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U/nu – Appendix: Spring Is Late In Coming

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‘Appendix: Spring Is Late In Coming’ is part two of an electroacoustic exploration inspired by the visionary work of Italian artist Gianluca Lerici, aka Professor Bad Trip. If part one of this sonic exploration (released on Chant Records on August 5 2022 under the title ‘Teknovortex Club’) consisted of a series of compositions that attempted to translate the contents of the comic strips and the artist’s ironic and desecrating style into sounds, part two is intended to be an ideal bridge between the cyber-world prophesied by Lerici and the real and current one, in some ways even crazier. Following the structure of an ideal graphic novel, “Appendix: Spring Is Late In Coming” is an epilogue told through surreal textures in which manipulated field recordings, distorted synthesizers and ambient noises dialogue with each other in a dreamlike plot, as relevant in decades past as it is today.

Tracks:

1. /
2. //
3. ///
4. ////
5. /////

All music composed by Rosario Di Rosa
Recorded, mixed and mastered by U/nu at “The Bunker”, Milan (january-february 2021)
U/nu: live electronics, tapes, synth, field recordings, electric bass
Artwork by Rosario Di Rosa

Catalog Number
CR2212UN

Related: 
U/nu – Sound Pictures From Professor Bad Trip’s Comics 
Phase Duo – Generative Glimpse

 

New York 69

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New York 69 is Adam Caine (electric and acoustic guitars, synth) and Kevin Shea (drums and electronics). Formed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2004 and named after a mysterious mileage sign on Route 17, New York 69 has finally released their debut album after 18 years of making music together. 

Adam Caine is a guitarist and composer originally from Rochester, New York. His albums Thousandfold (NoBusiness Records, 2009) and Pipe (TrueFalse, 2006) received rave reviews in the Wire, Cadence, and All About Jazz. His current projects include the Adam Caine Quartet (with Bob Lanzetti, Adam Lane and Billy Mintz), The Robert Dick & Adam Caine duo, The Daniel Carter & Adam Caine Duo, and New York 69 (with Kevin Shea).

Drummer Kevin Shea was born in Minneapolis. In the 1990s, he was a member of the cult avant-garde trio storm&stress (Touch and Go Records). Since then he has maintained a relentlessly prolific presence internationally, working with God Is My Co-Pilot, Mostly Other People Do The Killing, Great Lakes, Rhys Chatham, Talibam!, David Taylor, People (with Mary Halvorson) and ALPHAWHORE (w/Chris Cochrane and Gordon Beeferman). Village Voice named him 2012’s “Best Drummer in NYC.”

Tracks:

1. Covid-69
2. Stone Tools
3. The Unknowable Object
4. Covid-18

All music by Adam Caine and Kevin Shea
Adam Caine – electric and acoustic guitars, synth
Kevin Shea – drums and electronics
Recorded and mixed by John Epperly at Metropolitan Sound, Brooklyn NY, spring 2019
Mastered by Colin Marston at the Thousand Caves
Cover photo by Nick Lyons

Catalog Number
CR2211NE

Related:
Robert Dick and Adam Caine – The Damn Think
XOL – XOL Plays X.EN

Bartolo, Sousa, Ferrandini – BASFE

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The circumstances that led to the creation of BASFE were as spontaneous, intuitive and in-the-moment as the music itself. Bartolo (guitar and modular synth) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums) were in a recording session for another project. Once their session was done, the studio unexpectedly became available for the next several days. It happened that their friend Pedro Sousa (tenor sax) was in town and ready to play. The gear was already set up, the ‘record’ button was pushed, and BASFE was born!

Bartolo is a Lisbon-based guitarist, composer, producer and sound artist who has worked with artists including Miguel Rio Branco, Damo Suzuki, M. Takara, Paal Nilssen-Love, Arnaldo Antunes and Caetano Veloso. Pedro Sousa is an established and in-demand saxophonist based in Portugal who has collaborated with Thurston Moore, Evan Parker, Phil Niblock, Sei Miguel, Rafael Toral and many others. Gabriel Ferrandini is a drummer well versed in jazz, free improvisation and rock music. He is a member of RED Trio, amongst several other projects, has worked as a solo artist and with musicians including Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Axel Dörner, Evan Parker and Nate Wooley.

Tracks:

1. Vapor capture 
2. Solvent recovery 
3. Sample calculation
4. Air floatation drying oven 
5. Magnetic particles are gone 
6. Degraded Binder

Bartolo – guitar and modular synth 
Pedro Sousa – tenor sax
Gabriel Ferrandini – drums

Recorded by Quim Monte at Namouche studios, Lisbon, Portugal, 2016.
Produced by Bartolo.
Mixed and mastered by Gustavo Dreher and Bartolo at Estúdio Dreher and Estúdio Monumental.

Catalog Number
CR2210BA

Related:
Bartolo – Six Improvisations for Creatures and Machines
Dörner/Lea/Lyregaard – Huckleberry Friend

Curha – III

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Curha III is the third Chant Records release from New York-based trombonist, guitarist and composer Curtis Hasselbring (aka Curha). His most ambitious work yet, the album bristles with imaginative pieces that evoke images of places that don’t exist and events that probably didn’t happen. The music is inspired by both the utopian promise of the exotica/space age pop music of the 1950s and 60s and the jagged distopian musical explorations of the post-punk era (think Esquivel meets XTC). Curha’s pastiche of catchy melodies, obscured harmony and primal grooves are funneled through his usual assortment of electronics, multi-instrumentalist skills and keen ear for unusual samples. Through it all, more than on previous releases, Hasselbring’s trombone plays a frequently subtle but ever-present role in almost every song. He’s joined by several guests including Eblis Alvarez (guitar and bee noise) of the Meridian Brothers), Doug Wieselman (saxophonist with the Lounge Lizards, Millennial Territory Orchestra), Jeremy Brown (violinist with Golem) and Peter Hess (clarinetist with Philip Glass, Slavic Soul Party).

Tracks:

1. Seeing-Eye God
2. The Gravity Games
3. Bee Alley
4. Boulevard Of the Avatars
5. Grilla’ Beach Mountain
6. Badly Supervised Seance
7. Rode On An Airplane Last Night
8. A People Mover
9. Library of Infinite Calamity
10. Three Weird Sunsets
11. Everyone You Know

All music composed, recorded and performed by Curtis Hasselbring.
Special guests: Jeremy Brown (violin) on #2 and #9, Eblis Alvarez (guitar, bee noise) on #3, Peter Hess (bass clarinet) on #4 and Doug Wieselman (baritone saxophone) on #6. 
Mastered by Leo3 at B.L.I.M.

Catalog Number
CR2209CU

Related:
Curha – I
Curha – II

U/nu – Teknovortex Club – Sound Pictures From Professor Bad Trip’s Comics

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Teknovortex Club – Sound Pictures From Professor Bad Trip’s Comics is part one of a two-part sonic exploration of the work of influential underground Italian artist Gianluca Lerici (aka Professor Bad Trip) by Sicilian electro-acoustic composer U/nu (aka Rosario Di Rosa). Drawing on his experience in the Italian punk rock scene combined with his work as a graphic artist, Di Rosa’s immediately recognizable sound has found a perfect home paying tribute to the psychedelic, cyberpunk aesthetic of the creator of comics including “Psycho,” “Chiodo Spacciato” and “Dirk Dare, The Dark Surfer.” The intentionally rough and sometimes ironic sound of Teknovortex Club also cross-references mid-late 20th century cultural icons including William Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, Kraftwerk. John Cage and David Lynch.

Tracks:

1. Non Addomesticato
2. Tekno Cubicolo
3. Nell’Ebbrezza Del Karma Katodico
4. Island Of The Surfin’ Zombies
5. Cyber Punk (Interlude Fx)
6. Mondo Duplex
7. Guarda Il Futuro, Scegli Il Rumore

All music composed by Rosario Di Rosa
U/nu: live electronics, tapes, semi-modular synth, mellotron
Recorded, mixed and mastered   by U/nu between September and November 2021 at the “Bunker”, Milan

Catalog Number
CR2208UN

Related:
Phase Duo – Generative Glimpse
Rick Parker and Li Daiguo – meditation music for the artificially intelligent

Randi Pontoppidan & Povl Kristian – Life In Life

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With minimal musical means – one piano, one voice and the occasional stardust-shimmer of tinkling bells or subtle electronic loops – Povl Kristian and Randi Pontoppidan summon up a universe of sound on Life in Life. The album is Pontoppidan’s sixth for Chant Records and Kristian’s first.

Kristian’s piano is beautifully documented with great sensitivity amidst a sepulchral-sounding reverb on melodies that contrast stark intensity with delicate lyricism. Legendary voice-as-instrument performer Pontoppidan has such an eclectic approach that, paired with her broad, multi-octave vocal range, she’s closer to a one-woman choir than a conventional soloist. Heard in duo on this continuously engaging suite of eight songs, the effect is rich and powerful, both entrancingly strange and oddly comforting.

Each song adds something special to the story, with a developing sense of alchemical and metamorphic change. Whistles transform into bird calls before turning into synthesized bleeps of pure sound. Pontoppidan can seem to echo the sounds of the natural world or the polyglot speech of an invented language as she explores the outer limits of what a human voice can do. Throughout, the sonic identities of Povl Kristian and Randi Pontoppidan remain resolutely themselves, as if each artist is traveling on parallel lines, meeting at key points to converge and then diverge again. It’s perhaps this sense of separation that makes for such a successful partnership, as neither identity is subsumed by the other. As a result, Life In Life really does develop a life of its own, takes wing and flies.

Povl Kristian has composed prolifically for film, theater and radio. His multi-award winning film career includes work on each of director Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Pusher’ trilogy. Randi Pontoppidan is one of the world’s leading vocal performer/improviser/composers. Nominated for Denmark’s Steppeulven award in 2020, her recording career spans three decades. Recent partnerships include working with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices and Sissel Vera Pettersen.

Tracks:

1. Opening
2. Crossing The Rubicon
3. Sukha 
4. Juno and Eros
5. Embrace 
6. Awareness 
7. Ocean Of Bliss
8. Rise

Povl Kristian: Grand piano, Steinway D
Randi Pontoppidan: Voice, Live Electronic Processing, Bells, Pitch Pipe
Recorded at Millfactory Copenhagen
Mixed by Povl Kristian
Mastered by Jan Eliasson
Produced by Povl Kristian & Randi Pontoppidan
Engineers: Jean Riel & Mikkel Mors
Photos: Klaus Holsting
Cover: Sigrún Gudbrandsdóttir

All music © 2022 by Povl Kristian & Randi Pontoppidan. All rights reserved.
Supported by Koda Culture Funds and Danish Art Foundation

Catalog Number
CR2205RA

Related:
Randi Pontoppidan & Sissel Vera Pettersen – Inner Lift
Randi Pontoppidan & Thomas Buckner – Voicescapes
Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn – HEAD¨SPACE
Randi Pontoppidan – ROOMS
Event Horizon (Greg Cohen and Randi Pontoppidan) – Space Geode

Phase Duo Generative Glimpse

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Phase Duo is composed of violinist/composer Eloisa Manera and producer/DJ/engineer Stefano Greco. Manera comes originally from the classical world and has performed with musicians including Mario Brunello and Herbie Hancock. Greco is an electronic musician with the Milan-based hyper-eclectic band Sonata Islands Kommandoh, and performs solo under the name Fana. Formed in 2015, Phase Duo has performed extensively in Europe, and released their first album ‘S/T’ on Aut Records in 2019. Generative Glimpse finds the pair of musicians deepening their sound and continuing to blur the lines between analog and digital, ambient and rhythmic, and classical and electronic music.

Tracks:

1. Electric Birds
2. When we were here
3. Aural
4. Burning Sea
5. Wakes
6. Accidental Intelligence
7. Bosco
8. Ascent
9. FRBs
10. Substance
11. Asmr

All tracks composed by Eloisa Manera and Stefano Greco

Eloisa Manera – violin, 5 strings electric synth violin, voice
Stefano Greco – electronics and monochord

Special Guests on the track “Burning Sea”: Gaia Mattiuzzi (alto and solo)
Camilla Barbarito (soprano)
Francesco Forges (male voices)

Written and produced by Phase Duo

Recorded and mixed by Stefano Greco at Blau Studio, Milano (March-December 2020)

Mastered at Blau Studio

Catalog Number
CR2204PH

Related:
Rick Parker and Li Daiguo – meditation music for the artificially intelligent
Randi Pontoppidan & Sissel Vera Pettersen – Inner Lift

Rick Parker and Li Daiguo – meditation music for the artificially intelligent

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Called “A randomly collided pair of quantum radicals sitting at a similar alt-world-classical tilt” by Tiny Mix Tapes, the duo of Rick Parker and Li Daiguo present their second release and first for Chant Records, meditation music for the artificially intelligent. Based in Brooklyn and China (respectively), the pair of forward-thinking musicians alchemically incorporate the sounds of trombone, cello, pipa, human voice and a variety of electronic instruments into a cauldron of sound that expands the overused “world music” genre designation to “universe music,” or perhaps even “multiverse music.” Dense, expressive, and at once lusciously organic yet firmly at home in the digital realm, meditation music for the artificially intelligent truly lives up to its title with a uniquely 21st century journey into the sonic unknown.

Tracks:

1. dilapidated spacecraft levitates away you gaze dust storm unsure what you asked for what you want
2. A.I. is our progeny ze is going to know what kind of parents we are should we just
3. when in throes of despair gods of random truth revelation more likely come aide
4. all is brain super minimal
5. then ze feels like part of the accepted by infinite (non-binarily) motherly source light
6. God what if a crazy hairdo led to 
7. then technological development ensured that no powerful person no matter how evil would ever have to die 
8. interspecies intimacy on zoo space station 
9. opium den floating through space

Li Daiguo – Pipa, Cello, Guzheng, Effects, Voice
Rick Parker – Trombone, Effects, Synthesizers

Track 1 recorded June, 2021 by Rick Parker in Brooklyn, NY, USA and Li Daiguo Dali, Yunnan, China.

Tracks 2-7 recorded December 5, 2016 at Grand Street Studio, Brooklyn, NY, USA. Engineered by Ken Rich.

Track 8 recorded October 30, 2014 at Degraw Sound, Brooklyn, NY USA. Engineered by Ben Rice. Overdubs by Rick Parker, 2021

Track 9 recorded July 13, 2014 at Fishman Studios, Caicun, Dali, Yunnan, China
Engineered by Yuefu.

Tracks 1-8 mixed by Ryan Mackstaller at Red Panda Recording, Brooklyn, NY, USA.

Track 9 mixed by Joe Branciforte at Greyfade Studio, Brooklyn, NY, USA.

Mastering by Ryan Mackstaller at Red Panda Recording, Brooklyn, NY, USA.

Cover Image by Li Shurui
Cover Design by Rick Parker and Roxanne Wang

Catalog Number
CR2203RI

Related:
Randi Pontoppidan & Sissel Vera Pettersen – Inner Lift
Brian Shankar Adler – For a Gallery on the Moon