Nocturnal sampler

The Italian gothic label In the Nighttime released work by Thelema and more, but now also offers a free mp3 compilation. In The Night Time Sampler vol. 1 contains 17 tracks, including live tracks by Siglo XX and Ikon, as well as (known) material by Spiritual Front, Lupercalia, Spiral of Silence, Ludmila and others. Transmission Magazine offers the new sampler Awake […]

Live on video

Love Is Colder Than Death offers a live video for free download: First Light In the Dawn, performed in 2003. At the website dedicated to the Luisen Kirsche Neofolk Fest in Russia, you can find video material of Kratong, Moon Far Away and Neutral.

New Arcana song

A nice new track by Arcana (”in the same vein as Le Serpent Rouge but with vocals”) can be heard at Peter Bjärgö’s Myspace page. ‘Lost in Time’ was recorded for the Lightwave II compilation on Kalinkaland Records.

Home & Living

German DJ’s and their living rooms

Something to read

Now @ Boomkat: an interview with post-cassical composer Max Richterand the 10 life-changing records of Colleen. Some recent features @ Guardian Unlimited: the strange world of Depeche Mode fans, a top 20 of Britain’s independent record shops and a piece about the latest goth revival.

Berlin

Just returned from a short week in Berlin. I roamed around all corners of Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Mitte, visited exhibitions in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Märkisches Museum and Museum für Fotografie, bought records at Das Drehmoment, Dense, Hard Wax and some second-hand stores, and visited a ‘Dark Ambient Nacht’ with Karjalan Sissit, Visions and more. […]

There’ll Be Sad Songs…

Tom Reynolds wrote the amusing book I Hate Myself and Want to Die, named after a Nirvana song.

Joshua speaks

An interesting interview (in German) with Lux Interna @alternativmusik.de. The band is working on a mini album, which could be ready this winter.

The Sound – The Dutch Radio Recordings

The stream of post-career releases by The Sound does not seem to dry up. The postpunk band from England existed from 1979 till 1988, after which their singer Adrian Borland continued a solo career. After his death in April 1999, the discography of both The Sound and Adrian Borland was far from complete.

Drone Records special II

Drone Records from Germany has sent its latest offspring into the world. Five new releases, as always limited 7? singles in special packaging by experimental drone/ambient artists. Again the label has discovered some interesting new acts, including various musicians from countries east of Germany.

Inade – Samadhi State

This cd contains unreleased material recorded in 2000-2002, but remixed recently. Originally this release was meant to accompany an Inade concert in Tokyo, but is now available outside of Japan as well. The album contains eight tracks, amongst which four parts of ‘Samadhi State’, ranging between 4 and 13 minutes. Inside the digipack is a […]

Saltillo – Ganglion

From Hive Records I usually expect harsh and complex electronic music. With their side-label Suspicious Records, the musical scope is widened. Saltillo, a new name for me, is mostly the solo project of one Menton J. Matthews III, aclassically trained musician who plays a whole orchestra of instruments by himself and also does the electronic […]

DDR tapes

This sounds interesting: a book + double cd entitled „Spannung Leistung Widerstand – Magnetbanduntergrund DDR 1979–1989“.

X-Ray recycling

Fascinating: in Eastern Europe, medical X-ray film was used as the base material for new record discs, because of a wartime lack of other materials.

Who’s who of minimal

‘The Voice Of New Music’ is an anthology of articles from the American composer Tom Johnson that originally appeared in the Village Voice.

Phelios – Images and spheres

Phelios is a new name in the dark ambient scene. On his debut Images and Spheres, Martin Stürtzer from Germany constructed seven deep and dark soundscapes. The photos of obscure stone structures on the cover already bring you in the right state of mind.

Horologium – The fire sermon

Horologium is the project of Grzegorz Siedlecki from Poland. Lately he has been quite productive with various releases and collaborations on small labels, but The Fire Sermon can perhaps be considered as his ‘official’ debut. The music of Horologium can be described as ritualistic ambiance, with classical and industrial elements.

Nordwaves

Nordwaves is a website in French dedicated to cold wave, gothic, industrial etc. music from the north of France, with a focus on the 80’s. Most valuable are the biographies and discographies of bands. On some bandpages you can listen to music, for example of Guerre Froide. Also nice are the scans of old fanzines.

V/A – Cryosphere

Cryosphere, the first release of Glacial Movements, is a “musical journey that transports the listener into glacial and unexplored lands where icebergs collide and where everything is frozen”. Nine artists were inspired by the glacial theme to produce fitting soundscapes, and they are not the least names in the ambient/drone scene: Troum, Oophoi, Northaunt and […]

Karjalan Sissit – Tanssit On Loppu Nyt

Tanssit On Loppu Nyt is the fourth album by Karjalan Sissit aka Markus Pesonen from Finland/Sweden. Just like the previous album Karjalasta Kajahtaa, the new album is released on cd by Cyclic Law and on vinyl byEternal Soul Records. Again we’re treated to an oppressive mix of martial industrial music and atmospheric dark ambient pieces.