.

The music of Jooklo Duo is the most powerful expression in free improvisation, trascending every kind of stereotype and going straight to the center of Uncreated Sound. They have toured extensively in Europe and the USA, performing more than five-hundred concerts and tons of studio-sessions, collaborating with artists as Sonic Youth, Hartmut Geerken, Makoto Kawabata, Sabu Toyozumi, Chris Corsano, Paul Flaherty, C. Spencer Yeh, John Blum, and many others. Bill Nace is definitely one of the best avant-garde guitarists active today, able to drive his guitar into distorsion - nearly breaking it - but still holding the reins. He is already known for his duo throwdowns with Chris Corsano as Vampire Belt as well as the more recent collaboration with Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Constance as Ceylon Mange and in duo with Thurston Moore as Northampton Wools.

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Stefano Pilia "Strings"

A sublime constellation of sound miniatures divided into 3 long tracks (at once random and simultaneous) of delicate field recordings and found objects transformed and woven into intricate electronic tapestries, a slowly building "ambient" work with a unique sense of melancholy.
Strings is a diary composition began in 2004, a series of subtle epiphanies followed by a somewhat enigmatic resolve or 'answers',  richly spacious explorations that appears suspended in time, with distant landscapes and hallucinogenic excursions into further uncharted territories
"My work has become progressevly concerned with the research of the sculputural dimensions of sound and it’s relations with space, memory and time suspension both through instrumental executional-experimental practices (mainly on guitar and dbass) and investigations into the recording and production process"

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