Electro/Ambient

Best known as half of post-classical / electronica duo Piano Interrupted, London based French producer Franz Kirmann goes back to his electronic roots with “Meridians”, his second album, due out on Denovali Records next July. Strongly influenced by movies (he used to be a film editor and filmmakers Wong Kar Wai, Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergio Leone or David Lynch are happily cited alongside his musical influences), Franz Kirmann has a weakness for walls of sounds and fragile melodies, which to him are the sonic equivalent of slow-motion sequences, travelling shots or landscapes in cinemascope. While his first album – Random Access Memories (released in June 2011) - was a sort of compilation of music he'd written since 2005, “Meridians” is a more consistent proposition where tracks were put together using the same technique of assembling tiny audio snippets and samples with a strong emotional content (from a pop vocal to an orchestral extract) and transforming them beyond recognition, to then assemble them and create something new and unique. Music was then composed from the resulting sampling manipulation, adding layers of vintage synthesizers, drum machines and granular soundscapes and resulting in a sound that could be best described as a meeting point between an 80's synthesizer soundtrack and a post-modern electronic record. The album title "Meridians" comes from the Chinese medicine's belief in the Meridian network, a path through which the life-energy flows. The album has a strong sense of an internal journey, the music being both an invitation to introversion and reverie but also suggesting an epic voyage. The meridians could be regarded as vessels carrying emotions, souvenirs, thoughts, travelling through the body and mind, provoking a voyage through one's own life without the need for movement. Nods to the 7th art are not only found in the sound and feel of the album but also in its titles. Each of them suggest a story or moment while remaining vague enough to let the listener fills the blanks. Record Label: Denovali Style: Electronic

Best known as half of post-classical / electronica duo Piano Interrupted, London based French producer Franz Kirmann goes back to his electronic roots with “Meridians”, his second album, due out on Denovali Records next July. Strongly influenced by movies (he used to be a film editor and filmmakers Wong Kar Wai, Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergio Leone or David Lynch are happily cited alongside his musical influences), Franz Kirmann has a weakness for walls of sounds and fragile melodies, which to him are the sonic equivalent of slow-motion sequences, travelling shots or landscapes in cinemascope. While his first album – Random Access Memories (released in June 2011) - was a sort of compilation of music he'd written since 2005, “Meridians” is a more consistent proposition where tracks were put together using the same technique of assembling tiny audio snippets and samples with a strong emotional content (from a pop vocal to an orchestral extract) and transforming them beyond recognition, to then assemble them and create something new and unique. Music was then composed from the resulting sampling manipulation, adding layers of vintage synthesizers, drum machines and granular soundscapes and resulting in a sound that could be best described as a meeting point between an 80's synthesizer soundtrack and a post-modern electronic record. The album title "Meridians" comes from the Chinese medicine's belief in the Meridian network, a path through which the life-energy flows. The album has a strong sense of an internal journey, the music being both an invitation to introversion and reverie but also suggesting an epic voyage. The meridians could be regarded as vessels carrying emotions, souvenirs, thoughts, travelling through the body and mind, provoking a voyage through one's own life without the need for movement. Nods to the 7th art are not only found in the sound and feel of the album but also in its titles. Each of them suggest a story or moment while remaining vague enough to let the listener fills the blanks. Record Label: Denovali Style: Electronic

Artist: Nikki Sudden; Artist: Jacobites Label: Numero

Artist: Plastikman Label: Mute

Artist: Eno & Hyde Label: Warp Records

Composer: DJ Stefan Egger Label: Sound Station Records (ZYX)

Artist: Absolute Beginner Label: Buback (Indigo)

Artist: Caribou Label: City Slang

Artist: FKA Twigs Label: Young Turks

Artist: AOR Label: Escape Music

Artist: Harald Grosskopf Label: Bureau B

Artist: Harald Grosskopf Label: Bureau B

Artist: Dylan Howe Label: Motorik

Artist: Eno & Hyde Label: Warp Records

Artist: Soul Jazz Records Presents Label: Soul Jazz

Artist: Harald Grosskopf Label: Bureau B

Artist: Ulli Bomans Label: Shitkatapult

Artist: Kasai Allstars Label: Crammed Discs

Record Label: Domino Recording Co Ltd Style: Electronic

Previously unreleased recordings, All tracks newly re-mastered from original tapes, LP housed in a deluxe Stoughton "Tip-On" gatefold jacket, Liner notes by Jack D. Fleischer, interviewing Donnie & Joe, LP includes download card. Some people have to wait for fame; some people wait even longer than most. Donnie and Joe Emerson are in a league of their own. As teenagers in Fruitland, Washington in the late 70s, the farming brothers dreamed of being heard. The synthesizers were sometimes crude and the 8-track recorder had its limitations, but the brothers aimed at nothing short of perfection in their home studio on the farm. They titled their 1979 debut "Dreamin' Wild", and, as multi-instrumentalist Donnie later admitted, "Joe and I basically lived the dream of the title of the album." The same goes for their parents who heavily believed in their sons' musical dreams, taking out a second mortgage on the farm and investing $100,000 in a dream that refused to die. But their privately funded, private press record sank without trace, the family lost most of their 1,600 acre farm, and as Joe focused on the family farming business, Donnie focused on his solo career. As for "Dreamin' Wild", things began to change three decades later, when record collector Jack Fleischer bought a copy of the album for $5 at a Spokane thrift shop. Something about the brothers' smiles, bouffant hair, and matching white jumpsuits gave him a good feeling. Fleischer's blogging about the album brought it to the attention of cult musician Ariel Pink, who recorded his own version of standout track "Baby." Eventually re-released on Light In The Attic and widely available for the first time, the album chimed louder a lifetime after its conception: Pitchfork described it as a "a godlike symphony to teen hood." The New York Times flew out to the family farm, while Jimmy Fallon took to Twitter to proclaim his love for the duo. But "Dreamin' Wild" does not tell the full story. In a relatively short span of time - just two and half years - the boys put close to 70 songs down on tape, all recorded at that magical home studio on the farm. A dozen of them are included here on "Still Dreamin' Wild: The Lost Recordings 1979-81" and ready to be enjoyed for the first time ever. With a familiar blend of FM rock, power pop, and new wave, these 12 tracks cover the entirety of that fruitful period, stretching from the second song Donnie ever recorded ("Everybody Knows It") - to tracks documenting his temporary move to L.A. in 1981. Donnie's life story is in these songs. Where "Dreamin' Wild" captures the teenage experience, "Still Dreamin' Wild" tells a broader story, one in which teenage dreams turn to painful yearning. So where the Beach Boys indebted "Ooh Baby Yeah" is inspired by a teenage girlfriend, "Big Money" shows the emergence of a naive political awareness. Later, 1981's "One True Love" captures the sound of what Donnie described as "the city as imagined from the farm," and the epic closing track, "Don't Disguise The Way You Feel" found Donnie after high school, feeling stifled and frustrated in the isolation of the countryside and mourning the loss of his friend and occasional backing vocalist Dwayne. It is, quite simply, heartbreaking. The long-belated success of "Dreamin' Wild" has given the Emerson brothers - still close, and still the heart of a loving family - a new lease of life. They've finally taken their music on the road, performing at Seattle's Showbox followed by New York's Mercury Lounge. "Still Dreamin' Wild" proves that the album wasn't a fluke, and that Donnie's songwriting is as consistent as it is rare. All this time later, we finally have the pleasure of hearing the brothers' music. And the good news? They've still got the jumpsuits. Record Label: Lightintheattic Style: Pop