Experimental

Recorded between the release of Sand (1977) and Lost Secrets (1981), Symphonic Songs is a formerly unreleased work that chronicles the dynamic shift and development in experimental Swedish composer Ragnar Grippe's canon. Following his seminal release Sand in 1977, Swedish experimental composer Ragnar Grippe worked on various art and performance commissions, often returning to Stockholm during the summer months to focus his efforts on his compositional practice. It was there at the famed EMS Studios where he began employing the Buchla synthesizer and the facilities multi-tracking capabilities as new instruments to map his mining of sound and movement. During the late 1970's, Grippe formed a creative collaboration with choreographer Susan Buirge, specifically writing compositions for her works "Restes" and "Tamis", thus pushing Grippe to start working in a more intricate studio environment. These passages inspired Grippe into a more complex layering process that focused more on placement and structure, rather than the aural floods and flourishes of his previous Sand album, eventually germinating in his first full 24-track composition entitled "Orchestra." After debuting "Orchestra" in 1980 at the Electronic Music Festival in Stockholm, Grippe holed up at EMS Studios with those lessons and the fussy Buchla synthesizer, in which Grippe affectionately recalls "needed to be tuned and calibrated every 20-30 minutes." He emerged with a new commission for Susan Buirge later formally titled Symphonic Songs and used in her avant-garde theater piece "Ci-Déla" which debuted in Paris in 1981. Symphonic Songs showcased Grippe's sound au courant, pushing dense against sparse, calm into cacophonous, using each track as its own intersecting plane. Using the machinations of studio and structure to drive Symphonic Songs' voice, Grippe culled a haunting, often cinematic electronic work that dots and darts into unexpected corners with curious aplomb. "Listen to the words, both terms have their root in classical music, but not in its form but because now I had so many more stems or voices that could be played simultaneously compared to my earlier pieces. Coming from a classical background, but with big nostrils for pop and jazz music, I can now see a thread in which classical got a new costume, dressed up in Buchla synthesizer and real bass sounds" Grippe says. Since its live theater debut over 37 years ago, Dais Records releases for the first time Symphonic Songs, one of Grippe's most ambitious compositions, as a deluxe double vinyl LP (with limited edition color variants) and on digital formats. Artwork packaging by artist J.S. Aurelius (Ascetic House) with reflective linear notes by Ragnar Grippe.

The avant-garde 'post-apocalyptic' rock unit Queen Elephantine is back with its sixth studio album. Gorgon's dissonant riffs will pull you down a river of unearthly atmospheres, guided by the incantations of sardonic fakirs, unravelling their final sermon before the cosmos combusts. High recommended for fans of acts alike Swans and OM, this is a trip through hypnotic molasses grooves - drawn from psychedelia, doom, drone, noise rock as well as free jazz and sacred music from around the world. Formed in 2006 in Hong Kong and currently based in Philadelphia, USA, Queen Elephantine is a nebulous worship of heavy mood and time, who already left their big stamp in the current heavy and psych rock scene. Queen Elephantine have released five albums to date as well as splits with Elder or Sons of Otis. Gorgon was produced and mixed by guitarist and vocalist Indrayudh Shome, and mastered by Billy Anderson.

The Swiss collective Posthumanbigbang enters with its signature mix of experimental and post metal, progressive rock and film scoring with dips of atmospheric synths and native world music.

7 LP box set, limited edition of 1000. Coloured vinyl with exclusive bonus 12" Raum 1 & 2. 7 x vinyl - POLE 1 – blue vinyl / POLE 2 – red vinyl / POLE 3 – yellow vinyl / Raum 12" black vinyl. Pole, aka musician, producer and mastering engineer Stefan Betke, releases a remastered reissue of his debut album releases, 1, 2 and 3, on Mute as a box set. Released on vinyl (for the first time in nearly 20 years) and CD (remastered since its 2008 reissue), the box set release marks 20 years since the trilogy was completed and a return to the label for the groundbreaking artist. Pole 1 (1998), Pole 2 (1999) and Pole 3 (2000), originally released as three consecutive albums in their own right, and described by The Wire as “…a set of roadmaps for the soul”, are presented together to highlight Pole’s deliberate statement - reinforced by the titling of the albums and their minimalist monochrome cover art.

Pod Blotz began in 2002 and has released over 25 cassette and vinyl releases via labels such as L.I.E.S., Difficult Interactions, Clan Destine, Chocolate Monk, and Dungeon Taxis. Over the years the project has included a number of guest members and

1970'S Thousands On A Raft, Pete Brown & Piblokto!'s debut album for Harvest, clocks in at the hard-rock and experimental jazz edge of prog, as heard on the extended instrumental interludes of 'Highland Song and If They Could Only See Me Now; in

It took seven years for Sandro Perri to return with an album under his own name, releasing In Another Life (his outsider pop masterpiece - Exclaim) in the fall of 2018, as the much-anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed full-length Impossible Space

Limited Crystal Clear Vinyl

OOIOO is a name that should be familiar for anyone whose waded into rock and if their name isnt, YoshimiO, their leaders, should be. Percussionist and founding member for the Boredoms, and Saicobab, and a long time collaborator of Kim Gordon (of So

Frédéric D. Oberland and Irena Z. Tomažin's "Arba, Dâk Arba" was conceived as the soundtrack for the eponymous installation piece by the French artist Fanny Béguély. First presented as part of the group exhibition "Panorama 21 - >Les Revenants<" at Tourcoing's Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains in December 2019, Béguély's chemically painted photographs focused on humankind's propensity for self-examination and its attempts to probe the mysteries of the past, present and future. Oberland's heavily processed electric hurdy-gurdy, the "boîte à bourdons," provides the foundation upon which the Borghesia member Tomažin unfolds her gripping vocal magic(k). Their dense mesh of soundscapes and singing mediate between the mystic and the modern, the natural and the all-too-unreal to further examine our persistent desire to decipher the signs we find in nature. As the first collaboration between these prolific experimental artists, "Arba, Dâk Arba is as evocative and thought-provoking as the art that has inspired it. It's easy to see why a curious instrument like Oberland's electric hurdy-gurdy would be well suited for the duo's ends, and within its first few minutes the opening track "Grotta" makes it clear that the Oiseaux-Tempête co-founder is more than capable of weaving dark psychedelic sound tapestries with only limited means. The ritualistic energy that Béguély's "Arba, Dâk Arba draws on is channeled through abstract drones that mirror the aesthetics of the eight suspended paper rolls the artist's audience were faced with. When the music becomes denser and Tomažin finally enters the picture with her signature glossolalic vocal performance, it seems as if the drones emanating from her musical partner's curious instrument bleed right into her voice. Even as the sound of the boîte à bourdons becomes more visceral and Tomažin's voice more discernible, "Grotta" remains as intangible as the mythological oracles that had informed the work of Béguély. Shorter pieces like "Amena" or the closing track "Hereafter," though condensed, offer just as much to decipher - a whole musical world to get lost in, full of riddles and uncertainties. "Fumes" and "Hieromancy" in the second half of the LP are the best examples of how much creative friction lies at the heart of the French experimentalist and the Slovenian singer's collaboration. While in the former song, Tomažin first takes the lead singing uncanny, circular motives before stepping aside so Oberland can let the processed sounds of his hurdy-gurdy evolve into chilling crescendi, the latter sees both of them take turns in channeling the pervasive mysticism around them. Blurring the lines between the physical and psychic as well as the real and the hallucionary with their music, Frédéric D. Oberland and Irena Z. Tomažin's "Arba, Dâk Arba is one of the most radical albums in recent years. An unsettling dialogue between two kindred, yet freely wandering spirits.

Pakistani-American avant-composer, and drummer from the cult experimental acoustic trio Dawn of Midi, Qasim Naqvi has announced a new record titled Betato be released as a limited edition on clear vinyl Edition Meant as a sister release to last year's acclaimed six-part modular synth suite Teenages, Beta is a series of experiments chronicling Naqvi's understanding of writing for this type of instrument and the growth of the instrument itself. If Teenages captured the sound of electronics living, breathing and mutating of their own accord, Beta rather describes the moment they came to life. The B-side features a previously unreleased live version of the title track 'Teenages', which was recorded at the first Erased Tapes x LCO: Purcell Session at Southbank Centre, London in February 2019.