LIMPE FUCHS & GERARD HERMAN

At the first edition of Tweeklank festival Limpe Fuchs and Gerard Herman proved the universal and cross-generation language of improvised music. Coming from the revolutionary sixties freak scene in Germany Fuchs still plays with the same energy on her self-built instruments consisting of impressive bronze and stone sculptures. This concert evolves around Fuchs’ creatures, her viola, Herman’s diy duchampwheel, alt sax and expressive vocal interplay. A truly wonderful live experience captured for the cult archives. 

ALL I SEE IS LIGHT | CASSETTE 

“All I see is light” is the second release in our brand new cassette series. This c40 captures one of Köhn’s true cosmic healing sessions at the legendary house show venue ‘At Anthony’s’ in Ghent. In this set we hear De Blonde’s weirder side, combining his love for late 70s kraut in more abstract terms with the old school Köhn vibe. Think bizarre repetitive leads, eighties string work, oscillation paradises and other maneuvers in the dark. For those who liked “We need more space in the cosmos”, here he takes his nouveau brain sound even one step further. 

BRIDGET HAYDEN

AN INDIFFERENT OCEAN | LP -

Previously found prizing atom splitting feedback through a horizontal guitar, Bridget Hayden’s solo experiments have more lately sought the brooding, layered blues that we find resonating in “An Indifferent Ocean”. A stripped down set up, featuring an out of tune, hand me down guitar, two pedals of similar origin – no delays – and a donated fourtrack port-a-studio found on the street, has converged to form a crafted storm of abyss kicking improvisation.  Best known for her involvement with the hypnotic, shambollic and critically acclaimed drone band Vibracathedral Orchestra, Hayden split in 2006, desiring change and a new vein to hone. She toured solo with kindred freaks such as The Aethr Method, Melanie Crowley-Delaney, Marcia Bassett and Sunburned Hand of the Man, later teaming up with The Telescopes’ henchman Stephen Lawrie to begin a noisy collaboration that continues to confuse and electrify. Here, in her first official and long awaited solo release, you will find a spectrum of somnambulist trances that seamlessly conjoin dense and frantic depth with delicate fracture. Relentless guitar shredding epics are interspersed with graceful, drifting melancholia that lull the listener back to shore with a warm, whispered dream after being crashed mercilessly against the rocks.

MANOEUVERS | 7INCH 

Manoeuvers 7inch with exclusive tracks by Rene Hell, Jonas Reinhardt, Jonathan Fitoussi & Bear Bones, Lay Low.  

Manoeuvers, the new 4-way split in the KRAAK 7" series, offers four short trips through the great cosmic minds of Rene Hell, Jonas Reinhardt, Jonathan Fitoussi and Bear Bones, Lay Low. Although all four artists use analog synthesizers as the prime source for their repetitive, mind expanding compositions they show the broad variety in which retro-futuristic music has evolved in recent years. Hell opens the gates of modern trance meditation with some weirdly pulsating brain candy. It is followed by some eastern vibes in Bear Bones, Lay Low's track, bringing to mind a Turkish Alan Vega in liquid salvia fields. On the b-side French composer Jonathan Fitoussi injects the cosmic into minimalism with an almost Glassian atmosphere. Kranky-artist Jonas Reinhardt closes the gates again spacing on craftmanship in a slowed down dancey style kraut track with ethnic synth melodies, in the vein of some Sky-releases from the 80s. Four other-dimensional pieces, celebrating the lost sublime. The 7" will be presented at the Manoevers, muziek uit de Kosmos Festival on december 5th in Aalst, Belgium. Artwork by Floris Vanhoof. 

IGNATZ

SELECTED SONGS FROM CASSETTES 2005-2009 

‘What the hell’s wrong with this guy?’, that will probably be the first thought that goes through your mind when first listening to this mind frying fourth lp by Belgium’s most intriguing musician. 

Apart from the tree enigmatic vinyl releases on KRAAK Bram Devens also released a handful of tapes on different labels. This LP compiles the best tracks of his cassettes on Goaty Tapes, Bennifer Editions, Scumbag Relations, Imvated, Dreamtime Taped Sounds and New Age Tapes, plus a previously unreleased track from the Ignatz III demos, on which we hear the man as close as he ever came to the genious vibes of Lou Reed. “Selected songs from cassettes 2005-2009” shows Devens in all his different guises: from the crying sailor drowning in psychedelic mud to the melody addicted outsider balladeer choking on moonshine. This is Ignatz’ ultimate record and last step before his orchestrated concept album period. Cover drawing by Olivier Schrauwen 

DOLPHINS INTO THE FUTURE

KE ALA KE KUA | LP

In January and February of this year L.R.J. Martens spent his days in Big Island, Hawaii to focus on the communication of Dolphins. For this lp his encounter with a group of spinner dolphins and humphback whales was translated to audio postcards. 

In three epic new age compositions Martens seeks the ultimate sound for the ‘Cetacean Nation’, of which he is one of the official composers. Traces of esoteric seventies fusion and the 3D universes of Jean-Luc Bozzoli are gently transformed to artistic sound relaxation and aquatic poetry. L.R.J. Martens is one of the key figures in the Belgian DIY avant-garde scene. With labels such as Imvated, Bread and Animals and Taped Sounds he gave new energy to the cassette underground in Belgium. With a background in various noise sensations and neo-dadaistic sound play, he now found his ying and yang in Dolphins Into The Future. A-side) Ke Ala Ke Kua A lucid collage of alt saxophone, tapes, synthesizer, Pacific Ocean waves floating in 7’s, Polynesian choirs and poly-rhythms, site-specific birdsounds and walkman. Three chapters to translate the extreme dramatics, spirit, multi dimensions and beauty of the Kealakekua Bay, the Gods’ pathway. . B-side) Ho’okena’aha Halawai An emotional-emphatic sound memory of an encounter with a school of Spinner Dolphins and two Humph-Back Whales. Created with the Dave Smith Evolver keyboard, and the angel vocals from the Casio CTK810. Ko‘okika Moku’aina Study for alt saxophone, birdsongs, water and cassette. Being an evocative sound postcard from Hawai’i’s Big Island, the Orchid Isle. Recorded and mixed iune and iulai 2010 by L.R.J. Martens at Cetacean Nation Studios, Antwerp.

RAZEN / SHELDON SIEGEL | LP 

Razen and Sheldon Siegel split LP.
Limited to 300 copies!! 


Sheldon Siegel
There are young, arrogant artists who think they will conquer the world from their studios in Belgium with their neo-realistic paintings and their hipster indie rock bands and matching uniforms. There are also other kinds of artists who translate the contemporary nihilistic climate to sharp pastiche and absurdist drawings. In that scene old patron saints are violated shamelessly by means of free improv. Gino Coomans (cello, music box), Erik Heestermans (drums, percussion) and Gerard Herman (sax, vocals, tapes) got together in the suburbs of Antwerp. With a shared love for free jazz and an aversion for taboos the trio explores the possibilities of combined action. They avoid the easy trap of maximum instrument volumes, and instead they reticently seek for a universe in which each musician can take their part at any point, or leave it to another. It is because of that particular attitude that Sheldon Siegel comes to amazingly honest instant compositions. Probably one of the most adventurous Belgian improv groups of the new decennium. 
Razen
For a couple of years now Brecht Ameel (santoor, bouzouki, keys) and Bart Reekmans (percussion, brass) have been working on a repertoire in which etnic music and improvisation are the central concepts. Tired of the traditional guitar-bass-drums combination they decided to both choose an instrument they couldn’t play at all. They ended up with a heavily detuned santoor and some metal plates that served as a drum kit. In a deserted basement Razen make unusual instruments confront until they derail and make for a filmic sound trip in which Bohren & Der Club of Gore and Moondog meet. In Brussels the Balkans, the Scottish highlands and the Ethiopian savannah are only a stones throw away from each other. For this debut the duo asked Kim Delcour (bagpipe, chalumeau, sopranino, bass recorder) and Wouter Haest (duduk, shenai) to join in. The result is a Lynchian ecstasy in four episodes in which the spiritual sixties tradition, contemporary psychedelic fusion and historical ‘source music’ are the different approaches that subsequently merge into a ritualistic dream story.

LUNE ATROCE / SOLEIL AMER : 4-WAY SPLIT 7” 

One year after the ‘Meet the Philly elite’ 7” we finally release a fresh 4-way split. This time Köhn and Alien Radio are trancing deep into the history of synthesizer classics while Peaking Lights and Ducktails have a take on their own pop music. 

KÖHN is Jürgen De Blonde. He has been called ‘the godfather of Belgian electronica’. After the double-cd ‘Koen’ from 2002, he started to focus on music for dance and theatre. Last year he made his comeback on wax with ‘We need more space in the cosmos’, an lp full of epic space age compositions. ‘U C I M’ builds on the same vibes: trancy and neo-cosmic. Ulf Schütte plays in Datashock and Phantom Horse, but his musical climaxes are definitely at home when he fools around with his modular synths. ALIEN RADIO’s music follows the tradition of Conny Planck, Delia Derbyshire, Dick Raaijmakers and Ursula Bogner. ‘Gedanke und Ahnung’ is bleepsynthronica sounding like a sketch of a derailed sonic research project. PEAKING LIGHTS are the duo of Indra Dunis (ex-Numbers) and Aaron Coynes. ‘Creatures of day creatures at night’ is pure summer pop. The usual synths and drumloops made place for fuzzy calypso riffing. Dunis’ vocal romanticism sounds sweet as a Brian Wilson song. Sc-fi soft pop! Real Estate, Alex Bleeker & the Freaks, Predator Vision, Parasails… All bands Matt Mondanile is involved in. In the last three years his music went around the world rather quickly, mainly under his DUCKTAILS moniker. His neo-tropic pop music is often linked to a movement that also houses the likes of James Feraro, Dolphins into the Future and a great deal of the Not Not Fun related bands. ‘Sprinter’ is a repetitive melancholic pop song, and about the most ‘indie’ track we heard from Ducktails so far… 

BRIDGET HAYDEN

AN INDIFFERENT OCEAN | LP

Previously found prizing atom splitting feedback through a horizontal guitar, Bridget Hayden’s solo experiments have more lately sought the brooding, layered blues that we find resonating in “An Indifferent Ocean”. A stripped down set up, featuring an out of tune, hand me down guitar, two pedals of similar origin – no delays – and a donated fourtrack port-a-studio found on the street, has converged to form a crafted storm of abyss kicking improvisation.  Best known for her involvement with the hypnotic, shambollic and critically acclaimed drone band Vibracathedral Orchestra, Hayden split in 2006, desiring change and a new vein to hone. She toured solo with kindred freaks such as The Aethr Method, Melanie Crowley-Delaney, Marcia Bassett and Sunburned Hand of the Man, later teaming up with The Telescopes’ henchman Stephen Lawrie to begin a noisy collaboration that continues to confuse and electrify. Here, in her first official and long awaited solo release, you will find a spectrum of somnambulist trances that seamlessly conjoin dense and frantic depth with delicate fracture. Relentless guitar shredding epics are interspersed with graceful, drifting melancholia that lull the listener back to shore with a warm, whispered dream after being crashed mercilessly against the rocks.