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Kryshe – March Of The Mysterious
CDFour panel, gatefold CD Digipak with clear plastic tray. Printed on the reverse side of the card for that nice textured finish... March Of The Mysterious is a new album by German artist, Kryshe (Christian Grothe). The album stems from music made to accompany a showing of the 1915 silent film, Alice In Wonderland. Straddling the worlds of modern classical, avant-jazz and ambient music, multi-instrumentalist Kryshe plays piano, brass, guitar and percussion with a hefty dose of electronic processing to produce music every bit as enchanting as Lewis Carroll's tale. Live performance is an important aspect of Kryshe's music. Since his last album (Insights for Unperceived Records) followed a more traditional, studio-based approach, Christian was keen to bring some of his techniques from live performances into the studio for March Of The Mysterious. Blurring the lines between composition and improvisation, spontaneity and deliberation, the resultant music feels measured but alive.£9.00 -
The Greatest Hoax – Expiration Compositions
CDFour panel CD Digipak with clear tray, sleeve printed on the reverse for natural matt finish. Performing as The Greatest Hoax, Washington, D.C.-based composer Taylor Jordan debuts a new conceptual album of contemporary classical music. Produced by Rafael Anton Irisarri, Expiration Compositions, his sophomore album presents a brooding yet hopeful take on a soundtrack to a peaceful death. Jordan displays an innately human fear of death through nine sequential tracks grounded in somber piano and ambient textures. Each composition adds nuanced layers of emotional complexity with the addition of a string quartet led by cellist Mark Bridges of Kranky Records. Expiration Compositions melds a fascination with how life ends with brave imaginations of that very process. The result is an album that disconnects the listener from daily life while guiding them gently through that which most frightens them.£9.00 -
Selffish – He She Them Us (Vinyl)
VinylVinyl edition of He She Them Us. DMM cut pressed on black virgin vinyl, reverse print on sleeve for tactile matt textured finish... He She Them Us is an album of precise, purposeful electronica that recalls and expands upon the output of labels like Mille Plateaux, April Records, raster-noton and City Centre Offices in the early 2000s. The music is not purely electronic though, atop the bursts of static and staccato beats are many layers of field recordings and live instrumentation. The field recordings represent an important anchor point for Andrejs whose work on He She Them Us began at a very turbulent time in his life. Finding solace in the stillness and beauty of the countryside around his home city of Riga, he would record the sounds of these places and return with them to his home studio: “Each time I went to visit a secluded corner of nature outside my hometown, I usually felt a strong desire to produce music. Especially when hearing the sounds again at home”. The music could be seen as a further distillation of these moments of reflection spent outside, an attempt to recreate some fleeting moment.£14.00 -
Selffish – He She Them Us
CDCD edition of He She Them Us. Housed in a 4 page Digipak with clear tray and sleeve printed on reverse for a tactile matt finish. He She Them Us is an album of precise, purposeful electronica that recalls and expands upon the output of labels like Mille Plateaux, April Records, raster-noton and City Centre Offices in the early 2000s. The music is not purely electronic though, atop the bursts of static and staccato beats are many layers of field recordings and live instrumentation. The field recordings represent an important anchor point for Andrejs whose work on He She Them Us began at a very turbulent time in his life. Finding solace in the stillness and beauty of the countryside around his home city of Riga, he would record the sounds of these places and return with them to his home studio: "Each time I went to visit a secluded corner of nature outside my hometown, I usually felt a strong desire to produce music. Especially when hearing the sounds again at home”. The music could be seen as a further distillation of these moments of reflection spent outside, an attempt to recreate some fleeting moment. The live instrumentation throughout brings another dimension to the work. Andrejs himself plays grand piano and electric piano, we also hear double bass, bowed strings, saxophone and guitar. These elements bring a warm, humane quality to the music and each instrument is played with absolute finesse. One feels that great care has been taken to allow breathing space for every new moment that unfolds. No matter if it’s a piano note or a field recording, each is savoured and treated with the same respect. Every sound has a purpose without ever seeming contrived. Obviously, Andrejs is a composer and producer to whom the finer details matter a great deal.£9.00 -
Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains Vol 1 (2 x Vinyl)
Sale, Vinyl75 minutes of the finest Serein selections pressed on black wax. 2xLP. Vinyl sleeve is printed on the reverse (uncoated) side for textured goodness... Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains Vol 1 comes to the popular and shiny compact disc format. The sleeve is printed on the reverse (uncoated) side for textured goodness that you’ll want to touch again and again. You might even like to encourage your friends to touch it. The more observant among you will have noticed that the cover for the CD edition is slightly different to the vinyl cover. Every format is special. Down in the mouth and wound up after your daily commute? No more! On your next trip by shuttle or train be sure to bring with you this seasons ‘must have’ record for travel. These carefully selected pieces will calm the mind and soothe the spirit making your journeys as pleasurable as can be. Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains – the only travel companion you need. Not going anywhere? No problem, let the music guide your imagination instead – with Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains, leaving the relative safety of your home is optional.£16.00 -
Hidden Rivers – Where Moss Grows (Vinyl)
Sale, VinylThis vinyl edition is a DMM cut pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl... Away from the concrete towns and cities there is a place Where Moss Grows. A place walled with limestone, of dell and cave, forgotten railways and Hidden Rivers. This music is a document in sound of journeys through this place, the sylvan valley. Treading a path worn by his forebears, Hidden Rivers (Huw Roberts) takes a left into the trees with debut solo album, Where Moss Grows. Better known until now for label curation at Serein and his work with Otto A Totland as Nest, Huw’s growing obsession with synthesizers and drum machines takes his solo work into uncharted territory. With barely an acoustic instrument in sight, Where Moss Grows is a personal and thematic album which confidently reveals his future intent.£13.00 -
Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains Vol 1
CD, SaleOrbital Planes & Passenger Trains Vol 1 comes to the popular and shiny compact disc format. The sleeve is printed on the reverse (uncoated) side for textured goodness that you'll want to touch again and again. You might even like to encourage your friends to touch it. The more observant among you will have noticed that the cover for the CD edition is slightly different to the vinyl cover. Every format is special. Down in the mouth and wound up after your daily commute? No more! On your next trip by shuttle or train be sure to bring with you this seasons 'must have' record for travel. These carefully selected pieces will calm the mind and soothe the spirit making your journeys as pleasurable as can be. Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains – the only travel companion you need. Not going anywhere? No problem, let the music guide your imagination instead – with Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains, leaving the relative safety of your home is optional. On volume one of this new series, Serein presents the work of some of the finest musical tour guides in the known universe. You may be familiar with some of these names – many have sailed with us before, while others are notable for their esteemed work with other agents. Remember, there's no such thing as economy class when travelling with Orbital Planes & Passenger Trains.£9.00 -
Hidden Rivers – Where Moss Grows
CD, SaleThis CD edition of Where Moss Grows is a four page digipak with clear tray and artwork behind... Away from the concrete towns and cities there is a place Where Moss Grows. A place walled with limestone, of dell and cave, forgotten railways and Hidden Rivers. This music is a document in sound of journeys through this place, the sylvan valley. Treading a path worn by his forebears, Hidden Rivers (Huw Roberts) takes a left into the trees with debut solo album, Where Moss Grows. Better known until now for label curation at Serein and his work with Otto A Totland as Nest, Huw’s growing obsession with synthesizers and drum machines takes his solo work into uncharted territory. With barely an acoustic instrument in sight, Where Moss Grows is a personal and thematic album which confidently reveals his future intent.£8.00 -
Brambles – Charcoal
CD, SaleThis is the brand new CD edition of Charcoal featuring artwork from the vinyl reissue. It also includes the bonus track featured on the vinyl release - a reworking of In The Androgynous Dark by Nest. This is undeniably a night-time album, it has that still, peaceful quality to it, the same you get when you walk down a deserted street at night. And despite the slow pace, the music rarely seems melancholic - there's a sense of contentedness which pervades the album from beginning to end. Mark seems very at ease with life and there's a similar spirit to the music, it is deep, thoughtful and optimistic - in the words of Donal Whelan (who mastered the final album), "it's like being wrapped up in a warm blanket". Even the slightly more sinister "Deep Corridor", which plunges you to the depths of the ocean, has that "cosy catastrophe" feel to it. I can't help but think of Blade Runner and Vangelis when I hear it.£8.00 -
Olan Mill – Pine (CD)
CD, SaleAmbient sounds travel around us. They can go unnoticed and form part of the deluge of noise that exists in our atmosphere… They can also be considered and appreciated as something integral to the makeup of our auditory senses. Take the trickling of a stream, the humming of a bird or, in the context of this review, the echoes of music emanating from a church, and with a little analysis one can appreciate the presence of these reverberations. Listening to “Pine,” the second release from record label Serein, and the debut recording from Olan Mill, it is clear the group’s two collaborators are appreciators of these sounds. For while this compact, concise group of recordings are created from a palette of instruments and not from field recordings so usually associated with ambient music, such is the dream like, slow motion quality of the sounds at work that one could easily forget they are listening to a record, as the notes seamlessly form part of their natural surroundings.£5.00 -
Colorlist: The Fastest Way To Become The Ocean (Vinyl)
Sale, VinylLtd edition 10" vinyl: The Chicago based Colorlist is comprised of crossover jazz duo Charles Rumback and Charles Gorczynski. Both multi-instrumentalists, Rumback mans percussion, bells and melodica, while Gorczynski plays saxophone, numerous woodwind instruments, synthesizers and harmonium. .£5.00 -
Donato Wharton – A White Rainbow Spanning The Dark (Vinyl)
Sale, VinylDonato Wharton is a composer based in London, UK. He has previously released three records for the Manchester and Berlin record label, City Centre Offices. The most recent of these was the 2006 release, ‘Body Isolations’. ‘A White Rainbow Spanning The Dark’ therefore marks his first publicly released work in five years and his first for Serein…£5.00